Wedding Chaos Updates

I've neglected my adventure journal recently. Two months! Goodness. Well, we're starting to get down to the wire on this one. We're just under four months away from our big day. Since my last update, we've secured our date and location. The benefit to getting married on a Tuesday :-)

So, it's official! Franklin Park Conservatory is ours! *gleeful happy dances all around*

I've gotten almost everything else taken care of...and I just want to say that between Flower Factory and Michael's...well, my DIY attitude has equaled in saving a boatload of money. We have a good 85% of the favors ready; I just have to build the boxes and buy the candy. I'm waiting to the last minute to get the candy since we're not personalizing it in any way and I want it to be as fresh as possible. Seriously, I'll probably go to the store and pick up the chocolates the day before the wedding.

The boxes we originally picked were discontinued, when I had only bought half of what we needed. Fortunately, we've improvised, and due to our love of mixmatching, we've ended up with a nice combination that flatters our style and still looks cool in the mix.

My girls are pretty awesome, I can say that, too.

Nate's still struggling with his guys, mainly because neither one of us trusts his best friend to give a good toast. Seriously, the guy greatly dislikes me and I tolerate him only for the sake of Nate. That's really our only little piece of drama as far as the wedding goes.

The caterer is the last thing I need to finalize, and Cameron Mitchell has so many choices that I'm just overwhelmed. At least I'm stressed for a good reason.

I think my last big stress is going to be my centerpieces. I know what I want, I have some of them, but the woman who shoved me out of the way to snatch up literally every single item on the shelf the other day really irked me. I wanted to say something, but I hate being a drama queen in public. I learned young that it's just embarassing.

So...that's really it. We're ordering the invitations next week, complete with reply cards, I have to convince myself to stick to a budget with the caterer, and Nate has to PICK SOME FREAKING GROOMSMEN! Yeah, obsessive, but it needs done.

That's all I have, really. I'm just putting things together a little at a time.

Accomplishment Feels Great

I've had a busy weekend.

Sunday, we met with yet another officiant. We've found one we love! Finally! We've decided to go with Elayne from A Wedding Expression. Her personality and professional philosophy is exactly what we've been looking for that we couldn't quite find. I'm delighted to be working with her on this.

Monday afternoon I met with yet another cake designer...and this time I absolutely loved what I saw both in pricing and in quality...plus our Tuesday date isn't a deal breaker for her! Alice from Alice's Piece Of Cake is who we've decided to go with for this. Her designs are absolutely beautiful, the cake was delicious, her daughter is adorable (and insists on saying "hi!" whenever possible :-))...plus she helped me work my way into our budget while still getting exactly what I want as far as designs and flavorings go. Our supremely chocolate cake is going to be fabulous and I'm going to feel a bit guilty eating it, but that's OK.

I'm so excited to have finally found some professionals who also have a personality. While I respect a strong professionalism, I feel that when it comes to weddings and other such celebrations that the professionals should have some personality to boot.

So there's my teensy bit of bragging. I stayed within my budget and got exactly what I wanted. If anyone in Central Ohio is looking for a great cake designer, Alice does all occasions, and I have to say to check her out!

Happily yours,
Tonee

The Outfits

OK, so I've had my dress since November, and now that I've bought my shoes, my outfit is done. I even know how I'm doing my hair. Mwaha!

Monday night we finally made our way to the tuxedo shop to pick out what our guys are going to wear. We found a beautiful black three buttoned jacket that looks amazing with the marine vests. We picked a traditional collared ivory shirt and an ivory pocket square to pull all the wedding colors together. As for shoes, we're going with basic black for the guys. It makes everything much easier in the long run.

I just wonder one thing about my trip to the tuxedo shop: WHO WEARS WING TIPPED COLLARS? They looked so...silly! Then again, I'm a strange one, I suppose.

So, we're fully running with the ivory and marine theme, and here we are. The outfits are picked. Done, finally. One more thing to knock off my list.

Sunday is my meeting with a potential officiant. If meeting her in person is anything like chatting with her via email and phone, I will be a happy happy woman. Monday afternoon I'm meeting with a cake designer, now that I've found one who works in our price range AND whose designs I've liked thus far. I'm unbelievably excited that things are finally falling in to place like they're supposed to.

So, all that's left is to beat the groomsmen into going to get fitted, and for my delightful hubby-to-be to pick one of his groomsmen as a best man. I've agreed to just deal and let his best friend do it, but he doesn't seem to trust his best friend with the whole toasting thing. One dilemma after another with us, I swear.

That's all I've got for now. Hopefully I won't be as neglectful with this in the future. God knows I'm going to need to rant and my poor MOH can't handle all of my rants on top of her ER schedule :-D

Here I am, Bride-to-be, in my new pink-n-sparkly hat. In case it's hard to read, it says "Bride" and was a complete impulse buy when I went to David's Bridal today to buy my shoes. I got the shoes on super mega clearance for $20 (that includes the price to have them dyed), so I splurged $12.95 for the hat. It's actually a very comfortable hat, and makes me feel delightfully girly with all of this.







Yup, there's more of me being silly in my pretty and sparkly pink hat. The camera doesn't do this thing justice, as it is delightfully bright pink and very silly girly. I somehow see me arguing with my bridesmaids over wearing this hat instead of the veil at the bachelorette scavenger hunt chaos.

I've decided that I'm just not going to stress out about everything like I have been. I have a meeting with an officiant on Sunday, and tonight is our appointment to start finding things he likes for his clothing. We at least have agreed on vests, so there's one step in the right direction for us.

One of my girls found a dress at JC Penney in the perfect color that works beautifully with her body type. Best part? On clearance for $70 marked down from almost $200. One girl down, two to go. I still have to get the ring-bearer pillow and flower girl basket. Then again, we still need a ring bearer. Maybe. It looks like one of my bridesmaids is going to loan me her son for the evening :-D

That's all, really. I've decided that I'm not going to stress out and cry for at least three months. Come St. Patrick's Day, though, all bets are off. For now, all is good.

~The Future Mrs. K

Something old, something new...

Of all the traditions I've decided to use, this one is my favorite so far.

My Checklist:

• Something old: mom is covering it. She won't tell me what it is yet, though. She says I get it at my bridal shower.
• Something new: a beautiful silver and diamond necklace that Nate bought me for Christmas
• Something borrowed: still working on that one.
• Something blue: my garter! I was able to go through David's Bridal and get a garter that matches my dress perfectly. An advantage to falling in love with something from their signature collection.

We've been slowly collecting the little details we've been wanting to have. Our guestbook showed up today, and I'm quite happy with the one I ordered. Not only does it match my colors perfectly, but it has a page set aside for each set of parents to express their wishes for their newly married children.

Other than shoes, my attire is completely done now. The girls have their assignment for their attire, and now it's up to them. We have 7 months, so I'm not to worried yet.

We have yet to finalize anything for the guys, other than that cummerbunds are not an option for us. We both dislike them for one reason or another in a wedding setting.

I've gotten most of our Announcements sent out. I have a few left, and now that I have the last of the addresses I need, I can get that done.

Flowers are becoming less of a stress for me. My gardening whiz of a mom has decided that she's going to grow flowers for me. There is seriously nothing that woman can't get to grow in this weird weather black hole known as Ohio. I'm excited to know that her gift to me is to grow my flowers. I just hope they don't end up so large that they hide me!

I still haven't picked a cake baker or an officiant, though.

I'm pretty sure that isn't a good thing.

I'll get to it. Nate's sister-in-law is giving me so much strength and help, and his dad is practically chomping at the bit to make sure we get everything the way we want it in a reasonable time and at a reasonable price. The man is a brilliant negotiator, and his skills have come in handy for us.

I'm unbelievably grateful for the family and friends that are lending their skills to us. To me, that is so much more than just handing over money. Time and skills are harder to come by for my life anymore.

Here's hoping I can manage to find myself a cake baker and officiant before they're all booked up!

Guest Lists are a nightmare.

I've contemplated just eloping so much over the past couple of months. I'm just sick of everything, and we haven't even told the extended family about the engagement yet.

I had to do something quite heartbreaking with our guest list, however. I had to remove one of my bridesmaids and her date from our guest list. Not because of any kind of falling out, but due to the fact that my future sister in law passed away in early October. I just now got the strength to remove her from the list. There's something completely heartbreaking about removing someone your own age due to a death. It's not like it was great grandma who had been sick for years. No, it was Li, who had just called us two days before to confirm plans for dinner and shopping.

I almost don't want to tell everyone else about the engagement now, because it feels like I'd be encroaching on people's time to grieve.

Any help?

The Guest List: Round 1

We started working on our respective guest lists recently. So far, we are realizing how impractical it is going to be for many of our guests to make it to our wedding. I have the benefit of working for a small store, so I'm very close with most of my coworkers, and it's just impractical to think that I can invite everyone...after all, who would run the store? Fortunately, we are hiring before my wedding, so I'm hoping I just don't become good friends with the new hires.

Which brings about an interesting question: How do you decide who to invite? Nate and I are lucky enough to have a relatively small invitation base, due to being from small families and having only a few dear friends we want to share our day with; but I can't help but wonder, what about those people who are friends with half of the known world?

We do have a dilemma within our comparatively easy situation, though. As of right now, his brother and father are feuding. Nate is not a part of the fight, and is struggling quite a bit to maintain neutral without isolating everyone. Of course I want his family to be at our wedding, especially since we all get along so well.

But how should we deal if this rift between his father and brother doesn't heal? What would that mean for us? I realize how selfish that sounds, but we want our whole family to celebrate with us. I suppose we could seat them apart from each other, and I know for our sakes they'd all still come and play nice, but I hate putting people in situations I know make them unhappy or uncomfortable if it isn't necessary.

Anyone out there have any advice for me this time around? It seems like this is one thing I just can't figure out myself.