The Blonde Diaries

A Small Wedding Update

I didn’t realize that I haven’t given any wedding planning updates recently. I have a few things that I am hoping to get knocked off the wedding planning checklist this week starting with flowers, centerpieces, bridesmaids, and possibly a wedding cake baker/decorator. It should be a busy end of the week but at the same time really fun. My mother and I have appointments with two local florists and one cake baker. I have another one I am trying to squeeze an appointment in with so wish me luck.

I have 3 bridesmaids committed and I need to contact the last 2. Everyone is out of town so unfortunately, I am having to do all of my asking via email or phone calls which seems so impersonal to me. Maybe I will send cards and a small gift out in the mail later this week to personalize things and give everyone an early thanks.

Last week, I received my order from TheKnot.com which included a few “sample” centerpieces and a “sample” bridesmaid gift. I really liked the bridesmaid gift and the centerpieces - well 2 came out nicely and the third was hideous so I am sending it back and ordering one size up to see if that is the difference. I hope it is because I really don’t want to worry about things like this.

bridesmaid gift which will be filled with day of items we might need and personalized with everyone’s name:

Centerpieces:
Did not come with the greenery
the first one is full sized and the second is “favor sized” to fit on the tall tables.

More updates to come at the end of the week!

Oy the first wedding disagreement

I knew it was inevitable. At some point the wedding planning would run into a hiccup or two and disagreements would be the result. I just thought it might occur later rather than sooner. The disagreement has stemmed from my lack of desire to hire transportation, my parent’s idea to hire an exotic car to drive me to the church, and Mike’s desire to have a limo and not drive at all. Umm yeah. Not sure how this became such a hot topic so to speak but it has. My thought was to cut down on items like this in our budget and do without. I thought everyone else was on board but somewhere my parents thought otherwise and it was a good idea but not for the money and the time period for the rental. So we are now down to town car vs. limo. Not terrible choices when you think about it. Definitely not as fancy as the original choice but fun nevertheless. I will have to do some pricing over the weekend to see which option fits the budget best and then start looking for quotes and picking a company.

A BIG Check off of the Wedding Checklist!!

I love crossing things off of my wedding planning checklist. This morning I was able to knock off a huge item: our wedding photographer!!! I am so excited about this check. I am a huge fan of photos and this has been my biggest concern/wish during the entire wedding planning. It is the second most important thing behind the right reception place to me. Yes bigger than my dress if you can imagine that! I am such the photo junkie/freak that I wanted to make sure I had a good photographer with a personality that would jell with me. I have been reading recommendations on the knot for about 2 months now and luckily one of the first recs was for Morgan Lynn Photography and her pictures were absolutely fabulous and she has the best personality. I am so excited that I am even going to now do an engagement photo session with Mike and I around the Hermann Park/Houston Zoo area. I wasn’t going to budget for it but I have totally changed my mind. I think this is going to be a blast.

Tomorrow I am tackling the limo and getting that knocked off the list.

Wedding Update: Trying to find a balance in music tastes

Two nights ago I thought it would be a good idea for Mike and I to sit down and start thinking about music we wanted played at our wedding. I know it is a tad early for that in the whole process of wedding planning but I figured it would not be a bad idea to at least start brainstorming. I know things are going to get busy next winter/spring and I just would like to cross out what I can now rather than at the end and watch it blow up on me.

So what I thought would be an easy task turned into a nightmare. Mike wants “chill” music and I want “danceable” music. Do you see where this is heading? Neither one of us are huge music fans so we don’t typically listen to a lot of music. Everything I picked out I was questioned on and half of what he picked out I nixed because it either did not fit with the event or I had had my fill of “chill” music. At the end of the ordeal we ended up with about 8 songs on the dinner list (items you do not dance to but listen to while you arrive and eat) and about 7 on the dance list. Hopefully we will find a good dj to help us figure this out because I really do not want to argue over something as dumb as music!

Wish me luck and please suggest any songs you enjoyed at weddings you have attended or even ones played at your wedding.

Well today is the day

I am super nervous. You see Mike and I went Saturday to talk to the Downtown Aquarium about hosting our wedding reception. Unfortunately, there were a ton of additional fees not disclosed on the website so what was in our budget quickly because out of our budget. It was super gorgeous and the people there are very nice and friendly so if you are in Houston and don’t have a tiny budget like we do (our own choice) please go visit them and have your reception there. You cannot be disappointed.

Tonight we have an appointment with our new favorite site: The Houston Zoo and I am really nervous that there will be additional fees and such as well and we won’t be able to get married there. We are really trying to keep our costs down while having a fun/unique wedding. I just hope that I didn’t get our hopes up too high only to have them crushed again. Our problem is that we aren’t from Houston so we haven’t attended any weddings here to know which places are nice and special and which ones are just hotel ballrooms which just don’t fit our personality and style at all.

So if you are reading this today, please send me some good thoughts as our meeting is at 6:30 tonight and I hope I can come back and post some good news.