disappointed

J just got a text from Pastor Dave (i love that his pastor texts) saying that he forgot that he had conformation classes tonight and had reschedule our meeting for Monday. It's not a big deal, but I was looking forward to getting to sit down and figure out some of the ceremony details. Oh well...Monday isn't that far away.

Going to the chapel...

I'm not sure if we are waaaay ahead of the game on this one, but tonight is our first meeting with the pastor who will be marrying us, Pastor Dave. I know it seems really early to be doing something like this, but it one more thing that we can get out of the way early.

Picking the pastor who was going to marry us was the hardest decision we've had to make so far. Originally we were going to have J's stepdad, an ordained minister, marry us, but I knew that my parents, who are very religious would want us to have a minister do it. I grew up in a Lutheran church in West Bend and J went to a United Church of Christ in the Milwaukee area. Having the wedding at my hometown church just wasn't an option, since I didn't want to have guests make the 45+ minute drive from ceremony to reception site. Plus, I haven't really been active in that church for some time and I don't know any of the pastors that are there now. So my church was out all together. This proved to be the first spot of contention with my parents...they really wanted us to be married by a Lutheran minister.

J's church on the other hand, is located in a Milwaukee suburb and the pastor that he had growing up was still with the church, perfect! Convincing my parents that this was going to be ok, was a bit tricky. Mom and Dad wanted us to go check out a bunch of Lutheran churches in Milwaukee to see if any of those pastors would do it. But J and I stood firm. We both knew that we wanted to be married by someone why had ties to at least one of us. And that's Pastor Dave! After explaining that to my parents, they finally go on board (I think) and we are ready to go!

So tonight we get to meet with Pastor Dave to hammer out as many details as we can. I'll let you know how it goes!

Go Go Gadget Gocco

I am so excited about this next piece of the wedding puzzle...my Gocco printer! I had heard little bits and pieces about Gocco printers while on Weddingbee.com (the girls over there are Gocco crazy) and I was intrigued. Finally one Saturday I sat down and did some serious research about with this little machine was, how much it costs and what it can do for me.
After just a little while I was hooked and I had to have one. Yes, it was going to be an investment (because Gocco's are from Japan and because they are actually no longer in production getting your hands on one can be a little tricky and expensive) but I realized that with all this little machine can do I would be able to do even more DIY, including printing my invites and save-the-dates. I talked it over with J and he green lighted the whole thing and we were off. I was lucky and I found a girl on Weddingbee.com selling a full set-up, plus supplies for a reasonable price. So I snatched it up!

And the other day...it arrived!!!! I was so excited (I may have skipped class to stay home and unpack it)!

Here's the package, I almost kissed the mailman when it brought it! (pardon the messy bedroom, I was so excited that I woke J up just to show him....he was not amused)


Here it is!



Ummmm...that's a lot of stuff. Does any one know how to work this thing?



So now that I've got my fabulous new Gocco I need to figure out how to use it. I'm a little, ok a lot, intimidated by it but I'm sure I'll be able to figure it out.

So far I am planning to use it to print:
Save the dates
Invites
Custom cocktail napkins
Wish tree cards
Place cards
Dessert buffet cards
Bar Menus
A few gifty things for my bridesmaids

I know that as time goes on I'll think of more stuff. And I'm pretty sure that by the end of this whole thing the printer will pay for it self...plus I can resell it once I'm done.

Color color color

I've been struggling with the colors I want to use of the wedding for awhile now. I knew right away that I wanted one of the main colors to be yellow. With the wedding being in late spring I thought yellow was such a vibrant, fun color and would be perfect us. Plus the reception space is all Cream City Brick on the inside so I think the yellow would really match. So I've picked yellow...but now what shade??? Buttercup? Lemon? Marigold? I think this picture best sums up my choices (plus it is an absolutely fabulous candy buffet).

Source

I'm leaning towards a softer yellow, but still vibrant. Originally I had thought of going yellow, black and ivory

Source

A great combo, but maybe a little too modern for what we are going for.


But yellow, brown and ivory is also wonderful!

Very cute...but is it too fall?

And then there's yellow and blue....hmmm.

Cute, but not quite us.

Then I stumbled on this palette from Snippet & Ink. They described the colors as butter yellow, milk glass and garden green...love it!

I love how bright, but still delicate it is. But.....will it work in my venue? I'm still not 100% convinced. But as of right now butter yellow, milk glass and garden green is my front runner.

Hello, my name is Rebecca

....and I'm addicted to wedding planning.

Today while I was browsing istockphoto.com looking for the perfect swirly branches for our invitations I opened up my "wedding ideas" folder on my computer and discovered that I have over 3oo photos saved!!!
How did it come to this??? 300+ photos??? and the worst part is that they are completely unorganized making it impossible to find any pictures when I need them.
Since it is spring cleaning week around our house I guess it's time to spring clean the computer too. So tonight while I'm at the laundromat I am going to attempt to organize this mass of photos....wish me luck!

Welcome!

Hello everyone and welcome to my wedding planning blog!

I figured that I don't spend enough time wedding planning as it is (yeah right) so I thought it would be a fun idea to chronicle my journey to the altar.

For those of you that don't know me...here's the run down
I am a 26 year old Wisconsinite living in Milwaukee with my fiancee (J for short), our two dogs, three cats, a Guinea pig, a turtle and a roommate (the roommate being the most troublesome). I am a grad student at UW-Milwaukee with hopes and dreams of graduating in August. My research (the short version) looks sulfur assimilation in algae...yes, algae...and don't judge me. After I graduate my plan is to go to medical school. J is finishing up his undergrad in history at UWM and plans on going for his PhD after he's done...inter-war Germany (I smile and nod a lot)

J and I got engaged on October 4, 2008. It was a completely surprise engagement and so done well done on J's part. J and had decided back in July to get pictures taken in fall with the dogs, just to use as Christmas pictures or whatever. We had the pictures scheduled for a Sunday but the Friday before the shoot the photographer called and asked if we could change it to Saturday..better weather, etc. Since J wasn't working and I just working in the morning I cleared it with him and we were set for Saturday.
On Saturday I had to work from 530 - 930 am so I asked J if he could take the dogs for a walk to tire them out. I got home early and J headed out with dogs. I was busy getting ready so I didn't realize until 1030 that J wasn't home yet and pictures were set up for 11.
J finally came through the door at 1050 and I was furious. Literally stomping around the house, swearing and yelling (which I don't usually do). He got ready and we ran out the door. We got to the park a little late, but the photographer was completely understanding. We walked around the park and took some great pictures....I had no idea anything was going on. The only thing that was weird was that the dogs were so hyper even though they'd just had a long walk.
Near the end of the session J found a fence to sit on and do some single pictures with the dogs and another family picture. I was sitting and J was kneeling next to me. After the last picture I jumped up ready to go when J said he wanted just one more. I turned around and there he was with a ring! I was completely shocked. I was in a daze and overwhelmingly happy! Of course I said yes!
We finished up and I got the whole story of the morning. Apparently J had planed to buy the ring on Saturday but with the last minute change of plans he had to do it on Friday night (he had to wait to the last minute to buy it because otherwise he knew I'd find it). When he went to the store to pick it up they told him they had sold it and the last one in stock was at another store which had already closed. His only option was to get there when they opened on Saturday morning and buy it. So Saturday morning J didn't really take the dogs for a walk...he threw them in the car and drove to the jewelery store, bought the ring, got stuck in traffic and came home...that's why he was late! I was so surprised and happy.

If you'd like to see photos from the "surprise engagement" photos you can visit the photographer's blog here

That's all for tonight, but stay tuned for all the wedding planning fun