Wedding Plans

With the wedding only a year and 23 days away (388 days according to my wedding planning tool) I figured it was time to begin focusing on planning. I created a webpage for everyone to view. It contains details about the wedding, including the wedding party names, ceremony/reception location, dates, times, food, etc. Not all these things have been decided, so it does not contain all that information right now. The cool thing about this webpage is that when it comes time to RSVP, our guests can RSVP online instead of mailing in response cards. Of course, for those guests who we know are not electronic savvy will have the option to send in a response card (but the online option is preferred by us). :) If you want to check out the site, copy and paste the following link to your address bar:

http://www.theknot.com/ourwedding/LeAnneSteadman&JohnFields

If you check it out, please sign our guest book. The site will be updated as more things are confirmed. Please note that if you manually type in the web address in to your bar, the webpage shows that we were already married. I have a request in to the site to see why this is happening. It's very odd.

I believe I have my dress picked out. I have not made a purchase, but as I browse more and more gowns online I always come back to it. This is a sign to me. I can imagine myself in it on that special day. I'm thinking it will be time for me to bite the bullet and make the purchase within the next month or so. If any of you would like to see the dresses I tried on and "the" dress, please email me and I'll send you the link to the pictures.

John and I are going to tour The Freedom Hall this Sunday. I've attended a few weddings there and I think it is a gorgeous site. You can check it out by going to http://www.freedomhall.com. It has been brought to my attention that finding a site for the wedding and reception, then putting all the details together ourselves would be cheaper, but I really like the convenience of having everything coordinated and taken care of at one place, like The Freedom Hall offers. For one price, the catering, flowers, DJ, officiate, bartender, linens, tables and chairs, and wedding coordinator are provided. There is also the added bonus of John's father being able to (possibly) do some of the Hall's print work in "trade" for a cheaper out-of-pocket ceremony/reception fee. This is not set in stone and we haven't made a decision, yet.

Since John is a certified Sommolier, a wine themed wedding seemed fitting. Our main color is red wine. We picked that color while browsing the David's Bridal Website, so their interpretation of the color "red wine" is sort of a burgundy color. We are looking for a nice accent color just to use for the flowers. My co-worker, a graphic designer, has recommended a darkish tangerine or a green color. We'll have to see what we like. We are also thinking of possible favors and a groom's cake design to go along with the wine theme.

John and I have looked at tux ideas for the men in the wedding party. We found a design we both liked for John. We'll have to start thinking about the rest of the men soon. Just a side note, for those of you who are wondering, the Best Man has not been named on the website yet because John has not made this decision yet.

We are planning to have a reception in Arkansas sometime after the wedding date. Before we left, we asked my Uncle Scott if we could use his home and property for a reception site. In order to cut down on costs, John and I will have to keep the invitation list small. I also know that traveling is hard for family members with children, and for others, traveling is just plain expensive. We feel the reception at "home" (for most of my family members) will be a great way to include those of our loved ones (mostly my family) who may not be invited or cannot attend the wedding due to other reasons. We are also hoping that the people attending the wedding (including John's family) will be able to come out for the Arkansas Reception. It will be a blast!

As for the party after the party - The Honeymoon - we are looking at "all-inclusives" in places that are warm! I sent for more information about a week-long, all-inclusive stay in Jamaica. We would both love to take a longer honeymoon, but we're not sure where we will be living by the time the wedding happens, and we may need to take a week off before the wedding in order to coordinate some last minute details (if we are living outside California by the time our wedding day is here).

I realize there is a ton left to do, but the basics are being covered right now. I hope you all check out our wedding website and keep looking for updates!