Now, to Organize Some Thoughts

Well, I have my list of questions out of the way. Now, I need to contemplate a bit of post-semester organization so that I'll be out of the starting gate as soon as finals are over and I've had a good night's sleep.

Things to do ASAP

• Get fabric swatches from David's (if possible)
• Get ribbon mailed to Mom for the weekend "discussion"
  

Before Leaving for Home

• Send Save the Date cards
• Register for wedding gifts
• Call the park about what they allow in the reception hall and what they provide. Also find out if they could take a donation of trees.
  

While at Home

• Plan to see the park and scout around town for good places to include in the guide
• Visit the Chamber of Commerce for information on the area
• Make arrangements to visit the Minster and discuss the ceremony
• Discuss details with the Moms
• Discuss the itinerary for the weekend and make sure everybody has a copy of this
  
• Tell the parents where we're registered so that they can pass on the word
• Talk with photographers and videographers
• Answer questions on the list (if possible and still needed)
• Go shopping for Moms' dresses and take them to see Bridesmaids' dresses if needed
• Decide who is willing and capable of taking care of some details over the next few months
• Discuss wording of the invitations (who is hosting, etc)
• Discuss welcome baskets and ideas for contents

Keep in mind that this is the hopeful plan for the week that we're there. If it doesn't get done in the time we're there, we'll figure it out. Alright, it's on paper (so to speak). I'm off to bed.

Five Hundred Questions (Okay, so I exaggarate)

In the last seven days, we've talked to both of our mothers about the wedding AND I've had a long talk with my Maid of Honor about wedding details. We won't discuss the paranoid look on one of my former student's face when I said "It's on hold" in response to wedding planning. Of course, she thought the wedding was on hold! I'll admit that I have been thinking and pondering the wedding as well as how I'm going to get everything done for my final due dates. So, tonight, to de-stress and think about something other than Mikhail Bakhtin, the appropriate means of writing a cohesive paragraph, or grading papers, I am putting together a list of questions that have crossed my mind in the last few weeks. I'm doing this in preparation for a planning session here in a few weeks with both the mothers and my Maid of Honor.

So, my first step is to make a list of questions I have. Then, I'll focus on what needs to be done immediately at home, during the planning session, and then after I return and start summer classes. Please, if you have answers to any of the questions on the list (or even just suggestions), feel free to comment! I thrive on advice and input. Well, I've put it off long enough; here goes (and in no specific order):

1. What does the site provide?
2. What does the site allow?
3. When can I reserve space for the rehearsal dinner?
4. How many people am I inviting to the rehearsal dinner?
5. What about those in town that I don't invite to the rehearsal dinner?
6. Where will I have the Bridesmaids' luncheon? When?
7. Can I get fabric swatches of the Bridesmaids' dresses from David's?
   
8. When do I need to order the Bridesmaids' gowns?
9. What do I need to rent?
10. What are we serving at the reception?
11. How will we orchestrate cooking if we self-cater?
12. What time are we getting married?
13. Where are we going to register? What for? When?
14. Music?
    
15. When will I find time to meet with my minister?
16. Do we want readers?
17. Who is going to be asked to give a toast?
18. Photography? Videography?
19. Where are we getting the cake?
20. Who will we get to announce the important moments at the reception? Do we need a microphone for this?
21. Centerpieces?
22. Pine trees for the park--can they take them? If, not what favors do we want?
23. Do we need to add a block of motel rooms to the reservations for guests that want to stay close to the park?
24. How are we going to make arrangements for people who are flying in?
25. How do I determine "A list" people and "B list people?" When do I send invitations to each group? Do I need a "C list?"
26. How many people do we want to cap this wedding at?!

Okay, so I have the resources (books, wedding sites, etc.) for some of these questions, it's just a matter of looking some up. Others, I'm clueless about. But, now, I have a starting point. More planning posts soon.

Why I Love my Girls--A Few Belated Thanks

Once again, I must thank the fabulous people helping me out with the wedding. I'm still focusing on the BIG picture (photography, food, attire, etc.) and I can't seem to get my head out of my books long enough to focus on that from time to time.

But then, I have the girls who keep me thinking about things I should be on top of for the wedding planning. There's a lot of stuff that goes on behind the scenes (and I never really realized this much planning went into it, really). But I have "people" for that.

I've already mentioned the moms, but they need a bit more in the kudos department for a few things. First, they get along which makes this whole process easier. Then, they help out anywhere they're needed and offer support any time I need it.

Then I have my dear sister and Matron of Honor. She is the "ears" of this relationship. She's fabulous with just listening to me ramble on about favors or shoes as long as I need and then replying with either really good advice or the more common "you'll make the right decision."

My fabulous Maid of Honor is not taking her job lightly. I'm thinking she believes Maid of Honor and Wedding Planner are synonyms. She found the boots (that are featured on the blog post below), she's reminded me of deadlines, and she's doing her best to keep me on my toes.

I also have a "details girl." My hat is off to her because she's good with remembering the little things that need to get done and she's good with finding bargains. Just recently, she found wedding bubbles on sale and snatched them up for us.

Then I have the girls who keep me from doing too much wedding planning and not enough school work. Occasionally, I need a reality check and they are always there to remind me that I'm still a student with a life. (You can probably blame them for the lack of posting lately. I know I will)

So to all of my girls, I just want to say thanks. I couldn't do this without you. Well, I could, but I would probably be a week late to my own wedding while waiting on the detail to be added to some little project.

A Flower Decision in the Making

Well, after much conversing, we have finally turned the floral ideas over to the florist with a few guidelines. We've decided on a few things and are leaving the rest of the idea grooming to the florist for now. But here are the tentative decisions we've made.

• Bouquets will be gardenias. I want crimson gardenias for the bridesmaids in an over-arm bouquet with white or silver (I haven't decided) ribbons around the stalks. For my bouquet, I want white gardenias with either silver or crimson (again, indecisive) around the stalks.
• Corsages and boutonnières will be gardenias also.
• For the actual decor, we know that we want a Christmas tree on either side of the altar with silver and crimson balls. I don't know about lights, yet. We may have them, but leave them off until the reception. We want to move the trees into the reception, but I don't know yet where we should put them.
  

Sadly, that is all the decisions we've come to about flowers at this time. We'll know more in April when the creative people get together. But if you have ideas for reception decor, aisle decor, or anything else we're missing, PLEASE let us know.

Sorry for the lack of visual aids. We've managed to find two things that just are not in pictures online. I guess we're really going against the grain here!

We Are Still Together (and Planning)

The bride has not lost her boots. I promise. We are still together and still working on the wedding planning. Unfortunately, this semester has been pretty hectic for both of us. I have a conference this weekend, but I just created a few posts to remind me to update when I get back. We have two big things on the agenda in the next few weeks. We need to get Save the Date cards sent, but they're almost ready to go. Then, I need to prod a certain somebody to actually ask the guys that he wants to be his groomsmen to actually do the deed. (And all this time I figured that asking me to marry him would be the "big question." I think I might have been wrong.)

See you next week. I promise.

A Big Thanks to the Moms!

I want to send a big thanks out to the moms (both of them) who have helped us so immensely with the acquisition of our venue. We have finally made a decision and it could not have been made without their trips to sites and frequent phone calls. So, next time you see either of these two wonderful women, make sure you give them a big hug and thank them for their work in this area. Yeah!

Bridal Bouquet: More Proof of My Floral Illiteracy

Somewhere, I have a couple of aunts who were florists. At least one is turning over in her grave right now, shaking her head that I am actually writing this post. From all I've done to search for flowers, this is the best I can do so far with what I want for my bridal bouquet. I don't want a bouquet; I want a trailing bouquet (I think it's called a spray, but I'm not certain. I want roses and greenery. I ran across the term "snow white roses" today, but I don't have a picture, nor do I know if they are real or silk. Oh well, as with the previous flower posts, here goes the best of what I like and don't like. I hope my florist doesn't shoot me :)


I like the greenery in this bouquet. I think that it intersperses well with the flowers and helps add to the flow that I want in a bouquet.


I like the flowers in this one, but I'm not sure if they are winter flowers. And there's nowhere near enough greenery in the bouquet.

This is my favorite of the ones I've seen. I like the addition of the greenery (but I think that's green ribbon). Which makes me wonder if I can add some platinum ribbon to mine and make it still look okay. I'm pretty sure crimson would be out in a look like this one.

I also like how the larger flowers are not just in the top of the bouquet, but shift into the trail as well. So what I'm thinking, right now without talking to anybody about them, is that I want a bouquet like this of white flowers (we'll come up with actual flowers later), and a good bit of greenery. Perhaps some mistletoe (if it looks right) and maybe some holly berries (but I'm not really sure of the color or even if I have the right idea of blending flowers in my head. Don't know. I have to talk to the experts and they won't be here for a month. Besides, I have papers to write! Ah. Back to the real world.

Bridesmaids Bouquets

So, my bridesmaids are wearing platinum in the wedding. My other color is crimson and I want to blend it into the ceremony as well. I'm thinking that I want to do something crimson for the bridesmaids bouquets. I like the color of these (to the left), but I don't want their bouquets to look like a round ball of flowers on a stick. I had this bouquet at the last wedding I was part of. It was terrible. I want to do something in this color, with some greenery, but not much else. Sadly, I am flower illiterate. So....I guess I need a bit more help and time here.

A Flower Girl's Head Shoud Not be Consumed!

When I first started looking at flowers, I was considering floral wreaths for the flower girls. I could just picture the darlings with dainty little wreaths in their hair. I've decided, however, to go with something more along the lines of tiaras (and I'm sure the girls will appreciate it). They are princesses, after all. But let me give you a chuckle or two as to the final decision that made me realize I did not want flowers in the head of my flower girls.


I want to say, sure, these were good ideas in concept (and these are not the worst that I've seen), but a flower girl's head is only so big. Tiaras. Definitely tiaras. Oh, and how terrible am I for looking at millions of flower girls and continuing to think how much more adorable mine are!

Ceremony Flowers

I blame the mothers for this obsession...(and I mean that in the nicest possible way). They've both mentioned that I need to start thinking about flowers and the ceremony. So, I've given it some thought and I want to start with some ideas I have for the actual ceremony (no bouquets here; that's another post). So far, these are the ceremony ideas that we both agree are nice and for different reasons. So, let's look--one at a time.


We like the wood look in this picture and the not-overdone floral arrangements. The candles must go. We're getting married in the afternoon, so no candles. We'll lose the look.









Alright, so you can barely see it, but what we like about this one is the two pillars at the front of the altar. I don't know about the curtains, but we can all talk. This one has a bit of simple elegance without being overdone. I'm still not liking the giant flowerpots on the edge of the rows.



I need to look at the ceremony locations a bit more before I decide, but I'm we're going with something simple, but classy and elegant for the altar. Light on the flowers, light on the decor. We'll brainstorm some more over the holidays. Feel free to bring ideas you have...we're both open for many, many suggestions.

A Booted Decision Made

So a week ago, I got a call from my Maid of Honor telling me she had just bought boots that she thought would be perfect for the wedding. Now, what is hilarious is that I know that I could easily have told her they weren't what I was looking for and she would have kept them anyway and bought others for the wedding. But, I pulled them up online, and they are perfect. The pictures and links below are to the official Durango boots. However, I'm not a name brand girl, so if you find cheaper ones that look like these, great! I've heard that you can get similar boots at Wal-Mart for like $30. The groom swears by Durango, and these pictures are large enough to see what we want. Me, I'm buying either brown or black boots from Durango and then getting some inexpensive ones for the wedding. Somehow, I just don't see me wearing white boots very often. Remember, boots are the foot attire for the wedding party. They are not, however, required of other guests. Okay, here they are:




My boots (well, the expensive version of them anyway.)









The Bridesmaid's boots

















The Groom and Groomsmens' Boots. The groom says he's not requiring steel toes. Like me, a similar boot is fine as long as it looks like these :)

A Favor Idea

I'm quasi procrastinating paper ideas, but in my defense, I found this in my paper research.

The National Arbor Day foundation has a "gift tree" designed specifically to give as a wedding favor. They come in these nice biodegradable containers (and can be planted, refrigerated until planting time, or grown indoors until planting time). This is the picture they have on the website. As you can see, you can have these customized for your wedding and the labels (since you can't see all of them) look like this:


The saying on the label, from what I can tell, is customizable. I know that they have up to three lines of customization, so I'm assuming the verses in these are the customized labels.

So, I'm already loving the idea, but I love it for several reasons

1. I can order Longleaf Pines. Not only do longleaf pines grow well in most Southern states, they were extremely durable in Katrina. In fact, most of the pines still standing after Katrina were longleaf. Not wanting to dredge up the past, but for those of us who survived Katrina and faced the massive cleanup afterwards, these trees are a sign of durability and survival. Mississippi is still recovering from Katrina, and I think these would be a good way to help out.


2. I hate wedding favors that are totally useless. But, at the same time, I don't like edible favors all that much or favors that you don't want to use. So, I think a tree would be great. You can plant it in your yard and watch it grow while also remembering our wedding. (Yeah, I just don't want anybody to forget our wedding.)


3. They're not extremely expensive. At first I was a bit concerned about this. The trees are $3 each. I was worried that at $3 each for a minimum of 50 people, I was looking at shelling out $150 just for favors. And the purpose of planning your own wedding is to save money. But then I had another thought. I don't have to buy an individual tree for each person, but for each couple, family, etc. This would significantly cut down on the price and still be a great gift.

Besides, even if we decide not to do these as favors for the reception, I think I would at least like to do them as gifts to those extremely close to us (those that warrant a cabin). It would be a great addition to the room gift baskets.

I ran the idea by my darling fiance and got a "We'll see" out of him. That's a lot better than a complete "no." He pointed out that we have one small problem with this idea. Most of our guests don't own their own land, which means that they have nowhere to plant them.

I still think the trees are a great idea. Now it's just a matter of figuring out how to overcome the land problem. Perhaps we could donate the trees to the park in honor of our guests. We still have to find out if the park will accept them and have a place to put the trees, but it's the best idea thus far. That way, we could send trees home with the parents and those who have land and donate for those who do not. Perhaps we should require guests buy land to plant these trees on before the wedding (okay, so that's a joke).

By the way, we're trying to find out anonymously what people think of this idea. Please take a second and answer the poll to the right. PLEASE!

I have to get back to work now, but if anybody has ideas for this, please let us know!

Our First Confirmation

In the world of academia, I should really be doing something constructive right now. Preparing for the conference presentation I have tomorrow comes to mind. But then so does reading the pile of midterm portfolios on my desk or scheduling student conferences for next week. Finishing research for the papers I have due in a few weeks is in that list too. But, I can't seem to focus on anything right now except the email sitting on my desk. So what's the big deal?

Well, yesterday, I emailed the two state parks we're interested in having the wedding at. I explained the entire wedding weekend and asked if this was possible coupled with keeping a few cabins for family at Christmas (and through the 28th). Basically, I told them that we would want to, basically, rent the park out from the 18th through the 28th. A few minutes ago, I got this response from one of the sites:

We would be able to accommodate this event. I checked our books and all of the cabins and motels are available at this time. The lodge where we have weddings all the time is also available at this time. If you would give us a call for more details

Yeah! And I know from talking to my mom that the other one we're looking at does weddings and seems enthused about the prospect of us being there for the week. I just don't have an email confirmation yet. We'll just have to see how it goes. I'm calling the parks next week (hopefully) to get answers to the million questions I have. I'm hoping that we'll be able to have not only a date but a location here in the next month. Then, come the first of January, I hope we're putting down a deposit! Yeah us!

Flower Girls, Fishing and Formal Wear

One of my favorite pictures of one of my flower girls involves her standing on the patio of her grandparents' lake house in a princess dress with her hands extended as she smiles for the camera. The reason this is one of my favorite pictures is not that she looks like the perfect little princess all dressed up for the ball. In fact, this is my favorite picture because she has dirt and worm guts all over her hands. Her cousin and partner in flower girl land is much the same way. These two precious girls are my flower girls because they remind me much of myself at the same age. I didn't care what I was wearing; if there was a tree to climb or a worm bin to play with, I was all over it.

So, in the past few days, I've been procrastinating my paper research to look for the perfect dresses for these little angels. I've seen many adorable dresses that would work well with the wedding theme and look precious on the girls. But I refuse to buy any of these dresses. Why not? Well, I have reality staring me in the face. My bridesmaids gowns are costing about $180 each. I can fully justify spending this money on these great women because the attire is a two piece and both pieces can (and I hypothesize will be) worn at later dates. Flower girl dresses. Well, that's another story. These precious little girls will likely wear the dresses again--and I hope they will until they outgrow them. And I know that my girls will wear the dresses to climb trees in, to fish in, or to splash around in a mud puddle if there's one nearby. And there is nothing wrong with that. However, paying between $150 and $300 for a cute dress that will end up wit mud, tree branches, and worm guts on it is completely out of the question.

The sad thing is that I know exactly what I want in a flower girl dress. It's the one in this post. But with some sleeves. The dress is adorable without sleeves, but little frozen flower girls are not on the wedding agenda. What I like best about this dress is that it is, really, a simple A-line dress that isn't overly sophisticated for such young girls. But, I'm refusing to buy it. Why? It runs about $175 at the cheap sites online. That's ludicrous! So, next spring, I'm going shopping for my girls. I want something similar to this dress, but with sleeves. I figure something similar cannot be too hard to find. A simple white dress with sleeves. Then, what I can do is get a sash that matches the color of my bridesmaids' gowns, or one in the oft forgotten color of my wedding (crimson) and add that to the dress. If I'm feeling creative (and my friends who are not as sewingly challenged as I am offer help), it would not be a problem to attach the sashes either around the waist or, like in this dress, around the upper hem of the dress. I figure that buying the gowns just around Easter and then purchasing the sash and attaching it, I'm still coming out with a more reasonable price than they charge for any "official" flower girl dress.

First Wedding Mini-Crisis Averted

For some reason, probably paper procrastination, I felt compelled to take another gander at my gown today. I can't explain it, but I had to. So, I hopped on the website, pulled up the dress from my favorites and ogled for a minute before I realized that there were now comments on the dress. Ooooh! I love knowing what other people think about things like this. So, I started with the oldest comment and, about three comments into the page, I read this one:

I love it! I searched everywhere for it, like the other woman said- if you love it get it NOW!! It is being retired. I cant wait, i try it on like every day.

Now, I don't panic over comments like this. Okay, so the dress is being retired. It's not the end of the world, I thought as I perused the rest of the comments. All of them said the same thing.

"I'll just find another gown." I thought as I browsed through the new additions to the website.

But, as I continued searching the pages, nothing was jumping off the page begging me to look more. The longer I looked, the more I began to realize that this was my dress. There is not another dress for me. I'm too attached to this dress and have been since I tried it on this summer. So, this let me with several ways of approaching the problem.

1. Sell $700 worth of plasma and run spastically through the bridal stores in the Dallas area until I found one in a size near my own. I can hope that the size is close enough to alter when the time comes.
2. Apply for immediate credit card and dash to bridal store this weekend. Buy whatever is in stock, regardless of size.
3. Wait patiently until mom shows up in several months, explain situation and buy then. Okay, so I have to still hope that the dress is in the appropriate size when it comes time to have the alterations done.
4. Curl up in cozy chair, set tea on coffee table, and Google with fingers crossed.

Well, I chose the last option. It sounded like the best idea for my current situation. The reason for this is that I really don't want to buy the gown this early. I'm hoping to be a size smaller (at least) when I start alterations. So, if I can wait, I would rather. Now, in addition to this, I want my mothers (yes, both of them) the chance to see the gown before I buy it. Sure, if the store doesn't have it at the time, I understand. But I want the option.

Guess what I found on Google. A different designer makes the same gown. Yeah! But that's not all. This designer makes the same gown and I can add an extra foot to the train (an idea I like), rush the delivery, pay for overnight shipping, and still save close to $200. And, if I don't want to do it this way, there are four stores in the area that carry the designer, so I can check with them and see if they can order it. So, crisis averted. Now, it's time to sit back enjoy my tea and see if they have flower girl dresses that I like.