I Understand Why People Elope

I haven't really blogged about the upcoming wedding planning...let's just say I understand why people elope. I have found in the last month that planning a wedding is an overwhelming effort for those of us that work (that whole 8 to 5 or in my case 8 to whenever I drag myself away from my desk or the jury gets back makes it difficult to meet with people who work from 10 to 5 during the day) and don't have an endless supply of money (I just keep saying it's a day, a great day, but I'd like to be able to walk away from the day with the ability to eat the next one). So I'll tell you a little about my adventure thus far.

1. Finding a reception site for a wedding. This is the very first thing I did. I called about 25 places over two days. Her's a tip for all you future brides, if your looking for a reception site and it isn't at least (emphasis on at least) a year out your going to have people laugh at you when you tell them the date of your wedding. The typical conversation I had with vendors (and I had the same conversation approximately 25 times over two days) was "You're getting married October 10th of 2009?" followed by laughter. Additionally the five places that were open for that date, a mere eight months away at that time, all ranged in price from 60.00 dollars a plate to 20 dollars a plate...and most places that plate price didn't include renting the site. So after a lot of searching, in those two days because I had to get on this if I wanted to get married this year, I was finally able to find a place that suited my budget as well as my tastes...but those two days weren't pretty. I'm very excited for my reception now, but it was touch and go for a little bit there.

2. Finding a place to get married. In Winnebago County, you have two choices on where you get married, a church or outside. And October is also a strange month in the midwest where you never know what kind of day your going to have. So we have opted for the church. We just had to find one that didn't make us do a large amount of pre-marital counseling because frankly Matt and I can't tell you when were both not going to be working...and it seems as if they want us both there when the counseling takes place ;) So we've found a church and a minister who will work with us and we're very happy.

3. Photographers... What can I say, it's kinda been like searching for a needle in a haystack where $3000.00 dollars seems to be the magic number. I'm really into pictures and I wanted someone who would work with my type A self to achieve exactly what I wanted plus I really wanted to be able to make my own wedding book with my pictures on Shutterfly (I have this coffee table book I did that with that I'm in love with over the summer). So lucky for me I found this photographer who does it on the side that's amazing. He did my friend Jessica's wedding and made her gorgeous self look just as gorgeous in the pictures he took. I get rights to my own pictures and I get exactly what I want. He's really easy to contact (he's all about the e-mail like I am) and I couldn't be happier. He's also going to do videography for the wedding as well and I'm really excited about that extra since I didn't know if I was going to do that or not. If you want to check out his site it's: http://www.ramsdenphotography.com/

4. Wedding dress shopping, the best day thus far of planning my wedding. I went with my mom to David's Bridal and we had an awesome time trying on dresses. The previous day we stopped at another local store and tried on a few which made me scared I would never find a dress because nothing looked right. But the staff I great there and after a couple hours I found the dress of my dreams. It's traditional yet really me and if you want the link to look at it e-mail me and I'll send it to you. I decided to go with ivory and got some awesome shoes dyed to match. All I have to buy now is the veil (I'm kinda particular and wasn't sure about the veil so decided to keep looking). My dress should come in during the middle of May, yes May, it can take up to 20 weeks for a dress to come in which seems strange to me but I'm new to this whole bridal business thing.

5. Florists. I think we're going to go with a florist in the town where we're having our ceremony. It's the only place I went where the lady working there was polite and seemed excited about working with me. I know it's a business but it's nice when you get to work with someone who at least acts like they care about your wedding. I'm planning on going back in a few weeks with a swatch from the bridesmaids dresses (and in case your wondering the dresses most likely will be dark purple and our accent color will be orange...very October)

6. The wedding party. We finally have our wedding party cemented down and I'm really excited about getting to spend time with all of them. My maid of honor is already rocking it out. I get e-mails all the time from her about planning and she has already saved the day once in the last four weeks. My bridesmaids and I are going dress shopping Friday night (David's Bridal is no place for the faint of heart on a Saturday or Sunday) and I'm so excited. I've narrowed it down to 7 or 8 dresses and I think we're going to have a whole lot of fun. I'll let you know more about our adventures in bridesmaid dress shopping next week

7. Up ahead. I still need to get a DJ, pick out a cake, rent a limo, figure out my centerpieces for the tables, and pick up the odds and the ends. I try to do at least one large task a week...which can be hard with trials (I've done 4 in two months and will be starting a 5th tommorrow morning). Put I'm moving ahead and I'm starting to enjoy myself more now that I've gotten the reception and wedding site part out of the way. I'll keep you updated.