It's a Monsoon out there!!!

 

This is the picture I took on the ODU campus early this morning.  Introducing ODU's newest pond!! :) We've been getting hammered by some serious rain! In fact, some roads are impassible due to the flooding. While in my class this morning, the tornado sirens were going off.  Tornadoes touched down and were seen in Norfolk, a few blocks from where I was.  The wind gusts were ridiculous! I sat in the parking garage, and the wind was shaking my car! Scary.  Anyways, I spent the rest of the day driving all over the area in the terrible weather. Again, Scary.

Why?

Well, I had to go to class- a paper was due.

I dropped off my cake toppers with my cake person,

I dropped off some votives and candles with my florist.

I met with my make up artist and did a trial run.

I had a facial to prep my face for the wedding.

I went to my dance lesson.

via

I think I actually almost used an entire tank of gas today. 

Tomorrow morning I have to get to the church at 9 AM and meet with the deacon for all the final paperwork delivery, then work all day.  Tomorrow night will be a nice night in for Tommy and I. We're planning on doing movie night. 

I don't mind this rain, right now. I hope it gets it out of its system so that next Saturday, we can have some amazing weather! I hear there's a wedding next weekend that would LOVE to have some great weather. :)

I don't want to be wearing what I wore today:

I hope you are all doing well, I've been terrible at catching up with everyone. I'm sure I will do much better once this wedding planning and prep is all done!!!

XOXO-

Vy
 
Music: Don't Rain on my Parade by the Glee Cast

The excitement builds...

I can't believe the wedding is next Saturday!!!!

YIKES!!!

and 

SQUEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!

I've been busy with getting all the somewhat last minute items taken care of such as final counts, balances paid, touching base with all my vendors, and last minute purchases.

My cake topper came in last week. It's adorable and just what we wanted:

We also have some palm trees, surf boards, and some starfish to add to our cake tooo.  I can't wait to share what the cake looks like! It's going to be awesome!!!! I ordered the topper online at Etsy from Keren at Mudcards.  She's done a wonderful job on our topper, and working with her was very easy.  She does all kinds of custom cake toppers.  I would definitely recommend her to anyone looking for something unique and personal.  We have a cute lil monkey theme going in our Wedding. From our Save the dates, to the topper, to my bouquet.  We both love monkeys.

Speaking of wedding, we're also taking dance lessons; mostly to choreograph our first dance.  We didn't want to do the 2 step shuffle for an entire song. I love our first dance. We're only in dance lesson #2, and are doing GREAT!!! We have a wonderful teacher- Amy of Amy's  Dance Studio.  

I'm hoping we look as great as Marcia Cross does in this picture! :)

By the way, Tom is doing GREAT with the dancing! He loves to dance!

Via

I'm having so much fun dancing that I think I might learn more dancing after the wedding.  I've always wanted to learn to tango, waltz, and cha cha. 

How fantastic that would be!!!

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I've also been getting in the items for the reception.  For the cards, I'm doing a birdcage.  It seems that today, there's so many people doing the covered faux gift boxes, that I wanted to do something a bit more romantic. I haven't gotten a chance to dress it up, but I have a jeweled dragonfly and a bunch of embellished white butterflies to dress up the card cage. I'll have to post pictures when it's done.

That's about it for now... This week's another busy week with dance lessons, school, and work.  School is pretty busy with an exam this week and a paper due.  So off to work on that!

XOXO- Vy

By the way, for my Vera Bradley fans: The Villager tote is only $27 (Normally $72) today online and in outlets only.  (Select styles only)

Music: You and Me by Dave Matthews Band

Vera Bradley Launch Day Tomorrow!

Since I'm working at The Boutique and we sell Vera Bradley, I must let you know that tomorrow is launch day!!! There are 5 new patterns (Shown below), one of them being a breast cancer awareness pattern- Twirly Bird Pink, and it's really cute! There are also a couple new bag styles.

We were really busy this week with the incoming shipments, checking them in and getting the store ready for the launch.  Today at work, after we closed we rearranged and got the store ready to display all the new patterns. I'm pretty excited about it! 

Here's a preview of the fabrics:

Baroque

Versailles

Buttercup

Twirly Birds Navy

Twirly Birds Pink (Breast Cancer Awareness)

Do you have a favorite pattern??? I'm loving the Baroque and the Twirly Birds!

XOXO- Vy

Images via

Weekend update

Again it's been a busy week.

First- I started a new job!

It's a part-time job at a boutique shop in Newport News called "The Boutique". It's a cute shop full of Vera Bradley bags, accessories, and stationary.  

The other half of the store is called P.S. Paperie.  This part of the shop is too cute with all kinds of stationary and paper products, pens, gifts, and invitations. It's my kind of shop.  

So far it's been great! I think I'll enjoy working here!

Second, school has been keeping me busy. I'm in school Tuesday - Thursday.

Third,  I've been busy with wedding planning and tying things together for the wedding.
Last week, I met with our florist, Alisa Cowsert and finalized the floral arrangements for the reception, the bouquets, and the corsages.  I'm really excited with what she's come up with. She's found a way to incorporate my white coral dishes I bought in Florida and  blogged about in February. 

It's going to look awesome on our tables!

Fourth, this past weekend, Tommy and I were a part of my good girlfriend, Hailey's wedding. She did a traditional Vietnamese wedding and it was amazing!!! We drove up to Northern Va on Friday afternoon and then got up early on Saturday for the wedding. The morning ceremony started at 10:00 AM with the grooms family and friends processing to the bride's family house with trays of gifts.  The girls (my role) had to line up and accept the gifts from the groom side.  Everyone then comes inside and the introductions are made, the bride is brought down, and there's a blessing and tea ceremony at the bride's house then, everyone processes to the grooms house where it happens all over again.  Then there was a nice little break (few hours) and then the dinner reception started at 6PM.  10 course dinner is served and drinks, dancing, and cake... We could only make it till midnight.  We were exhausted!

The Procession of gifts

The Girls (Hailey, the Bride, has the yellow headpiece)

The guys with the bride and groom. (Tommy is the bottom right )

Me and Tommy

Tommy, Colin, Hailey, Me

This week should be somewhat normal.  The only really exciting thing is on Thursday, I'm driving back up to Northern Va to pick up my wedding gown! I'm soooooooo excited!!! I can't wait to try it on! Wooo hooo!

Hope everyone is having a great week!  Can't you feel the cooler air! We've had our windows open for a week or so. It's been so nice.

Thanks to all my followers and readers.

XOXO- Vy

Music: Freddie Mercury tribute Crazy Little thing Called Love
Photos Via and Via 

Wordless Wednesday- Fashion Fashion Fashion!

Tommy Hilfiger

Tommy Hilfiger

Beautiful Taylor Swift at Tommy H. show

Monique Lhuillier 

Victoria Beckam

Marchesa

Marchesa

Vera Wang

Vera Wang

Carolina Hererra

Badgley Mischka

Diane Von Furstenberg

Ports 1961

Lincoln Center

XOXO- Vy

Music: Supermodel by RuPaul; Labels or Love by Fergie Instrumental 
Images via and via

Where has all the time gone???

Well it's been a very busy couple weeks!!!

Well in no particular order.

I started back at school...

It's my first semester at ODU as a Lady Monarch. :)

I'm only going part time this semester because of the wedding. It would just be too much! Even so, it's keeping me very busy with all the reading and homework!!!

I'm retaking an Accounting class because the accounting class I took over at Mason didn't transfer over. Go figure. I'm also taking a Writing in the Social Sciences class, which is really interesting. I'm going to have to do some fieldwork and interviewing for this class.  I'm to observe and write about a subculture.  I'm not sure what subculture I'm going to write about yet. I'm thinking a nursing home or a women's shelter? It has to be something we are not familiar with. We're still in the exploratory stages.

Tommy and I went and enjoyed ECSC, the East Coast Surfing Championship here in Virginia Beach.  It was fun, and packed.  I actually did some volunteer work for the event and sold the T-shirts for the event as well as played beer police, making sure people weren't leaving the event area with beer. 

Me in my hot yellow Volunteer T

The Crowded beach

Surfer

 

We drove up to Northern VA to see Jimmy Buffett~ 

That's always a great time! :)   We went to the Thursday show and thought it was awesome!  He called it the Hurricane Party because Earl was just offshore. I heard the Saturday show was even better.  Either way, we love Jimmy Buffett!!!

Momma B and Aunt Dana in their cute aprons

Momma, Tommy, and I (rockin out my cool shades! )

This guy's outfit was hilarious!

Jimmy Buffett!!!

 Tommy and I were scheduled for our Pre-Cana (Pre-marriage counseling classes), but that ended up getting canceled because the instructors never showed up. About 10 or 15 other couples had to leave as well. We are rescheduled for this weekend. Hope it doesn't get canceled again! (Fingers Crossed) 

Speaking of wedding...

I've been consumed with wedding stuff as well.

I've been meeting with caterers, wedding planners, florists, cake person, music director, church coordinator.... it's getting down to the wire. As of yesterday, we are exactly ONE MONTH away from the big day!!!

I've also sent the invitations out and the responses are already starting to come back in! It's sooo very exciting!  I can't wait!

I spent some time with my dad last weekend and learned how to make Vietnamese Eggrolls! It was a lot of fun to spend some time with my dad and learn from him how to cook. Any time I spend time with my family learning how to cook is quality time for me. 

Before

After :) YUM

Hope you all are doing well, I have tons of catching up to do with all of you! Hopefully, I haven't missed too much! :) I'll try my best to keep this updated and catch up with everyone soon!  Have a great weekend ladies!!!

XOXO- Vy

Music: Time in a Bottle by Jim Croce; Longest Time by Billy Joel