Getting This Wedding Underway

My oh my! Josh and I have been very busy with wedding stuff.

I'm finally getting better with the idea of July 31, 2010. As Josh pointed out, it's the end of the month and very rememberable. =)

On Tuesday I did some researching, trying to find the vendors we want to check out. Josh's dad had suggested we look at R&R entertainment, so I did. This is the second time I've been met with..The date is booked. So no R&R. As I searched I came across a DJ I hadn't seen before. Entertainment Tonight. It's a family company who offer DJing, Photography, and Videography. Their website was quite impressive and even better, they we're available for our date. I got a quote for their "Gold Package" at $849 which includes 5 hours of service, Master of Ceremonies, Dance Floor Lighting, and a Pre-wedding consultation. I then called and talked to them briefly and asked them if they charged a traveling fee. The response I got was quite amusing, "Where are you at?" "Scottdale." "Oh no, we'd rather travel there rather than Pittsburgh any day!" Haha! I let them then know I'd be by in the next two days with my fiance to check them out.

So Thursday came and Josh and I decided we wanted to get a few things done, wedding related, before we left to come back down to WV. We got on The Knot and looked around a few cakes since we were going to take a look at the new bakery in town. Josh pretty much designed the cake from there then. I was so proud. Here's what we came up with...

This design with emerald green and tea rose pink stripes instead

This style of cake (shape & size)

With flowers inbetween the tiers like this (unsure what kind of flowers just yet though)

So after figuring out excactly what we wanted, or near it anyway we walked to the bakery, One Good Cookie. I was excited when they opened up because it's the only local bakery that specializes in wedding cakes. We walked in and talked to Kim, the one who will be doing the cake. After a small consultation and her telling us of her background (25+ years in wedding cakes) she let us know that they were opening the other side of the store for brides only. Now all we need to do is figure out when we'll be up there and schedule a tasting with her to make sure it's where we want to get our cake from. She charges $1.60 flat per slice and $1.80 if there is a filling. Not bad. Her delivery/set up fee is then only $25.

From there we then decided after while that we were going to talk to this DJ and see if he was any good. It's about a 45 minute drive, which didn't seem long at all. The business is set up in house kind of and it was very "homey" feeling. We both really liked that. In our "meeting" we got to sit on this really comfy couch too, it was really nice. We let him know right off the bat that we were musically inclined (I'm a dancer and Josh plays guitar), so he didn't "dumb" down any of the terminology, which was great. He was very energetic and passionate about his work, that was obvious. From a coupon I had then took us down to $799 for the Gold Package. We then asked him if he could add more time and he said normally it's $75/half hour but he'd do 6 hours for $849. Sweet! After talking for awhile longer he began telling us about the uplights they now offer to set up around your reception venue and put a "colored" light up on the wall, creating a different feel to the room. Which is suppose to be $300. This is what I've been looking into getting for our fantastic head table display we're doing. After explaining to him that I'd only need 2 he told us that it'd be no problem to throw them in the car and since it's only 2 he'd include them in the $849. Can't beat that! I'm really excited about this guy. We let him know too that we're non traditional and I think he's even going to do some beat mixing towards the end of the night (more of cluby djing style that blends from one song to another)...Josh and I's favorite. We're really excited about this. Can't wait to send in our deposit. I should do that tomorrow.

So we're getting more and more done. Which I couldn't be happier about. Josh says I was "glowing" all day. Which I'm sure I was.

The guest list is pretty much finalized now too. Woot!

Oh and in the past 2 1/2 days I've folded 137 cranes! =O Yay! Over 20% done with the 1000 goal.

This is only 122 of them..I folded 15 more later

Oo and on a Non Wedding Related (NWR) topic: The Pens won the Stanely Cup! =D Woot! Pittsburgh = The City of Champions! 2 in 1 year..Yeahhhh baby! =)

Emotional Rollercoaster

We'll go in chronological order here:

Yesterday on our way home we decided to stop at Mammoth Park (our ceremony location) to take some pictures and figure out a few things.

The island we're hoping to be married on =)

The "natural arch" we plan to decorate with a few of our wedding flowers

The tree we're hoping to be married under =)

The tree we hope to be married under

When we got home I saw that the rest of the origami paper we had ordered (all white 900 sheets) had arrived! So exciting! I've folded 6 cranes today so far.

All white origami paper: harder to find than you think

So I was in a VERY good mood today. Working on updating our website with the pictures of the ceremony location when Aleece calls me. I have been asking Josh to book the Firemen's Club for months now and he finally called last Tuesday. He then saw the guy he left a message for and he said his number had been cut off in the number he had left. Aleece was out at the club today and asked to look at the books. The 24th is booked and NOT by us. =( I was/am? so upset. She let me know then that the 3rd and 31st are open. Well the 3rd is a holiday weekend and the 31st hmm? I just don't know.

I contacted Josh via text and I don't think he realizes how upset I am, though he is too. We both are unable to think of another location for the price or that can accomodate the amount of guests we are inviting so...alas, reluctantly we are moving the date to the 31st.

July 31st, 2010.
It's going to take a bit to get used to.

It's just a day though and though July 24, 2010 was VERY special to us, it's OUR WEDDING DAY and whatever day it is will be just as special<3>

Behind the Scenes

Most of what Josh and I have been working on the wedding in the past week or so have been the "behind the scenes" work that usually goes unnoticed. Between the both of us we've been avidly working on our guestlist finalizations and collecting address/phone numbers and names of significant others we are unsure of. I recently gave my mom a list of people to work on that she could get for us and we need to give Josh's mom hers, but besides that I think we have at least 75-80% of the address book I've created done.

The address book

This past Friday before driving up to PA I stopped at the mailbox, anxious to see if our Save The Dates had arrived. They did! I just love them too! I need to make some minor adjustments for our last/final batch (make the font bigger and wording carved into the tree more visible), but the quality is better than I actually thought they were going to be. Can't wait to order the rest! =)

This is a poor quality picture (from my phone), but here they are!

Yesterday, I was so proud of Josh. After bugging him constantly about calling the club to book the reception hall and him forgetting, he finally did! He left a voice mail with the person we need to book it with so we're just waiting for him to return his call. I can't wait for that to be booked. I'm just so worried that being a summer wedding and a pretty popular date it could possibly be booked if we don't jump on it now. I'll feel so much better about it once it is. I really hope he calls him back soon.

Other than that we really haven't "worked" on too much. We've talked about the wedding though and discussed more ideas. Oh, and we did order the rest of the origami paper I'll be needing to fold the 1000 cranes for the head table display. =) 100 down 900 to go. Haha!