Wow!

All I can say is wow!!!!  The day was amazing!  I will do my best to describe it:

We had a great rehearsal dinner the night before at Paul Martin's.  It was wonderful to catch up with our out of town visitors and to have a chance to relax before the big day.  I slept at the hotel the night before so that I would be able to get ready with my Mom.  We were still trying to do last min. things until about midnight.  I fell asleep, hard, until I woke up at 3:00 a.m.

There was NO way that I could fall back asleep; I was way too excited!

My wonderful hair and makeup artist Jennifer Gilchrist showed up at the hotel at 7:00 a.m. and got started! Both my Mom and I were so happy with the results!!! (See pics below).

My Matron of Honor and Flower Girl came to pick me up just before 9:00 a.m. and we were off to La Provence (minus my bridal undergarments; more on this later in "TIPS")!

The hour before the wedding flew by so quickly.  It seems like I blinked and almost missed it.  I got got to walk around the venue a bit before having to get dressed; what a blessing!  My day of coordinator Bekah was phenomenal!  I knew I wouldn't have to worry about anything while she was running the show!

Before I knew it, I was pinning corsages and boutonnieres, and getting ready to walk down the aisle.  The processional music started (thanks DJ Hustle!), and we took our places.  I could see the guys walking down to the ceremony site; then it was our turn.  My Matron of Honor started down, followed by my Flower Girl.  Then the music changed over to "When I Say I Do," my parents took my arms and we headed down.  I was literally doing everything I could to not cry.  Mr. T said that he could see me holding it in.  When I got about half way down the aisle I was able to see his face and I was fine; no more welling up! :-)

The ceremony was perfect.  Our pastor knows us very well, so it was extremely personalized.  At 10:40 a.m., Pastor Dwight pronounced us married!  We celebrated up the aisle to "Higher and Higher!"

The rest of the day really does go by VERY quickly.  It seemed like just minutes had gone by when we were cutting the cake, thanking everyone and saying goodbye!

Looking back, I can honestly say that it was the best day of my life (so far)!  I can't wait to continue my life as the MRS. T!!!

(Professional pics to follow)

Checklists

Okay all you Future Mrs. out there!  How many of you are "list ladies?"  I know I am!

Let's go through my major to-do list:

Done:
Venue: Check
Officiant: Check
DJ: Check
Photographer: Check
Cake: Check
Order Wine and Champagne: Check
Order Favors: Check
Pick-Up Wedding Bands: Check
Wedding Dress/Suits: Check
Groom: Check!

Still To-Do
Rentals: Finalize this week
Flowers: Finalize this week
Follow-Up On RSVP's: Hunt down the stragglers this week!

Am I forgetting anything?

Hey Mr. DJ!

As many of you know, the only item on my checklist that I have seriously procrastinated on was hiring our DJ.  Part of the reason for my reluctance was my dread of having the now famous, "I know you're awesome and normally charge a gazillion dollars, but we are hoping you can work within our budget," conversation.

I finally started the process of making calls and sending out emails at the end of last month.  We had three promising leads;  two were referrals, and one that was on our venue's "vendor list."  None of them worked out (insert moment of slight panic here).

• The first referral did not return a single one of my calls over a three week time period; I made just enough calls to possibly be considered a stalker ;-).  
• The second referral passed me off to another person in his company, without ever even acknowledging that he had received my message.  That employee proceeded to tell me that he wanted to meet with me to convince me why we should increase our DJ budget by 400% because of their awesomeness. 
• The third DJ (who was on the vendor list) tried to over-sell me, then, when I wouldn't budge on our bottom line, agreed to "cut me a deal" that was still 40% over our budget.  The final straw was when he told me at 3:00 p.m that the "deal" expired by close of business that day.  No thank you.

Back to square one!  Luckily one of my friends at work asked me if I had hired anyone yet.  When I said "no" she reminded me of a DJ that we had used for one of our Company Events a couple years ago.  What a great reminder!

Ladies and gentlemen!   May I introduce, DJ Hustle!!!  He has been awesome to work with.  We signed the contract last night, and are really looking forward to him being our DJ and MC!

Ladies & Gentelman! Our Recessional Song

Mr. T has spoken!

The DJ Dilemma

The one major vendor I have left to book is the DJ.

I have no idea what my hesitation is on this, but I am lagging, which is not like me.  Maybe it's because every time I start to look into it, my senses are assaulted with flashing lights and techno music :-)

There are so many choices out there!  I know that there are plenty of DJ's out there whose services fall in line with my budget; I need to get cracking!  What are you ladies doing for your music? 

Operation DJ here I come!

Wedding Music

Is it too early to start thinking about what music we want played at our wedding?  Originally we were going to go the iPod route for a major cost savings, but Mr. T felt really strongly about having a D.J..

I really love Vitamin String Quartet, an have picked out at least one song to play while everyone is being seated for the ceremony.



I plan on putting together a playlist of  their music just for the seating.  I love them!

As for the rest of the music, i.e. processional, when I walk down the aisle, during the reception, and the party hardy dance music, we already have some ideas there too!

We both love standards and 80's music.  Once we pick a D.J. we will ask him for his/her suggested playlist for the reception.  Then go from there!