So Far...

So far Darren and I have booked our ceremony venue, our reception venue, bought my dress, ordered his kilt, booked out photographer, chosen our wedding party, booked the priest and set the date. What could possibly be left you may ask? Well quite a few things actually but i won't bore you with that here and now.

When Darren and I first got engaged Darren requested a Catholic ceremony, which was fine by me. Then I found out we couldn't technically have it outside, which I was kind of sad about because originally i wanted an outdoor wedding in the spring or fall. But then we found our ceremony venue and I fell in love. Its a beautiful chapel that i couldn't be happier about. Unfortunately its non-denominational and when searching for venues I saw this one first and fell in love and then nothing else was good enough, but Darren was a hero and told me we'd make it work. Which we have, so yay.

We started a long process of looking for our reception venue. Many places were great, however many places were too expensive. Mom and Dad found a place through a favor from a friend. The meal will be pricey but that's all that we'll be paying for, there is no room charge, yay! Also it has the same classic vibe as our ceremony venue. I am a happy camper. Unfortunately Darren has yet to see the reception venue, but like the prince that he is he said go for it :D

So many who may read this blog may remember in June-ish that i THOUGHT I found my dress; a mermaid/trumpet, tight, strapless, ivory lace thing with a long trains. Then mom and I went to luz bridal on Hillside and Quadra and we found THE dress. I won't describe it in detail here for the hubby-to-be may stumble upon the description. All I'll say is: plain, classic elegance and Audrey Hepburn and that should be enough of a hint. It's gorgeous and met all my criteria for a dress: made mom emotional, is comfortable and was the perfect price. And no I don't have any photos, sorry.

Darren's family were great with getting on board with the kilts. We told them that we wanted Darren to have a kilt for the wedding, and Darren's father offered to pay right off the bat, which is fantastic. We can't thank him enough for that, we really appreciate it. Not only that, but now Darren's whole family are getting kilts. And by whole family I mean immediate family, ie father, and both brothers. At one point there were two uncles who were interested in getting kilts, but unfortunately that fell though. But just as well, for it would have been majorly expensive. I'm very excited to see Darren in a kilt; I think he'll look ridiculously good.

At our friends, Chris and Angela's wedding the past August we met their photographer, who happened to be a school band-mate of mine. We hit it off with her right away and pretty much booked her right then and there before seeing any of her work. On Dec 28th we have our engagement shoot which could not have gone better. We all had a fabulous time. Then the next day mom arranged to have the family photos done by our photographer as well. So we have the great benefit of having two shoots with her before out wedding, however the wedding is still a year away. As of today there are 10 teaser photos on facebook of our engagement shoot and Darren and I are both very happy about them. (photo above by our photographer courtneyclarke.com).

I'm not going to tell you about the wedding party now. You'll have to see when you get there. I will tell you however that the wedding party is 10 people including Darren and myself, so four party members a side. There are going to be 6 boys and 2 girls. We each have 3 boys and 1 girl. Don't take this the wrong way ladies, but when i was thinking about people who i'd want standing by my side and who i knew would be by my side in the future I could only think of one girl and the rest were boys. And all that matters are the relationships with those people, not their sex or gender.

Our priest is actually one of Darren's old high school teachers and has in fact married a few of my mom's friend's children. All the feedback has be just wonderful. He's a lovely man and incredibly nice. I think he's going to do a wonderful job.

We also got wedding favors and table decorations at the end of December. For our favors we were looking for something specific that all stores seem to have around the Christmas time of year and we couldn't find them ANYWHERE! I was slightly bummed but we had a backup plan all ready to go so it wasn't the end of the world. Then Dad found a pile of them at the grocery store! and they were prefect and went perfectly with out table decorations. Super ironic, super happy.

So that's all the news so far. December 10, 2010 was our "one year, pre-wedding, anniversary" as my maid of honor put it, and now it's crunch time (*whimper* yay).