Replacing old with the new

I'm finally starting to put all of our old stuff away and break out all the new, wonderful items we received from the wedding! We have a lot of stuff that's obviously been used, but it's in pretty good shape. I was going to post it on Craig's List or take it to Goodwill, but thought I'd see if anyone needed anything first!

placesetting for 4 of Pottery Barn white dishes...4 mugs, 4 dinner plates, 4 salad plates and 4 bowls.
I think 4 sets of silverware, maybe more
Offwhite bath towels and hand towels, 4 or 6
cotton ball holder, q-tip holder and extra toilet paper holder
toaster oven
2 blenders
hand mixer
crockpot
some kitchen towels
set of steak knives and kitchen knives in a block, missing a steak knife
a vacuum...it works well, but sometimes it will stop and you have to let it cool off for a bit
3 shelf bookshelf in light wood
silver utensil holder
silver cocktail shaker

We'll probably have more, but that's all I've gotten through now!

Butterflies?

Is anyone else starting to get really nervous about the wedding? No? Just me? Yikes.

Let me get one thing straight...I am by no means worried about marrying JM. (You can relax, sweetie). It's more about everything getting done and turning out alright. I keep telling myself that come next Friday (OMG, next Friday), I will care less about all those little details and all the other things I've been worried about. Yet somehow, anxiety gets the best of me.

On a VERY uplifting note, all of the 10-day forecasts are showing next Friday to be sunny with a high of 60. It may be a little chilly, so make sure you dress for the weather! And yes, I will be obsessively checking every single weather website for the next 218 hours.

Harp Music for the Wedding

I'm trying to kill the last half hour at work so I found the songs that our harpist is going to be playing so you can hear it...on the harp. Enjoy!


Seating of the Grandmother and Mothers
Wind Beneath My Wings:
http://www.victoriaschultz.com/audio_pages/wind_beneath.htm

Bridal Party Processional
Hymne by Vangelis
http://www.janaldridgeclark.com/wedding.htm

Shannon & Dad
Processional by Linda Wood:
http://www.harpmelodies.com/audio_samples.htm and click track 17

Sand Ceremony
Only Time by Enya:
http://www.alyshowe.com/html/wedding.html

Recessional
Allegro Maestoso from The Water Music Suite by Georg Fredric Handel:
http://www.victoriaschultz.com/audio_pages/water_music_handel.htm

E-pics

Check out a few of our engagement photos!

Beautiful fall days

First and foremost, my matron of honor had her baby on Tuesday! Yay!!! Gabriel Michael was 8 pounds, 2 ounces, and perfect. Both mom and baby are doing wonderfully.

Today, JM and I went and filled out the application for our marriage license and got all of that taken care of.

Yesterday we had our meeting with the photographer to finalize all of the details. If you haven't checked her out, you should, I think she's incredibly talented and can't wait to have her shoot our wedding! Here's her blog:

http://erinhession.com/

Tomorrow is our engagement photo session and if the weather is anything like today, my world will be wonderful! I'm going to Studio 2000 earlier in the afternoon because Michelle does my hair MUCH better than I do! Then JM, Kodi and I are meeting Erin at Coxhall Gardens for the photo shoot. Kodi is SUPER excited. Here's the Coxhall Garden website:

http://www.coxhallgardens.com/Home.aspx

We're also meeting our new harpist tomorrow. The one we had originally signed with had a conflict come up, so she got us another woman. I'm excited to meet with her and see what ideas she has. This is her site, I think you can listen to some of her music:

http://www.janaldridgeclark.com/

That's it for now!

Sand Ceremony

During the ceremony, JM and I are going to use the sand instead of the unity candle. Mainly, because I like the idea of it better. I'm not losing my past, I'm just merging my life with his. (Plus, the colored sands are pretty!) Then, the more I thought about it, I realized that the ceremony is outside. What if there's a breeze or it's windy??? Then the unity candle will blow out and that CANNOT be a good omen for the marriage. I don't usually pay too much attention to signs...but that one would be obvious!

Anyways, I'm trying to decide which 'sand ceremony' kit to get. Here are my options:

On this one, I liked the nesting unity sand vases (because you could use the vases later on), and the 'new oceans away'.
http://www.makingmemoriesandmore.net/sandceremony

This one I don't really like the vases, but they have a wider variety of sand.
http://www.moonglowcandles.net/wedding_sand.htm

This was kind of neat because we could each have our inital on our vase.
http://www.daisy-days.com/decanter-unity-sand-ceremony-set.html

Let me know if you have any grand ideas!

Tuxes, dresses,and cakes, oh my!

Well, we're another step closer to being prepared for the wedding. We emailed all the guys today and let them know the tuxes we picked out. We got them through A Step Above Bridal, which is where my dress is from. The guys will all wear black notch lapel tuxes and french vanilla shirts. The dads will have black ties and vests while JM will have an ivory vest and white and ivory striped tie. The groomsmen will have chocolate brown vests and chocolate brown and black striped ties.

This is the tux and JM's ensemble...Then this is the swatch for the groomsmen's...My dress came in last week so Mom, Lynds and I went over on Saturday morning and I put on the whole she-bang. It's still wonderful! And I still need to name the dress!!! For those of you who don't know, the first one who buys one of Antonio Fermin's designs gets to name it! This is a MUCH harder task then I had imagined. So much stress!!! I would love to name it 'The Shannon', or after seeing myself on Saturday, 'Princess Shannon'. But, my mom used Grandma Haines's inheritance money to pay for it, so I feel I should pay tribute to her somehow. 'Elaine's Love' (Connie's idea) or something of the sort. Anyone have any suggestions?!? Maybe I'll make it a contest...whoever comes up with the name I use wins something. Hmmm...I don't really have any prizes!

We also decided on a cake. Ritz Charles will be bringing the cake as well as the food. They won out pretty much solely on price. I was amazed at how good of a deal they gave us. Anyways, it will be the 'Ritz Buttercream' frosting, yellow cake and chocolate truffle filling. This is what it will look like (minus the flowery thing). The main color will be more of a lime green and then the borders will still be chocolate brown.We still have to decide on a cake topper. No clue what to do about that. We may just go with a big 'L'. How creative!

Our engagement photo session is in a couple of weeks and will be done by our photographer, Erin Hession. We had been planning on having it downtown on the canal (with Kodi, of course), but a friend of mine did hers at the Oliver Winery and the pictures turned out amazing!!! I emailed Erin today to see if that was an option. Also, it's my last name, and we're going to a winery for the honeymoon, so how fitting!

I think I need to hit the hay now. I'm not working tomorrow except for a class at 3, but I'm hoping to check out a couple of places and find out about bridesmaids dresses. Less than 10 weeks now...need to get my butt in gear!

I'll blog later about the honeymoon, rings, and hopefully other things that have been accomplished!

Catering Tasting

Last Friday JM, Mom, Dad, Lynds and I went to the Ritz Charles to taste a few samples so we can make a decision on the wedding menu. It was really neat, they had a table set up on the dancefloor for us so we could see the china, linens, etc. that will be used for our reception.

This is how the tables will look, minus the diet coke can! We will be using these ivory tablecloths, but we are having chocolate cloth napkins. The centerpieces come with the catering (the votives with the mirror). I haven't decided whether or not to add some rose petals, leaves, or whatever, in addition. The family tables will have centerpieces made by the florist...but it was way too expensive to have one at every table!

We are going with the buffet option, in which we get to chose a salad, a couple of sides, a veggie, 2 main meals, and then rolls. We were able to try 3 of the main dishes, so the first one we tried was the london broil. The chef came out ahead of time and explained everything. He had marinated it for 2 days in a tomato basil. The rose is made out of tomatoes. It was excellent.

Then we tried the key lime chicken. I didn't want to do the usual chicken with sauce or gravy, so I thought this would be different. It was marinated in lime and honey and then it was cooked so the marinade became a glaze. I thought this was amazing. The chicken was sooo juicy.

We then tried the beef brochettes, which I had no clue what would be! They were awesome. It was flank steak on skewers with olives, pearl onions, artichokes, and some type of sweet pepper. It was then sprinkled with feta cheese. The chef said it was Mediterranean inspired.

While it all was amazing, we could only pick two. I wanted a red meat and then a chicken, so we obviously went with the key lime chicken. It was a tough decision between the brochettes and the london broil, but the brochettes won out. We thought it was a very unique dish to have at a wedding and sooo tasty!

Then we tried 3 different cakes to see what icing, cake flavor and filling we liked. The icings we tried were cream cheese and buttercream. It was a unanimous vote of the buttercream. We then tried the white, chocolate and yellow cake. That was a toss up, but in the end, yellow. It was moist and didn't take away flavor from the rest. The fillings were almond mousse, cafe mocha and chocolate truffle. The cafe mocha was way too coffee-like. I really liked the almond mousse, but the majority vote was for chocolate truffle. We're not for sure that we're going to have the Ritz do our cake, but if we do, this will be the cake.

It's a wine/beer bar. There will be a white and red wine and then the two beers will be Coors Light and Mich Ultra. That may change, but for now it's what we're going with. Cocktails will be cash only.

We still haven't decided on appetizers or sides, but that should be taken care of in the next week or so.

Hope everyone had a happy Father's Day!

A visit to the wedding site

Last Friday, JM, Mom, Dad and I went over to the Monon Center to meet with the coordinator and take a look at the grounds. Everything was a blur when we went there originally and decided to have our wedding there, so I wanted to take another look and get an idea of what we need to order and decorate. Turns out they have made some major purchases that I am THRILLED about! They bought white wooden folding chairs for the outdoor reception (which we don't have to rent!). They also are buying a shuttle so the bridal party doesn't have to walk all the way over to the ceremony site...it's not that far, but it will be when I'm dragging a train behind me! Now they're thinking of buying...ok, I can't think of the word for it, but it's that rectangle thing that the bride, groom and officiant stand underneath. Kind of like this...

Although there won't be an ocean behind us :-) (BTW, this is Courtney, one of my bridesmaids, and her husband, Ben's, wedding in Naples last November).

I'm very happy with all that the Monon Center is doing. They actually haven't had any weddings there yet and they're bringing in a wedding coordinator from the Ritz Charles so they have all of these ideas. Yay!!! Here are some pictures of the site.

These are of the banquet halls where the reception will be. They had it walled off for an event that night. This side has the stage. We'll also have all the balcony area that you can see outside.

The wall that you see to the right of this picture below will be open leading into the other rooms.

This is the other side of the banquet hall.

And the kitchen area where the food will be set up.

If the weather is poor (which it BETTER NOT be!!!), the wedding ceremony will be held inside on this breezeway. The doors at the end of this hallway will be shut and the furniture will be removed.

This bridge will serve as the background to the wedding ceremony outside. That's JM and Dad up there ahead of us.

Closer picture of the bridge and Dad videotaping for Greg.

This is looking out from the bridge. Everything's flooded right now so it's not a great view...but if you can tell there's a small hill on the right. They are going to build a walkway up to the top of the hill and that's where the ceremony will be held.

I should be hearing from the Monon Center sometime this week with their final decision on the catering (it should still be the Ritz Charles). I'll also get to speak with the girl who is going to be coordinating the weddings and get some ideas from her.

We may have found it!!!

As you know, finding a place and a date for our wedding has been quite the predicament. And by predicament, I mean pain in the @ss. Anyways, JM and I decided for a different approach. Screw having a neat, unique place, and let's spend less and maybe save for...I don't know...a house?

So, JM, Mom and I went to the Monon Center tonight to check it out. We liked it!!! Thing is, we'll be cutting a TON of costs, so in exchange, there's a particular photographer I want who is slightly pricey. The only dates in October that the photographer and the Monon Center have open in common are Oct. 17th and 24th...both Fridays. But, we get a discount on just about everything because it's not a Saturday!

I REALLY want the 24th (day after my 30th birthday...how fitting!), but another bride is going to look at the Monon Center tomorrow morning for a couple of dates, the 24th included. I just left the lady a rather desperate message and said that we discussed it and we definitely want the 24th...we'll come in tomorrow and pay the deposit! I'm hoping she'll at least sway the other bride away! If not....keep your fingers crossed that the photographer is open on the 17th! She was open the other day, I'm just hoping she isn't already booked!

Our big news...

We're engaged!!! Thursday I had my last final and I was told we were going out to celebrate that night and it was all a surprise. I was almost done getting ready when JM told me that he couldn't get the Christmas ornament he got me to stay on the tree right. Seriously? I'm trying to get ready!!!

Anyways, I went out to check the ornament because he seemed concerned about it. The ring was on the ornament, so when I took the ornament off the tree and turned around he was on one knee and asked "Will you marry me?"

Obviously, I said yes ;-) After that we went to dinner in Broad Ripple and then he had some of my friends meet us out at a bar and surprise me to celebrate. Tonight my parents took us out to dinner to celebrate as well. I don't think the enormity of it has sunk in all the way! I started reading this wedding workbook Lynds got me and was totally and completely overwhelmed. Yikes!!!

We have no idea the date or place...so far it's the fall and Indy. We're trying to work around a couple of things (i.e. my brother's deployment) but my goal is to have the date and place finalized before we go back to school in a couple of weeks. I'm working full-time (as well as over-time) and have my best friend's wedding over the break, therefore it might not work out as well as I think it will!

I tried to upload pics of the ring but for some reason it's not working. I'll try again later!