I was wondering if any other engaged ladies out there would be interested in starting a new thread? I know everyone wants to look fit and fabulous on her wedding day. Plus we could dish about wedding planning, dress shopping (ugh!) and other things like that.

I’ve been engaged for about a month and we’re planning to have our wedding in May 2008. My weight loss has been stalled since last summer due to lots of things (moving, lack of motivation, beer and pizza ) but now I’m back on the wagon and hoping to lose about 30 lbs before the big day.

If you’re interested, please introduce yourself!

I would definately be interested, I am getting married October 2007, so I have to get on it! I wanted to lose 50 pounds but I don't think I can do it in 7 month, however, I want to lose as much as I can before August (final time to get my dress altered).

My boyfriend just proposed to me on Monday I have been engaged now for not even 3 whole days But of course, being a woman, I have already thought about us getting married, getting a ring, having a wedding, having kids, all that jazz, long before he proposed

We're at a loss for wedding ideas. I hate dancing, so a typical reception is OUT for us, but I still want to have a gathering of friends and family. We'll figure it out in time--and we do have plenty of time. I don't want to even think about any real plans until after we move into our new home together in the fall (our apartment lease runs out in November, so we are planning to buy a townhouse together). Also, my parents are about to embark on a big move (from Connecticut to Virginia Beach), so as I explained it to my mother and sister, I don't want to start planning anything until my parents are moved and settled and Jeff and I are moved and settled--that way, everyone's focus can be on ME!

Congrats jillybean!

Jilly - OH MY GOODNESS - congrats.

Well, I'd love to be on the thread for the 5 weeks of wedding planning I have left...April 21st!

Thanks, guys! I am soooo interested in what others are doing for their weddings--locations, colors, receptions, ceremonies, dresses--the whole shabang.

I do know that if I go with something formal/organized enough to pick colors, I want to use a deep royal blue and deep jewel-tone purple with bright turquoise accents. That's as far as I've gotten

Jill! Plus a new home, you must be super excited.

Madalinn – At 5 weeks left to go I do hope most of the planning is done! I know I will probably be a wreck by that point.

I like picking out colors too, picking the bridal party has been a little trickier. You never want to hurt anyone’s feelings or leave anyone out and there’s a pressure to meet everyone’s expectations. Plus we just have a lot more close friends and family that are girls than guys, and my fiancé is kind of set on having an even number of girls to guys. sigh Well, at least there’s plenty of time to work that out.

We did find a place last weekend that we’re interested in having the ceremony at. It was under snow of course, but it should be stunning in the spring, there are some nice pictures on their website. http://www.horticulture.wisc.edu/all...ish_garden.htm We’re hoping to have the reception at the UW Memorial Union, but it books up really fast so we need to get on that (yes, even more than a year in advance). It would be really cool if we could do the whole thing on campus since we met back in our school days there.

Wow, that garden is gorgeous!

I'm going to cheat a bit on the wedding party because this should not be a tressful thing for me. I only have 1 sister, and I was maid of honor at both of her weddings (hopefully, she is done having weddings), so she will be my Natron o fHonor. The end. No bridesmaids required Then I won't have to worry about anyoone's dress not matching or not being hemmed to the same length or the dress I want not coming in someone's size (as was a concern when my sister was picking out a dres for the bridal party--would it come in plus sizes for ME??), and no one's feelings should be hurt since my sister is my only sister, and everyone understands that. I've already even told my best friend from college that I'm probably not having bridesmaids (which is fine by her since it's an added expense she doesn't have to worry about ).

Um - no. Sure, you have your overarching things set - invitations sent, caterers and sites and alcohol and DJ and all of that stuff set up. Dresses at the seamstress, bridesmaid dresses delivered. Honeymoon booked. A lot of the BIG stuff is taken care of. But then you have to track responses, plan rehearsal dinners, pick up all kinds of things from all kinds of places, set a song list, assemble favors, finalize the ceremony, finalize the timeline, arrange everyones schedule, make sure everyone has travel arrangements, start shopping and packing for honeymoon, pick a first dance song, make sure all of your guys have tuxes taken care of, order attendant gifts, wrap attendant gifts, assemble programs, make seating charts...

OK, OCD Bride alert. If you ask for wedding details...you will get them! Also, wedding-with-two-brides alert...if that isn't your thing, please skip.

First, for our overall vision check out http://www.sarahandamanda.com. Those are approximately our colors, you can get a vague idea of our plans from there. The colors are lavender and a sort of pale sage-green color, with a little bit of shimmer in them.

Sarah is a floral designer. I know nothing of the flowers except that I had to spend 3 months working on and off on a website for her company to pay for her vision. But at least they are free, now. So far, she has filled me in on some of the plans - bluebird roses, green cymbidium orchids...an orchid on every napkin ring (!!), white orchid bouts/corsages for the parents, green orchid bouts for the gentleman attendants. The centerpieces involve hydrangeas. All of the tables are named after favorite flowers of ours, which fits with the floral-sort-of theme. We are putting a single, bright color gerbera daisy (my favorite flower) in each of the out of town baskets, along with some snack foods, water, and information about the festivities/things to do in Berkeley.

We are having our ceremony and reception here:
http://www.herecomestheguide.com/loc...brazilian-room

The ceremony is going to be simple, short, and facing out on this gorgeous green hillside under a small arch. Sarah's step-father, who is important in her life but still not a -father- figure to her, is going to officiate (we wanted him to have an important role in the ceremony, but not try to fit him into the "father" role - her bio dad will do that anyway). The reception is going to consist of a buffet meal, some dancing, and karaoke (which I could not be more thrilled about - already people are practicing, its madness!). Wine, beer, and champagne. Our biggest splurge (other than the bartered flowers) was hiring a bus to transport our guests up and down the hill to the site so everyone can drink as they wish, then get home safely...its worth the money to have everyone be safe.

Dresses - they coordinate but do not match...you'd be surprised how hard it is to pick out dresses that mesh for two brides:
Me (ignore all the pins - the seamstress literally had to take it in from an 18W to a 10/12, and I finally get to see the finished product on Saturday:
http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y12...ndapics026.jpg
Sarah: http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y12...ndapics027.jpg
Bridesmaids: http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y12...2/bafd7d65.jpg
That bridesmaid is my sister...also getting married on July 21st! Yeah, in a brilliant time-management move, I am throwing her a shower the weekend before my wedding.

Menu (is this too much detail? LOL. People should know better than to ask me these things):

Appetizers (passed during cocktail time):
-Caramelized Onions and Brie in Baked Phyllo
-Bruschetta with Tomato, Garlic, Olive Oil, and Fresh Basil

Entrees:
-Sonoma Chicken Breast with Meyer Lemon and Rosemary
-Lamb with Rosemary and Garlic

Sides:
-Field Greens with Roasted Garlic Vinaigrette, Sweet-Spicy Pecans, and Feta
-Pencil thin asparagus with roasted garlic and sesame vinaigrette
-Tomatoes and Yellow/Green Zucchini baked with Parmesan Cheese and Fresh Herbs
-Caramelized Petaluma Brie with strawberries and crackers
-Petite Red Potatoes, served with sour cream
-Potato Rolls and Seeded Baguettes, served with sweet butter

Plus wine, beer, champagne, sodas, and this AMAZING meyer lemon and blueberry punch. For the champagne toast, we're floating blueberries in each glass. I am super excited about our catering because they use local, organic ingredients whenever possible and donate leftovers to homeless shelters in the area.

Cake - it is square, has three tiers. Each tier is frosted in white buttercream, then wrapped around the base with a lavender fondant ribbon colored based on the paper sample from our invitation. Then, piped onto the sides (in white - its more textural than truly visible piping) is our invitation motif...a little cartoon flower that is so cute. The bottom layer is princess...white cake with raspberry preserves, vanilla buttercream, and a little almond paste. The top two tiers are valencia - chocolate cake brushed with grand marnier, with dark chocolate mousse, a thin layer of orange marmalade, and a hint of candied orange peel. The top will be decorated with, what else, more flowers.

The worst details for me (in terms of being ashamed of my obvious OCD) - the bathroom baskets! I hand-molded soaps in our wedding colors and scents and bought little dishes for them to go in, then assembled baskets to put in the bathrooms of things like mints, hairspray, lotion, tylenol, antacids, lint rollers, bandaids...plus extra things in the womens, like hygiene products and bobby pins...and THEN bought disposable guest towels (you know - the paper-towel-like things that are a little thicker and softer that are sometimes in bathrooms?) in our wedding colors to go next to them.

Amanda – 1) You just made my head explode. 2) You and Sarah are adorable! 3) Will you come plan my wedding?

Seriously, hand molded soaps in your wedding colors and scents, you are some sort of super-bride!

That’s funny about your colors, I was thinking about that yesterday and decided I wanted the bridesmaids in either a purply-blue (like cornflower) or a dusty green (celadon). Isn’t it crazy how planning this stuff makes you learn the nuances of color names! I also want purple hydrangeas with some sort of green and maybe pink accents. Originally I wanted tulips, but tulip stems go south pretty fast, I don’t think they’d make it through a whole day. I might use potted tulips as centerpieces for the reception.

That’s cool that you can get Sarah’s step dad to officiate. We’re going to get a Justice of the Peace but aren’t sure how to go about finding one.

Where did you find your dresses? I’m not crazy about anything at David’s Bridal. Also, good to know that a seamstress can take a dress in from an 18 to a 10/12. I was wondering how that would work since I will (hopefully) be a smaller size on the wedding day than when I choose the dress. I had some issues getting my bridesmaid dress altered properly for my sisters wedding, the top ended up being about 2 sizes too big and it didn’t really lay they way it was supposed to even after the alterations.

So much to think about! I’m glad I have more than a year to get this together.

1) Not as much as mine is exploding
2) Thank you!
3) I think I might literally keel over if I tried to do this twice. This time at least, I have a big fat vacation at the end to relax on (10 day cruise to the Mexican Riviera in a SUITE with a private deck! SO EXCITED).

Well, I actually did get my dress at David's, but am making some design changes to it (taking the back from a zip-up to a corset back). I think the reason it can be taken in so much is that my seamstress actually specializes in restoration of heirloom gowns and custom gown design, so she is used to resizing gowns for the next generation (for example, if you are wearing your mothers dress). This way, the dress itself was fairly cheap so I could spend some more on making it unique with the corset back, and to pay for the extensive sizing.

Want me to ask the woman? She might be able to recommend ways to make them hold for a reception, or another flower with a similar look. She is good at stuff like that. My sister and cousin are getting married (July and June, respectively) and Sarah is doing the flowers for both.

They are molded into little flower shapes. To match the theme. :-)

Thank you! Dress fitting on Saturday, so I'll have pictures of the dress in my actual size...i can't wait! We were 18s when the engagement pics were taken, and I am a 12, she is a 14 now. The new avatar pic is actually at our joint bridal shower on March 4th.

I am so happy I found you ladies... may I join? We're not officially engaged yet, but the boy and I have been looking at rings for 3 months now (holy cow, some day we will find the right one!) and we are sort of planning to get married this August. It is really exciting and I am super happy! We are thinking seriously about buying a house this May or June, having the summer to fix it up together, then getting married in August before he goes back to school.

Mandalinn- I hope you don't think I'm stalking you, but I was thinking about you and your wedding plans this week! I am so thrilled with your continued weight loss, and your wedding sounds GORGEOUS. I'm sure it is going to come off beautifully, and I hope you will be willing to share pictures with us.

Jilly- Hi! Congrats on your engagement! I am so happy for you... My boy and I are not big drinkers. And typical dj dancing is not exactly our cup of tea, either. One idea I had was to have an afternoon wedding so that people didn't expect a bunch of drink, then having DDR, Guitar Hero, and Wii at the reception. Haha, I don't know if the family would ever go for it, but it sounded FUN to me.

Jade- Hi! I look forward to getting to know you better.

shananigans- Cool, thanks for starting this thread. Hopefully we will be able to support one another. I do hope to lose a little more weight before August. I am trying to be easy on myself. I may make a goal of 10 pounds. I know what you mean about wedding party- I am struggling. Since I like the idea of having a more informal ceremony anyway, I am hoping I can get away with just doing my two closest friends from girlhood, and not have a huge bridal party. If I do more than 2, I may end up with 6, sigh....

As for my plans, we haven't decided anything yet, since we are still not that "official" engaged, but we love the idea of an outdoor wedding. We have talked about having the ceremony at a local park or woods, then the reception there, too. There is a local pioneer village we have considered. I love the idea of having it outdoors so that people can play and hike in the woods and do those sort of things.

And colors, I LOVE pink and gold. It is very girly and seems cute and vintagy.

Thats so great! You could do almost an arcade feeling - they even rent photo booths (like you find at arcades) that your guests could use as a guestbook - tape the little 4-snapshot printout into a book and write a little message beneath. I am all about non-traditional receptions...we tried to blend the traditional (because, er, the wedding itself is rather untraditional) with some funky fun things like the karaoke.

No, I'm not scared you're stalking me! The wedding is all I think about too!