Random Wedding Planning Thoughts by Martha

I had an epiphany in the shower the other morning. All of the sudden a solution to my invitation addressing problems came to me: I’ll address the outer envelope properly with Mr & Mrs whomever etc. and then create a second set of labels that are less formal and can include the "& guest" and additional invitees such as children and put those onto the reply cards. That way people won’t have to write their name in next to the M_______ as is customary and I’ll also have a way to let people know who is invited within their household. Yay for my brilliance! I don’t know why this didn’t occur to me earlier. Now I just have to figure out who some of the people on our list are... I’m thinking it still might get a little tricky if someone who has an “& guest” replies that a guest is coming but doesn’t give me a name. Is it ok to call them and ask who their guest is? Uhgh, nothing is ever as easy as it seems. And as of now there’s a possibility of 6 or 7 kids under the age of 6 being there (3 of them being babies less than 6 months old!) Not likely they’ll all come, but it could happen. That could make things interesting…

 

In other wedding news, I finally made the hair appointments Wednesday night while we were up in Appleton browsing for carpet. I definitely think Heads of Time is much more my kind of place than Salon Aura was. I have a trial run set for about 2 weeks before the wedding and then appointments for all of us girls at 11 am the day of the wedding. The stylist assured me that they use enough hairspray that the up-dos should have no problem staying in place until and through the 3:30 pm wedding. I guess we’ll see. My hair can be kind of stubborn. I’m still undecided about what I want to do with it. I’m growing it out but I don’t know how much longer it will really get before August. I know I want to have it up off my face so it doesn’t bug me and is off my neck since I know it will be hot. Other than that I’m at a loss. I’ve been looking through magazines etc. to see if something inspires me but so far nothing has.

Dresses, Done

Catherine W. came up this morning to try on her dress and see how the bridesmaids dress looks with my dress. While I can't show you the picture of us together :), I can show you the picture of just her:

 

I was a little worried since she never tried this dress on before I ordered it. It appears to have turned out well. This dress is a little shorter than the one from David's it was similar to but since both her and the other Catherine are on the short side, it's all good. She said it was comfortable and will require very little alteration.

Menu Preview

We had our tasting and menu planning session at The Meadows this evening and I figured I'd share what we plan on serving. We'll be having a buffet style dinner to get everyone mingling. Here's what's on the menu:

Cajun Blackened Flank Steak
Norwegian Salmon in Dill Butter Sauce
Baked Lemon Pepper Chicken
Lyonnaise Baked Potatoes
Asparagus & Broccoli with Baconn Mornay
Vegetable Pasta Salad
Crab & Shrimp Salad
Exotic Fruit Salad
Caesar Salad
Rolls & Butter

We had the chance to sample everything on this list except for the fruit salad and we were able to choose the fruits in that (mango, kiwi, some other stuff I don't remember...) Everything was excellent so look forward to some good food.

It's Official

Guest List
Our guest list had kind of gotten out of control during Christmas time when we were sending out cards and letters. We kept adding people we had forgotten and hadn't gotten a total. Today I cleaned the list up to see just how many people we were talking about. Right now the list total is at 124. Not bad... For the reception hall, we need at least 75 for dinner or they add a surcharge. This means we'll need about 61% of the people invited to show up at dinner. I think that's doable, right? Of course I'd love for everyone who is invited to come, but that's not realistic.

Marriage Prep Part III

This weekend is phase three of the Catholic marriage preparation process.

Phase one was meeting with Father Mike a while back to just talk about what we needed to do. It was a pretty casual meeting that had an analogy about a table or something... Father Mike is a nice guy with a great sense of humor.

Phase two was the FOCCUS meetings. Couples from the church volunteer their time to meet with engaged couples and do an "inventory." It's a quiz with about 100 questions about different subjects like money, communication, relationships, etc. Each person takes it separately and then we come back a few weeks later to talk about the results. It was also pretty casual and low stress. I think it went alright. The Williams' were nice people and Barb made great pizza!

Phase three is the Engaged Encounter. It's a day-long retreat at the church. All the couples who want to be married in the church have to participate in this before their wedding. I'm not sure what to expect, but this is also run by a couple from the church. Hopefully it will be fun and educational.

Musical Update

We have secured our vocalist.

The very first time I went to church with Adam, the person up at the front of the church who led the mass had a wonderful voice. I liked it so much that when we got engaged I asked him if it would be weird if we asked this woman (who we don't know) to sing. He got her number from his mother (who works at the church - another benefit of having connections) and gave her a call. She agreed to sing. Now we just need to get together sometime and actually meet her! :)

Organist-wise, Adam called the normal church organist earlier this week and hopefully we'll get together with him soon. His style is a lot like my dad's so I think it should be ok since I have some specific pieces I want played (hello Widor toccata!) I have the music all picked out. It's just a matter of running it by the two musicians and making sure that they have copies of the music.

Things are working out splendidly.

Flowers (Part Deux)

So I guess we were successful in our flower quest this morning. As with most of the parts of the wedding, we'd done a considerable amount of research beforehand and just wanted confimation that what we'd chosen wasn't completely retarded. We sat down with a nice (and totally flaming) guy named Brian. We went through the list of flowers needed and managed to come in under (a revised) budget. The fact that we had a 15% off coupon definitely helped.

The flowers are a mix of yellows and purples. Calla lillies, carnations, hyacinth and hydrangeas make up the majority of the items. I think they'll be throwing some filler greens or smaller flowers in a few of them and the cake flowers will be roses, but overall, that's what it turned out to be.

I don't have pictures of any of them except for the bouquets that the Catherines will be carrying. They'll be in a purple though, not blue like the picture shows. It will also be smaller that that one. Brian said 2 or 3 bunches tied together with a ribbon.

Directions Posted
Adam typed up some quick directions to the church and to the reception site. We're assuming most people will be staying in Appleton or close to highway 41. If you need further assistance getting where you need to go, contact us and we'll try and get you there.

Pictures from Mom
Along with her Christmas letter, my mom was nice enough to include some pictures she took while on the dress adventure we had when she was here in November. I jumped at the chance to scan them and post more pictures of me looking stupid. I've determined that I just must generally be stupid-looking since that's how I appear in every photo ever taken of me... *sigh*

Looking fearfully at dresses at David's Bridal (which is NOT where I got my dress. Talk about pushy salespeople!)

Looking at headwear at Bridal Staircase (which is where I DID get my dress. Nice people. Good volume discounts.)

Looking at scary shoes at DSW. I *heart* shoes. Not these ones though. (Nice flash reflection, mom!)