Married woman!

It's done, I shall make a few more entries on here to discuss my wedding diy, money saving projects, coupons as well as what went right and wrong on the big day. But for now I'm going to just break down the budget for everyone who is wondering if we kept it within the tight budget of $5000.

Before I continue it is important to realize that in this budget we did not include the three things that we would have still had if we had instead chose to elope. Those three things were our rings, which we still couponed for and got for nearly 50% off and just over a grand combined. Our Justice of the Peace & our Marriage License.

Now, let's get down to the math shall we? I am not going to include all prices as I do not want to get any vendor in any sort of complicated situation. I will however let you know how much they saved us off their competitors and the total for the event. DIY stuff shall have prices and savings.

Ceremony:

The breakdown:

• Veil - typical cost of veil at a bridal shop is $80. I bought mine on clearance for $5.75. Total Savings = $74.25 
• Bouquets - I had my bouquets priced. The cheapest I could get for real flowers was $324. The cheapest I could get for fake was $350 (how does that even make sense?!) I went out, purchased my own flowers on sale a year before my wedding and DIY'd my beautiful bouquets. I then sprayed them with my favorite scents for an added touch. Total cost of my DIY project for all bouquets was $27.49 total savings with couponing and diy projects = $322.51
• Jewelry - Typical Cost for bridal jewelry is $140 I bought mine second hand as well as through sales and my total came to $5.75...and I looked beautiful!! The daisies in my jewelry matched my theme and the y-style necklace was exactly what I was looking for! Total savings = $134.25
• Flower girl outfits (shoes and dress etc.) - typically cost $120 I picked ours and waited nervously until they went on sale. Not just on sale, BOGO (in both cases). I bought the flowers second hand and the total cost was $36.49. Total Savings = $83.51
• Tux rentals - we called in a favor/gift from a friend and saved $32.21 off the competitors price.
• Bubbles - for the ceremony - typical cost was $22.43 for the amount we needed. I bought mine and DIY'd tags for $16.10. Total savings $6.33
• Photography - The photography was a wedding present from a dear friend saving us $2000!!!
• Save the Dates - Typical Save the Dates including postage run you $64.06 for our amount. Ours was a video that I DIY'd and e-mailed to all our guests. Total Savings $64.06. ;) 
• Wedding invitations - Average cost for what we were wanting and in the amount we wanted them was $170.4 postage included. I DIY'd what we wanted and our total came to $37.50. Total Savings $132.90
• Shoes - My shoes were my old prom shoes. They were my something old. Unfortunately being that they are 8 year old shoes .... they broke on the way to pick up invitation material. We're going to guess that new (NICE) wedding shoes typically cost at least $50. My wedding shoes cost me $2.06 in super glue to repair the strap. Total savings $47.94. I did have back up shoes which I purchased on sale 40% off and then couponed to get an additional 15% off. Although these didn't end up being my wedding shoes I was still quite proud of myself for saving $60 off the market price for my spare shoes.
• Videographer - We were very blessed in finding our videographer. He was able and willing to provide me with raw footage for my own editing. This saved us $700 off the lowest priced competitor and he was worth every cent. 
• Hair & Make-up - Didn't bargain too much off this because I wanted to look my best on the big day. Typical cost was $130 with couponing I was able to get mine done for $86.25. Total savings $43.75
• Wedding dress - Now, this is a tough one. You see I bought my dress before finishing my weightloss. It fit me almost perfectly when I bought it but after I finished losing weight the alterations were necessary. However, had I lost the weight before shopping I'd have not been able to get the deal I got and therefor would have had to spend more on the dress and likely still get alterations. Therefore it is still a savings. The wedding dress budget was $600 which I just barely went over. the cost of my dress was discounted because I was buying it off the rack and saved me $230. 
• Dress alterations - As it turned out, the tailor was a cousin of my friends. Out of the kindness of his heart he saved me $28.75 off the comparable price. 

Ceremony average cost $5852.61 Compared to my total cost of $1979.29! 66% savings

Reception:

The breakdown:

• Venue - Our venue gave us a deal & then combined that with a generous contribution from the grooms parents and our total savings off the compared market was $1060
• Wedding Cake - Our cake price changed as time went on but even in it's final realm it was a bargain as compared to the next lowest quote I was given. Total Savings $60
• Food & Misc. - This was HUGE for us! Not only did they work with our budget but they also helped to customize our meal so we (the vegetarians) could have a delicious and special meal for our wedding day. If anyone is looking for a place to get married they can't do much better than our venue! Although we did have some wedding crashers in the end we still managed to stay within budget. Our total savings as compared to market $4513.63 and with their help was $1012.65. I'm not going to use the total as compared to market as the two venues were very different. But it still gives you an idea of what we were dealing with before finding them. 
• Centerpieces - I had what I wanted priced by several independent and company owned locations and the average cost per centerpiece was $55. I bought all my own stuff and DIY'd my centerpieces. With a contribution from a dear friend my DIY'd Centerpieces cost me $35 in total! Saving me $597.5!!
• DJ - Our DJ was a long time friend of mine whom I used to have DJ our school dances. I had always teased him in High School that someday he'd DJ my wedding. I was so glad that when I contacted him he was actually still interested in DJing my wedding. Because our wedding was on a Monday the market had offered us a deal which my friend gave me an additional deal on. Total savings for the Monday wedding + a friend DJing the dance was $200. 

Reception average cost $5849.02 Compared to my cost of $2918.87! 50% savings

So our budget to start was $5000. I thought I was too ambitious but in the end our wedding came to a value of $11,701.63 and with couponing, DIY and shopping around for a better deal our total cost came to $4898.16 meaning we stayed under budget by $101.84! 

With a time machine would I change anything? Not a thing. The personalized DIY details were some of my favorite parts. I made a lot of new friends in the industry as a result of shopping around and I learned a lot about sticking to a tight budget over the year. We survived the crazy budget and can tell the tale about how we saved 58% off our entire wedding cost.

Thank you to everyone who helped us make it down the aisle!!

Day 574 - Final details

Today was the day we confirmed our meal selection, went through some final details and picked up my wedding dress. If I could describe my feelings today as one feeling I would. However, my feelings are really just a cluster of random extreme feelings. Fear, excitement, butterflies, love... is love a feeling?

With the venue appointment I was so full at the end it was unbelievable. It was nice to sit down with our co-ordinator and put those final layout descriptions on paper. I now know where I'm going to put specific things as well as where I will be coming in during the ceremony and even discussed a room divider to add something to the room. The way the room is I will be coming into the room, turning left then right then right again at which point I will be facing David.

Because of this I thought the room divider would remove the visual part of the left turn and as a result I'd just be walking across the back of the room and then up the centre.

After filling up on food and details plus paying off the remaining balance of the venue it was off to pick up our wedding dress. First we had to drop the groom and children off at home so there'd be no worries about loading the dress in the car nor risk David seeing it. As I put it on I was nervous and excited all at once. I love how it fits me since I've lost all the baby weight, I am worried about how the bouquet may hide me as it's big and I'm small. I'm worried about the fact that it's not a sweetheart neckline and so I may look smaller than usual. I'm worried about armpit fat. I'm just worried about so many things but mostly just excited to be marrying my best friend.

Lately I have been listening to loving music a lot just to envision the day. I have even changed my ringtone to what my daughter refers to as, "your dress song mommy!" she of course is referring to the video I have of me saying, "Yes to the dress" where the song played in the background.

At the venue today while trying to envision the layout and deciding on where aspects would go, where the aisle would be, where the groom would be. We had David stand at the end of the aisle and I walked down towards him. It was the closest to "real" we've had so far. Makes me that much more excited for the next 38 days to go by.

<3 your organized hippie bride. 

Day 536 - Musical Chairs

I don't know that you would classify last nights dream as a nightmare or just a restless nights.

You ever have one of those nights where you dream you are studying, cleaning or doing homework all night and wake up feeling as though that is what you did all night instead of sleeping? Well that's what last night was.

There have been some guest list changes, as indicated by my posts over the past few days. With these changes some rearranging must be done for optimum enjoyment. Betty Sue can't sit anywhere near Cousin Sam because he once walked in on her in the shower. *AWKWARD* but Cousin Sam would want to sit near Alfred who is best friends and has flirtations with Betty Sue. Playing the seating arrangement game is similar to Tetris. You are not only trying to place them in the perfect fit but every now and then you have that awkward z shaped guest who only fits in 2 or 3 ideal locations without fudging up the works.

With some guests unable to come now and extra guests having been invited, it's time to play musical chairs. I wasn't too worried about it, thus it not being a nightmare, but it is high on my to-do list and apparently my brain has been processing it.

What amused me most about last nights dream was the combination of seating chart, reserved seats in the front with the possibility of that one surprise guest and the extra guests people keep inviting. This is how it went down.

I had the grooms men at the front with fancy clipboards DIY'd to be pretty and bridal. They would ask the guest for their name, check the list and if they were to sit in a reserved seat then one of the groomsmen without a clipboard would usher them to their seat. If they were simply one side of the room or the other they ushered them to that side of the room and the guest chose their own seat. If they were not on the list it was very high security. "I'm afraid I do not see you here on the list. Are you sure you wouldn't be under another name?" then they would put their finger to their ear and turn their head away from the guest like a presidential security squad and say, "Let me check with our bride. Yes, Gena, we have a Frankie Smith here but I do not see him on the --- uh huh, okay. That's what I thought." turn back to the guest and say, "No I'm sorry sir, you were not invited to this wedding." "But betty sue brought me!" "well I'm afraid Betty Sue has done you an injustice. If you wish here is a map of locations in the city where you can visit for the next 4 hours before the open dance."

Finally the extra special evil guest who not only is not invited but whom we have a peace bond against and has been instructed on several occasions in a formal manner to cease all communication with us. She showed in a video game style episode. It became an arial view of the ceremony location and her weapons showed above her head to let us know that she came armed with a pitchfork, knife and blowtorch. She first began by setting the headtable on fire, immediately put out by the best man as she swung around and lit 4 other tables on fire. Two groomsmen and the groom himself jumped her while the best man began putting out those tables. Meanwhile the Maid of honor were calling the police and they eventually showed to drag her away. It's funny in a sad way that I have had a similar dream about this guest going way back to my childhood. She was such a horrid person my entire life that I used to have dreams of her ruining my wedding back before I had ever been kissed. She would throw wine at me and I always ended up punching her in the face. The biggest change as years have gone by is that she is actually not allowed near me now and I have a group of security officials (tee hee) who will ensure that it does not happen.

Although I have been sent e-mails to tell me that she plans to attend with or without an invite, I am ensuring that does not happen. Perhaps I will start talking about my wedding location and time in detail to throw her off the scent. She won't know whether the location I speak of is the actual location or if I'm tricking her.

By the end of the dream we were trying to make room for guests in our tiny apartment. As we mushed furniture against the wall and rearranged our whopping 6 chairs I said, "wait....we booked a venue to take care of this for us!" and that's when I woke up thinking, "this is so incredibly foolish that it must be a dream.

The end result is me sitting down with my bridal bible and revamping my seating chart. I feel I should turn it into a digital copy so changes can be quicker if necessary. Maybe I will ax my pretty diy seating chart since changes keep being made.

<3 your hippie bride

Day 525 - Wedding crashers...

What is so complicated about an RSVP that people do not understand? Lending back to the beginning or at least the early part of our engagement I was asked, "Do I really have to RSVP? You know I'm coming." To which I gave a resounding, "YES...YES YOU DO!" Sure I may figure you are coming, I also figure most of the people I invite are coming. So, yes! Yes you absolutely need to RSVP.

I suppose I could have said, "Do I need to send you an invitation? You already know I want you there!" *facepalm*

But now we face a new problem. All along people who were not given a guest would ask if we would mind if they brought this guy/girl they just met the other night. Because of space we could not offer a guest to each of our guests. Had we done that we'd have only been able to have half the guests we invited. We'd have basically had to decide whether we wanted our friends there or our family. Our answer to these requests were for them to check back with us in April of 2012 after all the RSVP's were in. If there were any who RSVP'd with "not attending" then we'd clearly have room for an extra person or two at that point. These people were more than happy to oblige and as indicated in my previous post... by April.... they were broken up with that guy/girl and the extra space was not necessary.

We are fast approaching May now and still a few stragglers have not RSVP'd, this we expected, anticipated and are prepared to chase down those meal selections. What we were less prepared for were the guests who did not ask if they could bring a guest but we have now found out planned to bring one anyway. I don't understand how they planned on that working out. If you have an RSVP and it does not imply a guest then you have just invited your best friend since childhood to attend a wedding with you and they will not have a seat or a meal. What's worse is it's not the people in question who have told us, it's mutual friends who say, "Oh I didn't know you invited Sally Sue." and we squint and say, "who?"

Now we must sit over our guest list and thumb through to see how many other wedding crashers we should be prepared for! Not what we signed up for. As it is we are over quota right now by 3 people and that's before these uninvited guests are tallied in. I don't want to have to beg my Venue co-ordinator to make an exception for guests I didn't even invite! How embarrassing, it makes me look so unorganized when in reality I have kept on top of my numbers the whole time. It's my guests who haven't.


*sigh* oh the politics of weddings. I believe I have officially entered the realm of, "I can't wait to get this over with!"

<3 your flustered hippie bride

Day 275 - Print, cut, paste, bedazzle, sparkle sparkle

Print, cut, paste...arrange, paste, dry, bedazzle, sparkle sparkle...envelope, slide, address, lick, stamp...send...repeat 50 times!
I have 20 invites made and ready for the mailing. Going to send them in spurts so that I don't lose them as they are made.
This makes it so real...maybe I should hurry and get that venue deposit in. :p

<3 your hippie bride.

Day 239 - Flower, by any other name

I've learned that cutting wired flowers is a lot harder than it looks. Having a few drinks before attempting this does not help!

I began construction of the bouquets today and have taken some pictures with my brothers help.

What a co-operative if not a little ... um... enthusiastic model he made.

I'm getting super excited for our wedding in 373 days! I received an e-mail today from the knot to remind me that I have to finalize my guest list, decide on the invitations, research videographers and sign the venue contract by the 23rd! Geesh! Thanks for the stress factor! I realize I set up these reminders and with good reason. However, until I received that reminder I felt I was ahead and now I feel like I'm falling behind.

I decided to have one more nail biting glance at the guest list and ensure we invited everyone that would otherwise throw eggs at us.

After going over and over the guest list I came to a final decision with the exception of one guest. Being a family member I am not sure if I want the possible drama that will follow their entrance. At the same time there could be a hefty amount of drama in not inviting them.

Invite or don't invite.....invite or don't invite.......*bites nails*

<3 your undecided hippie bride

Day 238 - Wedding productivity

My check list

• Groom: Check
• Dress: Check
• Venue: Check
• Flowerchild: Check
• Ring Bearer: Check
• Flowers: Check

How am I doing? <3 375 days to go.

It's a busy house today, have my brother, maid of honor, myself and our two kids here. I believe we will take the kids to the playground later and then more bridal productivity with Jenny after that.

<3 your productive hippie bride

Day 207 - Venue with tears

After the heartbreak of last week we walked into the venue hubby-to-be had selected and found THE VENUE!
I am not going to post any photos as we are sure this will be our wedding venue and therefore a surprise to the guests.
It was not the curvature of the earth, I don't think visually anything can truly compare to that particular venue. But it was much more personal and warm. When we went to the room where the reception would be located we saw there on the wall a painted portrait of the hill where we have our annual photograph taken overlooking the city. I choke up immediately and hubby-to-be silently smiled.
We told the story to the co-ordinator who then herself choked up. You know you have the right venue when not only do you choke up but you make the event organizer tear up.
All we have to do now is review the contract, set aside enough money for the deposit and we're golden.

<3 your hippie bride

Day 201 - first heartbreak

No one said it was going to be easy. Sticking to a budget means giving in here and making compromises there. Sometimes it means forgoing something entirely.
Today I was in e-mail communication with the co-ordinator at the venue I'd fallen in love with. I was asking a few more questions regarding pricing and planning when I mentioned how I'd trimmed my guest list down so as to fit the venue within my budget. She slashed my dreams when she returned with this e-mail (censored appropriately)

Hi Bwings,

Along with our wedding packages we also offer reception packages that are less expensive.  It's the difference between a full dinner or a stand up reception.

Please note that we won't book the ________ Ballroom with less than 100 people.  We do require a minimum of $3000.00 in food revenue ($30.00 per person for 100 people) in order to book this room.

If you are looking at 50 people, we could certainly look at booking part of our alternate Ballroom.
Cheers for now,

Slightly injured but not ruling out the alternate ballroom I responded asking if there were photographs of the alternate ballroom. She returned appologizing that there were no photographs of that room. She then admitted that if someone has already seen the ballroom that I had viewed that there really was no comparison. And then my heart was broken. I added and subtracted for the next fifteen minutes and just couldn't rationalize the cost of the venue of my dreams over the wedding I'd always wanted. The deposit was $1000 which, although manageable, we do not comfortably have right now. The minimum revenue made it necessary that we have 100 guests which meant we would no longer be alienating anyone. However we would arrive in paper bags since that's all we could afford. A minimum revenue of $3000 plus tax of 15% and gratuity of 16% meant we'd be looking at $4000. Add in the socan fee to permit a dance that's another $60 and then there is the bartender fee if bar sales are less than $300 of $75 for 4 hours and $15 for each additional hour. We would be looking at roughly $4200 leaving us with $800 for our venue!!! I teared up a little right then and there I have to admit.
Time to reassess the situation with David. .... But.... bbbuutttt I want to see the curvature of the earth. :'(

After showing the figures to David and choking back the tears we scrapped the beautiful wedding venue and are back to square one. In the end it does not matter where the wedding is as long as I'm marrying my best friend.

It was time to send out massive amounts of e-mails. This time I included in my list of questions for the venue co-ordinators "Do you require a minimum revenue to secure your location?" In an effort to cheer myself up I tried to rewrite a holiday carol into a wedding song. "Just hear those wedding bells jinglin', ring ting tinglin' too! Come on it's lovely weather for a wedding day together with you! ... umm... Giddy up Giddy up Giddy up let's go?"

I hadn't realized just how many wedding venues required a mimimum revenue. I know it makes sense but you would think if they were going to charge a minimum revenue they would put that somewhere on their cost list. Or at the very least they would revise the cost to say, "$3000 to book the room. This covers meals for up to 100 people. $30 for each additional person." Then you know you are paying for the room and not the food. What a pain! At this point I just want to give up and elope in a really pretty already paid for dress!!!

Just as I gave up I passed the laptop to David who was quietly minding his own. SMACK laptop hits his lap. He nervously questioned, "What...is this for?" I said, "if you want to marry me you're going to have to find the venue because I can't find anything!"

What does the bugger do? He opens google enters the exact same search I had entered and opened the first window I'd already opened. He scanned and I scoffed he smile and I shook my head. Finally he spoke up, "This one here seems like it might work." I rolled my eyes with my arms crossed tightly around my chest, "Yeah, I already looked at it. I can't remember what was wrong with it but something wasn't right."

He read over the description of cost and it ended up being a lack of something. A lack of words that made me feel as though there were strings attached. Upon contacting the staff we discovered there were no strings attached. Well, it must be a horridly ugly place! He returned with, "Actually my boss got married there and a co-worker said it was a really nice place."

Still seemed to good to be true and with my heart already so vulnerable from the last venue I skeptically scheduled an appointment to view it on the 14th. We'll see then what the location holds for us. Until then, my heart weeps for the most beautiful venue I've ever seen. 

Day 191 - We can make this work

We can make this work. We can afford this venue. We just have to alienate all our friends and only invite family we like, family we don't like and the bridal party. That's it! We won't have all those people we really want in attending but we'll have the view.....sure...we can make it work.

Took my maid of honour and our little monsters to view the venue once more. I wanted someone else to see just how awe inspiring this venue is. She too loved it. Very little....in fact no decorating needs to be done. It's absolutely amazing!

Alas, we have shrunk our guest list by 150 people in hopes to just barely scrape by. We all agree in the long run it is worth it and people will understand. Those who don't aren't really that friendly after all. 

Day 181 - I've seen the curvature of the earth!

The guest list has now entered his dreams evidently. Earlier yesterday he had commented on how he felt I was looking thinner. I didn't comment then but later in bed I asked him what had made him notice. His answer will make you snicker.
Him - I don't know if it was from the address book or something but you chose female guest.
Me - I chose female guest?
Him - ummhmmmm
Me - Why don't I have my camera on?
Him - MMMMM you're sexy! *snore*

Today, flustered with David, I grabbed the beast and went for a busride together. We had no destination in mind, out was the plan. While the bus rounded a corner I saw one of the venues on my list of places to look into. I pulled the cord and we were off. As the elevator climbed I thought about what colors and views the room would hold for me.

I am here to tell you, I have fallen in love. I am scared to even ask the price. There is no way I can afford this view, this absolutely, fabulous view!

But I had to ask. I took the information and tonight David and I will set down and hash over our guest list. Trimming the fat to see if we can minimalize the guest list in order to maximize the view! So beautiful!
I am thusly trimming the list and preparing the "sorry" lists. I wish I could invite everyone but if I am to be able to afford this venue I will need to cut back drastically.

Day 142 - Nightmares abound!

Wow, whenever there is something not yet done I have a nightmare about it. Last night I had the worst nightmare so far! The invitations had not been mailed out and no one knew when the wedding was. Of the few who were there not a one knew how to fasten my dress, the caterer was ready with food for 100 people yet there were only 10 mouths to feed and the bridal party was M.I.A.! WOWZA! I guess I should finish the guest list!

Day 131 - Food for thought

Although we have not yet booked our venue I am browsing through the menu of the main venue option we have right now. As a vegetarian with a vegetarian daughter I am admittedly a little flustered at the idea of spending thousands of dollars for a bunch of plates of death when my lifestyle choice is significantly less expensive!! Then to have to decide which plate of death is to be served when I myself could care less.... a little difficult.

I began discussing this openly on facebook when I was reminded about allergies, of course our best man is allergic to fish which is the only meat option who's price matches that of the vegetarian option. Now I feel guilty picking it though as that would decide for him what he was eating. I then turned to the pork and was reminded that 3 of my guests are jewish. I threw my hands up in the air, "Vegetarians, allergies, religions...anything else to consider when working out a menu? Can't we all eat salad and dance the night away?" Amazingly all of my friends piped up saying I should just order all vegetarian since it's my wedding and people should just be happy to spend it with us. As much as that thought sounds great, I don't think it would resonate with the less open minded more obligatory guests on my list.

Speaking of guest lists I was reviewing my electronic guest list today and discovered a few doubles. I was inviting the same guests twice. That's what happens when your guest gets a divorce and you add them once by their maiden name and once by their married name. Both times adding their children to the list as well. Whoops.

Everything aside I seem to be on the ball more than hubby to be. I have my wedding dress, I am 90% sure I have my venue, I have my bridesmaid, I have my photographer, I've decided on my venue. But still no groomsmen from David. *le sigh*

I'll get him on it sooner or later. <3 your hippie bride

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 106 - FOUND IT!

Lately I've been thinking it's time to narrow in on a venue. I've narrowed down some possible suspects and think I should set up some appointments to go downtown and view them in person. I'm so nervous to fall in love with something and not be able to afford it or lose it because I can't foot the deposit for a few more months. But I'm going to have to get past that and start looking.

I'm now down 21 lbs and back into some of my old university pants. I've lost so much weight that my engagement ring keeps falling off. I guess we'll have to hurry and get our wedding set purchased before I lose the ring for good. That's a fearful thought!

Today, though, was productive. My bridesmaid, Jenny, has been insisting I try on wedding dresses for a while now. She has been frothing at the bit trying to get me in there. I don't know what size I am and I don't want to be this size when I buy my dress. But she was so excited so I thought, "well...we cant at least see what store I want to shop at when I buy my dress." so I pulled up two names of local stores and we were off. We foolishly had the girls with us so there was some amount of stress in trying to get things sorted out. Not to mention it was a Saturday and the store was really full! We were given 5 rings and sent on our way. I pushed and browsed and was saddened to see the dresses I could afford were....well there was a reason they were so cheap and on clearance. The dresses that were prettier were $$$$ way off course of my budget. My budget being $600 I knew this was a bad idea. Finally I found one dress that made me smile. It was almost twice my budget though. *Wimper* but we decided I should try it on and see how it looks before I completely rule it out.

It was gorgeous, it is gorgeous. After having searched through all the dresses, even the original dress that I fell in love with I think I found a winner. Now to lose another 20lbs and come back. As for the girls, they did pretty good all things considered. And Jenny's daughter was still running around the store in her dreams as you can see below.

Day 101 - Smaller still.

I pulled out all my university pants last night and they all fit! Too bad they are out of date, or at least too young for me to wear.
I don't know if it's the progress in weight loss or the continuation of days going buy but lately I've been really wanting to settle in on a venue. I suppose it is logical either way as most book a year in advance. This means I have only a few months left to settle on one and I have no idea where to start.
Time to hop on a bus and look at a few. 

Day 66 - Inspired after the showcase

I am really worried about not getting people booked in time. Looking at the budget, punching in the numbers and thinking that this is going to work. I have to book the venue in April then get married over a year later. Sure I can do it. I found the perfect song for the bridal party to walk down the aisle to so I've been having luck with the musical side of things.
I have a coupon for a free pearl necklace if I throw a jewelry party. I am curious if any of my friends are actually interested in something like that. But there are a lot of useful coupons from the other night as well. So still totally worth it both mentally, emotionally and financially.
As for productivity? I sent off the wedding planning e-mails, updated a wedding registry with bed bath and beyond, researched wedding venue options and now I'm going to wedding pla--...bed.

Day 62 - Naptime is my time

So while the beast slumbers I have been dedicating precious minutes to planning out the wedding ceremony and reception and searching for venues. Never have those naps meant so much to me. Sure it's easier to do regular chores when she's asleep than when she's awake but planning a wedding just can't be done when she's awake. For one thing I feel incredibly guilty if I'm not teaching her something or playing with her in some way. This girl is my life and I can't put her aside for wedding planning, no matter how perfect it needs to be.
I have managed to find one possible location that is pretty much attached to the hill where we want to have our photographs taken so it's really not that bad a deal. In addition I will be attending the local bridal showcase in a few days. I'm so excited to be going and glad I looked when I did. I would have otherwise missed out on it. 

Day 16 - Riding nerdy

Today, in exasperation, I began driving around downtown looking for a venue. Did I mention I did this in a google car? I can't afford to spend the entire day walking around downtown looking for a venue and we don't have nor can we afford a car. So I resorted to cruising around with my mouse until I saw locations. I would then jot them down to later pull up their website to research what they had to offer.
I of course did this during naptime so it was all under strict time constraints.
Armed with a notepad of questions to ask each location I pushed forward in hopes to find that one spot that fit within our criteria.
What did I learn?
That some places are flexible but most are expensive and none or perfect. Nothing narrowed down today. Really wish we had a house, I'd just plan to have it there. Honestly I just want a friend with a house and a big lawn at this point to say, "hey, why don't you have it here?!" and I would say, "That'd be great! THANKS!"

I want to be close to where we are having our photographs taken because I don't want to make guests wait long while we have our photographs done. Other than that I mostly just want the place to be affordable while still making me gasp, "THIS is where I was meant to be married." I don't want to fall in love with a place until I know it's within my budget and offers everything I desire. Until then I will continue riding in the passenger seat of google mobile and cruise on a mission for cyber venues. 

Day 10 - MEN!

What is with men?! Not all men, I don't like to stereotype but if my romantic, loving man can be so uninvolved in a wedding there certainly must be a lot of other men.

He is glad to be getting married but asking him to look at two cake samples and he acts as though you told him to bend over and cough. I love him, I do, I just worry that I might slap him a little in his sleep and deny knowing where the bruises came from in the morning. "I swear, I had this dream that you were hovering over me and gave me a whack on the arm!" "Oh sweetheart, that's silly! Now, could you take a peak at these two photos, do you want the white daisies or the pink?"

Outside of my fiancée's collapse in testosterone this weekend was very successful. We have learned more about our venue, prices and options.

Now I'm torn though, both venues are good in their own ways and a little lacking in luster in other ways.

Venue A Pros:

• Personal and sentimental in it's location
• 2 seconds walking from where we want our wedding photos to be taken
• Would only cost $1500 - $1800 and would include tent set up
• Would not be inside a building but would still remain away from the elements

Venue A Cons:

• The location lacks in beauty and is a bit more military than we ever could be.
• Not sure of how we'd hook up our sound system for walking down the aisle.
• There isn't really an..aisle to walk down.

Venue B Pros:

• It's gorgeous! Absolutely breathtaking! Stone steps leading down a grassy hill to a gazebo on a lake beach. GORGEOUS!
• It would cost $1000 for the wedding, $1500 for the wedding plus the booking of the additional room inside in case of rain. It'd be $2000 if I want them to take photos and $2500 with the extra room and photos. Considering the photographer would cost me $1200-$1500 that potentially saves me $500....if they take nice photos ;) 

Venue B Cons:

• It holds no sentimental value to us what-so-ever
• It's a 27 minute drive from where we want to have our wedding photos taken.
• I'm not sure again how we'd hook up our sound system for walking down the stone path into the gazebo. 

Compared to each other one is personal, one isn't. One is Gorgeous one isn't. As far as price goes they are tied but location not so much. It's tough. When I went to show him the photos of Venue B (he already is familiar with Venue A) he wanted nothing to do with it. Not with the venue mind you, with the pictures. He says, "As long as you're happy" and has the resolve that seeing any pictures would make him quite unhappy. So what is a girl to do? Bitch and moan and insist their fiancée look of course! I'll try him again in a few days. I still have more questions for the operators of said venues. 

Past week one, your hippie bride! <3