Sneak Peek!

4 1/2 more days to the wedding! :) I thought I would give you all a little taste of what is to come. Nothing is too revealing I think. Here is just a little of what I, along with the help of others, have been working hard on over the last few months. I can't wait to see how it all comes together!

high of 74 degrees

We have entered into the 10 day forecast! Woohoo. I know 10 days is a huge amount of time in the weather world and this could stay the same or change drastically, but it is still fun to check and see what the weather may be. Right now I would say it looks like a perfect day to get married. :)
I am not really worried about the weather though. We are getting married rain or shine! :) The only bummer with rain would be pictures, but we could figure that out. Steve has access, through work, to this massive weather database. With it he was able to look back at the weather on September 26th through a number of years. I would say, from what he found that historically it looks like we picked a great day.

In the past 5 years on Sept 26 it has been an average of 66-70 degrees. It has not rained since 2003 and that’s the only year it rained in this decade. In 2004 it was an avg temp of 54 which is the only year it seemed kind of cold and in 1999 it was an average temp of 76, hitting 89, which looks to be the warmest in the past decade. The avg precipitation on Sept 26 is .1 inches and high is 2.26 in 1884.

Programs!

Being that it is getting so close to the wedding it was time to start working on programs. I know a lot of people wait till even closer than I did to the wedding to do their programs, but I didn't want to haul all of the necessary pieces to St Louis and assemble them there. So I started a few weeks ago looking on the Knot for program layout ideas. Below are some of the styles I liked.

When Lauren spent the night a few weekends ago she helped me get a Word document laid out and ready to format with everything I would need to be in the program. Over the last couple of weeks I have gotten everything needed for the program ready. Friday I had them printed up and Saturday night Lauren and her mom were so kind and came over and assembled them with me. Together we got 90 of them done! I could never have gotten that many done in one night without them. They had also just done all of this a few months ago for Lauren and Nicks wedding, so they had more expertise in program assembling than I do. hehe. Sunday Steve helped me out and we got the rest of them done. I am so glad to have such a big thing to cross off my to do list! Thank you sooooooo much Lauren and Terry!

Ceremony Music

Pretty much everything for the wedding has been planned out by now, except for minor details. One thing that Steve and I had not put much thought into though was music for the ceremony. The people at the Piper Palm House mentioned that a lot of people use ipods or something of the like for music. At the time this was alright with us, so we figured we would go with that and work on it when the time came. Well it was time to figure out the music for the ceremony over the last week. I put Steve in charge of it. Then one night he tells me that he needs to talk to me about it. He is no longer happy with the idea of having someone press play on a cd or ipod and he worries that it could ruin the wedding. I tell him everything will be fine no matter what, its just music. Little did I know he had really thought all of this through and researched people to play at the wedding. So sweet of him! So now we are having a string duo play from Noteworthy Music.
There will be a violin and a classical guitar playing. We picked out the songs from their list last night and we are super excited about them playing. And now with the music picked out I can finalize the programs and get them printed.

September!

Today is the first day of September. That means....
- 4 weeks till the wedding
- 25 1/2 days till the wedding
- only 15 of those days are days I have to work
- 3 more weekends till the wedding weekend
- 7514 hours till the ceremony
- 450840 minuets till the ceremony
- 27050400 seconds till the ceremony
- only 2 more trips to St Louis, one of those for the wedding
Yay!

Sunday In the Park

This past Sunday Steve, Chewie and I had a lovely day at the park. We went to Shawnee Mission Park, found a great spot by the lake and had a picnic. The park is amazing. We had never been there, nor had we realized how close it was to our house. There are a ton of things to do there, including some paddle boats we plan to hit up on our next visit.

Chewie loved it the most I think. He is now demanding we go to the park every week. :)

Steve and I enjoying some "Kung Fu Girl" Riesling.

We ate strawberries and pineapple with our wine. After we were done eating everything we brought we went over our ceremony. It was great reading through it and knowing that in less than 2 months it will be being read out loud to all of our friends and family.

100 Days!

Today marks 100 days until the wedding! So much still do to, but I can't wait! :)

Yeah Right

I often look at The Knot's "What We Love" blog of wedding ideas and today I saw this.

Exit Ceremony Idea - Tandem Bike Getaway
Haha. Really? Can't you just see Steve and I now trying to ride a tandem bike away from the ceremony. I am barely able to ride a regular bike, let alone a tandem bike and in a wedding dress. Haha. Dream on The Knot.

Let the Crafting Begin!

I now have the supplies I need to get started crafting the paper pom balls for the ceremony. I have gathered them one by one. First I got 40 pieces of the paper I wanted to use and punched flowers out of all 40 pieces. Steve was glad when that step was done. I would punch them out while watching tv with him. hehe. Then I ordered the styrofoam balls and 100 yards of purple ribbon. I will need to go and get more straight pins, but I have enough to start. I am going to just wrap all of the balls with the ribbon first. Then do the flowers. I'm so excited to get started! I have more projects to come, but I think this one is my favorite. I am glad I am going to do this one first. Plus its the only one where I don't have to use Word and I have learned that I am horrible at using Word. I am going to need some Word expertise when I get to the others. :)

Transportation

Transportation for the wedding day is booked!
We are getting a 16 person "limousine bus" for four hours. It will take either Steve or I (and coordinating wedding party) to the Piper Palm House, then everyone in the wedding party and their dates will ride in it afterwards.

And after the reception there will be two taxi's available, for two hours, for guests to use to get to their end destinations safely. I request that the taxi's aren't used to go too far away though, as we only have them for two hours. :)

Pom Bags

I have been thinking about what to put the pom poms in to give to guests when they enter the ceremony. Both Aunt Nancy and Mama found some cute things to give them out in, but I think I need something a little bigger. Not too big though. My initial idea was to place them in paper bags, with a cute note telling guests when to throw them. So I went out today and found some like I had been thinking of. I found all of these on Paper Mart. They seemed to have reasonable prices. These two below are what I had first pictured. They are a little tall, but could be cut down some. They also come in a variety of colors, brown and white are the best deal price wise though.

Paper Mart also had these "gourmet food bags" that I thought would be cute. They are a little pricier. And I would be concerned about the size of them also. It would be cute to get these printed up with the saying of when to throw them though. That might be more work and money than I am looking for though.

Reserved

I really like this little ceremony detail. I could use the same ribbon I choose to use for the pompadore balls. The chairs at the Piper Palm House are the same style as these ones.

Flowers 2

Finally as promised here are a few pictures from when we visited the florist in December.
My bouquet is going to be all white and lined with hydrangea leaves, similar to below.

All of the girls will have these fuji(spider) mums in this shade of purple. The base of them will be lined with leaves also. Giving them the same look as mine.
The men will have purple mini calla-lilies and Steve will have a white orchid.

The reception flowers will be white hydrangeas and the purple fuji mums. :)

Steve and Sarah Come on Down....

Steve and I found someone to marry us, Bob Barker! No not that Bob Barker, he is busy being retired from the Price is Right. Hehe This Bob Barker resides in St Louis and is a retired minister. We met with him this past Saturday at his house. It was a very nice meeting. I think he will do a wonderful job with our ceremony. We are looking forward to working with him to plan out all of the details.

Cute!

I just saw this cute saying on Once Wed. They made boxes to place feathers in to toss as the newley weds walked back down the aisle. The boxes had this saying attached: "When the newly weds walk your way, toss these feathers and shout 'HOORAY". I may replace feathers with poms and attach to the bags with the poms in them. :)

Paper Pomander Balls

I have always loved the idea of pomander balls hanging down the aisle(on the chairs) but getting these seems silly as I'm sure they aren't cheap and then there's the hassle of flowers falling off of them. But then I saw this DIY project on Once Wed. They are paper pomander balls. The approximate cost of one is $5, but they got the Styrofoam balls SUPER cheap. I paid $5 for one at Micheal's!

So last weekend I picked up a ball, paper(its Martha Stewart) and a cute flower paper punch(also Martha...found it cheaper later at WalMart though). The rest I used what I had at home. I think it turned out really good. I can only imagine how great one made with all the right materials would look.

My delima now is do I want to make these and have the pom poms on the chairs? It might be too much. Oh and the pomanders would probably only go on every other row half way down the Piper Palm House. I don't know! Sometimes I think I have too many ideas and they aren't all going to go together! eek.

Did some research today and I found this site where you can get the balls for about $1.75 each, when purchasing 12. Not too bad.

Pom Poms 2

I found these two pics of throwing pom poms. It makes me love them even more. I have been trying to think of ways we can use them as decorations as well. I really like what this couple did. They had three next to each other, but they were in the middle of pews. I don't know where you would find something like they used or how to attach them to chairs. Any ideas?

Rehearsal

My mom has been in contact with the Piper Palm house and we found out the times we can have the rehearsal are kind of awkward times. Our choices were on Thursday or before noon on Friday. After talking with my mom and Kim I decided that we would have it from 11-12 on Friday, the last possible time we could get. I figure that way it gives people some time to get into town if they can. I'm sure not everyone will be able to make this time, since it isn't really ideal, but I figure enough of us will be able to get there we can fill in those who weren't there on Friday night or on Saturday before the ceremony. We will still have a rehearsal dinner traditionally on Friday night. Hope everything goes smoothly. :)

Things I need to do next: contact caterors and officients

Pom Poms

I saw this is idea and fell in love with it. I think it could look really cool.
Instead of guests blowing bubbles or throwing rice(which I don't think anyone does anymore), you have them throw pom poms. I picked up two skeins of yarn yesterday and started making some pom poms. I have also enlisted mama to help me work on them. The yarn I got is ivory and aubergine, but I think it looks a little more maroon than I thought it did in the store. 14 down, a couple hundred to go. :)

The Big Day

Its 363 days till the wedding!
The ceremony is going to be at the Piper Palm House in Tower Grove Park. I was looking at pictures we took when we visited it and I just love it. I think its the perfect place for us to get married.
The reception is going to be on the fourth floor of Neo, with drinks on the rooftop garden.
We don't have much else planned right now. I'm sure this year is going to go by fast. We better get planning!