203 days away!

So I randomly checked my wedding website this morning.. like I do sometimes. I don't really check it all that often because I know what it says :)

Anyways, So I randomly look today and the little countdown thing says 203 days away.

I'm kind of shocked because I'm used to it being 300 or 400 days away. Now its almost under 200 days away.

Right now we have a little under 7 months to go.

The time is going soo fast!

This weekend we are going to finalize our menu at our caterer and sign our contract and give them our deposit. We had already previously had them hold the date for us and we had them sign the proposal to us to guarantee the price.

Next weekend, We are going to Sacramento to talk to someone about invitations. While I'm up there I might see if we can go by a rental place up there and see about chair covers. I got a coupon from them and they seem like they would be pretty cheap. I just don't really want to pay for the delivery from Sacramento to Stockton. Since I have a few members of the bridal party up there, I might ask them to pick them up on their way down.

Also this weekend, we are going to give our deposit to the first florist I talked to.
We are going to get:
1 bridal bouquet (1 1/2 dozen roses plus freesia, delphinium and rhinestones wrapped with white ribbon
4 bridesmaid bouquets (1 dozen roses plus delphinium wrapped with green or blue ribbon
1 grooms boutineer (1 white rose plus hypercium berries and delphinium and rhinestones)
4 groomsmen boutiouneers (1 pink rose plus hypercium berries and delphinium)
1 boutineer for my uncle who is walking me own the aisle (1 pink rose plus hypercium berries and delphinium)
Rose petals for the flower girl and the aisle
Hair wreath made of baby's breath and delphinium for the flower girl
Cake topper made of freesia and green leaves
Delivery

all for $350

I got another quote for the same thing from another florist and it came out to be $800!!! Another estimate I got from another place was about that too.

I'm pretty sure that we can make the centerpieces. I just wanted something small and low so that people can see over it. We are also going to have little gems around it and candles.
This is what that looks like:


I got the little bulby things last night at Safeway, but then I called the wholesale florist and asked about cost this is what happened:

Wax Flowers - Bought at Safeway for $2.99 a bunch (that would probably do 3 centerpieces) ----- Wholesale Florist - 12.15 a bunch.
Thats over $9 more!

Daisies: Bought a bunch at Safeway - 10 daisies for 2.99 a bunch (that would do 3 centerpieces) ------ Wholesale Florist - $10 for 10 daisies! Thats as much as the roses from them!

Roses: Bought a dozen at Safeway for $10. They were on sale. They are normally 14.99 ---- Wholesale Florist - $25 for 25 roses. So thats a dollar each.

I am going to call the other florist and see how much they want for the daisies and wax flowers.

Does anyone know if its possible to order flowers from Safeway?.. I called but their manager won't be in until monday. If I can get the daisies and wax flowers from them for that price, that would be great!

DIY Centerpieces

So in an attempt to save money, I thought I'd attempt to do my own wedding centerpiece.

Vase: Free (my aunt has a bunch of these that we can use)
Roses: 1 dozen for $15 (they were on sale today for $10) (1.25 each)
Daisies: 1 bunch for $3 (25 cents each flower)
Wax Flowers: 1 bunch for $3 (75 cents each centerpiece)
Japanese Box Wood: Free from my yard

My total cost for this centerpiece:
3.75 for roses
75 cents for the daisies
75 cents for the wax flowers
Free = Japanese Box Wood

Total: $5.25 each centerpiece

Score!

Pictures of my handiwork..

So what do you think it looks okay?

Should I be a florist?? :) or should I not quit my day job?

Aaron's Dad also gave me a big box of those clear and blue gems. I don't know if I'm going to put them on all the tables or if I'm just going to use them on the other tables like guestbook table, cake table etc.

Florist check and Photographer

Monday I had a florist appointment to finalize what flowers i want to put a deposit on...

This is what I picked out:

Bridal Bouquet: 2 dozen lt pink and white roses, white freesia, blue delphium with crystal sparklers and wrapped with white ribbon and secured with rhinestone pins.

Like a mix of these two:

wrapped like this:

Bridesmaid Bouquets: 1 dozen lt pink roses, blue delphium - two wrapped with blue ribbon and two wrapped with green ribbon both secured with rhinestone pins
but without the green sprigs, lillies, etc. Just look at the pink roses with the blue delphinium.

This is the bridesmaid dress:

Groom boutineer: white rose, blue delphium, green hypercum berries and a crystal sparkler

Groomsmen boutineers: lt pink roses, blue delphium, green hypercum berries

Boutineers like this:

Flower girl hair wreath with baby's breath and blue delphinium:

A large box of rose petals to sprinkle down the aisle in mixed pinks

And a cake topper made of white freesia and blue delphium.

Like this but with the blue delphium too:

So we are getting
1 bridal bouquet, 4 bridesmaid bouquets, 1 grooms boutineer, 4 groomsmen boutineers, 1 cake topper, rose petals for the aisle and flower girl basket, a hair wreath for the flower girl and all for under $350

yay.

Aaron and I did go there last year sometime and we got an estimate. The woman who gave us the estimate was gone. At first they said they would still honor our estimate, but then they talked bad about the woman..etc. Then when i asked about how many roses we would get in the bouquets because before it was 12 for the bridesmaids and 18 for me plus a lot of other flowers etc. she said it would be 5 for the bridesmaids and 12 for me. Which I thought was unacceptable.

So i asked to speak to the owner. He came out and said that before it was for a different arrangement etc. I said they were the same thing except I changed the color. So he decided to honor my original price of $40 for the BM bouquets and $80 for mine. Plus they kept everything the same price and anything that had gone up, was replaced with the original prices.

So I'm glad that all worked out. I didnt want to find someone else. I do like them.

Oh..

and we booked a new photographer. His name is Matt. He will be ther all day (not just leaving after the cake cutting like some people who say all day). We get:
100 4x6 proofs in an album
10 5x7
4 8x10
Plus a CD with all high resolution prints with a copyright release so we can print them

We met with him last night at a starbucks in Lodi. He seemed really nice and had some stuff to show us. Plus his prices are reasonable and his work looks nice.

No it doesn't look nicer

Apparently, they decided that the grass would look nicer and decided to just relocate the rose garden to another part of the property - by the bathrooms (how romantic). So either I can:

1. Move the wedding ceremony to the gazebo - which I didn't really like that much
2. Keep it where it is and they can put some flowers in barrels behind the arch to kind of hide the grass
3. Or just leave it where it is and how it is.. because they think it looks nicer.

The owner said, "well don't you think it looks nicer?"
I said "honestly no, I don't. I think it looks like my backyard."

So again, before:








After ...





But the kitty is cute though... :) His name is Zen. He followed me around today.



I don't know why they moved the roses to by the bathroom..



The rose garden is in the bark area. The other stump like things in the back are the vineyards in the winter... just plain with no leaves. She said they are starting to bud and probably will be in full bloom in april. Of course they are still there and green in September. I checked last year. Unless they decide to rip those up too.

So yeah. Its not that the roses died or anything, they just decided that grass looked nicer. Since we only have 7 months until the wedding, There really isn't much we could do. So I guess in the words of Tim Gunn - We'll have to "make it work".. I'm just annoyed that they decided that the rose garden would look nicer by the bathrooms. They are also in front of the grooms room (the unmarked door next to mens bathroom is the grooms room, its actually pretty nice inside with couches, a mini kitchen and a bed. They also have a door into the mens bathroom on the inside so if I'm outside they don't have to go outside. The brides room is inside the tasting room. The grooms room is a separate building.

Anyways. so I think when we go in for a meeting before we give them more of a deposit, I think I'm going to try to get them to lower the price a bit or something because I really feel that its not the same and we'll have to decorate more now... and honestly I don't like it. I booked a place where I could get married in front of a nice pretty rose garden, not a lawn. I would move it over to by the new rose garden .. if it wasn't next to the bathroom... because thats just even worse than the lawn.. haha.

Maybe the gazebo, I don't really like, would be a good option... because honestly the garden is gone. Thats the only reason we picked the arch.









Why must everything not turn out the way its supposed to?!?! Hopefully it all works out. I mean my fiance and I and only a handful of guests will have seen the rose garden and will have had no idea that there was ever one there.

At least write me back...

So.. I sent the owner of the place I'm getting married an email last night about the garden at our venue. It is now 1:30 and I haven't heard back from them. I know they open at 8 am. I am about to drive out there and get some better pictures. Maybe it will look better than I think. I doubt it. I think it looks horrible. It looks like my backyard. The rose garden being gone better be a temporary thing.

I am really mad that no one has bothered to return my email.

The flowers are gone!

I drove by my wedding venue today to show my friend Priscilla what it looked like..

and I am really appalled to see that they ripped the rose garden out and put in a plain ugly lawn.

WTF.

Before...



After...


My only question is why?!?? Its not very attractive. Now it looks more like my backyard. There isnt anything special about it. No roses. No flowers. Just grass. I am soo livid. I sent them an email asking them about the changes and if they are permanent. I'm hoping that this is just what they do in the winter. Would there be any reason to move the roses and put in grass for the winter?

I am hoping that they email me back ASAP and let me know because I hate it. I absolutely hate it. Why would we want to get married at a garden arch .. if there is NO garden. My fiance was like well maybe people can sit on the lawn now. The only problem with that is the background would be just the side of the barn. I wanted the rose garden backdrop.

Can they just up and change it without telling us?

Bridesmaid dresses .. check ... flower girl dress...check

Kerry drove down and went to breakfast with Aaron and I at UJs. She had gotten to stockton a little early, so she just met us there for breakfast. It wasn't planned or anything. After breakfast, we went back to my house and hung out for a little while because Rachel was running late. She called me when she barely had just gotten on 580.

When Rachel finally got into Tracy she called us and we headed down to meet her in Manteca. We met her at the nicest Starbucks that I have ever seen. It had really big couches and everything. I hope my store when it opens is that nice.

After our starbucks detour, Rachel went with us in Kerry's car to Modesto to David's Bridal. It didn't really take that long because we already knew what we wanted. It just took us awhile to find the right size. Rachel was excited because the first dress she thought she would need was way too big. Its just that David's Bridal is maybe one to two sizes off. A lot of the other brands are maybe two to four sizes off. So it took her 4 dresses to decide on a size. Kerry only took two dresses to decide on a size that fit her best.

We are princesses:

The other color that I considered:




With the shawls and flowers:




Rachel is a princess:


Me and Kerry


Rachel and Kerry


Back to the dressing room again...



Me and Rachel:




Plus Aaron and I found this dress on clearance and bought it for our flower girl:

It ties in the back.


The dress has silver sparkles all over it:

The dress is stretchy so it has a little room to grow if she does get bigger and the straps should be shortened but other than that it looks good.

Flowers for me :) <3

I love my valentine's day roses :)

They look pretty with my engagement ring... Don't you think?

Its 2 dozen roses and they came with the pretty red vase. :)

Photographer troubles

So I've been researching other photographers in the area and I've been really disappointed with the selection. Everyone's prices pretty much went up at the end of january and I'd be getting a lot less for the price I was willing to spend. I'm just so upset that stuff like this keeps happening. So I've been emailing people, getting quotes, prices etc. I've been getting back all these disappointing responses. A photographer should not call themselves budget friendly if their budget packages are over $2000, seriously. That is not budget friendly.

So while I was sitting here pretty much fuming over all the inconvenience that I emailed my photographer and expressed how disappointed and upset that I was that they bailed on me for pretty much no reason as their contract states that the only reason they would cancel would be emergencies etc. I felt like we had a verbal agreement because I was told that the date would be saved for me. I had told them that I had already had a problem with a caterer bailing on me and I wanted to make sure that it wasn't going to happen with them. She promised me that the date was mine. I did tell her that since my fiance was in Norway and that we couldnt give a desposit until he got back at the end of january and we were reimbursed for his over $15,000 trip (he was there for a month) from his company. So I told her we'd probably give a deposit around valentines day. She was fine with that. I was promised that they would save the date for my wedding. Well I kind of feel flat out lied to and I'm just so upset.

So I dont know if they would respond, but I did ask them to recommend people or at least try to help me find someone else that can give me the same package for the price. I doubt that will happen either.

le sigh...

Wedding planning is so frustrating. :(

Returned Check

So the photographer I just sent our deposit check to, Clark and Corona, decided to bail and sent my check back.

Basically she said that they decided to shoot someone else's wedding instead, they apologized, but since they hadn't cashed the check yet, they were under no obligation..

So yeah.

Now I need to find someone else.. now I have to start all over. great.

I have a maid of honor again.. plus one

When Maya quit, and I was sure she was not coming back. I asked Kerry, who I've known the longest to step into her shoes. She said with school and everything she might not be able to do all the planning without help. So I said that I knew she was busy, so I was thinking about asking Rachel to be Maid of Honor, so they could share the duties. I just wanted to make sure it was okay with her. I would have a Matron of Honor and a Maid of Honor.

She said that it was a perfect arrangement. I said that I just wanted to make sure she was okay with sharing duties before I asked Rachel.

So I asked Rachel when I got home and Rachel was excited but asked about Maya. I said that Maya wasn't going to do it so don't worry. She said, what if she changes her mind? I said then she can be a bridesmaid.. or I can have three. I'm not going to ask you to do something and then take it away just because someone else wants to do it again.

So now I have to happy and excited honored bridesmaids. I'm so pleased and happy. I am so thrilled. I really do hope Maya comes around, but I doubt even if she does, she'll want to be maid of honor again... and even if she does - she had her chance. I need some stability. :) Rachel was my very best friend in college and Kerry and I have been friends a long long time. I think they are perfect. :)

Bridal Show warning

Why you should NEVER give your phone number out at bridal shows - Reason #15161651335648996

I just got a call at 9:30 PM from a person wanting to know if I've bought my wedding invitations yet. I told them that I was in bed asleep and not to call again.

I'm not in bed, BUT I wanted them to feel bad. Seriously who calls that late?

I've received calls mostly starting around dinner until well 9:30 I guess. Don't people call during normal business hours. I am so not answering my phone again unless I recognize the number

Bridesmaid Dress Shopping Trip

On Saturday, we went dress shopping to look for bridesmaid dresses. By we.. I mean - Kerry, Rachel and my cousin Donna. Rachel decided not to stay closer to stockton and ended up driving up a different way. So she just met us in Sacramento at the first shop. Kerry lives in Sacramento so she just met us there. So Donna and I drove up. We didn't leave until closer to 9:15 and after a stop at Starbucks for some frappucinos.. I love love love my discount! :), we made our way to sacramento.

It was kind of cloudy, but it was pretty clear all the way up. We made it there about 10:10. Rachel actually beat us from the bay area! Wtf.. lol.

So I went around and started grabbing dresses and I got Rachel and Donna to start trying stuff on. I called Kerry when we reached Elk Grove and she said she'd meet us there. She was a little late and we had a pile of dresses that the other girls had tried on but either couldn't really tell because the size was really small, or were way too small to try on to begin with.

Rachel is happy to be trying on dresses...


Some dresses that were nice, but for one reason or another they were cut out - like too low in front, too low in back etc...


The Vera Wang dresses... ahh to dream. Actually I didn't like them that much. The light gold dress looks like a nightie and the lavender one had a black elastic strap on the back of the dress... wtf?


The winners from this store:


I think either the blue one or the gold one were the best. They looked good on all:
#1

#2


After this store, we went to lunch at Ernestos.
This is the only group picture I have.. its blurry :(

So I took a picture outside.. I told them to pretend it wasn't freezing.


Rachel had to leave early, so she left after lunch.
After we went to a nearby store to look at more dresses. We didn't see anything we liked.. BUT we did find some joke dresses to send my sister.

and the Ladybug and Neon dress:


We went to starbucks after this and Kerry got a chai latte, we got waters. Then we went to David's Bridal and tried on some dresses there. We got there almost exactly at 4. I had told Chrissie to bring Elizabeth to try on flower girl dresses.. but she never showed. Kerry called her and she said she forgot.

Here are the dresses we liked at Davids Bridal:
#3

#4

#5

#6

I personally think that if Rachel and Kerry try on dress #6 and they like it, thats probably what we'll get. Kerry was tired and didn't want to try on one more dress. She said she'd go back next weekend and try it on. I sent Rachel pictures and I want her to go try it on. I like the color in the photos, but its a little darker in person.

So yay.. for being done with dress shopping.. kind of. :) Now I have to make sure everyone buys it. Right now its on sale for $140 from $170. Plus it comes with a matching shawl and optional spaghetti straps. So people could add straps if they wanted and the people that want to cover their arms can with the shawl.. so its kind of perfect. :) That way people won't have to buy a shawl if they do want it.