My Wedding on a Budget: 38 Days to Go!

Planning for Saturday
As usual, there wasn't a lot of time for wedding progress on Driving Wednesday. However, I got to talk with both Mom and Rachel on the phone about plans for the weekend. Karen (the caterer) has a flower guy that we, as of now, are planning to get our fresh cut flowers from. He's got a weird schedule for when he's available for us to come look at flower options and basically the only time that works is he is there from 10 a.m. to noon on Saturdays. Oh, and I guess I should mention that he is in Lexington.

So the plan is to go scout out flowers on Saturday and while I'm in Lexington I'm going to do a make up run through and probably buy some stuff I'll use the day of. I haven't found out for sure if the salon does or doesn't do make-up but we're kind of thinking no, so I'm trying to figure out a plan. I trust Holly or Rachel to do it but I want to have an idea of what I want it to look like and I want quality products that will look nice in pictures and hold up through the day. So I'm going to either the mall Mac counter or Rachel's friend works at a salon who sells a lot of stuff so maybe there. The other thing I am still considering is seeing if Kathy Goode, who did Kelli's hair and make up for her wedding, would be willing to come up to the salon to do it and free to do so. Because, believe it or not, this isn't all just about me. I know some of the girls would prefer and find it fun to have someone else (who knows what they're doing) to do their make up and I'd like to at least give them an option.

I also need to call poor Jeannie in Junction City and tell her I won't be coming to her solo salon!

My Wedding on a Budget: 39 Days to Go!

Taking care of the girls!
I'll be honest... I relaxed a lot tonight. So many of the big things are being scratched off! I did order the jewelry that Rachel and I picked out over the weekend. It's from a site I found a month or so ago called 2-B-Unique that has very, very cheap jewelry and sets. There were lots of good testimonials about it and it sounds like it's been used for lots of bridal jewelry. Worst case scenario i get it and return it, right? I'll give you the final opinion when it actually comes in.

The little black dress Michelle is going to wear came in so she tried it on tonight and measured her waistline to give the measurement to KK for the sash she is making. Becky also texted me and found some shoe options for herself so I think she is going to send me some pictures.

PS... I just realized I need to give Jon credit for his wedding progress as well. He got in touch with all of his boys today and even talked with Men's Warehouse. He's also been in touch with Bill Dysinger regularly over the past few days and really staying on them about having our rings done when they said they would...which would be this Friday!

My Wedding on a Budget: 40 Days to Go!

Kudos to BookIt.com's customer service!
We're up to 87 RSVPs (not counting any Mom got in the mail today) and only 12 of those are No's....Deutsch better get that closed-circuit thing worked out is all I've got to say!

I have to give props to BookIt.com's customer service. Being that I somewhat work in customer service, I shouldn't continue to be so skeptical. However, so many places that you contact for help either:
(a) put you through loop after loop of automated selections that never really lead you to your answers and there is no way to get to an actual human
(b) the person who answers doesn't really seem to care what your question is and doesn't even seem to know much about the business or product your inquiring about but has a canned set of responses they spat back.
This was not my experience with BookIt.com. I called and yes I did have the automated service and selection options, and was then put on hold; however, one of the immediate hold options was to request a call back when someone was available rather than being stuck on the phone waiting. Still being skeptical I stayed on the phone, thinking I'd never get a call back. However, after about 5 or 10 minutes I'd lost my patience and didn't want to listen to their music and messages anymore so I punched in the numbers to request a call back. It wasn't 5 minutes when my phone rang. The lady I spoke with was extremely nice and it was like working with a human so all I could imagine was one of us at Try It Local on the other end of the phone with one of our customers and what they imagine with us. She answered my questions and took some extra notes about our stay and put them into the reservation for the hotel--including the fact we are coming on a honeymoon so we get the free honeymoon package! Woo woo! I feel much better, not only to have spoken with someone, but feeling that if I have other questions or concerns, someone will be able to hear them and help me out.

My Wedding on a Budget: 41 Days to Go!

Amazing how relaxed I feel from a day of being in the house doing chores! Let me tell you about my checklist today...

• Folded laundry
• Ironed hanging laundry
• Swept the kitchen
  
• Scrubbed the kitchen floor (I remembered today we have no mop **hint, hint...there's a wedding gift idea for ya!**...so it was on to my hands and knees to play Cinderella.)
• Put away more wedding gifts/Boxed up more borrowed loft kitchen "stuff".
  
• Made chocolate zucchini bread (Made it from a recipe in one of the books his mom and sister got me)
• Sauteed cabbage, peppers and onions for dinner

After doing all of that Jon was still off and away doing lots of busy outside work (More work on the bridge! You can drive over it now!), I knocked out a bunch more thank-you notes. I nearly have them all done but I just need to buy stamps so I can actually get them in the mail! I also sipped on some of the wine that Jon's parents gave to us to try for the reception. Friday I tried the Windsor Wall red and tonight the white. I think the red was a bit too sweet for me. Very good, but not what I would choose. I liked the white better.

Oh and please admire my all the pretty purple in the bathroom from all of the shower gifts. I blended in well in my skirt that Jon gave me for my birthday. He sure must love me a lot to put up with so much purple in his life!

My Wedding on a Budget: 42 Days to Go!

Building Bridges

Jon gets most of the credit for wedding progress today. He, Pa and Uncle Fron did quite a bit of "heavy lifting" to help us get one step closer to having our Knob End reception. What we've always called a "bridge" that passes back into Knob End Meadow is not quite a bridge anymore. There used to be a small pipe that ran under the ground for the small creek but it has since become buried and filled with gravel so water just runs over it when we have heavy down pours, rather than under it. While we may not be having guests drive over that bridge, the caterers and tent people will probably need/want to in order to set up. Luckily, thanks to Grandybo's "scrounge" mentality, there were some giant concrete tiles in the old Hay Barn. So with the help of Fron's Back-Ho skills they laid the tiles and tomorrow they'll bring over gravel to even it out with the lay of the land so it's passable. I'd like to stone either side of it but we'll see what's possible before October 8!

Rachel and I canned tomatoes, which has nothing to do with the wedding prep, but it did lead to Mom and I making salsa. Then when Mom and I were chatting about having some pre-dinner snacks out, we thought maybe we could make enough salsa to set it out with chips. (Heaven knows we have enough tomatoes!! ...We'll see if we have enough time.) Mom also got out these pretty (and tasty) raspberry yogurt covered pretzels. She picked them up at the Peddler's Mall yesterday and thought they might make a nice snack (and very fitting with their pretty purple color!)

My new camcorder came in and Seth was home so he could go into the church and check out what we have/need in order to set up a closed-circuit broadcast of the ceremony downstairs. I'm excited about the new camera. I'll definitely have to buy a memory card for it, as expected. It's zoom quality is less than ideal, but for $100 I'll get enough out of it! Also, Mom had the bags embroidered for my bridesmaids! (And if you are a bridesmaid reading this...sorry, it's ruined, but good for you for reading my blog!)

Long, tiring day...yet productive! That's how it works when we stay home!

My Wedding on a Budget: 43 Days to Go!

Love is Passion...Obsession...Something You Can't Live Without
First and foremost: eyes are much better today.

Rachel came down this evening to stay the night. Jon and I dug potatoes after work and then headed home to fix chicken. Mom called while we were doing so and said that they were going to put Meet Joe Black on. Turns out it was Pa's idea.

Interesting that such a story touched me at age 14. I think I could quote that entire movie, but it's just the nuggets of ideas throughout the entire thing that got seeded in me. It is a great love story but it's also a great story about the priceless-ness of life in general and being a genuine, honorable person, like Anthony Hopkin's William Parish. The whole thing is about love and how it is what makes us human and makes life worth living.

And it's not just the love story about finding that one where lightening will strike, but the passion Bill has for his company and it's purpose, passion for his family and for his daughter. And that is why, even when very, very few understand it, I'll dance with my Pa to the instrumental version of "What a Wonderful World" from the Meet Joe Black soundtrack, because that is what William Parish and his daughter, Susan (Claire Forlani) dance to. Every time I hear the song I get teared up so who knows what will happen that day. But I do love my Pa and it has been through his love for me, his love for mom and his love for our family that I have learned what great love is and sought to find it for myself. Fortunately, I found Jon to not only love...but to be that person whom I could love like crazy and does love me the same way back.

My Wedding on a Budget: 44 Days to Go!

Too much light? Not enough light?
My eyes are wacked! They hurt on the drive home last night (as they have been burning during my drives more and more) but they were burning so badly during the night that it woke me up and I couldn't even sleep! This actually began in April when one eye or the other would randomly be very bloodshot--but not hurt. That continued for awhile and would come and go but never physically hurt. Then about a month ago when I'd drive to work in the early mornings my eyes would burn terribly and it was hard to even keep them open. I attributed it to allergies or these new brand contacts and would just wear my (not up to date and slightly blurry) glasses. But it seems even when I wear my glasses they hurt AND the fact they were burning at night proved it was something far worse. I could barely keep my eyes open when I woke up this morning. Anything remotely bright hurt them that much more than they already did. I tried to get started on some work (knowing there was no way I could go a full day) but I called the optometrist and the receptionist said to come in as soon as possible because the mornings were less busy. Todd was very cool about work and immediately took off my plate the priority things that had to get done and told me to get to the doctor. Problem is... it's not so safe to drive when you can't keep your eyes open! Thank goodness Jon was able to leave work and come get me. It only took Dr. Ward a minute or two to look at my eyes and diagnose me with a bacteria infection, write a prescription and tell me I was curable! I was mainly glad he said there WAS something wrong. If he'd told me he couldn't see anything wrong but allergies I would've died.... I feel helpless without my eyeballs!

So we went to Kroger to get my eye drops. While they filled the prescription we stopped in at Tractor Supply where I decided to price Tiki Torches and in turn found ground lanterns on sale! On sale for only $5, (regularly $15), a box of six approx. 10-in tall solar lanterns that you stick into the ground. They don't create full illumination but they will be perfect for near the pathways and bridges and bathrooms. And for $5 you can't beat it, right? Lights may be hurting my eyes today but extra light that night will be good.

I have to wear my glasses and use these drops for the next 10 days. He said I should start feeling better within 24-48 hours...hopefully it's 24. I'm just glad I finally got something done about it rather than having red, watery, burning eyes on the wedding day!

My Wedding on a Budget: 45 Days to Go!

Presents at the door step!
Headed home tonight and several packages had come in the mail during my days away. The shower gift Anne-Tyler had shipped was there--two GREAT baking pans! Plus the china place setting (From Bed, Bath & Beyond) that Jon's Aunt Rhonda and Uncle Scott had gotten us arrived. It is so beautiful and maybe a bit fancy for what you'd expect from Jon and I but I love the blue and silver and I think Jon likes it too--He says he does at least. :) My cupcake papers also came in but they messed up the order slightly. I had more than enough green polkadot papers but was short on the purples by 150!! Luckily the lady at Baker's Confection (the business I ordered from on Etsy.com) was quick to respond and is sending the rest of my order. I'm just glad I counted!

I cannot express to you how excited Jon and I are to have an ENTIRE weekend to stay home! We haven't had this in weeks and weeks. Who ever knew staying home could be so exciting!

My Wedding on a Budget: 46 Days to Go!

Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!
I did quite a bit of that tonight! I finally have time to knock out some of these thank you cards I need to write from my showers earlier this month. The last 3 weeks have been madness with how much traveling has been involved. I think I wrote it a night or two ago, but I cannot express how excited I am to have several weekends of STAYING HOME with Jon. Sure I have to drive to Louisville for work, but compared to these exhausting last few weeks, traveling up here for a couple of nights of work won't be anything! Anyway, yes I knocked out the thank yous from the shower in Ohio and 90% of those from Evansville. I know people always say to not worry about sending them a thank-you but I truly want to do this and give them a good little note inside. These people have NO REASON to buy us gifts. Sure it's customary that you have showers before weddings and people bring gifts, but the truth is, NONE of this is about presents. Jon and I are just so excited to begin life together and we'd love to have our closest friends and family be a witness to that beginning. So the fact people are buying us things to begin our new life with is above and beyond, I don't care what today's culture says. I am thankful to anyone who thinks of us during this time, says a prayer or shoots us kind words and I mean that with all of my heart. So for all of you out there... regardless of any gifts we may or may not have gotten from you... thank YOU for wishing us well on our marriage!

My Wedding on a Budget: 47 Days to Go!

Purple Feet!
Many know that I am not a big fan of feet, so I'm down for doing whatever to make my feet be enjoyable to myself on my wedding day. I am most definitely getting my toes done when I do my nails, so with that in mind, I feel it is silly to wear closed toe shoes! (Nevermind that it will be October!) I have been hunting around for awhile. Found on pair on Zappos.com that I really liked but I just cannot bring myself to spend $70 on shoes for my weddings. I have a hard time even spending that much on running shoes that I know I'm really going to run into the ground--literally! What's made my hunt a little trickier are my stipulations for the type of shoes. Somewhere along the line I really fell in love with the idea of doing PURPLE shoes. What a fun way to accent myself with a little purple flare! My other tricky criteria is that I want flats. This is two fold: (1) Jon is not exactly a super tall guy, but let's do what we can to keep him a decent height above me! (2) I cannot wear heels at the reception.

I think I'll end up going with these Report sandals I found on Endless.com. They are only $30 and if I get them now I'll have time to return if necessary.

But I just checked the Zappos shoes again...and now they're only $62....

My Wedding on a Budget: 48 Days to Go!

Breath of Fresh Air
The most amazing thing about today was that Jon and I looked at the calendar from now until the wedding and saw that minus our bachelor/bachelorette parties... we have free schedules! Next weekend...NOTHING! Labor Day weekend...NOTHING! I guess it is a definite sign of growing up when nothing-ness gets you EXCITED.

We didn't get home as early as I would have hoped but that was more because of me dragging my feet this morning than Jon. Mom and I were going to can but we put that project on hold and instead reviewed wedding notes on her list. She's still feeling stressed about loose ends and sometimes I think she just needs to talk them through in order to feel organized about it. She's now leaning towards paying a local friend to simply escort cars out to Hwy. 127 from the reception to help them from getting lost, rather than hiring a shuttle service. Since the church and reception are so far from the hotels it would be tough to predict how many people would take advantage of the service and make it work logistically. I think the new idea makes more sense. Plus, after this weekend, it sounds as though many of our younger friends will be camping.

Jon was a sweetie and fixed dinner for my birthday which was yesterday. We enjoyed the meal and a movie (A Knights Tale...Heath Ledger also for my birthday). What a wonderful man I'll get to soon call my husband!

My Wedding on a Budget: 49 Days to Go!

Sara & Adam Forever and Always!
Today was the day!!! Sara has become a GRESS! Yes, my 26th birthday will always be a memorable one as it was Sara and Adam's wedding day. It was full of friends, fun and love! The boys all looked so handsome. The ceremony was beautiful--the clouds came out for the ceremony so it made it a little cooler, which was very nice. Sara was like a princess. Gress looked like the happiest boy alive. The reception was elegant and amazing. The fun was priceless! There is nothing like celebrating such a joyous occasion with your closest friends. It is one thing to party all of the time when you are young and in college, but something all together different when you are older and have become adults and have a reason to truly celebrate.

The ceremony was outdoors under a giant tree--so perfect for the two of them. There was a cocktail hour inside while they finished pictures where we began to take advantage of the open bar and the tasty foods. The meal was delicious and Little Ben's band played the reception. Big Ben helped with their DJing and emcee duties, which gave me all the more confidence about how wonderful he'll be for mine and Jon's. The reception even ended with Backstreet Boys even though technically it was supposed to already be done. The celebration continued back at the hotel and into the night.

Oh and how could I forget, the garder came flying RIGHT at Jon! Which only meant I HAD to catch the bouquet. Plus, I have never caught one and this was my last chance...and we have done so much wedding planning with those two it was only right. What a wonderful night!

My Wedding on a Budget: 50 Days to Go!

Videography: CHECK!
Sort of... I decided to not do a videographer and instead invest money in a video camera. There were several reasons for this decision.

1. Videos of people's weddings are always fun and cool but I feel like there is so much they leave out.
2. Videographers usually leave before the end of the night and the latter part of the reception is some of the most fun!
3. I want the raw footage to be able to edit and have fun with myself!
4. I can have this camera passed around all day from start to finish and I am going to ask Uncle Jerome and Aunt Janet to borrow their flip cam so the boys can have one for pre-wedding activities. (I'll probably put Deutsch in charge of that.)
5. We'll have a video camera to take on the honeymoon with us.
6. It's much cheaper (I didn't get anything fancy) and I can continue to use this investment.

I looked for awhile deciding on what to get. I really liked the idea of the small and simple flip cam but the drawback for me was that they have internal memory. The best one you could get is a 8 GB which holds approx. 4 hours of footage. Knowing that the ceremony itself could be over an hour plus you have some pre-wedding fun and then toasts and so on and so forth. Four hours may be plenty but I want to have plenty. This camera has a small amount of internal memory but has a slot for memory cards, which means I can buy as many as I want and have plenty, plenty of time for footage. I went with a Toshiba Camileo S30 full HD. It's very small and sleek. Not top of the line by any means but the good news is it was only just over $100. I originally looked into it because I found a deal for it for only $50. Unfortunately the deal ended up a little while ago and I couldn't take advantage but it sold me on that camera and then I found the new version of it and what the heck...gotta just check things off the list and make decisions!

Sara and Gress's Rehearsal and Dinner were tonight!! I cannot believe their big day is finally here! It's been a long time coming and I'm very excited to celebrate with them!

My Wedding on a Budget: 51 Days to Go!

RSVPs!!
They're coming in!! I remember Michelle talking about how exciting it was for her to check the mail everyday to see what would be waiting in the mailbox. Unfortunately I cannot check the mailbox, one, because I am in Louisville some days and two, because they come to my mom. However, I get to check the online RSVPs through the website...and believe me, I am checking it constantly! It truly is so fun as they start to roll in. It's like the day is slowly becoming a reality as you can see the church and reception filling up with people.

My Wedding on a Budget: 52 Days to Go!

Driving Day Wednesday! (ie: Not much wedding productivity!) I did get my cupcake papers ordered last night as well as picking out a tote for the bridesmaids to have Mom order and get the embroidery work going. The house is such a MESS right now from all of the gifts we brought home this weekend and my lack of being here to organize it in any way, shape or form! And, unfortunately, there probably won't be much time for any of it until NEXT weekend. Gress & Sara's wedding is on Saturday, which means we will have to be in Louisville on Friday for the rehearsal. Hopefully Sunday will bring for some accomplishments, but we are falling behind on garden work as well. The garden is currently exploding with tomatoes. Canning is well overdue!

My Wedding on a Budget: 53 Days to Go!

Getting Crafty, Saving Dollars!
KK and I headed to JoAnn Fabrics this evening to pick out materials for several items she's making for the wedding. Originally it was going to just be the pew decorations, but after talking with the girls on Sunday and looking at her samples, it's just silly to buy the sashes/belts for her and Michelle to wear or to buy the flower hair clips for the bridesmaids.

The worst part is that I am a terrible decision maker--that on top of the fact the store was not well organized. Some materials and some colors were grouped but not in any sensible way. So we were mainly looking for chiffon and satin, but chiffon (in purple) was nearly impossible to find and in hit and miss places! So we were having to carry material back and forth, here to there to compare side by side and figure out what we liked best.

We finally went with a wisteria looking purple ribbon for the belt itself and two different purples for flowers: a darker almost grayish purple light silky material and a iris chiffon. The belt will have two iris chiffon flowers on either side of one darker purple flower. The pews will be a pretty classic larger purple flower made of a silk satin material. A chiffon-like muted green material will tie around it and hang and we'll use that same wisteria ribbon to tie it the pews. The hair piece flowers are just a white, shiny satin that is more or less none-shiny on the flip side, giving it almost a two-tone look. We may add tulle or chiffon to the flowers. I also picked up a few spools of ribbon to possibly use for the cake.

All said an done we spent less that $60 (should have been less than $50 but they were difficult about KK's 20% off coupon she had on her phone and said they couldn't take the number from it because it had to be scanned... was pretty frustrating actually). When i was researching belts they ranged from $22 to $75. I'd have probably gone with a $25 one. The hair flowers were anywhere from $5 to $12. Who knows how much pew decor would have been. If I'd have bought these things individually, it would have been well over $100. (Probably closer to $150). This will have much more meaning coming from KK...plus there was a lot of quality time for us to spend together!

My Wedding on a Budget: 54 Days to Go!

And the Invites are OUT!
I started getting texts and messages online today as people were seeing pretty purple envelopes arrive in their mailboxes!! I guess that makes it extra official, huh? We've not invited nearly 350 people and told them a date, time and place...better not back out now, huh? :-)

I had to spend my evening then making sure the online RSVP was all up to date! I hope it all works right and I hope, hope, hope we didn't somehow forget someone! I'm excited to begin seeing the RSVP cards arrive and numbers update on the web. Let's see just how many people we SHOULD expect to fit in the teeny-tiny church!

My Wedding on a Budget: 55 Days to Go!

Shower #3: Family & Friends All Around!
I cannot tell you how crazy it was to see so many of my favorite ladies ALL in the same place! It was great enough to see Michelle's house transforming into a cute party place full of purple decorations and delightful food, but then the Dixon family began to filter in...then friend after friend after friend. Everyone there from my aunts and cousins and Grammo... to college friends like Alex Henning to GSP friends like Anne-Tyler! Virginia came and even introduced herself as knowing me by "marrying into the Man Clan." KK came and brought some sample flower decorations and with the other girls we made decisions on which ones for the sashes, which ones for hair and which ones for the pews. Jerusha's cake-pops were adorable. Holly's games were fun and any time Holly is hosting something (and just talking in general) people end up with a laugh. I got lots, lots, LOTS more presents. Jon and I don't even know what to think of it all!
Mainly I just had a wonderful time having so many fun people around me. It's overwhelming even imagining how the actual day itself will be when it will be ten fold what it was today! I'm getting more and more excited about the time I'll get with the girls at both the bachelorette and just the day of. In many ways October still seems a good ways off, but with how fast summer itself has gone I have no doubts it will be here in a blink! The most fun I've found in all of this, though, is having other people get excited with me! It's just great to feel that other people are EXCITED for this and not just doing it because they have to. At least I sure hope that is the case!

Caitlan "KK" (cousin & attendant), Becky (college roommate & bridesmaid), Holly Jo (cousin & Maid of Honor), ME!, Rachel (sister & Matron of Honor), Dani (college roommate & bridesmaid), Michelle (sister-in-law & attendant)

My Wedding on a Budget: 56 Days to Go!

Shower #2: With the soon-to-be "in-laws"!
How overwhelming!! I cannot really describe what it is like to receive so much from so many people--especially in this case where I hardly know so many of the people from today! Cassie and Jenny put together a Couple's Shower for Jon and I. I normally wouldn't have really felt it was necessary to make it for us both (ie, I wouldn't have made Jon sit through a shower), but we decided it was a good choice for a few reasons:
(1) By myself, I would only know a handful of the people
(2) Jon hadn't seen some/many of these people in a long time either
(3) This gave people a chance to congratulate us who may not make it the distance to the Kentucky wedding in October.

The shower was lovely and very purple-filled! Yummy food and drinks and lots of great people. I felt bad to have not spent more time with some of the people whom I hardly know yet bought us gifts. However, several people warned me that the day-of will be even worse as far as the amount of time I get with people. The more I think about it, the more overwhelming it feels--so many people I care about that I want to thank for being there with so little time to do it!

We got so many wonderful gifts today. Many great tools and utensils we'd registered for at one place or another. Jon's neighbor (Jenny and Mike's neighbor) gave us SO MUCH! She made us lots and lots of beautiful throw-pillows along with boxes of other things.His grandmother made us a quilt. One of his old Scout leaders who is another Bellarmine grad got us really cool 2011 National Basketball Championship coffee mugs. Yes, all of the presents were amazing, but really it was just nice to get to spend some more time with so many of the people who have been a part of Jon's life for so long and will now become a loving, supporting, wonderful part of my life as well.

My Wedding on a Budget: 57 Days to Go!

Friday's always seem to have traveling involved these days! That also usually means little time for wedding progress...however, today did bring for some progress. I finalized which flower girl dress Julianna will wear. I went up to visit Aunt Lea to give her a few answers on what I was envisioning with the veil. It really should be pretty simple and we even found online the one (I'm pretty sure) that I tried on at David's Bridal that gave me the idea for what I wanted made. Jerusha was busy-busy-busy finishing up Cake-Pops for the shower on Sunday. I was lucky enough to get to taste-test a couple! Delicious indeed!

We headed for Newburgh tonight for tomorrow's shower with Jon's friends and family. It will be followed by the Dixon family/Louisville friend's shower on Sunday. (I know, I know...Quite a shower filled weekend!) I started working on some thank-you notes from last weekend's Ohio shower while in the truck (YES, we drove the new truck) and we also went through my iPod listing some of our "must play" songs for the reception!

My Wedding on a Budget: 58 Days to Go!

Signed, Sealed, Delivered!
...Almost! Minus a couple of missing addresses, Mom and I have all of the envelopes addressed and stuffed! We are lucky to have some spares to replace the screw ups (on my part... and a few we can blame on Dani, right?) I'm really, really nervous about the church. We cannot fit all of these people. I don't even know how they'd fit standing! Mom says it will be fine but I feel it's kind of inconsiderate to invite so many people knowing they'll never fit in the church, but I guess they forgive you because it's your wedding? Plus it's my church from growing up and now mine and Jon's church.

Mom should be able to stamp them and get them out this weekend.

One step closer...

My Wedding on a Budget: 59 Days to Go!

Possession of the Dress!
It's ready! The alterations on my dress were complete, so I went by and tried it on (fits perfectly) and had Jo come with me so she learn the tricks of bustling it and I brought it on home! So it will hang at Greystone until the big day at this point! The longer I have it and the more I see it the more excited I am to wear it and the more I'm sure I picked just the right dress!

I checked in on the girls' dresses while I was there and had to do some prodding to remind them to get on ordering the dresses! I thought Valerie was the only one left, due to the adjusting post-pregnancy size, but no. Kelli and Holly are the only ones who have dresses so far!

I also stopped by Plato's Closet (looking for some shoes) but instead spent $20 and got 4 dresses I can wear for showers and the honeymoon. Love, love, love good deals!

My Wedding on a Budget: 60 Days To Go!

Off for the Holiday: Valerie-Rita Day

There was no time for wedding planning today, besides, you're supposed to take off for holidays, right? August 9 is mine and Valerie's most important holiday (yes, we have more than one self-instated holidays). Since the summer we met in 2003 we have never not seen each other on August 9. The first 2 years were by chance and the third year was luck (we had scheduled to work in Virginia Beach together prior to thinking about the date). Since then it has been planned and sometimes nearly forced. (For example, the year Kelli and Brandon got married in Richmond and I was in the wedding. There was no chance until I ended up going back to Holly's in Lexington to stay that night and we opted to hit the bars so I called Valerie and she met us out!) It gets harder as we get older but we nearly forgot this year. Mainly because time is moving so fast! It would have been tragic if in a week or two we realized we'd not even thought about it. It was a great evening of chit-chat. Crazy yet amazing where our lives are... discussing new life with a baby for her and my soon-to-be married life!

My Wedding on a Budget: 61 Days to Go!

Little Purple Dresses: The Flower Girl
I love that Aunt Janet gets excited about these kinds of things! I talked with her at the reunion this weekend about Julianna's flower girl dress. I told her I didn't want to necessarily do the standard white flower girl dress. I feel like, as a little girl, having something purple would be much more fun! I told her I'd research and bring her a few ideas at Sunday's shower. Today, though, she sent me about 4 emails after doing her own research. At first she didn't remember what the material in the other dresses was (chiffon) but after I reminded her she found a VERY cute one. I really, really like it and I'm pretty sure she does as well. My ONLY hesitation is that it is a dark purple--which I'm fine with; I just don't want it to clash in any way with the other "lapis" purple dresses of Rachel and Valerie. However, the only purple I could really go with that wouldn't possibly clash with one of the other colors would be a lilac purple, which I'd been steering clear of due to it being very "springy". In the end, though, the flowing purple one seems great for fall and is just adorable so I'll probably go with it (top left image). The one below it is nearly identical. The bottom right has some shiny satin material up top which throws it off a bit.

Aah... decision, decisions!
TWO MONTHS exactly!

My Wedding on a Budget: 62 Days to Go!

Invitations: Almost there!
It was a major invitation day! I knew it would take some time but I didn't think of it taking almost a whole day. (Then again, after a late return from Ohio last night, we slept in pretty darn late and lazed around before getting going on much of anything today.)

So the invitations consisted of first lining up and making sure all of the Invites, RSVPs and inserts printed out right. Then we printed the invites... Then Mom printed the RSVPs while I stamped the RSVP envelopes. I tried to do the paper cutting of the giant 12x12 green sheets we had to cut into 6 4x6 sheets for the directions and hotel info. Yeah, I've never been so hot with a paper cutter. So I did that for like...two cards and got fired and Mom took over while I started to stamp the return address labels. Next Mom printed out the green sheets and then Jon came in and helped out with the paper cutting.

We took a dinner break and then came back later with the intention to stuff them all...but we didn't get quite through. Turns out we hadn't realized that the little ribbons that tie around the whole dealy are not even tied yet...so that was a bit of a slow down. So Jon and I put together everything else with each envelope while Mom tied the bows. We stopped on about a third of them at about 10. She's going to continue with the bows the next few nights and hopefully we can finish them up at the end of the week so she'll be happy and be true to her word and have them out the second week of August!

My Wedding on a Budget: 63 Days to Go!

My First Wedding Shower!
Rachel took on organizing my first shower,but it we quickly learned it should have never been titled a shower since she expected men to come as well. The point of it was to give any of the Rousculp/King/Gill side of the family the chance to congratulate the two of us especially considering many of them might not make it to the wedding. Jon was a real sport about it when he heard it was a "couples shower" but it wasn't even a really big to-do anyway. Debra did a beautiful job of opening up their house to host (since the actual family reunion was up the street at Uncle David's). There were a few snacks and drinks. She even made me one of the fun, cool towel cake displays as her gift. Rachel put a fun game together for us. She knows I am not a big fan of shower games, but this e played the newlywed game but all married couples plus us got to play. Seth was our game show host, and as Deutsch tends to do, he played it up and did well. The best question for us had to be "Your significant other hires a beautiful blond secretary. What do you do?" We, the ladies, had to write out an answer and then the men had to say what they though our answer was. I'm not sure if anyone else got that one right but we sure did! Thanks to my silly dream I had about 2 months into our relationship when a waitress licked on his fingers and I poked her eyes out for it! So When Jon answered, "She'd tell me 'No finger sucking.'" Everyone looked at him funny until I turned over my paper which read, "I'd tell him not to let her lick his fingers." That just lead to lots of laughter and the need to explain. It was a fun first shower and a great chance to get some hugs of congratulations and laughs with family I don't see enough.

I saw KK at the Seitz reunion (Also going on today in Ohio.) She's going to make some trial flowers this week to bring to the Louisville shower next week to decide if she can make the sashes for her and Michelle. I also saw Janet and Julianna there, so I talked with Aunt Janet about what type of dress I'd like Julianna to wear. I'm going to bring her some ideas also to the shower next weekend.

Jon and I did some reading during our car rides in order to move closer to choosing our readings. Usually readings just lead to discussions on God, love and life and how they all fit together. I could find deep meaning in so many or most of the readings. I would love to have one that, for anyone who is listening that day, they really hear what we are all about.

My Wedding on a Budget: 64 Days to Go!

Honeymoon: BOOKED!!!
Yikes! We did it! We just booked our HONEYMOON! Going to Mexico! Yep we went with the one I was just posting about. Jon also researched more options on BookIt.com today and we both decided we liked that place more than anything else we found within the same price range. Here was the one problem... it said on the site that the prices were ending at midnight! HOWEVER, we also had to drive to Tipp City, Ohio right after work tonight...which meant we couldn't research and call and ask questions. Instead we had to jump in the car and drive, drive, drive... The trip usually takes about an hour and a half, but our luck, it took us 5 HOURS. So by the time we got to the hotel room, not only was it 11:30, but the price had gone up by $200 ($100 per person). So that made me more hesitant to have to rush through the payments. It's a lot of money! At the same time... considering we could go and not spend a penny more (if we really didn't want to) that's a pretty good package. We have options to do some other things down there. I think our top choices are to visit the ruins (Chitzen Itza) and do the ATV/Zip package. At the same time, there seems to be a lot to do at the resort so we want to get down there and figure it out first. I hope we made the right call in going ahead and booking, but that is my thought process anytime I spend a decent amount of money, even if it is at a good price. I think the increase of $200 just threw me off in the rush :-). I know Jon is more comfortable going somewhere on LAND than doing a cruise on a boat in the middle of the ocean.

My other accomplishment tonight was getting here and trying a PURPLE PINGUS. Rachel had a drink her friend had made before that she thought was purple, called a Pixie Stick. Turns out this mix was more of a blue-green. It is very potent! If it's not purple, though, I'm not sure I'll want to use it over any other drink. I guess I'll be discussing more with Rachel tomorrow.

My Wedding on a Budget: 65 Days to Go!

I did a little further digging on BookIt.com and man-oh-man do they have some nice packages! All Inclusive as well! I'm hoping there aren't all of these extra fees and things they hit us up for in the end, because right now it appears to be too good to be true!

Here's the one I was looking at: Grand Sunset Princess Resort (I won't lie...It drew me in with the name "Princess"...) in Cancun. We can get there just afternoon on Monday, Oct. 10 (Giving us that Sunday to relax, finish packing, visit, etc.) and come back Friday afternoon...flights and the restaurants included it totals $684 a person! Throw in taxes and transportation to the resort (which we may swap that out for a rental car so we have an easy way to get to the other places we need to go) and you're at $1,647! If we can pay that much and have food, airfare and room covered that is pretty awesome! I'm so glad Jo showed me this site. I am definitely going to call and try to speak with someone before putting money towards it because I want to know we're getting all we think. It appears as though the restaurants are included but I'd hate to bank on that and then it all costs a ton! Then again, we'll be in Mexico so it should all be cheaper anyway.

The other cool part is that there are so many neat things to do near by like ziplining or visiting the Mayan ruins. Now, included in the package is a $90 charge for the roundtrip from the airport to the resort, so we don't have to worry about it ourselves. We could remove that and do a rental car for $18 a day which comes out about the same price. My thought is, if we have the car we can do any traveling we want to; however, are we going to regret trying to get around ourselves as opposed to just riding with people/services who do it everyday? Another cost we might end up with the rental car is parking it in whatever garage they have. It might be less of a headache to just spend the money to take the bus or whatever to the different activities, because you know they'll have that readily available. Maybe the travel to and from those main places is fairly cheap or even a service of the resort.

Jon and I aren't hung up on doing anything overly exotic. We mainly just want time to get away together. In my opinion, whatever is cheap and requires the least work on our behalf is great. So far this is looking like the winner, but I think we'll need to decide soon if we want to get this price!

My Wedding on a Budget: 66 Days to Go!

It was "driving day" (ie, I drove 2 hours home from Louisville after work) so there wasn't a lot of wedding time. I did give Rachel a call and ask her to follow up on the silver shoes she found at Marshalls that she showed me pictures of on her phone last weekend. Very cute in several styles ranging between $15 and $22. I'm going to let the girls know about them and find out who would like a pair so we can get that scratched off the list.
Jon did some more mowing of our field tonight. Pa had used the finishing mower on the main space in Knob End where the reception will be held. It's starting to come through with pretty nice grass and less woody stumps. Jon took care of mowing some of the lower part of the field where we plan to set up corn hole and yard golf.

Rather than doing any fun wedding stuff on my computer tonight, Jon and I researched auto insurance quotes for this '96 Ranger we're probably getting within the week. Hmm...yes finding ways to save money on wedding planning is much more fun than HAVING to find ways to save money on auto insurance...

My Wedding on a Budget: 67 Days to go!

I'm taking it pretty easy tonight. I needed that. I've been looking on Etsy for cupcake papers to use. I figure I'll go with green and purple (imagine that) and maybe the patterns like in this picture so we can do each flavor with a different pattern. I'm going to look on some more general bulk sale sites to see if Etsy is the best route or not. These run about $16 for 225 papers.

Holly also introduced me to a site I may look at with Jon for honeymoon options. It's BookIt.com. It seems to be a great place to do last minute trips and get them cheap. My guess is it's resorts and cruises with extra space and when it's so close to that date being passed they'd rather sell it at a cheap rate than make no money at all. I really want Jon to just pick a honeymoon so we can have that decision off our plate!

My Wedding on a Budget: 68 Days to go!

Here's a quick synopsis:

Yesterday Mom and I verified where we are with the budget. What we've spent, what we're committed to spending and what we have left to spend.

Mom and I finalized the invitation verbiage, insert and RSVP cards. We actually test printed an invite but not the others.

Rachel was visiting so we browsed for jewelry and hair pieces for me and the bridesmaids. We're finding some pretty good options. Claire's hair flower pieces are probably the nicest, cheap option.

Tonight Dani came over and helped me address the invitations. We only messed up SOME... I think we'll have enough extras to make up for the mistakes. :-)