*almost* in the city: May 2011

Friday, May 27, 2011

Fatty Friday

A picture story of my weight ups and downs:

Elementary School - kinda chubby

End of 7th grade - athletic

Summer 2004 - 200 lbs

November 2004 - Size 8/10

July 2008 - at my heaviest

April 2011 - starting weight for WW and Wedding Diet

Wednesday, May 25, 2011

23 was a pretty big year, and I'm not sure how 24 will top it. But I'm sure starting your new life with your husband, going to grad school and moving to WVU will provide good life experiences. I'm so lucky to call you my BFF. I love you and hope you have an amazing birthday!


Christy and Me, at her wedding.

Friday, May 20, 2011

Fatty Friday: The Explanation

To be honest, I've struggled with my weight since I was a little kid. I was quite the chunker back in the day, once I started playing sports, I got thin. Once I hurt my knee and stopped playing sports, I steadily gained the weight back.

My freshman year of college, I got on the scale and decided I was NOT going to gain the Freshman 15. I started going to the gym, and Virginia Tech's campus allowed me to walk EVERYWHERE. I didn't watch what I ate, in fact, I ate like crap. Corn dog nuggets @ 1 am, Pokie sticks after drinking all night. But I managed to lose about 30 lbs and go down 3 pant sizes.

Once I joined DSP, I started to gain the weight back. Read: more drinking and less time to work out. When I got to Europe fall semester of my junior year, I didn't really like the food and I ran a lot. So I lost some weight.

Throughout my spring semester of junior year and senior year, I gained it ALL back and then some. I was absolutely at my biggest when I graduated June of 2008.

November 2008, I decided to get with the program and started going to the gym regularly.

Here we are, May 2011. I've lost in total about 40 lbs. And seeing that I have a wedding in 13 months, I'd like to be at my goal size by June 2012. I don't know what that means weight wise. I just have a vision of what I want my body to look like. And I'd like to be able to wear a bikini on my honeymoon.

So, I've started Weight Watchers. And excerpting more. I'm hoping to stick to this regiment (I haven't been so good about consistency) for a whole year. And hopefully, I'll be reporting that I hit my goal by wedding time.

Thursday, May 19, 2011

A New Series

If you couldn't tell by my "100 Day" series, I like to continue a trend once I start it.

I decided to do a "Wedding Wednesday" series, where on Wednesdays I will talk about my wedding planning. It just so conveniently happened that my post about Richie and Christy's wedding fell yesterday. So they got the kick-off/inaugural post.

I will also do "Fatty Friday." Hopefully, that doesn't offend anyone. But it's going to be about my weight-loss journey (that started June 2008 and will hopefully end June 2012).

Wednesday, May 18, 2011

The Big "I Do"

The photographer showed up around 1 to start taking pictures of us finishing up as we got ready. After my make-up was done (I was the last to go), I hurried into my dress. We all then helped Christy get into her dress as the photographer snapped away.

Some pictures outside with her bridesmaids and family, and then the limo showed up. Christy was relatively calm throughout the whole process. And didn't even try to make a break for it. After arriving to the church, we were secluded away in the downstairs for about 30 minutes. Christy used this opportunity to take her first bathroom break. Which, I do have to say, went much better than I had anticipated.

Finally, the coordinator came down to tell us that it was go time.

The boys walked down the aisle first, and then the girls. As Richie said later, I "ran the stop sign" aka I forgot to bow at the end of the aisle. Whoopsies, hopefully Jesus didn't take offense.

The only time during the ceremony that I teared up/cried was watching Christy walk down the aisle. To be more specific, she was walking down the aisle and I turned to look at Richie watch her. They both looked so happy and it brought me so much happiness that my two best friends were going to be together for life. So logically, that made me cry.

The ceremony went off without a hitch. Christy's dress didn't get wet, no one fell (although Father Don tried to) and everyone behaved themselves.

After the ceremony, time for family pictures. And then into the limo (where we, obviously, had a mini-photo shoot).

The reception was at Medowlark Gardens, and it was absolutely gorgeous. We took outside pictures with the bridal party and then were released to the cocktail hour.

At this point, I was getting SUPER nervous. Christy had asked me to do a speech as the Maid of Honor. I was attempting to not hurl, and couldn't eat anything at the cocktail hour, although it looked amazing.

We had our bridal party entrance, with a little hitch, and the groomsmen all had a special high five they did as they entered. Richie and Christy came in, and Richie did the baby powder thing that LeBron James does. (Which I had to be told later, because I had no idea). The couple had their first dance to "This Magic Moment" and it was so cute to see them doing the steps they had learned in dance class.

After the Father/Daughter and Mother/Son dances (which happened at the same time), Richie's dad welcomed everybody before we dug into the salad. It looked really good, I however was trying not to hyperventilate by this point, so I didn't eat any.

Next up were the toasts. I went first. I had written something down on Thursday morning (and got Richie's dad to read it) and had been practicing it in my head since then. I said mostly what I wanted to say, was about 3/4 of the way through it and started to choke up. I could feel the ugly cry coming on, so I ended it with "I love you both" and threw the microphone at Jeremy (who was up next). After Jay's speech, Kenny went next...ending his with a "let's make a toast."

Once the speeches were over, I could enjoy dinner. Which the chicken and mashed potatoes were AMAZING. And then, it was dance time. And we all know how much I love dance time.

The reception was a blast. With just the bridal party and a few friends being there at the end. It was an awesome night for an awesome couple!

Photo collage of the day/evening's events. From the Limo to the ceremony to the get-away car.

Congratulations Richie and Christy! It was a beautiful wedding and an awesome time at the reception. Love you guys!

Tuesday, May 17, 2011

It's hard work to look this good

On Thursday, Christy and I went to my nail place in Arlington to get our nails done. Acrylic tips for her and shellacking for me.

I spent the night with Christy on Thursday night. To make sure she didn't run away (only kidding) and so when our 7 am wake-up call came, we had back up alarms. Showered by 8, the hair lady came to set our hair. As you can see, we probably should've just kept that look for the wedding. It was wonderful....(internet sarcasm).

Ashley and Heather showed up sporadically, got their hair set and we waited for the make-up ladies. As they were setting up, we pushed play on the DVR'ed Royal Wedding.

It was definitely a little girl's dream to watch a prince and princess get married as she gets pampered for another wedding.

I'm so sad that the lady who did our hair isn't available for my wedding. Yes, she's already booked for June 2012. She did an amazing job and was so friendly (good thing since she spent 6 hours with us). But she gave me some good recommendations, so I'm following those up.

The make-up people were good too. I got airbrushing done, and I have to say it's worth the extra money. My skin was glowing and my make-up stayed in place the entire night. Which is a feat since I was sweating after dancing it up all night.

Tomorrow's post is about the wedding!!

Monday, May 16, 2011

Practice Makes Perfect

Richie and Christy's wedding rehearsal was the Wednesday before the ceremony. We all managed to make it there on time...which for some of our friends is a challenge.

The coordinator provided by the church wasn't very pleasant. Or organized. We had to go back through again after we practiced walking out because she forgot about the unity candle. Not really a big deal in the grand scheme of things, but when I'm freaking out that I'm not going to remember when to stand, when to walk, and when to bow (which I TOTALLY forgot to do)...it was a little stressful.

But no one really messed up during the actual ceremony, so all in all a pretty good rehearsal.

After the rehearsal at the church, we went back to Richie's parent's house for the dinner. It was such good food (homemade by different people). Richie got his groom's cake, which of course, had to be Eagles related.