Fountain of Sadness

Meeting with the reception caterer tomorrow to discuss the menu. I went to a Bridal Show this past weekend and, overcome with the beautiful possibility of a nacho fountain (yes, dear friends, such a thing does exist), I resolved to discuss at this meeting my idea to have a second caterer (of nacho & chocolate fountain fame) to offer up her foods alongside our original caterer's spread. Happy and excited, I came home and shared the news with my business manager - I mean, fiance - who agreed to email the fountain caterer for price quotes.

After looking at her website, Jordan decided that, in addition to the nacho and chocolate fountains I had picked out, he also wanted to do a coffee bar to go alongside our cake and potential chocolate fountain. Jordan has several passions in life - peppers, cooking, guns, spanish, me, theology, and coffee. The fountain caterer responded quickly to our query - the total for these three items would be over $3,000. I couldn't believe it! That's more than either of the main caterers quoted us for an entire spread of heavy hors d'oeuvres.

My business manager also shot down my request for a $1300 videographer I had fallen in love with at the show. I'm convinced that bridal shows exist to convince the bride to spend more money, or perhaps to have her heart broken. What do you think? Ever wanted something frivolous very badly, only to have the budget and/ or reality come up and hit you hard in the face? I mean, really, a nacho fountain? Not simply unnecessary  - also ridiculously lavish and potentially health-hazardous. :)

Wedding Sweeps

I bought my wedding dress this past weekend! Can't wait to wear it on our big day. :)

Since the engagement, I've been entering into several different sweepstakes. I've already won a set of Lenox toasting flutes for our big day, lost a free engagement session, and, in the latest set of sweeps, entered to win a $100,000 wedding and wedding planner through Crate and Barrel. The entry (go vote for us) is here: http://www.ultimateweddingcontest.com/entry/103183

It's been kind of fun entering these sweepstakes, but it's also been a little strange - asking people to vote for you is difficult and feels a little smarmy! It's something fun to do, though, and it would be really nice to win a huge prize that makes planning just a little bit easier.

To enter into the contest, we had to create our first real wedding registry - you can view it from the link to the entry page I posted above. That was a lot of fun. Crate and Barrel had cute pre-made collections, i.e. "Everything You Need to Have a Fabulous Mantel." I chose a few of those that fit our personalities ("Everything You Need to Display a Personal Photograph Collection," "Everything You Need for a Fabulous Bar," "Everything You Need to Host a Cheese and Wine Party"). After adding these collections to the registry, I added a few settings of dinnerware that we liked and, voila, I had a qualifying registry!

I still can't wait to go to Target and use one of those awesome registry guns, though. :)

Speaking of wedding deals, my favorite store, Hobby Lobby, has 50% off of diy bridal supplies this week! I don't like a lot of their bridal merchandise (it's either too traditional or too tacky for my taste), but I was able to get 24-packs of wedding bubbles for $2 each, which is a steal! I also bought some ribbon on sale in the colors that I like and some stick-on gems (pearls, blue & purple gems, etc.) for the bubbles.

Wedding planning is stressful, but it's also a really great diversion from the horrors of graduate school, let me tell y'all.

Learning to Like Veggies Again...

...Green Giant helps.

Some of you (a select few) may know that I started Weight Watchers on Saturday. This is a big step for me, as I've done Weight Watchers in the past (with huge success - I lost a total of 61 pounds). I was nearly within twenty-five pounds of my goal weight, and looked like this:

I pre-paid for nine weeks. NINE WEEKS. That's a commitment. Over half a semester! It was a great deal - I would have had to pay a $10 joining fee, then $12 a week, but, on this plan, they waived the joining fee and I'm only paying $11/ week (and all at once, not spread out each week).

I'm at home with my parents in Nashville tonight and Mom decided to cook dinner - she had a frozen pasta and veggie mix (7 points on new WW PointsPlus, 4 points on the old Points system - we figured it up, just out of curiosity) and a Green Giant veggie package. I had a cup of pasta and vegetables, and a cup of the vegetable mix - around three servings of vegetables, total. My meal was over half vegetables.

I had a sort of break-through while eating that meal. I was feeling sorry for myself last night, wailing and weeping (literally) over my perceived misfortune at choosing to commit myself to relearning how to live and eat at this point in my life. I went out to Taco Bell and got a beef taco and pintos and cheese just because I could. This is not necessarily a bad thing - It was only a seven point meal, but it was the defiance that I really enjoyed. Hell yeah, I'm gonna eat Taco Bell. Screw you, Weight Watchers!

While eating my meal tonight, I realized that this is LITERALLY the first time since I quit weight Watchers that I've had a meal that was over 50% vegetables, let alone nearing 75%. And, let me tell you, I was full afterwards.

I had lunch today with a prospective caterer at the City Cafe in Nashville. I ate delicious tilapia, mashed potatoes, and a corn cake. After tonight's dinner, I still have 18 points left. 18 points! That's enough for dessert several times over, if I decide I want it. I am super pleased and remembered why I lost sixty pounds on WW back in 2005. Their plan works and, with commitment from me (as with anything in life), I almost never felt like I was denying myself. I hope I'm good enough to remember how good WW has been to me and can leave the "feeling sorry for myself" antics behind.

Wedding Gab

It's been a month since Jordan proposed and I accepted. Since then, we've researched venues, attended bridal shows (overwhelming), refined our vision, rethought our vision, redefined it, and returned.

The one thing that's been amazing is how much everybody wants to help! My mom's cousin Caryn has been sending me links to various contests. We've already won a beautiful set of toasting flutes from Lenox! My aunt Teresa has really been helping us articulate what we want and my sweet neighbor has taken it upon himself to give us free reign over his gay-rage of decor, give us amazing ideas, and even offer himself as an amateur caterer.

We're still waiting to hear back from the church so that we can set a date, but we're looking at mid-October. We found an awesome photographer that we're going to meet with this Sunday, have already started a contract for a cake with a bakery in Dickson, and have picked out Save the Dates (waiting on the deacon at church to get back with us so we can actually buy them). We even bought placecard favors that are amazing. :)

We have ideas about what we want. Decor and details should reflect who we are as a couple. Mom has been advocating that Jordan and I sit down and write out our vision for the wedding so that we aren't forced into compromise by well-meaning people who only want to help, and so that we can better articulate our wants. I've found that I have a lot of difficulty articulating what I want. Like I said, we have strong ideas, but I hate the feeling I get when I put one of my ideas out there and get a less-than-excited reaction from well-intentioned but outspoken folk.

The thing that's most overwhelming to me (of all things) is table linens and chair covers! Table linens are ridiculously priced, both to rent and to purchase. Should we get linen napkins as well? The cost is astounding. We found a place in Memphis that rented covers for $1 a chair (plus set up fees), but none that we've seen in Nashville have been that inexpensive! Am I being ridiculous for wanting chair covers? Should I just suck it up and go with the uncovered reinforced plastic folding chairs that come stock with the reception hall? Is it really that big of a deal? I bet chair covers will look crazy anyway. At least the plastic folding chairs are aerodynamic and simple. 

The wedding, when it finally arrives in October, will reflect who Jordan and I are as a couple. It won't be perfect, but it will be amazing because not only will it be the culmination of ten months of preparation, but because it will also mark the beginning of our forever. That's all that will really matter when we look back on our wedding album in ten, twenty, thirty or more years. 

Houston, We Have a Guest List

I am a huge planner when it comes to something I'm excited about. We are still ten or eleven months until the wedding (we haven't even set a date yet - we'd have to meet with the parish associate/ deacon and he's out of town this week), but I am planning everything I can. I think my fear is that, once I get into the semester, school work will have me bogged down and unable to plan.

We have our guest list.

We've already contacted (through my aunt) a sweet DJ who offered us a sweet deal.

We've been working out a budget.

We've been researching locations, cried at how expensive they are, etc. etc. Now we're trying to decide whether to use the parish hall or go with an outdoors, more expensive by at least $900, but probably way more once you factor in the cost of a tent, venue. The parish hall has two really beautiful patios, but I'm not sure how you'd incorporate them. The smaller one is off of the reception hall, but the larger one is at the back of the parish life center, on the bottom floor, and overlooking the blacktop.

I've also taken my ring to be resized! I am anxiously awaiting its return - we dropped it off on Monday and the jeweler said it could be a whole week until we get it back. In the meantime, I've been wearing an imitation sapphire costume ring of my Mom's, just because wearing a ring makes me feel like an engaged woman. My brothers think I'm being ridiculous. "Shouldn't being engaged to Jordan make you feel like an engaged woman?" I can't explain it, either to them or myself, but seeing a ring on that special finger gives me the warm-and-fuzzies. :)

We're also thinking about doing paper flowers for the bouquet - Jordan made me a gorgeous bouquet of paper roses for Valentine's Day last year and I've kept them, so paper bouquets and boutonnieres would mean something to us and they'd help lend that cutesy, folksy feel I'm hoping for. I'm brimming over with ideas! Now that I've gotten over my oh-god-this-is-going-to-be-so-hard-oh-god phase, I'm really excited. :)

I know the wedding is still nearly a year away, but it's never too early to plan, right? Right?

We've also been playing Cass's Wii yesterday and today. I love this thing.