Let me start this post by saying that while I’m more exited to get married than I can even put into words, I have not found the experience of planning to be fun in the least. In fact, it’s been one giant headache after another, and I’ve broken down into tears over the subject a few times. Thankfully, my sweet fiance noticed how much stress the whole ordeal was causing me, and he stepped up to the plate by helping me with lots of decisions and research! If it weren’t for him being so supportive, I don’t think I would make it out of this thing with my mind intact! Really! 🙂

I’ve been excited about my wedding since I was a little girl, but generally I don’t like weddings. I don’t know why either. I’m weird, what can I say? I know that in the end, our wedding will be everything I dreamed it would be. It will be beautiful and something I’ll remember for the rest of my life.

Here are some of the things that we have planned so far. The wedding is June 5, 2010.

*The wedding/reception will be in Philadelphia, Mississippi at my grandparent’s house and the place where I grew up as well as where Bryan proposed. From there we will be driving to NYC. We already have the route/days/cities figured out on the route there. All we need to figure out is what to do in the cities we are stopping in. Once we get to NYC we’ll be having a reception there for Bryan’s family and friends. Thankfully, Bryan’s family is planning this…whew! We’ll be spending about 2.5 weeks there in NYC as our honeymoon before taking a different route back to Austin. Once back in Austin, we’ll be having a reception here as well for all of our friends here. I know that it’s a lot, but I don’t want to leave anyone out. The invitations will include all of these events so you’ll simply check the events that you’ll be attending. Simple! We are staying at the Cole House Bed & Breakfast (the cottage) the night of the wedding. We have an apartment on reserve which we are going to sublet once we get to NYC. It’s cheaper than a hotel.

*Our invitations are going to be a DVD! Um…but we haven’t really started on these except for kicking some ideas back and forth. I did get a quote from Office Depot on how much to print the booklet that will be with the DVD and serve as the invitation. The booklet will have all the information needed for all the receptions and the wedding.

*I have already bought my dress! After looking at about 2,000 (no kidding) online I finally decided on one. I ordered it, and it is already here…in my house! I got some shoes too, but haven’t decided that they’re the ones yet. I LOVE my dress! I wanted simple yet elegant and this dress has both! I will need it altered, but that will have to wait till way closer to the wedding.

my wedding dress...I love it!

the back of my dress

*I have picked out my bridesmaid dresses and flower girl dress. My maid of honor is my cousin Madison and Bryan’s sister Morgan is the other bridesmaid. My flower girl is my little sister Presley. She will make such a cute flower girl! Here is the bridesmaid dresses and flower girl dress which I’ll be delivering to the maid of honor and flower girl in MS during Christmas:

posie colored dress with sunflower colored sash

the back of the dress

the flower girl dress - white with a posie colored sash

*I have picked out the groomsmen’s suits from Tuxedo Junction which will closely resemble the suit that Bryan will be wearing which we are buying from Men’s Warehouse (which I highly recommend). They just ordered it and called to say that it is in. We are going on Thursday to make sure that it is definitely what we want which I’m almost sure it will be. Then we’ll probably do a payment plan. Once it’s payed off, it will still need alterations. I will not be making the men wear any pink! They’ll be adorning the yellow. I like this company because you can order the men’s ties/pocket squares meaning everything should match.

*I think we have basically come up with the decoration for the cake. However, I still haven’t decided what is going to be the flavor of the inside. My cousin, Jessi, is making it for us! I’m super excited about this because she is a perfectionist like me so I know that it will turn out well. Plus, she lives super close so there won’t be as much of a chance of damage in transit. Here is a picture of the cake though ours won’t be as tall, and I’m thinking about adding some ribbon around a few of the tiers to bring in the wedding colors. I haven’t decided on what to do with the cake topper yet. I’ll get back to you on that!

wedding cake covered in chocolate truffles...yummy!

*My cousin, Jacki, has agreed to be the lady in charge for the rehearsal dinner and most importantly the day of the wedding. She’ll take a lot of stress off of me by making sure things get done. I can’t tell you how happy it makes me that she agreed to do this.

*The rehearsal dinner hasn’t been ironed out but it will definitely be at the same location as the wedding. We’ll rehearse and then eat. I think we’ll be having an outdoor dinner of hopefully Granny’s chicken spaghetti. I wanted everyone who is there and hasn’t experienced good Southern food to get to taste it just once. Hopefully, they’ll love it as much as my family does. Even Bryan can’t resist some of Granny’s food! We’ll be using my great aunt’s tables/chairs for both this and the wedding – it’s free and that’s awesome! My cousin even has a tent we can use which will also save money.

*Decorations for the wedding will be simple but elegant. We are hoping to have a dusk or even a night wedding hopefully under the stars (just like when Bryan proposed!). I want to decorate the ceremony site with Christmas white lights. I’m looking to buy the bigger rounded bulbs instead of the traditional kind. Though if I went with the traditional, I wouldn’t need to buy any. I have purchased a few things that I plan to decorate myself like the flower girl’s basket which will actually be a galvanized bucket that I’m embellishing with ribbon. It’ll be cute – I promise! I also bought a bigger galvanized bucket to hold the wedding programs.

*We are having the wedding programs printed and then I’ll be putting them together to create a fan. Everyone who attends the wedding will thank me since it’ll be warmer this time of the year in MS.

*We created our registry at a site called honeyfund.com. Since we already live together and have all the things we need, we are asking if people help us by giving us the best and most rememberable honeymoon ever! We have started our list, but we’re still working on it. I’ll reveal it closer to time.

That’s about all we have planned. I think we are ahead right now, but we need to make sure that we continue to decide and buy things each month to keep from having to do or buy a lot toward crunch time. Sometimes I get overwhelmed with what all needs to be finished, but I try to just get one task completed at a time. Any thing helps no matter how small it may seem. As you can see we’ve managed to get a lot of things/help/services that are costing us nothing. This will definitely help keep us in budget which I have set at $3,000! I know that is shocking, but I really think I can do it. So, if you happen to have anything we can borrow please let me know! This budget doesn’t include the receptions in other cities – only the wedding/reception in MS.