updates! updates! updates!

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! 

A Few Minor Accomplishments

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:

1. The place where we will build our future home. Probably in 2011/2012.
2. A field a little beyond the future home; a flat area that used to be an "airstrip" for remote-control planes.
3. A little secluded field, close to the woods.
4. 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!

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!