our wedding: the ceremony

 Time to share pictures of our ceremony! The ceremony was so beautiful. It was my favorite part of the day because it felt so special and so sweet. Everyone looked amazing and as I started walking down the aisle with my mom, John was smiling at me and I was just so excited!

photo of our ring bearer and last photo in this set by Aunt Charlotte

Here comes the bride!

last photo in this set by Aunt Paula

The ceremony started with lovely readings from 1 Corinthians and from the lyrics of a song I sang in my cousin Robin's wedding. Then came the best part of the ceremony! John played his saxaphone! He and Rob (on the guitar) played Edwin McCain's "I Could Not Ask For More". It was the sweetest, happiest moment and there was not a dry eye in the house.

 Our vows were great and the message from Pastor Horner was just wonderful. It included prayers that were prayed during my Grandparent's wedding many years ago.

We're married! It was such a wonderful ceremony, full of moments I will never forget.

Time to celebrate tomorrow with pictures from our reception!

photos except for the ones mentioned above by Courtney Potter for Cana Collective

our wedding: pre-ceremony

 Before our ceremony, the girls headed outside (avoiding the guys) and took some pictures beneath the trees. We had so much fun getting ready for the ceremony and I just love these girls. I couldn't have asked for a better group of bridesmaids! And aren't they just lovely in red and pink? Or should I say My colors were cranberry and rose petal?

 We couldn't have asked for better weather or more blue skies for our outdoor ceremony. My great aunt Myrtle came to visit me before the ceremony, offering us best wishes for many happy years. And I took some pictures with our beautiful flower girl Katie (I was the flower girl in her mom's wedding years ago! How cool is that?) and our adorable ring bearer, my cousin Lachlan. How handsome is he in that vest and bow tie?

 Right before the ceremony the girls were upstairs in the house and the guys were downstairs. I think the pictures of the Ruthy, Danielle and Tori peeking out the window to see the ceremony site are so sweet. And you can tell in those last 2 pictures that I am so excited to marry John! Yay!

Meanwhile, at the ceremony site, guests were pouring in, signing our guest book (a photo book I ordered from Shutterfly) and John and Rob were practicing their special music. The arch that we stood under during the ceremony was created by my mom and it looked unbelievably beautiful. She did such a wonderful job with the vine and flowers. 

Coming up tomorrow: the ceremony!

all pictures above except for the one of Myrtle and I and the one of the arch are by Courtney Potter for Cana Collective

our wedding: guys getting ready

 Here are the photos of the guys getting ready. They looked so handsome in their tuxes with the cranberry red vests! Ray Charles even made a cameo appearance ;)

Coming up tomorrow: pre-ceremony photos

our wedding: girls getting ready

Welcome to Wedding Week! I'm so excited to share photos from our wedding on my little blog. Our wedding was so fun and felt so special. It was such a blast to share such a big day with our closest family and friends and I think everyone had a really good time. We had absolutely perfect weather for an outdoor ceremony in October and it was so incredibly sweet. I'll share more details from the ceremony when I share those pictures, but today I thought I'd share pictures of us getting ready. Our ceremony was held in the gardens in front of the Borden Historical House in Raleigh, NC and we got ready in the beautiful home.

I was so excited to wear those red ruffly shoes.

Time to lace up my dress and all of my beautiful bridesmaids are watching!

I love this series of mom helping me put on the garter. There is a picture of my grandmother helping my mom put on her garter at her wedding and we tried to imitate the photo.

Later today I'll be sharing pictures of the guys getting ready. There are so many fun pictures from our big day that it's hard to choose which ones to share.

Thanks so much for enjoying these photos with us!

photos above by Courtney Potter for Cana Collective

Thanksgiving feast 2011

Good morning! Welcome back from your long holiday weekend. I hope it was relaxing! Ours definitely was. We spent half of our first holiday as newlyweds in Blowing Rock, NC with John's family and the other half in Charlotte, NC with my family. In Charlotte we cooked up a feast and mom had out all of the fall and turkey decor!

On our Thanksgiving menu: 

turkey and homemade stuffing, real mashed potatoes, gravy, green beans, kale, cream corn, cranberry sauce, deviled eggs, croissants, pumpkin souffle and spice cake. Ah-mazing, oh man it was so good! And lucky for us, mom sent us back with leftovers.

What did you eat this year?

I have great pictures from a hike with John's family on the Blue Ridge Parkway coming up next week but...

Wedding week starts today! Coming up first: Getting Ready

wedding week starts tomorrow!

Happy Sunday night lovelies!

How was your Thanksgiving? Ours was wonderful - full of delicious food, beautiful weather and loving family and friends. I'll share some pictures of our feast tomorrow morning and then it's wedding week on the blog! All week long I'll be sharing pictures from our wedding... and I even have a video to share! I can't wait. I hope you'll come by and enjoy the photos and the memories with me.

xoxo

photos above by Courtney Potter for Cana Collective

give thanks with a grateful heart

Today we are hitting the road for Thanksgiving weekend and heading to Blowing Rock and then to Charlotte, NC to visit our families and gobble up some delicious food. What are you thankful for and looking forward to this Thanksgiving?

Things I'm thankful for:

family

people that love me :)

our little apartment that is soon to be decorated for Christmas

our amazing comforter

 acorn squash, green beans and cranberry sauce

time spent cooking and eating together

the mountains

the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade

driving long distances in the car with John

wedding gifts

my camera to document all of these fun times

Happy Thanksgiving friends!

xoxo

pictures via here and here

flowers for your Thanksgiving table

What a beautiful flower arrangement! This would be perfect for your Thanksgiving table. I just love dahlias. Design*Sponge tells you how to create it yourself here.

Santa paparazzi

Hola amigos! How was your weekend? Our Saturday started with delicious french toast made by yours truly. Then we braved the crowds and headed to Lenox mall where we saw the man with the white beard and holly jolly spirit. I got his photo - paparazzi style. It was super exciting! And don't you love going out around town during the Christmas season and seeing all of the beautiful decorations?

Then we watched the Wolfpack beat the Tigers. Woohoo!! GO State!

Hope you had a happy weekend. This is a short week - Yay!

recipe: gingerbread spice rice krispies treats

These are delicious! If you like peanut butter, pumpkin pie and rice krispy treats then this dessert is for you! Here's the recipe from the side of the cereal box... not a Nicole original this time :)

Gingerbread Spice Rice Krispies Treats

1 cup light colored corn syrup

1 cup sugar

1 cup creamy peanut butter

1 tsp cinnamon

(I used 1 tbsp by accident and it was still delich)

3/4 tsp ground ginger

3/4 tsp ground nutmeg

1/4 tsp ground allspice

6 cups Rice Krispies cereal

powdered sugar 

(the recipe actually calls for you to top them with a layer of melted white chocolate but I don't love white chocolate so I sprinkled mine with powdered sugar and they were still a big hit!)

Line a 9x13 pan with tin foil and spray with non stick cooking spray

In a large saucepan, combine corn syrup and sugar. Cook over medium heat stirring frequently until the sugar dissolves and the mixture begins to boil. 

Remove from the heat.

Stir in peanut butter and spices until smooth. Then add the cereal.

Once well coated, spread into the pan and sprinkle with powdered sugar.

Enjoy! Hope you have a great weekend :)

engagement anniversary weekend: Upper and Lower Whitewater Falls

 John and I had such a good time going to Upper and Lower Whitewater Falls to celebrate our engagement anniversary! All of the trees were so unbelievably beautiful! I just love fall.

 After seeing Upper Whitewater Falls we headed down the foothills trail to Lower Whitewater Falls.

 On our way we retook some of the same pictures from the big day. It was exciting to be back there! No boy scouts this time though :)

Overall it was a wonderful weekend and the weather was perfect, it warmed up so much that we were wearing short sleeves! 

And now I can't believe it's already Wednesday. I think I spent all day yesterday thinking it was Monday, haha. Hope your week is going well so far! I made a delicious dessert last night and I'll share the recipe with you a little later :)

engagement anniversary weekend: Ravens Cliff Falls

   This weekend John and I celebrated our engagement anniversary by traveling to upstate SC and hiking! On Saturday we went to Ravens Cliff Falls and on Sunday, our actual engagement anniversary we went back to the place where it all happened - Upper and Lower Whitewater Falls. It was a beautiful fall weekend and of course I have lots of pictures to share. On our way to Ravens Cliff Falls there was an overlook on the side of the highway, so we stopped to check it out (pictures above). The view was amazing!

There were 2 trails that led to views of Ravens Cliff Falls. One that went to a suspension bridge over the falls and one that went to an overlook. Each were on opposite sides of the mountain. We took the suspension bridge trail first since it was the longest and sounded the coolest :)

 

After checking out the bridge - which was awesome, we headed to the overlook. It was a few miles back towards the car and to the platform from the bridge but it was totally worth it because the falls looked huge from the platform!

It was a lovely day and a beautiful hike! But we were tired afterwards for sure!

Tomorrow I'll share pictures from Upper and Lower Whitewater Falls. Happy Tuesday :)

11.11.11 & happy Veteran's day

Today is 11-11-11! Did you make a wish?

This weekend John and I are celebrating 1 year since we got engaged by hiking back up to the waterfall where he proposed! Let's just hope it's not freezing outside all weekend.

~

Here are a few other fun things for you to check out:

I think I'm going to start wearing a different scarf everyday for a month

Love this American flag decor - Happy Veteran's Day

She & Him has a Christmas CD

Next week I'm pulling out the felt and getting to work

We can't wait to see the Muppet movie :)

glittery leaves DIY

Good afternoon! It feels just like fall here: temperatures in the 40's, colorful trees, the ground covered in leaves, and homemade chicken noodle soup and hot chocolate for dinner. Yum! 

I saw this beautiful glittery leaf table runner over on The Sweetest Occasion and I thought I could make that! Once I started glittering, I decided it might be even more fun to make them in a round pattern, like a placemat. So that is just what I did. It was super easy, here's the little how to.

I collected some freshly fallen leaves from outside and then started to add the golden glitter. In the original tutorial, she used spray adhesive but I didn't have any, so a glue stick worked perfectly.

 

Then I found some little acorns and decided to paint them gold and give them a little glittery action too, just for fun.

Ta-da! How lovely. I only have silver napkin rings and they just didn't seem to go with this gold decor so I used a simple piece of brown ribbon, tied in a bow and then added the acorns.

How are you decorating your table this fall/Thanksgiving?

deer on the mountain

Last night, since John got off work before the sun went down (darn daylight savings time) we headed to Kennesaw Mountain to hike and to celebrate our 1 month of being married! We've been to Kennesaw Mountain together before, but isn't it gorgeous in the fall?

As we were headed up to the top, we ran into some furry friends on the side of the trail... deer! and lots of them!

Aren't they beautiful? There were at least 6 of them. We saw 4 crossing the path in front of us and then we ran into 2 more right at the top of the mountain. Speaking of, here's the view from the top:

Ahhh, fall.

And on the way back down... 1 more deer :)

After we made it to the bottom, right as it got dark, we celebrated our 1 month in style with margaritas and empanadas. Delich. I can't believe we've been married a month already! xoxo