Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas Everyone!!

I just wanted to wish everyone a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year. If we would have been on the ball, we would have had our engagement photos done a month ago and you all would have received Christmas cards in the mail...well that did not happen so a picture by the tree will have to work for now.

Our plans for Christmas consists of meeting up with most everyone in the immediate family. Christmas eve we will be spending with mom, Luke & Amy and Christmas day we will meet up with dad, grandma & grandpa Decker, Patty & Ken, and it sounds like Paulette & the kids are going to try and make it home. After the festivities we will head back to Brookings and then onto Wanda, MN to visit Randy's family on Friday. Saturday and Sunday we will be staying in the cities and heading to the Vikings game on Sunday. They need a win to keep their playoff hopes alive. Go Vikes!

I did contact the photographer to get our engagement session set up. Haven't hear back from her yet, but understandable as it is so close to Christmas. I will keep everyone update when we get a day scheduled.

Lately we have been thinking a little more about getting a dj booked. Art & Bridget have a friend we are looking into. He does weddings as a side job and I tentitively booked him this year for my "imaginary wedding." Who knew it would come sooner than later.

Since we are getting married in the Catholic church we also need to get signed up for marriage classes....Randy is on that, aren't you dear?

Ordered my dress!!

So I decided on a dress, and it is ordered. The one at the French Door that I wrote about a few weeks ago is it! And this weekend it was 20% off.

There was a visit that I didn’t tell everyone about. After one of our fall weddings, my birthday to be exact, I wanted to go show it to Randy. I know there it is superstitious or whatever it is to let the groom see the dress before the wedding. And I think that it is pretty unheard of for the groom to see the bride before the wedding in her dress.

When I found this one that I really liked, I showed it to him on the internet. Looks good or fine I believe he said. I didn’t want it to be just fine. I wanted him to like it as much as I did. So I took him there to show it to him. If he didn’t like it I needed to know. I wasn’t planning on trying it on, but it was kind of like taking a kid into a toy store again and he or she seeing a toy they really want for Christmas and then not letting them play with it. I needed to play with it again. So, I tried it on.

I will never forget the look on Randy’s face when I came out of the dressing room. I think at that moment, I knew this would be the dress I was going to get married in. He was doing something on his cell phone when he looked up and saw me. Kind of a look of shock or wow this is going to happen and hmm that dress looks really nice…was how I read his face. If I remember correctly he said, “Hmmm…wow…that is gorgeous.”

I stood in front of the mirror again with my mom, brother and fiancé behind me. All the time thinking to myself, yep this is going to happen, and it is going to happen in this dress.

We left and I spent the rest of the day asking Randy questions, and making sure he really liked it. Then I had to ask myself…He wants to marry me. Will it really matter what dress I pick? He will think that I look beautiful no matter what dress I wear. And on that day, nothing else is going to matter.

YEAH!!! I can’t wait!!!

Catching Up…

I thought I should have the blog reflect some of the colors we have chosen for the wedding. I spent a good chunck of Sunday trying to get it just right...enjoy! Oh and I have added a new bridesmaid to the wedding party.

Nothing much new to report from B-town this week. I haven't seen my new island light yet. So, I will be emailing that guy today. I had to work at the bank Saturday morning and my dear Randy lost his mind and decided to go tailgating. From 9 am until about 4 he and some friends stood outside like popsicles to cheer on SDSU for their last home game. After a meal at Cubby’s and a few beers, I think he was feeling better. This week Randy is packing up to leave town. Tomorrow bright and early at 5am he heads out. Crazy enough he hasn’t been too upset about it. He does get to spend 4 days in California, so I guess I wouldn’t be complaining much about it either!

We, well I hit up downtown Brookings on Halloween night. I love Halloween!! From a young age, mom always wanted Luke and I to dress up in different “themes” with her. The Wizard of Oz is probably the one that I remember best. Mom was Dorothy, I was good witch Glenda, and Luke was Toto. So, I can blame my love of dressing up as someone else once a year on her! Thanks Mom!

As you can see I have updated our picture. Randy dressed up, but just to go over to a friend’s house for the evening. All of my Halloween excitement must have rubbed off on him! We had a blast and I am glad that Halloween was 2 weeks ago, as the weather was much nicer to walk home in than it would have been this last week.

That leads me to my next point. I am NOT ready for winter yet. We were spoiled for the last couple of weeks with the 60 and 70 degree weather and now every other day they are predicting snow. I don’t like it one bit. This weather does however reassure me that I am going to be happy that my wedding day won’t be freezing cold!

Have a good week everyone!

MIA Cell Phone

I had a great week…

Monday we had to get tires put on the Monte Carlo, a nice $150 bill.
Monday, I lost my cell phone.
Tuesday night I broke a light in the house.

So much for trying to save money for the wedding. I think this week we have spent more than we have made. We knew the tires on the Monte we getting a little rough. Randy was having to put air in the 2 back ones about once a week. Then it was about every 3 days, and then they needed to be filled everyday. Not wanting to go into winter with bad tires, we bit the bullet and had some new ones put on.

I have to give an unnecessary plug for Wal-Mart/Sam’s club tires though. A few years ago tires were my Christmas present. I needed some for my car, it was Christmas, it worked out. Mom picked them up at Sam’s. Sam’s has this road hazard program that basically says they will fix the tire for the life of it as long as it was driving related at any Wal-Mart or Sam’s location. Hole in it, screw/nail in it, etc. if they cannot fix it, they figure how much tread is left on the tire and give you credit towards a new one. Since we only needed to get 1 tire, the other was fixable, they gave us $50 credit towards the new tire. $50 is $50 people.

My cell phone…Agh.
While tires were begin put on the Monte, we went and had a nice romantic dinner at Arby’s. I called my mom, sent Art a picture message of Randy enjoying his Arby-Q, and then….
Your guess is as good as mine, when finishing that sentence. We went to Wal-Mart and picked up the car and I reached in my pocket for my phone when we were leaving, and it was gone. I figured I must have thrown it in my bag or something and would worry about it when I got home.

I checked everywhere. In the car, in the house, emptied my bag and called and called and called it. I called Arby’s to see if I had left it in the booth or on the table. They told me nope, nothing had been turned it. I called Wal-Mart and they told me the same thing.

I didn’t think I would be this upset over loosing my cell phone. I mean come on it is JUST A PHONE. But I am super pissed. I am mad that I have to get a different one, I lost my numbers, and I really liked my phone!!! I have never officially lost a cell phone. I ran over one with my car once, but I found it. I am afraid this one is officially gone. As I think about it more, I have to wonder if we possibly threw it away with our garbage at Arby’s. I though I was more responsible than that, but maybe not.

Speaking of being responsible…The broken island light.
I was on the couch the other night watching a little TV and looked over and saw my special-ed cat Steve just hanging out on the counter top. ABSOLUTELY NOT! Our cats are in no way allowed on the counter top and when they get up there, I pretty much freak out on them and chase them around the house. I knew he would see me before I could get a head start on him, so grabbed the first thing I could see and tossed it in his direction. Well, the island light got in the way, and broke all over the counter top.

This was the icing on the cake for the week and it was only Tuesday! I was able to find a light on e-bay and it should be here in a week or so. An easy fix, to something stupid I did.

Moral of this post…last week wasn't my week. This week has to be better!

Photographer: Check!

Friday was a big day. We went ahead and booked out photographer.

Over the last month I have been checking out every photographer from here to Sioux City, IA to northern Minnesota. Everyone I really like is way too expensive and everyone that seems to have ok pictures ends up being affordable.

The photographer we chose is Erin Smith, Life in Picture Photography. She is from Arlington, SD and works part time at Harold’s in the portrait studio and is just starting up her own photography business. I met with her about a month ago as we both really like the pictures she had posted on her blog site, she was also relatively inexpensive, and we soon found out she didn’t have a whole lot of experience. After meeting with her, we still liked her work, but I wanted to look around and see if I could find someone with a few more weddings under their belt.

So, what changed our, or my mind? It seems like since we got engaged, so did ½ the people at the bank. As we started talking dresses, flowers, and pictures, I kept mentioning Erin’s name. Most of the people ended up checking her site and asking for pricing information because, they too liked her work. Well, it occurred to me. I keep telling all of these people about this photographer, why don’t I have her booked? Or what am I going to do when I am finally ready to book her and then she already has a wedding that day? There isn’t anyone else we really like.

I talked to Randy, and he said was ready to book her 2 months ago. So I did. I signed the contract wrote her a check and dropped it in the mail. It feels really good to know that the photographer is booked. We are getting a good price and she is all ours for the ENTIRE day. She comes with me to the salon and will stay as long into the dance as we want her too.

I am excited. Having her booked, lets me cross one more thing off my list. Now, we move onto our DJ…

DIY Project #2

I wouldn’t call myself a do-it-yourself bride at all. Everything that I thought that I might want to make, I have decided that it would be easier and really not much more expensive to have someone else take care of it. Take invitations for example. By the time you buy the 2 or 3 different kinds of paper, ink for your printer or pay someone to have them printed, ribbon or any extras, and the time it will take to put 200+ invitations together. I can go to a place in Sioux Falls and have them printed, assembled, and ready to go for about $100 more. Sold.

There are a few projects that I am going to tackle on my own. People are probably looking at my heading on this one and saying when did I miss project #1? DIY project #1 is how I asked my bridesmaids to be in the wedding. Since I haven’t asked them all yet, I can’t tell you how I did it. Stay tuned for pictures, as I will share later!!

So, project #2
About 2 years ago, we were down and Randy’s cousin’s wedding in Iowa. There is always the lag time between the bride and groom arriving, food being served, etc. Anyone under the age or probably 10 has an attention span of what 5 minutes? At this wedding each kid was given a coloring book and 4 crayons. I can’t speak for everyone, but I know for the 2 girls at my table, it definitely kept them busy for awhile.

This is something I can tackle. I have prices out crayons, and printing a few coloring sheets, cheap. I think it will be something nice to have for smaller children to keep them busy when their parents have run out of ideas on what to keep them occupied with. I have also thought of going one step further and making a small activity kit. It would just include a few more things, stickers, crayons, and whatever else I can find.

This is something that I can work on now. I have found some pictures to use and some little mazes and matching games to put in the book. I am going to start getting some things printed, work on a cover and find my cheapest place to buy crayons!

Limos, cakes, photographers…oh my!

So if a person didn’t come up with enough ideas on their own on how to spend money at their wedding, they have bridal shows to help you out. Mom, Amy and I hit up a show in Sioux Falls a couple weeks. It was interesting. Limos, cakes, wine, photographers…oh my!

Within the last month there have been 2 bridal shows in Sioux Falls. Got to go. Chances to win prizes, money, all sorts of stuff. Most of all I have been interested in the photographers and DJs. One of my websites sent me and email the other day. It basically reminds me how many days left until the wedding. This week it told me that I am 10 months 2 weeks and some amount of days away, until the big day.

I need to pick a photographer. So we wondered thru the 7 or 8 isles of wedding stuff and talked to a few people. We check out their pictures, then their pricing, picked up our jaws off the floor and moved on.

I had no idea wedding pictures were going to cost so much money. I want someone that is good, but I don’t want to have to spend a fortune. After all how often do you look at your wedding album and wedding pictures? Especially after you have kids, how many pictures of your wedding do you keep on the wall? And we keep looking….

Another thing that we are looking into is having someone come in and help us decorate. The one problem with the Days Inn is that you can only get in at noon on the day of your event to decorate. Oh yeah, how in the world are you suppose to get that done during, hair, pictures, and all the other preparations that are going to go into that day.

I have talked with a couple of people who do the decorating for you. You rent your centerpieces, candles, coffee beans, whatever you want from them. But the best part is that they come in and talk care of everything for you. You tell them what you want, pick it out and you are done. No one has to haul everything around make sure it gets there and is set up and hold their breath that we are going to like it.

Still need to work out some of the details and talk to a few more people, but for a couple hundred bucks I think this might be the way to go. The last thing I want is for people to worry about how it is going to look and if we are going to like and to hurry up and get it done to try and make the 2:30 wedding. I want everyone to just relax and just have fun.

Dress Shopping

So, with weddings on Saturdays and other events filling up our weekends, I have been trying to find some time to dress shop. Most of the places I go remind me that I want to order my dress about 6 months out. That gives time for them to make it and gives me a couple months for alterations.

I have been looking….and looking…..and looking. I have found some dresses that I like, but they are just ok. By far not the one I see myself getting married in.

At Ryan’s wedding few weeks ago we were hanging out at the dance. I looked at my mom and I told her that tomorrow would be the day. I had checked enough places and we were going to find my dress that Sunday.

The next morning, we showered up and headed to the French Door in Sioux Falls. Amy was coming with again, and I guess Luke had no better options and he showed up too. I grabbed a bunch in the style I have liked. Strapless with a wrap or gather around the waist. Some had a little beading, others had a lot with lace and whatever and I was trying them all on. I found one I liked. It has some beading, a wrapped waist, diamond white and a corset back. Yes…put this one on my list of likes. I also grabbed 1 that wasn’t really like anything I had tried before. It was fabric at the top with a little beading and then a different beaded design down to my waist. It wasn’t the right one for me. The beading stopped in a weird spot on my waist and I just didn’t like it.

The sales lady, Monica, pulled out another one that was similar. A little more deal, and more beads, but it again stopped in that weird spot. I said nah, and had her put it back on the rack. Amy, Luke’s girlfriend, was with us again and just didn’t like that I put that dress away. She grabbed it off the rack and said this one is really pretty; you just need to try it. Before I even had a chance to disagree she had it out of the bag and in my dressing room.

Oh man, I might owe her big time. Unfortunately this dress didn’t zip all the way up, but everything else about it was pretty much perfect. I really, really, really like this one. There is just enough beading, but not too much, and the train is absolutely beautiful. It is beaded all the way down the back and around. I just really liked this one. At one point I looked back at my brother and said “Hey, what do you think?” “That one is pretty nice,” he said, “I really like it.” Man if you can get approval from your brother that you look good, it must look good!

I wanted to try on the other one that I had liked. So, I put that one back on, had her tie me back in the first one. Oh, it was really pretty too. I danced around the mirror for 10 minutes or so and then asked to put the other one back on. (Oh, she had to be glad to see me go!) As I walked out of the dressing room and caught myself in a mirror across the room. Oh man, it looked sooooo pretty! I may have started crying in the store. So here I am tearing up in the store with my mom, my brother and his girlfriend.

After that Monica asked me what was keeping me from ordering the dress today. Basically it comes down to this. I only plan on getting 1 wedding dress. I want to try on everything. Every style, every designer, everything.

I have 1 more store to hit up in Sioux Falls and then I will be out of places to go in the area. I want to be able to go in and try it on again if I want to, so I don’t want to find something in the cities or anywhere that is too far of a drive. I want to be able to go in and look at it when ever I want. However, this one, well it just might be the one.

Wedding Weekends

Wow! I have been pretty rotten keeping you all updated on wedding planning. No updates in almost a month. I think that is a blogging no, no.

I guess there really isn’t anything too exciting to report. Between Randy traveling and other weddings to go to our weekends have stayed busy heading into fall. Usually fall means things start to slow down and for sure wedding season is over.

Not exactly on our calendar. 2 weeks ago we had a wedding for some friends down in Sioux Falls, Ryan & Ashley. Randy missed it, as he was in San Diego for work. Yeah, don’t feel too bad for him! For October it was a beautiful day. Their colors were brown and cream and it was very fitting with fall in the air. The reception and dance followed and I think the best part of the evening, was the food. Instead of regular meat and potatoes…it was a taco bar! I loved it, different, unique, and it was really good. Sorry folks, don’t expect anything too unique and exciting for our meal!!

The dance was a blast and with open bar and my brother, mom, another friend Jane, and I bartending, well people were getting more than they paid for! By the end of the night, no one really needed another drink, so anyone reading this…sorry to say, you pretty much just got pop! Ha Ha, jokes on you!

Last weekend, another wedding. Again in Sioux Falls, and again the same colors. The church they were married in was gorgeous. It is pretty new on the west side of Sioux Falls. A lot of the design reminded me of St. Thomas Moore. Looking around at everything, I think I have decided that when it comes to church decorations, less is more. I like the idea of letting people enjoy the beauty of the church. Chances are you won’t be there again, so why not enjoy your time during the wedding, watching the wedding, not checking out the decorations.

The reception and dance were at the all occasions event center in Tea. Hy-Vee got it right with this place. You write them 1 check and they pretty much do everything else. Cater, decorate, serve, tear down and clean up. The dance was fun, but seemed to fizzle out quickly and most of the guests were gone by 10 or 10:30. HEADS UP PEOPLE…I want a fun dance! I want everyone dancing and having fun. If you don’t dance, please stay and hang out. Have a drink, talk to my family, Randy’s family, friends, the wait staff, bartender, I don’t care, just PLEASE DON’T LEAVE EARLY!!! This was one of the main reasons we wanted to have the reception and dance at a hotel. People will have no excuse for leaving early to drive home. Get a hotel and stay the night!!

What should I be doing?

I feel like I should be doing a lot more when it comes to this whole planning thing. Dress, started looking, date – check, booked reception hall and church.

What else should I get started on? Invitations? Programs? Decorations? To me, all of this stuff comes later. But I feel like if I don't start working on this stuff it is going to creep up on me very quickly.