Finding our Venue, Part I

After we set the date, our next order of business was to find a venue for our reception.  We knew we wanted to get married at my church, but had no idea where we wanted to have our reception.


After looking into a few venues that were either out of our price range, or were booked for our wedding day, we made appointments with three different hotels in the area to meet with their event coordinators to see their ballrooms and talk about different packages and menus.


After visiting all three, we decided to go with the Hilton Garden Inn, which was the closest to our house, and where we felt we would get the most bang for our buck in regards to food.


We were happy with our choice, and we breathed a sigh of relief that one major thing was crossed off our list.  We had found our venue...or so we thought.


Before we booked with them I really wanted to have a food tasting.  They wouldn't let me taste the food before booking.  I went round and round with them for a couple of weeks before they finally said we could have a tasting.


After the tasting I definitely knew why they didn't want us to have a tasting.  With out going into details, we were definitely unhappy with the food.  One of the entrees was not what was listed on menu.  It was a very cheap cut of beef that they called by the name of a much more expensive cut of beef.


Part of the package that we were going to get was hor ‘oeuvres during our cocktail hour.  When I asked how many pieces there would be per guest, their event coordinators talked all around the question.  When I was persistent and asked multiple times until I got an answer I was appalled at the answer.  If I were to have 200 guests they would provide 100 pieces of shrimp (for shrimp cocktail) and 100 chicken skewers!  So my guests could have ONE shrimp OR ONE chicken skewer!  Of course guests would not know that and would rightfully think they could have several pieces and the later guest would be left with nothing.


So those two issues with the food, along with the issues of communication (I could never get answers from them, and had to play phone and email tag with them) caused us to part ways with the Hilton Garden Inn.


After spending about a month trying to work out issues with the Hilton Garden Inn, I was about 2 months into my 8 month engagement and found myself back at square one with no venue!


Next up, Finding our Venue, Part II it will have a much happier ending...stay tuned!

Your Dream Dress and MY dream dress!

As promised, this post will be all about THE dress!

Had I done this really in chronological order, this post would have come before my last post about setting the date.

That's right, I got my dress before I set the date!  Craaaaazy, right?

Let me tell you how that came to be:

As you know by now, Joe and I got engaged on December 15, 2009.  I decided that I wasn't going start any wedding planning until after the holidays.  I just wanted to enjoy being engaged and enjoy the holidays before diving into all the wedding details.

BUT of course I couldn't stay away from all the wedding websites and blogs out there!  In my browsing I saw an ad for a website called yourdreamdress.com and clicked to check it out.

Your Dream Dress sells only couture dresses that are samples in excellent condition, new, overbuys, or cancelled weddings.  None have been previously owned or worn or altered.

They also offer something that I've never seen at any other wedding dress site.  They allow you to have three days from the time you sign for the package to decide if you want to keep it or not.  If you decide you don't like it, or the fit is off or anything you can ship it back to them and they will refund you the full purchase price, and all you will be out is the shipping cost.
As I was browsing their dresses I went to the clearance section of the site (of course!) and found a dress I was instantly drawn to.  It was  Anne Barge 374.

The dress was beautiful, but not at all what I thought I'd like in a dress.  But I loooooooved it!

And because Your Dream Dress has such amazing dresses at even more amazing prices this gorgeous dress was only $450.00 and originally retailed for almost $4,000.00 (it came out 87% off!)

But I was very nervous to buy from online, and I really didn't think it was "time" to buy a dress yet.  So I told myself to hold off.

However, the next day or two I just couldn't get that dress out of my mind.  I knew that if I took my sweet time and went back to order it and it was gone I would have really regretted it.  So, after talking to my mom I ordered the dress.  After all, if it didn't work or I didn't like it in person I would only been out shipping costs.

So, I ordered the dress and planned to have a seamstress look at it to make sure the needed alterations could be made before I decided to keep it.

Well, I ordered the dress on December 22 and the evening of Christmas Eve my dress was at my door!  I was shocked!  And a little bit stressed!  I really didn't think that it would arrive until after Christmas.

As I said I had 3 days to decide to keep it or ship it back, and my three days were Christmas, the day after Christmas and the following day (the 26th and the 27th were also a Saturday and Sunday).  I was worried that I wasn't going to be able to find a seamstress to look at it by then, so I emailed them and Kimberly emailed me back and was very understanding and was more than willing to give me some extra time to decide.

I had a overall amazing experience with Your Dream Dress!  They communicated with me so well!  I emailed them with questions about the dress before I purchased it and the question about extra time to decide after I received the dress.  Both times they answered me personally, promptly and were very helpful.

As it turned out, a seamstress was able to look at the dress and the proper alterations were able to be made.

So very quickly, very unexpectedly I had my dress!  I didn't have date or a venue, but I HAD MY DRESS.  And it truly was (and still is) my dream dress--and at a dream price!

So without further ado here's the dress on my big day:

This was the perfect dress experience for me, but it might not be for other brides.  I'm a very indecisive person, so big shopping trip with bridesmaids, my mom, my mother in law and lots of opinions would not have been the best for me.  I thought that's what would happen, but in hindsight I'm glad it didn't go that way.

Had I had to buy the dress sight unseen with no return policy I would NEVER have been willing to buy it, but because I could look at it, have it seen by a seamstress before making a decision I ended up with a gorgeous dress that made me feel beautiful!

Would you ever buy a dress online or do you need an in store shopping trip?

Setting the Date!

As soon as you get engaged there are two things you will hear non-stop: "Let me see your ring!" and "Have you set a date?" 

The first question of course is no problem since all newly engaged ladies are thrilled to show off their rings.

The second question however can be a bit frustrating to brides early on.  I know for myself setting a date was the first thing to be done, and it feels like you can't do anything else until you set a date.

There were a few issues that made setting a date a bit difficult for us. First I had in my head that I wanted our engagement to last about a year.  Which would have meant getting married in December 2010.  This however, was quickly thrown out the window.

Around the time of our engagement one of my younger brothers applied for an overseas program which would have him living in Egypt or Turkey from August 2010 until January 2011.  So, since I couldn't (wouldn't) get married without him there, we were left with the decision of getting married before August 2010 or waiting until sometime in 2011.

Well, long story short(ish) we decided to have a summer wedding.  July 31 fell into place because I wanted as much time to plan as possible (remember, I really wanted a year to plan) and we didn't know when in August my brother would have to leave.  So, I cut it as close as I could.

As it turned out, Matthew wasn't accepted to the program, but our date was set, and it was absolutely the right date for us.

Now, I can't help but think that I was sooooo glad to be married, and not still in the final planning stages.  I was so glad that we didn't wait.  I'm so glad to be enjoying our newlywed life instead of still anticipating the wedding!

As it turned out I had more than enough time to plan.  But, I fully believe that had we had a longer engagement I would have still been just as busy, and had just as much to do.  I would have just taken on more DIY projects, added more details, and made myself crazy.

So, now that you've heard how we set our date (and made it through a blog post with no fun pictures) we can start on more fun stuff, like my dress!  That's the topic of my next blog post (and there will be more pictures with the next post...I promise!) so stay tuned!

First things first...

I figure my first post should give you a little bit more background on Joe and I.

Joe and I met in January 2006 when I transferred from Appalachian State University back home to Virginia to go to school at Regent University.  When I transferred I needed a part-time job and I started waiting tables at Olive Garden (I can just hear you all now..."Oh I loooooove Olive Garden!  The salad is so great!") and Joe was working there.

We went on our first date before I was even out of training and the rest, as they say, is history.  We've been together ever since.  Above is a picture from very early in our relationship.

Joe asked me to be his wife on December 15, 2009.  It seemed like I'd been anticipating and waiting (not so patiently) for him to pop the question forever! But as it turns out it was the perfect timing.

Believe it or not, I don't have any pictures of us from that night on my computer, but here's a picture of my ring from our Engagement shoot.

So, the ring was on my finger and the planning thoughts were starting to swirl through my head.

This is where the planning process beings.  Our first step was the first step for most brides, setting the date.  That will be the topic of my next post.

Hey Y'all!

Hello out there!

My name is Andrea and I'm a newlywed who can't get enough of the wedding world!  My husband Joe and I got married July 31, 2010 and since then I just can't seem to pull myself away from all things wedding.  At first I thought that it was more or less force of habit since for several months during our engagement I was all wedding all the time!  However, it's been nearly six months since we said "I Do!" and I find myself still trolling the internet soaking up all the wedding related goodness out there.  My old wedding blog haunts are still my favorite blog obsessions.

So, I've decided to try my hand at blogging to help satisfy my now displaced creative, wedding-related energies.

My first several posts will be more-or-less a recap of my wedding planning process--my inspirations, my tricks, my tips, my diy projects--and a look at the outcome.

I hope within the week to move past my wedding that was and onto my weddings that could have been.  Throughout my early wedding planning there were many different styles of weddings that I had dancing through my head before I settled in on the vision that I ended up executing for my wedding.

Since I'll only ever have one wedding, and I already planned that one, I'm going to plan on "paper" here the others through inspiration pictures and details.

So for those of you reading this (if there is anyone) I hope you will have fun following along with me as I take you on my journey of laying out the plans of my one wedding (the one from reality) and then my many weddings (the ones based in fantasy)!

Stay tuned!