The Six Month Update (a bit long)

Since classes only ended three weeks ago and the summer session has already begun, I am a bit impressed as tot he amount of things we've gotten accomplished in such a brief period of time. I haven't spoken to several of you, so, here's a run down.

• We have made decor decisions for the ceremony and reception site. We ran into a small stumbling block when we discovered that the deer head mounted above the fireplace does not come down! But, it was the moms to the rescue--within minutes, they had come up with a means of hiding the deer head and making the site look even better. I have to admit, it's a bit plain, but with the decor we're adding, it's going to be fabulous!
• The day after we got back, I bought my gown. Now there was a small nightmare. Since the gown was being discontinued, I wanted to hurry up and get it (sad, I've had the money set aside for almost a year, I just haven't been able to coordinate time). So, I went to the one store that had it in "my size." Well, I tried it on and apparently it was not in my size. It's a slight blow to the ego to discover that you can't buy "your size" in the dress you want because it won't zip in the chest. But, it was Amy to the rescue. She found my dress in my size in a store in Abilene. Unfortunately, they wouldn't transfer it to the Dallas store, so I had to have it shipped. That was fine. It's hanging in my closet now.
• We've ordered the bridal party's boots. The guys' boots have come in, so now we're just waiting for the girls' boots to come in. The price was a steal!
• We've ordered the flower girl dresses (for a picture, see the previous post). The company is waiting for them to be delivered, so they should be shipped at the end of June.
• We've set up our official wedding blog and it will be fully running when we send out Save the Date cards. We password protected it so that nobody can just sneak in.
  
• We found a great photographer who was willing to give us exactly what we wanted for a very reasonable price.
  

I think that's about it for now. Save the Date cards are going out this week, Invitations will be going out in September. Besides that we've got the flowers moving, we're working on a few small projects of our own (more on that later) and still managing to balance school and work.

I think the biggest thing left for us is to decide on who we want to coordinate the day of the wedding. I'm looking into hiring somebody to do this for us (if we can find somebody reasonably priced), since all of the people on the guest list that I would trust doing it are people that I don't want to have to work too much. We'll see. I'm always open for ideas.

A Few Ideas about Flowers

I had a scary moment the other day in which two very significant things happened. First, Mike agreed to let me have my cascading bouquet (yeah!), so now I have to rethink my flowers. But with that realization, I have also finally found myself able to make a few flower decisions. Now, some of you may think these are all minor, but think about this flower killing bride as having made some significant progress.

We've decided to have a Christmas tree on either side of the altar decorated with white lights and crimson and silver balls. I thought about adding tinsel, but the kind I want would take WAY too long to clean up.

Now, my tentative plans are to have the wedding in front of the fireplace at the hall, an if we stick to this, I'd like to have a garland of holly berries, gardenia (and whatever greenery I'm using) across the mantle.

I don't know how I want to decorate the rest of the ceremony hall (be patient, one step at a time), but I've made a few other decisions.

I want to stick to the over-arm bouquets for my bridesmaids and have them consist of gardenias and perhaps a few dark holly berries. I want to wrap the stems in crimson ribbon (my "other" color) and then wrap my bouquet in a silver and crimson ribbon (perhaps braided).

I also decided that in lieu of an aisle runner, I'm going to give my flower girls separate colored petals. I want one walking down the aisle with crimson petals and one with white petals. This way, I think there will be enough color variation that I can get away with not having an aisle runner.

Also, we've decided to keep the centerpieces for the reception tables very simple. I want to have a pillar candle in white and then alternate between crimson and silver (if I can find them) tea light candles on different tables. Then, I'm going to sprinkle a few crimson and white rose petals around them and call it done.

So there we have the current flower decisions. Now I'm excited about talking to the florist and finalizing the details for the flowers. I can't wait to see what ideas she has.

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.

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.

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!

Overview of the Wedding Concept

So, here's the plan (as it is in our brains) for the wedding.

We want to rent out a large portion of a state park in Mississippi the weekend before Christmas. We'll have cabins for those who want the amenities, RV and camper spots for those who would prefer, and tent camping for the really brave. Then, for the wedding, we'll have a cabin for everybody to get ready in. Oh, and there's a hotel at the edge of one of the parks for those who would prefer (and those who don't fit into the cabins). We're hoping (if everybody's plans work with this) that the wedding will be the Saturday before Christmas, but the festivities will start Friday for all the guests, but Thursday night for the wedding party.

I want to have the wedding party all arrive on Thursday night (but if we find out a lot of guests will be arriving on Thursday, then maybe Wednesday night). That night, I want to have a wedding party gathering where we bribe people with food to help us with the finishing touches on those very last details. Then, I'm thinking maybe some hot cocoa and roasted marshmallows around a fire. I want this time, more than anything, to be a chance for us to show our thanks to the entire wedding party.

Friday, we want to have a few fun events set up for the guests who arrive early. The park(s) we're looking at (Clarko and Roosevelt, but leaning more towards Roosevelt) have mini golf and hiking trails. I'd also like to look into a few of the other local attractions and services. Perhaps we could set up a spa time for the women. (I'll nail down more on this when I get around to the surveys I'll be sending out.) Then, Friday afternoon, we want to do the rehearsal and then have the rehearsal dinner (grilling/fajitas/something to that effect) at one of the pavilions and open this up to everybody who's there, not just the wedding party.

Saturday will be the wedding and reception. Still not certain on the food, but we're working on it.

Then Sunday, we want to do a thank you brunch for the guests who have come in from all corners of the earth before we disappear for a day or so.

Now here's where it gets questionable. When we leave on Sunday, we're expecting the majority of our guests to do the same since it's so close to Christmas. But, we're also hoping to spend Christmas with our entire family. We were originally thinking about letting go of all the cabins except maybe one or two; but we're not sure just yet. We still have to find out if everybody would be content entertaining themselves in the middle of nowhere for, say, three days before we return to celebrate Christmas.

Unity Candles, Important Family Members and a Potential Idea

I've always loved the idea of unity candles and I always think that the mothers in a wedding don't have a big enough part. So, here's another idea I've been mulling around. I haven't brought this to him yet, since I'm still not sure if it's a good idea or just a touch too sappy. But here goes.

I think I want to have my mother and his mother walk down the aisle arm in arm each carrying a single taper. When they reach the altar, his father lights the candles for each of them and they place them in the candle holders. It is these candles that are used to light the unity candle. I think that, just as having my father walk me down the aisle is a sign of our receiving his blessing, having all of the family involved would truly show the unity that will be our wedding.

Again, though, I'm still kicking this around. Thoughts are welcome.