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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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! Not officially because Chris still doesn't have a job, which means I'm paying all the bills and have zero cash to put a deposit down. But still, we found the place we're going to get married! We had a walk-through today and I loved it. It's bigger than the Clubhouse, which is a plus. It also has hardwood floors (we wouldn't need to rent a dance floor!) and a stage (for the DJ). There are three double doors that face the beach and we were thinking we could open them for a fresh sea breeze. Here are some of the pictures I took:  (the stage that we'd de-clutter and prettify and put the DJ on)  (view of the room from the stage area. That's me in the maxi. Behind me is the front entrance & bathrooms, and to the left of the photo is the kitchen)  (the three double doors that face the beach)  (building where we'd have our reception- parking lot where we'd have our cocktail hour - beach where we'd have our ceremony)  (the parking lot between the building & the beach where we'd set up a tent for our cocktail hour)
I leave for my craptastic job in 40 minutes, work till close, then have off the next three days. Tomorrow we're headed to north Jersey for a close friend's wedding, then leaving from there for the shore.
I've been in contact with the beach venue from my last post and am trying to schedule a walk-through with the event coordinator. She said that the only date booked for August/September/October 2012 is August 11th, so we still have our choice of basically any date we want. I'm pretty sure we're sold on Sept. 22nd. Anyway, I called the coordinator and left her a message today. She emailed me last night saying that she was available Sunday or Monday afternoon, so I'm hoping that she gets back to me in time to see the place. She's kinda hard to get a hold of. I'm just so excited to finally see the inside and really determine what we're going to do. Of course both sets of moms will want to see the place, but basically everyone is telling us we should do it there because the beach is so us. I can't wait :) It has been my dream- my entire life- to be married on the beach. I always tell Chris that I'm happiest when I'm down the shore with my toes in the sand, sea breeze running through my hair. I just have this amazingly calm, inner happiness when I'm at the ocean. I can't explain it, but trust me it's stupendous. I'd given up on getting married at the beach. The only way I could afford a seaside reception would be in a different country (ie- Mexico), which was a plan that fell through when I was reminded how many of our friends and family wouldn't come because of the expense to them. My heart was broken, I did lots of research, and ended up deciding to look at places closer to home: in land-locked Pennsylvania. While we were in Cape May this past weekend, I couldn't ignore it anymore. I couldn't shake the feeling that we were meant to be married on the beach. It's such a HUGE part of who we are: we started in Cape May, he told me he loved me the first time in Cape May, etc. etc. etc. I felt like I had to make it work- even if it meant saving every single penny I made (outside of paying the bills) for the next year). So I asked Chris if we could drive by a venue I'd heard about online. I had actually emailed the place several times back when we first got engaged, but I figured we couldn't swing it and just forgot about it. In all honestly, I don't know why I did that. The place is super affordable and RIGHT on the beach- like, walk out the door, walk 10 feet, and BAM! sand dunes. So we drive north of Cape May to Stone Harbor to check the place out. And I fall in love. Not so much with the venue itself- which is pretty plain and kind of boring, lending itself beautifully to my creative touch- but with its location. Right beside the building are sand dunes...  ...meaning that THIS could be my aisle. Looking at it makes me want to cry. No, really. I get tears in my eyes and get all emotional. THAT is the way I'm supposed to see my husband-to-be. I want him waiting at the end with the ocean as a backdrop. We're not meant to be married on some soccer field. This is just so absolutely us. We didn't get to tour the venue because it was a spur of the moment thing on a Sunday afternoon. No one was there and the doors were locked, but I did peak in the windows and it's about the same size as the Clubhouse (maybe a little bigger), with lots of natural light, high ceilings, and a stage that I have NO idea what I'm going to do with.   After talking it over, discussing the pro's and con's, and readjusting our budget, we are pretty sure this is the way we're going to go with our wedding. I've already emailed for more information, received it, and am waiting to hear about their availability for 2012.
One of the only downsides is that we'll probably change our date to September 2012 (from August 18). Cape May is REALLY hot in the summer and many hotels have a three-night minimum (which would be really inconvenient for our guests). In September, the weather is cooler (but not cold) and after Labor Day the season is over so hotels are much more lax (and more affordable!) We are hoping for September 22, because we are in a wedding for Chris' best friend on the 8th. We want them to be able to enjoy their honeymoon instead of having to stick around for our wedding the next week, and Kyle is in our wedding too, so we really want him there. The 22nd is also Chris' parent's anniversary, so it'd be cool to do something for them on our wedding day, too. | Planning Blog
This is my wedding planning blog to chronicle the madness of the 16 months leading up to our wedding. ArchivesSeptember 2012 Easy Access To...
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