We're signed up, paid for and ready to go!

So Saturday we signed-up for the wedding at the Cultural Center and got our honeymoon flights and cruise booked!!

Just in case anyone in the future is looking to do this, I'll provide a little breakdown of what we HAD to do.

Step 1: Obtain marriage license. We did this on Saturday, the office is in the Daley Center downtown (50 W. Washington to be exact), you can also do it at a variety of offices in the suburbs, but because of other steps that needed to be done we figured we would do it downtown. They have Saturday hours from 9 - 12. The license costs $40. Do not request information about Cultural Center Weddings here... they will tell you to go to City Hall during regular business hours. Well, at least our girl did. That is WRONG. Be sure you know how to spell your mother's maiden name, just in case you don't. :) The soonest you can get your marriage license is 60 days before the wedding day.

Step 2: Walk over to "Marriage Court" located in the lower level of 119 W. Randolph. You need to show your marriage certificate (I guess to prove you're serious?) to sign up. It is just $10, you sign a little form and you're all set. They have times of 10:45, 11:00 or 11:15. Multiple people can sign up for any of these three time slots, so it isn't an "exact" time for your wedding. They do warn you that you need to be ON TIME otherwise you might not get in for your wedding.

Trust me, You'll leave that office happy that you decided AGAINST a simple ceremony at marriage court. It looked about as romantic as getting married at your doctor's office (if your doctor's office was in the basement).

We got downtown at about 9:00, and we were done at both offices by 9:30. Easy peasy.

After that, (and a little breakfast at Corner Bakery) we wander down Randolph to see the location of our pending nuptuals! I hadn't ever been to the Cultural Center, and honestly, I was blown away. It is a beautiful building... I couldn't be happier with the option we've chosen. Luckily they were actually holding weddings there on Saturday (I heard there would be 8 that day) so we got to see the space awake with wedding excitiment. There was one bride there who was pretty decked out, and requested that her future husband not see her before the ceremony. Poor chap was wandering the halls all by himself! You'd think at least someone would keep him company!!

After that we hit up Macy's to look for Zach's suit (which we found easily with the help of a great employee there!) and I was even able to get a jacket (for every day wear) and a sweater to put on over my wedding dress if I'm cold. I'd never been to the downtown Macy's.. man that thing is HUGE!!!

When we got home we booked all of our cruise and flight stuff. So we're official and set to go!!

The Rabbit Hole...

Despite my best efforts... it's happening!

I suddenly find myself awash in a bunch of little things I'd "like" to do for the wedding. Here is just a list of a few:

1) Invitations on the Gocco. Which requires my actually designing the whole thing... could be dangerously time consuming. Not to mention soul consuming. But secretly, that is really why I bought the Gocco, so I can't not do it now!

2) Gifts for our Guests. I really want to make something for the guests. Last night I was thinking custom buttons (you know, like the little ones you get passed out by bands and stuff). I saw the idea somewhere on the internet... and it looks soo cute! I figured I could do some flower pins for the girls (I can easily make those) and then some of the button pins for the guys in attendance. I've thought about other things, but so far, this is all that stuck.

3) Custom veil. This is mostly because I'm CHEAP! There is no way I'm spending $40+ just for a veil. No way. $12 in (the netting was purchased from the internet this week - I bought two kinds so that was already more than necessary!) we'll see how much it really ends up costing me.

4) Cupcake flags. I love cupcakes... and I love the idea of little flags in them! Necessary? Not even CLOSE. There are going to be 20 people there for goodness sakes... 20 people who just want to EAT the cupcakes... not look at my flags.

On top of that, I'm trying to plan everything for our honeymoon. I've now had 2 seperate nightmares where we were on the cruise and 100% unprepared for anything on the port stops. We didn't know where to go, what to do or anything. It was horrible. We were in Rome... but couldn't get anywhere! Hopefully I can clear some of those fears up this Saturday when we actually get down to booking things and I get started with actually planning things. I'm scared to do it now for fear I'll jinx it. I know. I'm dumb.

Waiting Game...

So as I said in my last post... we're waiting to book our vacation until we get everything set "officially" this coming Saturday. Zach wants to make sure that we get the wedding set before we make the reservations and such, which makes sense I guess.

With that in mind though... we're in a bit of a holding pattern. We can't really officially invite anyone until we know things for sure, so it's like it's real, but well, it isn't exactly. So knowing that we have 2 months until this thing goes off, and knowing there is much to do, what have I been doing? Plotting.

1) Invitations. Although Zach would be happy with an evite, I'm looking to put my Gocco to good use and making some homemade invites for our handful of guests. I'm already working on the wording for them, something lighthearted but that has the details our guests will need. I'll post something when I get it more finalized.

2) Honeymoon planning! I love vacation planning, and coming up with a plan for the length of time we'll be gone requires some serious research. I'm already trying to figure out just what we want to do in each port, and I'm looking at some private tour options which are surprisingly inexpensive if you work with a full group. Luckily cruisecritic.com is a great place to meet up with other cruisers to do tours together and save some cash!

3) Veil planning. I want a bird cage veil. Those things are EXPENSIVE! So I'm going to do it myself. How hard can it be? Famous last words right? I ordered some netting from an on-line store so we'll see how it goes!

It's Official...

I'm finally excited!

We've ran it past parents, I've ran it past my boss (for vacation/furlough day considerations) and we've reviewed our schedules. All things considered... this new plan is 100% doable!

In all of the excitiment of talking to parents and really thinking about moving forward... I started to get excited. I finally started to think about this happening... and how wonderful it is going to be!

So what is the next step?

1) Apply for our marriage license. Evidently, once you apply you have 60 days to use it, but you can't use it in the first 24 hours (I guess they want to make sure you have time to sleep on it?). Luckily, the downtown Chicago branch has Saturday hours from 9 - noon, so we can apply then.

2) Sign-up for the Cultural Center Wedding! We have to sign-up in person at the Marriage Court downtown. We also need to have our marriage license in hand. The Marriage Court also has Saturday hours as well, so we can knock these both out next weekend, since the "60 day" mark will be hit next week Wednesday.

3) Once we get the cultural center situation and our marriage license, we'll be booking the cruise and our flights. We figure we will wait until then JUST in case....

A Crazy Idea... Turned to Reality!

After that last post I got to thinking about seriously considering changing up our plan for the wedding.

So I did some more research (Google and I are basically best friends these days..) and determined that I could get a 12-day Mediterranean cruise, that includes an overnight stop in Egypt, for $1,200 per person. Pretty sweet. Of course, it also left in March, which is pretty darn soon. Oh yeah, and being on vacation in Europe for 12+ days has a few extra expenses beyond that $1,200 per person cruise cost (most of which I think I've attempted to capture in one serious spreadsheet!)

I started mulling it over and thought... we could actually maybe do this. Wouldn't that be SWEET? Who doesn't want to start married life off with a trip to visit PYRAMIDS!? Not to mention we could stop over in Paris and visit Zach's sis on the way back, which is something we were really hoping to do.

So I ran it past my man. And he thought it was a decent idea. So I started doing more research... and of course March is a busy time for the cultural center, so no wedding there in March. What does that mean? We can move the cruise back to FEBRUARY and go for even cheaper. Please disregard the fact that it will actually be COLD in Paris in February. Whatever, we'll be in Paris!

What does it mean? Well.. it means we'll be having a tiny ceremony at the Chicago Cultural Center (immediate family only really), going out to lunch, and then hitting the airport for our flight out to Barcelona. Talk about a great first "night", we'll be on a plane, but whatever. We've got plenty more nights of married bliss to enjoy after that...

It will be a tiny wedding... but that is really just fine by me. We'll be heading on a once in a lifetime vacation to start our married life, and I think that is what is most important to us. Little fanfare, big on the amazing, totally selfish, vacation time! :)

I'm Seriously Losing Motivation...

So remember when I bought my dress? Yeah... that was pretty much the last time I really actively planned anything for this wedding and I couldn't really care less.

Zach and I have been focusing on other things... most specifically exactly how we are going to get him through a year long piano tuning school that starts next year (and for which we can probably NOT take out student loans.) I'm so excited that he has decided on something to do and I think we both want him to get started as soon as possible. We'll probably already be moving the date up a week or two at least due to his potential school schedule next fall.

I am SUPER excited about this big change for Zach. I think it is a perfect fit for him and I think it will be a good fit for our future. I've already even been researching the stuff and books he will need for school, despite the fact that we haven't actually figured out how to pay for it yet. :)

I can safely say that I am really more excited about this opportunity for HIM than I am about the wedding. You see, I'm a selfish girl that way and I'm very excited about getting married and going on our honeymoon...

BUT...

There are a number of things I'm dreading:

1) FAMILY - I'm getting a little nauseous at the thought of ACTUALLY having all of our family and and close friends in one place at the same time. Really, it's the family that is the problem. You see, my mom and dad are, at the very least, ackward in each other's presense, but they'd probably be fine (they were both at my brother's for Thanksgiving, and all was well.) Zach's mom and dad on the other hand, well, we've been dating for 4+ years, and I've never even seen them in the same room. They got officially divorced not too long before Zach and I started dating. Thinking about them in the same room definitely makes me feel a little bit freaked... especially if Zach's dad's girlfriend would be there too (which I imagine she would, unless of course we just don't invite her, which I guess is an option...). Frankly, girlfriend issue aside, it could be ugly and I don't want ugly on OUR day.

2) LOGISTICS - One of the things I like least in life is figuring out how to make everything happen. Figuring out the logistics of getting about 28 or so people with varying degrees of Chicago knowledge to the same places in downtown (read, EXPENSIVE PARKING) Chicago on a Saturday relatively early in the morning is a little daunting.

3) GUEST LIST - I've already created a mock guest list for our small wedding... and I already see some potential problems of hurt feelings here or there. I know this sounds silly, but I'd rather offend everyone by not inviting them, then only offend some. Silly hey?

4) HONEYMOON LUST - I really want a wonderful honeymoon. So bad I can taste it. In fact, as I'm writing this I am trying to figure out once again how I can pull off a Mediterranean cruise on a REALLY limited budget (with a quick layover in France to see Zach's sis too). I dream WAY more about the honeymoon than anything else, which probably means that's where I should put the cash right?

Getting the dress... part 2

So Drew and I were feeling pretty close. I couldn't stop staring at myself in the mirror and I was pretty in love.

I continued to try on dresses, and I think I made it through almost everything in the collection.

Then, my sales lady starting bringing out the sale dresses. First I tried on a dress whose name totally escapes me. I had been a pretty heavy stalker of Melissa Sweet and POB but I had never seen this particular dress. I liked it a lot and the longer I looked at it the more I liked it. Oh yeah, and it was on sale. I'm a sucker for sale.

I twirled around in it for a while... and everyone seemed to like this one best. Drew was still on my mind.

To help make the call I decided to try on some other dresses. Great way to make a decision right? Instead of looking at the two you love, add another one to the mix. So out came Nell.

It was LOVE at first try-on. I'd say love at first sight but that would be a big lie. I had seen Nell on-line and I wasn't actually all that impressed. She was nice, but I just didn't think it would be that exciting. So its ok if you see the picture above and think, REALLY? Once I got it on I was SOLD. And it has POCKETS?! Who doesn't love a wedding dress with pockets!? Zach's thought, "I just sort of guessed you'd get one with pockets. It just seems right."

After a few more twirls I was sold, Nell, who was also on sale, would be mine.

Did I 100% loose my mind? Probably. But with my future husband standing there telling me to buy it, how could I not? So it was at least 3 times what I thought I'd spend. Oh well. I can always sell it after the wedding, and make at least half of that back, so it won't be to bad. Or at least that's what I told myself as I handed over the credit card to do the deed. :)

So I have my dress!! I couldn't believe it... I really didn't plan on leaving with a dress. In the car on the way home Zach admitted that he figured we would spend at least $1,000 for my dress, despite all my earlier musings about finding a white bridesmaid dress. Just one more reason I love this man.

Sometimes I get a *little* Jealous...

And even I know it is silly to wish they were in someone else's shoes... but isn't it hard some times?

Lately I've found myself wishing that I had a different set of circumstances to deal with surrounding our engagement. I by no means wish that I wasn't with Zach, but I wish that somehow our engagement could be at a time when we could truly focus on celebrating our engagement and the commitment we are making and plan a wonderful wedding together. That at this time we weren't so burdened with so much other "stuff" that we can barely see the "woods through the trees" so to speak. Zach's unemployment really makes everything so up in the air that the idea of trying to even save the extra $5,000 or so necessary to pull this thing off is almost too daunting to mention.

I guess I just wish I could have someone else's engagement period (and maybe wedding budget) so that I wouldn't have to worry so much right now and could just enjoy it. Instead I find myself worrying so much about how we're going to pay for the damn thing that I can't even focus on what it means. I want our wedding to be a meaningful wonderful day but right now all it is is stressful... and it isn't even going to be a big wedding! I guess maybe someone else's problems would only be worse if they were trying to plan something grand.

Maybe my problems aren't so bad after all...

I Got My Dress! Pt. 1 - Some Ugly Bits

I got my dress, I'm in love, and it was way more than I thought I'd spend, and I don't even care. Care to hear the tale?

I decided, on somewhat of a whim, to make an appointment to look at dresses at Priscilla of Boston (I'll call it the POB). I know, that was really my first mistake. As I had mentioned previously, I fell in love with "drew" and "petunia". I had also moderately fell for a few of the other short dresses available from the collections at POB. I told myself that this adventure would either 1) Make me realize I hated these dresses or 2) Make me fall further in love and realize I needed to find a way to get one of them. I also felt comfortable with POB being the place to start my adventures because they had a lot of short dresses, so I figured they wouldn't be acting all snooty to a short dress bride.

I conned Zach into joining me for this adventure, mostly because I wanted company and I really trusted his opinion. Not to mention, he's the one I'm marrying and I want him to think I look wonderful in the dress, so I want his opinion.


We got there and they I have to say they were wonderful. I really couldn't have asked for a better consultant (A little shout out to Nancy!). She wasn't in any way phased that Zach was there, that I was looking for a short dress, or anything. She actually seemed excited to help me with the short dresses... and boy do they have a lot! I think I tried on probably a dozen or so different beautiful short dresses. Suffice to say, I was in dress heaven! Nancy even brought out some wonderful fun heels and a wonderful bird cage veil, both without me even asking for them specifically! I was happy as a clam.. going along with my short dress plan... not a soul in sight seemed freaked out by what I wanted, or by who my dress shopping companion was! Every time I came out of the dressing room all I saw was happy complimentary faces. Ahh... this is the life.

Of course, then a girl that I know through work happened to walk in (she's getting married soon too) and as I'm out there, spinning around in my beautiful short dress (it might have been drew by this time) in my happy dress-drunken state, she stopped to say hi. Now mind you, this is a person that I would have said I really liked, someone I had actually thought I might try to become better friends with.

Then she just looked me up and down and said, "That's just for fun, right?"

I stood there very confused. I actually didn't even know what she meant. "I'm getting married, yes." You see at this point, I was so in love and on board with my short dress idea that I didn't actually even know what she meant and I wasn't actually sure that she knew I was engaged. Silly me.

"Oh yeah, I know. The dress I mean," She retorted.

"Oh, um, well yeah, maybe. I don't know yet," I responded sheepishly. I don't know how I looked at that moment, but in my head, it was like a little girl who had just been yelled at for playing dress up in her mom's fancy clothes.

She left and that was the end of it. I looked at Zach and said, "See what I mean!?" We had previously had a few discussions about how much judgement there was around weddings, and there it was. He saw the catty crap right in front of him and he agreed, it was ugly.

Too bad for her I was in a dress I was quickly falling in love with and one look back in the mirror and I really didn't care what she had to say. I loved Drew (the dress) and everyone around was oh-ing and ah-ing at how great Drew and I looked together, so the negativity was quickly erased by happy thoughts of marrying Zach in this amazing dress.....

But then she brought out some options that were on sale..... and I got a little bit confused.... stay tuned for more!

Please Stop with the 20-Million Questions!

One of the biggest things I have struggled with since Zach and I got engaged is the constant questioning. From the moment we announced we were engaged... people are a barrage of questions. Did you set a date? Have you looked at dresses? Where are you going to have it?

I know that all of these questions are meant to be nice. I know that these are the questions people feel comfortable asking a woman with an engagement ring on her finger. In fact, they might even feel obligated to ask them, since I'm supposed to be a flutter of planning and plotting by now (we are a whole TWO months post-proposal now). I think if The Knot had its way I would already have a date, a location and probably a dress practically picked out by now.

I don't have any of that done. We're still working on a concept, but I think we're finally getting comfortable with one at this point. Of course, as I start to get comfortable with our concept, the more self-conscious I feel about sharing it with the people who keep asking what we're doing. So for now, I just tell them, "We're still working on it" or "We'll just be doing something small". The second one does seem to get a lot of, "If I were to do it all over again, I would do something small too." Which is somewhat reassuring, but it always makes me wonder why they did it any other way in the first place.

For now, I will leave you with a happy wedding thought, and a happy wedding idea. The photo to the left is from Once Wed and really is a perfect picture of how I picture Zach and I on our wedding day. Well, maybe without the bow tie. Otherwise it looks perfect. Anyone know where that dress comes from?!

A Change of Plans...

Already!? :)

As I had previously mentioned, we had discussed the idea of doing a party at Zach's father's for our "reception". I started doing a little math on that one, and quickly realized that we'd probably end up spending at least $5,000 to make that happen (oh yeah, and that doesn't even include an emergency tent in case of rain!). It also didn't include things like a dress for me, suit for Z or rings. OR the Honeymoon.

Suffice to say after studying all that math, I figured we had to come up with $13,000+ in the next year to make a wedding of that nature happen. Umm... let's say I have $1,000 saved already.... that means we would still have to save roughly $1,000 a month for the next year. Let's just say that, even in the best of times, that probably wasn't possible, and this isn't exactly the best of times. :)

So I was back to the drawing board. I tried to consider what was really the most important things for me when it came to the wedding. Here is the list:

1) Getting married sooner than later.
2) A wedding witnessed by our closest friends and family.
3) A wonderful honeymoon right after the wedding (no 6-months later stuff).
4) Good food and cupcakes (Molly's cupcakes to be most specific).
5) A chance to celebrate with our extended network of friends and family.

Somewhat "Important" Stuff
1) Pretty flowers for me
2) Pretty dress for me
3) Pictures of us
4) Pretty invitations

Let's be honest, that isn't really a very big list. And it can easily be accommodated by a variety of options. Here is what we have come up with so far.

Ceremony: Wedding at the Chicago Cultural Center witnessed by our nearest and dearest 28 or so friends and family. Well, as long as we're allowed that many people. :) I'll have flowers, a beautiful dress and our union will be witnessed by our nearest and dearest. I'm also thinking we'll have cupcakes while we wait... and possibly some pictures. We're blessed with having two photographer friends (one who does weddings for living!) and two brothers who are very good with cameras. Between all of them, I think we'll get some great shots!

"Reception": If you can even really call it that. We'll head out after the ceremony to have lunch with the group somewhere close. We have every intention of footing the bill for this one, and we'll have yummy food!

After Party: We can head out to a bar somewhere in Chicago that night to have a "after hours" party and invite everyone we know to join us for a drink. I figure this way we can party all night with people who love us and not have to pay for the entire party. Yeah, we're cheap, but we also don't expect and/or want presents, so I think that evens out. :)

Sunday Relaxation: We figure if any of our friends and family are still around (since many will be flying/driving in), we can hang out on Sunday and relax.

Monday (or maybe Tuesday) honeymoon!: We'll head out the next day or so for the honeymoon. The current idea is a 7-day cruise, but those are hard to find leaving on an early weekday!

Total cost: probably $6,000 - $8,000

I'm not going to say that even saving that much is going to be easy at this point, but it seems much more reasonable. I hope to be able to find some ways to do things a little cheaper. Do I need a $300 dress? Do I need to get my hair done? Some of those things are still a little up in the air.

Oh yeah, and when I presented this plan to the Fiance, his only input was, "I would really like to do it Labor Day weekend if that is possible. Otherwise it sounds great." Next Labor Day weekend would be out 5 year anniversary. Isn't that cute?

Dress Love...

I would really hate to spend a lot of money on a dress. I say that, and then well, I fall in love with 4 dresses, all over $2,000.

This is Melissa Sweet's dress Petunia. I've had a love affair with Petunia for well, probably years. I originally saw her on some celebrity bride (I think it was some top chef contestant or something) and she made my heart skip a beat. I think I spent HOURS trying to figure out who made that dress... I had to know! Unfortunately my love is only available from other brides by now... and well... even used she's at least $1,500+. Of course... I could always resell it later right? :)

This is Priscilla of Boston's Vineyard's Collection's Drew. Drew and I don't go back nearly as long as Petunia and I do, but well, I'm still in love. In fact, I think Drew has a little edge of Petunia in that she's a tad shorter. I'm not 100% sold that Petunia's longer style would be best on my semi-short legs. Drew, well, she's perfect. And I think she would qualify for Zach's 1 request to show some clevage. :)

Drew is equally outragously priced, starting at about $1,000 used. Again, I could re-sell it right? :)

Oh the terror of having expensive taste on a minimal budget. :)

A Few Worries...

I have two major (at least wedding related) worries at the moment.

1) There is no way we are going to get this thing done in a year.

And by that I mean, there is no way that we'll be able to afford this thing (and a honeymoon) in a year. Not given my recent pay reduction and Zach's current self-employment/unemployment.

I've just briefly mentioned wanting to do this next Labor Day and everyone keeps saying... "Wow, that will be here before you know it!" Yeah. Thanks for reminding me. Want to make a donation?

I recently checked out the Knot boards for my "date twins" (assuming a Labor Day 2009 weekend wedding). Can you say BAD IDEA? Some of these girls have venues, photographers, and caterers all signed up already. I have... well... I've got this idea...

And if that weren't enough I have another worry....

2) And that is the slippery slope down the bunny hill.

If we have a party, I want it to be a wedding-ish party (still emphasis on the party, but a little wedding thrown in). I want it to have a nice aesthetic... I want people to look back on it fondly. I think I want some pictures. I want nice papery goods. I want good food (and plenty of it). I want a dress I feel amazing in. I want Zach in a nice suit vest thing. We might need to rent a tent in the case of rain (although I don't know where we'd actually put it). All of that costs money. And money, is what we don't have a whole lot of right now.

I think that the crux of both of my fears is really that I just don't want to have regrets. I want whatever we do to be exactly what we want to do and to be done the way we want it. I don't want to half ass things because we just didn't have the cash. I mean, I recognize that letterpress invitations might not be in the cards (although I'm not going to lie, I haven't completely given up the idea in my head) but there are other things that might not be so clear cut.

What am I praying for right now? I'm hoping the fine federal government comes through a decides that I deserve the $8,000 first time home buyer credit for Zach and I "repurchasing", this time together as opposed to Zach by himself last time, the house we live in. I mean, this will be the ONLY time I'm really a "first time" home buyer, so if I don't get it now, then I'm just screwed! I recognize that it is probably a long shot, but having that $8,000 in the bank would make the whole thing seem a WHOLE LOT more realistic.

Did I ever mention how much I LOVE the federal government? The IRS especially. In fact, if I could bake the cookies and know they would actually eat them instead of tossing them out of the fear that someone is trying to kill them, I would. :) Please IRS... pretty please?

Paper Goodness...

I've finally found a paper idea that I think I'm in love with (Courtesy of the Creature Comforts Blog). Isn't that the coolest save the date you've ever seen? I always loves glassine envelopes, although I didn't actually know what they were called until recently!

I've already started researching some of the details, and glassine envelopes are actually pretty affordable. I'm still trying to determine how mailable it actually is.... some accounts seem to say that this would be to flimsy to actually mail... which might require some tweeking of the outside. Maybe I could make it less of a "postcard" and just more of an announcement, and put it in a nice craft envelope for mailing?

I know that I could probably Gocco the exterior information on to the envelope, and I have quite a few small craft punches that could be used to get some of the different sized confetti for the inside.

Possible Venues... the "Reception"

When I first started thinking about this wedding idea, locations came it two distinct categories, the wedding and the "reception". The wedding would be the location where we were actually married. The "reception" being the party that we had after the fact to celebrate the union and invite the friends and family for some partying. I'm going to start with the easier of the two for me to put in to words, the "reception."

I know you're probably thinking, why on earth does she keep calling it a reception in quotes? Well frankly, I'm uncomfortable with calling it a wedding reception because it may (or may not) be attached to the wedding ceremony itself and will likely not be in line with the typical wedding "reception" ideas. There will likely be no father daughter dance, cake cutting, bouquet tossing or other types of "reception" activities. There will however be food and cupcakes, some live music and possibly some dancing. It will be a party, a post-nuptial soiree if you will.

So where does one look to host a post-nuptial soiree?

Option #1: A bar.

Real romantic hey? Well, all romancing aside, we couldn't think of a better venue to convey the "this is not your typical wedding reception" than a bar. Ideally, this bar would be in downtown Chicago (although we aren't city dwellers, Chicago just has such a wonderful feel and a great bar selection) and would have brick walls (again, we're going for feel here). I'd also dreamed of pool tables, although they weren't necessarily a requirement. Good old bar food (burgers, fries, wings, etc.) would be the menu. Much alcohol would be served.

I thought this was a great idea, as did Zach. Well, at least we did until I started looking at the price for such an event. Bars in Chicago are expensive! Bars in Chicago on a Friday or Saturday night are astronomical. We're talking at least a $76 - $90 per person situation, and that is for a place with less than ideal "character" (i.e. it looks liked a typical reception hall). If we had $100 people, that means $7,600 on food and drinks!

Option #2: Public Park - Lord's Park

We live in Elgin, and fairly close to our house is Lord's Park. Lord's Park has a wonderful pavilion which, as residents, we can rent on the fairly cheap. We'd have to bring in a caterer and such, which is all doable.

Major problem here? No alcohol. I could do a mid-afternoon event, but Zach is not a fan. No booze is a no go.

Option #3: Public Park - Elsewhere?

With my dreams of marrying at Lord's Park killed by their lovely "no alcohol" policy, I thought, well what about other parks? I can't say I looked into every park in the Chicago metropolitan area (that would take forever) but for those I did find, the no alcohol policy if pretty familiar, and if that isn't there it is usually a restriction on events ending at dusk. Dusk? I'm guessing our party might just be getting started...


Option #4: Ravinia

Zach and I love Ravinia. If you've never been, it is basically a big concert hall that has a big park area behind it where the concert is broadcast through speakers. Events are generally in the evening, and you can go early and picnic on the grass before the concert. People go pretty all out with the picnicking... and it is just a super fun, laid-back environment. Zach and I have been there multiple times and always had a blast.

So, I thought, we could do that. It would have great entertainment, food and booze. So I talked to the Ravinia people about the tents you can reserve there. Well, suffice to say they are expensive and then require you to move to seats in the actually concert hall, which sort of defeats the purpose for me. I like the hanging out during the concert part the best! Oh yeah, that and it is pretty expensive, especially if you want booze.

So I looked into just doing a party on the lawn, which they will also cater, for a price. In fact, you can part cater, part bring your own, if you want. Well, at $30 per person just to get in, it was already getting pricing. Buy food and booze, even if we bring out own, would be a whole lot more pricing unless we want to seriously limit the guest list.

So it was on to what might be the winner....

Option #5: Private Park - AKA Zach's Dad's Front Lawn

Zach's dad currently lives along the wonderful Fox River in Barrington, IL. His front "lawn" abuts the river. His subdivision has a private "park" which actually sits right next to his lawn and includes a little bonfire area. The private park area has been the host of many a neighborhood party, including a few shows by Zach's band back when Zach was living at the home too. There would be no restrictions on what we could do and no real time limits.

A river front soiree with no real restrictions and no rental fee? Perfect.

Of course there are going to be some potential problems along the way, since basically EVERYTHING is going to need to be rented or borrowed from someone, but I think we can make this work. I like the idea of building the entire event around what we want and not having to worry about what the venue will allow, or what is expected of us. We can have barbecue from our favorite place in the world, cupcakes and even take a spin on the Boat if we want, what more could we ask for?

How a Became an Engaged Woman...

I’m sorry to say that Zach’s big proposal was not quite a full surprise. Zach and I had been discussing marriage, at least in a very general sense, for years. In fact, Zach had even drunkenly confessed to a few of his friends that he thought he would marry me just a few months into our relationship.

When we were in Vegas over Thanksgiving in 2007, Zach had taken me into a Tiffany’s and had me try on rings. During that event, Zach was admiring a ring on the pinky of the gentleman who was helping us. “Did you get that here?” Zach asked. “No no,” said our helpful salesman, “I got this ring custom made, and as you can see inside, there are two sizing balls in there. That way, when I get married, I can just cut my balls off and use this as my wedding band.” And he was completely straight faced. At first, I didn’t even know what to think, did someone just talk about balls in Tiffany’s, the holy grail of jewelry? Suffice to say, Zach thought the whole thing was hilarious, and I think he would have purchased a ring from that guy right then and there if it would have had the cash. Suffice to say we left with no ring and with me slightly frazzled. I had never looked at rings before and the whole think left me pretty dizzy.

Rings didn’t really come up again until we were in Cozumel, Mexico on a cruise this past February. Cozumel is evidently known for their “affordable” diamonds and jewelry and all the great jewelry stores were advertised by the “shopping consultant” on the ship. (Which reminds me, doesn’t that sound like the best job ever?) So when we landed in Cozumel, off to the jewelry shops we went. Well, after an EXTREMELY high pressured sales effort that involved card tricks, numerous “managers” and attempts to make me beg Zach to buy me a ring, we left with nothing. I quickly realized I didn’t want the ring I’d have on my finger for life coming from some pushy, cheap Cozumel jewelry store that I wouldn’t ever be able to hold accountable if the ring went to crap (which I’m pretty sure it would have!). Suffice to say, Cozumel is great for diamonds or other jewelry that aren’t going to be heirlooms. I did end up purchasing a fire opal and diamond ring, and I think that the white gold is already somewhat coming off. I still love it, but it surely wouldn’t be of a quality I’d want for an engagement ring!

Then, later this past Spring, I once again brought up that I thought I wanted to look at rings. See, back when we were in Cozumel, we had looked at an emerald cut stone with a pave band. I thought I loved it, but after a few months of thinking about it and a little online research, I was doubting my original plan. At this point I was pretty sure that Zach hadn’t gone out and purchased anything, so I suggested we look again in the future. The next weekend Zach and I went to visit his “family” jeweler. By “family” I mean that between his Mom and his Aunt they’ve probably provided him with a few retirements already, so we knew we’d get a great deal (and we knew it was top quality stuff too!). There we looked at a number of different styles and I settled on the emerald cut stone with just a simply white gold band. We even picked out two pave wedding bands to go on either side of the engagement ring, once we get there. I left there on cloud nine, and I think Zach left with a lump in his throat knowing how much he’d have to save  After ring shopping we headed to one of our favorite places for burgers, and we both ended up with food poisoning. To this day we joke that the thought of marriage was what really got us sick.

Fast forward to July 25, 2009, Zach and I were just lounging around the house on a lazy Saturday afternoon. I was sitting at our small table, doing some crafting. Our of no where, Zach comes over and starts moving around a bunch of stuff on the floor next to me. When I ask what he is up to, he says not to worry about it. The next think I know, he is down on one knee caressing my left hand ring finger. I laughed and told him to stop messing with me. Then he pulled out a box and went on to say that when he heard this song he always thought about me (by then I realized Billy Joel’s Just the Way You Are was playing) and he asked me to marry him. I think I said something along the lines of, are you serious?!, a few times and then said yes and opened up the little wrapped box. Evidently the jeweler had talked him into having it wrapped to prevent Zach from showing the whole world before he gave it to me. He said, “If someone was giving you something this special, would you want other people to see it first?”

Zach had initially planned to make a big deal out of the proposal by reenacting our first date on our four year anniversary (a boat ride and the little lake restaurant we went to, with his re-recording of Just the Way You Are, playing as he proposed) but realized I would probably see that coming from a mile away. He was right, I would have 100% seen that one coming.

A Begining Vision....

So I'm finally started to get excited about a wedding plan. Back a few weeks ago I kept tossing around a variety of potential locations for a wedding. I'm going to hold you in suspense for a few days here until I walk you through some of the other various options I was considering, but for now I'll leave you with the "inspiration board" I created over at Style Me Pretty. They've got a whole new application that allows you to go through their pictures and put together a Board. It has it's limitations (there are a lot of things in my head that just don't translate to any of their pictures) but it sure is a nice start.

Images from James Christianson Photographer, Mok Duk by Anne Benjamin, ak event design, Lisa Lefkowitz, Colorado Wedding Company, LLC, Cameron + Kelly Studio , Alison Ulshoffer Events & Design, Allyson Magda Photography, Oh How Charming!, Amanda Kraft Photography, Lisa Lefkowitz

Any guesses on where or location might be?

Where to Start...

The beginning I suppose?

My fiance (Zach) and I have been dating for almost four years. We first met many moons ago in the living room of a somewhat mutual friend. I had just moved to Chicagoland and had just (and I mean JUST!) gotten out of a terrible relationship. Zach had relatively recently gotten out of a relationship himself and wasn't exactly looking to get into another one.

I was coming downtown with a new friend of mine, we'll call her J, to visit one of her friends, who we'll call A, and go out to a bar. Zach, a friend (and I later learned ex) of A was downtown as well and met up with us at A's house before we went out. I remember him walking in and thinking he was awfully cute, but in all the confusion I actually thought he was A's brother, who I already knew was in a serious relationship. Damn. We all ended up over at John Barleycorns where we met up with some addition guy friends of A and I had far to much to drink. Up until this lovely evening, I hadn't really done shots, (I know, I'm pathetic) and Zach somehow convinced me to do so. I recall him reaching over the table, putting his hand on mine, and literally saying, "It will be ok, I'll take care of you." Which in hindsight is totally cheesy, but whatever. Shots and a number of drinks later and we were all upstairs dancing the night away. My friend J and I kept switching between Zach and one of the other guys to dance with, both clearly preferring Zach over our other companion. At one point, J, a much more forward type of girl, decided to lay one on Zach. I saw the whole thing go down as I left the bathroom, sucker in hand from the lovely bathroom attendant, and I remember thinking, "Damn. I thought that boy was sort of in to me." and then just being happy I had the sucker. Ah... the complex thoughts of a drunk girl.

The evening ended with all of us at A's place, J and A in the bedroom and Zach and I on separate couches in the living room. Much late night drunk talking commenced and I recall some hand holding might have occurred. And yes, I actually mean hand holding, that isn't some code for something more exciting.

The next morning we exchanged numbers, and he called while I was still driving home. We went on our first date that night, out boating on the Fox River and trying to find somewhere to eat. Basically, since that night, we've been inseperable. Our respective friendships with J and A did eventually suffer, but I think somewhere, we both knew that we'd found the right one for us.

Four years later we've really been through a lot, but we both know we've really found our partner in life. I'll save the proposal for a later post!