Lets get real....

Readers, I have to be honest with you.  I started this blog because I thought it would be a great way to document our planning process.  I hoped it would be a great thing to look back on and to help me remember all the details.  I also thought (knowing I'm somewhat stress/worry prone) that it might be a good outlet for me if needed.  Well, I think we've done a great job using it to keep you guys (and my future forgetful self) updated, and sure, I've thrown in some thoughts and emotions throughout, but this post includes no updates.  In reality, there aren't a lot of updates to share, thus the purpose of this post....

Javs and I are in a wedding planning slump.  We've hit a lull and we're having some trouble yanking ourselves out of it.

The Slowskys from the
Xfinity commericals

It happened earlier in our planning; right after we booked the big vendors, but before we hit the ground running on the smaller (but still important) vendors, i.e. florist, transportation, etc.  We came out of that haze with our feet running and were super productive for a month or so, but I've felt our productivity dwindling since then.  Recently, it feels like The Slowskys could beat us in a wedding planning race to productivity. 

Sure, I'm still emailing vendors and we're both doing some research.  Next on the to-do list that we're in the process of working out, but just can't seem to solidify: 1) ceremony music.  We've been in touch with Sam Hill Entertainment about having a guitarist play for our ceremony.  We've listened to three guys, they're all great and could all play the song I want to walk down the aisle to, but for some reason we keep shuffling our feet on pulling the trigger.  2) Invitations.  Ohhhhhh invitations. Man I'm in love with Javier.  When I came home from work yesterday, he had a list of his favorite invitations from the websites I had given him to start looking at.  He is the most involved and devoted groom I know.  And I know he often participates cause he knows how much it means to me.  He is awesome.  Oh. but we still haven't picked invitations.  3) Hair/Makeup for me and the ladies on the big day.  I have been emailing salons for over a month.  It doesn't help that most take forever to get back to me (and often don't include all the information I asked for in their response).  In addition, the quotes we're getting are coming in a wee bit higher than we thought to be reasonable. 

I have to preface this video by saying that my dad (and mom) have been unbelievably wonderful about all things wedding.  They've let me and Javs take the lead on decisions and continually agreed to go over 'budget' on items that they know we really want.  But when I shared some of the salon prices with them both, my dad said he couldn't help but feel he had reached his George Banks Hot Dog Bun moment: (this was one of the movies that we watched as a family over and over again growing up.  Ever since he mentioned this scene I've desperately wanted to watch the movie...I bet I have a different perspective this time....either way - this scene is hilarious!)

Needless to say, I emailed two more salons yesterday and have fingers and toes crossed :)

I also know we're slacking because my Iphone camera roll is usually chocked full of wedding related documentary so that I can provide visuals for my update posts.  Check  out some of Iphone pics I see before getting to even one wedding related pic...

  

my engagement ring while I'm driving

embarrassing that I took this pic?

maybe a little, but it looks awesome
so i had to take a pic and show Javs
(okay, maybe slightly wedding related)

  

Cvent was building excitement about

an acquisition announcement

(that came out today)

but I didn't realize this so I took a pic
and asked Alexa & Jo if they knew
what all this was about?
whose my crowd?



Daddy-o's hot new ride :)
(that he let both me and javs drive!)



watching Mom try to guess my 'swan'
in drawsome, but LOOK!
there is no 's' - FAIL drawsome

This procrastination is completely reminding me of college (not that I ever procrastinated in college Mom & Dad...).  But there are a lot of similarities.  You know, that feeling that there are 192873 things that you should be doing every time you walk in the door at home.  Read a chapter for tomorrow : just decide on your ceremony readings.  Start that paper that's due next Wednesday : check out that new invitation site you saw on Green Wedding shoes today.  Email your group to meet this weekend : schedule your hair trial.  There is always something.  But sometimes you just go to $2 pitcher night instead.  Sometimes you watch 2 hours of How I Met your Mother streaming on Netflix.  It happens.  I still graduated and I'm sure our wedding will still get planned.

...but I graduated because I would eventually (however so late) buckle down and get it done.  So here's to hoping that writing this post (and whatever little pushes it results in from our reader audience) will be what we need to hit the ground running, buckle down and get some planning done!

Two down...one to go!

bridesmaid dresses that is :)  Wonderful BM Jessica went on a shopping marathon of her own one day and kept me updated via poor quality Iphone pics throughout!  I was sad I couldn't be with her, but it made for a fun afternoon at work, waiting for new image texts from Jess as she bounced from dressing room to dressing room.  Since we picked a dress (YAY!), I figured it was time to share her dress journey with you devoted readers.

Dress Numero Uno.  I think we both actually liked this one a lot!  Its hard to tell the exact color with that dressing room lighting, but I think we were a bit concerned it was too light.  The color combined with the style (a bit of a lacey look) made me a little nervous about how it would appear next to my own dress on the day of.  (Certainly not close enough to confuse our guests, 'which one is the bride?' but maybe a little too close for pictures, etc?)  Its been too long now, but I think there were some other reasons we decided Jess should leave it there and only come back for it if other options were not found.

Jessica's trip was timed impeccably because she was due in DC for a conference the following week, and therefore, planned to bring her finds with her to show me in person. (YAY!)  And she was successful at her other stops, cause she ended up bringing both of the following dresses to DC!

The one on the left: we really liked the blousy top.  It gave the dress that flowy quality that I talked about (making it feel romantic).  But the skirt was tighter and showed off wifey's hips and bum ;)  I was still a little concerned about the color, was it too light?

The one on the right: we also really liked.  The lacey pattern gave it the soft, romantic feel we wanted and, as you can tell, it was obviously a bit darker.

So, one night during her visit (after margaritas, a pitcher and some brew from churchkey...) Jess tried on the dresses for me and Javs.  We all agreed on the dress that should be 'the dress!'  It was pretty and romantic, but looked darn good on wifey.  (We felt like the other just didn't do much for her....and I'm always a fan of a dress that looks good when you're in it.)  Can you guess what we picked?

Here they are together, our two out of three BM dresses :)  (I chose the store pictures b/c I think they give you a better feel for the actual colors of the dresses.)  What do we think?  I'm not gonna lie, I've been somewhat worried about how my 'just find a dress on the 'brown' spectrum' was going to turn out, but I. am. pumped.  I think these are both beautiful dresses that my ladies completely rock. I love that they're different, but compliment each other and I can't wait to see what Isabel adds to the mix :)

A dress in the making!

All the important ladies in the wedding are working hard to find dresses!  Some of us have found some success, including our MOG! Mrs. Cabezas has a great idea for her 'Mother of the Groom' dress that I wanted to share with each of you.  Interestingly, it was on her (one of many) trip to Charlottesville, that she stopped to look at some fabric and finally came across what she had been looking for!



Left: possible shoes
Center: possible accent material for cuff/sleeve
Right: material for dress

You see, Mrs. Cabezas has decided to have her dress made for the wedding!  So instead of scouring the racks looking for the right fit, she's been feeling the fabrics in hopes of finding the perfect one for her vision.  After some careful thought (and a successful visit to the Colonade Club/Pavilion VII) she decided to go back and buy the fabric she had such a good feeling about!

You'll have to excuse my poor pictures, they were taken with my phone in probably less than ideal light, but you can see the fabric here.  Its a beautiful tealy-blue (I think it has more green in it than this picture lends you to believe).  What the photo doesn't portray very well is the flowiness (is that a word?) of the material.  Its going to make a very beautiful and elegant dress!  In the picture you can also see some accessories that are still up for debate as well.

this is a photo of a photo that really
doesn't do the actual photo justice

Not only is Mrs Cabezas having her dress made, she's decided to ask the tailor to mimic the shape and design of her own wedding dress (how special!).  Here are Mr. and Mrs. Cabezas on their own wedding day (New Years Eve!).  Mrs Cabezas brought the dress out to show me when we were visiting the other night, but I decided to take a photo of this picture instead of the dress on its hanger, because it just wouldn't do it justice.  Mrs. Cabezas recalled her sisters having a similar reaction when she showed them her wedding dress (on the hanger) the first time.  While it's certainly pretty, you have to see it on to get the full affect.  As you can see here, it's super classy and incredibly feminine.  I absolutely love it.  I can't wait to see the recreation with the new teal fabric.

It's super exciting to see our friends and family picking out fancy digs to wear on the big day!  Now, if only Javs and I could decide what those boys in the wedding will be wearing....



Practice makes perfect!

And practice we shall!  Or, rehearse, at least.
Rehearsing your wedding ceremony prior to your wedding day is somewhat of a norm so that all those wonderful people you've asked to participate have a chance to get to town and settle in, learn where they stand, when they walk, etc.  In addition, it gives me and Audrey a chance to walk through everything once since chances are we'll be somewhat nervous on the big day with everyone watching!  After our wedding rehearsal, we will, as many couples do, be inviting the folks in the wedding to join us for dinner.  My mom has very kindly and generously offered to host said dinner and has been helping search for a location for the rehearsal dinner nearly since our first trip to Charlottesville almost 7 months ago.

Mom has been incredibly patient with me and Audrey as we've danced around Charlottesville on a number of visits, scoping out possible rehearsal dinner locales.  She and Isabel even travelled to Cville on their own time to try a few of the potential restaurants we were looking at for dinner.  It's definitely been a process in its own right!  And I'm not sure we could even put our finger on exactly what we had so much trouble with: some of the restaurants ended up being too small for our group; others were so unresponsive to our inquiries that we felt uncomfortable with their service level; a few offered less than optimal set ups/privacy; and one or two fell below expectations as far as food quality.  Very troublesome indeed.

And then we got creative.  Instead of looking at restaurants for our rehearsal dinner, we turned to good ol' UVA.  No, not the Rotunda.  Unfortunately, because it's being renovated, you can't rent out the Dome Room until 2014.  But we did get to another iconic UVA building: Pavilion VII - the original building of The Lawn!  For those who don't know, Thomas Jefferson was brilliant.  In order to be able to build all 10 pavilions and the Rotunda, as he had originally intended, he decided to build them in sporadic order so that government officials would continue to provide him funding.  So he started with Pavilion VII and hopped around the Lawn, eventually constructing the Rotunda later on.  Pretty cool!

UVA has a special place in both mine and Audrey's heart, and we are SUPER excited to be able to have our rehearsal dinner right on Grounds!  It may have taken a while to find the venue, but we are so excited about that my mom was willing to keep looking around and that we were able to reserve Pavilion VII!  So on October 12, we'll rehearse the ceremony itself and then head on back to Pavilion VII for some delicious eats with some of our favorite people in the whole world at one of our favorite places in the whole world!