What's been going on

Not really much going on with wedding planning, but we have been getting some touches done here and there. I was able to pick up my wedding dress a while back. We decided to go with a petite size. The dress drags on the floor ever so little. I need to find a shoe that has a tiny heel and then it will be perfect. I do need to get the top part tailored though but the consultant said to not do that until about 6 weeks before the wedding. So it is sitting in my closet for now....

We finally have a contract with our caterers. Have the meal planned out and ordered all of the table cloths and chair covers. It is going to look beautiful but you'll just have to come in order to see :-)

I have also made some changes to the music for the ceremony. I will still be using Canon in D by Pachelbel for the wedding party but I will be coming in to something different. I am hoping that everyone will recognize it right away and it is totally me. Derek and I also decided on an awesome song for the recessional. :-) Surprises surprises!!!

We also just signed a contract for Alicia, one of our photographers. She will be there to capture the rehearsal dinner and the ceremony. I am glad that we also decided to have the rehearsal dinner photographed, since it is still an important part of the festivities.

God works in mysterious ways - we are so blessed!

In this moment in time I feel so lucky to have great friends and family. We now have TWO photographers for our wedding. A friend from college, Alicia, is going to be photographing the rehearsal dinner and the ceremony. Derek and I both had classes with her, and we got to see some of her work since she was a photographer for The Flashlight. Her shots are beautiful. Her photography business is just taking off and well, what are friends for?

Danielle Barden is our second photographer. I won a photo contest in April that she held. She holds a different contest each month. My prize for winning was 25 dollars off of a photo shoot with her. We got to see all of the photos ahead of time on her shutterfly account (we will be recieving a CD in the mail today with the pictures) and she did an AMAZING job. We asked her if she would be willing to do our wedding and she was so excited!

Unfortunately we could not afford the deposit right away which would have put us on her schedule for good. Derek's mom offered to loan us the money for the deposit so we can book Danielle asap! I would have been so scared while saving up the money, because Danielle is pretty much booked solid through next year! It only would have been a matter of time before our wedding date was taken by someone else. I feel relieved and happy now that Arloween was able to help us in such a big way.

Two weeks ago while we were at the 147th Gettysburg reenactment, my mom wanted to visit a friend in the sutlers, Cissy. When we got there, Cissy was talking to a couple who were visiting for the weekend. They were talking about how much of a great time they were having. Mom and Dad told them that they were welcome to come up to our units camp, and they were instantly hooked. We now have two new members of the 6th NY artillery unit, Reneau and Mark. They had an absolute fabulous time. Mom and Reneau have been e-mailing each other back and forth since then, and Reneau is a cake decorator and gives classes at Michael's craft store. So not only is she willing to help us out with decorations because she gets a discount, but she is also making our cake! How lucky is that?!

Wow. *knock on wood* Can things get any better?

The joys of working for catering

Today my boss Nicole gave me the "order forms" for our reception. We have to fill out all the information about our reception and then once she gets it back, then we can start the contract process. I am happy that we are getting great food and quality table linens/decorations for such a bargain. I was going through my wedding planner and the average couple spends $9,000 for catering/reception. We will be spending under $3,000.

Two weeks ago I was working and the job for the day was setting up a lobster fest in the fire hall for alumni weekend. They had ordered chair covers with pretty satin bows. I talked to Nicole about it, and since they are a reasonable price, I am going to go for it. I hope that when people walk into the fire hall they say "woah!" That is my goal- to make the reception as pretty as possible.

Today at work some of us co-workers were cleaning up the main room during some of our spare time. Shane found an entire crate filled with napkins that had pine cones and pine trees on them. There were at least 2oo napkins and they are now in my care. They will make perfect cocktail napkins. I am glad we came across them otherwise we would have had either boring plain napkins, or costly personalized ones.

Invitations

My mom works as a substitute aid at the elementary and middle schools back home. She knows tons of people who remember me back when I was a tiny kid. She was talking to one of the officers at the middle school, Carilee, about the wedding. Carilee just so happens to do wedding invitations. So my mom hired her right on the spot. We are very lucky to have her do it for us. Her and my mom have been going back and forth about it for the past couple of days now, and we have already decided on a design. It looks great and goes perfect with our Christmas theme. I am glad that we don't have to worry about them anymore. She is also doing save the date cards, rsvp cards, and table placement cards. For those of you who want to see a picture of the invitations, well you're just going to have to wait until you get invited :-P

Cousin's Wedding

My family went to our cousin's wedding a couple of weeks ago. The church that they were married in was not at all what I expected. I expected something big and lavish, but instead it was all tiny, cute and cozy. Going to their wedding helped me make a lot of decisions about what I wanted at my own wedding such as reception music. I was worried about how to decorate the church. How many flowers, where to put them, yada yada. But then I went to their wedding and I realized that you don't need that many things in order to make it look beautiful. The focus should be on the bride and the groom, not how many flower arrangements there are. Here is a picture of the church they were married in.

Catering

We have decided to switch the catering from the Fire Hall's catering to Mansfield University's catering. I have started a new job with MU's catering and I have seen what great work they put into their events. I inquired about prices and such, and it turns out that it will either be cheaper or about the same price as the fire hall, but much more will be included with the price. It will be more worth it either way.
MU's catering services already has a holiday themed meal set up. It includes salad, turkey with gravy, potatoes, corn, stuffing, cranberry sauce and rolls with butter. Drinks include coffee and tea. Pumpkin pie was included in the dessert but since the wedding cake is going to be our dessert, Nicole (my boss) came up with the idea to turn the pumpkin pie into little pumpkin squares for a type of appetizer.
I am going to feel a lot better working with MU for my wedding. It will be nice to be able to trust and know that the people are going to do a good job. Another benefit is that linens are included in their prices. This way I can pick the exact colors I want instead of going for what the fire hall had. I will be picking red and white for the table cloths and a dark green for the napkins.

Hairstyle

This is what I want my hair to look like, well sort of. Can't quite figure it out exactly yet. Half up, half down and LOTS OF CURLS!

Bridesmaid dresses... whice one to pick?

These are the bridesmaid dresses that I like. Hopefully my bridesmaids can come to an easy decision about which one they like the best!

Decorations

I love thebridesbouquet.com. There are so many nice things on that website, and for good prices as well. I am going to get all of my flowers from there, but also decorations as well. Here are some pictures of the things I am looking to get. The pew bows are obviously for the church, however I am not sure if I want red or white bows yet. The rose garland I am thinking for the church and it can be used later for the head table. I think it would look nice on the floor laying up against a white table cloth. The rose centerpiece will be used for the head table as well.

Setting the picture

I found this picture online. It is an example of the bouquets on thebridesbouquet.com This is more or less exactly how I want my wedding party to look. The bride has red roses, and the bridesmaids have smaller white rose bouquets with white ribbons streaming down.

Going to David's Bridal

It has been hard trying to figure out how to get everyone to David's Bridal all at once, but I think I figured it out.

Jen, who is my maid of honor, goes to school in South Carolina. We don't see each other very often anymore, so the important thing to me was to have an appointment at David's Bridal that she could attend. She is coming up for my graduation, and staying for the weekend. So initally I made an appointment for Sunday, May 9th, the day after graduation. Everyone seemed fine with it at first, but I knew it seemed almost TOO easy.

Then some of the girls realized that it was Mother's Day and that was that. I hadn't really thought of Mother's day because my mom would already be in PA with me that morning, and they were driving back home that afternoon. Not to mention that my graduation would probably overshadow a lot of things. I was upset because I had already made the appointment, but I decided to keep it anyway because Jen and I are still free to go.

I thought that it would be nice for just the two of us to look for my wedding dress. Also, we can get an idea of what bridesmaid dresses we like, and then we can have those examples for the second appointment with the other bridesmaids: Karen, Steph and Sarah. I still have to make the second appointment that all three girls can make, but that should be a lot easier to do now.

What a weekend it is going to be: Graduating from college on Saturday and then looking at wedding dresses on Sunday!

Dresses????

So the time to go look for dresses is approaching. I HAVE NO IDEA WHAT I WANT.

Okay, well maybe I know a little. I know that I do not want a dress that engulfs me so no princess ball gown types. I am so little as it is so I want a dress that shows off my slim figure and not one that swallows me whole! I also want an A-frame dress so that means no mermaid type ones. How can anyone walk in those things anyway??? I would also prefer a dress to have some type of straps. I have always had bad luck (if you know what I mean) when it comes to things that are strapless. I am hoping that the gowns fit me well enough that straps aren't needed though. There are some styles that I like that do not have straps. We will have to see.

I am addicted to the show "Say Yes to the Dress" on TLC. These women are disasters most of the time (which is why the show is so great.) They think they know exactly what they want, but then they try it on and they hate it. I hope it is not this hard when it comes to me.

Wedding party and other details

So my side of the wedding party is all set.
Maid of Honor - Jen

Bridesmaids - Steph, Sarah and Karen

Junior Bridesmaids - Sundae and Darby

Flower Girl - Cordelia

The tentative plan for now is to go dress hunting after my graduation. The closest David's Bridal is in Horseheads, NY. Not too far away. I won't have the money for the dress, but I am hoping to be able to choose which one I want to buy in the future.
I have it narrowed down to 4 different choices of dresses. My only worry is that some of these dresses will completely swallow me alive because they are big, poofy and detailed and I am so tiny. Only time will tell.

Photography

I came up with a really great idea the other day, and I have no idea why I didn't think of it sooner. I've been looking at tons and tons of wedding photography lately, and the wedding party always seems to have a nice place to take pictures outside of the church. I figured it wouldn't be that great to take pictures outside since it would be cold and most likely snowy. But then... POOF. The light bulb went off in my head. Why not take pictures in the North Hall Library on campus? The library is open on Saturday, so it would work. The library is one of the most beautiful buildings. There are six levels with balconies and plenty of options for pictures. The best part is that every December they set up a two story high Christmas tree. Using the tree as a backdrop for some of the pictures would be gorgeous. Here is a picture of the tree.

possible bridesmaids bouquets

This is a possible choice for bridesmaids flowers. Here is a picture. I want the white roses, but the ribbon would be white instead. www.thebridesbouquet.com

Songs

First Dance – Keeper of the Stars – Tracy Byrd

Father/Daughter Dance – I Loved Her First - Heartland


Mother/Son Dance - ????? That is up to Derek and Arloween


Last Dance – I’ve had the Time of My Life - Bill Medley & Jennifer Warnes

I've got lots of other songs planned, but those are the main ones. Plus, I want to keep some of them a secret. It would get boring if everyone who read my blog would know every detail of my wedding!

Cakes

The picture is of a friend's cake that she had at her wedding. This is what I want my cake to look like more so or less, except for red ribbon.

We will most likely be getting our cake from Walter Cake Co. They are out of Wellsboro, PA which is a 15 minute drive away from Mansfield. They do good work. Here is the website. http://www.walkercakeco.com/

Its obviously too far away to think about our cake being made, (unless we want it green by the time of our wedding day eww) but at least I know where to get it now.

New Ideas

Derek and I talked to Aunt Linda last night and she helped us come up with a whole bunch of new ideas. We are going to use fake holly as napkin holders. Hopefully we can find some type of wired holly to do this. Another idea is to use red velvet and then a lace overlay for the head table. It will really make it stand out. Aunt Linda has a sewing machine, so she offered to make it.

Flowers for me and the bridesmaids

The flowers that I have chosen are red and white roses. I will be holding red roses, and the bridesmaids will be holding white roses. I have decided on silk flowers, because they are SO much cheaper, and they don't have to be worried about. I have found lots of websites where you can buy bridesmaids bouquets for just a few dollars each. It takes a load off of my mind thinking that we don't have to spend hundreds of dollars for real ones! Here is a picture of the bouquet that I want for myself. It is on thebridesbouquet.com.

As for Derek, the groomsmen, parents, grandparents, etc. Arloween and I were discussing real flowers for their boutonnieres and corsages, since that is something smaller and easier to deal with. Besides, we all know guys could care less about their pretty flowers in the end haha.

Processional music

The music that I have chosen for the processional (when everyone walks down the aisle) is Johann Pachelbel's Canon in D Major.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DZHw9uyj81g Here is a link to the music.

We are thinking of having a pianist and a violinist to do it. There are people who play the piano at our church so finding someone to play the piano will be easy. As for the violinist, I am going to try to find a music major at school who would be willing to do it.

I am still stuck on recessional music.

December wedding

We are getting married on December 10th, 2011. We have decided on a Christmas themed wedding, but our ideas are still broad for now. Lots of garland, white lights, snowflakes, pine cones, candles, mistletoe.... oy vey.

Planning

So I am new at this blog thing. I figured I would create it so that friends and family can keep up with the planning of the Witucki-Hazen wedding. It's 659 days away, but time flies. I'll try to post as much as possible with details of our wedding, and the ideas that we get.