Wednesday, March 23, 2011

Wedding Wednesday: A whole lotta everything!


164 days to go

People in General, "How is the Wedding Planning coming along?"

Me, "I love it.. It's been so smooth."

Okay, well I'll admit. I couldn't ask for a better three months of wedding planning. From the night we got engaged until now it really has been a lot of fun. Yes, there is a BUT. But, there are a few things that are starting to race through my mind. Time is ticking... I've only been engaged for three months. I remember saying, "Oh, we've got 9 months, we're good." Now... I caught myself saying, "Five months... Oh Laud!"
I am a very unorganized person. UNLESS it's something I put my true mind and soul in. In this case, I'm completely 150% organized. I've got it going on... I do! Well... Time is passing in a hurry and I can NOT make my mind up about certain things.

As Noah says on The Notebook to Allie, "When I see something I like... I gotta... I  love it"
Okay, in my case it's different. But yes, when I see something that I fall completely in love with, there is no turning back. I want it. I get it. Someway, somehow.
Well... It's not so easy when it comes to invitations & honeymooning.
Also, I've always been a quick decision maker. Mama always taught me to follow my heart. I do 99.9% of the time. I know what my heart wants. I know if something is what I'm looking for within five minutes of judging it. Make Sense?

Let me start with everything [WE] have decided on:

Venue: The Belle House [In LOVE with it] Ceremony & Reception
Color Scheme: Robin Egg Blue, Shiny Gold, and a small dash of watermelon pink.
However, it's now changed to more than a small dash of pink... Vintage Pink.  Not watermelon anymore & it's not really a small dash either. 
I still only consider my colors as Robin Egg Blue & Gold, however... pink seems to be a color as well.
Caterer: Rj's Steakhouse & Menu / Sit down dinner
Bridesmaid Dresses -Bari Jay : Style 103 : Color - Mocha
Flowers - Local Florist [Not doing a lot of flowers]
Music: Band Dj -However changed my Dj. Found The perfect Dj  at this past Bridal Show. I'm all about entertainment. Knew I wanted them just 5 minutes into the conversation!
The Cake: Cake Corner Bakery -Was more exited about introducing the Cake rather than the Cake itself, until I designed it myself, with Mom's help. After tasting Publix cake at the Bridal Show, I wish I would've went with them. But every loves Cake Corner, so it's still all good.
Grooms Cake - We aren't having one. Aaron said he did not want one.
 "it's pointless & I don' get it" says the Groom [Men!]
Ceremony Decor: At first, was thinking.. Plain & Simple. However... The more I looked into our vows & Officant. I realized, this will be the most important part of the day. Very excited about our Decor. Yes, we are completely ready for the Ceremony.
THE Dress:  It's Perfect & at my parents home as we [type]. Maggie Sottero: ********
Do ya know how bad I wanna share this? I'm having the HARDEST time keeping this from everyone. Actually, I haven't done well at all. I don't get why it's a secret? No, I have not shown or described it to my Groom. Pretty sure my Groom wil NOT be able to get me out of this dress the night of our Wedding
... Debating whether to change before we leave. Yes, we are leaving our reception ... like the old days!
The Veil: It's ready to be on my head. [DIY]
Photography: 10 hours, Yay! Images of Georiga - By no means am I dis-ing my photographer. I love them. However, I do wish I would have waited a tad longer to book, because I ran into a beautiful photographer that I "thought" was waay out of my price range, but ended up being in our price range at the bridal show. She shoots a rustic/vintage look. [Aaron and I are paying for our photographer]
Bridesmaids Gifts: Have been working on these since day two of engagment. I love all my maids [9]. They deserve great gifts. [I sure hope I'd love them all, right?] I want them to be everybit of personal. So, I'm 75% done with them...But not quite.
Groomsmens Gifts: Getting Creative with these as well....
I'd say 40% ready. Far from finished.
Thank You Cards: Ready to be written out. These are something I believe in VERY much.
Bridal Accessories: I have my earrings... but there is a catch. I'll share after the wedding. Still need shoes, other jewerly, etc.
Make Up: Last Thrusday, My Bridesmaid Holly & I went for my first make trial.
I definitely looked "fancy" but in a good way... I guess?
Officiant: Missed our meeting with him on the 2/26/11 - Next Meeting 3/26/11
Vows: We are writing our own... to an extent! Very excited about this.
Tuxedos: [Yes, Cumberbun & ALL]
Something Old: Check
 Something New: Check
 Something Borrowed: Check
 Something Blue: Check
Music: Music is a hugh part of me and Aaron. Aaron has never been one to pour his heart out in words. Only in music. He'll say, Hey Jess... I have a song I want you to listen too. Whether it be a love song. An I'm sorry song. A please forgive me. I love you and appreciate you. We have many songs, so I'm having a time to put the perfect ones I want to use for certain parts of the wedding day.
Musician: Pianoist at the Ceremony
Wedding Hair: For a minute there, I thought I'd be asking my personal hair stylist to create somethig crazy. Up for the Ceremony, Down for the Reception. She laughed at me. Knowing me... I'd get my panties in a wad if it weren't right & freak out, as I did my Junior Prom. Only if I weren't so picky. 
99.9999% going for this look...


Reception: Rustic/Vintage
Being we have 30 tables of 10, we have a lot of tables to be decorating.
For the most part, all my tables will look the same. However, each one will have something a little different about them. This is my favorite part and the area I'm most excited about. I can not wait to see our final outcome.

Now...
For my issues... [frown]
There are only a few things I can NOT make my mind up about.
Invitations:
Let me just say, Any party or shower I've thrown or hosted, invitations were a "must be cute"!!!!
Not sure if I want to make them. I have other things I want to spend my time on rather than invitations. I found the p.e.r.f.e.c.t invitations, however I do not want to spend $600 on them. When I say perfect, I mean.. holy cow, nothing could be better than these invitations to match everything we're doing. Let me stress that I do NOT want to spend this amount of money on something that a) will hang on a refridgerator for a few weeks b) won't be captured in photographs c) most people do look at invitations, but a lot of people don't care about it. I rather put money elsewhere. I wanna say, My wedding day was perfect. Not: My favorite thing about my wedding day, was my invitations. Because inviations are sent out 6 weeks prior too. Right?
Favors:
I'm a creative peson, so I feel that our favors should symbolize me & my groom.
However, I can not decide what I want to do. At first I had like 4 things I wanted. Clearly we can't afford to do all four. Plus, people may think we're nutts-o. I've narrowed it down to two. This is something we are paying for also. My parents are paying for so much and I can not just expect them to fork out money galore.
I'm pretty excited about both ideas, however... [I'll leave it at that]
Honeymoon:
Ugh! We've been from St. Lucia to Jamacia [We've been there] to Key West to Ameila Island, Florida to  Cruising [to who cares where] to Catalina, California to El Dorado Resort -Cancun Mexico to the Virgin Islands, to here to there...
Last place I looked into... Geez, did I fall in L to the O to the V to the E. I just knew I found the place and it was just going to work out for us. The Resort at Paws Up - Montana. We would be staying in one of these....

It's called Glamping
AKA Glamorus Camping
White Water Rafting, Horse Back Riding, Hiking, Hot Air Balloon, Fishing....
Aaron and Jessica ALL OVER.
Yes, these luxury tents have electricity.

Ordered a Bourchue, Called for a Quote
$5,102 [Not including air OR ammenities]
The Resort at Paws Up

I'm getting bummed. Seriously.
Aaron and I do NOT want to spend thousands of dollars because
1) We don't have it to fork out with all the other wedding must haves
2) We are hoping to be 100% debt free by our wedding, if not by Thanksgiving.
Spending thousands of dollars on a honeymoon wouldn't be very smart money wise.

We can cruise, yes. And we would have a blast crusing. I've always said it's the best getaway.
But, I reeeeealllly wanna go somewhere different. We cruise a lot.
 [5 Cruises together & He's been cruising since he was 5 years old]
 I want our honeymoon to be perfect and extraordinary. Like no other. I don't think I'll find that without spending gracious amount of money.
I'm super bummed.

Welp, That's all folks!
That's where I'm at with my planning...
Only FIVE months togo! Starting to feel the crunch time butterflies.
SO SO SO ready to marry my one true love

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

It sounds like it will be gorgeous! Good luck with the rest of the planning! :)

Aly @ Analyze This said...

Ahhhh! I want to come!

My friend Lauren does invites and she is VERY talented and could probably work out a great deal (That's if you are in the market for a designer for your invitations).

I think your hair will look great regardless of what you decide to do with it! I, for one, can not wear my hair up. My face looks HUGE!!! :(

Magnolia said...

What a beautiful post! Thank you for sharing!

Rebekah said...

I love everything! I had the hardest time not showing my dress to Dylan but I wanted the big surprise at the wedding. Your hair will be great no matte what! We did our own invitations, mainly because I wanted simplicity and I didn't want to pay a ton for that. :) I LOVE the idea of Glamping!

Allison said...

My dress is a Maggie Sottero dress as well! :D I wanted to show Ryan my dress too, he almost talked me into it--but I didn't.

I think Glamping would be SO FUN!!! I've never even heard of that. :)

I'm ordering our invitations from etsy.

Lindsi said...

You are sooo stinkin' organized, I LOVE it! :)

Annie said...

sounds to me like you are very prepared and so organized!!!
glamping looks awesome but totally over priced, wow!
these next 5 months are going to fly :)

Karli said...

Looks like you've got a great start! Everything sounds beautiful. My two cents on the invitations.. Spend the $$ it's worth it! We spent a LOT of $ on invitations and I can't even begin to describe the buzz it's created for our wedding. My grandmother called me crying because they were so beautiful and she has had 6 granddaughters marry. She told me that this was the most amazing presentation she'd ever seen for a wedding and just by the invites alone she knew that it was going to be an amazing wedding. The invitations are the first glimpse of the event. Just food for thought. :) I'm sure whatever you decide will be beautiful!