STDs!!

Save the Dates that is!! (what else could I have been talking about?!?)

With just  under 5 months to go until wedding time, it really is now or never with this pesky little buggers. Do we do them? Do we not? If we do, how much do we spend? It is too late to send them? So many questions!!

A few months ago I had a couple of great ideas for some STD magnets, but when it came to turn the images from my head to a tangible item...well let's just say some ideas are best keep to yourself.  '

Recently, I have seen a few new(er) trends and discussions popping up on the boards about video STDs. They seem pretty easy but time consuming. Some people have gone all out and made mini movie trailers or spoof music videos and some others have used the great art of stop motion. I think I really like the idea of the stop motion videos best. Which would you choose?

 

And so it begins....

There is a VERY good chance that we have found our venue! I could not be happier because once the deposit is paid for the location it's only the small stuff left. We have been able to finalize the guest list, set a realistic budget and even picked out our wedding bands. I am happy that things are starting to fall in to place.

Where to begin......????

That really is an honest question. SO much has transpired in the past 6 months that I could write a bestselling novel, turn it in to an Emmy award winning daytime soap opera and/or Broadway musical and turn that in to a blockbuster movie with a cult following of love starved teenage girls. For the sake of time and my sanity I'll give you the VERY brief synopsis by way of an extremely long run on sentence. :o)


Got engaged in August 2011, started planning a wedding to rival Kim Kardashian at a GORGEOUS museum in downtown Baltimore, got invited to a free tasting by the exclusive caterer of the venue, HATED the food, sulked, stressed, moved wedding plans to the National Aquarium in Baltimore, rejoiced, found a home to purchase, debated on closing on a house or having extravagant wedding, decided on the house, canceled plans with the Aquarium, deal on house feel through, tears and hair pulling, decided to "elope" to Italy, planned and paid for trip to Europe, decided a wedding is the joining of two families-its not possible to join two families if neither of them are present, canceled European wedding plans (but not trip,) relinquished planning responsibilities to someone more capable and knowledgeable (MY MOM,) taking deep breaths and am now enjoying this experience.


So now that we are all caught up, lets talk business.


With less than 5 months to my wedding date NOTHING is set in stone. I kind of want to freak out and run around like a chicken with his head cut off because there is so much to do, but I won't. I have an AMAZING support system behind me and they are helping to make this day happen as smoothly as possible and I am sooooooo grateful. As soon as I called my mother and MoH to tell them that Drew and I decided that we really do want a wedding with all of family present, they took off like a speeding bullet. With in 24 hrs they have venue options and caterer meetings scheduled and who knows what else. I am excited at the prospect of having my dream wedding but I am even more thankful to not be planning this wedding alone.


Word to the wise: Hire a wedding planner..... EARLY on! 


So we have alont of great sites to hold our wedding, but the questions I have to ask and take in considerations are "Are they available for September 29th?" "Are they available at all?" "How much is this going to cost me?" etc...


These are a couple of the ones that I am fond of and seem to be in our price range.

Chesapeake Bay Beach Club

Harbor Magic 

Kent Manor

The Word Trade Center in Baltimore

The Great Room at Savage Mill 

I have seen each of these places in person (with the exception if Kent Manor) at least once in my life. My junior prom was actually held at The Great Room (I, however, was on punishment and not allowed to attend :-/ ) An any rate, my fondness for these places doesn't matter if they don't have my date available. So we'll just have to wait and see.

This might be it...

So the Mister and I had a meeting today with a great venue possibility! We met with the events coordinator and the catering manager, we looked over menus, discussed pricing and they showed us exactly how our wedding would be set up.It went amazingly well. Andrew was actually pretty in to the site tour as well. He was asking questions and giving input and being the awesome fiance' I know he is. lol. Its just becoming pretty exciting to me the more and more we get closer to making the dream a reality. I can't wait to secure the venue and tell you all where we will be getting married. :o)

Stay Tuned...

Dress Uncertainty

From the moment a little girl starts dreaming about her wedding, she dreams of her dress. She dreams of being a princess on her day with the perfect gown to match. I was no different.... Well I guess that is not entirely true. Most little girls are a tad bit more decisive than I am. I have been to a total of 6 different appointments at 4 different bridal salons and have tried on 25+ dressed and just have not had that overwhelming feeling of surety

At some point in time there were 2 different dresses that I was/am fond of and I felt/feel like the each could be "The One" for different reasons. However, I am already feeling dress regret and I haven't even purchased anything yet. I NEED to order my dress by the end of January so I have a very limited time frame. I guess the problem is that I am just not loving anything. I feel bad for dragging my poor old MoH to ALL of my appointments with me, "find the dress" only to turn around a few days later and second guess it. Many ppl say that once you have found your dress you should stop looking and I have tried my hardest to adhere to that and I've done well. But it's not the pictures of other dresses that is making me feel the regret...its the pictures of myself in said dresses that have me confused. I also saw a different person in one of the dresses and I HATED it on her. Now I know dresses look different on different ppl, but how possible is it to have to strong reactions from the same dress days apart?!?!

I have just become so tired of going dress hunting and trying on dress after dress. I'm tired of coming home and telling FI "I've found my dress and it's only $xyz amount!" I'm tired of not having my Mommy there with me to give me her honest input and help em choose my dress because EVERYONE who knows me know I'm indecisive. All of this indecisiveness has just made this whole thing no fun. And it sucks. Idk what I'm going to do...but something has to be done quickly.

I am probably go out to different salon and try on a few different dresses by myself. I don't have the heart to go back in to those same salons that I've been to twice each (because I like the service and the consultants,) only to tell them that I am yet again unsure of my dress. I'm too much of a coward to put them through that so I might take the punk way out.

I wish someone told me it wasn't going to be as easy as I had expected.

The Great Venue Debate

Who you choose to marry is THE most important thing in regards to a wedding. Closely behind that is what dress you'll wear and almost tied for third is what kind of food you'll serve and where you'll choose to get married.

To me the location of a wedding is one of the few things that will have a lasting effect on your guest. If you choose to get married on a yacht, your guest will remember getting sea sick. If you choose to get married in a park in July, your guest will remember the humidity and the scorching sun. If you choose to to get married downtown, your guest will remember the traffic. I think that we as humans are more likely to remember the things that adversely affect us rather than the positive intentions of our host. Because of this, it makes choosing the perfect venue a stressful, long and drawn out ordeal. No Bride can truly go through this process and not think about anyone else but herself (except a Bridezilla.) Once you become engaged and set a date, you are thrown in to this sort of rat race to find and secure the best venue around. Wedding locations book up months in advance. There are some places that actually have a year and a half to two year long waiting list. Brides know that where you choose to hold your wedding and what your guest see is sure to have a lasting impression so, IMO,  it gets bumped up the list and in some cases (to some ppl) it becomes equal to number 1. (I am DEFINITELY not one of those ppl. lol)

Should we get married in Baltimore....

FI and I have been tossing around a few different choices of where to hold our wedding. Because we are getting closer to the end of the 2011 and closer to there being only 9 months til the date, our choices are a bit limited. There was the gorgeously wonderful Walter's Art Museum that held our hearts, but the caterers from Catering By Uptown kinda killed that for us (see here.) Since then we have considered a plethora of locations. We have gone from hotels in Annapolis to old plantations/mansions in Mount Airy. Loft spaces in D.C. to Science Centers in Baltimore. FI and I are not set on one location or area of Maryland or D.C. so that allows us to be open and consider all types of places. However, we are limited by our budget (we want to be reasonable) and availability. Currently, we do have a front runner who we will bee meeting with mid next week and to be honest we are kind of excited about it. If things work out with this location, we will be able to cut our total wedding budget in half and still be able to give our guest a unique wedding experience that they would never guess. I told my brother about this location, just to gauge his response, and he said "They have weddings there?? You're allowed to get married there?? Wow!" So like I said, it's different, but fun and not the typical wedding venue. Nothing to be afraid of but it works perfectly for us because FI and I are not the typical couple and we sure as heck do not do things the typical way. :o)

or should we get married in Washington, D.C.???

So if things go well I will update you with the location. Until then you're just gonna have to keep on the edge of your seat and check back later. :o)

Say "Yes" To The Dress?? What about "Maybe"

According to the shows I watch it seems like every bride is supposed to have some kind of epiphany or emotional reaction when she finds "THE DRESS." The few that don't are either too picky and don't really find the dress and settle or too nonchalant and are only going through this process because it is just apart of getting married.
They say that not EVERY woman has that reaction and "you just might be that type of girl." My response to that is... I AM THAT TYPE OF GIRL! I want to put on a beautiful dress twirl around in front of the mirror look back at my friends and mother and just know that this gown was made for me. I want to get so emotionally choked up that I have to stop that one tear from falling down my face with the delicate touch of an heirloom hanky. I want to to be able to put MY dress on and never want to take it of. In the words of Veruca Salt "I want it NOW!"


 
Knowing that this would be an event, I enlisted the help of my ever so present Maid of Honor-Shauntae, Andrew's Aunt Patrice, Matron of Honor-Tamara and a few of my Bridesmaids-Allyson, Candace & Charmaine to help me in the great dress search. Over the course of 4 months, 5 bridal salons and multiple visits we were able to narrow down my choices and figure out my "wedding style." I also learned a few things as well.

1.) I'm still just as much as a Momma's girl today as I was when I was a kid. It was difficult to not have my Mother's opinion and input as I tried on those dresses.
2.) Never take more than 2 ppl with you when you try on dresses. Although to my bridesmaids defense they worked together pretty easily when it came time to pick out their dresses.
3.) I guess I'm really just not that type of girl. :o(

I found that once we decided my "wedding style" all of the subsequent dresses were either okay or like-worthy. None of them made me swoon and get all teary eyed. It is possible however that I might not have given the dresses their fair chance. You see apparently designers only think of models when they design their gowns and bridal salons very rarely carry a dress in a size larger than a sample size 6. Some have as high up as a size10 or 12, but that still does me no good. You see I am a street size 12-14 making me a size 14-16 in bridal. In the wedding would that makes me a plus sized bride. That means that I have less variety to choose from and even less to try on that I can fit. So in all fairness, had each one of those dresses fit me the way it was supposed to I'm sure my opinion would have been a little different.

There was one dress that I did like that definitely caught me off guard. It was nothing like I thought I wanted but yet it was the only one that made me feel a little fuzzy inside. If I were normal and smart I would have stopped looking then and been happy with that choice. But I wasn't. The dress looked pretty on the hanger, beautiful when I held it up in from of my body and like a pillow case when I tried to put it on. Keyword: Tried. The consultant wasn't looking at sizes and gave me a size 10 (street size 6-8.) Man that gown barely made it past my shoulders. Lol.

Anywho, I liked the dress as I saw it, but was not and am still not sure I'm comfortable purchasing a dress I haven't tried on. I mean Brides do it all the time Dressilyme makes recreations of other designer's gowns and ship them to you at a fraction of the price.You just don't get to see it until it arrives at your doorstep. But that is just not for me. So I continued my search...



Clip Art

While there have been several close calls, I think I am finally ready to put my foot down and pull the trigger. I mean no I didn't get emotional and have some humongous reaction from my crowd companions (only 2 ppl have actually seen me in the dress,) I think I have made my decision. However, I will tell you that I think that I am an excellent candidate for dress regret but only time will tell.

Have you every been so excited to make a purchase and end up with some sort of buyers remorse? Tell me about it.