Day 124 - One venue down....

Went with a bridesmaid and Mr. Fiancé today to look at the first and only venue option at this point. I've selected this venue because the price is right and it's very near the hill where I want to have our photographs taken. The venue wasn't terrible or anything, I think we could make it work. I liked the fishtank in the wall. But the venue didn't make me gasp. The view wasn't anything to write home about. I'm sure before downtown grew the view was beautiful. But now it just looks at the street and other buildings. It's a surrounding bay window. There is no break in the windows for a headtable so we'd have to rent a room divider to block the light from behind us so the photographer could actually get photos of the head table without a glare.
The colors were primarly red gold and green. Doesn't really work with our wedding colors but we could work around that. I could switch from red and pinks to red and golds. The ceremony location had no windows and you had to come in from the side, walk to the back and then up the centre. I'd rather walk straight across but that's not really a logical possibility. It does have the option of a video before the ceremony started though so that's a plus. It would also include a room for the honeymoon.
Guess it's time to make decisions. 

Day 47 - A flower by any other name...

I am more than a little terrified to start looking at flower prices. I know that will be horrendously expensive. I keep convincing myself that because Gerbera Daisies are in season in July and that I am not having roses that I will be saving myself a bundle. But the budget in me screams, "You're going to spend how much on something that is already dead, won't last that long and will not be saved forever?" It's like spending hundreds of dollars on a make-over. Pretty for the pictures but only lasts one day. I want my flowers to be picture perfect but not at a huge cost.
Now whenever I am at my local grocer I seem to always be pricing their flowers and looking for gerbera's in my color. If I were brave enough I would simply go grocery shopping the day or two before the wedding, grab up a bunch of gerbera daisies and make my bouquets. Problem with that of course is the risk that they wouldn't have enough or the right colors or both.
What to do, what to do!
On a more positive note, I have now surpassed the 10 lbs lost mark and am headed colorfully towards the 15 lbs lost. Sitting nicely at 14 lbs lost. Almost halfway there!

Day 7 - A Rolling Ring Gathers No Moss!

WHOA! What a productive day. It seems the moment I knew my colors would work I moved on. Almost like it was a big speed bump and once past I could just fly! Today started conversation with a friend who would be honored to marry us. What followed was a message to the photographer, conversations with the DJ and planning the venue. Even planning the events of the day so they would work. It is all coming together and we still have so many months to go! 604 days to be precise!

So what did we figure out today? Well to start, it's sounding very reasonable to have our friend marry us which is super exciting. That will make the day that much more personal. The venue is still a bit of a juggle but I feel when we actually go check places out it'll be more final. We may even have our ceremony and reception at one place and simply have it set up while we have our photos taken and then return for the reception. That would make sense right?! Would certainly cost less ;)

I then tracked down the photographer and assuming he does work in my city we have our photographer for a lovely $1200-$1500 (I giggle because Single Ladies - Beyonce just came on my track. The song he was singing all month) My only question and concern for the photographer is does he also do videography? I assume not... but one should never assume. Really though, how can you expect him to be taking photographs of you walking down the aisle if he's manning a video camera? So who will we get to do that?! *STRESSER* I really desire a video of my wedding day, the wedding and our first dance. Some other bits but those are the most important videos I want. We plan on having a special dance for our first dance (it's a surprise) so a videographer is a MUST! :) But I'll figure it out. 604 days left ;)

I sent my old DJ a message and he has expressed he is available to me within our budget. I then asked if he'd mind doing the ceremony as well. We have special songs selected that are not standard piano played songs. He hasn't objected so that'll be grand :)

The colors seemed to be my writers block and now the book is just flying! Honestly, if it weren't for our financial situation we could EASILY send out wedding invitations for this summer. But I want to do this right as it's the only wedding I'm ever going to have! :)

Feel the excitement people!

The only additional things my bombarded fiancée and I have discussed are things like:

• Photographer sharing - I would like the photographer be there when the girls and I are getting ready. Yet I also want photographic memories of his day. The solution? Simple, assuming we are still living in this building I will get ready with the girls in our apartment and he will use another tenants apartment. We are fortunate enough to have a very tight knit community in this building and I am sure the tenants would be more than thrilled to share their dwelling for the day. That way the photographer could simply run back and forth between us which would be no different than going to a room down the hall in a big house! :) We'd have the maid of honors and the best men ensuring that neither bride nor groom exited at the same time. As much as we will likely spend the night together the night before the wedding we will not be seeing each other all dressed up before the wedding.
  
• Soundtrack - Music means a lot to us and it's something we're being very selective of. We have unique entrance music for the wedding party as well as mine. Our exit music and then the entrance to the reception. All of it is planned out :)
  
• Goofy is the new Happy - Just that he's loving how goofy happy I am and I'm loving how quietly full of smiles he's been.
  
• The Groom will not wear pink - "Honey what about this wedding is important to you?" D- "You're happiness. As long as you don't make me look like a complete Jack ass!" I later tested this and with a very serious tone I said, "Honey, I was thinking a Yellow Tux with pink stripes and then a hot pink vest." D - "Excuse me?!" Me - "Yes, I figure if we had a lemon yellow tux with vertical powder pink stripes and then a hot pink vest - " D - "I am not wearing pink!" Me - "Just making sure you'd draw a line! *smiles* Oh by the way, you're wearing a wine colored vest." 

Well I wasn't planning on posting today but it was too productive not to talk about. Now to lose 50lbs in a year! *stress* Hippie Bride

Day 6 - Red & Black..edit: Wine & Pink!

Today when discussing colors one of my neighbors suggested red and black. Although it seems obvious I hadn't previously considered it whole heartedly. I will have to think more on that now. The maid of honors would of course have their choice of combination. One combination would be Red Dress with black accents/sash and shoes with red bouquet and black accents/ribbon. The other would be the reverse. The bridesmaids would all have one combination and the maid of honors the opposing.

Right now I'm trying to find an old website I used once a million years ago to create my original theme. I was only playing around at the time where the whole thing seemed so distant. But my beast squealing "mom" in the next room isn't helping my concentration any. Overall life has mostly returned to normal.

Although I read this site about planning your wedding in 6 months and that'd be fabulous. I just don't think we can and by the time I know if we can it'll be too late to send out invites. I sure would love to get married this coming summer though. Maybe I should go look at dresses and start figuring out how much we could afford if we were to get married this summer. Pretty sure it's not happening though. Not on our budget. If I want to save up for this wedding I need a lot more than 6 months! We're still not even sure if 20 months is enough but damn it, it's going to have to be!

If I find that website I shall post some sample photos of color themes but if not, this is all until Monday from this hippie bride. :)

Edit:

I'm 99.6% sure these are my colors:

This color wine with a light pink accent. The men will have this wine color with light pink flowers.
The girls will have this wine color for their dress with light pink accents. Their flowers will be both light pink and this wine color.
FYI this wine color is the toenail paint color I've been talking about forever now ;p

Day 5 - Conversations with "The man"

Ever since we became engaged I've noticed he seems happier. That isn't what you would necessarily expect in these situations, yet he has been smiling every day this week. This is also a little unusual because usually he is down in the dumps this time of year. I'm not complaining, in fact if anything I am touched. If he has become happier based on his being engaged to me I'm flattered!

That's where the surprise ends, lighter spirit or not he's still a man and doesn't care about color samples, wedding party lists, guest lists, dates, venues. As long as I'm happy and don't put him in a ridiculous suit in front of a lot of people he's happy.


Me - "Honey, what do you think of these two colors?" *holding up toenail color next to fingernail color*
Him - *grunts* "they're fine." *returns to what he was doing*
Me - "I'm serious.
Him - "I know you are."
Me - "I like the wine color with the light pink. But what would the men wear?
Him - *shrugs*
Me - "Well, obviously they'd wear the dark one...but then they would all be wearing the same. I don't want to put them in the light pink. What could we do to distinguish the best men from the ushers? Cause you are getting 2 best men you know cause I can't pick between my two maid of honors! It's absolutely not happening!"
Him - *laughing* "I really don't care, whatever makes you happy."
Me - "I'm going to continue to ask you these questions. I don't expect you to get giddy over napkins, calligraphy or invitation samples but I'm going to continue to ask you."
Him - *laughs* "I figured as much."

Me - "So who do you want to be your best man?"
Him - *shrugs*
Me - *makes a few obvious suggestions*
Him - *shrugs*
Me - "Well you have to pick your own best men! I'm not picking your best men, they're yours to abuse! Oh and who do you want to marry us?"
Him - *confused* "Who?!"
Me - "Yeah, it's more personal and would save us money if we had a friend marry us. It's not that hard to become an officiant as far as I know and if we had say Jer marry us I'm sure he wouldn't charge us hundreds of dollars for his services."
Him - "True"
Me - "Then it'd be personal, affordable and non-denominational. Besides, some officiants want you to get married at a specific spot and take couples counseling."
Him - *eye roll*
Me - "So rather than have a stranger marry us I think it'd be sweet to have a friend do it. Any ideas?"
Him - *shrugs*
Me - "I'm going to go do laundry now..."
Him - "k."

Me - "What do you think, assuming it didn't cost too much and it was completely possible, if we got married *insert secret location here*?"
Him - *shows genuine interest* "That would be cool."
Me - "The only thing is that's a public place and I don't know if you can rent it out and if you could how many thousands of dollars would it be. And then it's outside too so if it were to rain we'd have to have tents rented.
Him - *no interest* "true."
Me - "But that's only a couple hundred dollars."
Him - *not listening, just nodding* "It's possible."
Me - "Are you listening any more?"
Him - "Sounds fine."

Poor man, what was he thinking?!

On the positive side for him he's considered a complete romantic at work now, I think that's grand that he's finally recognized for his roots ;)

Well, aside from glancing at colors and trying to wiggle a few wedding party names out of him I've done little towards my wedding today. Oh I lie, I had him take a few photos of me with my ring and the flowers he gave me the day he proposed.

 

Tomorrow is another day, until then, goodnight.

Day 3 - A return to chores

So after a 3 day absence from real life and thus my chores I went into the kitchen today and did all my dishes. Not that there were many, we are a small family. Yet still catching up to my chores with my daughter around and tending to my job as well, it's a full days work. I still have yet to wash the floor since Friday and I think I forgot some laundry in the Dryer on Saturday. *yawn*

Aside from my return to chores there was the forced realization of just how much the phones have been ringing this week...and how much time I've been on them. All three of my phones died spontaneously tonight! GAH!

Another self-realization was that I shouldn't headbang with my daughter no matter how excited I am to be engaged or how cute Willow Smith is. My neck...it kills me right now! I'll leave the hair whipping to my daughter from now on!!!

Lastly I need sleep, I'm getting wedding color inspiration from everything now. Earlier today, while my fiancée was rubbing my sore, whiplashed neck, I saw my painted finger nails and toenails next to each other. My toes have a dark pink wine color and the fingers are a lighter shade of pink. I bragged my flexibility as I lifted my foot over my head and asked him, "Honey, what do you think of these for the wedding colors." Bless him he didn't mock or tease, mostly because he could never lift his foot like that, he simply grunted, "I ah na" and made with the lotion for my shoulders.

I didn't expect to get quite this excited about the prospect of a wedding but now that we've put a title to everything it just seems more real.

I have drawn one conclusion and am glad to be arriving at a level of cynicism I'm more accustomed to. I found myself a little lip-curl when someone said, "So you finally got him to ask the question!" I resent that phrasing. I didn't hold his hand behind his back and demand he propose with my knee pushed into his ribs. When I told him this he laughed and said he obviously didn't get that comment but he would get the, "Finally making an honest woman out of her eh?" Since when were we foul? I didn't realize we stunk of single-life and cheap sex! I thought we were living a pretty wholesome life. Guess I was wrong.

On a serious note I know these people mean well but it's similar to the statement to the pregnant woman who is 2 weeks late, "The baby will come when it wants to." What are they trying to say? My baby doesn't want to meet me?! Thanks! Sometimes "congratulations" is a better turned phrase. ;)

Off to bed 10 minutes early tonight, that is if I can convince myself to stay off the knot shop. 

Later, your hippie bride

Day 2 - continued glee

It seems the phone doesn't stop ringing lately. Everyone wants to know, how did he ask? What did you say? Were you surprised? When did he ask? Where did he ask? What does the ring look like? When are you getting married?

I don't mind answering and in fact I go over the details at night by myself. But the big thing is the wedding seems that much more real now. We've been planning this wedding since 2007 and now I can talk about it and not sound like the crazy desperate spinster who is in denial. The ring on my finger removes all doubt. I'm getting married.

I didn't work out too many new  details today, spoke to more people and just walked around glancing at my hand and thinking, "wow...it's really real..." I'm more than excited to marry my best friend and wish now that I'd been a little more spinstery and had more planning done for I would love if  I could have this wedding in 3 months!

I did find time to make some foolish video to announce our engagement. I also learned that throwing rice does not make birds blow up. I'm relatively disappointed in myself for not having already snope verified that one years ago. *facepalm* The productive part of the day was spent decorating our tree together.

Alas, today I am thinking colors. I'm torn between deep pinks, reds, blues, whites... everything looks so nice. I don't know what I'm going to do. I don't want to move forward with any one thing until I tackle another. I don't like the idea of unfinished business. I need to decide on my colors before I move forward because decorations depend on my theme.

I know I want to be non-traditional, non-denominational and something that is close to home for us. There will be a lot of "kal Ho Naa Ho" integrated into the wedding. I won't reveal too much in this blog as far as these things are concerned because some things are intended to be a secret until the day. But I think anyone who knows us knows how much the movie "Kal Ho Naa Ho" means to us and the music. Songs from Kal Ho Naa Ho and Dil Se Re always take us back to when we first started dating. I've listened to Kal Ho Naa Ho every night since we became engaged. Just makes me feel that little extra burst of love that I felt when we were younger. The suspense, the anticipation, the unknownn.  All those feelings come back and I just can't wait for those next steps down the aisle. But one thing I know is I don't want to wish away this moment now. Too often we are so anxious for the next step we forget to embrace today. I've always avoided that in the past and I will continue to do so. I'm going to enjoy being engaged because I'm only going to be engaged once.

I'll live life to the fullest, kal ho na ho {tomorrow may not be}


Here it is 12:39 am and once again I'm up late unable to sleep. The house is quiet and so I must plan my tomorrow. Good night, your hippie bride.