when your heart is on a rollercoaster.

oh, the last couple of weeks have been difficult, sweets.

planning a wedding, preparing to be married to my best friend

and thinking about a new home in a cool city is a lot to be excited about . . .

and for the most part, i am deliriously happy.

but there are parts that are really hard too-

realizing i'm actually moving away from my family and close friends,

looking for a new job in unfamiliar territory,

and all the while missing my guy when i want to be with him all the time

{duh, that's why we're getting married!}.

mr. wonderful started a new job a few weeks back that has him

working all sorts of crazy hard hours.

since i work a pretty typical 9-5,

our schedules are all outta sych and our nightly ichat ritual

is now just stolen phone conversations while

he is in the car and i'm almost ready to hit the hay.

it's only for a season, i know,

but, oh, it makes the months until we get married pass so much more slowly!

i've decided that i'm taking all this extra time to pour into

building up my relationships here in NH even more . . .

making sure i nurture my loves with my family and friends

before i say goodbye to move down south.

these next 3 months {3 MONTHS!} are going to be a jumble

of emotions, but i'm excited to see where God is taking me on this little journey.

{from a trip bestest and i took to nyc a few summers ago . . .

go here to see some of our other big apple adventures.

ah, new york, i need to visit you again soon!}

yay or nay for the budget bride.

i'm more than discovering why weddings are so stinkin' expensive.

yes, in part because the industry jacks costs up for

everything/anything remotely wedding related,

but also because there is simply so much

stuuuuuuuuuuuff.

do you know what i'm talking about?

say it with me, stuuuuuuuffff.

if you're like me,

you want personal touches and details at every corner an eye

may wander . . . which means lots and lots

of little things to look at and make pretty.

but seriously, most of this stuuuuffff is one-time use only,

which in my mind can be a real money waster.

so what do you omit and what do you splurge for?

here are just a few of my picks . . . help me out, sweets!

{a pedicure for feet covered by winter shoes- $45-ish;

i'm pretty convinced i'll ditch this and just get a mani.

hello, this is the most hand-photographed day of my entire life

and i'm crap at doing it myself.}

{calligraphy invitation addresses . . .

okay, this isn't even close to within budget,

but a girl can dream, right?- $$$$$$;

obviously a nay.}

{sweetheart sunnies for me and the girls- $14/ea.

wouldn't photographs with these be adorable?}

{a personalized hanger for my dress- $27;

imagine it with me, "mrs. wallace." yesssssssss!}

so whatcha' think???

did you forgo certain luxuries for your wedding?

what was worth it and what do you regret?

anything unnecessary you wish you let go?

~~~

more future posts on being a budget bride headed your way. . .

probably closer to our date when we're well into the crafting

and out of the "this needs to get done yesterday" stages of planning.

not too long before mr. wonderful proposed,

i received some kick-butt advice from this fantastic lady on how to

throw an amazing wedding bash on little to no budget.

we seem to be following a lot of her advice pretty closely . . .

i'll be sure to share really soon!

colour of the week // grey or gray?

yeah, i don't know . . .

anyone got any idea which it is?

edit: so, it's g-r-a-y in the states and they spell it g-r-e-y in england.

"a" for america and "e" for england.

okay, i get it.

whatever the case, i'm in love with this color.

for those of you who are new to the blog, wednesdays

always feature a bunch of pretty items in a delightful shade.

got any suggestions?

and check out some previous posts!

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would you ever?

dresses like cotton candy . . . please catch me as i swoon!

would you wear a non-traditional dress for your wedding?

i thought very seriously about it . . .

and nearly feel deeply in love with an oatmeal colored ballgown

in tulle and lace.

in the end, a puffy ivory fit and flare captured my heart,

but i still adore the idea of walking down the aisle

in something like a lovely blush.

what about you, sweets?

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gelato is delicious when eaten alongside a handsome man.

happy monday, sweets.

here are a few little photos from my trip to nashville . . .

just over 3 months and we'll be man and wife!

an enviable wedding

sofia coppola's wedding . . .

maybe it's me stereotyping,

but i'm imagining puffs of pastels, handcrafted simplicity and yet total fantasy.

things are really coming along over here in

"wedding planning in the real world" . . .

got our save-the-dates in last night

{my heroic best friend and stellar bridesmaid gets all the credit; she prints like a champ}

and we settled our ceremony and reception locations.

so pretty and hip, you WILL shed tears.

i promise you.

and for the record, our food is going to be finger-licking good

of the not-chicken-fingers variety.

take that, sofia coppola.

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bongo java lunch date

hauling boxes like crazy people didn't give us much

one on one time this nashville visit,

but john and i did manage to sneak in a little lunch date,

a downtown window shopping trip to cake vintage and visit to west elm in green hills

{setting up our place has thrown us into decorating mode, big time}

before he dropped me off at the airport late in the afternoon.

i'd heard loads about bongo java,

a supposedly tasty and trendy hang out not even a hop, skip and a jump

from the belmont university campus . . .

i was pretty pleased to find the foamy soy latte up to par

and my pesto bagel sandwich satisfying to my hungry belly.

colour of the week // chocolate

oh, yum.

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a worthy cupcake shop.

hi there, sweets! back from nashville {sigh}.

sorry for the late-in-the-day post;

i've been bushed from all of yesterday's traveling!

let me tell you, when you're headed out to move you stuff,

no one tells you how hard it is

to leave your new fiance and future home behind.

what can lift my spirits when i'm missing my man???

well, hello there, pretties . . .

a trip to nashville wouldn’t be complete without a stop to sample a beloved treat . . . a cupcake, of course.

johnny’s parents share our devotion to staking out sweet confections, so we wasted no time in checking out the painted cupcake in the green hills section of nashville on thursday after eating a tasty lunch at nearby yollo’s. this was all before we set out to breakdown and move johnny’s entire apartment and after we had carried all my boxes from our van to the new second floor abode.

{lesson learned: renting a uhaul for a day is always cheaper and faster than loading and unloading two vehicles a dozen times over a weekend. must remember this the next time we move . . . when we’re married!}

anyway, we knew we were going to be hungry.

so we bought SIX cupcakes to split between the four of us. we really only shared two . . . the rest are in john’s new fridge, I think. unless he’s already discovered them.

pretty stinkin’ good, i must say. i give them credit because i have this horrible problem that i feel like i bake better cupcakes than half {or more} of the cupcake shops i’ve visited. the frosting always tasted like chemicals and the cake, while moist, almost always is flavorless. i’ve turned me, my family and fiance into terrible cupcake snobs and probably undeservedly so because i am not the one with the storefront. and you definitely will never watch me on cupcake wars in a black hello kitty tutu. ok, maybe.

all of this to say, try the painted cupcake in green hills because they were halfway decent {and the shop was adorable}.

in other news, i devoured a hot chocolate with chili popsicle at las paletas on sunday and it was amazing . . . spicy and sweet with a heated finish. not for everyone but absolute genius.

moving day

hey, sweets . . . still in nashville,

but i thought i'd grab a sec to fill you in on

our adventurous moving days here in TN.

no hiccups other than the buckets of water that poured

on us during our thursday drive south,

which slowed us down and flooded our planned route

{took us 20 hours to reach the music city . . . an all-time low, evidently}.

but do not fret!

we were met by beautiful, sunny nashville weather

that cooperated during the transporting of important things

such as couches, mattresses and the like.

we were all pretty bushed by the end of it,

but we have a cozy home set up for mr. wonderful

and a neat "our first place" to welcome me once we're married.

i fly out back to NH tonight and so my handsome guy and i are

spending the day hanging pictures on the walls,

scooting around town and having some "date day" fun together.

more on that later and stay tuned for a tour some time this winter.

{squeezed between two pieces of a section in the family van . . .

john is a lucky guy, no?}

also, a BIG thank you to abigail for an adorable guest post on friday!

Guest Post: Throwing a Bridal Shower!

Hello everyone! I’m Abigail from Abigail and the Great World.

Abby has asked me to guest post today, probably since we share the same first name!

Since Abby just got engaged, I thought a wedding themed post might be appropriate. Just a little over a month ago, I was a bridesmaid in my best friend’s wedding! I got to wear a really legitimately pretty blue dress, got to spend time with my friend right before she walked down the aisle, and got to share the happiest day of her life with her, right there front and center. Who could ask for more?

(I'm the brunette on the left side of the picture, next to the bride)

But being a bridesmaid comes with some responsibilities. In the case of my friend’s wedding, I threw the bridal shower. Now, throwing a bridal shower may seem intimidating at first, especially if you look at the ‘how-to’ pages online. They say that you need to do about a billion specific (and expensive!) things, otherwise the bride will probably hate you forever. WHAT?!!!! Now, unless you’re dealing with a bridezilla, this is not the case. And if you’re like me, you’re probably working on a budget. So how to throw an elegant and still budget-friendly bridal shower? Easy!

First of all, I held the bridal shower in a home, instead of picking a fancy restaurant. Then, I bought invitations at Target and printed them myself, instead of having a company print them. They still looked beautiful, but for about a third of the cost.

The bride and I decided that an ‘afternoon tea’ shower would be best, and it meant I avoided the costs of providing a full lunch or supper. Instead of having it catered, she and I spent a couple of hours before the shower baking cupcakes (our favorite thing to do together since we met six years ago), making little chicken salad and cucumber finger sandwiches, setting up strawberries in bowls, brewing tea, opening champagne and sparkling cider bottles, and organizing the living room furniture so as to accommodate everyone.

For the shower games themselves, I made a little trivia game about my friend—her favorite color, how she and the groom met, etc. (all PG, though—her mother and future mother-in-law were there!) We played a toilet paper wedding dress game, where we divided into teams of three and designed 'wedding dresses' using-- you guessed it-- toilet paper. I also had some notecards prepared, on which the guests could write down their best marital advice. Reading these out loud at the end of the shower was a good laugh for everyone. Then, of course, the bride opened all of her gifts!

Toilet-paper wedding dresses! The bride (on the end in a regular dress) was the judge!

We had a fantastic time at the shower, I got to spend some quality time with my friend, and overall costs were kept very low. Just some money for notecards, magic markers, toilet paper, and chicken salad from the deli section at the grocery store!

Hope this helps anyone in the position of throwing a budget bridal shower! And major congratulations to Abby on her engagement!

packing up

at 3:30 this morning, i left NH with johnny's parents

in a van full of my stuff, headed 20-ish hours south to nashville.

up until now, mr. wonderful has been living in a rad but small

downtown loft space . . . an apartment with no more closet space left

for yours truly.

so, to make our transition into married life easier

{and to give my shoes a home},

johnny found a lovely little apartment about 15 minutes from downtown

that suits our needs perfectly.

when it came time to schedule his moving day,

he had just popped the question,

so his parents asked me to come along so that i could

1/ move a bunch of my stuff before wedding mayhem really breaks out

2/ see my handsome man for the first time in 4 weeks

and 3/ spend some QT with my future in-laws

{okay, i made the last one up, but it's a bonus, right?}.

honestly, when i moved back in with my mother a few years ago,

i always pictured i'd be moving out into a roommate situation

or into an apartment . . . alone, as an "independent woman" type.

how funny that it will be to leave my home state

and join my husband in a new home and new part of the country?

even though i already have some dear friends in nashville,

i will still be meeting lots of new people,

finding my way around a new city and part of the country

{i've always live in new england!},

and searching high and low for a new job!

am i nervous? yeah, you bet.

but i'm also excited as can be to start my life as a married woman

with my very best friend.

so, off we go for a new adventure . . .

oh, and don't forget to stop by while i'm gone for a very special

guest post by another abigail!

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colour of the week // sparkle

sparkle is a color, right????

well, i've always thought so, anyway.

with all this wedding stuff going on,

i've just about hit a sparkle O.D. lately . . .

not that i mind one little bit.

i think i'm automatically distracted every time i see something

remotely shimmery or glittery.

i know . . . i'm such a girl.

too much stuff makes me feel like a hoarder.

hope you all had a good labor day, sweets.

i spent it . . . well, working and packing.

you never really know how much stuff {insert expletive here if you wish} you own

until it's time to pack it all up.

holy cow, i got a good dose of that this weekend.

i've begun collecting all of my "not everyday" possessions to move

down to nashville this weekend with my future in-laws,

and oh my gosh where the heck did all of this come from?

nevermind my clothing . . . bestest and i will deal with that this winter;

i'm talking about baking supplies, framed art, books,

TONS of books and photo albums.

the teddy bear gifted to me from my late grandparents,

cupcake carriers, vintage glassware

and the anthro kitchen linens with the tags still attached

that i never used

because i knew this day would someday come.

makes you think long and hard about what you actually care about,

doesn't it??

if i had the time and the patience, i'd just let everyone come over

to take away what they want from my pile of unnecessaries,

but that's just not a possibility.

i have a feeling my sister will be claiming a lot of it

after i leave,

but for now it's all just one big mess!

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bridal inspiration

oh, the dress!

oh, the tousled waves!

oh, the natural wedding day glow!

i began my mad hunt for a gorgeous yet affordable gown a little over a week ago

and found my match this saturday . . .

a lovely ivory gown that makes me feel like a princess . . .

i can't wait to show you all!

i went to the bridal shop for the second time

{after trying it on with mom last week . . . and i've been thinking about it since}

to have another look with mother, my sister and future mother-in-law, karen.

i think i was just overwhelmed by everything i'd tried on the first time around,

because as soon as i slipped the dress on again, i knew!

then my mom and karen burst into tears when i came out of the dressing room. . .

and i got a much-needed stamp of approval from my sister.

i seriously feel amazing in it and can't wait to wear

it when i marry my guy.

now, i know it's not all about the dress,

but isn't that what you should feel like when you marry the man of your dreams?

yup, no question there, huh?

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new roommate

my beautiful baby sister is moving back to live with us after living in florida

for the last few years.

she couldn't be coming back at a better time-

i need my sister for things like dress shopping,

craft making and just plain squealing!

welcome home, sister; i'm glad you're here!

{sister with her kitty, mrs. norris}

i'm heading out of town . . .

next week, i'm taking a little trip and won't be writing for a bit . . .

would you like to guest post for me?

i'll be out and about september 9th - 12th,

so that leaves two days' worth of open posts.

would you like to come visit for the day?

if so, comment here or email me at

transitionismymiddlename@gmail.com and we'll be in touch!

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