Doing it myself

Thanks for the comments yesterday! I didn't mean to make it seem like I was already stressing over bridesmaid dresses- I'm actually not. I think that I was just recognizing that it is going to be difficult to do with different body shapes and bridesmaids scattered around the country.

Also, I wanted to apologize about my lack of comments lately. I am not able to get onto Reader at work and I try to do a lot of my reading on my phone while on the bus. It's really hard to write comments so I end up wanting to comment, but then forgetting to by the time I get home. I will try to get better!

Moving on......while I appreciate wedding websites such as The Knot- what with their checklist and the budgeter tool- I am already getting annoyed at them. I have been trying to figure out how to ask my four favorite girls if they will be my bridesmaids and all websites are trying to get me to buy edible invitations or cards in order to ask them. While it is a cute idea and not very expensive, little things like this tend to add up and before you know it, you are over budget and not able to purchase something you REALLY need for the wedding.

So, I decided to make my own invitations. To save trees, money on the cards and stamps, etc. I made a word document and attached it to an email (see below). The actual document has a bit more information on it, but you get the idea.

A girl can never have too many dresses in her closet………

……what’s one more?*

Will you be my bridesmaid?

*My intention was to put an ugly bridesmaid dress as the picture- it is a bit much, yes? :-)

This weekend CP took me out to a fancy-pants dinner to celebrate my bar passage. It was absolutely delicious and totally unexpected! At that dinner we decided that we will each have 4 people standing for us at the wedding.* CP also joked that we aren't going to have anything to talk about when the wedding is over. "Is that why people get pregnant so soon after getting married? So that they have something to talk about?" Ha ha.

Anyway, I am a little worried about one of my friends and whether she will agree to be a bridesmaid. I went to law school with her and while she currently has a law clerk job, it is not what she wants to do and might also be temporary (depends on bar passage and other things). If she does get her dream job she will probably get married pretty soon afterwards (they got engaged in March and have been waiting to elope until she gets a permanent job). And then? They plan on getting pregnant pretty soon afterwards because he is in his late 30s and wants children before he turns 40. I definitely would understand if she felt money-wise that she couldn't be a bridesmaid, but I won't deny that I will be very sad.

Keeping in mind that one of my bridesmaids is a teacher and the one above is not in a permanent job, I would like to keep costs as low as possible. As my potential bridesmaids are scattered- one on the East Coast, two in the Midwest, and one out West- I certainly don't expect them to make it to everything. My best friend who will be my maid of honor has already said that she is ready and willing to do whatever I need. She's great. However, I see myself leaning on CP more than my bridesmaids simply because all of them are a plane flight away. We'll see I guess.

My choice for bridesmaid dresses will also be very interesting. Three of the bridesmaids are as tall as me, while my maid of honor is short. Three of the bridesmaids are skinny, while one is overweight. Two of the bridesmaids are very booby, the other two have mosquito bites. How do you find a dress that looks good on everyone?? I know that some people give out a swatch of fabric and tell their bridesmaids to find a dress themselves, but I really do want everyone in the same dress for pictures.....


*I have two guy friends that I would LOVE to have as guy bridesmaids but CP and I both agree that it might look a little silly. I guess that while we don't want to worry too much about traditions, that it one that we will follow. Maybe they will do a reading or something?

What a load off my back!

My stomach was in knots this morning as I kept refreshing the website for the supreme court. What will I write on my Facebook status if I fail? What will I write on my Facebook status if I pass? Two minutes before 9am, I refreshed and suddenly the results were up.

I PASSED THE BAR!!!!!!!!!!* What a freakin' relief. Seriously. Now I never have to take that damn test again!

Of course, I couldn't quite celebrate with champagne this morning as I was at work conference in RI (and have been since Weds). Currently it's very windy and very rainy so the drive back to MA is going to be interesting. But I do know of a bottle of Prosecco (Italian champagne and my favorite) that is sitting in our house just waiting to be opened! CP spent part of last night making stuffed quahogs (clams) for our happy hour/ appetizer Friday so that should be a yummy dinner.

When I called CP to tell him the good news he was excited. And then said, "good thing you passed because then we stay engaged. You know that the engagement was predicated on you passing the bar." Ha ha. Not funny CP.


*My Facebook status immediately went to "HOLY CRAP I PASSED THE BAR!!!!!!"

Wedding facility questionnaire

As promised, here is the questionnaire we sent out to potential reception sites. Feel free to copy and paste and send out yourself!


Facility Name

Facility Address

Contact Name

Contact Tel. & Fax

Contact Email

1. Do you have the following dates open (Y/N)? (we listed our top three dates here)

2. What is the base cost for your facility?

3. Can an outside ceremony be held at facility? (Y/N)

4. What is the cost of the ceremony fee?

5. How many people can your facility hold for an outside ceremony?

6. Is there a reception package? If so, is it the same price as your answer to question #2? Please list price if it differs.

7. If so, what is included with the reception package?

8. Do you charge extra for things such as cake cutting, corking, service staff, gratuity, meal tax, etc.? If so, please list prices.

9. How many lodging rooms are available on site for overnight stays?

10. Is there a minimum number of rooms that we must reserve?

11. Is there a bridal suite (to freshen up) available?

12. If so, is the suite included in the reception price quoted above? Please list price if the suite is not included.

13. Do you have liability insurance?

14. What is the length of time for the reception for the above quoted price?

15. Is there an overtime fee?

Min:___________________

Max:__________________

16. What are the minimum/ maximum times of availability?

17. Is there a minimum guest count?

18. Will additional parties be going on simultaneously?

19. Are we allowed to rearrange items in the reception room (s)?

20. Are the use of dishes, tablecloths, glasses, etc. included in the quoted price above?

21. Are there kitchen and cooking facilities onsite?

22. Do you allow outside caterers?

23. Is parking available for the quoted price listed above.

24. Do you have coat rooms or racks available at the quoted price?

25. Is there a bar on site?

26. Does the facility have a liquor license?

27. How much does it cost for an open bar or is it included in the quoted price above?

28. Do you allow the bride and groom to provide their own alcohol?

29. Are there any dress codes?

30. Are there restrictions or regulations on music (for instance, music must be turned off by 10pm)?

31. Do you offer a wedding consultant the day of the wedding at the reception price quoted above?

32. Is a police officer required at the reception?

33. If a police officer is required, is the cost included in the reception hall price?

34. How much of a down payment is required?

35. What is your cancellation policy?

36. Please provide any additional information that you would like us to know about your facility.

37. Additional Comments:

Crazy future brides

So this weekend CP and I went up north to look at places for our ceremony and reception. Our questionnaire* went out to probably 30 places; about 20 replied (which we thought was pretty good given the short amount of time). We ended up making appointments with six places (3 on Sat, 3 on Sun) based on cost, location, etc.

The first day was just okay…CP would have been fine with one place but I thought that it looked a little worn. One of the places the first day had a hold on the weekend that we wanted, but the owner said that it was a tentative hold. You see, some woman who is NOT YET A BRIDE has come THREE TIMES in the past year to look at the place. She keeps putting a hold on the same weekend and promising that she is going to be engaged soon.

I have one word for that potential guy: RUN!!! While I think that it is great if you want to think about where you might have your wedding, what kind of dress you would want, the flowers that you would have, etc. I think that actually going and putting a hold on a place before you even get engaged is a bit ridonkulous (especially if you have been doing it for a YEAR). I understand that there are places that have two year waiting lists (definitely not this place) during busy times, but not once did the guy come and look at the Inn. He probably doesn’t even know about it. So this woman is basically already planning the wedding before he even gets a chance to do some looking around and before they are already engaged! The owner of the Inn certainly made it sound like this woman was a bit crazy.

Moving on…..we almost didn’t go to our last appointment on Sunday as we were tired from driving and all of the meetings, but kept it anyway. Thank goodness we did. As soon as we stepped on the property, we knew it was the place. A beautiful mountain backdrop, a cute inn that we could take over for the weekend, owners that we thought we would be able to work with, peak fall foliage, and a cost that was within our budget. Our wedding date is now set for October 3, 2009!!!!**


*I will post the questionnaire so that any future brides/ grooms can use it if they would like. We decided to send out a questionnaire before visiting the facilities to be able to compare site costs and amenities. We read that some places will nickel and dime you with a facility rental fee, but then not tell you that tables, chairs, and linens are not included and that you have to rent them separately. So, in order to not be surprised and to have information going in so that we could ask more thoughtful questions, we had them fill out a questionnaire. Two of the places actually said that in the 10+ years they have been doing weddings they have never seen a questionnaire and were impressed. Go us!

**I was really hoping for this date as our dating anniversary is October 2nd (3 years next week!) so now our wedding anniversary is only going to be one day off.

Leaving town?

So yesterday an opportunity came up to volunteer for a 3 month rotation down in DC. I have to do a 3 month rotation in DC for my fellowship anyway and CP and I decided that the sooner I get it done the better because it’s going to get very hectic when it gets closer to the wedding. If I was selected, I would head down to DC on December 1st and stay for three months. It sounds like a great opportunity in a different division, working on stuff that is very current.

However, if I fail the bar (which puts my stomach in knots because I will hear on FRIDAY) I have no idea how I am going to study for the bar (AGAIN), work long hours in DC, keep my relationship from falling apart because we won’t see each other every weekend, AND plan a wedding. Oh god I hope I passed the bar.

Why are you talking funny?

So based on your comments from this post, I am going to go to a MAC store and buy all new makeup. Luckily, I only need a few essentials which means not spending *too* much money. I guess milking 10+ years out of a couple of colors of eye shadow is a good value. ;-)

Since I am having a hard enough time remembering to call my fiancé “fiancé” and not “boyfriend” at work, to friends/ family, etc., I think that I should change his name on this blog to something else. So I don’t confuse people in a year when he becomes my husband, from now on he will be named CP.

Housekeeping items aside.

This weekend CP and I headed up north to stay with his dad Friday night. His dad and girlfriend graciously offered to watch fuzzy britches for us while we checked out wedding locations. CP’s dad was talking a little funny when we first arrived at the house….we came to find out that earlier that day he had lost a front tooth!!! CP’s dad is a little older than my parents- he is in his early 60s. He tried to call the dentist on Friday after it happened but never got a call back. So all throughout dinner he was the butt of many jokes. We were all joking about taking a picture of him smiling and sending it to my parents with a caption of “can’t wait to meet you!” Poor guy. His brother has had problems with his teeth as he has gotten older and just recently had major surgery to fix everything so it was a bit embarrassing after all of that ribbing on his brother to suddenly be without a front tooth.

Despite the jokes, we had a nice dinner. Both CP’s dad and girlfriend are really excited about the wedding which is great. They wanted to hear about everything that we had talked about so far, the places that we wanted to check out for reception sites (and even offered up some of their own suggestions), how formal we want the wedding, etc. CP’s dad even offered to pay for the rehearsal dinner which was generous of him.*

More on the weekend tomorrow……


*This might be a little interesting as CP’s mom has not mentioned about paying for anything. However, she is currently planning her own (small) wedding in November and her fiancé is currently out of work so we are not expecting anything.