Wedding Dress Bought, Tuxes Rented, Invitations Sent, and Much Much More to Come!

Hello all, it may feel like it has been a while since I posted. That's because it has! After finding a venue at The Conservatory (one of the first places we looked that became available after they changed their pricing) we kind of took a hiatus from wedding planning. I did get my wedding dress though, it's in my closet in a blue bag. It's the first 'test' of our marriage for Bradley to not look at it, and I do feel bad for waving it in his face when I know he really wants to see it and thinks it's a stupid superstition. Alas, there is nothing I can do about that for now. I need to focus on finding quotes for alterations (it is a little big, just a little, and needs the train removed) and then cleaning (it was the floor model, as the dress has since been discontinued).

My dress isn't the only clothing we've got sorted out. Bradley's tux, along with anyone else in the bridal party wearing a tux's tux, is already reserved at Men's Warehouse. His tux rental includes everything, including the socks. This is great, because it means the only thing left for us to worry about, clothing wise, is getting my dress prepared, whatever I'm going to wear to the rehearsal dinner, shoes for the day of, and my 'something old, something new, something borrowed, and something blue'. Did I say only? Seems like we still have a lot to go!

When my mother came into town a couple of weeks ago it was reminded to me (more so than the monthly reminder of paying the venue) that I am planning a wedding. It was thanks to my mother that I realized something, if we want people to come, we should probably send out wedding invitations. Thankfully, I'd already done hours of research on Save the Dates. With 6 months (and five days) until the wedding, we decided to forgo Save the Dates for invitations. 

Date is set, invitations sent, wedding is getting more and more real every day!

A photo posted by Batman The Dog (@baddityboo) on Oct 8, 2016 at 7:13pm PDT

I sent out the invitations on Saturday with some pretty heart stamps from the post office. Including the one to our roommate, which, I know is only, like, 50c, but the principle of sending an invitation by mail to someone we live with seems a little ridiculous. Especially when I know he doesn't care if it is mailed or not. Ah well, less than a dollar, and know I'll know when people start getting their invitations. Of course, it'll get to John (our roommate) and Bradley's family before it gets to mine. Most of his side is local, and if they're not they're still fairly close. With the recent news that my sister will soon be moving out of state, literally everyone from 'my side' is going to be out of state. That's making our Acworth (AKA 1 hour away) wedding a destination wedding for half of the attendants. Which is why we're sending invitations to a wedding 6 months in advance. It is also why we insisted on a Saturday wedding.

After going to the post office I went to Target, because I love Target, and on a whim I stopped by the salon in the same strip. I spoke to a woman and began to get an idea of pricing and the like to get my hair done for the wedding. (Simply because the updo braid I've been obsessed with for years is far beyond my capability.) We talked about how to do my makeup, if I decide to do that, and I showed her a picture of what I was thinking of for my hair. Had I known I was going to stop by I would have brought my scrap book full of creepy cut up heads, but it was a non issue because it is 2016 and I had my phone on me. She gave me her card and instagram information and I really liked her. I think I'm going to go to her for my hair, and afterwards my sister agreed she'd get her hair done too, so we'll both get $20 off!

With the wedding so far out, there is a lot that we can't do yet. (For example, the woman I talked to at the salon recommended doing my hair trial in January.) However, there is a lot that we can.

• Plan the rehearsal dinner. We need to schedule the rehearsal with the venue, and then book the dinner. If possible, we'd love to get catering and do it at the venue, but we need to first confirm with them that that is an option. If not, we will need to look at restaurants around the venue.
• Figure out our 'party favors' for the guests. We've got some ideas, but we need to make the decision and go for it. 
• Purchase small items for the wedding. IE- my shoes, guestbook supplies, etc.
• Book officiant. Can you believe I almost forgot about this? 
• Book photographer. Our venue has a partnership with photographers in the area, so we get a reduced rate, but we need to book them soon or they may not be available. 
• Choose food for the reception. This is actually already booked, we're going tomorrow to taste and decide.
• Plan honeymoon. I, for example, have an appointment on November 7th to get my passport, which I will need for our trip to Dublin.

 One second it seems that there is nothing to do, the next I feel swamped. I'm very happy that we have almost a year to plan, though I can't believe I've been engaged for almost a year is surprising. Time flies when you're having fun!

6 months and 5 days until the wedding.

We Set the Date!

We booked an all inclusive wedding venue in Acworth, GA and our date is officially set! April 15, 2017! What's great about this place is it is gorgeous. This is one of the first venues we looked at, and none of the venues that followed were even close. Unlike most venues, there is both a bridal and a grooms ready room. It is a perfect old building, they have beautiful exposed brick and iron with Christmas lights. They have a beautiful outdoor area for the ceremony and if it rains they'll move it indoor.

It is fantastic and I am just so happy that we have our wedding date set!
Exactly 8 months and 21 days from now.

Overblogging

Hello all, after the past couple of days I've realized that I have been a little over eager to post news on the blog. We're still looking around and until things are definite, or I know the whole story, I shouldn't post them.

For example, my last post declaring Twelve Stone Farm inept turned out to be inaccurate. True, they did wait until Tuesday to email me, but past then the email got lost or something and that's why I didn't have it. I think my frustration there was misplaced, because a while ago we toured a venue that was perfect but with our 75 guests and their packaging of weddings (they are all inclusive) they had been out of our budget. So, despite the fact that they were the venue, much like the dress, we kept looking and no place since has stacked up.

So, until cash has been exchanged and contracts signed, I'm not going to post about vendors. Which means, until we have a wedding date, there won't be any more information regarding our venue.

Thank you all for your pacience,
Approx. 9 months from the wedding.

Today I Shall Laugh Aggressively at Yesterday

So I've told you all about Bradley and I's wonderful find, the Twelve Stone Farm, and how excited we are to book there. Hah. That excitement has gone down the drain. As we left the venue and spoke with them we were told we would be getting an email in regards to local vendors and a first draft of the contract for booking. When we didn't have it Sunday afternoon I called to learn that they had an event that day and she again promised to email me the information, this time by Monday. I called yesterday, Tuesday, afternoon and got her VM so I called the main line where a kind woman informed me that she would talk to the wedding coordinator and she would email me that night. I still have not gotten an email and I am doubtful that I ever will.

We would just go back to the Gwinnett Historic Courthouse but after he fell in love with the Twelve Stone venue, it was clear that he did not like the GHC. This means we're back to venue looking! Now we are looking at country clubs, we still plan on doing the ceremony at the gazebo that the GHC offers, and they do the catering. The price difference for some of these, with my very rough estimate based on price per person and not including any fees, is nothing when you consider that it is a plated meal (much fancier than we would manage at the GHC) and there aren't all of the gosh darned rules that add extra charges.

I am highly looking forward to having a set wedding date, in the meantime, we save as much money as we can and keep on looking.

Approx. 9 months until the wedding.

We Found Our Venue!

A little while back Bradley and I went to a wedding expo where we found a potential venue. We were really excited because the Gwinnett Historic Courthouse, while nice, wasn't what we had been looking for. They were in our budget though, and we'd had a tough time finding anywhere else. Besides, the GHC is a pretty venue. When we heard about this new option, this cheaper and prettier option, we knew we had to check it out.

Twelve Stone Farm is a horse preserve that rescues horses and uses them to help at risk youth. They're a small (well, over 100 acres) family owned property that hosts around 10 weddings a year. The people who own it are very kind and willing to work with you.

We would have our wedding in front of the lake by the pavilion where we would do the reception. The husband and wife showed us pictures, the pavilion was once used to seat 200+ people. It would easily fit our comparatively small wedding reception under it. This means we don't have to rent tents, which is fantastic. There is a fire pit, a small playground, and people do swim in the lake (though I doubt we will be doing that).

The bathrooms are nice, though I find it odd that the individual rooms for the stalls (which, again, are very nice) don't have sinks in them. We'll probably bring our own hand sanitizer so people don't have to leave the stall to wash their hands. For an outdoor venue, these bathrooms are fabulous.

The farm is well suited for large events much larger than our own. There is a large parking lot/field for the cars close to where we would host the wedding. Our wedding would fit very comfortably by the pavilion in front of the lake, which means we can do it all in one place. There is a sign at the entrance, so despite the distance this is actually an easy place to find. There is cell phone service, for ATT and Verison that is. However, I have T-Mobile and was able to run GPS to the venue without my phone crapping out. The only real downside is the lack of Pokemon Go if I don't have cell service. I guess I'll have to catch 'em all some other day.

This venue isn't perfect, to an extent you 'get what you pay for'. What do I mean by that? It's a horse preserve and I am terrified of horses. Ah well, you win some, you lose some.

Approx. 9 months until the wedding.
PS- If you're planning a wedding and interested in an outdoor venue in Talking Rock, GA then please message me and I'll send you contact information as well as the pricing they quoted us. I can also answer more specific questions.

Stationary!

Anyone who knows me knows I am obsessed with stationary. When I was a little kid my parents got me a three binder box set that when put together looked like a beautiful cloud sky. I thought this was the coolest thing ever and played with the constantly. (I remember this vividly, but my doll house, not so much.) I just finished the start of my wedding scrapbook and can't wait to look at our guestbook scrapbook that I decided on before I was even engaged. Now it is time to look at stationary.

Bradley and I want an April wedding, which means as of right now we have  a tad over 9 months until the wedding. (9 months to do what I had planned to take a year, it's meltdown time .) You're typically supposed to send out save the dates 6 months before hand, and 8 if it is a destination wedding. Our wedding isn't destination to us, but my whole family is all spread out, at minimum, a state away. Due to this, I'm going to go in the middle and say we need to send them out at 7 months. That leaves us two months to pick the invitations, get them delivered to us, and send them out. The expense is going to be pretty large, which is why we're going to do cost effective things like an online RSVP. (We're using AnRSVP and I highly recommend it, but more on that later.) We're also going to do some lazy things, like getting a stamp for our return address. Still, Save the Dates and then invitations are a time consuming process.

I don't have to think about that though, because right now all we have to do is the fun part- picking out our stationary!

Minted

For the 75 post cards and stamps (80, they come in sheets of 20) it is $179.96- hot damn. I love getting stamps that match, I think having the little American flag in the corner will look a little out of place. As far as brand, I do love Minted. They offer complete sets that you don't have to order all at once (unlike Wedding Paper Divas, who require you to order the basics and then some from the jump). To edit the stationary is very easy, and you can communicate specific requests.

Minted, Inked

The size is adorable and the card is a little warm and welcoming, but still formal. The script is fancy, but easy to read, and the card offers a busy design. 5/5

Minted, Elegance Illustrated

This one is very simple and formal, easy to read as well. I love the flower detail, but I'm also not sure why I put it on here. Bradley absolutely hates flowers. Ah well, a girl can dream...  4/5

Minted, Alabaster Florals

I'm not 100% on this one, but it does intrigue me. The flowers aren't super flower-y, so Bradley may actually like them. I'm always up for sneaking flowers past him, xD. These look very natural, a look that works well with the Twelve Stone Farm venue, and they're more traditional post cards in that they are landscape.  Unknown/5

Vistaprint

What? Vistaprint? Really? Really. They're not sorted by stationary sets, like Minted, because they aren't 100% catered to weddings but they're much cheaper which allows for nicer paper and other options while still keeping a low price point. However, since they're not sorted into design, it took me a little longer to find these group options. Finally, they do not offer designed thank you cards for all of their designs.

 

Vistaprint

I like the green in this design! It adds a very mature color and ups the fancy level quickly. The set includes a tall invitation. The cost, including thicker matte paper, is $56 for 80. Whoooa that is amazing, but it doesn't have stamps.

Vistaprint

This is a lot more formal design, but there is no color in it. Bradley likes it though, so that's a huge bonus. For 80 cards it is $56 without any sales on it, and Vistaprint always has sales. We would, however, need to buy the stamps separate. I actually like the matching invitations that match more than the save the dates, which just means they'll get better!

Etsy

On Etsy you can get the files to print your own wedding suite, which works well because you can upload your design to Vistaprint and get it printed. Hells yeah! In addition, we can get a custom design made through Etsy. Our favorite so far is the Inked by Minted, but we're just not willing to pay that price. Additionally, having custom made cards would be nice.

Well, that's all I have for now, I'll keep you updated!

Approx. 9 months from the wedding.

Wedding Scrapbook

Hello all! Over the past week I have put together a scrap book of ideas for the wedding.

I've been keeping up a Pinterest board with ideas as well. :)

Scrapbooking

I've mentioned before about my love of wedding magazines. They're how I got my wedding colors and served as a vital inspiration that's designed much of our wedding. In addition, by having a picture to show Bradley I learn pretty quick what he likes and doesn't like. They are a lot of fun to go through and serve as a not-foolproof-but-still-useful point of reference that tells me what a wedding is and what all goes into it. In short, I love them, and their glossy pages remained uncut so that I could look in them for years to come. That is, of course, until last night.

Since the magazines have remained untouched, pristine glossy pages with sticky notes and sharpie annotations. The problem was simple, and occurred to me while Monica pulled out her wedding binder from the 4th grade. I'd written all of these brain dump notes, tagged every page that mildly interested me, and I could not find a single note when I needed it. I'd kept the magazines un-cut because I'd wanted to keep them together for future reading, but I hadn't opened them (except to reference inspiration) since I read them the first time. Uh-doy! With all of that in mind I decided it was time to go back to my middle school roots and put together a scrapbook. I set up at the desk we keep in our living room and began to sort brochures, cut magazines, and then sort the magazine clippings. It took me almost 3 hours to do that, and I didn't actually scrap book a single thing. No worries though, because when I started the sorting I realized I didn't have a book to put it all in so for now it was a non issue.

So, today I am going to:

1. Purchase a scrap book, glue stick, etc. (I am going to stick with the bare minimums though. I love stationary and don't need to go gaga over this.)
2. Probably Definitely get some more wedding magazines. 
3. Put the scrap book together and hopefully complete it.

On a related note, if anyone has old/new/used wedding magazines they don't want anymore, feel free to send them my way! :)

Approx. 9 months from the wedding.

Upcoming in the Allen Wedding Plans...
7/3/2016: Bridesmaids/Best Man Pot Luck Brunch.
7/9/2016: Check out Tweleve Stone Farm as a potential venue.

Gwinnett Historic Courthouse

 At the Georgia Bridal Expo I was quickly wowed by a potential new venue. It had the pavillion that I'd been dreaming of, and everything past that was icing on the cake (including the cheaper price). I was completely sold already, but then I looked back at the pictures of the Gwinnett Historic Courthouse and I was reminded why I fell in love with it in the first place. So, to show the complete process and give me a reference when comparing the venues to decide, here is everything I have for the Gwinnett Historic Courthouse.

The Courthouse

In the courthouse we would rent the upstairs ballroom which includes two private bathrooms, a small stage, a prep kitchen, and a small hallway/room for the buffet. The rental also includes a bridal ready room which is very nice, the stairwell and entryway to the ballroom, and the small porch thingy that many weddings use to throw the bouquet from.

Additional to this we would rent one of the rooms downstairs for Bradley and gang (his singular Best Man) to get ready and play video games. (He has insisted it be done on site, and if I get a room, it makes sense that he would too.) He's not a huge fan of this room, but its $50 more to get the official groomsman room and a minimum of $200 vs a minimum of $100 is a huge difference, especially when he's been clear that the room is going to be for video games alone. He warmed up to the idea when I pointed out that we can decorate the room especially for them, and then he mentioned something about getting bean bag chairs for himself and the best man.

The Gazebo

The outdoor gazebo is where we would do the actual ceremony. I completely forgot to take any photo's of it when we went but I found a photo online that GHC had posted. It's a cute little gazebo with plenty of space for seating. We would get a chance to do a rehearsal here as part of our booking.

The Cost

The cost actually changed, if we had booked when we initially looked it would have saved us by booking us with 2016 cost in 2017. It's not a big deal, but it is kind of a bummer. Their prices are cheaper than most venues, but some of the rules (#1 and 2 for instance) add on costs that we'd need to be aware of.

Rules

Oh yes, the GHC has enough rules that they warrant their own section in their summary! Tis the joy of a historic and government owned venue.

1. To have alcohol there must be a police officer present. Considering the hourly wage of police officers (which I completely understand why it is so high) this is a costly rule if we do decide to have alcohol.
2. You can have family run the food and such, but they do have to be insured. GHC led us to a website where we could get that done ourselves, but again it adds an extra expense. 
3. You can't tack anything on the walls or hang anything from the ceiling, this isn't a huge problem but it is worth noting. In fact, they have a lot of restrictions on decorations, most of which are to preserve the historic presence of the building.

Pros and Cons

Pros

1. The venue is easy to get to and local.
2. GHC is very pretty, and it goes along with a 'vintage' wedding theme that I've latched on to.
3. They already have a sound system.
4. There is a prep kitchen and an elevator to the ballroom.
5. Our dog, Batman, is welcome on the gazebo.
6. Having two staff members on property at the wedding means if anything goes wrong with the property there is someone there who is responsible for it.
7. The only part we would be outside for would be the ceremony, which means rain and other weather is less of a concern.

Cons

1. There are so many rules, and many of them actually cost money.
2. Bradley likes it, but he doesn't love it.
3. They don't have a parking lot, and downtown Lawrenceville has a lot of one way streets. It's not particularly complicated, but for my out-of-town family members it may be just a tad much.
4. They don't have any cleaning service set up and you have to rent for cleaning time, but this is pretty much standard for wedding venues.
5. $2500 is a lot of money, but again, it's on the cheap end of pretty standard.

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We will end up booking this venue if the other doesn't work out, and I'm not certain it will. I like the Gwinnett Historic Courthouse. It's pretty and the people that run it are nice, and as an added bonus Batman can totally be our ring bear! It'll go great with my dress, and I can already picture the timeless black and white photos.

What does everyone else think? Do you have any of the same problems?

Until next time, here's a picture of my excited fiance from when we toured the courthouse.

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If you keep up with my blog actively you may have noticed that I took down the full detail cost break down for the venue, which I did because it is posted at the GHC website so having a large and overly detailed post provided no additional benefit to the readers.

Georgia Bridal Expo

Over the weekend Bradley and I went to the Georgia Bridal Expo, and I am happy to report that it looks like the $20 I spent on tickets (I got them at a discounted rate through Wedding Wire) is hopefully going to save me almost $700. In short, I completely and totally recommend this event to everyone.

The event ran from 12PM to5PM, but we only stayed about 2 hours. It is advertised as an event that will take up your whole day, and for that reason all of the fashion shows are at the end. I might have insisted on staying if I didn't already have my wedding dress picked out. All in all, I really have no idea how people could stay there all day. There weren't many booths, and many of the vendors weren't interested in talking. However, that may be because my fiance and I weren't interested in the high dollar vendors, and any of the all-inclusive wedding venues were out because my mother is doing the catering and the cake. Not to mention that the chiropractor and diet booths were not anything I was interested in, and both times I had to practically fight them to leave us alone. I get that a lot of people go on diets before they get married, in fact I'd love it if I'd just get off my ass and go to the gym, but I'm not interested in some crazy diet. Despite the many, many booths that we were not interested in there were two in particular that hosted vendors we're already working with.

Twelve Stone Farm is a wedding venue about an hour and a half north of Duluth, Georgia. It's a beautiful venue with horses (though I don't like horses, they terrify me, I'm calmed by the fact that they're fenced in) and a variety of settings. They have a large pavilion that is an obvious choice for the reception and a variety of places to get married at, including one spot with a simply beautiful arch covered in greenery. Also, yes, they do allow dogs. I asked for a quote? $1000! Can you believe it? We've been planning on booking Gwinnett Historic Courthouse, and they're about $700 more with crazy restrictions (requiring a cop on presence for there to be any alcohol) not to mention that the parking is annoying to me, much less my many many traveling relatives. As an added bonus, Bradley had settled for GHC, but he actively likes this venue. A husband a wife run it (and do fun things like fun days) and the husband runs a professional lighting business, which means if we decide we need lights we can work with our venue for them. The woman that runs it has a list of vendors that have worked with them before, for renting tables and other supplies, but she is super low key. Depending on table and chair costs (as the tables and chairs came with the other venue) this venue could be perfect! I emailed them last night and I've had my fingers crossed since.

The other vendor we found we hadn't even been looking for. We've known that we were going to go on a cruise for our honeymoon, we've never been on a cruise and I've never been out of the country. I'd already looked at Royal Caribbean to see our options, which were kind of blah because they were mostly Mexico. Not that there is anything wrong with Mexio, but I was hoping for something farther away. So, knowing we wanted a cruise, we made sure to stop by the cruise booth when we passed it. Husband and wife, Mark and Valerie Macdonald are cruise planners. Using a travel agent hadn't even occurred to me, but when I talked to them and learned that there isn't any extra charge to use one, and that they could find cruises going to Asia or Europe I got excited. Not to mention that they were so nice and personable! Once we get booked (which should happen soon) we can start working on a budget and book our honeymoon with them!

The expo was certainly worth the money and the time. Plus I got a free Taylor Swift shirt, in my size none the less, from the Q100 booth (still not sure why they were there...). If there is a wedding expo anywhere near you, go! Go now!
Approx. nine months until the wedding.

Flowers Flowers Flowers!

 I absolutely adore flowers. I love pretty potted plant flowers, I love flowers in hair, I love floral patterned pretty much anything, I cannot get enough flowers. This is why I knew from the start that our wedding would have a bountiful amount of flowers.

Photo's I took of flowers for inspiration, left white flowers are from my yard, the rest are from Colorado.

When I visited my parents this past weekend we walked everywhere. My parents live in Englewood, Colorado (an ITP town south of Denver) and the town there is flourishing with gardens and parks. It was fantastic for me because it allowed me to take some pictures of flowers that I thought would fit the colors and feel of our wedding. In an effort to save money, we will actually grow our own flowers (starting in the next month or so) so it's important that I know what flowers I want. I'm hoping to get a variety because the centerpieces and table numbers will be pots that act as miniature gardens. I had been thinking of using different flowers at each table, but with so many tables it wasn't really feasible.

I recommend, if you have the time, to check out the flowers that bloom when you're having your wedding. This makes it so you can save money and ensure that your flowers will be in their tip top shape.

Approx. 9 months from the wedding.

Wedding Colors

Photo Credit: The Knot Magazine

So when I got engaged my mother recommended that I get wedding magazines. Actual, physical, printed on glossy paper, wedding magazines. I thought she was nuts, that's what the internet was for and the internet was free. However, when my sister bought me one and I began to annotate and flag it I was caught. I was suddenly and irreparably addicted to wedding magazines.

Becoming addicted to wedding magazines is how a lot of creative ideas have hit my mind, but I think the most important one so far was the selection of our wedding colors. While reading The Knot I came across a picture of some potted plants. They were yellow flowers with plenty of greenery and white ribbon made bows all in them. I fell in love immediately, and thus, our wedding colors are yellow, forest green, and lots and lots of white.

It works out perfectly, I love yellow, my fiance loves green (it is his favorite color), and white is something I always envisioned having a prominent role in my wedding. We already have favorites, so it was easy to decide that the bets man would wear his tux with green accents, and the bridesmaids would wear their tuxes with yellow or their dresses in yellow. Of course, and I realized this about a week after deciding on the wedding colors, my sister and I look absolutely horrid in yellow. I asked if she would like me to switch with the best man, but she (in true bridesmaids fashion) has accepted the horrid dress color in stride with poise.

Approx. 9 months from the wedding. 

We Begin to Hear the Wedding Bells Ring

From the second I knew I was getting married my mind started to race. Where are we going to have the wedding? Where will my out of town family stay? How will we incorporate our dog into our wedding? What's a rehearsal dinner and do I have to have a bridal shower? RSVP cards or online site? How much information can I put up on our wedding website, and does it have to match our stationary? What should we get for our stationary?

The questions, a million more than my fiance or I have answers to, keep flowing like that. Running into each other without space and completely out of order. I can't help it, I'm excited. I'm a planner, completely type A and utterly organized. I've planned parties my whole life, and what is a wedding if not a large party? If not the large party? Maybe I'm just telling myself that because I've never been to a full blown wedding, I have no idea about the customs and even less about how to go about even getting married. I'm 20, the first of my friends and generational family to get married, which means my fiance and I get to do it our way. As soon as we figure out what our way is we'll be perfect.

Here is what I do know, with limited plus one's and coworkers and extended family, we're looking at about 75 people at our wedding. This isn't including any service workers that we will have to include in the headcount for food. I know that my entire family is traveling out of state to this wedding, with the exception of my little sister who is only about an hour away.  I know that I have three bridesmaids and my fiance has one groomsman, his best man. I know what my wedding dress is, a boho/vintage dress I decided on not 3 minutes into wearing it. I know our dog, Batman, will be our ring bear. I know a lot, actually, but I need to know a lot more.

Let's hope I learn it fast enough.
Approx. 9 months from the wedding.