Wedding Plans

     For those of you who have planned a wedding in the last, say 21 years, congratulations!!  You have my respect.  I don't really remember it being this involved, but then again, my mother probably did more than I remember, or ever gave her credit for.  Thanks Mom!!
     I must first add that unless you like to be harassed, don't go to one of the big chain bridal stores.  Give them a little bit of information (which they supposedly need for your daughter to try dresses) and suddenly you're receiving snail and e-mailings by the truckload.  Ugh!
     Other than that, things are going along pretty well, but wedding stuff is starting to take over.  I'm considering adding onto the house for it all. :D  Last night, Ri and I went through everything we had so far for the wedding, reception, and shower, which will be given by her maid of honor (Lys), but will be held at our house, because Lys lives too far away from most of the guests. We catalogued everything, boxed it up, and listed the items on the outside of each box. We didn't buy one of those fancy wedding planners, but early on, after seeing Ri fumble around with things she had written on different scraps of paper, Kay went to the school room, commandeered a spiral bound notebook, found some self stick, write on tabs, and made her get it all organized.  It's worked out great.   
     We have the places for the ceremony, reception, and a private family dinner (per the couple's request, and later in the evening) all booked and ready to go.  We have decided the menu for the private dinner, and will be working on food selections for the reception and shower within the next few weeks. 
     Ri and the maid of honor's dresses will be in by the middle of Feb., and Lys will be up at the end of Feb. to start the fittings.  As of this week, we've acquired everything else Ri will need that day, from her shoes to her decorative hair comb - she doesn't want a veil.  We've also talked to our stylist, lined her up for the wedding day, and requested a "trial run" day for the hair styles she'll be responsibe for at the wedding. 
     Superman has already picked out his suit and had it tailored, and the best man and ushers also have their suits.  We just have to help them pick out the right color shirts and get dark green ties for hubby and the best man. 
     T.Lynn's flower girl dress is in and we got her hair decor as well; she wanted a tiara.  We'll wait to pick out shoes closer to the date since she's growing pretty quickly right now. 
     We came across a lovely blouse just the other day to go with the skirt I'm making for Beenie, which just leaves Kay, Bree, and me to dress. 
     We have the favor boxes for the wedding, and for the bridal shower, but I'll have to show you later what we plan on doing to the ones for the shower - it's too cute. 
     I have the cake stand we want for the cake - yes, I am making it - no, I'm not crazy.  Not yet anyway.  Hey, I made my own wedding cake, and this one will be much easier. 
     We have several other small decorations, and a few other small details to think about with regard to decor, but the biggest decor item, flowers, we haven't really worked on at all.  Ri and I have to go visit a couple of florists soon to get that taken care of.  Thankfully, we do have a general idea of what we want, so it shouldn't be too hard.
     We are having acustic guitar for the music, and do have the muscian lined up; Beenie's guitar tutor. We just need to go over some of the selections with him.
     We're working on the wedding invitations.  We already ordered one so we could see what it would look like, but have decided on a few changes to make, so we'll do that and order another trial invite.
     Lys told me about seeded paper, and after looking around, I found a company that makes some that is seeded with miniature sunflower seeds.  How cool is that?  It's yellow too.  I ordered it and we'll use it to make her bridal shower inviatations.  I've also picked up most of the stamping supplies we'll need to make those.
     Let's see...is there anything else?  I can't think of anything right now.  There probably is, but it's packed in a box. :D  So I'll leave you with this:

This is T.Lynn's basket - and the monkey (ok - oraguntan) she insists on carrying.

Ri doesn't much care for traditional flower girl baskets, and I can't say as I blame her.  I found this cute little wire basket at Hobby Lobby and couldn't resist.  I told Ri if she didn't want to use it for T., I could certainly find a use for it somewhere in the house, but alas, she loved it. 

The rustic look will go so well with the sunflower theme.

Got any great wedding ideas or tips?  I'd love to hear them.