Week #3 of wedding planning found me "back on track". I feel like I found my calm again after the difficult, trying and mentally draining week #2.
Monday morning I was surprised when I got a call from Patrick. We will usually just send a good morning text to each other. He was so sweet when he told me he woke up thinking about me and just had to tell me for himself. I'm one of those people who is all about the little things in life and that right there was so simple and little but meant the world to me! It really set the tone for the week!
Topics that seemed problematic last week got resolved this week -- Bridesmaid dresses are selected (not the ones I thought they would be!) and I found our means of transportation :-) Plus we got to dive into some fun stuff like Honeymoon planning ;-)
Bridesmaids dresses...I will share a picture since Erin requested it! Plus my sister already posted it on Facebook so they really are no longer a secret lol. I will say this...the picture doesn't do them justice! They are much prettier in person. I love that they don't look like your typical bridesmaid dress. They are very chic! They were designed by Bari Jay and will be in this same exact color which is called "Shadow".
They aren't exactly what I envisioned but I do really like them. I will say this, of the what seems like hundreds of dresses my girls tried on for me, no other dress was as flattering as this one! Not one of my bridesmaids will look bad in this dress, it looked so nice on all them! Which ultimately is the most important thing :-)
Patrick wasn't crazy about them at first as he thought the "half-shoulder" was "weird" but he later said he didn't think it was so much the dress as it was the girl in the dress. He made me laugh when he said she looked like an alien and her arm looks disconnected from her body - haha! Who knew Patrick would pay so much attention to detail?! LOL!
My sister Kristy and other bridesmaid Jordy picked out the dress and I told all the girls, the only way we can get this dress is if ya'll pase like this in at least one picture - haha. I told them to start practicing!!
Transportation...I found us a trolley! I thought Molly's Trolley's was the only company to provide them in Pittsburgh, but indeed they are not! Thanks to my bridesmaid Colleen for informing me to check out Lenzner Transportation! We will be booking this baby tomorrow :-)
We are also booking our DJ tomorrow...DJ Bill Bara. He is a young DJ who I feel confident will keep the party going and always have guests on the dance floor! He DJ's at some of the hottest spots in Pittsburgh which is good to know, but I did make sure that he knows the difference between a wedding and a club. He does - which is excellent! Once we are signed with him we will have a personal website which will give guests access to requesting songs they want played at the wedding...but we ultimately will have the final say...pretty cool!
Patrick and I booked our room at the "Inn on Negley" for our first night together as man and wife! This beautiful Inn is located in Shadyside -- just a few minutes away from our reception site in Oakland. We will be staying in the Braeburn Suite...check it out!!
Ahh! Can't wait! We also started talking Honeymoon :-) We decided that my dream of Tahiti is out. It's SO far away and we both agreed that we don't want to have to spend multiple days of our Honeymoon on an airplane. So we are discussing Riviera Maya, Bahamas, Jamaica and Belize. Riviera Maya seems to be winning the race...with the all inclusive, adult only resort "El Dorado Casitas Royale" my personal favorite!
Look at the rooms that have their own personal swimming pools - even on the balcony!!! Love it! It almost reminds me of Tahiti with all the straw tops! Has anyone ever been here or know of anyone who has been here? I'd love to hear personal stories about this place!!
We haven't decided on this place yet - just as of right now it's my favorite. I told Patrick to make the choice. I'm already making so many of the decisions regarding the wedding. He needs to have a say in something and this seems to be the one area he was up for planning - haha.
Also, YAY me for losing 4 pounds in my first week at Weight Watchers!!!
Something fun that happened this weekend was the Engagement Luncheon that my friend and bridesmaid, Valerie, threw for me! It was just beautiful and so thoughtful of her to do! Some of my closest friends from high school were there along with my sisters and mother's sisters. I truly thought it was just going to be a get-together to see my bling and talk about my engagement. Much to my surprise it was more like a mini-shower with tons of gifts! Everyone did WAY to much! It was so thoughtful though and I'm so appreciative. My mom bought us this beautiful family tree frame that I recently purchased for my friend Kate for her wedding. I had wanted to keep it for myself so badly so it was such a nice surprise!
Another fun gift...His and Her's towels from my M.O.H. Katie
And as if throwing the party wasn't enough Valerie provided me with the most unique and entertaining gift...480 marbles! Haha! There is meaning behind this...As probably many of you know, Patrick and I both made the decision to save ourselves for marriage long before we ever knew each other. This moral life-decision is the sole reasoning behind why we were even set-up to meet each other! Well Patrick once said that when we are married should make sure to always keep that aspect of our relationship a priority since we have waited so long to get there. We've been told that couples often taper off in their love life after year one...so to make sure this doesn't happen to us Patrick came up with a great idea...we agreed to put a marble in a vase for every time we make love. Then for year two we will make sure to recycle all of those marbles to make sure we are keeping up - haha! Kinda unique right?! The expectations are obviously pretty high with 480 marbles!!!
That I'm sure would have been Patrick's favorite gift of the afternoon - haha! Although he couldn't be there to take in the afternoon for himself he still made an appearance from afar...Thank you for the beautiful flowers Love!
My family and friends know me so well...check out the Tiffany and Co. inspired touches :-) LOVE it!
Throughout the party I think I may have checked another thing off my To-Do list...My cake! I haven't even started to think about a cake...that is until I tasted the cake Valerie's mothers baker made for the party. I'm not a cake person, I'd rather have a good cookie or some ice cream but once I tasted this cake I think I became a cake person!!! It was the most delicious cake I have ever had in my entire life!!! The cake was so moist and fresh and the icing was a perfect butter cream, and the chocolate lover in me loved the sweet white chocolate shavings!! I hope she will say yes to making our cake!!!
A HUGE thank you goes out to Valerie for planning the afternoon and making it possible! And also to my bridesmaids for helping as well :-)
What an amazing time! Thank you to everyone who came out for it! It wouldn't have been the same without you!
Here's hoping Week #4 is as good as this last one :-) Stay tuned as plenty more wedding plans are to come!!! Until then...
hahaha, love the marble jar!! We thought about doing that for fun too...but didn't lol. That should be fun! :)
ReplyDeleteLOVE the bridesmaid's dresses!!!
And the resort you're looking at does look awesome. We did a Sandals resort in Jamaica, (which is all-inclusive and totally the way to go wherever you end up going...amazing!) and we loved it (several of our friends have done different Sandals resorts, and all have loved it as well). I know you're leaning towards Mayan Riviera (which sounds amazing), but if you want "real life stories" of Sandals resorts in Jamaica, I'd be happy to tell ya about our experience and show you some pics sometime.