frustratingly, we were at a bit of a stand still the last few weeks.  while there is so much (SOOO MUCH) to do, it was all upon the venue to approve vendors and answer questions, and with the holidays making it more and more difficult to contact people, we had a span of time of absolutely no wedding plans being made.

i assure you friends, work is now being done. we have a very good plan for the day itself, schedules assigned, hotels booked, caterers booked, bartenders licensed, furnishings rented, etc.  when we first started working with our venue i was really worried that they wouldnt allow us to do a lot of what we wanted to do, but now i have never been happier with our situation.  the coordinator is helping us out so much, being so flexible and friendly, saving us money and giving us great ideas.  it’s a huge sigh of relief coming from me, and probably also andy since i will cease the 24/7 ponderings and questions he can’t answer.

One of the most important decisions (besides the venue and caterer) for this whole shindig was the photographer.  Being a self-admitted photo snob, I was really conflicted about this decision. We don’t have an enormous budget for photography, but I wanted someone great who seems to have the same aesthetics as us, but those photographers tend to be on the very, very pricey side.

Through some great luck we found James Julius, who is a newcomer, but who has a great portfolio and I am really excited to work with him.  As an added bonus, he and his wife had their wedding reception at Pleasant Home so he is well aware of the venue and it’s, uh, intricacies.  I cannot even express how excited I am!  It’s all coming together!

Here is an example of James’ work!

apologies for the crazy delay in posts, folks.

we are still getting married, no worries.  i [gena] sort of (read: majorly) slacked on the whole planning thing, so we are currently working on many aspects at once and should have some news and posts in the coming days.  yay!

we handed over our deposit and signed the contract.  venue has been decided and is ours.

that’s a huge weight off our shoulders, and (i feel) the biggest decision we had to make. the ceremony and reception will be held there. it’s as close to perfect as we could find and will make the rest of this fiasco a lot easier. as long as people don’t object to traveling to the suburbs, we are golden. yay!

tonight we have plans to look at our first venue for the big day.  in terms of looks, this place is #1 on the list. it’s gorgeous and if they allow us to use certain parts of it (outdoors parts) it’s exactly what i wanted. the big plus is that if we choose it, itll house both reception and ceremony, and it’s fairly inexpensive.   but i fear they do have a few restrictions on caterers and vendors, and it is in the suburbs, which could be a problem for out of town visitors.

i fell in love with the place from photos i’ve seen, so i hope (HOPE!) it’s as wonderful as the interwebs would like us to believe.  wish us luck!