"By Saturday, we learned a thing or two..."

We met with the caterer this weekend. It was fun to be back in Columbia, we miss that town very very much. 

I was excited to see the new City Hall is almost completely done. Our guests will walk right by it between the church and the reception and I think it makes the city proud. This is what the building looked like when we moved. I am glad that this isn't what people will see on our wedding day!

(source)

As for the meeting with the caterer...it went well. I guess. It was a little overwhelming to tell the truth. 

There are just so many little things to decide and plan and negotiate. 

Plus we were late, which makes me flustered. 

We made many, many decisions. Want to know a few?

Well...when guests arrive, they will be offered some yummy mimosas. 

Because that's one of the only alcoholic beverages you can get away with at noon. 

For lunch there will be an option between a yummy sounding chicken with artichokes and mushrooms or stuffed portabella caps, similar to these:

YUM-O. 

I think I will get the vegetarian option. Even though I'm not a vegetarian. Because seriously. 

YUM-O. 

My mom and I also picked out a pattern and a fabric for the junior bridesmaids dresses. She's making them. I'm not far advanced in my sewing skillz enough to pull them off. But I am going to attempt the ring pillow sometime this week. Wish me luck!

"Tea for Two" meets "Madame Librarian"

Our original favors were going to be little bottles of homemade vanilla extract. It was going to be a really fun, cool project. Unfortunately, we thought of that idea about a year ago. And since then the price of vanilla beans has gone up more than I would have thought possible. So now we are without favors. My new ideas are either homemade tea bags or hand embroidered tea towels (to go along with the tea theme from the centerpieces). I found this really cute embroidery design:

If it was on tea towels it would be tie in the book theme with the tea theme. How cute is that?

Both of those ideas sound expensive and time consuming, but I haven’t done the necessary research to figure out how much it would cost me and how long it would take me. I'm guessing it's not really possible. Maybe if I had started a couple years ago. There's also these, which I thought were kind of cute.

I don’t want Jordan almonds wrapped in tulle. I don’t want a picture frame that doubles as a table number. In fact, I don’t want a favor that people are going to forget at the hotel, or throw away at the airport or any of the other things that have happened to favors I have received over the years. I just want it to be unique and cool and something people will actually enjoy.  Ideas?

"Food, glorious food! We're anxious to try it!"

We are meeting with the caterer in two weeks and I am finding myself becoming nervouser and nervouser. Beyond the financial  EEK! that’s coming our way, there is also another major flaw in this plan. The problem is this. Our wedding is in June. I should be thinking of feeding my guests light early Summer fare. Salads and fresh vegetables and limeades.

Things like this:

And instead I’m really worried that I’ll end up asking the caterer for things like this:

Because right now? It’s January. In Iowa.  And it is COLD. It is so COLD that I can’t help but type-yell in all caps the word. It is COLD. Everything is frozen to everything and it took me 10 minutes to open my car door this morning and I’m indoors right now and I am still shivering so much I can barely type. So just cross your fingers, and hope that I don’t end up serving you this:

Well...actually...maybe that I ccould get away with. Right? RIGHT?

It Ain't So Much a Question of Not Knowing What To Do...

In this case, I'm talking about not knowing what I'm doing when it comes to crafts. I'm a DIY bride on the loose with absolutely no clue what I am doing.
This is a list of some of the projects I'm planning to do over the next few weeks/months. Some of them even have pictures...ooooh!

Ring Bearer Pillow

Flower Covered Over-sized Initials
Chair Sashes?
Candy Buffet Table (Finding Containers, Making Labels, Choosing/Buying Candy)
Tissue Pomanders

Menus
Welcome Letters/Baskets for Hotel Rooms
Bridesmaid Gifts Containers
Groomsmen Gifts Containers
Soda Bar

Emergency Kits
Lacey Luminaries
Kids Room Craft Kits
Message Flags

Ceremony Programs
Organdy Corsages
Favors
Invitation assembly (printing, maps, other inserts, addressing envelopes)
Cards Box

That's what I have so far, but I'm sure I'll come up with more as I get closer and figure out more details. Now if you'll excuse me I need to go get to work.

"You've got to have a dream, If you don't have a dream, How you gonna make your dream come true?"

This is what I look at in my head when I think about our wedding day.

"A dress has always been my strongest suit "

As soon as I've gotten everyones sizes in I will be placing the order for the bridesmaids dresses. I have 8 bridesmaids and two junior bridesmaids. Although this has made it a little more difficult to plan, I wouldn't change my bridal party for the world because they are all so so important to me. Look for a blog post someday soon-ish about them and why they are so amazing. We ordered the tuxes a long time ago.

Here's what the dresses for the bridesmaids look like:

I haven't quite decided between the green and the blue.

The junior bridesmaids will be wearing whatever color I don't choose for the bridesmaids in dresses I want to have made. I want them to look like Dakota Fanning's dress in "The Secret Life of Bees." Unfortunately, she wears this dress in a funeral scene. Don't hold it against the dress. Also, try to overlook the poor picture quality. It's taken me forever to find a picture.

The guys will be wearing traditional morning suits. I'm glad I can get away with that, since it actually is a daytime wedding. I can't find a picture of the actual suit but it looks kinda like this one...the difference being that none of our groomsmen look like 1990's catalog models.

That's all folks!

"What good is cake, You have but never eat?"

Skyler and I spent several hours over the weekend persusing the cake galleries at Martha Stewart Weddings and The Knot. It's funny, for as much as I love weddings, and as much as I watch the Food Network, and as much as I might just MIGHT leave Skyler for Duff from Ace of Cakes... the wedding cake has never been an important element to me. Imagine my surprise when I realized how obsessed and picky Skyler was going to be about picking a cake. He really really cares. He has opinions on all sorts of things. He doesn't know the names of the things on which he has opinions...but they are there. Here is my real-cake-terms interpretation:

• He hates monograms
• He likes it when there are tiers that are both square and round 
• He likes quilting
• He likes the look of fondant and he hates the taste of buttercream
• He really has no concept of what our actual color scheme is
• He doesn't like "Mad Hatter" cakes...except for when he does

Below is a mosaic of the ones we picked out. Most of them really only have elements that we like. None of them are perfect. What do you guys think we should ask the bakers for?