May Flowers

It is a funny saying... April Showers brings May Flowers... We have had plenty of showers the last couple weeks here in Pittsburgh. But I am having the worst time getting a florist for the wedding. I have talked to three different companies now and they have all been dead ends. I just called the fourth florist yesterday and haven't heard back from them yet. If anyone knows a florist in my town let me know.

I need to find music as well... Those are my last big things on the to-do list for the wedding. I just got my shoes the other day. I found them on shoes.com a long time ago and I actually found them for $20 cheaper on Amazon.com. They are super high but I am absolutely in love with them. My sister said they are too bright and I need to send them back. I just ordered my hair piece which should be here in a couple months. The girls dresses have been ordered and should be here in July. My dress was re-ordered and should be here the beginning of July. The boys just need to go get measured and they will be set.

After that I have small things like finding my jewelry, get gifts for the girls, gifts for the guys, figure out my jewelry, find the flower girl dresses.... oh gosh I don't even know what else. It has been stressful but a lot of fun.

I am still looking for a full-time job but in the mean time I picked up a super part-time job (1 night a month) at Aerie doing floorsets. Job total = 3 part-time jobs. Brandon just graduated the other day and just needs to submit his resume to the hospital and he should have a great job soon after. I hope I can find something too. Jeeze I picked a stressful time to get married. It has been a lot of fun though.

What a Week

It turns out that my girls are going to get three of the four dress choices. I just have two more girls that need to order their dresses. I decided to do metallic shoes for the bridesmaid dresses.

I met with Z's florist about a week and a half ago and I am still waiting for a quote. I met with Betis Floral the same night. Both florists have never been to the Succop which makes this decision a little hard. I really like the direction of Z's but I need a quote.

I just went to pick up my wedding dress today and it turns out that the wrong dress was ordered in September. I tried it on just in case it was "the one". It's not. I'm not stressed yet. They are going to rush order the correct dress. It should take maybe 4 months.... Not sure.

We got some really awesome Jerry Garcia ties for the groomsmen and I was hoping to incorporate them into the invitations. I am looking for creative people to help... Brandon and I decided on the suits for the guys. I need to take a picture next time I'm in the Tuxedo shop.

We decided to go with Bella Christies for our cake and cupcakes. I just need to finalize some details. http://www.bellachristies.com/home.html

I have undergone some serious dental procedures the last couple weeks. I started with getting some braces put on for straight teeth for the wedding. Just this past week I got my wisdom teeth and four other teeth pulled and it is definitely putting a drain on my energy level.

Brandon and I started to to look for registry gifts. Do you know how hard it is find matching dishes. I fell in love with this one set of dishes from Mikasa but they do not have matching serving dishes. Why aren't companies making matching serving dishes. I also saw a Vera Wang set of dishes but it was the same type of issues. We shall see. I'm hoping to register on Thursday with Brandon.

I started a Wedding Website. I'm hoping to finish it soon. Here is the starts. http://www.projectwedding.com/ourwedding/brandonheather/welcome

I'll update with pictures soon.

Flowers and More Flower and Bridesmaid Dresses

I am finally feeling like I am making so decisions. On Monday, my mom, sister and I went to Hearts & Flowers Floral on Rt. 8. We met with the owner and she was very nice. She had us look through a book and get inspiration from other weddings. The problem I have been having is that I have no idea what I am doing for the flowers. The only thing that I wanted was Hydrangeas. After about an hour and a half we were finally on the same page. She went down a list of the bridesmaids, groomsmen, parents, and grandparent flowers. She also talked about the ceremony and reception. It was very interesting and helped me formulate some ideas.We left there just as it was starting to snow.

From there we headed to Babette's in Bridgeville. There is about a trillion dresses there. It was wall to wall racks of dresses. It was so exciting seeing all the different dresses. Monica was a great sport and tried on about two dozen dresses and we found four styles that would work perfectly.

Tonight I went to Z Floral and absolutely fell in love with their vision. I need to make some phone calls and get back to them. We talked about large floral pieces in between tables, small cluster vases, and cupcake stands on the tables full of flowers.

I am going to talk to Bella Christie's and Vanilla for cake and cupcakes. Then I am going to talk to Medures for the catering. Things are finally getting done. :)

February - The Month of Love

After much deliberation I think we have nixed doing Save the Dates. That is still debatable though. If we were to do them I really like the picture postcards.(This is not either of us... just so you know)

This month I would like to make a decision on the Flowers, Cake or Cupcakes, bridesmaid dresses, Groomsmen attire, Save the Dates (if we are having them), and find Brandon's ring. I think that is everything. It is all written down in my planner. While doing this Brandon and I are trying to finish up school and I am sending out resumes. So much to do.

I just saw a blog post last night that had bridesmaids in this light gold/tan color with colored accessories. I can't decide what I should do for the bridesmaids. I want to do something reasonable for them and something they would actually like. I love this look... But, I also love the blue idea too. Tuesday my sister and I are headed to the dress shop to check out dresses.

Wish us luck

Inspiration Board... So Far

Ideas, Ideas, and more Ideas

I went to a bridal show a little while before I left for Milan. It was a little overwhelming because I was barely engaged and had not really thought about a lot of the stuff that I would need. I am getting a second chance this Saturday. There is a bridal show downtown (it is supposed to be the largest in Pittsburgh). I am going to be more prepared this time. I saw this girl entering in the drawings for free invites, photographers, and other goodies with her name and address printed on labels. It was such a good idea that I am using that idea on Saturday.

http://www.brideshow.com/

It is so easy to get sucked into all of the wedding plans. By going to the last wedding show I got a free subscription of Brides magazine. Once I started thinking straight after all that jet lag I started perusing through these magazines. The problem with wedding planning is that most people have great ideas. A great inspiration website is http://snippetandink.blogspot.com/.

First order of business... finalizing ideas. I am loving the idea of art ties. I saw it in a girls wedding. The groomsmen all had different blue Van Gogh ties. I love the idea of blue/purple flowers and blue bridesmaid dresses. Right now I have so many thoughts it is just a little mind numbing. I need to start narrowing down some ideas.

Just bought a binder and page dividers to help keep my thoughts in order. This morning I tacked all of the pictures up that I tore out of the bridal magazine for my inspirational board. I'll take a picture tomorrow to post on here. Other than that I am looking at bridesmaid dresses online and still sorting out my thoughts and ideas.

Finally getting my feet on the ground

After a rough and extremely long flight home and a week of a fuzzy brain I am finally feeling normal and starting my wedding plans again. I have just made my wedding calendar for my notebook, cleared my bulletin board for inspiration plans, upgraded my wedding party, and started looking at bridesmaid dresses.

I'm ready to hit the ground running. Wish me luck.

Shoes

I am absolutely in love with these shoes right now...

The Dress

This will be a short one....

So I had no intention of buying a wedding dress before I left for Milan. I looked online but it was just to look and get ideas. I actually saw a dress that I liked at David's Bridal. So that afternoon my sister, my mom and I went there to try it on. I ended up getting thrown into a million dresses on top of the dress that I originally liked. I felt really bad. I told the girl that I had no intention of buying a dress at that moment but she was working very hard.

I really wanted to buy my dress from Carlisle in the Strip District. My mom bought her wedding dress there, my sister got hers there and I wanted to continue the tradition. I made an appointment for the Wednesday before I left for my trip (Sep 27 2010). I tried on a handful of dresses and I absolutely fell in love with a dress. I ended up leaving Carlisle's with my dress on order. That's all I will say about it. :)

Wedding Dress... Check!

Finding the Venue

I never realized how intense this process was going to be. I thought that I would go to the first venue and that would be that.... Boy was I wrong.

Phipps Conservatory:
The first place I visited was Phipps Conservatory. I had heard about this when I worked at the prom/wedding dress store. One of the girls was talking about where she was getting married. She said it was not very expensive and they were really great to work with. She said they even gave her guests water bottles for the ceremony outside. I was not even engaged yet when I had this conversation with this girl. When I did get engaged it was the first place I thought of. I immediately called them to make an appointment. My dad, mom, sister, and I all went to the appointment. We were early and we ended up waiting around for-ev-er for the appointment to start. We went in June and I guess I just expected there to be a lot more flowers. Everything was very green. The first place she took us was outside there was a place for the ceremony by a fountain. I was not impressed. I kept looking at the ground and there were sections of grass separated by sidewalks. Then in the grass were the utility covers but they were not even with the grass they were steps. I kept thinking of my grandparents and thinking it would not be a good idea because it was something that would be easily tripped on. The reception was under this tent. With that section you got the chairs for the ceremony but had to rent the chairs and table for the reception. I was not impressed it was a tent on top of a concrete sidewalk. The second place in Phipps was in this forest room. The ceremony would be outside by this waterfall. It was really pretty. If I did decide to have my wedding there I would have it in that section. The outside was very pretty. Then you could go inside this forest room for the cocktail/coffee hour. The reception would be in a banquet hall. It was all windows but very hot. I think I was overwhelmed with how much was involved with this decision. Upon leaving Phipps I decided that they were entirely to expensive and that they were not the venue for me.

Succop Conservancy:
I had heard about this venue from a girl at my bosses wedding. We were sitting at the same table and she was telling me about this awesome wedding she went to there. I went home and looked up the venue and set up an appointment. We met with Nancy early one morning before I had to be at school. We actually drove past the entrance and had to turn around. The area was really nice. It used to be a farm house and was donated to the community college. There are two lakes, a farm house, a barn, a couple other buildings, and acres of land with walking trails on it. Nancy was so nice and gave us a guided tour of the grounds. She told us what other people did for their weddings and answered every question we threw at her. She was so nice. First she took us on a tour of the Farm House. This would be used for a cocktail hour and somewhere to go if the weather was really warm. The wedding could be anywhere on the grounds. The reception would be in a pavilion outside. There are a lot of bathrooms around the grounds. There is also pocket parking which means that we don't have a huge parking lot full of cars. I really liked this venue and penciled in a date for reserve. I'll post some pictures later.

Cheeseman Farm:
Brandon heard about a place called the Cheeseman Farm. So on a whim I drove up with my mom to check it out. The area was gorgeous. It was a huge field with a beautiful barn in the middle. When you walked into the barn there were chinese lanterns hanging from the ceiling. It was really pretty. After talking to the coordinator for a while I quickly realized it was a nickle and dime location. The only chairs available are metal folding chairs. If you wanted the white wooden ones you had to pay extra yet there weren't enough for the reception only for part of the wedding crowd. If you wanted china it was extra. If you wanted your cookies plated it was extra. If you wanted a bar it was extra. It was really pretty but my mom and I decided that it was not the right place.

Marriott in Robinson:
I took Brandon with me to check out the Marriott. The coordinator was very chatty and really nice. She sat us down and offered to buy us breakfast. She asked us a lot of questions about who we are and what kind of wedding we want to have. After sitting there for what seemed like eternity she showed us the outside location for the wedding. It was a nice little patio on the back of the hotel. I couldn't picture myself in that area. She then took us to the smaller banquet hall. It was so old and run down. This hotel was gorgeous and newly renovated and this must have been left over from the old hotel. It was horrible. She did take us over to the larger banquet hall and I was impressed. I loved the lighting. It was very modern. I think we left with more questions than when we started in the day. The coordinator was very nice and I think she would be willing to do anything if we asked her.

Double Tree in Robinson:
This was the last stop on the wedding reception journey. My mom and I decided that if we could not make a decision after this location that we would not make one until I came back from Italy. We walked into the Double Tree on the Sunday before Labor Day. The lobby was nice and we were almost immediately greeted by the coordinator. She was very nice and she gave us warm cookies. She said anyone staying at the double tree will always get warm cookies. She showed us around the venue. We started in the reception hall. It was nice. There were windows on almost all of the walls. There was an outside patio for the wedding. It was really nice. She answered all of our questions and more. We were able to leave there with a lot of helpful information.

It took me a few days and some long conversations with my parents and Brandon to figure out what we were going to do. I think it was by that Wednesday or Thursday I had finally pictured myself in a venue. I liked the idea of doing the wedding at a hotel because they included a lot of stuff and they gave you a complimentary stay the night of your wedding. I thought that was really nice. It was pretty stressful time for me because I was trying to pack for my trip, finish my classes, be with my family, and visit Brandon. That morning I just saw myself getting married at the Succop. I knew that I can be as creative as I want to be and Nancy will be there for me if I need her. They will make things very easy and I love the idea of being outside for the wedding. Brandon agreed that it was going to be a good location.

Wedding Venue.... Check!