becoming a bride

I have been absent from the blogosphere--my apologies.
My hands and heart have been at work with who, as of Saturday, is Mrs. Lauren Dunaway!

Many friends and family members had a hand in helping Lauren and Joe make this day special--very DIY.

These photos are a little peek into Lauren preparing to become a beautiful bride.

Stamping programs brilliantly designed by Patty and Lauren--it's quite the bonus to have a mother who is an expert in publications and editing.

beautification tools

A practice make-up session with Amanda--there's no one else we'd rather see at 9 a.m.!

A polished and natural look

mirror, mirror...

We decided the best light was the sunlight, so we headed outdoors.

Getting pampered the day before the wedding. I believe many of the bridesmaids chose nail polish based on the creative color names...mine was a deep plum called "We'll always have Paris."

The mother of the bride having her very first manicure and pedicure!

Lauren still checking things off the big list.

I borrowed her ring to take this shot...this book begs for it!

Painted up and ready to rehearse.

Corinne and I: the lovely co-mohs (that's co-maid of honors for those learning wedding speak) getting ready to practice walking...which we both probably need:)

The bride and her mother talking details at the rehearsal.

A photo taken by Bryan who patiently played the part of wedding guest during the rehearsal. I just think this shot is a funny mixture of expressions:)

Other photos still to come, but these are some of my favorite from the weekend. Lauren and Joe had excellent photographers hired for the day of, so I enjoyed the day and celebrated with one of my very best friends and her new husband. (I'll be sure to post a link to the professional photo site once it arrives...rest assured I'm checking often!)

bon anniversaire ma soeur!

carly's traditional puppy cake

the start of the birthday celebrating (like all good Chupp kids, it will be extended for at least a week while getting to see everyone on different days:)

the memaw:)

(on a side note, it was really wonderful to see memaw, pawpaw, granddad and jo sitting on a row together at our patriotic performance at church sunday night)

practicing smiling with our eyes
(from watching tyra on america's next top model)

Happy Birthday Carly!!!

chapter 1, summer weddings

Last weekend Bryan and I drove to Pell City, Alabama to celebrate the wedding of our college friends Wes and Kimberly. (We met them in Southerners as a trumpet player and a ballerina.)

At the reception with friends Kelly and Katie:)
Last weekend I played attendee and this weekend I'm playing photographer (this will be the general rotation for this summer! haha).

Kim changed into a bright pink number to dance the front line of Quilting Party with all the other ballerinas at the reception--this has become quite the tradition for these ladies.

After everyone else left, Tick Tock and I cut a rug at our own dance party as Sintos was the dj for the evening! He played some music for us while beginning to pack up his gear:)

an alaskan adventure

I took the liberty of stealing some photos off of my parents' computer because it just looks like they had so much fun on their trip to Alaska.

{Happy Father's Day to one of the people I most respect and cherish in my life!}

My dad singing on the boat


My mom looking beautiful in some natural sunlight (which stays around more often at this time of year there, so they were happy to have an interior cabin!)


Getting into a dry suit over clothes and a fleece layer--preparing to stay warm in chilly water

suited up and ready to go!

a helicopter ride to a glacier for a short hike

They said part of the fun was filling up your bottle with fresh water while on the hike:)

"the call"

They had so many fun pictures, it was hard to choose which ones to share...but that just means they had a really great time! I'm so glad they got to go experience a new part of the world and just have fun together:)

...and they got some great use out of the hats Kyle knitted us for Christmas!

new photos from new orleans

a few more shots from a wonderful long weekend!
lauren and frances in the french quarter after a lovely meal at muriel's

fountain in the city park botanical gardens

city park--we sat wondering how many hundreds of years old this tree must be!

what we did find out is that hansen's sno-bliz is 70 years old this year!
i highly recommend you experience a snoball new orleans style--i had cream of nectar with cream of almond!

taking a walk through audubon park with frances, lauren and corinne

lauren getting dressed up for her bachelorette evening out by tilly

corinne and i missed our first days' flights out...but we were ok with that after a delicious dinner cooked by lauren's aunt and dessert at creole cremery!

my kind of snow

Although my parents spent a week hiking up ice glaciers in Alaska, I spent the last few days in New Orleans enjoying my kind of snow-capped mountains...beignets from Cafe du Monde toppling with powdered sugar!

Corinne and I traveled to New Orleans this past weekend to take part in some pre-wedding festivities for our sweet friend, Lauren. Free lodging, good friends, amazing food...we were happy to go to the creole capital!

an order of beignets with cafe au lait:)

a saturday morning treat with friends, new and old
(cambria, corinne, mary, lauren and frances)

frances and i digging in
(note to self: do not inhale quickly when you take a bite or the powdered sugar will fly to the back of your throat...but do feel free to exhale upon biting so as to puff a cloud of sugar and make those around you laugh)

quite satisfying--as was the entire trip--more photos to come!

a call from the top of a glacier

My parents taking off...just the two of them!

The Georgia Festival Chorus, the choir with which my father sings, has performed in many cities in Georgia as well as around the world. My dad has not been out of the country with them yet, but as soon as they announced this year's Alaskan Cruise tour, my mom was quick to get him to sign them up!

I'm so excited for them and all of the fun they're getting to experience together! I saw the chorus perform at First Baptist Marietta before they left and it was just amazing--a truly wonderful experience (if I do say so myself). One of my favorite pieces from their last concert was "Total Praise"--it will give you goosebumps from measure one. But I also really loved their selections of secular song like "Somewhere" from West Side Story and "Georgia On My Mind."

So far the chorus has performed a couple times--on land and at sea. And my mom called from the top of a glacier (where there was apparently excellent cell service) to ask Carly how her first day of work went (she's interning at Lockheed!). I always knew my mom would "climb a mountain" for us, but now I know it's true in a literal sense as well-haha:)

At the Atlanta airport before taking off.
We had some spare minutes and decided to test our blood pressure in the free machine. We also tested a theory using this bright yellow kitty critter pillow. We found out that, in fact, cats do make my moms blood pressure go up! Perhaps this theory is not relative to real cats and other odd factors, but this is our story, and we're sticking to it.