Update

Wedding is coming very soon!
What's happening?

• My dress is in and it fits wonderfully! Just need a fitting for few minor things and a bustle!
• Bridesmaids' dresses are ordered and will be here in month
• My mom's dress is ordered.
• Met with the florist and should receive my proposal this week.
• Booking a DJ in the next week (I've procrastinated on this one!)
• Invitations are being shipped this week. Can't wait to see them!
• Fitting for suits starts tomorrow
• Bridal shower is being planned
  

Still need:

• cake topper (think I've got it narrowed down)
• ribbon for cake
• Tiara?
• garter
• cake serving set
• votives
• place cards

Oh yeah, and we bought a house!

Dress Shopping Take 1!

When I finally decided that it was time to start dress shopping, I decided to start at a local boutique that also has a bridal department. My mom, my MOH, and BM T headed there one Thursday when they were open later in the evening.

This particular store carries 3 brands of bridal dresses, Allure, Casablanca, and Maggie Sottero. They were arranged by brand and size and the saleslady allowed us to go through the racks and pull anything in which we were interested. They also had a sale rack of sample dresses for sale. The selection was limited due to sample sale they had had a week before, but we were able to find several dresses to try.

We got a spacious fitting room and got to work. The saleslady left us alone for the most part, so we were able to sneak pictures of the dresses. (I am unsure what their actual photo policy is and I was too chicken to ask, so we were sneaky.) One bonus for this shop was that the tags on the dresses had the designer, style, color, and price on them, so we were able to get all the information we needed.

Here's what I tried on... (If you are marrying me, close the window RIGHT NOW!)


First up, Casablanca 1930. (Forgive the lack of a head in these pictures...the dressing room wasn't quite spacious enough for pictures.) This is a halter a-line dress with a semi-cathedral train. The sample was in ivory and I loved the color. This dress was from the sale rack. If I bought the sample, I could save $300.

Dress #2 is Maggie Sottero's Mirabella. This was also from the sale rack. I am trying to avoid strapless dresses, but I tried this on just to try it. I didn't care for the asymmetrical bottom of the skirt. I did like the corset back because it made the dress fit well.

Dress #3 was Casablanca 1905. Loved the lace on the top, but the skirt was too plain for me. Also, the sash and bow were velvet, which was an odd choice, I felt.

Dress #4 was Casablanca 1937. I liked the style and the lace. (Can you tell I love lace yet?) But, I hated the beading under the bust on this dress. The saleslady thought it would be possible to get the dress without the large beaded flower that I objected to on the front.

Dress #5 was Casablanca 1899 (hmm, can you tell I liked Casablanca's dresses?) This sample was a little big, so it was hard for me to get a good idea of what it really looked like on me. You'll notice my mom is behind me holding the dress tight. I thought this one had some potential.

Dress #6 - Allure 8634 Again, I liked this style and the lace. However, the lace on my shoulders was itchy. It bothered me for the few minutes I had the dress on and I feared it would be worse if I had to wear the dress for a whole day.

Dress #7 - Maggie Sottero Reyna My MOH picked out this dress. It was too plain for my taste. I loved what it did for my waist. It also had a ruffle on the side, which I'm hiding in the picture because I thought it was ugly.

That's all the dresses I tried on for my first shopping trip. I had a great time and got some good ideas of what I did and did not like in a dress.

How was your first dress shopping trip?

1 Year!!!

Wow, I have so much to do!

Photographer is almost booked. I can't wait to blog about that!

Dress shopping will start soon. Just as soon as I can manage to do the 30 Day Shred more than one day a week.

Mm Mm Good!

Or so we hoped.

As I mentioned before, our reception site is owned by a caterer who we are required to use. I've heard good things about them previously, but I was still a little apprehensive about our food. Catholic Groom and I are picky eaters. Very picky eaters. I really wanted to be able to eat something at my own reception.

My apprehensiveness caused me to delay contacting the caterer for several months after we booked the ballroom. I finally decided it was time when CG and I scheduled a week long vacation from work. We were able to book an appointment a week ahead of time and they asked us to call back a couple days before with choices of what we'd like to taste.

CG and I looked over the menus that had been included with our reception packet and picked out several different meats to try. We will be having a buffet, so we had to pick two meats. We also decided to try the green beans because I am picky about my green beans.

Our tasting was free and we could bring along whoever we wanted. We asked my mom and CG's brother (who is a groomsman) to come along. CG's brother does a lot of cooking and I consider him to be a foodie. I knew I get good feedback from him.

When we arrived, we were greeted by a friendly gentleman who turned out to be our caterer. He brought out our selections 2 at a time and gave us privacy to try the food and comment on it among ourselves. Of course, I took pictures!

First up, the ham.
I love ham. CG does not. In fact, he wouldn't even try it. This is a honey-glazed ham and it was delicious. Sweet, but tasty. I was sold on having this as one of our choices. Beforehand we had decided that we would do ham and a chicken dish, so I tried this to be certain I liked the ham.

Next, bourbon glazed chicken breasts.
We were all curious to try this because it was so unique. CG and I both liked it and wouldn't have minded including this on the menu.

Next, baked chicken.
This one was boring. At first, we all thought it would be BBQ because of the red sauce, but it wasn't. The caterer told us later that it was a rub that used paprika or cumin or some such red spice. I didn't think it had much flavor to it at all. It was out as a choice.

Next, Italian marinated grilled chicken breasts.
This was awesome! I loved it, CG loved it, mom loved it, brother loved it. It was a clear winner! In fact, I plan on having both ham and chicken on my plate at the reception!

I didn't get a picture of the green beans, but they were nice. The caterer made them almondine, of which I'm not a big fan. The great news is that our caterer is more than willing to make anything you want. So, we asked him to make the green beans with bacon because that's my favorite vegetable.

After we tasted everything, we sat down and got to business. We discussed menu and made our choices for the other parts of our buffet. Here's what it looks like:

2 meats: Ham and Italian marinated grilled chicken breasts
2 starches: mashed potatoes and gravy and Italian herb papardelle pasta with alfredo sauce
Vegetable: green beans with bacon
Dinner rolls
Caesar Salad
We'll also be doing a appetizer course beforehand of fresh veggies and fruit with cheese and crackers.

Yum! I can't wait to try all the food at our reception.

Visiting the Reception Venue

As I said before, I considered this venue to be my number one choice. I was willing to change my wedding date to get it and I hadn't even seen it in person yet! I used the ballroom's website to contact them and after some e-mail and phone tag, we set up a time to visit.

Saturday morning, Catholic Groom, my (non-Catholic) mom, and I headed to downtown G-town. I love downtown G-town because it still has a wonderful vintage charm. The ballroom is on the third floor of a building originally built in 1909. We took the stairs to the top (there's also an elevator) and it was love at first sight!

The room has wonderful large windows on 2 walls with great views of the courthouse in the middle of downtown. I loved the vintage woodwork and the beautiful chandeliers. Even though the tables and chairs weren't set up, I could see great potential in the room.

Picture this without the horrible snow!

The manager of the ballroom gave us a folder of information and told us lots of great details. The great news? We won't have to rent anything! The tables, chairs, and linens are all included! We get the entire top floor which includes the ballroom, restrooms, a coatroom, and a smaller room to use however we want. Since the ballroom is so large, we can have the buffet right in there with us or we could set it up in the smaller room. We could also use the smaller room as a a set up area for the caterer.

And the best news? The price was well under budget! I was sold. However, I did take some advice from the bridal books and decided to wait a few days before signing the contract. I used those days to think about my decision, but in the end, we knew it was exactly what we wanted. A couple days later, I signed the contract and wrote a check. No turning back now! We have a church and a reception!

Bad Bride!

I've been a bad bride for a couple reasons. One, for not posting regularly. I promise to try harder, but since the wedding is still so far away, it's hard to accomplish any real planning.

Secondly, I'm a bad bride because I booked the first and ONLY reception venue at which I looked. In my defense, I knew I wasn't going to get anything prettier and still be in budget in our smallish town. We live only 30 minutes away from South Bend (home of Notre Dame), but I wanted to keep our wedding in this county since we'll be having people come from out of town. Plus, a bargain budget doesn't offer many choices.

I researched many options online. I looked up places listed in local wedding announcements and kept coming back to the same idea. A local catering company owns 2 ballrooms. One in E-town, the town in which we'll be getting married. In fact, the ballroom is right down the street from the church. I thought it seemed like a great idea. No chance for people to get lost on their way and it's a popular choice, so they must be doing something right. I couldn't find many pictures online, but the few reviews I found, were positive. Another point in it's favor? A girl who was once a close friend of mine, had her wedding reception there. I figured if it was good enough for her discriminating tastes, I'll like it too.

I then decided to see if I could find any information about the catering company's other ballroom. This one is in G-town, right next to E-town and the town I consider myself to have grown up in. Googling the name gave me a website. The minute I saw the pictures on the website, I was in love. After all, what's not to love about hard wood floors, big windows, and chandeliers?

Source

The details all sounded great, but would we love it once we saw it in person? And did the mandatory caterer fit into our bargain budget? Stay tuned!

How many venues did you consider?

Inspiration Board!

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