The Registering Story

Even though I’m not savvy at this whole wedding planning process, I still have enough common sense to know a few basic things. For example, guys don’t like to help with much of the wedding planning, but there are three things the guys want in on:

1)      Registering. Every guy likes to have the gun and go scan every single item in the store. It’s like Christmas to them. Who wouldn’t want to scan everything they wanted in hopes that they get it as a gift?

2)      Cake testing. Guys are pigs. It goes without saying that they would want to taste every cake they could get their hands on.

3)      Bachelor Party. Strippers. Need I say more? Guys probably only get married so that they can have a “Hangover” experience at their bachelor parties.

 

Charles and I registered this weekend. We had a great time! It was cute to see the playful, childlike version of my fiancé as he raced up and down the aisles picking out everything “cool” to scan.  It reminded me of that old show “Supermarket Sweep,” where the contestants would get to go and throw everything they wanted (and could fit) into their carts in a certain amount of time and they would get it for free.  I’m pretty sure Charles thought that everything you put on the registry you got for free at the end, I had to explain to him “Honey, just because you put the $2500 70 inch television on the list does not mean that you will get the $2500 70 inch television.

We had our moments where we disagreed on what to scan. I didn’t want to look greedy putting expensive things on the list. One or two I thought might be ok, but when every gift we were scanning was 90+ dollars, I was thinking “Man, we need to calm it down, our friends will probably stay in the 20-30 dollar range.” I kept giving Charles “the look” when he would put the $300 dollar Dyson vacuum or the Rumba robot on the list. He thought I was telling him he couldn’t have any fun, so he got a little irritated with me, which I understand, so I had to calmly explain my reasoning, and then I think he understood my point.

Registering was extremely entertaining to say the least, but it was also a lot harder than we expected that it would be, and we didn’t register for nearly as many items as we have guests, and we thought that we had registered for too much! It literally took four hours to register at two stores, and we found items that we didn’t even know existed (which was extremely neat for me, as my love of shopping for clothes has switched to a love of shopping for household items / décor / kitchenware / etc.) I learned a lot more about Charles taste versus my taste as far as designs and style go, which was very eye opening.  We made compromises if, for instance, one of us liked a certain color of appliances or a certain design of plates, etc. Sometimes he would cave, sometimes I would cave. We luckily didn’t have any bickering over things like that. I was very scanner shy, and he was not at all.

It’s kind of bittersweet. Tomorrow we are going to register at one more place, and then we will be finished. I don’t want any of it to be over! I’m feeling nostalgic. I will only be married one time, and I’m trying to savor each moment, but time seems to keep moving, and at an annoyingly fast rate. At least at the end, I will get to marry my best friend, my “wabers.” I wonder what my next wedding adventure will be…Stay tuned.

 

Michele

The Save the Date Story

I’ve heard a lot of conflicting thoughts about sending out Save the Dates.  I am sure that to a lot of people, Save the Dates are considered an “added expense” or “unnecessary”,” but for some reason I just really wanted to get Save the Dates printed and sent out. I love getting other couple’s save the dates and putting them on my fridge. To me, the save the dates are the fun part, you get to use your engagement pictures and use pretty colors and fonts, whereas the invitations (though beautiful and elegant) don’t exactly scream “it’s a party!”

I ordered the Save the Dates from a fabulous site called weddingpaperdivas.com. It was so easy to use, I was very impressed. I order 250, thinking I would have enough to send plus a few extras in case I forgot anyone. They wonderful fiancé decided to add more people to the list. I then had to rush order more Save the Dates, came in very quickly, looked great, and I assumed everything was perfect. Then my as we are sending the Save the Dates out next week and my mother, mother in law, and bridesmaids are addressing them in 2 days.

No offense to my fiancé, I love him to death, but he is a social butterfly who has to have everyone, including people he knew in elementary school that don’t even know he is engaged at the wedding. It’s getting a little out of hand. But I want him to be happy. Leave it to men to get things rolling at the last minute right?

My mom had the cutest idea to send out the Save the Dates so that they arrive to people on Valentine’s Day. How cute is that? Nothing like announcing a wedding date on Valentine ’s Day. The people who are in a relationship are going to think it’s just the cutest thing. Of course, alternatively, people who are not in a relationship are going to hate us forever. It’s all part of it I guess. We are even going to put little heart stamps on them. I’m dying. It’s too cute.

On a side note, I found out that it is considered proper etiquette to hand write all of your addresses for Save the Dates, Invitations, and Thank You cards (that includes return addresses.) At first I was thinking “man this rule SUCKS,” but the more I think about it, I understand why. I wouldn’t think people put time and care into a pre-stamped address or labels…it’s impersonal and a tad lazy. Kudos to whoever made the unofficial hand written rule. My bridesmaids may hate me for having to help address this all, but I would do the same for them, so they can get over it.

Seven and a half months (and counting) until Happily Ever After begins!

 

As always,

Michele

 

The Wedding Dress Story

Wedding dress shopping. Where to even begin? There are all of the TV shows where the brides find their dresses and start to cry because the know exactly the dress they want after trying on 25 dresses or so, and there are the tv shows where the brides and all of the guests cry or fight or pull each other’s hair out. Dramatic. You can imagine my nervousness before I went in to the shop to get my wedding dress a week ago.

First of all, the shop I went to had all of these warnings to heed before you go to purchase your dress that made me weary:

“Save the group shopping for the mall…”     But I want to bring everyone! I did not heed this warning. I brought 7 people with me. Don’t get me wrong, I understand why they are saying this. If too many people go and everyone has different styles, they might bicker back and forth and never agree, making it more stressful on the bride. I had a great group with me so I wasn’t worried about this happening. Plus, I’m stubborn, so even if they hated what I liked, I would get it anyways. Problem solved, make your own choice and save yourself some stress.

“Wear appropriate undergarments..”  WHAT? Are they going to watch me change? This worried me. I’m not in my tip top wedding shape! Plus I don’t own a strapless bra. Shouldn’t these dresses take care of that problem? I shouldn’t even need a bra. (This worry was for nothing, a bra was not necessary, and they did not watch me change..phew.)

“Be prepared to give us your budget…”   I don’t know my budget. I don’t want to know my budget, I don’t want to get disappointed (which is exactly why they ask this question in the first place..I get it.) Shockingly, the dress I picked was about 700 dollars cheaper than I expected. I could not believe my eyes.

There was also that battle of “ivory, champagne, or wedding white.” Wow, let me tell you, I didn’t know the difference between the three and I surely didn’t know how distinct the differences are until I stood there in my ivory gown next to a bride who had on a wedding white gown. Holy smokes, let me just tell you, there is a world of difference. Both beautiful, but that ivory just left me a “vintage bride” feel which is what I was looking for. Once again proving my theory that I’m a horrible excuse for a bride. =)

The day started off well. I got up, had a mimosa with the husband to be (to calm the nerves of course), got dressed, headed to the bridal dress shop and met with my entourage. I tried on the first dress which “set the bar”. It was a GORGEOUS dress that I thought was going to be hard to beat. I tried on the second dress, no comparison. It was awful (it literally looked like a wedding cake). I immediately took it off and went to try on the third dress. My face lit up as soon as I put it on, I walked comfortable, I knew right then that it was THE one. I tried on 6 more dresses I believe, and none of them brought that smile to my face. I still wanted to try on that first dress though, because I loved it as well. I went to re-try on that first dress and knew instantly that it was not my wedding dress. As soon as I put the dress I chose back on to get fitted, that huge smile returned to my face. I did have that “AHA” moment; I knew I was going to choose this particular dress. I did not cry though (although my fiancés mother did three times). It was a very emotional day, but not the dramatic scene that kept playing in my head. After we bought the dress, we had a champagne toast (I felt so classy and sophisticated and grown up, it was great), we all went to a “girls lunch” where we discussed wedding plans.

So far, I haven’t had too much stress with planning this wedding. Maybe because I’m not a typical bride? I’m not really sure. Everyone makes it seem like it is the most stressful time of your life but I just can’t understand that. It’s wonderful! I feel like a princess! Well, more like I feel important, and it’s making me a little bit saddened that I don’t get to be a “bride to be” or a “fiancé” for very much longer (granted, I get to be a bride and a wife, which I am sure will be even better).

Stay tuned. The next posts will be all about bridal fairs and Save the Date cards!

Until then, xoxoxo

Michele

The Holiday Story

The Holiday Story

Our house was full of decorations, the Christmas smelling candles were aglow, the warm fuzzy blankets and socks were brought out from storage, the Harry Connick Jr. Pandora station was on blast..it’s like a magical, cozy, wonderful world from Thanksgiving to Christmas. Everyone seems a little bit more cheerful. Typically, the day after Christmas (much like the day after my birthday..) I’m bummed. I have to wait a whole year for this fun month filled with holiday parties and seeing friends and family.

As a bride to be, here is what I am currently feeling 3 days after Christmas:

Round one of holidays is complete! Christmas is over! Wahhooo! Don’t take that statement the wrong way. I absolutely love Christmas, but it can certainly be exhausting. This Christmas was absolutely special in its own right: the first (and only) Christmas that I will be someone’s fiancé, the Christmas that it snowed, the Christmas I got my first Michael Kors watch and purses….but I am grateful that things can get back to normal.  Granted, New Year’s Eve and New Year’s day are coming up, which has created a little bit of preparation stress, but since we are spending it at the cabin at the lake this year for a nice 4 day holiday, I am hoping to get some much needed R&R done. The weather is supposed to be extremely cold (possibly could see some snow, which might be nice if I can stay indoors), so I’m thinking a fireplace, my mom’s amazing homemade hot chocolate, and a nice book would make for a fantastic mini – vacation.

Here are a few differences I noticed this holiday season between my fiancé and I that required compromising:

Decorating. When it comes to decorating, the fiancé likes tons of decorations all over the place. I, on the other hand, think that this looks like Christmas threw up all over the house. I hate clutter. I don’t think there has to be something in every corner, in fact, I would prefer it didn’t. We ended up compromising. We had a ton of holiday items, but I got to pick where most of them were placed. I was more than ready to take them down this year, in fact, most of them were taken down the day after Christmas and the house already feels more comfortable and my anxiety level is down.

Formality. When I think of the holidays and the parties, events, etc. that you go to, I think of it all being formal. Nice dresses or sweaters, cocktail parties, classical holiday music playing in the background. The fiancé thinks more “tacky Christmas sweater party” with Elvis Christmas music blaring from Pandora. I’m realizing now, there is plenty of room for both of our Christmas traditions.

I have also been starting to think about how things will change in the upcoming year. Next holiday season, I will be a married woman! Shortly after that, we will be growing a family together. I have been on the lookout for some new holiday traditions that we can start once we are married. I am loving the tradition that people do with a new pair of pajamas, new Christmas mugs, hot chocolate mix, and a Christmas movie to watch on Christmas Eve, but since we typically celebrate Christmas with Charles’ family on Christmas Eve, I might have to switch this tradition to Christmas Eve’s Eve.

This may sound terrible, but I am always looking for people I haven’t shown my ring to yet. Yes, I’m guilty. So is every bride to be out there (don’t say you’re not or I will call you on your lie). This New Years Eve, we are going to party at a close friend and “lake neighbor’s” house and I cannot wait to show off the ring and share the proposal story! For bride to be’s like me, I think this is allowed (as long as your ring is clean and shiny!)

I’m sure I will have interesting stories and escapades after this weekend, and especially after dress shopping in a week!  Until then…

Xoxo

Michele

The Engagement Photo Story

I have two friends who have recently gotten married (and by recently, I’m talking they have gotten married within the past month). Coincidentally, both of these blushing brides have had photographer catastrophes.  Double coincidentally, they both got married on the same day..

To protect these brides identities, let’s just call them Exhibit A and Exhibit B.

Exhibit A’s disaster: The photographer of Exhibit A had a young and an inexperienced photographer that was also this young bride’s friend. Everything was going perfectly. The engagement photos were gorgeous, the save the dates looked amazing, and so who would have thought disaster would strike during the most important segment for the photographer: the actual wedding. The new photographer double booked herself for the night before the wedding (she was supposed to go to the church to figure out lighting and go to the rehearsal dinner and make sure she had the lighting figured out at the reception hall). She never showed up, which made the bride very angry. She called the photographer, who then said that she had “double booked” and since they were friends she knew that they would understand. The bride didn’t understand. Not one bit. Who would expect her to? She finally let it go, thinking “as long as everything turns out ok tomorrow, we are in the clear.” Well the wedding comes around the next day, the lighting was so completely off you couldn’t even see the couple’s faces in half of the pictures from the reception OR the wedding, and the photographer was trying so hard to play with the lighting during the reception that she missed half of the important events.

WOW. Awful. Nightmare.

Exhibit B: Exhibit B had a photographer that was not exactly a friend, but was an acquaintance.  This acquaintance double booked her wedding day and didn’t tell her. She showed up to the wedding and stayed for 45 minutes and then left.

Shorter story, but WORSE!

I’m sure there are a million small things that can go wrong on your wedding day, in fact I know several things can, but to have a photographer mess up the way these did is outrageous.

I’m so glad I have the best photographers around doing my pictures (you can view their website here:  http://www.beatyphotography.com/blog/ ). My biggest issues for planning my engagement pictures were things such as “Honey, should I wear my hair straight or with a few curls??” or “sweets, you can NOT wear that for our pictures.”  Locations weren’t too hard for me. I’m not sure about all of you, but we don’t have too many options for good picture places around where I live, so we chose places that reminded us of good times. We thought about our interests as a couple and chose a few locations and ideas that matched us and were somewhat significant to our relationship.

First location: A local Country Club with the best golf course around. Charles is a golfer so naturally taking pictures at this beautiful golf course was a must.  This is where is did our “dressy pictures.” I am not a dressy person, so we kept it more low key, but still nice. We had a lot of fun here taking pictures at this location.

Second location: A local park which conveniently had Christmas lights up due to the time of year. (We wanted to do a horse drawn carriage ride but go figure, the only night they weren’t running the horse drawn carriages before Christmas was the day of our engagement pictures…). Our photographers hadn’t photographed at this park when the lights were going off before, so we all got to have a blast. Plus, we got to bring our puppies to this location and sneak in a family portrait. Those dogs are like children to us. If you can’t relate, then you probably have no soul.

My recommendation? Pick a place that is meaningful, and pick a place that’s fun! How many people go to the park and play with the Christmas lights for their engagement photos? Not many, I’m sure. As previously mentioned, I’m not the typical bride, we aren’t the typical couple, and I’m sure we don’t do things even close to the way you’re supposed to. Also, be yourself! If you goof off during the pictures and have fun with each other, the pictures will look great! Posed pictures look stiff, look like you love each other and let the pictures reflect your relationship.

Here is just one of the gorgeous pictures taken by my wonerful photographers. More to follow when we receive them, we just took them yesterday so bear with me!

xoxo

Michele

The First Story

Here it is, ladies and gentleman. The months we have all been waiting for. We’re getting married! It’s every little girls dream to marry her prince and live happily ever after. Every little girl tried on her mother’s wedding dress and made herself a scrapbook of her fantasy wedding down to every miniscule detail.

Not me.

I wanted to swim in the pool, play in the yard, or watch a movie. Never plan my wedding. Not having any sort of ideas on what I wanted for our wedding or any sort of vision makes things more difficult from the get go.  

After the daze wore off of Charles (the fiancé) and me from the proposal (you can view the proposal on our wedding website, www.charlesandmichele.com), the inescapable wave of panic set in. What is to come in the next several months of our lives before the wedding?

·         “We have to pick a color scheme?”

·         “What do you mean we can’t elope in Vegas, mom?”

·         “Why do we have to take a sex ed class?”

·         “So our dogs can’t be the flower girls?”

·         “What the heck is a sand ceremony?”

Listen, girls and guys. I have no wedding planning experience whatsoever. I hardly know what I want in a wedding, I just want it to “look nice” and I want people to have a good time. I know this is not the status quo for typical women, but if you know me, I’m not like typical women, and if you don’t know me, you’ll find out that I’m not like typical women.

If you’re like me, are new to the wedding planning scene, are in for some laughs (because I’m sure I’ll create many with my tales of confusion and wedding havoc) then stay tuned. My plan is to log all of my wild wedding experiences with you all, and see how it all pans out in the end. Here’s to wedding season and to the brides that don’t have a clue!

 xoxo

Michele