Check... and Check

Our meetings with the florist and hotels last weekend went well, and as of this afternoon both are officially booked. That's two more checks off the to-do list!

I had heard rave reviews about the florist we met with, Connie Riemer. Mark and his Mom both came to the meeting with me, and while we had intended to shop around for flower prices we all walked out of the meeting with the same reaction: Wow, she's great!

Connie was great to talk to. I only had one or two pictures I had printed of bouquets I liked, but she immediately tuned into the style we were dreaming of but couldn't verbalize. She gave us so many options we wouldn't have thought of - and I had never heard of green roses before! We're both really excited that she'll be doing the flowers for the wedding.

We also visited a few hotels that day, and picked the one we'll be using the night of the hotel. The Residence Inn in ITC will be our home-away-from-home for the night. One of the neat things about the hotel is that every room in a suite. We also really liked that they served a hot breakfast every morning. Hopefully, we'll be able to meet up with everyone who stays at the hotel the next morning for breakfast.

When Weddings Go Bad

In the wedding planning process you run across the good, the bad and the ugly. And, you hope and pray that you only book good vendors and that if some of your ideas are bad, someone knocks some sense into you before it's too late.

That said, it's entertaining to see some of the disasters. This gem was passed along by ehostilo on the Knot: Cake Wrecks http://cakewrecks.blogspot.com/

While a majority of them aren't wedding cakes (there are a few!) it's a great laugh.

Pictures, Phase 2!

For anyone interested in seeing more of the engagment pictures, Nicole from Photography by Nicole Marie, uploaded all of our pictures (including the awkward, outtake ones). They're all here: http://www.printroom.com/ViewGallery.asp?userid=shuttermom&gallery_id=1214634

We're so excited about them, and so glad we picked Nicole to shoot the wedding. 11 months and counting!

Apparently, We’re One of those Couples

Mark started working in Manhattan yesterday, which I assume means we’ve officially moved. After this morning’s phone calls, I’m really glad that we got a bunch of the big vendors booked before the move.

I had called the florist we met while touring Perona earlier this week, and set up a meeting for Saturday morning. Of course, going up for just one thing seemed a little bit of a waste considering how high gas prices are, so I called a few hotels this morning to see about setting up room blocks for guests.

While I was trying to schedule an appointment with one of the hotel sales coordinators, I mentioned it would have to be a weekend because we’re now living out of the area and wouldn’t be able to make it up during the week. She responded with a friendly, “Oh, you’re one of those couples! Sure, no problem. We know it’s hard to plan from a distance.”

Hard?! It was a moment of panic on my part, until I realized that we really have quite a bit done. And hopefully, even more done after this weekend’s appointments.