Chattanooga Engagement Party

Last Saturday, we headed up to Chattanooga for Aidan & Jinna Anne's engagement party. As soon as we arrived, we headed straight to Blue Water Grill downtown for a food tasting.  My parents will be hosting the rehearsal dinner at the Tennessee Aquarium and the food will be catered by Blue Water Grill.  After the delicious tasting, we headed to the chapel to see where my brother will be getting married.  The wedding will take place at the Patten Chapel on the UT Chattanooga campus.  The chapel was absolutely beautiful-- stained glass and detailed wood work throughout.  I can't believe that James and I will be standing up at the altar with Aidan and Jinna Anne, witnessing their vows in 3 short months! After taking a quick tour of the chapel, we headed to the Tennessee Aquarium to see the location where the rehearsal dinner will take place.  After looking at the space, we walked around the aquarium to check out the fishies:

As soon as Aidan and James saw the tank where you can pet the sting rays, their sleeves were rolled up and their hands were in the water...Such big kids.

Aidan and Jinna Anne in one of the exhibits...clearly JAT was excited

I found an alligator! Those of you who know my obsession with the show Swamp People will understand and appreciate this...

Later that evening James and I, my parents, Aidan & Jinna Anne, and Jinna Anne's parents went out to dinner before the engagement party.  

The engagement party was hosted by a good family friend of Jinna Anne's. There were all kinds of delicious deserts, good wine and toasts by Aidan and Jinna Anne's friends & family.  My toasts to the happy couple always seem to start out with "I was never a huge fan of any of the girls Aidan dated until he met you..." (which is so true by the way). It was really fun hearing all of the other toasts and the overwhelming support everyone has for the engaged couple.  

Aidan & Jinna Anne listening to the toasts

Some of the girls at the engagement party

Aidan, Jinne Anne, James and I

Such a fun weekend! We are looking forward to spending more family time this weekend with both my side of the family and James'.  James' sister, Julia, will be delivering her baby either sometime in the middle of the night tonight or tomorrow morning (please keep her in your prayers).  We are so excited to have a new niece or nephew for Christmas! 

Front Door Facelift

We recently finished two small projects that didn't take long at all, but make a big impact.  One is a more permanent change, and the other was a fun Christmas project.  

We have been wanting to replace the light fixtures on either side of our front door for awhile now, but wanted to wait until after we painted the exterior.   As y'all know, the painting is now done, so it was time for these to go...

We wanted a darker fixture to tie in with the newly painted black shutters, and something with a clear glass.  After a quick trip to Lowe's, we came back with these:

I am slightly obsessed with them. I enlisted James to do the wiring, and in no time, we had new front porch lights.

I love the herringbone pattern on the fixtures.

Our next project was a triple wreath for the front door.  I saw the idea on Pinterest a few months ago, and knew immediately that I wanted to incorporate a triple wreath into the Christmas decorating at our house.  So, this is the inspiration picture:

Here is the how to from the Martha Stewart website.  After a brief trip to Michael's, I came back with all of the supplies to get started.  Once again, I enlisted James to help me with securing the wreaths to the door. We ended up using all fishing wire to hang the wreaths, because we didn't want to put any nail holes in our newly painted front door.