Mr. and Mrs. Terry Heinrich!

We're married! Of course we will blog all the details later, but I felt the need to post a little something before heading off to our honeymoon. The weekend and the big day absolutely surpassed every expectation we held. Our parents, bridal party, family, and friends showed us incredible love, and we are still glowing from the big day.

Today, in about an hour, we jet off to Europe for our honeymoon. We feel so blessed that we get to enjoy two weeks exploring such storied destinations. We promise to share pictures and all the adventures when we return!

Meanwhile, thanks for reading, and here's to an incredible adventure in Europe and in marriage.

Honeymoon Hotels!

We reserved all of our hotels for our honeymoon! We researched a few hundred hotels, read eight thousand reviews, and finally booked. We have a travel agent who has always booked our cruises, and we have been able to use her advice to find the best locations for our stays in London and Italy.

In case you missed our other posts, here's the honeymoon agenda: Our wedding is on a Saturday, and we spend that night in Pleasanton at the gorgeous Rose Hotel. The following day is a brunch at my parents' house with the bridal party, and we'll hopefully be able to catch up on some sleep. We leave the next day, Monday, and land in London on Tuesday. For our week in London, we will stay at the Rubens Hotel, the closest hotel to Buckingham Palace. We'll spend the week exploring London's biggest attractions, including but not limited to the castles, cathedrals, shopping centers, restaurants, parks, pubs, and theatres. We'll also venture out to Stratford-Upon-Avon, Shakespeare's birthplace, and Terry's letting me enjoy a full day of English major geekiness basking in the history of Queen Elizabeth and Shakespeare.


After London, we head to the Amalfi Coast. Our hotel for three nights is in Vietri sul Mare. Hotel Raito is nestled right on the coast overlooking the gorgeous coastal waters in Italy. We mentioned previously that we found a great deal for this hotel through Luxury Link, and we are so excited for the few days to truly relax on our big trip. We get massages as part of our package, but the rest of the stay here will include hikes, breakfast on the balcony, and checking out the small towns along the coast.


Finally, the last leg of our trip is four nights in Rome. We will stay at the popular Hotel Artemide, only a short walk to the Spanish Steps and the heart of Rome. Our focus in Rome is historical sight seeing and tons of food. We have several friends providing must-see tips, so we can't wait to pack it all into our last few days.

So that's the plan! We can't wait for the wedding, but the honeymoon will truly kick off what's sure to be an awesome lifetime of traveling together. I'm a pretty lucky girl to get such a great travel buddy!

A Break from Wedding Planning...and Reality

Over Thanksgiving, Terry and I joined my parents, my brother, and my brother's girlfriend for a Southern Caribbean cruise. We were celebrating my mom's upcoming retirement, and it was an incredible escape for both of us. What an incredible trip! We visited six different islands, learning about each island's culture and nature.

The trip was a wonderful break from constantly thinking about the wedding details. I've realized it's all too easy to get swept up into trying to make the day perfect and trying to please everyone. The important thing is that we're getting married, and in ten or twenty or sixty years (or perhaps even sixty days), so many of these minor details won't matter. This vacation helped me gain some perspective on wedding priorities, and I know now that with the incredible professionals we have booked so far, we are in very good hands. We're going to leave all the big stuff to them. The fun stuff is ours!

Case in point - the honeymoon! Technically, honeymoon planning is the groom's responsibility, but Terry has been generous enough to let me help research. If you know me at all, you know traveling is absolutely my favorite thing. I love it all, from researching new places to finding the perfect hotel to the actual adventure. Moreover, I love traveling with Terry. From road trips to cruises to long flights, we love the thrill of learning about new cultures and new places. I cannot imagine a better travel buddy for the rest of my life.

Right now, we have several stops planned for the few weeks after the wedding, and we have officially booked one hotel! Our stay at the Amalfi Coast is all set. This stop is between London and Rome, so we're viewing it as the relaxing part of our trip. The hotel, in Vietri Sul Mare in Italy, will provide gorgeous views, hiking opportunities, wine tasting, and other low-key adventures to contrast the big city feel of London and Rome. We actually booked our hotel through Luxury Link, an awesome website that I highly recommend. The site provides significant discounts on luxury hotels. The hotels are guaranteed to be four- or five-star quality, and the packages usually include breakfast. Sometimes they even include spa treatments, dinners, champagne, or other bonus amenities. We are hoping to book London and Rome hotels through the same site. Whenever I get stressed about anything, I imagine relaxing in Europe. I can't wait to experience a European adventure!

Catching Up

The fact that we haven't posted in awhile (ahem, almost a month...) should serve as no indication of our wedding progress, though it can certainly tell you how busy we keep ourselves. Fall means football season, and apparently cheerleading coaches stay fairly occupied during football season. Between practices with my girls, JV games on Thursdays, and varsity games on Friday nights (which Terry attends almost every week), the wedding planning has to take somewhat of a backseat during the week.

So today is catch up day. We FINALLY compiled (addressed, stuffed, labeled, stamped, and sealed) the save the dates. And we put them in a mailbox. So they are out of our hands and in the hands of the U.S. Postal Service. THANK GOODNESS. Who knew compiling addresses for the people you know and love would be so time consuming and complicated? Plus, who knew that actually writing the addresses properly would be so difficult? I consulted my Emily Post's Etiquette book four hundred and seven times (that may be an exaggeration) over the last six weeks, trying to figure out how to address an envelope for each guest. I hope I did it right.

This weekend we have another wedding adventure planned: We are off to my parents' house for a few days in hopes of booking a florist and baker. Terry's parents are also getting a chance to see our venue for the first time, and I'm hoping I can try on my wedding dress for my dad. We're also aiming to have our parents get to know our pastor and enjoy a bit of relaxation in the gorgeous fall weather of the Bay Area.

And finally, one of the most exciting check marks so far: We booked our honeymoon flights! Our dream of traveling the world together takes another step toward coming true. Our itinerary is:

• San Francisco --> London
• London --> Amalfi Coast, Italy
• Amalfi Coast --> Rome
• Rome --> San Francisco
• San Francisco --> LA to begin our married lives!
  

Regardless of the fact that we are still eight months away from the big day, wedding planning remains a highlight of our week, whenever we can find time. We especially love exploring honeymoon options and look forward to the next steps!

Binders and Spreadsheets

I did it. I finally got organized. Exactly one year, one month, two weeks, and four days after our engagement and exactly nine months before the wedding (today!), I did it. And thank goodness.

I had thought about it, even tried it a few times, but nothing really worked. I found millions (okay, about a dozen) of websites offering to help me get organized, but I really need everything in one place, and I need to be able to carry that one place with me, to access it from anywhere. I imagine that in a few years (or even now, for some more connected brides), a laptop/iPad/SmartPhone will be sufficient for wedding planning, but I need more. So I went old school, as teachers tend to do.

You may wonder how on earth I had time to spend almost three full days getting organized, but the answer is simple: My fiance is out of town. I'm surprisingly more productive when he isn't around. But it's so much more fun when he is around, so I guess that's the trade off.

Anyway, back to the organization. I wish someone had told me about all this stuff when I first got engaged, but maybe I wouldn't have taken it to heart until over 13 months later. I was saying that I went old school. Really old school. Like...paper. I already had my "wedding planning binder" that I had toted around from vendor meeting to vendor meeting, but today things got serious. I used my lovely green wedding planning binder (a gift from my amazing matron of honor) and created new tabs that make much more sense to me.

Aren't they lovely?

I also printed all of our invoices and contracts so far in order to have them in one place. I used sheet protectors for the especially important stuff. The tabs are organized by importance (biggest vendors first) and then in order that we'll need them. I finally have a working tool for the wedding planning that I can continue to use for the next nine months.

But that wasn't all. If you didn't know it already, you should learn now that I LOVE spreadsheets. Microsoft Excel didn't know it, but they really created their product specifically for me. I can spend hours upon hours lost in the wonders of Excel spreadsheets. So far, I have the following spreadsheets for the wedding:

• Wedding Budget (estimations, actual costs, amounts paid)
  
• Honeymoon Budget
  
• Master Guest List (including the main list with addresses, the rehearsal dinner guest list, the names to be written on escort cards, the response list, and the table numbers)
• Wedding To Do List (maybe my favorite - including the long-term to-do list from 12 months out, the wedding weekend itinerary, the ceremony schedule, and the reception schedule)
• Wedding Day Contact List

I felt inspired to be so productive because Terry and I have made a lot of wedding progress this week. We are thisclose to booking our honeymoon tickets, making some significant decor decisions, and ordering our save the dates, envelopes, and return address labels. Before we do all that, I needed to make sure we have a firm budget and track all of our spending. Weddings are expensive enough as it is - no need to spend money without at least planning it out!

And now, the fun can continue! Terry comes home tomorrow, and we're planning a field trip to Paper Source in Santa Monica. It might just be my new favorite store. Thanks to a gift card from Heidi and Ed, we can get started on our paper-buying extravaganza!

Scout was very helpful today.

9 months to go...

March already???

It seems impossible that March is here already, but, alas, here we are. Our wedding is inching closer, and we are still finding time to love engaged life!

2010 has been a fun challenge for us. Our New Year's resolutions and commitments to Lent have been great for helping us grow individually and as a couple. Our New Year's resolutions are to avoid fast food for a whole year, along with flossing daily and cooking a new recipe every Sunday night. We've had an awesome time coming up with new things to cook, though we miss In-N-Out! For Lent, we gave up sweets, which is probably going to kill me sometime soon, or I'll kill Terry because I'm craving sugar so desperately, but we're okay right now. I'll keep you updated. Meanwhile, work keeps us busy, but my cheer season has slowed so I can be home more with my fiance! Terry won't travel again until fall, so we are grateful for our time together.

In the way of wedding planning progress, we are nearing some important dates. Long-distance planning is tough at this stage, because we need to interview potential vendors. This month, however, we'll finally have a chance to get up north (our last trip was when we finalized our contract with The Palm Event Center. You can read about it here). During our weekend up there, we will meet with a few potential photographers and hopefully a DJ or two.

For photographers, I started by using the "Recommended Vendors" list from our venue. I also found some photographers on miscellaneous websites and used recommendations from friends. I then researched photographers' websites and focused on quality of the images, pricing and packages, and style. We're looking for a candid style that will capture the most important moments of the day, and, ideally, we would prefer two photographers for the whole day. We have always said photographs are one area we assume will take up most of our budget, and we could not have been more right. Photographers run at least a few thousand dollars, plus extra for overtime, travel, or any bonuses.

Dress shopping will (finally? already?) get underway this month, also. My mom and I will hit up our first store when I'm in the Bay Area. We've both looked at pictures of dresses we like, and our tastes are surprisingly similar, so hopefully we can get a good idea of what works with my body so that subsequent trips are easy and fun. Some of my favorite high school memories are of shopping for prom dresses with my mom, and I'm so excited to continue that tradition with her again!

A few weeks ago, Terry and I attended a Crate and Barrel "Wedding Party" in Beverly Hills. We chose Crate and Barrel for its high quality, range of products, and reasonable prices. At these Wedding Parties, the store opens early for couples who RSVP, and those couples get the entire store to themselves to register. We decided to check it out, regardless of how ridiculously early it is to register, and we had a BLAST! The Crate and Barrel staff was incredibly attentive, the breakfast was delicious (not to mention the mimosas!), and the empty store felt relaxed and easy. Only five other couples attended, so we essentially had the entire floor to ourselves. Terry got the scanner gun, and I got the checklist. We took off running!

Most of our kitchen gadgets are registered through Crate and Barrel, but we are also going to register for our honeymoon. Registering for a honeymoon is becoming a popular option for registries, especially for couples who live together before they are married. The idea is that someone can contribute to your honeymoon rather than giving either cash or a physical gift. There are plenty of companies who run these types of registries, but we are going with Honeyfund. Our friends Nick and Jocelyn used this site for their wedding registry last year and had no problems, so we're giving it a shot! Researching the honeymoon "items" that we're registering for makes us so excited for our trip. 16 months can't go by fast enough!

And lastly, our first set of engagement pictures are in! Our incredible photographer (and great friend), Roxanne Neal, with the help of her husband Chris, took some awesome shots of us at Point Dume in Malibu. She is so talented, and we were so excited to see our photos. We want to share them all eventually, but we haven't decided how we will use them all quite yet, so for now, enjoy one of our highlights!