flower girl dress shoppin'

A couple of weeks ago, my MOH and i took the FG to Davids Bridal, which is the BEST for flower girl dress shopping. They leave you alone, let you take however many dresses with you into the dressing room, and there are mirrors everywhere. It's a dream for a diva like my FG :-)

She must have tried on 8 dresses with the 2 I posted the final choices... Hers is the the sparkly A line dress, where I saw her more in a poofy skirted dress like the other. I am a sucka, and will let her pick what she wants - but her taste does change - Originally she SWORE she had to have as much POOF as possible. Both are adorable on - all the dresses were - so really it doesn't matter! We will most likely tie in a black ribbon in either one of these to match the BMs...

Morning after breakfast...

We have reserved a room at the Carleton Hotel for 2 hours the morning after the wedding. We will be providing a continental breakfast for all those that have stayed over after the wedding. It will be a great way for family & friends to get together that are not normally together for a few more hours, and just another way for us to express our thanks and gratitude to those that attended :-)

I am excited, as I have stated I love the hotel, and we have seen this room set up for a morning after breakfast on one of our previous visits. I can't say enough how accomodating the Carleton has been, and so very reasonable as well.

I have started contacting musicians through this site I found: gigmasters.com - to get quotes for our ceremony music. There is a Steinway piano available at the 19thCC, but not sure if we are 100% on using it yet, but just want to start the search for our cermony music. It will be live music of some sorts, whether it's a string quartet or piano... Next step is to think about the songs - I always hear ones I like, but have no clue what the names of them are!

Happy FRIDAY!

shower and all that fun stuff!

My DJ has cashed my deposit check, done! I have been working with my MOH about shower locations - we are on the search and have called/emailed a bunch of places. Date: 10/24/2009... I'm thinking around 50-60 people - don't want it to be too exp (of course) and not TOO much work for anyone/everyone either! We have a few places picked out so far:

• Isabella's in Tinley
• Fox's in Mokena (I love their screened in patio porch with a fireplace, but it will be late OCT?)
• Park district buildings to rent.... I'm racking my brain - going to check Palos Park, Orland...

I was really interested in Lake Katherine, but it's nearly $500 just to rent - not worth it!! We have an appointment to meet with our photog on 6/2 to discuss time, and what we want... I called and requested info on the "morning after breakfast" at the Carleton today - she is emailing me. So far so good!

Less than 7 months....

So I got the Knot countdown email a couple of days ago reminding me there are 7 months, now less, to the DAY. I'm not behind on anything, except thinking about what we want to do for ceremony music... I just sent in deposit for DJ.

One great thing that has happened, somehow I stumbled upon a weddingbee blog of a girl by the name of 'Miss Stiletto' (http://www.weddingbee.com/author/stiletto/) that is getting married at the 19th CC as well - as she & I have discovered, there is not much info online about the venue. We have traded emails discussing different things and she has put me in touch with a local Oak Park florist 'Fleur Lily Chic' [www.fleurlilychic.com]. I have been speaking with Carolynn and she has had some great suggestions for flowers in Dec that will fall within my budget. I am excited - as I previously discussed, my brideman will be arranging the bouquets, but Carolynn will be ordering the flowers for us to use. While this kinda takes away from the excitement of going in the morning and picking out random flowers, it also ensures the flowers will be of good quality and available... probably a safer and more reasonable option. She will be making my bouts and my corsages as well.

In a previous post I showed a bouquet of dahlias that i LOVED and would like exactly, but unfortunately they are not available in December - which I was afraid of... Their season is June-Oct, for all you summer & Fall brides - I LOVE dahlias... But Carolynn has suggested deep red Gerber daisies, somewhat similar, anemones (red with black centers) and some others that can definitely work as well.

Happy Spring!

It's been nicer lately; flowers are coming up and I found this picture that I felt was appropriate for a nice spring FRIDAY! And my friend and I were just talking about tulips - if either one of us were having a spring wedding (and we are not) how awesome it would be to have tulips everywhere, and tulip bouquets!

Music

I will book my dj for the reception soon - I am waiting for the contract in the mail. One more thing off the list! hmmm, what else. I have asked all of my bridal party - My FH has not asked anyone yet, but I think it's more important for the bridesmaids/man since I feel like they have a little more responsibility. We need to start thinking about the ceremony music - there are 2 pianos that you can use (rent) at the 19thCC and I think we should use them - but we'll need someone to play them!

I have 5 weeks and some change off of grad school and I hope to use the time to the maximum! After summer semester I have about 3 weeks until Fall semester, and then I have NO breaks until the wedding. Thinking of it that way is kinda insane, but why i need to use this time. It's getting warm!!!!! yay!!