Teddy and Kitty, together :)

Updates

2008-10-07T14:55:00Z

Wow! No entries since the middle of September. Anyhoo, so far:

--I picked up my dress and tiara! I'll have to visit in January to make alteration appointments; won't need anything done 'til July, but I don't need anything taken in. Fits like a glove :-)

--We booked our bagpiper for the ceremony: Scotty Meredith. He's played at many, many weddings in all sorts of Orlando places. Turns out he also played for UCF graduations. He charges a flat fee of $200 for weddings.

--We're looking into DJ options.

--I really like Greenery Productions as a florist. A west coast Florida Knottie worked with them last year, and gave rave reviews (said he becomes the reception "decorator" as well as florist). Yay!! Their biggest plus is their familiarity with Hard Rock. (Double yay!!) Spoke with Tommy on the phone a few months ago and he took my information. He'll contact us in January to get a better idea of what we want for the reception.

Bridal consultant funnies

2008-09-18T13:13:00Z

Apparently I missed a call from Elizabeth on Tuesday..she didn't leave a voicemail, but she called again yesterday when I was coming home from work. Started off with a chat about the weather(ungodly hot and sticky) and finally got around to me asking what she called about.

Turns out she just wanted to know whether I'd been in the store lately. (I finally drove down there to get my slip about a week ago. Am waiting on my paycheck before I order the cups to be sewn into the dress, and she knows I'll be in when that occurs. Dress itself still isn't in.)

She also asked if I'd chosen my bridesmaids yet. I was in once when I found My Dress. When I paid for it, that was another visit. Then I brought Mom in to see it. Another visit. Ordering my slip was another (productive!) visit, since they had one in stock. My next visit will be to get the cups.

Each time, she asks me about my bridesmaids, even though she's written down their names, that two are OOT, and two live here. We've discussed the Plan for them(getting measurements done by December, and ordering in mid to late January) every time.

It sounds like I'm complaining, and it sounds like she calls every other day, but I promise I'm not, and she doesn't. Elizabeth is wonderful---when I come in, she gives me her full attention, and she was more than helpful when my mom found her outfit. She certainly didn't have to hunt down a slip for me either--could have made me order one. But it sounds like she won't sleep at night 'til I'm finally married!

When she called twice in two days, I thought The Dress had come in already...and at 5pm right after work, it drove me a little nutty. But I'm going to take it as a sign of a good consultant...after all, she could be totally disinterested on all points except for the $$. But she isn't, so I'm thankful. Just felt like I had to share.

Bite me (or not so much!), FI

2008-09-06T17:58:00Z

Today we're heading to Hard Rock to decide on a ceremony time. In the very beginning, especially when Jessica tentatively reserved the Woodstock Lawn(from 4-6pm) and The Pantry, I thought we'd get to the hotel a little before 4, and start making our choices from there. Decide on the best spots for the guests to sit, and us to stand, especially based on the sunlight.

We'd already decided on the ceremony length (about 30 minutes) and pictures after the ceremony while our guests had a cocktail hour. We both want to keep the "not seeing the bride before the ceremony" tradition, which means we're definitely taking photos after our I do's.

Now it turns out Will wants to choose a ceremony time between 5 and 6pm, and he never said anything. Only brought it up NOW. Today. This whole time, I had been thinking we'd have a larger time block to choose from, which would give us some good leisurely time for the photos, and for the guests to enjoy their cocktails. I'm pretty sure Jessica has blocked The Pantry from 6-11 for us...and I don't know how simple it will be to change our time slots. I feel like the ONLY times we have to choose are between 5 and 6pm, because that's what Will wants now. But he insists that's not true.

I'm sure we can work something out, but I feel like this was firmly decided without me. Sometimes it's difficult to talk to Will, because he won't listen to certain planning stuff until right before it should happen. Seems like that's what happened here...I never said anything before this, because he tends to pooh-pooh ideas or questions he thinks are "too early". So that left HIM free to make his own plans in his head, whether he intended to or not.

If it turns out we can't change our reception timeslot, then we'll need to re-do the whole d*mn plan for the pics, the cocktail hour..and probably getting ready. He won't like that either. I'm totally peeved that he didn't say anything to me about cutting off a whole HOUR of possible times we could use for the ceremony. I feel like it throws EVERYTHING off.

**Update: Since I posted this afternoon, I cooled off and did some reading by the pool. Lo and behold, Will came to get me around 3pm, and we went to Hard Rock So...we finally figured out the timing for everything: ceremony, reception and rehearsal + the RD. Yay!!

Today = one year away

2008-09-05T21:02:00Z

Today marks exactly 365 days until the big day! Can't believe I joined the Knot when there were 600-something days to go...a lot of time has passed already!

Tomorrow we're headed out to Hard Rock to determine the best time for the ceremony. We want somewhere between 4 and 6 pm...but who knows what the Florida sun will do? (Would have gone today, but Hanna's approach made the weather crappy Tomorrow looks a lot sunnier, which is good, since we'll be wandering outside for a while.

I'm sure I sound crazy, but I'm more happy than usual about the whole year thing...means we can finally start doing the last "big" things we had to wait for (DJ, ceremony piper, florist, linens...). Yay!

RD plans are sort of in the works

2008-08-24T20:59:00Z

Mama Anne called earlier this week to ask about the rehearsal dinner: how many people, and where we think we want to have it. I almost jumped outta my skin talking to her..I'm not the only one planning anymore! It just feels good to know someone else (besides myself and my own mom) is thinking about the wedding now.

Will always thinks I'm planning too early, but his mom is OOT, so that's probably why she wants info now. Planning something from 3 states away can't be easy. I've sent her a tentative guest list, and promised her a decision on a restaurant in early September, which is next week already. Truth is, Will and I already agreed on the Citrus Club downtown, but I'm not sure whether to finalize the ceremony time first, or what. Anyway, CC is very similar to a club in AL where Will's dad has a membership (even owned by the same corporation) so he could help us out. Everything--literally everything--would be taken care of that night. How nice not to worry!

We had a conversation about the guest list for it too...and it turns out we're totally on the same page about including the wedding party's SOs, and inviting Rev. Georgiana. I feel even better about that...at first Will didn't want to include any boyfriends or gilfriend or fiances and I just felt awful. I didn't want to tell the WP their dates had to amuse themselves alone! But it's all been sorted out

We're thinking 6:30-7ish, just in case our rehearsal runs long or someone is late. We'll be letting Will's family know this weekend, after we "set up" the ceremony on Friday. Yay!

Reception entrance music..hmmm

2008-08-24T20:49:00Z

Since it's creeping ever-closer to our 1 year countdown, I'm thinking about those nitpicky details a lot, especially when it comes to personalizing the wedding so we both have fun So last night, we had a conversation about our entrance into the reception. I just wanted to see what he'd think, or want to do, and theme music seemed to make him perk up a lot!

So far he likes:

Star Wars
Indiana Jones--he really perked up when I said that! (He's a huuuuuge Indy fan)
The Simpsons (we'd probably use the last minute or so, aka the bars when the family sits down in front of the TV)
Battlestar Galactica--a little darker, but still off-beat

I'm not too crazy about "Star Wars", so I thought of the eHarmony theme too, especially since the majority of both sides know that's how we met. But we have a looooong time before we need to choose anything for sure. I'm just happy we could agree on some funky ideas. It keeps coming back to the same idea: it's our wedding, so I don't want to be the only one making choices.

Reconsidering a veil

2008-08-05T21:22:00Z

For the past couple of days I've emailed back and forth with obridal.com. I sent them pics of an Alfred Angelo veil I tried, to see if they could reproduce it. Turns out they "can", with a few *changes*

Here I am wearing the original:

obridal.com would charge me $124 for the following: spaced seed beads and crystals along the edge (in any pattern of [my] choice), as well as approx 3 beaded flower clusters at the point of each scallop in front, attached to a 3.25" metal comb. (They can't reproduce the embroidered flowers on the AA veil.) Add in shipping, which would bump the price up.

I know it won't look like the AA veil. I don't know how much shipping would be, and I don't like the idea of a metal comb. I'm picky about accessories in my hair, so I know that would drive me crazy! I'm sure I could switch it out, but that would cost me. (Obviously, no such thing as a free lunch! )

Alfred Angelo wants $189. If I bought it from them, got their discount of 15% off again, it would be $160. Still more than obridal, but no shipping, and I'd get the veil I fell in love with. The combs they use are plastic, so they'd probably be more comfy. When I had it on in the store I didn't feel it at all. I bought my tiara from them already, which I love.

But I think I might just wear my tiara. I'm leaning toward a French twist to keep my hair off my shoulders, and I've seen lots of brides w/o veils. That way the tiara could sparkle by itself, and I wouldn't need to decide whether to keep or remove the veil for the reception.

Lots to think about. But I definitely won't pay for something I'm not going to love.

NWR, but anyway...

2008-08-03T04:04:00Z

Will and I took a trip to Florida Mall yesterday, just to get out of the apartment. We wandered for most of the day, to the M&M store, and Godiva, and some of the department stores.

Then he asked me what my birthstone is, and said we should look at some jewelry stores. (I've been staying away from them because it's hard to get him excited about wedding bands just yet.) When I asked him why, he took me into one that was close by--Gordon's, I think--and started looking at their amethyst jewelry in white gold settings. He asked me if I liked any of it, and said he wanted to get me something "just because". *warm fuzzies*

We went to Bailey Banks and Biddle, and Zales too. (Zales was disappointing; at least 3 salespeople were crowded at one end of the store, and no one came over to ask if we wanted anything. At Bailey Banks and Biddle someone helped us, but hovered over us like a vulture. Yikes! The saleslady at Gordon's was pleasant, but they didn't have much in white gold.)

That was totally unexpected on Will's part! And even though I didn't find anything I liked, we still had fun looking, and made me laugh. He doesn't like pearls, so he made private 'gag me' faces every time we saw a set in a display case . Sometimes I don't think guys 'get' the allure of a nice set of pearls--they're not all for old ladies! But they're not my favorite jewelry either--I don't even own a set.

He was disappointed in the service we had yesterday, but there's always other places for jewelry. We went to dinner afterwards, and watched a movie at home. So we had a nice day together. I'm amazed at his little "surprises" sometimes