Wedding To-Do Lists

First let's start off with what I have gotten done, so that I won't feel as overwhelmed! I have gotten some things out of the way, which is good.  I'm not anywhere close to being completely planned, but hey! It's a start.

Done:

• Chose bridal party - I have 7 and he has 4; we have a ring bearer and a flower girl.  We are trying to figure out a way to incorporate Codden (our dog) but we're not sure yet.
• Chose wedding colors - shades of purple and gray
• Chose venue for reception and ceremony - Overhills Mansion
• We discussed our budget together (we = Dan and I)
• Chose our photographer for our engagement photos (My co-worker offered his services for free! Woo!)
• Started researching and contacting possible vendors for flowers, hair/make-up, and photography
• Set a maximum guest list number - 100 
• Set up excel for guest list with contact information
• Created a Wedding binder
• Started looking at wedding dresses online to get an idea
• Started thinking about what the reception decor would look like
• Researched some bakeries in the area for cupcakes

I would like to get these things done within the next couple weeks:

• Finalize the guest list with Dan
• Finish adding the contact information to the guest list in excel
• Meet with a possible florist about pricing
• Find some more possible photographers and set a budget for photography
• Finalize the centerpiece design
• Finalize who is doing the cupcakes/put a deposit down
• Find invitations/save the dates that I like and set a budget for that

In the next month or two:

• Go wedding dress shopping ... oh god! I am not looking forward to seeing what size I would be right now.  I've been losing weight lately so I should be at least a little smaller by then but we shall see. I know it's weird but as much as I love to be around people I'm a little apprehensive to have a ton of girls/moms with me too.  Call me crazy but I also kind-of want my dress to be a bit of a surprise for everyone.  I don't want it to be passed around via cell phone before the big day so that everyone knows what it looks like. Maybe I can be stealthy and take one or two friends and then just tell everyone else the shape of it? Let them know I want it to be a surprise...?
• Get color swatches for my bridesmaids so they can keep their eye out for possible dresses in those colors.

I have a lot to do, but I also feel like I'm getting a lot done.  Other than major decisions, Dan is pretty awesome about leaving most of the planning to me.  Because I'm neurotic and need opinions I ask him about everything anyways, but he always says ok to it all anyways.  :) He trusts me.  Not to get too mushy, but the other day he said something along the lines of 'I'm just glad I get you. Everything else doesn't really matter.'  So sweet...and so true! At the end of the day, it's a celebration of deciding to be together forever and having some fun while doing so.

The mother of all insulting comments for a woman to hear...

"Hey Ms. Strunk! You look like you're pregnant!"

Womp, womp, womp.

aghhhhhhh

Ok...one, I was slouching and shouldn't have been so my tummy is pushed out.  Two, this is coming from a six year old.  Three, she doesn't know anything.

But, still!

Yikes!


It's ironic because I had a training with my personal trainer scheduled today anyways! Ha! 

(P.S. I signed up with a personal trainer - one that I used years ago.  And before you get all I-can't-believe-you're-going-all-crazy-for-the-wedding I planned on doing this, this Summer BEFORE I got engaged! So there! I finally have a little bit of money to put towards this so I'm excited to go full out! We are meeting twice a week and she's telling me what to do on days that I don't see her! I am so excited. Today was awesome and I'm sore already but I'm excited for the results that I should get)

Have you ever gotten a comment like that, where it makes you feel awful?! From a kid? I love how brutally honest kids are, but MAN! Gimme a break!

Will you be my...

So thanks to Pinterest, I combined two great ideas into one so that I could creatively ask my girls/guy to be with my on my special day.  So I wrote "I've got the guy by I need my girls" in our wedding colors of gray and purple and printed it out on cardstock.  Then I had a picture of me holding a framed chalkboard asking if they would be my _______.  I had to take three different pictures because I had three different titles.  I have two matrons of honor, one bridesman, and four bridesmaids. Whew! The one where I am standing on the brick was taken by my neighbor!  I ran down the street and asked him to take a picture really quick and we had a mini-photo shoot.  The photo that I ended up choosing, which is below, is the result of him going to his second floor window and looking down on me with the camera.  
Cute! The other two pictures were taken outside at school by my teammate.

This is what it looked like when they got the envelope either in person or in the mail.

 

And of course I had to change the last one a little to fit for Rocco! :) 

Everyone responded differently, which I love because everyone has very different personalities, so it was very fitting that they all responded in a unique way from each other.

• I'm pretty sure Erin squealed and said yes before she even finished opening the envelope! 
• Rocco forgot to message me his answer until I asked him about it, but to be fair he got in between traveling the world :)
• Katie said she might cry and gave me a big squeeze
• Beth and Dawn both said "Awww, of course!" right away  
• Jen called back and said it was the most creative way she's every been asked to be a bridesmaid! (Score!) 
• My sister Caitee sent a text photo back of her holding a sign responding back to my sign :) 

I'm so glad all of my people can be with me for such an exciting time! :)

Wedding Link Up!

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I love link ups and saw this one on Erin’s page, and thought it’d be fun to fill it out as a fiancée and soon-ish to-be wife! 

So my wedding to Dan…has not happened yet! We just got engaged on May 5^th so we are still in the beginning stages of planning.

Here’s our history in bulleted list form: 

• We met in band in 9^th grade when I was 13 and he was 14. We dated “long-term” for three months! (When you’re that age, three months is a long time! Ha)
• We stayed friends throughout high school and always had an on-going flirtation.
• We “talked” and kind-of hung out/causally dated during Senior Week and a little bit into college. (Does anyone remember when people used to use the term ‘talking’ when referring to dating or flirting but not officially? What was up with that?!)  That didn’t last long though since he was away at Virginia Tech and I was home going to HCC.
•  We re-connected one Summer while he was home from college.  It also happened to be right after I had just broken up with my boyfriend of almost three years and he had broken up with his long-time girlfriend as well.  Hmm, fate? ;)
•  We started dating that Fall after I came and visited him at Virginia Tech.  We had a long-distance relationship for about a year and a half.  Then when he graduated he was home for two months before being offered a job in Virginia Beach.  So then he went there for another year or so and we continued the long-distance relationship.
• He finally got a job back up here and we moved in together.
• Five and a half years after we re-connected he proposed to me while walking underneath the Natural Bridge in Virgina.

So the details: 

Date: Saturday, April 12, 2014   

Location - Overhills Mansion in Catonsville – We are going to have an outdoor ceremony in a garden-like area and the reception will be inside a large room with wooden floors and a fireplace.  I like to think of it as your rich neighbor’s living room…it’s large but has a homey feeling to it.

Bridal Party – We went back and forth on this one.  We changed our minds about having a bridal party at all.  So now I have 7 and he has 4.  One thing we are keeping is that the bridal party will not be standing with us.  They will still enter before us, but they will go and sit in the front rows instead of standing by us.  We liked the idea of the ceremony being more about the two of us and not making the groomsmen and bridesmaids feel like eyes are on them too.

Colors—Shades of purple and gray

First Dance—We have not chosen this yet, but as of now Dan has more ideas than I do! J

Honeymoon—The only thing that we have figured out at this point is that we would like it to be a tropical type of place that is warm.  Other than that, we have not figured out the details. 

What Would I Change? Ask me next April!

If you’re interested in seeing my wedding board on Pinterest, go here:

http://pinterest.com/msstrunk/awesome-wedding-ideas/

Keep in mind I have been pinning ideas for my wedding for the past year or so even before I was engaged, so not all of those ideas are actually being used for my wedding! 

Ladies and gentleman, we have a venue!

Overhills Mansion in Catonsville :) 

The pictures don't do it justice...it's SO pretty in person! It's huge! There are TWO outdoor deck areas, a garden area, a wrap around porch out back, huge dining/dancing room, room for buffet/food, a separate bar area, fireplaces, and it has such a comfortable feel to it! It literally had everything on our must-have list, and more! Woohoo!

Centerpiece Ideas

So right now I'm playing with centerpiece ideas...

Below is a bunch of pictures that I either love, like parts of, or like the general feel of.

I have always imagined using wine bottles as part of the centerpiece.  But I don't have any use for numbering the tables because I'm not making seating charts.  Everyone will just sit wherever they want to.  I love mason jars with just one or two flowers also.  While looking online, I came across wine bottles with photos of the couple on them! Cute!

I also love the romance of a simple candle.  When Dan and I were in Virginia during our engagement weekend, we found a winelight at the winery.  It's a ceramic part that you put in the top of a wine bottle.  It turns a wine bottle into an oil lamp!  And if you look at the photo below, it comes in lavendar!  (In case I didn't put online yet, my colors are shades of purple and gray).  Yay!   I also love the idea of taking out the bottom of clear wine bottles and then putting it on top of a lit candle.  So pretty! Anyways, that's what is going through my mind right now.

 

   

We are going to see venues soon!  Our next step is to find a good credit card that has awesome rewards!

Oh boy!

(It would be 2014 for us - which THANK GOODNESS that's the case, because I don't like odd numbers!)

I was trying to get a free trial for something for school the other day and needed to create a new email for it

So, I figured why not? I'm going to have a new last name next year, so why not go ahead and make an email address with the new name?

I know it's so silly, but seeing the new last name in my email address is so exciting!

I made sure to email Dan asking him if it was weird to see my first name and his last name together.  He said he did a double take when he first saw the email.

Although I'm sad to see my last name go, I'm excited for what having a new name means.  It means we will officially be family and that when we have kids one day we will all be connected by name.  It's a merging of our families into one.

Corny, I know.  But so exciting! 

:)