my first wedding event :)

So it looks like my Aunt Jill, along with my grandmother, are organizing a bridal shower for my dad's side of the family in October. This means it's time to start registering!!!! I'm excited but also a bit lost as to what exactly I will need, not to mention we don't have a house so I have zero idea on colors or even the comforter sizes/number of bathroom things to even register for. Plus, you have so. many. options. Mark really likes Crate & Barrel or Williams-Sonoma for things but those store locations are limited. Macy's seems to have a lot of what we would need too. Who doesn't like Target?

Wish us luck because we need to have a partial registry ready to go in the next 30 days!

catching up

I spent the weekend in Allendale with Taylor and my grandparents—we had a great time and Taylor is on her way to being a serious Rummikub (Rummy Cube) contender! I saw my Grandma Carol’s TWO outfit choices for the wedding (weather dependent), both are beautiful and it’s an awesome feeling to know how is excited she is.

Since the last post I’ve also made contact with two planners and will be trying to organize meetings for next week. The guest list has been printed out but I think the Tigers trumped Mark actually going through it.

THIS weekend my friend Jo Lynn, who is also planning a wedding, got us tickets to the Bridal Expo at the Palace. Hopefully we come away with some good local people/contacts to help make our weddings stellar!

Signing off for now,
Sara

The Joy of Planning

Last night we accomplished making lists. Most of you know I love lists, however what I truly love is crossing things OFF the list.

Our new list:

1. Print the guest list so Mark can review
2. Set up appointments with DJs
3. Email a church (oh wait I DID this one, yay! But no reply just yet)
4. Email a professional planner

I read on a blog last night that you spend around 250 hours, or SIX work weeks planning a wedding. Um, about that...I already have work weeks; and on a good day I can take a full hour lunch, these good days come about once a week. So that means during normal business hours I need 250 work days to plan this bad boy. Um, about that....April 10 is 233 days away.

While I still have lots of fun ideas for our wedding last night Mark and I talked about our (ahem, my) rage level during the planning process. I currently have mild crabbiness at all things wedding. I would prefer to have zero crabbiness and actually focus on having fun. So with that Mark has offered to get a second job to pay for a planner...sweet but not necessary, I found a few local firms that should fall within our budget and help take most stress away. Too bad my handy dandy list is on the kitchen table. But hey, what's one more day?

;) Sara

Sunday, FUN day

This weekend was hot, hot, hot and action packed. Friday night after the gym I sampled Inn Season Café cuisine with my fellow veg-head friends Angela and Andrew. Saturday was Dream Cruise with the almost in-laws, Liz and GC—'twas my first ever Dream Cruise. A little hot and while I love old cars I prefer walking a parking lot to really look at them, not watching them drive by. Saturday night was Jody’s bachelorette party out in Novi—great fun with good friends. Despite all the fun this far into the weekend, Sunday was my favorite day. Mark took the day off to spend with ME! It was amazing since he and I rarely get an entire day alone together with our schedules. We had no major plans and spent the afternoon at the pool sipping margaritas, snuck into Royal Oak for sushi at Ronin, then popped over to Woody’s rooftop to celebrate Christa’s birthday. I know I wish we had days like that more often but we sure made the best of it.

Alas, we did no wedding planning other than repeatedly tell each other we really needed to figure out where the ceremony will be.

and the photographer is...

The Shooting Gallery! Thanks to all who shared their input, as you could see from the links a few posts back we had a tough time choosing. Dionne at TSG was very fun, I really liked her attitude and saw a few images in her books that were exactly what I had pictured in my head. The kicker was she showed me an album for a couple who requested about 4 shots and then let the photographer and her team do what they do. The album was exquisite and I'm so excited to see mine next spring. So excited in fact that I dreamt about it on Monday night.

Thanks again to the other contenders for taking time to meet with us and share your amazing work!

or was this one my fave?

I'm sure tomorrow after going to Miss Kate's Maids in Birmingham, MI I will have a bazillion new ideas, but now I'm thinking this is the dress I liked best.

in "shadow:"

http://www.priscillaofboston.com/dress_detail.jsp?gid=51&sfid=51014&f=

bridesmaid dress ideas

Here are some 'maid dresses (by Melissa Sweet) I am digging on...see the color "shadow":

my personal fave, funky version:
http://www.priscillaofboston.com/dress_detail.jsp?gid=50&sfid=50844&f=

the more elegant version:
http://www.priscillaofboston.com/dress_detail.jsp?gid=50&sfid=239&f=

the Taylor (junior bridesmaid) version:
http://www.priscillaofboston.com/dress_detail.jsp?gid=955&sfid=50862&f=

Dandelion color if we do flower girls at all:
http://www.priscillaofboston.com/dress_detail.jsp?gid=950&sfid=51034&f=


Stay tuned for what the final choice will actually be, these are just my first round of dresses I like

Slacker planning with Sara and Mark

Greetings and salutations!!

Our big plan of setting and accomplishing a weekly wedding planning goal is careening into a fiery pit of despair faster than Lindsay Lohan’s career. Outstanding items thus far are:
~ Book a church
~ Book a photographer*
~ Pare down the guest list to fit our venue
~ Gather addresses for said guest list

* I am however meeting with our last featured photographer, The Shooting Gallery, this evening after work. Unfortunately Mark and our other faithful planner, Taylor, won’t be joining me. That said, we will have one outstanding item crossed off the list (ahh, satisfaction) once I’m able to see Mark with BOTH of us having our eyes open long enough to actually discuss who we want to book.

Ohooh-ohoh, ohooh-ohoh….alright stop: shower time.

It was a very fun and family-filled weekend for Miss Elizabeth’s baby shower. Were you in Michigan on Saturday? Did you have an outdoor garden themed baby shower in the torrential down pour? I did. Thankfully the "Power at the Shower" (GC and Kate-tastic) had a large tent to keep us on the dry side. GC and daughters made some amazingly tasty quiche and muffins and cupcakes; the whole event was really beautiful and a good time.

On Sunday, did a little swimming and saw the Julie & Julia movie—good flick. I think I need a better blog theme than wedding and I too could have a book and movie deal. My coworker and I have tossed around Sara & Sarah (with me channeling Sarah Palin). The movie would obviously star Tina Fey and, as of late my celebrity lookalike is usually Kate Walsh, formerly of Grey’s Anatomy. Or Gisele. HA! Only the main issue is I would never want to channel Sarah Palin. So on to idea number two: blog about having a name that is the subject of a popular 80s song. Too bad there would be about three entries long and, as it turns out, Jefferson Starship already has a video. I welcome your suggestions as mine are lacking…

"rad to the power of sick"

Weddings are not cheap. In fact, without the graciousness of my parental units our wedding would be more like, the two of us at a courthouse then off on a stellar vacation. Though I think Mark's parents would still host a rad dinner at some point :) While the courthouse is NOT a bad option, and one that appeals to me ever so much at times, I'm too afraid of the wrath of the Shines if there is no bash since we only seem to get together at funerals these days.


A dear friend, the E.V.E., sent me a link that got me thinking of a great way to make some cash money for our bash. Enjoy:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cd6-n7MhVg8

If you see a beautiful brooch going for 500 times it's original eBay price....mhmm!

stomach bug

I'm still a little under the weather but our new weekly goal for this week is to find a church....at this point we're not sure that we are going to find a family church, one we join as a family, prior to the wedding. So now we're googling churches you can rent. This isn't ideal but it gives us more time to find the right home church.

Side note I did find a bridesmaid dress I really like, as soon as I get 'maid sign off I will post a picture!

Toodles,
Sara