Updates

I've been slacking on the wedding recaps, I know.  So I'm back, but I'm moving locations.  I'm moving over to a new blog where I will still do some wedding reporting, as well as my crazy dreams and some other life updates....all in one place so I don't have to manage multiple blogs.  So I hope you'll join me at Heeren's Nest!

Yeah, mon

Sadly, we have returned from Jamaica.  Despite a rainy forecast, we ended up with 6 beautiful days in paradise. And we looooooooooved it.  We stayed at the beautiful Couples Tower Isle in Ocho Rios.  It was the perfect place for people who want to be active yet relaxed, because they include so many excursions.

The resort had so much to do that we were really busy which was good for two people who aren't good at laying around on the beach.  We snorkeled, went horseback riding, ate, went on a catamaran cruise, kneeboarded, ate, went to the pool, climbed a waterfall, ate, played beach volleyball...and ate.  Four restaurants and an all inclusive package can be a DISASTER.

Things we learned in Jamaica:
Matt can't understand Jamaican people.  At all.
Erin can gain 5 pounds in 6 days (thank you, buffets).
Matt really doesn't like Asian food.
Erin can't kneeboard.  At all.
You should probably still wear sunscreen even when it's raining.  Luckily we learned this the last day.

We loved it and can't wait for another tropical vacation.

We did it!

We survived the wedding!  Wooooooooo hooooo!  I don't think I've ever been as tired as I was this morning, but it was totally worth it.  Matt and I had an absolute blast.  To everyone that was in attendance, thank you so much for coming!  And for everyone that couldn't make it, you were missed.  

Matt and I spent a good hour recapping our favorite parts of the day, and they just kept on coming!  I really think I wouldn't change a thing (including the topless fisherman walking through the ceremony).  

At the request of a friend of mine, I will be continuing the blog post-wedding.  I'll break down some parts of the ceremony, possibly feature some of the craft photos we did...or just ramble about married life!  But today is a rest day.  I leave you with a photo that I stole from my friend Danielle, who wins the prompt picture posting award.  Thank goodness for facebook!

How do people get married without Michaels?

Before we got engaged, I don't think I'd ever been to Michaels.  Now I'm there at least once a week.  Sometimes three times.  Sometimes, like last night, twice in 10 minutes.  Upon my second trip into the store, I realized exactly how much time I had spent in Michaels and I got a little sad.  Wedding planning is almost over!  Well, I guess the planning is over, let's how I have the thing planned by now!  But the prep work, the creativity...it's all coming to an end.  It made me sad, even though I'm also excited for the day to be here! (And let's be honest, also excited for it to be over.) :)

This week has given Matt a glimpse into what I do for a living.  As he's grumbling through prep work and projects, I reminded him last night that this is how I spend all day, every day, so he should have new found appreciation for me!

But back to my unendorsed plug for Michaels.  The place has everything!  Even things you didn't know you need!  It's actually kind of a train wreck...new ideas are born within the aisles of the store.  Now that I think about it, brides are probably happier never having stepped foot in Michaels.  But they don't know what they are missing, it's amazing.

And thus ends my delusional rant.  Clearly I'm sleep deprived...

Craft Central

Wow, wedding week is really here!  I'm not going to lie, I'm a little bit in denial.  I also may be obsessively checking the 10 day forecast. (So far so good, 83 and sunny.  Cross your fingers.)  I also am most definitely up to my ears in DIY projects.

A warning to all future brides: wedding blogs are a blessing and a curse.  While I've gotten some fabulous advice and ideas from sites like Weddingbee, I've gotten too many ideas!  And of course, wanted to do them all.  And true to form, didn't start any of them until two weeks before the wedding.  What can I say, that's how I roll.

So this past week has been entirely devoted to ridiculous wedding projects.  THANK YOU to Matt and all of my friends who are blistered and bruised from helping me. :)  But the good news is, we got it all done!  I may have spent every waking moment working on the wedding all week, but I am starting to feel like this wedding may actually happen!  Which is good because there's no turning back now, and my friends informed us that after they spent 5 hours assembling programs, we are getting married no matter what happens this week or they will disown us. :)

Long time no post

As it turns out, planning a wedding leaves very little time to blog about planning a wedding!  We're in crunch time - two weeks to go!  Since I've abandoned the blog for the past month, here's a quick run down of what's been going on:

My bachelorette party in Kansas City was a blast!  12 girls spent the weekend shopping, going to a Royals game, and hitting the downtown evening entertainment.

Matt's bachelor party in Chicago was also great!  8 guys enjoyed whirly ball, a Cubs game, and the Wrigleyville area bars.

My house sold!  Woo hoo!

In a dramatic turn of events, my dress waited until this week to come in to the store.  Somehow I refrained from having a heart attack when it was two weeks late.  And it fits...despite being long enough that Matt could probably wear it.  Still, it fits!  Phew!

Hair trial, done.  Final florist meeting, done.  DJ meeting, done.  Reception venue meeting, done.  Marriage prep, done.  And we have our marriage license, thank you John for attesting to our identities.  This wedding may actually happen after all.  Oh and the big news you've all been waiting for...the chairs have been ordered, you don't have to stand. :)

We went a couple weeks ago to stalk watch another wedding at Simon Estes to see how they did things...let's just say that was a lesson in how NOT to plan a wedding.  Let's just say, be very happy that I ordered you chairs, and never fear, our wedding will be starting on time.

So now we're down to little details which I've brought upon myself by dreaming up 20,000 DIY projects at the last minute.  Bring it on, wedding, we're almost ready for you.  Almost.

Kansas City, here we come!

I'm headed out on my bachelorette party weekend and I'm so excited!  Twelve girls, two nights, Kansas City = fantastic weekend!  On the agenda: shopping, Royals game, and Howl at the Moon, the BEST PIANO BAR EVER!

I can't wait!  Stay tuned for a recap! :)

Yes, shortest post ever.

Marriage prep

As it turns out, we aren't just throwing a wedding, but also starting a marriage.  Who knew?  So the other day we had our first marriage preparation counseling, via the technological wonder that is Skype, with our minister, Brian.

First of all, some background on Brian (and why we are doing our counseling through Skype).  I have known Brian since we were in the same three year old preschool class.  Growing up we were always in the same choir and youth group at church, and we were good friends in high school.  Oh the stories I could tell you about Brian...but I digress.  I will tell you that he TP'd my house SEVEN weekends in a row my senior year of high school!  My dad is still threatening to drive to Pennsylvania and get revenge by TPing Brian's house.

Brian and I in high school.  Ah, memories.
Sorry for the slightly blurry scanned photo...but please enjoy my ridiculously long hair.

When Brian decided to go to seminary after college, I always had in the back of my mind that I would love to have him perform my wedding some day.  How cool is it to have someone that has known you for practically your entire life officiate your wedding?  Luckily Matt also thought that would be great, Brian was available, and we were on our way!

But back to the counseling session.  None of us had ever used Skype before, so we weren't sure exactly how this would go, but it was so easy and worked so well!  It was like Brian was really with us, except for when he was messing with the special effects and was flying in a spaceship on the screen. :)  Matt and Brian had never met, so we talked a little about Matt's life and then dove right in to all kinds of topics, and before we knew it we were out of time.  Brian gave us homework for the next session and we came up with some topics for next time.

So we are now officially on our way not only to having a wedding, but starting a marriage.  Six weeks to go! 

Random musings

Thought number one - there is NOTHING better than watching wedding RSVP's come in!  I get an email every time we get one, and while it is incredibly distracting, it's also incredibly awesome!  We just keep watching the list grow as our family and friends agree to spend the day with us.  One of my good high school friends RSVP'd today and it hit me just how many of my favorite people I'm going to get to see all at the same time!  It's getting real now, and I am getting SO EXCITED!

Thought number two - wedding planning really does take up a lot of time!  Even though I feel fairly on top of things, there is just always something to do, something to plan, something to think about.  I suppose selling my house in the midst of this doesn't help.  But as excited as I am for this wedding, I'm also excited for the day when I get home from work and I don't have a giant to do list waiting for me!

Tomorrow's post - the engagement pictures.  Stay tuned!

Wedding Shower!

This weekend we went to Ottumwa for a wedding shower hosted by some of my mom's wonderful friends.  They had the great idea of making it into a coed cocktail party so that my dad could be involved and everyone would have a chance to meet Matt!

Check out the beautiful invites!  We knew we were in for a good party.

Details have been blurred to protect the hosts

The party was so much fun!  Food, drinks, and great people that I hadn't seen in WAY too long.  How can you beat that?  While I was sitting there, it hit me that we really are getting married!  Holy cow!  Turns out this isn't just a fun party I've been planning...

I was so excited that so many people came that I've known since I was growing up, and all of whom knew my mom.  I know she would have loved to be there.  Thanks to everyone who came, it was great to see all of you and the party was very much appreciated!

Two months till the wedding, here we go!

The invites are coming, the invites are coming!

Yes, that was a lame Paul Revere reference, but I'm so excited about our invitations going out that I'm okay with it.  I feel like Matt and I looked at every wedding invitation imaginable before finding something that was perfect!

Of course I had to make them as complicated as possible, so I decided I wanted to hand draw the maps myself and a few other details.  After a lot of planning and designing (a special shout out to my co-worker Katie for your help), the invitations are done and I think they look great!  They are going to print early this week and will be in the mail soon!

Then comes the fun part - watching for everyone's responses to come in!  I can't wait!!

Engagement pictures, round two

You may be saying to yourself, "But I thought they already did their engagement pictures a long time ago?"  Yep, we are so high maintenance that we need multiple engagement sessions. :)  Due to our 6 month engagement, we imposed upon the fantastic Katie McDonald to take a few quick shots of us that we could use on a save the date, and decided we'd wait until spring to take the full session.  Because really, who wants to take pictures in winter clothes when you can wait and wear fun springy clothes?

We just had our real engagement session and we had a blast!  It was a long day full of location changes, costume changes, and lots of laughs as I got loopy and had a giggling meltdown.  Katie was fantastic to work with and put up with our awkwardness all day, and even managed to make us look like we knew what we were doing!  She was even dodging traffic in the middle of the street, and I had to save her from an oncoming biker at one point on a trail.  She was really showing her dedication to photography!

The highlight of the day was that Katie managed to get us access to the Iowa Cubs stadium to take some shots on the field!  Here's a sneak peak, or you can view more at Katie's blog.  Enjoy!

Thanks, Katie!  We love how they turned out!

The Wedding Singer

Matt and I have been debating for quite some time about what we were going to do for ceremony and processional music.  I wanted something super fancy like a string quartet or a harp, and Matt wanted something simpler like piped in music or a synthesized keyboard.  Needless to say, we were getting nowhere in this discussion for quite some time.

Recently we were at an ice hockey game with a group of friends when I jokingly said that a group of our friends who have a band should play at the wedding.  Suddenly we both realized that our friend Cory, the lead singer of the band/most talented musician we know, would be the perfect choice for our ceremony music!  Cory plays every instrument imaginable, has a great voice, and has a great repertoire of music to choose from.

As it turns out, Cory has always wanted to perform a concert on the stage at Simon Estes, so it's win/win for everyone!  We couldn't be more excited about our choice of musician.  Take a look, he's a natural!

Cory rocking the air guitar at a friend's recent wedding
Photo c/o Katie McDonald Photography

Children!

Don't get too excited, this is not a post about when Matt and I will have children.  Instead, I would like to introduce you to the two adorable children who will be a part of the wedding!

Our flower girl is Matt's cousins' daughter, Abigale.  Abigale is about to turn 5 years old and is absolutely adorable.  Our ring bearer is my friend (and personal attendant)'s son, Jaxson.  Jaxson will be 3 years old soon and is also adorable.

Here's proof:

Seriously, are these not the cutest children of all time?  We recently found a flower girl dress for Abigale that matches the wedding colors and tomorrow I will be ordering a tiny little tux for Jaxson!

Control

Hi, my name is Erin, and I'm a control freak.

This is not new information to me...nor is it news to anyone who has spent a significant amount of time with me, but it has become abundantly clear throughout the past several weeks. In planning a wedding, there are many decisions to be made, many tasks to be done, and many people who have offered to assist. However, the event planner in me has a great deal of trouble relinquishing control of, well, anything.

Other than handing a few things off to Matt (because I suppose it is his wedding too!) I have for the most part preferred to do things for myself for two reasons. One, it's generally more difficult to explain to someone what you want than it is to just do it yourself. Two, when you hand something off, you lose the comfort of knowing that it will turn out exactly how you want it. (Yes, I know, I'm ridiculous.)

I made this realization after discovering how weird it was to have other people planning a bachelorette party and a shower for me. While everyone is doing a fabulous job, and I have no desire to throw either event for myself, it's strange for me to let someone else plan something.

So for those of you who have graciously offered to help me and I have yet to take you up on it...and there are many of you...don't worry, it's not you, it's me. I have issues. Although I do have the occasional need for immediate advice or reassurance, (thank goodness for gchat!) I'm in good shape. On the plus side, if the wedding falls apart I will have only myself to blame. :)

All about bridesmaids!

I stumbled upon this video today from the Dessy Group about the history and the role of bridesmaids. I thought it was cute so I'm sharing it with you in honor of my four fantastic bridesmaids!

Matt was right...

Okay, I'm not above admitting when I'm wrong (also I promised Matt that I would write this post). The problem with being a planner for a living is that you can at times get a little lackadaisical about the planning process. And while that can be a huge relief from the typical bridal stress, it can also backfire...

For about...oh, three months...Matt has been asking me if we could get the rehearsal dinner location booked. To which I always responded "Oh, we have all kinds of time, you don't have to book a restaurant six months in advance." Here's the problem: I've always had a vision for the wedding ceremony and the reception...but no vision for the rehearsal dinner. Never thought about it, actually. So we finally narrowed it down to our top three choices, two microbreweries and a local Italian restaurant, all downtown. I decided that I wanted to see the party rooms in our top option. But it took about a month before we had time to head down there to eat. When we finally made it down there, it was perfect. The seating host assured us that they weren't even booking that far out yet so we should be fine. So I smugly grinned at Matt because I was totally right in not being concerned about this.

Wrong.

Monday morning I get an email from the restaurant telling me they actually were booked. No big deal, on to our other two options. Nope, booked...oops.

Now, this didn't really bother me because I hadn't been too concerned about the rehearsal dinner in the first place, but Matt was not happy. So I frantically started coming up with back up options, trying to dig myself out of this hole. Then we had a realization. We can't even do our rehearsal at Simon Estes because they do the 4th of July festivities there the night before our wedding, so we really had no need to stay downtown at all. Matt suggested our favorite pizza place, Felix and Oscars, and I was on board. I called the next day and they are available! Phew! I'm out of the dog house, except for the fact that I had to acknowledge to the world that Matt was right.

We started thinking of where to hold our rehearsal and I jokingly suggested that we should just do it in Matt's backyard. The more we started to think about it though, we decided that was actually our best option. His deck will be the stage, and he was talking about even mowing the crazy shaped sidewalks into his grass so we can practice. This is bound to go well...

So at the ceremony, if anyone looks a little confused or disoriented, please bear in mind that we practiced on grass fake sidewalks and a deck.  :)

Yum!

On Wednesday night we went to the Marriott to sample our wedding menu options. Since I was out of town during the Marriott's official tasting celebration (supposedly they go all out and have the ballroom decorated and set up like an actual reception, I've heard it is really cool.  Kind of disappointed that we had to miss it!), we were able to set up a private tasting opportunity. We brought a tasting crew with us and we knew we were in good hands.

Our tasting committee - Best Man John, FOB John, MOH Emily, Matt and I - excited to try some food!

Matt and I had narrowed the options down to four that we would like to try- one chicken, one fish, one pork and one beef.  Out of those, we had to narrow it down to two options (plus there will be a vegetarian option) and we had to pick one out of two salads.

Caution...the rest of this post contains more details about our food than anyone probably cares to know...

First up was the salad. Matt had already come to terms with the fact that he would have to try the salad, despite his hatred of all things green. He choked down some Caesar salad and then actually enjoyed the spinach salad option! Okay maybe he didn't enjoy it...but he didn't hate it, and that's a big deal for Matt! John and I were voting for Caesar, Emily and Matt voted for spinach, and Dad didn't really have an option. Then John, in a total Foodie moment, decided we should wait and see which entrees we were going to pick and pair them with the appropriate salad. After we all made fun of his sophisticated salad logic, we agreed and moved on.

The first entree was a roasted halibut in a dill cream sauce served with a rice polenta and green beans. Best. Fish. Ever. We had all cleared our plates in a matter of seconds...this could be a hard process if they are all this good!

Mmm...fish

Second option was ribeye with a brandy reduction sauce served with roasted garlic mashed potatoes and asparagus. The ribeye was good...but not outstanding. Matt wasn't a fan of the sauce, and none of us were overwhelmed by the meat, although the potatoes were awesome and I am a huge fan of asparagus.

Matt enjoying his ribeye

Third was chicken picatta served with baby red potatoes and assorted squashes. Although Matt didn't care for the squash, for the most part we were all a big fan of everything on our plates.

Emily and Dad excited about their chicken...

...But not as excited as John was!

And last was pork tenderloin with a kahlua sauce served with sour cream mashed potatoes and asparagus and carrots. Ohhhhh my gosh, this might be the best thing I've ever eaten. I loudly declared, "I don't care about everyone else, but I am eating this at my wedding."  I also asked the chef if he would come to my house and make me kahlua sauce with all my meals. Aaaaamazing. (I apologize if I've now over-hyped this and it lets you down, but it was delicious.)

Yum, I want to eat it again!

We took a vote and unanimously decided on the fish and the pork. Then after a brief discussion, we decided on rice with the fish, and the sour cream potatoes for the pork. And green beans for everyone since we love them. We then asked John, who we had now deemed our salad connoisseur, to determine which salad paired best with our entrees and he went with the spinach.  Done!

Here we are, stuffed, with all of the options from the day!

And then, the friendly people at the Marriott decided that we needed to try their desserts, even though we will be serving cake at the wedding.  Score!

I was a little bit excited...apparently I hadn't eaten enough already!

At the end of the day, Matt decided that he was going to be eating the fish at the wedding and I will be eating the pork. Good thing we got that important decision out of the way!

Practicing holding our wedding meals of choice

We didn't decide on a kids option or vegetarian...we'll leave that for another day.  We all left saying that we couldn't wait for the wedding so we could eat the food again!  Thanks Marriott!!

The personal attendant (and other things)

Big accomplishments lately!  First of all, after a lot of debating, the honeymoon is booked!  We finally decided on Couples resorts because they include several excursions, whereas Sandals does not.  So we will be spending 6 lovely days in Ochos Rios in July!  After finally committing to booking the trip, we immediately got notice that the credit card had been denied due to a fraud protection.  Eek!  Luckily Matt was able to get in touch with the credit card company and all is well.  Jamaica, here we come!  We have several things in mind for the trip including a waterfall excursion, catamaran cruise, horseback riding, snorkeling, and more.  As I'm typing the list it's occurring to me that 6 days might not be long enough!

Our other big accomplishment is that we finally finished registering this weekend.  This was turning into quite the struggle for me because I realized I needed to come up with some sort of color scheme for the house (Matt put me in charge of that project) and I couldn't just pick out everything in the colors that we liked (which 90% of the time involves either blue or brown.)  That concept was so overwhelming for me that I avoided it for as long as possible, but finally we were able to commit to the items we liked, and we have a basic idea of what the house will look like.  Until we change our minds.

Also, I got to meet Carli, my personal attendant, for dinner last weekend.  From here on out Carli will be known as Personal Attendant/Flowers, Accessories, and Footwear Consultant.  As we were eating it occurred to me that Carli is an expert at every aspect of the wedding for which I have no vision whatsoever.  So we have mutually decided that she is taking over the wedding from here on out so that I don't have to make anymore decisions.  She also was asking for a list of duties for the day of the ceremony.  I told her that her primary job will be to keep me from killing anyone (if you've spent much time with me, you'll know that I have little to no tolerance for people).  So I'm adding an additional title to Carli's job description: bodyguard.  On the day of the wedding, Carli will have my cell phone, and unless your name is Matt Heeren or John McKeown, you will have to go through Carli to get to me.  I'm guessing this will be HUGE stress relief!  Thanks in advance, Carli!

So, blog followers, help me come up with the duties that I need to pass on to others the day of.  What did your personal attendant do for you?

The Ceremony

As on top of things as I feel like I have been throughout this wedding planning process...there is one little item that I feel like I haven't paid much attention to: the actual wedding ceremony.  Just a minor detail...as it turns out, this isn't just a fun party we are throwing, there is actually a point!

This conclusion became glaringly obvious to me after Matt and my visit to Simon Estes Amphitheater for Valentines Day.  Up until that point, it seemed only natural that the ceremony would go flawlessly, why should I worry about it?  So as I'm tromping through the snow toward the stage, Matt brings up the interesting point that there are no stairs on the front of the stage.  Good to know, otherwise I would have had to make a human pyramid out of the groomsman to get myself up there!  (I don't exactly have a 5 foot vertical, especially in a wedding dress.)  Next issue - curved, intersecting sidewalks.  Pretty, yes.  Conducive to walking town the aisle...not so much.

The beautiful but slightly inconvenient sidewalks

I decided I needed the help of an expert, so I emailed the wedding coordinator at the adjacent Embassy Suites asking for her input.  Out of the goodness of her heart (because she's not getting my business due to scheduling conflicts) Hailey was kind enough to give me the run down on how weddings typically go.  These are not insurmountable obstacles, we'll figure it out.  I do think I'm going to ask her if she has any upcoming weddings scheduled that I could watch from afar to see how they do things.  I'm not above being a creepy wedding crasher.

So now that my attention is turned to the ceremony, I'm feeling better about the fact that this wedding will be organized and hopefully flawless.  We'll see!

The Honeymoon Debate

Since we got engaged, Matt and I have been constantly answering the question "where are you going for your honeymoon?" with a shrug.  We know this: beach, warm, sunny, lots of activities.  I hate laying on the beach (if I am anywhere near water, I need to be in it) and Matt goes crazy with nothing to do.  After gathering and sorting through an overwhelming pile of materials, we have decided on Jamaica.  Done.  So yesterday we decided to sit down and book the trip.  Easy, right?

...Wrong.  You would think booking an all inclusive, adults only resort would be a piece of cake.  Little did we know that every brochure we looked at would seem like the perfect place to go, and that there would be 75,000 different resort options!  I'm pretty sure we need to take about 7 honeymoons because I want to go to every single place!

I would like to go right now, please!

We are now in the debate of Sandals vs. Couples.  Both similar...both with multiple locations, both with lots to do.  It seems that Sandals has slightly nicer rooms, but Couples has more included in the way of excursions.  How are we ever going to make this decision?

The other debate is how long to be gone.  I've heard from several of my recently married friends that they got tired of sitting on the beach after about 5 days.  We are thinking about Tuesday - Monday.

Reader feedback time!  Where did you go on your honeymoon?  How long is too long?  Sandals vs. Couples?

Settling down

I think that my overzealous planning has caused me to now be in a bit of a lull!  I'm sure there should be things that I am forgetting about...worrying about...overanalyzing.  At the moment, however, I'm at peace with the wedding planning and taking a much needed hiatus.  (For maybe a week until all the things I'm forgetting about come crashing down.)

Next items on the agenda once I resume planning:  accessories, flowers, shoes, centerpieces.  I'm not ashamed to admit, these are not my strong areas.  Consequently, I'm avoiding them for as long as possible.  Be prepared to give me feedback once I inevitably have to start stressing about them!

Packing up

The downside to getting things done early is that lately I've found myself with very little planning left to do!  We have been busy lately moving some of the furniture and other things that I don't use regularly over to Matt's house in preparation for my house going on the market.  The biggest excitement has been moving my cats to Matt's house so that I can get things cleaned and ready (and not have them in it when they start to show my house next week).  The cats are getting used to their new environment, Matt is getting used to having them around, and my house is feeling emptier and lonelier. 

In other news, for Valentine's Day we celebrated by ice skating at an outdoor rink that is a couple of blocks away from where we are getting married, so I talked Matt into trudging through the snow to take a look at the amphitheater.  I hadn't been there since getting engaged, so it was interesting to see it from a realistic perspective.  We have some logistics to think through, but I'm excited!  Less than 5 months!

Here are some photos from ice skating and a nighttime view of Simon Estes Amphitheater from our walk.  It kind of made me wish we were getting married at night since it is so pretty lit up! 

 

Tuxes

This weekend Matt and I went tux shopping.  Luckily, we are both on the same page of getting a lot of the details out of the way, so we decided we'd get tuxes taken care of early.  Our wedding photographer, Katie, had sent me a picture of charcoal tuxes at a wedding that she thought looked really good.  It sounded like a great idea to me, since the wedding will be outdoors in the middle of the summer.  Charcoal seems ever so slightly less heat absorbent than black.  Of course, when I suggested it to Matt, he was not a fan of the idea.  So I pulled a variety of photos for him to look at, surveyed a few outside opinions, and eventually convinced him to at least look at the charcoal tuxes in the store.  Deal.

When we got to our appointment, we had her set up both a charcoal tux and a black one.  Surprisingly, Matt was intrigued by the charcoal tux, but we tabled that decision and started with vest and ties.  We generally have very similar taste, so I wasn't expecting this to be very difficult, but we had quite the time settling on a tie.  We ended up choosing the one after circling through all the options repeatedly.  Now, back to the tux color.  I had already decided that I could live with either option, so it was up to Matt.  He decided to model both jackets with the vest and tie in the store (which was a great look with his white t-shirt and jeans)...and he ended up choosing charcoal!  I was excited, I think it will look great.  While we were there, I modeled the bridesmaid dress for him and I went a snuck a peak at my wedding gown on the rack.  All in all, a fun and successful outing, and one more thing checked off the list!

Yesterday we did registry number two.  I had been worried that with two already furnished houses, we wouldn't be able to find much to register for, but we are on a roll finding things...some of which we actually need and some of which we just really want! :)

And I keep neglecting to post that my friend from college, Carli, will be my personal attendant.  Her sense of humor and lightheartedness will be exactly what I need on the wedding day!

Crisis!

I've had my first wedding crisis.  I suddenly realized that I'd been doling out money left and right...deposits here, purchases there...and my filing system consisted of nothing but my reliance on Gmail to store everything for me, as well as a pile of receipts sitting on top of my microwave.  And then it hit me - I'm an event planner, I live for binders.  Why am I planning the biggest event of my life with no binder?  So Operation: Wedding Binder began.

I started by creating a page for the ceremony, the reception, the vendors...I was on a roll.  This was going to be the most thorough record of an event I had ever created.  I scoured Gmail and my credit card statements for charges (since I didn't have access to my microwave pile) so that I would have a record of everything I had done so far.  This is where I realized...I had no record whatsoever of the trolley.

I think that I haven't blogged about this yet, but the master plan was for the Des Moines Trolley to transport the wedding party from the ceremony to the reception, stopping in various downtown locations along the way for pictures.  This was one of my most important aspects of the wedding to me, I booked it the day after we set the date...or so I thought.  As I'm compiling my binder, I realized that I had no email confirmation and no credit card charge for the trolley.  I immediately picked up the phone and called the owner, Pete, who was very friendly but had no record whatsoever of my reservation, only an email inquiry.  Apparently the online form I submitted hadn't gone through.  I held my breath as he looked through his calendar...and discovered that by some miracle, no one had booked the trolley in the past month and a half.  Phew!  I asked him to stay on the phone with me while I resubmitted my form and I now have email and verbal confirmation that we have the trolley.  And out of the goodness of his heart, he gave me his 2010 rate since I thought I had booked it before his 2011 rate when into effect. 

This was the moment when I realized that I am just like every other stereotypical bride.  Really, would it have been the end of the world if I hadn't gotten this trolley?  No.  Would it have ruined my wedding?  No.  Was I practically hyperventilating at the thought of not having this trolley?  Absolutely.

Luckily, crisis averted...this time, anyway!

The Back Up Plan(s)

So far, overwhelming support for the all white chairs.  (Thank you, that's the answer I wanted.)

HOWEVER, my friend Katie from work is also getting married this year, so we did some brainstorming for alternatives...I think we have some winners:

1.   Customized Erin and Matt folding lawn chairs that guests can take with them as parting gifts.

2.  While searching the internet for the customized chairs, we came across mini 3 inch folding chairs that can be personalized.  Guests could hold the chairs while imagining themselves comfortably seated!

3.  BYOC (Bring your own chair) because who doesn't own an abundance of folding chairs?

4.  Giant bean bags in the amphitheater.

5.  Picnic blankets!

6.  Please sign the guest book, here's your program, and a chair to take with you to the amphitheater.  Please return it at the conclusion of the ceremony.

And my personal favorite:

7.  Half an hour into the ceremony, we ask all the guests to stand while a tuxedo clad delivery person comes to take away your chair.  We will ask the delivery man to wear a Phantom of the Opera style mask and cape to complete the effect.


Nothing but class for this wedding!

You may now be seated

As I've mentioned in a previous post, one of the wonderful disadvantages to getting married in a park is the lack of permanent seating.  Today I decided to follow up on the chair rental suggestion from the local morning show DJ who was nice enough to respond to my creepy stalker-like request for help.  I called the local hardware store, found out they do have chairs for the incredibly low price I had been told about...but they don't have enough.  Unless...I'm willing to do a mix of black and white chairs.

I'm sure you're probably all rolling your eyes at this huge chair related crisis, but really?  Mixed chair colors?

a) People are going to think this is a stylish, trendy choice (I am neither stylish nor trendy, I know this)
b) Black chairs could be way hot
c) This raises the options of checkerboard? Alternating rows? Brides side white, grooms side black? (Which would make me significantly more popular than Matt because people are going to opt for the white chairs...)

I started searching around and found a place that will deliver, set up, tear down, MATCHING chairs, but for significantly more money.  So I have to decide if it's worth the extra money.  Which brings up a good point, I failed to find out if my bargain mismatched chair price included set up.  Now I realize that I could probably find volunteers to set up and tear down chairs that day, and not that I don't trust all of you wonderful friends and family members to help me...but let's face it: I'm an event planner, I'm super anal.  So if my chairs aren't in perfect concentric semi circles spaced evenly apart, it's going to be an issue. 

So I ask you, loyal blog followers...what to do?

*A caveat: I'm not committing myself to taking your advice, but I appreciate the feedback.

Mail merges and registries

Today Matt and I both had the day off, so our number one priority was getting the save the dates stuffed, addressed, sealed and stamped.  That turned out to be an all day project thanks to some technical difficulties, but we finally got the job done. 

Since we had some extra time, we decided to tackle our first registry.  This also turned out to be quite the time consuming project, but we were happy with our first stab at registering.  We discovered that we have the opposite taste in flatware (which was unusual, we tend to have the same taste in everything) but after that it was smooth sailing.  By the time we got done though, we were exhausted.  It may be awhile before we decide to tackle another registry!

Lights, Camera, Action!

Today we met with our videographer.  Turns out he is the son of our DJ, so that will be very convenient.  We were impressed with him, I think he will do a great job.  He does a full length ceremony video and then a 5-10 minute video montage of the whole day's events, starting at the hairdresser and going all the way through the reception.  And he assured us he would stay out of Katie's way as she was photographing.  So we booked him, check that off the list!  While we were at the mall we picked up Matt's wedding band that had come in.  He's already looking forward to wearing it every day...or not.

Our goal for the weekend is to get the save the date magnets addressed and mailed, but we haven't gotten to that yet.  And I'm meeting with my realtor on Wednesday to talk about what needs to be done to the house before we put it on the market, so I have some cleaning to do before she comes in to look at it.  Luckily we have a three day weekend! 

Save the Date!

Our Save the Date magnets were delivered today!  Which means that lucky Matt gets to have a stuffing party with me this weekend.  I was excited to see that we matched the color pretty well to the coral color of the wedding.  Always scary working with custom colors, but it worked out.

After much haggling and debating about a reception package with the Marriott, we finally figured out what we wanted and got a contract worked up.  Phew!  I also went through the stack of brochures from the bridal show last weekend and found a videographer to meet with.  Matt and I have a meeting on Saturday.  I was really debating about spending the money for video, but finally decided that I would regret not having one, so I was on a mission to find the least expensive wedding video that I could.  After setting up the meeting, I realized that the videographer was from the same company as our DJ.  Weird coincidence!  So that is promising since we were excited about our DJ.

And Matt now has his second usher, his friend Nick Judge from Southern Illinois.  The wedding party is complete!

Bridezilla!

This morning I went to two bridal shows in West Des Moines.  I had gone to these shows last year with friends while I was maid of honor, so I was prepared for a day of chaos.  The bridal show basically consists of a room full of wedding vendors (aka cakes, florists, venues, photographers, dj's, etc.) all trying to sell you their services.  I went early in the morning to help Katie set up her booth so I was one of the first people in the room.  Thank goodness! 

I didn't need much since the wedding is 90% planned, but I was after four things:  videographer, florist, invitations and honeymoon.  The first wedding show didn't have much that I was interested in, but the second show had quite a few decent possibilities!  After about the first half hour of the show being open, I was ready to go, which was lucky because the place was PACKED.  Lots of completely overwhelmed girls walking around with their friends/family.  I saw a girl starting to cry, another girl hyperventilating, and lots of girls just looking totally clueless.  It made me really glad that we have things pretty much figured out already...otherwise I think I would have been just as stressed out as everyone else in the room!

Now to sort through the pile of handouts that people sent home with me...

And it has been brought to my attention that I didn't mention who we got our cake from.  Glorious Desserts, in case you were wondering.

Mmmm...

Today we had our cake consultation appointment (a.k.a. we got to eat a lot of delicious cake)!  Glorious Desserts makes BEAUTIFUL cakes, and they are also some of the most delicious flavored cakes around - win win!  Luckily before we got there, Matt and I had scoured her website and figured out what we did/didn't want, because when we got there they wanted us to instantly tell them how many tiers, what color, what shape, what design.  Yikes!  We flipped through some books, picked out our cake, and then got to do a tasting.  YUM!  They gave us a plate of nine of their most popular flavors to try.  For the number of people we have coming, we got to pick six different flavors.  I've already put my bridesmaid Kati in charge of saving me some cake at the wedding in case I get too distracted to ever have a piece (aside from the cake cutting.)  So get ready for a delicious cake experience!
 
And we got save the dates ordered!  Two more things checked off the list today!

Also, I would like to thank myself for picking a complicated wedding color to match things with.  The cake, save the dates, website, etc...it's quite the guessing game picking a shade that is close.  Of course I wouldn't pick something standard like blue.  It's got to be a very specific variation of coral...way to go, Erin.  :)

Engagement photos, round 1

Today we had a mini engagement photo session with our friend and wedding photographer, Katie McDonald. (Check her out at www.katiemcdonaldphotography.com, she's great!) We wanted to do our actual engagement photos in the spring when it is nice out, but we decided to do a mini shoot today so that we would have some photos to use for save the dates. Luckily it was a whopping 34 degrees and sunny today, lovely weather for outdoor photos...but we survived the cold and Katie got some good ones of us.

Once we finished, I happened to mention that I had heard about a bridal show going on, so Katie and I convinced Matt to go with us by promising him free cake samples. It was a pretty small bridal show, but we found an AWESOME DJ and booked them! Woo hoo! That was the most surprisingly productive trip ever!

We have an appointment with a cake decorator this week so Matt will get to try even more cake samples...