Save The Date!

The date is set! I cannot believe that in just 204 days we are getting married. It feels like it has been a lifetime already, when we actually picked our wedding date we started with 376 days to go. We got engaged in May of 2012, which deserves its own post so you’ll hear about that later : ) and decided then that we wanted to wait a while before beginning any sort of wedding planning. We wanted to really savor being engaged, because well, you only get engaged once right?! We also knew that once we did begin planning that 90% of our conversations would involve the wedding and we just wanted to float in this happy engagement bubble for a little while longer. So we decided that Fall would be our time to jump headfirst into the planning pool. When we began to talk about locations I expressed that I’d always pictured something medium sized, outdoors, on a beach and dancing under the stars. He agreed that something outdoors and near a beach sounded perfect to him too. Living in Virginia such locations are difficult to come by, so instantly we were catapulted into the “Destination Wedding” category.  However, we knew that we did not want to go out of the country, two days after getting engaged we traveled to Punta Cana in the Dominican Republic and witnessed two separate weddings. We actually had a lengthy conversation with the parents of one of the brides and she highly discouraged it, and not to mention the couple got married at 3pm right beside the main pool. I just didn’t picture myself walking down the aisle to music fit for a night club and half naked strangers in the pool watching us. Although it was very beautiful we definitely wanted something more intimate. As I mentioned in my first post, Mr. Tan Lines is originally from a small town in Southern Alabama. He lived about 45 minutes from Gulf Shores, one of the many beaches that coat the Southern coast of Alabama and stretch out to the Gulf of Mexico. After seeing many pictures and hearing stories we really felt that this would be the place. We planned a trip for September 2012 to visit his parents and of course scout some sites for the wedding. We knew we would have the ceremony on the white sandy beach, so the reception space was the missing piece. We only visited one place and that was the one we selected, a restaurant with a gorgeous outdoor area that overlooked the Bayou Saint John. We ate dinner there and I was sold simply from the garden salad with ranch dressing, it was delicious! After meeting with the event planner the following day and discussing the details we knew that was it, we booked it within a week and can’t wait to celebrate there with all of our friends and family : )

Here is a picture of our Save The Date, my co-worker designed it. The pictures came from our engagement celebration trip to the Dominican Republic, which I’ll get into on another day. My co-worker designed the entire thing and came up with the idea to make it two separate pieces and also to make it a magnet. I am in love with them and can’t wait to begin designing the invitations!