That's Not All Folks!

There were lots of other things that happened in the course of planning the wedding as well.  Here are the ones I can remember!

• There was cutting out 150 tags, snipping 150 ribbon pieces, and tying those tags with those ribbons onto 150 little white take-out boxes for the wedding favors.  Then there was the baking of dozens and dozens of cookies to freeze and arrange on trays for guests to put into those boxes (of which I think only two did!  :P).

• There was the making of 50 wedding announcements which was almost exactly like putting together the wedding invitations.  (For more on what that was like, see that post.)

• There was the collecting of 150 china dinner plates, salad plates, glass stemware, cloth napkins, 30 glass water pitchers, 30 china creamers, 30 glass salt and pepper shakers, and silverware for 150 place settings.  Then there was the wrapping of the silverware in the napkins and the packaging of the dishes into boxes for each table so that come rehearsal time, the box could be put by the table and unpacked and set as soon as the tablecloth was on.

• There was the putting together of the seating chart, printing copies for my hosts who would be helping to direct people to their seats, and then there was the making of the lists and the special frame I wanted to hold the lists.

• My grandma had to make the veil.

• My mom had to make the garters (one for tossing and one for Danny).

• We had to get the groomsmen and bridesmaids gifts.

• We had our dance lessons so we didn't just end up on the dance floor turning little circles like a slow moving top.  I liked the song Danny picked out as our first dance song, but after more than 100 times, lets just say we stopped listening to it a few weeks before the wedding so it would still be meaningful.

• The last minute dress alterations and steaming had to be done, which ended up being a pain because the person at the dress shop who was going to do it no longer worked there so they wanted to charge me.  We ended up just buying a steamer and doing it ourselves (which actually means that my mom, my grandma and my team did it!).

• I had to have my hair and make-up trial.  I had some wonderful people at church willing to help me out with this.  (They have since become great friends.)  It was so fun getting to be pampered not just on my day, but beforehand too!

(Please note the turkey neck muscles.  You will be seeing A LOT more of them shortly!)

• We had to go suit shopping.  Central Oregon was limited in that as well.  We could find super skinny suits in our price range but not that would fit all of our groomsmen.  Plus, who knew Pewter would be such a hard color to match with?  We ended up having to drive over to the valley to order from Men's Warehouse, which meant we definitely did NOT stay within the budget we were shooting for.  The upside was we made it in time for their B1G1 Free sale which meant everything ended up being half price...and the guys ended up with a better suit than they would have gotten otherwise.
  

• I had to pick out what I wanted the boys in the wedding to wear, which was the easiest thing ever!  I knew I wanted them in black slacks, black shoes and a short sleeve white button down shirt.  I shopped around online for the best deal and emailed the link to the parents.  Then Target discontinued the shirt.  DAHHH!  One of my wonderful future brother-in-laws found the same shirt on Amazon though and saved the day!  The girls' dresses were another matter.  I wanted something black/black and white that didn't look too grown up.  Ideally we would have been able to make their dresses, but you know, some things just don't happen.  I scoured websites looking for dresses.  I would find just what I wanted and they wouldn't have the right sizes.  The problem came in that I needed dresses from size 3T to size 12--and I needed 8 of them!  I could find something in the toddler sizes, but not in the girl's sizes.  I also wanted something little girl, but not too little girl for the older girls.  Eeek!  I ended up going with a couple of different dress options and hoped the boys could pull the look together.

• Then there was the making of all the assorted things: the guest book, the menu, the table numbers, the gift signs, the I DO and Mr. & Mrs. signs...You get the idea.

• My grandma had to make the cake.  (As you've probably figured out by now, my grandma is AMAZING!  She can do ANYTHING!  Plus she taught my mom!  Without those two, I would probably still be planning my wedding!)

• We had to plan the activities surrounding the wedding, starting when guests were arriving in town the Thursday before.  We had a spaghetti feed at the church where I worked along with dance lessons from our wonderful DJ and friend, Seth.  Friday we had the bridesmaids luncheon and putting together of the flowers.  That night was the rehearsal and dinner. Then Saturday was the BIG DAY...but that's another story.