Venue Update and Centerpiece Trial run

Since the last time I blogged we have made some progress surrounding the search for our ceremony site. We have a meeting with my future mother-in-law's pastor on Monday and if all goes well I hope to be putting down a deposit and officially securing our ceremony site! I will be sure to update you guys after we have our meeting next week :)

Now on to the fun stuff! I have known since the beginning of wedding planning that I would be a "budget bride". My parents are giving us some money but we will have to make up the difference. So I will be trying to do as much DIY projects and buy as little ready made items as possible. A while back my mom and I set aside an evening to try out different centerpiece ideas and this was our favorite from the night (excuse the mess surrounding the centerpiece).



You can't really tell from this picture but there is a silver/gray floating candle on top. What do you think? Any suggestions? I went ahead and bought the 25 vases I need because I found a great deal but there is still room for changes involving what goes inside the vase. One thing I have contemplated is the color of the gems in the bottom of the vase. Since the color scheme is yellow and gray I looked for gray gems but have had no luck after looking at all the local stores and even searching online. I didn't think yellow would look good because I thought it would take away from the yellow flower. The iridescent/clear gems kind of help reflect light but I'm debating whether they are too bland?

I will be placing the vase on top of some sort of mirror or decorative place mat and will be sprinkling yellow and gray cutout flowers on the tables.

Please give me your opinion, good or bad!

Venue Frustrations

So I have not had a chance to blog about our search for a church and reception site yet and decided it was about time after the horrible week I have had with the church we had decided on.

After we first got engaged we had no idea about what church we would get married in or what reception site we would use. The church we attend is currently building a new church and it will not be done till right before our wedding and I did not feel comfortable not seeing it until a couple weeks before the wedding, or worse the building being behind schedule and it not actually being done in time for our wedding! So using our church was not really an option so I decided to look for a reception site first then try to find a church nearby. I started getting ideas for the reception site by going to our local bridal fair and picking up information about various sites. We ended up deciding on a reception site after personally looking at 10-12 different sites. Before we booked the reception site we found a church that was close to the reception site and made sure they were both open on the same date. After confirming that they were I put down the deposits (this all happened about 2 weeks ago). At this point I was very excited and it seemed like everything was falling into place. Everything changed earlier this week when I went in for a meeting with the pastor of the church to discuss all the final details. When I first contacted her I asked the same 3 questions I asked every church: 1. Can non-members use the church?, 2. Can I bring in my own minister?, and 3. What is the capacity of the church?. She happily informed me I could use the church even though I was a non-member and told me I could bring in an outside minister as long as she met with him and approved of his teachings. She then told me the capacity was 275-300. I was VERY excited because all the answers were what I wanted to hear and it was within 5 minutes of the reception site we wanted to use. After hearing all of this my fiance, my mom, and I went and looked at the church and we all really liked it and decided it was going to be the place we got married! Well when I went back in this week for our meeting I was given some alarming news....the church sanctuary actually only "comfortably" seats 175! I was completely shocked and did not know what to do. I reminded her that they had originally told me it sat 275-300 and she just nonchalantly said that they could probably squeeze in over 200 and told me not to worry because even though my guest list is over 300 not everybody will show up. I was very frustrated and also felt stupid that I couldn't tell by looking at the sanctuary myself that it wouldn't fit 300, but I am not an expert at judging how many people can fit in a church and I tried to map it out and I thought maybe it wouldn't fit quite 300 but I had no idea it would only fit 175!

Now I have a reception site booked and no church to get married in! I am now starting my church search over and I am very frustrated. I have a couple ideas but I am worried they will not be available for the date I already have my reception site booked for.

Did you have similar struggles? Did you have any trouble with a church or reception site overestimating the capacity?

First Wedding of the Summer

This weekend my fiance and I attended our first wedding together as an engaged couple. I was extremely excited and I could tell my fiance was excited as well. I saw everything differently now that I am in the process of planning my own wedding. I now notice things about weddings I never noticed before. For instance, I noticed how the wedding party entered, the order of the ceremony, how the food was served, decorations for the ceremony and reception, the complete reception experience, and many many other things. I now enjoy weddings more than ever! This was only the first of many weddings on the calendar for the next few months and I am already looking forward to the next!

The wedding this weekend was an outdoor wedding and it made me really jealous that I am not having an outdoor wedding. Both my fiance and I would absolutely LOVE to have an outdoor wedding but we both worry about Kansas weather in April. There would be a very good chance of rain or tornadoes and we do not want to deal with the stress of having to move our wedding indoors at the last minute.

Did you have a similar experience attending weddings after you were engaged and had started the wedding planning process? Did you decide to have an indoor wedding due to weather concerns even though you would have loved to have an outdoor wedding?

I LOVE free stuff!

So if you know me you know I absolutely LOVE good deals, especially free stuff! So as I was browsing through Michaels I found a bridal book that I really wanted (The Modern Bride Survival Guide) but I decided to hold off because at the time is was a little more than what I wanted to pay for it. I also noticed there was a little sticker on the front that said with the purchase of the book you would receive a FREE subscription to Brides magazine, which made it even more tempting to buy. I decided to take a chance and wait a couple more days because the clerk told me it would be 75% off at the end of the week. I went back at the end of the week and bought it! It was only seven dollars and it is a great book!



I mailed in the form on the inside of the book to order my free subscription to Brides magazine and I just received my first issue!



It took about 2 months for me to get my first issue so I had actually completely forgotten about it until I got a surprise in the mail : ) The best part is that it is a 1 year subscription so it will take me right up until the month I get married.

I know it's not that cool of a find but I just love great deals so I had to share!

Throughout the wedding planning process have you found great deals (even small ones like mine) that made you really excited?

Wedding Colors

Deciding on my wedding colors was a lot harder than I would have expected. I was not one of those girls that grew up picturing my dream wedding knowing exactly what colors would be involved. I decided to search online for wedding color combinations to give myself some ideas of what I would like. After searching online I decided I wanted my main color to be yellow but I did not know what I wanted to pair it with. My mom was shopping at Michaels and found some invitations that were yellow and gray/silver and she asked me to come look at them. I ended up falling in love with the color combination! They are definitely not the most traditional wedding colors but I think it's perfect for me and my fiance. When I searched yellow and gray weddings online I found some beautiful wedding pictures that have given me some great ideas!







I am pretty picky about the color of yellow I want the bridesmaids to wear. I do not want a pastel yellow, instead I want what they call canary yellow or marigold yellow (more like the first picture than the last picture). What do you think about the groomsman's wearing gray? I know it is pretty modern but I kind of like the idea to keep with the yellow and gray theme. But do you think it is too non-traditional?

My Ring : )

Zach and I had decided not to go engagement ring shopping together. I know this was VERY risky but it ended up working out perfectly! We had looked online a couple times and all we talked about was the fact that we both preferred princess cut and we both definitely wanted white gold, besides that I was completely in the dark as to what I would be wearing on my finger for the rest of my life haha. But looking back on it I would not have done it any other way. He did a great job and I absolutely LOVE my ring! I have to thank http://soontobemrsf.blogspot.com/ because her fiance recommended a local jeweler to Zach and we have both had a great experience with them. We are planning on returning to purchase our wedding bands from the same jeweler. I really love the fact that we are supporting a locally owned family jeweler, especially during the current economic times. Now for some pictures....









So did you and your fiance go shopping together for the engagement ring? Would you do it the same way if you could do it all over again?

Our Engagement... 12/19/09

So I thought I would share how Zach asked me to be the luckiest women alive. We both knew we would eventually get engaged and married and I suspected the proposal would come in the next 6 months or so, but he still managed to completely surprise me! Our 5 year anniversary was coming up in a couple of weeks along with Christmas and New Years. But he was able to surprise me by not doing it on any of those "special" days.

The day started off with us finishing up the rest of our Christmas shopping then going to Panera for lunch. We then relaxed for most of the afternoon then headed over to Koch Arena to get in line for our big game against Texas Tech, who at the time was ranked #20 in the nation. For those of you that know anything about Wichita State Shocker Basketball you know that we NEVER get ranked opponents into Koch Arena. So the students and fans were very excited for this game and even more excited for a possible upset over a heavily favored team. As the game progressed it stayed close and we all started to believe we might actually pull out a victory. During half time a fellow student proposed to his girlfriend at half-court which was very exciting and sweet, but something Zach and I would never want haha. In the end we ended up winning 85-83 in a very exciting fashion! As we were walking to our car I told Zach and my sister that, "I was so happy that we had won and if we had ended up losing it would have been the worst day ever!" Later on I asked him if he was still going to propose if we lost and he said he had thought about that in advance and was still going to regardless but had definitely contemplated it. After the game Zach and I drove around to look at Christmas lights, and even went to the big house my family and I drove by every Christmas growing up.


(Notice we're still in our Wichita State Shocker attire haha)

After we were done looking at Christmas lights we went back to his apartment to hang out for a little while before I went home for the night. Little did I know I was just about to walk into the best night of my life. He ran up the stairs to unlock the door and this is what I saw as I walked in...



He then got down on one knee and asked me to be his wife. I honestly can't remember one word he said but all I knew is the answer was YES! He then told me the whole story of how he was able to get everything set up. Little did I know my sister left the game and went directly to his apartment to meet up with his parents to set everything up. He even thought to have my sister bring a couple changes of clothes so we could take some pictures in non-Shocker gear haha.




Zach also knew it was important to me to be able to share this wonderful moment with both our families. So he had set up to have my family and his family waiting for us over a his parents house. We were able to celebrate with our families and have some delicious cheesecake!









The night was absolutely perfect and I could not ask for a more amazing fiance. I love him with all my heart and can't wait to start our married life together!



Was your fiance able to completely surprise you? Even down to the last minute before the proposal?