Giveaways

The wedding blog world is full of giveaways! I don't enter too many yet because we don't have any wedding details we need to fill yet but there are some that I always find to enter. The photo album sweepstakes are always entered. Even if we get an album from a photographer we could always use more to give away to family and such. I also just entered one from the Knotty Bride here. It's $100 to spend on WHATEVER at Lulu's. That's one I could always find a use for!

New Inspiration

one of our possible ceremony locations

My Christmas present from the Lindells started arriving this week. I received magazine subscriptions! My Islands & Caribbean Travel+Life are providing MANY leads in venues after our first pick fell through. Martha Stewart Weddings blog also just published a post about affordable boutique hotels. I've already heard back from one which we could possibly book out the WHOLE thing for a weekend! It MAY even fit into our budget as well! SHOCK! The problem is we may not actually have enough guests to fill it. So far I've contacted resorts all over the Caribbean but there are several on the list in Jamaica. We want to make things not only affordable for us but also for our guests. We're definitely going to get married in the early off-season so rooms & flights will be cheaper. We would also love to include a couple of meals for our guests beyond the reception.

Now I'm swimming in numbers. Every time I hear back from a venue I get a slew of prices. Each venue includes different things in their packages as well. It'll take a lot of time to wade through the options with each place!

Getting Started!

Wow! I finally contacted our dream venue today. I heard back VERY quickly (definitely before I was mentally prepared) and it is expensive, even with the friend discount. :(. I'm refusing to call it quits on this venue though. After spending my entire afternoon in turmoil over the disappointing information I finally got home and had time to do some research. I contacted a few caterers and photographers to get some pricing information. I chose these because they are our top priorities. (well the food is for both of us. Not sure how Ben feels about the photos). If we can get some reasonable prices out of them, maybe we can make it work. Here's hoping anyway...

In other news, before Christmas Ben and I had lunch with a friend of mine from high school who was visiting the city with her boyfriend. I hadn't seen her in years and really enjoyed catching up a bit and meeting her boyfriend and giving them some advice about the city. We didn't get a chance to see them again during their short visit. (By now you're probably wondering why I'm talking about this - the point is coming!) On the last day of their visit THEY GOT ENGAGED! They didn't share the news with the world (aka FaceBook) until after they returned to Florida. CONGRATS LYNN AND CHI!

They are not the only couple to get engaged since we have. One we know has already set a date before ours. No, it doesn't bother us. It kinda bothered me when people who started dating after us got engaged and married before us but now that we're engaged I could care less what other people's timelines are.

In reality it isn't happeneing all that fast. I have plenty of time to gather information and make smart decisions. Decisions that we can be happy about. Decisions that suit our needs and our budget.

If you made it this far - THANKS! I'm sure there will be plenty more rambling posts in the future but I promise I will try to balance them out with pretty things as well. I'll leave you with this:

(personal photo taken from our dream venue)

Dress love

Another blog has featured my dress designer. Makes me fall in love with them all over again. My dress may or may not be up on the blog already...

wedding dream

I had my first wedding related dream last night and it wasn't a good one :(. It doesn't quite qualify as a nightmare because I didn't wake up in terror or stressed. In the dream it was our wedding day and it wasn't the wedding we wanted a) because basically nothing was planned (I was literally making a single program for the officiant before the wedding) and b) it wasn't the wedding we wanted. I was incredibly calm in the dream but right as I was waking up I was looking around and realizing I didn't want any of this. It seemed like we threw it together quite quickly and that was why it was that way. I definitely don't like that I'm already having these dreams because that means I'll have to live with them for over a year!! I rarely dream and when I do I still rarely remember them so this is another thing of note.

We have decided we want to contact our top choice venue after the holidays and see if it is a possibility (aka in our price range). Maybe that is where this has sprung from.

Have a wonderful holiday season everyone!

First Official Act as an Engaged Couple

So it's officially holiday season. I've spent most of this morning getting some christmas shopping done online (I refuse to battle the crowds). Not only does the holiday season mean presents but also cards. We have to send out a holiday card! I would love to do one with a picture of us but there is one slight problem with this... we don't have many pictures of us. My favorite picture I have of us is this one

(personal photo)

Problems with this: It's almost 3 years old. I'm in an Iowa sweatshirt. I would like us to be clearer and more of the focus of the picture.

So that leaves us in a bit of a pickle. We need a good picture for holiday cards ASAP so we can get them ordered and shipped to us so we can ship them out in time for the holidays.

Inspirations & Hair

For 3 months now I've been gathering pictures of ceremonies, flowers, decorations, invitations, guestbooks & more and articles about writing vows, booking vendors, creating budget, & staying sane. I've amassed quite a few to say the least. I'm slowly starting to organize all of the photos into categories. I have a file of invitations, ceremony markers, reception decor, & cupcake/dessert tables.

Since buying my dress my new obsession has been hairstyles. I'm definitely keeping my hair long but am thinking of highlighting it. When I was younger my hair was definitely blonder. In high school I started highlighting it but stopped sophomore year of college. It got REALLY blonde after a summer in the sun.

Here is when I decided my hair was WAYY to blonde (and crispy - so glad I don't gel my hair like that anymore!).

Here I am 4 years ago. This color was good. The highlights were basically gone then.

Interestingly enough, my hair is wavy in both of these. The second was a more natural wave from a day at the beach. I would love for my wedding hair to have the beachy wave to it as well - just better than this picture. I don't know if I want to to be completely down, maybe half up. I'm also thinking headband or hair flower or clips. Some sort of hair accessory that's not a veil. I don't really like veils & I think it would just be a mess on the beach.

Eventually, I'll start posting some of my inspirations thus far. Once we get through the holidays perhaps we'll start wedding planning. Perhaps.