The Good, The Current, and The Stress

Today was my day off with my mom... I found my veil and headpiece at White Swan Bridal in Vienna. We put an order in and it'll arrive in a month or so. Yay! While at Fair Oaks, we found a potential flower girl dress at Macy's. Similar in color to my dress and it will complement both mine and the bridesmaids' dresses. I contacted the girls' moms and asked them to stop by a mall soon to have the girls try it on. Hopefully, it'll work out. It's simple, but elegant and costs significantly less than bridal shop flower girl dresses. I've also changed my mind on the seersucker for the ring and coin bearers. It's a no-go. Saw a boy's seersucker suit at Talbots Kids and it doesn't really work with the rest of the bridal party. Plus, the boys are growing and wouldn't look as cute as a younger boy would. We'll just put them in whatever Chris and his groomsmen decide to wear.

Things that I'm working on at the moment are contacting cake people and finishing up the other two room blocks. Chris is contacting deejays and our photographer. We've got the save the dates back from the printer and will be ready to go out as soon as Chris finishes up our website, which should be wrapped up in the next few weeks. I'm also putting in our application for "Engaged Encounter," which is mandatory for us to marry in the Catholic Church. It's a weekend retreat that will have us talk about certain topics that could be potential issues in a marriage. We've heard positive things about it from friends that have attended in the past, so we're not too concerned about it.

The neverending stress for me is the guestlist. It's a bit overwhelming... I wish there was a way to cut it down significantly, but with my relatives being the majority of the guestlist it's quite impossible without pissing off this cousin, aunt, uncle, whatever. Our parents have their friends that must be invited. Coworkers. Friends, who are mostly married or seriously dating someone... It all starts to add up. Everytime I see the list and how much this wedding is going to end up costing, I tell Chris we should elope. As easy as that would seem in solving the guestlist and budget issues, I've always dreamed of the church and big reception... a party to celebrate us and our love. I try to keep optimistic and tell myself it'll all work out... somewhere inside me I know it will. **fingers crossed**

My first and last bridal show

Anybody who really knows me can probably guess that I'm not the bridal show type. That shouldn't be a surprise because bridal shows aren’t designed for, marketed towards, or even compatible with males. I'm sure you could make an easy argument defending this practice with typical male stereotypes. It is true men are less inclined to be motivated, involved in the decision making process, or in many cases they just don't care at all about the planning that goes into their own wedding. And why should we? The simple fact is weddings aren’t for us they are for the bride. The flippant response men joking give "just tell me when to be there" is really a secret acknowledgement that they just want to stay out of the way.

But of course we care! We want the best for our brides to be and because of this that I attended my first and last bridal show ever. Well, I must be the only groom who cares because I didn't see any others. Sure there were a couple of Dads parked on the couches in the atrium because they didn't want to spend the $5, but for the most part it was just me. I held false hope that since the hotel was right next to the Budweiser brewery after I did my "lap" I could find my tortured band of brothers in the hotel bar watching playoff football while the women educated themselves on the latest fashion trends in white lace fabric. *sigh*

In a nutshell here is what I learned:

1. Cake tastes like cake
   
2. Wedding vendors are like a mafia, and they all want you to sign up for their junk mail raffle
   
3. Never wander, because as long as I was with Gina they didn't talk to me
   
4. I can do a better wedding album myself
   

All in all it wasn't a total waste of time but I will never go to another one.

Observations

Chris and I just got back from Williamsburg yesterday, where we attended a local bridal show. It was Chris' first time attending one and I'll let him share his thoughts on it ;-p Some observations I made were...

1. Not too many options regarding vendors. I was hoping to find a dj and cake person, but no luck.
2. I was one of the older brides there... Most of the other brides were in their early-mid 20s. Must be a Southern thing?
3. W&M Catering and Green Leafe Catering also seemed like good options for our rehersal dinner. They both had great food displays and it tasted good.

We also visited some of the hotels to figure out where we'd make our room blocks. So, we should have that all worked out by the time the save the date cards go out/website launch next month.

This post brought to you by Linemark Printing

Today was a fun day, Gina and I finalized the save the date card and it is off to the printer. To give you an idea what they will look like I posted a comp of the design. It looks different from other save the date cards I have received and I think it came out well. Shout out to Linemark for "hooking a brother up." Linemark has been a printer I have worked with since my early days at E&Y. It is great that they are helping me out, especially considering all the headaches I have caused them over the years. I can't wait to see the finished product and send them out. Now back to the website...