JESSICA & CHRISTOPHER: THE JOURNEY TO "I DO"

crunch time!

2010-04-21T19:48:00.000-07:00

There's three days (basically two!) until W-Day and I have neglected you, dear blog. Ah, well, sorry. Here's a peak at some of the latest projects and what guests will be greeted with on Saturday:

Funny story: See the arrow with our wedding date on it. Well, guests won't be greeted with that on the wedding day. You see the arrow actually needs to point in the opposite direction. DIY FAIL! And the stencils are one time use things, so we will have a plain pink arrow. Oh well.

Remember the blankets? Those will be in the middle barrel, while the other two will be used as planters (IE: hold flowers). I stained them myself!

Yummy lobster lollipops that guests can take home with them. It took f-o-r-e-v-e-r to make these suckers, so people better take them!

I think that's enough of a sneak peak for you.

projects revealed

2010-03-27T07:36:00.000-07:00

Morning blog! So the countdown is on... We have less than a month until the wedding and a ton of stuff to do it seems! It'll get done. Somehow. Eventually. I hope.

I want to share some of my projects with you today! I briefly touched upon them last time. But I've decided to cave in and post some pictures. Here's a group photo:

L to R: Card basket; Snuggle blanket; "Our History in the Making" Timeline; Wish Jar
(Click photos to enlarge)

The timeline is one of my favorite projects. I think we will display it on the same table as our wish jar. It's a great way for our guests to get to know a little more about us. I don't even know when I stumbled upon the idea, but I instantly fell in love with it and had to have it. Luckily, we remember most of the major dates in our relationship. Except for the day we met. Minor detail, right? Ha. Here is "Our History in the Making" Timeline:

In lieu of a traditional guest book, we opted for a Wish Jar. We bought the jar at Michael's for about $10 (Thank goodness for 40% off coupons!). We added paper shred to add some color and fill it a little bit. I tied a ribbon around it and ta-da: A Wish Jar is born. We have two different shades of pink cardstock that Chris is going to cut into little squares for people to sign and place in the jar. Here she is:

The sign reads: Sign your name or leave your wishes for the new MR. and MRS.

I'm happy with all our projects so far. I still have our table numbers to complete, but I'll save that for another post. On another note, my bridal shower is today and my bachelorette party is tonight! I can't wait to see what my best friends have been planning all this time!

'Til next time!

projects galore!

2010-03-22T09:25:00.000-07:00

So we're down to THIRTY-THREE DAYS (Yikes!) and I haven't blogged in a month. Guess I've been busy. First off, as promised, here are some photos of the invitations:

I call this one "Invitation Station Collage."

The invitation got a photoshoot with the Bermuda bus, too!

The RSVP card and envelope.

We've gotten a little over half of the responses back with only one decline. The deadline is fast approaching so hopefully we'll be getting a lot of mail this week :)

A few Tuesday's ago Chris and I had a super productive day. We got our marriage license from the Gardiner Town Hall. It was such an easy process. I'm not sure what I was expecting, but it was a breeze. We also picked up these guys:

Our wedding bands from Zimmer Brothers. Ah, I'm in love.

I lovelovelove them! We cheated and wore them for the rest of the day while we ran multiple wedding errands. I can't wait to wear them for the rest of our lives! Eek. Other wedding errands included: Guest book/wish jar supplies, card basket, table numbers, and salt and pepper shakers (which were $1 per set, sweet!).

I've been working on lots of projects lately. Most of the supplies mentioned above are included in the projects (with the exception of the salt and pepper shakers). Before the aforementioned trip, Chris and I also went to the Christmas Tree Shops a few weeks back to look at buckets for plants to decorate the ceremony and reception areas. We ended up leaving with three planters, almost a dozen blankets and $18 worth of pink paper plates and napkins. You're probably wondering, why blankets? Well, I got the idea from this wedding blog. I told Chris this idea and he was on board with it. So we bought blankets and I made tags:

We bought less than a dozen so hopefully not everyone wants to snuggle. We thought it was a good idea since it's kind of an early wedding and it might be a little chilly.

Hopefully I don't go another month without blogging. It's hard to catch up on everything we've been up to. Plus, if I go another month it'll be a few days before our wedding! Aaaah! (That's a good aaaah!). This weekend is my bridal shower and bachelorette party. I'm super excited to see what my girls have been planning! :)

invitation station...

2010-02-22T08:37:00.000-08:00

IS CLOSED! At least that's what I told Chris last night when I finished our invitations.

Chris says it took so long because I took so many pictures of everything... Which is true, but I wanted to document all my hard work. That's okay, right? Well, our save the date got in on some pictures too:

My grandmother gave me this Bermuda bus from her last trip to Bermuda, and we just happen to being going to Bermuda for our honeymoon, so I thought it was appropriate! I'm not going to share any more pictures just yet, just in case someone's reading this... I don't want to ruin the surprise :)

I'm sure I'm excited I'm finally done with the invitations and Chris just thinks I'm silly.

Also, in non-related wedding news, while I was in "photoshoot mode" I made Chris take a picture of me with another one of my accomplishments....

My diploma from SUNY New Paltz :) It came in the mail a few weeks ago and we framed it. Haven't found a place for it yet, so it just hangs out in the computer room for now.

That's all. Hopefully I'll post pictures of the invitations in a week or so after I'm sure everyone has received them!

updates! updates! updates!

2010-02-15T08:23:00.000-08:00

We've changed the ceremony and reception site once again! Chris and I have been slightly worried about the secluded field for several reasons: the ground, getting guests there, electricity source, distance away from parking, etc... So he came up with a new idea. We will have the ceremony and reception in the backyard, but the tent will block the house so it is not in the photos, etc. It solves a lot of problems and I think it will work just fine!

(source)

Shoes. As you know, my shoe search has been quite a task. I finally ordered two pairs of shoes a couple of weeks ago: Jessica Simpson Hill Wedges and Rocketdog Memories DB. I got the Jessica Simpson ones in the mail and I'm still waiting on the second pair. I like them but I'm not head over heels in love with them, which I feel you should be with your wedding shoes. I'm also seriously considering wearing my cowboy boots. Yee-haw!

Cake. We had an appointment at the Pastry Garden scheduled for Wednesday afternoon, but then it snowed and they closed so we rescheduled it for Thursday afternoon. I love cake tasting and if I wasn't on a diet I would make it my profession! We ordered three samples to taste: vanilla cake with fresh berries and buttercream frosting, chocolate cake with raspberry mousse and chocolate buttercream frosting and marble cake with chocolate ganache and buttercream frosting. They were delicious. Then we ordered a sample cake of a combination of the layers on our wedding cake. I picked that up on Saturday and we had it for dessert with Chris's parents Saturday night. That cake was vanilla and chocolate cake with strawberry mousse and chocolate ganache. It was delicious, but we all agreed that the ganache was a bit too overpowering. So we keep gravitating more and more towards a strawberry shortcake. It is going to look like my inspiration cake:

(source)

It will be frosted on the outside with buttercream frosting. The bottom layer will be chocolate cake with strawberry mousse and the top two tiers will be vanilla cake with strawberry mousse. And it will have piles of strawberries on top of each pillared layer, as in the picture. The cake will be decorated with dots:

This is our sample cake. We want it to be smooth on the side of the cake though, they have ridges on our sample cake. It's so cute though, isn't it? Also, we will get a 6" cake of our wedding cake on our first year anniversary. I love that!

Christopher and I practicing for our big day!

Photography. As I previously mentioned, Chris and I met with the photographer from D&G Studio and it went okay, not fantastic but okay. We also met with another photographer this past week and she was amazing. I guess I can say we met with our photographer :) She was very nice, friendly, bubbly and conversation was easy. We were there for an hour and it didn't even feel like it. Her name is Vivian from Vivian Photography. Also with the photography, we rented her bridal suite for me and the girls to get ready in the day of. It's super cool and I'm so excited. I'm glad we made the decision to hire a professional photographer and that we found her. Here's a picture of "Space" (aka the getting ready bridal suite):

(source)

Stationery. I still haven't finished the invitations and RSVPs yet. My printer keeps running out of ink and it is annoying me. I spent $35 in one week replacing the cyan and yellow ink cartridges and now the black ink decides to run out. *Sighs* I'm not sure if my February 20th goal will be met. We shall see.

Rentals. Chris's to-do list for the past week has been to research tent and johnny on the spot rentals. I know he's made some progress, but I'd like to get those booked ASAP.

Well, that's enough wedding updates for now!

Finding my sole mate...

2010-02-02T21:27:00.000-08:00

I never ordered those shoes. I just haven't found a pair of shoes I LOVE yet. I came so close today though... Only to find out they are sold out in my preferred color -- Not even first preference, my second color preference!

(source)

They're not pink, but other than that, they're practically perfect. *Sighs* They're only available in black. How difficult is it to find a pink (peep toe preferable) flat or wedge? VERY, apparently. So the search for my "sole mate" continues....

In other wedding news, Chris and I met with a photographer today. It went well. I'm going to call the other photographer I've been e-mailing tomorrow and set up a meeting with her. If all goes well, hopefully we will have a photographer booked by next week!

I've also been working on our invitations and RSVP cards this week. I have a couple options so far and need to narrow it down and finalize. I'm also using a different font from what I used on the save the dates. It's a lot prettier and I'm really excited about it. Especially since it's a $99 font that I got for free. My goal is to send the invites out by February 20th! I've already got the kit in my hands, so it's just putting it all together.

The shoe dilemma continues...

2010-01-21T10:34:00.000-08:00

Chris and I met with Rev. Stu, our officiant, on Monday. We were both a little nervous going into it because if we didn't like him we'd have to start the search over again. Luckily we like him! So he is all set to officiate our wedding on April 24! It is going to be short and sweet.

Also, I finally went to Pearl Vision to get myself a new pair of spectacles for two reasons: One, it's been two years and I'm due for a new pair as I can't see a thing from far away; and two, I don't think the specs I currently have are "wedding appropriate" so I wanted to get a pair that were a little less fun and a bit more sophisticated:

(source)

Mission accomplished. The website doesn't have the color I got them in, gunmetal. They are pictured in light blue. I was pretty upset that my insurance covered less than half the cost of them though. *Sigh* I know, I should be happy I have insurance at all at this point.

More exciting news... On Tuesday, we booked our honeymoon! We are cruising to Bermuda for seven days aboard NCL's Norwegian Dawn. And the best part is we're staying in a suite! A Penthouse Suite with a sitting area and a balcony. Here's the floorplan from NCL's website:

(source)

It's going to be a lot of fun! Also, we leave the day after the wedding, which is what I've wanted all along. Jessica is a happy camper :)

My shoe dilemma has taken over my life! I think everyone I talk to on a daily basis is probably annoyed about my inability to find shoes I like! So the search has continued... But I think I have narrowed it down to two pairs of shoes that I like...

Meet Option #1:

My apologies for the small image. I blame it on the source. So these are simple flats by Rocketdog. I like these because the ruching on the front of the shoe matches the ruching on my dress. And they are sparkly. What girl doesn't love sparkly things? Another plus: They're only $40. Definitely will be able to wear these shoes again. They're "throw them in the suitcase for the honeymoon" worthy.

Meet Option #2:

These would obviously be in pink... Again, the source is not very cooperative with saving images. These are Jessica Simpson's Hill Wedges. "Jessica would be wearing Jessica" Christopher said. I like these because... Basically, I think I'd rather wear wedges than flats. It seems more appropriate since I can't wear heels. Sometimes the idea of wearing flats just seems boring. So I just think these are little more fun, I guess. The wooden heel isn't ideal for wedding attire, but I think it makes them less dressy and therefore more ideal to wear again after the wedding. These also could accompany me on the honeymoon.

Ahhhhhh, decisions. So basically I am going to order both pairs of shoes and decide which shoes I like better. Hopefully I will be able to make a decision after trying them on in person with the dress.

Alright, I think that's about all for today.

100 DAYS!

2010-01-14T09:32:00.000-08:00

Ah, can you believe it? Only 100 days until I'm Mrs. Herron. How awesome. Part of me cannot believe that it is so close, but part of me still thinks it's forever away!

Chris has been e-mailing back and forth with the officiant and we will soon schedule a meeting with him. After that's done, I guess it's completely official - We can get married, aside from getting the marriage license!

Also, I found a photographer I love and is reasonably priced! I e-mailed the studio Tuesday morning and haven't heard back yet. I think I will follow up with a call if I don't hear back by tomorrow. It's called D&G Studio and they're located in Beacon. Did I mention they're reasonably priced? With good photographs? Ah, finally. Now just keep your fingers crossed that they are available on April 24th!

Chris bought a new truck over the weekend and we picked that up on Tuesday in Port Jervis. On the way we stopped at the mall in Middletown and registered at Macy's! It was a lot of fun, but it's also stressful. I have a feeling we will finish our registry online rather than going back to the store. Although, I think Chris was having fun with the gun thing!

In addition to all of that, I have been on operation wedding shoes! And I am not having very much luck. I really want pink shoes. My problem is I need to either wear wedges or flats because the wedding is outside in the spring. I'm having a problem finding pink wedges I like. I found pink shoes that aren't wedges I like though:

They're not wedges, but they have a thick heel and a thick platform. The only problem is the height. But nonetheless, I love them.

I like these Cole Haan wedges... But they're not pink. But of course they don't come in the color I want. Of course.

I absolutely adore these J-Crew pumps... Too bad they're not wedges and are way out of my price range (almost $200!).

DSW is being complicated and won't let me copy their shoes to my computer. Here's a couple more:

Caparros Vincente II Silk Pump - They're pink. No wedge, but small heel. And adorable bow. I love.
Miss Me Venice 17 Peep Toe Pump - In fuchsia. Again, no wedge. But thick heel.

Decisions, decisions. I might just have to order them all and see. Just kidding! I wish :)

Next up on the to-do list: Order envelopes for the invitations (I've been having a hard time finding the appropriate size envelope for a reasonable price); Shop for and order the wedding cake; and order our wedding bands!

2010, Oh my!

2010-01-03T12:36:00.001-08:00

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

I can't believe it's 2010 already. We get married this year... Yikes! Only 111 days to go! My checklist still looks empty, but we are working on it.

My girlfriends were over for a holiday party a couple weeks ago and Cheyenne made me a sixteen week calendar with deadlines for accomplishing things. She'll be happy to know that so far I've been checking items off the list. It is actually extremely helpful to visualize what needs to be done. And the deadlines help too. Thanks Chey! :)

Bridesmaid dresses... Check! It took two trips to David's Bridal in Middletown for all six girls to pick out their dresses, but they are selected and ordered:

This is from the first trip to David's Bridal on 12/23: Cheyenne, Courtney, myself, Donna, and Becky. They each picked the style they liked best from three or four options. All the dresses will be in watermelon pink, the color of Courtney's dress.

This is from the second trip to David's Bridal, a week later: My sister, Sierra, and my friend, Chelsea. Again, their dresses will be in watermelon pink. It's going to be nice to see them all together in the same color. Ah, I'm so excited for it!

Tuxedo rentals... Check! On 12/28 while all the groomsmen were in town, we went tuxedo rental shopping. First, we went to Men's Warehouse and none of us were impressed, so we headed down the street to Sossi Formal and they were excellent!

Here, the groom gets fitted for his tuxedo while myself and the three groomsmen find something to be funny. (Photo credit: Judy Herron)

A sneak peak of what Mike, the best man, and Chris will look like at the wedding! Without jeans, of course... Mike is wearing a watermelon pink vest and tie to match the bridesmaids and Chris is wearing an ivory vest and tie to match me! (Photo credit: Judy Herron)

Amongst the shopping trips, Chris and I have been looking for an officiant and a photographer. I think we have found an officiant service -- Hudson Valley Ceremonies & Events. Chris is going to follow up with them this week. As for photographers, they are so expensive! I am having a hard time finding one in a decent price range.

Next up on our to-do list is to register!

I've chosen my 'maids!

2009-11-23T19:10:00.000-08:00

Not much wedding planning has been happening since the save the date cards went out. In all honesty, I've been overwhelmed with homework. Only a couple more weeks to go, thankfully. Then it's wedding wedding wedding!

I did finally choose my bridesmaids! After months of waiting and anticipating, I am delighted to present to you my lovely bridesmaids:

Maid of Honor - Donna
Bridesmaids - Sierra, Chelsea, Becky, Chey, Courtney

Yupp, I've decided to have them all. 'Cause it's my wedding and I'll have as many bridesmaids as I want to! I'm so excited. They all are too, I think. And we have arranged dress shopping in December. I can't wait. We'll have to go suit shopping in December too while Chris's groomsmen (Mike & Eric) are in New York for the holidays.

I told you I'm gonna be in full wedding mode soon! That's about all I've got!

Signed. Sealed. Delivered...

2009-11-01T14:32:00.000-08:00

They're yours!

Sort of. Except, they're not really signed, but they are sealed, and ready to be delivered! So they're practically yours.

We spent our Halloween evening sealing our save the date envelopes with wax seals. Christopher, of course, was happy to play with the torch:

Playing with fire on Halloween seems appropriate, right? We are pleased with the final product. It was a little harder than anticipated. The flame would get too hot close to Chris's hand, so Chris ended up holding the "wick" with pliers. Eventually the wicks would fall off of the wax cube. Anyways, it was a little disastrous but worked out in the end. The seals are white so I had to take the photo without the flash:

Doesn't look too good in the photo here at all... Oh well, it looks better in person. Putting the finished cards in the mail tomorrow. I am still lacking some addresses, so unfortunately they won't all go out at the same time. But I'm already a week behind sending them out, so they must go!

Finally... An Accomplishment!

2009-10-29T21:16:00.000-07:00

I have finally gotten a start on our save the date cards! I'm only a couple days overdue...I'm hoping to get them out by the first of November. That's my goal...

Here I am with two cards, hot off the press. Hopefully you can't see them too much...

And here I am, again, hard at work. Here, I am putting the labels on the envelopes.

I'm not going to post a picture of the final product because I don't want to ruin the surprise.

Here's the cost break down:

Card from Michael's: $9.72 (40% off coupon) = 0.25 each

Envelope from cardsandpocket.com: = 0.12 each

Label from Office Depot: $10.26 for 250 = 0.04 each

Stamp (which I haven't purchased yet): = 0.44 each

Grand Total: 0.85 per save the date.

Woohoo for DIY and Michael's....

COUNTDOWN = SIX MONTHS!

2009-10-24T20:37:00.000-07:00

Can you believe that six months from today I will be Mrs. Herron! Ahh! Thrilling. Exhilarating. Scary. Crazy. All of those things at once, pretty much. I just can't believe it. We have been engaged for over fifteen months, and we're almost there!

I feel like there's just so much to do still. And there is! I was looking at my "Wedding Countdown" that has been hanging on our refrigerator for a couple months now, and boy, am I behind... Still need to:

Pick an officiant. But I've been told you can find one in like two months, so I guess I won't stress too much about that one.
Choose the wedding party. I'm still waiting to hear back from Eric to finally figure out my bridesmaid situation.
Enroll in a bridal-gift registry.
Shop for bridesmaid dresses. Again, the above dilemma. More to come...
Pick a photographer. More like, make a final decision if we are going to hire a pro or go with someone we know... Decisions, decisions.
Mail save the dates. I'm actually working on this one!

That's all the stuff that should have been done by the six month mark. Oh boy. At least I have good excuses for everything....

Back to bridesmaid dresses... I have been doing a little research on them. I know I'll have to plan a trip with my bridesmaids (whoever they may be) in December when everyone is home for the holidays. I've been thinking about the trip, and the dresses. Here are a few dresses I like.

Option 1: Short dresses

Both dresses are cotton sateen. Sierra tried the first dress on when we went wedding dress shopping and it looked amazing on her. My only problem with short dresses is that the wedding is in April, so it could be kind of cool to begin with. Secondly we moved the wedding to the morning rather than afternoon, so chances are it might be even cooler. Basically, I don't want my girls to freeze.

Option 2: Long dresses

These three dresses are jersey material, so basically, my girls wouldn't be freezing and they would be pretty darn comfortable, as well.

So those are the dresses I'm liking right now. Ya never know when I'm going to change my mind though. Also, we might see other dresses when shopping. Oh, and the dresses are all in watermelon pink, as that is what color we have all decided on. Woohoo.

Alright, that's about all for today.

Save the Dates!

2009-10-18T15:04:00.000-07:00

I purchased our save the date cards from Michael's yesterday. This is what they look like (blank, of course):

My camera wouldn't let me take a very good picture of it. It is 3.25 x 4.75. And I'm working on several options of what to print on them.

That's all for today!

Breakfast Buffet...

2009-10-16T18:32:00.000-07:00

So last night I was on my iTouch theknot 911 application (which I'm completely obsessed with if you didn't already know) and one bride-to-be posted that she is having a morning wedding and thinking about serving breakfast rather than lunch or dinner. I immediately adored the idea and told her so with some awesome ideas. And then this strawberry shortcake came to mind that I'd seen in a Martha Stewart book before that would be simply perfect for her breakfast buffet.

It was all I could think about all night, I loved the idea so much. When Chris woke up, I told him about this bride-to-be's idea... And I think we might be stealing it :) I texted Mom this morning and she is on board. I am so excited about this! Plus, it'll probably save us some money in the long run! Woohoo. I'm stoked! The cake that inspired me:

Other wedding news...

Invitations. I got the cards and pockets sample I ordered over the weekend. And it's nice... But I still like the Michael's idea better, thankfully.

Honeymoon. We received a recommendation for a all-inclusive resort called Palace Resorts and were looking at one in Punta Cana, Dominican Republic. Also, I did a Google search for "couples resorts" and was led to a few all-inclusive resorts in Jamaica. Both are considerable cheaper than Sandals. So we're still on the look-out.

Save the Dates. I think I will stop at Michael's tomorrow after work to buy the save the date cards. I have a 40% off coupon to use! I will take pictures and share them.

I'll keep you posted!

I changed my mind...

2009-10-15T11:06:00.000-07:00

AGAIN!

I'm talking about the invitations, of course. You see, I had some spare time yesterday so I decided to go to Michael's and wander around. I haven't been in there in awhile, and boy, how I am obsessed with that store. So anyways, besides my obsession, they sell wedding stationery there... Kits similiar to the cards and pockets. But simpler. Easier to assemble. More decorative. The list goes on... I showed them to Chris last night and he likes them better too! So I'm 99% sure they're it. This is the kit:

It's perfect. It doesn't come with an envelope (you use the card as the envelope) but I'm going to buy a pink envelope to spruce it up. Also, I found some inspiration on a wedding blog that had these invites and put a cute little gem on the seal... I would do pink again. And maybe replace the brown ribbon with pink... We'll see. I might be going a little overboard.

Oh, and the greatest part is it's a set -- Michael's has matching save the dates, rehearsal dinner invitations (not that I am going to use them), programs (pondering those as an option), thank you cards, escort cards, table numbers, etc. And it isn't going to break the bank. Especially if I save up my 50% coupons I get in e-mails. It's will cost less than $65 probably. Woohoo!

I'm glad I have finally made a decision though. Especially because STDs (save the dates... Chris reminded me last night that normal people don't know that STDs can be good too!) have to go out at the end of this month. So next mission (besides purchasing the stationery): collecting addresses. Oh boy.

Decisions, Decisions...

2009-10-11T18:41:00.000-07:00

Less than 200 days to go until the big day! Woohoo!

I think I have finally decided on what I want for our invitations (cards and pockets). It looks like the coolest thing since sliced bread. I just ordered a sample from them today. I'm excited to get it and check it out. I hope it works out for us. Especially because we need to send out our dates at the end of this month. Yikes. It's coming up so soon. I have it all planned out in Microsoft Word.

As for updates to the previous post -- I don't think we'll be going to Sandals. We've concluded it's a bit out of our price range. Well, Chris hasn't eliminated it yet, but I have. We're looking at NCL cruises again. There's one that goes to Bermuda from New York the day after the wedding (which is exciting) and there's also a Mexican Riviera one that leaves from L.A. I also want to look into Couples Resorts.

There's still so much I need to do though... Find an officiant, most importantly. And also decide on if we want to get a professional photographer or not, and if so, book one. I feel like I still have all the time in the world, but really I've only got a little more than six months! Ahh.

This was brief, but there's not much to update this time around.

211 days...

2009-09-25T19:32:00.000-07:00

Less than 7 months to go until the wedding :) It seems so far, yet so close!

So I haven't updated in almost two weeks... Not that too much has happened. Only a few things:

First off,

I GOT MY DRESS!

Well, of course I already bought my dress last month, but it's home with momma now! So I can look at it whenever I want. Of course, I don't ;) It hangs in the closet in the guest bedroom. It won't fit in our huge walk in closet with the shelf unit and all of Christopher's clothes, hehe ;)

More great news.... I got a call from Zimmer Brothers, from Brian (our "jeweler" I suppose) last Friday because they had a few rings for me to look at fitting my "dream band" description. Thankfully, he was so much better than the lady the previous week. Brian had me trying on all different types of bands... And I found one I love! It's round diamonds instead of princess cut. What we learned: Princess cut diamonds are less expensive solitaire, yet more expensive in clusters because princess cut diamonds are deeper than round diamonds. So moral of the story is round diamonds are less expensive (and shinier) in a wedding band than princess cut. So my band will be diamonds half way around, full frontal glitz :) Here are the rings together.... It was taken on my cell phone, so it's a bad quality picture, but if you look from a distance it's real pretty:

Next up, we did some honeymoon researching. At first we were thinking another cruise, as we had a good time last April and really liked Norwegian Cruise Lines. Problem: NCL doesn't have any cruises around our wedding date from New York, which we prefer to disembark from. I found a Royal Caribbean cruise that fit our time frame disembarking from New Jersey.... But we're hesitant to try Royal because we loved NCL's freestyle cruising. Now we are also looking at all-inclusive resorts. I ordered a brochure from Sandals out of curiosity and I'm pretty much in love. I love that alcohol is included, not an extra expense as it was on the cruise. We're loving Sandals Grande Antigua, it's been voted the most romantic resort:

And that's the suite we're thinking about. It's called the Monte Carlo Honeymoon Oceanview Suite. I like that it's called a honeymoon suite. It makes it sound even more romantic, doesn't it? And oh look, you can see the ocean in the picture from the balcony! And the bathroom has a whirlpool tub (that's basically why Chris loves it!).

In addition to ring shopping and honeymoon browsing aka the fun stuff, we also discussed some budget stuff with my mom last weekend. I think it's going to be completely do-able for about $4-5k. Which is about what we can afford, anyways. No more than that!

That about wraps up the past two weeks worth of our road to the aisle I'd say!

P.S. I'm liking this picture function! :)

A Few Minor Accomplishments

2009-09-12T20:10:00.000-07:00

So we've accomplished a few "wedding things" this week...

First and foremost, I got an e-mail from David's Bridal last Friday that my wedding dress is in! So soon, too! They told us October 2nd! It's in almost a month earlier than anticipated! I scheduled my first "fitting" for this upcoming Friday. Mom and Grams are coming with me. I hear we're also going out to lunch :)

On Monday we took a walk on the farm to check out locations to hold the ceremony and reception. We had four different options:

The place where we will build our future home. Probably in 2011/2012.
A field a little beyond the future home; a flat area that used to be an "airstrip" for remote-control planes.
A little secluded field, close to the woods.
A field close to Chris' parents house/right next to the pastures.

We immediately rejected option #1 due to closeness to the road (although it was my favorite idea) and think we may have narrowed it down to option #3. The only problem with the location is the distance away from where people are parking (Wynn & Judy's house), if people wanted to leave early. But c'mon... Who would really want to leave our party early, anyways?! Also, one of the perks of option #4 is the possible use of the house bathroom instead of renting a port-a-potty... I think I like the complete seclusion of the little field best though :)

On Friday (our three year anniversary! ♥) we went to Zimmer Brothers to get my engagement ring cleaned and to look at wedding bands! Chris found the one he wants; it's a metal called tungsten. He's pretty excited about it. Originally he wanted titanium but was put off at how light-weight it is. Tungsten is a little heavier and just as durable it sounds like! As for my wedding band search.... It was a little upsetting. My engagement ring is quite unique (the gorgeous setting, that is). We remember when we went looking at engagement rings, there was a brochure/pamphlet that I saw the ring in and liked it, and then Chris ordered it for me (I didn't know what he was getting me though, I just showed him what I liked). We also remember there being pictures of accompanying wedding bands in the pamphlet. However, Zimmer Brothers did not have the pamphlet anymore, nor any record of it in my file. The guy who we dealt with, Brian, wasn't there when we went yesterday so we're hoping maybe he remembers. The lady we were dealing with seemed a little flaky. Think we'll make sure Brian is there next time we go. Anyways... I looked at some other rings, which were really pretty but just didn't feel right with my engagement ring. The manager came out and asked exactly what we're looking for and said he was going to try to search to see if they have anything similar and if not to estimate the cost of making one. Yikes! Sounds expensive to me... It's hard cause I have exactly what I want pictured in my mind...

Also, Chris finally asked his brother to be his best man! Whew. I've only been bugging him about it for the past month! He also asked Eric to be a groomsmen, but Eric is unsure if he'll be able to make it or not due to school and finals. So I think I have to re-adjust my number of bridesmaids... 6 and 2 is not going to work out well, plus it will look a tad bit silly. We'll have to see!

I'll keep you updated!

Welcome!

2009-09-04T21:40:00.001-07:00

Oh, hi! Glad you found the blog :)

This is going to be my "wedding journal" to keep our close family and friends up-to-date with the planning process, hence the additional password.

Finally got the wedding website almost complete! It has as much information as I do now, anyways. I think I'm too obsessed with it though. I'm spending more time on planning our wedding website than the actual wedding planning... Don't even get me started about the lack of homework I'm getting done... Just kidding, Mom, I'm getting it done!

I really don't have too much to write at this point... So far we've got the ceremony and reception venues (the farm!) -- although the particular area is still undecided. I'm going to scope the farm this weekend and see. And I bought my dress last month! I love it! Also, I started working on making some save the dates and invitations earlier this week. It's probably a little too early in the planning process to have them done, but they're just ideas. I'm sure my ideas will change in the next 232 days!

Stay tuned!