Wedding plans!

My best friend, who happens to be my maid of honor, suggested that I start blogging about my wedding. I told her it's a great idea, but I'm horrible at blogging. So instead of starting a new blog, I'm just gonna turn this one into a "we were dating, now were engaged, and now I'm a preacher's wife from a non-religious background" kind of blog, and hopefully be able to keep up with it.

The long distance mess, it's not easy. It's actually getting harder, but we're past the half way point, and down to just over 5 months before the wedding. That being said, we STILL don't have a solid date set for the thing. HOWEVER I do have plans! and photos! :)

My ring is super gorgeous, and definitely unique.



The diamond is a pear shape, and some people tell me I wear it upside down. I tell them to turn their heads around if they don't like it. I prefer it this way! The side stones are alexandrite, and they are my hubby to be's birthstone. (Ring custom made by Either Ore - Strawbridge location )

My dress is a bit no frills, purchased from David's Bridal (along with the bridesmaids gowns) for the relatively low price of $499 (photos lifted from the page, these are NOT ME, NOR MY BRIDESMAIDS).



It's a strapless chiffon empire waist a-line dress in ivory with very simple beading and flattering pleats (not the ones that make fat chicks like me look pregnant) and I absolutely love it!

The bridesmaid's dresses are in the color lilac, to go with my theme of lavender and cream:



This dress is amazing. It's also a strapless, pleated, chiffon dress. It looks wonderful on all my girls and it cost, I believe around $125.

Still working on getting a veil, but I've found that this site seems to be full of info, decent pricing, and they will even send you 5 free fabric swatches to match to your dress. They arrived at my house within a week of my request. (The shimmer seems to make the fabric look a little darker, the diamond white shimmer is lovely!)

The flowers, I will likely be using a package from Norfolk Florist. They have several wedding packages. I love the gerbera daisy package. It is perfect for my wedding party, and for $300 it comes with (I quote from the site) "one bridal bouquet, 3 attendants bouquets, one grooms boutonniere, 3 groomsmen boutonnieres, 2 Fathers boutonnieres and 2 Mothers corsages. All hand tied fresh Gerbera Daisies accented with sheer chiffon."

For the reception, I've ordered 10 super cute one-time use cameras (they were on sale at The Knot!)



(yes i took that picture with my phone so it kinda sucks, sorry)

They were only $2.99 apiece when I ordered them, and I believe they are regularly $4.99. They match my colors so well!

I'm also going to be ordering some glass jars from another site I found (visit them!) and they are $0.89 apiece... I will be filling them with custom M&Ms and dark chocolate Hershey kisses to match the wedding colors



They even come with custom labels for the lids, so I can put mine and hubby's name and the date on the jars (having bridesmaids will come in so handy for this task)

Instead of a cake, I'm going to do a cupcake tower, likely with a delicious oreo cupcake recipe, and a tower stand I found on Amazon.com (this will, in the end, likely be cheaper than doing a professional cake! so excited)

The caterers are going to be friends of my father's (nice to know people who know people eh?) and will likely be a mix of barbecue and Asian food (talk about fusion cuisine?)

As for entertainment, another friend of the family will, hopefully, let us borrow their sweet speakers, and I'll just hook up an iPod on shuffle for the music, and have horse shoes, corn hole, frisbees, etc to play with. (If you pray, pray that it doesn't rain on May 21st 2011!)

My gift to my bridal party is the girls day mani-pedi before the wedding, and my gift to my maid of honor is gonna be a customized silver bangle bracelet.

My honeymoon will be a trip to a honeymoon cabin in the Smoky Mountains, either in Gatlinburg, or Pigeon Forge Tennessee. They have so many amazing honeymoon cabins! The company we went through the first time we went offers some good deals (including online booking and military discounts!), and we will be using them again.

I'm working on getting a photographer. So far, I've had suggestions for a couple different folks, and I will have to make a decision on that soon. (Sarah Fitzgibbons, and JC Photo Creations)

And that's what I've got planned so far... I think I'm doing fairly well! :)