8 days and counting and I’m calm and relaxed and READY! I’m looking through pictures from the past 6 1/2 months and here are some of my hair trial run.
Bring it on Project Wedding — I’m ready!!
– Mary
Tag Archives: Wedding Planning
4 Weeks and Counting
Less than 30 days to go! Today we visited St. Charles and took a sneak peak at someone else’s wedding setup. Our caterer Berwick (who’s the BEST), let us in early to check it out. It was good to see and have a real image in my head of what it looks like for a wedding reception. Up until now it just looked like a really big room with incredibly high ceilings. Of course in viewing someone else’s wedding I immediately saw about 10 things I hadn’t even considered yet. Mints for the bar? Framed photos of parents and grandparent’s weddings? Sparkly table cloths to add color to the white ones? Pretty decorations to wrap around the banisters down the stairs? A list of drinks for the bar? I already nixed the cocktain napkins – phew.
I also noticed the gold chairs they have at St. Charles. They stood out a ton. They aren’t necessarily ugly, they just don’t quite go with the color scheme (today’s wedding was white and light blue). The caterer quoted $3.75 / chair to cover them from a woman he knows, but my mom is going to search for cheaper, because $1125 to cover them up is ridiculous, insane and illogical. (Now ask me later if covering them up is worth $600? $300?).
Last night, we stayed in Dayton with Nick’s parents and his mom and I did a trip to Joanne’s and Michael’s looking for wedding favor bags. I’m stocking up on Swiss chocolate on my trips (I go to Switzerland again in a week), and we found some 3×4 Navy blue organza favor bags that I think will work great.
At Michael’s the bags were $3.99 for 12 (or $0.33 / bag). After a quick search of the internet, Idea Ribbon is having a sale and if I buy 300 I can get them for $0.08 / bag. Luckily, I need 300!
Speaking of numbers… the RSVP deadline was Wednesday the 1st. As of right now we have 226 yes’s, very few no’s and we are waiting on responses from 70 people. It looks like we will surpass my 250 people estimate!!
Happy 4th of July!!
Mary
Yesterday Marriage License; Today Wedding Rings
Hard to believe that the wedding is only 5 weeks from today! Yesterday, Nick and I obtained our marriage license and today we bought our rings.
Obtaining the license was quite uneventful, it just required waiting in line for about 40 minutes. The woman who issued our license said most people in line were getting the license for the next day. Yikes, I couldn’t image doing that.
I think buying our rings was more exciting for both of us. We did a first look for rings about 2 months ago, to get an inital idea. Today, we started with the jewelry stores in the mall. After waiting 10 minutes at one place and not being greeted we left, wandered around to other shopping stores, got a Starbucks coffee and went to another jewelry store. At this store, all of the men’s rings were the “average” size for guys, which meant none of them fit Nick’s finger, so he was done. Then the saleswoman (wrongly) assumed the size of my ring (which irritated both of us since she was off by 40%!). And she pushed me towards this crazy-huge ring wrap (I can’t remember the formal name) which meant she wasn’t listening to what I said I wanted!!
Finally, Nick and I looked at each other and decided to go to Jared’s where Nick purchased my engagement ring. The experience at Jared’s was beyond wonderful – they have excellent customer service, attention to detail and were so helpful. We were immediately greeted and one woman started helping us with my rings. I pointed out what I liked last time and started trying them on, although still wasn’t sold 100%. The woman started to get a feel for what I liked and pulled out the perfect ring for me! I put it on and knew it and Nick knew it too; I started to tear up. Then another woman helped us find Nick’s perfect ring – a yellow gold comfort fit band. Both women were so knowledgeable, helpful and FUN!! They brought us bottled waters, cleaned my engagement ring and took such good care of us. We won’t be shopping anywhere else for jewelry, and Jared’s now has two customers for life.
Marriage License with Wedding Rings
Nick with Wedding Ring - I love it!
My ring - so dainty and perfect
I found the shoes!
After searching high and low for white or ivory shoes, I finally gave up and decided to go for silver. I had some strict criteria: not a big heel, very very comfortable and shoes that I would wear again… lo and behold the first pair of silver sandals I tried on were perfect. I love Aldo!
So today I went to my first dress fitting and the shoes were P-e-r-f-e-c-t. My dress barely needs hemmed and the little bit of sparkle on my shoes matches perfectly with my dress. *sigh* I love it when the little details are oh-so-perfect :)
Wedding Shower Weekend
The first weekend of May was packed full of wedding related activities. On Saturday, I attended the shower of my childhood best friend, Jenice. The shower was at the Worthington Inn. One of my gifts to Jenice was a storybook of our childhood memories together. I had fun gathering the photos at my parent’s house and remembering the funny things we did as kids. I was really excited to give her the gift and of course once she opened and looked through the book, it was passed around the entire room for all to see. Jenice’s future mother in-law loved seeing photos of her as a little girl. To see the book I made Jenice (and to see hilarious photos of both of us as little girls, click the image below).
I made Jenice’s book following a really simple 4-step formula that anyone can copy for their own project:
- First, I spent an hour or so of gathering the old photos that I wanted from my parent’s house.
- Next, I scanned the photos with my high speed scanner and wrote out my favorite Mary & Jenice memories to include in the book. [Interested in having some of your photos scanned? Check out my scanning services!]
- Then, I searched the Heritage Makers template gallery to fine a template to use (this was my starting template: http://heritagemakers.com/index.cfm?event=projectBrowse&projectID=9b251d5e-70f5-4269-b242-eb4ad6753850&productId=1)
- Finally, I spent 2-3 hours dropping the scanned photos in the template, modified the template slightly and added my personal notes.
Jenice’s book was by far one of the favorite projects I’ve made so far with Heritage Makers. It gave me the opportunity to look back and remember so many fun things we did together!
On Sunday of that weekend, May 3, was my first bridal shower with Nick’s side of the family. It was a very nice shower and I enjoyed it! Here are some photos:
The women in Nick's Family (plus Nick)
The hosts - Phyllis and Wanda (THANK YOU!!!)
Princess Hannah, Lindsay, Me, Patty and Rosie
Two more showers to go…. Next weekend is my family shower and my I’ll get to finally see my third bridesmaid, Christine! She’s hosting the shower and here’s a peek at the super cute invitations she created:
Here is what I’ve been reading lately on weddings:
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I’m not the only one making a day of schedule: http://eatdrinkmarry.blogspot.com/2009/05/day-of-schedule.html
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I like these cocktail napkins, but I have a feeling I’m not quite as clever: http://eatdrinkmarry.blogspot.com/2009/05/winning-napkins.html
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And finally, just because he’s so crazy-cute, my cousin’s (and bridesmaid) son, Owen: http://owenkuder.blogspot.com/2009/04/park-day.html Christine, can you take photos of Nick & I on our wedding day that are as cute as those?!?
From here on forward, I am going to post weekly until the wedding…. Things are starting to happen everyday and I want to capture them!! (This morning I had a trial run of my wedding hair and so as I write this I’m sitting here with my hair all curlyand wearing my glittery headband — I feel oh so cute!).
Next up: Photos of the painted upstairs of the condo!
Power of a Story 