The Ever Growing To Do List

Happy holidays! They're coming to a close, but wedding stuff is picking up for us.

We've discussed details further. We're trying to nail down a lot of the smaller details like centerpieces, decorations in various places throughout the venue, favors, etc. My mom and I met up with Sharon, her florist friend who is doing our silk arrangements, and picked out ribbon and the last of the silk flowers. 

All five of my girls have ordered their dresses and they should be in by mid to late March, which leaves plenty of time in case anyone needs alterations. 

Emily has booked my shower venue. She was asking me stuff about my registries today, so it sounds like she's getting started on doing invitations already too. 

Speaking of registries, we started a small Amazon one a bit ago. And now on Saturday the fifth we're going to huge Bed Bath and Beyond on the Boulevard to do our big registry. We're both pretty excited about it. Our menu tasting and details meeting is in only two weeks as well. So things are really starting to come together. 

Next week I plan on taking my ring to the jeweler too, then hopefully we can finally order wedding rings and be done with that whole debacle. 

So that's what's going on for the next two weeks. Then after that it's going to ordering invitations, making place card and escort cards, getting my silk arrangements done, buying favors, a cake topper and the other cake decoration we need to purchase for the baker, buying the last of the decoration things, schedule and have my hair and make up trial, figure out a card box things, figure out the flower girls dresses/baskets/flower/etc., put together welcome bags... just everything else. So yeah. Still quite a bit to get done.

Just 156 more days to go. That's five months and five days!

Is This What Stress Feels Like..?

Okay, so it's been a while now since I last updated. Things are rolling right along, sort of. 

We've gone back to looking at rings. It's been quite the trying issue to make a decision here. But we've got some solid plans in the works. Rob is planning on getting his meteorite ring. I'm having the guard removed off mine after the new year so I can purchase a wedding band. Then that should be all set on both accounts. 

We have our meeting with coordinator coming up soon; January 11th to be exact. We have the big list of "things" we need to be able to answer by then, but I don't how much of it Rob or my parents have actually thought about it. I also have a running list of detail ideas and questions to ask. 

We went to Rob's cousin Daniel's wedding in Chattanooga over the weekend. It was nice to see a wedding in action with ours being so close now. And now that Daniel's wedding is over we can start thinking about our ceremony. Daniel is officiating for us, so now that his plate is clear of his own wedding we can start putting together out own. 

On top of that, going to another wedding has sparked Rob's interest in things he normally didn't care about having a say in. Things like centerpieces and escort cards. I originally showed him a picture of escort cards I wanted to make and he said they were fine and that he didn't care what they looked like. Now he wants to scrap that idea in lieu of another. Which is fine by me. I'm by no means going to have a disagreement about escort cards of all things. My only issue with this though is that some things he wants to change are things I have already invested money in. So I kind of wish he had wanted a say earlier, ya know, before I spent money. But it is our wedding, so I want us both to like it. 

I went ahead and made a partial payment for our DJ today too. He's about 50% paid off at this point and I'm hoping to have that paid off soon. He was by no means the cheapest in the area, but a great DJ was high on our priorities list, so we splurged. I also bumped up the price by insisting I had to have uplighting, which I'm still excited about, even though it racked the bill up some.

I got a sample invitation from Wedding Paper Divas, who I ordered our save the dates from. They can custom color our invites to match our colors for a small fee. That's fine though because I have yet to find anything else I really like and love the idea of having the matching set. So I'll splurge here too I guess. Money for everyone (except me of course). 

Finally, for now I guess, I'm sure I'm forgetting a lot, is that hopefully Saturday my mom and I will get out to Hobby Lobby. I really want to buy any more decoration things that we need. I'm starting to feel slightly stressed and panicked that things aren't moving along quickly enough anymore and feel like buying some detail related items will help quell those feelings. Hopefully. 

Alright, 5 months, 1 week and 6 days left. that boils down to 164 days to go. Getting there we are. 

Decisions

So, a lot of decisions being made right now.

First off, I scheduled our menu tasting and details meeting with our venue for January 11th. That give my parents enough time to make adjustments to their work schedules since it's a Friday. So this is exciting. Our new coordinator sent us a semi overwhelming list for the details meeting to make sure we have answers to when we meet. So I need to sit down with Rob and go over it as well as speak with my parents about a few of the things on it. 

Another decision we made was to switch from a buffet dinner to a sit down dinner. The package we want that has all night open bar and the works only comes as a sit down dinner. The next package down with a buffet option has a pretty limited time frame for the bar, and we want the roaring party after dinner, so bar time it is! I only wanted a buffet because I'm a picky eater, but since I get to dictate the menu, it doesn't matter. Plus, sit down dinners feel classier. 

The next big decision we made is wedding rings. This is something we've both waffled over since we first got engaged a year ago. Rob has finally made up his mind about getting a meteorite ring, which I'm happy about. It's what he really wanted and he has to wear it forever and be happy with his decision forever, so I'm really glad he finally said definitely to the ring. For me, I can't find anything that fits next to my engagement ring. Nothing. The ring is too big and to awkwardly shaped. When Rob's mom gave him the ring to give to me she offered to have the guard removed and he said to leave it intact. The day we got engaged she told me I could take it off if I wanted and said no, I love the ring as is. But when push comes to shove, it's very important for me to have a wedding ring that Rob and I go pick out to symbolize our marriage. So we've decided that I'm going to have the guard taken off and just wear the white gold, five stone original engagement ring and we'll give the guard back to Mary. When we brought it up to her over the weekend she sort of chuckled and said she was surprised I'd kept the guard on this long and that she didn't mind if I had it taken off. So that's on the docket for the end of this month after we get back from Daniel's wedding.

Speaking of, Daniel's wedding is in two weeks and we leave to drive to Chattanooga in a week and a half. I'm really excited to go, see Rob's family, take a trip together, and just enjoy someone else's wedding. 

Sooo, we passed the six month mark yesterday! We have 5 months, 4 weeks and 2 days left to go. That's a mere 181 days! Ahhhh, what happened to the 550+ days we started with!? 

Oh, Home Ownership...

Let's go ahead and start this post on a positive note. 

Friday we booked our florist. She did a mock up of what my bouquet will look like and I'm very happy with the results. Check.

Today I paid the deposit and booked our baker. We went with Lori from Bagels and Cakes because she makes awesome "Cake Boss" grooms cakes, which we want. And, the best part, she'll make our rock candy cake for us! This is the inspiration for our cake: 

Obviously ours will be have purple and orange rock candy on it, but that's the gist. Now to find a sweet baseball themed topper.

I also have banana spice muffins in the oven and they have walnuts and white chocolate chips in them. And I'm making pumpkin better than sex cake tonight too. So be jealous of my sweet baking skills. 

Now, for the less exciting part, home ownership.

Right now we're dealing with the dryer. It's not producing heat and our wet clothes are just tumbling endlessly because it has a sensor in it that adds time if things aren't dry yet. It's just over a year old, we got it last year the day after we closed on our house. We bought the extended warranty  but they can't send someone until NEXT Thursday the 29th. Seriously. That's more than a week, it's insane.

We also got our gas logs hooked up in our fireplace. The bill for that hasn't come yet. I can only imagine what that will be. We ended up having to buy a hood for it too since we have an old school, heat producing fireplace with a very shallow firebox with outward slanting walls. Can't risk ruining our tv that's mounted over the mantle. Or, ya know, the custom, hand carved, original 1930's wooden mantle. So today we figure out the technique for how to properly use masonry bits and screws to drill that into the brick face of the fireplace. It seems to be diverting the heat enough, so we'll see.

Annnnnd, just to add more to the fun, last night we discovered the kitchen sink leaks. I remember when we had our inspection Hans told us there was still one rouge ceramic pipe under there to keep an eye on. Surprisingly enough though, it's the pvc pipes and they've obviously been leaking for a while. It smells like moldy broccoli under there. Good thing nothing of value is underneath. Just the left over paint cans from when the house was painted while it was on the market. I had intended to take them out, clean up under there and move our cleaning stuff under there. Now, until we fix that, and probably the floors under it that are probably rotting, it's nothing but a bucket so we can still use the sink with minimal fear of further destroying our floors. Not that we like them anyways, but still. I had every hope to lay new floors over the existing since I'm terrified of what an 81 year old sub floor looks like and have no desire to find. I may have to face that fear now. 

Our next house will definitely be newer. This will be my only blue and yellow 1930's kitchen and pink 1950's bathroom. Not that I don't love our house and all it's charm. But I'd give up my pretty original glass doorknobs with skeletons keys for a newer house that didn't require so much damn love. Joy.

Anywhooo, 192 days to go! That's 6 months, 1 week and 4 days. Woo!

Crunch Time

I feel like I'm in wedding crunch time right now. It's getting down to the wire (sort of) and things are starting to get to the point of have-to-get-done-now. 

I've been in contact with our new coordinator a bit. I told her I'd get hold of her after the new year to set up a details meeting. Asked about menu tasting and she said we can set that up whenever. So I'm thinking I may contact her next week about that and set something up for prior to our details meeting.

I have my florist appointment and the final cake appointment on Friday afternoon. Once both those things have deposits down on them I can draft our vendors list to have both for myself and to give to the Ramada, as they require one. I still need to call our DJ again about adding the ceremony music to our contract. 

Speaking of details, I started putting together a list of all the different "details" things that I need to have an answer to when we go to the meeting, such as "centerpieces", "arch decor", "aisle decor", "linens", etc. I figure if I can give a super detailed list, including pictures when possible, to the Ramada, then they can just replicate it on the day of and I won't have to answer any questions or whatever. 

I also met up with my friend Brittany yesterday and asked her if she would do a reading at the ceremony. She said yes and I'm sooo excited for her to be part of our wedding.

I've started to go through my wedding pinterest board and put together a must have list of shots for our photographer. I'll have to have my mother and Rob's mother draft formal family line up must have pictures. I plan on having a list of everyone who will be in pictures, in the order we plan to take them, and give everyone in them a copy so they know when they're needed a for how long. I'd like to take only about 20 minutes for formals then move onto wedding party and then just us pictures. 

Lauren is officially my first bridesmaid to order her dress! Those need to be ordered by December to be here on tim and have time for possible alterations. 

Yesterday I went adult trick or treating, as I called it. I drove down maybe about ten miles of the Seneca Lake Wine Trail to go a cork gathering rampage. I went to maybe seven or eight wineries and it's great because they just dump the corks in a bag and off you go. Love free stuff! I got about half of what we need. If I had the time I would have drove more of the 40 miles trail and been able to get enough, but I'll just go again in a few weeks. I'm going to use them to make escort cards. I figure since we live in wine country that can be my slight nod at that. Plus now my car smells nice like fine wine. 

I feel like I'm forgetting stuff, but maybe not. Anyways...

200 days!!! That's a mere 28 weeks! Or 6 months, 2 weeks and 5 days. 

Coordinating Conundrum

Little snafu today... our coordinator is leaving our venue. I'm a bit sad about this. She's been there 15 years, all the vendors in the area know her and love working with her. She has nothing but amazing reviews. I was so excited to work with her. And that was coming soon, after the six month mark. And now she's leaving. 

I didn't hear this from our venue though, which is some what disconcerting. I found out at work. Our secretary called to confirm our date and room reservations for our winter luncheon, conveniently being held at our venue. She called the coordinator who confirmed, then gave her the new name and contact information for the new, soon to be coordinator. I planned to email to current lady tonight, but I go too caught up with other house things. It's on my to do list for tomorrow. Just... frustrating. I've read too many horror stories on The Knot about girls having the coordinator switched and things not going well. I'm hoping because we still have some time that'll work out alright. 

Otherwise, on the planning front, all the silks I bought showed up. We officially have all our flowers except for the few real ones we're getting for myself, Rob, and our parents. I also bought shoes. I found them a few weeks ago and wasn't ready to commit. I went back for them and they were marked at 30% off. Score!

My dress... I'm stressed again. When I picked it out, the sample was an eight and fit perfectly. But sometimes samples are stretched out from being tried on. I got measured and all my measurements were in between sizes, three different ones to be exact. The consultant told me to pick whatever I was comfortable with so I went with a ten, thinking that was safe. But I tried on some party dresses with Emily and Annie a month or so ago now and those were all eights and fit perfect. I wanted to order an eight when I ordered the dress, but I was nervous it'd be too small and I'd end up in tears. Now I wish I had gotten an eight so I wouldn't have to pay for so many alterations. 

Lastly, rings. My engagement ring is a large, awkward shaped ring that takes up a lot of finger real estate. It's going to be difficult to fin a ring to put next to it. My thought has been to move it to my right hand permanently post wedding and put something flashy in it's place. I found what I wanted online, but the price recently went up. Like way up, like doubled in price up. So in a panic I went to a bunch of jewelry places to search for something similar in store, only to come up disappointed. I finally caved and tried something on next to my ring. I can fit a very thin, small band behind/under it, but I'm not sure. I'm so torn about what to do. 

I'm ready for this wedding to happen already so we can be married and happy and move onto the marriage part. I'm really excited for the wedding, but seven more months might kill me. 

Anyways, today marks exactly seven months! Woohoo!


Update 11-2: A letter came from our venue today. It was really nondescript, just stating there was going to be a change in contact person and that someone would contact us soon with the updated contact information. So it sounds like they haven't actually hired a new coordinator yet. The name that the coordinator gave our secretary was the Sales Director's information, so she must be the stop gap until someone new starts. Hopefully someone's in there soon and we can get caught up on the new person's information and schedule a time to meet them. Frustrating. 

House Keeping Checks

I've been vaguely productive this week. Wedding wise at least. The rest of my life, not so much.

Wedding:
Made a florist appointment
Made a cake finalization appointment/tasting
Temporarily postponed my make up trial until after the holidays
Called our DJ to add ceremony music to our contract. He was on another call and was supposed to call me back but never did. This is just pretty much how he rolls and I'm not concerned. It'll get added one of these days. 
Ordered ten more bouquets of orange gerbera daisies. I now have enough for all five girls bouquets and all our centerpieces.
Ordered three bouquets of purple tulips for the five groomsmen/best man boutineers and to fill out the girls bouquets a bit more. 

That's it. Once we secure the cake and florist we'll have all our vendors booked except for the rehearsal dinner caterer. But that's not a big deal, the place we want to use is aware we intend to book them at some point. Otherwise it'll just be detail now. After the six month mark we can schedule our first appointment with our venue coordinator to start on the details and what not. 

We also Have Daniel's wedding coming up soon; mid December. I'm pretty excited to go down to Chattanooga and see everyone and enjoy someone else's love and hard work. Then after that we can start talking to Daniel about our wedding too, since he'll be officiating for us. 

As for the rest of my life, I've been unusually tired. I've been going to bed early and sleeping right through Rob coming home from work. Normally I wake up when I hear him come home if I'm not still awake, but the last week or so I've slept through it. I'm a really light sleeper. No idea what the deal is. Getting up to work out has been harder than usual too. 

Iron Girl registration in one week. Time to get my triathlon juices flowing. Mini Mussel registration is in three week. Going to tri my tail off this year with three races. Game face time.

220 days to go until wedding day. That's 7 months, 1 week and 1 day!