Wedding party, and other important people

Before my crazed Engagement Fever began, Mike and I would occasionally talk about what our wedding might be like. I don’t think anything very concrete came out of these talks, except for what our wedding party would look like.

It was all very logical to him. He is close to his brother, so of course he would be his best man. And he only had 4 close guy friends, so of course they would also be standing with him. (Shout out to Chris, Jim, Anthony and Larry!)

But here’s where I got huffy: they would not just be standing with him as groomsmen, they would all 5 be his best men.  I argued with him briefly, but dropped it because these were talks about a wedding that wouldn’t be happening for years at the time, and we weren’t even close to engaged.

So here we are, actually engaged and planning a wedding.  I know he hadn’t changed his mind about his 5 best men.  But he also has all these new good guy friends from the job he started in August. So he has more than just the 4 now- I figured- why can’t he downsize his side? Or convert them into regular groomsmen?

Well he wasn’t budging. And I was struggling coming up with 5 ladies to be on my side - I could easily think of 4 (friend Cara, sister Cara, sister Becky and future sister-in-law Stephanie), but that 5^th lady was and is still a mystery in my head.

And if we were going to have an intimate shindig (which we are)- how weird would that look? Half the wedding would be standing up there with us!

Well, thankfully, Mike and I came to a decision.  If we were going to have a huge wedding, or even a moderately sized one, then of course we’d have these special folks standing up with us.

But we aren’t.  And when it comes down to it, the friends we mention in our never-to-be wedding party are the only friends being invited to our intimate wedding. They are marked as special regardless.

So we decided to have no attendants. Not one on either side.  Given our small venue and wedding size, I think it makes a lot of sense.

One of the ideas being thrown around as far as ceremony seating is to not have any seating (except for those who shouldn’t stand for 10-15 minutes).  So in essence, everyone in the wedding would be standing with us.  I love this idea for logistical reasons (we won’t need all that many ceremony chairs) and for the symbolic reasons - this sort of makes the entire wedding our wedding party.  I love it! Especially since we want to have our dinner seating such that we are all sitting at one big (head?) table.

Oh, and I can’t forget the other person who will be standing with us- and marrying us- our officiate. Now, even if we didn’t ask her to be our officiate, she would have been at our wedding as a guest. I’m talking about Kim, wife of our good friend Chris, and current seminary student. Mike and I aren't really church-going people, but we didn’t want a stranger marrying us.  We wanted someone special- so Kim is perfect. We’re really excited she said yes when we asked her to marry us!

Planning series

I'm not sure what constitutes a "long" engagement vs a "short" engagement. My oldest sister planned her wedding in 4 months. My other sister planned hers in less. They both had semi-traditional weddings, so I can't imagine how they got it all done!

We have decided on an April 2013 wedding, so we have a little less than 1.5 years to plan.  I feel like this is a long time, but everyone keeps saying it will fly by!  Everyone, that is, but my BFF Cara who's only question was, "Now, are you concerned that you will never make it to your wedding because the world is going to end in December of 2012?" Oh Cara, how did I know you would ask that? Good thing I don't believe in doomsday predictions. Plus, I hear that they've got the Mayan calendar all wrong, and that it's a different time entirely? Who knows! Also, who cares?!

So, maybe my engagement is of normal length, and not "long". Or maybe it is "long-ish", which is what I have been telling people.  With nearly 17 months to prepare for a wedding, how do I prioritize when I should do what things?

So the next series of posts will be my thoughts on each of the major decisions we have left to make, and when we plan on making them. So.....
 

First contract: signed

We booked our first vendor! I’m talking about our photographer, Chad Ainsworth.

He's in the Haymarket, VA area, so we picked Bealeton as a good place to meet in between (shout out to my BFF Cara who lives in Bealeton! Also, Myraidaman from W&M!). We chose the McDonald’s because as far as I can tell, it’s one of the only places there to meet.

Mike and I got there early so we grabbed refreshments. Mike ordered a small iced tea, but got a large (I told him this would happen because that’s how McD’s rolls, but he was perturbed) and I got a latte. We’re pretty classy people.

Now, I was secretly worried that In Person Chad wouldn’t match up with Email Chad or Referred Chad. Like, some slob would come in carrying a camera and announce to the place he was looking for Jill, then proceed to order a large quantity of food before talking to us, then eating the food sloppily during our meeting.

The Chad I pictured was dressed neatly, and if he was a little unkempt, it would be in a planned, hipster sort of way. Like the guy in the red hat below. He would be professional and awesome, and pretty chill.

In Person Chad didn't disappoint! OK, so he wasn't dressed like a cool hipster dude, but he was totally professional and dressed like a normal person. He looked very photog-y. I was also glad to hear that he's a Mac guy.  I am PC all the way, but I definitely want any art-related professional that I hire to be into Apple because it dominates the field. Best of all, he seems so laid back! And very service oriented- he was focused on us and our wedding, and not nit-picky about what he was getting in return.  Overall, it was a very good meeting and we're excited to work with him!
Check out his photos: http://chadsphotoblog.com/

Bonus: An Engagement photo session is included in his price! We plan on taking advantage of this in April-ish of 2012, so be on the lookout around then for those photos.

The Proposal

(Who doesn’t love that movie?)

By the time Mike proposed I was, admittedly, “insufferable”.  I was a regular poster on a popular wedding site in the “Waiting” boards. I was planning The Many Weddings of Jill. I was talking about all of this all the time, with the occasional “So, when are you going to propose?”.  It must have been extremely annoying.

Little did I know he would propose so soon! And that the soon proposal was actually the original plan, not the “I will propose anytime between 1 day from now and 3 years from now” plan, or the “within the next year” plan.  I didn’t think it would be so soon because I didn’t think he could afford a ring yet, or that he was even ready to propose. Plus, he was saving for a new TV (or so I thought).

If only I had patience (something I seriously lack) I could be exploring all of my wedding options now! Hindsight is 20/20, right?  I would like to point out that I was not the only one- practically every time I talked to my mom she would say “so when are you guys getting married?”, lol.

The day he proposed was just a normal Saturday, except that we had spent the Wed, Thurs and Fri before it together because of Thanksgiving.  That night we were going to eat at a local restaurant, FoodE, because, well, I was thinking about using them as a caterer. But also, I wanted to try it because I hadn’t yet. In the early afternoon, Mike said something like “I need to go out for a bit…”.  He said he had a payment to make. I was excited! I figured it was just a payment, not the final payment, because that’s what he was implying.

Later, after he returned home, I decided I wanted to paint my finger nails before dinner, “just in case.” (just in case I needed pretty nails to go with pretty new bling, that is).  I asked him, “is this a waste of time?” and he said “you know what I did earlier, do what you have to do” which he claims didn’t mean anything, but I took it to mean “yes, paint your nails.”

On the short drive to downtown F’burg, he mentioned how after dinner maybe we could go to Hurkamp park to see what was happening there. He claimed there was some Santa event for dogs (that sounds weird, right?) and that he knew someone who was going. So right away I was like “won’t it be dark? That doesn’t make sense” but then I thought, I wonder if this is a ruse to get me to walk around downtown? So I dropped it.

We arrived at FoodE only to see that they were closed for the holiday until Tuesday. Kind of a bummer, but then I remembered that I also wanted to try Poppy Hill Tuscan Kitchen, so we headed that way.  We had a very lovely dinner there, local folks should definitely try it!

Then we headed to Hurkamp park, and I was getting excited!  But as we approached we could see that nothing was happening there, and we left. We were walking back to the car and I was bummed! I was talking myself into being OK with it because after all, it was only November, and he had said it would be within a year, and that left many more months for a proposal. Why couldn’t I just be patient?!

As we approached the car, I was pulling out my keys (the bum made me drive! Haha, no his car was sick so I understood). Then he said “hey, I lied earlier” and was fumbling around in his pocket. I was all “lied about what?” then he dropped to one knee, opened the little ring box, and very simply asked “Will you marry me?”

I freaked out INSTANTLY.  I had this huge freaking smile on my face and my hands went to my face in joy and surprise and I probably half-yelled “YES!”. So I grabbed the box from him and was staring at the beautiful ring. Mike said, “well, put it on!” so I did. Oh man, was it gorgeous!

This is the pic I took right there outside of the car

and later sent to people.

My sister Cara took this pic of us when we

stopped by their house later in the evening.

Cara also took this one- I love it because my ring is sparkly,

and so are my shoes! (I was wearing them to class up my

outfit for the night) (I think now they will be my good luck shoes)

He designed the ring at Gemstone Creations, downtown. In the picture below, the side diamond on the left belonged to Mike’s great-grandmother. It’s my favorite part about the ring! I also love how wonderfully sparkly it is!

Doggy Daycare

*Not wedding related*

I love my baby Ace. Mike does too. He is our puppy child (Mike will probably shoot me when he sees I have referred to Ace as such).  We love him so much, we take him to daycare once a week. It is pricey, but it is his favorite thing. Just driving up to Pup 'n Iron he is sooo excited and wants to go inside ASAP.  Then for a few days afterwards all he wants to do is sleep, because he is so worn out from playing with all of his friends!

He even sleeps through dinner, which is unheard of (if he is out with us when we eat he usually stares at us intently hoping we will share).  Not on daycare night though, he is usually out like a light!

Isn't he adorable? How could anyone NOT love him?