#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!

#7: JCrew Does Bridesmaids Well

#6: A Vintage Verisimilitude

I have to say that I really gravitate toward the 50s vintage tea-length dresses... There's something sassy and modern about them, and they're a little less busty to boot. I really dig all four of these dresses... perhaps I was wrong when I thought it would be a nightmare trying to find something I would like to wear... maybe it'll be harder to choose just one!

#5: To Dream The Impossible Dream

Well, Havana 59 just got back to me with their reception prices... Good news is they don't charge for space rental. Bad news is that in order to reserve the 2nd floor balcony, you have to sign a contract saying you'll spend at least $3000 -- BEFORE TAXES AND TIP. YIKES!!! It's not totally out of the picture, though - apparently they have a 3RD floor balcony, much smaller, with no minimum deposit required. Much assemble guest list asap to ascertain the existence of

the possibility...

#4: Theme Lookbook Part. 1

#3: The Edgar Allen Poe Museum

So I spent a day or two trolling das internet for potential ceremony sites, and we visited our #1 contender yesterday to see if it said "hitchspot..." We loved it. It's got character, visual appeal, privacy, and pizzaz! I'm waiting to hear back from their event coordinator, but if it's open I think it's a Go! Stay tuned...

#2: Ring(s)

This is the ring I got on the day we got engaged - October 15th, my 30th Birthday. After looking at blood diamonds galore we were getting a little discouraged so Charlie bought me a "placeholder" to take the pressure off until we could find the right one...

...And then a few days later we found this ring at Anthill Antiques, a mother-daughter-run antique store in Carytown... The ladies there were far less predatory than the drugged (observation based opinion) employees of the Big Business diamond dealers, and the ring is a vintage 1930s piece. I loves it.

#1: HitchBlog - This Is Going to Be Fun!

We've been engaged for a little over a week and I'm ready to start planning! We have about seven months to obsess over miniscule details and I've got a running start on things with the help of a few friends: Southern Weddings, Martha Stewart Weddings, Real Simple Weddings, Bowie Bride, Rock and Roll Bride...

Some may find all the hullabaloo silly, but I love planning parties, especially theme parties with parameters! (Also known as weddings.)

Here's what we're going to be working with:

1. We plan on spending less than half of the approximate "Average Budget Wedding Cost," numbers courtesy of Martha Stewart (which is $12,000! Augh!). That includes the honeymoon!

2. As the budget is small, the wedding/guest list/overall scale must be small.

3. People must travel.

4. We've "only" got seven months to plan this soiree.

I think we've got it. Let the planning begin.