Ceremony Details

This weekend, Terry and I drove through some fairly crazy weather to my parents' house for some minor wedding errands. On Saturday morning, we met with our amazing pastor, Frank. He is truly an incredible man and wonderful mentor to us as we prepare for our nuptials in just a few months. Pastor Frank gives us his undivided attention every time we meet with him, and we love talking with him about our concerns, his wishes and advice for us, our thoughts on marriage, and his ideas for the ceremony. We feel so lucky that serendipity led us to meet Frank, and we are so looking forward to his officiating our wedding. He has some incredible, unique ideas to make the ceremony personal while still traditional, religious while still respectful and inviting of other beliefs. We love that Frank has taken the time to get to know us so well as a couple, and he even made the effort to meet our parents to extend his understanding of who we are. Terry and I both love this part of wedding planning; the ceremony really matters the most. The rest is a big party and a great celebration, but the ceremony is where we take our vows and share our decision to marry with our closest friends and family. Frank is helping us make sure that the ceremony is about us and our parents, and I even teared up a little just imagining the big day. I keep reminding myself that after all this fun, lengthy, somewhat silly, somewhat tense wedding planning, we will ultimately get to the point where we finally be husband and wife. And that'll make it all worth it!

Saturday, we also spent some quality time with Terry's parents scoping out potential venues for the rehearsal dinner. Originally, we had intended for the rehearsal dinner to be at my parents' house, but Terry's parents pointed out that a dinner closer to the wedding venue would be much more practical and far less stressful for all involved. We are excited that they're willing to plan the dinner for us, and we know the night will be amazing! We're definitely keeping our dinner small; the rehearsal is traditionally just the bridal party and any involved in the wedding, along with the bride's and groom's parents. It'll be so nice to be able to spend time with each of these people that night before the chaos of the wedding day, and we're excited about the funny stories we'll all share! So to make some decisions on the rehearsal dinner location, we started with a list from the Palm Event Center, ate at two of the places, and then scouted out the others. We crossed off a few, and Terry's parents will be able to make a very informed decision. Thankfully, most of the options look great, and we should be able to enjoy an intimate, relaxed rehearsal dinner before the big day.

Tomorrow, I get the day off for President's Day (thank you, George and Abe!), so I'm dedicating a good chunk of my day to my DIY projects for the wedding, including invitations and place card holders. We're having a grand old time with the wedding planning, but part of me is ready to just be married already! :-) All in good time!

Under the Five-Month Mark

Since our engagement all those months ago, I imagined that this time - five months out - would be the beginning of wedding madness. Still, with fewer than 150 days to go, we still find the process fun and low stress. There's still a lot to do, yes, but the big stuff is done and we can just enjoy the rest.

Lately we've really focused on decisions for all the small stuff: ceremony and reception music, paper products for the wedding, attire, and the overall look that we want. I still love browsing through magazines and wedding blogs, and I love seeing how creatively other couples execute their ideas. Unfortunately, the most popular (and, therefore, most featured) weddings these days are in the vintage, eclectic, semi-casual style. Check out Style Me Pretty if you don't get what I mean. Popular items include buttons, teacups, mason jars, single sunflowers, birdcage veils, linen bridesmaids dresses, and it's all so dreamy and pretty. Sadly, our wedding doesn't work with any of those things, and formal, traditional weddings are rarely featured in current magazines and blogs. So I'm taking as much inspiration as I can from other sources and making up the rest as I go!

One aspect I've been exited about from the beginning is the invitations - truly a labor of love. We're just starting to print, assemble, and construct the invitations and envelopes, but it's fun seeing it all come together. Our goal for mailing is April 1st, and while two months seems like plenty, it's going fast. Just tracing and cutting the envelope liners took me three nights, so we have our work cut out for us (please pardon the pun)!

We're looking forward to some wine tasting together over Valentine's weekend, and on President's Day weekend we'll be headed up north again. Terry's parents will be looking over rehearsal dinner options, and Terry and I will get to taste more cake flavors from the amazing Bev Tenaka. A few fun errands ahead in the world of wedding planning! Hope you have an amazing Valentine's Day!