In Memory

I'd like to start off by saying that I have been blessed with the most amazing grandparents ever. My dad's parents have been happily married for over 60 years now, which was amazing to grow up with them being nearby.

My mom's parents were married almost as long, for over 59 years until my grandmother's death on December 26, 2006. My grandpa died this past year as well, and I miss them terribly.

All the little rituals I had with each of them that my parents didn't know about when I was little. How I'd go to church with grandpa on Sunday morning so I could stay with him on Saturday night and play checkers for Andes mints he kept in an old check box and watch the Lawrence Welk show with him and grandma. How they taught me the words to the songs. Helping grandma put together her intricate puzzles.

I wanted them to be at my wedding this June.

I'm going to carry them with me, instead. Yesterday I bought a locket pin from Ebay, and I'm going to shrink copies of the pictures of them that always sat on their dresser at their house to put in the frames. I'll attach it to the ribbon binding my bouquet.

Here are some pictures of the locket in it's current state:

Catering Woes

I need to just sit down and choose a catering company, hammer out contract details, get an estimate, and make a deposit.

The company I had been looking at just raised their rates from what I had previously found, and it's my own fault that I didn't schedule a phone meeting or just go ahead and book them to reserve the date before they changed to lock in the rates.

It's not like I'm looking at complicated food. Just appetizers. After all, the reception is starting at 8 PM. I just don't think that the price for an appetizer buffet should be the same as a simple buffet meal. It just seems ridiculous to equate the two.

Mostly I'm looking for a menu I can live with. The dessert buffet idea got canned because it seemed that serving massive quantities of sugar and alcohol seemed like a recipe for disaster, even though it's the closest to what I would want.

Which is essentially a massive sugar fest. Or carnival/fair food, like mini burgers, boneless barbecue chicken wings, funnel cakes, and cotton candy. To me, that sounds perfect and fun...but probably not what is actually going to happen.

Well, I just emailed the bakery/caterer who I'd looked at originally last spring and summer. Right now her prices and options seem the most reasonable, and it's really close to the reception site so the food wouldn't have to be driven through the majority of Kansas City before it reaches the guests, which is always a good option to try. We'll see how this goes.

Rings for Everyday Wear

When I told my mom that these were the rings Andrew was ordering for me for everyday wear, she thought I'd lost my mind. After all, we're poor college students, and he's going to seminary after he graduates at the end of this year. We will not have money for a very long time.

But that doesn't take away my sparkly yearnings.

I just had to learn to redirect them to an affordable medium. Because this gorgeous ring set to the left is from Kohls, available only through their website. And they're cubic zirconia set in solid sterling silver.

At least, they claim it's solid sterling silver. I'll find out eventually, because I'm allergic to most of the metals they use as bases for costume jewelry. Only silver, surgical steel, gold, and titanium seem to be okay for not causing my skin to break out in a rash. Apparently my body has expensive tastes in jewelry that I didn't have an input in.

We won't be using this set for the actual wedding ceremony, though I may still have the day-of photographer take some shots of them. That place is reserved for my great-grandmother's engagement ring that my aunt had reset, but it's so delicate and special that I wouldn't want to wear it every day and risk harming it.

The engagement ring I wear is on loan from Andrew's mom. It's her original engagement ring, and I've tried to take excellent care of it. But I needed rings that would look really great, but I wouldn't feel incredibly guilty if they had to have something fixed on them, and these fit my desires.

I love princess cut stones and the channel settings are so sleek and modern. To me, the impact is more important than the cost estimate. This way I get the best of both worlds: engagement and wedding rings steeped in family history and love, and a new set to show off who I am as a person, who is much more modern than traditional.

Hired Lens

After a lot of internet research, I've decided to go with Phoenix Photography to cover the wedding. I love the fact that I get access to the digital images and everyone can view our photos online and place orders themselves if they so desire. When I talked to John Phoenix on the telephone he was just so well-prepared for any of the questions I came up with and ready to volunteer more ideas and information than I had thought of.

Currently my plan is to take as many pictures as possible before the ceremony, and he suggested doing a "first meeting" location during the day after we get ready and then taking pictures there with the bridal party. Union Station flashed into my mind, just because it's a place I love to visit whenever I'm in Kansas City, one where Andrew and I have gone many times to hang out when we weren't exactly flush with cash. It's nice to think of incorporating an element of our dating relationship into the photography for our wedding.

I'll be talking with them more in the upcoming months, but it's nice to have one of the most important (to me) vendors settled already.

Say Yes to the Dress

Okay, so I'm not the biggest fan of the show by the same title, but I do think it's a cute name. The show is just more than a bit too stressful and likely to provoke doubt and envy.

Because I already have my dress. I picked it out when Andrew and my parents helped move me to Kentucky from Missouri, and Andrew, Mom, and I went to David's Bridal, which was supposed to be the first of a couple stops. But while I already had ideas that I wanted a chiffon, floaty-type dress with many layers but no beading or embroidery.

Well, the dress I found fit one category but not the other.

No embroidery or beading, not overly complicated, just simple satin a-line with a punchy blue bow that my bridesmaid dresses will match. I'm still not sold on how the petticoat makes the front look (I think it creates something of a shelf when I walk), but ordering it can wait.

At least with David's Bridal I know that if I have a problem with the dress I bought in Kentucky, I can take it to the one in Kansas City for a quick fix. Or possibly a ribbon in the right shade of blue to make everything okay.

New Year, New Plan

To start out the new year right, and hopefully keep people a bit more in the loop than I've had luck doing previously, I'm starting a wedding blog. (Clue #1: This is aforementioned blog.)

For friends, family, kindhearted strangers, etc. to peruse my wedding plans as I try to wind down the next five and a half months without becoming a bridezilla or otherwise mentally snapping. Though it's not easy to plan a wedding in Kansas City while you're living in Lexington, KY and going to grad school full time and working a full assistantship. Add to the fun that you're not actually from Kansas City (your fiance is) and he's still going to school full-time in Missouri to finish his undergraduate degree.

But there are good things. Like being engaged to the right guy. And having temporary custody of our psuedo-child, Archimedes (Archie) the shih tzu. I love my job and mostly my classes, so it's a pretty good life right now.

To start off the blogging fun, I figured I could catch up to where I am in planning and post pictures of what I have so far. Let's get started, shall we?