Our Wedding by the Sea

So I know I haven't written in awhile, but it's not for lack of things to say.  I have been SO busy and haven't had much time for anything NWR.  When I do have a few precious minutes of not wedding planning or working, I don't want to spend them writing about wedding planning.  Haha- I am all planned out!!  Now I feel like I can write some stuff, so I'm going to :)

On August 5th I had my bridal shower.  It was amazing- beyond my expectations.  It was a Paris theme and I loved it.  There was a great mix of friends and family and I was SO nervous but had no reason to be.  My mum, FMIL, and bridesmaids did a great job.  We got some great gifts and everyone had a lovely afternoon.

We've also checked A LOT off our lists.  There is still quite a bit to go, but it's definitely do-able.  We bought the lanterns for our cocktail hour centerpieces, confirmed the reception set-up with our DJ (and made most of our playlist, just need to confirm a few little details with Fi).  We cancelled the Vieques leg of our stay in PR and extended the time in San Juan because of the hassle (ie- ferry times being unreliable, rental cars not being allowed to leave the main island, no full moon = no biobay, etc.).  We also went to Lowe's and bought the wood, paint, and nails to make our table numbers, as well as dowels and wood to make the base for our stacked paper lanterns for beside the bar.

Our RSVP deadline was today as well.  We are still waiting to hear back from 26 people, but we are officially below our max amount, so I am thrilled.  We are giving the mail until the end of the week to come in (we figure there will be a few stragglers) and then we'll start calling around on Monday.  If everyone else says yes (and there are a few we're expecting to say no), then we'll have 96 guests.  The smaller, the better, I like to say :)

We also made our final payment to the WCC today, which feels REALLY good.  We are really coming along!!

On Thursday we go to apply for our marriage license, which I am SUPER excited for.  Mostly because it means we get to go to the beach!  We haven't been AT ALL this summer because of work, and we're using all of our time off for the wedding and honeymoon :(  Which will be awesome then... but sucks a lot right now.

Finally, we took my engagement ring to be re-dipped.  I want it to be nice and sparkly for pictures!  They should all be back on the 28th, but I won't be wearing my e-ring again until the wedding weekend.  We engraved our rings, too.  His will say, "Big Spoon" and mine will say, "Little Spoon."  I am in love :)

33 DAYS UNTIL I'M CHRIS' MRS.!!

We are under 140 days.  I can't believe it.  Things are really starting to come together and now it's mostly small details.  On that note, I've decided I need to seriously start thinking about the table situation.  The way I see it, we have the following tables to think about:

-Guest tables
-Sweetheart table
-Cocktail hour/dance floor tables (will be in the tent with the bar and DJ)
-Appetizer tables
-Bartender's table
-DJ's table
-Gift table
-Guest book table
-Seating card table
-Cake table

Since we haven't sorted out rentals yet (this week!  I swear!) I don't really know what size tables I'll be using for any of these things, so this is all hypothetical.  And for now I'm only thinking about the guest & sweetheart tables... I'll go over the others in a later post :p

Guest Tables
This is where the guests will sit for dinner and toasts and will be located inside the WCC.  We believe we'll need about 9 tables that seat 9, but this is all dependent on how many people give us a positive RSVP.

Chris and I were at a wedding last July that had long oval tables and we really liked those, so that's what we've been planning for for guest tables.

This is what I'm thinking...
-Ivory polyester table cloths and linen napkins (still haven't decided on napkin presentation)

-White resin folding chairs (will be moved from ceremony on the beach to the reception hall)

-Centerpieces will be 3 cylinder vases of varying heights.  The tallest will have 2 plum-coloured calla lilies and an ivory floating candle.  The others will also have ivory floating candles, but we haven't decided what we'll be putting inside them.  We think we're going to do grass in one and maybe petals in another?.  We also bought 144 votives (ivory and light blue) and votive holders to scatter around the tables.

-Bread, butter, salt, and pepper (naturally)
-Basic white dinnerware, simple silverware, simple water and wine glasses.  Nothing special :)
-Seating cards will be on the table after guests come into the room and will add some colour to the room as well.  I'm going to make either the "towels" different patterns OR the umbrellas will be different colours (might be easier that way) based on what entree the guest has chosen to make life easier for the servers.

-We'll be having constellation table numbers, but aren't 100% sure how we're going to be displaying them yet, so stay tuned :)

Sweetheart Table
-We're thinking a half-round table for our sweetheart table, with the two of us sitting on the "flat" side and the "round" side facing our guests.
-An ivory table cloth
-I'll put my bouquet in a vase in the front center of the table, then lay my girls' bouquets around the front of the table as well.

-We won't have a centerpiece like our guests' because I think the bouquets will be enough, but we will have some votive candles spread around
-I'll make "Mr." and "Mrs." banners for the backs of our chairs

-We're going to keep with the theme of constellation table names, but since we're the sweetheart table I'm considering going a different direction with it: We could either pick a meaningful constellation OR we could put our initials in the stars in a similar way to this invitation:

First thing's first.  We *still* have no caterer.  5 months out and still no food.  Can we say STRESSED!?  However, I've been talking to the catering manager at a restaurant in Ocean City (just north of Stone Harbor) and it looks like we'll probably go with them.  We're trying to schedule a tasting with them- hopefully for this Sunday- and really really hoping it works out so we can sign a contract and let out a HUGE sigh of relief.  Keep your eyes open for more info on that!

Second line of business: Tuxes.  We ordered ties & pocket squares back in March when I ordered the bridesmaid's dresses.  Since my dresses are Alfred Sung (and therefore part of Dessy), ties were available in the exact same colour & fabric as the dresses, so we just ordered at the same time.  However, we have yet to book suit/tux rentals.  Chris and I are both looking for the same thing, so thank goodness we don't have to argue about it.  Honestly though, if he wanted to wear something other than the idea I have in my head, I'd be cool with it.  As it is, we're hoping for tan coloured suits/tuxes.  We have an appointment this coming Tuesday at the first store I went to to try on dresses.  Chris and I are both in a wedding 2 weeks before our own, and the bride got her dress there.  The groom and groomsmen are also getting their tuxes there, so Chris has already interacted with their sales team and stuff when he went to get fitted for that wedding.  He said he found a suit there that he liked for our wedding, so hopefully that will be "the one" and we can sort out tuxes, too.  Then it's just a matter of having the groomsmen & ushers fitted, and Chris' will be free!  Luckily, his best man is the groom from the wedding we're in before ours, so the store already has HIS measurements AND we share a common groomsman who currently lives in Texas, so they have his measurements already, too.  We just need to have the other groomsman (currently living in Georgia) get measured, and have Chris' brothers (our ushers) get measured as well.  We need to find the two of them ties, too.  But at least there's an end in sight!

Finally, invitations.  I have really begun the assembly line.  About 15 envelopes are addressed.  It's labor-intensive and takes a long time, but I'm slowly working through them.  I ordered an address stamper from Vistaprint for the return address, so at least that's going quickly haha.  I'm pretty sure I'll be printing the return address on the RSVP envelopes though.  All of the invitation mats are marked so I know where to mount the invites.  The panel pockets are also nearly all marked so I can mount the mats onto them.  I'll probably start actually gluing the mats to the pockets this weekend.  I haven't printed the invitations yet because a) our printer keeps freezing in the middle of the page every single time I try to print them and b) we want to wait until we have a caterer booked so we can put meal choices on the RSVPs.  Fun fun.  But at least I'm making progress and getting finished with what I can.

Last (but not least), we have confirmed centerpieces!  I don't have my wedding jump drive so I can't post the inspiration picture right now, but I'll post it when I get home from work tonight.  It's going to be 3 cylinder vases with floating candles, the tallest of which will have 1-2 submerged purple calla lilies.  We're going to put either marbles or sand on the bottom of the vases.  I ordered the flowers (30 real touch callas) from Save-On-Crafts yesterday, as well as 36 cylinder vases, 144 votive holders, 36 ivory floating candles, 72 ivory votives, and 72 light blue votives.  They should be here Monday already so I can make some mockups and make sure that the colour on the flowers isn't going to bleed.

149 days to go!  Ahhhh!!!