We have a date!

[alilac]

It's taken 3 years, but we finally have a wedding date! :dance: We'll be getting married May 15th at our local Catholic church. We were hoping to have it mid to late March, since we're going to pay for everything with our tax refunds, but the priest said you can't rush it like that. Ok, I'll only be in my 3rd trimester, or close to it, :o but I guess that's ok! :p If I can get the wedding dress I have altered to fit, I don't care. The mother of one of Brandyn's friends knows someone that can make our wedding cake as a family favor (for free), and it sounded like she'd pay for the site for the reception too. I have to light a fire under Brandyn's butt to have him call her about that stuff.

I'll probably be having artificial flowers, they're much cheaper. I'm not sure what I want for flowers yet, but I've got a little time to figure it out. I still have no idea who I want for my maid/matron of honor. :argh: And I can't find any of my wedding planning stuff, which includes the paper I bought to make my own invitations, it's all buried somewhere in the storage shed (I hope). About the only thing we know for sure is where the ceremony is going to be, and that it's not going to be a wedding with a mass since we're already living together.

[yonksgirl]

I'll probably be having artificial flowers, they're much cheaper. I'm not sure what I want for flowers yet

You should do some research. I know what I paid for my flowers and it was about the same as my SIL who had fake flowers. Just a thought. You can all so make you oun boquets they are not hard at all!;)

[alilac]

I'm such a pack rat, with artificial flowers, I can have something more to save. ;)

Brandyn's friend said she got all of her fake flowers for $50. I think she bought individual flowers and made up the boquets herself, but I'm not sure.

[yonksgirl]

Oh and congrats on getting a date!!!!:D

[andrea]

congrats girl!!!

[alilac]

Thanks :D

[tifferoo]

Congrats on setting your date!!!

There is so much info on the net about wedding planning! I have gotten so many ideas from websites. I am sure you will have fun planning. Just try not to get stressed out like I have...lol.

[alilac]

Thanks tifferoo. :) I have a few wedding sites bookmarked, but all the stuff I had on paper is in the twilight zone.

[luv to dance]

Congrats Angela! I look forward to reading all about your wedding plans! ;)

[nana]

Congratulations!

That's wonderful!

I think planning the wedding is very fun! Enjoy it!

[rdy2rac with]

You can get pretty "cost effective" flowers if you use whats in season & common.

For our wedding I told them I wanted colorful boquets of season flowers & that there were to be no roses (there were a few in my boquet but I asked for those & there were onlt 3 or 4).

[nana]

Oh, I almost forgot! We are doing are own flowers and we are getting them at Sam's Club for a Fantastic Price! Thought this might help!

[alilac]

We're probably going to get flowers from Walmart, not sure what kinds yet. Our reception will be at a place that provides food (a couple of hot dishes, a veggie and a fruit tray, potato salad) and has a band almost every weekend. You only have to pay the $4/person for the food, nothing to book the space or anything. If I understood her correctly, Brandyn's mother will pay for that since she was going to make the food for our other reception location choice. We're no longer getting married in the church, as the priest (for one reason) thought some of Brandyn's views were non-christian, and therefore wrong, so he's going to put that our wedding is "delayed" in our file. :rolleyes: Now we'll have to see if we can get a justice of the peace to come to the reception site, or we have a friend that can get ordained and perform the ceremony. We'll have to find out if she'd be able to though, as she'd be getting ordained in Washington state.

[alilac]

We got the invitations sent out last week. We have the location picked and booked. I finally picked out my matron of honor. We're trying to get the ceremony all worked out. We're having an officiant who used to be a minister at an Unitarian Universalist church in the area. Brandyn's mother is going to have a brunch-type shower this Sunday for the people that won't be available for the one that my matron of honor is having. The brunch is in the same place as the ceremony will be, so we can figure out how to set it up and plan the menu for the reception when we go for the brunch. We have someone to do the cake, although I don't know what they're going to do yet. I plan on figuring out if my dress needs any alterations around May 1st, since I don't know how much I'll grow between now and then. The dress I'm going to wear doesn't seem like it will need many alterations.. it's very comfortable and it fits pretty good.

[tifferoo]

Glad to see your wedding plans are going well!

[Csara]

Wow, your wedding is coming up so soon!! How exciting. Congratulations on setting the date. I know I'm late (sorry) but you know the saying....better late than never. :shy: How is everything going? Is it all planned out now?

[alilac]

Thanks C. The planning is coming along, there's still a few things we need to get worked out.

[LovinLife9104]

That's great! I'm getting married too- on September 1, 2004! I always wanted a spring wedding, like my parents (their 31st wedding anniversary is coming on May 8th!), but 9/1/04 will be the 10 year anniversary of when Corey and I first met :D. I'm glad that everything is going well! I see that you and Brandyn have a little one on the way too- congratulations! You're going to be one beautiful preggo bride :D! It's so cool that you're going to sort of share your wedding day with your unborn child!

[alilac]

Thanks :)

We've run into a minor snag with the marriage liscense - I only have a photocopy of my birth certificate and have to send off to Illinois for one.

[Brandynr]

Well, we managed to get the marriage license.. Just barely though. We had to apply for it by last Friday, due to the waiting period in this county. Well, her official copy of her birth certificate didn't arrive until Friday. So we had to rush in and get it taken care of.

[RoseBride]

Congrats! Only 3 more days!
Sorry about the church, Catholic Church's are very strict, so sometimes it's not the choice for everyone. The Catholic Church I go to is so old fashion, they wouldn't let my friend get married there cause she was already PG. I warned her that they would say no, but she wanted to try anyhow. So, she had it on the beach instead, and it was very nice! And, I ended up using the Church on the day she would have had it, so it all worked out!

[Brandynr]

Argh... I really think this whole wedding thing is gonna kill me though. If I manage to survive this, I'm not talking to anyone for a month!

Since Angie's dad isn't really able to afford to pay for the entire reception, my parents are helping to pay for some of it as well. My mother is putting Angie and I through a guilt trip about it, however. Doesn't matter that we hadn't even been planning on having food at the reception, and had someone willing to pay for a cheaper place for it.

Basically, my mother is hijacking the wedding, and planning it as if it were her own. Half the guests are not even people we had been planning on inviting! (And since the reception is being charged per head, it makes me wonder why she's complaining about paying for it...)

And frankly, it seems as if EVERYONE has an opinion on how we should do things. Well, everyone but the officiant - he's just along for the ride right next to me. Everyone else wants us to do this, or do that, and nevermind what we really had envisioned.

It'll be a miracle if I make it through this!

[alilac]

:argh: It is getting annoying, but after tomorrow it'll be all over.

[Brandynr]

Just to update everyone, the wedding went off without a hitch. Everything turned out very good. The ceremony was very nice; we had my sister-in-law give a lay reading, and she added exactly what we needed. Since we went with a United Unitarian minister, God wasn't involved as much as we would have liked; her reading added God into it perfectly. (We knew that athe minister wouldn't mention God very much; that's why we had her do the reading.)

The food at the reception was much better than I expected, and everything simply fell into place perfectly. We'll be trying to get some pictures ASAP, for those who like to see pictures.

Lastly, Angie was very pretty in her wedding gown. Although I had been thinking of it as a formality leading up to the wedding, now that it's over it really means more to me than I thought it would. I'm not one to cry very easily, but I almost broke out in tears when I saw her walking up to the alter.

[laughter]

Angela and Brandyn ~~ Congratulations!!!!!!!!! :clap:

[meliz]

Congratulations! So glad it went well!

[alilac]

Thanks :) At the last minute (as I'm running around everyone waiting for things to start), my dad agreed to walk me down the aisle. I didn't have any idea who it was going to be until about 15 minutes before the ceremony started. :lol:

And now for some pictures. Here's the set up of the chairs and tables for the ceremony.

[alilac]

The card/gift table.

[alilac]

Decorations on one of the long tables for the reception.

[alilac]

And one of the 4-person tables.

[Csara]

Congratulations!! I'm so glad everything turned out well for you guys. That's awesome. :D

[alilac]

Wide shot of the head table.

[alilac]

Thanks C :)

The bell (which was supposed to signal us to kiss during dinner, but about 5 people knew what it meant so no one was paying attention..)

[alilac]

A far-away shot of the table for the unity candle.

[alilac]

And a close-up.

[alilac]

One of the 2 tables they set up in the bar area.

[alilac]

Waiting.

[alilac]

The cakes.

[alilac]

Closeup of the wedding cake.

[alilac]

Chocolates!

[alilac]

The "aisle".

[alilac]

The other centerpiece for the small tables.

[alilac]

And now for some of the actual ceremony.

The officiant and my matron of honor.. this is probably when they were wondering when we were coming in.. (the communication or something broke down somewhere and the officiant had to go to the door to signal us to come in).

[alilac]

Cindy (all the way on the right) getting ready to do her readings.

[alilac]

Lighting of the Unity candle.

[alilac]

Not sure what was going on at this point, just a pic of everyone.

[alilac]

A couple of very bored junior bridesmaids ;) (l to r: Mikayla and Casie)

[alilac]

First kiss :D

[alilac]

And for the first time, Mr. and Mrs. :cloud9:

[alilac]

The receiving line.

[alilac]

That's all for now, these are some of the pics that our friend from WA took. I'll post more when I get 'em. :)

[laughter]

O my that is very beautiful!!! What a pretty wedding! Congrats again! :)

[alilac]

Thanks :) I'll be posting more pics later, after I resize/brighten the ones that B's mother took.

[Mel-icious]

Angela and Brandyn congratulations on your wedding, it looked like you had a beautiful day! :clap:

[alilac]

Thanks, it was very beautiful. And even though B's mother put us through so much stress about stuff, we both agree that it wouldn't have been so perfect if it wasn't for her and B's sis-in-law. They did a lot towards getting everything organized.

[luv to dance]

Anglea! Your wedding was beautiful! I really liked the head table and the pic of the jr. bridesmaids was too cute. I really like that it was inside, yet you got to see all of outside! Nice place. I know I haven't read most of your posts here on the wedding board but where did you get your dress? I love the detail on it and your veil! Absolutely beautiful! You guys look so happy! Congratulations! :inlove:

[alilac]

Brandyn's sister-in-law gave me the dress and veil, it was from her 1st marriage and she didn't want it around anymore..

Thanks :D

[alilac]

More pictures.

Walking down the aisle (my dad finally agreed to walk me down), hoping I didn't kill myself on the steps.

[alilac]

:shrug:

[alilac]

Exchanging the rings, B's doesn't fit so we have to buy a chain sometime.