The First Few Months

The first few months have gone by and the pressure of the wedding is finally starting to hit me. During November and December Val and I did a lot of research on venues and I started looking at dresses and color palettes. Unfortunately, since it was right smack dab in the middle of the holidays, we didn't get much done. In January I was on a mission. We got our venue and our date within the first week. We always pictured our wedding outside at a vineyard. Some of the venues we were looking into were Garre Winery, Fortino Winery and Hecker Pass Winery. While at a SCU basketball game my dad comes out of left field with a suggestion to do the wedding in Napa. First of all, we weren't even looking into a wedding in Napa because the few places we did check out online were RIDICULOUSLY expensive. I mean, we knew the wedding would be expensive, but Napa winery pricetags were just a bit too steep for our budget. My dad ends up suggesting his golf club in Yountville. Val and I look at the pictures online and fall in love with it. We were so excited about it that we made an appointment to meet with my dad's friend (who works there and runs wedding events) that very weekend. After our appointment we were sold. We originally picked the date of October 5th, 2013 but ended up going with September 14th, 2013.

** Side-tracked storytime **
So the story about how our date changed is kind of funny. It wasn't at the time, but now it is. So I was on my lunch at work and went to Safeway to grab some food. I was passing through the magazine aisle on my way ot the register and saw the Farmer's Almanac. (I didn't even know they sold those in the store.) I decided to look for my wedding date just to double check. It of course said that it was going to rain. I panicked. I looked up the other available weekend at my venue and it said sunny skies. WTH. I pay for my stuff, run to my car, and call my dad and mom. What should I do?? Should I move the date? Should I risk it? My mom suggested I look up the historical weather for those 2 dates. I was in my car still but I looked up 5 years of historical data for both weekends. I call Val who of course was not available to take my distressed call. Finally while I'm completing the research and texting my 2 sisters he calls back. He suggests that we talk about it when we get home over dinner. I reluctantly agreed (I wanted to just pick it already.) I emailed our wedding coordinator at our venue and let him know about my findings and double checked that the other date was still availble. He told me not to worry and that there was only a 10% chance that it would rain on Oct 5th. But he also said the other date was still available. That night I talked it through with Val and we decided to bump up the date due to historically warmer weather and less possibility of rain. I had already let some family members know and the bridal party, so I had to re-inform everyone about the new date. What a headache. But luckily it all worked out! :)

Now that we have the venue we are trying to book the photographer, DJ and cake. We have been doing a lot of research but need to set up appointments to meet with our candidates soon. I will also be trying on wedding dresses on February 9th with my mom and sisters. (Not really excited for it... just more anxious than anything.) My bridesmaids are going to try on dresses soon as well. Jessica is doing a really good job with her MOH duties and is organizing all of our big events leading up to the wedding. We also took some pictures for our Save the Date cards this past weekend in Livermore. Richard was there for moral support and to take some pictures for us. I think there are definitely some good ones to choose from when I start designing the cards. I am lucky that I have some design skills -- we are going to end up saving a lot of money on these announcements. We are also going to save some money on the flowers as we will put the bouquets and centerpieces together as well. We are having a "flower arranging" party the day before the wedding at my mom's house. So much to do, but I'm glad it's all coming together now that we have the date and the venue set.