Wedding...Thursday?

I missed Wedding Wednesday. How come no one told me?! ;) Just kidding! I had my first med-surg 2 exam today and have been studying non-stop for it the last 3 days. I literally left my house yesterday morning at 7:00am and didn't return until 9:30pm--and then I studied until 11:00 pm. So really, I had no time to blog. Which is a complete bummer because I have some exciting updates!

• First and foremost-- I found (and bought) my wedding dress!!!!! Well, actually my sweet grandmother bought it for me and it is the exact one I wanted. I saw a picture in a magazine back in November and have desperately wanted to try it on since then. Really, the dress was meant to be mine. The designer is only carried in 2 stores around here--one close to me, and the other about 30 minutes from where I live. My mom, grandmother, and I went shopping on Saturday to the store closest to us. Unfortunately they didn't have my dress, but I did spend some time trying on other dresses. (I felt like a princess, haha!) We liked quite a few, took pictures of some, and were about to leave when I decided I wanted to head out to the other store, just to see. We arrived at the second store with about an hour left before closing and had no idea you had to have an appointment to try on dresses. So I said, "I really just want to see if you carry the dress that I want. I can make an appointment and come back." As fate would have it though, one of the co-owners had just finished up an appointment, stated that yes in fact, the did have the dress I was looking for and she would help me try it on! I came out with that dress on and actually burst in to tears! (I never thought I'd be the girl who cried when she found her wedding dress...) It's a beautiful dress and I can't wait to show it to you all! But I can't right now in case a certain someone should decide to view my blog ;)
• Now we are in the market for some shoes. I want them to be purple and have the little cupped back on them. But I would like them to be open-toed. Any suggestions?
• Also, here is the dress I'm leaning towards for bridesmaids--what do you think?? (The purple one) It's from Nordstrom's so you can't go wrong there and I'm hoping it's something they would want to wear again. Would you wear it again??
• We are in the process of finding a weekend to go to Clemson to get our engagement pictures taken! I'm very excited about these pictures :) And I think David is getting excited too. He had a really cute idea for Save the Dates on Riggs soccer field. He e-mailed the AD at Clemson and they e-mailed back saying they would love to support us any way they could-- I love my Clemson family!
• We are also starting to plan our rehearsal dinner. We want to do dinner with our bridal party. David has a big family and not all of them are in our party so he's thinking about doing something after with everyone and I like that idea! I like the formality of the rehearsal dinner with the bridal party and then some "party fun" afterwords :)
• Lastly, David and I will be meeting with the woman who (hopefully) is going to be marrying us on February 6th! I've met her before, as she is one of my grandmother's friends, but David hasn't and I think she wants to get a feel for us as a couple. I think she'll decide from this meeting if she will do our ceremony...I'm not worried :)

Now for the bridesmaid! Meet my sweet friend Vanessa:

Vanessa and I met in nursing school, just like Leslie! In fact, all three of us are good friends :) Vanessa is getting married just two weeks before me! She got engaged to her fiance,

named David too, last April. They set their wedding date for 9-10-11, how cute is that!

The day V got engaged :) So excited for her!

She has been so kind and sweet to let me and David share September with her and even more amazing to share it with me! She is so awesome with her running! She has run two half marathons and has motivated me to start running, too!

V, Les, and me on race day!

But she is just awesome to watch! Van is one of the most honest people I know. She is the true meaning of "friendship" in that she wants the absolute best for her friends, and will make sure you are happy, even if that includes having the hard talks. She's had many of these talks with me because I'm so stubborn and helps me see other views on things and I love her all the more for it! I'm so, so glad she agreed to be in my wedding and I can't wait to help celebrate hers! :)