Halfway mark passed.

A week ago was the six month marker for the wedding plans, as in I only have six more months to make sure everything is settled. Well, more like four or five because Andrew and I still also have to plan the move to where ever we are going. He's finishing his grad school research and app process over his holiday break so we're not in the dark too much longer. My "holiday break" is going to be spent creating our Save-the-Dates and making sure they get mailed out to the correct people. Like I said - expect an email from me begging for addresses soon.

I did find one store here in Indy that is going to help with the stationary so much. The store is in Castleton and it's known as Archivers. One of my Williams-Sonoma co-workers introduced me after work one day. I've already been there twice, once to look around and another time to pick up some stuff for Andrew's Christmas gift. They have a wide-range of paper products for some pretty decent prices. My only concern is finding a printer for what I need, because I'm not sure a home printer would be strong enough for the paper. Some of the paper is glossy as well, and I'm not sure if that would effect how the ink. Love the store though, still looking around and I'll probably drag Mum, Leila, and/or Gail there after the Christmas sale rush is over.

Ideas by Archivers.com (Not necessarily choosing these.)

A couple of weeks ago, my mother and I returned to Valle Vista to meet with the accessories coordinator to go over the linens and decoration policies/procedures. It was early in the morning, and she'd just made time for the us the day before when my mum and I discovered we had time off on a weekday at the same time. It was kind of her to do and she didn't try to push anything onto to me as far as decorations I could rent from VV went. She pointed out that VV is very strict on their timelines and that most of my items need to be brought to her a week in advance (any non-fresh-floral decorations, cake cutting supplies, etc.). She showed us some cloth we could rent through a company they use, and I liked one sheer, fern organza that matched the fabric color from the girls' BM dresses very well. May order some of that to go under the apothecary jars on the reception tables.


Poll Update: Ferns won the last poll by 50% of the votes. Still not sure what I'm using, but I'll figure it out by the time I need to. Please check out our new question!

Tis the Season

Christmas retail and Thanksgiving sales is certainly filling my life with busyness these last couple of days and certainly the next couple of weeks up til the holidays are over. I haven't gotten much wedding stuff done. I'm almost entirely decided against having orchids at the wedding. Though I love them, they are flashier than most of the other wedding details and extremely expensive. And I'm not sure I'd be able to find them in the colors and size I want. I'm really going for a fern look, I think.

I like the idea of apothecary jars filled with fern branches. Apothecary jars are hard to find in the right shape and size you want. I looked into buying some for a craft at one point, and they're pretty expensive. Not exactly something you can really use at a later point at well.



At this point I'm thinking of getting different sized, shaped glass bottles and filling them with either fern stems or different types of dried florals or herbs. I found a site that had dried hydrangea, dried jasmine, dried maidenhair fern, etc. I bookmarked it to show to my mum later. No decisions as of yet.



I also shopped from glasses for the apartment from Crate & Barrel. I would have registered for them, but they went on sale and I was afraid that perhaps they would go out of stock so I bought them myself.


Gus Glasses
Andrew likes them too, he picked them out of some other glasses I showed him. Easy to grip, easy to stack, and the staff already wrapped them up in newspaper and packed them tight in a nice packing bag that has a handle. So they're just going to stay put with my other stuff until we move.

Gown at Home!

My wonderful mummy brought home my gorgeous wedding gown today! It's sitting happily in my closet until such time as I feel like trying it on again. We're not going to alter it until about April so I have time to lose my tummy, or try to.

It's beautiful. We also managed to get a torn Russian tulle veil made from silk that mum is going to alter into a cage veil for my hair. Mum and I have come to this agreement: I will wear the cage veil for the ceremony and part of the pictures, and a long veil for part of the pictures as well.

I'm really excited, though I was too tired to jump up and down happily like my mum expected me to when she got home. I think she was disappointed. But the gown is absolutely gorgeous and we got a great deal on it so I can wear it without guilt!

Making Checks

Me and my Guest List

Tonight I finally finished designing and printing off my own guest list chart. I had the initial design for a wedding tools blogs I had planned to run from earlier. But I took away the blog title and instead added a color-coded index on the right hand corner to thumb through. It's all bound now and put into my bridal binder. I need to start collecting addresses, so expect an email from me soon asking for your contact information, and other tid-bits I need to know!


Also checks some things off my list in addition to writing checks for those said things. I finalized the dessert with our vendor and made sure I had a sugar-reduced options for those of my guests who are diabetic. Before that, I met with a photographer Andrew and I had approved of.

I met the man, Randall Todd, in Panera Bread and went over some of his work with him. It was beautiful quality and he has some really amazing shots of his subjects. I pointed out what I liked and appreciated and we worked out some of the things I was interested in: detail shots, working around the height difference between me and Drew, and how he works in formal shots to our time schedule based on what Valle Vista gives us. He was great about it, gave me a lot of good advice. I recommend checking out his blog or website if you want to see his work. We closed a deal and I'll be glad to get that off my chest for the next couple of months.

Time to start looking for stationary... Save-the-Dates have to go out in two months.

Poll Results

Cake and Tarts won the Favourite Dessert poll wih 5 votes each! Unfortunately, we're no longer DOING tarts, but pie, but luckily for those who prefer one over the other, both will be available after brunch. A shiny new poll is up, vote if you have time or the interest.


Haven't done much in the way of the wedding since Andrew was here two weeks ago. I picked up Annalee's BM dress as it finally came. Since I had it in hand and the tux shop was right next to David's Bridal, I swung by to ask them a question. My cousin Marjan had recommended the possibility of doing a black vest with a color tie to make the color pop more, but I needed to find out whether that was plausible with MW Tux. They said it is, so that will take some consideration. I like the idea of a color vest and black tie, but I'm not sure how that would look.

The gentleman who is the manager asked if we were using fern, since he could see that was the color of Annalee's dress. I informed him it was, but that Andrew would be wearing royal blue and the groomsmen would most likely be wearing Fern (the boys voted, only Tom wanted blue, and Ian didn't care). Well, he gave a start and said in a very concerned voice if I was very sure Andrew wanted to wear blue when everyone else is wearing fern. I told him we were sure, thanked him for the information and left.

However, on repeating the story to Andrew because I thought the seriousness of the manager in response to the colors was hilarious, Andrew has decided (much to his frustration) that he's going to wear fern, damn it all. I told him we'd picked out a nice blue that he had liked, but he's uncomfortable with being the only one wearing blue. So... we'll see what is decided when we actually put in the order.

A weddingful weekend

Andrew was able to come down to Indianapolis for his four-day break and with his help we were able to get a lot of stuff done for the wedding. We had a cake appointment, went over a list of photographers and got one of our registries underway. We also talked about centerpieces and moving to Boston.

Dessert
As the poll on my blog is done on Halloween, it seems fitting that Andrew and I are about to confirm our dessert options for the brunch. We had an appointment with a bakery in Greenwood called Piece of Cake, that Valle Vista highly recommended and asked we use if we could. We were given a sample of chocolate and white cake, with ivory and white buttercream icing.

We've decided on having pie as well as cake for the cake lovers (Andrew and I are pie-supporters). Our cake will feed a little more than half the reception. The bottom layer is going to be lemon with raspberry filling, and the top layer will be spice cake. The icing is going to be white, and we've decided on a simple design.



The icing on the cake will be like so but the peaks will be a little more exaggerated. this is what is known as "rough styling" apparently. No flowers of any sort, though we may at a later date add some fruit or mint to the design.

Piece of Cake also does pies, so we're getting an arrangement of berries, apples, and probably a keylime pie as well. I'm looking into purchasing some geometric pie cutters from William-Sonoma so the designs of the wedding pies will be a little more exciting than usual.


Photography
Probably the biggest pain we have right now. We really want good quality photography for the wedding that we're willing to skimp a little on style as long as the clarity and composition of the photographers are grade A material. Unfortunately, it seems that photographers everywhere are raising their prices and dropping ala carte options from their packages. Every package we've found is atleast $1000 dollars. And for that you may only get 1 photographer and 6 hours coverage. No images on a DVD, no prints, just coverage.

We found two studios we REALLY liked, one that had great style as well as photo quality but they just upped their price and changed their package in the last five days, so we had to mark them off the list because it's no longer in our budget. The remaining studio I'm emailing tomorrow. They're Valle Vista recommended and have a good package for what we can afford.


Registry
Though we haven't finished our registries by a long shot, because alot of merchandising changes after the holidays, we've certainly been given perhaps way too much food for thought as to what we want in our apartment and how we're going to decorate it. We have decided that the kitchen is going to be a series of bright reds, greens, and blues. The rest of the house - no clue!

Andrew and I had the cutest disagreement over china. I'm a fan of the really plain, white china so that you can always decorate the table with whatever other colors and designs you like. He wants a pattern, and a pattern with color. I don't mind a pattern as long as its not over done and it's in white. Needless to say, I'm a pushover and we're currently registered for a white striped china set with blue edging. I'm hoping we can switch to the same pattern without the blue edging, but I need to find some prettier place-mats and napkins that don't fit what we have on the list now to convince him.

I'm dressed!

Mum and I checked out a place near the wedding location called Unique Bridal. This was another Alfred Angelo dress. I loved the fabric and the look of the bust area, but in the end it wasn't for me.


Alfred Angelo


However, mum called me in from William-Sonoma after work and told to swing by Saks because she had a dress she wanted to show me! I'm pretty sure this is the one we're getting and it's absolutely gorgeous. I saw it on the rack and loved it more than any of the previous ones.

I have til Tuesday to decide whether I want the dress before Saks sends it away. The style didn't sell well so they're not carrying it anymore and the sample is mine for the buying if I want it. I'm pretty sure I do. What do you think? The first picture isn't quite as flattering pixelated as it was in person.




Ulla Meija Unknown Style Name

I'm most likely going to be wearing pearls and Mum is going to design me a birdcage veil to go with it. The dress isn't in ivory, though I would have liked it to be. It's off-white enough that it's not too harsh against my skin tone. (Whee - still have tan lines.) If we get this dress - the bridal party will be "dressed." Which is a wonderful thing to have checked off of the list.


In other news, Andrew is coming up to the house this upcoming weekend and we're getting some more things done. Hopefully we'll be decided what to do for dessert as we have a cake appointment on Friday with a nice bakery near Valle Vista. We're going to decide on some music, hopefully grab a couple of photographers to check out, and talk about the ceremony and how we want it done. If anyone knows of some local photographers, I'm asking everyone to email me or comment who they recommend!

Tuxedo Shopping

I dragged Andrew out to Tux this past Friday (actually, he came willingly) and we looked at what they had to offer as far as different suits and tuxedos for Andrew and the groomsmen. We picked Tux because they are apart of Mens Wearhouse and they have shops nationwide for the guys to go get fitted. In addition to that, their colors are made to match with those of David's Bridal.

Andrew did end up picking a tuxedo as well as a color. Despite what we've told people, no one has thus far believed that their Royal Blue is going to look good with the Fern color the bridesmaids (and possibly the groomsmen) will be wearing. But it does! We held up the swatch and inspected the color. Looked better than any of the other blues or purples.

Tux only carries about six or seven summer-weight tuxedos. Thus we chose from those because no one wants to wear heavy wool during an outdoor June wedding (unless you live in Canada). These are all 100% wool, but they're claimed to be lightweight.

Andrew's Tux:

Ralph Lauren Three-Button Super 100's Stripe Notch Lapel

Groomsmen Tux:

Calvin Klein Two-Button Super 100's Notch Lapel

We're still taking the votes from the guys' on what color the groomsmen will wear collectively. They'll either all wear Fern, to match the girls, or wear Royal Blue to match Andrew. Tom is for blue, Ian is basing his decision on the pattern so we have to show him the vests, and we haven't talked to Robert or Nathan yet. It turns out that the Royal Blue vest actually comes up higher than the fern vest, which is useful because Andrew's 3-button tux also comes up higher when buttoned. He was concerned about making sure the color could be seen, it was a big deal for him.

Here are the colors for the vests & ties:

|
Royal Blue & Fern

Unfortunately, trying on the tuxedos isn't an option. So none of the guys would get a chance to see how it feels on and decide whether they're comfortable. The woman we talked with insisted that the 2-button lapel looked good on almost everyone, tall or short, and that the 3-button would compliment Andrew's height and set him off from the groomsmen without looking too different. We'll probably end up making a decision by the end of November/December. Also, since we get a free tux rental if the groomsmen all pay for their tuxedos (four rentals) that means we'll be able to help out the guys with their rental fees like we did with the girls. Happiness all around.


Andrew's got his clothes. Now why haven't I?

Four days at home.

I was unfortunate enough to be able to get my wisdom teeth torn out of my mouth yesterday morning, so I've spent the last two days here at home attempting to recover. The pain is off and on, and mostly I've been very fortunate not to deal with too much swelling or aching. I'm eating soft foods and trying to deal with the headache that seems to be plaguing me from the painkillers. I have two more days before I go back to work, so wish me a speedy recovery!

The one thing I can say about staying at home and being little able to do anything besides lay in bed is that I've had too much time to consider wedding plans. The designer and craft person that I am sometimes is crying out for small, innovative touches here and there to the wedding. But alas - doing so would put me over the budget and I'm determined to stay within the budget as closely as possible.

I do have to say that Martha Stewart weddings are gorgeous and I love them. I also have the Real Simple Weddings guide which has beautiful pictures and tons of good advice for me to follow. In fact, I told Andrew I'd email him some of the stuff I learned today so I guess that is what I'm up to next after I write this post.

Still no dress. I find that I like simpler and simpler designs, but they are the hardest to find in stock. I'm considering getting my dress made (if I can find a reasonable and quality seamstress to commission the pattern from) but I'd like to just find the plain dress I want and buy it.

May post more as the weekend drags on.

Invitations

I've been pretty set on designing our invitations for the wedding myself, including the printing and the putting together. I've been hunting down kits and paper for the last week here on my side of town and in Castleton. It was a sad day to find that Jo Ann's didn't actually have that great a selection of print-easy card stock (or pre-designed, print-yourself invites, which I considered).

Luckily, I troll Yahoo! Answers enough that one of the wedding forums junkies like myself pointed me towards Mountaincow. It's a pretty snazzy stationary site that may have exactly what I've been looking for. I haven't ordered a sample kit yet, but I plan on doing it soon to see if the paper is as printer friendly as the site claims. And to check to see if I like the colors.

The wedding kit is as follows: 25 invitations and envelopes, 25 response cards and envelopes, and 25 reception cards. Andrew and I are considered doing Save-the-Dates and RSVPs by email to save paper and help the environment, but we have to take a stock on how many of our friends and family do not have email or easy internet access.






Above is an example of the kit that is available for purchase. I put the four color combinations that I'm looking at underneath so you give your opinions if you wish. The reason the card is light is so that the design process and printing will be easier. I have no access to raised ink printing, so I need paper that green and whatever other color I'll be designing with stand out against.

They have another kit available for extra stationary that includes menu cards, place cards, and table cards. I'm looking into those, but you have to order all three in the same color... Still on the "perhaps" board. So far a pretty successful week as far as planning and finding handy-dandy sites for wedding supplies.

Dress?

This is a dress I may be going with. Gail mentioned that a friend of ours bought her wedding dress from White House | Black Market so mum and I looked at the site tonight.



Sunshine Satin Gown in cream


I like the simplicity of the design, and I'm short enough that we'd be able to alter the length to what I liked.

Oh no! More Dresses!

Gail has reminded me that I must post more often. This post is in honor of her.

I sometimes feel like I'm orchestrating a game of Oh no! More Lemmings! where I have to get all the lemmings (all the little wedding details) through the end door without killing off too many of them. I feel like I'm digging endless holes, jumping off cliffs with only an umbrella, and building stairs to no where. Only sometimes though.

Andrew and I have secured a final date for our wedding! We went into Valle Vista on Friday to put down a deposit and go over the paperwork with our consultant, Rosie. I won't post the date for security reasons since this blog is open to the public. But we were able to secure a morning slot so you'll be seeing us all exchange our vows at eleven in the morning!


Mum, Aunt Sherri and I went to Nancy's Bridal earlier this past week and tried on some more dresses. They didn't have some of the ones I posted below, but these are the three I liked that are posted below. Guess which one Mum and Aunt Sherri cried over?



This dress was very summery and perhaps a little too informal for a wedding.



The weird white line around my waist is the strapless bra, which we decided I wouldn't wear anyway. Like the dress, but it looked better in person.



I love strapless dresses so much more than halter tops. This once may be a little too lacy, but I thought the top looked great.




In other news, when Andrew approved of the wedding colors he didn't realize that he would have to wear them. After realizing this was the case this past weekend (we were going over details and decorations) he looked so disappointed that I agreed to get rid of the champagne and replace it with a blue color that would coordinate but not overpower the fern color the girls are wearing. So I'm currently searching for a suitable shade. Any advice? Right now all that looks good is a really dark blue. Pah. Boys, huh? =D

More dresses to the list!

Mum and I sat around this morning looking at dresses. We've added a couple from Watters Brides to the list. We'll see if anyone in town has these styles and try them on at some point.



Style 8032B


Style 1048B


Style 1039B


Need to go to the gym. Missed going to Zumba class last night because I had promised to go visit the grandparents. I'll go on Tuesday.

September Update

Sorry no updates for August. Work kept me on my toes all season as we closed the pool. Now I have more time for wedding planning and keep you guys informed as we move along the to-do list.

Mum really likes the halter top dresses, so I've been looking for more styles that may fit me better than the David's Bridal selections. So far I've only found this, but I haven't looked very hard. We'll be trying it on on Monday.



Mon Cheri Bridal 28231S Tasha



In other news, Andrew and I have decided on Valle Vista Golf Course for the ceremony and reception. We really liked the layout and the services they could provide us. We're going in to settle on a date and other details next week.

It's alot easier on me now that he's back in state to go ahead with the planning process. As much as the man keeps saying he doesn't care about the details, he actually does. He's glad we can have a morning ceremony with a brunch meal, as am I. We're making sure the food will be good, and he's gonna help me come up with an idea for the desserts. Whoo-hoo!

Finally Fotos

Here are photos of all of the dresses but one from the post below on my body instead of a model's. I'm missing the Galina Signature dress because the photos were accidently deleted before we were able to put them onto a computer. But here are the others with no further ado other than you may notice that I have changed the 'favourites' order.


Runner Ups


The second here is out of question anymore actually because shortening the hem would require me to chop off the design at the bottom and it ruins the three lines theme the dress has going.

First Place (Tie)


I love this dress and have for months. I have the wrong type of bra on which is why the waist is a little funny.



Also love this dress. I have on no sash, unlike the model below. Keep in mind I'm in 4 1/2 inch heels and on a pedestal. This has a gorgeous bustle though and no bra needed (freedom!).


I love knowing everyone's opinions of the dresses. Leila likes the Galina Signature the best. Mum likes the David's Bridal lace dress the best. If you have an opinion feel free to leave a comment. <3

Runway Bride

Here are the dresses I am currently looking at for "The Dress." I have actual pictures of myself in these dresses which I will be adding at a later time. But here's the runway line up so far:

Current Runner Ups:

David's Bridal Style T9512

Galina Signature Style SRL9499

Current Third Place:

Galina Style VW8893

Current Second Place:

Galina Style EK9343

Current Winner:

Alfred Angelo Style 1144
Satin, Taffeta with Organza Flowers, Detachable Chapel Train


Let me know what you think! All of these dresses are under $700 so I'm proud of myself for being economical about the dress choices. Hopefully the dress I end up choosing will be even less so I have extra money in the bank or to spend on the little misc. items that I know are going to pop up through the whole planning process.

Welcome!

This blog is for all of you lovely women who keep asking me about my wedding plans. Because I'd love to share them with you, and I don't always have the time, I've created this blog so you can keep up with what I'm doing without having to translate the crazy babble that is my frantic planning language. Hopefully you guys will enjoy checking up on here from time to time. I plan on having what I'm doing, what I'm looking into, and wonderful tid-bits I've found by shopping and looking around (even if I don't plan on including it anywhere).

For those of you who don't know where Andrew and I are at at the moment, we are currently:

Setting a Budget This is a hard one, mostly because we're apart for the next month, and it's easier to do this on paper in front of your nose. We wanted to draw the line at 5,000 but we're close to pushing 8,000 now unless we find a lucky break somewhere or get less picky about a venue. Our disbelieving parents think we'll eventually get to 10,000. *tsktsk*

Finding a Venue OOOH, tricky because once again, the fiancé is far away. He's not too interested in all the little details, but he does care what the place looks like. We're hoping to have an outdoor ceremony that has a backup inside place. Anyone know such a venue with good service?

We have luckily figured out the following:

Wedding Month June is our wedding month. No set date, mostly because we want to find a venue first. But a good month for moving, and good weather. Also, my mom can take off work then which is always a plus...

Wedding Colors The colors we (meaning I showed them to Andrew, and he shrugged and said okay) are fern, champagne, and ivory. Fern is kinda a swampy sage color, for those of you trying to visualize it. David's Bridal just came out with it a month ago and it's what the bridesmaids are wearing.


That's it for the moment. I'll start putting up pictures eventually as well more fun things for you guys to interact with if you're interested. Check out the poll to the right and give me an opinion! <3 Love you all. Thanks again for reading.