Loose Ends Galore

So right now, I'm just working on tidying details up (not meaning that things are almost done being planned, but I'm trying to settle the things we need done NOW, done).

Cake ~ I'm revising the contract for the cake baker, making sure it's covering all details we need to for our decorations, icing, colors, flavors, etc. We've decided to go with The Cake Stand! This is the little cake shop that was written up as the 2010 Knot Best of Weddings award for cake baker, owned by a wife and husband who have an adorable infant they bring with them to the bakery (he has his own little play pen, soo cute). Next step is to send in the finalized contract with a $100 deposit.

Floral ~ Also, I'm trying to negotiate with my floral girl so that we don't need to order the groomsmen's boutonnieres so that I can make them on my own without them being $8/each they will be $1. Plus, they'll be a little more "Charleston," with the idea my mom and I have. If I could go back, I would've been a little less impetuous and would've waited to see what to do about the flowers. I mean, I had this girl make arrangements for me, the bridesmaids and groomsmen, jeff's boutonniere, and mothers' corsages but I've already backed out of the mother's corsages and now I want to back out of groomsmen boutonniers. I would've rather waited so I could have gotten this beautiful idea from mom and then worked from there... but I was too excited to splurge on everything-Etsy.com!

Decor ~ Jeff and I went to my friend Mary's absolutely perfect gorgeous cliffs-overlooking-the-beach wedding in San Diego and she's graciously giving us (free!) the adorable silver lanterns she had with her decor. :) Thanks Mary!!!!! We're really excited! Mom, Jeff, and I had been looking at lanterns on save-on-crafts.com for table decorations as well as outdoor lighting options, so now we don't have to buy those, just pay for shipping! So we'll have 70 silver lanterns bombarding my mom and dad's house in a couple of weeks. I'm thinking of stuffing the lanterns with wedding-hued hydrangeas for tables, and doing the usual tea lights in the lanterns for the lighting. Basically the rest of the decorating is basically done - my parents' beautiful back yard will do most of the decorating on its own. Photo montage is the next thing to figure out with decor...

Save the Dates ~ Jeff and I submitted our order for our Save the Dates on Tuesday! We're having 100 postcards and magnets shipped to us within the next few weeks, so we are in address-collecting mode! We've sent e-mails to both of our parents to try to get addresses, and I am only waiting on two of my friends' responses. Jeff is waiting for all but one of his friends' addresses. Pretty soon we'll be sending those out, hopefully by the end of September. I think January is when we need to send our invites for an RSVP by February 15th. Ahhh!!! Why is this wedding coming up so soon!? Have I mentioned yet, how glad I am that we had about a 14 month engagement? Thank goodness!

Party Favors ~ We were originally going to ex-nay on party favors, since a lot of people don't even care to ever have them. BUT, considering our venue, our style of reception etc., we found a perfectly appropriate party favor that will come in at only about a few dollars per person. They are totally customized to our wedding and my cousin who's in graphic design and printing is helping us out defray costs of our favors. :) Thanks, Gabe!

To-Do ~
1) I still need to find a doggie suit pattern to have the seamstress in Charleston craft up for Kona or find one online!

2) Our website is almost done, I'm just waiting for the groomsmen's responses for their little biography blurbs and one of my bridesmaids' responses.

3) We need to pay our deposits for our caterers and change our rental requirements to include sofas and round plush seating...

4) Jeff is in the bedroom mixing our first-dance song, so the next step is to meet with our dance choreographer, groomsman Tom so we can get together a little number for our dance!

NOTE: IF YOU NEED INFORMATION ABOUT HOTEL ACCOMMODATIONS, PLEASE SEE OUR WEDDING WEBSITE: www.weddingwire.com/jeffandjenitaylor  The password has been provided via e-mail and personal contact.

Countdown to Wedding: 208 days left!

*I can't believe that on my first blog post, we had 438 days until the wedding*