Back In The Game

Oh boy. Where should I start?
Planning was put on a temporary hold because I got a new job! I am finally out of retail and I can't say I'm missing it. During my last two weeks at my previous job, my manager worked me as much as she could. Which means, I hardly had time to sleep when you combine school and my internship. Luckily, I had 5 days between my last day at Rue and my first day at my new job! So during my 5 days back home, I was on full blast wedding planning mode. I had to pick flowers, talk to the travel company, schedule a meeting with Ralph (our caterer), make the final payment for our wonderful venue, and find a trusted seamstress to have my dress altered in a couple of weeks.
The first day I was home, I just relaxed and boy did I need it. When I woke up the next morning, I drove over to the traveling company. I was wondering why I had not been contacted since the last time I talked to them back in August. She reassured me that the flight itinerary would not be available until 3 months before our desired date so that she would contact me closer to the honeymoon dates, which we've been approved of. Next, Sandy (our friend who is doing the flowers) picked me up and we drove to South Austin and went to Bill Doran wholesale flower shop. I could tell this was Sandy's heaven. This place was huge! They had every size and shape of vases, every color and type of flower (real and fake), and all sorts of decorations! Sandy headed straight to the walk in coolers FILLED with flowers. It was so much fun to watch her book it down the isles of flowers while yanking, pulling, and bundling flowers together. Blue white and light blue hydrangeas, orchids big and small, tulips, white garden roses, calla lilies, sticks, grass, everything! Our shopping cart looked like a bouquet of flowers. I am so grateful for her! I learned more about flowers than I ever thought. Did you know hydrangeas are all originally white but the soil determines their color? That is why blue hydrangeas are a little more expensive, it's because they have to use richer soil! The whole way home she was throwing ideas at me for centerpieces. We then set up a time to meet on Sunday in order to pick our favorite arrangement and settle on a budget and a price.
Next, I drove down to the Villas and walked the property again. The pavilion is finished! It was nice to see everything again since I haven't seen it since all of the progress. Amanda, my day of the wedding coordinator, walked us through everything and helped us decide where we can put everything. She gave me ideas for the set up of the reception and ways to decorate the entrance to make guests feel at home. But I'll save those ideas for later. We sat down and put the package together and talked about my choice of vendors. Everything looks good and will run smoothly. So then I made my final payment! It feels so good to have that out of the way. I then got home and crashed.
The next morning I took lunch over to my mom and she showed me around the new campus. After lunch, I drove to 3 different alterations companies in or around Georgetown. One lady at KAD Bridal Alterations told me that my dress would only take 2 weeks to alter so I should bring it in right before the wedding. That would be a no. I do not want to have any concerns on if my altered dress will fit and then run out of time if it doesn't. The next lady I met told me she preferred not to do wedding gowns because she has had trouble with rude brides in the past. I quickly moved on from this location. Finally, someone I could count on. Carol at Bridal Arena has had 30+ years of alteration experience and thrives on perfection. Talking to her immediately put me at ease. She walked me through what alterations would need to be done, how much they would cost and gave me dates for the first alteration, the second alteration, and then the fittings leading up to the wedding. By the time I got home, my dad and I had to leave to meet up with my mom to go to my brother's homecoming basketball game. He did so well! He scored almost half of the points made in the game and he was definitely Mr. Rebound shot! I am really glad he is playing a sport that I can get in to.
Saturday morning, my mom and I headed down to the mall. We were looking at places to register. JCPenny doesn't register in stores anymore but only online. I was a little bummed by this but I am really happy with how things turned out. We ended up going to Macy's but there was already a couple there. So we decided to have my mom come to Houston the following weekend to register with me. When I got back, my bridesmaid Audrey and I met up and went to see Breaking Dawn Part 2. Such a good movie!! But let's not get off track here.
And now to my last day. I met up with Sandy and we played with flowers and arrangements. I'll save that for the next post.