So on Saturday and Sunday, Andy and I attacked his local Target, Kohl's, and Bed, Bath & Beyond. Other than finding a dress, it was the most fun we've had so far! I felt like a kid in a candy store; anything and everything was fair game. "You're pretty", scan, "I like you", scan, "You cost $200", scan. I think we both got exactly what we wanted, with a fair amount of compromising along the way. And if you thought that Andy would be bored and miserable, you are wrong. I've never seen a guy get more excited about juicers than this kid. If you didn't know this, Andy is pretty nifty in the kitchen. So naturally he nearly cried when he saw the KitchenAid 7 cup food processor of his dreams. Now, I know that all brides are supposed to have their future house designed in their mind, with a central theme and color for each room, and matching everything picked out....well, I guess I didn't get that memo. Our selections are kind of all over the board. Especially in the kitchen. We looked at 10 different colors of FiestaWare, couldn't decide on a single or even two-color combo, so we decided to get all of them! They were just all so pretty! Now I've talked to several girls who have said that registering with their fiance was when they had their first real fight. Luckily for us, everything went so smoothly and we had a great time. I think we learned a lot about the other person's taste and how to compromise to find something we both like. Andy is more naturally attracted to things that are darker, sleeker, clean lines, more modern, etc. I like things that are colorful, floral, fun, and so on. So naturally we were drawn to different styles. But it worked out great in the end because he would pick out something and then I would pick out something, or we just kept looking til we found something we agreed on. But we didn't just register for kitchen/bathroom/housewares. No no no, we picked out some fun stuff too. For example

• a 2 ft. long bone for Sancho (Andy's dog)
• the board game Quelf
• Mexican Train Dominoes
• Little Big Planet 2 for the PS3
• Super Mario Galaxy 2 for the Wii
• an HP photosmart printer/scanner/copier
• a tent, lantern, ice chest, and propane grill
• His and Hers Shakeweights (if you don't know what it is.....look it up)
• LOST - season 6

So again, we're registered at Target, Kohl's, and Bed, Bath & Beyond. You can look up our registry under Rebecca Carter or Andy Sawyer.
******Also: Gift cards are gladly accepted!!

back to work

• August 06, 2011

• Hot Springs, Ar 
• Garvan Woodland Gardens

We're working on Save the Dates right now and plan on sending them out in about a month. Other than that, we've been busy getting back into the swing of things. I'm starting my last semester at Harding and Andy is working hard in Little Rock making magic on the computer. We're excited about registering soon, probably at Kohl's, Target, and maybe more. Also on the agenda soon: engagement pictures!!                         

FOUND IT!

Guess who found a wedding dress? Did you guess Rebecca Carter? Because that's it! On Friday morning, my Mom, Dad, and I went to a dress shop here in Angleton and bought a dress! And it's "gorge"! It's simple but elegant and it has POCKETS!! I knew it had to be the one when I found the pockets. Now, you might be thinking, "Why in the world would someone put pockets on a wedding dress?" Good question. My answer: Pockets are fun :) And who knows? Maybe I'll get hungry during the ceremony and need to munch on some Skittles or something? I'm sure Andy won't mind ;) But all joking aside, it really is a beautiful dress and I can't wait (the 16 weeks!) until it comes in.

Now you may have read that the dress search was an extensive/intensive process. I tried on A LOT of duds. Since I'm not wearing any of these, I'll show you some of what we went through to find the "one".

Needless to say, we tried on pretty much every style out there. Now of course I didn't put my dress on here. Something has to be a surprise!

Say Maybe? to the Dress

I blame too much TLC for my current dress decision dilemma (try saying that 3 times fast.....OK, that's actually not difficult to do at all). One of my favorite shows to watch is Say Yes to the Dress. If you've seen the show at all, you know what I'm talking about. They follow 4 or 5 women at a high-end bridal salon called Kleinfeld's in New York. You sit in your living room and try to tell the girl on the TV to pick the second dress; it's figure flattering and within her budget. But she will inevitably pick the fourth dress (a sparkly princess gown that's $3,000 over her budget).

So, when I began my own dress search I imagined the same experience: try on 5 or 6 dresses, try on "the dress", everyone starts to cry, purchase and leave. Not what happened. I took my Mom, brothers Ryan and Clint, and sister-in-law Kelly with me. We have been to 3 bridal salons. Tried on more than 30 dresses. Progress? More confused than when I started :( The number of styles, designers, colors, fabrics is mind-boggling!

The dress I have in mind is form fitting to the hips and then flares out. Something without a lot of beading or lace. A more modern look, perhaps. Ultimately, a fun dress that looks like "me" and won't break the bank. I go back out on the hunt on Friday with Mom and Dad. I know my dress is out there! Dress, if you can hear me right now, please jump off the hanger and onto my body so I can wear you on my wedding day. Thank you in advance,


Love, a dress-less bride

Location x 3, part deux

So clearly we are looking at more than one venue, right? Let me present....An Enchanting Evening. I know the name is a little cheese ball-esque, but once you get past that, it is a beautiful ceremony and reception site! It's located 20 miles west of Little Rock, but it feels like it's out in the boonies. This huge stone and log "cabin" was built by a retired couple and faces Mt. Pinnacle and Lake Maumelle. This is the ceremony site....

pretty huh? We loved it! This was actually the first place we looked at. Here is another picture from the opposite view.

Unfortunately, one of the concerns with an outdoor wedding... what to do if the skies open up and pour on us? I guess that's just the risk you take with having an outdoor wedding. They do have a possible indoor ceremony site, but I don't think they can do an indoor reception. PLUS, we wanted this place because of the outdoor setting. Decisions, decisions! Do you like it?

Location, Location, Location

Yesterday Andy and I went to look at our second wedding venue! If I could choose one 5 letter word to describe it, it would have to be "gorge" (ous). So what if gorge is more commonly used to refer to a steep and narrow canyon? I like to use it to describe beautiful wedding sites :) This place has everything we're looking for in both a ceremony and reception venue; it's pretty amazing, not gonna lie. BUT there are some drawbacks (you knew there had to be). First, there is no sure-fire way to know if it's going to rain or not (outdoor reception, people). Second, it's a little bit pricier than the first place we looked at. And third, we don't even know if the reception place is available on our date! Those are some pretty big butts! (see what I did there? It's punny!)

For all of you blog stalkers out there (aka Mom and Dad), go check out the place for yourself! It's in a beautiful area called Garvan Woodland Gardens in Hot Springs, AR. Oh, wait...You didn't know that we were having an Arkansas wedding? SURPRISE!!! Check out the chapel.... 

Anthony Chapel at Garvan Woodland Gardens

It's kind of stunning, don't you think? The reception site is also at GWG, but since we're not sure if we can have it, I'm not going to talk about it. It will just get my hopes up!

** DISCLAIMER: This is NOT our final decision. Just an option. However, feel free to tell us how you feel about it in a comment below :) **

The Proposal

This is Andy.
Not Becca.

Gather 'round kids: it's story time.
The preamble: The marriage proposal is one of those rites of passage that has always been a little daunting to me. At times my mind raced, "What if she thinks my proposal is totally lame? What if she hates the ring? What if something goes wrong: all h-e-double-hockey-sticks breaks loose and the engagement night lives on in infamy?" To be honest, most of those concerns began to fall to the wayside as I started to really consider what it was that I was planning. Asking someone if she wants to spend the rest of her life with me is an event of greater importance than any matter of preparation and production. Had the day been awful, had the dinner been a disaster, had the weather been unbearably cold and windy (it was); in spite of those things I knew I was still going to confirm a promise to devote my life to the one woman that I love. (pause to bask in the sentiment)

The proposal: I wanted our three-year anniversary date to be a day full of enjoying each other's company. We live in separate cities and so the lazy-day date isn't usually an option for us. Becca came to Little Rock sometime in the late morning on Saturday and we went and grabbed some lunch. Five Guys Burgers and Fries. Romantic, right? I tried my best to play the day off as something that the two of us planned together. I asked her if there was anything that she really wanted to do on our big date since she had been so bogged down with school that she hadn't had a whole lot of time to enjoy the finer things in life: like the new Harry Potter. Indeed we did catch an early showing of Hermione Granger 7 Part 1: what Becca claims to be her favorite part of the day. (pout) After the movie, we got gussied up for our dinner reservation at Little Rock's, A Brave New Restaurant. Clever name. Thus began stealth mode as I now had to conceal the ring in my jacket pocket while also concealing my immense excitement/childish nervousness. Dinner was a success and we proceeded to head into downtown Little Rock for a nice stroll. Never mind the Marry Poppins gale force winds and the sub-comfortable temperatures. We grabbed some coffee and made our way down to the River Market area. My original idea was to take her up to Junction Bridge - a pedestrian bridge that crosses from Little Rock into North Little Rock - to enjoy the skyline view but the wind tunnel that was forming over the river at the time proved to be a little more than we cared to endure. We did, however, mosey/shiver our way down to the amphitheater and onto a lone bench in the middle of the stage facing the river. This spot held a certain amount of sentimental value as we had been on a (much warmer) walk there once before when we first started dating. We sat and enjoyed the coffee and company as we talked a little bit about what a nice day we had spent together. I decided that I couldn't keep up the charade any longer so I got off the bench, onto one knee, told her that I couldn't stand the thought of not spending the rest of my life with her and asked her to marry me. Her expression went from one of confusion (as I along with her entire family had been misleading her for a couple of weeks with regard to the true purpose of our date) to one of uncontainable joy. We hugged it out, gushed a little bit about being engaged and then got the heck out of the cold.

The end.