The new addiction

Wedding planning seems to come with new and strange addictions.

First, it was paper. Even now that our invitations are done and sent, I still find myself drawn to advertisements for cool paper, fonts, and invites. I must have been a graphic designer in another life.

But now I have a new, more shameful addiction -- checking our registries. Who would have guessed?! After all the stress of creating them you'd think I'd want to avoid the darn things. But recently I've become addicted to checking them... yes, sometimes multiple times a day *gulp*... telling myself, "I'll just have another peek."

It started off harmlessly enough, with checks to make sure that our registries were up-to-date and accurate, then one day an item was missing... "Where did it go?" was my first thought until I noticed a little "completed" note beside it at the bottom. I had a jolt of excitement and felt a bit like a kid at Christmas, realizing I'd stumbled across a stash of presents I wasn't supposed to know about... and then feeling torn between looking further and covering my eyes so I wouldn't ruin the surprise.

The urge to look won out and now I fear I'm fully addicted. So I made a deal with myself -- I won't check the registries for the next 3 days. Daydreams of that 5-piece flatware setting should get me through (when did I turn into such a nerd?!), but then I'll probably need another fix and I'll likely justify it by saying, "I'm just making sure it's up-to-date" -- yeah right!

I'm starting to think that registries are the crack-cocaine of the wedding world... the high of choice for the wedding addled, less than 2 months to go, stressed out, bride-to-be. Oh well, at least it's not really bad for you ;-)

Details, details, details

We're getting really close to the 2-month mark (it's coming up on Monday, in case anyone other than me is counting) and now it's time to focus on all the nitty-gritty details.

I met with a friend / quasi wedding guru at Chapter's last night to go over what I had done and what I had left to do. At the end she said, "Sounds to me like you've thought of everything -- now you just have to do it!"

Yup... gotta get it done.

I bought a new little notebook to help me keep track of everything, but it's just so darn cute that I can't bring myself to scribble in it -- I feel like I need a "plan" for how I'm going to write in my notebook.

I know -- it's a notebook, it's meant for notes! I'll get over it. But for the time being I've just been carting it around, opening and closing it, and thinking, "Not yet... I'll wait a bit longer..." I feel like that dorky kid in The Neverending Story, reading the book up in the school attic and rationing his sandwich -- "No, not yet... I should save some for later." That was one of the worst-acted scenes ever, but man I love that movie!

Right... details, my mind is full of them.

Hopefully I'll get over my fixation with pretty paper products soon and actually start putting that cute little notebook to use :P

Ugh... chairs

Who knew renting chairs for the ceremony would be so complicated?!

Well, actually, it's not the renting part that's complicated -- it's the "what do we do with them afterwards?" part that's causing the problem.

Basically, the rental companies are only open until 5:00 pm on Saturdays and they're closed Sundays. So we can get the chairs, but then we need to find someone (preferably not attending the wedding) who can take them down after the ceremony, transport them somewhere, and store them until Monday morning...

Anybody know someone with a truck or mini-van with some time to kill on a Saturday night?!

"The Dress"

This is hilarious!

Jennifer's wedding day was fast approaching. Nothing could dampen her excitement-not even her parents' nasty divorce.

Her mother had found the PERFECT dress to wear and would be the best dressed mother-of-the-bride ever!

A week later, Jennifer was horrified to learn that her father's new young wife had bought the exact same dress! Jennifer asked her to exchange it, but she refused. "Absolutely not. I look like a million bucks in this dress, and I'm wearing it," she replied.

Jennifer told her mother who graciously said, "Never mind sweetheart. I'll get another dress. After all, it's your special day."

A few days later, they went shopping and did find another gorgeous dress. When they stopped for lunch, Jennifer asked her mother, "Aren't you going to return the other dress? You really don't have another occasion where you could wear it."

Her mother just smiled and replied, "Of course I do, dear. I'm wearing it to the rehearsal dinner the night before the wedding!"

I took a gamble and it paid off!

I can't remember if I've posted about our photography plans or not, but I got some really great news today!

But let's provide a bit of background shall we?

About a year ago, when we were first hashing out our budget and realizing that paying for a wedding was uber expensive, I knew we were going to have to "get creative" in order to keep things within a reasonable cost. Photography is one of the most expensive elements of a wedding (after the reception costs) and as I was doing my research I discovered that the average cost of a professional wedding photographer in the KW area is around $1,600 -- and those were last year's prices! So I set out to try and find a deal, while at the same time knowing that photography was important and hoping the "deal" wouldn't backfire...

Sometime in late April 2005 I emailed an acquaintance, who happened to be a professional photographer to see if she would mind providing me with some tips. At the time I was thinking of posting an ad at the colleges to see if there were any senior photography students that could shoot the wedding... My photographer acquaintance didn't think this was a great idea. We discussed budget and length of time needed, and came up with a goal of $500 for 3 hours of photography, which she assured me was doable and that she would get back to me.

BTW -- I've since discovered that this acquaintance is one of the most sought after and frequently recommended photographers in local wedding circles. She shoots in a photo-journalist style, which I love, and gets so much word-of-mouth business it's insane. You can check out some of her current work, here. Her current base price is $2,100 for 6 hours of wedding photography, and she's already booked up halfway through 2007! But I digress, back to my story...

So I waited several weeks with no word, and then early in June of 2005 I got the news that her assistant would like to shoot our wedding -- yay! -- and that we would touch base closer to the date.

A couple of months passed, and our wedding plans changed, so I emailed the photographer to give her a quick update. She wasn't convinced that her assistant could handle the new locations, but once again assured me not to worry -- she'd figure something out.

Several more months passed, but I didn't want to be a pain, so I managed to wait patiently for word from the photographer. Then one day in late October 2005, I got an email that said "great news -- I have 2 new assistants and I'm going to send both of them to shoot your wedding!" Sweet!! Now we were getting 2 assistants, fully trained by this professional photographer, to shoot our wedding. It was left that we should meet this spring to go over more details, so once again I set out to wait patiently for word from the photographer...

Five months passed, and I was starting to think about timelines for the wedding day, but needed more information about photography so I emailed the photographer to see where things were at...

Today I got an email back and it said:

"Hey Jen -- Looks like your the luckiest bride [around]! I'll be shooting your wedding after all. I have a new assistant that wants to become a main shooter and I want her to get the experience. But it will only be her second wedding. So I'll be the main shooter and her the second."

Holy crap! I nearly fell over when I read the news. We're getting one of the most sought after photographers in the area, plus an assistant, to shoot our Saturday wedding (prime time) for only $500!!!

I'm almost afraid that writing this down will jinx it, but what can I say? I took a huge gamble and it paid off! I never expected that she would be shooting our wedding, and I am SO excited -- all that nerve-wracking waiting, half expecting to hear the news, "Sorry, I can't find anyone after all" was apparently worth it!

To CD or not to CD?

All day I've been thinking about what we're going to do for music at our ceremony...

A long while back I started researching our options, chatted with a cellist about playing at the ceremony, and also discussed the possibility of having a cellist / flutist duo. I got some info, listened to some demo's, and basically put it on the back burner.

Now, only 10 weeks until the wedding, it occured to me -- what the heck are we doing for music at our ceremony?? We're having an outdoor ceremony, so an organist / pianist is out of the question and the major decision now is "live" or "CD." Supposedly there's an electrical outlet in the gazebo, so we could bring a stereo and play a CD, but I just can't picture it. I mean, what happens? Does someone press stop and start, and hope everything goes okay? That just sounds like goof-up waiting to happen! On the other hand, we're getting a little late to find a live ensemble and they can get pretty pricey.

So, I'm back to where I started, looking into classical ensembles and listening to snippets of Pachelbel's "Canon in D" and Bach's "Air on the G String" -- I must admit, they're quite nice and I could definitely see myself walking down the aisle to one of those tunes. But then again, I'd also be happy walking down the aisle to "Ramble On" by Led Zeppelin -- man, I LOVE that tune! -- so yeah, to CD or not to CD, that's the question ;-)