less than 10 months away!

I have too many thoughts in my head to write them all in a journal form, so I'm going to list everything that I'm excited about right now.

*Mom, Cylie and Kaylin were here this past weekend and we had a blast

*Saturday was our Engagement Party and it was perfect

*Kaylin and Cylie helped me make my save-the-dates...well we got them started. I'm finishing them now.

*My mom took our engagement pictures and they turned out beautifully!

*I took the girls to see my wedding dress and they love it just as much as I do!...mom's making a down payment on it soon!

*Sunday we had an appt. to choose bridesmaid dresses and we ended up choosing the bridesmaid, junior bridesmaid & the flower girl dresses. Kaylin was also measured for her dress so we'll be able to order it when the time comes!

*I've discovered that I'm really good at making these save-the-dates and I'm going to start making lots of stationary and selling them at the market and on my Etsy website

*Matt and I are extremely happy

*He started his new job today and was thrilled to find out that he gets his own office!

*He also registered for fall semester classes yesterday, can't wait for him to start : )

Lots of exciting things happening!! I'm so excited!...WE'RE so excited!

Epiphany

I can't sleep right now and have realized that I really want my bridesmaids dresses to be a deep yellow. Not a lemon yellow. But not ugly mustard yellow. Just a nice mustard yellow, bright but deep. I love it for summer. And I am considering letting my bridesmaids all choose different dresses but just having the same color. This could change, most likely will. But for right now at 1:30 in the morning 11 months before our wedding...my bridesmaid dresses are going to be yellow. I am very excited about this.

Details in the Fabric

Planning, planning and more planning. I've been in touch with our planner at Chula Vista Resort. We told her that we wanted a summer date because we will have guests coming that have never been to Wisconsin Dells. Matt and I know that the Dells is the most fun in the summer and I know that that is really the only season I'd have an outdoor wedding there. Our planner told me that June 19th was open, but now has emailed me saying, "the tent is available on September 19." I don't want to get married in WI in the fall and am hoping it was just a typo. I told her that we would really be happy with any Saturday in the summer, so hopefull that works out. We love that resort and their tent, it's perfect.
We've decided on our colors, pink, orange (well, more of a coral ) and yellow accents here and there. We want more of a celebration feel than something super fancy. It's more us and we'll feel more comfortable. I can't decide what color I want the bridesmaids dresses to be, I just know that I don't want them to be orange, or bright pink. My dress has a vintage feel to it, and I can't picture that with something to bright. Maybe I'll have them be more of a pale pink with bright flowers...hhmm...I dont' know yet.
As far as decorations go, we have decided that we will use minimal flowers. The bouquets will be flowers, possibly mixed with paper flowers (depends on how good I get at making them). I will be making (hopefully along with some help) a lot of paper flowers and buying paper lanterns that will hang from the ceiling of the tent above the tables and then there will be paper lanterns with candles in them as the centerpieces. I am also creating vases full of the paper flowers out of tin cans with ribbon and fabric wrapped around them. I am so excited about this!
I'm going dress shopping this weekend with my future sister-in-law and I'm really excited about that, should be fun. And who knows, maybe I'll find a dress that I like more than the one I've already found. In that case, I wouldn't pay for it at all until my parents get here in August so that they can see it and help me decide.
Yesterday, Matt and I talked a lot about our honeymoon, and I have given up to the fact that our room realistically won't have beautiful white curtains that have a breeze blowing in from the ocean...(although, if we could find something like that, that is affordable, I'd be all over it!). We looked into Sandals in the Bahamas and both of us were really pleased with what their resort had to offer. 7 nights all-inclusive with an ocean view room for only $3,500, thats about $1500 cheaper than the other places we've looked at. There were also plane tickets right now from WI to Nassau for only $174 a person. So, we'll see about that.
Right now we just have to save, save and save some more to be able to get our date. We have to pay $1,000 as a down payment before the date is ours (hopefully we get a summer date) I'm a little worried about that.
I'm realizing that wedding planning is a lot more work that I thought it would be. Especially because a lot of these things have already been ideas in my head since I was a little girl (colors for example). There are going to be a lot of people at our wedding. 300 is the limit for the reception and I'm thinking we're going to be pretty close to that. I think 150 is a good number, but our invitation list is waaayyy bigger than that. This is so much fun and I know that this time is going to just fly by. We have to be super careful with our money and make sure we are always concious of our budget. I made one last night that goes week by week until June 19, 2010 and if it goes according to that plan, I'll be able to alone save $7,500 plus have an extra $100 per week for extra stuff. So then add in Matt's savings for the wedding and our parents help, I know we're going to be just fine! We can make this wedding between 10,000 and 12,000 easy...

I have never been more excited about something...I can't wait for us to be married!

Here are the links for my centerpiece ideas, as well as our resort site. Oh yeah, and I'm also making the napkin rings from the picture : )

chulavistaresort.com

http://www.marthastewartweddings.com/article/pom-poms-and-luminarias?autonomy_kw=pom%20poms&rsc=header_6