AMAZING

I have it in my head that I would love to go back to Vegas for less than 48 hours, merely to take engagement photos together in the Neon Graveyard and to take my bridal portraits in front of the Bellagio Fountains. Were money no object, I would be on a plane the day I could fit into my dress! (I couldn't find any good engagement pics, but you get the idea.) Seriously, this took my breath away. Lame, I know. Damn those fountains! The hunt is on for a good photographer. Someone who can make two camera-shy people who are lacking in the photogenic gene look amazing on camera that I can actually afford. Like a needle in the proverbial haystack.

Falling Behind

Okay, so we really haven't done too much wedding stuff lately. Between me working and my thought that the wedding is a million years away and the fear that I will want to change my mind a million times between now and then, we haven't made too many plans. But, there are a few things in the works... 1) Get in shape! Did I mention that I have to shrink an entire dress size (or more) to fit into my dress? That alone is very daunting. I have always thought I could stand to lose some of my excess baggage, so even though the wedding is forever away, I am getting started now! Andrew and I have been eating healthier (fewer starches, no Starbucks [not like we can afford it anyway], less red meat, etc.) I have also developed an intense love of chocolate soy milk. I hate regular milk but this stuff is "delissy," as my future in-laws would say :). I have also started running! After seeing pics of Vivian looking amazing in her engagement party pics, I was motivated. It is hard, but once I change clothes, put on my ipod, and go outside, it's not all that bad. I even told Andrew that yesterday and today I have felt less flabby- could be a mental thing, but I will take it! 2) Honeymoon- We wanted to go to St. Lucia, but being that our current income is dismally tiny, something in the US may be in order. He is voting for Wine Country, but I am not so sure. We're still contemplating that one. We both want to go somewhere fun that we wouldn't be able to enjoy with a family, should we ever decide to expand ours beyond ourselves and our small menagerie. 3) This wasn't really in the works; it just happened. We went to an Open House tonight at the Gallery, another wedding venue. While it would be completely gorgeous for an outdoor ceremony, June does not lend itself to a nice, pretty time spent outside. Afterall, I don't want my guests to hate me! But, there was a caterer there that we can use if we go to Paraiso and the cake baker that we are seriously considering. I am a chocolate girl all the way, but the buttercream whatever the hell cake I had tonight was even better than the chocolate they had! This was the baker that made the Beatles Love cake, so I asked the man there how it came to be. Basically, it was a couple just like us who saw the show several times in Vegas and they wanted it incorporated into their cake. Andrew is still convinced this will be the best thing in the world for us. I am still not as confident, but you never know! We have Best Buy gift cards and we don't know what to use them for. We are thinking engagement video blog. Will anyone care besides us? Probably not, but it could be something fun to do. I am off tomorrow and we will likely get bored so we will see.....

bad, bad blogger

I haven't blogged in a while, mostly because we haven't done much wedding-related stuff. With me not working, there were 0 dollars coming in our house for us to pay bills with, let alone to save for wedding expenses. We have talked about a few things, and I don't remember what Andrew said, but he very nearly sold me on Paraiso Maravilla. That is the direction I have been leaning towards lately. And... I got a dress! I said I wasn't even going to start looking for one until June at the earliest, but I had a chance I couldn't refuse! My mom heard about how Weddings by Debbie (a bridal shop by her house) had roof damage after Hurricane Ike and sold a bunch of their dresses to a buyer who normally sells things wholesale because "they weren't up to their standards." The company couldn't find a buyer for the lot of dresses, so they sold them one by one to the public for $100 each! I emailed this to Vivian on a Thursday night. The sale was Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. She called me Friday morning (I was at work) saying to get down there because the good dresses were going fast. My awesome manager let me take a long break, so I picked up my mom and we went! Wedding dresses are sized tiny, and all that were left were good sizes mostly. I found one I really liked in a size smaller than what I need, but for $100 bucks, I thought I should get it! My mom agreed, so now, as long as I lose a dress size, I have a dress. Yay! Pics are on facebook. Other than that... nothing good and wedding-related is going on!

wedding officiant?

So, neither Andrew nor I are of the extremely religious sort. Having a Church wedding has never come up, and on our list of expenses, minister is at the bottom. We will take what we can get. I just read online (haven't looked into it yet) that someone can get ordained as a minister in Texas for $29.99. That's it. I need to think of a person who would be appropriate to marry us and just go with it... it's so much cheaper! But, is it tacky? Thoughts? I also found supercute, cheap centerpiece ideas here. Love it! We still are no closer to picking a venue... BUT, we may be able to agree on a color. I got a flyer for a highly-recommended baker that had a Beatles LOVE Cirque du Soleil themed wedding cake. While it is cool, I don't really want it. But, Andrew does. We have seen the show three times and we love it, but nothing else in our wedding would work with it. He said that if he can have that cake, purple can be our main wedding color. I just have to decide if it's a fair compromise!

Decisions, decisions

We are torn. Actually, it's more like one side vs. the other as far as our wedding venue goes. Not in a mean, nasty, "This is my day and you will agree with me!" way, but more in a "I see your point, but..." type of way. So maybe blogging will help me make a decision. Venue #1: Paraiso Maravilla We visited Paraiso last Monday and loved it. However, we both agreed that it looked a little better in pictures. For the price, we get the venue, security, tables and chairs, valet, and the candles that are along the handrail of the upper floor will be lit. Nothing else. No options for centerpieces, no food or drinks, no DJ, nothing. There is also no event coordinator who will be on-site that day to make sure things go smoothly. Now, I have attended several weddings but I have never been in one. I don't know how to direct this thing and make sure everyone gets down the aisle okay. I want someone who can do that for me! So that made me a little nervous. Here we would have a choice between eight caterers, at least two of which are comfortably in our price range. If we want someone else, it is $500 extra. The ceremony site at Paraiso is okay. I don't love it, but I don't hate it. It is in front of a brick archway that has a fountain behind it. We could probably string some lights on the arch, float orchids in the fountain, and line the area on the sides of the fountain with candles and it would be pretty. There would be a cocktail hour in a back room of the facility which I actually almost prefer to the front room. There are courtyards in the front and back of the building which we would light with tons of candles and would be nice for photos. However, as my mom pointed out, how many pics will we actually take on a summer night? There is also a nice area inside that is a long hallway with a fountain in it. We could do more orchids and candles there. Venue #2: Rockefeller Hall At first, I fell in love with Rockefeller Hall, but something we read somewhere made it seem really far out of pur price range. Then Andrew noticed it was the same # of dollar signs on theknot.com as many other places we visited, so he emailed about it. The estimate she gave us seemed affordable, so we went to visit. This place used to be the club Rockefeller's, which, incidentally, I have been to before. When my mom and step-dad first met, my now step-sister was dating a guy in a band who was going to be playing at Rockefeller's that night. (Yes, I am pretty sure my mom and step-dad went on their first date pretty much the day they met.) Anyways, me being 10 and my mom not having a babysitter on such short notice, they took me with them to the club since it was all ages. I remember being miserable, but it was the start to their marriage, so that is kind of a cool connection. Anyways... Rockefeller Hall is in the Heights and used to be a bank, so it is all cool and old-timey on the outside. One drawback is that we HAVE to use their catering, and it is quite expensive. That is one of the biggest things that is keeping us away from this place. Everything else there is "affordable" (I use that term loosely) enough so the catering isn't a HUGE deal. It is a big, open room with a raised area at the back where we can have the ceremony. Something is carved over the top of the raised area in the marble, but I don't remember what it is. We will get the greenery package that they offer so there are leafy branches hanging down. I like it when the outside comes in. There will also be candles and such around the top of the room, just like Paraiso. There is a big wooden bar on the side of the room and the chairs are nice and wooden (no need for sashes or chair covers!). For the cocktail hour, most of our guests would be directed upstairs where there is an even bigger bar! We kind of don't like that there is no illusion of two rooms and thus no big "entrance" for us to make, either. There is also no outside area for pictures. But, there are big windows upstairs that would be good to take pictures in front of. This place has all kinds of candles and things for you to borrow for the centerpieces, which I like. Only 121 people can sit downstairs, which might be bad for us. We are getting pricing based on 130. and I would hate to have to divide people so much, even though there would be a buffet and bar on both floors. The service is what keeps this place in the running- the women who own it are sisters and also own an event planning company. Their services come with renting the hall and they seem to know their stuff. We gave them our budget and they gave us an estimate above it. After I told her that I loved the venue but couldn't afford it, she worked with us to knock it down more. I think the attention to detail here will really alleviate my stress and be worth the added cost. For both places, there are decorating things that I want to do, but I don't know WHO will do them as I will be getting ready and so will Andrew and I don't want to burden friends or family with that. So, if you couldn't tell, Paraiso is Andrew's pick and Rockefeller is mine. We are going to an open house at Paraiso on Thursday (with Vivian and Chris!) to try out one of the caterers and maybe getting a second female opinion will help. If you are bored enough to read all of that, you should check out the venues for yourself and give me some input. I have been looking at people's flickr accounts too to see how these places look done up for weddings, but I still don't know what to do. On the employment front, it looks like I have a job at Limited Too. The lady there was really great and I think as far as retail goes, I won't hate it. She is supposed to call me today to finalize things. I also have an appointment to take a test and interview to sub in Katy ISD, so that should be good. Hopefully things will start to look up and we can save for our big party!

more venues

I thought we were pretty well settled on Paraiso Maravilla, but Andrew said we should look into some places we ruled out based on price. We thought they would be too expensive, but upon getting more info, we may be able to afford their Friday Night prices. We are checking into 3 places today- Alden Hotel, Rockefeller Hall, and Cheateau Polonez. I will take pics! PS- I am still unemployed and about to get a job in retail that will likely make me miserable =/

I think we found it!

Well, we went to Paraiso Maravilla today. And, while it is not as beautiful as many of the pictures made it seem, it was still really pretty and the site we are 90% sure we will go with. We have done TONS of online research and I just don't know if we will find a place that we like more that is still in our price range. One cool thing about this place is that there will be lots of candles lining the upper balconies as well as candelabras in the fireplaces (who wants a real fire in June?) so I think that will make for some great lighting! The colors inside are really neutral, so we can pick just about anything as our wedding colors. I took pictures but honestly, I like the ones you can find online better than those I took. Speaking of colors, we kind of came to an agreement last night- dark blue, lavender, and platinum. I am not completely sold because I still really like plum, but I am coming around. Lavender is a nice compromise and at least there are a lot of purple flowers. Yay for decisions :) I also had that interview at Agave Road today. The guy was really disorganized, which was a bad sign. He was 30 minutes late to the interview! Basically, it is a commission based position, which I am really uncomfortable with, so I won't pursue it. I like to know how big my checks are going to be. As for the venue, I don't strongly recommend it. I didn't have my camera, so I didn't take pics. The bride's and groom's dressing areas were really nice, but otherwise, it was nothing fancy. I got my ring cleaned today and it is extra sparkley! I also got the free wedding planner than Robbins Bros. was supposed to give Andrew when he bought the ring. So, now I have somewhere to write everything down. Yay!