Simple Solutions

Ever since my ring came back, I haven't taken it off (well, except when I clean or take a shower!).  I've noticed that when it's nice and humid out, my ring fits perfectly.  Not so tight that it's stuck on my finger, but not loose enough to move around easily.  However, as the weather has gotten cooler my ring slides easily and it makes me really uncomfortable.  I am so afraid I'm going to lose it, that I needed to figure out a solution sooner rather than later.  We don't want to send it off to Blue Nile again because our engagement pictures are coming up as well as a trip to California to show off my ring, and we don't know if it'll get back in time!  Sooo....I put my thinking cap on and found something I'm really excited about!

Have you ever heard on ring snuggies?  They are tiny pieces of clear PVC that are able to slide on either before or after you put your ring on.

 
The nice thing about ring snuggies are that they come in multiple sizes within a pack so no matter what you'll find one that fits your perfectly!  And they are super comfortable!  I'm not saying that it doesn't feel weird when you first put it on your finger, because it most certainly does, but after a while you don't even know it's there.  So...perfect solution.  Right?  Right!  I'm so glad I found something to temporarily fix my problem until I'm able to send it off to get it re-sized!

And now....I'll leave you with a few pictures.  :-)

When Chris proposed and put the ring on my finger, all I could do was squeeze my fingers together to keep it in place!

And now...I won't have to worry about it sliding during the cold winter months when my fingers shrink!

More Pinteresting Ideas

I am obsessed with Pinterest.  If you haven't gotten an invitation to the website, you need to get on that.  It has a little bit of everything on there, and you can find so many great ideas for your home, wedding, kids, etc.  I honestly can't talk about it enough.  It's a great way to share ideas and designs with other people from all over the world.  And now that I'm getting married, it has really helped me gather ideas for what I want!

I want to share a few photos from some of my favorite categories.  Let's start out with engagement photos.  (Ashley...these are for you!)

Next are the Wedding Photos I love!

Here are some wedding decorations I like:  

Calla Lillies for the bridesmaids!  So simple and elegant!

I like the wrap on this one!

I like the colors for this one for me to carry down the aisle! 

Ahhh...pop of color with a bridal gown.  Gorgeous!

I love peach and coral!

I love the sign!

Bridesmaid Dress Shopping

Yesterday I took both my sisters to look at bridesmaid dresses.  I had found some dresses online through the Dessy Collection that I was in love with, so we were really excited to go to look at them!

We went to Rosalin's Bridal Boutique in Falls Church, VA, and I have to say I was very disappointed.  The store was very small and cluttered, and it was extremely hard to find anything on the racks.  We were greeted by a small Asian man when we walked in, and once I told him what designer I was looking for, (Dessy), he pointed us to a small rack by the door and left us to look.  All the sizes they had were between 10's and 18's, a few 4's, 6's, and 8's, but those were few and far in-between.  The colors of their samples would look good on no one, and it was hard to visualize how the dresses would look in the color I wanted. 

The Dessy dress in Coral.

While Sam and Julie were changing, I went to the register and asked if they had a certain dress in the store for them to try on.  I had had my eye on it for a while, and was pretty sure it was going to be "the dress."  But....the owner told me it was a three year old design that wasn't being sold anymore.  That doesn't make much sense to me since it is still on the Dessy website....but I couldn't argue with them if they didn't have it in store!  

So, we left a bit disappointed and put-out.  Luckily, we had enough time to head over to David's Bridal in Springfield to shop and spend more time together!  Once again they tried on many dresses, none of which we liked, and we were getting frustrated.  I was able to try on my wedding dress for Julie, and we then had the bright idea to have Sam try on dresses to see which ones would look good next to mine!  Our consultant picked out the dress below and we all agreed it was our favorite.  The only problem is, David's Bridal does not carry the color coral and I have had my heart set on that since Chris and I got engaged.  However, I am really starting to like the Watermelon color in the picture below.  If it was a little bit lighter it would pass for a type of coral, but I think its beautiful the way it is.  The other option is the guava ...but I don't really like it as much.  There is also another bridal shop in Leesburg that has a few coral dresses I like so I'm going to go look at those before I make a final decision.  I mean...whats the rush?  The wedding is next April!    

The Happiest Place on Earth

In August, Chris took Sam and I to Disney World in Florida.  I was so excited because I had always loved the look of The Grand Floridian Resort and Spa and we were actually going to stay there!  For those of you that have never been, this resort is a beautiful Victorian style resort that sits right on the water and is across from the Magic Kingdom park.  The monorail comes right to the resort (which makes it easy to get to both Epcot and the Magic Kingdom), as well as a boat!

We had originally planned to stay at the Polynesian Resort (which is located right behind The Grand Floridian), but Chris said there was a computer glitch and they overbooked so they had to move us to a different resort.  For Sam and I, it was worth being overbooked as soon as we arrived because we had our own personal guide (Denny) who was so friendly and extremely informative and helpful!  He took us to our room which was in a completely different building and because we were club level we received free drinks (wine, beer, soda, water, etc) and food (breakfast, snacks, and desserts) on a daily basis.  Sam and I were literally in heaven.

Don't you agree that it is beautiful?

 The first day we took the time to walk around the resort to see what they had to offer.  They had two different pools, a ton of shops inside the resort, a few restaurants, and a nice beach that looked out on the wedding pavilion and the Polynesian and Contemporary Resorts.  That night, we braved the thunderstorm and ran to make our reservation at an Italian restaurant at Downtown Disney.  We were soaked and got a lot of weird looks as we were led to our table, but dinner was delicious and we were all pleasantly buzzed from the great wine as we made our way back out into the rain.

The second day the three of us knew we'd be out really late (extra magic hours for The Magic Kingdom park!) so we tried sleeping in.  I was so excited to get going that I woke up early (9:30) and got everyone else to get up and start their day as well!  I love The Magic Kingdom, maybe its because it reminds me of all the times I went there as a kid and how excited I became whenever I saw one of the many beloved characters.  But I was so excited to go and ride all of my favorite rides.

Two of the rides I always have to go on are Peter Pan's Flight and Pirates of the Caribbean.  Chris convinced us that we should wait to do both until later that night, because the lines are so minimal during extra magic hours.  I kept noticing that Sam and Chris would fall behind and talk amongst themselves, but I just figured they were getting along really well and didn't want to interrupt them.

We arrived!

On the People Mover....I was more excited than Sam!

In line for It's A Small World.  I HATE this ride!

 Chris was trying his best to annoy Sam while waiting to get on Splash Mountain.

Second day of rain....this time we were smart and brought ponchos! 

We waited until midnight and walked over to Pirates, but found out they were closed due to technical difficulties.  Sam and I took off and went shopping while Chris waited for us outside on one of the benches.  We had decided to go back over to the ride around 1:00 a.m. and luckily it was up and running again!  I made a beeline for the line, but Chris took my arm and pulled me aside.  I could not understand what was going on but figured maybe he was letting a big group go by us.  Instead, he put his arms around my neck and began talking about our three year anniversary coming up (in April!).  He said that when Belle met her prince, she didn't realize it until chapter three and he wanted to write many more chapters together.  Then, he pulled out my gorgeous ring and asked me to marry him!  I, of course, said yes!

Chris chose the Pirates ride because it was the first one we had ever gone on as a couple and also our favorite ride at the Disney park.  Once on the ride, we got stuck for forty-five minutes and only got around the corner from the loading dock.  We had to come back a few nights later to actually ride it, but on our engagement night we were able to snap a few pictures!
 

We are so happy and so excited for the next adventure in our lives!

My beautiful ring!  There will be better pictures once I get it back from being sized!

The rest of the trip was a blast!  Of course, nothing could top getting engaged, but we still had a great time!  We spent the rest of the time at Animal Kingdom, Epcot, Hollywood Studios, and even Universal!  Here are a few more picture highlights from our trip!

All aboard the Hogwarts Express!

Walking into Hogsmeade!

We ate at The Three Broomsticks

We may not have gone on the ride inside Hogwarts, but we had fun looking at it from the outside!

Sam-I-Am loves Green Eggs and Ham!

We went to Africa!

The tree of life at Animal Kingdom

That fan was the best (and worst) thing Chris has ever bought.  He liked spraying us with it when Sam and I weren't expecting it.