Over the Past 3 weeks....

Well, lets start off with the BEST news....We are MARRIED!!! On February 18, 2012, Ben and I were married in front of 125 of our closest friends and family members. The day was perfect!! I was calm & excited! My goal for the wedding was that at the end, Ben and I were to be husband & wife, everyone would have a good time, and we would be headed to Jamaica. All 3 of my goals were a success!! Our photos won't be ready for another month, but our fabulous photographer, Allyson Warrington of AGW Photography, posted a blog with a sneak peek: http://www.agwphotography.net/blog/?p=242

Now to what else has been going on in our lives....

Thursday week prior to the wedding, Ben and I were able to start painting. We painted until the wee-hours of the morning for several days. We were both physically and mentally drained to say the least. We did pause on Valentine's Day to "cook" our first meal in the house and have a little time together since life had been crazy and was going to continue to be crazy for the next few days. We were able to cook steaks on The Griddler (best invention ever!) and have fondue for dessert thanks to some fabulous wedding gifts! It did though, take us about 45 minutes to find our plates, silverware, etc. and then another 15 minutes to fine the wine opener. All of our stuff was still packed up (including wedding gifts) in our basement. After dinner, we watched "Cool Runnings" to get us in the mood for our honeymoon to Jamaica!!

On Wednesday, my parents arrived and we put them to work. Our friend Zach came over and finished painting the last room of our house because if I would have had to paint one more thing, my dad was going to have to carry me down the aisle! My knees were killing me - yes, it's a sign that I'm getting old!!

My brother and sis-in-law, Hannah, arrived on Thursday and we put them to work too! Hannah finished the last painting of all of the trim and Benji helped dad finish moving EVERYTHING from the basement to our living area. This was extremely overwhelming as we went from having nothing in the house to everything and we couldn't find anything. We were very grateful though because it helped us get unpacked when we got back from the honeymoon.

On Friday, no "house stuff" was done - except for the fact that Ben had to crawl in the dumpster outside because it was too full when they came to pick it up :(

Friday evening, Ben's parents hosted a wonderful Rehearsal dinner at Lenox Grill. We were blessed to our our wedding party celebrate with us before our big day!

Saturday was a day that I will never forget! It was so much fun getting dressed with all my bridesmaids and then marrying my best friend! The reception was filled with yummy comfort foods, cocktails, and ALOT of fun dancing!! I can't wait to see the pictures of this. HUGE thanks to my parents for throwing a party they didn't even know they could throw! It was PERFECT and exactly what Ben and I wanted!! THANK YOU!

I'll post a few wedding pictures when I get them and I'll also download some honeymoon pictures as well.

Ben and I headed to Jamaica on Sunday for a week filled with absolutely NOTHING! It was amazing! Our butlers Orlando and Jashayne catered to our every need! They brought us breakfast in bed or on our porch every morning, had a cooler waiting for us at our reserved seats by the pool or beach, served us fruity drinks all throughout the day, and also did cheesy romantic things to our room. It was so very relaxing and JUST what we needed after all the house stuff.

We got back from the honeymoon and started unpacking. The house by no means is complete and we still don't have all of our furniture, pictures on the wall, curtains hung, or any of the fun stuff, but it's painted, cleaned, and we are enjoying it! We are taking a few projects a week to finish. Right now the priority is CLOSETS! Ben put up closets in the guest bedrooms so we could hang most of our clothes (mine obviously did not fit). Do you know how nice it was to see clothes hanging in a closet? Ben loved the fact that he knew where his underwear were - ha! Ben began working on our custom master closets last week. He still has lots to do, but I bet he'll finish with them this week.

Below are a few pics of paint color in the living room, master bed, & guest bathroom. Remember, none of the rooms are done, but this will help to show you how much we have been able to get done.

We LOVE our living room color! The chocolate brown turned out perfect! We are waiting for our entertainment center that we got made. Hoping to pick it up this weekend!

Thanks to my mom and Hannah, we were able to come back from our honeymoon to sleep on our new bedding. They put our bed together so we wouldn't have to sleep on blankets :) This is our new bed and we love it. There's a dresser too that you can't see. We still need curtains and a big fluffy white rug in this room! Yes, I know the plastic is still on the lamps. I just bought them yesterday and was "testing" them out first :)

Our guest bathroom is Ben's favorite room. When we bought this house, this room was 3 closets and now it's a full bathroom! This room just needs the little touches like a bath rug & a cute picture or something on the wall. Ben decided at the last minute to add the middle detail tile in the shower and it was the BEST idea!