Giant-sized Updates

1) The wedding has been moved to Charleston, SC!

Note: The photo above is a glimpse of my parents' actual house (left) in Downtown Charleston, taken from The Post and Courier  (postandcourier.com)


After calculating costs at Belle Haven Country Club and comparing that to having the wedding at another location to vastly help us with our finances, we started looking elsewhere. The deposit that was sent to Belle Haven hadn't been cashed, so we took advantage of that delay and decided to cease plans for the local wedding. Next, we looked into changing venues to San Diego, my beloved city. We found a quaint little rental house (Levyland Estates), but after adding up the rental fee, plus shipping the wedding gown/veil/shoes, equipment to use for the reception, having to find a hair/makeup/tuxedo place remotely... my parents' recent offer to have our wedding at their house seemed most appealing. So alas, we've changed our venue to a FINAL decision to be in the Lowcountry!

My parents are already planning (contacted caterers, tent rentals) on how to transform their scenic backyard into a personal and intimate ceremony that'll be fun but a low-key Lowcountry Garden Party reception!

2) Our colors: Light pink, Celadon, and a Dusty Blue (did you get the hint from this post??)

3) We ordered our wedding rings!!! Just last night (4/29), we went back to Malak Jewelers where Jeff made my custom-designed engagement ring and designed and ordered our wedding rings. The mold should be ready in a few weeks to review the wax version for Jeff's custom-designed ring (hint: it's going to match mine in a very unique way!). Mine will be a simple white gold band with diamonds. We put our deposit down for the rings and we'll pay for the remainder next week. Exciting! Can't wait to see the wax design and then the REAL THING! =)

3) Bridesmaids Dresses have been changed to a final decision on a pretty silk design that they got from Nordstrom. I LOVE them and can't wait to see them all dressed up!

4) Transportation via Southern Baller-style will consist of a grand entrance by the unexpected...

Things in the process/To-Do:

• Hair/Makeup (I found a local Charleston makeup/hair artist from Paperdolls but am still trying to find local places NOT represented on theknot.com to cut down costs)
• Tuxedo rentals in Charleston (we found a place in VA that we liked for the guys but now that we've moved venues, we'll have to investigate tux places)
• Entire cocktail hour and Lowcountry reception menu planning (part of it is "figured" out already)
• Cake

By the looks of it, we are cutting down our wedding costs from about $17k to $10k!!!

With this amount of savings, we get to really have our food the way we want, we get to splurge on our wedding rings, and not worry about the details adding up!

5) Engagement photos are done! See this link: 
http://www.flickr.com/photos/necessaralee/sets/72157626425810181/
(disclaimer: "Save the Date" photo not applicable any longer!)

More updates to come later...

336 days to go!