Hint

P.S........curious about the wedding dress?


I'll give you a hint.


It doesn't look anything like the following:

Location: Check!

We finally booked our location. It had been pretty much decided on for a while, but I was hoping they might run an end-of-the-year special like they did in the previous year to offer a discount. No such luck. So after a moment of holy-cow-the-wedding's-nine-months-away, I made we actually got around to booking it and putting down our deposit. The location is..............drum roll please..........Aldea at Tlaquepaque. It's not exactly close to wear we live, but it's no destination wedding or anything (although those I've dragged out there to see it might beg to differ).

Anyway...Zach and I had our first meeting with one of the coordinators there. I think Zach got overwhelmed with details and started to zone out once she started talking about what kind of table number fonts we should and shouldn't use. I already knew most of what I should be doing, but she helped direct us toward which meetings we should be setting up first with our vendors. First up is photographer, which is decided on, but I still need to make sure she's available. We really need to get our engagement portraits done because I'd like to send out photo magnet save-the-dates! Besides...none of you will have actually seen this blog I've been working on until those go out. =P

I can't believe the wedding is just over 8 months away. Time has flown and now I've got a-lot to do! Which has now been made more complicated (though I am definitely NOT complaining) by my getting hired at Phoenix Children's Hospital as a nurse (YAY!). They're keeping me busy with all kinds of training. On the bright side, its about half way between our home and most of the vendors, so it makes the drive out to meetings seem not as long if I can schedule them after training sessions.

I'm getting excited now that it's 2011! I can see it starting to take shape in my mind!

Wedding Dress!

I have a wedding dress! (Well, not in my possession yet, but it's been ordered!) I wasn't expecting to find one so soon!

On my birthday this past week, I took my mom, aunt, and matrons of honor to a bridal shop to celebrate my birthday and being less than a year away from the wedding finally. It was a cute little shop in downtown Chandler and they offered a nice experience. I tried on 6-8 dresses. Some of them were pretty, but not quite right. Others were near immediate no's. There was one I really liked, but having only really shopped the one time, I wasn't sure it was THE one. Plus, there was a specific designer who had several gowns I loved in pictures and wanted to try on.

I found out about a trunk show for Maggie Sottero (aforementioned designer) that was happening the following weekend and made plans to go check it out with my mom. So we went to that today. I really wasn't sure what to expect because I was still unclear as to what exactly a trunk show was. I assumed I'd mostly be looking at dresses and not actually trying on. WRONG. I tried on several (surprisingly only a couple Maggies), and ended up torn between two beautiful but very different dresses. After having images created with props, taking pictures to see how the gowns would show up in photographs, judging tear factor from mom, and creating some mental images of which dress I saw myself walking down the isle in....I came up with my decision and ended up not getting the Maggie Sottero dress that was in the top two. We got a great deal because of the event (there was also a mini bridal fair going on today). I also have my veil and a tiara/headpiece (I had absolutely NO intention of wearing a tiara, but it just looked right. It's not really a tiara anyway...more of a headband).

So it's been quite the surprising but happy day! I'm sad that I'm done shopping for it already (because hey, it's fun trying on all those pretty dresses), but super happy with my choice! Now only about 350 days until I get to wear it!

Summer Break

Once again, I do not have much news to report. I've been taking a bit of summer break from any wedding planning, mainly because it's just too darn hot to go anywhere.

The bridal show was lots of fun. I've got a ton of fliers and business cards (and they're nice and organized thanks to Meli and Debbie's gift of a wedding organizer last Christmas). I'm not too sure yet how helpful the show will have been, but regardless, I had a great time with my girls and mom. Although it has been not-so-fun receiving all kinds of e-mails and calls from vendors that the bridal show gave my info to. I was even tricky and created a separate e-mail address just to give out to wedding vendors so my normal e-mail wouldn't be overrun with spam, but I registered for the bridal show with my normal e-mail, so that didn't work too well. Oh well.

We're pretty sure the date of the wedding will be changed to October 2nd 2011. A Sunday as opposed to a Saturday. It's quite a bit cheaper to change it that one day. We thought about Friday, but Zach was worried that none of his co-workers would be able to go. This site will be updated once we make a final decision.

I took Zach back to the location I really liked. He (and my mom, and Lauren) really liked the reception area. He wasn't quite as fond of the ceremony spot, and he's very slightly more in favor of the 2nd place location, but he admitted that might just be because there's a pool table for the groomsmen to play on before the wedding. So I think we've pretty much decided on the location, but nothing's official yet. We're waiting until probably fall to put down a deposit, because I imagine they will start offering discounts for 2011 toward the end of the year and since we're likely changing to Sunday, I'm not too worried about that date getting booked. It'd be nice to have that extra discount and be able to put those funds toward other fun things for the wedding. Once we do make a deposit somewhere, I will announce it on the website.

I've officially asked my MOHs (there will be two) and bridesmaids to be the MOHs and bridesmaids. MOHs are Lauren and Mandy and the bridesmaids are Randi and my cousin Carissa. My cousin Jessica is going to be our flower girl (more of a junior bridesmaid since she's not really a girl anymore and is taller than I am).

So that's about all as far as new details go. Next up is making the location official, creating an official guest list, start looking at save the date cards and invitations, and then (squee) wedding dress shopping in the fall and winter!

Location Location Location

It's too bad we don't live somewhere on the east coast. I'm pretty sure my perfect wedding venue is somewhere on that side of the country. Old beautiful buildings....mature natural parks....greenery! Not to say there aren't some exquisitely beautiful sites here in Arizona, but I haven't found that ideal spot. But since we have made Arizona our home and both deeply love Arizona, I suppose we should incorporate that into the wedding. I know Zach would like to.

That said...I have found a couple places I'm quite fond of. One I had seen while looking at venues with Lauren for her wedding, and returned to with my own perspective in mind. Zach liked it as well when I brought him to see the place. Always good to be in agreement. The other place Zach has yet to see. I'm looking forward to taking him for a tour and getting his thoughts, because it's creeping toward first place for me. There's a third that's in the running, mainly because it's the cheapest option I've visited...which would keep us WELL within budget.

I'm almost starting to get overwhelmed with how many places there are to visit. Every time I think I'm done looking, someone makes another suggestion. And curiosity is going to kill the proverbial cat. So I have 2-3 more I will visit, and then I am consulting with Zach to make a final decision. I want to have made a decision by the end of the summer. The location dictates a-lot of the other details based on its character.

We've started on the guest list. Looks like it will be somewhere between 70 and 100 guests. Maybe slightly more if we choose a cheaper location and decide not to leave anyone out. And I certainly prefer not to leave people out. I'd hate to offend anyone who was expecting an invitation.

The fun is really going to start soon though! There's a bridal show on June 6th, so my mom and my girls are going to be in tow for the first "event" of the wedding process. =)

Let there be blogging!

Welcome to my wedding planning blog. Since wedding wire does not really have a blog feature, only the ability to link to this....voila! Let there be blogging. Here I'll be detailing the wedding planning process over the next year and so many months. Our wedding is quite a ways off still, so there will be plenty of blogs. Unless I lose interest. But I figured this might be a fun way for relatives or friends to keep involved and updated. Although, who knows....it could turn out that no one is interested. We'll just see how interesting I can be.

So to start off....not too much planning has been done so far since it's still so far off. I've delved into a huge stack of bridal magazines (and spent a whole weekend with my mom clipping out pictures to keep around for ideas of stuff I like). Here's what I do know, at least tentatively....

We've set the date tentatively for October 1st 2011, significant because it will mark 8 years since our first date and first kiss. Plus, I kinda have a thing for October. Our anniversary, my birthday, and Halloween (my favorite holiday)....why not throw in a wedding and keep the anniversary date the same? Although technically our anniversary is October 4th, since Zach didn't officially ask me to be his girlfriend until then because he assumed that if you kissed someone, it meant you were going out (which makes sense to me, and I pretty much assumed the same thing anyway).

I think I've gotten Zach to agree to my deep purple and apricot color theme. Though he's still insisting that the colors should be red and white, in honor of the Cardinals. (I'll let you all guess the answer to that one). But we shall see....I may change my mind when we pick a location.

Speaking of locations....I've been on the prowl. I've found two that I'm pretty fond of, but Zach's not too interested in either one. So the hunt continues. I dragged Zach to a place called Villa Sienna earlier this week, and it was REALLY pretty, but perhaps a bit too fancy shmancy for a laid back and so-not-gourmet-appreciating couple like us. Not to mention it was the most expensive location I've visited yet. So that was a no.

I've decided that Arizona needs more mature trees. We'd both love an outdoor ceremony decorated with mostly just the beauty of nature. But here in Phoenix, that seems to mean overly manicured golf courses with views of the mountains and not the more woodsy/foresty feel I'd like. But architecture can be good for a backdrop too. I just wish I could find the right combination. Many more places to see though!

And, well, that's about it so far. Keep checking in for updates! I plan on dragging Zach to more locations soon!