Meetings & More
Up early enough considering the fun night we had. We girls had some good re-cap time of the night before, enjoyed breakfast and cleaned up the girl explosion that happened in Holly's room. (Seriously, I wish I'd taken a picture of that--shoes, shirts, boots, jewelry, bags, bras, presents-EVERYWHERE!)I headed to Louisville with Michelle since Jon had stayed at their house last night. (He went up to get a nice, snazzy haircut.) Then we headed to meet with Ben one more time about music. And wasn't it a surprise that Virginia came with him! It ended up being more like a great afternoon of chat and catch up with two of our favorite people--oh yeah and by the way here are 2 cds of music. We actually kind of took a page out of their book for the whole wedding from the beginning. They just got married last October and had a fairly short engagement. The wedding was outdoors (her family winery) and reception in a barn. The fact Ben was the DJ for his own wedding is what made me even ask to do ours. They did a "cook out" style meal and the entire thing was fabulous. Hope they take it as a compliment that we are copy cats!Aunt Anne flew in today and Mom brought her home. Touched base on a lot tonight: music, singing, rehearsal, things father brought up at church this morning. So I came home and sent the itinerary to Mom and Cassie to see what their thoughts are before finalizing.Also, Uncle John has (so kindly) agreed to make a few signs for us. His artistic hand will have a much better result than anything we could have done. Looking forward to see what he comes up with!This week is going to fly......
Too much to do for picturesYou're lucky I'm even posting to the blog...- Have my gifts and thank yous ready for my girls to give to them this weekend- Have music on cds for Big Ben (hoping we see him this weekend)
Need to make several lists: - Things I need Mom to talk to Father Pat about at church - Signs we need to get made - Thank you's I need to get taken care ofA few things I need to finish up soon and very soon:- Laid out program- Buy paper and print the programs
- send Anne-Tyler our responsorial psalm
- Lay out the music exactly as we want it for the ceremony
- Talk to Isetta about what we want her playing for the ceremony
Bachelorette fun tomorrow night!!!
Ready to Jam
We're set! The sound equipment is all safely to the Valley! I stopped at Doo Wop before heading home tonight and the guy helping me hooked me up with all I needed and even bettered it. He got me speakers and an amp that would use less power than those I was originally quoted. I also specifically watched how he hooked everything up and he definitely do anything special with outlets and what he plugged in where so I think our electric hook up should be fine. The total came to $118 and the quote last week was $178. Clay also picked up the electrical equipment we need and hopefully we can return some of that when all is said and done. After watching the hook up process the Doo Wop guys did I don't think we need to be too worried about the power. We're ready for a purple party!!
Musical Meeting with a hint of CiderGot together with DJ man Ben after work today. We met up at Heine Brothers on Frankfort after I got off work and I'd printed off the list I made (and Jon added a little to). We met for about an hour and a half but I'd say less than 45 minutes of it was essential planning for the wedding. I went through the things I really wanted/needed played, the general feel for before, during and after dinner and he provided some pretty nifty input as well. I've got to put a lot of my music on CD for him so he can add it to his collections so hopefully I can do that this weekend and get with him one more time before the big day (oh-so-close!)
I know I've said it before, but I'm so grateful to have a close friend heading up my music for the day. Beyond that, I'm so glad to have close friends and family being a part of so many aspects of the wedding. And in case I haven't given them all a special thank you in this blog:
- Caitlan "KK", my cousin, doing some of my church decorations and flowers for the bridesmaids.
- Jerusha, my cousin, helping with more than her fair share. She'll do pictures (with help from her sister, another cousin, Alyx), a batch of cupcakes and put together flowers.
- My Aunt Lea who made my veil
- Kara, my college friend, who is making my cake and a batch of cupcakes
- Michelle, my sister-in-law, who is make TWO batches of cupcakes (sorry I cannot link to a Michelle page! She actually did a test run of cupcakes for me before I started tracking my wedding progress in the blog. She made FIVE batches of cupcakes from scratch in ONE DAY! The house was loaded with cupcakes! Quite the taste-testing!)
Most of my time with Ben was simply catching up. As most of you probably know, the older we get, the less time we get to simply relax and enjoy a good cup of coffee with close friends. But it's worth stopping to do every so often. And in this case...for me at least, it was an exception to my normal coffee because HUBER'S CIDER is back at Heine Bros! YUM!
Today's checklist:
- Ben said we can get together tomorrow about music stuff. Hopefully we'll make some good progress. - Went to see KK after work and she's gotten quite a bit done on the flower work. They are looking great and she should have it wrapped up by the bachelorette weekend.
- Called "Ecotage" Salon...and it's no longer Ecotage! Good news is J-Pat still works there. I haven't been to see him since DECEMBER. I know...kinda crazy to go that long without trimming up the loose ends. I had to get some length on it though! Jon proposed right around the time I would have schedule a fresh cut and after that I decided to let it grow. But I have an appointment for next Monday so I let Dani and Holly know so maybe they'll do a little shopping with me afterwards.
- Clay called Doo Wop today and it sounds like we're all safe for our sound equipment. We may just need to run more circuits over to the field than expected.
And last but not least... Tell me HOW cute is this ring bearer going to be?!
Mass Music
Jon came home today me today! He still loves me after a wild weekend with the boys!I stole one of the books from church today so I could find some suitable songs for the ceremony. We mainly need stuff for two parts: the presentation/preparation of the gifts and communion. The other parts will be instrumental (organ) only. A few I book marked and need to run by Jon are: - I Am the Bread of Life - Taste and See - We Are Called - Whatsoever You Do - You Are Mine - One Bread, One BodyI really, really like "We Are Called," but I'm not sure that will fit anywhere. It seems to be more of a closing, "go forth" song. "You Are Mine" is one of my favorites. I can't decide when to play it but that one is my #1 vote. "One Bread, One Body" and "I Am the Bread of Life" are also two I have always liked. I'll also run them by Anne-Tyler to see if she could lead any of them. I'm not sure if I'll have her sing or lead. I feel like if we want people to join in we need to have lyrics printed out for people so we'll see.
Wrote some more thank yous. Clay went over our electric needs for running power from the garage to the field. He's been beyond helpful. He's going to call Doo Wop tomorrow to figure out if we have to get any special. Last thing I want is power to blow and we lose music and lights!!
So glad my man made it home safely :)
THREE WEEKS?!Dang, that really hit me today! I realized I have this weekend, next weekend (which is Apple Festival and Mom & Pa will be in Ohio with the "RF" friends from high school), then it's my bachelorette and BAM wedding time!!
Short and sweet tonight... Mike & Jenny drove down today so they could bring a truck load of stuff for Jon and I. A lot of it was from Grandma Feagley's house that was sold. (Nothing wedding related, but LOTS of great canning and gardening tools!) They also brought down the soda and paper products for the rehearsal dinner. One less thing to worry about the week of.
But they ALSO brought something very important for the wedding: the rings! I wish Jon had been here to see them in completion with me the first time, but of course I couldn't help myself and I had to take a peek. Glad we have those safe and sound!
Mom is off on Fridays now so she was running around getting things done and since last Sunday Pa got our drive grated, today they had 3 massive truckloads of white rock brought out for Blue Bank Lane. I drove down for dinner tonight and it looks so nice. They actually extended the gravel back towards the new bridge into Knob End. It's official! We have a road back to our future home. It makes it that much more real!
After eating mom's homemade pizza at the house she and I got on the computer and started looking at some wedding night wear for me. There were, of course, options on Victoria's Secret, but we found a few other sites with some fun (and cheaper) options.Really she could surprise me with whatever and I'd be happy--it's all new to me!
At home I started working on more music. This time for the party part of the reception. How to choose...how to choose! There will be some musts that aren't on most people's play lists (Electric Six and One For the Road). I have to remind myself that not everyone gets excited about 80s jams like I do and I was finding a decent collection of 90s hits I was adding to my potential list. I guess it's pretty clear what era I grew up in. I also want to mix in a little bit of what I have come to call "Jo Jams" in honor of the one and only Holly Jo. She's made many party mix cds over the years and that's where I tend to get my collection of Top 40 and club hits from. I want to hear some bagpipes from the likes of Flogging Molly or Dropkick Murphys...plus a bit of some club techno and country can't hurt. Honestly, anything that will make people excited and get them moving. I also found a very helpful list from this site that is a great guide to the Top 200 wedding songs and then suggestions for different events in the evening.
As said in my previous post...music is a time suck...I was up quite late....
Party in the BLUEGRASSPicking out music might be my favorite and least favorite thing...Reasons to love it:1.) I love music....simple as that.2.) It expresses so much not just lyrically but in its sound. Being a lover of movie scores, piano music and all things instrumental, I'd go as far as to say that the sounds means 10x more to me than words.Reasons to hate it:1.) There's so much of it and I only have so much time to play it during my day! It basically breaks down to three chunks: Church/ceremony, early reception and party/dancing reception.2.) Going through it and picking and choosing can be a HUGE time suck!
Tonight I tried to work strictly on the opening reception music. The good news is Jon and I have pretty much accomplished half of the battle and narrowed it down to what style of music we want it to be. The bad news it's not traditional wedding music. Most people stick with the Norah Jones and Frank Sinatra mix that any DJ who's worked a wedding probably already has a standard play list for. Not us. For some reason "Come Fly Away" doesn't seem as suiting in our setting. So we want to go with folk/bluegrass mix. You know...lots of fiddle and banjo music. Maybe it's just me but fall colors, cool weather and a field just scream some good fiddle tunes. On top of that I'd say it's probably Jon's favorite kind of music. I remember in my early months of going to his apartment to fix and eat dinner he'd put the TV on the bluegrass station and just let the music play. It was comforting even then.
Jon has several bluegrass cds so I've been going through them picking out the instrumental songs so I can provide Ben with as much as possible. From those CDs I've gotten a decent collection: Sam Bush, Alison Krauss & Union Station, Bill Monroe, Bela Fleck. Ben may have some but I'm guessing (as said previously) it's not his #1 request. I've put together almost 2 hours of music but that's from all that I could find and I'm not sure I want all of it used (some is slower or very similar...Need a little variety.) I'd like to find more.
I'm 99% sure the song Jon and I will be using for our first dance is off of a Sam Bush album he purchased in the past year: "Circles Around Me." I love the sound and the words about life, love, friends, family...all that really matters in life. Jon and I have never really had a song (unless you count Meatloaf, "Anything for Love", but we'll save that performance for later in the evening...) so I wanted him to pick out what we'd dance to. He mentioned this one and I want to run with it mainly because so much about it screams Jon Harris. It's slow enough to be sweet and heartfelt, but got enough pick up in it for him to spin me a time or two on the dance floor (and spinning is important!)I hear it...and I think of him. That's how it should be.
He's off to Dale Hollow for a bachelor party weekend. Won't be back til Sunday so it will be me and the animals holding down the fort!
MU-ZAK!I like music. In fact, I really love music. I listen to it non-stop. I know nothing about making music and nothing about music equipment. Thank goodness for people who do. 
My friend Ben ("Big Ben" from my Man Clan at Bellarmine) will be heading up our reception music with his mad-music-DJ skills. If he's talented and cool enough to DJ his own wedding, you can bet I'd trust my wedding in his hands. Not only can I trust him to know the equipment and guide me in what I need, but I trust his music tastes, I trust him to play anything I want and I trust him to be a good emcee. Let's just say Ben's a pretty stellar dude and most definitely trustworthy.
So he'd recommended renting the equipment I need from Doo Wop Shop when I first talked with him back in May or June. He'd told me then that they don't do reservations but did week or month-long rentals, so I really couldn't take any more action until now. Ben sent me specific instructions on what I'd need: a subwoofer, 2 speakers and stands. Once to the Bardstown Road location a guy named Mark helped me and by all means he did HELP me. Very helpful. He added the cables I would need, plus the mic and a DJ mixer. He also helped me pick out fun lights. He gave me the quotes on renting all I'd need for both a week and a month. I could have taken what I needed today but he told me he really didn't think I'd have to worry about getting it later. The other convenience I have is that there are 2 Louisville locations, plus Frankfort and Lexington locations. All 4 would be easy enough for me to rent from and all 4 have the equipment I'm looking at using.
I have to say, I'm really impressed with how cheap it is to rent this equipment. Even for the month long rental of everything, it's under $200. (For the week it's less than $100.) I left without anything today with the thought maybe I could save money and do the week rental, but I'm pretty sure I'll move forward with it next week. It'll give us a chance to determine how we'll do the hook up, one less thing to worry about the week of and I won't have to worry trying to get it returned just before or during the honeymoon.
New Checklists
Now we're getting to many things that have to be done but couldn't be done until now. (Okay, so maybe some of them could be done already...but that's beside the point.)
- Check out Doo-Wop shop and rent the equipment we need
- Call one of the hotels and reserve 2 rooms for the girls the night before the wedding.
- Start hitting up people whom we haven't gotten RSVPs back from
- Get the marriage license
- Hold a final meeting with Father Pat
- Decide for sure on the music and every job/role for the mass so we can print the programs
- Give Ben our must-play music selections
- Check in with the Limo/Hummer company and make sure everything is still set.
- Talk with people I'm hoping can do random day-of jobs to make sure they'll be free prior to wedding time.
- Shop for the final items we still need, which is a random, random, random list.
- Start on a honeymoon packing list
- Buy thank you gifts for people who've helped
- Turn in a head count to Karen for food purpose
I don't have my notebook handy but I know there is plenty more. We're scratching stuff off but new things keep finding their way onto the list! With where we are on RSVPs right now the church is just getting stuffed pretty cozy! We still have about 80 people to hear back from though!!!! Could get interesting...
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!
Meetings & More
