Weddingbee

We live roughly two hours away from where we’ll be getting married, which means that I’ve been planning what I like to call a “semi-destination wedding.” The vast majority of my communications and dealings with vendors have been either over the phone or via email, with the exception of 3-4 weekends we’ve spent up at the lake during our engagement. On top of that, only one member of our wedding party (the best man) lives in the same state as we do. My parents live two hours away and the rest of my family is kind of scattered across the country. Everyone has made huge efforts to spend as much time with me and help out as much as possible during the planning process, and in all honesty I started planning so early that I’ve never felt like I am lacking any support.

But the point of all this rambling is that, due to the aforementioned logistics, I’ve had to go to several vendor meetings by myself. It never crossed my mind that this isn’t the norm… I would just grab my binder and be ready to get on with it. But then I started to get the sympathetic looks and the questions, “It’s just you here today? Where is the rest of your party? You’re all by yourself?”
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My last post was exactly two weeks ago - yikes. I know I’ve got some explainin’ to do, but hopefully my little absentee situation will turn out to be words of wisdom to some of you! So, here it goes… get your violins ready…I am not sure I’ve mentioned this on the blog before, but I have asthma. I know there are a few other bees (and therefore I am sure a lot of you) who have it as well, so I know I am not alone. I’ve had it since I was really young, I actually can’t remember a time when I wasn’t toting an inhaler of some sort around with me.

What does this have to do with weddings, you ask? I’ve been MIA for the past two weeks because I had myself a big ’ol asthma attack. And I know exactly why it happened… someone got sick at work and because I was so run down with stress and over committing myself to things, it hit me hard. I was completely knocked on my butt and forced to think about nothing other than my health and getting myself well again.
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Remember how much I loved the sign pictured above? I showed it to my Dad and he took matters into his own hands, namely getting permission to take some barn wood from a friend’s brother and driving 30 miles to said barn with a crowbar in the car. That’s dedication for you!

He assembled it all this weekend, here it is on the stake:
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I am officially entering the “tying up loose ends” phase of the planning process, and there are a lot of ends to be tied! I went on a mad dash around town last weekend to find a basket for our programs, and while I was at World Market I came across this:

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This photo is of my parents on their wedding day, over 40 years ago. This is one of my very favorite pictures of them not only because they’re adorable, but because it says so much. My Mom is beautiful in her short lace dress and my Dad, in a final act of defiance, has his pants tucked into his boots.

Cracks me up! My Mom and Grandma really wanted him to wear his uniform despite his protests, so he did it in his own way. Classic. But the point to all of this is to show you that my Mom recently cleaned her dress and cut a panel of the lace off of it for me:
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Remember our getaway boat? Well, seeing as how I am not one to let an opportunity to decorate pass me by, I wanted a “Just Married” sign to hang off the back of the boat. When I saw the idea to use these letters in Modern Bride, I knew they would fit the bill - cute, made of wallpaper so slightly waterproof, and soft so they won’t scratch the boat:

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It’s been a whirlwind of wedding activity these days. I feel like as soon as we hit the 3 month mark someone pressed “fast forward,” and I’ve been flying by the seat of my pants ever since! Part of the activity included a most lovely shower two weeks ago. I don’t have all the pictures from the hostesses quite yet (cough* get on with it! *cough) but in the meantime, I can share the most well planned present in the history of presents.

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I am so happy and relieved to say that, less than two months before the wedding, we finally have a band! I really don’t think there are words to describe what a relief this is. When our original band canceled, I started madly contacting whoever I could find and almost everyone was booked. Panic ensued and then some decisions had to be made. When we first started planning we decided that the three most important things to us (and therefore where we would spend the majority of our budget) were a great venue, a photographer, and a band. And there we were without one of the “big three.”

Being this close to the wedding, our budget is pretty much set in stone. All of our vendors are booked, contracts have been signed, so there is really not much room to cut things out or scale back to free up more money. But when we started scrambling to find a new band, we were hard pressed to find one at all, let alone find someone who was both available and in our price range.

So here is where I dispense some more of my sage advice (stop laughing). Seriously… listen carefully… lean in close… everything is negotiable!!
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After some minor sizing snafus, I am happy to say that the flower girl dresses are here and I’ve seen pictures of both the little muffins in them…they’re going to be so cute! I was really hoping to find something that wasn’t white or ivory, and after a kind soul sent me the link to this dress, I ordered it immediately.

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As of approximately 8:11 this morning, the invitations are in the mail. I’ve worked so long and hard on those things, I feel like I’ve given birth to them! I packed them up as carefully as possible last night and then handed them over this morning to a perfect stranger who is sure to mangle and otherwise attempt to destroy those beautiful little pieces of paper. I had lofty ideals about having them hand cancelled, but trying to get that done in the city of Chicago makes the phrase “uphill battle” an understatement. I had done my research; I knew that I could probably get them hand cancelled if I tried hard enough, but that in the end they’ll go through sorting machines anyway. So when I went in this morning armed with my beautiful boxes of correspondence, the conversation went something like this:

Me: Gooooood Morning!

(Nothing but an evil glance from Grumpy McGrumperson post office worker. I quickly decide that the cheeriness is going to get me nowhere, tone it down a notch)
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