Summer is here and that means wedding planning is in full force!  Planning for your wedding is really not as stressful as everyone tells you it will be.  The key to having fun with wedding planning is do it on your terms and don’t make a big deal out of not so big things!  I’ve been working hard on our wedding website, and last night Shawn and I were up until midnight cracking up at “Our Story”.  I surprised him with a twist on our “About Us” section.  Think Cardinals vs. Cubs.  Not to worry, I will post the site on here when it’s all finished.

When people ask about planning, I tell them all the “big things” are covered.  Photographer, DJ, Florist, Ceremony, Reception, Dress, Bridesmaid Dresses…and the list could go on.  I’m taking one thing at a time and enjoying it as I accomplish the task.  I still need to get a few of the other “big things” out of the way, but I plan on doing that this week and next!  I don’t want to spoil all of the surprises for the wedding but I do want to share our guest book.

I used pictures from our engagement session and ordered an album.  Don’t worry, I left plenty of room for all of our guests and ordered the large book!  I had a coupon for buy one get one free so I have this one on my coffee table and the other one is all packaged up and waiting for the wedding.  I’m glad with the way it turned out!

Things have been a little crazy lately. A lot crazy. Time hasn’t been spent on wedding planning…although we have spent time on it with every spare minute we get. We’re not as far as most might be at this stage. We’re ok with that though. Shawn has already been a huge help, emailing reception places and creating a spread sheet with detailed pricing. He joked that he will do that part and I can do the rest!

Questions we’ve been asked:

When is it?
We’ve decided on New Years Eve! We’re both huge fans of New Years Eve and it just fit our personalities.

How many people?
Probably around 250-300. That number is mostly family…and not the kind of family you only see on Christmas. Seriously, I can’t even begin to describe how many of those 300 are close family members. (I feel another blog post coming on.)

Where?
St. Alban Roe Church
No reception place yet. We need BIG and NOT going to put us in debt. There is no, “Windows on Washington” in our vocabulary.

Colors?
Black, Silver, Gold and all that goes with New Years Eve.

Is it just going to be one big NYE/Wedding party?
That’s our goal!

Who are the bridesmaids?
I have 6 bridesmaids and each one of them are so different. I chose 6 girls who have always supported me, that make me laugh, and are just fun people. I’m so excited! Here is the video I made to ask them:

*I didn’t take all of these pictures, some I took from Facebook, so thanks to those who took some of those pictures.

For all of the other more detailed questions, we haven’t even gone there yet. One person told me I’m ahead of the game, and even if it’s a lie, well it made me feel better. That’s why she’s also a bridesmaid, already making me feel better about things!

I’ve had so many people ask me to put some pictures up so they could see my ring.  I’ve gone back and forth with the idea of posting a picture.  I know “everybody does it” on Facebook, I just feel kind of weird.  I don’t know why.  I even wrote this post and then slept on it for a few nights before deciding to just post it on my blog.  I share my world with my blog readers anyway…so here it goes.

Did I pick out the ring?  No. The only thing I told Shawn was I wanted a cushion cut diamond and a solitaire would be just fine for me.  He totally surpassed anything I could have wanted!  It’s elegant, and is something I’m going to love wearing everyday of my life.  Shawn did such a good job, you’ll have to see it in person.  If you can’t tell we’re engaged by my left hand, you can look at BOTH of our faces…we’re pretty smiley these days.

On another note, for those of you that are waiting, our “exciting thing”  is a bit delayed.  My college roommate emailed me and told me she was “blog stalking” waiting for it.  I probably shouldn’t have even mentioned it because now I’m worried about letting everyone down!  The truth is, I realized I didn’t have the software or other equipment needed to make my little project perfect.  My new computer should be here this week so hopefully I’ll be able to get the ball rolling a little bit.