GapKids Casting Call!

Bloggy friends,

I need some help from you and your bloggy friends! My littlest sister Logan really wants to be in GapKids... just so happens there was a GapKids Casting Call and she entered!

God bless her she's six and just as precious as she could be! I'm not sure she has a fighting chance but I don't want her to just get 4 votes and feel terrible.

So I need a favor, if you could just go and vote for her I would be FOR-EVER grateful! You can vote everyday, once a day until Nov 17th!

The link is here. If you can't find it there go to http://family.go.com/gapcastingcall and her Member Name is MelLogGar.

I'll attach some pictures :) from of course our WONDERFUL photographer Shea Halliburton!

Thanks girls!! Posting and re-posting is a-ok by me...any help is appreciated! :)

Alright Girls (and possibly boys?)

Ok folks,

Step outside of your Google Reader...

And tell me what you think of my new blog layout?

Good, bad, indifferent? I need some comments ladies, I'm missing the blog love!

So this post isn't completely pictureless I'll share some of my favs before I start with the recaps!!

Can't wait to share the rest!

Uprinting Rolled Canvas Giveaway!

Bride on a Budget is hosting a giveaway of a Uprinting.com Rolled Canvas! Perfect for all those wedding and engagement pictures you may not have hung up yet! She also has a super cute blog too!

Visit her site and check out this awesome giveaway!

Booo on Halloween Candy (and a Curious Puppy Dog)

Thursday was quite a day...

We left Thursday morning to go to work like every other day. We always let Bentley have the run of the house downstairs and babygate the stairs so he can't hurt himself running up and down. We put up everything on the coffee table b/c he loves to grab things off of it. He chewed up my first Social Security Card and many other things... thank goodness I changed my name! ;) I filled up his water and food, took him to pee outside, and then left for work. Apparenly what I didn't do was get our massive bag of candy left over from our non-existant trick-or-treaters off the end table and put it in the cabinets.

By the time M got home, it was a disaster zone. Candy was everywhere, empty wrappers were all over our living room floor. Half eaten Blow Pops were stuck in Bentley's fur and M&Ms were EVERY-WHERE! M picked up every wrapper and counted how many pieces of candy had been eaten. Our little 7 pound Yorkie baby ate three mini Crunch bars, a Reese's cup, and lord only knows how many mini packets of M&Ms. He licked on about 5 Blow Pops that were stuck to our Oriental Rug underneath our dining room table.

Needless to say I WIGGED OUT. Chocolate for a doggy is bad news bears. I called our vet, who happened to be out for the day. I called my Mom to ask if she knew what to do and even posted my quandry on Facebook. I called my vet back and they recommended that I go to the pet emergency clinic to go thehis stomach pumped. Then one of our friends called, her Dad is a vet and he said to just look for warning signs of sickness like throwing up, peeing alot, and bad diharrea. All bad, gross things. So instead of spending a ton of money at the pet emergency clinic we chose to wait.

I watched him like a hawk all night long. He acted like a normal doggy but he was definitely amped up on caffeine! He spent all night playing with his toys instead of sleeping like he normally does. And I stayed up with him. I just couldn't sleep thinking he could seizure out at any time. So crazy little me stayed up... and he was fine. YAY! But we definitely learned that we can't ever buy chocolate again, ever!

Vendor Review: Fresh by CarryAnn

Fresh by CarryAnn may just be the single most helpful vendor I had on my side during my wedding. If I can give you any advice at all, make the drive to Mt. Juliet. I can guarantee that you will never regret it! First off, she is the cutest little thing you will ever see! Second, she was soooo much less expensive than any other florist we got quotes from and for the exact same thing! I was amazed when I got a $3000 quote from Enchanted Florist...and when I took the exact same idea to CarryAnn she got it done for $1600. Phe-nominal!!! She also was basically like the wedding planner, she got to Scarritt as soon as it opened, decorated EVERYTHING and then took it all down afterwards. She even transported things to 3rd aVenue from the ceremony (ahhh-mazing)! She decorated and supplied every decoration we needed for the reception and then came back at 1:00am to come pack it back up! She loaned us every single vase for our orchids so we didnt have to buy any (I'd say about 25 in all). Now this may be standard for florists but it sure made me feel special!

I even got a cute little mockup of my bouquet, even though I didn't have Bridal Portriats done!!

She also came in and set up my cake topper (which I sent to the Reception w/o any instructions apparently) and they contained NO FLOWERS! If it wasn't for her the top of my cake would have been naked!! She went out of her way to make sure that all aspects of my day were perfect and I didn't have to lift a finger... we kept all the orchids and the GORGEOUS floral arrangements that lasted for weeks! Seriously, they were still perfect when we came back from our Honeymoon!

The only thing I could even think of that wasn't just perfection was our billing, she didn't charge our credit card for the deposit. But that's it! We had a contract so I wasn't worried about it and as it showed, I shouldn't have been...she was one of the best decisions I made!!!

To book Fresh by CarryAnn you can visit her online at http://www.freshnashville.com/ and I promise you will not be disappointed!!! You'll even get a little surprise when you book her for your wedding! (I'll never tell but I promise, it made us feel very very special!!!)

A++++++

Teaser Slideshow!!!

Get excited!!! My wonderful, glorious, uber-talented photographer, Shea has put together the slideshow of all slideshows of our wedding!!

Check it out by following this link: http://byshea.com/mrandmrswilkins

Make sure you have the volume turned UP because the music is perfect!! It sets the mood and the songs are very near and dear to our hearts :)

Enjoy!!!

Vendor Review: 3rd aVenue South

How much did I love 3rd Avenue South?? LOTS!! It was in the perfect location for us! A block off of Broadway it really fit the bill for a fun, party place that we could transform into our own! You can view lots of pictures of the venue at www.nashvilleeventspace.com under View Local Venues or my previous post about it here. The venue costs include tables, chairs, linens, plates, food, bartenders, pretty much everything. The planner there, Laurie, really tells you like it is. She has a great view of what you want and how to make it happen. She maximized our seating for our budget (we did have to stretch it a little to get everything we wanted) and created gorgeous intimate spaces for the guests to be away from the hustle and bustle of the dance floor.

Laurie created multiple scenarios for us depending on guest count and set up appointments with the in-house caterer who I will brag on later! She does also offer her services as your full on planner and her prices are pretty in line with most other planners in Nashville. If I hadn't already decided that I wasn't in need of one, I probably would have hired her. She put everything together for us the night of the reception, drinks and food ready when we got there, she boxed up our to-go food, and quietly made sure we were happy...and we were, we really were!!

The cost of 3rd aVenue South is the biggest thing though, it's not cheap. When I originally called she estimated at least $100 a head, which was more than I wanted to pay for just the reception. We shopped around and really didn't find another place downtown that would be totally transformable like 3rd aVenue was...so I called back and said... "This is what I have, can we make it work?" She agreed at first, then called me back and said she had been thinking about it and it was going to be tight. She went over everything and it's cost and politely asked if I had any other funds we could throw towards it. I did, I had low-balled it bc I've worked in Sales for 3 years and knew how this would play out. When we agreed on the price, I signed in confidence bc I knew she would be honest with me and lay it all out. While it was still kinda close to the $100 a head mark, it was under and I got alot more than I could have wished for!!

So 3rd aVenue: A+, would recommend anytime!