I am getting married in less than 2 weeks, and I am now 600 miles from my wedding site. I start my new job tomorrow, and my poor fiance is stuck with all the last-minute details and things I was unable to finish. Yikes..... I feel bad for every little detail I didn't get done that he now has to do.
BUT, it will all come together! I am thrilled about my photographer! If anyone is interested, she just did an engagement session for us. Still a little hard to see pics of myself as my weight has crept up a little again, but I love these pics. If anyone is in Indiana, I would recommend her!
Christine - Thanks so much for sharing your engagement photos! The two of you are just adorable! Just 2 weeks, you must be getting so excited. Good luck, I'm sure everything will be just lovely.
We get a free engagement session with our photographer. I think we'll wait for fall so we can have the pretty leaves in our outdoor photos.
Leah- those photos are just gorgeous! I kept thinking "this one is my favorite" and then I would scroll down tot he next...
mandalinn- I don't think anyone is in any rush to see you go after looking at your pics and how fabulous everything turned out (and those place settings- oh my!)
Cindy- I did register at the knot and I had no idea just how much they lay it all out for ya. Imean, I know people get married every day and I've been to tons of weddings, but I haven't the slightest idea on how to throw one!
Thanks for the warm welcome, ladies! We are looking at dates for next year. The hotel where he proposed is also where we are getting married (childhood dream) and I'm just chomping at the bit to make that first appointment to go dress shopping, but we haven't exactly hashed out the budget with the "donors".
Great photos Christine! You guys are SO photogenic! I'm not much of one to have my picture taken (because of the extra weight, perhaps?), so I'm not focusing too much on photos for the wedding. We'll have them, but they are not a big deal to us.
Wow - 600 miles away - that must be tough...
I'm at the 8-week mark today, and I really need to get my checklist finalized so that I don't miss anything.
Responses have been slow - only 2 so far! There are about 30 people that I know are attending for sure, of my 113 invited, but it's the 70 or so others that I'm not sure about. So many of my final details depend on the number of guests, so I feel like I'm in limbo a bit right now. My response deadline is 8/24, so just a couple more weeks to wait.
In the meantime I'm going to finish my programs - I bought the ones that match my invitations and I will just insert a page with the printing inside. Then, they'll need to be folded in half, hole-punched, and ribbon "binding" tied through them. I'm only doing 50, so it shouldn't take too long once I'm on a roll.
I'm thinking of starting my OOT bags as well - I bought plain white bags from WalMart and I intend to decorate them with stamps of fall leaves. I think we'll go scout out Sam's Club to see what I want to fill them with. I'm thinking of getting a lot of my favorite Kashi-brand snacks for them - try to keep things a bit healthy! I wish the Kashi TLC cookies came in individual serving packs - that would be great. But, I can get the TLC bars and the small TLC cracker bags.
I still need to get my undergarments - the shop is only open on Tuesday evenings, so I've been having a hard time getting in there.
Oh, I've decided to do a wish jar as part of my guest book - instead of writing well wishes in the guest book, guests fill out a wish card and put in a nicely decorated jar. Found some nice fall-themed glass vases at Michaels that I can use. Some people do two vases - one already filled with wishes - "take a wish" and then one for the new wishes - "make a wish".
The reception place wants $7 a piece for organza table overlays - I may just pay it since it would be a lot of work to make them for myself. I'm only having 10-12 tables, so that won't break the bank!
We are trying to decide if we want personalized beverage/cake napkins or not - it's a nice touch, but another $50 or so... This is really the part where it starts "nickle-and-diming" your budget if you're not careful!
You gals have a great week - I'm off to look at napkins on eBay!
Cindy
Cindy – Sounds like you’re down the last few details, I hope I am as on o\top of things when it gets down the final weeks.
Missmess – Let us know how those napkins look. Personalized anything always adds a nice touch, especially for only $20!
I finally went dress shopping at David’s Bridal yesterday. The sales staff was pretty underwhelming, inattentive and a bit unprofessional, but at least they weren’t obnoxious. I knew what styles I wanted to try on and was able to take care of business pretty quickly. I only tried on a couple of dresses in addition to the one’s I’d listed. I forgot my camera so I’ll have to take pix when I try them on again after I shop around a little more. I rather liked these two.
Amanda – I ended up trying on both of the Galina collection dresses you and Sara wore. I liked the V-neck on the one dress but I really don’t want a train and there’s no way you could remove the train on that dress, and I really liked the skirt on the dress you wore but the straight line strapless was so much less flattering on me than the sweetheart and V necklines I tried on. If only I could splice the top of the v-neck dress to the skirt of the other!
I’m hoping I can get my shopping done and order my dress within the next month or so. Then I just need to meet with my florist and I think I’ll have all the big things out of the way. Next on the list would be cake tasting I guess.
Missmess - glad you liked Claudine! She is just such a sweetie.
Hehehehe on trying on the Sarah/Amanda dresses. Don't forget that you can take a David's dress to alterations people and make some design changes (though not whole bodice splicing, lol)...because the David's dresses are a little more affordable, you can save some budget to customize the dress, ensuring it is one of a kind and totally you. On my dress, for example, I had my seamstress completely re-do the back (from a zipper to a ribbon-tied corset...yummy). You could also always wear the dress bustled...eliminating the train completely.
Second on the Maggie Sottero - my sister wore one of her dresses at her wedding in July and it was soooo gorgeous.
Missmess - what eBay vendor are you getting the napkins from? One of my issues is with color choice - as my colors are cinnamon and gold, most of those guys don't really have a color that works for me. foryourparty.com does have more color choices and more emblem choices, but you pay for it - 100 napkins are $28. So, still trying to decide on that one...
I got the cutest silver pens from Wilton yesterday - they have a scroll design on them and you can tie a ribbon around it near the writing tip. I may use for guest book and will definitely use for wish jar - I just liked them so much that I had to have them. Regularly $10 for 6, but I had a 40%-off coupon. Found at AC Moore - JoAnn's and Michaels didn't have these!
Also found a good contrast picture of the scroll design I want on my cake so the bakery will be able to duplicate - the original photo had cream on white, and they couldn't see it well. Now I can get my cake ordered finally!
Are any of you planning on doing groom's cakes? We want to do one so there will be more cake available, but I'm struggling with what to do for decorating it. DF shoots down all my ideas like Yankees, or golf, or his classic car,.... Any thoughts? We are planning carrot cake for this, so the base icing will be white (as opposed to chocolate, which works well for a tuxedo design).
Cindy
No Groom's Cake for us... but we do have one main cake, then cupcakes to supplement. Our main cake is lime with white chocolate filling, then the cupcakes are half chocolate with strawberry frosting, the other half almond sour cream cake. Mmmmmm... I am getting so excited about that cake!
We are just doing plain white napkins, which works in our case, with our colors being pink, gold, and it turns out a lot of white.
The big bummer now is the awful heat wave. Humid, nasty, heat advisory weather + outdoor ceremony? They have already told us if it doesn't cool down by Sunday, our rain backup plan will become a heat backup plan. Oh well! The food will be fabulous and we will be happy!
I just need to rant about David's Bridal for a moment. I went there on Sunday and then back last night to try on a couple dresses again and also to buy a corset that I'll need one for the bridesmaid dress I'll be wearing in a few weeks. Both times I had to wait more than 15 minutes past my scheduled appointment time, both times the staff were helping other customers at the same time, and they were generally inattentive and didn't really seem to know what they were doing.
The girl I was working with yesterday (seemed even less competent and attentive then the previous one) tried to get me to put a poofy slip on even when I said I don't want a lot of volume in the skirt, then she gave me a flimsy bra/slip undergarment, when I mentioned that they had put me in different undergarments last time I tried on dresses, she did not bother to ask what I preferred. One of the dresses didn't even zip on me (it had 2 days prior with a boned corset), and the other 2 dresses did not fit as well with the bra/slip. Unfortunately this was the trip I took pictures on, I think the dresses looked better on me with the corset. Then I had to ask her to bring me 4 different corsets to find the right size, it was pretty obvious I needed to go up a cup size from the one she originally put me in, but I wasn't sure about the band size so I ended up trying on a bunch. At no time did she offer to measure and fit me with the right size, and I had to call her away from the other customer she was helping to get hooked in each time. I think she got a commission on the $60 corset I bought. She didn't deserve it.
OK /rant. I think I have it down to two options from David's, both would need alterations though. The sweetheart neckline dress with the wide straps I would want to remove the train from, and the “Amanda” dress (hope you don’t mind me calling it that Amanda) I also like but I want to see if it could be altered to make a sweetheart neckline and I might want to add some straps. Anyway, after I get done looking at a few other places I’ll probably only have to go back to David’s one more time if I decide I want one of those 2 dresses. Their customer service is so unbelievably bad!
I'm hoping I can get to an 80% off sample sale this weekend. At that discount, I might be able to get some fancy designer gown. We'll see what they have.
Shananigans- I'm sorry they were so neglectful! I have heard that while the selection is great, you have to dig dig dig and *maybe* you will find something.
The Future Mrs. Hansen- When did you ever think you would be tickled over napkins? Glad they came back fabulous!
Christine- Wow! A heat advisory back-up plan? Just make sure everyone stays hydrated! Is your reception outside as well?
Well, we move fast. The hotel is holding the date pending our deposit for August 23, 2008. It's the same hotel where he proposed and the ceremony will be in the garden/courtyard.
Once the deposit goes in, I'm going to need a breather. We've been talking about getting married and how we are going to do it for a while so there aren't a whole lot of surprises, but beyond checking out some dresses and reserving the space, I can't think about much more for a while. I made the mistake of submitting a request for vendor info in the area where I'm getting married on a webiste and I've recieved several phone calls from DJ's and florists. I won't do that ever again! These people act like I'm getting married next week!
I went to one bridal show, and I have been getting so many calls ever since, with these great "Free" trips and prizes, they are very annoying.
We had planned on outside ceremony and a reception that had outdoor and indoor seating. Now it's looking like we may keep the ceremony outside- it's at 10:30AM, in a wooded, shady place. Then we will bump the reception to being all inside. Otherwise, our wedding will always be the most miserable, hot wedding of all time, and people will leave early. I'd actually like to have my guests enjoy themselves... so....
Well this weekend we'll be at the 6-week mark, and I'm starting to panic a bit... there is still SO much left to do.
This past week I went on a bit of a monogram frenzy - decided I needed one for the front of my programs, then spent 2 days last weekend designing my own in PowerPoint. Now I need to order oval labels for them. My cake, which was going to be topper-less, is now having a monogram topper - maybe just the last initial, but I ordered all three, along with the display box to keep them in at the end!
I'm getting really detail crazy - I need to stop looking at Knottie bios - I keep finding more and more "cool" stuff that I must do. Like a bathroom basket and the photo CD thing. But both not a lot of effort, just a bit of $$ and time.
I've decided to do a "camp" theme on my grooms cake, and it will be a surprise for him. We call cottages on the lake in the Adirondacks a "camp", so the cake will feature the outline of the lakes, the camp and an Adirondack chair. I think it will be great. Camp is really his true passion - much more so than sports, although thanks for the great ideas missmess!
Programs are definitely to be done this weekend - I got the final review from the church gal, so just have to make one slight modification then I'll print and assemble them. Ribbon binding will take some time - all that paper-punching!
I should get to work on my OOT bags as well - decorating them at least.
Oh, and I got the cutest idea for my rehearsal dinner invites - find a vintage postcard of your town and make copies at Staples, Kinkos,... and use as the front cover of you invite. A lot of the knotties use Vistaprint.com to do printing of stuff like that - I actually used their free postcard promotion to do welcome cards for my OOT bags.
Can you tell that I am all wrapped up in all of this? Needless to say, work and fitness are falling a bit back in terms of priorities.... I'm in maintain mode food/workout wise, but I'd like to thin my face out a bit for photos. If I would just follow my normal plan that would happen, but I keep staying up too late doing things, and then I can't get up in the am in time to workout!
Christine - I'm sure you're on your honeymoon now, but congratulations, and please do let us know how things went.
Cindy - Bathroom baskets really DO get used. Both mine and my sisters were used quite a bit by the end of the evening, and they really don't take too long. I am a big fan.
The rehearsal dinner invites sound so adorable! We ran out of time and used evite.
Just 2 weeks, you must be getting so excited. Good luck, I'm sure everything will be just lovely.
I think she got a commission on the $60 corset I bought. She didn't deserve it. 