Wedding Pictures

Since I never got around to uploading some wedding pictures to the blog (I put them all on facebook), I decided to post the link to the magazine that featured our wedding for a quick over-view. Photos courtesy of Jeff Cooke, the best photographer a girl could ever ask for!

Here's the link:

http://sensationalweddingvendors.ca/blog/?p=1624

House Pics

So, after putting off this whole blog thing for a veeeeery long time, I have decided that it is finally time to post some pictures of some things Nick and I have done around the house. For those of you who don't know, Nick and I purchased a forclosed house last August (we have been homeowners for almost a year now- scary!) with the intention of finding a great deal and fixing it up to sell it in a few years. The home we chose is in Charlotte, in a great little neighborhood, and for a great price (almost $60,000 below tax value). We have been doing everything in the house ourselves, from installing new countertops, painting, installing new appliances, extending the patio, and next up: hardwood floors. Here are a few pics of some of the things we've done so far!

The only picture I have of the house on this computer is from this past winter when it snowed!

Countertops before we painted and installed the new dishwasher

New countertops and backsplash, and a not-so-new stove...We're replacing that next!

I had looked all over for a painting JUST like this and couldn't find it. I decided I was going to try to paint it myself, ala my favorite HGTV designer David Bromstead. Then one night, while shopping at HomeGoods as usual, we found this!

We went to Nick's old church for an auction they were holding to raise money for the church choir tour, and we weren't really expecting to buy anything. Local businesses and church members donate items to be auctioned off for the youth group. We saw this brand new ottoman and knew we had to have it. Knowing it was for a good cause, we won it with a bid of $100. When we got home, we saw the Pottery Barn tags and stickers on it. I LOVE Pottery Barn, so I looked it up on the website and saw that they still sell it for $899. I can't believe we got it for 90% off!

We saw this shelf at IKEA and immediately knew we wanted it for a TV stand. The only problem was the fact that we are cheap, and didn't want to pay the $100 for it. So, we looked on Craigslist and found this one for $30! The man was moving and had gotten tons of responses for it, but we were the first to respond to his ad, so it's ours! Persistence pays off :) We bought the baskets at IKEA, and if you look closely, you can see Kitty in her home (aka, a cardboard box).

This chandelier used to be brass and hideous. We tried to make it a little prettier by spray painting it brushed nickel (while it was still hanging from the ceiling- Nick's idea, not mine) and adding some shades for the bulbs.

We have another cabinet, identical to this one, on either side of the window in the dining room. We found these on Craigslist (of course) in the free section. They were white and falling apart; we fixed them, painted them, installed new knobs, and put a lightbulb in, and voila! Two new china cabinets to hold all of those wine glasses we got at the wedding ;)

We installed the chair rail and crown molding in the dining room ourselves. We also (after two tries) picked out a color that I liked. We are looking for a large, round, silver mirror to hang where the clock it, but we can't find one anywhere...

Nick surprised me with the dining room table that he bought on clearance (it had been a display) for $49! We searched for a while and found barstools to match on Craigslist for less than $150.

We got the SS dishwasher brand new at Home Depot for $149 because it was a discontinued model. The original price was $650! We had to install it ourselves, but it was worth it. We also installed the granite tile countertops, the ceramic tile backsplash, and the new sink and gooseneck faucet ourselves as well.

This table was given to Nick before he started college. He used it in his apartment for three years, and I hated it. We painted the legs and the chairs (they used to be white), and stained the top to match other wood used in the kitchen.

The kitchen with the new SS fridge that we bought on Craigslist for $300. The next thing on the to-do list: getting rid of the awful linoleum floors and replacing them with ceramic tile!

PROCRASTINATION....is easy :(

Hello! I have terrible at updating this blog lately, things have been a blur! WE'RE MARRIED! And finally all moved in to our new house (pics to come soon!) and back in to the swing of things. We are both working, spending time with our families, and working ono making our little house cute! Home reno's are my new thing; I don't think I've ever been to Lowe's more in my life than I have in the past two months. Anyways, just wanted to post something to say that we will be putting pics up soon of the wedding, honeymoon, house, and holidays! So much to catch up on :)

Lately...

We had plenty of weddings to go to this summer, including tow of Nick's cousins, and one of his good friends, who also happens to be in our wedding. Nick's cousin Emily was married in June in Camden, SC, and his cousin Kaitlan was married on the fourth of July in High Point, NC. This is a picture from her beautiful reception!


My mom made a wonderful birthday dinner, and the love of my life, Sarah, came home from Africa just in time to eat some wonderful home cooked food. My mom made a cake that looked like presents stacked on top of each other, and this is the picture after I blew out the candles. She's so Martha Stewart sometimes. :)

I celebrated my birthday on August 11, and Nick took me to a show at Blumethal Performing Arts center called Shear Madness. It is absolutely the funniest thing I have ever seen, and we had great seats, as you can tell by the picture! It was almost like a dinner theater, and our table was right in front. In the show, they cast interacts with the audience, and Nick got picked on ;) It was so funny and a wonderful birthday present!

I can't believe the summer is almos over, and we have three weeks until the wedding! Ahh!

Bridal Shower with the Herman and Lafone side of the family!

The adorable tables and favors for all of the guests

The wonderful gifts!

Papaw decided to tough it out with all the women to stay for some food and to play with baby Mackenzie, who also got into the food ;)

The lovely spread!
Malachi and I, after he ate about 15 funfetti cupcakes
We played the classic make-a-dres-out-of-toilet-paper game...Emily's dress looks great!
Sandra Herman made me the cutest corsage out of a sponge, mixing spoons, and a wine opener. She knows me so well! :)

The Herman and Lafone women did such a good job- we had so much fun playing games and eating all of the wonderful food. I cannot wait to be a part of this awesome family!

HOUSE: Updates!

Nick and I have had a very special experience with finding a house for us to live in. We knew that we didn't want to buy new construction, but rather find a foreclosed home in good shape for a much lower price. Our three-year plan is to cosmetically fix up a house, and sell it in three years for much more than we paid for it. Well....this process took much longer then we thought. We made 7 offers on houses, and got out-bid on all of them. This is something we expected, because finding a foreclosed house for the price we wanted to pay puts us in competition with investors, who are often willing to jack up an offer on a house. Well patience paid off for us, because the eighth house we made an offer on we got! Thank God for our realtor Sandra, because she earned every penny. We must have walked through 25-30 different houses, not counting the dozens of other we just drove by and deemed unacceptable.

The house we have under contract is a 3 bedroom, 2 1/2 bath house with 2,200 square feet. It's in a cute little neighborhood with a pool and great trees :) The value of the house is 50% more than what we paid for it, so we're so excited about this investment opportunity, and well as a place to live! The house needs almost no fixing-up...just some new carpet in places and a new refrigerator (can we say new stainless steel? My favorite!)

We are definitely very excited about the house...so depending on how well the appraisal goes, we should be closing on it from the middle to the end of August- talk about cutting it close! I was beginning to think that we would come back from the honeymoon to have nowhere to live....but my parents house. Not happening!

The financial burden of a mortgage is now apon us, and I couldn't be more excited :)

Tea Party Bridal Shower!

I'm so very bad at updating this thing when it should be updated, but I figured I'd catch up on the past month or two. In June, Jocqueline Propst, Madolyn Helms, Phylia Smith, and Terri O'Bryan threw me a wonderful tea party themed bridal shower. We had so much fun! They did such a good job with the food and the cupcakes (thanks Mad!) and the games. I had such a good time! Here's a few pictures from the day:

Adorable candy they had made!
The Hermans :)
Crock pot! My favorite :)
Mariah playing with the tissue paper


My Mom!
My mom has saved these tea cups over the years, and most are passed down from her mom and grandmother
Adorable "S" cupcakes, made by Madolyn
The delicious food!