Gatherer Instincts Meets Wedding Planning

My brain is abuzz with all the possibilities, but my rational side is screaming about the time ticking by. What have you gotten done? Well, sorry to disappoint, but girls are hard wired to be gatherers. I needed to have tangible objects to make me feel in control and the beginnings of preparedness. All the green ones are clicky to show you pictures in new tabs.

Wedding purchases so far:

1. Alfred Angelo Gown-Goodwill-$70-4 years ago
2. Pattern for Flower girl dresses by Simplicity-Goodwill-.50-June 2011
3. Second Hand Dress for Reception-Goodwill-$30-June 2011
4. Lantern-Ikea-$4-June 2011

Hand-Me-Downs
Assorted flower girl baskets, ring pillows, cake server set, bridal book, magazines. I even had one of my amazing friends offer me her wedding dress to cut and alter as I pleased as long as I return some of the fabric to her. I have amazing friends.

Stuff I tried to buy, but the universe denied me:

1. Fairy cake topper-$30-Online Wedding Place-OUT OF STOCK (until Sept)
2. Corset-?-?-Haven't found the one, but not for lack of looking
3. Bridal Headband- Etsy-$N/A + $6 shipping (unless I buy two items)-Indecision/lack of confidence

Decisions Made:

1. Venue-It's unanimous!-Sunken Gardens
2. Theme/Colors-Midsummer Night's Dream/Enchanted forest, Emerald and ivory with accents of lavender
3. Flower Girl Dress Inspiration-Now if only fabric/color were so easy
4. Officiant-It's going to be a beautiful ceremony
5. Wedding Party-You guys are amazing!
6. Bridesmaid Dresses!-This one was all me, much to groomzilla's chagrin. He's been the color police insisting certain shades of green (like emerald and sage) will clash and "ruin everything!"
7. Caterer-Another Unanimous Easy Pick-I'll post all about it when they're booked.
8. Florist-Friend of the family and absolute wonder woman. I can't wait to work with her.

If I made a list of what was left to do I'd probably throw up. Our date remains in limbo, sadly. Once that mess is resolved we'll have date, venue and caterer resloved in one masterful stroke. Do you see how dramatic being in limbo makes me? This has to end. Our cake maker is waiting to see if her husband's job relocates him in the next month before we're good to go, fingers crossed for staying put. We have a second choice for cake, but really doesn't every bride want their first choice as much as possible? I'm also waiting for word from my day of coordinator who I've begin to think of as my unofficial right hand even before she's excepted the job.

I've also begun pondering kid wrangling, vows, photography/videography, Mike's attire, the groomsmen attire, bridal accessories, flowers and music. All the details and logistics come and go in my eager-to-be-selfish-for-even-a-second mom brain.

We did sit down as a couple for 4ish hours over the weekend and work on our kick ass save the dates. They still need tweaking, but we're darn close to a prototype (and me hand cutting 40 sets of magnets). Have you ever noticed that when you tackle a project in photo shop you always go in thinking the images and editing are going to be tricky, but then we just add the text. Yeah, right. Deciding which font out of countless billions that are download ready (or in our case multiple fonts) and then the exact right shade and hue of the exact right color. The size and storke. The placement and semantics. Anyway, we'll get there and I expect to post about it by week's end.