Our Wedding by the Sea

Today we got a big box in the mail.

Our invitation paper is officially here!!  I'm so excited to get started on my invites.  I know I've been saying this with basically every check, but this makes it feel so much more real.  Ahhh!!

I also got an email from Carnival.  I had emailed them last week because we booked Early Saver, which guarantees the lowest rate.  They had a lower rate published for our cruise/room type and so I sent in a form and got our rate lowered, too.  So yay- that's exciting!  I'll continue to stalk the website to make sure we don't miss out on any lower fares as well.

Sunday we registered at Target and it was actually a lot of fun.  I can't wait to register at Macy's on the 15th now.  We had a really good time and had a lot of fun imagining what our future home will look like and stuff.

Last but definitely not least, our flowers are ordered!!!  We're getting a 23-piece package from Etsy seller ShayesBridalBoutique and I love love LOVE our flowers.

My bouquet will be wrapped in teal and ivory (in the pic above, imagine the green ribbon as ivory) and topped with a starfish brooch.

All other bouquets/boutonnieres/corsages will have purple ribbon.  I know it's not one of my wedding colours, but it is my favorite colour.  And blue & purple is my favorite colour combo.  AND Chris liked it better than the brown, so whenever he has any kind of opinion about the wedding I take that as a good sign.

Things are coming along swimmingly!!

Yesterday my mum came upstairs to do laundry.  I was researching flowers when she came in, but wanted to show her this dress site I found that has designer dresses at a fraction of the price (goweddingdress.com, if you're interested).  I was so excited when I found it because my dress budget is pretty low, but I haven't been able to find a lot in my price point.  As we're looking at some of the gowns I have bookmarked (some that I've been eying for the past 7 months and am totally excited I can actually have now that they're so affordable), she mentions that she wants to pay for my gown.  I was floored.  She already said she's buying our cake.  But the dress!?  !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I am beyond thrilled and there are no words for how thankful I am.  She wants to go dress shopping to try some dresses on, and then order from that website.  Her cousin does dress alterations, so that will be free/nearly free.  Also, on the website is that shipping is free and returns are honoured if done so within 7 days.  So basically, if I don't like the dress when it comes, I send it back and it's like the whole thing never happened.  It's virtually risk-free, and I get the designer dress I've been dreaming about.  Now.. if only they carried Maggie...

Here are some of the dresses I'm considering.  Obviously I'll try them on first (or at least ones that are similar):

Allure 8764
My front-runner :)

Demetrios 3140
I've had my eye on her for awhile.  She's completely different than all the other dresses I like.

Allure 8755

Demetrios 1356

A stunning gown, but it needs straps.  I think adding them might take away from it though.

    

Believe it or not, I love lace gowns.  I know that assortment doesn't really reflect that, but I was always taught to try things outside of what you were positive you wanted, because you can be surprised.  So those are some dresses I want to try on to see what I might like.

The day's excitement doesn't end there.  After talking with my mum, I had to get ready for dinner with Chris' parents.  They invited us over to "talk about the wedding."  I was SO nervous.  Last time they wanted to talk about the wedding, I ended up crying for three hours because they told us they thought it was a bad idea for us to get married in Mexico.

It turns out that I had no reason to be nervous.  They wanted to go over our plans: ceremony on the beach, cocktail hour outside in the space between the beach & the reception building, reception inside, etc.  We pulled up pictures, got excited, etc.  Then they told us that they want to help pay for it.  !!!!!!!!!!!!!

We were NOT expecting that at all.  I think the wedding gods were smiling on us yesterday.  They want to contribute a good amount of money and also host the rehearsal dinner.  A huge weight off my chest.  I feel like we can actually do this now, without having to live with no electricity and keep ourselves warm under a blanket all winter.

Other things we learned yesterday and weren't expecting at all:

• When contacting DJ's and finding price points, we learned that the cheapest one for what we wanted will cost us $200... an HOUR.  Maybe it's time to lower my standards.  My friend who got married 2 weeks ago had an amazing DJ, and I just found out they paid $4,000 for them... Um.  Time to win the lottery???
• My close friend's stepfather is a wedding photographer who said he'll give us the family rate if we decide to use his services.  I'm going to check out his portfolio and probably call him later this week.  That, paired with the free e-pics my brother's girlfriend is doing for us, takes a load off of our photography budget (and maybe makes more room for the DJ hahaha)
• I might have fresh flowers in my wedding after-all.  It looks like nice fake arrangements are just as expensive.  My neighbor does flowers, but she's not a professional or anything.  But I have a friend whose aunt is a florist and I might be able to call in a favor and have those done inexpensively as well.

I love when things start to turn in your favor.  It's true when they say that all you need to do is find your venue and things will naturally fall into place.  Keep falling, wedding things!