Be our wedding party?

Well yall… summer is about over! It sure does always seem to fly by. Before heading back to school, my mom wanted to throw Devin and I an engagement party. We’ve been so busy planning because I have one more year of school left and we wanted to get the “big” decisions set in stone so I didn’t have to worry about it while I wrap up my SENIOR year of college. This party gave us a chance to just relax and enjoy our engagement before I left. We were so thankful and excited that she wanted to do this for us. The party was held at a local clubhouse. My mom and some of her close friends helped get everything ready. All of the decorations were fabulous and the food was delicious. My mom made mine and Devin’s favorite dish…dirty rice.

Since we were celebrating our engagement, we wanted to invite some of our closest friends. This seemed like the perfect opportunity to ask the people who we want in our wedding party if they’d like to be a part of our special day. If you can’t already tell, Devin and I do not like to do things the easy way. We didn’t want to just ask them….we wanted to do something original.

After dinner we asked if we could have everyone’s attention. Of course we thanked everyone for coming and this was the start of how we asked.

First we asked Little David and Braxton if they would be our ring holders. They probably didn’t understand what we were asking, but they sure did love the ring pops.

Next we asked my Uncle Duke to come and stand with us. He has always loved to embarrass Devin at family functions, so of course we had to bring him to the front and make him blush a little bit. Uncle Duke has always been so dear to my heart and such a great role model for Devin and I. He is a man of God and a good family man. Devin and I got down on our knee and asked if he would marry us. Of course he said yes! Marriage counseling before marriage is something I am a firm believer in. I believe it is more important to plan for your marriage than the wedding. A wedding is just one day…marriage is for life. I can’t wait for us to begin that journey.

And finally… Since Devin had some of my closest girlfriends kidnap me the day of the proposal, I figured I needed to return the favor…sooooo I decided to blindfold them. Devin and I made blindfolds out of a black sheet that we hand cut ourselves. We passed out them out and told the girls and guys to put it on themselves. We then lined them up and lead them outside. After getting them all in a straight line, we asked them to unblindfold themselves and Devin and I stood there holding a sign that said “Be Our Wedding Party?”

I know it seems a little crazy to have such a huge wedding party, but the way we look at it…what a testimony of how much love and support we have in our life! It truly is humbling. There are a couple more people who we are asking to be in our party that could not attend the party, but I will being doing a Bridesmaid series and will describe each and every one of them!

I SAID YES TO THE DRESS

Imagining my wedding day, the first thing I think about is Devin. I can just picture his sweet sweet smile grinning at me as I walk through the doors. The problem is, I never really thought about what I was going to be wearing! My mom, sister, and I took a whole weekend to start my search for the perfect dress. I could not have had better help and support when looking for my dress. This is an experience that I definitely recommend doing with a small group. It is so much fun yet very exhausting. So when I started my hunt for my wedding dress, I had no idea what I was looking for. We started in Conway, SC and made our way down to Wilmington, NC. The first store I walked into, I was so amazed. All of the white dresses everywhere just filled my heart with such joy and excitement! I grabbed almost every dress on the rack! 

Thankfully my sister was there to help me get into these dresses. I tried on just about every style you can think of. It did not take me long to decide which look I was going for though. After trying on and dancing around in a numerous amount of dresses, I knew I had found “the one” when my mom teared up as I walked out of the dressing room. It was the look on her face that I had been waiting for. I had found the one! My mom’s opinion means everything to me. I can’t even buy a shirt or a pair of pants without her telling me it looks okay! I told my mom I wanted to sleep on it for a couple of days to make sure that this was the dress. Each day after that, I looked at pictures of it on her phone at least twice a day and would day dream about it constantly! After a couple of days, we went back to the store, tried it on again, and knew that there was no other dress I’d like to be married in. I said YES TO THE DRESS!!! The sweet girl that was helping me told me that they had a rule that when someone bought a dress, they had to hold a bell, make a wish, then ring the bell as loud as they could while still wearing the dress! After I got done ringing the bell, I had to take the dress off. This was the first time I had gotten emotional because I realized that this would be the dress I would be wearing when I become Devin’s WIFE!

Until that day, Devin thinks I bought this dress.