Almost done! :)

I'm seriously down to the details... I can't believe I was able to put this together in a few weeks... maybe I should do this on the side? I seem to be decent at it... :)~

I'm talking to the florist tomorrow. I found the arrangements I want and the prices seem pretty good, so lets hope for the best! I'm mailing the deposit for the photographer off today. I have the deposit down for the makeup artist. Still looking for people to do the hair... this one is a little harder because ALL I know is I want an updo... but how fancy? will there be things woven in? Decisions... decisions....

My swatches came in, so I need to start looking around for fabric to either add onto a ring bearer pillow, or to see if someone will make me one... and possibly ties for the guys. I find it very odd that the bridal shop doesn't sell ties given that most brides will want to color match... Oh well. I think I'll be able to get close.

The invitations are being designed.. I finally got the wording. I just need to nail down a time to have the ceremony. I'm thinking I'm going to stick with 12:30pm. People will just have to eat before they come. The reception is definitely at 6pm.

The honeymoon is booked... we're going to Maui! Ziplining... hiking to see some beautiful waterfalls... luaus... pineapples!!!... chillin' on the beach... possible helicopter tour over a volcano... parasailing... submarine tour of the reefs... What does all this mean? I need to get back to the gym ASAP! :)~ That's next on the list actually. I was just trying to let everything calm down a bit before I added more to my schedule.

Woohoo! :)~

Planning and whatnot

Wow.. this week could not be over fast enough. Yaknow all of those things that I was trying to work around..? well, I didn't do as good of a job as I would have liked. Now my brother isn't sure how to handle possibly having a 2 week old baby at the wedding... I COMPLETELY understand though. So I think we are just going to play this by ear. It would completely suck if he wasn't able to make it though.

I've had a bridesmaid drop out and luckily Brian hadn't asked his last guy, so we are just going to stick to 3 a piece.

I've pretty much given the reception to my future in-laws. They have offered their home and seem very excited to plan this part. Brian is supposedly going to find us dance lessons so we (I) don't look like a fool out there. I am worried though because he mentioned wanting to put the music together... I'm picturing something Star Trek themed.

So, it seems that most of the big stuff is out of the way. The dresses will have all been ordered by tomorrow. The church is reserved. The reception is being planned.

I need to find odds and ends...
ring bearer pillow... going to wait til swatches come in though.
florist...I'm going to check out someone soon...
makeup/hair... found some "traveling stylists" that I may consider since I'll be on a tight timeframe the day of..
SHOES... we all still need shoes.

I'm definitely ready for a weekend of cleaning.. haha I will feel so much better when I can get rid of some of this energy.

EDIT: Scratch the dance lessons... :p

The Dress

I had an appointment at the bridal shop yesterday at noon. I am an online shopper, so I scoped out a bunch of shops around town and finally nailed down one where I found all the dresses I would want. I met Jenny and Amber up at the shop.

I tried on the dress I picked out first (we moved on to other choices later). When I got up on that little podium, I got a hot flash of adrenaline. It was actually quite amusing... I had been hot since Saturday night, but this was just too funny. I'm pretty sure the girls were amused as well. Later, Jenny was talking about how she was happy for me and that she's never seen me like this before. And that's when the waterworks turned on... It's true.

As some of ya'll know, I was married once before. But I was not excited about the actual wedding part at all. In fact, I just wanted to go to a JP. It turned out fine and I'm glad I did it, but this experience is completely different. I'm incredibly excited and everyone has been rallying around me. This is just right.

So, after I said no to about 3 or 4 other dresses, I put the original one back on for a bit. :) A little while later, it was time for us to talk about the bridesmaids dresses.

I am trying to be flexible, but I also want this to look good. I really don't like having the bridesmaids in different outfits. Although, if that's what they had chosen to do, I'm sure it would have worked out just fine. The girls picked a dress that will look good on everyone.

The biggest part is out of the way! The dresses have been ordered. :)

The Ring

Talk about blowing a girl away... We had been keeping our engagement under wraps because he hadn't gotten me the ring yet. BUT, because we had already chosen the date, I had to move forward with planning. Talk about a being in a difficult situation... but it all worked out.

I'll tell my version, then his.
I knew we were going out to the ranch on Saturday and I had a very good idea why. Thursday night, he asked if I was ok with being blindfolded. I told him, I wouldn't do anything to ruin his plan, so whatever he needed to do was fine.

When we got back to the house from Scotty's place, we chilled for a few moments and then headed out. We got on 35 and he was talking about the "past" and the "present" and the "future". Later, we hit 29 and he says "Ok, we have to make a detour." So he starts heading back south on Parmer. I'm thinking, is this a cruel joke? Is he just taking me back to the house? What's going on? He makes me put the blindfold on around 620. All I know is there was a lot of turning. He could have been in a parking lot doing circles for all I know... haha Brian got out of the truck and asked me not to peek. A few moments later, he came back... we drove for a little bit and then he let me take the blindfold off. We were on 183 now.

Once we got to the ranch, he turned the heat on for me. At this time, he's now stalling, which was making me really nervous. We checked out the new lighting out on the patio (it looks AWESOME!). He noticed I was shivering, so we went back in. Still stalling... He finally asked if I had seen what they had done in the back room? I said no and went to go look... Nothing was different. "The beds are made!" he said... Yea.. I probably made them! haha. I went to turn back out and he wouldn't let me leave.

He took both my hands and told me how much he loved me and that the last 8 months have been the most amazing and he doesn't want to imagine life without me. He got down on one knee and pulled out the ring and asked me if he would marry me. I got dizzy, said yes and hugged and kissed him. The ring was so much more than I could have imagined. I'm still blown away by it.

So to explain the "past, present, future"... it's a 3 stone engagement ring. Each stone represents our "past, present and future" lives together.

Now for his version:
On Thursday, he went to the jeweler and selected 2 rings. He asked the salesperson if he could hold them until Friday and that he would come back to buy one of them. The guy said yes.

Friday, he takes his lunch and drives across town only to find out that the guy had sold the ring he picked. He was not happy, to say the least. The guy asked when he needed it and Brian replied "TOMORROW!" The sales person disappeared into the manager's office for about 10 minutes and came back to tell Brian "We have the ring at another location. We're going to over night it and have it sized and ready to go by 1pm tomorrow.".

Friday night, we drove out to Scott's place. We all crawled out of bed around 2p (it was a late night..haha). Just as we were getting ready to leave, his phone rings. The jeweler was calling (an hour and a half late) to tell him the ring arrived late, but they would have it ready by 3:30. I can only imagine Brian's nerves at this point.. poor guy!!

So fast forward to being on 29. Around Parmer he realized HE FORGOT THE RING! haha So, that explained the detour.

The rest is history.... :)~

Wedding List

To keep costs down and my nerves from becoming a huge ball of craziness, we're keeping the wedding small. Immediate family we are close to and a small selection of friends are on the list. Everyone else will have to settle for web pictures and video.

This of course, will hurt some people's feelings. I do feel bad about that, but I hope everyone will understand that in these uncertain times, we just don't want to spend an arm and a leg. And as most people know my spending habits, this should come at no surprise.

Butterflies continue!

EDIT: It's now a full on 160 people... It was way too hard to no include certain people. Turns out, we have a lot of people that we would like to enjoy this moment with us :)

And let the stress set in

Nothing like a 5 minute conversation with the beau to flip everything upside down. Haha! It's all good, but I am a little more stressed now... I'm sure once I have the big things taken care of that I'll calm down a bit.

a) Date change... we're now booking June 6th.
b) Ainsley will get out of school early so she can be here :)
c) He's being sneaky.... I'm getting nervous.

My head is spinning... in fact, I have a light headache.

Butterflies

Because I'm mostly an impatient woman, I decided to go look at the dress I picked out online. Luckily, I did because the place highly suggests making an appointment for the weekends. So, the girls and I have a room booked for noon on Sunday the 18th.

The dress is really pretty. I managed to refrain from trying it on. The sales lady showed me a few features on the dress which should make alterations mostly about the length and the halter. WOOT! Hopefully, I like it or at least find one I do like because they are only going to honor their sale that ends Saturday as late as Sunday.

I also looked at the bridesmaid and flower girl dresses. The flower girl dress that she showed me was like a 2T so it was REALLY difficult to picture Ainsley in it, given that she's 7 and nowhere near a 2T. Luckily, there happens to be an Alfred Angelos pretty close to where she lives in NC, so Brian is going to ask her mom to take her.

Honestly, I'm open on the dresses for the girls... The biggest thing is the color and material. So, in order to make that the easiest, everyone would need to order from the same place. I want it to also go well with my dress (neckline..). But, because all my girls have different body types, I don't think the dress I picked out will look good on everyone.

EDIT: Ok.. I changed my mind here... I actually do want everyone in the same dress... And, we found on that will look good on everyone.

This is really happening and my stomach has been all weird since it hit me a little harder. I am fearing that too many people are going to want to "help" and only make this simple wedding become a lot bigger and more complex than I want it to be. So, I'm probably going to have to set some rules for certain people who will be invited, but not IN the wedding... They should sit back and enjoy. :)

Planning Chaos Begins

We're reserving the church soon. The reception location has been picked. I have found a wedding dress that I like on the model and the bridesmaid dress style that I like as well. The girls and I are going to go try things on (hopefully they are in-stock) next weekend.

We've run into a snag with the colors. Originally, Brian and I were thinking navy. I figured we could go with a wine color accent, but then we chose the date. So, scratch that! Now I'm thinking a lighter blue and brown.

Brian's mom has already found someone to do the cake. She's a long time friend of the family's and she adores Brian. I think, given her background with owning a bakery and having experience, this will work just fine for me! I can't wait to tell Brian!

Selecting the Date

This part was nerve wracking. He wanted to get married in 2009, but my brother and his wife were doing their wedding in October. (They officially were married in December). I really wasn't sure how that was going to work. Plus, there was the issue of us not really telling anyone what was going on yet. My family doesn't know, which is killing me. I convinced him to let me talk to my brother to see if they minded if we got married a few months before them. They didn't have an issue.

There were so many other obstacles to work around that I'll spare you the details. While at Brian's cousin's wedding this weekend, we were sitting at the reception talking about some of the stuff that was going on. I think it opened his eyes a little bit to see how much work and planning it can take to put on a wedding. So, he picked a date.

Saturday, July 4th, 2009
EDIT: Changed to June 6th, 2009