What does it all mean????

Well, it was inevitable. It had to happen eventually, I just didn't think it would be this soon...

I had my first wedding nightmare. It was a doozy too, let me tell ya!

It started with me and my Dad standing outside the doors of wherever I decided to have the ceremony (which is a major decision that is still pending at the moment!) When the coordinator opens the doors, there are these panels of fabric that we have to wade through in order to get into the room. So we wade in, it's dark, like someone has the shades pulled on the windows and instead of meeting Sean at the front of the room, he is sitting on a chair in the crowd and I sit down two people away from him. Then, the guy who is marrying us grabs both our hands and drags us over to this big grand piano in the back of the room and does the ceremony there! Afterwards we are all just standing in the hallway and I'm upset about the ceremony and my Mom goes, "Well, you can ALWAYS do it again, tomorrow!" WTF??? So then immediately after that, it is time for dinner and they are serving salads and I realize that we never even had a tasting!!! I have no clue what is being served and when I ask the banquet manager why we never got a tasting, she can't give me an answer. When I then demand a refund of my money, she tells me no. I can't find my Mom or my Dad and I end up in the reception hall leaning on a table and sobbing. And just thinking the whole time that I am so dissapointed that this is how my wedding ended up. THEN...I finally find my Mom and we both figure out that we are not really at my wedding, because it's only June 14th, 2008 and my wedding is still a whole other year away!!!! How silly of us!

Then I woke up.

Complete...ridiculousness? Yes. But I can understand a few of the things. I am worried about finding the ceremony site and further more finding someone to actually marry us. This has been a bit more difficult than I had imagined. Secondly, I've always been a bit weary about the food and the pricing at our venue. Even though I know they aren't going to screw me, it's a lot of money that we are dealing with and maybe underneath it all I feel a bit guilty about how much it is going to cost in the very end?

Either way, I hope I don't have another one of those for a while. It was pretty unsettling.

decisions...decisions...

Obviously, I've been obsessing just a tad over bridesmaid dresses lately. It's very important to me that I find a middle ground between what I have envisioned for the wedding and what my bridesmaids like, feel comfortable in and of course are willing to shell out the dough for. The dresses below are included in J.Crew's summer sale going on now. I like the yellow and the style, but I'm not convinced that I love the rope detail. They are still $179.99, but that's only about 15 bucks more than I paid for my last bridesmaid dress. Still seems like a lot to ask though. Blarg. Anywho, I e-mailed the contact for information on fabric swatches and return policy. We'll see.

(Strappy Florence Dress, J.Crew)

(Strapless Florence Dress, J. Crew)

I've also been encouraged lately by some of the more updated styles I've been seeing on the mainstream bridal designer websites.

Dessy and After Six have some dresses that look like they could be contenders...only thing is I have no clue about price. Two or three little diamond logos doesn't really translate to dollars for me.

(Note: I have no idea what color I would choose from either of these two designers, so these are just examples of dress styles, not exact color choices.)

(After Six 6510)

(After Six 6518)

(After Six 6535 Front and Back Views)

(Dessy Style 2719)

(After Six 6728)

(After Six 6504)

(After Six 6506 Front and Back Views)

(After Six 6505)

I also like these from Jim Hjelm, but again I have no concept of pricing.

(Jim Hjelm Style: #JH5804T in Pineapple (Yum!))



(Style# JH5709T, Front and Back Views)


(Style: #JH5613T)

That's it for now.

Put on your party dress...

My search continues for an alternative Bridesmaid dress...

Anthropologie has some more cute little options for a bridesmaid party dress.

This one is $308.00 so ummm no. But it's cute!

This one is only $138.00. A little more casual, but still cute. I like the little ruffle at the bottom.

And of course they wouldn't be complete without these shoes for $358.00, would they? Nah.

I took a look at Macys.com and saw this:

A bit more formal, but still has a little funkyness. I don't really like the color though.

Nordstrom always has some good stuff...

If this Nicole Miller dress was a bit shorter, and of course not $465.00, I think I would like something like it...I really like yellow and I love the pattern of the fabric.

(Nordstrom, $465.00)

I was likin' this one for a second, but now I think it would be blah.

(Nordstrom, $158.00)

and last but not least...something for myself, of course. The LBD:

Nordstrom, $128.00

"We're not boat people..."

I was watching Sex and the City the other night and in the episode, Steve and Miranda decide to get married and as they are walking and discussing places the hold the ceremony, they just happen to drop a bag of groceries in front of this adorable city garden. And just like that, they've found the ceremony site! Easy as pie!

Well isn't that nice for them? Maybe that will work out for me too...you see, I'm having a hard time finding a place to hold the ceremony and I'm starting to worry a bit that I won't be able to find the perfect place...or even the near perfect place.

As I mentioned before, we do have the option of having the ceremony at the reception site. There are a few reasons that I am opposed to this. The first is the fact that the earliest we would be able to start is 4:30 or 5. I know myself and I know that I will feel disappointed if I have to wait to start the whole shebang until 5 p.m. Plus, I would have to take pictures with Sean ahead of time, and if there is any tradition I'd like to hold onto, it's the whole not seeing each other before the ceremony thing. Lastly, I don't trust that the ceremony set up would be broken down and the reception would be put together appropriately within the time it takes to have cocktails.

Sean and I are looking for an alternative site for the ceremony. Our families are of different religions and neither of us are practicing in either. So, we won't be doing a church. So the search for the site has been a bit difficult. In my head I picture us getting married outside, maybe under a great tree(s), or some place that was just really "us"! I've scoured the internet and it haven't really come up with anything that great. We went and looked at a couple places, a conservatory in Mt. Prospect that was just meh, and then we went and saw the Schram Memorial Museum in Glen View.

This place has a nice history, it's located in pretty close proximity to the reception hall and it's very quaint. They don't hold church services there, it's pretty much just for weddings. We went and looked at it and it was really nice, but I just don't know if it's the right place.

The inside is pretty plain, but I just don't know if it feels like us...if that makes any sense. My friend at work is getting married there and she said they are pretty much letting her do whatever she wants to as far as decorations, etc.

It was almost dark out when we were there, so I imagine it would be brighter during the day.

I'm not really diggin the stained glass windows...

I did find one great place, it's a Japanese garden and it looks beautiful. But...it's in Geneva, which I think would be way too far from the reception site, so I guess that's probably out of the question too.

But it's so pretty!!!

I'm going to look into putting a deposit down on Schram, just in case we don't find anything else. My Mom has suggested finding the officiant and then seeing if maybe they have any suggestions. Too bad I have NO CLUE where to even look for the officiant...or what kind I'm even looking for.

Venue Envy...

I know, it's too late to have second thoughts on where to hold the reception...but wait, maybe I could just pay back my parents for the deposit they put down?

My crazy talk is stemming from just now discovering the Pleasant Home in Oak Park which I found via A Windy City Wedding . Thank the lord it only holds 150 people or I would be having big time remorse right now...and/or putting my parents in an asylum waaaay to early in the game.

Well, we finally found some where to hold the big party. We've set the date for July 11, 2009. We will be having the reception (and possibly the ceremony) at the Metropolis Ballroom in downtown Arlington Heights. (If you are looking at the Web site, please ignore any photos with a colorful mural in it. That wall has been knocked down to enlarge the room.)

As soon as we saw the room, we really liked it. The space is really open and loft like. The wood floors and the high ceiling was a big plus also. And through the glass doors is a terrace that people can go out on and smoking is allowed on the terrace too so people can still feel like they are a part of the party.

Better view of the ceiling(above). The lighting is really modern. The "chandeliers" look like twinkly lights!

If we had the ceremony there, it would be in the ballroom too (set up somewhat like this). To the right of this photo you can see the bar. Though I really like that there is a 'real' bar in the room, I'd probably want to do something to cover it up for the ceremony so that it didn't look like I was getting hitched...in a bar. Or who knows, by that point...I probably won't care. We aren't sure what to do about the ceremony yet. Most of the other places that we looked at, which of course didn't work out, all had pretty nice places to have the ceremony outside. That is not the case here. Plus, I'd like to do the ceremony a bit earlier in the day so that we can have time to take pictures and still be able to partake in the cocktail hour.

Speaking of cocktail hour, one other thing that isn't perfect, but can be worked with is the location of the cocktail hour.

This is only one view of the room. I really like the exposed brick, and there is a built in bar (see below). But, it's a bit dark for my tastes. ALSO BUT...it's only one hour, right? I may have to get creative with some decor.

Above is the former mural in the cocktail space. I never really saw with my own two eyes, but I think it's a good thing they knocked it down. Also, you can see the bar I mentioned before.

So yeah, it's official! We're actually going to get married. We weren't just jerkin' your chain. 7-11. Get your free slurpees on the way to the PAR-TAY!

If you have it (an hour away), they will come (hopefully).

SOOOOOO...last time we spoke, I was gushing about my new found love--the MCA. I had finally opened up and thought I had found the one venue who could fulfill all my hopes, dreams and needs. In the end, I got my heart broken--to the tune of $150 to $200 per person! Can you believe it? I'm sure you can. I'm not sure why I ever thought that I could afford something so awesome, but alas, I move on.

Since then, we've looked at 3 other places, all out in the suburbs, each having something wrong with them. 1) They don't fit enough people, even though the sales person tells you they do when you call to inquire about it. 2) The reception has to end at 11 p.m. due to residential restrictions...again, no one seemed to mention this before I dragged my ass--not to mention Sean's ass--there on a Friday night. 3) They don't allow smoking...anywhere on the grounds...at a wedding...makes sense, and thank you again for maybe mentioning this restriction during our e-mail or phone conversations. Really, I appreciate it. Now, the last thing wouldn't really bother me, but unfortunately, quite a few of my friends and family (including my Dad) smoke and I don't want them spending all night in the parking lot just because they have to hide to have a cigarette. Not fun.

So, what am I left with? Well...I did find a place that seems to be sort of a sure thing. It's within our budget (a word I'm starting to despise). I've made sure that all of the above issues are not...issues, I've seen pictures, I've heard good reviews. The only thing that I see as a downfall is that it's about an hour away in Vernon Hills. Now, Sean and I have even gone as far as driving to other states and back in the same day for a wedding, but do other people care if they have to travel a bit? I'm not sure and if I like the place...at this point...I'm not sure if I am in a position to make that a priority. So, we're going to look at it on Sunday and fingers crossed it will be good. I'll be honest when I say it isn't really the perfect place, but I guess I have to take what I can get.

So, that's the update for now. I'm pretty bummed. I hope it gets more fun after this.