Free Online Ordinations

One of the coordinators on Whose Wedding is it Anyway got ordained online to officiate the wedding ceremony of her bride and groom.

I am so excited they said the name of the website - Universal Life Church - and was pleased to find out how easy it is.

Months ago I thought this was not an option for us because the laws in my state (NC) say:

In the presence of an ordained minister of any religious denomination, a minister authorized by a church, or a magistrate; and b. With the consequent declaration by the minister or magistrate that the persons are husband and wife;

I guess I just assumed a minister associated with a religion or church would not be an Internet ordained minister. I was wrong!

Bye Bye April....

It was a tough April. I hope and prey May is a better month.

My mom has been in and out of the hospital. There is a chance she will lose one or both of her feet due to circulation and vascular problems. And, in case I haven't mentioned it before, the past 10 years she has battled (daily) acute Leukemia and Crohn's disease. This woman can not get a brake.

With both the mental and financial strain (don't think if you have medical insurance you are "covered") the only wedding thoughts I have had the past few weeks is to cancel everything. Just have the ceremony at Justice of the Peace with our parents and siblings. No reception party. No professional photog. No bridal shower. No bachlorette celebration.

And really, that's ok. My mother is much more important then any of those things will ever be.

The one positive thing I can pull from this situation is it really gives you a perspective on what's really important in life....and it is not centerpieces or buffet menus.

Sorry to be a downer.

Holy Shoe

Imagine wearing these babies under your dress.


They can be yours for only $1695.00.

Oh Christian, why do you torture me?

We Have a Date

After almost 3 months of not traveling I somehow ended up with 2 back to back trips. I was in NJ for my SIL's baby shower over the weekend, got home Sunday night, and 12 hours later back in the air to travel to Atlanta for a 3 days business trip. I'd complain, but its sort of nice to be out of the house and back on the road again.

We have a date! Friday April 9, 2010, HMMM 4/9/10...first time I am seeing that in writing.

My SIL is a teacher and that is her spring break next year...so it works well for them to come Wednesday or Thursday prior to help out with last minute stuff.

We have began planning our honeymoon and we get so excited everytime we talk about it. We are planning on flying to Seattle and driving the West Coast...ending up in Vegas. We hope to spend time in Seattle, Portland, Sonoma, San Fran, Monterey, Santa Barbara, LA, San Diego, Laguna, and Las Vegas.

We want to go to baseball games, eat at resturants we see on the Food Network, hear local live music, and see beautiful sites. We've done the resort beach thing a ton of times, and although we love that, we wanted to do something different for our honeymoon. I think this will not only force us to spend quality time togther but we will create great memories for many years to come.

OK...so we have a plan, and date, a dress....next up: Photog and Catering.

March Madness...Is it Almost April?

Tonight I sit in pain. Yesterday I had surgery to remove 2 wisdom teeth. Thank god for Vicodin. Its the only thing getting me through.

See, I was suppose to have the surgery 2 weeks ago. But the night before I developed a cold, and when I arrived the surgeon wouldn't operate on me.

Problem with all of this: its March in North Carolina. NCAA basketball. So that Eric wouldn't have to take yet another day off in March, I thought it would be fine to have my surgery the morning of day 2 of the tournament. Yes, we host this event. Yes, that means up to 20 people for 4 days in a row at our house from noon until midnight. I don't know what I was thinking.

On the bridal front I do have a few small developments

1. Ran into a friend-of-a-friend at Target this week. Told her about our Justice of the Peace plans. She told me that is what her and her husband did. And (here is the good part) the city of Raleigh has many locations that they will marry you at....not just some cold-courtroom-like-room. They choose the NC State Rose Garden on a Saturday afternoon. And it doesn't cost anything more than if we did just want the court house.

2. My Target wedding dress came. Wow - its gorge. Tried to take a picture of it (while wearing it) but I just couldn't get a good shot. I'm still watching a few J Crew dresses. I read somewhere online their wedding dresses go on clearance each Spring, when they release a new collection. So I'll keep watching.

3. My NC girls want to do my bachlorette party in NYC...which is so exciting. Not only because NYC is always a blast, but my NJ girls won't have to fly here.

Next weekend I will be traveling to NJ for my sister-in-law's baby shower. I will also get to discuss with her and my brother possible dates for our wedding ceremony. Since we plan to do this on a Friday, which means they will have to take time off of work, we want things to be as easy as possible for them. SO hopefully in the next few weeks we will have an actual date.

The Plan...So far

This past weekend I started to put together a plan and budget for the big day.

Friday (Wedding Day)
Since we will most likely have guests staying at our house, the night of our wedding we will stay at the Umstead hotel – your basic local 5 star establishment. So mid day Friday we will check in, get ready, and hire a photog to take pictures of us on the hotel grounds for 1 – 2 hours. Unsure if pros or myself will do hair and make-up.

Then drive ourselves to downtown Raleigh (Justice of the Peace) and get married in front parents, siblings, and very close friends. After, we all go to dinner. Place to be determined.

Friday Budget
Hotel: $300
Photog; $600
Dinner: $1000
Total: $1900

Saturday
The party will probably start around 5ish – this will probably depend on what date we pick and time sun goes down. Our house has an open kitchen into a large eat in area into our family room…which all of this is off of our deck. So we will probably move out some furniture and rent a bunch of high tables to be scattered in and outside.

We will hire a caterer to provide all of the food, as well as serve. I don’t want to be stuck in kitchen that day. So I am hoping we can have 2 people – 1 person warming food, putting it out, passing it out, cleaning up, ect…and the other person as a bartender.

I don’t think we have room for a DJ – especially if it rains – so iPod will be fine.

Saturday Budget
Table & linen rentals: $300
Catering Food: $1200 (50 - 60 people)
Alcohol & other drinks: $400
2 Servers: $300
Plates, glasses, utensils, ect rental: $200
Other décor: $200
Total $2600

So that would bring grand total to $4500 – which doesn’t include EVERYTHING. I still have to research prices and create budget for things like invites, dress/altering, cupcakes and favors. But I think there is some room to save some more money in a few other places:

1. Don’t rent tables/linens…use what we have and supplement with borrowed friend’s stuff

2. Buy and cook the food ourselves…just hire the people to warm and serve

3. Use paper plates, cups, utensils…not very Green, but if we had to save money

4. Friday night dinner – either cancel or not go as fancy…future father in law wants to pay but we really want to pay for everything ourselves

Our next step is to pick a date. Since my brother and his wife will need to travel here early Friday, I need to talk to them and see WHAT Friday works for them. Because we want to follow this up with a 2 week honeymoon, Eric will need to wait until 2010 to have the time off. So Most likely April or May of 2010.

Dress. Check.

Well, maybe.

I ordered last week a wedding dress from Target. Yes, T A R G E T.

Clearance price less than $50.

It got rave reviews. I figure if I don't like it I can return or use the material to construct something else.

They only had brown sashes for sale, so I figure I can make my own.

What do you think?