We hit the ground running once it became official! In the past 2 weeks we have accomplished SO MUCH for the wedding!
I've always had my eye on a fall wedding at Gull Point, so that was an easy decision but it got tricky trying to find coordinating dates with the church and reception. We feel lucky to have booked our wedding on a fun, long weekend at our dream reception hall! It was exciting to find out that my parents were married by the same priest who will marry David and I, in the same church! How cool is that?!
Blue is one of David and I's favorite colors and I knew I wanted it as a wedding color for awhile. Navy is just so classic and timeless and Silver is just the right amount of glitz! =)
Next we met with several vendors to price out their services to help establish our budget. We learned alot about different options, packages, and how much a wedding really costs. I had to create a wedding budget for a class last year so I felt like I had a pretty good idea about certain costs but was still surprised to hear estimated costs from the vendors themselves. I was most surprised by the cost of photography, videography, DJ, and flowers! I completely under-budgeted in those areas for my class project. Luckily for us, our reception is at a state park which means we get to bring in our own catering which will save us about $6/person to fed! I could not believe how much of a difference that made!
We are so excited to get our engagement pictures taken next week when we visit David's family in WDM. I realized last week that if we wanted a pretty background for our photos we better act fast before the leaves fall and everything turns brown. Since our wedding is at the end of August, and typically save the dates are sent out 6 months in advance, which would be February...winter isn't my favorite time of year, and cold weather and I don't get along. We are so excited to have Life Art Photography take our engagement pictures and to have C Starr Photography shoot our wedding day pictures. Both photographers have such amazing pictures, I can't wait to see what ours look like!
Creating our "rough draft" guest list is going to be an ongoing struggle for everyone. We all have so many friends, family, and fraternity and sorority friends we want to include in our big day but our venue and mere cost is going to make it difficult to include everyone we would like to invite. Ah!! Yeah, that's going to be tough. #sororitygirlprobs #MyBigGreekWedding
I said YES to the Dress!! I can't believe it happened as fast as it did. For real, I had the worst time prom dress shopping. I was so picky and nothing fit the way I wanted. I imagined wedding dress shopping would difficult too! Guess not =)
My mom and I went into a local bridal store, Elegance by Sarah, just to try on different styles, check prices--just trying to figure it all out! The consultant suggested to try 7 dresses first and go from there. My mom and I started pulling dresses going systematically down the rack, but there was this ONE dress that I had my eye on from the second we walked up the stairs. It just stood out from all the others. After pulling a few dresses, I skipped ahead to make sure that dress made it into the first 7 to try on. Again systematically, I tried on the dresses in the order we pulled them. Each dress was getting better than the one before it! I tried on all 7 dresses within the first half hour of my 1.5 hour appointment. I had it down to 2 dresses that were complete opposites from each other but my heart was kept going back to that one dress I saw, I knew it was the one. The store offered us a special first-visit package, where if you bought your dress on your first visit you received 25% off the dress, PLUS a whole sheet of other discounts on accessories, alternations, tuxes, and gown preservation! We took the afternoon to think about it and went back before the store closed to try it on, one. more. time. SOLD. I was over the moon excited! I was told I was the first bride to try on the dress and it arrived in the salon the day before! How lucky that we got there when we did?! I almost missed my dream dress by one day!
My mom and I went to our first Bridal Show as a Bride and Mother of the Bride! We had a fun weekend together in Sioux Falls and got a few more vendor contacts to price out. We signed up for countless drawings and giveaways hoping to win a honeymoon! We weren't there more than 15 minutes and my name was called over the speakers as a winner! WOOHOO! My mom went to claim my prize while I found seats at the dress show.--Drum roll--I won wrinkle cream! not quite a honeymoon but my mom was excited! Thinking my luck ran out at wrinkle cream, we enjoyed the rest of the day eating catering samples and looking through pictures. Later that night in the hotel I received a phone call from an unknown number, answered and WON again! This time a set of toasting flutes from a fine china company, along with a free 3 night hotel stay at their specified hotel chain!! WOOHOO!! Downside: We have to sit through their 90 minute showcase presentation in Sioux Falls about their products! Oh well, still very exciting!
In kind of a nutshell--the first 2 weeks of our wedding planning! We've been so busy and my fiance', parents and soon-to-be in-laws have been so wonderful and full of great ideas! I can't wait to keep checking things off of our to-do list and enjoying the planning!
- We set the date: August 31, 2014
- Booked the venues: Sacred Heart and Gull Point State Park
- Picked colors: Navy and Silver
- Met with vendors
- Priced decorations and flowers
- Booked engagement and wedding photographers
- Started a guest list
- Estimated wedding costs
- Attended a bridal show
- And bought a wedding gown!!
I've always had my eye on a fall wedding at Gull Point, so that was an easy decision but it got tricky trying to find coordinating dates with the church and reception. We feel lucky to have booked our wedding on a fun, long weekend at our dream reception hall! It was exciting to find out that my parents were married by the same priest who will marry David and I, in the same church! How cool is that?!
Blue is one of David and I's favorite colors and I knew I wanted it as a wedding color for awhile. Navy is just so classic and timeless and Silver is just the right amount of glitz! =)
Next we met with several vendors to price out their services to help establish our budget. We learned alot about different options, packages, and how much a wedding really costs. I had to create a wedding budget for a class last year so I felt like I had a pretty good idea about certain costs but was still surprised to hear estimated costs from the vendors themselves. I was most surprised by the cost of photography, videography, DJ, and flowers! I completely under-budgeted in those areas for my class project. Luckily for us, our reception is at a state park which means we get to bring in our own catering which will save us about $6/person to fed! I could not believe how much of a difference that made!
We are so excited to get our engagement pictures taken next week when we visit David's family in WDM. I realized last week that if we wanted a pretty background for our photos we better act fast before the leaves fall and everything turns brown. Since our wedding is at the end of August, and typically save the dates are sent out 6 months in advance, which would be February...winter isn't my favorite time of year, and cold weather and I don't get along. We are so excited to have Life Art Photography take our engagement pictures and to have C Starr Photography shoot our wedding day pictures. Both photographers have such amazing pictures, I can't wait to see what ours look like!
Creating our "rough draft" guest list is going to be an ongoing struggle for everyone. We all have so many friends, family, and fraternity and sorority friends we want to include in our big day but our venue and mere cost is going to make it difficult to include everyone we would like to invite. Ah!! Yeah, that's going to be tough. #sororitygirlprobs #MyBigGreekWedding
I said YES to the Dress!! I can't believe it happened as fast as it did. For real, I had the worst time prom dress shopping. I was so picky and nothing fit the way I wanted. I imagined wedding dress shopping would difficult too! Guess not =)
My mom and I went into a local bridal store, Elegance by Sarah, just to try on different styles, check prices--just trying to figure it all out! The consultant suggested to try 7 dresses first and go from there. My mom and I started pulling dresses going systematically down the rack, but there was this ONE dress that I had my eye on from the second we walked up the stairs. It just stood out from all the others. After pulling a few dresses, I skipped ahead to make sure that dress made it into the first 7 to try on. Again systematically, I tried on the dresses in the order we pulled them. Each dress was getting better than the one before it! I tried on all 7 dresses within the first half hour of my 1.5 hour appointment. I had it down to 2 dresses that were complete opposites from each other but my heart was kept going back to that one dress I saw, I knew it was the one. The store offered us a special first-visit package, where if you bought your dress on your first visit you received 25% off the dress, PLUS a whole sheet of other discounts on accessories, alternations, tuxes, and gown preservation! We took the afternoon to think about it and went back before the store closed to try it on, one. more. time. SOLD. I was over the moon excited! I was told I was the first bride to try on the dress and it arrived in the salon the day before! How lucky that we got there when we did?! I almost missed my dream dress by one day!
My mom and I went to our first Bridal Show as a Bride and Mother of the Bride! We had a fun weekend together in Sioux Falls and got a few more vendor contacts to price out. We signed up for countless drawings and giveaways hoping to win a honeymoon! We weren't there more than 15 minutes and my name was called over the speakers as a winner! WOOHOO! My mom went to claim my prize while I found seats at the dress show.--Drum roll--I won wrinkle cream! not quite a honeymoon but my mom was excited! Thinking my luck ran out at wrinkle cream, we enjoyed the rest of the day eating catering samples and looking through pictures. Later that night in the hotel I received a phone call from an unknown number, answered and WON again! This time a set of toasting flutes from a fine china company, along with a free 3 night hotel stay at their specified hotel chain!! WOOHOO!! Downside: We have to sit through their 90 minute showcase presentation in Sioux Falls about their products! Oh well, still very exciting!
In kind of a nutshell--the first 2 weeks of our wedding planning! We've been so busy and my fiance', parents and soon-to-be in-laws have been so wonderful and full of great ideas! I can't wait to keep checking things off of our to-do list and enjoying the planning!
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