Wednesday, September 30, 2009

"Oh they say if you marry in June"

Since I didn't start this blog when we first got engaged I wanted to cover all the things I have done for the planning process since February of this year. It's not as much as I hoped to have done, but I'm not TOO far behind.
This is hard to get started...what DO I have done? Well we came up with a date, first off. We chose June 12th 2010. June because I have always wanted to be a June bride. Probably because I watched too many musicals as a child. The 12th because that is our anniversary already and Skyler won't have to learn a new day, just a new month. Finally, 2010, because I wasn't going to wait an extra year just to not get married on an election year.
After we decided on a date, we found both the venues. The ceremony is going to be at First Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) in downtown Columbia, MO. I had thought for most of my life that I would be getting married at the church I grew up in, but that just seemed not all too practical and selfish on my part. My parents no longer live in my hometown and neither do I. Many of our guests are coming from that area, but many more will be from Missouri and would have to travel a very long way to get to Wayzata, MN. The church in Columbia is very lovely, we've gone to their services a couple of times, including Easter this past year. It is on the National Register of Historic places and the sanctuary has all these lovely stained glass windows and the cross is made from a glass mosaic. Very pretty. This is it:




We also booked a location for the reception. The Tiger Hotel is only a few blocks walk from the church and it is exactly the sort of place I have always imagined my reception in. It fits our goals for the wedding perfectly. It's no longer actually a hotel. After its heyday in the 1920s and 30s it fell into disrepair, and was even used as a retirement home for a while. Recently a company bought it and started remodeling it. I believe their eventual goal is to have some actual hotel rooms as well as lofts and office space, but right now they only have the first couple floors done. We will be using the gorgeous mezzanine and ballroom that have been fully restored and are so classy and wonderful and I just love them. It was also pretty surprisingly reasonable, as far as price is concerned, although I wonder if I will still feel that way after I meet with the caterer in January. This is a pic of the Tiger.




We have formulated our guest list and have started to gather addresses for it. This was a really hard task and there are still people that might not get an invite that I would really like to have there. It totally sucks.
We've booked our photographers, the Talbees of Avia Photography. They are a young married couple that do great work. I was waffling a lot on photographers and had sent out a number of different inquiries. Then, I got an email from Avia explaining that they were raising their prices so that they would be able to focus on fewer weddings per year and create a more personal experience. Since they had already made a quote to me (and the other people they sent the email to), they would honor their old prices if we booked within a month of getting the email.  When I looked over the new prices I was terrified, I knew we would never be able to afford them. My terror made me realize how badly I wanted them as my photographers and after Skyler and I talked it over we decided to book them. I am very happy with this decision, I think our pictures are going to be lovely. We are FINALLY getting engagement photos done when we return to Missouri and when that is done, I will post some here.

We have designed the save the dates and they are sooooo cute. I'm not going to post the picture here yet, I want it to be a surprise when people receive it, but I'll put it up after they are sent. 
I have also made a bunch of purchases. We have our cake topper, our cake cutting set, table number holders, some votive candle holders, place cards and some of the books and teacups I will need for the awesome and unique centerpieces I'm designing. My big find happened when I wandered into a Michael's to see in person the invitation suite I had been eying on their website. I was going back and forth a lot on whether to DIY the invites or spend a ridiculous sum and have them professionally done. Well when I saw that the invitations I loved were on clearance at Michael's I decided right then and there to go the DIY route! After dragging Skyler to three different stores around the area and sending my mom to a store near her we now have all the invitations, response cards and thank you cards I will need for less than we will spend on stamps. A lot less.
The last thing we have done is that we have booked the rentals for the groomsmen tuxes and I have almost come to a decision about bridesmaid dresses.I am hoping sometime in November or December some of my girls, my mom, Skyler's mom and I can get together to try on the dresses and also try on dresses for me.

Next up: I share all the DIY projects I have in the hopper.

Tuesday, September 29, 2009

"Let's have an old fashioned wedding"







Shortly after we got engaged, I asked Skyler to make a list of the words that would describe his perfect wedding. He wasn't really all that thrilled about the idea, but I pouted and he did it. I had made my list years ago and I have been adding to it periodically over time. Yes, I am one of "those girls" who has been planning my wedding since I was old enough to stand underneath my mother's lace curtains and pretend they were a veil. What follows is the list that we made together:

  • Vintage
  • Formal
  • Ceremony Focused and Faith Filled
  • Full of Friends and Family
  • Entertaining
  • Sustainable
  • Classy
  • Big yet affordable
  • Jubilant
  • Nostalgic, Post-War era
  • Spring, Bright, Daytime
  • Light, Airy
  • Simple, yet elegant
  • Dark Blue, Moss Green, Various Shades of Pink
  • Traditional
  • Personal
  • Socially conscious
  • Timeless
  • Romantic
  • A Celebration
So there you have it. The rest of this blog will be all about the two of us figuring how to fit all that into one spectacular wedding day.