About a month ago, Lauren and I stumbled upon a great apartment loft right near the Marietta Square. At the time though, it was too early to reserve a spot for July. But we had to have it.

Time elapsed.

We didn’t look anywhere else after finding out about Brumby and just prayed that a place would be available when the time was right. Well we got more than we had expected upon our visit this past Sunday and we walked away with our first home. Click on the thumbnail below to view a selection of photos we took of the place. And be sure to roll your mouse over the image to see the captions.

The basics:
It’s a 2 bedroom, one bathroom loft in Marietta, GA.
We’ll probably use one of the bedrooms as an office/workspace area.
Big ceilings, 1050 sq ft.
I move in June 1st. Lauren moves in after the honeymoon. :)
Fun. Awesome.

Hope you enjoy the photos!

My mom and I thought it would be both creative and economic of us to do our own flowers. So we read up on the best deals in our beloved Bridal Bargains and found one website we thought would be perfect. I went through the online photos, get all excited about lily of the valley, and placed a rather expensive trial order. The site owners went through all the trouble of contacting me by phone AND email to confirm the date of delivery and sent us a sturdy looking three foot tall box. It seemed like excellent customer service.

Packed inside the innermost realms was the saddest little bouquet. The only container of appropriate size to hold it was a mug. A vase would have drowned the poor thing.
But it wasn’t the size that was concerning. It was the fact that the leaves were so pale, it was like chlorophyll was unheard of. Essentially, I had spent 60 bucks on yellow grass with white flowers.
The saddest part is that I think I got my heart set on this one particular flower. Am I becoming one of those demanding and obnoxious brides?

Disclaimer: My apologies to all the guys. I know the eyes must have glazed over with this post. Ladies, I hope you’ll appreciate my need to share an anecdote about floral woes.

Sorry about that title. I couldn’t think of another W word to polish it off.

Anyway-
Wish us luck! This upcoming weekend is going to be chuck full of nuptial-related items. Here’s a breakdown:

Friday, April 22, 2005. Early Afternoon.
-Planning Pow Wow with Mom. Need to discuss invitations, the rehearsal at the church, programs, music, flowers, accessories, cake, and photography. At some point, also need to purchase gift for shower on Sunday.
Evening
-Accompany two of Josh’s married friends to dinner, get insider trading tips from a recently wed couple.

Saturday, April 23 Afternoon/Evening
-Go to Augusta in the afternoon to get fitted for bridesmaid dress for fellow education grad Katie. Stay in Augusta to attend her engagement party in the evening.

Sunday, April 24 Morning
-Meet with premarital counselors for second session.
Afternoon
-Meet up with best friend Jaime for her first shower. Hopefully will have present before this point.
Evening
-Possibly will work on invitations.

Love, marriage, and bliss for EVERYONE! I didn’t realize that proposals and engagements seem to be contagious. I also have to say that being engaged for six months has been crazy fun so far. It will be interesting to see how God pulls this one off and brings it all together for us.

This past Sunday the Petrellas (and Robinsons) invaded the Teague household, much to our delight. It was the first time the Birmingham branch of the family- John, Katie, and Mary Ellen- were able to meet the Teagues.
It was a lot of fun and we got some great pictures of the event. Unfortunately, the pictures will have to be posted at a later date, seeing as how Josh is the brains who knows how to actually put pictures up. I’m still impressed with myself for being able to post words and stuff. I understand some of you call it “text.”
For now, it will have to suffice to say that we had a really fun morning, which would have been perfect if Tiffany and Luke had been able to come. We missed you, Luke and Tiffany! (I almost let a “Tiff” slip in there. Josh’s influence.)

Some of my favorites from the afternoon:
1. The Famous Tortilla Soup I was FINALLY able to try. (Amazing)
2. Sydney’s awe at the rather large potted tree in the dining room.
3. Mary Ellen showing off her new crawling technique. (Think of a baby that’s been raised by gorillas and walks on all hands and feet.)
4. Jeanine’s dip (so, so good)
5. Showing the Teagues what it looks like when the Petrella sisters bust out three cameras to take about fifty shots of the same “photo op” of the girls.

But my absolute FAVORITE thing was seeing our combined families together. I loved showing off the Teague house and family members to my family, and I was excited that almost everyone got to meet each other. Thanks to everyone for saving that date and making time for us. It was a really special day for me, and I know for Josh, too.
An especially huge, HUGE thanks to Mrs. Teague and Jeanine for cooking all that food. Your work was appreciated, I assure you. Josh and I are incredibly blessed to have you both in our lives. And that goes for all of our family.

(Good news; I have officially signed up for cooking tips from Mrs. Teague, so perhaps poor Josh won’t have to eat Chick-Fil-A every night after all. Whew.)

Ta-da! We finally got our act together, pooled our skills and came up with something we think we can show off to our family and friends. We proudly present our own wedding website. Welcome to thefairskinneditalians.com. (Yay!!)

We thought the best way to begin a site dedicated to us and our love (awww) would be to first recognize those who have already done so much to make this whole thing possible.

Roll the tape . . .

• Mandy, Bryan, Jeanine and Beau – thanks for taking the risk of playing match-maker, you are thus far 1-2. Not too shabby.
• Mrs. P / Mom – thank you for taking on the role of unofficial wedding planner extraordinaire. Without your hard work and dedication we would not have a church, reception site or the moolah to pull this off. You could do this for a living now!
• Mother & Daddy – Thank you for supplying the get-a-way vehicle, even though we haven’t officially asked you for it yet. We love you! And also for the coming family get-together. Many, many other thanks to come.
• Mandy, Bryan, Jeanine, Beau (again), Mrs. Spitler, Meredith, Mr. and Mrs. Sandlin, Katie and John, Mrs. Robinson, and Cluster B girls- thank you, thank you, thank you for your generous offers to throw showers for us.
• Tiffany and Mother- The ribbon will be fabulous! Who knew I would be receiving fashion assistance all the way from Paris?!
• To the Bridal Party- thank you all for being willing to stand next to us on our big day. We would like to especially thank….
• ANNIE, ANNIE, ANNIE- We love you, ANNIE. We acknowledge that without your name in this post, we may never have seen tomorrow. So here you go- everyone, ANNIE MARIA PETRELLA of Tucker, Georgia, is a wonder, a doll, and a dream.
• Mike, Will, Ashley, Christie, and Tay for putting up with constant wedding talk. Let’s hear it for the roomies!
• Finally, big thanks to God for allowing us to do this and for all of the wonderful people He’s placed in our lives.

Please do not consider this to be your final thank you from us. You were on our minds as we racked our brains for our first post, so we thought we should indulge ourselves.

Be on the look-out for future posts, including such topics as Bridal Party featurettes, updates on the planning, and all the ways we can squeeze the life out of our brown and blue color combo. See you soon!