25. Music

Cory and I are still trying to decide on what kind of music to have in the ceremony. Because we're not having a church wedding, we'd like to have secular songs that we both like or have some kind of meaning to us. It's a lot harder than it sounds! It's amazing to me how many songs aren't really that romantic when you listen to them. It probably also doesn't help that we don't have the most conventional taste in music. I like a lot of pop songs, but I would never have "I Swear" in my wedding or anything like that. I like the idea of our wedding having its own musical signature. We've looked at a lot of stuff by the Vitamin String Quartet (they do instrumental covers of songs), and we've looked at a lot of other songs, so we still have some work to do.

At least we decided not to write our own vows! I would love to do that, but I don't know how either of us would ever come up with something we felt worthy. A mixture of traditional and modern would definitely be how I would describe our wedding.

26. Cocktails

We are still trying to make a decision on what kind of cocktails to serve at the reception. We are having a beer and wine package, and would love to provide one or two cocktails to serve along with them. We have several friends and family that aren't really into beer or wine, and we want everyone to have a great time and party, and feel like they have drink choices they will enjoy.

We've thought about something with Jack Daniels (even just Jack and Coke, one of Cory's favorites), and maybe a Cosmopolitan or something else with vodka (I love the fruity drinks). We've even thought about serving hard iced tea like with sweet tea vodka.

Have you ever been to a wedding that had signature cocktails? What do you like to drink at a wedding?

27. Paying it off

Well, we have finally reached the part of the planning process where we are starting to pay off some of our vendors. I am proud to say that we have paid off the cake and the flowers, and really the only expenses we have left are the DJ, food, and hotel. Of course, I can't pay for our hotel rooms until we use them! We will make final payments with the DJ in a couple of weeks, and with the caterer when we have our final head count (two weeks before the wedding). It looks like we are just barely going to make our minimum of 100 people, which is just fine. We are so lucky to have 100 people in our lives who would travel or spend the time to witness our marriage. We are less than four weeks away (and so far, under budget, too)!

28. Engagement pictures

We went to take engagement pictures today, and it was so much fun! We got together with our photographers, and headed downtown for a day of pictures. I think Cory and I both felt really self-conscious a lot of the time, because we're not used to being the center of attention so much. I guess we just have to get used to that part, because I'm sure more than a few people will be looking at us on our wedding day, too. Here are some of my favorite pictures from the day (all pictures by Charbonnet Photography):

29. RSVPlease send that card back in

Today's a short one. I just want to send up a call to the cosmos - we have a week until the response date, and we're still waiting to hear from over 50 people! I'm not looking at anyone in particular (Cory's family), but we do have to make decisions on food and knowing how many people are coming might help that. Not looking forward to all the phone calls we'll have to make, for sure. I promise in the future to always send my RSVP right away.

At least it makes going to the mailbox a little more exciting.

30. Fitting in the dress, and fitting the dress to me!

Okay, I won't be showing pictures of my dress, but I thought I'd at least talk a little about how the alterations went. It doesn't sound exciting, but it was pretty interesting, actually. We went a little over a month ago to see the alterations lady at David's Bridal, and I got all the layers of stuff on for my dress, and we went to work.

I knew it was too long (I'm a shortie - 5'2"), but there were several other places that were just too big or too weird on me. I'm a true petite, short waisted and short legged, so she had to pin it on the sides and through the bust, too. Plus, there is an asymmetrical drape over the front, so that had to be shortened since the hem was being shortened. The halter neck was way too big, so that was pinned, and then we had to create a bustle. Mine is a five-point French bustle, and basically the point of it is to fold up the back of my dress so that the train does not drag on the ground at the reception. You leave it down for the ceremony, and bustle it for the reception so you can dance all night without anyone stepping on your skirt!

I got to try on the finished product last night, and it was so worth it! The dress fits me to a T (I guess that is the point, isn't it), and I feel really ready to be a bride. It was the first time I tried it on that I didn't want to take it off.

31. Registering... is fun?

Today is the one month mark for the wedding! It's amazing to me that all the work we have done in the past seven months will be finished, and we'll be getting married. Of course, there are still some things to do (I have a dress fitting today, even), but it's nice to see it all come together!

We registered several months ago, but there are some things I have learned since then that I would love to have known beforehand. For instance, when someone tells you that you can return a gift if you want, even if you don't plan to you should take the receipt! We got a gift at our shower that was a duplicate of one that had been shipped to our house that we didn't know about. Now we have the choice of trying to ship back the one we actually registered for (and like better) or try to get a receipt from someone who lives 500 miles away.

Also, I would have kept a list of what we thought of every time we said, "I wish we had one of those" or "That would come in really handy." That's the kind of stuff I feel like we're missing from the registry - like TV trays (which have since been added)! I don't want to add them this late because I'm trying not to look at the registry at all, because people are actually buying from it now.

I am glad we registered early. You do have to watch, especially at places like Target, for things going out of stock on clearance. Just know that if you register for something seasonal, if you wedding is more than a couple months away, it might not be there when the season your wedding is in comes around. Also, Cory and I went to two stores, but I took my mom to the other one. Cory got to pick out stuff he was interested in at Target and Bed Bath & Beyond, but he's not interested in serving pieces or anything by Martha Stewart (though he did like the Hotel sheets we registered for), so Mom went to Macy's with me.

Registering is fun; it's full of excitement and hope and you can have a blast thinking about how things will fit in your new life together. I would just recommend bringing a snack! We got really tired and hungry at the end, because you do spend several hours in the store. It was totally worth it, though.

32. I can't think of anything clever to say about veils.

When I first got engaged, I didn't think I would be the kind of girl who had a traditional veil at her wedding. I love the vintage look of a birdcage veil, like this:

from Whitney Lee Photography

As I tried on my dress a couple more times, though, I started to have second thoughts. What if I regretted not having a wispy traditional veil? We tried on a few at the store, and I really started to fall in love with the idea. I went home and stewed about it, and ended up getting one like this:

from David's Bridal

I have to say, I'm still a little torn about it, but I think what I might do is have the long veil for the wedding, and switch to the short one for the reception. Best of both worlds? I hope so!

33. BP in the BR

Bachelorette Party in Baton Rouge, that is!

Right after the shower, the girls and I headed over to the Melting Pot for cheese and chocolate. It was so yummy! We had a cheddar cheese and a white cheese blend (that included blue cheese) for the appetizer fondues, and then for the chocolate ones we had a Turtle (dark chocolate, caramel, and pecans) and a Sex Kitten (white chocolate, marshmallow creme, Bailey's, and Oreo crumbles). After all the food at the shower, we didn't think we would really be that hungry, but somehow everything mysteriously got eaten. :-)

Christon had organized the party and had goodie bags for everyone with tiaras and necklaces. Mine was a special tiara with a veil, as you'll see in the pictures below. She also made a picture frame with a mat inside for everyone to write "advice for the bride." All the girls wrote such sweet things, but I was good; I didn't cry!

I don't have pictures yet of the Melting Pot or the place we went immediately afterward (the Texas club), but the last stop of the night was North Gate Tavern, and we had a blast there, too! We ended up staying until closing. There was a band playing, and a couple of our other friends were there and buying us drinks. We danced and laughed and had a great time listening to the music.

Here are some pictures! Not pictured are Cory's sister, Stephanie (who left after dinner to see her sweet baby) and my friend Christy (who had an exam coming up, so she had to leave early - I was so glad she made it out with us that night!). All images from Tiger Weekly.

Julianne, me, Erin


Amanda and Christon


Everyone that made it to North Gate! Amanda, Chris, Julianne, Christon, me, Erin


Us with the owner, Sam


Soon to be family - Cory's cousin Cade and his wife, Erin. How cute!

34. April showers start early...

We went to our first shower this weekend. It was a couples' shower given by Cory's family in Louisiana. It was so much fun! There were around 40 people there, mostly family, but several of our friends came. I don't have any of the pictures yet, but I wanted to write about it so I didn't forget everything.

His sister Stephanie organized most of it, and did such a great job. She made all the decorations blue and green (like our colors) with touches of brown. She even bought green and blue flowers for all the arrangements, and made centerpieces for the tables from clear, square vases filled with blue and green candy. The cake was from Ambrosia bakery, and was a vanilla cake with half Bavarian cream filling and half strawberries and cream filling - so delicious! There was a ton of food - jambalaya, Boudin balls, taco salad dip, baked beans, salad, chips and dip, cream puffs, eclairs, brownies, and probably other stuff I can't remember, too. Everyone really went all out on the buffet.

We got a bunch of things we registered for, including a lot of kitchen stuff. My favorite thing was from Stephanie and her family - a Wii Fit! Cory and I played with it some last night and it's really fun.

I had such a great time at the shower. I can't wait for the next one!

35. Flowers in her hair, flowers everywhere...

We're out of town right now for our couples' shower in Louisiana, but I wanted to post at least a few pictures. Here are the inspiration pictures of the flowers for our wedding. We are using Aaron Fowler at Anything Grows florist.

For my bouquet, ivory roses with green orchids peeking out. From The Knot.

For the ladies, a mixture of green flowers. I think this is a great pop of color! This picture and the next are from Style Me Pretty.

For the groomsmen, just a couple of buttons. Cory will get something like this plus an ivory rose, like my bouquet.

I love these flowers because they are modern, colorful, and still have that romantic touch that flowers bring.

36. Cake!

It took us a while to figure out what we wanted our cake to look like. I knew I wanted something simple that incorporated our colors without looking tacky or like a kid's cake. Then I found a cake on Style Me Pretty that I knew would be our inspiration cake.




Ours will be very similar, except the bottom tier will be round. It will have aqua fondant ribbon around the base of each layer, and a white scrollwork design on the white icing. For accents, we will use flowers like the ones in the picture.

As far as flavors, we are pretty sure that most or all of the cake will be vanilla, but I'm debating having the middle layer being something different. Have you ever been to a wedding where the cake wasn't vanilla, but you loved it?

37. Invitations

One thing I knew I wanted to do myself was the invitations. I didn't go overboard with detail and artistic flair, but I tried to make them simple, but unique. I used Adobe Illustrator to design a circle logo with our wedding date on it, and used it with a polka dot ribbon at the top. Then I found a great script font for our names and a simple font for the information.



I designed our RSVP's, too! They are postcards (cute and saves on postage, too). For those, I designed a simple scroll frame logo, with our names in the same script font as the invites.



I think the coolest thing about making our invitations has been seeing the RSVP's come in the mail. Kind of neat to think that my artwork is making its way through the postal system to me from all over the country!

38. One more check off the To Do list - honeymoon booked!

I am so excited to say that we finally took care of booking the honeymoon! We had been going back and forth about this for awhile, because I really wanted to go someplace with a beach, but beaches aren't Cory's favorite place (he's not fond of the heat). Also, we were debating how much money to spend (well, neither of us really wanted to spend a lot).

We talked about going to an all-inclusive like Sandals, which I would still like to do one day, but it was just out of our price range for right after the wedding. We also talked about going to San Francisco, but I was worried that being there for a week, with food, hotel, and airfare, was going to be just as pricey. We have some friends that are part of a vacation rental network, and we thought about going someplace through them for a bargain price. But a lot of the places were near the beach but not on it. So I did a little hunting around and found a great place in Destin. It's a condo on the beach called Sealoft, it has private beach access, and it has a Jacuzzi tub in it!

Here she is!

The weather in Destin in early April is mid 70s during the day, and mid 50s at night, so it's warm and sunny but not too hot for Cory. With the beach right there, we can go out to the water or just enjoy watching the surf from our patio! Really, I think the Jacuzzi was what sealed the deal for him. I'm just glad we can look forward to it now!

One last picture - the view from our patio.

39. Pretty maids all in a row

When it came to the bridesmaid dresses, my first idea was to have all of the girls pick out a color dress near aqua, from wherever they wanted. Kind of like this (from my aim is true):


So I spread the word, and when my beautiful maid and matron of honor heard about it, they decided to make it even easier on me! They actually preferred going to David's Bridal (where I got my dress). So I picked a particular color, and all five of the girls got different dresses in that color.

What is so great is that I didn't put any restrictions on the style, and all five of them ended up picking different dresses, which was exactly what I wanted in the first place! That way, everyone feels comfortable because they are in the style they felt was the most flattering to them.

I can't wait to see how they all look on the big day!

40. The location.

I never really thought too much about where I would get married until I got engaged. Then, all of a sudden there are a million questions. Would we get married in a church? Would we get married outside? What date were we even thinking about? What would we have to rent ourselves, depending on the venue (like tables and linens)?

We decided to pick April as the month, and choose the date based on availability at our favorite venue. Because we're not regular churchgoers, we figured we would probably not get married in a church. I did a little research and fell in love with the Pink Palace. Then I called. As much as we loved it, the venue was way too expensive for our budget.

So what next? Well, my sister did some Googling for me and came up with a place called the Balinese Ballroom. We made an appointment the next day, and the loft style ballroom, with its hardwood floors, huge windows, and downtown setting, totally sold us. Tables and linens were included, and the fee was really reasonable, so we put a deposit down that day! The last two weeks in April were booked, and we really wanted to get married on a Saturday, so that led us to our date: April 4, 2009.

The only real regret I have is that we did not check to make sure that the ballroom was handicap accessible (it isn't). We have a couple of relatives in wheelchairs, and we only thought of the number of guests when we booked it, and not about any of the individual needs of our guests. I know not everyone will run into this problem, but I wish someone had made me think about it beforehand. We think we may have found a workaround, but it was something we wouldn't have had to worry about if we had planned for it.

41. Fun stuff - colors!

I think one of the most fun (and at the same time, difficult!) things to do for the wedding was to pick the color scheme. We didn't really have a "theme" we wanted per se, so we tried to just narrow it down to a couple of colors that could tie everything together.

We went to Home Depot and picked a bunch of different paint samples, and mixed and matched until we came up with a combination of lime green and turquoise. The turquoise was a little dark, so we lightened it up to an aqua, and it ended up looking a lot like the color scheme of this wedding.

Style Me Pretty is a great site with lots of beautiful weddings, and I'd recommend it to anyone trying to figure out what they want their wedding to look like! Snippet & Ink is another site that has tons of different color schemes. You can even select one color you like and look at all the others they have paired with it.

I love our color scheme because it's fun and lively, and really matches the tone of our spring wedding without being too feminine. I can't wait to see it all come together!

42. Probably the least fun thing to talk about...

The budget.

I'm generally an open person when it comes to things like this, and budget weddings are definitely the trend right now, so I'm just going to put it out there. I wanted our wedding budget to be $5000.

It's currently about $10,000.

Yes, we are paying for this wedding ourselves. And with wedding averages in the mid $20,000's, we're not doing too badly. Our goal is to pay for the wedding without going into any debt, and right now I think we are doing pretty well on that. We have even come in under budget on some items, like our wedding rings (I got mine from a jewelry store that was going out of business)!

Here are some things we are doing to save money:
* No favors. Well, we are technically having matchbooks with our name and wedding date on them, but they came in at around $30 for 200. Most of the time, people don't even pick them up!
* No programs. Everybody looks at these once, then throws them away, and that's if they even look at them. Need a better argument? See here.
* I bought my dress at David's Bridal for $349, and Cory's tux is free because his groomsmen are renting there. I found a veil I liked at DB, but instead of buying it there, I got it for $30 cheaper on eBay.
* We price shopped for our location. Ours is $1200 but includes all table/linen/plate/glassware rentals. The first place we looked was three times as much and didn't include anything!
* Our wedding and reception are in the same place. Only one location fee, and no need to rent transportation.
* We're serving wine and beer instead of doing a full bar, but we have the option of buying a couple types of liquor to bring if we want. This is saving us around $800.
* I made our wedding invitations myself. Instead of paying 3 or 4 dollars per invitation, I probably spent around $1, and they have my own personal design!

There are lots of other ways to save money at weddings, and we did have a couple of splurges. But our cutbacks in other areas are allowing us, at this point anyway, to stay under our budget.

43. Where it all started...

I guess if I am going to start on a new path with this blog, I should begin at the beginning. The proposal.

It was August 1, 2008. We were in Baton Rouge for the weekend. Cory's parents had just bought some land in southern Mississippi, and we went there for the day to see it. It was really quiet, kind of in the middle of nowhere, and very relaxing. We walked around the property, went fishing for awhile (Cory almost caught one, but that was the closest we got), and then went to dinner with his parents before heading back to the city for the night.

We had talked about going to our favorite bar in Baton Rouge, the Chimes, for a few drinks when we got back, but I was starting to get tired and took out my contacts. I was sitting at the bar in the kitchen, picking at some leftover fried chicken from dinner. Cory, on the other hand, wasn't tired at all! He wanted to know if I still wanted to go out, but I didn't really feel like it after our long day. Then, he told me, "I think we should go out and celebrate." My immediate reaction was, "Celebrate what?"

At that point, he got down on one knee, and pulled out the ring!



As you might guess, I really wasn't so tired anymore after that. I said "Of course!", and put the ring on my finger, and it fit perfectly! He picked it out himself, and had told no one until proposed, and it is such a beautiful ring. I love looking at it still because it reminds me of that day and all the effort he put into finding the perfect ring and surprising me.

44. Hm, blog, what?

I haven't written in this blog in a long time. I am setting a new goal for myself. I am getting married in 44 days. Every day until then, I am going to write a blog. I want to have something to remember my wedding by, other than just a couple of pictures of the day, and maybe it will help someone else trying to plan their own wedding! Anyway, stay tuned!