Bridal Shower Pictures

Since I never posted them… here they are! Pictures from the bridal shower! There are tons more on facebook.

2 months, 13 days, 15 hours, 40 minutes

Invitations (Take Two)

Today is the first day of cutting the second round of invitations. I’ve been trying to find the motivation but it’s hard when I spent over six hours cutting the last set, before having to throw a large portion of my work in the trash can. So here it is, my photo-of-the-day. I’ve also been writing thank-yous.

2 months, 13 days, 22 hours, 30 minutes (75 DAYS!!)

New Bed!

Yesterday, we bought our bed. It was a big day for us! We have been looking for quite some time. Tabo (Phillip’s grandmother) had gifted an amount of money to us to use on furniture. So, we decided to use it on a bed. We fell in love with one at RoomsToGo but felt that it was a little pricey. While waiting for it to come down in price, my mom and I stumbled on this beauty. [The price tag and remaining tape from the previous price tag are what look like two imperfections in the headboard in the first picture.]

So yesterday Phillip and I went to look at it again – and bought it! It was at the RoomsToGo outlet in North Richland Hills. They were having an unbeatable sale on as-is beds. Ours has a couple of smudges around the feet of the bed (that furniture polish will get rid of) and one medium sized noticeable scratch on the footboard (that a furniture pen we already own will fix). The headboard is completely free of any spots, smudges, or scratches. It was a great purchase and we are so happy with it!

Not only do we have a stunning bed now, but we also have spare money to spend on other items. Most likely it’ll go toward bedside tables and either a console table or living room side table.

We also were able to buy our bedroom lamps yesterday from Target! They work perfectly with the bed frame and also with the bedside tables we are planning to get. It is all coming together and I can’t wait to move into our new place in a month and a half. We are so fortunate to have made great furniture decisions in the past few years, so our apartment will look so sophisticated and grown-up. I can’t wait to show you!

2 months, 14 days, 4 hours

I Promise I’m Not Ignoring You, Bloggers

I feel like now that my life is being ruled by hosting at Pluckers that I hardly have time to post anymore. But don’t worry. The posts will still continue – and I’m still keeping up with my photos of the day. I can’t give up on a New Year’s resolution, you know. I promise I will be better at managing my time in the future. Things are finally settling down.

Friday was a miserable day at work, I’m not even going to pretend it wasn’t. There was drama and we were super busy for lunch – and completely understaffed. When I got home from my shift, I pretty much just hung out around the house. So, sorry for the boring picture. But hey, I needed to take a picture of something.

Yesterday I worked again, and it was much better. But before that, mom and I went around town window shopping for furniture. Phillip and I might buy our bed today! If we check it out, it’s still there, and we both like it, we’ll get it. It’s not the original one we were looking for, but it’s similar in design and less than half the cost. We’re only having a queen bed until we can afford a king – in which case, the queen will go in a guest room. Therefore, if we might only have this bed for so long, we should really consider a cheaper solution if one is available – and this might be the bed we pick.

I got my passport in the mail yesterday too! Phillip says this means I’m a real person now. I don’t know about all of that, I could have sworn I’ve been a real person for 22+ years now…

Work was better last night too, in case you were wondering. I’m looking into some promising options for full time employment, even if they aren’t in my desired field. But at least they would bring more hours and higher pay. I will keep you posted.

Off to look at furniture and have a fun day off with my love!

2 months, 15 days, 3 hours, 30 minutes

Church Chit Chat

Today Phillip and I drove to Dallas to talk with Highland Park UMC about our wedding at Munger Place. It was so informative! I feel like we’re so behind on a few things.

We met with their coordinator for about an hour and discussed every single little detail about our wedding day. I am so excited to actually be able to invision everything. I can see the dresses, the tuxedos, the people, the flowers… everything!

This is making me even more excited than I already was for the big day to get here!!

2 months, 17 days, 17 hours, 50 minutes

Busy Couple of Days

Wow these last couple of days have been busy! I’ve pretty much only been working, and trying to get things done in my off time. Plus, these allergies or whatever it is are killing me.

Monday I tried to work on thank-yous. And Monday night and Tuesday night I worked like crazy (12 hours in a 30 hour span).

I still need to work on these thank-yous but good luck with that happening today. Today we have a packed schedule. I need to go jump in the shower ASAP. Then it’s off to the bank to close my bank account – it starts charging me a monthly fee starting tomorrow. This means Phillip and I will have a joint bank account sooner than planned. Still exciting!

We are meeting with the church today to discuss the details of the wedding. We haven’t even thought about soloists or readers or that kind of stuff yet. But I guess today’s the day. We’ll also get to see what all the church will allow us to do in terms of flowers and added ceremony activities.

Our registries and wedding website are up-to-date and our engagement announcement will be submitted to the newspaper soon. Things are moving so quickly and I’m trying to hold on!

2 months, 18 days, 3 hours, 25 minutes

Updating the Invitations

Last night Phillip and I updated the invitations. We finally have them all squared away (again) to be printed, cut, and assembled. My deadline to send the invitations out is April 23rd. However, I would love to get them out a week or so before that date. So I see hours of cutting and assembling in my future.

Yesterday I also updated all of the vendors – who were so understanding and accommodating. The wedding day timeline has been set and we’re ready to keep moving. Next on the list of things to do is to figure out what we’re doing for send-off, buy the reception “guestbook”, meet with the church wedding coordinator Thursday, figure out ceremony music, design table numbers and place cards, and begin figuring out what we’re going to do about a wedding ceremony program. Things are marching along once again…

Did I forget to mention that I got my send-off dress!? I will be changing after the last dance instead of before. I know I originally said I would change for the last dance, but after looking, I really want to wear my stunning dress as much as possible. But my end-of-night dress is stunning. It’s way different than my wedding dress and perfect for the occasion. I can’t wait for all of you to see it – and all of these cryptic details you are reading about.

2 months, 20 days, 3 hours, 10 minutes

Gone and Empty

Yesterday was the last day all of my family was in town. It was kind of sad to see them leave. And since my brother moved out this weekend too, the house is dead. It’s just my parents and me. For any of you who know how crazy the Galloway house is, you understand how weird this feeling is.

The only consolation is having a bathroom all to myself once again. I don’t know how my parents are going to feel when I leave in May. But seriously, a house that always has 7+ people in it at a time is especially empty.

Now I get to spend the day working on wedding stuff and get back to seeing Phillip all the time. I feel like the two of us haven’t seen each other in forever. Being married will be nice so when busy weeks and weekends happen, we’ll always come back to our place and be together. No matter how little time we get to see each other throughout the days, we’ll have a way to see each other every day and spend quality time together. Can you tell I’m ready to get married already!?

2 months, 21 days, 5 hours

What a Weekend!!

This weekend was easily one of the top weekends of my life. I feel so blessed to have such wonderful people in my life. Sorry it’s been a while since my last update – things have been busy.

Thursday was filled with work and getting ready for the shower. I tagged along with Heather as she ran errands. We also officially reserved the church. Thursday’s picture is of Heather’s planning notebook, which pretty much holds all of her maid of honor stuff.

Friday was a great day too. All of the family rolled in – hence the picture of tired Samantha and enthusiastic Heather. It was relaxing, and I was able to get off work to enjoy the crew. More errands were run too. I got my dress altered too! It’s being worked on, but looked perfect when it was all pinned.

And yesterday was the big shower day. Look at all of the stuff we got!! There were no weird gifts or anything. Everything was beautiful. All of this makes me want to move into the apartment already so I can take it all out of the boxes and give them homes. People keep asking what my favorite gift was and honestly, even though it sounds so cliché, I love all of the gifts. Every one of them is special and will be used a whole lot.

The rest of today will be spent relaxing. I don’t work again until Tuesday night. Tomorrow will be a day of getting back up on that wedding planning horse. I took a break once the church fiasco happened, but now it’s time to get things rolling again. I need to call everyone about the ceremony and reception time change. We also need to reprint/recut invitations.

Oh and as a side note… Congratulations to my big brother!! Yesterday, on his birthday, he moved into his new apartment! I am so proud of him and think he is going to have so much fun having a place all to himself. What a big step and a great birthday present to himself!

Don’t worry readers, I won’t take that long of a break again – well until another exciting week or weekend happens.

2 months, 22 days, 45 minutes

Girl Time

This evening has been filled with much-needed girl time. After a long day of work (training took 7 hours instead of the typical 5 hours), Heather and I went to the mall to look for her a dress for the shower and scout out potential last dance dresses for me. I found nothing. Heather found two dresses – one for the shower and one for the rehearsal. She’s already leaps and bounds ahead of me.

Tonight we also had frozen yogurt with the girls. Bonnie got an ice cream maker so we had to test it out with millions of toppings. It was a lot of fun, and it was nice to catch up with them. It sure gets lonely around the HEB at times. Having familiar faces in the same zip code is always nice.

Tomorrow is more training and some family coming in town. I can’t believe the shower is Saturday! I’m so excited to see everyone and have a lot of fun!

2 months, 24 days, 15 hours, 15 minutes

Guess Who Is Here!?

Hooray! Heather is back in town until Sunday! Fun time!

Slip-On Slip-Resistant Shoes

Yeah, I thought it was a strange contradiction myself. But what do you think? If you’ve ever had to waste spend money on slip-resistant shoes, you understand how cute these are compared with their competitors. I bought them tonight because I need them for my first big day of work tomorrow morning.

Today was orientation and man was it an ordeal. First of all, I didn’t get the oh-so-obvious memo about the orientation being held at the Arlington store. So I marched up to the Grapevine location, only to have the general manager point out the spot on my training handout that showed a map to the Arlington location. Great first impression, Ashley. Ugh.

So two other girls that did the same thing as me (ok, so maybe I’m not completely clueless) and me carpooled to the CORRECT location. We walked in 30 minutes late. We quickly sat down and started our menu test. If it’s any consolation, two other people walked in after we had sat down. Again, maybe I’m not a moron.

But you know what is the real consolation? The thing that made it all okay and put me back into the apple of my superiors’ eyes? I made a 100% on my menu test!! This is apparently rare, and I was the only one in the group. Go me!

2 months, 27 days, 15 hours, 37 minutes

Toasty Fireplace

That’s the color of Phillip’s bathroom – or I guess in a couple of months, it will be the guest bathroom at Phillip’s parents’ house. But anyway. Here is what we did all day yesterday.

We are nearly finished. Doesn’t it look wonderful? I love the color and it goes so well with everything else in that bathroom. What a difference a can of paint (and removing wallpaper) can make!

Everything is happening so quickly now. Bridal shower is this weekend. I start my Pluckers orientation this afternoon. Alterations for my wedding dress are Friday. Bridal portraits are April 23rd. We move May 13th. Then the wedding festivities start pretty much June 1st and will continue for about a month – even after we get back from the honeymoon. Things are so exciting right now and I just want to hold on to every single second of it!

2 months, 28 days, 1 hour (The wedding time is officially 3:30pm.)

Peace, Home, and Pluckers

We officially have an apartment! Hooray! We went in and signed for that one I was talking about yesterday. I am so thrilled and can’t wait to move in on May 13th. I can now start seeing us decorating for Christmas, having friends over, and so much more. Our first home. It’s where all of our things – both old and new – will live as well. Things are really coming together. This is really happening.

This morning I had my pre-orientation at Pluckers too. I already got my food handler’s card and will be studying for my menu test shortly. I am ready to start this job. Ready to make money. Ready to work full time to buy the things I have been meaning to for the past three months. Ready for financial freedom.

2 months, 29 days, 19 hours, 15 minutes

Floorplan

This is the photo-of-the-day and it is a picture of our future floorplan. I know it’s hard to see but if you squint just right, you can take in the gloriousness.

What do you think?

P.S. Our wedding will be at either 3:30 or 4:00 in the afternoon. The countdown shows 4:00pm since that is our first choice.

2 months, 30 days, 19 hours

Rambling About Productivity

I am now a hostess at Pluckers in Grapevine. Thanks to my lovely twin sister who had great connections, I can now earn money while searching for a big-girl job. I plan on making it full-time until I get a job to replace it. Then I’ll work a few shifts for extra money.

We found an apartment and it’s on hold for 24 hours! We fell in love with a floorplan that is even better than the one off of Fuller-Wiser. This is their sister community and has better prices. We can afford it, it is 100 square feet bigger, and feels so much more open. 2 bedrooms and 2 bathrooms and a move-in date of May 13th. We are pretty excited about it. Now we just need to plug in some numbers and make sure it will work before signing.

I had a phone interview with a medical office today. It’s promising, but I’ve had promising before. If there is anything to update you on in the job department, I will definitely let you know.

3 months, 2 hours, 20 minutes!!

Where Two Or More Are Gathered

Or in the case of our wedding… Where 300 or more are gathered…

We found a church!!! I am so happy about this! It is stunning and beautiful! I almost like it better than FUMC Irving. I guess God does know what He’s doing afterall! ;)

Isn’t the front just breath-taking? I thought so. The only “downside” is that instead of one center aisle with pews on either side, there are two center aisles – three sets of pews. We will process down one side and recess down the other. It is not necessarily what I had originally envisioned. But plans change and you work with them. The church is beautiful enough to make up for this slight hitch in the original plan.

It’s Munger Place Church just northeast of downtown Dallas. Yep, further than Irving. But again, what do you expect with only three months to find a great second location!? Sorry to those of you having to make that drive, but at least you won’t be disappointed when you get to the beautiful church. It’s worth the drive. The church is a new branch off of Highland Park United Methodist Church on the SMU campus. It was built in 1913 and last year Highland Park renovated/restored the building to its immeasurable beauty.

I’m so excited to have this worked out, you have no idea!

3 months, 23 hours, 10 minutes (Ceremony Time Will Change Soon)

Checking Off The List…

Yesterday was filled with googling and calling who-knows-how-many churches to check availability. What did we end up with? Two to look at today. I really hope that we fall in love with either or both of them. I would hate to feel just okay about them and have to pick them for the sake of having a place to get married.

Either of these place would also mean moving the wedding up yet another hour to account for travel time. I’m sorry, guests, but this latest development most likely means all of us are going to have to drive more between the ceremony and reception. I’m sorry for the inconvenience, but at this point, I’m afraid we have no choice.

3 months, 1 day, 7 (or 6) hours, 35 minutes

Hate Mail

Warning: This post is an angry one.

I got a letter in the mail today from the church we were to have our ceremony at. It turns out the chapel’s air conditioning unit is broken and will not be fixed in time for our hot June wedding. Therefore, they basically said they will refund our money and we can go look for another place to get married.

Thanks for nothing, church. I can’t believe this. I had my dream church ready to go. I have been imagining myself walking down that gorgeous aisle with all of my family and friends filling that chapel out so nicely. The beautiful hard wood floors. The stunning ceiling beams. The stained glass that was timeless but not overpowering. The 90 foot aisle. All of it was perfect.

But now we start over. Now I have to search for another church or come to grips with the possibility of not getting married in a church. What are we going to do? Will I have to settle for something not as beautiful for the biggest day of my life – and the most important part of that big day? And apparently this couldn’t be relayed by phone. No. I got a letter in the mail. Ridiculous. I am at a loss for words.

3 months, 2 days, 18 hours – and churchless

Redipped

Today was premarital counseling session number one. I think it went really well! It was basically just a nice conversation and we talked about a lot of great things. He gave us some stuff to think about and talk about over the next few weeks before going back in April.

But back to the title of this entry. After we drove to Waxahachie, we went to Robbins Brothers to have my yearly engagement ring inspection – and they redipped it! Isn’t is gorgeous and shiny!?

Tomorrow will be relatively quiet. I’ll apply to even more jobs and probably work on my half of Phillip and I’s homework assignment from today’s meeting.

3 months, 3 days, 20 hours, 40 minutes

My Life This Weekend

Pretty much, all I did this weekend was cut invitations. Therefore, my photos-of-the-day for Saturday and Sunday include pictures of the box of printed materials and the cutter I was best friends with all weekend. Phillip worked pretty much the whole time, so that left me with invitations.

But the good news is that all of my hard work paid off! I finished cutting all of the inserts and the top layer of the invitations! All we have left to do now is attach the ribbon detail on the top of all of the top invitation layers, cut the second layer, attach all of the layers, and stuff. It really sounds like way more work than it is. We will definitely finish these with plenty of time to spare. That is very exciting.

Today is attempt number two at counseling in Waxahachie. I don’t know what to expect. I assume today will be pretty light with basics, but you just never know. I am meeting Phillip in Arlington after his classes, where I will park and we will ride together to Waxahachie to meet with my uncle. Then, when we get back to Arlington, I will finally get my engagement ring inspected after a year and a half since the last one and after being overdue by six months. Then who knows what the rest of the evening has in store.

In other wedding news: we have decided on centerpieces, found a bulk florist, my mom bought us our unity candle stand, and I now have crystals to put on our cake topper.

3 months, 4 days, 6 hours, 5 minutes

Association of Former Students Plaque

Today, in the mail, I got my plaque for being a Century Club member of the Texas A&M Association of Former Students. Pretty much this means I’m awesome.

And it also means I have another item to hang in my future office. This means my future job must come with my own office. Right? I’m going to keep thinking that.

I really need a job. Does anyone have a job to give me?

3 months, 6 days, 21 hours, 35 minutes

Momentous Sickness

Yesterday, Phillip came down with the pesky 24 hours stomach bug. You know, the one everyone gets now and then. It’s violent and terrible, but fortunately only lasts pretty much exactly 24 hours.

As long as Phillip and I have been together, I have never seen him sick. He’s had allergies or ate too much. But never once has he ever been bed-ridden, missing-school, dead-for-a-day, sick. It’s crazy that we’ve gone our entire relationship without me seeing him like this.

In a way, I was glad to finally get to play the role of caretaker for a little bit. He has taken on this role plenty of times over the course of the years (and done a great job) but yesterday was my turn to show compassion. He’s all better now, but it was definitely a milestone in our relationship – that only took 6 and a half years to reach.

3 months, 7 days, 6 hours, 30 minutes

Another Invitation Sneak Peak

We put in our order for the invitations to be printed at Staples today! We walked out with a sample on our stunning paper and I am so pleased with how they are going to look. Of course, this now means I have mounds upon mounds of cutting ahead of me. But still.

Here is a little sneak peak of the printing (just for you followers).

I can’t wait to have them all put together and ready to be mailed. I finally feel like we’re making so much progress and April and May are starting to look more and more carefree – which will be great since we’re moving during that time.

We ordered the labels and bags for the candy buffet we are having. We also ordered the guestbook last night and ordered envelopes that will actually fit our invitations. This is major progress in the wedding planning department.

3 months, 7 days, 21 hours

100 DAYS

There are only 100 days left until our big day, bloggers. For those of you following this for the 2 years and 1 month (exactly) I’ve been writing, you are more than aware of how boring and quiet entries will be getting after June 11.

I have come to the realization, after all of this work I have put into planning in the past three months, that it’s time to enjoy the ride. I have done so much, and there is still so much to do. But now, I don’t feel rushed because I have three months to complete everything – and I’m ahead of schedule now.

So I will relax and enjoy these last 100 days of being a Galloway. I will have fun at my bridal shower (in about two weeks!) and soak up the last of this blushing bride.

Looking back on this 21 months of planning, I have an appreciation for how it has progressed. For the first 9 months, we got to enjoy being engaged. I had a lot of ideas running around without having to make any decisions. It was nice. I was able to take week-long breaks whenever I got overwhelmed with school or life or whatever.

The summer months were filled with a lot of progress, but it was the beginning progress. You know, the oh-my-gosh-this-is-really-happening-and-now-I-actually-have-to-make-decisions progress. Then for a couple of months there, I was kind of lazy and did nothing.

But man, once December got here, I have hit the floor running ever since. There has been mounds of googling and meetings, etc. That was definitely not the funnest time in wedding planning. Nobody ever tells you about the not-fun parts. Googling, emailing, and making phone calls about every single little thought and/or question is the worst.

And now. Now that I have made all the huge decisions, I get to sit back and plan the little details. Is it tedious at times? Absolutely. Is it giving me the weirdest dreams I have ever had? You bet. But the great thing about getting to this stage, is that I have great distractions with parties and everyone else really starting to plan their part (like my mom and her beautiful dress and plans for house guests, etc.). And. If I all of a sudden decide that I’ve had enough with one of the details, the show will still go on. I don’t have to have any of these elements in the wedding. We have all the essential parts done. How relaxing.

3 months, 8 days, 6 hours

Decision: Guestbook

Today I decided on the guestbook for the wedding. It’s one that I am currently designing online, to be delivered after I order it. It’s going to be a beautiful book filled with engagement pictures (hence the photo-of-the-day being the case our engagement pictures came in).

Instead of a traditional book with lined pages, this book will give guests the option to simply write their names or get a little more creative. And the monotonous pages will be decorated beautifully with pictures our wonderful photographer took. I wanted something that wasn’t going to be overly complicated (like the build your own scrapbook options) but also not boring and simple.

3 months, 9 days

February Top Five

Here are the top five pictures from February to recap the most significant times of the month. February was a relatively uneventful month – some disappointment, some sickness, some traveling, and moving forward in the wedding planning.

3 months, 9 days, 18 hours, 45 minutes

Passport to Honeymoon

I applied for my passport today! The picture is awful but I will have to get a new picture after my name is changed anyway. But here is my proof (and picture of the day). The money order receipt and receipt from the entire purchase. When it comes in the mail (9 days to 6 weeks), I will post it as a new picture of the day.

3 months, 9 days, 18 hours, 50 minutes

Pretty Paper

Yesterday we bought our paper for the invitations. It is a beautiful, crisp, brilliant white. Our invitation and accessory cards will be printed on it. I can’t wait to actually see a finished product!

So that’s what today will consist of – invitations. I need to get a huge amount done (if not, all of them) with the handmade paper. That way, we can print and cut the white paper this week and be ready to assemble the final product as soon as our blue paper is delivered.

Side Venting Session: We purchased envelopes yesterday that match our paper exactly. And after two months of searching for cheaper envelopes, the invitations didn’t fit. This has been an issue ever since we got the invitations. Well, we finally took out a ruler and measured the thing. It turns out, we have been calling it a “5x7” invitation, when it is in fact a “5 1/4 x 7 1/4” invitation. This makes a huge difference when searching for envelopes. Hmph.

Today will also consist of getting my passport! This means I will “officially be an American.” According to Phillip, at least. He also said this means I’m officially a citizen of the world. I don’t see how a blue booklet means that much, but oh well. I need to shower soon and get ready for that picture. You know, since it follows me around for longer than a driver’s license picture does. Jamaica, Grand Cayman, and Cozumel, here I come!!

Laundry will also take over my life today. Yeah, it’s not as fun as a passport or invitations, but needs to be done. I’m also applying for more and more jobs today. Not so glamorous, but it needs to be done. March will be the month I find a job. It has to be.

3 months, 10 days, 6 hours, 15 minutes