Casa de Kirby

Nothing has made this whole process feel more real for me than getting the keys to our apartment.

We looked online for about a week and made a few appointments to walk through places, but the first place we looked in person we were pretty much sold. It's the tiniest little place you ever did see, but it's super nice and refurbished (laminate hardwood floors, woot!), in our price range and in the location we were hoping for... plus it has a community garden, motion-sensor lights, a parking spot AND is within walking distance to my beloved sweet teas. Seriously.

We knew if we waited it'd be gone... so we jumped on it. Put in an application and paid the deposit the next day! Cah-razy, but no regrets so far! And now for the pictures...

The outside! There are only 3 apartments in the building. The only part of ours that you can see is the tiny bathroom window above the mini cooper (which is in our parking spot).

The view from the front door + my handsome fiance

Taken from the corner opposite the front door. The living room and kitchen is all one big room. That door you see leads to the bedroom/bathroom.

The other side of the kitchen--love the catty-corner sink :)

From a corner in the bedroom, that's our closet on the right with the bathroom straight ahead. The counter is the sink, which is outside of the bathroom (which we're excited about).

The mirrored closet with built-in shelves

Another view of the sink

Signing the application!

So unreal... but I'm moving in on Sunday! WOW...

48 days!

Oops...

It's been almost 50 days since my last post (in which I promised to write a new post soon). *blush*

Here's my pathetic excuse: this blogging thing started off so smoothly because the wedding planning thing started off smoothly. One thing at a time. I had a good little check list going. But then I hit a wall, and that was is called indecision. All of the sudden, instead of one big decision at a time, I had a thousand little decisions to make, none of which needed to be made at a specific point in time. Instead of knowing exactly what I wanted to write about, I had a million half-baked ideas of what I could potentially someday write about.

That, plus I am never sure how much to say on this little blog of mine, since I always feel slightly like I'm ruining Christmas for whoever is reading this by telling you what all of the presents are as I buy them. (No I'm not full of it... it's the only analogy I could come up with.)

That being said, our wedding is in 51 days (!!!) so those decisions are starting to be made. Over the course of the last few months, we've bought tons of mason jars, gotten lots and lots of fabric, sent out invitations, started working on the dessert buffet menu, and even had three showers already (with one on Sunday!). On top of that, Trevor and I found an apartment (more on that to come) and I just finished my last college class EVER here as an undergrad at PLNU. It's been a strange whirlwind of emotions, to say the least.

But I digress. To summarize... I'm sorry, and I promise to do better... at least slightly.

100 DAYS!

I'm a big fan of countdowns, ask anyone. But maybe this is a little excessive:

...Or maybe not. I can't believe how fast the time has flown! I hope to the high heavens (I've been reading lots of Beverly Lewis this week) these next 100 days fly, and that's saying a lot seeing as how I have to graduate and leave my beloved Flex apartment to get there.

In other news, this is my first blog post in a long time and it hardly counts as a real post. For shame, Sarah, for shame. This spring break has not been a break at all. Hopefully soon I'll have a minute to document everything that's been going on (and there has been lots going on, dear internet world, lots). Until then, rest assured that our countdown will be in the double digits in a mere three hours. (!!!)

Last name standoff

Last week I set up an instagram account (finally, amirite?) and when it came time to create my username, I had a moment.

See, my username is always the same: sckounter. BUT... come wedding time (124 days)... Crazy, right?! Which sparks the question: what do I DO with all these accounts under sckounter? Change them all? Leave it? #majorlifedecisions

I've LOVED being a Kounter. Did you know there is only one Sarah Kounter in the world? Also, frankly, I don't like the idea that eventually I'll have three sisters-in-law with the last name Kounter but I won't.

All in all though, I'm beyond excited to have Trevor's last name. I seriously cannot wait to be Sarah Kirby. (Looks good, right?) I think there's no better way to start our life together.

So, in conclusion, my instagram username is sarahcristine. :)

I'm international!

Behold, my collective views sorted by country:

I know this was a happy little accident... but to the people across the world who somehow accidentally found this page, you made my day. Especially you, Malaysian person.

Hair schtuff

Some styles I'm liking, some more than others... Anyone have any preferences? Dislikes? Pictures to share? (I'm far from decided, so I don't care that Trev can see these...)

 And for post-wedding... maybe? I don't know, I'm feeling crazy...

Sidenote: if you know where these images came from, please let me know! This is the downside to Pinterest...

7

Today was the Super Bowl. Seven years ago on the day of the Super Bowl, I sat on the couch next to a cute boy to watch the game. I sat there for hours next to him, scared to get up to get food or go to the bathroom, because every once in a while our arms would touch and it would make my whole left side tingle, and I didn't want to risk coming back to find my spot next to him taken. I noted the fact that he didn't seem to want to get up either, and tried to keep myself from thinking anything of it... but three days later he asked for my phone number. And six and a half years later he asked for my hand in marriage.

Thursday, February 9th, is our seven year anniversary. Today was our seventh Super Bowl together. I sat next to this boy today on a different couch watching the game and thought about how my left arm doesn't always tingle when it touches him anymore. That might sound sad, and sometimes I feel disappointed about it, but the truth is I have more than just that now. Now, seven years later, I have trust, a future, a partner and a confidant. I have a commitment (also known as a very sparkly ring). I have a best friend, and I have so much joy. (And sometimes I still have butterflies and tingles.)

Trev, you have been bringing out the best in me for the entirety of our relationship. You make me want to be better... a better Christian, a better friend, a better daughter, a better sister and just an overall better person. I have loved being your girlfriend, and now your fiance, and I just can't wait to be your wife. Happy (almost) anniversary! I love you.

Updates & news

Update 1: I picked up my dress yesterday! GAHH. It was such a fun mini road trip with 3/4ths of the bridesmaids (who were willing to leave at 6:30am... told you they were amazing), and we met my mom and grandma there. It's so much better in white, let me tell you. It still needs to be altered, and when that's done I'll be over the moon. We took it with us (well, my mom took it with her) to be altered in Bakersfield. That we can stop awkwardly meeting in Valencia (although we did get to meet up with David, Anne and Hallie's family for lunch!). I'll be in Bakersfield the last month and a half before the wedding anyway.

Update 2: The invitations and RSVPs were shipped! The estimated arrival date is this Thursday (which also happens to be our SEVEN year anniversary! woot) I'm excited... and still pretty nervous.

News 1: So let's talk about shoes. I've known since we booked the venue that I needed flats (a grass lawn and heels do not go well) and that I wanted shoes I would wear again. I also didn't necessarily want them to be on the fancier end, because I wanted shoes I could get my money's worth out of. I fell in love with these a while back:

...because they're pretty and I would wear them all the time. But they're discontinued, which makes things complicated, and then I realized that they're kind of off-white anyway so I let those go. So for Christmas, Santa got me these:

It's hard to tell, but they're glittery! They're wonderful, and I was so excited. But they were a half size too small, and since I had to exchange them anyway I started to think that maybe I wanted to get something that I would wear again (because I'd feel bold enough to wear these on my wedding day, but most days I don't think I can pull off glitter TOMS). And that is how I landed with these:

I COULD NOT be more happy. They're part of a new line of TOMS that were just released. They're beautiful and comfortable and I will wear them all the time after the wedding. Have I mentioned yet how great my mom is?

News 2: We bought our wedding bands on Friday! HOLY COW. We bought them very early (the all-knowing Knot timeline says 2 months out is fine) but we had a 20% off coupon that expired today, and we knew what we wanted so we did it! They should be here in a couple weeks. They had to be sent off to get resized (apparently I have very small fingers, who knew) and engraved. It still feels unreal. Couldn't be happier.

It's strange that with all of these things going on, I still have to go to school and do homework. Strange and frustrating... But it'll all be worth it in the end.

132 days people... 132 days.

Why I love Vistaprint

Ordered the invitations and RSVPs today! Scariest moment of my life. Seriously. I do not know what I will do if they don't turn out.

I hate online shopping. HATE it. I will never be one of those girls that can browse online through pages of dresses and shoes. I love shopping, but I do it in person, where there are fitting rooms and mirrors, the way the good Lord intended it.

So needless to say, creating and ordering invitations online terrified me. Terrifies, actually. Vistaprint offers a print proof for a couple dollars, but that really only helps with the layout, since I can't print on their specific paper or linen finish.

However, I am a bride on a serious budget, and Vistaprint does wonders in that area. Remember this post where I talked about most invitations being crazy expensive? Well there's a good reason for that... they're professional. But once I decided to relinquish that expense in favor of other things, it was just a matter of the best deals.

My favorite line is that bottom one. See that? We saved MORE than we even spent! I'm pretty excited about it. I wish I took a screenshot of the breakdown of all the discounts, but I didn't think of it. It was strange that I had to buy in weird increments that were different for each product (hence the extra 50 RSVPs). At least we have a lot of extra for each.

The initial price wasn't bad at all. ($203 for 200 custom designed invitations and envelopes and 250 RSVP cards? Yes please!) Then I ended up finding a deal of 50% off the entire order plus free shipping since this was my first order through Vistaprint. (The order has to be at least $50 for the deal.) Thank you, Google.

So yeah... at a price like that, it doesn't matter so much what the invitations look like. ....Right?

It's here!

The dress! Well, technically it's in Valencia.

The sweet lady from Chantilly called me and I literally did a couple half spins and then some awkward running steps across caf lane while on the phone. Funny story, apparently she called my mom and my mom told her not to call again? I'm going to have to have a word with that woman.

Ahh, I cannot wait to see it. And hold it and twirl in it... and in white! Too bad I can't take it home with me yet.

Now the question is... when do I have time to get to Valencia? Hmm...

Details scare me

Well, we have the venue, my dress, and the bridesmaids' dresses. We've met with the photographer and the caterer and asked our officiators. We've sent out the save the dates, created a wedding website (and blog) and registered at Target, and Macy's.

And now... it's onto the small stuff. And I am terrified. I just know that I'm going to regret all of my decisions a week after they're finalized, buy not enough or waaay too much of something (or everything), or actually love everything only to find out that everyone else hates it all. As of right now, these are some things I'm liking for various reasons:

(Basically all found either via Pinterest or my momma--if you know where these images came from, please tell me!)

A couple things I know: I want our guests to feel comfortable and relaxed, and our budget is about 1/100th of the average Joe's (Jane's?) wedding. Luckily, to me at least, those two things go hand in hand. Trev and I don't care so much about having a big, expensive, fussy wedding. We just want to celebrate the start of our marriage with our friends and family. I know things are going to begin to feel stressful right about now, but I also know that all of this planning is really just one day in our lives, and even if everything goes wrong, after it's all said and done, I still get to marry my best friend.