How Beautiful Are The Feet: Meet Mr. West

As many of you know, just before I left for the trip of my dreams- I was surprised with the most gorgeous ring from the man of my dreams!

Everyone told me that he was smart to put a ring on it before those Latino guys tried to woo me. I guess I agree ;)

So, believe it or not, I've been planning this wedding via FaceTime, Gmail, & iMessage. Special thanks to Apple for making this possible!

Lets rewind. Before I left....

We asked "the who"

Sara & Becca

Way back in January, I asked all of my bridesmaids to brunch at my favorite restaurant in Athens, GA: Mama's Boy. Ask anyone in town where to find the best home-cooked Southern breakfast, they will point you in that direction.

Here's the catch: none of them knew that the others would be there.

One by one, they showed up and joined the group. Everyone was pretty confused about why they weren't the only one at the table with me, but out of courtesy, nobody really asked why. After we placed our orders, I passed out my handmade cards to the whole group and watched their faces light up as they opened them.

Erica & Melissa

Needless to say, none of them were too upset that I had tricked them after that!

Jessie & Corbin

Laura & Callie

I can't wait to have all of those beautiful girls by my side on my wedding day.

Picked out "the where"

After lots of searching and a few unsuccessful visits, we found an indoor venue that was perfect for our cozy winter wedding:

The Carl House, in Auburn, Georgia!

Decided "the when"

For a variety of different reasons, we finally settled on January 25, 2014. By this time, I will have been back in the USA for a month and a half-- hopefully enough time to pull together the last details.

The cool part: After picking our date, McCray was looking back through some old journals and found that on January 25, 2012-- exactly 2 years before our wedding-- a good friend came up to McCray out of the blue and said, "the Lord agrees with the marriage in your heart". Little did his friend know that we had been praying and asking God to show us if we were supposed to be together. We were so blessed by that word then and even more now that we will be celebrating our wedding on that same day!

Now, we're just filling in all the gaps the best that we can until I visit in June for a wedding-whirlwind month!

To find out more about our love story,

visit our Wedding Website: http://www.weddingwire.com/McCraylovesLauren

All of this madness would certainly not be possible without:

My mom...