I'm heading to China soon, so I won't be able to blog on our actual two-month mark. I feel like we're doing pretty good, though. The big stuff is all taken care of, and a lot of the little stuff is finished, too!! YAY! (Now if I can just get my dress to be on time...)
Groom - Michael Malone
Date - September 22, 2012
Wedding Venue - Raytown Christian Church (the church I grew up in)
Reception Venue - The VanNoy Mansion. It's SOO pretty!
Colors - Blue, White and Ivory
Gown - It's top secret....but I have it. (I'm trying not to second guess my decision!!) We had to put a rush on my dress because apparently you need to birth a wedding dress. (It takes 9 months to get a wedding dress in. Guess who didn't have 9 months?!) I called the bridal salon this week and my dress is scheduled to ship at the end of August. Sure hope it gets here in time to be fitted!! EEK!
Shoes - Holy frustration!! I hate buying shoes. And when it comes to wedding shoes....I hate it even more! I have really long, really skinny feet. Seriously, I wear a 10 narrow. Let me just tell you how many cute shoes come in a 10 narrow. Virtually NONE. So I've been battling the shoe war. I ordered six different pair of shoes on Amazon and not one of them fit me. Yesterday Michael and I set out to find me some stinkin' shoes that fit! And wouldn't you know? I found them at our first stop! Thank you DSW!!!! I wanted blue shoes, and I actually found some that fit!!!
In case these beauties don't last on my feet the whole night, I found some wedge flip flops that I can wear for the reception!
Makeup - Thanks to a reference from a friend, I found a really sweet makeup lady. I'm excited to have a run through with her so I can see what the end result will be!
Flowers - Garden Roses, Peonies, Hydrangea and Lisianthius
Maid of Honor - Meredith (my sister)
Bridesmaids - Three of my best friends in the world!! See here. The bridesmaid gifts came in this week and I LOVE THEM!! (So glad I ordered one for myself, too!)
Bridesmaids Dresses - We picked them out and have them ordered! Read about it here. I called the dress salon and the dresses are expected to ship at the beginning of August. I'm excited for the dress fittings and see the girls all together in their dresses! That's when we'll know for sure if my "vision" for different shades of blue is a good one or not.
Best Man - Andrew... A great friend of ours! He was a co-conspirator in the proposal plan.
Groomsmen - Jason, Matt and Greg (Obviously...they're all friends of the groom.)
Florist - Amy Cason (She's a friend of mine and is absolutely phenomenal!) Check out her work!
Engagement Photos - My friend Allison (also a bridesmaid) took them for us. Check them out here!
Wedding Photographer - Soo...apparently I know lots of people in the wedding business. My friend Allison Carenza is doing those. Again...she's phenomenal! Here's a peek at her work.
Flower Girls - Georgia, my friend Courtney's daughter; Michael's niece Kyndall. We've purchased both of their dresses and we're just waiting for them to come in! The flower girl gifts came in this past month and they are SOOO cute!!! Michael just shakes his head at me when I get excited about stuff like this.
Food - We booked our caterer! We are excited to be using Brancato's Catering. YUM!!!! Now we're just waiting to see how many RSVPs we will receive. Everything (and I mean everything)is based on our guest count. Which means those RSVP cards are much more valuable than I ever realized! After planning this wedding, I will always be prompt in returning my RSVP card to events!
Cake - We had three great cake tastings, and I agonized over this decision!! But I finally decided on using Classic Cakes. We're going to have a round, four-tier wedding cake. We (really, I) had a terrible picking the flavor because they were all DELICIOUS! So we ended up picking several different flavors for each tier of the cake. We're a little worried about people taking more than one slice (if you've not purchased a wedding cake, it's priced - not cheaply - by the slice. So this, too, is based on the guest count and has the potential to get really, really expensive.) We're thinking of hiring security to monitor the cake table. ;-) Just kidding!!!! As far as the cake decoration, no fondant for us! We're going old school and doing a stucco icing. This is an example of stucco.
SO excited!!!
DJ - I finally booked a DJ. For some reason, those people don't return phone calls. So when I found a company that seemed really professional and they actually returned my phone call, I booked them! We're going with Complete Music DJ and Video. If you've used them and they sucked....please don't tell me. I've already put down my deposit!
Rentals - Our tables, linens, etc. are all booked. We found out this month that our reception venue has purchased a whole ton of stuff that we can rent from them for waaayy cheaper than we had originally booked with another company. We're waiting for a new quote for rentals.
Save the Dates - We've sent them out!
Invitations - We've ordered the invitations, but sadly, they won't arrive before I leave for China. So I'll be rounding up my bridesmaids to help me do some addressing and envelope stuffing when I get home! :-) My philosophy when picking out invitations -- simple and cheap. No one will remember what my wedding invitations look like...so I'm not going to stress about them being super cute.
Wedding Website - SchulzeAndMalone.ourwedding.com Glad to have that up and running!
Registries - I think our registries are finally finished!! We registered at Bed Bath and Beyond, Crate & Barrel, and Macy's.
Decorations - I don't have all of the little pieces for our decorations yet, but I know what we're doing....which makes me feel better! Once I have a plan, I'm good to go. The chancel/podium/stage in the church is really deep, so we're going to be using some silk trees to create a new depth. We'll also be using my friend/florist's candelabras and pedestals.
We'll have some vases of blue delphinium and some ferns to soften the chancel. Right now I'm working on getting the candles and candle holders. Michael and his sisters are going to light a candle in honor of their mom. It was really important to both of us to honor her in some way in the ceremony. I have her candle and candle holder. I'm still searching for a pillar candle holder for our unity candle. I feel like I've searched EVERYWHERE for one!
Little Details: Lord have mercy, there are so many little details to think about! Today I'm heading over to my friend Allison's house (she's a bridesmaid, took the engagement photos and is also an art teacher -- yes....she's very talented!). She's going to help me with some signs that I want for the wedding. I saw this sign on my florist's Facebook page (for information on my wonderful florist, see the link above!), and thought it was perfect for us!
This is just a preview of what ours will look like!
I also want this sign for the entrance of our wedding ceremony (just not on a chalk board). Here's our preview...
This is what my spare bedroom looks like. Each bag is a different part of the wedding (i.e. rehearsal, ceremony, reception). Trying to get organized!!
I have a few other things finished: thank
you tags for the wedding favors, photo booth signs made, jewelry picked out. So I think we're in pretty darn good shape!
I'm so excited to share everything put together!
It's coming soon!!!!
