It's almost time!

Just wanted to quickly check in! Our blog has been kinda quiet lately, mainly because we've been so busy trying to wrap up all of the details! Here's what we accomplished in September:

DIY/Buy Decor: Yep! I bought most everything online and shipped it to my mom. She'll be transporting everything from Phoenix to Las Vegas. She also ran around town picking up various decorations from Michael's. Thanks Mom and Ed! We'll assemble everything once we get to Vegas.

Buy Erik's Suit: Yes we did! We got a very nice Tommy Hillfiger suit from Macy's and it was on sale!

Buy Wedding Bands: Erik surprised me and showed them to me 2 weeks ago. I can't wait for everyone to see my ring and hear the story behind it!

Finalize Ceremony: We finished this up with Reverend Linda and recruited a few people to take part in the ceremony.

Finish Programs: All done! And so cute.

Write Vows: Almost done. We've both started at least and I just need to edit mine. I was very misty-eyed writing them at Panera this weekend. I must have looked like a nut!

Set Reception Menu: This was a tough decision because there are so many options. But it's set! (Although I came home today and heard about a "new" appetizer at The Platinum. I may need to make a last minute switch).

Order Paper Stuff: It should all be arriving tomorrow. We might print a few more things at Kinkos, but it's done for the most part.

Buy Accessories: We are both accessorized! Jewelry, tie, etc.

Select Songs: Yes! Ceremony and First Dance songs have been selected.

Dance Lessons: Oh yeah! Get ready to see some fancy footwork.

So that is it! The only thing left to do is to.... GET MARRIED!

Can't wait to see you all there. We will have 43 people joining us. I'll leave you with the rest of our RSVPs (we also got a few through FB, email, phone, but sadly, I do not have photographic evidence of this.)

So I'll put the Obama's down as a maybe. Still waiting to hear from Mickey and Minnie Mouse!

September To Do List

Woah...time is flying! We're at the point in planning now that it's mostly small details we're working on. Sometimes it feels like everything is coming together...other times it seems like our to-do list is STILL ridiculously long. Regardless of how we look at it...regardless of whether things get crossed off the list or not, we're getting married in less than 7 weeks! Pretty exciting!

So here's what we accomplished this month:

Book Florist: Check! Our bouquets are going to made by Pam at The Palette.

Dress Cleaning: Uh huh! The dress cleaned up perfectly. I was a little worried, because it was really dirty. But it looks good as new now!

Dress Fitting: In progress. Going in for alterations this week.

Plan Thursday Night Dinners: We're pretty close to having this all finalized. Chris has been working on the Ladies' dinner and Matt has been working on the Gentlemen's dinner. We'll be posting more info about all of this soon!

Plan Menu for Friday Night: Yessiree! Erik's been working with his parents and we're almost all set to have Magianno's cater the Friday night party.

Order Cake: Yeah! This was actually a fun item on the list (seems like fun items were rare this month). Erik placed our order with Retro Bakery and I am sooooo excited to taste it.

DIY/Buy Decorations: I haven't made as much progress here as I would like. I've had a hard time pulling together ideas that I like...but I think I'm finally getting there and Cara's been helping :)

Buy Erik's Suit: We've done a little shopping, but haven't bought one yet. Hoping to hit up the Labor Day sales this weekend.

Design Additional Paper: Erik has been designing up a storm! He's been working on programs, signs, and all sorts of other details.

Write Ceremony and Vows: We have most of the ceremony completed. We decided on readings and asked a few people to be involved in the ceremony. :) As for vows, I haven't written anything yet (and I'm pretty sure Erik hasn't either), but we've tossed around a few ideas. I'm really looking forward to the ceremony. I feel like we've created something that really reflects us and will make our guests feel included. It's gonna be awesome!

Buy Wedding Bands: Erik's been pretty hush-hush about this (he's in charge of buying the rings). Every time I ask lately, the answer is "it's under control." I don't think he's bought them yet though. He's neither confirmed or denied.

Some other smaller details we've accomplished: bought our plane tickets; booked our suite at The Platinum; I bought some shoes; we selected boutonnieres; made arrangements for my dress and Erik's suit to be picked up and pressed in Vegas; started sampling wines for Friday night (tough job, but someones gotta do it!).

Our to-do list for September...FINISH EVERYTHING! A disclaimer for the next few sentences: We are really very very excited for the wedding, and the excitement is growing. But O M G we are both very very sick of the planning process. We've spent most nights and weekends lately working on this and we are ready to have our lives back. Last week, we went out for the 2nd Friday in a row (that has been unheard of since...March I think). Anyway, it felt miraculous. So we are very ready to stop planning and start celebrating. And the good news is we're almost there! So here are the main things that need to get done this month:

DIY/Buy decorations.

Buy Erik's suit.

Buy wedding bands (assuming Erik hasn't secretly already purchased them).

Finalize the ceremony and finish the program.

Write vows.

Select the menu for our reception.

Order all of the other paper stuff.

Create our Saturday timeline to give to vendors.

Buy all of our accessories (jewelry, tie, etc.)

Select First Dance song (and any other "important" songs).

Dance lessons? Not sure we'll be able to fit it in, but it might be fun.

So that is about it! Am I forgetting anything? (I seriously hope not.) We're hoping to make a big push over Labor Day and the next week or so and get as much finished as possible. It would be really nice to relax a bit before our 3-day extravaganza in Vegas.

P.S.--Today was the RSVP deadline, so please mail (or call or email or telegraph, etc.) yours if you haven't already. Both "yesses" and "nos" are going to help us finalize our plans.

August To Do List

We've got about 11 weeks to go and we've accomplished most of the big things! From here on out a lot of the focus is going to be on the details. Here's how we did on last month's to-do list:

Book Hair/Makeup Artist: Check! Lori White will be doing our hair and makeup.

Book Florist: Hmmm... guess I didn't actually do this. I've decided who I want to go with, but I should probably inform them of this decision.

Book Officiant: Yep! Rev. Linda will be performing our ceremony. We had a skype meeting with her a few weeks ago and decided on most of our ceremony.

Finish Registry: Yes we did! We created a honeymoon registry as well as a more traditional registry.

Update Website: Check! Erik changed it a bit to match our invitations. We also added some information about other events. Friday, we'll have dinner and drinks at THEhotel. Thursday, we're planning to have a little gender segregation with dinners and bachelor/bachelorette parties later in the evening. We're still working out the details.

Design Invitations: Obviously, yes. Erik did a great job deal with a very particular customer (me).

Send Invitations: Yes indeedy!

Work on Writing the Ceremony: We planned a lot of this with Rev. Linda. We still need to pick some readings, decide on a few details, oh, and write those vows.

Shop for Wedding Rings: Erik reports that he's been looking. He's being very secretive.

Make Dress Fitting Appointments: Ummm...no. I keep forgetting about this. And that's probably why I keep having dreams that I show up to the wedding and realize I never had it fitted and it falls off me.

Get Dress Cleaned: Dear pretty dress, I promise I will get you cleaned up really soon.

Here's what we're working on this month:

All the stuff that we need to finish up from last month: Book Florist, Dress Cleaning, Dress Fitting.

Plan the Thursday night bachelor and bachelorette dinners and parties.

Plan menu for Friday welcome reception.

Order the cake.

Start DIYing and purchasing decor.

Buy Erik's suit.

Design additional paper (programs, signage, etc.)

Buy wedding bands.

Work on ceremony and vows.

So that's where we're at! I'm not sure what I'm more excited for October 22nd or October 23rd...Our wedding day or the day when all of the planning is over. :) It's about 50/50.

P.S.-- Our blog recently surpased the 1,000 pageviews mark (as of right now, 1,093 to be exact). I feel special. Thanks for stopping by!

June/July To Do List

We're 4 months out and I happy to say we're making some progress! As I type this Erik is putting the finishing touches on the invitations and starting to design the response cards! On the left, you can see I've updated our to-do list. Here are the major things we're working on:

Book Hair & Makeup Artist: I've contacted a few people and I think I've settled on one. Just need to sign the contract!

Book Florist: Still trying to decide between two. Close to making a decision.

Book Officiant: I've been playing phone tag with Rev. Linda, but fingers-crossed, we'll finally get to talk tomorrow and discuss our ideas for our ceremony. Hopefully we'll be on the same page...then we can sign the contract!

Finish Registry: You'd think this would be easy, but I'm actually having a really hard time with this one. We definitely want to have it complete by the time invites go out.

Update Website: We'll be adding more details about Thursday and Friday events as well as the registry (once I finish it).

Design Invitations: In progress! So far they look awesome. Erik's doing a great job! It's so nice having a graphic designer at your disposal.

Send Invitations: Hopefully early in July? That could be pushing it though.

Work on Writing the Ceremony: We're really looking forward to customizing our ceremony and making it our own.

Shop for Wedding Rings: Erik will be buying our wedding bands...it's going to be a surprise for me!

Make Dress Fitting Appointments: Self explanatory.

Get Dress Cleaned: Since I bought the dress at Running of the Brides (read all about that here), it's pretty beat up at the moment. Time to get it cleaned.

So that's what we're working on! It's amazing how much time it takes to plan a wedding. I can totally see why people hire wedding planners.

June 21, 2011...Our 8th Anniversary.

P.S....Did you see Southwest is having a fare sale? Check it out!

Gettin' down to business

Holy crap it's June... looks like our blog was last updated in April. Yep, that sounds about right, because that's probably that last time we made any sort of progress on wedding plans. We closed on the house on May 3rd and moved in on the 4th. The weeks leading up to closing were super stressful (thanks to the incompetence of people handling our mortgage). And since moving in we've been unpacking, painting, furniture shopping, etc. So that's my excuse for not checking much off of that to-do list on the left. I think it's valid.

May 3, 2011...right after closing.

We're now less than 5 months away (still can't believe that), and there's nothing like a little time pressure to get me motivated! I'm teaching two summer courses starting July 5th, so I'm going to try to bang out as much as possible in the next few weeks.

We haven't been complete slackers (more like 85% slackers). We actually accomplished a few things in the last two months. We've settled on colors (blues, greens, teals) and have a good idea of what we want to do for decorations. The bridesmaids have been deployed on their dress-shopping mission. :) Erik booked the DJ! We're going with All Night Long. And just yesterday, we decided what our invitations will look like (Erik will be making them, just like the save-the-dates).

So that's where we're at. Lots to do. Trying not to panic. Still trying to enjoy the process.

May 6, 2011...Moving is exhausting!

April To Do List

Things have been kinda slow in the wedding planning department...currently we're pretty consumed with buying our house (ugh....MORE mortgage paper work came in the mail today) and all the stuff that goes along with moving. Still ,we've manage to check some pretty big things off our list in March. Here's how we did:

Launch Website/Blog: Yep! As you can see, we did.

Finalize Guest List: Done! We're happy with our decision to keep it small, but also a little sad that we couldn't invite every single friend.

Send Save-the-Dates: Done!

Book Officiant: In progress. I sent an email to our top choice, right before all of the house madness started. I need to set up a phone call ASAP.

Book DJ: In progress. Erik's been working on this. I think we've settled on the DJ, we just need to lock it down now.

Go Dress Shopping: Yes! Not only did I go shopping, I also bought a dress! Glad to have that one off the list.

Start Registry: Yep! We've started one...hope to have it finished and posted by the end of April.

And here's what we're hoping to accomplish in April:

Book Officiant (for realz this time)

Book DJ (for realz this time)

Finish Registry

Rehearsal Plans

Book Hair/Makeup

Start Contacting Florists

It's gonna be a busy month with the semester wrapping up and getting ready for the big move. But hopefully we'll still make some progress.

For funsies, here are some more pictures from March. Enjoy!

March 10...late night, working on the website. Another picture of Brodie getting in the way.

March 13...another late night session...this time, addressing save the dates.

March 18...warming up for Running of the Brides!

Massive To Do List

Alternative title: Getting our Sh*t Together. I mentioned earlier that apart from booking the venue and photographer, I've largely been a "deadbeat bride. " A few things have contributed to my deadbeat attitude.

1) I'm frikin' busy! I teach a 4:4 load, I'm trying to be successful at what I do, we're house hunting, and I'm making more of an effort (compared to when I was in grad school) to have an actual life. Fitting wedding planning into all of that has been difficult.

2) I'm trying to adopt a pretty laid back attitude about the whole wedding and focus more on the meaning of our marriage. I don't want to obsess over centerpieces, dresses, etc. Sure I want everything to be awesome, and fun, and I want a pretty dress and pretty centerpieces. But…have you been on the internet lately?...there are like a bajillion wedding sites out there with a bajillion ideas. It's easy to obsess over all of the options if you let yourself.

But…as laidback as I may want to be…and as busy as I am…a wedding still requires planning. Sigh.

My (silly) hope was that we could book some vendors and then wait until the summer (when I'm not teaching) to work out all of the details. But then I started realizing how much one decision is dependent on the other. For example, I wanted to start contacting florists for quotes. But then I realized I have no idea what kind of flowers I want. What colors? What style? Do I even want flowers? Then I turned to the internet for answers…probably lost 4 hours of my day…still had no idea what kind of flowers I wanted…and decided to just stop thinking about it.

That was probably not the best approach. Usually, when I'm overwhelmed by a big project, I make a to-do-list, and that helps to reduce my stress. So finally…I made one for the wedding.

This is the biggest to-do-list in the history of me.

First I organized everything by month, and filled in all of the major stuff that I knew had to get done by a certain time. Then I was able to work backwards to figure out when I needed to start on a certain task (i.e., invitations should go out in July…so designing should start in June…ideas should be bounced around in May). It took me a whole night to write it all out. But it was well worth it. I feel like I have a much better plan to tackle this wedding.

This list is really a master plan for the whole process. It's not very pretty. So the next night, I made a pretty one for the month of March…broken down by week. Not really necessary, but fun. I'm trying to figure out a good place to hang it so we see it everyday.

Finally, I made the list for this month. I find it helpful to write out all of the steps in accomplishing a task. If I just write down "launch website" … it's too vauge, and probably won't get done. So every little step in accomplishing all of our monthly tasks has been put on this page.

I know it may seem like list making overkill…if you're counting, I have 3 lists. But as long as it's keeping us on track (which it is at the moment), I plan to keep it up.

Are you a list maker? What works for you? Any tips for me?

Save the dates sent.

Stamped and sealed! The save the dates are in the mail!

We've settled on a designer!

No surprise here, I'll be designing all the media, both paper and digital, for the wedding. I recently completed the save the dates and sent them off to the printer. In this case, we used Vistaprint. They made it super easy. I simply downloaded the template, opened it in Illustrator and got to work. Not to mention, our order was free! Well the actual save the dates were free, there were a few fees and charges that made them less than free, but it was still a great deal.

Here is the designer, hard at work.

Brodie offers constructive criticism.

I'm happy to say, we received them on time according to Vistaprint's estimated arrival date (7 days after order). They look great and we're sending them out tomorrow!

What we've been up to...the kinda (but not really) short version

Hello! And welcome to our very first blog post. As we get ready to send out our save-the-dates and launch our website, I figured it was a good time to get together a post. I realize no one will be aware that this site even exists until they actually receive their save-the-date....but let's just pretend someone is reading this.

From here on out we're hoping to use this blog as a way to keep our family and friends involved in wedding planning...to keep us motivated to work on our HUGE wedding to-do list...and hopefully to make the whole planning process more fun and less stressful.

So to start here's the "short" version of what we've been up to.

First a little background on why we're getting married after all of these years. We've been talking about having a Vegas wedding (and generally, a wedding) for many many years, but practicality always seemed to get in the way (i.e., I was in grad school, we wanted to save for a house, etc.). Finally (only took about 8 years...we're slow learners I guess), we realized two things: 1) there will always be a more "practical" way to spend our money besides a wedding; but 2) we really want to share our wedding ceremony with our family and friends. So with that in mind, we decided we would shoot for a small Vegas wedding. We decided we wanted to talk to our families in person and feel them out (in regards to Vegas) at our annual holiday visits.

My mom basically beat me to the punch when I took her out for coffee to talk about the possibility of a wedding. I think she said something like "So, do you think you and Erik will ever get married?" LOL (Love you mom!). Long story short, she was on board for a 2011 wedding.

By the time we made it to PA, we had pretty much made up our mind that we wanted to do a destination wedding in Las Vegas. Erik talked to his Dad and Lisa first, and then we had a lot of fun sharing the news with the Brandt and Franczak families.

Christmas Day with the Brandts.

I figured, while I was around friends and family, it made sense to try to squeeze in some wedding dress shopping. So I rounded up Cara (BFF), Chris (BFF), Lisa (Erik's stepmom), and Olivia (Erik's sister). It was 50% fun, 25% overwhelming, and 25% terrifying. Next time, I'll be more prepared.

I'm currently shopping for a parasol to complete this look. (kidding)

After Pennsylvania, we were off to Las Vegas for a top secret scouting trip! Okay, it wasn't really top secret. Lots of people knew we were going...and a few knew why. But I felt like I was on a secret mission.

Jan. 2: Thank goodness for inflight wi-fi! Researching vendors and setting up last minute meetings.

To sum up the trip, it was a whirlwind of scoping out chapels, ballrooms, and restaurants. Plus, we were trying to squeeze in an engagement session with a really awesome photographer (we did! more on that epic day later).

Jan. 4: Erik at Planet Hollywood's chapel.

It was an exhausting trip. But I am so glad we went. I don't think we would have decided on The Platinum if we didn't see it in person. Oh and as an added bonus, we got to hang out with my mom and Ed! (They were in Vegas/Laughlin for New Year's...party animals.)

Jan. 2: Dinner at Firefly.

Back to Spartanburg (and reality) where we had to make decisions, come up with a firm budget, and figure out how to stick to it. After going back-and-forth about the pros and cons of the different venues, we finally decided on The Platinum. In the end, we'll get more for our money there...and uh, did I mention it will be on a roof...at night...overlooking the Vegas strip? How awesome is that? (more on The Platinum soon).

Because we're dorks (okay, mostly me), we (I) took pictures of the contracts. This is us signing the contract for The Platinum and Chelsea Nicole Photography.

Jan. 28:

So that brings you up to speed! Since then, I've been a deadbeat bride. LOL. Don't get me wrong...I'm super excited about this wedding. But planning it?...not so much. All of that is about to change now that we're about 7 months out. So stay tuned, and cheer us on (in the comments section please!) as we try to pull this whole thing together.