Labor Day Weekend Wrap Up: Wild Wedding Festivities Begin.

Labor Day weekend started for me on Thursday. I flew to Texas and got in at around 2:30. From there, my mom and I went to my 2nd wedding hair and makeup appointment which took several hours until I finally was over it and needed to get out of there! We ended up meeting my dad at my favorite local hot spot, Lupe Tortilla, for dinner and I enjoyed a much needed Mexican dinner with free flowing chile con queso. My favorite. Friday, I was up early and at a dr's appointment and from there, went to several wedding appointments with my mommy. The first one was my very first dress fitting! **Something I've realized about wedding appointments is they are never shorter than 2 hours.  Here I was thinking that we only had 2 scheduled appointments today and that they shouldn't last long.  Boy, I was wrong!  It still took up the entire day, but we had a blast!

Mom and I before the dress fitting.

After the dress fitting, my mom, myself and our wedding planner, Karen, all went to our decorations vendor.  After all of our appointments and email correspondence dealing with my vision and my theme, they set up tablescapes for me to see the wedding decor.  It was absolutely lovely and got me really excited about everything!  Everyone had such great feedback, people that weren't even involved in our wedding.  Everyone seemed to love my concept and vision for the wedding theme and it really just drove everything home.  Everyone kept on saying how "different" it was and "unique" and I was so happy because to me, my vision and theme is very different and unique and to see other people feel the same way was a confirmation that it was what I was looking for.  I did take pictures of the decor, but don't want to spoil the surprise and the fun! :)  I loved that our decorations vendor did the tablescapes for me to see how everything is going to look.  I'm sure they do that for other people too, but they set up an entire room dedicated to me with the different tables and their decor.  For a bride planning a wedding from afar, it was really necessary and helped give me peace of mind that we were on the same page. They really wanted to make sure my vision was enforced and confirm that they were going in the right direction - which they were.  It was awesome!

I met sweet Caitlan for dinner at Flora & Muse.  She's always so good about planning time to hang out and get together with me, and I'm so thankful for that.  We spent several hours conversing, catching up, laughing, and enjoying our dinner over delicious wine.  As usual, Caitlan came bearing gifts.

Me with Caitlan's gift!  Imagine us walking all around Town & Country City Center carrying this!  It was rather humorous!

Me and Cait at Flora & Muse.  Look at that adorable "G" she made me out of wine corks!! LOVE!

Saturday started the excitement!  I had two wedding showers on Saturday - the weekend was really beginning!  It all was such a blur - it went by so quickly.  But I had an absolute blast and enjoyed every minute of it!  My very first bridal shower was actually at Jeff's parent's house and was hosted by his two grandmothers, great aunt and his mom's sister.  It was so thoughtful and nice to have them think of hosting a family shower for me and I loved getting to see so many of my family members and getting to meet so many of his that I had never met before.  Weddings really do bring people together, and this shower was a testament to that!

My maid of honor, Emily and my Matron of Honor, Lauren.  So happy you both could be there for my very first shower!!

Jeffrey was swimming in the pool in the backyard during the entire shower - which was pretty funny.  This was one of his appearances he made towards the end of the shower.  So glad he thought to put a shirt on...haha.

About 2 hours after the first shower ended, Jeffrey and I headed to the good ole College Station, Texas.  Our old stomping grounds.  We had another shower in a few hours that was hosted by several of the E-2 mom's (his outfit in the corps of cadets at A&M).  For those of you unfamiliar with the corps of cadets, think of it as a military-inspired fraternity. We were blown away by how many of the E-2 mom's were willing to contribute to hosting our shower - there were 16 hostesses!  It was so nice to see how many people were willing to put forth so much time and effort towards us and this shower.  The shower was hosted at C&J Barbeque in Bryan, TX.  Jeffrey and I were also thrilled to find out where the shower was going to be held as we absolutely love C&J and we had been craving some bbq for a long time!  There just isn't Texas bbq in San Diego, no matter how many places we try.  It's a bummer.  For sure. It was so nice to see so many of his buddies and how important it was for them to be at this shower for Jeff.  Since we've gotten older and people have moved out of state, it's harder for some of the guys to make the showers.  But I know Jeffrey was so pleased to see several of his buddies there.  We had a great time!

Jeffrey and I at C&Js.

The most delicious red velvet cake.  Ever.  We took two pieces home with us and ended up eating it for breakfast the next morning. :)  Guess that's our inner fat kid.

The shower was a "gift card" shower which was great.  If you live out of town (out of state out of town) and are planning your wedding somewhere else(ie back home), having a gift card shower is so nice!  Don't get me wrong, I love getting to open presents and see what people have bought us and picked out for us, but the gift cards were nice because we were able to bring them back with us and not have to worry about how we're going to be transporting all of our gifts back to us.  If you're wondering "how are you going to transport your gifts back" well that's a good question.  Jeff's parents currently are storing all of our presents and will be driving them up to us (thankfully) after the wedding and honeymoon at some point.  Also, I'm sure several people will be shipping our gifts to us as well, which helps!

Emily was at this shower too! She is a stellar maid of honor!

My family, minus Philip, Lauren and William.  I'm glad my dad and brother(s) got to be a part of some of the wedding festivities since normally the men are excluded.

It's never a trip to College Station without a visit to Northgate.  After the shower ended, we got changed and ready to go out.  First stop?  The Dixie Chicken.  What else?  It's a College Station/A&M requirement.  I love their Sangria, so I made sure to get me a glass of it while we were there!

Sunday was *game day*.  All week before we left for Houston, Jeff was preparing his Aggie game day outfit (and mine as well).  He even had me try on a few things for him.  This boy loves his school so much, as do I, but he's like a kid in a candy store when it comes to A&M!  He gets wild and giddy.  It's adorable.  We started off the day with his family and doing regular Aggie things, like visiting the CC Creations tent sale.  Then we ate lunch together and parted ways.  Jeff and I headed to campus and found a spot to park in my old neighborhood, the Historic District.  It was so weird seeing my old house and not pulling in to the driveway.  407 Fairview, I miss you.  We headed to campus to see my lil brosef, Anthony.  He is a freshman this year at A&M (Ay, Ay, Ay, Ayyyy) and lives in Appelt on Southside.  

A picture with the three of us, of course.

It was hilarious because sitting there, I learned a lot about my brother and his first 2 weeks of school.  Apparently, he puts his mattress on the floor each and every night and sleeps there because he is too long for the extra long college dorm room mattresses and gets his foot caught in the bed frame.  It was fun to see his living space and left me reminiscing about my college freshman times.  Oh how I'm jealous of him right now and the adventures he's about to partake in!

Oh how I love my school.  The fans were out at A&M vs SMU and they were loud!  It was awesome, and gives me chills every time. I'm so proud to be an Aggie.

Game was over.  Aggies won (WH08P!).  What an end to a great weekend!

But, not before we stopped off at Layne's first on our way home. :)