The Wedding Craziness

Sometimes I feel like wedding planning is pretty crazy.  Last week especially was a whirlwind of wedding craziness.  I guess as long as I am not going crazy, we're fine!

Last week was good, in spite of how much needed to be done.  Lee and I met with both the reception and the groom's dinner venues for taste testing.  Right now, it looks like we will be having a buffet of roast beef and chicken pasta for the groom's dinner, with garlic mashed potatoes and vegetables on the side.  Lee's aunt will be making us (another) cake for dessert.  For the wedding reception, we will be having a buffet of garden salad, dinner rolls, lemon pepper chicken, roasted pork loin, a vegetarian Alfredo pasta, baby red potatoes, and green beans almondine.  We will be having wedding cake for dessert, of course!

Eagles Crest Grill, site of the groom's dinner

It was very interesting visiting with the reception venue and the church venue again.  Both venues have imposed quite a few stipulations that were not in place when we first booked them last winter.  The reception venue has raised all of its prices and changed parts of the contract.  In spite of the price increases, my parents are going to be graciously purchasing 2 kegs of beer and 15-20 bottles of wine for the reception.  However, we are going to do away with hors d'oeuvres, since the prices have drastically increased for fruit and vegetables platters.  Another bummer about the reception venue: if there ends up being a Friday event before our wedding, we can only start decorating at 10 AM the morning of the wedding.  A good thing about the reception venue: much of the hotel is undergoing renovations.  The pool area has already been redone, and most of the guestrooms have been redone as well. 

Meeting with the church was fairly straightforward, but we were told we would not be able to move anything major on or off the stage.  For example, if the piano is on the stage, we have to leave it there.  If the piano is off the stage, we have to leave it off the stage.  Luckily, Lee's parents know the guy who is in charge of decorating the stage, so hopefully we will have some say in how we want the stage to look.  We can still decorate the stage with any small items, including flowers, lighted trees, and candles.  Luckily, we can start decorating the church on the Friday before the wedding. 

I also was able to have my gown fitting.  This was definitely one of the highlights of my week.  I am using Emily's pageant gown seamstress who is SUPER talented to alter my dress.  She was very meticulous, which I loved.  I think she might even be more detail-oriented than I am!  She also had some great ideas for the bustle and hiding the zipper on the back of the dress. 

Gown designed by Caroline Hayden and sewn by the lady who is doing my alterations.  My sister wore this gown at the Miss North Dakota competition last year!

I was able to go shopping in Fargo with Becca and Lisa to help Becca pick out her bridesmaid dress.  Becca was the final bridesmaid to choose her dress.  I am happy to report that there were five different styles chosen between all six bridesmaids!  They are going to look fabulous! 

Finally, Lee and I went attended a wedding last week.  The wedding was gorgeous and very well done.  It was also probably double my current wedding budget!  This bride and groom did not skimp on any details.  Since it was a great wedding, I will be taking a couple of ideas from this wedding to use in my own.  For example, I loved the use of uplighting at the reception and the votive candles all around the room. 

Busy Bee

North Dakota Christmas To Do List:

• Celebrate Christmas and New Years with family and friends
• Meet with the reception venue for taste testing and consultation
• Meet with church wedding coordinator for consultation
• Meet with groom's dinner venue for taste testing (tentative)
• (Find) and meet with seamstress for initial gown fitting
• (Find) and meet with florist for consultation
• Attend Lee's friend's wedding and take notes

So much to do, and only one week to fit it all in!  Not to mention Lee will be taking his 2nd part of his dental boards during 2 days of that week.  Aaahhhh!

Oh My

So...  Sad day.  Dress #2 (the lace one) has now been worn by 2 people I know.  First person is someone I know from undergrad, so it wouldn't have been a big deal if I had gone with the same dress as her.  Second person happens to be Lee's sister-in-law's cousin and former track/cross country teammate.  Knowing how much Lee likes to Facebook, I think he has probably seen the dress on her already.  :(  Who knows...maybe it's a sign that I shouldn't reconsider!  Or a sign that I should continue looking...  ;)

In other recent wedding news, Lee and I have registered for gifts!  We decided to go with Bed Bath & Beyond and Honeyfund.com.  What is Honeyfund.com, you ask?  It is probably the coolest wedding registry ever!  We can register for parts of our honeymoon to be gifted to us.  If someone wants to give us a couples massage, they can!  Lee and I decided we will most likely take a cruise for our honeymoon.  I'm assuming most gift-givers will opt to use the BB&B registry, but this is a great option for people who want to give a "fun" gift. 

Everyone told us registering for gifts would be hard.  Luckily, Lee and I didn't fight over anything, but it was hard in a different way.  Maybe I'm picky, but it was hard finding dishes I liked!  Most of the pretty dishes were WAY to expensive ($150-200/place setting).  When I finally found a set of dishes I liked and Lee also agreed on, we found out they were discontinuing the line.  Back at square one!  In the end, we decided to pick out a white set of porcelain dishes with a pretty decent price and great reviews.  I'm not completely sure if this is what we will stick with, but for now it works.  Plus, white dishes match everything and are timeless.  We were able to pick out a lot of fun white serving dishes that would match!

 

We decided to also go with a timeless silverware pattern as well.  I've heard you should pick flatware based on how the knife feels in your hand, and this one had a hefty knife.  There was silverware that matched our dishes, but I didn't want to be too matchy-matchy, especially if we changed our dishes.

 

For our bedroom, we went with a green and beige comforter.  The colors seem slightly off in this picture (the beige at the bottom of the bed is richer in real life), but you get the idea:

 

For our bathroom, we went with a silver and blue shower curtain.  We also picked out white, gray, and blue towels to match.  The towels are another thing that are not solidified yet.  I have wanted nice towels for SO long, but based on the reviews from the BB&B website, I don't know which ones to pick.  The fluffy ones seem to leave lint all over, and the thin ones sound like they fall apart after 10 washes.

I hope people who shop at BB&B are smart and use their 20% off coupon that comes in the mail every month.  :)