#19: Shrug It Off

#18: Back from Thanksgiving Break

After a week off of school and HitchBlog I'm back with some new information! How's that for rewarding a wait?

We went to visit the beach house while my parents were here and it was nice but not exactly what we were hoping for... The neighbors are really close, the yard is overgrown, and I think we can do a little better. So - STOP WHAT YOU'RE DOING - if you're trying to make reservations for a place to stay! I think we'll try to keep in that same general area and are hoping to look at an alternate location on Friday when Charlie is off work... We hope to have a replacement lined up in the next week or two. In which case, of course, if you're interested in renting our original site I can give you the information. But that's neither here nor there at the moment. Keep your fingers crossed and I'll let you know when we get it nailed down. Umkhay? =)

As far as everything else is coming along... I needed to take last week off to stop and evaluate some of my choices (ahem invitations ahem), and am going to make a few changes before charging forward with this fantastical event. I'm feeling good about things, though, and I'm ready to get on with the planning! Lots to do! Plenty of time! Don't freak out! (mantra)

We've decided to abandon the amazon registry and go for a more universal online registry, which we'll probably get around to padding with designer kitchen towels in a few weeks or so. Charlie's working long hours at the photo studio and I'm slaving away at graduate school (okay, maybe not that drastic but I'm a little busy) so I expect to start getting a lot done when Christmas break rolls around. For now, I'm obsessing about shrugs. Also, tulle. (oh lord)

#17: Thanksgiving BlogBreak

Just wanted everyone to know that I'm taking a little planning/blogcation until after Thanksgiving weekend. My folks are flying in from Germany, my older sister is driving down from DC, and our USMC buddy Henry is staying with us as well, so we'll be pretty busy for the rest of the week (and somewhere in there I need to write my play Zombie Oedipus, no pressure!)... Everything's been moving so fast and I was feeling pressured into getting announcements and invitations ordered and now they're here I'm not really wild about them... *lonesome teardrop* Ah well. I'm sure all the practical people would say that they're just going to get thrown away or something. Anyways, I'm going to just stop everything and try to visit the beach house this week to get a solid, and then go from there! Recoup! Advance! Etc.

I hope everyone has a great holiday, wherever you may be...

Here are links to a few of my favorite wedding blogs in the interim:

Ruffled

Lovely Bride

Rock N'Roll Bride

#16: Putting colors to good use...

#15: Color Scheme

Color Scheme

#14: Color Scheme

Color Scheme

#13: A note about HitchBlog FAQ and updates...

We're trying to cover every possible question/issue, so if you have any that aren't already included in the FAQ, post a comment, Facebook me, email me, call me, etc and I'll answer it on the FAQ for everyone to see! Don't be shy - everyone has the same questions and we'll *all* be travelling to get to this blessed event, so let's streamline the process and keep everyone on the same page... The Stage Manager in me is happily finger-twiddling at this prospect...

I'll post the link update on Facebook every time I adjust the FAQ. You can also click on "Follow" on the right hand side of the page and you'll get updates (I think) when something changes or something new is posted.

#12: A Whimsical Wedding Party

#11: Click Snap

We found a wonderful photographer who gave us a great deal on wedding day photography... Check out her blog at Bridget McEnaney or you can also find her on Facebook. She's going to drive up from North Carolina for us, isn't she great? I found her on The Loveliest Day, one of the wedding blogs I like to look at... I'll do a whole posting about blogs some other time because there is so much information out there on how to throw whatever kind of party you want to have... But enjoy Bridget's photographs for now...

#10: Location, Location, Location!

We've finally settled on a location for our big day - how exciting! (It was getting hairy there for a little bit...) WHAT'S UP, BEACH WEDDING OUTTA NOWHERE?! Didn't see that one coming! But I (and Charlie) am super excited and already starting to feel so much more relaxed... Except that this will affect my shoe decision... ha.

Bay Beach House

I found the property while trolling a fabulous vacation rentals website called HomeAway, which I highly recommend. There were tons of great places, but this one has everything we want and it matches my color scheme, HELLO! ha. Priorities, people. You know, it's almost as if the gods knew how much it pained me to wear heels, albeit cute heels, so they got to brainstorming and thought up this little oceanic jewel...

#9: Just Some Ideas Floating Around In My Head...

What do these places have in common, you wonder...? They're all vacation rentals in Virginia, for one, and they're also possible ceremony/reception locations...

#8: A New Idea...Picking Up Steam.

So there are a lot of logistical anomalies (did I say anomaly? I meant nightmare, of course - silly me!) involved in planning a wedding in a city where our friends and family don't live. Everybody has to get here, find hotels, hustle from place to place in a strange city... That means everybody will be on the phone needing directions and times and lord knows what - a bit of a bumble in a matter of two or three days.

And then we saw Belle Isle... A Virginia State Park location with a former family vacation home and grounds now being rented out at a very reasonable fee. Photos of the mansion, guest house and grounds are just wonderful...

I've spent the past two days doing the pro-con analysis. And trying not to tear my hair out. So here goes...

If we have the wedding at the Poe Museum, which is beautiful, we'll be spending money on both a ceremony location and then a reception location - plus food, decor, etc... AND we have to set-up and take-down TWO locations (unless we go to a restaurant and spent a boatload of money on tapas for 30 people). Also... A Poe Wedding = A SMALL wedding. And by small, I mean don't bring a date. Or your purse because there's not room. ha.

On the other hand, if we can get Belle Isle... More people can come, everybody can stay on the island if they so desire, the space is already nice and won't need a lot of decor, we can DIY the food and alcohol/jazzy lemonade, and have the wedding and reception in the same area - easy, breezy, beautiful! (That's a Cover Girl slogan quote, thank you America's Next Top Model for inundating me with trite sayings...)

I'm going to keep my fingers crossed and try to get there tomorrow to see whether the area will work out for us but I've got a good feelin'...! The first available time slot is mid-June, so everybody should be out of school and ready for a break. And, of course, manual labor. Which is kind of like a break only not. Ha.

Keep you posted on what happens this week... we need to decide in the next few days and things are filling up quickly!