to do list

The biggest thing looming on the horizon is getting the invites together. I'm still not sure exactly how i'm going to do it, which is making me nervous. We need to figure out what we're doing for dinner the night before so that we can finalize the text on the actual invite. Beyond that I'm going to have to figure out where I'm going to get the damn thing printed. We don't have a ink jet printer, believe it or not (only a laser), so i can't run the card stock through at home. I might be able to use his parents printer, but I'm not sure. Otherwise I'll need to get quotes from office max and some other local copy places.

Other things to do
-make, or find cake stands. We need 6.
-ever since I saw this picture on snippet n ink I've been in love. I want to have two huge flowy curtains on the french doors at the beginning of the isle that I'll walk down. I'm assuming that I'll need to find a tension rod to span the door way since I can't use nails or anything. I have some grey fabric that would be light weight enough to use. So I'll try to work with that.
-make two fun wreaths like this one (with blue, green and white fabric), to hang on the bathroom doors.
-figure out an easy way to hang all the things I want at the reception.
-make photo booth props. Examples, empty frames for posing, framed chalk boards, chocolate mustache pops (double as favors).
-make napkin rings
-figure out what we're going to use as table runners. Top choices are; butcher paper, burlap, dyed canvas, or some awesome fabric that I have yet to find.
-make a banner for the balcony over the entrance to venue with blue, green and white fabric.
-make, or find bridesmaid jewlery. I found a picture of a cuff made from buttons, and I really like it. I think that it'd be easy enough to make. Now all i need to do is find some killer buttons.

-come up with a back drop for our "photo booth". I like this one, but I can't decided if i even need one. Would the stone wall in the venue be decorative enough?

Dinner talk

The boy's birthday was yesterday and I made him a chocolate black out cake. We took it over to his parents house and had a nice talk about the whole dinner before the wedding dilemma that we've been dealing with. I hate to admit it but I really think that we either need to cut it completely, or we need to severely cut back on it.

My only hesitation is that we sent out the save the dates and which asked the guests to reserve the night before for a celebratory dinner. So if we end up cutting it, it will be glaringly obvious to everyone. bummer.

I was thinking that if we're going to rent a block of rooms at the hotel nearest to the wedding site, that they might let us use one of their smaller rooms. Then we could order in some food of some kind and have a nice casual meet and greet the night before.

The boy is afraid that this option isn't going to be classy enough. I am a little worried about it, but i know that the actual wedding is going to be amazingly classy, so I think it will make up for it.

If we end up cutting the night before cost to something like $500 to use a room and order in lasagna or pizza or something, it would bring our costs down by $4000! let me say that again... $4000!

When we told his rents that the restaurant that we booked had a minimum of $3500, their jaws dropped. As much as I love the restaurant, and as much as I would love to have the dinner there, I'm having an harder and harder time justifying the cost. It would be an amazing dinner, but in reality, we could have an amazing dinner with out the fancy restaurant. Our friends and family will be there, and that's what really matters. Even if we're sitting around on some folding chairs with a slice of pizza in one hand and a beer in the other. We'll have a blast either way.

I have to keep reminding myself that.

new year

nothing much is happening with the wedding planning, which is why i haven't posted. We're still looking into a different venue for the "preception" but we haven't had any luck yet.

I just realized though that i have less than a month an a half before i need to send out my invites, so we better figure it out quickly!

I'm anxiously awaiting my packet from my dress maker with her sketch and a swatch of fabric.

On another note... I found out that my great aunt (my namesake) left her diamond wedding ring to my mother when she died. My mother never used it for anything and just now told me about it. She's said that the setting is horribly old fashioned (i've never seen it) but she's offering it up to me as a wedding present. It's in the mail as well, so we'll just have to see how ugly this thing is! I can't imagine that it would be terribly expensive to have it reset in silver.