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.   My bridesmaids and I. My MOH was unable to make it because she lives in Georgia and her first day of school (she's a teacher) was the following day.  My beautiful mum & I  My fabulous ribbon hat  Most of the lovely ladies who came out for my shower 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.!!
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Houston, we have a contract! Woohoo! After months of talking about it, we FINALLY got our contract with our caterer. We are signed, sealed, and official. I could cry. SUCH a HUGE weight off my shoulders... you know, since we have 9 weeks until our wedding and all haha.
Today we are going to meet with our rental company to change a few things, see some things and possibly add them to our list, and put down a deposit. Then we're off to taste some cake! Hopefully this bakery will be "the one," and we can sign a contract today. After the deposit is down at the the rental place and the cake lady is (hopefully) booked, I'll be screaming from the rooftops- but not on Facebook haha- about how ALL of our vendors will have been booked. Please send positive happy vibes out into the universe that everything goes well and that I can finally relax after today!! PS- I got some texts yesterday from friends saying they got my invitations already!! That was SO fast! We might even get some RSVPs before the mailing week is over! We are down to double digits-- 99 days! Holy moly, I can't believe we are SO close. At this time last year I didn't even have a date solidified, and now I'm down to mostly little details and getting super nervous about paying for all of this and making sure it's going to come together smoothly.
I haven't written in a little while because things are really busy right now between work, planning our wedding, and planning the pre-wedding parties for the wedding we're both in two weeks before ours. But lots of things are done now and there are still some things I am just itching to scratch off of our "to do" list that I'm obsessed with these days. I literally have a copy on this website, a copy printed out in my planning binder, mini lists everywhere, and a list of weekly checks in my iPad. Crossing something off is so satisfying. So here's what we've recently got done... -We got our guest book tree in the mail! I used a free graphic I found online, added our name and wedding date in PhotoShop and bought a Groupon to have it printed on canvas. It is SO cute and I can't wait to hang it in our future house! -We also got the picture frame for our sand ceremony. It's a vase/frame combination that we got online that wasn't marketed for sand ceremonies, so instead of paying $50/60 we paid $9.99 on clearance. Love! -Bridesmaid's dresses arrived yesterday! They are SO pretty. The colour is amazing! When we ordered them, we only got to see a small swatch of the colour, so we had to use our imaginations on the rest of the dress. It is so vibrant and lovely. We also got the guys their ties and pocket squares in the same colours. -I figured out my something old/new/borrowed/blue and attached a sixpence to my barefoot sandal. My old is the promise ring my dad gave my mum when they were teenagers; my new is my new last name (Mrs. undies!), my borrowed is a lady bug brooch that a close friend carried on her own wedding day, and my blue is my crinoline. Nice to have those little details sorted out! -I bought serving trays for our seating card display (we're going to fill them with sand and put the seating cards inside). I painted them white and finished them with an acrylic clear coat, so those are ready to go! -Started working on wedding cake stuff with my mum. I think we have our cake!! On my list for this weekend: -Call about rentals (so nervous to do this for some reason- probably because I know it will be expensive!) -Harass our caterer to send us a contract. This is killing me! -Call to make a fitting appointment for tuxes (the shop owners were on vacation so we had to wait for this one) -Call about alterations and set up my first fitting Hopefully my next update finds that bottom paragraph "checked off!" One of these days I'm going to post a giant super post with tons of pictures of all the little details that are currently hanging out around our house and at FMIL's house. Till then, you'll just have to use your imagination <3 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: 
We finally met with the restaurant that will potentially be catering at our wedding.
The food was delicious. We tasted the prime rib, stuffed chicken, grilled chicken breast with red pepper and spinach, and the cheese ravioli with lobster cream sauce. The sides we tried were sauteed veggies and tri-colour potatoes, as well as Caesar salad with their own homemade dressing. The food was delicious and if we go with them, we'll probably do the Caesar salad (as opposed to a garden salad). We really liked the prime rib and the cheese ravioli with lobster cream sauce for the entree choices, and the tri-colour potatoes for the side. We loved everything and the chef (owner) was super nice and very helpful. The only thing that makes me nervous is that the person in charge of catering is not very good at communicating and I have a hard time getting her to respond to emails and phone calls. I'm going to express my concern to her and hopefully we can resolve it so we can book them. The last thing I want is to be worried a week before my wedding because I'm not sure what's going on with our food. On another (very exciting) note, I tried on my wedding dress this morning. We were at my fiance's parent's house (where my dress currently lives) and I couldn't resist. It's too big! I can hold a solid fist full of fabric behind me! All my hard work is paying off- it's super fabulous and I feel fantastic! Everything is really coming together. The last big checks we have are catering, rentals, and tuxes. After that, it's basically just small stuff. A huuuuuge weight will be off my shoulders soon!! Good thing, too, because we're creeping ever closer to the Big Day (or Doomsday, as I lovingly refer to it sometimes haha)- only 146 days left! I can't believe that I was once counting So this past weekend, I ran a 5K in Stone Harbor (where we are getting married). Packet pick-up was actually at our reception venue, so Fi & I got to visit it again and see it with people in it. And, my goodness, were we surprised. In fact, I almost had a panic attack. Seeing it occupied by 80-100 people, I suddenly realized it was definitely TOO SMALL for our wedding. Fi tried to calm me down by telling me that the tables and stuff that were in there (set up by the race coordinator for registration, as well as the sponsors and stuff who were giving things away) were making it seem smaller and not to worry- we'd look at specifics when we got home to make sure it'd all work out.
So tonight we decided to take a closer look at the floor plan of our venue. It's a good size... if we only want to do dinner. Dancing in that room is absolutely out of the picture, no matter how we arrange the tables. I felt another panic attack coming on while we tried to find a solution. We immediately considered moving the wedding to a tent. The venue has a nice-sized parking lot beside it. In fact, every other bride I've seen who has used our venue has actually rented it FOR the lot and set up a tent there; I haven't seen anyone else who actually used the ballroom for their wedding. We were planning to have a tent out there anyway for our cocktail hour and the bar. So I look up tent rentals. I find that we'd need a 30x60 foot tent to accommodate our guests for dinner + a dance floor. Look up the price. And realize that a tent that size will cost us upwards of $1,000... not to mention if it's stifling hot or unseasonably cold (then we'd have to add air conditioning/heat as well). Let me tell you (in case you were unsure) that I am with the perfect man for me. While my anxiety seems never-ending, his cool-headed, laid back attitude and reassuring “it will all be okay”'s can really calm me down. Since he can remain level-headed, he comes up with solutions faster than I can. “What if we have the dance floor outside?” he recommends. I instantly brighten- I knew I was marrying him for a reason. So here's our new plan. We will get married on the beach. After the ceremony, our guests will enjoy cocktails and hors d'ouerves in a tent in the parking lot beside the WCC while we take our pictures. About 15 minutes before our “grand entrance,” the DJ will start telling guests to move into the dining room. We'll have our entrance shortly thereafter and have our first dance in the dining room. Have dinner, toasts, and speeches inside. Then we'll cut the cake (cue old people leaving). After the cake has been cut & enjoyed, we'll move the party outside to the tent. We'll start off with the father/daughter and mother/son dances and then go right into high-energy dancing for a little less than an hour. Then we'll have the bouquet/garter tosses, dance some more, have our last dance, then have a send-off. Sound like a plan?? I think we might actually be able to pull this off... The only problem I see is making smooth transitions. Hopefully people will be able to keep up and understand what's going on. Our DJ will be a huge help for this as well. There are three sets of French doors in the clubhouse that lead outside to the lot where the tent will be set up, so hopefully that will aid in transitioning the celebration from inside to outside. We'll keep the doors open (we were planning to do that anyway to let in the sea breeze). We also have to consider adding some seating outside around the dance floor for those who want to watch but don't want to dance. We just have to adjust our budget to include a dance floor (and perhaps flooring for the rest of the tent too...) and some more decorations for the tent. Luckily, our DJ was already planning to set up both out in the lot AND inside the clubhouse because of our ceremony/cocktail hour set-up, so that won't be a problem. Also, when we booked the venue, we paid a higher amount because we were planning on having a tent for our cocktail hour. So we've already paid the “tent deposit” as well and won't need to add any more money to that side of things. We were already planning on having our guest book table and seating card tables on the porch outside (for access during cocktail hour), which I think work even better now that we came up with this idea. The gift table will probably be inside, and I think I'll ask one of my bridesmaids or someone if they can check the card box on occasion to move any cards to the room we'll be using to freshen up and keep our stuff just in case any of my friends have seedy dates. Or we could potentially put the gift table outside too, under the tent. We shall see! I think I actually like this better than the original plan and even if our venue decided to double in size, I'd probably still do it this way because it kind of creates the laid back feel we're aiming for. Also, I LOVE the idea of dancing the night away right beside the sand dunes. Talk about a beachy atmosphere- I'll practically have sand between my toes! After a mild freak out, I'm more relaxed now than I was before seeing the venue all full. I feel like we have a more solid plan that will lend itself beautifully to our wedding day. Yay! So I've been gathering ideas and doing research since we got engaged in December, and now that it's June I'm actually starting to put some of that homework to use. I've recently finished the first of five tissue paper poms for our ceremony space. They truly are a labor of love, but I think they'll be so very worth it in the end.  I also started working on my "Mrs. Neal" dress hanger today. It's been a lot harder than I thought it would be. The "Mrs." has looked awesome for both of my trials... but the "Neal" is a PITA. I'm gonna keep trying to get it right though. If not, I might just make an "I do" hanger or a "bride" hanger for sanity's sake. Chris and I also visited our first venue this Wednesday. It's the Clubhouse at Hilltop Farm, which is home to the West Mont United Soccer Association. The Clubhouse is gorgeous, but small. We could definitely make it work. It's also within our budget (so affordable!) and lets us have an outside caterer and is BYOB, so that's also a major plus. It's set up perfectly for making entrances and walking down aisles, so that's another selling point. I have a list of about 5 more venues to look at, and then we'll start dragging our moms out to look at our top choices and give us some input.  (ceremony space... porta potties would be removed!)  (reception space as viewed from upper balcony)  (deck where we'd have the cocktail hour and our bar) Finally, I have asked all of my girls to be in my wedding party. Surprisingly, Britta seems to be more excited than anyone. Mine is the first wedding she's been asked to be in, and she said she's actually gotten online and looked up bridesmaid etiquette. I don't expect any of my girls to do anything except show up, but it's really nice to know I can count on her to come over and help with some of my wedding projects as they come up.
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