I promise

The wedding on Saturday was wonderful. Congratulations to Lauren and David on a beautiful marriage and an amazing reception. While my part was pretty insignificant (the thrill being running downstairs to grab the toss bouquet and running it back upstairs) I still learned a lot about wedding planning in general, and have taken a lot with me as I keep pushing for our own wedding.

Yesterday I made a master checklist of everything to pack, from the bridal portrait to the honeymoon, I've got four pages of double-columned items to not forget. I'm sure I'll be adding to the list in the next few months.

We also crossed a huge item off our list because we sat down and wrote our wedding vows! They're a little untraditional, in that they're not going to be "I promise to do this and this and never do this and always do this" but they will be beautiful and meaningful nonetheless.

I have an appointment/consultation scheduled on Friday with a lady who has had 30 years experience doing hair and makeup. She's really sweet, and just up the road, both from us and the Abbey. Her son even got married at the Abbey, so she's definitely had experience with the things we will be dealing with come wedding day. Her prices are really reasonable, too. I hope everything goes well and I can book her on the spot. Now I just have to gather pictures of what I think I want my hair to look like so I can give her an idea.

This morning I was on call at work and they didn't need me, so I've been home trying to do little odd jobs that need doing for the wedding. So I assembled centerpieces. 17 wreaths were painstakingly put together, each one following a distinct pattern so that they were all uniform in appearance and size. My fingers hurt now. But it's one less thing to do come October.

There are a few things I still haven't figured out, like the rehearsal dinner and accompanying invites. Justin, Texas just isn't a hoppin place for good food. I don't even know if they have a restaurant in the town... Of course, this also means I haven't been able to design invites to said rehearsal dinner. Maybe I'll just make them the same as the wedding ones, since we have a whole lot more of them than we need. But I'd like to make them cute/different, so we'll see.

The thing that I'm most puzzled about is the seating plan for the reception. Originally, we weren't going to have a seating plan, but space is so tight at our venue that if we don't delegate who sits with who we could wind up with single empty chairs at each table, forcing a family to break up and sit alone at a table of people they don't really know. So now I have to come up with a cute idea for telling everyone where they'll be sitting. Of course, I can't even begin to think about it until I know who is coming and who isn't. I did sit down the other day and arrange tables assuming every single person we invited is coming, but even that's not realistic because one family that declines means rearranging it all again. At least I know it can be done. I think.

Eeee!

Recently, I've been in touch with the company that I ordered our dresses through, netbride.com. I'm trying to figure out exactly when our dresses will be coming in so that I can have a plan in place in terms of alterations. It turns out that even though I bought a brand new Alfred Angelo dress, Alfred Angelo won't alter it for me because I didn't purchase directly from them. So now I'm stuck looking for someone to alter my dress, and I still don't even know when! Netbride originally said that the outside date I would get the dresses would be absolutely no later than August 18th, which still gives me a month for alterations, but I know that's not much time at all. When I emailed them the other day, Laura said that they are expecting the dresses to come earlier, but to keep the 18th as the outside date still. She said that once it's on its way to me they will let me know and provide a UPS tracking number so that I know exactly what's going on. I guess AA sends them the dress first and then they send it on to me.

Other things I'm trying to work out now are hair and makeup, as well as my bridal portraits. The thing is, I haven't gotten anything done to my hair since before I moved to Fort Worth. We're talking six months without so much as a hair cut! I literally have no experience with anyone in this city when it comes to my hair.

I guess I should look around for people in this area who do hair, but I've only ever gone to a place like Supercuts, or a friend of my mom's who doesn't have a whole lot of skill with updos. Plus, it's not like I have the money to play around with a million different hairstyles at a dozen different appointments. I kind of need to find someone soon, but don't really know where to look. I don't think the women in Jason's family have specific hairdressers, either.

That brings me to makeup. The only time I've ever had my makeup "done" was when I was dating a guy whose mom worked at Estee Lauder. She did it a few times for things like homecoming and formals, but that was 5 years ago and she's in Houston. Ideally, I'd like to find someone that does hair and makeup that can come to us on the wedding day so we don't have to be driving all over the place. Factor that into my budget.

Finally, the bridal portraits. Beautiful pictures taken of the bride in her nuptial best to be displayed at the reception for everyone to "ooh" and "ahh" over. Many brides use the portrait as a way to test out different things - hair, makeup, jewelry, flowers - so that they have time to make any necessary changes before the show - a dress rehearsal, if you will. Problem with that is what if I do change my mind about things? Then we have lovely portraits of K.C. looking nothing like she does at the wedding. People will be going "does she have a twin?" And then someone like Jason can say "no, she's just being her usual indecisive self!" Thanks for pointing that out, honey.

Which brings me back to the dress. I can't very well schedule alterations until I know when the dress will be in, and I can't schedule my portraits until I know alterations will be done. Obviously, this all needs to take place before the wedding itself, with enough time in between for Larry our photographer to be able to print us a beautiful copy of the portrait for display at the wedding.

ANXIOUS++

Executive decision

This morning as I was running wedding errands, I got a phone call from Kay saying that the ring we had special ordered in all white gold for Jason had come in and that we could swing by to take a look and see what we thought.

I swung by before work to see it myself, since I had enough time to browse and not enough time to go home between what I was doing and when I had to be at the BN. I also got my engagement ring cleaned, and tried on the two rings that were my top contenders - ring wraps with the only real different being the carat weight. Believe it or not, I chose the lesser weight because it makes my solitaire stand out more. The lovely ladies put the wrap in the safe with Jason's ring to make sure that no one would come in and buy it out from under me. Then I went to work. After work, Jason met me at the store and tried his ring on (it looked much better on his hand than it did on my thumb while I tried to imagine it on his ring finger!)

And... after filling out a credit card application so we could have 12 months to pay sans interest, we bought our wedding rings!!! I was so excited, I wore mine home. Sorry to anyone on 114 around 8pm that I might have almost hit because I was paying more attention to my ring than the road!

As a special treat, when Jason and I went to dinner tonight, we wore our rings! I know, I'm weak. But it's so pretty! We made a deal though, and now our rings are safe and sound in their boxes locked away in our floodproof/fireproof lockbox. Now I have to wait a whole 'nother 4.5 months before I can wear it again. I can always sneak a peek though, right?

As a side note, the restaurant we went to tonight is a top contender for the rehearsal dinner. By top contender, I mean we aren't totally opposed to having it there. So now I have to call in the morning to talk to the owner about reserving the patio and what types of food setups we can do - plated or buffet or everyone-order-from-the-menu.

But I don't have a black suit

Yesterday's wedding excitement has to do with shoes. White shoes. Bridal shoes. Long story short, I bought two pairs.



The first pair is a very basic white pump. Mine are similar, though not shiny patent leather.






The second one is more of a sandal with a closed toe (imagine it in white.) They're a little rounder at the toe because I have fat feet and think pointy shoes are hideously ugly!


I just got a whole bunch of email stuff about the wedding I'm working on Saturday. Yes, I said working. I'm going to try my hand in the wedding world. Right now, I'm a lowly intern, but if I like it and the company continues to grow, I could move up and up to head coordinator. The only problem is, I don't have a black suit. I have black slacks and assorted black tops, but no jacket. Yikes. Looks like I better go shopping before Saturday!

I'm excited to help make someone's wedding day that much better, and excited to see a wedding all come together (it will give me a boost of confidence) but at the same time, the biggest emotion I feel is:

Every Kandace begins with K

Today was productive. After sleeping in until almost noon (!) we finally quit dragging our feet and headed out for an exciting day. Our first stop was Al's Formal Wear, where in about 30 minutes we had everything picked out for what all our handsome men will be wearing. The exception being my dad, but I'm going to let him choose what he wears to walk me down (within reason, and within the contraints of the rest of the wedding decor.) After putting a down payment on all three tuxes (because Jason is generous like that) they just need measurements from the guys and we are good to go until we pick everything up two days before the wedding.



This is what Thomas and Arthur will be wearing, except the tie will be solid purple. Jason will be wearing the same thing, but in all black. Everyone will have the same black jacket, pants and shoes, and the white wing-tip shirt with black/silver cufflinks. How dashing they'll all be!








After that productiveness, we headed over to the Zales outlet store to peruse wedding bands. [Note: here's where it gets tricky. I don't know how many of you know this, but Kandace is allergic to nickel. No, not the coins (which aren't even made of nickel!) The actual metal nickel. The metal that comprises a majority of jewelry out there - everything from ___-plated jewelry to various alloys, including white gold, contain varying degrees of nickel. For this reason, I don't have a college class ring. I'm not sure what the extent of my allergy is (the higher the karat of gold, the less nickel in the mix) but it was such an expensive investment to purchase the highest karat they offered (18) if I wasn't sure it would be pure enough.]

But that's not the main focus of this story. Jason was wonderful enough to purchase my engagement ring in platinum so that I might enjoy it for all our long years without redness, swelling, itching or scabbing (gross, sorry.) So when we went into Zales today we had a pretty clear idea of what we needed. They showed us some stuff both for me and for him, and it helped us decide even more what would work for us. I fell in love with ring wraps. Ring wraps are essentially enhancers that tack on to the engagement ring, making it look as though you are wearing one ornate ring. They come on a separate band, but have a gap in the middle so that your original stone "nests" inside, creating a unified piece.

After talking about pricing and various other details, we decided we weren't quite ready to drop that kind of money yet. We thanked the saleslady (who had the audacity to ask us if we were kidding when we said we didn't want to buy today, and then guilted us because she had already cut the tag - BFD!) and we headed out the door. Even if we decide to go with those choices from Zales, we will definitely be visiting a different person at a different location!

From Zales we headed to Kay Jewelers in Southlake Town Square. Three lovely ladies helped us patiently, throwing out ideas, making suggestions, giving opinions. Much better than Zales. I fell in love with a ring wrap there as well. I know it's perfect because while looking at the other options besides that one, I pointed to another one that I liked that was in a yellow gold - come to find out it was the same ring in two different golds! The only downside to this whole ordeal is that they're not sure they can get it for me in platinum. They are going to do some research, call their vendors and their craftsmen and see if they can have it cast in platinum for me.

Below are the pictures of the concept of ring wraps:


This is the exact wrap I want, but in platinum. Notice the wide gap in the middle and how it drops down lower than the back of the band. This ensures that the two pieces fit together and look like one solid ring.





This is what it would look like with my engagement ring in the middle. The thick sides help hide the fact that it's two different bands. Isn't it gorgeous???





Very similar to the one we are looking at for Jason.







Fingers crossed for good news on Monday!

Opposites attract

I just sent my sister a list of the women who are most important in my life. You know, the ones that I've deemed worthy of getting drunk with us while sending me into marriagedom. Let's just say I don't need even to take my socks off to count the number of girls on that list.








I know they say opposites attract, but isn't that supposed to just pertain to chemistry/romantic endeavors? Or does that hold true for all relationships regardless of their intimacy level? I guess I've always had more guy friends. Well, I've never been able to keep girlfriends is more like it. I think back to my "best friends" in my younger days and am sad to think of how many of them I've drifted far from. A lot of it was my fault. For some of them, I can name specific incidents that caused the rift that never got fully patched again. Sure, I'm still friends with all of these ladies, but I don't think we will ever be as close as we were then. If I ran into them in public we could talk and "catch up" but then what? No exchanging of new phone numbers, no future plans made (save for the vague mentioning of the fact we should get together some time) and then maybe a hasty online message via Facebook.

I wonder why it's so hard for me to befriend women and keep them close. It seems like someone always fails the relationship. When I was 8, it was my best friend who had moved away after living next door to me for years. She was coming to my birthday party and I hadn't seen her in some time. I was beside myself, looking out the window all the time, asking my mom when she would be there. I put my other friends on the back burner waiting for her to show. And she never did. And there was no phone call to say she wasn't coming. All I know is that I think my mom finally called her mom to see what traumatic event had caused her to not only not show, but not even bother to call. I believe the lame response had to do with which parent had custody of her that weekend. Or something equally pathetic. Maybe that was the first time I learned not to let myself get too close to a girlfriend if I didn't want to get hurt.










It goes on from there. Several altercations at various birthday parties, fighting on the school bus, name calling, preteen awkwardness and sensitive little girls all somehow made it clear that girls carry too much baggage. Even today, I love my female friends, but can only handle them alone in small doses. Even my sister, who is my best friend in the world, can get on my nerves pretty easily. Maybe there's some underlying competition going on. Who knows.









So my bachelorette party won't require the renting of a party bus or an entire floor of a hotel. But I like it that way. A handful of close friends is better than two dozen acquaintances that I might not even be friends with a year from now. My little baby sister will be the only one not legally able to drink, so we will either have to find a good 18+ club, or create Club Bride at home.











It's up to my wonderful girls, and I know whatever we do will be special no matter what.

A DIY Mother's Day

So I know Mother's Day was a while ago, but I'm really lazy and just getting around to uploading all of the pictures. I wanted to do something special, more than just the greeting card and dinner route, but since I don't have a lot of money to spend, I got creative.

One of the bees (Miss Plum, I believe?) posted a cute little craft segment involving pens, fake flowers and a flower pot. Since I can't see my mom with a frilly collection of flowery things, I decided to tweak it a little to suit her tastes.

So instead of using flowers, I used... CAT TOYS! My mom is crazy about her cat Puck. Seriously, the cat can do no wrong, and when he does, it's only because of the "bad influence" her other cat Rocky (now our cat Rockstar) had on him. At any rate, I figured it would be cute to tweak the project a bit to suit her needs.

(Because of my lack of originality, and because Jason's mom is a teacher, I made her gift out of the regular flower/pot combo.)

All of my materials:

Flowers, flower pot, pen cup, floral tape, cat toys, paper clips, glue sticks, glue gun, basic pens.








First, you have to take all of the little ends off the pens. Eventually, the lids too.






Next, put a good amount of hot glue into the open end of the pen. You can feel the heat through the plastic, so be careful not to burn yourself! You don't have to fill the entire body with glue, I filled about 1/4 to 1/3 of the way down. The most important thing is that there's enough glue where the toy and the end of the pen meet. Quickly press a toy (or flower) into the warm adhesive and hold tight for a few minutes while the glue initially sets. You have to be careful with the round toys, because if you set the pen down before the toy is set it will roll right off the end of the pen!



Since some of the toys were a little large, I reinforced the bond by putting a layer of glue around the base of the toy/pen. This will be mostly covered up later, and it's better to have the hold too strong than too weak. On several of the toys that didn't have a good surface for sticking straight onto the glue, I threaded a paper clip through them, then glued the entire clip into the barrel of the pen. You can't see the paperclip and it's really good for reinforcing the strength of the bond.

After the glue has completely dried and the bond is very tight, take a piece of floral tape and, starting at the top, wrap it down and around the entire base of the pen. Since I went with both blue and black pens for a little variety, I stopped taping at the part of the pen that shows what color it is, since having toys or flowers on top won't necessarily indicate the ink color. I secured the floral tape at the bottom with a tiny bit of glue, just in case.



That's pretty much the gist of it. I then put the cat toy pens in a pink pen cup (Mom loves pink) and the flower pens in a little glazed flower pot. If you wanted to get really creative, you could even decorate the pot yourself.

The finished products:

Voila!!!

Updates galore

First of all, congratulations to the new Mr. and Mrs. Courtney and Will Qubty! I'm so sorry I couldn't be at the wedding, but I'm so happy for you guys!

The reason I couldn't be there this weekend is I was in Houston (yay!) visiting my family. It's the first time I've met my niece, who is almost 6 months old and ADORABLE!!! Just a happy baby all around, hardly fussy at all, fearless (my big teddy bear of a dog made friends with her very quickly) and cute :) She loves seeing herself in the mirror - she was starting to fuss so I walked around with her a bit and put her in front of our big mirror wall in the dining room: instant giggles. We just sat there and played until her bath was ready. She was too cute and so much fun and the only negative about the whole ordeal is that I don't get to see her more often. I think the next time will be at the wedding and she'll be 10 months, a lot different!

Having all of my family there was great because I spread the word about a lot of details. We aren't sending out save-the-dates because most everyone knows the info via word of mouth, and our website of course. Just as a reminder I shot out a quick email last night to those traveling the farthest. I was going to use the Knot's handy automated one, but it linked to my Knot webpage, which I haven't set up since we have the one at weddingpath. So the email one worked just as well and I was able to include the correct webpage address!

There was another wedding this weekend, and although I don't know the couple personally, she posts on Weddingbee and is probably the poster I feel closest with (because she's my age and had a lot of the same college related elements as me.) One thing that was so helpful was that she continued posting updates all the way until about 8 hours before her wedding (when she had to leave to get her hair done and then head to the venue.) She gave a lot of helpful advice about taking care of as much stuff as possible, even though you have a lot of time. All those little things that are 90% done, except for xyz, really come back and haunt you that last week leading up to the event. She suggested evaluating what things we still had to work on and try to completely finish up as many as possible.

Something else helpful was that she took each element (centerpieces, altar decorations, guest book table details, etc) and wrote out very specific, detailed directions for what was supposed to happen, then boxed that element and its directions in a box by itself. That way, when her family and friends came to help, they could grab a box, follow the directions, get her approval, and start on something else. It was a very organized way so she wasn't bombarded with "where does this go?" and "how do you want to do this?" and "should we do it like this or this?" I definitely think it was a brilliant move on her part. Especially since I know I'll be a perfectionist when it comes to my wedding, might as well get started on that stuff now.

So today I went to Michael's and purchased even more stuff! Among that stuff was a wooden "W" that I am going to decorate myself with little crystals to go on our cake (probably not as a topper, maybe on the second tier.) I got some big vases on sale for $5 apiece and then some little clear bags with twist ties that I'll use as favor bags.

It's so interesting to talk about my wedding with my sister in law. It made me realize how much we've gotten done, and how much there is left to do... I'm really hurting for a paycheck to finish up the purchases I have left to make, but this week is the last of my training at Barnes and Noble and next week I'm on the regular schedule, so that should help some. I get another paycheck this Thursday! Of course, it will go straight to my credit card, but since I'm charging all the wedding stuff anyway, it's like making a wedding payment. Sort of.

Sorry for the long boring post with no pictures. Maybe this will help:



A beautiful butterfly. One of many hanging around our apartment in the past few weeks. I was hoping to see them in more colors, but this is all we got. Still pretty.

Check, check (check)

According to my oh-so-helpful Knot reminder checklist, I have three things left to do this month: Start planning the rehearsal dinner (and give Jason's parents all the info re: the guest list), visit tux shops to make a decision on Jason's day-of finery, and then actually book the place we decide to hold the rehearsal dinner. To number 2 I'm adding figuring out what Arthur and Thomas are going to wear. Might as well take care of it all at once while we're there. I think that we can squish 1 and 3 together into one, but I have no idea where to get what I want. I even tried talking to the owner of our venue to see where other brides go afterwards (yes, Justin is so small everyone has to go back into Roanoke, FW or Denton for food - unless we want to rent out the Abbey's little house next door, which then we'd have to book a caterer just for that night, so no.) The suggestions she made were the three places I was expecting her to say, none of which I'm really interested in. I really don't want a fancy restaurant rehearsal dinner. I want something totally laid back where we can just chill. Somehow, the local fried chicken joint isn't doing it for me. Oh well. Maybe I'll have Jason gives his parents my ideas and let them decide. They're paying, after all; if they choose for me I can't very well be ungrateful.

This lack of much left on this month's checklist comes after yesterday's very productive day. Not only did I finally make a decision about a florist, I went and put down a deposit and signed a contract. We went over everything again, just to make sure we are on the right page. I typed everything up in a spreadsheet to make sure I didn't miss anything. It's a very detailed spreadsheet, all the way from what colors of what flowers to what color and type of ribbons we will be using. As a bonus, she's going to make me a smaller version of my bouquet as a sample, and then I'll use it as my bouquet when I take my bridal portraits. Which I should probably book soon. But I have to wait for my dress to come in first (hurry up!) and get it altered and all.

Lots of payments need to be made soon. Good thing Jason got a slew of 0% APR credit card offers in the mail yesterday!

Yikes

I finally buckled down and ordered our wedding cake. I know we only met with two places, but we both really liked the first one, and they can do all the "extra" stuff for Jason's cake that I was hoping for. Their prices are really reasonable, the staff is friendly and talented. It just seemed logical to book with someone we had such great experiences with. We changed our minds from our original design, so hopefully we have a winner now.

I also met with a florist here in town to talk about flowers. She was SO helpful! I brought in a few pictures of things I liked, and not only was she able to identify every flower in each picture, but then she could tell me what other colors it came in, how hard they were to work with, how expensive they would be to get, etc. She made so many good suggestions, pulling out most of the flowers we discussed from their own cooler to physically show me. She even showed me how they can spray flowers to get them the right shade of whatever color we are looking for. And on top of all her help, her prices are really reasonable and she was very professional, emailing me the same day with a written invoice that included everything we had talked about and a price breakdown. It looks like we have another winner - I just have to put down a deposit to reserve her. I guess I should just go ahead and do it now, why wait.

Yesterday we had our first meeting with our pastor to start our premarital "counseling." The meeting was short and sweet - he gave us a book to read together and then a packet of info we each have to fill out about ourselves. The hardest part is going to be coming up with 10 reasons I want to marry him and 10 reasons I think I'm ready for marriage. Don't get me wrong, of course I can come up with all 20, it's just that I've never had to put this kind of stuff into words before. How do you say "I just know" ten times? Isn't love an indescribable feeling? I have about 5 of each so far, and we have almost a month before we meet with him again, so I've got some time to keep thinking about it.

We have to turn in our packets a few days before our next meeting with him so he can compare our answers and prepare our discussion for the next meeting. I'm interested to see what things will jump out at him as something that needs to be discussed. I wonder what Jason really thinks of me...

I lied...

We aren't doing cake stuff this weekend. Not unless you count designing a cake for Jason's mom's surprise party next weekend. And even that is stretching it, because I'm going to have them decorate her cake to match the invitations we sent out :)

What I did do, however, was scope out Craigslist to see if I could find an affordable videographer in the area. By affordable, I mean next to free. In Jason's mind, he's generously budgeting a whopping $100. In reality, we'd be lucky to get an hour of someon'es time for that much. It's one of those things that's a pretty divided issue on Weddingbee whether they're worth it or not, and it's something I keep flip flopping on.

On the one hand, I've read about a lot of previous brides who say the day just flew by and it would be nice to have the video to go back and actually WATCH what happened, instead of remembering a big whirl of events and sights and sounds. Sure, professional photography is nice, but still film can't capture the way Jason's voice cracks during the vows, or how drunk Aunt Ida hits on all the teenage boys (note: for the record, Jason has long since reached puberty, and I don't have an Aunt Ida that I know of)

On the other hand, most of the pricing I've seen is in the thousands, or in the upper hundreds for JUST the ceremony (and our ceremony should only be about 25 minutes, so that seems a bit much, no?) I know there's some editing involved, but it can't be that hard to stand still for half an hour while we say we do and lock lips in matrimony.

I'm not looking for fancy editing. I'm not looking for interviews with every guest. I'm not even looking for more than just the highlights (do I really need to watch two hours of the dance floor?) All I'm looking for are the important things - the ceremony obviously, our first dance, dancing with my daddy, Jason and his mommy, cutting the cake and tossing our respective baubbles, and the gathering of family and friends as they wave goodbye to us on our way to [somewhere, not sure yet, maybe a hotel, maybe just home.]

Why does this have to be so freakin expensive?!

Let's see...

I am in the process of contacting more bakeries to meet with this weekend. I'd like to find someone on this side of the metroplex so delivery fees won't be as outrageous as from companies coming from the other side. It's hard because since there's NOTHING in Justin save for our wedding chapel I have to go elsewhere for everything!

I have a meeting with a florist on Tuesday. Going to sit down and discuss not only ideas but specific flowers, and then prices of course. I'd really like a florist who could deliver instead of someone having to pick everything up. We'll see.

We have our first meeting with our officiant on Tuesday. We have to take a few classes with him. Easy breezy.

It's official

Jason and I are now full members of the First United Methodist Church of Keller. Yay. We talked to Pastor Jason (I know, I know haha) about marrying us, and he said he'd check his calendar and get back to us. Haven't heard from him, but on Sunday he was talking to us about the three "sessions" we'd have to take with him prior to the wedding. No big deal. Jason's sister Danielle was married by him and she said the sessions were more just talking about the wedding than anything deeply religious. So it looks like we're golden. Good to have something else (almost) done.

I'm back to being indecisive about flowers. Now I'm thinking I'd rather spend the money and not have the headache. Especially since the prices that I got from a girl I kind of know are pretty good (ie men's bouts for $5 each). She has her own floral/design company, and she even made her own bouquet for her bridal portraits, and will be making everything for her wedding. So she has the experience. And I've seen pictures of her stuff and it's good. She definitely knows what she's doing. I'm wondering if I'd really be saving money by doing flowers myself, since I would have to essentially have to buy double of everything, one for practice and one for real. Then what if on my wedding day we are making flowers and they don't look so great? I don't want to have to settle for ok flowers that will be preserved in pictures for centuries to come. *Sigh* I wish I could just make a decision and stick to it.

Currently in the process of working on hotel discount stuff for out of town guests. We visited the 5 closest hotels last weekend and picked one that was fancier and one that more economic. I'm just waiting to hear back from them about what exactly they can do for us in terms of discount. I also inquired to several car rental companies for those people who are flying in and will need to rent a car for the weekend. So that's pretty much taken care of.

Next up is the rehearsal dinner I guess. It's really early to be thinking about it, but I'm trying to at least get a general idea of the style we want to have. It's hard because Justin is so small that I doubt there's anything IN the city that will work. So we are going to have to drive back into FW. And since none of my family is familiar with this area, the directions have to be pretty simple. Right now, I'm thinking a backyard BBQ type of dinner. Something really laid back where we can spend more time just hanging out and talking than doing anything formal and planned. But that's a lot to ask Jason's parents to host all of these people at their (or someone's) house, provide all the food, and then clean up after 20 some odd people. So we may shift focus to a real casual restaurant. Nothing like McDonald's or anything, but maybe somewhere that we can rent out a room and just chill. I want it to be really informal where we can wear jeans and stuff and not worry about a whole lot. So if anyone has ideas, let's hear them!

Inspiration

So I read and sometimes contribute to this online community called Weddingbee (is this really the first time I've mentioned it?!) It's composed of a bunch of brides-to-be from all over the US (and Canada, too!) and they share all the stuff about their weddings that we as readers might find helpful. There's all sorts of pictures, DIY (do it yourself) project ideas, polls, tips and other interesting tidbits that keep me giddy to read new entries! I guess you could kinda say it's the reason I started this blog - well, that and because I'm sure I was starting to annoy Jason with all this mindless wedding chatter!

Anywho, there was an entry recently from one of the bloggers (Mrs. Bee herself, actually) about this company called Patch NYC that makes custom cake toppers based on a couple, incorporating things like actual scraps from her wedding dress, or a replication of his tux style. The only problem is, they take four months to go from idea to your hot little hands. Oh, yeah, the $500 PRICE TAG might be a small hindrance, too!

While one of the readers commented that she actually did spend that much money on one, most of us either thought they were hideouly ugly or cute but not $500 cute. But one of the readers commented that she had made her own for about $25 in materials! That's more my price range.
First, the $500 offering:


Anyone here salivating? Rushing out to order one? No? Me either.








And now, for Melissa Sue's contribution:

If you click on her name, it will take you to a page with her instructions, as well as a picture of her and her future husband to show that they really do look like that :)






I smell a project - and one that could be done with other wedding-crazy friends? Of course, these are cute to have even if you don't use them for your wedding cake. Any takers? Anyone?

On this day in history

Today is our three year anniversary! I highly doubt he's got anything special for me because he's so romantic like that, but we've made it through three years so far and I know I'm looking forward to the next hundred!

Wedding cake take two

Today we went to our second cake tasting. This bakery has an open house the last weekend of every month where they make 20 of their most popular (most basic?) cakes and couples can "come and go" for a taste. There were also several employees on hand to sit down and talk to us about our visions.

So between the 8 groom's cakes and the 12 bride's cakes, I think we sampled 6 or so. I knew I didn't want any type of fruit filling, and I'm not a big fan of liquer or beer in my cake (especially for something as classy as a wedding!) so it ruled out many of them. Plus, I'm pretty simple when it comes to things like that, especially since I'm such a picky eater ;)

After having cake and punch, we kind of sat around waiting for someone to be free to talk to us. We finally got some attention and proceeded to discuss all the things we wanted in a wedding and groom's cake. Then I had Jason step out of the room to discuss the surprise elements of his cake that I wanted to add. When they told me they couldn't do it, I was a little shocked (I think it was because at bakery #1 they didn't even question if they had the ability to do it, but said of course they could.)

We were the last ones there and they made me a plate of leftover cake to take home with me, which was great! I had some tonight and will have some for breakfast or something.

When we got home, I crunched some numbers. Given the fact that bakery #2 was charging me a $75 delivery fee (that's three tanks of gas for my car!) and that they couldn't do the extra I was hoping they could but they were STILL more expensive than bakery #1, it looks as though we have ruled them out. The cake was good, but nothing special. All the books they had of cake ideas were not actual cakes they had done, but magazine tear-outs, which made me leary of what their real abilities are.

I'm still hoping to find a bakery that has good stuff for cheaper than bakery #1, because I don't know if I'm ok shelling out $500+ for CAKE!

Anyone here got mad baking skills?

Boo. Yay.

I did a whole bunch of work on our wedding website this past week. Then the site gets hacked this weekend and while it's back up and running I have to start over. Boo.


On the upside, we went to lunch with Jason's mommy today. Really, she just wanted an excuse to not finish her homework from school, but it was still a nice few hours. Yay.

Oh dad

So today my dad sent me an email that says "You know you're from Texas when..." and one of the reasons was "Someone you know has used a football schedule to plan their wedding date."

...

One more thing

I forgot to mention that I changed it to where you don't have to register to leave a comment. Apparently it was always an option but the default is that it's not allowed. So I manually changed it (and therefore expect ALL of you to chime in on EVERYTHING now!)

Drumroll please....

Engagement pictures are in! Check out my Facebook album for more info. :) :) :) :) :)

"Mother"/daughter bonding

Jason and I just got back from spending a weekend at his parents' lakehouse. They've made a lot of wonderful improvements to it in the short time since they bought it, and I know one day it's going to be spectacular. The purpose of the weekend was to celebrate Jason's paternal grandfather's 80th birthday, which was today.

The reason I'm posting this here and not on my regular blog is that yesterday afternoon Jason's mom and I went into town (haha) and spent a few hours together shopping for today. First we hit up the liquor store (how lucky am I lol) and had an interesting experience with the worker there. Then we went to Kroger to shop for all the drinks and snacks and cake and cards and such. I know it wasn't the most glamorous trip, but I am so glad we got to spend that time together. It really wasn't awkward at all, and I feel like this weekend brought me a lot closer to his family. I am so excited and so lucky to be marrying into such a great family!

I just hope Jason's as excited to become a part of my family...

For Suzi

Because she was such a dear to think of me!

This is what I'm currently in love with:
I will say that I'm not a big fan of the color green, so my suggestion would be to change it to a bright blue. See next image for example. I would keep the little round purplish ones (if I could figure out what they were!) and keep the fushia roses (not sure about the lily looking ones - they look like old people fingers to me for some reason :/) I might throw in some lemon yellow too, but it would have to be pretty bright - none of that sunflower goldenrod stuff.


This made me think of you when I saw your post because I know you wanted blue but not light blue. I don't know if this would do the trick, but I think it's another form of hydrangea. It's still not navy, but I don't know many flowers that are. I think, though, that if your wedding party is in Navy, really bright blue flowers would make your pictures pop! so don't worry about matching exactly.





Other top choices include:
For some reason these flowers don't look real to me. They're all such perfect blooms in such vibrant colors that they just don't look real. But something like that with wayyyyy less green could work.









This is lovely. Just change the color of the wrap from green (ew) to purple!

I really like the vibrance of the purple, red/yellow and little bit of blue pokin out. I don't like the big leaf grass blades or the stuff in the back that makes it look like a bunch of wildflowers. I would clean this up a bit to give it a classic round dome shape.







Then, just when I think I've decided on something, I go and find this:


The perfect combination of traditional purple colors.














Sigh. So many choices.

Happy half anniversary?

Six months until the big day! I get more and more excited every day!

Serious doubts

So tonight I sat down to look through millions (not really) of pictures of flowers to get an idea of a style I liked as well as flowers that come in dark purple, as well as how to differentiate my bouquet from Chelsea's and Romie's while still keeping continuity between them.

The more I sit here and think about it, the more I wonder if I really should be paying a florist to do this. After all, it's four bouquets (1 large, 2 small, 1 for tossing) and a dozen pin on bouts/corsages. Going very simple with the dozen (single flower with a minor amount of greenery) and all bouquets would only cost me a total of around $250 plus delivery (or sending someone to pick them up the day of) from the florist I'm currently talking to.

I wonder if I could take care of this task myself. I could order a bunch of flowers wholesale and then work with Chelsea and Romie that morning to put them all together.

I really don't have a favorite flower. Nor does Jason. Romie and Chelsea share the same favorite of gardenia, but those suckers are EXPENSIVE. So the flowers themselves will have no significance for me other than they'll match the bridesmaid dresses. Which is why I thought about making my own arrangements - that way they'd be special to me no matter how indifferent I was about the flowers themselves.

My biggest concern is timing. Since flowers don't always hold up so well we would have to make them the morning of the wedding. Between hair, makeup, food, getting dressed and pictures before the ceremony, I don't know if I want to add in the time and the possible stress of arranging flowers.

Opinions? Would I save money doing this or does the florist offer the best deal? Is it worth the extra money to save the stress even if we can do them cheaper ourselves? Is there another option I'm overlooking? Anyone have suggestions for dark purple flowers that will be available in October, and how I should do the bouquets so they're different but the same?

[As a complete afterthought but still related, is it possible to incorporate a fall theme at this point, or is it too late? The centerpieces are fish bowls with floating candles with a purple wreath around them, and that's how they'll stay. Would it be weird to all of a sudden throw in leaves and rust colored flowers if that's the only place I can see incorporating the fall theme? I wish I would have thought about the fall/Halloween thing a little more, since I'm a huge fan of candy corn (any candy in general really.) I've seen some really cute pictures lately of stuff using pumpkins, leaves and acorns, but I just don't know.]

Eeeee!

Our engagement pictures are on their way in the mail! Hopefully we will get them by the end of the week! Stay tuned for more...

Check and check

The contract for the caterer is signed and in the mail. The contract for the dj is signed and in the mail with the deposit. Check and check!

We joined our church officially yesterday. Tomorrow we have a meeting with Dr. Shelly to discuss everything including possibly being baptised. Should be interesting. After we get squared away we are going to ask Pastor Jason to be our officiant :)

Keep the ball rolling

Yesterday's DJ meeting was short and sweet. We met with one of the two-man team and he gave us a contract to look through, talked to us about our vision and what we wanted, and about 20 minutes later we were on our way. He supplied us with several references, one of whom actually got married where we're getting married, and so far everyone I've talked to has had nothing but great reviews of these guys. They're reasonably priced, especially considering our reception is going to be on a schedule so we can fit everything in that we want to. I filled out the paperwork last night, and now I just need to write a check and mail in the contract!

Today we went to our first cake tasting and it was so great! We tried yellow, devil's food, red velvet and butter rum cakes. We also tried a vanilla custard filling, cream cheese icing, buttercream icing, chocolate buttercream icing, and a chocolate fudge filling/frosting. We looked through a huge book of cakes they've done before, talked about the pictures we'd brought in, and decided on flavor combos and a design both for the wedding cake and the groom's cake. Part of the groom's cake Jason doesn't know about because I had him leave the room so I could discuss parts of his cake with the baker. We're not positive we are going with this baker, because although everything tasted great, they charge a nice fee for delivery and set up and they're pretty far from our venue. Plus, I want to talk to more people to not only comparison price shop, but taste more cake and icing!

We've been on a roll with all the good luck we've had with vendors; cross your fingers for us that this luck continues!

More excitement

Last night we were invited to dinner at my future sister-in-law Danielle's house. Danielle married her husband Thomas last August, so she had a lot of bridal magazines and stuff she let me have after we got engaged. She's so sweet, because now she's also letting me wear her veil - my something borrowed!

And it looks like my mom found a mother-of-the-bride dress. She's ordering it from online, so we will wait and see how it looks in person before giving it the final ok. But it's a nice dress online, not to mention it was on sale, and she had a coupon! She can always return it if it doesn't work, but fingers crossed it does!

Big ol check!

My wedding dress and Chelsea's maid of honor dress have been ordered!!! What a huge relief. Instructions have been sent to Romie so that when she figures out her size tomorrow she can order hers.

Don't even THINK about asking me to see my dress! There are three ladies who have seen it, and everyone else will just have to wait until October 20!!

I feel like a huge task has been accomplished :)

Hindsight is 20/20

Sometimes I wonder if I will look back on my wedding and regret cheaping out on so many things. Every opportunity to cut corners, we have. In the end, we will have the main components of a wedding (ceremony, reception with food, dancing, cake) but I hope I don't go "gee I wish I would have had x instead of y."

What helps comfort me is knowing that at the end of the day, if Jason and I come out of the ceremony married, it will have been a success. The other (more comforting!) thought is that 50 years from now when we are still married, have grown children and big, fat bank accounts, we can throw a 50th anniversary party that will knock the socks off of the queen of England!

I had a very weird wedding dream last night. I was already in my dress while all of these parents (my mom included) were preparing stuff in the kitchen. The place where we were wasn't our venue, but had the same name. I remember crying because the bridal suite was a tiny closet, while in my head I could envision the nice suite at our real venue. It was the day of the wedding and I remember waking up and greeting everyone with a big excited smile. But for some reason, we were doing the rehearsal that morning, and since I was already in my dress, I had to wear a black (black!) sheet around me to cover myself up so Jason couldn't see me. I wound up not paying much attention to the sheet and apparently it slipped down enough that he saw me in my dress after all. I was disappointed because I was hoping he would try not to see me. Then we had like 12 male attendants (none of which I recognized) so we had to refigure everyone's entrance.

Several things that amuse me. The first is that in my dream, even though we weren't there, I could clearly remember the name of our venue and what the bridal suite looked like. I could also remember my dress. This makes me feel like we/I made several good decisions, as I wasn't dreaming about some other venue/dress, but the ones that really will be. So the wedding "of my dreams" still involves our venue and my dress! Secondly, the tiny bridal suite closet in the drream looked exactly like the dressing room where I tried my dress on. Again, a good sign I think. Lastly, there really is a black sheet on my side of the bed, because I am usually colder than Jason, so it makes sense why the sheet I wrapped myself in would have been black (so no, it's not a sign of impending doom.) Which brings us to the last, and most important comment - in my dreams and in reality, I'm marrying the same wonderful Jason!

Continuing with success

We have our first DJ meeting on Friday. The people have been really nice to talk to via email, and they are really willing to work with us. They paid for their own wedding 20 years ago, so they know that a lot of couples have to work with very constricted budgets but still want nice things. They've worked at our venue before, which is a huge plus since it's kind of out of the way off the main road. Hopefully we'll like them so much we won't have to meet with any others. They're drawing up a contract for us just in case, which is great to have to read over and adjust before booking/sending a deposit.

In other news, a friend of mine lives close to here and has her own cake business. I've tried getting in touch with her several times but she never gets back to me. I would have liked to ask her to do my cake, and even mentioned that in the last message I left for her, but obviously she's not interested because she would have at least contacted me by now, even if we couldn't have a lengthy chat right then. So on Saturday we have an appointment to check out a baker that we saw at the Fort Worth bridal show a few months ago. It'll be fun to go in and see what they can do, not to mention we get to try four different flavors we picked out, plus all the fillings and icings and such! Yay for free food! I emailed a few other bakers but no one has gotten back to me yet. That's really bad for business, especially considering how impatient us ladies can be - if they do get back to me, though, I won't turn down free cake!

This coming Sunday we are joining our church officially, so soon we will have an officiant. Then all we really have to worry about are tux rentals, and a videographer. What do you guys think about hiring someone to videotape? It's a lot of money to be honest, but I don't want to not get a wedding video and then regret it. I've seen nice ones, but I still don't know if I can justify that cost. Anyone have a video camera and want to volunteer to tape everything for us?

A very successful weekend

Wow, I got a lot done this past week/weekend. Last week, I made the photgraphy deposit, signed and sent in the contract. I also picked a florist who should be sending me a contract soon so I can send her deposit. Friday we drove to Houston to attend my friend Kim's reception (pictures on my Facebook). It was lovely and she looked so beautiful. It was the first time I'd ever met her husband since they're in school in Utah, but I like him a lot and I'm happy for them both.

Saturday morning my mom, sister and I got up and went out to try on the bridesmaid dress we had picked out online. We really liked it, and decided to try on a few more that the lady suggested. While my sister was doing this, I figured I might as well try on some wedding dresses, since I only have six months to get everything ordered and altered. Man was I glad I did. I found my dress! I tried on three, and the third one was definitely the charm. After seeing it on me, the lady that was helping us brought out a new bridesmaid dress that mimics the design of mine. We never would have picked it out ourselves, but I'm glad she made the suggestion, because we have it all figured out now! I'm going to order the dresses online though, since there are several places that sell dresses brand new for a fraction of the cost. Including shipping, my dress will work out to be HALF of what it costs in the store. Anyone looking for formal/wedding/bridesmaid type dresses should definitely check out netbride.com where they have free price quotes if you know the designer and style number of the dress you want. I've continued to be impressed by them, and have heard so many great reviews that I'm confident in buying from them!

After our little shopping trip, Jason and I made a trip down to Arne's Warehouse. We found a lot of stuff we could use and decided to come back this summer to buy most of it. We did wind up buying all of the party supplies for Jason's mom's 50s style 50th birthday.

We also got the signed caterer contract in the mail. Now we just have to sign one copy and send it back to her so we both have copies for our records.

To top it off, I talked to our engagement photographer yesterday and he said our CD will be in the mail this week. We're really excited to see the pictures since it's been over two weeks since they were taken.

I have to talk to my bridesmaid Romie so she can go try on the new bridesmaid dress we picked to figure out what size we need to order. Then some time this week I'm ordering all three of our dresses! I know mine and my sister's will come here, but I don't know where Romie will want hers sent. I just have to figure out what place to send them to here because Jason and I living together means they can't be stored at our apartment!

We got a lot done and I'm so glad I tried on dresses because not only does it take way longer to come in than I would have thought, but I found my wedding dress! I hope this coming week/weekend proves to be as successful as the last. I know Jason's talking to DJs, and we are officially joining our church next Sunday, so after that we'll talk to the pastor we want to be our officiant.

Next up: finding a bridal alterations place in Fort Worth, making appointments with bakers to have tastings, picking a cake design, and planning a family get-together!

I wish I...

... had an unlimited budget. I keep coming up with all these neat/cute ideas/projects that I think would be so perfect for the wedding. Then a few days later, I come up with something else, then realize I don't have the budget for both. So I have to decide on one or the other. Then, when I think I've made a choice between the two, I think up something else. It's very frustrating because I keep having to return purchases I've made.

But I finally made a decision yesterday. So back to Walmart I go to return the stuff I bought Monday! I'm sticking with this latest idea for sure, though the details may get altered. The big picture will stay the same for sure, because it's such a part of who I am (well, was is more like it, though still slightly am to this day) and it naturally lends itself to the wedding.

Got the photography contract in the mail today, so it should get there by Friday. I'm going to go ahead and check it off my list, because it's done barring any confusion at the post office. Wow it feels good to SEE it get taken off my list!!!

A lull

Not too much wedding stuff lately. Waiting (rather impatiently!) for our CD of engagement pics so we can show the world. We finally decided on a wedding day photographer and made the deposit. Now I have to remember to drop the contract in the mail and I can check that off my list.

Began talking with a lady who does flowers out of her house since the only flowers we need are the bridal party (don't need any ceremony stuff or reception centerpieces). Her prices are pretty reasonable, but she's a little slow to respond (she's a bride-to-be herself) so I wonder if I should either look for someone else or attempt making everything ourselves. The only problem with the DIY route is that since flowers don't last, we'd prolly have to do them the day of the wedding. Not sure I want that much stress the day of. Anyone want to volunteer to do my flowers if I buy all the materials?

Making a quick trip to Houston this weekend (prolly won't even be there 24 hours) to dress shop with my sister. We know what we like, so we just need to go try it on for the sake of verifying in person and making sure we order the right sizes. Also attending a friend's wedding reception Friday night, so maybe I'll see something creative that I can borrow/alter/steal for my own!

Guess that's it. Coming up next - Jason chooses a DJ and I talk to a friend about the prospect of making my wedding cake!

A wonderful weekend

This past weekend Jason and I went back to Lubbock and took our engagement photos. We spent three hours on campus taking picture in three outfits (formal attire, casual attire, Tech shirts) and had a blast with our photographer. The highlight of the day was when we went to the stadium to take pictures and the guy told us we couldn't come in because there was an event going on in the suites. So we walked around by the student entrance to the field - and it was open! So we went in and took pictures in the empty bleachers. I think they're gonna look really neat with just the two of us and nothingness. We didn't go down and take pictures on the field (we wanted to so badly!!!) because we didn't want something to happen and for our photographer to somehow get into any type of copyright trouble for taking pictures without permission. Our photographer did say he knows the guy who does all the field photography, so next time we come into town he's going to try to get us in touch to maybe go back and take some.

I'm so excited to see how they turn out! He wound up taking about 400 shots, even though I know they won't all be good. He's going to edit them and then send them to us on disc to print ourselves.

The entire experience was so wonderful, we are trying to figure out a way to use him again. If anyone needs a photographer in Lubbock (attn: Suzi!) let me know because I'd love to send more work his way.

:)

Tonight we met with our other top choice for a photographer. We really like her because of how well we clicked. Supposedly there's another couple looking to book her on our day so it could come down to who books and sends a deposit first. We are going to compare what we get from each photographer, then see how much it would cost to get that stuff from the other photographer, and then see which one turns out to be the best value.

In all honesty, I was kind of hoping we would have gotten bad vibes from one of the two photographers. That way, this decision would have been an easy one to make. Now we have to nitpick our way through and actually decide on something!

I'm thinking about holding off on it until we get back from doing engagement pictures this weekend. I'll compare our photographer in Lubbock to each of the two here to see if that gives us any insight into what works best with us.

Seven months until the big day!

This or that? Him or her?

We met with a photographer and his wife this weekend to look over his work and quality and to discuss our wedding photography needs. He was really nice and we clicked well, which is a huge deal for me since he'll be right there with me the entire day. The only thing I would have liked is for his wife to be in the office with us instead of in the living room playing with her son. She's going to be there just as much as he is, so it would have been nice to see how we meshed with her.

Tomorrow after work we have a meeting with one other photographer. We're meeting at a Starbucks so it will be interesting to see how she displays all of her work (at the other meeting we watched a DVD slideshow of a lot of his work - don't think we'll get that tomorrow)

The goal is to have a decision made and a deposit sent by Friday since we are leaving to go out of town this weekend. It'll be nice to have one more think on my list checked off.

I really need to find time to go look at wedding dresses...

Another meeting

Tomorrow we have a meeting with a potential photographer. It's a husband and wife team of over 25 years. What I like is that they work together, so not only do they understand the dynamic of a couple as a partnership, but she can be with me while I dress and he can be with the guys while they dress and that way there's no way a photo op can go unnoticed. Of course, pricing is good for what we need. Now we just have to meet with them to see how well we click with their personalities. They say you have to trust your photographers like you would a good friend, since they'll be with us (almost) the entire day, behind the scenes and giving directions.

Hoping to hear back from the other photography front runner soon so we can set up a meeting with them too. It's always best to have options. Plus, based solely on email correspondence, we seem to get along really well.

One week to Lubbock!

Thank God I get paid tomorrow

The caterer has received our deposit. Now we just have to work on getting a formal quote in writing and then sign the contract!

The closest thing to

I just did a bunch of update stuff on our site so definitely check it out! Also, I added a message board feature, mostly because there is no option for a guestbook. So go by and just start a new topic to say hey!

Répondez s'il vous plaît

The last of the invitations have been purchased. I know we have a really long time to think about that stuff, but since Michael's has those 40%-off coupons in the newspaper each week, we took advantage of that, buying one package a week so we could use a coupon on each of them. Now I guess we will move on to buying something else, maybe vases for our centerpieces or paper for our ceremony programs. Jason and I have been stealing his parents' newspaper on Sundays so we can go through all the coupons they don't want. We found some for Linens n Things and B3, but don't know what we need from there (we don't want to buy stuff for the sake of getting the discount).

Monday we are sending in the deposit for the caterer, so that's one more thing we can cross off our list. The major things we have left are photographer, DJ, cake and officiant. I'm going to talk to a friend about the cake, and we are going to talk to the pastor from our church about being our officiant. I have already talked to several photographers and it just comes down to making a final decision and sending the deposit. Might have to make appointments to meet them first though. That's a lot of money to spend on someone we've never met!

And I saved the most exciting news for last... Jason booked our honeymoon!!! That's right, folks, the day after the wedding my HUSBAND and I will be going to..... somewhere. I know, I'm a tease. But it's a surprise! Don't worry, baby birds - you'll know soon enough :)

Venue, caterer. Caterer, venue.

Today we met our caterer at the Abbey so she could get an idea of the space and the kitchen she'd be working with. We sat down and discussed plans for appetizers, entrees, sides and drinks. Jason and I have to make a final decision on a few things, but it looks like our menu is mostly planned out! Now we just have to purchase all of the plates and silverware and stuff (unless we want her to do it and charge us a surcharge on top of the cost).

We also took one of our centerpieces up there so we could see it in relation to the size of the table we are having. Looks like we might be renting/purchasing larger fish bowls and possibly mirrors. Still have to play around with it a bit and see what we can find (and how much it will cost!)

Next on our list: the officiant and DJ. I guess we will set up DJ meetings for the next few weeks/weekends.


Lubbock in three weeks!

Flower pictures

Cheaters

This morning Jason and I spent an hour or so eating food and checking out stuff at Crate and Barrel during this thing they call Sunday Morning Engagements. They close the store to everyone but registered couples and then we got to come in and watch all these demos of things they have in the store. We had coffee cake and orange juice, scrambled eggs with sausage made in an electric wok (!) and a piece of freshly cored pineapple. And the best part was because we did the event, we received a free pair of heart-shaped toasting flutes just for being there!

OK confession time. We went for the flutes. Not gonna lie. We put about 30 things on our registry, got our flutes and took off. Now I'm gonna see how many of the things we found I can find from our other registry places. After all, we don't really need to be registered at 4 places. So we probably won't tell people we're registered there, but keep the registry open. After all, whatever isn't bought off our registry when our wedding date comes around, we get 10% off if we buy it ourselves. So I don't mind keeping stuff on a list to get the discount. I know, I'm a horrible person... but we did find a few things that I know we won't find anywhere else, so if we get enough wedding cash we really will buy from them!

Cakes

For no reason, I present various pictures of cake designs that I like.



Not in red, and only three tiers most likely. But I like the simplicity of a single ribbon and then the flowers. (I also like the sweetheart table behind it, but that's irrelevant.)












Again with the simplicity. Whoever did this doesn't have a whole lot of experience with fondant though, because it looks kinda like a wrinkly bedsheet on that second tier.









I love the simplicity because it's clean and elegant. The purple calla lillies are exactly the shade I want the purple in my wedding to be.













I like this one, but I'd made the stripes thicker, like 1/4 of the total height of each tier.















I like the pearls around the bottom borders. Also the flowers on top. Not crazy with the ribbons/bows.















Again with the right purple and the simple band of color with a few flowers. This one's in the shape of a heart which Jason doesn't like, and I'm undecided on. I like it, but not for a wedding I guess.













Interesting take on the tier idea. Instead of one stacked cake, it looks bigger on three separate stands. The stars are wrong for a wedding (reminds me of a magician for some reason) but I like the "burst" looking topper you can kind of see in the top corner.














I like the proportion of the ribbon band to the cake. I also like the few flowers on top and the simple designs in white on the sides of the cake. This is probably my favorite of all these pictures because it's the closest match to what I think of when I envision my cake :)







Thoughts anyone? You don't have to register to leave comments (at least that's what I was told!)

:)

Exactly eight months from now I'll be Mrs. Williams!

Pictures!!!

I finally got around to uploading all my pictures onto my computer from the digital camera I got for Christmas. So now you can see the things I've been talking about and give me your opinions!

White floating candles in purple-dyed water. Right now they're in a tupperware thing, but for the big day they'll be in fish bowls. They'll also have wreaths around them. I think the water is too dark even though that's only one drop of red and one of blue. We'll have to make a bucket full at a time so it winds up being lavender instead of black.


Chair tie out of purple and white ribbon. Shown here on our tall-backed dining chair, but for the big day will be in chairs with shorter backs, about half the height of the chair back.


That's all I have for now. But at least it's something visual. Eventually I'll get around to making a mock-up of the wreath and candles centerpiece. I still have to buy the fishbowls though.

Free food continued

Today we met with Myra from Cookin' Cowgirls Catering. She brought me flowers, which I thought was interesting, but nice of her. We sampled the following menu:

Roasted chicken and gravy
Pot roast and gravy
Garlic cheese mashed potatoes
Southwestern corn casserole with roasted poblanos

There was enough for me and Jason and his parents to have a taste. Everyone thought the food was really good. Not to mention the prices are within our budget which is a huge plus for us. Even adding in extras like passed appetizers, punch, soft drinks, etc. is still manageable. Plus, they will cut and serve the cake and pass the champagne for the toast. Pretty much do everything that we would need them to do, and still not cost an arm and a leg. The good thing is that they charge by the hour and not by the service, so they'll do pretty much whatever we ask them so long as it's within the frame of time we are paying them for.

We are going to set up a time for her to visit the venue, and then I guess we will talk about signing a formal contract and all. Is it bad if we sign with the only caterer we've met with?

Free food

Tomorrow we meet with our first caterer. Yum I love free food! What's weird is that because they have a rule that non-employees aren't allowed in the kitchen, she is coming to us with the food. But instead of meeting at our cramped apartment like we originally planned, I think we are going to take it to Jason's parents house so we can have a little more room. It should be interesting because as far as price goes, this company is the front runner. So if the food is up to our standards, we may not have to look much further. Although if these caterers keep volunteering to bring the free food to us...

We have another tasting some time next week, most likely Tuesday since I'm off that day. And then there's one more company that I'd like to try to meet with maybe next weekend. I've gotten quotes from about 8 companies, and except for the one that wants to charge me $55 a person, the prices all seem relatively comparable. I guess it will really come down to the food, how well we click with the people, references, and pictures of other events they've catered before.

Last night I kept having dreams about how I was getting married that day but nothing was done yet. I even dreamed I was getting married on my birthday once. But then I would remind myself I had another eight months and go back to sleep. Except then I would have the dream again about not being done and ready. It's that panicky feeling that makes me glad I've gotten started on a lot of the major things that need to be done. I'd rather be done and sitting on my butt the last month than running around still finalizing lots of things.

The one that almost got away

Michaelbond has so graciously agreed to be our doorman!

Two down...

Congratulations to the newest members of our wedding party - Trey and Dylan were finally cornered and agreed to be our ushers! We are so excited that you two will be part of our special day :)

In progress

Yesterday I went back and bought more of those floating candles. Today I am working on catering and then I want to make a list of all the things that still need to be done and start figuring out when they have to be done by. I need to start setting goals for each month since we're just over eight months away now.

Sales

Today as I was driving to Party City to look at their wedding stuff since their ad said they had some stuff on sale, I stopped in at Bed, Bath and Beyond to browse their 30-percent-off-everything-already-on-sale sale. I bought floating candles to experiment with as part of my centerpiece design. I put some water in a candle holder thing and floated a single candle to test it out. I lit the thing like three hours ago and it's still going strong. I've heard floating candles are notorious for not staying lit, but mine seem to be just fine. Now I'm gonna play with dyeing the water purple since the candles themselves are plain, unscented white. I just hope the candles don't absorb the color and get stained. But that's what this experimental candle is for - to try all my crazy ideas before doing it to all of them.

Then I went to Party City and bought lots of ribbon in purple and white. I'm going to attempt to make the chair ties myself, since my venue wants to charge me over $500 to do them in tulle. The ribbon example I made also looks really cute, PLUS I can keep the ribbon afterwards (not that I'd want to collect, untie and uncurl all that ribbon to save and use again, but it's nice to have the option if I want to). Also, at $1.71 per 500 yards of ribbon, it'll be a MUCH more economical option even if I do decide to trash it all at the end of the night :)

For my birthday eve dinner with Jason's parents, the gift they got me was a really pretty silver bangle bracelet with 44 rhinestones. I think it's going to be part of my wedding day jewelry. Yay.

In today's issue...

Save-the-date cards. Invitations. So many choices. But I think we are going to try to make our own STDs (heh). At least design it. Then let someone like Kinko's make them in a mass quantity. I think we're going to do postcards because I think they're cuter for people to put on their refrigerators (plus they save on postage costs lol).

We want to use a cute picture of us but can't agree on any of the ones we have. Maybe we will look into getting some studio ones done at Walmart or JC Penney. We still need to do engagement pictures, but want to wait for the weather to be consistently nicer so nature has a chance to regenerate after the harsh winter.

Let's take a vote. Should we hire a photographer to do our engagement pictures or should we just get someone to come out with us and take them using a nice digital camera?

Anachronisms

Random thoughts bouncing around in my head that are neither complete, nor anything that I'm actively working on because honestly, it's way too early to even be thinking about:

• Candles - I love candles and want to incorporate them as much as possible where I can. The chapel where we are getting married will come fully decorated with pew decorations, candelabras, an altar, etc as illustrated here: http://www.thecountryabbey.com/sitebuilder/images/interior_of_chapel_from_balcony-264x205.png http://www.thecountryabbey.com/sitebuilder/images/DURING_CEREMONY_CROPPED-263x200.jpg However, I thought about putting candles on the wooden side panels (on either side of the lower stairs, behind the greenery stands in the first picture). I just imagine a ceremony where it's dark, except for the intimacy provided by the soft glow of candlelight. OK, so our ceremony won't be before the sun is all the way down, so everyone will be able to read programs and vows and stuff, but I like the simplistic romance of candles...

• Along the same lines, has anyone ever seen a wedding party carry a bouquet that had both flowers and candles? I've seen candles that look like bouquets, but from pictures they all look like miniatures (a couple of inches high at best). Then I saw a bouquet that looks like the regular greenery, but instead of the bulb of the flower, they replaced it with colored candles. http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v217/CandyWA/votivecandlebouquets.jpg
  I like the scalloped edges of the tealights. I don't really like the bigger votives because they look too bulky. The ones shown in the picture are more potted plants than handheld bouquets but I bet a florist could work with me to adapt them to my needs. My two concerns, though, are
1. Would these candles cause a fire hazzard to the greenery in the rest of the bouquet? Obviously, my venue wouldn't allow anything that could potentially pose a threat.
2. How would I keep them lit all the way down the aisle and all during the ceremony? Have you ever tried to walk with a candle without shielding it? Unless I walked like a sloth, they'd blow out before I got there. And with one hand linked through my dad's arm and the other holding the bouquet, I'd have no way of shielding the flame. Would battery-powered candles (essentially fake) just look cheesy? I would love to find a way to make it work because it's me and it's unique, but not if people are going to be all "Ew, what on earth is that she's carrying?"
   

Done and done!

We have officially booked a venue and paid the deposit.

www.thecountryabbey.com

October 20, 2007 we'll be getting married!