Honeymooning

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After searching through many states and honeymoon ideas, we settled on Michigan!

The town we will be staying in is right on the lake and near many wineries. Neither of us have been to Michigan either, so with the beach and fruity drinks it is the perfect spot!

 

We looked at many hotels but when I saw that this one delivers Ben and Jerry's 24hrs a day to your room I was hooked! Plus they offer free bike rentals (to work off all that ice cream?), and beach chairs/towels!

Being Michigan there are also many farms that let you pick and buy blueberries and other fruits that are in season.

We are excited to spend our honeymoon relaxing on the beach, winery hopping, and berry picking!

Looking for the perfect honeymoon spot

While I'm stuck at home waiting for my dad to come rescue me, I thought I should share our honeymoon plans!

Not that I have any desire to go there this week!

When we first started talking about where to go, I told Cody I didn't care as long as there was a beach and fruity drinks involved.  

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When we started to look into locations a little more, we realized we aren't sure how much leave time Cody would get. We decided that instead of spending time, and a good chunk of our budget, flying we would look into locations we could drive to. So we sat down one day and started tossing around ideas.

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Disney World was one option I threw out there.  It is awesome, near a beach, drive-able, and so much fun!

Plus you get to wear the Mickey and Minnie wedding ears. You know the ones with the little top hat and veil?

However, we've both been there before and we want to go someplace neither of us has gone.

Garden of the Gods: Colorado Springs.  Can you spot the kissing camels?

Colorado.  My all time favorite vacation spot! Gorgeous mountains, tons of outdoor hiking and fishing, the awesome sand dunes, and of course some awesome Native American art/history to be seen.  I was all set to call the Aunts and request to use their condo in the mountains! However, it is a location I am very familiar with.  So keeping in mind we were hunting for a place new to both of us we kept searching.

We tossed around so many ideas I honestly don't remember them all.  Washington D.C would have been really cool but ultimately I would have gone all Art Historian dork and dragged Cody all over.  Besides, he is probably still recovering from my excitement at discovering the Aztec/Mayan/Native American exhibit at the Houston Natural History Museum.  (That family I scared off by rushing from mask to mask and loudly telling Cody what the exhibit label had left off is probably scarred for life).  

Ultimately we decided we would really like to find a place like Casa de Loco in the Ozarks.  We stayed there one weekend and had a blast.  It was a winery near a state park so we got to drink lots of wine, hike, check out the local castle ruins, and try all sorts of yummy food! However, going to Casa wasn't somewhere new for us.  We did a little more searching and stumbled upon a location that is similar but very new to both of us.

Ha Ha Tonka State Park

Up next: Our honeymoon destination!

Ok, so I might have said I would be doing more wedding planning and therefore more blogging once school finished.  In reality? I haven't done a whole lot.

Over Christmas I worked on finalizing what we want the centerpieces to look like. We are doing candle centerpieces vs. florals so I've spent the last few weeks trying to gather all the candle holders I need.  Which means I've been hitting up every Walmart and dollar store I can find - yes I was the crazy lady with her shopping cart full of glass objects, rattling loud enough to alert the entire store that I had completely cleared out the vase/candle section. During check out one walmart employee stopped to ask how much a particular piece was, 

"Three bucks...but it's out of stock now....sorry."

My loot so far...couple more trips and I should be done!

We've also been looking at finding a house for our future move and finalizing the guest list.  I started my first post-college job, a nanny position for twin girls, and it's been a busy first week with sick kids.

 

 We are 5 months away from the wedding now!

 

A change of venue

Last Friday, while getting ready for finals, I found out that our reception venue had double booked us.

No kidding.  Seems like something that only happens in movies or stories right? Not so much.

Luckily I had started to write my papers early, so I frantically finished them and first thing Monday morning I started calling new venues.  After explaining my delima, I was able to meet with three places right away.

Our Lady of the Snows Shrine

Our Lady of the Snows Shrine was great.  The woman I met with was very helpful, the room looked nice (although it was really just a plain banquet room), the food is good, and the wedding package was awesome.  The only problem was that it was about 30 minutes from our Church.  With everyone from out of town we weren't sure we wanted to make our guests drive even farther.

The Gateway Center

The Gateway Center was very similar to the Shrine.  The wedding package was a little different, but overall they were both banquet facilities.  Plain rooms, no windows, but could work.  I wouldn't be able to find out how the food was until January, but it was much closer to the church at only 15 minutes away.  It is right off the interstate and next to a variety of hotels.

The Leclaire Room- Our new reception venue!

The Leclaire Room at the Lewis and Clark Community College was fantastic!  The catering is done through an Italian restaurant in town, which I've had and is good.  The room is gorgeous, with tons of windows, an atrium, and a fountain with tables and chairs outside.  The woman I met with was great, and she will be on hand the entire day of the wedding to oversee the other vendors and keep things on schedule.  The best part? It is literally two minutes from the church! Plus, she went out of her way to make sure we are the only ones who have the room booked that day!

Inside the Leclaire Room, looking towards the atrium.

So with that crisis averted and school finished, I should have more time to work on wedding details!

Flowers

I finally met with our last vendor!

During my internship this summer I was chatting with one of our volunteers and master gardeners who recommended our florist.  The volunteer had often helped her set up for various weddings and described her work as more artistic than that of a florist.

I met with the floral artist a couple weeks ago and I think she will do a great job!  Flowers are always pretty so I'm not being too picky in this department.  I pretty much just told her what colors we wanted, general shape, size, and that I didn't want fern or calla lilies. Other than that I'm pretty flexible. She had some great ideas and will be able to work within our budget! 

My only concern was how she handled emergencies since she doesn't have any employees.  She has about 5 different backup florist friends who would be able to help her out in those situations.  Two specifically that would be great for us, including the volunteer who she may ask to grow a specific flower for us!

Color crazy

I have officially become a crazy bride.  

A couple of my bridesmaids and I stopped in David's Bridal to order their dresses. I had previously been in to purchase color swatches and learned that they didn't carry plum in a swatch.  So I came armed with various objects to color match to the dress while the girls tried them on. The sales lady was super nice but definitely gave me the "are you serious?" look when she saw me pulling out purple things and holding them up to the dress. (I blame all my years as an art student)  Then again, I think I gave her the same look when she told me "that one is close enough, you can use a variety of different shades".   Which is true, and we are, but still: "close enough"?!

One thing I brought did match almost perfectly...my hairbrush!  (See?  I wasn't kidding when I said she gave me the "are you serious look"...you just did the same look at your computer screen too!)  I can't cut up my brush to give color samples to vendors though, but tonight I realized my umbrella was the same color purple! Yep, crazy me took scissors to my umbrella and ended up with this!

Don't worry, I seriously contemplated my actions before diving in!  Oh, ok so it's brand new and I haven't gotten to use it yet.  However, the winds on campus are crazy so my umbrellas never last long before popping inside out and breaking.  It's only a matter of time, so I might as well cut it up now right?  Right?  Not convinced yet?

See, I told you I thought about it first!  Turns out the strap that wraps around it to hold it closed was two layers of fabric.  So I just cut off the inside layer and voila! Perfect color swatch and my umbrella remains intact!  A little crazy? Yes. Worth it? probably not Of course!