Showered

After a decade of hosting showers it's a totally surreal experience to have a shower thrown in your honor. It's really special. Something tells me it's a tiny preview of what the wedding will be like: Most of your favorite people all in one room coming to celebrate you. Wow. Humbling, exciting, overwhelming, etc., etc. I have had two showers so far and have another one this weekend. I can't wait. Here are a few photos from the first two showers, just for posterity sake. I wish I had the hours to do individual posts for these special showers, but let's be honest. I am in wedding overdrive mode. 38 days to go. Pure madness.

My first shower was thrown by sweet work (and former work) friends. It was a vintage desperate housewife theme. I loved it. I was too nervous/excited to get a single picture, but here are some from one of the hosts. Speaking of the hosts, they all wore pearls and aprons. Perfect.

me and one of my bridesmaids, stacey

esther, one of the hosts, and i

sweet friends and family

The second shower was hosted by my aunts and it was lovely. The brunch was held at an antique tea room and my colors (peach, gray and ivory) were splashed everywhere. Beautiful. I did manage to take a few pictures of the special morning the second time around.

 cousins!

my aunts

me and my grandma (Bebe)

Our sweet flower girl (and niece)!

my favorite gift so far.  a vintage bride's book from my mom. it's from the 40s!

For the love

Disclaimer: The following post was written by a stressed-to-the-max bride. Read at your own risk.

My name is weird. I get that. I've endured 29 years of it being misspelled, mis-pronounced and even mocked. It's truly cruel to have the last name Whiteman when my legs are white as a ghost year-round, no? I'm mostly desensitized to it all at this point. That is until Justin and I got engaged and I became a bride-to-be. I just don't understand how people continue to get my name wrong. Especially when I send them emails with my name on it and then they see it again in my signature line. It's not that hard people. It's happened numerous times over the last five months from several different individuals and I just.can't.take.it.anymore. Last week someone got my name wrong on a shower invitation. Not even misspelled, but flat out wrong. As in, it looks like Justin is marrying someone else. Really? I'm struggling to find grace and forgiveness in all of this. I know it's necessary. I know that I've done far worse things in my life. I know people can be careless and mistakes happen, but shouldn't people go the extra mile to make sure the bride's name is right? I think yes.

And that, my dear blog friends, concludes my rant of the day.

Our invitation suite

Our invitation suite is one of my very favorite things about our wedding planning so far. I've been in public relations for almost a decade now, and prior to that spent four years at Baylor studying the profession, so I think that has a little something to do with the time and energy I poured into these little guys. That, and it's just really fun to throw a party and I am of the personal belief that the invitation sets the tone for the whole thing. We're throwing one heck of a party in September and I hope that our guests knew that from the moment they saw their invitations in the mailbox.

I've been waiting to share these with you, so without further adieu...

Virtual proofs:

virtual proof of the "pocket" with invitation sticking up

invitation

rsvp postcard (that's the church)!

back of the postcard. it's been fun getting the song requests back.

accomodations card

for more info...

The real deal:

i love that they are hand sewn. (not by me of course)!

i also love that we were able to hire a calligrapher. that was super important to me and they turned out beautiful!

I just happened to stumble upon a fantastic vendor on etsy. (After weeks of searching mind you). Kirsten has been wonderful to work with! She worked with me to create my dream invitation suite, designed our website, thank you cards, fan programs and guest book. I adore her work!

Wedding Website

We finally have our wedding website up and running. I've been nit-picking working on it for almost three months. Ridiculous? Yes. A reflection of my perfectionist, OCD, pr person? Absolutely. Nonetheless, here it is blog friends.

http://justinandashleigh.com/

I think I'm going to move my little blog over to this domain after the wedding. The site is a bit cleaner and much more professional. Proof that paying a professional for these things is generally worth it. I'm also excited to share our invitation suite soon. I'm so pleased with how they turned out and it makes my heart go pitter patter to hear all of the sweet compliments from our guests! Thank you!

Hope everyone had a fantastic fourth. God Bless America!