Plan (and save up for) my wedding!

After much MUCH searching yesterday, all over LA and the Inland Empire…. we found our dress!! They cost a little more than I wanted my friends to pay—but we ended up going with a long dress, which tends to be more expensive. And they all said they love it and would be willing to pay it. So.. yeah.

I was shocked that I loved this long dress so much! Because well, I was so against long dresses! I was so certain I would want short dresses but once they tried the long one on, it shut it down. I was so happy and excited because it ended up being JUST what I wanted and they all looked so pretty in it and liked it too! The dress is champagne with a sparkly bust.. And at first, a couple of my bridesmaids were a bit resistant to the sparkle, but once they tried more and more sparkly dresses on—well, I think I brought them over to my sparkly side… XD Bwahaha.

Another thing on our long list that’s finished!! <3

Just got ‘em in the mail and addressed them all. :D It wasn’t too bad. <3 Gonna buy the stamps tomorrow and send 'em out! Yay! More stuffs are gettin' done~

Just booked and paid for the photographer today and I’m so happy!! She’s so sweet and I love her stuff. c: We do our engagement shoot in July. :D Fiancé didn’t really want to do engagements, but why not? It’d be nice to have some “regular” professionally taken pictures of us. Yes!! So excited!

Now we just need to book a caterer and an officiate and we’ll have all the “necessary” stuff taken care of.<3 Which is nice. We're rollin' right along with all this stuff and it's (so far) not as stressful as I thought it would be. Which is a good thing. :D

I e-filed my tax return back in the beginning of March and it still hasn’t been put into my account. Which really sucks because I have a photographer I want to book and I was planning on using that money to book her!

We aren’t going with the one we initially wanted to use, unfortunately, but this girl seems pretty good, too. :D So we’re pretty excited. ♥ Once we get that moonies, we should have most of the “big” stuff paid for! :D

Which is really awesome. ♥

. Make calls to those who did not RSVP and get an answer
. Finalize seating chart
. Finalize bouquets (pick up at florist or go to floral district and arrange the night before)
. Dress alterations (for myself and bridesmaids)
. Get Suits/Tuxes/whatever needed for groomsmen
. Finalize a timeline of events, printout and give to Wedding Coordinater/Venue operator/Bridesmaids, etc
. Make a “don’t forget these” list of things to bring the day of
. Marriage license and alcohol license
. Bridesmaids “thank you” lunch/dinner (Have them all try on their dresses, too! Just for fun. c:)
. Rehearsal dinner with our families and wedding party
. Print all menus, table numbers, escort cards, signs, etc
. Buy any food stuffs/snacks needed for “cocktail hour”
. Haircut and color, mani/pedi
. Keep working out!
. Buy the last of any mixers, water bottles, ice, etc. needed for the bar
. Buy the last of the alcohol
. Relax, relax, RELAX
. Have fun and get married<3

...had to move shit around a little and push things back a month. c: Also eliminated some things like getting a Wedding Coordinater ‘cause we don’t need one!

Looking through these lists, it still seems like a crazy amount of shit to do… D8 Eesh. But! We’ll find out a way to do it or eliminate shit as we need to. c: Yup.

So today we decided on our venue and got a final quote. I love it. It’s a cute little place downtown and super affordable, but because of that it’s a super popular venue!

Every Saturday in September and October of this year is already booked.. and the first three Saturdays in Novemeber are booked, too! We know we don’t want to move the wedding FORWARD.. but we also don’t want to get married the week of Thanksgiving, either. And December is just too close to Christmas for either of us.

So… our solution is most likely going to be a Sunday wedding in October or November. (Because the Sundays in September are all booked up, too!)

Which wasn’t the initial plan, but it really doesn’t matter much, when I think about it. People will have to work the next day and they can either take that Monday day off if they want to party with us or head home early. c:

I really like the place. We would’ve booked it today but I forgot my damn checkbook! DX So we’ll be heading back on Thursday and we should have a date locked in after that!!<3 Yayyy!

3/21/13 EDIT: Take away that half check and mark this shit… officially CHECKED OFF! We booked our venue today and set our date! :D I am sooo excited! * ^ *! I danced out of the venue’s office today when we paid the down payment. THIS makes it real. THIS means we’re actually doing this.<3 I am scared shitless a little bit. But yeah. We'll be fine and it will be wonderful. I know it. c:

Now to book the photographer.<3 eeek~

So I know I’m taking care of a lot of the “little details” that don’t really matter much. But I was browsing Amazon.com last week, looking for our guest book, when I wandered into other wedding items and ended up buying a cute daisy umbrella in hopes that err.. just incase it happens to rain the day of our wedding. :D

Haha. XD

I seriously just needed a reason to buy that umbrella once I saw it. It’s so cute.. And, well, it’s good to have a “cute” umbrella for pictures just incase, right? XD Bah hah hah. I just figured if we can’t book our venue, officiant or anything like that until March—we might as well take care of some of the other, smaller things in the meantime to help from being overwhelmed with them later. c: Or to just avoid overlooking them.

The goal is to try and stay organized and ahead of things as much as I can… I’m not trying to make a “perfect” day happen here… I’m mostly just trying to avoid the stress that comes the week before the wedding by worrying about stupid things like, “Shit, I never bought a guestbook!”, etc. XD

By the way…. I’m actually really excited about our guestbook. * ^ * I’m bought a blank white puzzle and am going to have everyone sign a piece of the puzzle instead of having a regular ol’ book. I think it’ll be fun to build it together later with my husband (:D) and will actually make us look at all the names of who was there (and read any little notes they may have written). :3 Yes!

And then, after building it, I figured we could use some puzzle glue on it and frame it or something. Maybe. I don’t know. Might be a fun thing to build again and again… but I’m a bit scared of losing a piece. XD Haha.

Might sound lame to some, but I liked the idea when I thought of it. So shut it!! XP Haha~

I found my dress yesterday! :D I’m so happy. It’s funny because the dress I’m getting was one I passed right by and paid no attention to. The consultant pulled it and when I saw it, I wasn’t even excited to try it on.

But then I put it on.

And I know that I said I probably wasn’t going to be a “cryer”when it came to my wedding dress, but when I looked in the mirror and pictured walking down the aisle to my fiancé, I teared up. It’s so pretty and so me and I just LOVE it. It feels good to know that this part is over and that it was so fun! (I was scared that I’d hate shopping for the dress because I generally don’t like shopping for “fancy” stuff.) But I truly love this dress and it makes it even better that it’s in our budget!

Excited! <3

EDIT: Officially wrote the check and bought the dress 3/11/2013! Even though I love the dress like no one’s business—I was still pretty shaky writing that check. I’m not used to spending that kind of money on a single piece of clothing. D8

..I think I just wrote my vows. We aren’t writing our own vows, but I was overcome with such lovey dovey feelings that it just spilled out of me and poured out all over my lined paper. So… Yeah. That’s what I did tonight. Haha. Maybe I’ll share them with fiancé in our own private moment after/before the wedding.<3

..went dress shopping with three of my bridesmaids yesterday. It was fun! I almost bought a dress because it was on sale (and a discontinued dress, so they wouldn’t be getting anymore in) but it was two sizes too small. And I just wasn’t confident that I would be able to fit into that before the wedding.

(I haven’t been that size since highschool! D:)

Two sizes in less than 9 months?? Eesh. It’s not impossible, of course—but I would hate to make such a purchase and then not fit into it. Ultimately, it was too much of a gamble. When the consultant checked surrounding stores, she found that another store had the dress I liked, but they only had one that was a size too big. I guess I could get it taken in, but even that is risky ‘cause I know that they can only take it in so much without it compromising the look of the dress. Hmmmmm. :/ I mean, I’m still going to try a couple of stores, but… I gotta admit, it’s the one to beat and I’ll be really sad if it’s no longer available after everything.

We got the style number of the dress and my friends told me that lots of people sell their dresses online after wearing them, so even if I can’t find it in store, maybe I can still find one (that’s actually my size!). :D

Also, I think I said this in another entry.. but it’s just weird to me because I’m an emotional person. I cry easily, whether the tears flowing are from happiness or sadness. And.. well, I’m not a “cryer” when it comes to trying on wedding dresses. It surprised me, but when I put on the one I liked the best, I was just.. happy.

I wasn’t overcome with emotion, I just felt happy, pretty and comfortable. Hahaha… I figured that maybe it was just because getting married isn’t some huge dream of mine. I’m happy that it’s happening, of course, but it’s not something I looked forward to for my whole life or anything. I get more overcome with emotion when I just think about the fact that I have someone as wonderful as my fiance to love and be loved by.

Soo.. we’ll see how well I hold it together on the actual wedding day when I’m walking toward him or exchanging vows while lookin’ into those big green-blue eyes. c: