My Favorite Love Quote:

"Love is like playing co-op through life; it means never being pinned down by life's nonstop hail storm of bullshit bullets again, because there's always somebody there to cover you while you sprint up and poetically drop the exploded shell of your sailboat right on life's goddamn head." - Robert Brockway @ Cracked.com

Bridesmaid Dresses - Take One

On Wednesday my lovely bridesmaid, Katie, and I went to House Of Brides to look at bridesmaid dresses. Sadly most of their samples that I loved were a size 6 or a 12, but our consultant (Jennifer) was helpful in finding dresses similar to the ones I had picked out. We fell in love with an Ella dress that was in the price range we wanted, however it was discontinued.

Jennifer was able to find a very similar Liz Fields dress that I loved even more that the original. We go back on the 21st to get her sized and get the dress ordered.

I also tried my dress on while we were there, and it is about 2 sizes too big on me. I was so afraid that it would be small on me, so that was a relief. Jennifer assured me that they would have no problem taking it in for me when the time comes.

We have work to do:

Time keeps slipping by me, and I feel as if I have so much left to do! According to my checklist on The Knot I am 'on track' for the most part.

Dan and I still have to  book the hotel for our honeymoon, but I doubt that will happen anytime soon. We haven't really discussed what we are going to do other than the fact that we want to take a road trip to Vegas. I'm assuming Vegas in June is busy because of the nice weather, so I do hope we book a hotel soon. Personally, I want to stay at The Hard Rock Hotel again.

We need to get in contact with our DJ at some point in the near future. Jason from Liquid Kourage is a great guy, and puts on a fantastic karaoke show, but I still need to set up a meeting with him so that I can let him know my expectations for our wedding and so I can see a contract. Dan and I used to go out to his karaoke shows every week when he was preforming in Downers Grove, and we always had a blast.

We also need to get to work on our invitations. We chose to purchase blank invites from Hobby Lobby and print the info ourselves, just as we did for our Save The Dates, and I have a feeling that we may run into some unwanted trouble with the printing process again. Thankfully the invitations were 50% off, and I purchased 100 so that I would have extras in case of any misprints.

Engagement Photos

I completely forgot to share these after we had our engagement photos taken! Dan and I used to spend a ton of time at the Warrenville Grove Forest Preserve, and they closed during the spring of 2010 for some clean up and restoration. When I saw that the grove was finally open again I knew that we had to have our engagement photos taken there.

Warrenville Grove before the restoration. July 2009

The Florist

We had our first floral appointment on Saturday at Celidan Creations, Inc.  Lillian from White Eagle recommended Celidan to us, and am excited to see how out centerpieces turn out. I forgot to bring photos of the centerpieces that I wanted, but the florist knew exactly what I was talking about, and she was able to put together a sample in a matter of minutes.  

My Feather Bouquet

My bouquet was fairly simple to make, and I was quite surprised. Hobby Lobby had their flower supplies on sale a few weeks, and I was able to pick up everything at 40% off, and it made a HUGE difference. I spent under $20 for the flowers, ribbon, and tools. I used white, pink, and black feathers, and pink and black beads in the center. I wrapped everything together with floral tape, then covered it with pink ribbon, and added a bow.

I'm going to make another one for the bouquet toss, and I'm making one that is a bit smaller for my bridesmaid.

Vendor Update

Dan and I have been planing out wedding since March 2012, and after some rocky patches with vendors we have confirmed the following:

Ceremony and Reception Venue: White Eagle Golf Club
Lillian Doran has been very helpful, and even pointed us towards a couple florists and bakers that she speaks highly of. She was even able to help us put together an affordable package for our small wedding.

Baker: Oak Mill Bakery
Last month we visited Bill at Oak Mill Bakery in Chicago for a cake tasting, and I must say that I was very impressed with his work. Bill worked with us to make sure that the cake would be exactly what we wanted, two tiers, two different flavors, and bright pink flowers.

The Dress: House Of Brides
I have been shopping at the House of Brides for all my formal dresses since my Junior Prom, so HOB was the first place that I went to for my dress. I made an appointment one day after work, picked out every dress that caught my eye, and I ended up finding the dress about halfway through my appointment.

Wedding Photographer: Rachel Catherine Photography
I found RCP on The Knot's vendor pages, and Dan and I met Rachel for coffee one evening after work. Her photographs are stunning, and we had our engagement photos taken by by her a few weeks ago.

About Us

We met in 2003 at Wheaton Warrenville South High School (almost 10 years ago!) We had many of the same friends and hung out in the same group during school, and we even lived across the street from one another for a number of years.

I proposed as a joke on leap day, and we switched our Facebook relationship status as well. We had already been talking about getting married for a while before this, so it was no surprise that he took it to heart, and I'm glad he did. Less than a two weeks later we were siting in a jewelry store picking out an engagement ring.