The 6 month sprint: Week 8

It's May - and time to get my butt into May with my 6 month sprint updates!  We left off just before Easter…

Thursday:  Our meeting with Max {videographer} was canceled, which meant that we got to have dinner with my future in laws!  At the best steak place around.  I am SUCH a meat and potatoes kind of girl… {and red wine}

Friday April 18th:  Got an email from Jen with the proofs of our invitation and RSVP!  They are beautiful and {almost} perfect!

a peek at the only important part of the RSVP, the part where you accept!!

Saturday:  Celebrated Ant's grandfather's 90th birthday with the family!  Noteworthy, but not wedding related.  I also got to meet two of the newest members of the family - Ella and Isaac!

the birthday boy and his bride :)

Sunday: Easter!  Again, not anything specifically productive as far as wedding planning is concerned - but having both sets of parents over meant naturally lots of wedding talk!  We also finally got to show them our wedding bands & all of the other beautiful sparkle currently in the house.  I decided to send out an email to all of the bridesmaids about shoes, giving them an idea of what I'm looking for so they can start their searches independently!

some bridesmaid shoe inspiration...

Tuesday: Finally got around to emailing Jen back to let her we were definitely interested in using her for our invitations!  I'm so glad this is one less thing we have to worry about :)  The last thing that needs to be designed is the directions card, so people don't get lost driving onto campus.

Wednesday: Ant and I decided we would feel more comfortable booking our JP if we were able to meet her first, so I emailed Marie Wiley to see if we could meet up with her.  She wrote back almost immediately and we were able to set a date for the first week in May!  Since we were going to be in Mystic to meet her anyway, I decided to email our DJ Pat and see if we could plan a walk through of the Branford House with him also while we were in the area.  I also emailed Max confirming a new day to meet up and talk videography.  AKA, Wednesday was meeting day!! Phew.

OH! But that's not all!! Wednesday was also date day :)  There is legitimately nothing better than mid week date days with my fiancé.  We are super productive but also have SO much fun {work hard, play hard, am I right?}…it's legit the best.  One day I'm sure we'll love normal M-F work weeks, but until then, we love our date days!  This particular date day, we happened to be near the outlets…so we went to JCrew…and while we were at JCrew, we found the PERFECT tie for the groomsmen to wear!  Perfect.  It is simple and classic and the right colors.  So Ant mass texted his guys immediately to let them know he'd found the tie, so they could buy it asap.  I'll give you more deets in an upcoming Wise Guys post! **Edit!  We also tested our seal before finally crashing for the night.  A perfect example of where my monthly lists help provide some needed motivation to get silly stuff figured out and done!!

work hard….before

after...

 play hard!!!

Thursday April 24th: I was able to confirm a meeting with Pat at the Branford House.  {What?? TWO meetings that were easy to schedule in one day?? Call it a miracle.}  I then called the Branford House to double check with Kathy that it would be open and available for us to walk through….I didn't want a repeat of our "walk-through" with Jen!  Pat has never done a wedding at the BH before, so he actually needs to see what it looks like inside :)

What have you been up to these days??  I'd love to know what stage of the planning you're in, and how it's going!

Bridal Shoes: A cheat sheet

Alright, so I just spend the entire weekend in NYC with Katie - my roommate from college and one of my bridesmaids!  I had enlisted her to help me hunt for shoes to wear on my wedding day, and we figured what better place to look for shoes than Manhattan??

Well, my dearest friends…let me tell you.  This proved to be WAY harder than I could ever have imagined.  I mean, isn't the wedding industry sort of huge??  Aren't people getting married ALL THE TIME?  What do they wear on their feet???  Sigh.

We hit up every department store imaginable, and in the city there are quite a few…each had the smallest bridal section, and very disappointing options at that.  My need for a "summery, classic, sparkly, dressy {but not too fancy} pop of color, comfortable, heel {but not too tall}, NOT outrageously expensive" wedding shoe was basically asking the impossible.

I ended up going back to Katie's apartment and ordering a pair online, that will hopefully be in tomorrow or Tuesday!  If I love them as much as I hope I will, I will certainly post them here and tell you all about them.  In the meantime, I thought I'd save you a headache and do some research into other bridal shoe options, that might work perfectly for you!  I'll include a variety of options as far as budgets and styles go… not just specifically ones that would work for me :)

Jimmy Choo - WAY outside my price range…but how gorgeous are these??  We spent some time walking around Saks…if that's within your price range, I highly recommend it.  For me, it made for some fun window shopping :)

Kate Spade - Kate Spade is my mind of girl!  These preppy styles are just adorable, these would make for a perfect something blue…and how sweet is the bow??

Kate Spade sandals - for the beachy bride, these sandals might be the perfect solution...

Badgley Mischka - a pop of pink is another fun way to add color to your wedding day!  I LOVE the details on the back of these…a unique way to add sparkle to the shoe!  {I also love the heel on these, not too tall!}

Badgley Mischka - Katie and I saw these while we were out shopping and I LOVED them.  Gold wouldn't work with my dress, and they were way too tall for me…but they had just the right amount of sparkle.

Angela Nuran - I tried a pair of shoes on by Angela Nuran while I was shopping for my earrings & veil.  They were designed by a dance instructor with comfort in mind, and they are soooo comfortable.

Toms  - for a more casual wedding - why not keep it comfy with these dressy Toms??

Betsy Johnson - I love the heart detailing on these Betsy Johnson heels.

Nearly Naked - another beach bride shoe alternative - the barefoot sandals! They're a fun way to add some sparkle to your foot while you stay barefoot in the sand.

and you know me…after this realization sunk in the first thing I did was come home and go on SMP's shoe gallery for some more inspiration.  These are some of my favorites {not including the shoes I ordered - although they did show up a few times in the gallery!}

all of the above pictures are from various photographers from Style Me Pretty's shoe gallery!

Where did you buy your shoes?  Did you go with classic white, or a pop of color?? Sandals, or heels?  Did you stay within a specific budget, or use this as your chance to splurge on some show stopping designer heels??  I need to know more!!!!  

Hopefully, in a short day or two, I'll be able to update you with some details about mine!

The May List: 3 months to go!

Happy May!  May is just about the best month ever.  My birthday and Ant's birthday are both in May {4 days apart - so much Taurus in one house}.  May is also the month that Ant proposed to me! and this year it is also the month my mom graduates with her PhD and becomes Dr. Tewksbury!!  So, needless to say…May will be a busy month.  Here's what I have in mind as far as wedding planning is concerned.

The MAY List:
First: the things that are rolling over..

- Coffee or BH visit with Pat - discuss ceremony music & other song ideas - sort of cheating, our meeting is already set up for next week

- Buy Ant's belt

- Send updated timeline stuff to Rachel

- Book videographer

- Pay $xxx.xx of our honeymoon balance

Now: the new things on the list for this month…

- Buy my shoes - this is not optional, and will happen while I am in NYC this weekend
- Build all lawn games {groom will be doing this, but still!
- Send email to groomsmen about shoes/belts/shirts
- Schedule hair trial
- Make all table #s - this one might be a little aggressive, but maybe??
- Start looking for MOTB dress
- Take at least one dad suit shopping
- Finalize menu for rehearsal dinner
- Decide on rehearsal dinner invites
- Decide if I need to see a seamstress about my rehearsal dinner dress
- Send out friendly reminders about the hotel room block!
- Look into transportation options
- Celebrate our one year engagement anniversary!!! - not sure if it counts as wedding planning, but I'm making it work!

Yikes.  Ok I got a little carried away at the end so I'm stopping myself now.  But three months is not a lot of time left!!!  So we'll see how this goes. 

Besides all of the wedding planning and celebrations - our goal is to get the house ready for summer.  We hope to have people over as much as possible, which means it needs to be ready for visitors!  Here are a few sneak peeks of the various projects we have going on...

chores & errands are WAY more fun when you do them together! 

What do you have planned in May??