Gas Shortage

Thursday when I went to sign our contract at Belle Meade I was a little short on gas, but had plenty to get there. Short to me was about 60 miles left to make a 16 mile trip to Belle Meade. You never know when you are going to get stuck in traffic!

However, I left early to try to get gas before hand and stopped at 2 gas stations near our apartment only to find they were completely out. I decided to go ahead to the meeting so that I wouldn't be late. As I got off the exit and started driving towards it I noticed every gas station had no prices up. I thought surely they aren't out here too! After the meeting I started stopping at stations to find nothing. One nice lady (typical southern hospitality) stopped to fill me in on where there was gas. So, I followed her directions and found a huge line for Premium only. I'm not complaining, because at least I got gas!

It seems to have just gotten worse this week, because today we passed a gas station with approximately 200 cars waiting in line down the street at both entrances. And there were cops around trying to direct the traffic. It was the only gas station we saw that even had any though. Chris read online when we got home that 85% of gas stations in the Nashville area are out of gas. This is crazy!

So needless to say, we are staying home this weekend. When we were driving around I was still contemplating going to meet Bryce, Toni, Abby and Luke in Louisville, but that kind of made up my mind for me! Hopefully it gets better soon!

Last night we met Scott and his co-workers at the Tin Roof 2 to celebrate Scott passing the CFP and then went over to their house with another couple. I can understand the relief of not having to worry about studying anymore. I'm impressed he was able to fit studying in with 2 kids!

Is anyone else a golf/football "widow" today? ha I even like golf and football, but I don't see us moving from in front of the television. Golf is perfect to take a nap to, and then I'm going to pull out my scrapbooking stuff. Chris is going to be so excited for that I'm sure. :-) Chris says I'm cut off from wedding stuff for a while since we accomplished our 3 goals of date, venue and photographer. I think that's his way of making sure there are no more bridezilla moments!

Tuesday I have to fly to South Bend, IN via Detroit for a 1040 training on Wednesday (which I definitely need). Then Friday/Saturday I leave for Louisville for Heidi's Bachelorette party! We're getting very excited for her wedding on Oct. 25th in Gatlinburg. When I set our date for next year it didn't really set in that they would be spending their 1 year anniversary at our wedding! Sorry Heidi and John. :-( Luckily they are understanding . . . John's comment was that it just means we can all go on cruises to celebrate our anniversaries together.

Dove Wedding Photography

Dove sent us an e-mail letting us know the following, so I thought I would share for anyone that is interested. I know it's still a year away, but just thought I would post before I forget. :-)

Dove Wedding Photography has recently scheduled your event on Pictage.com and is pleased to offer a $15.00 Gift Certificate to all guests who register to view your event prior to it being available online.

Here’s what to do:

1. Send friends and family your event website link: http://www.pictage.com/548315

2. Your guests register with Pictage.com before event is online

3. Once your event is online, your guests will receive a $15.00 credit in their Pictage accounts!

October 24, 2009!

Get your cowboy boots ready, we're having a good ole southern wedding on October 24, 2009 at Belle Meade Plantation! We are so excited! I took 2 days off of work, Chris took 1 day off and my mom and cousin, Erin, drove down to help and we were able to figure out the date, location and photographer!

The wedding will be in the garden of Belle Meade and then the reception will follow in the Carriage House. Yes, there are stables right next to it (don't worry - there aren't horses in it anymore) and horse shoes hanging on the walls. Once you picture it with decorations I think it is perfect for us and what we wanted. How great will Kenny and David Allan Coe sound in a carriage house of an old horse farm!?

These are a few of my favorite pictures from its website:












Belle Meade Plantation Website: http://bellemeadeplantation.com/page.cfm/pid/54


Then, the part of the wedding I am most excited about (besides seeing Chris for the first time!) is the fabulous photographers (Dove Photography) we found to shoot the pictures. Most of you know I LOVE pictures so this part is really important to me. They did the slide show that I loved from someone that got married at Cedarwood (http://doveweddingphotography.com/AudreyBenWedding/).


They also have a blog, which I may just have to add to my favorites - http://www.doveweddingphotography.blogspot.com/ and a website - http://www.doveweddingphotography.com/. These are a few of my favorite pictures of theirs:

Borderline Bridezilla

So, I always thought I wouldn't be a bridezilla because I just want something simple for a wedding. Running off to a beach sounded the best to me, but since we want everyone to be able to be there and not make it hard for anyone we won't run off! :-) But who knew it is so complicated to find what you want AND get the date you want!

I had a temporary bridezilla moment when I went to visit Cedarwood (http://www.historiccedarwood.com/) only to find that both dates I wanted were taken even though their website showed that they weren't. And the ones that were available were Sept 12 (right before a deadline at work), Oct 10 (right before a deadline at work), Sept 17 (UK/Louisville football game) and Oct 31. Is having your anniversary on Halloween bad luck? I don't know, I just wasn't feeling it . . . :-) I guess I could have dressed like a witch.

On top of the timing, most places will only meet with you between 9am and 4pm. Well, in busy season that is just kind of difficult! Now I see why I've read about brides quitting their jobs to plan a wedding.

One of the reasons I liked Cedarwood was because it was all inclusive and they do pretty much everything for you! Perfect for me, since the task of even finding a location and date is proving to be difficult for me. I thought it would save Chris the pain of dealing with me as well!

So, my mom found Riverwood Mansion (http://www.riverwoodmansion.com/) and I got excited again. It is a similar concept in which they can do as much of the planning as you want AND both dates I was looking at were available! (Bridezilla-meter = Low) Only to find out the next day when my mom talked to them that one of the dates was taken within 24 hours. Amazing! It's 13 months away! Clearly I knew nothing about wedding planning . . .

Last night I went to visit a woman in charge of planning weddings/receptions at a country club in Brentwood that has an outdoor wedding site. It was gorgeous! And Alan Jackson's home is in the view among the trees. Pretty cool! http://www.oldnatchezcc.com/ Honestly from looking at their website I wasn't that excited about it, but when I got there it was gorgeous! And there was a wedding going on while I was there, so I got to see it all set up. I even got to see some guy cuttin' a rug like he was the only one dancing, so I was trying to picture who that would be at our wedding . . . Chris! :-) Oh, and their was a flat screen behind the bar with football on . . . I knew Chris would love it.

So for anyone who is wondering why we still don't have a date. . .this is why. Now that I hopefully won't be quite as busy at work maybe it will be a little bit easier to go see some more places. My mom is venturing all the way down here on Tuesday so we can go see Riverwood, visit a photographer and hopefully see a few more locations. Hopefully we can match up a great venue with a date that works around busy seasons, Kentucky football and weather. :-)

Chris has been in Indianapolis now for about 4 days. He says he had to go there for his project he is working on with Angela in Indy for the 9/15 deadline, however I'm starting to wonder if it was my bridezilla moment. :-) Either way, I hope he gets back soon because it is kind of lonely down here by myself!