Wedding Planning in a Recession...

So, Mike gave me my engagement ring for Christmas. A little earlier, actually.  I am delighted with the ring, it's so beautiful and it fits perfectly. It should, seeing as I have spent the last year occasionally dropping hints...

"White gold, size 7, round cut."

He out did himself....

So, now I am planning away! I have my wedding gown (a picture of which I won't post here, because Mike reads my blog) and my colors picked out.

The colors were harder than I thought. I knew that I wanted black and ivory, but I had no clue about accent colors. Since we are trying to save money where we can, I 'm doing the invitations myself, along with the favors.

The colors I finally picked are shown above: I just love the blue!

I ordered the invitations, which come with reply cards, from Hobby Lobby.  What a bargain, too. 25 invites, reply cards and envelopes for each for $19.50!

I am going to replace the black ribbon with black and ivory damask!












I am looking at flower ideas. I'm also trying to decide whether or not I want to do the myself. I'm fairly crafty, and Hobby Lobby has real looking and feeling stems in a ton of colors and varieties!

I'm leaning toward this, but with maybe a few rose buds. Or, just as it is, but I can tie the bouquet in the tiffany blue ribbon...

The thing that is killing me, and Mike for that matter, are the prices of venues and catering!!!  HOLY COW!!!  Country clubs are expensive and I'm afraid the food will be ordinary, run of the mill hotel type food. Not to mention the fact that the all charge a cake cutting fee because we are providing our own cake.  SERIOUSLY???  The bar packages are high too!  Dittos on hotels.  Everything is so cookie cutter, too.

So that leaves other venues.

Like museums.

We checked one out today. It's kind of pricy, but it's unique and we can taylor the package to our needs. I don't want a champagne toast. Mike hates the stuff and I can do without it. We can toast with wine.  The linen package, which a balked at initially, turns out to be what other venues would consider to be premium! I'm talking pin tucked table cloths (in Ivory), satin chair covers (in black stripes) and napkins in Tiffany blue.  If I want runners, they are fine with me supplying my own, since theirs are $10 a table to rent...I can whip up damask runners in no time! (I love Hobby Lobby!)  Those are considered BASIC linens in this place! There are a few more areas we can cut, which will bring the rental to about $3500.

This seems like a lot, but this is a museum! The ballroom is HUGE, they supply the tables, chairs, catering kitchen, the bar package is $16.00 per person for a 4 hour bar that includes sodas (the other places we checked out charge EXTRA for sodas, even with a bar package!) This also includes a bartender, set up, take down, valet parking, dance floor (usually a separate rental)...and the event coordinator will run the show for me!  There is so much more involved with the package.

Best of all I can HIRE MY OWN CATERER!!!!!!  Tatiana, the events gal, has a list of recommended vendors, but we don't have to stick with them!

Here's a link to the museum:Czech Museum

So. That's that so far. We are going to look at a couple of other places, one of them is an Art Nouveau Bar:  Art Bar which is kind of cool. I love Art Nouveau and we both like bars...plus the place is already decorated...Tiffany everywhere!  That's going to be an evening appointment, because of their hours. I also need to make sure that we can have under 21's in of we rent the place out for the reception. That might be a deal breaker. We shall see.

March 2013 isn't that far off! It's already almost mid-January!

School kicks back in next week...14 credit hours! WooHoo!

New Years Resolutions....

This year has flown by for me! I can't believe it's almost over.

A lot has happened to me this year, the biggie being I went back to school to study nursing. Made the dean's honors list, too!

So as the end of 2011 approaches, I have been contemplating changes that I need to make in my life and around the house. Most of these will make it easier to be a mom to 2 teenagers, a supportive fiancee to Mike and still make honors in school.

Did I mention that the wedding is in August?

So, here is a list of things that I am doing in 2012...

1. January 2, 2012; inventory all of the pantry and the two freezers. I will also inventory the stockpile in the garage and organize everything.

I need to know what I have so that I can shop for groceries more effectively. With the stock pile I have built now, I haven't had to grocery shop for anything except fresh produce, bread, milk and eggs for about a month now. I did buy a HUGE ham this week. It was .99 a pound, and I couldn't pass it up. It was baked yesterday, we had some for dinner last night and I am cutting it up to freeze for meals tonight.

2. Make the bouquets for me and my bridesmaids.  Hobby Lobby often puts stems of calla lilies on sale for half off. These faux flowers look and feel real...they are $5.00 a stem. I will buy them at half off when they go on sale and make my own arrangements.

3. I will try Once A Week Cooking. From every thing I've read, this might make my life a bit easier in as much as all I will have to do is pull dinner out of the fridge or freezer and voila! All that I will need to do is take care of the sides.

4. I will Christmas shop throughout the year. We have good intentions when it comes to a budget, but we always go over. NO MORE.  I am a savvy grocery shopper, and if I apply this savviness to Christmas, Birthdays etc, we should do well.  Since Mike and I have a wedding to pay for, this will be really helpful.

5. I will do the favors for the wedding. I've decided that personalized M&M's are the way to go. When the favor tins go on sale for half off, I can stock up.

6. I will NOT add anymore people to the wedding guest list!!!!!!  200 people is quite enough, thank you very much!

7. I will expand my vegetable and fruit garden this spring. So far, so good with what I have planted so far, so why not expand it. Fresh produce is better for us anyway.

8. I am refining my housekeeping schedule. It's pretty good now, but it can be improved upon. My biggest pet peeve is the DAMN PET HAIR and the DAMN DUST!!!! Oh, and the CLUTTER that keeps accumulating on this one counter in the kitchen.  GAH! It drives me nuts!

9. This falls in with the pantry inventory, I am re-organizing the pantry too. The above mentioned counter and cabinets in the kitchen will be used for lesser used items. The cabinets are in between the pantry and the fridge. I don't do prep work on this counter. Theoretically, it's supposed to function as my command-ops center where I keep the calendar, laptop etc. Maybe if I get all mean mom about it, the clutter will stop gathering there. WHO AM I KIDDING?

10. I am NOT going to lose weight...I am rather going to shape up what I have. I am, shockingly happy with what I weigh, I'm just not happy with the flabby parts. Gravity after 40 is a bitch.

11. I am going to have an AWESOME wedding. People will speak of it in the decades to come, it will be that awesome, and I am going to do it for LESS THAN $12K.

12. I am going to finish redecorating the master bedroom. I only have some touch ups to do, and I have to stain the furniture. I have everything I need, except the stain. I just have to do it!  It shall be done BY THE END OF MARCH!!!

13. I will complete all of my prerequisites for nursing school this year. I will make dean's honors every semester.

14. I will blog more. The adventures of a 40 something in college with a ton of 20 somethings. It should be interesting  if this first semester was any indication.


That's it for now. I'm sure that I will come up with more, though. I've always been an over achiever.