Wedding Planning

J says, "These things plan themselves." Haha.

We have a venue (will confirm this week) and set a date of September 26, 2015!

That's 7 months away. It's totally doable but I was feeling stressed with report cards the past few weeks that I didn't allow myself to think wedding stuff. Now that they have been sent home, I am enjoying pinning things and talking about it with people.

I went to a wedding show with J this past weekend and I am feeling better about the planning process. I was a little shocked last week when a co-worker told me I should have my dress by now. I said, "uhhh, well we've only been engaged for two weeks!" We are going to do a hall. It's a pretty hall with a fireplace and big windows overlooking the lake. There is a ceremony site close by and we will rent a train to take us to and from it. They have a heritage train to do this. We will pray for nice weather.

We met with a potential caterer this weekend who is supposed to come back with a price for us at some point this week. It's going to be expensive since we need them to rent the dishes/cutlery/etc. I've let this sink in and I know we will cut costs in some ways but it's still going to be pricey. Our guest list is currently 196 but we are going to cut it to 150.

We are going to do our own open bar and we will hire a couple of people to run it and help with takedown. My brother is a brewer and will be able to give us a discount on beer, but we will have to apply for a special occasions permit and buy the rest of the alcohol (and supplies) ourselves.

We will have to rent chairs for the ceremony. J thought we could do hay bales with wooden planks and I loved the ides, but I think it will end up costing more than chairs.

We need to hire a DJ, and potentially a photographer (J's aunt and uncle said they could do it). Then flowers and other decorations (backdrop, head table, centrepieces, etc)! So much to do!

Do you have any favourite things about a wedding you've been to? Any wedding suggestions? Or things NOT to have/do?