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Tuesday, July 31, 2018

what's up with the wedding? vol. 1


Due to popular demand, I have decided to commence a semi-regular wedding planning blog series to keep everyone up to date on the whereabouts of the Future Fredericks and our eventual wedding.

(Note: there was no popular demand. Nobody asked. Moving on.)

It's been almost two months since Ryan and I got engaged. For the first couple of weeks, I tried to just enjoy being engaged. We popped a few bottles of bubbly, let our friends take us out to dinner, accepted cute gifts like personalized wine glasses and ring dishes. I reallt wanted to enjoy the 'cloud 9' phase that comes with being engaged before launching into wedding planning.

...but that time came and went when I emailed my top choice for a wedding venue and they were already booked for every Saturday in October 2019. YIKES.

Fact about me: when it comes to big decisions, I have an 'all or nothing' mentality. Translation: if I can't plan our entire wedding and calculate our exact budget in the next 15 minutes, it's not going to get done. When I get into this mindset, my mom tells me that my brain has hopped on its "hamster wheel." In other words, approximately 32984293 thoughts are running through my head at one time and I try to acknowledge, crack, and solve all of them in one fell swoop. Not an easy feat.

Thus, I am trying to tackle this whole wedding planning thing one day at a time while trying to keep it fun. After all, that's all we want our day to be: fun. We aren't an extravagant couple to begin with; we've even talked about having gourmet pizza at our wedding. But imagining a dream wedding and actually planning one are two completely different ballgames.

So far, we have...

  • Toured five venues, with a few more to check out in the next couple of weeks.
  • Decided that we are more than happy to have a Friday wedding. In fact, we prefer it.
  • Attended two bridal shows (well, I have). They give you a lot of free cake at these shindigs, which is worth the price of admission if you ask me.
  • Cried. Okay, I cried. Not sure why. I think "partake in unnecessary dramatics" is listed in a wedding to-do list somewhere.
  • Bought a cute little bullet journal as a wedding planner.
  • Not decided on our "colors." Pretty sure choosing colors falls into the "don't pet the sweaty stuff" category, but here I am, sweating the petty stuff.
  • Looked up 100+ photographers, 300+ venues, 20+ rental companies, etc.
  • Decided on a potential hashtag: #AreYouFreddyForIt? Ryan's last name is Fredericks (his nickname is Freddy), and it was obviously inspired by my favie Taylor Swift. In the running: #FreddySetGo and #FreddyOrNot. Can you think of any that include my last name (Rose)?! Let me know!

All in all, it is definitely a process. Wedding planning is not for the weak, and I am truly in awe of the individuals who pursue it as a career because good lawd, it can be stressful. But having said all that, it's also a lot of fun, and I'm trying to soak up every minute! 




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Friday, July 27, 2018

pre-graduation chit-chat



Almost three and a half years ago, I quit my job to begin my journey into speech-language pathology. Nearly two years after graduating college, I abandoned my initial bachelor's in mass communication in exchange for post-bacc classes and a GRE book. That first year was one of the most difficult years of my life - I questioned myself a lot, didn't feel smart enough, didn't feel good enough, cried in the shower, didn't get enough sleep. Once I actually got into graduate school, I did a lot of the same things.

...and now I'm eight days out from graduation and in the process of looking for jobs. Like a real-life, paying, not-working-on-weekends kinds of jobs. How did I even get here?

A lot of my friends have been messaging me things like "you're already done?! that went by so quickly!" And when I look back on my journey, I think the same thing. The days are long but the years are short and all that, right? 

My underlying message beneath my rambling is this: if there's something you want to achieve, but you're worried about the time it would take to complete, just start. Make the sacrifice, take the initiative, and simply begin where you can. The time is going to pass, anyway. As the end of my academic career nears, I rarely think about how difficult it was to get to this point; instead, I think about the light at the end of the tunnel and the future I built for myself. It was all worth it.

Is there something you've been wanting to do, but you're worried about the time commitment? Let me know in the comments!

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Thursday, July 5, 2018

our first date


Nearly five years ago, on October 12th, 2013, I had my first date with a guy I'd met out at a bar.

We met on a Friday night, and we actually became Snapchat friends (I'd downloaded Snapchat that very day), then Facebook friends, then started Facebook messaging, then started texting by Saturday morning...but he didn't ask me on a date until that Wednesday.


"How about lunch on Saturday, since you work at night?" he'd asked me (I was a few months post-undergrad, and still serving at Carrabba's). I told him I could "probably pencil him in." Even though we'd only been texting back and forth for just a few days, I already felt something along the lines of "this is different." It felt like I'd known him forever; but of course, at the risk of sounding daft, I kept that to myself.

He was tall (like, really tall) so naturally I set off to DSW to find a new pair of wedges so I could be tall, too. As it turns out, wedges are really hard to come by in October, even though Florida has absolutely zero reason to break out the booties until February. Thus, I settled on my black version of Target's popular pair of braided summer sandals, and a black and cream striped high waisted skirt with a black crop top (obviously all on trend for 2013).

He lived in a neighboring city about 45 minutes away from my parents' place, where I was living at the time. I told him that if he drove to my parents' house, I would drive us to a restaurant in downtown St. Pete. He agreed, and off we went.

He was so shy that day, to the point where I even had to tell him, "you can look me in the eyes, you know." I'm very subtle, right? He ordered sausage and lentil soup, which I later learned was his favorite; something his dad had been making for years. I had spinach in my teeth for about a half an hour before he finally told me about it.

Nearly five years later, I can't remember much about what we talked about. Maybe past relationships, what we did in college, our viewpoints on first-date appropriate topics. What I do remember is just how easy it felt - and how easy it's been ever since (and now I get to marry this guy - turns out "when you know," you really do know, huh?).

Do you remember what your first date was like with your S.O.? 






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