did i mention that i'm excited?

can i just say how excited i am about everything? first of all, i am really excited about the wedding itself. i'm looking forward to seeing everything we've been planning come together, to having our families meet each other, to having our friends with us, and to the food(!). then there are the brand new shiny rings we get to wear and of course, the honeymoon!

more importantly though, i am so excited about marrying danny and about our life and our future. i'm excited about saying our vows to each other with our friends and family there to support us. i'm even excited (well, more excited than not) about changing my name and sharing a last name. i'm excited about the cities we'll visit, the places we'll live, and the experiences & challenges we'll go through together. i'm excited about one day having a baby and sharing that experience (calm down, everyone, that is years away).

i could go on, but i think you get the point... i'm pretty excited. :)

followed by a productive monday

monday morning i met cheryl at the lodge to do a walk through with the rental coordinator. it was great to finally meet the rental coordinator, jessica, as she was on vacation when we booked the lodge. she was very nice and helpful. cheryl asked her if she had any experience with allison jansen, our photographer, and the second she heard allison's name, her face lit up. very good sign.

we walked through the entire lodge and mapped out where all the tables and things should go. jessica took her own notes, so that she will know how to setup everything the day of the wedding. we mapped out the tables for food, guest seating, head table, cake table, comfy chairs off the dance floor, and a sort of bar area where the wine and beer will be set up along with some extra tables and chairs where people can hang out. she assured me that fitting 100 guests outside for the ceremony is not a problem at all which made me feel a lot better (this was making me nervous), and the lodge has chairs we can use for the ceremony so no need to rent.

there's an event in the lodge the night before the wedding, so we're going to have to do an early rehearsal at 2 on friday. hopefully, everyone who needs to rehearse can make in time. cheryl thought i could suggest that people go hiking after the rehearsal before dinner (danny's parents would love that) but made me promise not to schedule anything for myself. i also found out the latest we can be in the lodge is 11, so i think an after party might have to be planned...

productive weekend

last weekend, my family attended a luncheon at the opryland hotel to honor my little brother, kevin, earning the rank of eagle scout. the luncheon itself wasn't all that exciting, but it was wonderful to have our entire set of siblings in one place to let kevin know how proud we are of him for his accomplishment (even if it was completed the day before the dealine).

after the luncheon, we all went over to opry mills to walk around before everyone had to go home (i can't tell you the last time i was at opry mills...it's been forever). after buying a pair of shoes at offbroadway, i went into earthbound trading company to browse around. this shop is full of random things: jewelry, saris, budha figurines, japanese lanterns, insense, and what else do they have? centerpieces for weddings, of course!

i pulled one out last night to test it out, and i love them! i'm so excited; i think they're going to look great. if you can't tell from the picture, they look like trees & the votive holders are orange glass. in the words of chandler bing, perfection!


we cleaned them out. seriously bought all they had.


and the best part...


my sister even got the clerk to give us an extra 5% off! woohoo!

bubba

yesterday at lunch, charlie (our flowergirl) decided that her name was "bubba." we're not exactly sure where she heard the name or why she decided it was a good name for her, but then again, we are in alabama...

anyway, if you see someone named "bubba" listed in our wedding program as the flowergirl...don't worry, it's still charlie.


bubba a.k.a. charlotte a.k.a. charlie

i'm stampless :(

we got our passports in the mail monday. how bout that for fast turn around. we applied for them april 5th. that's only two weeks from start to finish. pretty impressive.

now, i have to admit i was sad to let me other passport go. i already had two stamps in it from my trip to europe, but i couldn't renew it. the upside of the new passport - besides getting rid of my terrible albino picture - is that they've redesigned the interior (tax dollars hard at work). no more plain pages. every page has a "american icon" design.



i feel so patriotic now. i also found out that they apparently have some kind of chip in them too. very high tech. i'm going to have to go home and investigate that further.

hotel blocking

one of the things on my to-do list was to call hotels to check into blocking off rooms. i called the holiday inn first. although the woman i spoke with was very pleasant, she told me that they require that 80% of the rooms you block off be booked. what happens if they aren't? we have to pay for them. i'm not so keen on that bit, especially since there is more than one place that a guest can stay & i'm not sure of everyone's preference.

so, we've decided to forgo the hotel blocks, deciding that everyone is capable of making their own reservations. i did look up the current room rates for each of the closest places to stay (days inn, embassy, and the cabins), so that will help narrow everyone's search. in doing so, i also found out that the "special group rate" offered by holiday inn saved everyone a whopping $5 a night...definitely not a worthwhile savings.

less than 5 months to go

152 days until our wedding! ah!

centerpieces

i don't really want to use cut flower for our centerpieces. we're thinking either bunches of candles or potted mums. here are a few centerpieces that have caught my eye.


brides.com
theknot.com
mrs. donkey's knot bio
theknot.com
afforever knot bio
mrs. lemon's blog
theknot.com

and yes, scarlett will be responsible for our table numbers. :)

passports check

we finally applied for our passports on saturday. we have been planning on doing it since we got engaged, but what can i say? we're lazy.

the post office had a passport party day where you could come pay them money, pay the government money, get your picture taken, fill out your forms, and have someone doublecheck that you've paid them money, paid the government money, taken the right size picture, and filled out your forms properly. we were there for about two hours, most of it spent waiting in one line or another. we did get to witness the devil incarnate waiting in line with us and have a post office employee tell me how my ring was beautiful & love is beautiful, so it wasn't without entertainment.

so, in 6 weeks, george bush will allow us to leave the country.

a-tisket, a-tasket, a sunny yellow basket

i bought a flower girl basket for charlie this morning. i found it on the blog of a same-sex couple who's planning their wedding called twobrides. she posted some cute things she had recently found on etsy. i hope she didn't actually want the basket b/c i snatched it up pretty quickly.

it's handmade by brasspaperclip from a sunny yellow vintage doily. the handle is made of creamy ivory pearls and the whole thing is accented with crisp vintage silk ribbons on either side of the handle. i think it's so pretty and unique. now, we just need a dress to match.

cake for your face

(retitled by danny)

we booked a cake! woohoo!

after the first two cake ladies i called were booked for our day, i turned to the huntsville wedding guide website which isn't my favorite resource, but it does have a directory. there i found a number for a place called sugar baker's. i totally fell for the name (think designing women meets a bakery) & scheduled an appointment for friday.

so, on friday, after running a block in the rain, we found the place. its location is great. it's on the square in downtown huntsville in an amazing old building that was built in the 1800s. it had been turned into a law office at some point & made to look very officey. thankfully, the officey look is all gone & exposed brick has taken it's place. i am a sucker for exposed brick. below is a picture of it on the outside; i wish i could find a picture of the interior.


stephanie, who operates sugar baker's, showed us around & told us a bit about the history of the building. she was so nice & seemed very easy to work with which is my #1 requirement of wedding vendors. she said that if there was a family cake recipe that we really wanted, she could do that. interesting bit of trivia - her daughter recently got married at the lodge. her pricing was also great - cheaper than publix. she will also deliver the cake & stay to cut it (one less thing to worry about). danny and i decided to book her on the spot. we're going to schedule a cake tasting soon although danny has already decided that there will be at least one chocolate layer.

below is the cake (pic from theknot.com) that danny and i both really like.


so another check off the wedding to-do list!

dinner time

in case you were wondering what you'd be eating for dinner on september 13, 2008, here's our menu. :)

marinated portabella “steaks”
stuffed chicken breasts
pork loin with fruit reduction sauce

sweet potato-apple mash
french green beans
wild rice pilaf

salad

fruit cascade
chocolate covered strawberries
homemade blueberry candy

disposable?

i'm struggling with this.

our caterer has offered us disposable plates and flatware. not like paperplates. nice disposable with a silver ring around the edge. what's great is this is included in our catering quote, so in our eyes, it's pretty much free. awesome.

the problem is that this goes against my attempt at being as green & eco-friendly as possible. disposable things are not eco-friendly. i did find some biodegradable cups online which made me feel a bit better about those. the most eco-friendly thing to do, however, is to rent plates and flatware from a rental company. great because we wouldn't be throwing anything away. bad because it's an additional cost & leads to all kinds of other questions: how many plates do you actually need? is there a formula for that? what if you ran out of plates?

now the cost is outrageous. it's 35 cents a plate. however, i think everything is about 35 cents (glasses, flatware, desert plates, etc.), so that can quickly add up. i keep thinking that to keep it simple and less expensive i should just stick with the disposable.

i had the thought that maybe i could possibly find them cheaper. what if i went to a flea market or thrift store & was about to find plates? they would be mismatched, of course, but i think that could be really interesting.

thoughts? opinions?