February

5 months to go! It is starting to seem a little more real each month. I think when we hit four months it will feel soclose. This past month we have worked on quite a few details. One of the first ones was to figure out what we wanted to do for our honeymoon and make the registry for it. We decided we want to go to Italy for about 2 weeks . We will spend one week in Florence (where Chris lived) and then one week down south in the little town of Positano, on the Amalfi Coast. The only thing that would get in our way of going is if Chris gets a full time fire job and his schedule would not allow. I would be so upset! I am worried that we will make reservations and then find out we can't go. I really don't want to lose any money paid. We registered for our honeymoon because we have been living together for almost three years. We have all kinds of stuff and a small apartment. It might be different if we had a house, but we loooooove to travel and the gift of that is really what we could hope for. We went with the website Wanderable because of the ease of creation, they don't charge a fee, and their design is nice.

Shoes
In other news I finally found (I think) my wedding shoes. Finding shoes was hard. It seemed like ones that I liked where too expensive or looked uncomfortable. I'm pretty sure that the ones I have now will be the ones. They are not too high, and not too low. They are comfortable and sparkly!

Hotels
Another thing we nailed down was the hotel for night before and night of the wedding. We are staying at the Coronado Island Marriot. The grounds are pretty, it is right by the ceremony location which makes it very easy. My parents room will have a small kitchen that will be helpful if I have any DIY stuff left to do (I may make the boutonnieres for Chris and all the dads). We will also be staying there for our wedding night. Since we don't plan to leave right away for the honeymoon we just wanted somewhere to crash. I am sure we will be exhausted.

Party
Last month my mom and I checked out some locations for the rehearsal dinner. We looked at Il Fornaio and Candelas. Both are close to the ceremony site. My mom has been very gracious in planning the rehearsal dinner and I am very grateful because I am busy enough with just the wedding. Our ceremony site is in high demand so we are most likely going to have to do the rehearsal in the morning. We would hate to show up while some other people are getting married and we can't do it! Our rehearsal will be a lunch at Il Fornaio. I am really excited because I like the restaurant a lot and it is in a gorgeous location along the water. Hopefully our wedding weekend has amazing weather because that is the best time to be along the bay in San Diego.

Bridesmaid Dress
There is only one bridesmaid in the wedding party, so I told her she could pick her own dress within some guidelines that I gave her. I think we have different styles, so finding something she is comfortable in and that goes with my idea will be the goal. Below are pictures of what I am looking for:

The pink one shoulder

I am looking for something floaty and romantic. In a fresh pink (not too pale). Below is a dress that my bridesmaid says is her style. It isn't floaty like I want but it would work. Overall I want her to be comfortable in what she is wearing!

Invites
The last thing we have been working on this month are the invitations. I designed them all myself and I finally finished them. I found the perfect script font for our names. The task was to figure out how to get them printed. I thought it would be nice to have a printer do that and then cut them. We got a good quote from a printer for $75 bucks to print them all. That seemed nice, but I designed the invitations on Microsoft Publisher. This isn't a program that graphic designers use and when he opened the file in his better program it was (his words) "a disaster". However I had done it, made it so that he would have to go in and try to redesign some stuff. Also, one of the special fonts I had was not showing up. I would have to go purchase the font ($100). So it ended up looking to be more expensive than $75. Our printer at home prints them just fine (no disasters). I decided I would just suck it up and do the printing and cutting myself. I bought some heavy duty paper and then all of the gray envelopes. I also bought a return address stamp. I can't wait to start printing and assembling them. I hope they turn out how I see it in my head. They are totally of my design and I am very proud of them. I have also been practicing my calligraphy for the addresses!

Here is what we are working on between now and April
1. Bridesmaid dresses
2. Decide on men's attire and buy ties and pocket squares
3. Finish and send out invites
4. Finalize my wedding day look
5. Start wedding day timeline
6. Continue working on DIY decor

Check and Check

January is upon us. This last weekend marked the "6 months until the wedding" date. Time is moving waaaay too quickly. The good news is that we have hired our final "vendor" and now just have to start working on the details. I finally ordered the ceremony chairs which seemed more complicated than it should be. Rental companies have so many rules regarding how you use their equipment. Anyway, the chairs look like these without the pink chiffon. We will leave them plain.

I am also still thinking about arranging the chairs in a semi-circle. Since our location is public I want to create some intimacy and also make it so that people can sit closer to us.
We finalized the cake order (took forever). We decided to go with cheesecakes in all different flavors. It ended up being more cost effective as well because they aren't a "wedding cake" that requires tiers and elaborate decoration. We are happy!
This last weekend my mom came down to visit and I picked up my wedding dress. We ordered it back in April, so it was nice to actually have it in my hands! It is exactly how I remember it. I had purchased some shoes that I was thinking would go, but they don't so I am back to the drawing board on that. I am very picky about my shoes! Here are some pictures of dream shoes (all of which are ridiculously expensive-therefore, out of the question.)

Her shoes in this picture. Too bad they are literally 11 years old (picture was taken in 2001)

I have a couple pairs I ordered and am waiting to come in the mail. We will see if they are right when they get here!
I am also happy to report that my mom found her mother of the bride dress! It was totally by accident, we were walking around the South Coast Plaza mall after picking up my dress and happened to walk into a dress store. I saw this gorgeous dress there and it just looked like my mom. It looks great on her. I am not going to post a picture in case she wouldn't want me to.
On Sunday we went down to Coronado to look at the restaurants near the wedding location and also check out some hotels for guests. It was a perfect day and since it is January ....no tourists! yay! Coronado really is an idyllic place. It has the feeling of a small town on a lake, but with the big city right across the bay. We found a hotel that is nice and closeby, it even offers a free water taxi across the bay where guests can then take the train all over San Diego. It felt like a very productive wedding weekend.

Taken from the park where we are getting married. :-)

Next up on the list
1. Finish the honeymoon registry and honeymoon planning
2. Think about bridesmaid dress
3. Figure out what we want to do for our wedding night and book it.
4. Finish the guest list and update any changed addresses
5. Start making the invitations!
Good thing my timeline for all of this is by the end of February. We have a busy two months. I am helping a fellow teacher coordinate a wedding this weekend for her side business, Chris is teaching full time and working as a reserve and hockey coach part time, and we are going to Denver in February for 4 days for a hockey tournament! I would also like to squeeze a Vegas trip in there somewhere too. Fun times ahead!