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The Final Days Hi everyone! We cannot believe that our wedding is only eight, yes 8, days away. It still seems surreal and far off, even though we know it is just around the corner! This last month has been insanely busy and stressful. However, we are still so excited and are trying to enjoy the last few days of our engagement. This past month has really been all about putting out small fires here and there. From things falling through, to other things cropping up out of nowhere, we've been busy trying to cope with everything that changes. For instance, we had an issue arise that at one point threatened whether or not our photographer could be at our wedding! Everything is taken care of, but it was a little stressful for a while to say the least. Monica said just tonight that she feels like her nickname should be Firefighter - and I agree! We've also been busy double checking all of our plans and people as well as getting together the small details and logistics. There are so many pieces to each part of the wedding, that it is hard sometimes to keep it all straight. We've also been paying all our vendors for their services as well. As for some of the big things we've done this past month, we chose and created our programs for one. We spent quite a while at Party City choosing our programs and the wording to go inside. We've been informed that they are in and are going to pick them up tomorrow while we are running errands. We're very anxious to see them. Also, Scott took half a day off on a Monday and we went to the County Clerk's office to get our marriage license! We had Puffy Muffin in the morning, and then took care of getting our license. It was very exciting to get that in hand! One of the things that was making us pretty nervous was getting a quartet to sing at the wedding. Luckily, our friends pulled through and we have a quartet signed up and ready to go. You'll enjoy their vocal talents while we light the Unity Candle. On another note, amidst all of our wedding planning, we realized that we needed to buy a new mattress for our Queen size bed that is coming in town on Thursday made by Scott's dad. We spent some time hopping from mattress to mattress, and finally settled on a WONDERFUL Simmons that is super comfy! That's a brief look into our lives the past month. It has been go, go, go - and we're still going. We're currently looking at a list of about 25 things that still need to get done before the wedding, and that's just one of the lists. I bet you can guess what we'll be working on this weekend! This will probably be the last update we'll be able to get around to writing until after the honeymoon. We can't wait to see all of you and celebrate our love! The next time we write, we'll be husband and wife just back from an incredible trip to Italy! Stay tuned to our website as we will still update it periodically after the wedding, especially with some pictures from Italy. We love you all very much and thank you for your support. Until then - we're getting married! Kickin' Into Overdrive Wow we only have 6 weeks left.. that's crazy! Needless to say, we've been quite busy since our last update. If we told you everything we did and all the details around it, I'm pretty sure we'd still be writing come the wedding day. So in order to see you all and still get married on October 13, we'll cut to the chase. Since the last time, we've narrowed down, picked out and chosen all sorts of music related items. First, we've gathered together a string trio for our ceremony to set the mood of love. They will be playing before and during the ceremony and will be playing the pieces that we have also chosen. We also met with our band leader Dennis, for the reception and gave him some specifics as far as songs and order of events. It's going to be one great big party after the wedding! As far as scheduling and planning each event, we have finalized the rehearsal at the church, paid the second installment for the rehearsal dinner, and also had a meeting with Father Thomas at the church and went through the ceremony to choose our readings, songs and vows as well. On the gift front, we went back to Bed Bath and Beyond as well as Target to register for some more items since we have a better feel for what we will need in our house now. We had a very interesting experience in Target as a very strong thunderstorm came through that night, and knocked out the electricity, not once but twice while we were there! Let me tell you, it gets DARK with no lights on in Target! Monica had a bridal shower this past Sunday with some of her close girl friends. They had a wonderful time playing fun games, eating lots of delicious snacks and enjoying the time to be girly and chat. We've also been receiving some wonderful gifts already in the mail from some of you lovely guests-to-be. We very much appreciate them and have tried to stay on top of our thank you notes with everything else that is happening! As far as the dresses are concerned, the most important one - Monica's - is currently being altered after she met with them and was measured. It is scheduled to be finished in two weeks. Needless to say she is quite excited about having it completed. Also, the bridesmaid's dresses have come in and are currently "hanging out" at the store for pickup. The honeymoon is almost all planned. We have just a few more details to figure out and finalize. It is shaping up to be a VERY exciting trip and we are ridiculously excited to be going to Italy!!!!! Very recently, including this weekend, we (read "Monica") have been very busy running all over Nashville to try to track down enough friggin' candles for the reception and ceremony. It has been rather frustrating trying to get them as they always end up with a couple less than what we need, but we're getting there! While we were running around, we picked out and ordered our wedding announcements. Also, we've been buying fabrics and other decorations to transform the church and tent into a Wedding Wonderland. Just yesterday, we went to the church and with the help of Monica's mom, Darlene Webb and Diane Roberts, we had a dry run of the decorations for the church. It took a little hashing out, but we are all very pleased with how the church will look. It was excellent that we were able to do this as it guided us to what we still need to do and get in order to finish it off. As you can tell, we've been very busy! Among all this planning and decision making - Scott also read a 1,100 page book and received his CompTIA A+ certification in computer repair. Scott has wanted this certification for a long time. Though this wasn't the most ideal time to have to get it, since DELL required it for him to keep his job, now was the time. Also, school has started back up and Monica is teaching piano at full force. She is already up to 30 students, but this year, all on her own (without the music studio where she once taught.) Scott is very proud of her for taking this step and things will only go up from here. We also purchased brand new, custom made couches for our home and they should be delivered on Thursday which is also when our newly added addition to the home (our piano which was so graciously given to us by George and Peggy Hubbard) will be tuned. Stay tuned - there's lots more to come! Can't wait to see everyone in just six more weeks! Love to you all! If you'd like to comment - don't forget our Comments page.
We're Back! Hi again! So, it's been a really long time since we've written because we had to take a break from wedding planning for awhile. We were a little preoccupied with other obligations. Namely, buying a house! We finally found the perfect house for us and got a great deal on it. It's in a great area for us, came with all appliances, is completely updated and taken care of very well. Of course all the contract signing and negotiations and closing process was quite time consuming and as such, we're just now getting back to all the wedding planning now. Since we last wrote, we have done some wedding oriented things though. We have ordered the bridesmaids' dresses, the groomsmen's tuxes, decided on the groom's cake and ordered/received our wedding cake topper. We just bought our tickets to Italy for our honeymoon on Friday; we are extremely excited! Currently we're working on getting all the musicians for the wedding ceremony, compiling the music for the reception, and getting read to send out the invitations. We're now getting down to the more detailed things about the wedding such as decorations and picking specific songs, choosing our menu, etc. There are tons and tons of these minor decisions, so we won't bore you with the details, you'll just have to show up to see for yourself. Currently Scott is also trying to get the RSVP page on our website to work correctly as well, since this will be RSVP headquarters once we send out the invitations! We're going to keep this entry short and sweet so we can get back to planning - there's lots to do! Until next time... The Fruits of Our Labor Our hard work is actually starting to pay off. We're seeing some results from all of our planning. When we last wrote, there was a lot decided on but not much to show for it. Well, since then, we've received a few things and everything is really starting to take shape. It looks like this wedding is actually going to all get planned out! We received Scott's wedding ring from Kay all sized up and ready to hang out on his finger for the rest of his life. We're very pleased with it so next is getting them engraved. We also received our invitations. We stopped by Party City on our way to Macaroni Grill a couple Fridays ago and picked them up. They look exactly like we imagined! We actually had a long wait at Macaroni Grill, so we went back out to the car and put one together while we waited - great times. We're very pleased with them and can't wait for you to see one too! It'll be a little work to get them all finished up, but it will be well worth it. Pretty soon we're going to make a trip down to Lewisburg to have an invitation-a-thon to get these all addressed, stuffed and ready to go. Before we can do that though, Scott is going to design and print our RSVP instructions and map card. That will happen soon. Speaking of Scott designing things, he made a lot of changes on our website recently too. In case you haven't noticed yet, there are now two new sections on the website. There's a comments section where you can leave notes, comments, guestbook type signatures, etc. just to let us hear from you. Also we have a section called Visiting that should prove very helpful for those of you who do not live in or around Nashville. This section will help you choose your hotel where we have special rates. There's also information on the rental car companies at our airport. We've also included what there is to eat in the immediate vicinity of the hotels. Of course there are a million places to eat around Nashville that would be something fun to do - these listings are just in the vicinity of the hotels. There are also links to different websites with ideas of things to see and do while you're here. Feel free to browse around and figure out the logistics of your trip. Please feel free to ask us any questions on our Comments page or email us! We recently also received our engagement pictures back. Some of them came in an album while the rest came separate. We love them all so much we just don't know which ones to use in the album. We're planning also on using some of them for our guestbook at our wedding also for you all to sign around. Nonetheless, we are extremely pleased with our pictures and are looking forward to our wedding pictures now! We've also sent in the final information to Maggiano's Little Italy for our rehearsal dinner including the reservation fee and contract. We also found our way back to Macy's to actually add items to our registry there. Macy's turned into our Crystal Dealership! We also got a few other things from there too. We found an awesome house in a new neighborhood that we didn't know about previously very close to one of the neighborhoods we were looking in. It's in our price range, is about 1700 square feet, has a bonus room, big deck, nice kitchen, utility room, nice sized rooms and nice floor plan. We liked it so much we made an offer on it. Unfortunately, someone else already had and the sellers already signed into contract with them. This is 4 days after listing the house mind you. So we made a backup contract offer on it and it was accepted too. So, for those of you not familiar with real estate practices, basically the first contract has to fall through somehow before we even have a chance at the house. Basically, it's a long shot, but we're praying! Even if we don't get this one, we'll find something similar in the area I'm sure. At least we found another neighborhood to look in! Monica was busy choosing our florist and flower arrangements. Scott said he was hands off the flowers unless input was needed so Monica took to it and made all kinds of decisions. She visited multiple different florists and ended up going with Granny's Flower Shop. She spent a lot of time speaking with "Granny" and picking out all the flowers and arrangements for the different locations. We don't want to tell too much, but we will say that there will be white hydrangeas, mums, and red and orange roses. A couple weeks ago we started premarital counseling with Father Thomas. We met at first basically to go over what to expect and just get to know each other better in a counseling setting. We then took a test the next week for Thomas to get a better feeling of our relationship. Last week was our first week discussing in detail and depth the results of that test and how we are as a couple. We actually ranked very highly on the "How Great A Couple Are They" scale! :) We will go back this week for round two. We both really enjoyed our session and both learned some things as well. Previously, Charles joined us trying to find the perfect vest and tie for the men to wear that matched the bridesmaids dresses and had a hard time. We ended up finding the perfect color at a tux place called After Hours in the mall. So, this weekend, we went to Puffy Muffin Saturday morning of course, and went with Charles out to After Hours. We chose the whole tux: jacket, pants, shirt, vest, tie, shoes, and Scott's vest and tie as well. These men will be steaming hot! That's about it for this update. One of our next big items to finish is getting the bridesmaids dresses ordered once they turn in their payment and measurements.... *ahem* Also, we're going to start planning our honeymoon, choose the grooms cake, and make lots of decisions about many, many details. See you then!
Decisions, Decisions, Decisions... And you thought the last entry was long, ha! If there's one thing we'll learn from this wedding, it'll be how to make decisions better and quicker. We are currently in a crazy busy time of making decision after decision. Since the last time we wrote on here, we've done a ton, just like every other time! First of all, you may have received a Save the Date card in the mail. If you haven't, one may be on the way. We have a few that still need to be sent. We had been debating what we were going to do to make them, and Scott ended up designing them so that we could take them to Kinko's! We think they turned out very well and are very happy with them. We just hope that the mail didn't beat them up too badly before they got to you! We've been asked a few times about the picture on the front, so for those of you who are interested, that picture was taken in front of the Palace of Fine Arts in San Francisco. If you look carefully, you can see that this was taken after the big proposal! After much debating, we also finally chose our videographer! It was between a couple, but our decision was helped along by Monica winning a 50% off coupon at a bridal fair for SDS Productions. We met with them at the Starbucks in Target (our normal wedding planning meeting place) and decided that they would be perfect to make our wedding video. They will give us the documentary style that we are looking for but also throw in a little more artsy stuff in addition. Scott just really hopes that he has a better experience with them than the previous time he hired a videographer! We, of course, have continued looking at houses and have found the area where we want to a live including a couple neighborhoods. For those who know a little about Nashville, we're looking in the area affectionately known as "Brentioch." This is the area between Brentwood and Antioch. Over Easter weekend, Scott's mom flew in to town and we looked at a couple houses then as well. We found an amazingly perfect house with great sized rooms, a really nice kitchen, a basement entertainment area, screened in back porch, and lots of upgrades. It was even in our price range. Unfortunately, it was also not in a great area for resale value. It wasn't scary or anything, but all the houses around it were older and kind of run down. So, we're not going to be able to do that. Speaking of Easter, we had a great one. As we said earlier, Scott's mom came into town. While she was here, we checked out the couple choices we had for our rehearsal dinner. After thinking it through and discussing it we've chosen Maggiano's Little Italy as our rehearsal dinner location! It has delicious Italian food and we get lots of it! Also, it's an excellent atmosphere for us. Anyway, we then went to Monica's parents' for Easter. This was the first big holiday that our families have intermixed and we all had a great time with tons of food and fun! Fittingly, a couple of rabbits at Monica's parents' had babies the day before so we got to see them and play with them a little. Recently, we met with Albert, a mortgage broker who we met at a bridal fair, for two and a half hours one evening when we basically had a private first time home buyer's seminar. Since then Scott has been very busy while driving to and at work researching into all our different mortgage options. So far we've looked into about 3 different mortgage brokers and a couple banks. We're not quite sure yet, but it's looking like we'll go with Albert with a great first time home buyer's program. Needless to say, Scott has been very diligent in researching all aspects of our options and is pretty confident that everything will work out right! This past week, we had our engagement pictures taken with Meri, our photographer for those of you who had forgotten. We went to Centennial Park and took pictures in the garden, around the grounds, and on the Parthenon. We had a great time taking them and are very excited about receiving them back. We should get them at the beginning of next week. Throughout all this, we've also discussed our honeymoon plans (hopefully to Italy!) and updated our registry a couple times. We still haven't made it back to Macy's to actually add items there yet, but we'll get there. Also, Scott scheduled with Father Thomas for our marital counseling. We are going to our first session on Tuesday at 8:30am. Just this weekend, we've done a lot too. First, on Friday night (our 23rd monthaversary), we went to the mall and Scott finally made his decision on his wedding ring! We ordered it and currently have the display one from the store. Scott's testing it out at home just to make sure that comfort won't be a factor at all. That night, we went out to Cozymel's for Mexican food, yum yum! Then, on Saturday, Monica's piano students had a recital. Scott went to the first one and then got his haircut. After the recitals, we had our usual Saturday meal at Puffy Muffin and then went to Party City where we had a 5-hour long wedding invitation saga. After looking through every invitation book worth looking through (about 20 or so), we picked our invitations! That was only the beginning because then we had to make all the decisions about the invitations such as font, text color, wording, motif, ordering details, etc. etc. We did it though, all in one sitting and we ordered them too on the spot! I'm not sure if all Party City's are this way, but the one here gives 30% off the manufacturer's list price. So, if you're around Nashville and getting married, we HIGHLY recommend going to the Party City in Cool Springs for invitations! We'll be back when it's time to order our programs! Then, on Sunday, Scott found at church that they have officially begun renovating the sanctuary! Every visit will bring new information for the decorations. After church, we finished narrowing down the choices of hotels for our guests to stay (Monica had been researching prices and information on hotels around the area). We have chosen them and in the near future, you will see a new section on our webpage for our out of town guests that will list local hotels, rental car companies, and all the relevant information you will need! Looking forward, Monica is currently working on choosing our florist and all the flower details. Scott is still working with the mortgage situation and will hopefully have something decided for sure by the next time we write! FYI - due to popular demand, and the fact that we want it too, you will soon be able to leave comments for us on our website in a guestbook type fashion once Scott has time to integrate it into the website! Hope you're all doing well and we can't wait to write next time with all the rest of our crazy details! We're Kickin' Butt! Well, we wrote an update and somehow it got deleted and never updated, so we're doing it again! Since the last update we have done TONS! That's right, we're kickin' butt! We've chosen our caterer, photographer, and baker. We've also chosen the bridesmaids dresses and colors, had a meeting with our tent/rental person, had a meeting with Father Thomas, had Valentine's Day dinner at a potential rehearsal dinner location, made a big dent in the registry, and have continued looking at houses. We enjoyed the catering tastings that we had and eventually after tasting lots of food, we made up our minds that we wanted Chef Penelope to cater our wedding! Her food was delicious, we get along really well, and she's nice and flexible with the planning. Everything just worked out for her to be our caterer and we cannot be more excited about it. We officially signed the contract and paid our down payment, so on October 13 - she's ours! We're planning on having a yummy dinner with delicious food - this way we can party all into the night! Valentine's Day was a great day of love for the two of us, and we celebrated by going to dinner at a potential location for the rehearsal dinner called Mere Bulles. Delicious food and a cool atmosphere. They're in the running but we're not for sure yet! We've also chosen our photographer after many painstaking decision making discussions. There were three that we were really debating between, but we were able to really narrow it down to the things that matter most to us and one ended up the perfect choice - Meri Crisp. Once again, we get along extremely well with her and are looking forward to her shooting our wedding. We also have an engagement session coming up soon in April. We're excited about the package that Meri offers as well as her pictures in general. We'll have lots of great memories captured forever by Meri! As innovative as the made up word "cake-ist" is, I suppose she'd probably like to be called our baker. Her name? Amy Hazelwood. That said, after a couple meetings at a local Starbucks (which tends to be where a lot of our wedding planning has happened - coincidence?) we decided she would make the famed cake for us. Monica had met with her first, but before choosing her for sure, Scott wanted to taste the cake, of course. The second meeting included Scott as well as an 8" square cake provided by Amy! It was delicious and Scott knew right then that she was our Along with these big decisions, we've also made others. Monica has made the final decision on the bridesmaids dresses. Heather, the maid of honor, came into town on March 12th and they went to Jacquelin's Bridal to pick out the dresses. After looking at hundreds of dresses, they found the perfect one which came in the perfect color: cranberry. Monica also went to the church and met with Steve, our tent and rentals person. We're still deciding exactly where to put the tent and how the logistics (especially electricity) will work, but we were encouraged that we have different choices and can make the best one. We also had a meeting with Father Thomas at the church on a Tuesday morning before Scott had to be at work. This meeting was to go over the service itself and to inform us that we need to take premarital counseling (which we were planning on anyway). We're going to do that in April and are actually pretty excited about it. We've already talked about our views on a LOT of topics, but the more the merrier! Interspersed with the planning, we've also been trying to plan for the future. We've continued looking at houses - trying to narrow down the area we want to end up and the type of houses we are interested in. We've been working with a couple different realtors to try to make this happen. Our latest encounter was this weekend when we went to check out a few houses we thought would be great. Well - they all were in pretty bad neighborhoods. One so much so that we didn't even turn on the street the house was on because our realtor was scared, and well - we were too. At least now we know we don't want to live there! Also we've been working diligently on our registry. If you haven't yet, you can check out our brand new page on our website all about our registry here: REGISTRY! We started at Target and swept through the store in 3 hours flat. The next weekend we dove into Bed Bath and Beyond - and they really mean BEYOND. There's so much stuff that we NEED - or want - that after 3 hours there - we only got through 2 sections of the whole store. We've been back 2 more times since our first visit and have made it about halfway through the store. While the rest of the planning has been mostly about one day (a very important day) but still one day - this is really for the future. We've loved every second of our shopping for our lives. Every once in a while we stop and have to remember these are things that we are buying for US. How fun! Whew - we've been busy! Well, until next time...
9 Months, Woot! We're back! November was quite eventful, good and bad. Monica found her perfect wedding dress. She thinks it's the most gorgeous wedding dress ever and can't wait for everyone to see her in it! She chose it on November 4th, but on her way back from church that same night, was in a bad car accident. She rolled and totaled her car, but walked away with minor injuries. After two trips to the hospital and many days of recovery, she is back to her "normal" self and on a wedding rampage! We were ready for a much needed vacation and Thanksgiving was just the occasion! We went to Pennsylvania to be with Scott's family and had a great time at Aunt Marcia and Uncle Dean's. We ate tons of food and were able to relax. While there, we went out for a birthday celebration, attended an engagement party in our honor (thanks Ginger!), and saw a Rockapella Christmas concert. We were much refreshed! After getting back, we met with the band leader of Act IV, a variety band. We listened to their music, saw a demo DVD, and a couple weeks later, decided to go with them for our reception music. Because of the holidays, we didn't get too much accomplished in December other than Christmas shopping, decorating, and celebrating. We spent Christmas with Monica's family in Lewisburg and had a marvelous time eating, chatting, and playing fun family games. Oh, and opening tons of presents too, of course. We then took off to Houston to be with Scott's family and celebrate Christmas there as well. We stayed there for New Year's and had our usual celebration at Scott's Dad's. More eating, celebrating and fun games. Then it was back to Nashville and back to work. Last weekend, we went to the Bridal Show at the Nashville Convention Center where we got even more ideas, prices, contacts, and free food! Since then, we have been focusing on photography and have it narrowed down to a few. In addition to our photography, we are trying to choose our videographer, caterer, and cake-ist! :) We are getting continually more excited as the days go by and the countdown gets lower and lower. 9 months, woot! The Search for the Perfect Dress Well Scott pretty much summed it up, but I’ll see what I can add. I have been looking for the perfect wedding dress. So far I’ve been to six stores and tried on some very good possibilities, but there are a few more places I want to go before I make my decision. I must say it is very fun but surreal trying on wedding gowns. I have watched my friends do all of this stuff for the past few years, but now it is my turn. I have also been looking into other details like flowers, cakes, bands and various decorating ideas. Scott and I looked at wedding bands for him a few days ago and I think we have narrowed it down. So many exciting things I could go on about, but I will save something to talk about next time.
Hello again! Well, there's nothing too new to report after this month on my end. We did go looking for a house the past couple weekends which was extremely fun! We're thinking we're going to buy new, but we're not quite sure yet on the location. As for other things, work has been very fun, and I am in my last week of training! As to the wedding, I haven't been part of much this past month, but Monica has! She's in the process of looking into bands for the reception, and she also looked at wedding dresses with her mom on Friday, but I'll let her tell you about that. Everything else is great - just looking forward to getting on my feet at Dell and planning this fantastic wedding! That's it from me, but I'm going to try to talk Monica into posting soon so you can read about her wedding dress shopping experience! ~Scott
First Entry Hey everyone, this is Scott at the keyboard - thanks for checking out our new website! As we said on the front page, there will be all kinds of things listed here, and the closer we get to the big day, the crazier it all will be! This website will be where you RSVP too - which should take a lot of the hassle out of the whole process for both sides of the equation - us and you! You'll also be able to see a list of who's coming, and maybe who's not if you make us mad! Haha - just kidding! As you can tell, this updates page will be in blog format, informal and is here simply to serve as a lines of communication between us and you. To let you know the latest, greatest, coolest thing we've decided. Or are going to decide. Or have yet to decide. Or just wish would decide itself. :) Thanks again so much for coming, and stay tuned, because LOTS is coming! Speaking of, I guess I could give a little update right now. As you can see from our Details page, we have chosen the location for the wedding: my church in Nashville! We also think we have a line on a reception location: the field next to my church! Hopefully all will go well, and the neighbors won't mind a loud party until 11pm! Needless to say, we are looking into getting a great big tent and all that goodness. This should shape up to be a pretty elegant night - at least that's what we're shooting for. So, as of right now, we're pretty much tent / facilities shopping for the reception location. Thanks again for your interest! Also know that both of us will make updates as we see fit and feel like it - so check back often, you never know what you'll get! ~Scott | Entries The Final Days(Sept 2) - Scott & Monica Kickin' Into Overdrive We're Back! The Fruits of Our Labor Decisions, Decisions, Decisions... We're Kickin' Butt! 9 Months, Woot! |
Welcome - RSVP - About Us - Details - Updates - Visiting - Registry - Photos - Comments