Almost caught up

When we decided to have a short engagement I wasn't ready for the shock of the checklist on The Knot. It wasn't the length of the list or that the length was a direct representation of just how much stuff we needed to get done. The shock came from how far behind the list made me feel. I didn't find a list titled "how to plan your wedding in 5 months". All the lists started at 12 months and there were a lot of tasks scheduled from 12-5 months. As of today we are 90 days away from our wedding and almost caught up. So to catch you up...

I bought a dress. It was far less stressful than I anticipated. I live in San Francisco and my best friend and mother live in Indianapolis so on a trip home we planned a shopping trip to a bridal boutique. I really didn't think I would find anything. I have wanted a tea length dress since I started dreaming about dresses a year ago. What I have found is they aren't easy to come by and to make it tougher when you shop 4 months before your wedding makes for a tight time frame.  I found Sophia's Bridal through a designers website but when I called they told me they didn't carry that line. I came up with a backup plan to go to a shop in Los Angeles if nothing turned up. I got so lucky. The third dress I tried on was the one. I went to the big box store and tried on some other dresses but we quickly drove back to Sophia's and bought my dress off the rack for 70% off! It needs some tailoring but it is going to be perfect and it has pockets! 

We got some DIY decorations going. Pinwheels! I am very excited about these and think they will be perfect for our outdoor wedding. 

We have a caterer! A nice Mediterranean picnic lunch with sandwiches, hummus, eggplant bruschetta and lemon bars. Lemonade and Iced Tea to wash it down. I am excited to have Zov's as our caterer because  they are a favorite of my fiance's family and it will be great to have something that has special memories for them. 

I don't want to spoil the surprise with a picture but we also got the invitations courtesy of two of the most important people, Michael and Maya. We can't thank them enough for designing them and finding the printer. We have also booked the musicians, a photographer and started our premarital counseling. Still need to find a florist to do my bouquet and some greens on the gazebo, finalize chairs and a few other details and we will be ready to go, even if the checklist still says I am behind. 

130 days or roughly 17 weeks

In that short amount of time I need to plan our wedding. We have been engaged since mid-November but with the holidays put wedding planning in cruise control. As the girl I am I spent that time crafting about a dozen versions of my dream wedding. Thank you Pinterest for your help in organizing all of this. I am now ready to use it and I couldn't be more excited about the plan we have come up with for our big day.
I am currently sitting in the San Diego airport after our trip to look at the location site. We looked, we loved and we booked all in a two hour window. If we can make all other decisions this quickly this short timeframe should be no problem. I am guessing that won't exactly be the case for everything though.
Well week one we got a date, a location and all the postcards we need to make the save the date cards.

Wish us luck. Up next is caterer and a person to marry us. Both minor details really.

more life lessons

It wasn't but a few days ago that I talked about the things my engagement ring taught me. Today's life lesson is it might be best to go with your first idea. My first idea was to have a small mostly family ceremony and a casual lunch. Of course, even with just family and close friends it won't be all that small when your fiancé has 11 brothers and sisters. Curious where this plan got off course?

That is right one magazine took this small affair off on a tangent I never thought myself capable. One magazine turned into 5. Those 5 turned into elaborate venues and a potential budget I could never imagine paying. Tonight when I got home I found an equally overwhelmed partner. Since he is sleeping and I am still awake thinking about the wedding I will have to fill him in tomorrow that I am equally overwhelmed. As I have been up for the last hour thinking this all over for the 1,000 time I am coming closer to a conclusion that I don't need the fancy wedding and that the first idea was probably the best. As I came to this decision I felt a little sense of relief that I might not need to figure out all these damn details, that if I go with the first idea it really is a wedding that is more suited to the two of us. Only time will tell since this will be about the 10th time I have changed my mind. After all I am the bride and that is my prerogative.

things my engagement ring taught me

I have been engaged for two weeks now and I have already learned some very important things.
1. engagement rings have super powers
2. men care about their wedding
3. men don't get how much you think about the wedding

From the minute that ring was slipped on my finger it was like I had super powers that allowed me to not take anything too seriously. I could have watched someone run into my car and I probably would have smiled, shrugged and asked if they were okay in the calmest voice possible. This power came in very handy since I work retail and I got engaged about a week before Thanksgiving. I went back to work and nothing phased me. There were more people in the store with more demands than ever before but I felt like I had an answer for all of it. This power unfortunately doesn't last long and has started to wane just a bit. It was great two weeks. I think the people I work with might wish I got engaged every couple weekends.

Yes, ladies they do care about the wedding. Though they may not have planned it from childhood they have thought about it and it matters. Now I haven't planned my wedding since childhood either but I knew a year ago that this was the guy for me so I have planned a dozen versions of our wedding and have tweaked every detail in my head a thousand times. He on the other hand has thought about it but it really isn't as flushed out, so when asked what he pictures he isn't really sure yet. To his credit he can quickly come up with ideas I never thought of once I start mentioning mine and it is making for what sounds like a really fun day both of us will love. The challenge is letting go of some of the magical, perfect, wedding ideas I had and come up with new ones. To say I feel like I am never going to be done planning is an understatement. I have taken to simply marking everything I love on pinterest.com and plan on showing them to him as ideas and seeing where we go from there.  I know it will be a great day but I get why people elope. Luckily, my mother is supportive and not pushy with ideas cause I don't think I could plan this with with a stereotypical mother of the bride.

Now while he is interested I don't think he gets how much time I have spent in the last two weeks thinking about the wedding. He has pitched in and found possible locations, come up with ideas on what we should do and been flexible to ideas that I have suggested that initially he thought were a little out there. His vision of the wedding has certainly started coming together. Though every time I am on the computer and he asks what I am doing and reply with some wedding answer it seems as if a glaze goes over his eyes. It is the same look I get when he says he is reading about the Bruins recruitment class for the umpteenth time. It isn't really disinterest it is just he can only take so much information about the variety of invitations and I only need so much info on the incoming freshman basketball players that won't play until 2012-2013.

It has been a fun two weeks and I am very excited to see what the two of us come up with. I am guessing it will give me lots of great stories to tell for the next few months. I would tell you how many but we have changed our minds on the month about as often as we have on the kind of food.