One of the reasons D and I wanted a long engagement, was so that we could take our time and not get stressed out planning {and paying for} a wedding. It has worked out great so far, and I've been able to really take my time and do a lot of research before making any big decisions. But now, I'm just getting a little antsy. :) It seems like ever since I decided on my dress in September, that a whole avalanche of other things have been happening, and much quicker than I would have anticipated!
Early October, D and I made a big step as a couple: we got a joint checking account. I would always swear up and down that I would NEVER mix money with anyone unless we were married, but it just seemed like a very logical step for us. We have both been contributing to the account to save up for wedding and honeymoon expenses, and it makes everything seem so much more... real. I guess that's the best way to put it. It gives me a lot of confidence that we are not in over our heads with all this wedding stuff, and that we will NOT be going into debt for it. Huge relief, since this was a large source of my stress about this time last year.
Following that, we began talking with a florist who came highly recommended to us by a gal that works at our venue, and our photographer. Her name is Shannon and you can check our her work here: Sun Blossoms Floral Her work looks great, she came to us highly recommended, her prices are reasonable, and she was really a pleasure to talk to. When we met up, basically I just brought in a few pictures I had found on Pinterest and said, "I know none of this goes together, but I like these things" She then pulled out this notebook full of flowers and quickly started assembling what all of the pieces would look like. She seemed to know exactly the feel we wanted, our colors, and our style. We have one more florist that we want to look into before making any final decisions, but I think we would be totally happy to go with her!
I received a $50 vistaprint coupon from LivingSocial Deals that I paid $0 for {thanks to a get $10 free coupon} and was planning on using that to buy our wedding invitations. I had NO idea that invitations would cost so damn much. Even with only ordering 60 invitations, most places charged at least $3 per invitation, running the cost almost $200, and that doesn't even take into account postage or anything. Vistaprint, with the $50 coupon, would have decreased the cost to about $100. We were totally going to go with it, even though the invites wouldn't be all that pretty or unique. Luckily, I happened to stumble across an advertisement from a budding graphic designer who offered to make custom designed invitations for $20 plus the cost of paper and shipping. She was willing to do it for so inexpensive because she is just starting out and wants to build her portfolio. You can check out her website here: Gigi and Poocha This girl is amazing! She is so prompt with replying to emails, and happy to make even the slightest adjustments {add in a word here, make this spacing different here, change the color font to a slightly lighter shade, etc} She designed a simple yet elegant invitation suite for us, and she is working on putting them together for us already! Seeing as how we won't be sending out invitations until about May, we're really jumping the gun on this. But we also had our venue booked more than 400 days before our wedding, so I guess it goes with the "early bird catches the worm" theme that we've kept with for all this wedding planning stuff. :)
Another huge decision we're making soon is one that really makes my heart flutter. We're going to look at wedding bands next week!! D and I decided that instead of spending money on getting each other Christmas gifts this year, that instead we would take the money and put it towards our wedding bands. D got to have all the fun picking out my engagement ring by himself {and he did a WONDERFUL job... probably better than I could have done, lol} so I'm really excited that we get to go pick out our bands together. We're in the 9 month away from the wedding range, which again is way early to be doing this, but it just makes sense to do it now. What better Christmas present could I ask for, but to get to go pick out wedding bands with my fiance?
So now all of a sudden we have {or will shortly have} : venue, caterer, photographer, dress, wedding bands, flowers, and invitations. I can't believe how smoothly everything is falling into place! Next up: music and honeymoon plans!
<3 PW
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