I have never been so indecisive in my life!

The past week we've made some great progress with the wedding plans. But of course
with progress comes change and all because there are so many options available.
How can they expect me to be 100% certain about anything?
So I placed the dress orders last week. I went in with my Wedding Planner binder
looking all organized and stuff. I felt like I really had it together.
Now the dress I had my mind set on wasn't available in the store to try
on. So the store owner had me try on similar cuts by the designer to get
a better determination of what size to wear. I absolutely fell for the 2nd dress I
tried on and changed my order right then! I felt so retarded, because that was
probably the most difficult decision I've had to make this far especially because
this dress is almost 2X's the cost of the original dress. But I only get 1 first
wedding, right? Besides the store owner was really helpful and patient about it.

Well the dress order have been placed, and now I'm changing my mind about the
bridesmaids dresses. All along I wanted them to have shorter dresses, but trying to
pick out reasonably priced (IE: CHEAP) shoes is killing me! I mean the girls have
already commited to a dress and I just feel uncomfortable having them put more money down
on shoes. Oh what to do what to do? Just anothe dilima that I have to work through.

I also changed the tuxedo combinations today. They should have never told me I can
change as many times as I want until to weeks before the wedding!

So that's the update for now! I'm writing this through my blackberry so I'm interested in
how it's going to come out.

Soon~

Updates! Updates! Updates!

So much to do, so much to type, so much to tell! Where do I begin? Well I keep getting the same question over and over and over "How's the wedding planning going?" so I figured I might need to get in a blog or two and continue (or start) documenting my journey to matrimony.

I found a great intimate location to have the wedding ceremony and reception in Richmond, not to far from where we live. The woman that runs the facility is also a Wedding Planner. She along with two of my cousins will be making all of those tedious decisions that I just don't want to make. My cousins were also nice enough to take on the catering responsibilities for me. They are so wonderful for taking that off my hands, because that was the one issue I was a little nervous about. Now, it's out of my hands and into the hands of people I know I can definitely rely on. It's a great feeling!

Speaking of people I can rely on, along with all the great news that I have regarding the wedding, not all news is great news. I lost one of my bridesmaids. Well, I didn't lose her, she dropped out. I was really upset about it, but I guess that's the way things go sometimes. I thought about leaving the space empty at first, I mean it was her spot, she was one of the girls that I knew would be there for me if and when this day ever came, but after thinking things through I decided to put one of my younger cousins in her spot. One of the reasons I decided to have an actual wedding was because I feel it's something that my daughter needs to see happen. Well, I feel that my responsibility goes farther than just my own seed, and including my little cousin (who's kinda like my sister/daughter anyway) would hopefully put relationships, weddings, etc in a positive light for her as well. While there's nothing wrong with being single, I know now that there's also nothing wrong with falling in love and getting married. So I want to share this experience with all of my youngins! :)

Sooooooo....back to the good news! Ok, so I found a venue (check).....I found a videographer and photographer also. I'd been debating if it was feasible to have both a photographer as well as a videographer, or if it was just overkill. Well, we HAVE to have pictures, right? I mean what's a wedding without the wedding pictures? And the videographer is just awesome! I've seen his work on his website, and the videos basically made up my mind for me. I think they are both a great investment, afterall- this IS the ONLY 1st wedding I'll get right? My photographer is an old friend from college (hopefully I'll be able to get him if he ever sends me the contract) and he's worked out an incredible rate for me. He's traveling from Atlanta to take the pictures and I'm very excited! His work is online as well and the pictures had me in awe.

Now for the cake, I had an idea to have a cupcake setup instead of trying to find a bakery for a wedding cake. Well for some reason the Man is totally against it. I'm not really sure why, I think it's a great and unique idea. I'm going to show him how the cupcakes would be setup and maybe that'll change his mind.

ok, so that's venue, pictures, video, cake...what else is there? OH Dresses! wait- I blogged on that already and nothings changed. I'm just waiting on a few deposits and measurements from my girls......just waiting......

The Man is also trying to kick himself into gear. After months of asking for addresses for his invite list, I finally was able to send save the dates out to his side. For about a month I thought we'd only have my family at the wedding, because he didn't supply one single address. Well now I have all but about 18, which is unbelievable. He's also planning on looking at tuxedo's this weekend, and asked me to go with him (awe!) so hopefully we can get this knocked out so we can send the groomsmen some info.

Save the dates went out about 1 1/2 months ago.....So ladies and gents it looks like I'll be getting married in 121 days!!!!!!! Wow- let's GO!

Why the wedding plans changed

So I've been asked how we went from having a destination wedding to having a traditional ceremony. It all started with a conversation with my daughter. We were talking on our way to her cheerleading practice one day, and she says (out of the blue) "Mommy, can I be in your wedding?" I was shocked, because I just assumed she had no concept of a wedding, being in a wedding, or anything like that. So I decided to see where the conversation took us. I asked her what she wanted to be, and she said a flowergirl...then she said she wanted to dress like me, and started actually talking about what she was going to wear, do, etc in the wedding. I saw how her face lit up while talking, and it just completely changed my though process. Initially, the LOML and I wanted the time to be completely about us. After all the years and finally getting it right, we deserved to have this time and day totally to ourselves. But having this conversation with my daughter made me realize that there were 3 little people that we'd be totally leaving out of this day. 3 little people that I really feel need to see this process and be a part of the process. See, both the LOML and I have children (by other people), and are single parents, but I'm determined to break that with my daughter, and want to be a positive influence on his children, showing them all how love and marriage can be a wonderful and fulfilling thing- if done correctly.
So after having this revelation, I sent him an email asking him how would he feel about us forgoing the Hawaii thing, and having a wedding ceremony.
**Sidenote, this email was sent out a few days after my mom came to visit, and made mention to us having the wedding in my hometown, in her backyard...No pressure, she said- just a suggestion.**
So his response was "What ever you want to do. The power of your mother is unbelievable". So I got a little offended, and said screw it! But I'd already started thinking about having this nice (SIMPLE) ceremony, with us, the kids, and the people we love sharing the moment with us. I decided to let the attitude cool off, then have another conversation with him. This time he was more receptive, and genuine when he said "It's your day and I want you to have no regrets, so what ever you want to do is fine with me"....... SO there it is we are having a wedding!!!!!!! and hence, my obsessing over dresses, colors, location, etc....

We have a date! We have colors! We have dresses! We have a location! I think I've got a pretty good start on this....Now I just need to get on the diet and exercise plan so that I can actually order my dress in January but that's a whole OTHER story!

The Dresses!

I have never done as much window shopping as I've done for the dresses over the past week. This has been the most INTENSE process I think I have ever been through when it comes to shopping! But the end result is I've found the dresses for the entire bridal party!!!!!! WHEW......I'm blogging as I'm logging off the designers website, and I'm not looking at any more dresses. One thing I've realized is everytime I look, I see something else that is cute, or different, or better than what I saw before. I think I drove the bridal shop owner about mad, but she's digging the color scheme. I really think it's going to look really good when the pictures are taken. I'm so EXCITED!!!!

Oh- wedding plans changed also....We've decided to have a traditional ceremony and reception so I'm knee deep into wedding planning. I think I'm becoming obsessed! I'm trying to get as much out of the way as I can now, so that I can relax as it gets closer to the big day! I thought about posting pics of the dresses, but that'll take away from the WOW factor for my 3 readers (who will also be at the wedding, RIGHT?!!!!!!??!???!!??!)......

So now I'm back to the budget. He got a little flushed when he saw the figures for my 1st take at it. I need to knock it down a LOT or well be at the J.O.P.

C-YA!

The Location!

It only took me, oh about 5 months, but I've finally got a very rough draft of how it's going to happen. It has been so hard trying to plan an event to accommodate friends and family from so many different cities, as well as our BUDGET and still get out of the day what we want. We kept going back to the point that this was supposed to be our day, and we can't try to please everyone. We wanted the ceremony to be very special, very private, and very much about us, just him and me. We also want to actually enjoy each other during this time and not be stressed with trying to entertain so many people who really don't have a connection to anyone other than one of us. So we've separated the actual ceremony and reception and spanned it over a week of events.

We will start off by flying to Honolulu, Hawaii and getting married in Wakiki June 18th. I found a very sweet wedding planner who would also officiate the nuptials. The ceremony will just be me and Fish, and we'll spend 5 days on the island sightseeing and just enjoying each other uninterrupted.

We then will fly back home on June 24th to prepare for a weekend of celebration with our friends and family. We are going to invite everyone here for the weekend, having a (very belated) housewarming celebration/welcome reception at our home on Friday.
The actual reception will be on Saturday (still trying to find a location). Finally on Sunday we want to have a farewell brunch with those who are still in the city with us.

Sooooo....i got a LOT of planning to do. And I've been checking airfare to Hawaii and I think I may have to sell a lung and a kidney to purchase those tickets! :(

Pray for me!

How it happened

So I guess I'll start at the beginning...well, not ALL the way at the beginning, because that's just to much information for any one person to digest. But I'll go back a year ago, Labor day weekend to be exact, and we'll let that be the beginning. Fish and I have been on and off for years, and finally something last September snapped. You know how it feels when you've reached your breaking point? Like you just cannot go any further without making major changes? That's where I was last year. I could not go any further with the off and on. Well, that visit was a moment of truth. We decided that we'd stop with the on and off and move forward, together. So in a matter of months I was engaged and moving to Kentucky. A ton of things have happened since then, but now comes the fun and stressing task of planning my wedding! Wow- I never thought I'd be at this point. I'm so emotional just at thinking about the fact that in about 1 year, I'll be referred to as "The Mrs."! HA- well, I am going to use this blog as my outlet. And since I have MARRIED readers, you girls can be my voice of reasoning and help me out along the way! So- LET'S GET IT STARTED!