Dallas Comic Con 2014

This weekend, I went to my first ever Comic Con with a good friend of mine. It was an absolutely amazing experience and I met some amazing people. Neither Matt nor I had ever been, so we weren't exactly sure what to expect. I think this will definitely be something that we return to in the future. Instead of boring you all with details, I'll just let the pictures speak for the weekend. 

100

This morning when I logged into my computer, I noticed that I had placed a reminder on today's date that as of today, I have 100 days until I am a married woman. That seems like no time at all! I remember when I got engaged over a year ago. I remember last May thinking that it was going to be such a long wait. I remember thinking that I was going to have too much time to plan everything. Now, I feel like there is almost no time at all.

I had put forth a to-do list for February and I haven't really gotten anything accomplished on that list, its been mostly handled by Austin and his mom. I have my second dress fitting on Saturday and I plan on talking with a friend who is going to do my hair. Since Ashley works at A Bridal Blossom, she'll be there for my fitting and hopefully I can figure out a time for us to get together to do a trial run. Fingers crossed! As to the limo, I've turned that over to Austin's mom who has been absolutely wonderful and a huge help. She found a company that will be able to handle things and exactly as we want. Austin is also working on the honeymoon and he's filled out all of his paperwork to get his passport. Now, all he needs to do is get his picture taken and actually take the application somewhere to get it finalized!

One thing not on my list that I've started on is the programs. I've started to look around and found a template that I had to modify a little in order to get exactly what I want, but its started. I've also selected all of the readings and Austin and I are working on getting the ceremony worked out. Once there is more information on that, I'm sure I'll make a post dedicated to them.

Check and Check!

This weekend has been a pretty productive weekend. Since I had Monday off for MLK, I decided to really get to work on all things wedding related.

Saturday, I was able to finally meet with a jeweler in order to discuss my day-of jewelry. It actually took a lot longer than I thought it would, but I'm very happy with what we were able to come up with. I know Anne is going to make me something fantastic, unique and totally me. Anne is also going to be making the jewelry for my Maid of Honor and Bridesmaids, so I'm very excited about that. I was having a hard time finding something that I loved and they would love and that would work with no luck. After a couple hours with Anne, she was able to come up with a couple great ideas! It should take her a couple weeks to make it up, and if its not what I want exactly, she'll redo it and try again. But I have complete faith in her. Bridal party jewelry, check!

I also went to my first fitting on Saturday. I went to A Bridal Blossom, the same boutique that a friend Ashley works at, in order to get this done. Since Ashely was working on Saturday, she was able to not only act as an employee, but she already knew my personality and how I wanted to look. And since she's going to be doing my hair on the big day, she was able to figure out exactly what she would do for the wedding. Nancy, the owner, was a huge help and was able to not only get everything pinned, but she came up with a fantastic bustle! The detail on the back of my dress had me worried about the bustle and I couldn't think of how to get it done and keep the details, but she did it!! Nancy also offers a service that we are taking advantage of: On the day of the wedding, she will be on site for two hours two steam my dress, the flower girl, the MOG and the bridesmaids' dresses. Now I don't have to worry about getting it to the INFOMART and making sure it still looks great. Nancy will take care of that for me! First fitting, check! Second fitting, scheduled!


Since I was off on Monday, I was able to sit down and get all of our invitations going out to the parents' friends addressed and assembled. Since both Austin's mom and dad are helping with the wedding, I wanted to give them the chance to get us a list of people they wanted to be there. Both of their lists consist of about 75 people. My big goal for January was to get everyone included on their lists an invitation ready to be sent out. We've got all of those invitations assembled, stamped, labeled, and the RSVPS have stamps. All that is left is to drop them into a mailbox at the end of next month! Parent invitations, check!!

Today, I was able to book the rooms for the wedding party for the night before and of the wedding. Being the kind of person I am, I've decided to pay for the first night for the entire wedding party. Since a lot of people in the wedding party are taking the time to come to Dallas from Arkansas, I figure its one nice thing Austin and I can do for them. Wedding party hotels booked, check!

Its a new year!

I've been taking a lot of time off from wedding planning lately and as soon as the clock struck midnight and it was a new year, there was only one thing I could think of: I'm getting married this year!

I've already started working on my checklist for this month and I've been able to check off a couple of things from my checklist and its only three days into the month!!

So far I have been able to complete the following things from my to-do list:

1. Assemble all of our invitations About 90 of our 150 invitations have been assembled
2. Order rings
3. Order tuxes for FI, GM and readers
4. Have dress altered   I have an appointment set up to have my dress altered on the 15th of January
5. Decide on my accessories and the BP accessories.
6. Finalize room designs with our event coordinator, event designer and florist
7. Finalize any changes with my florist (I decided in the last two weeks to completely change our flowers...)
8. Address invitations going out to any people our parents are inviting
9. Get FI a passport   Paperwork is printed out and he's started working on completing it
10. Book the honeymoon   We've narrowed it down, we want to go to an all inclusive resort in Cozumel!
11. Order cakes   I got this taken care of already!!

Day 24: Whatever Tickles Your Fancy

Today is going to be all about the wedding. With the five month mark only a couple days away, I'm starting to get a little stressed out. I feel like there is so much to do with almost no time to do it all!

First on my list of annoyances, I can't seem to get my last bridesmaid to order her dress. She, too, seems to have disappeared. Since the latest we can order them is December 14th, I'm starting to freak out a little. I don't want to turn into "that bride" but I'm thinking I might just have to call her and tell her to order it now...

Now to the flowers... For as long as I can remember, I've wanted simple centerpieces with simple bouquets. Now, I'm starting to think that this might not be the right way to go. I had originally told my florist that I wanted small centerpieces of rose.the more I think about our reception, the more I think that this is a bad idea. The room is extremely tall and there is a gorgeous fountain in the background that would make short centerpieces look... Well, odd. So I'm think maybe birds of paradise would work better....It would also mean that I would have to change all of my bouquets and boutonnieres, but I think that t would end up looking better. I've yet to talk to my florist about the change, I'm going to email her today, so I don't even know if its a feasible project. But I'm thinking maybe something like this:

My bouquet would look something like this, just not as much... stuff in it

Bridesmaid bouquet

Groom and groomsmen boutonniere

Another idea for the bouquets that I really like

And the centerpieces

I'm hoping she'll tell me that it would be totally fine and we can do it for less (which wont happen, I know that already), but I'm not holding my breath on it. I just think that it would add a lot more to the space... The only thing stopping us now is that little thing called money...

We're in wedding overdrive!

The past couple of weeks have been a very busy time for both Austin and I. Not only have we been spending more time than usual with his family after the recent passing of his grandfather, but we've also been working on all of the little details for the wedding as well as putting in as many extra hours at work.

That's right, Austin is finally starting to get more interested in the wedding and is actually starting to help out. I guess once we passed the seven month mark, he realised that things were getting closer. I'm glad he's starting to take some interest in the wedding, because (unlike most brides) its OUR wedding, not just mine.

Austin looked over the only proposal that we've gotten from the four florists I've met with and we weren't too excited over what she had outlined. And since it has taken the other florists more than three weeks to even get us a proposal, I kindly let them know that we had decided to use another company's services. After all, if they can't get us a proposal in a decent time frame, do we really want to trust them with our wedding? I think not. Our wonderful photographer has gotten us in touch with a florist that she has worked with in the past and highly recommends, so we will be meeting with her this weekend. We think the meeting we have set up on Saturday will go very well... Fingers crossed!!

Last Saturday I went with one of my bridesmaids, Melanie, to order her dress and to pick up my Maid of Honour's dress. Two more things checked off the list! We also heard from another bridesmaid, Amelia, and she informed me that she was no longer interested in being in the wedding party (more on that later). Now all we need is for Callie to order her dress and all of the ladies will be set, dress wise that is.

Austin has really started to think about who he wants to stand next to him (finally). He had already picked out one groomsman, Dan, and his Best Man, but was still working on the final guys. I thinks he's got it narrowed down and he should be able to give me names by Monday. Yay! He has also started to look into what they will wear and, yes with my input, decided this week. The guys will all be wearing a basic black tux with a cobalt tie and vest. Now the hard part will be to find a vest and tie that are the right shade of cobalt.

I have been able to finalize all of the information for the hotel blocks recently. I was happy to get all of that finished, now we have to figure out where we would like to stay for the wedding night... Decisions, decisions... Since that was all finalized, I did get all of the accommodation cards printed and put together, another thing checked off of our to-do list!

I have been talking with a friend of Austin's mom who is a top notch designer and has graciously offered to help us with the decor for the ceremony and reception. Its been a bit of a hassle, but hopefully we'll be able to get a time nailed down when she can come down to the Infomart and take a look around and give us her professional opinion on how things should look.

Well, that seems to be all of the wedding planning we've been working on lately. It might not seem like much, but we can finally see things coming together!

As promised...

As promised, here are a couple pictures of my dress! I went with my future mother in law, Linda, to pick it up from Alfred Angelo yesterday and she was able to get a couple pictures for everyone to see! I must say I'm very happy to have a FMIL that I get along with! She was almost as excited as I was to finally see the colors we had picked out. I'm also very happy to say that I'm not going to need to get it altered too much!Since I promised Austin I would wear flats, it will need to be taken up about an inch, but nothing too drastic. All of the salespeople at Alfred Angelo were also kind enough to show me about four different ways that it can be bustled, and I'm relieved to say that the back will still look beautiful when bustled during the reception!

My dress is in!

I just got word from Alfred Angelo that my dress has just arrived! After waiting so many months, I'm excited to be able to see it again, this time in the right colors. I'm hoping that Austin's mom and I will be able t make it over there sometime this weekend to pick it up... I'll be sure to post some pictures when we have time to pick it up.

Now that the dress is in, I really feel like I need to step it up and work on more wedding related things... I feel like I really have been slacking on the planning lately. But no more!