I'm a Lucky Girl

 Two weeks ago, I received this email from 3 dear friends of mine from my former job.

Dearest Little Bride-to-Be,

As your wedding approaches and the festivities start,
The three of us would love to be there, but are so many miles apart.

Instead of a road trip to Pennsylvania for the shower that is planned,
We’d like to treat you to a New York shower which is closer at hand.

We are sorry to miss what is sure to be a perfect day,
But are certain that you will enjoy what we’ve planned in our own way.

Please say that the date of March 31st is free,
And stay tuned for the wonderful treat that will be.

Love,

Kate, Kristin, and Christina

How lucky am I? This seriously made me smile all day long. A week later, this little gem arrived in my inbox:

Dearest Little Bride-to-Be,

As the date approaches, we thought you should know,

We’d like to take you to place with shine and glow.

To drink, and dine in the utmost class,

And surround yourself with lovely ladies of fun and sass.

On March 31^st, please join us at Robert at the 

Museum of Arts and Design,

For drinks and treats and especially, for a fabulous time.

Love,

Kate, Kristin, and Christina

Ahh!! This restaurant looks amaazing!! I'm sad that they can't make it to Pennsylvania for my shower, but I understand it's not the easiest of places to get to. Plus, I can't wait to spend time with them tonight! It's amazing how much these three ladies have come to mean to me in the short time that I've known them. They are incredibly loyal, thoughtful, classy, sweet friends and I am truly blessed to have them in my life. We don't get a chance to get together too often anymore, but when we do, it is always a fabulous time! Needless to say, I can't wait to tell you all about our night!

This is us at Christina's wedding last October!

Sans the bride...

Please don't forget to vote in my Wednesday Wedding Poll "Are/Did you having/have a videographer?"

Wednesday's Wedding Poll and Storymix Media

http://storymixmedia.com/

I recently came across an awesome website and service called My Flip Wedding from Storymix Media. Everyone constantly tells me our day will fly by before I know it and will be done in the blink of an eye, and this makes me sad to think about. I've always been a "documenter." In High School, I was always the one with the camera, and video camera. If anyone ever forgot to bring their camera somewhere they thought "Oh that's ok, Laura will have hers". This has been even more true as I attend all my friend's weddings. I have documented and video recorded everyone's wedding to the best of my non-professional ability. I have all my friend's entrances, cake-cuttings, first dances, etc., to have on hand for slideshows, scrapbooks, and general memories. But this leads me to one question: Will anyone do that for me at my wedding? I realize that not everyone is as crazy about documenting as I am, so I can't honestly expect others to be as crazy as me about capturing every moment.

When we picked our photographer, we added on a basic videography package with our booking. But unfortunately, I have to say this was a decision based purely on getting a fair price for what it was, not about quality of product. I got the sense that Déjà Vu does not take their videography very seriously, and was not impressed by their video samples. I told myself that any documentation...was good documentation, sucked it up, and went on my way.

Source

But then I heard about My Flip Wedding from Storymix Media. Storymix has a unique service designed for wedding couples. They supply Flip cams for 3 day usage by your friends, family, guests, and even you to shoot footage the whole weekend. After the wedding, you simply send the cameras back, they upload the footage to an online account, and you get to personalize what's included by picking the scenes and adding captions and titles!! Then they professionally edit it into an amazing 15-20 minute highlight movie on DVD based on one of 10 themes you choose. For a control freak like me, who also likes to have creative input in the final product, this was a dream come true! This would finally allow me to have some video footage first-hand from our guests and friends!

Besides the fact that we can get a great video keepsake to enjoy for the rest of our lives, the prices are really fabulous. Packages start at only $99.99. With My Flip Wedding there's no reason any couple can't capture their big day on video. Plus, with the cameras in the hands of your friends and family, you know you'll be saving the fun, personal, and intimate moments that you really want to see, especially since you won't be able to experience them all first hand.

And do you know just how lucky I am?! Storymix Media provided us with a coupon to use their product for our wedding!! After we get back from the honeymoon, I'll do another review to let you know how everything went but I can't wait to share my video with you all when it's done! For now, check out a sample from another wedding that used My Flip Wedding:


You can view other samples here, and be sure to check out the Storymix blog which has awesome tips for getting great photos and videos from your wedding.

Are/Did you having/have a videographer for your wedding?

Ceremony Music

On Saturday we met with the music director at our church to discuss music for our ceremony. I went into this with virtually no idea or specific music requests. I figured I would listen to whatever options he suggested for the processional and recessional, and would pick from those, which is exactly what we did. He played a few options for each section and we picked from there.

These were all pretty generic "church wedding" pieces, but they are still beautiful. The way I look at it: they're generic wedding songs for a reason - because they work. They're pretty, they're beautiful on an organ, and if it ain't broke...dont' fix it.

For the processional, we picked:

Jesu, Joy of Man's Desiring, by J.S. Bach

Then once our Bridesmaid and Groomsmen are in, I will walk down the aisle with both my parents 

to Canon in D by Johann Pachabel

The processional will be "Hornpipe" from The Water Music, , By G.F. Handel

Now, I am fully able to print up our ceremony programs because I have all the information I need!

However, I'm curious...what other great (Church) processional and recessional songs should I look into before committing to these? The organist is really great and if there is a specific piece I'd like, he'll play that for me. Any other suggestions?

Invitations

Now that all our invitations are out, I can finally share them with you. I explained my feelings on the invitations a while back: I wish I could say I did them myself...but this was one area I just didn't have the energy to tackle. Annette (I heard Your Getting Married) was recommended to me through a friend's sister and she came in and saved the day! We met with her and after looking through a ton of books, finally decided on this suite:

http://www.iheardyouregettingmarried.com

Perfect for our color scheme, simple, yet elegant...it was pretty much the only one that stuck out at me.

The order process took a little longer than I had hoped: place the order, get a proof, correct the proof, resend it, get another proof back, make another change, wait for the final proof. This all took several weeks and I finally was starting to get very panicky that these were never going to be printed! When they finally did come in, Annette worked tirelessly through her weekend to assemble and address all our invitations for us. She was super great about it (and also probably didn't want to hear me badgering her about them anymore!) I am so grateful that she took care of all this for us, and so happy it was a generally stress free project. Here are all the pieces we got back for our invitations:

 

All the inserts

I hope you all like them! It's so crazy to be getting responses back for our WEDDING already!!

Groom Dumps Wedding Cake onto Bride's Head!

The results of Wednesday's Wedding Poll "Did/Are you change/changing your last name?"
Yes: 84%
No: 11%
Haven't Decided: 5%

Four of you said you aren't changing your name (and one of those was my mother..so three others). Thanks again to everyone who participated!

So I KNOW I said I was going to reveal my invitations today...but that is actually going to have to wait until Monday! I have soo many great posts coming up next week that I'm really excited to share with you, so hang tight!

In the meantime, you're going to have to settle for this horrific, and kinda hilarious video. If Chris does this to me on our wedding day, I will NOT handle it as welll as this woman:

Enjoy your weekend!

STAMPS

Source

When it came to getting stamps for all of our invitations, we went to a post office one Saturday with our sample to see how much the envelope would cost to mail. I could immediately tell the woman behind the counter had no clue what she was doing. First of all, it took her about 5 minutes to answer us, she was pressing a ton of buttons on the screen, and at one point...looked up at the ceiling and starting counting off numbers as if she was adding up in her head. Then she pressed down on the scale with her hand, looked at us and said:

"ummmmm .81 cents"
I said...
-"really? you're sure it's .81 cents? For this one envelope?"
-"yes".
- "It says .81 cents right there on your screen? Can you show me that?"
-"ohhh...umm ok, hold on"

She then proceeds to go through the whole process again to get .81 cents on the screen for me to see. Chris looked at me and his eyes were saying "Do NOT buy .81 cents worth of stamps here, this woman is clearly an idiot." At that point...all the post offices were closed so we couldn't get a second opinion. But we drove over to Chris's office where they have a mailing machine. We put it on the scale and it said .61 cents. That made sooo much more sense to me. From everything I had been reading online and from what I've seen in other invitations that have been mailed to us, that's what I was expecting. What on earth was that woman doing? Did she think I had asked her for the total cost of the invitation + the weight of her hand??

Oy...So Chris's mom very generously took our invitation to a different post office that Monday to confirm that .61 cents was all we needed, and this different post office did in fact confirm this price.

Source

We got the pretty .61 cent cake stamp and got to work stamping our envelopes! The lesson? Make sure you don't get jipped by your local post office!

Another thing I learned: Nicole-Lynn at Seaside Smitten gave me the great advice to "hand cancel" the invitations when they are dropped off. This way, they are not electronically run through the machines which might damage them.

Again, because we got our invitations on a Monday night and were mailing them on a Tuesday, Chris's mom offered to take them to the post office for us. I wasn't about to commute into the city with over 100 invitations just so I could personally mail them. But, I did feel a little sad that I wasn't there for their release. I felt like it was my children's first day of kindergarten and I wasn't there to see them off. (Dramatic, I know). I asked her to have them "hand-cancel" the invitations...thinking they would take care of it when she dropped them off. Well...the clerk handed her a stamp and showed her a workstation where she could do them. Chris's mom proceeded to stand in the post office and individually stamp each invitation!!! I feel so bad she had to do that herself! She was definitely a trooper when it came to our stamps AND mailing our invites, and we can't thank her enough for helping us out with that!

Tomorrow, I'll show you our invites! And don't forget to vote in Wednesday's Wedding Poll: "Are You Changing Your Name?"

Wednesday Wedding Poll: Are you changing your name?

My mother kept her maiden name. A self proclaimed feminist, she decided at a very young age to keep her maiden name and though my father wasn't thrilled with this at first, they eventually talked it out and reached an understanding. I was asked countless times growing up if my parents were divorced and am getting asked that again now that our invitations are out, but my parents have been happily married for 30 years, this year!

Me on the other hand: I am fine with changing my name and never really had trouble deciding on this. Of course, this is nothing personal against my family, mother, or last name, but I am excited to share the same last name as Chris. I also do not know any one of my friends who have kept their last name through marriage, so I'm curious if there are others out there.

Source

What about you, are you changing your name?



Answers will be revealed on Friday!

Sand Castle Meeting

Last Wednesday evening we had two-month out meeting with our venue, The Sand Castle, to discuss everything for our wedding day!!!

Source: Main Entrance to our venue

I just love walking in there, I get so excited every time we go for meetings or events. We met with Mohamed, who is our banquet manager. First, we went over the menu and made all our selections for cocktail hour, appetizers, and main course choices. The Sand Castle has their kitchen on site so they  make everything to order that night. After our chosen appetizers are served, our guests will have their choice of the following 7 entree options:

Pistachio Crusted Rack of Lamb

Served with Roasted Garlic and Rosemary Sauce

Grilled Filet Mignon

Served with Bordelaise Sauce

Roast French Breast of Chicken

Stuffed with Provolone, Ricotta, Sun-Dried Tomato, Served on a Bed of Sautéed Spinach, and served with Madeira Sauce

Pan Seared Porterhouse Pork Chop

Served with Sweet Cherry Pepper

Parisian Potatoes and Cherry Wine

Pan Seared Atlantic Salmon

With Oyster Mushrooms, White Wine and Cream Sauce

Pan Seared Striped Bass Mariciara

With Shrimp and Kiwi Mussels

Vegetarian Special
Portabello, tricolor peppers, eggplant marinated and grilled over an open flame

I think I'm going to order either the salmon or striped bass that night, I can't decide!

Then we picked the design for our cake. Again, our cake is provided through our venue and included in our package, which is really great. However, this does mean that we had to pick from a selection of cake options as far as the design goes. Luckily, I've never really had an image in my head of how I wanted my cake to look. To me, as long as it tastes great...I'm good! Plus they had some really great designs to choose from so we had no problem picking one out.

I will tell you all...that after the very heated and popular Wednesday Wedding Poll where we asked "Which filling you would prefer?", we decided on the French Cream filling for our cake. Not only did French Cream beat out cannoli in the poll (20 to 17), BUT there will be cannoli served for dessert, so people who love cannoli cream will still be able to get their fix, and people who hate cannoli can still enjoy our cake. Hopefully a win win for all!

Source

We will meet with Mohamed again on May 12th. On that day I have to give him evvverything we will need on hand that day: menu cards, place cards, toasting flutes, cake topper, picture frames, etc.etc. Ahh!!  So much for procrastinating up to the last minute. This gives me a clear deadline that's NOT my wedding day, which is definitely a good thing for me seeing as I'm a perpetual procrastinator. But so far I'm feeling good about having everything ready by then. So now we just have to have our final meeting with our photographer, musical director at the church, and florist...oy! Meeting, meetings galore!

Source

2 months!

Today marks 2 months!

that's...60 days!

 
I haven't shown you our invitations yet, but I'm going to give you a sneak peak by showing you an RSVP card that came in the mail this weekend.

Our friend Matt is quite the jokester: 

Perhaps this is the problem with putting "_____# of guests" on your rsvp cards. Oh Matthew...you never fail to entertain us.

I had a fantastic weekend at home taking care of our table numbers, bridesmaid gifts, and some other projects I wanted to try out. I pretty much entirely took over two tables at my parent's house and bossed them around all weekend. Haha, but they were perfect champs and were a huge help to me!

Thanks to mom and dad for all your help this weekend!

Week Recap

I'm happy to say I was the featured bio of the week on weddingbee this past week. Thanks so much to all of you who pointed that out for me! I was so busy with other stuff I almost missed it!

It was a long week here: We met with the church, we met with our venue (more on that next week), we mailed out our invitations, we recieved our very first RSVP Card (!!), we had a hotel crisis, and we calmed down and learned to deal with the hotel crisis. If there ever was a TGIF...it's today!

http://myglitters.info

 I'm heading home to Pennsylvania tonight for a MAJOR D-I-Y weekend with my parents. When I'm "home" in PA, I am able to get so much more done because I'm not distracted by needing to clean up, or the dishes in the sink, or laundry or any of that stuff. The list of things I hope to complete this weekend are:

Table Numbers

Menu Cards

Programs

Signature Drink Signs

Bridesmaid gifts

Figure out what I'm doing for my guest book

Create a sample out-of-town-bag
More tissue paper flowers

My mom and sister also plan to get a bunch of stuff together for my shower in 4 weeks!

Plus, my mom's dress is in so she's picking that up tomorrow, I hope to get a good run and/or bike ride in with my dad, see my grandma and catch up with the fam. I am bursting at the seams to start the drive home!

Have a great weekend everyone!

Bridal Melt-Down!

Source

Well, it has finally happened: On Tuesday night I had my very first "WTF?! This is a total disaster" bridal melt-down.  I feel like a true bride now!! (heehee) We have a lot of guests coming from out of town. I was only able to book 21 rooms at our hotel for the moment, but was assured again and again that as soon as all the rooms in our block were booked, we could easily add on more as we needed them. I really wanted all our guests, and us, to be able to stay at one hotel; it just makes things less complicated for the shuttle and out of town bags, etc., so I didn't block off rooms at any other hotel and figured I'll just add on to here as I need them. But curiosity got the better of me over the weekend and I called the hotel to pretend to book a regular room for the night of our wedding. I was told that they were completely booked that night and had nothing to offer me. I then went online and tried to book a room online. Again I was met with the same result. I immediately left a voicemail with Deanna at the hotel and sent her a frantic email as well.

We finally touched base on Tuesday and Deanna confirmed that yes, beyond the rooms left in our block, the hotel was completely booked that night. WTF? I just talked to her last week about needing to add on rooms soon! She couldn't have given me a warning and at least mentioned to me that the hotel was booking up quickly and there weren't many rooms left?!?! Utterly useless.

Sooo all those invitations that went out on Tuesday? You know...with the hotel booking information? Useless to them, and I feel like a complete idiot.

Deanna and I emailed back and forth a few times trying to reach a resolution. I tried my absolute hardest to keep my snarkiness in check, though I'm not sure how well I really did. She said that once the other blocks are released on April 21st, some rooms could easily free up and at that time, she will add them to my block. So until then, I just have to hang tight. Eventually, I realized that I was going to have to start calling some other hotels in the area to block off more rooms for our guests in case we couldn't get any more. And guess what? Every single hotel I called in the area was COMPLETELY BOOKED!! After about the 4th hotel I finally asked them what was going on in the area that weekend because there had to be a reason! It turns out Hofstra University's Graduation is the day after my wedding and the school has reserved rooms at pretty much EVERY HOTEL for parents.

Had I been at home in a private setting, my reaction to this would have played out differently...but I was at work so I remained calm, and had several "inner" freakouts all afternoon: which in retrospect was probably better.

Finally, my knight in shining armor, Louis, from a Hampton Inn & Suites near our venue was able to block off 6 rooms for me with the promise that after April 21st, it is very likely he will have more rooms to add (I know I know...I've heard it before). It wasn't a lot, but it was something. And on the bright side, this was a hotel we had already visited last year and actually really liked.

So I put the new hotel information on our wedding website for our guests and if anyone has trouble getting a room, they will have to contact me and I'll help them as best I can in the next two months. It's very hard to say how many extra rooms we need for that night. Until we start getting rsvp's back we can only speculate.

Worst case scenario, there is a small hotel on our block that has 28 free rooms that night. So, if I need to direct people there temporarily, and then move them over to the other two as rooms free up, then that's what we'll have to do.

Source

If I could do it all over again, I would have blocked off rooms at the two hotels from the start and put both hotel's information on our invitations.We'd still have 20 rooms at a 2nd place for our guests to call right now. But you know what they say: Hindsight's 20/20 right? It will all work out, we have three hotels working to help us out and everyone will find a place to stay...at least that's what I'm telling myself to go to sleep at night.


Did you have anything like this happen to you that caused a mini panic attack?

Paper Presentation

Yesterday on my lunch break I went to this amazing store near Union Square called Paper Presentation.

http://www.paperpresentation.com

They had everything you could possibly imagine when it came to paper, invitations, programs, guest books, ribbons, boxes, gifts, scrapbooking, I could go on but you get the point. I wasn't able to get nearly as many photos as I wanted, as my time was limited and I found my eyes glazing over every two seconds from visual overload.

Great Gift boxes

Look at all the different ribbons!

This is literally an entire shelf of just envelope liners:

Teeny tiny envelopes, so cute!

Decorative paper for invitations - There were probably 12 different shelves with different paper like this:

My time there was limited, and I only bought one thing. But, you can bet the wheels are turning for what I want to purchase for my next visit. I will say this store was a bit pricey. Most of the paper supplies are sold in packs of 25, so making things in bulk could add up. But, I'm actually very curious to do the math on how much my invitations would have cost if I did them myself buying each piece through this store versus going with the lady who did them for us. That will be a little price comparison lesson for another day when I have time, but curiosity definitely has gotten the better of me on that one. One thing is for sure, despite the price you most certainly couldn't beat the selection or the quality of their supplies. This store was a great little find!

Check out Paper Presentation's Website here! Did you find any fantastic specialty stores like this as you were planning your wedding?

Invitations

ACK! no post yesterday and no "real" post ready today! Sorry we've been busy with THESE:

 

Well...our wonderful invitation lady was busy with them all weekend. We picked them up rather late last night, came home, and got to work on sealing, stamping and triple checking them. Now it's after midnight and I need to go to bed!! Besides the few that need a quick address fix, these are ready to drop tomorrow!! So exciting!!! 

Chris hard at work sealing envelopes

In the meantime, check out my most recent Weddzilla post about Foodieregistry.com!

I'll be back with more updates tomorrow!

Very Bad Things

The results of Wednesday's Wedding Poll:

Are/Did you giving/give favors at your wedding?

Yes, we will/did give favors: 62%

No, we aren't/didn't give favors: 23%

In lieu of favors, we will/did donate to a charity: 15%

 

As usual, thanks for participating! We still haven't decided what we're doing, but it was very interesting to see what others have done!

Now on to some mindless Friday fun: Chris' brother has been teasing me for awhile now that I remind him of Cameron Diaz in the movie Very Bad Things. I had never seen the movie so I didn't really know what he meant, so Chris and I watched it a few weeks. Well, I thought the movie was pretty horrible, I wouldn't recommend it, but Cameron Diaz did have some funny, and typical, scenes in it:
"We've got major seating problems"
Cue: Cameron Diaz in Very Bad Things:




Or this one? "Did you bring the tent check?"


Haha, I hope those videos worked for you, they're from a bit of a different site. Of course, I yelled at his brother after watching the movie because I'm not anything like her!! He agreed (sort of) but then pointed out the one scene that he could really see me doing the same exact thing:

That's her with tons of little toy tables and chairs with names on them figuring out her seating chart!! Hahahaha Ok, I'll give him this one...I actually think this is such a cute idea and if it wouldn't be so "non" cost effective to go buy 200+ little toy chairs with tables I would so do this! Which leads me to think....how will I figure out seating? The good old paper plate with post-its?

How did/will you figure out your seating chart?
Happy FRIDAY!

Bridal Shower

My Bridal Shower invitations have gone out and a date is set for Saturday, April 16th! Per my request, I really didn't want to be surprised, as long as I know the date and location, I'm good. So I have my very own invitation!

It will be on Saturday, April 16th.

On the back was an adorable sticker:

Here they are together:

I think the location for my shower is fantastic. Totally country, really fantastic food, and an awesome space. It's being held at the Buckeye Tavern.

Primarily: the mischief room where they have great country decor and a fantastic old-fashioned rocking chair for me to sit in when I open gifts!

Source

My mom and my sister have done a fantastic job putting this together so far. I'm so excited!!

Check out my latest post for Weddzilla called Registering 101, and don't forget to enter my Wednesday Wedding Poll! Are you having favors at your wedding?

Wednesday Wedding Poll: Favors

www.perfectweddingzone.com

When it comes to favors, Chris and I are very torn on the idea. As far as I'm concerned we have 3 options

1) Don't give favors at all. I don't think favors are neccessary. We're paying enough to entertain our guests all night as it is. I've been to weddings where no favors were given and no one has batted an eyelash about it.
2) Give a donation to a charity- this is increasingly popular and classy idea. It says "yes. We spent a lot on the wedding, but we're charitable too!
3) Give favors

Pretty much every favor I've come across in my search has been terrible and I was completely behind the charity idea, until this week when I came across a favor idea I could actually get behind. Chris actually liked the idea, too and now we're torn again. We deferred to our friends who's wedding we've been to in the past three years but that didn't help at ALL. In the past 3 years we've been to 6 weddings. Of those weddings 2 didn't give out favors, 2 did give favors, and 2 gave a donation to charity. Obviously, it's split across the board and this is completely our decision on which route we'd like to take.



Answers will be revealed on Friday!

Weight Watchers

I posted this picture from my friend Ben over a year ago, but wanted to bring it back.

Is this not the most genius ad? It targets all those bride's to be perfectly..and hits them right where it hurts!

Last week I finally full on (as in paid for a 3 month membership- signed up for weight watchers.) I'm liking the new system so far: it's great that fruits and veggies are zero points.

One thing's for sure, I am bursting at the seams to start running outside again. Spring is so close I can feel it, and I really miss my morning runs either at home or in Central Park, which I was doing pretty much every day last year. I'm excited to get back into the running mindset and I think it will really help.

I hope you're all doing well with your weight loss goals, and if not...perhaps this picture will give you a little inspiration! Are you on any type of weight loss program?

FutureMe.org

This isn't neccessarily wedding related, but it could be. A while back, I found a website called FutureMe.org. It's an incredibly easy-to-use website that allows you to write a letter to yourself...in the future. It's like an instant time capsule. You write yourself a letter, and set it for whatever date in the future you want to read it.

Source

I wrote one to myself in June 2009 before we got engaged for delivery in June 2010. I had completely forgotten about the email until I got it a year later and was so excited to read it! Here was my letter:

Dear FutureMe,

Hello! So...lots has happened in the past year huh? You got a new job! You know where you're headed in life, you're engaged and have a date set for the wedding! And, you're finally moved into your own house with Chris. I figure the beginning of 2010 was a bit of a roller coaster, but you're finally in a comfortable place..personally and literally.

You're also keeping up with your running! Fantastic!

I obviously didn't get too "deep" here, and just went with a general prediction email, but overall I was quite pleased when I read my letter. Out of all the things I predicted would happen, all but one did. (Which was "you got a new job", but luckily I got a new job 3 months later in August) That and moving "into your own house" isn't exactly the same as moving into your "fiance's parent's basement", but it was certainly a step in the right direction. I like how I added that little bit about running, as an extra little jab just in case I didn't keep up with it.

I think this is a really neat feature and I plan to write one to myself right before the wedding to get delivered on our one year anniversary. What would my married-for-1-year-self want to read next May?!

Will you write yourself  a letter to the future with FutureMe.org?

"I Do"

The results of Wednesday's Wedding Poll:

Who will/did/would you want to provide your entertainment for your wedding?

14%: Band

71%: DJ

5%: D-I-Y style

10%: Other

Thanks so much for participating and taking part in the poll!

To round out this week of music, Colbie Caillat has a new love song out called "I do" that's great for weddings: either as a first dance, slideshow song, or whatever!

Enjoy listening and have a fantastic weekend!

Colbie Caillat - "I do"

It's always been about me myself and I

If all relationships were nothing but a waste of time

I never wanted to be anybody's other half

I was happy to say that our love wouldn't last

That was the only way I knew to that you

You make we wanna say

I do, I do, I do, do do do do do do doo

Yeah, I do, I do, I do, do do do do do do doo

Cause every time before we spend like

Maybe yes and maybe no

I can live without it, I can let it go

Ooh, I did, I get myself into

You make we wanna say I do, I do, I do, I do, I do, I do,

Tell me is it only me

Do you feel the same?

You know me well enough to know that I'm not playing games

I promise I won't turn around and I won't let you down

You can trust and never feel it now

Baby there's nothing, there's nothing we can't get through

So can we say

I do, I do, I do, do do do do do do doo

Oh baby, I do, I do, I do, do do do do do do doo

Cause every time before we spend like

Maybe yes and maybe no

I won't live without it, I won't let it go

Wooh Can I get myself into

You make we wanna say

Me a family, a house a family

Ooh, can we be a family?

And when I'm old and sit next to you.

And when we remember when we said

I do, I do, I do, do do do do do do doo

Oh baby, I do, I do, I do, do do do do do do doo

Cause every time before we spend like

Maybe yes and maybe no

I won't live without it, I won't let it go

Just look at what we got ourselves into

You make we wanna say I do, I do, I do, I do, I do, I do,

Love you

Wedding Binder

Meet my friend "Wedding binder." Wedding binder looked unassuming at first.....

But once wedding binder is opened....it becomes QUITE a site to behold:

Much like this binder...I'm feeling overwhelmed this week...working on a bunch of stuff at once, including staying on top of the stuff I have to do at work. I'm hoping to collect my thoughts over the weekend and feel a little more on top of things next week. In the meantime...my brain feels as overstuffed as this binder. It holds all our contracts, brochures, pictures, necessary paperwork, etc.

Do you have anything like this where you file away all your important paperwork?

Wednesday Wedding Poll

After a few weeks hiatus, the Wednesday Wedding Poll is back!! And it is in keeping with the theme of the week: "Music".

Around this time last year, Chris and I were on the hunt for our wedding band. We saw about 7 different bands over the course of 3 weeks, going to showcase after showcase. It certainly was a lot of time and effort to go see all these bands perform, but how often do you get to be entertained for an hour by a live band on a weeknight? I would go to showcases again and again if it wouldn't be weird. We had a very difficult time trying to decide between bands and it came to a somewhat dramatic conclusion. Long story short: There was one band we really liked with ok singers, and another ok band with amazing singers. We wished that we could somehow blend the two. Then, we found out that the really good singer often does perform with the really good band!! This was the answer we had been looking for. The good band told us that if we booked them, they'd make sure to get the really good singer for our date. 

However, when it actually came time to sign the contract, the really good singer couldn't commit because she was contracted with another band. After a ton of back and forth emails, phone calls, promises made, and promises broken; we were finally tired of being jerked around and not getting any straightforward answers. In the end we ended up going with a different band entirely called Arcadia, which in my opinion has both really great musicians AND really great singers. You can listen to some sound clips on their website here.

Sometimes I worry that the songs we choose won't sound like the way we know them because we are going with a band. But, I feel very confident in our decision and know that Arcadia will keep our party rocking all night long! What about you?

Parent Dances

Going along with the theme of music this week, I thought I'd share with you our parent dance choices:

For the Father/Daughter dance, my father picked "Father and Daughter" by Paul Simon. I knew my dad was going to pick this even before we talked about it way back at the beginning of last year. I love this song, and my friend and bridesmaid, Mandy, danced with her father to this last year at her wedding and it was just perfect.

For the Mother/Son dance, Chris' mom listenend to a TON of contenders before settling on Lynyrd Skynyrd's "Simple Man". After really listening to it, I thought it was a fantastic choice:

What are you dancing to for the Father/Daughter, Mother/Son dances?