Update October 27

The flowers the florist designed this morning.

Things are slowly but surely coming together. As I mentioned in the last blog Lillie and I went to Garden Ridge last weekend and bought all my wedding vases. My florist sent me a text message with a picture this morning that was an example of what she was thinking for the aisles. I will post the picture, she had to leave the stems on the Bells of Ireland because she needed them for another arrangement she was making. Of course, the vase will be much larger and I think I would prefer clear beads as to pink ones. I love how personable my florist is to just send me text messages and play around with ideas in her flower shop and let me know how things are going. I measured my vases today and sent her the numbers as well so we can get that moving along. Last Friday night, Kim, Kelsey (two girls I went to Ireland with) and Asa came over and we watched movies and did some wedding stuff. I have a bunch of matchbooks that I had bought to stamp with a rubber stamp that says "I Do" on them but the matchbooks were so slick that the ink wouldn't dry; it just rubbed off. So I went to Hobby Lobby yesterday and they had their scrapbooking stickers 1/2 price and I bought those and put them on the matchbooks. I have decided where we are going for the bridal lunch, we will go to Mimi's Cafe. We can't get too far away from Granbury since we will need to be back at the hotel around 3 or so. I figure we will get our nails done someplace in that area as well. Remember bridesmaids, I am paying for your manicure at the salon. I think the plan is to go to Mimi's for lunch then go get our nails done (or vice versa) then go back to the hotel and a lady that Kara knows that has her own sandwhich shop will bring us sandwiches at the hotel while we are getting ready there before the wedding.

Matchbooks

Quick Update

David and I drove to Tulsa yeterday and we went to Garden Ridge to pick up all my vases for the wedding. We have also officially got an usher now, Ryan Greig who is one of David's friends that used to work at the radio station with him. I think I have found the rental place chairs, chair covers and sashes as well.

Yay for Insurance!

Hilton Garden Inn, Granbury

With the new insurance law, David and I will be able to remain on our parent's insurance until we either get our own insurance or until we are 26! So we still have good insurance once we are married! I spoke with a few people from cosmetic departments at malls around Granbury yesterday hoping to hire out one of the consultants to come to the wedding venue and do makeup. The way that works is it is on their own time and the cosmetic department doesn't get the money, the individual consultant does. So some places are not even willing to talk to their employees while others were. One lady from Macy's Clinique counter called me last night and she charges just one flat rate and will do the makeup for as many people that want their makeup done as long as their is enough time. She was gonna get some prices together and call me back in the next couple of days. So things are slowly coming together...slowly. :-)

Update October 19

This is the flower for my mom and Kathryn.

I have been contacting linen rentals the past two days. There definitely a business you have to keep contacting to find the best deal. I have been given estimates that vary within $300 for the exact same thing. I have found a couple places that have good prices but I am going to keep looking. Allyson has also ordered her dress! I can't remember if I mentioned this or not but I hit some of the summer clearance racks at the mall the other day and got outfits for Jamaica as cheap as $3! I was happy with those deals. I think it is all slowly getting done. I still need to decide on a linen rental place for sure, make more rsvp cards, get all my addresses together, find a salon for the bridesmaids to go to, go to Garden Ridge (there's one in Tulsa) to buy my vases for the florist, and that's all I can think of for right now.

Why the wedding is in Texas

Foyer- Hilton Garden Inn- Granbury

I have several people who keep asking why the wedding is in Texas- I figured I would clarify on paper (or computer rather)

•  I always wanted a destination wedding but I know that realistically we would not be able to have our friends and family come to Florida or Mexico (especially with the drug cartel in Mexico right now) and I figured the Fort Worth area is about as far as I could go and have the people that we want to be there be able to come.
• Strangely enough, it is actually cheaper in the Fort Worth area. Any wedding venues up here cost a fortune because the venues are limited and very few of the venues have reception space as well. The churches here cost a ton of money too if you are not a member of their church.  The venue we got in Granbury was the cheapest place around period and it just happened to be beautiful the only downside really is the space limitations for the ceremony if we have it in the foyer.
• Although a massive wedding sounds very romantic, I would rather have a small intimate wedding with the people that mean the most to me. By having it in Granbury I know that the people who really truly want to be there will come and those who don't will come to the reception at home. And that's okay because I don't want people that don't really want to come just to come becauese it is in Fort Smith and they feel obligated. I want my wedding to be the best wedding for everyone there, not just me and David.
• It also saves me and David money because we are flying to Jamaica for our honeymoon from DFW with a departure flight at 6am. By having it in the Fort Worth area it saves us a lot of money from either having to fly from the Fort Smith airport to DFW or driving to Dallas directly after the reception getting a hotel then flying out of DFW at 6am.
• Also now that I have chosen Granbury I am very glad because I know that if I had the wedding around here, Lacy, my childhood best friend, like my sister.... would not be able to come because her grandmother cannot be left alone (their grandmother lives with them) for any period of time. 

 So that's why the wedding is in Texas :-) I hope you all had a great weekend. My mom finished tying the ribbons on the invitations and RSVP cards, I need to make more RSVP cards though. And I went to War Eagle with mom and Aunt Naomi. Then spent 12 hours doing homework on Sunday. I am still looking for 50 wedding chair rental (white garden chair), 59 satin banquet chair covers (white), and 59 satin sashes (black) in the Granbury or Fort Worth area. If anyone has any free time to help me find some places and get some quotes that would be great. I hope you all have a great week!

Update

Just a real quick update here. Lacy got her bridesmaid dress ordered this weekend, yay! I wanna say thank you to my mom for doing all the ribbon-tying on the invitations! Also I want to say that I am proud of my bridesmaid Lillie for running the race for the cure this weekend after she just got over a staph infection. Good job!

I love my florist!

As most of you know by now, flowers have been my biggest struggle in the wedding planning (largely because I don't know a whole lot about them and was is cost effective). After one of the five main florists in Granbury I was communicating with via email called me and told me she could meet my budget with my requests, I friended her on facebook. Facebook has a live chat that you can instant message with your friends and she wanted to ask me a few questions. She saw that I plan to wear my cowboy boots for the wedding and she is going to try to incorporate some leather into the vases, rather than ribbon. She also looked through my pictures and the wedding blog and had asked me if the white pomanders (big round ball of flowers) that I had been wanting was a sentiment of our engagement in the snow. Although, it wasn't I thought that was a neat idea. She is going to try to incorporate a few of those in our flower plan as well. The wooden boxes that you can see in the post below is being made by her father-in-law. I thought that was really neat of her to have someone make those. She was asking how sentimental I was and I told her very sentimental. In  fact I told her that when my grandparents took out there old 70's greenish yellow nasty looking carpet a few years ago, I had them save me a square because that was the carpet I always remembered as part of their house. It was really strange when she replied, "...my Granny had 70's greenish carpet and I did the same thing...weird..." haha. I am really excited to have her as my florist and see what she can do for us. It is such a relief to have a florist I like that is willing to do the flowers I like within my budget. Here is there facebook page: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Granbury-TX/Earth-Art-Florist-Fan-Page/329174169002

This will be what David is wearing.

YAY FLOWERS!

I have spent the past couple of weeks trying to decide on flowers and reworking everything I want. Yesterday afternoon I emailed the three main florists I had been working with my new "flower plan" hoping I could get within my budget. This morning Rebecca from Earth Art Florist called me with some good news! She can do everything I want within my budget! So not only do I have my flower options decided up on but now I have my florist chosen as well! I am so excited and relieved to have the flower situation out of the way!! Here is what I decided:

These will go at the altar, waist high with pink added.

These will go down the aisle as pictured then moved to the reception tables

This is the color scheme I have chosen for chair cover/sashes and table cloths/napkins etc.

Update- decision on shoes and David's Bridal is having a free-shipping sale!

Lillie's dress came in yesterday and she called and asked what we had said about shoes, then I realized we had never really decided. We talked about it and decided just wear black shoes of anykind, I don't care if they all match or not- just whatever you like best and are comfortable wearing. Also, for the bridesmaids who have not ordered their dress yet, David's Bridal is having a sale on Columbus Day that all orders made online receive free shipping. They also have a special right now that you get free shipping on all orders above $100 from now until October 11th. I have also started getting all my doctors appointments in before I no longer have insurance, at least any that's worth anything. :-). I think Lacy is going to start making the veil pretty soon. I have most everything done for the wedding except making a decision on flowers, chosing the florist (although I have both of those things narrowed down), deciding how I want to set up the ceremony, tying the bows on the invitations and booking a rental place for chair covers and sashes. Other than that, I think most things are pretty much done. I have a busy next week and a half. My anatomy class is quite a doozie so I spend most all my spare time studying and wedding planning. I have test next Friday over all the bones of the body and we just had a test last week so it only gives me two weeks to study for this one! I hope you all have a wonderful week and weekend and enjoy the weather! <3

Hilton Garden Inn- Granbury Texas

Thinking about the Ceremony .

Boardwalk- foyer is inside the doors to the right.

Okay, I think I have decided that if we just need to hope for good weather because I want to have the ceremony here. The foyer that you can see in all the facebook pics, has a door that leads outside which you can see to the right in this picture. We would prop the doors open and have everyone enter the "Ceremony" from the foyer doors that go outside. If we have it outside our decorations are not limited by space or how we align the bridal party. I also went ahead and told the photographers today that we are going with Jenny A. Here is her portfolio if you didn't get to look at it before and would like to: http://www.modernimagestudios.info/portfolios/jennya/index.html

Foyer- the door the left leads to the boardwalk