What's Left To Do?

As the Elephant wedding planning train begins to slow down with less than a month to go, I find myself asking what's left to do?  I'm trying to reduce the stress but also want to make sure everything is accounted for.

We have paid off all vendors with the exception of the venue and hotel send off brunch, which we decided to hold off on until their due dates because some guests are backing out of their "yes" responses.  If we can save some money, you bet we will!  We finally saw our steel drummer in action and dropped off our cake topper with the baker.  We completed our final walk through at the venue with the coordinator, our planner and our DJ/Lighting guy.  I hope we aren't tempting mother nature as we decided to extend the cocktail hour from the inside foyer to the outdoor patio.  Our planner Kathie made the great point that if the steel drums are outside, our guests will gravitate outdoors as well.  We went over all of the little details that didn't really make my radar before like the order of the processional, the timing of the cake cutting and toasts, and how we would like the ceremony set up if we have to resort to plan B (knock on wood, no rain!).

I've been on the hunt for some cute blue flats to change into for the reception, but wasn't finding anything that I loved. After expanding my Zappos search I went for fun and ordered these.

They are super comfortable (as Mama E says, all Clarks shoes are) and I think would add just a pop of color and fun to the reception if I ever lift my dress up.  I'm still debating between these and my chucks.

One of our engagement pics taken by Lynn Michelle

I think the chucks would be cute since Mr. E will be changing into his for the reception as well as the groomsmen. Decisions, decisions...

We've finished all of the major projects with the exception of the chocolates, which Mama E and I are going to knock off this weekend.  The escort cards are almost done, just need to add the backing support.  I'll be sharing that soon along with something Mr. E has worked on to make the seating easier for our guests. I had some free time this past weekend, so I decided to make a new thank you sign out of cardstock I had left over from our projects. I can't wait to have a picture taken with it on our wedding day and use it for our thank you cards.

Other than that, I don't know what to do with myself.  I guess I should enjoy the calm before the storm, and just nail down as much as possible so when I hand off our DIY projects to the venue the Tuesday before the wedding I'm officially in happy bride mode.

What did you have left to do in the month before your wedding?  

Wedding Easter Bunny?

I know that for 97% of the brides out there (totally made up percentage by me) the Easter Bunny has nothing to do with their wedding planning... unfortunately for us, it does.

BM Philly and me with the Easter Bunny back in the day

When we first got engaged we picked the closest Saturday to our dating anniversary which was April 24, 2010. When we moved the wedding back a year Mr. E still wanted to go with the Saturday closest to the date we started dating. This was one wedding related thing he really wanted and I had no problem with it.

So we started planning, meeting with venues and booking vendors all with the date of April 23, 2011. Now this was back in 2009, so maybe our vendors didn't look at a calendar (much like us), but about 5 months after we booked the venue I got a random text from Mr. E (not all that random because we tend to text through our work days, but the question was a little random) asking if I knew what April 24, 2011 was.

I thought he was being cute so I texted back "the day after our wedding" and he responded with, "true, but it's also Easter". Really?!?! Our wedding is Easter weekend? I guess it's not so hard to believe since Easter Sunday changes every year, but it normally stays around the end of March or beginning of April.

Long story short - since we are not getting married at our church and none of our vendors have a problem with that Saturday, we'll be keeping our date! And to tie in a little of the Easter feel, I picked up some of this when it was 50% off after Easter this year.

It'll be great to fill the bottom of our favor take out boxes.

Now I just need to figure out what to put in those favor boxes.

Did you have, or think of having, your wedding during a holiday weekend?

Changes?

I haven't decided if the length of our engagement is going to be good or bad when it comes to changes....

Originally we we're planning to do a buffet and a candy bar. Chris and I got to thinking about a splurge that would make our wedding memorable and looked into a photobooth. The photobooth holds a special meaning for us since it was the first pictures we took together and that strip still hangs on fridge. All of these things would be wonderful, if it weren't for the size of our venue. It's not the biggest venue (which isn't bad because we're looking to keep the guest list between 125 and 150) and when we stopped off at their bridal open house this past Sunday, I really took note of the size. Looking around as the room was partially set up for a reception made me realize that there's really not a way to fit the buffet, candy bar and photobooth in that room. I emailed our planner on her thoughts and she said we would either need to go to seated dinner (a little too stuffy for our taste) or move the candy bar into the foyer area. I feel that moving it out there will result in less people going to it, and therefore leaving us with a lot of candy to take home.

Chris and I talked and we decided that the photobooth (if we can squeeze it into the budget) would be way more fun then the candy bar and would be a lasting memory that people can take home with them. If we still wanted to do something edible, we could always box up a little chocolate or cookies (we really love cookies) and leave it at each place setting for people to take home. The more I thought about this, the more I liked it. This way we could also add a little more blue and green to the tables without jacking up the flower budget. One of my bridesmaids Corinne totally agreed. As she put it, the candy bar and photobooth would be spending too much on the guests (although she loves her some sweets). The small package on the table would suffice and still allow us to use our monogram stickers or luggage tag thank you ideas.

On a side note, at the bridal open house there was a centerpiece idea that I fell in love with (and it didn't hurt that it was in one of our colors). What do you think?




I like that it gives height to the tables, and we could supplie the stones and smaller vases ourselves if it saves on the floral budget. Our venue supplies for free votive and tea lights in our package.

In it for the long haul

Well we're only 4 months into our 25 month engagement and I feel like I've hit a lull. I'm still super excited about the wedding and planning, but I feel that I've done all the mock ups for the DIY paper goods that we plan on doing. Now that I'm happy with the "final drafts" I don’t really have anything to do until the time gets closer to actually start assembling and mailing out the save the dates, which we can't do until we take our engagement photos... which kinda requires us to book our photographer, LOL. There are some things that I could work on, like the silk flower pomander for Chris' niece (probably going to do that this weekend & check out Hobby Lobby since their stems are 50% off) but I don't really feel like I'm in the rush to get it done. And why should I be? We still have well over a year to complete things.

Maybe I will get some good ideas from the Modern Bride magazine that should be coming in the mail soon. Thanks to my amazing MOH, Kristen I will now have a subscription to Modern Bride to help me out during this long engagement! I thought it was so sweet of her to do that for me! It's little things like that that show you how wonderful your friends/bridal party are.

Speaking of bridal party, one of my bridesmaids (BM) Colby has found a really great site for BM dresses! She took the time to go through a lot of dresses and send me links of styles to get my opinion on them. I'm so grateful that she's already looking into this because it's one less thing that we will be able to check off the list. As I told my BMs, I want them to feel pretty on the big day, and where what looks good on them. So the only requirements that I have for the dresses are that they are all the same length and the same shade of blue… other than that, it'll be up to them to pick the style that they love the most. We're thinking of adding the green into their attire by adding a green sash, or a green necklace. We'll also probably have green and yellow mixed in their blue flowers.

Colors & Theme

When it came to picking wedding colors, I knew that I would stray away from colors such as pink or purple simply because Mr. E is not a fan of them. We talked about it shortly after we were engaged and decided that the best way to make the wedding about us would be to use our favorite colors: blue & green.

My ring on sample fabrics of the shades of blue and green that we aim to use for the wedding

 

Our bathroom is in the beachy blue and green colors which led us to our "theme". My family has always loved to travel and that was one of the things that Mr. E found interesting when we first started talking on Match.com. Since we've been together we've been on wonderful trips to San Antonio, Las Vegas, Philly, New Orleans, Disney, a Caribbean cruise and more. We decided that if we were going to have a theme to tie in the reception and some of the paper products that travel would be perfect. Here is a picture of a cake that sparked my travel theme interest.

Source

We'll be incorporating the theme and colors into our paper products, the bridesmaids dresses, the groomsmen's ties & (hopefully) socks, flowers, & table names. I'm really excited to get to work with these colors & theme, as is our planner who said that she has never done a wedding in our colors before!

What colors did you chose for your wedding?  Did your FI give his opinions on colors?

DOC or more??

I’m a big fan of most wedding shows currently on TV, with my favorite being “Whose wedding is it anyways?” which is told from the perspective of the wedding planner. After getting engaged I first thought about how cool it would be to be on a show like that! Since that isn’t very likely I did think about the possibility of fitting a Day of Coordinator, or DOC, into the budget. Mom and Chris both thought that would be a fantastic idea since it would help alleviate the stress on the big day.

Thanks to the internet and a couple connecting factors we found Kathie Seeley of Grand Events. Kathie was actually a planner mentioned on the blog of a wedding photographer that mom and I follow; her attention to detail came out in the beautiful pictures taken by Stacy Reeves. Mom and I set up a free consultation with Kathie to discuss our vision for the wedding and learn more about the services she offers. I think the best way to describe Kathie would be to use the phrase my mom said in our post meeting drive home: “she’s worth her weight in gold”. Kathie really understood where mom and I were coming from. She understood our budget and also gave us a couple tricks of the trade that could save us some money. We loved Kathie so much we knew that we could use her creative ideas & insight more than just the weekend of, so we booked her as our wedding planner. Even though the wedding isn’t for another 650+ days, we’ve already started working on ideas for the big day.

Added Bonus: Kathie is actually a recommend vendor of our venue! It’s great to know that Kathie has worked weddings at our venue and has a good working relationship with the staff there. Even though she has done several weddings at the Tribute, she has never done a wedding with our colors. I think this fact coupled with our personalities will help ensure that our wedding won’t be similar to others she has coordinated there. I know that Kathie is going to be a great asset during our journey and I can’t wait to get down to the real planning for the big day!

On the hunt for the perfect venue

After setting the date and getting a general idea of what we wanted in our day, we began the Internet search. I feel for the brides of yesteryear who had to comparison shop without the wonderful web! Mama Elephant (my partner in crime when it comes to the wedding planning) and I decided to begin with the venue. The venue is the biggest cost with the reception food and alcohol and for me would be a one stop shop. Even though Mama E originally wanted me to get married in the church that my family has been members of since we moved to Texas, she saw the benefits of holding the ceremony and reception in the same facility.

After looking and emailing several venues for pricing information, we narrowed the list down to 4 sites to actually visit. We were eager to set up appointments to walk through the venues, but remembered that we had our big family reunion trip coming up so all visits would actually have to wait a couple of weeks. After an amazing trip to Disneyworld and a relaxing 7 day Caribbean cruise, we were ready to hit the pavement.

Yay DisneyWorld

Getting ready for Muster Drill

First up was the Westin Stonebriar, the only hotel on our list. Mama Elephant and I met with the event coordinator and walked through the area while seeing where the ceremony, cocktail hour and reception would be held. There were pros and cons that we mentally noted, such as the nice terrace area for cocktails but the lack of windows in the ballroom, and agreed to come back with Mr. E when it was set up for a wedding to get a better idea of the space. When we returned with Mr. E we were able to visualize it with wedding décor, and knew that it was not the place for us.

The Westin (Source)

Next up was the Las Colinas Country Club, which was my favorite on paper! I loved the separate room for the ceremony and the elevated entrance for the reception ballroom. Setting up a meeting with the coordinator was easier said then done. After the quick response for pricing information it took 3 emails over a 3 week period and a call to get a response on setting up a date. While that wasn’t fun, it also wasn’t a deal breaker. The club was older than I expected, but I thought that could just add character to our wedding. Mama Elephant and I did our usual pros and cons list on the ride home and I was really feeling this place! With 2 places left to visit, I thought I had already found my dream venue… boy was I wrong.

Las Colinas Country Club (Source)

Our next stop was to the Hackberry Creek Country Club, and while the place was nice and the coordinator was as sweet as can be, I just wasn’t excited about it (maybe that had something to do with my fondness for Las Colinas).

Hackberry Creek (Source)

The fourth and final stop on our venue search was The Tribute Golf Club. Mama E and I headed out on a drizzly Saturday, down a long and winding road (ok maybe not that winding but it was a long road), to meet with the event coordinator, Erin. We had scheduled the meeting the day of a wedding to see the beginning set up process. We got a tour of the guest rooms that would be reserved for the wedding party to get ready, the bar, the ballroom and a quick from a distance view of the outside gazebo. I loved all of it! Unfortunately due to the weather the evening’s outdoor wedding was being moved inside to take place in front of the gorgeous black fireplace, which will be a great plan B if the weathermen aren't on our side for our wedding day.

I couldn’t help but smile when we walked out of this place, The Place. I knew it was the one! I could picture our wedding day there and knew by the numbers that it was in our budget. If I could have put down the deposit that day I probably would have, but clear thinking Mama E knew that we needed to sleep on it, weigh out the pros and cons of each place and of course have Mr. E see it before we made any final decision.

Fast forward a couple weeks and the whole gang (and I do mean whole gang: Mama Elephant, Dad Elephant, Elephant Bro, Mr. E, me, Mr. E’s parents and my cousins Geri and Zo) went to see the Tribute. Erin was great to take some time between 2 weddings on the same day (it was the middle of wedding season) to show us all around with the exception of the ballroom which was currently in use. Everyone agreed that the venue was perfect for our day, so we signed on the dotted line and turned in our deposit.

That’s one big check off the wedding list and I can’t wait to say my vows to Mr. E at this venue!

The Tribute (Source)

How many venue visits did you conduct before finding the one?

“Let’s start at the very beginning…”

…a very good place to start.” I love that song! For those of you that don’t know, it’s a line from Do, Re, Mi from my all time favorite movie The Sound of Music. I’m kind of a nerd when it comes to musicals; just ask Chris who was talked into seeing a midnight showing of High School Musical 3 when it came out in the theaters.

So where to start when it comes to wedding planning? For me it was a tricky question to answer. I am not one of those girls who has had their whole wedding planned out since they were 6, but I will admit that after I knew I would be spending the rest of my life with Chris (before he proposed) I did start to collect some ideas. While I have been to weddings (4 so far this year alone), I have never been involved in the planning of one. I’ve never been a bridesmaid and don’t have a sister or close relative or friend who I've been ask to help plan her wedding. So my first stop was to the local Barnes and Nobel to pick up some bridal magazines. I’ve secretly always wanted to buy one, but felt that the cashier would think I was odd with no ring on my finger. With my beautiful ring on (Chris got exactly what I wanted, actually more then what I wanted) I picked up a couple, ok maybe closer to 5, bridal magazines and flipped through the ads and pictures, and read any article that looked interesting to me. While a large percentage of the magazines are ads for dresses (mostly not the type I’m looking for or can afford), there were some very good articles that I found in Martha Stewart and The Knot – Texas issues. I gained some good insight on what a wedding can actually cost, my brother and father were shocked to learn that the average wedding is around $27,000 these days.

Setting a date is one of the first major things to decide on for a wedding. The date could determine the feel or theme of the wedding. Chris and I originally wanted to set the date for April 24, 2010 since it was the closet Saturday to our dating anniversary (April 26), but after reality set in we knew that it wouldn’t be feasible for the ideas that we were thinking. In order to save for the wedding and not start our marriage out in debt (after the clear thinking of Chris, I love him for helping me see the other side of things!) we decided to move the wedding date to April 23, 2011. We set up a budget in excel and calculated what we would need to save each month with the help of my amazing, loving parents who are putting in the other half. I’m a numbers person, my bachelors is in finance, and being able to see an actual dollar amount really allowed me to see that it is possible.

At first I was nervous to tell friends and family that we were now planning on a 2011 wedding. What would they think of a 25 month long engagement? But our friends and family were all very supportive! They told us that they would be there whatever day we choose and that we were very smart for taking the time to save rather then charge it up and be in debt after the honeymoon. We are so lucky to have such understanding and loving people in our lives!

So with a date set and numerous ideas from my stacks of bridal magazines, we were ready to start planning the day that Chris and I become “we”.