Ye Olde Wedding Planning... Part 1

Wedding planning began full force no less than 36 hours post-proposal. We've now been engaged for 10 days, and I'd say that we've made excellent progress.

We both knew that we didn't want to be engaged longer than a year, so that narrowed our date choice to somewhere before next September. I've been adamant that I didn't want a summer wedding, so that further limited our date to sometime before June. For various and sundry other small details, we decided quickly on April... so, a seven month engagement. Certainly not the shortest of engagements, but it meant we needed to act quickly to secure venues.

Since le fiance and I are both members (I'm on staff, and he's a volunteer) at a multi-site church (only two of our six locations are permanent campuses, and neither is conducive to a wedding... seriously. Trust me on that.), we knew that in addition to a reception venue, we'd need to find a church.

Perusing this GORGEOUS wedding on our friends' The Schultzes' blog gave us beaucoups of inspiration, and led us to the exquisite church where the lovely couple wed. With God favoring us greatly, the church was available for our first choice date of April 14, 2012. We're awaiting word from the church's staff approval of our wedding being held there, but from every indication, it's ours.

The next order of business was the reception. We knew early on (heck, it's only been 10 days... it's still early on), that we didn't want a reception venue with carpet - so no hotel, country club, etc. We wanted a cool, rustic but industrial feel. After a few starts and stops on research, back and forth on availability, today the fella and I visited our first choice of venue and fell in love. All that's needed is a signed contract and deposit, and BOOM, it's ours.

The small time frame also meant that I didn't have time to dilly dally about a dress, since most require a 4-6 month lead time. With my day off on Friday, Little and I arranged a gown expedition, and to say that it was a special day is an understatement of extreme proportions. We began our trip at J. Major's, just a few blocks from my condo. I pre-selected about twelve gowns and was blown away by how surreal it felt to put them on for the first time. It took almost two hours to cull down the selections, but with the absolutely incredible support, love and encouragement from my amazing mom, it wasn't hard to choose the perfect dress. I'm being vague since my sweet fella peeks around in here from time-to-time, but when I tell you that I love this gown, please trust me. I can't wait to post pictures in a few months. In all of my dreams about my wedding dress, I never pictured anything so gorgeous.

So in 9 days, we've knocked out four majors...

Church

Reception Venue

Dress

Colors - Gray with pops of pink and peacock blue

Remaining big points on the list...

Photographer - we're meeting two this week!

Florist - a meeting scheduled with one this week!

Bridesmaids Dresses - I'm sending gifts to my 'maids-to-be (fingers crossed) this week, and my wonderful sis (the best maid of honor in the kingdom) is coming to town on Friday to search for the ideal one

Invitations/Save The Dates - no clue where to start!

Cake - YUM!

Caterer - DOUBLE YUM!

Decor - SOOO many fun ideas... I can't wait to get my hands on this part

6 months and 11 days until I become Mrs. The Fella!