|
October 13, 2003
Oh my god! A whole month has gone by since I've updated! I can't believe it!
I have a lot to tell you then:
Dress for Aggie: all picked out and we even have it and all the accessories. Yay!
Photographer: all picked out and booked! His name is Keith Renn. Cross your fingers that he takes great pictures.
DJ: We have one and I am now completely obsessed with picking out goofy songs to play at the wedding. So much for the jazz trio, idea, huh! But really, how could I have a wedding without Copacabana?
Invitations: selected but not ordered -- but they will be soon. They're pretty plain but that's OK.
Shoes for me: Also done, I'll post the picture too.
Honeymoon: Booked! Two weeks in Hawaii! How awesome is that! Check out our hotels: The Maui Prince and the Kiahuna Plantation on Kauai. It's going to be a fabulous trip and I totally can't wait!
Pre-Cana: coming up this weekend. We met with the priest recently to take the compatibility test and that was fine but he still didn't have the time of our wedding written down. I swear, he's not going to show up on the 27th!
| My nifty bride shoes |
|
| The Aggie Dress |
|
| (But her's is pink) |
September 11, 2003
All is well in brideland (so far)
The lady from church called today to tell me that they will do the wedding at 2:00. WHEW! Now I don't have to come up with an alternative plan that won't make mom hate me.
I also picked up my dress today! I haven't tried it on yet, but I totally love it. I had forgotten how pretty it is in person. I'm hoping to have time to try it before I have to head out to Kimberton to meet the KIAP. I'll report in later. It better fit. I don't think I can take the stress of it not fitting.
That's it...I'll fill you in on what the KIAP says tomorrow.
September 8, 2003
Eloping is the only option!
Elope! Elope! Elope! It's the only way to go! All the rest of this nonsense is nothing but torture and a waste of time!
Planning the wedding makes you fight with each other and your families, it causes an absurd amount of stress and it costs WAY TOO MUCH MONEY!
On top of that, even the part that should be easy, like getting married at church, is IMPOSSIBLE!
Remember all that trouble I had getting in to see the priest? Well guess what? He totally screwed up and told me that the 27th was free and that we could get married at 11 or 1 or 3 o'clock. But guess what??? That's not true! It seems that March 27 is a popular day at St. Eleanor and they want to have their Stewardship Mass that day at Noon. So guess what that means? It means that we can't get married there at 11 or 1 because it might interfere.
How did I find out? I called THEM -- they never mentioned this little glitch to me. Nevermind that this completely DOES NOT WORK with reception plans we've made. And that moving the date really doesn't work since we've planned a party and a honeymoon all around March 27.
I hate this and I hate them.
I'm going to wind up getting married at City Hall. I just can't believe it. Elope now and save yourselves!
September 5, 2003
Nothing is ever easy
One of the best things about Brian is also one of the worst things. He's very practical and he likes to research things to make sure he's always making a sound decision. That's good, because every relationship needs a conservative, practical anchor. However, right now, his practical side is driving me nuts!
We're still searching for reception sites. We've seen several places we like a lot but Brian still thinks that we should tour some other locations and see some other menus before we make a final decision. We've managed to narrow the guest list so our options are open -- we'll fit in a small or large place -- so it's even more tricky now that before!
It's also not helping that a lot of people he works with have recently been married. They're all full of suggestions which is making things even trickier for us.
So -- now we've seen two smallish, quaint, restaurant type locations and I really like both of them. One is called The Bay Pony Inn and it's just the cutest little place ever. It's also fairly inexpensive in wedding terms, but it has a tricky parking lot that we think might confound some of our older guests.
Just this week we went to see a place in Chester County called The Kimberton Inn which is really charming and cozy and has an owner that seems to really be interested in hosting a wonderful party. The trick with him is that he's kind of a know-it-all (but that's good for us since we don't know anything!) and it's a little expensive. But it's nice, they are supposed to have awesome food, and they have really cool wood burning fireplaces, which sounds good to me. Plus, he's totally flexible on time, which is an awesome feature.
Then we have the hotels. We toured one, The Sheraton Park Ridge, and I found it to be perfectly acceptable. Of course, I like it less now that I've seen the cozy Inns, but it's still OK. The food looks OK, the cordinator was very nice and helpful and if we wind up having a larger number of guests, I think it would be a fine choice. But if our number continues to shrink --- then I don't like it nearly as much. I've contacted a couple of other hotels that were suggested by Brian's people and so far one seems way too expensive ($112 a plate!) and the other one seems to be in the ballpark of the others we're considering. I think we'll have to take a visit and see what we think in person. I think it might have a high minimum charge too, which might rule it out. (I'm going to have to review that guest list again.)
Lastly, there is Presidential Caterers. I've been there for a wedding, and it was nice, as I recall, but I totally hate the intersection where it's located and I don't really want to go there on my wedding day. Also, they seem to have a pretty high minimum charge, which scares me off a bit. If I'm paying a lot, I think I'd rather go for the know-it-all with the fireplaces.
I think the problem is that I understand his need to look at all the options and be sure that we've made the right choice -- after all we're spending a bundle and this is the biggest party we'll ever host -- but I'm still a little tired of it and this is just the beginning. After the site we have to find a photographer and somebody to provide music, and figure out the flowers.....it's just exhausting!
Which is why it's good news that we've finally settled on a Honeymoon!
If all goes according to plan, we're going to head to Hawaii (Maui & Kauai to be exact) for two weeks after the wedding. That will give us 11 days on the islands plus our travel days. Boy, will we need a vacation when all this is over.
August 26, 2003
Wow! A lot has happened since I last posted. The most important thing is that we finally set a date! March 27, 2004 is going to be the big day. That's about seven months away and it seems like forever to me. Unfortunately, it might take that long to get all the stupid little wedding details taken care of!
We've been busy gathering menus and prices for places to have the reception. Right now we're down to the two we saw in person. It's a big place and a small place and I've got my fingers crossed that we can have it at the small venue. I'm not sure we'll fit though -- our guest list is really pushing the limit right now so I think we're going to have to fine tune and make some real decisions before we can settle on a place. Brian thinks we should go visit some more hotels/restaurants but frankly, I'm tired of doing that already, and I've been too busy at work to set up appointments, so it's unlikely to happen. I'm OK with either of the two we've seens so I want to just go with one of them. No need to complicate our lives more!
I've started making progress on collecting the stuff we need for the priest too. We met with him, and he didn't hassle us too much for living in sin. He was more interested in convincing Brian to make all of his sacraments. It was kind of uncomfortable and I don't think either of us were really comfortable with the light arm twisting he was giving us. But I think one major life decision at at time is plenty for Brian, so wedding only in March. We have to get these things called "letters of freedom" so we can be married. It's totally odd because so far, nobody else has had to get them -- and we need 2 each! Do we look like polygamists or something? It's crazy.
We're also going nuts trying to plan a honeymoon that won't completely break the bank. We're hoping to get to Hawaii for a couple of weeks but we're not sure how we're going to work out all the details. Right now we're leaning towards Maui and Kauai but we might change the plan. No matter which islands we visit, we should be able to secure one free ticket with frequent flyer miles so that's pretty cool.
August 18, 2003
I bought a dress! (And I'm already worried that it's not going to fit...)
So Mom, Aggie and I went back to David's Bridal on Sunday to look at dresses. Mom, as always, was quite vocal in her opinions and helped us narrow down the choices quickly.
Dress numbers 3 & 4 were out of the running almost instantly. I've never been crazy about number 3 and Mom really, really hated number 4. Or rather, she liked the top of number four but said the bottom of it "screamed cheap dress". She's not wrong, I have to admit.
That left dress 1 and 2 which I seemed to waver on every other day. She liked 2, with the flowers more than 1 but then the bridal consultant suggested that I try on a different gown, one that I would never have considered trying on. Guess what? That's the dress I bought. I'm not going to say anything else about it, I don't think, because mom thinks it should be a surprise. I'm not as concerned with the surprise as I am with the fact that the dress looks about a million times better in person than it does in any picture I have of it. So I'm keeping it under wraps. All I'll say is that it does indeed have some color to it.
The dress I was wearing at the store was a size 8 (I nearly fainted when I heard that!) and that's the size I ordered. I'm already in a panic today that it's going to be too small and that the only reason the 8 fit in the store is because they'd wedged the sample on so many other girls it had stretched out. I even called the store to try to switch the order but they said not to -- they remembered me and the dress and said that it looked fine, fit fine and that I shouldn't go bigger until I try on the 8 for real. I'd still have time to get a bigger size and have it altered before the wedding if I had to do that.
I can't believe I bought one and that it's so different from what I thought I'd get. But this particular dress got big reactions from the people in the store, employees and random strangers, so it must look pretty good. I have to laugh that I wound up with the most expensive gown the sold and placing a special order for it when the 2 main reasons I went to David's were to avoid high cost and ordering. I'm such a dork!
Who am I kidding? If anything I'm going to shrink before then since I'll be kicking up the excercise plan with the training for the Disney marathon. I have nothing to worry about.
In other news it's about 4:00 and I'm starting to get all nervous about seeing the priest. I know it's not going to be horrible and scary and I'm still petrified.
August 13, 2003
Updates
Wow! There's been a lot of people voting on the dress. Dress one and two are getting the most votes but the other two have a handful each. I don't know what I'm going to choose. I'm going back on Sunday to try them on again and my Mom is coming this time so hopefully I'll make some kind of decision then.
In other news, I drove by the Barn where I was hoping to have the Brunch. Oh my! It was horrible from the outside. I might try to get inside and see the place but I'm so turned off I probably won't bother. Guess what the landmark is to mark the turn onto the road where the barn is? A big sign that says "Graterford Prison". Yikes! Plus, it has a rather ramshackle driveway and parking area and it just looks gloomy and unpleasant. Not the place for me! Since the drive by I've contacted about a dozen different reception sites. Hopefully we'll find one soon.
I also discoverd that Wyndham hotels have a deal where you can get a free honeymoon for booking a wedding with them. There must be some major catches to that deal but it's certainly worth investigating!
August 11, 2003
Vote on my wedding dress!
I tried on four that I liked a bunch. I won't tell you which one I like best. Please e-mail me and tell me which one you like best. I'm going back next week to look again and decide for real.
| The First Dress |
|
| The Second Dress |
|
| The Third Dress |
|
| The Last Dress |
|
August 7, 2003
Incredibly Frustrated
Well, the good news is that we finally have an appointment with the priest. The bad news is that it's not until August 18th.
He hadn't called so I called the rectory today. Guess what? I got voicemail. (Are they EVER there?) The parish secretary did return my call rather quickly and when does she want to make the appointment? For tonight. Tonight!!!! Not a peep for weeks and then they pick they day when I absolutely can't go. (Tonight is the kickoff for Team in Training.)
Now, I know that I could blow off TNT and part of me really wants to blow it off because I really, really, really want to have a wedding date. But it seems wrong to blow off a prior obligation, especially when I sent e-mails to all my people telling them that I was looking forward to meeting them tonight. If they don't show though, I'm going to flip!
Anyway, the priest is out of town again next week, so the next appointment we can get is the 18th.
August 6, 2003
Slow and steady
Let's see: still no callback from the priest so we still don't have a wedding date. I've been planning things with March 27 in mind so I really hope that we can get that date. Keep your fingers crossed. If he doesn't call soon I'm going to have to call back. Why do they make things so difficult?
The Pre-Cana people called back and we're set up for that in October so at least I can check one thing off the list.
I also made an appointment at David's Bridal to try on dresses on Sunday afternoon. I hope I can find somebody to go with me. Aggie probably will but Retie is having trouble lining up a babysitter so I don't know if she can join me. Karen had convinced me to avoid David's like the plague since the dresses were kind of cheaply made but then I talked with Sarah (who got her dress there) and rationalized that as long as it looks pretty on that one day that's all that matters. It's not like it needs to be high quality so it can be passed down to other generations or whatever. Who wants to wear an old, out of style dress? Nobody!
I picked out a few from their website -- the plainest ones that I could find and mostly in off-white. I don't know why I gravitated to those so much but I did. If I have a chance I'll post some of the pictures here, although they don't look nearly as nice online as they do in person.
June 31, 2003
No Progress despite trying hard
It's been really, really hectic lately due to my Mom moving out of her apartment and into a new place. I've spent the last 2 weekends packing and moving stuff and every night this week at the house cleaning and helping her to unpack. It's been brutal.
The good news is that I finally managed to register with the parish. It took a million tries but I pulled it off! First, I went after 7:30 mass on Sunday morning -- but they aren't there to register people until 9. Argh! Then on Tuesday, while I was waiting for the movers, I drove over only to find them out at lunch! Foiled again! I went back later that day and successfully signed up.
I found out that the secretary gave my name to Father Sweeney, the new pastor. He's on vacation and has been hospitalized a few times recently so he might not remember to call me. She told me "if you don't hear from him in a few weeks, give us a call back." She also told me she could let me look at the date book but that she couldn't book anything for me. I decided not to even look and be teased by available dates.
I got the number to sign up for Pre Cana classes and today I spoke with the husband of the couple who runs the program. He seemed very nice and took my name and number and gave me the dates of the classes. (October 17-18). Then he says "My wife really runs the show. If you don't hear from her in a few days, it's because I forgot to tell her about you, so just call us again."
This is the wackiest parish.
In other news, I found out that the wedding mass can be at 11, 1 or 3 PM. I'm not sure which of those is the best time. I've also been looking for reception sites near the church and came up with this place that I think is worth investigating: The Barn at Birchwood. And there is always the William Penn Inn.
Stay tuned for updates...
July 24, 2003
I called the priest!
I psyched myself up today and got all brave to call -- and the secretary said he'd have to call me back. So....nothing happened at all. But it will, soon, I'm sure.
I gave him our home number so the cat is already out of the bag about our living together. Although maybe not, our answering machine message is generic enough that it could be a family or even just a male voice to discourage baddies.
I'm excited about finally having a wedding date but scared to meet the priest. Brian and I have to come up with a real idea of when we want to do it. We've only talked in vague terms but we should be a united front when we actually talk to the church.
July 21, 2003
St. Eleanor
The biggest reason why we still don't have a wedding day selected is because we haven't met with a priest yet. Why not? Because we don't really have a parish yet. Or more accurately, I wasn't sure which parish I wanted to be married in. After some research, I figured out that Brian's parents aren't particularly attached to their parishes (plus his Mom will live in Florida by the time of the wedding) and since my Mom was about to move to a new parish, the only answer was to get married in our Collegeville parish, St. Eleanor.
I finally registered on Sunday, or at least I think I did by putting in my donation and indicating I just moved into the parish on the envelope, so now I can set up an appointment with the priest and get the ball rolling. I'm really nervous about that because I think they're going to think I'm some kind of horrible parish crasher. How silly of me!
I can't decide what I think of the church itself. It's nice --- but it's one of those modern churches with a low ceiling and non-traditional layout. There really isn't even a center aisle to walk down, which is both good and bad. The mass was packed on Sunday, so it must be a pretty active parish, and it is on a quiet street and seems to have some nice landscaping so maybe we could even have our pictures taken there too.
Hopefully, once the date is selected, I'll get more excited about planning the wedding. I already feel like I'm married and I do want to be married officially. But the wedding -- it's kind of scary.
June 30, 2003
Grooms are geeky too
He'll be embarassed that I put this online but I thought it was funny so I'm putting it here anyway. We were watching My Big Fat Greek Wedding on Saturday night and Brian had to pause the DVD and zoom in on her engagement ring to analyze it more closely. He did this not once, but twice, during the movie. Super-nerd!
June 27, 2003
Here's your surprising wedding fact of the day (gleaned from my 54 cent book):
If you are marrying a man who is much taller than you (I am: Brian is nearly a foot taller than me) do not buy a dress with long sleeves because a "properly fitted" long sleeved gown will not allow you to move your arms above your shoulders and therefore will make dancing/hugging your new husband nearly impossible.
June 25, 2003
I'm not sure that I'm cut out for this
Since I last posted I've been pretty busy with the Urban Challenge and getting the UC race report up and also with reading the new Harry Potter book but I've still managed to find time to pore over wedding sites and magazines. I've decided that I am not nearly sappy enough to plan a wedding!
I don't know, maybe I will turn into one of the crazy women who buy beaded baseball hats with puffs of tulle on them and wear t-shirts that have BRIDE emblazoned across the front but I really hope not!
On Sunday at the grocery store I bought my first bride magazine. (OK, that's a lie, I've bought them before but never when I didn't feel like I had to read it in secret and dispose of it before being caught. This was just my first "legal" purchase.) Anyway the magazine is about an inch thick, plus it's sealed in plastic. When I opened it I realized it had several enclosures:
- one handy pocket guide to choosing the perfect dress (perhaps I didn't need to burn that 54 cents at Amazon after all!)
- a special catalog about how to register at Club Wed at Target. (Brian was rather excited that you can register for a fancy Stratego game!)
- an extra catalog filled with wedding goodies like the previously mentioned hat and t-shirts not to mention garish engraved goblets of all shapes and sizes.
- the big fat magazine itself which is filled with such things as men in seafoam green tuxes and women in red and white wedding gowns. Yikes!
So far these helpful tools have helped me learn that I am probably best suited to a sheath/mermaid style wedding dress. How can that be?? I would have never predicted that and I'm not going to believe it until I see it with my own eyes.
However, I have sort of seen it via the Virtual Model at Wedding Channel where you can dress yourself up in wedding dresses. [That's really fun actually, you should try it, bride or not! Here's the link to that section: My Virtual Model and it's worth setting up the model because you can use the same one at Lands End and a bunch of other stores.]
Anyway, I found that I look like a huge white blob in just about every traditional wedding dress and I look quite normal in some of the skinny little ones. Amazing. I can't wait to try some on for real.
Brian & I haven't had much time to talk about anything yet but I find myself thinking that March is going to be the best time to do this. Nobody seems to think it's too crazy of us to want something a little bit different than the normal sit-down dinner wedding so hopefully we'll be able to make that happen.
| Virtual Helen Bride |
|
| I wish I was really this skinny! |
June 18, 2003
Bargain books
I ordered a book called How to Buy Your Perfect Wedding Dress from Amazon. It's a used book and the person only charged 54 cents for it. It's a big book too! I have a feeling they aren't going to bother to send it. What kind of nut would try to sell a book for 54 cents when it will cost $2 to mail it?
I also had to change the look of this page because I thought the other one was kind of gloomy. This one is a little more happy, I think.
June 17, 2003
Crazy Already
OK, I've only been engaged for three days and things are goofy already. Goofy in a good way, but goofy.
First of all, it's really awkward to have to tell people that you're engaged. I mean, it's rather pushy to barge in and say "Hey! look at my diamond ring!" Of course I want everybody to look at it but I don't want to force them to look. And yet, it seems almost more strange to just not mention it and make them initiate any conversation. I split the difference at the office and told about 5 people and will let the news trickle down from there.
I went to the library last night to pick up a couple of books that had come in on ILL and I couldn't resist checking out the wedding section. Almost as soon as I got there a woman, the library director as it turns out, came zooming over and asked me if I was getting married. I have to admit, it was kind of fun to say Yes.
She asked me an ettiquite question regarding gifts that I couldn't answer and I told her that I really didn't know anything about weddings because I had only just become engaged and that I hadn't really read anything yet. She then proceeded to apologize for the old, rotten wedding section that they had.
We continuted talking and I eventually told her that I used to be the reference librarian at Elkins Park. She became even more interested in me then - and she asked me to do her a favor: keep track of all the resources I used while planning and if I found any really good (or really terrible) books to let her know so she could get them for the library. Is this an awesome task or what?! I've just been given a legitimate reason to pore endlessly over bridal books!
Then the library lady, Debbie, pulls this giant book off the shelf. She says "You might want to leave this one in the car or hide it from your fiance." (Hey, I have a fiance!) The book is Vera Wang on Weddings. She says: "This is the biggest waste of taxpayer money but it's an absolutely gorgeous book!" And she's right -- it's gorgeous but it's also absurd. One section shows this beautiful shot of exploding fireworks and it kicks off a section "if you've hired a lighting specialist for your wedding..."
Of course, I checked it out. The cakes and dresses are worth looking at anyway.
I also got: Weddings for Grownups by Carol Stoner. That link leads to a newer version than the one I have. I'm going to have to find that and check out the differences. Anyway, I was reading the book last night and it was awesome -- it's a resource to help you do things the way you & the groom want to and now how everybody else wants it done. It kind of guides you on how to compromise on things and how to figure out what's really important to you.
The third book I checked out is: How to Plan an Elegant Wedding in Six Months or Less. I haven't had a chance to look at this one yet, and I probably don't have to plan it that quickly, but I bet it has good tips on how to cut to the chase and not get bogged down in stupid issues.
Stay tuned for more....
|
