Finalizing Our Wedsite

After complaining about how I didn't want to tackle this area of the wedding process, I've finally given in and made some good progress.

In terms of the website, here are the different sections we've decided to include. It's rather basic but I hope to provide the information that people will be looking for leading up to the big day.

• Our Story - How we met, blah blah blah
• Meet the Wedding Party - to introduce the girls and guys that will be accompanying us and include a short bio and pic
• Registry Info - self explanatory
• Map and Directions - I get lost all the time and in the DMV there is a lot of construction going on and this will help them navigate the area and find our ceremony and reception sites
• Hotel Accommodations - We've secured a reasonably priced room block in Old Town Alexandria, VA so we'll provide that information along with a couple other convenient hotels in the area that we'll be blocking off
• Things to Do - Fun things to do while they're here in town if they so choose to venture out and about
• FAQs - Some general answers to questions that I think guests will be constantly asking us
• RSVP Information - If they want to RSVP online I think I'll provide that option as well as our general reply by date
• Contact Information - emails and phone numbers for both of us

Are there any sections or pages that I'm forgetting?

Long Distance No More

Hello All! Posting hasn't been very regular for like the past month or so. But I have a good reason. But first the details.

I don't think I explained that for the past 6-7 months that Mr. B and I have been living in separate states, doing the long distance romance thing. It's been a drain but we've obviously made it work. Back in June 2010, I was living in Philly and finalizing my plans to begin a new career in DC. Once I made all my arrangements, I moved back to the DMV and started my new job in August 2010. However, Mr. B didn't have the foresight to request a transfer early enough so he was stuck in Philly for a while. About 3 months passed, it's now November, and he was finally informed that they received his transfer and that it would "potentially" be approved. Long story short, he eventually received an official approval for his transfer in late February '11. And fast forward to this past weekend, we finally moved him and the rest of our stuff from our old Philly apartment back to the DMV.

So that's the reason, things have been slow around here. I've been busy figuring out what will happen with our apartment lease, scheduling moving trucks and just trying to make sure that everything goes smoothly. We're still in the process of unpacking some stuff and getting all of his things organized, but he's back, we're happy and we're moving forward.

Great things are on the horizon.

Wedding Rambles - Why Have a Wedding?

Throughout our relationship Mr. B and I have been asked and at times a little pressured to just go to the courthouse and get married. For many couples that's exactly what they want to do and they don't even think twice about having a marriage ceremony and reception. But for me, that was never an option. And no, I wasn't one of those girls who has had dreams about her wedding day since she was 6 but I did know that I wanted to have a ceremony and reception.

I've only been to 1 wedding in my lifetime but for that one I really felt the love and commitment between the two individuals and for that short time, I really felt a part of their love celebration. And that was one of the main reasons why I decided that there was no other way. I would love to save money and just elope because I can be somewhat of a penny-pincher at times, but after these 7 long years together I think we deserve a day to celebrate our love on a grand scale with our closest family and friends.

Another reason I wanted a wedding was because my parents never had a wedding. Although they are divorced now, I always wonder what my parents wedding would've looked like. And for my children I want them to be able to experience our wedding day and see the love that we have for one another.

I'm not going to lie, as we start to shell out more deposits and think about the money we've committed to vendors, eloping is a great and frugal way to go. But I have to continue to remind myself that the wedding isn't just about our love story but its about the all the wonderful individuals that we'll be celebrating with as well and sharing the beginning of our lives together as husband and wife.

Why did you decide to have a wedding celebration vs. just eloping?

Feeling a Little Guilty

Source

I've been going back and forth on whether to post this or not but here it goes...

I know there's someone out there who has felt guilty about a wedding related purchase. Well for me, I'm feeling guilty about hiring a full-service wedding planning team. I started out planning the wedding solo (with Mr.B in tow of course), gathering vendor options, inspiration galore and creating my gameplan and timeline. Then we met with a wedding planning duo for the purposes of just DOC services. They sounded too good to be true and we ended hiring them full-time, we couldn't pass up this deal and great opportunity, plus it would help ease some of my planning related stress.

And in the couple months since, I've had great design discussions and they have gotten us great vendors to choose from. Not to mention they've helped us bring to life some of the wonderful details I've dreamed of early on. Yet, from time to time I find myself feeling a little bad for choosing to go with a planner. I guess I'm feeling sort of like a DIY wedding failure. Browsing various blogs and seeing how other women have courageously planned and put together fabulous weddings on similarly tight budgets without the help of a planner and sometimes not even a DOC makes me think that I took the easy way out. At the beginning going at it alone, I felt a sense a pride in that I was doing everything myself. But now not so much. And especially with such a tight budget sometimes I feel like other brides at times in that I could have definitely used that money towards something else.

And don't get me wrong, I feel like our planning team has done a fabulous job and they have been worth their investment thus far. I guess there's just some internal struggles going on here that I'll have o work on reconciling.

Have you felt guilty about a major wedding related purchase?

My First Wedding Dream...I Mean Nightmare

It's actually not the first but it's the most realistic and tangible one yet. As I've mentioned before, I have my first tasting today with our number one catering choice. I've been so nervous lately about how this is going to turn out. And last night just reinforced those nervous feelings.

The dream starts out as I'm driving to the caterers office and once I get there I realize were in some really crappy strip mall type of place with the cheesy fluorescent 7-eleven style light-up words. I gasp and wonder OMG what have I gotten myself into. I bring the rest of my tasting team in and we get started. The setting was horrific, were sitting in a cafeteria style room with the tables and benches from 3rd grade. And when they finally bring the food out, it's lukewarm and it looks and tastes like cafeteria food...bland, no type of presentation whatsoever and just plain nasty! I leave really pissed off because it was huge waste of time and now were back to square one in the search for a caterer.

I'm confident that my experience today will be nothing like the one from my dream but I can't help but think of how my thoughts have manifested into this grand dreamland scenario.

Tasting update coming tomorrow!

Brides, It's Ok...

This may eventually turn into a weekly or monthly feature of thoughts, actions, etc that others may think are crazy but we know as brides it's ok to think, feel, do, etc, etc, etc. This is an adaptation of the Glamour magazine feature "Hey, it's ok!" which I love to read every month and I can definitely relate to many of them each time.

So here it goes.

Brides, It's Ok...

1. To want your FI to be involved in decisions but make it easier by giving him only 3 options which you selected to choose from
2. To make a weekly trip to Michaels, you can't let those coupons go to waste!
3. To change your color palette 3, maybe 4 times...ok...it's more like 6 but who's counting

Were So Lucky!

* FYI from here on out I'll be referring to my FI as Mr. B, more aliases to come :)

I received a call from my aunt a couple weeks ago. She wanted to know if she could organize and throw the bridal shower. She has out done herself at previous family events time and time again so how could I say no. I was so excited because I know it we will have a great time. But during our quick chat she asked me something I hadn't even thought of...do you want to include Mr. B and his family in the shower as well? I told her I would think about it and talk to him about it as well. I called my mom to ask her opinion and she had already spoken to my aunt and they were on the same page. I ran it past Mr. B and he didn't oppose it, so with that, we'll be having a co-ed wedding shower!

I'm so excited. Even though it's many months away I'm just happy for the possibilities. It will be one of the first times that both of our immediate families get together and meet up. We will be able to celebrate us as a couple along with all of our loved ones and enjoy the day together and eat great food.

I had never thought about having a "wedding shower" instead of traditional bridal shower but it's a great option for us and I can't wait to see the great family pics that will come out of this event.

My Dreaded To-do: The Website

I know it has to be done...but I really don't feel like working on this wedding website...uggh. I just haven't been that excited about it. But we have made a little headway...we chose the website provider mywedding.com and the design...see

I had to remove some of the personal info but you get the picture. For a while, I was looking for designs that matched my color scheme thinking that it would flow so nicely. But it was difficult to find a design that I liked that blended well with what I had going on. So I gave up that idea and just went with a design that we both liked.

And in terms of selecting mywedding.com, it was mostly because of the long list of design options that were available along with the different features that they have for me to use. I doubt that I will be using all of them because based on the type of guests that I have coming , I highly doubt that they will 1) remember that I have a website and 2) if they do remember, they're probably easily impressed so I don't need anything fancy.

The part that I'm dreading is actually adding the content but since we'll be sending out our save the dates shortly which will include our website name I need to get on the ball and make some updates. I'm thinking that I'm just going to keep it simple and straightforward. I'll give the people the information that will be helpful, provide a sneak peek into the wedding, add some FAQ's, yadda, yadda, yadda.

As you can see, this is one thing I'm not very enthusiastic about...yet. That could change though.

What's the one thing (or 2) that you aren't (or weren't) too excited about tackling?