With less than two months until the big day I am beginning to get a little stressed. There are so many little details and decisions that need to be made. For example, ceremony programs and layout, inclimate weather alternatives, welcome bags for the hotels, gifts, cocktail choices, guest book styles, picture locations, finalizing centerpieces and flower arrangements, music, hair, make-up… You get the idea.
While writing this post I asked myself, what do I want to share, and what is the reason for this blog?
The answer: to tell people what REALLY happens before I do. It may not be pretty, but it’s true and over the last two or three months I have learned a lot about what can happen if you are not on top of every moving part.
I love our venue, I really do, it was the only one we saw. BRIDES, buyer beware! Any and all venues, contractors, or vendors have a contingency within their contracts, they can change, update, alter or move anything without your approval, fires and other “acts of god” do not hold them liable. Over the winter we were delighted to hear about the upgraded tent that was now available at the farm. We, especially Donna, were thrilled to hear they would be providing a sailcloth tent with wood floors throughout.
Because I am a bit neurotic I needed to see the tent myself. Home for a weekend, Donna and I took a drive to the farm. Let just say that trip was not so pleasant. With these new upgrades, came new questions and concerns. We have addressed them and will be planning accordingly.(still a work in progress) The new tent is setup at a different location within the estate grounds than originally agreed upon. We have to change ceremony location and find a way to accommodate the elderly/handicap. My aggravation with this situation is/was the lack of planning. When the team agreed to set up the tent on the larger lawn, I thought they would have arrangements for every possible sition or question we had. Well call me crazy… They didn’t. (again we have and are working this out)
If you have been following you will have read that the boys’ suits have been ordered! I took the liberty of getting them all ties. One, because I didn’t trust them, and two, because I had a very specific color I wanted them to match with. If you want something done right, do it yourself!
I finally found ties, on sale, and almost the exact color I wanted. Only challenge was getting 11 of them. I figured there would be more in the back, or online. Nope! They were no longer available online or in a store within three states from me. I was advised to call a store in Texas. Their inventory system said they had 9 ties available. I thought perfect, they could send the remaining 8 I needed. This was again another problem. The first women told me they could not ship product (Mind you I was ordering at Macy's). I finally talked to someone who told me I needed a macy's card to ship out of state and blah blah blah. Two hours later they were ordered! While I was shopping and dealing with the crazy people on the phone Matt was enjoying himself a Friday night beverage with work friends.
We have had some success with the bridesmaids dresses. They are in and look great! My dress on the other hand, is a different story. Without giving anything away, it is about four sizes too big. We are working on that too.
Last but not least, I want to warn all Brides, Bridesmaids, Grooms, Mother of the bride etc. DO NOT PARTICIPATE IN ANY SPORT THAT COULD CAUSE SERIOUS INJURY.
A few weeks ago we were heading out on a friends boat to to do some wakeboarding, needless to say that day turned into a mess. On one of my runs I fell which was normal, no problem. Well I had a freak accident and got the line wrapped around my upper right arm. I didnt want to be a baby so I looked at my arm and the massive rope burn and kept going. About an hour after and a drink or two in, I asked Matt to take a look at my arm. His face was not comforting. The bruising looked like something from a horror movie(as shown). I had a work trip to LA two days later. TSA stopped me at security check in. “Miss are you traveling alone?” I was like this is weird… why would they ask that? Then I realized that my arm looks like someone beat it with a bat. I am so lucky my arm didn't get ripped off and this didn't happen in late August.
I’m sure to have more stories, problems and breakdowns before the Wedding.
-Ash
