Plans and planning

I'm really glad that Austin proposed toward the beginning of my last visit to Alaska. That gave me time to do some basic planning and talk to my future groom about his vision for our wedding and how it jived with mine. The easiest part was deciding the where: we both knew we wanted our wedding to be at Sewanee. Actually, before he was even back from Afghanistan and before we'd seen each other in person again, we'd talked about how outside in a particular courtyard at Sewanee would be the perfect place to get married. We weren't talking about getting married to each other at this point, just in general, you see. Though I know I for one was thinking about the possibility of marrying Austin. I can't speak for him, but it might have been a mutual thing.

The hardest part was figuring out WHEN. See, Sewanee has this policy of only allowing one wedding per weekend, which I totally get due to the small size of accommodations, etc. Having two competing groups on the same weekend, even if they were on different days, could be a chaotic disaster. We decided on a summertime wedding for no reason that I can even begin to remember right now, but that probably had to do with me finishing up my school and Austin getting ready for the Captain's Course, which would possibly be during the summer. There weren't many summer dates left open, so we made a list of the ones that were open and talked with various important people in our lives to see which worked and which didn't. It was also hard to choose due to the uncertainty of not knowing when Austin would get orders to go to the Captain's Course. In the end, though, we just picked one of the dates and decided to go for it.

I was glad to have something to do while Austin was at work other than homework for my online classes, so he obligingly took me by a bookstore to pick up a couple of bridal magazines. I enjoying looking through those and dog-earing pages of dresses I liked (or hated), color combinations, flowers, all the fancy stuff. I decided I wanted to figure out all the details before student teaching started in January, so I set out in late October to plan a wedding as fully as possible in two and a half months. I pestered Austin for opinions on things and to work on a tentative guest list while I was there. We picked attendants and worked on some of the other details. Some were easy--our officiant will be his dad, who's an Episcopal minister. Our photographer is married to my lady of honor (she decided "matron" sounded too old), so that one was easy, too. It was harder for me to pick bridesmaids--I have many good friends who've been with me through important parts of my life, but I didn't want some huge number of attendants, and I like symmetry, so we ended up with 4 each, plus two readers at the ceremony. The two readers are both my friends, so in the end I have two friends from growing up at home, two friends from camp, and two friends from Sewanee as part of the ceremony.

For colors, I went with simple colors that I love, that also happen to be the colors of my sorority from Sewanee--cobalt blue and silver. I sent my bridesmaids to the Alfred Angelo website with instructions to pick something they liked, as long as it was cobalt blue, chiffon, and knee/cocktail length. It was interesting to see what each of them picked as their dress, and to see their personalities in their choices. I also went simple with flowers--I'll be carrying irises, a mix of white and the ones they call "blue" but I think are more purple, and my bridesmaids will just be carrying plain white irises.

Luckily for me, vendors at Sewanee are few and far between, so I didn't have to wade through hundreds of different choices trying to find just the right person for each job. Luckily in another way, no choices among those Sewanee vendors are bad choices. Mom and I went up to Sewanee in early January for a friend's wedding and to talk with people there. We got the cake squared away--3 tiers of vanilla cake with lemon filling and champagne-colored buttercream icing with a little bit of ivory fondant overlayed to look like the lace that's on my dress from the Dutch Maid Bakery. I hope it'll be delicious! Flowers will be by the Monteagle florist, who did all of the flowers for KO events at Sewanee, so I know the ladies there well. As for catering, it's Natural Bridge Events all the way. Jayne did all of the KO events, as well as most Sewanee events in general and is a fabulous caterer.

In the way of favors, I went with blue and silver m'n'ms that have little wedding things on them. Some have wedding cakes, some have our wedding date, and some have our couples monogram. I usually think couples monograms are ridiculous and stupid, but ours is aHa, and I think it's HILARIOUS. Also, I figure who doesn't love edible favors, and it's all cutesy and in my colors like wedding favors are supposed to be, and I don't have to make anything or tie little ribbons on anything. I just have to count out 25 m'n'ms and drop them into a little silver baggie and pull the strings to close them. This I feel will be something that gets done during wedding week, and maybe with whoever shows up at Sewanee early (thanks in advance, ladies!). Haha. It should be fun...and I'm all about having leftover m'n'ms to eat later! Yum.

So...I did manage to get all of the big details planned out before student teaching started. People keep asking me how planning is going since the wedding is fast approaching, and they seem perplexed when I tell them I've pretty much been done since January. Maybe in another career I'll be an event planner. Haha. We'll just see!

I can't wait for student teaching to be officially over so I can get the ball rolling even more. My dress is supposed to ship from the designer on Friday, and will get into the store next week! Ahh! Then I can go to my first fitting, make sure the thing actually fits, and quit worrying so much about whether or not it will! I'm excited. Enough on that for now...I'll have a whole post just about the dress soon. Worry not!