Booze: Check!

If anyone's wondering what $1300 worth of alcohol looks like...




There you go! Our original budget for alcohol was $1500, so we came in $200 under budget AND we also bought 8 bottles of wine for the rehearsal dinner, which was not in our initial alcohol budget at all.

We will probably end up returning some, but we just didn't know what folks would want to drink. Beer? Wine? If wine, red or white? If red, pinot or cabernet? If none of the above, vodka or tequila? And so on...so, we probably overbought, but I really, really don't want to do a beer run in the middle of our wedding. We also bought toasting champagne (excuse me, sparkling wine!). We'll have 3-4 bottles of champagne for guests to drink before the toasts if they prefer to drink champagne...those are Moet, left over from Mr. T's cousin's wedding. The toasting ahem, sparkling wine is Gloria Ferrer, which was a recommendation from my codancer who loves champagne, so we totally took her advice with no hesitation. We are also serving the same chardonnay (Benziger) and pinot (Castle Rock) that she served at her own wedding, so thanks, Rachel!

For the cabernet we went with Smoking Loon, which Mr. T likes, and for beer we went for two more of his faves (and also locally brewed!) Anchor Steam and Trumer Pilsner. He also picked the vodka, of course, which is Ketel One, and I obviously picked the tequila, which is Corralejo (Herradura is my fave but was a tad expensive, unfortunately).

Buying the alcohol took all day. First I placed an online order at BevMo. I saved 5% because it was my first online order (Score!). We also got our chardonnay for essentially half off because of BevMo's five-cent wine sale (buy one bottle, get the next bottle of the same wine for five cents, on selected wines! Double score!). After we placed that order, we had to wait an hour for them to get everything together so we could come pick it up. So we went to Safeway, because they had an amazing deal on wines. A discount for 6 or more bottles of the same wine, PLUS an additional 10% off for 6 bottles of any wine, period. We saved $110 on 24 bottles of wine. Excuse me while I pat myself on the back for suggesting going there as our first stop! Triple Score!

Our next stop was Trader Joe's. Unfortunately they were sold out of the margarita mix, but we did buy the rest of the wine for the rehearsal dinner there, plus the remaining bottles of pinot (Safeway didn't have enough in stock).

After Trader Joe's we swung by BevMo to look at beer and pick up our order. We bought two cases of Anchor Steam there, and at this point my credit card was declined. "Oops," I thought, "I should've called them." I bet hundreds of dollars of alcohol purchases in an hour raises some red flags. So I put the purchase on another card, and we picked up the online order. The woman who helped us out to the car complimented us on our wine and tequila selections (patting myself on the back again...and Rach, you should too, since you picked the chardonnay). "It's for our wedding," I confessed with a smile, and she congratulated us. All day I told people about the wedding, whether they wanted to hear about it or not, since we were getting a lot of attention around our massive alcohol purchases.

We dropped off all the booze thus far at home and I called my card and reassured them that yes, it was me, buying crap for my wedding, nothing to worry about. The operator congratulated me and restored my card to good standing and we were off again! [Lest anyone worry about my credit card spending...no worries, it's just on the card until I can transfer money from our savings account, which takes a couple of days. We're a no-debt wedding! As a matter of fact, we have extra in our wedding savings. Hooray!]

Next we took a break from alcohol and went to Target. We bought CANDY for the candy buffet. $100 worth of candy is a lot of candy, but unfortunately I didn't get a pic of that one to show you. We also bought coloring books for the niece/nephew. I had a crisis in the middle of the lane at Target. I literally could not pick up the coloring books with the Disney princesses on them. "There must be something else," I kept muttering. I had no idea I felt so strongly about this issue until I was confronted with corrupting my niece with them. Finally Mr. T suggested Dora the Explorer and I grudgingly went along with it. He of course had it easy and picked out a superhero coloring book for his nephew. Anyway, we also picked up frames for the parent gifts (we're going to give them wedding photos, so they'll get the frames with "picture coming soon" signs in them), plus tooth whitening kits (yes, we're vain), and I got some cute Halloween tees for myself for $6 each, which I thought was a score. As we checked out the checker (who reminded me of Kristin Wiig's character on SNL) asked if the candy was for trick-or-treaters or if it WAS ALL FOR US. And then she said people sometimes told her they were going to keep the candy for themselves. We're talking about 20+ bags of candy, here. That's frightening!

Our next stop was another Trader Joe's. They did have the maggie mix, and by making nice with one of the employees, we got it in an unopened box. Hooray! After that we went to another BevMo, and since we were under budget, Mr. T approved the purchase of the Crystal Head vodka that I'd been dreaming about. It's going to look so awesome on the bar!



Plus if we run out of vodka we can crack it open.

After BevMo #2, we proceeded to Michael's, where we bought flower petals for our flower girl, spray paint for some of the used frames we bought for venue signage, more glitter for pumpkins, two types of glue, and other random stuff.

We were also supposed to make a stop at Pet Club for the littles but it was closed at this point. It was probably for the best, since we were soooo tired by then.

And finally, we stopped at Andronico's for two things:

1. Individually wrapped candy corn packets--we love candy corn and had to have it at the buffet, but we don't want any open candy, just wrapped. Andronico's was the only store we found the packets in!
2. The Trumer Pilsner beer, which was on sale, and because of the sale, they had cases in stock, which they normally don't. Quadruple score!

And then we went home and collapsed.

To-do list for this week/weekend

1. Meet with officiant re: vows again.
2. Finalize seating chart.
3. Work on signage for bar, cupcake table, buffet table, candy buffet, gift table.
4. Work on escort cards and room map.
5. Buy alcohol.
6. Decide where we're buying pumpkins.
7. Buy parent gifts.
8. Buy candy for candy buffet.
9. Practice corset lacing with MOH.
10. Send out rehearsal dinner invitations.
11. Decorate cupcake tree (this might have to wait until next weekend!).
12. Wash and decorate candy jars.

I'm sure there are about 80 other things I'm forgetting at the moment. Here we go!!

Shopping Spree

After I looked at the MOH's dress options and we had our belly dance rehearsal on Saturday (told you it was a marathon day!) the MOH and I proceeded on our shopping extravaganza. First I decided we should eat, because I was getting hangry already and shopping wouldn't improve that. We had pasta. Mmmpasta. Second, we hit a TON of stores in a very short time period:

• A sock shop, where I got a pair of striped tights and a pair of striped socks. I think I'm leaning toward the socks; more comfy. They're over the knee, so they're still cute.
• Four lingerie shops, and no luck there. Can you believe it? Thankfully I hit up Macy's later in the week and they solved all my problems. Love them.
• A tattoo/piercing shop, to look at earrings. I thought I wanted black faceted cubic zirconias, but I didn't like them close up (the stone wasn't very big, actually) and they were $200! I ended up going with black horn earrings that are lovely and a bit art nouveau-ish and won't fight with the rest of my outfit. I got 10% off thanks to a coupon I've been hoarding for just such an occasion! But they were very reasonably priced, actually:

• A costume shop, to look at fascinators. They didn't have what I wanted, so I ended up ordering another one off Etsy from the maker of the red fascinator I previously purchased:

I can't remember if I already mentioned that since my dress fabric changed, the red fascinator no longer goes with it (that's what I get for ordering too quickly!). This black one is also lovely and the black faceted stone matches the choker that I believe some elves are buying me as a (pre)wedding gift:


It looks so great with the corset! I'm a very lucky girl with generous friends.

Anyway, after all that we also went to Sephora (for Fiberwig mascara) and then Nordstrom's to check out their lingerie (another fail) and also the MAC counter, where I proceeded to empty my wallet. I love makeup! I bought all of the eyeshadows and the eyeliner from the Dita Von Teese makeup tutorial. I also bought an eyeliner brush (since I bought the Black Track Fluidline gel liner) and the highlighting face powder, and those two things were my fave purchases. First, I wanted to bathe in the face powder, it was so dewy and glowy and awesome looking. Second, I had never used a professional eye liner brush before and IT CHANGES EVERYTHING. Such control! Such fine lines! Such even lines! I will never go back to the brush that comes with the eyeliner! Sorry to wax rhapsodic, but I just can't believe I've gone this long without a proper eyeliner brush.

We went to a friend's wedding on Sunday (it was lovely, and I took NO pix, because again, I'm a bad blogger), and I tried out the DVT makeup. Folks told me it looked good, but since I forgot to take pictures I'll have to do it again so I can see how it looks on film. Sometimes I change my mind about something once I've seen a photo of it.

The rehearsal dress came in and the material is, to put it bluntly, cheap looking. However, it does look really cute on, if I do say so myself, so I'm overlooking the cheap material. I think it's not as apparent once I have it on, or perhaps I'm fooling myself. I'll ask my belly dance girls for their opinion on Saturday, but I think it's a keeper even with the fabric. The design is just so cute!

Anyway, phew! Things will only get busier from here, I bet...

2nd Dress Fitting, Rehearsal Dinner Dress, and Cufflinks!

I went for my second dress fitting yesterday. I'd thought they were going to do another muslin, but this was my actual dress fabric--exciting! Unfortunately, they have to re-make the corset. The cutter didn't make the lace on the bodice wide enough, and the pattern of the lace was upside-down. However, it was fun to try it all on together! My first thought was that it makes me look very tall! Actually, that was my second thought. My first thought was WOW.

They are going to finish the corset that I tried on and sell it at Dickens Fair...funny to think of someone buying something that was literally made for me. I wonder who out there has my measurements?

Autumn, my dressmaker, is awesome and so nice. She is full of compliments every time I'm in there, about how great I look in the dress, how my figure is made for a corset, how tiny I look, and this last time she told me my arms look good. I could keep her around all day!

As usual, you can email me for pix...I can't post in case Mr. T checks the blog. I have another fitting in a little over a week. Yay! At that fitting I think we'll make some decisions about beading the corset and/or the skirt.

What I CAN show you is the dress I splurged on for the rehearsal dinner and/or the bachelorette. It's a little strain on the wallet, but it's so cute! Hopefully it looks as good on me as on the model...or at least, half as good anyway!



And, finally, we bought Mr. T's cufflinks today. They are Halloween with a classic look. I think you won't be able to tell they're Halloween-appropriate unless you're up close, which is very him. He likes his dark side to be more subtle.

Rehearsal Dinner: Check??

I forgot to mention that we may have found the place for our rehearsal dinner, although nothing's final yet.

We gave up on finding anything near the wedding venue, which opened up some places we'd ruled out before. I emailed our favorite Chinese restaurant in our neighborhood to see if they ever close the restaurant for private parties (the place is tiny, so we'd have to buy them out), and they said they did! We've been working on a menu, and it looks like we'll also have a tea presentation after dinner, which will be really fun. I love this place--they use organic produce and free-range meats, and they're known for their tea selection. And better yet, the prices are not going to break us.

We haven't put down any money yet, or finalized the menu, but I am cautiously optimistic that we've found our restaurant! Hooray!! And phew. I was getting worried there.

Invitations to Printer: Check! Plus, other random tasks

I'm so happy to report that we sent the invite files to the printer yesterday and dropped off the black paper this morning before work. Hooray! That is such a weight lifted. We were ecstatic after uploading the files yesterday.

Also, the printer has already sent us a PDF proof of our invite. That was fast! The owner told Mr. T that they were in a lull at the moment, so the printing might only take about 2 weeks. Hooray! That means, if we have some time to spare, that we can consider doing custom postage through Zazzle or a site like that, to coordinate with our invitations. If we use the post office's postage, we're stuck with some not-so-thrilling options, but we'll suck it up if we have to. I just wish they'd updated the Edgar Allen Poe stamps with the new rate...sigh.

This weekend we also accomplished a few other wedding tasks:

• We made our registries live on our wedsite. We haven't added flatware yet, but we can do that later.
• We tried two more rehearsal dinner options. This is turning out to be much more challenging than finding the wedding venue! To summarize, the Vietnamese place closest to our venue sucks, so we're looking at opening our search to restaurants without private rooms.
• We purchased a custom return address stamp from Etsy.
• We booked our hotel room for our wedding night, plus our photographer's hotel room for two nights.
• We ordered our cupcake stand (cardboard, to be painted and adorned by us).
• We purchased gifts for my bridesmaid and MOH as well as our officiant.
• I purchased a wedding band for Mr. T from an online jeweler...luckily we can return it to the company if he hates it.
• We purchased envelopes for our invitations, with extras for thank you notes. We also decided that lining the envelopes wasn't worth the hassle, so that's another thing off my list.
• We put some thought into our first dance and decided what we're going to do (but I'm not telling!)
• I scheduled my first dress fitting for this Friday! This is when I try on the muslin version. After that they order the fabric and get to work!
  

Phew! Only another 120 things to go!

Double-Digits

93 days left! I think I just started to hyperventilate a bit. Holy crap.

I'm still alive, obviously. I went to Hawaii to teach and perform and also vacation for a bit, and am now back in the chilly Bay Area, still groggy from the time change, and unable to wear any of the nice summer clothing I bought that actually fits me!

I did completely blow off the diet for a week, and haven't weighed myself yet, so who knows how I did in that regard. I'm afraid to know!

In news of wedding things achieved, Mr. T bought his suit. Luckily for us, he liked the suit they had in stock at Sak's, so he's going to have that one altered to fit him a little better, and only the vest will need to be custom.

We are almost done with the invitations and will probably get them off to the printer in the next few days. What a relief. We are probably not going to do any blind letterpress after all, but I'm not disappointed. Once I got to have black paper, true happiness was achieved. ;-)

We still need to settle the matter of the rehearsal dinner venue fairly soon. So much to do, so much to do!

Rehearsing the Rehearsal Dinner

It was a wedding-packed weekend, as you can tell!

This weekend Mr. T and I tried out two of the places we're considering for our rehearsal dinner. They're both Chinese food restaurants, which is why they have banquet rooms, and they're both in our budget.

The first place was highly reviewed on Yelp. It didn't have the most updated decor, although I'm not too concerned with that. What I am concerned about is language barriers...most of the servers spoke very little English. How would I explain that some of our guests are vegetarian, pescetarian, or have celiac disease? Still, the food was great. We had steamed fish dumplings with this amazing soy ginger sauce and I had tilapia with ginger and garlic soy sauce. I said to Mr. T right before the fish came out, "I hope they don't leave the head on it," and of course they did--it's one of those restaurants. Mr. T sampled a pork dish with veggies. He thought it was tasty. I was disappointed they didn't offer brown rice, but it's a small issue in the scheme of things.

The second place wasn't as highly reviewed on Yelp. The decor was a lot more modern, and we really liked the look of the banquet area, which was off to the side of the restaurant. The problem was, we discovered, that with a party of our size (about 30 people) we couldn't be guaranteed we'd get the whole room on a Friday night...they'd try and seat people in the other part of the restaurant, but if it got too busy, we'd have strangers in the room with us. Hm. The food was good, and they had brown rice, but I'd say the other restaurant's food was slightly better. However, I wouldn't be as worried about language barrier stuff at the 2nd restaurant. We had steamed shrimp dumplings that were yummier than the fish dumplings at the first place, although the sauce wasn't as good, and I had the grilled salmon, which was a huge platter of two salmon steaks. Needless to say, I had leftovers! The salmon was yummy, if a little overcooked. Mr. T had Mongolian beef, which he liked.

So, we have one more place to try, but it's a difficult one to sample as they're only open on weekdays. I'm secretly hoping the third place is our favorite because it's the closest one to our venue...literally walking distance. But, we'll see. The other two restaurants are close, but we'd have to drive, and in both neighborhoods parking is tricky, especially on a weekend night.

Mr. T and I are both a little sick of Chinese food, needless to say, after eating it all weekend. ;-)

More List Woes

This weekend I made an actual personalized to-do list for me and Mr. T. I know, it's long overdue, but we were getting by using the lists in our various wedding books. However, it became obvious that not only are we unusual in terms of the normal wedding in terms of what we're NOT doing, we're also unusual in that some of the things we ARE doing were nowhere on these lists. And I started to get worried that if I didn't get all that stuff out of my head and into a list, I'd forget something at some point.

So, I sat down and spent a good hour or two creating a list that had well over 100 things on it--more like 140! Mr. T and I promptly started bickering as he tried to eliminate things ("Do we need favors?") and I tried to keep them on there. Sigh. There's definitely a not-so-pretty side to wedding planning, and its name is stress. I admitted to Mr. T that my stomach has been hurting every night for the last week, and I think it's wedding-related. He told me he'd been feeling the same way. As it is, since we only have 4 months (OMG FOUR MONTHS) until the wedding, so our list would seem to have us doing more than two things per day, which realistically is never going to happen. But we're keeping everything on it for now.

The list did motivate us to check off a few tasks; I booked our photographer's flight, and Mr. T started legwork on the alcohol quantities and the mini-moon. I told him I don't want to know anything about the mini-moon; I just want it to be luxurious and I want at least one massage. Despite my protests, he's told me that he's considering Big Sur, but I stopped him before he could get any further with the information disclosure. Really, after planning this wedding, I have zero desire to plan anything after the wedding! I just want to show up and be pampered!

The other super-fun task we did was sit down with the budget to find out what the heck was going on--my reconciliations showed a difference between our spreadsheet and what the bank statement was actually telling us. Sadly, the bank was right (as I figured they would be!); I'd misplaced a decimal point in one entry and entered two entries twice! This is why I work in publishing, not accounting...anyway, we're not done saving money, as we'd hoped, but we're pretty close.

We are still looking for rehearsal dinner venues, and are leaning toward Chinese or Vietnamese, because they're local and have banquet rooms. And, we eat a lot of both, so they reflect our style and aren't random choices.

Next weekend I made it our goal to register and also to go suit shopping, part two. It's a three-day weekend, so hopefully we can get both done! The clock is ticking...

145 Days to Go and OMG, We Have So Much To Do

I finally joined The Knot because they had some articles on Halloween weddings I wanted to read. The articles weren't really worth it, it turns out.

I had to put in our wedding date as part of my registration and I got an automatically generated checklist. These are the things we haven't done, and many of them are overdue according to The Knot:

• Make sure to insure your engagement ring. [We do need to do this. We also need renter's insurance. Sigh.]
• Decide on and meet with your officiant to discuss ceremony structure. [We've emailed some stuff, but no real discussions yet.]
• Brides: Start shopping for bridesmaid dresses. [Actually, the MOH and I are going to visit the other bridesmaid in LA this weekend for girl fun and dress shopping! I can't wait, it's going to be such a fun little trip.]
• Register for your wedding gifts, and don't forget to include some choices appropriate for your upcoming bridal shower as well. [GAH. No progress. We decided to register at Bed, Bath, & Beyond, but aside from agreeing that we need new knives, we don't know what to register for.]
• Brides: Decide on the bridesmaid dresses. [See above...maybe we'll get that done this weekend, or maybe the girls will just be left to their own devices. My only stipulation is that the dresses be black, and not too short!]
• Book a baker [done], choose your wedding [cup]cake[s] design[s] [to be done], and send a deposit [done].
• Start planning the rehearsal dinner. [No luck on this front. I've researched a few places, but we've only tried one, with disappointing results. We need to get back on this. I would love a more informal dinner, like Mexican food with margaritas, but there's not much near our wedding venue/hotel. Sigh.]
• Start working on your invitation wording and design. [I am happy to report we started doing this last weekend, even though Mr. T had a cold. That's info for a separate post, though.]
• Finalize your invitation wording. [TBD]
• Finalize menu and service details with caterer. [We still need to pick a vegetarian main dish and a passed appetizer. We're not doing that until October, though, so The Knot will need to scream at us until then.]
• Order your invitations and announcements (don't forget plenty of extra envelopes). [Again, TBD. Invites will take 2-4 weeks to print after a proof is approved, so we're thinking we'll send them to the printer mid-July or so. I'm torn on the envelopes...it's tempting to just have the printer do the return addresses for us, but another part of me would love to do either black envelopes with orange lining or vice-versa. And that means ordering envelopes and doing custom liners. Hm.]
• Start thinking about flower arrangement styles you like, and figure out what flowers will be in season on your wedding day. [Well, I guess I have thought about it. But I'm not entirely sure about the seasonal thing.]
• Decide on a floral scheme, choose flowers. [Not really done. Except I'd like Fall colors, and primarily reds, burgundies, and a bit of orange.]
• Reserve tables, chairs, and/or other rental equipment you'll need (unless caterer or site is taking care of it). [Mostly this is done, but we have some stereo equipment stuff to sort out.]
• Grooms: Start looking to buy or rent tux, suit, or other formal attire. [We did start...we just didn't see much! And other plans have prevented us from going shopping again. Can you hear me hyperventilating yet? This list is a mile long!]
• Book rehearsal-dinner site. [Um, no. See above.]
• Book hotel room for your wedding night. [We haven't done this yet. I think Mr. T would like us to stay at a high-end hotel near our wedding venue, whereas I would just like it to be easy, so I want us to stay at the venue (although The Claremont is sounding mighty tempting). So we're still discussing.]
• Compile packages for out-of-town guests with hotel reservation (done) and city information, and mail them out. [Our "wedsite" gives hotel info, but no city info. I'm undecided about mailing out packets, but I suppose I could put something together...in all my free time.]
• Grooms: Decide on your groomsmen's attire. [I doubt if Mr. T has put much thought into this. He only has one groomsman, so it's a little easier. I think he'd like his brother to wear a suit, but who knows what color suit, or what color shirt, or tie!]
• Book your honeymoon flights (if not using frequent flyer miles) and make all your other travel reservations. [I'm putting this one in Mr. T's lap...the mini-moon, that is. When we take a real honeymoon trip I'll be recovered enough to help plan it. For the mini-moon I'd like relaxation, good food, and a massage or two. And some nice scenery.]
• Brides: Choose your bridesmaids' accessories (shoes, gloves, etc.) and either purchase or pass along purchasing information. [Well, my girls can pick their own shoes, and they don't need gloves!]
• Grooms: Give all of the groomsmen the information they need to buy and/or reserve their attire. [Nothing done here; see above.]
• Pick out or design a ketubah or other marriage contract required by your religion. [We don't have to worry about this one. Check!]

Note that this checklist is not everything we have to do...it's just everything we should be doing during this timeframe...next month, there will be even more items looming over us! It's feeling a little insurmountable at the moment. One thing at a time, right?

To-do List

On my to-do list this week:

• Finalize wedding website content, at least as much as we are able.
• Send save the date emails at least to family, so they can book hotels and flights.
• Contact more cupcakeries.
• Sign up for Weight Watchers.
• Talk to Mr. T about registries.
• Continue researching rehearsal dinner options.

And that's just wedding stuff...don't get me started on real life stuff!

I finally talked to the hotel in the marina and we don't get any special price for a room block, so I didn't book one. Our site is almost done; I just need photos of the best man and the ring bearer and we can publish it for the world to see! I also want to add more photos of us, but we have a good number up already, so I figure I can do that later.

The template is great because I can make all the updates and edits without harassing Mr. T, but it's limiting in that I can't move the pages around. Also the content is set to some extent. So, the second page has to be the photo album, which I think is dumb. That's the fun, fluff content that should come last! If I were organizing it, I would have a welcome page, then the info on the ceremony/reception, then accommodations, then registries, then the "about us" page, then info on local attractions, then the gallery. This template has the order as: 1. blog, 2. photo gallery, 3. guest book, 4. about us, 5. ceremony/reception, 6. accommodations (this was supposed to be some other page but I tweaked it to suit my purposes), 7. attendants, 8. registry. And, once we enable that page, the final page will be where folks can RSVP. Who designed this thing?

Well, I can't complain, I suppose. The price is right, and it is fairly easy to use.

Anyway, back to work!

Wedding Status Meeting

Mr. T and I actually had to schedule a status meeting this weekend to check in about our budget and guest list. I knew I wanted to discuss wedding stuff on Sunday, and he announced, "we'll meet between four and five," so we did. Well, I was doing laundry, actually, so we had to start late. Luckily he forgave me, although I did get some flak about being tardy while I was hanging my laundry. I found the exercise of having a scheduled meeting very productive...much more productive than talking to Mr. T while he's watching television, which doesn't lead to the highest retention rate.

We had to increase our budget by about $3000, thanks to our increased expectations about my dress, our rehearsal dinner, and a few other things. Luckily, we are still right on track in terms of our savings, so that's good. I'm glad I have all this budget training from my job...it keeps me honest on our spreadsheet.

Speaking of which, the spreadsheet I got off indiebride.com kicks ass. Clearly someone who knows and loves Excel created it. Unfortunately, while I can get by in Excel, I'm no master, and editing some of the formulas is proving troublesome. I'll figure it out, though, or I'll just MacGuyver it for my needs. The spreadsheet includes a tab for the guest list, with drop down menus indicating type of guest--his family, her family, guest/spouse, or attendant. Then it gives you a count and the percentage for each type of guest. It also gives you a count for the total number of invitations needed (though we're inviting about 100, we only need around 60 invitations). This spreadsheet practically does your laundry for you. I'm in love!

One tough decision we had to make was cutting a few of our guests, or at least putting them on our "B" list. I hate that. I wish we could just invite everyone. It makes me feel icky to decide that I haven't hung out with this or that person enough in the last few years, so they're off the list. However, unless we win the lottery soon, I have a feeling these types of decisions will confront us again and again. Sigh.

Wedding Costs ad nauseum

I apologize in advance for this, but this blog will probably focus on costs as much as it does the fun of creating an awesome Halloween wedding party or the excitement of finally getting married to my best friend/sweetie of 10+ years.

I was telling one of my book club girls last night about how I'd had very grand ideas about our wedding until I actually sat down with a spreadsheet and started pricing vendors online.

And then, to cement that thought, on Weddingbee I found a link to a wedding cost calculator, where you enter your zip code and it tells you the cost of the average wedding in your area. Now, I don't know where they get these figures from, but supposedly the average cost of a wedding in our town is $31,390! That's crazy! I thought $20K was ridiculous!

Mr. T's coworker is getting married this Fall, and his budget is $5K less than ours. I told Mr. T, "I want to see that budget." How on earth did they manage? I know that my dress is a little over the top for a budget wedding, but it's my dream dress and I feel quite attached to it already. Also, I imagine that Mr. T's coworker didn't put the rehearsal dinner in his budget, which I did. I have no idea where we're going for that, but that's a subject for another post.