Working on The Logo

Devin has been hard at work on the logo. She came over today and spent most of the afternoon on the computer. That girl has mad skills!

Thom and I wanted to incorporate a little fun bit of us into the logo. It is just meant to be a slight detail that can be easily passed over, unless you are looking for it. And Devin nailed it!

Thom and I need to figure out how we are going to word things. We need to work on the Save the Dates first, so we can get those off to the printer, and then out to all of you.

Speaking of printer, I need to call my Mom's friends Charlotte and Greg. Greg is a printer, he has printed out the invitations for my parents Chili Cook Off. Devin designed those invitations too.

My Haggling Skills

Let me preface this with the fact that I suck at negotiating! I brought Thom along when I had to buy furniture for my house (soon to be our house), to ward off the evil sales men.

So I did my research on the dress. I called around to all of the shops in MI and OH that carry My Dress to get pricing information.

While Jax and I were out and about after meeting with the florist last weekend, we stopped in at Kray Chic the bridal salon where I found the dress. I saw the same sales lady, Lori, and tried the dress on to show Jax. After showing off the dress, and solidifying that it really is THE DRESS, I started talking price with Lori.

I asked how much I could expect to spend for alterations, and then was straight forward and asked if they did price matching? I honestly did not expect them to, but I figured it doesn't hurt to ask. I explained where I had gotten the reduced quote from, and before I could finish my thought she said, well we can do better than that!

Then she said when I was really ready to sit down and sign for the dress to come back and we could talk details. Then she winked at me and said if I brought her in some coffee maybe she would throw in the alterations.

I was really happy to hear this bridal salon was flexible, and willing to talk the details with me. I really liked working with Lori, and am looking forward to going back soon to sign for the dress!

Photo Hunt Round Three

Over the past two weeks we have meet with four photographers. We meet two in coffee shops around town and two at their home/office. We reviewed some more of their sample photos, asked for details on their packages, and just got a feel for their personality.


After some deliberation, but not really a lot, we have made a decision... drum roll please... our photographer is Bobby Alcott!

Bobby was referred to us by Christian, one of my co-workers. Christian is in a photo club with Bobby, and said that besides being an awesome photographer, Bobby is one of the nicest people he has ever met.

As if that recommendation was not enough to warrant meeting Bobby, I checked out his website and I really liked his stuff. He does an awesome job of not only capturing the moment but capturing the landscape and architecture as well.

We meet Bobby at a cute little coffee shop in downtown Royal Oak. When I told Christian where we were meeting, he explained that the photo club displays the members' work there. Then he went on to explain that this is not your everyday photo club.

Bobby is actually the founder of the non profit photo club called Exposure Detroit. The goal of the club is to educate inspiring photographers and give them places around town to display their work and gain exposure. Bobby does the wedding photography as a way to pay the bills, but he also selects at least one of the club members to help photo each wedding. Bobby and I are both trying to talk Christian into helping out with mine and Thom's wedding.

Bobby was the first photographer we met with, and I must confess he was my favorite all along. But honestly the other photographers each had at least one thing that we didn't like.

Thom and I are excited that we have found such a great photographer. You can check him out at his website, http://www.bobbyalcott.com/slideshow.php.

Flowers

Jacqui (MOH) and I meet with Fanny The Florist this past Saturday. Fanny is my coworker Anica's mother. Thanks for the referral Anica, your mom is awesome!

We meet at a nice little restaurant in Livonia over a late lunch/early dinner. Fanny brought tons of pictures and books filled with flowers and designs, and she brought me a bouquet of fresh cut flowers! It was such a nice surprise!

I had a rough idea of what I wanted for flowers, and I explained it to her over the phone when we set up our lunch date. She put the flowers I told her about, and a few extra creative ones in the bouquet she gave me.

Jacquie and I looked through all of the pictures and books while Fanny was explaining all of the options. After seeing all of the possibilities we came up with a rough idea for all of the flowers.

I like gardening, so I ruled out silk (fake) flowers, and tinting or spraying the flowers to be a specific color. I just want natural flowers. Our colors of blue and green made things a little tricky. It is hard to find a dark blue flower that doesn't look purple.

Fanny had some fun ways to differentiate my bouquet from the girls' bouquets, and to differentiate Thom's boutonniere from the guys' boutonnieres. I wanted to add some more color to the boys' boutonnieres and though of putting a colored bow on them, but Fanny quickly corrected me and said, "Oh No! Honey, you do NOT but a bow on a man!" :)

She was so funny and super nice. It should be great working with her.

I don't want to give too many details away about the flowers, but I will say that two of the flowers in the bouquet Fanny gave me will be incorporated into the wedding flowers...some where.

Hotel Accommodations

Today I signed on the dotted line for the Hotel rooms on the wedding weekend, or as the legally binding agreement referred to it, the Ross Godward Wedding Block.

We, and I hope you, will be staying at the Southfield Marriott Detroit for the wedding weekend. Well I won't be staying there on Friday night, just Thom...ya know bad luck and all! So I will be home with the girls and he will be at the hotel with the boys.

Thom and I toured the hotel a few weeks back and negotiated the rooms rates. The hotel was able to pull info from Chris and Christie's wedding to see how many rooms were used at the Marriott in Columbus. Thom and I started with those numbers to come up with our room block, and figured in a few differences given the location of our family members.

The hotel is throwing in some extra goodies for all of us! The major things are a shuttle service, breakfast, and extended wedding block rates. The shuttle will take you from the hotel to the reception site, and back. Breakfast at the restaurant in the lobby is included with each room. For those of you coming up to the great state of Michigan a few days before the wedding, you will be able to get the wedding block room rate from Wednesday - Sunday.

We will send out more details of how to reserve your rooms with the Save The Date cards.

Pre Cana with Father Fred

Thom and I are planning on getting married at St. Clare of Assisi Catholic Church in Farmington. We have been attending Mass there, every other weekend, for nearly a year. On the other weekends we go to the United Methodist Church in Downtown Farmington.

On this historical day for our country, we started our Pre-Cana (or per marriage) courses with Father Fred.

We met with Father Fred for two hours to basically get acquainted with each other. He was very funny, and easy to talk to. He asked tons of questions about how we met, and how Thom proposed. We basically gave him the summary of our first two blog entries, Our History and The Proposal. And I don't know why, but I was not expecting this question when he asked, "Why do you want to get married?" Thom and I both answered, because we love each other. Father Fred also asked about our families, education, and jobs.

He gave us his humorous take on why marriage fails. He usually quotes movies in his sermons, and of course this was also from a movie. So according to Father Fred, and the movie Moonstruck, marriages fail because men are afraid of death! He giggled and said, "I suppose we should not be talking about death when everyone is so happy talking about marriage." But he continued to explain that the whole death thing comes from the rebirth of Thom and I as a union according the the holy sacrament of marriage.

We have another meeting set up for next week to talk some more with Father Fred. We are going to suggest meeting over dinner next week, because Thom and I were starving after this meeting.

The Dress

Mom, Devin, and I went shopping on Saturday. We went to four different bridal boutiques, with little luck. Well Mom had some luck, she found a dress that she likes. I don't know if she is 100% sold on it yet though. At the end of the day on Saturday, we were exhausted, and I was a little discouraged. Even though I didn't think I would find a dress on my first try, it was just the whole process of dress shopping that had me discouraged.

Mom and I went to three more bridal salons this afternoon, but this time I was on a mission. After Saturday I had a good idea of what I wanted, and when I walked into the stores today I meant business. I had no luck at the first two stores, but I was super excited for the third store, because they carried some of the designers whose pictures I had ripped out of magazines.

I went through the third boutique and pulled several dresses, which was a good sign considering I only pulled three dresses at the previous store. But when I tried on this dress and saw it in the mirror I knew it was The Dress. I just kept turning and looking in the mirror. The consultant told my Mom that it was a good sign that I didn't want to get out of the dress.

Oh and that surprise I told you about earlier... I am going to wear My Mom's veil! Even though she says its yellowed and kind of didn't want me to wear it because she thought it just looked old. My Mom's veil looks great with this dress.

I didn't sign anything or order the dress yet, but obviously I am excited about it.

Photo Hunt Round Two

We have been doing some major hunting for a photographer. I searched a few Internet databases, with little success. Then Thom spent one evening combing what seemed like the entire Internet for a photographer.

We both seem to like the photographers who take candid pics, and who capture the feeling of the day. I guess the general type of photography we like is called photo journalistic.

We have looked at over 50 photographer's portfolios on their individual websites. We liked about 15 of them, and started comparing their packages.

Photographer packages are just as crazy as the reception site packages. No two photographers offer the same amount of "stuff". Once again Thom and I made a sweet spreadsheet to compare all of our options.

We decided on the top five photographers, and are planning meetings with them throughout this week. Hopefully we can lock down a sweet photographer by the end of next week.

Our Logo

That creative sister I was bragging about earlier on this blog has agreed to make a logo, crest, emblem, or whatever you want to call it, for Thom and I to use on all things paper related during the wedding.

She will be graduating this spring with a Communication Technology Degree with an emphasis on Graphic Communications- Graphic Design to us not so savvy folks. She is going to work her magic to design a logo to be used on our Save The Dates, Invitations, Thank You Notes, Programs, Place Cards, etc.

Thom and I took her out to dinner tonight to show her a few ideas for the logo. We gave her a few suggestions, but we also gave her the creative freedom to come up with something great!

And now she will have a few cool things to add to her portfolio.

Thanks Again Dev!

Bride Wars, A Bridal Party Outting

The Bridal Party and I had our first official outing this Saturday night to see the new movie Bride Wars!!!

Unfortunately my sister had to work on Saturday night; fortunately, she works at the movie theater so we were able to bring the Bridal Party activity to her and she was able to get us into the movie for free... I love it when a plan comes together.

The movie was great and it was super fun to hang out with all of the girls!

Let me introduce you to my bridal party, from left to right. ~Thanks to Shelly (another Bride to be) for taking the pic.

Jacqui is the Maid Of Honor (MOH). I have know her since my hay days in travel softball on Finesse - yup the shampoo sponsored the team. We used to braid each other's hair to prep for big games, I could show you more pictures but she might kill me before I say "I Do!" She also worked with me at Nissan, and is now working as a recruiter for a local hiring agency. She is already making herself "To Do" lists for MOH things, and she probably already has her toast written out!

Lacey has been my friend since High School. We had some great spring breaks together- Florida in High School, and Jamaica in College. She is a jock too, but she just kicks a spotted ball around and chases it. She is super organized, but fun loving all at the same time. She is working at an auto supplier in accounting, but we manage to keep each other sane over the phone throughout the work day.

Devin is my younger sister. While I must confess she is a better ball player than I am, I could also dig up some much more embarrassing pics of her than I could of any one else in the bridal party :). Then again, she has access to super embarrassing photos of me too. She will be graduating from Eastern Michigan University this April - Yeah!!! And even though she may deny it, she is totally spoiled! :) She may be younger, but she is the realist ("There is good and bad about everything!"), definitely the fashion advisor, and the creative one in the family.

Then there is me, the bride to be.

Lindsay, has also been my friend since High School. Her and Lacey came as a package deal :). She used to chases a spotted ball down a field too, and she terrorised the beaches of Florida with Lacey and I on spring break. Don't confuse her for a ditz, that will only push her to succeed more. She is in her first year as a teacher in "Hick-ville" as she calls it, but we all know is loves it.

And that is the Motley Crew. I am sure you will be hearing more about them!

We Have A Date!

Ladies and Gentlemen, We Have A Date!!!!!

Thom and I will be exchanging vows and celebrating our marriage with all of you on
Saturday October 24, 2009.

We will be sending out Save The Date cards, and of course formal Invitations .

Photo Hunt

It turns out that the photographer we were referred to, and whose style of pictures we both liked, is actually not available for our potential date. Even though we are 99% sure we will sign with our reception site tomorrow and lock down a date, you never know what can happen!

Needless to say we are on the hunt for a photographer. I knew the chick we were referred to had a great deal, but I didn't realize just how great that deal was until I actually did some research on other photographers.

Thom is leaving the photographer up to me, he figures he likes the pics hanging on the walls in my house, so he will like the person I pick to shoot our wedding. Can't really argue with that logic.

I have been searching the Internet for photographers, and then going through each of their individual websites to make sure I like their style, then calling them up to make sure they are available. Good thing Thom and I have developed a system to attack these vendor hunts, otherwise I would probably be very frustrated by now... this is why rich people hire wedding planners. But just think, if we had a wedding planner what would you have to read about on our GREAT blog!

But never fear, we will find an awesome photographer. Thom and I are planning on sitting down this weekend and review each of the photographers' options to make a decision.

Things In The Works

We have got tons of things in the works for the wedding.

We think we have a reception site... We visited two sites before the holidays, and then had a marathon day of visiting 5 reception sites just before the New Year. Being the engineers that we are, we made a sweet spreadsheet and did some serious number crunching to figure out which location was best for us. We came up with a tentative winner, so we called them up to have the site put on hold for our date. We have an appointment with the site this Saturday to finalize a few things, and hopefully sign on the dotted line.

Thom is working on getting thing squared away with the church, and I am getting a feel for the hotels in the area and what type of deal they are willing to give us. We wanted to make sure we were good with the church and have some decent hotel options before we make anything official with the reception site.


I made some appointments for Saturday the 17th for Mom-Ross, Devin (sister and bridesmaid) and I to go look for my bridal gown, Mom's Mother of the Bride dress, and maybe even some bridesmaid dresses. I have a surprise for my Mom on that Saturday too!!! :)


We are in the process of hunting down a photographer. A friend has referred us to one that seems very promising and totally within our budget which is a major bonus!


Thom and I also started scanning the Internet for a band to play at the reception. If you know of any awesome bands around the Farmington Hills area let us know!

More Pictures

By popular demand... here are some more pictures of Thom and I.

This picture was taken in the summer of 2006 shortly after we first started dating, and is one of my personal favorites :)

The second pic was taken this summer at the 2008 Indianapolis Moto GP Race. The orange hat keeps popping up, because it is our favorite rider Nicky Hayden's number.

This photo was taken on New Years Eve a year ago, after we got home from one of the best dinners ever at Mitchell's Steakhouse.