Planning Planning Planning.

I've been planning our wedding almost since the day that we got engaged. That was approximately a year and a half ago. That's a long time. There is still a little over a year to go. I have changed my mind so many times in the past year and a half and HOPEFULLY I won't keep changing my mind for the NEXT year and a half. I changed the colors, I might be changing the dress (fortunately I didn't buy one yet). I had already made my silk flower bouquet but I made it with the original colors in mind...so I was on the hunt for a new bouquet, trying to decide if I was going to make my own again or just buy one. I was looking around etsy and found two that I like A LOT and can't really decide which one.

I asked my mom, grandma, aunt and a few friends their opinions and they all say the first one, the one without the buttons. Honestly, I think I like the uniqueness of the second one more. They are $55 and $60 each and I know I can make something myself for like $10 but I don't know if I want to go through that hassle. The last time I made mine the ribbon handle was less than perfect and it would have driven me nuts. So do I suck it up and order one? Buying both isn't really an option since they're more expensive than what I really want to pay. Then I sit there and think "well, if I'm going to pay this much for fake flowers, why don't I just deal with it and find a florist to make a real bouquet?"

Ideally, I would like to keep the bouquet as a centerpiece for the kitchen table and it wouldn't look nearly as good preserved as fresh, which was why I leaned toward silk flowers in the first place.

I want to go try on dresses in the near future. The dress that I like for Jackie's wedding is SUPER cute and very similar to the original one that I picked for mine except that it's tea length instead of floor length. So if I can order it in white/ivory and if it looks good on me, I think I am going to order the same dress in two colors. If I can't get it in white then I am going to stick with my original dress. I plan on ordering some things in August/September. I can't wait until 2012 gets here. Then I can finally start ordering decorations and things and not worry about them sitting around too long, the colors fading, etc.

It just occured to me that I didn't post about my mixbook! I created and ordered our wedding guest book from mixbook.com. It was about $30 after shipping. I used both pictures from our engagement session and photos that I have taken of us through our relationship. There are lined pages throughout the book where people can write little things to us, like how they know us, any advice they have, their favorite memory, etc. I have cute little quotes throughout the book as well. It turned out so much BETTER than I was expecting and it came a lot faster than I was expecting, too. Originally it told me the delivery date would be June 17 (my birthday) and it came a full week before that!

I will definitely be ordering some 4x6 mixbooks of engagement and wedding photos for my mom, grandma and dad after the wedding, so I'll get them all a card with an "IOU" in it for their book as their gift from us. I had this great idea of a gift to get my dad but it's relatively expensive so we'll have to see. Maybe I can get it for him for a birthday or Christmas once I have some time to save up money again instead of a wedding gift.

I have been so excited and have had so much energy lately for anything wedding related, but I can't really do anything else. :(

I need to remember to buy more ink for our printer since it's almost out. And to buy some rubber stamps and red ink to decorate the invitations, envelopes or reply cards so they're a little less plain.