250 days to go!

Time is flying by already! Today marks only 250 days left until D-day :) - I know, it sounds like a lot, but trust me - its gonna fly by! I think we've certainly made some good progress so far:

- Venue = Ash Lawn Highlands check
- Photographer = Andrea Hubbell check
- Caterer = Harvest Moon check
- Bridesmaids = Isabel, Jessica, Kelsey check
- Groomsmen = Scott, Felipe check
- Wedding favors = kolace check
- Engagement Session = check

We absolutely still have some things to do. And some things in the not-so-distant-future, like:

- Music - finding some for our reception
- Florist - so that we'll have flowers
- Save the Date - design, ordering, printing, & sending
- Dress - apparently I need one - lot of decisions to be made about this...

and a multitude of other things plaguing my to do list....

So what have I learned so far? Whats my grand, and now experienced, bride advice?
- two things stick out so I guess I'll share those
*with the caveat that I am not a professional advice giver and have no idea if I'm going about this planning experience the way that you or anyone else should

**Advice Alert** Set aside 'wedding' time for you and the future better half.
Whats funny to me about this one, is that I thought we'd need to do the opposite back in October. I briefly mentioned to Javs right after we got engaged that we might want to think about setting 'wedding free' nights where we didn't talk about the wedding and just had a regular ole 'us' night. But now that we're a few months in, I'm learning that doing the opposite might help us keep wedding planning 1) less stressful and 2) extremely productive. What I'm finding is that we're so much more likely to fall into the 'regular ole us' routine each night of the week rather than talking/researching/discussing wedding planning. In some ways, I'm sure thats great! We're still us - The wedding hasn't taken over our lives = good things. But it does mean that we're often un(wedding)productive when we're together. We'd rather be hanging out, talking, cooking dinner, etc than researching invitation sites. I'm usually good at calling off a list of 'wedding to dos' for the evening right when I get home from work, but distractions quickly re-route us. I'm sure we would get a lot more done if we set aside one night a week or even every two weeks to really focus on wedding and check off some items from The list.

**Advice Alert** Savor every minute.
I'm sure this one isn't news to you and I'm certainly not its originator. Every bride tells you how fast the wedding day slips by, urging future brides to savor all the hugs and dances and moments. But what they don't remind you is to savor all the fun stuff that leads up to the big day. (Maybe they assume you remember the transitive property from school and therefore can make the connection on your own, but - hey - not all of us can make the jump.) I'm shocked at how quickly (in some ways) this planning time is going by. There are a lot of cool activities that brides get to participate in before the big day and I'm realizing that they're slipping by faster than I had hoped.
Like catering...I'll fully admit that picking a caterer was one of the more stressful aspects of planning so far. Its probably the biggest chunk of change we're dishing out to one vendor and because of how Ash Lawn works - they'll be supplying us with most of our equipment for the day. Needless to say, I was anxious to get a caterer on the books and once we did - I felt a huge relief! But then I also realized - it meant the end of tastings for us. How often do you get to go check out good food - prepared completely for your pleasure and for free! Both of our tastings were so fun and I've since realized that - the catering part of planning is now over...no more tastings.
Same deal with our engagement session. It went by so fast! and was so much fun! Now when I look at other engagement photos on blogs - I realize that - that part is already over for us. So while its sometimes stressful, and always exciting to check off the 'to dos' - enjoy the 'to dos' too because they're all part of the experience! I mean how often do you get to pick out chairs? So I'd say - sit down. Wriggle your bottom around for a bit. Take pictures. Take pictures of you in the chairs. Of the chairs without you. Debate color options only until the moment that its still fun and then quickly decide and don't think about it again because really its just a chair and you're the only one who is sweating the color. And if nothing else - enjoy that you've been graced with the opportunity to pick out chairs for your wedding- because it won't happen again.