Smitten Whittens: Expectations

Let me give you a direct quote from yesterday's post:

"Tomorrow, you can expect a post on how I asked my 'maids." 

So.... I don't know how to break this to you, but friends, it's 11:15, I'm just now sitting down (cough, laying in my bed on my phone) to blog, and that post isn't happening tonight. 

Here's why: I spent my day at IKEA buying stuff for the wedding, working with my mom on our table seating arrangements, working with John's mom on the same thing, and then, creating a chart for said seating arrangements. It was a pretty full day, as most days have been lately, and I love staying busy! However, I hate when busy pulls John and me apart, which it has sort of done lately. 

He's been working like crazy on our house after putting in long days at work, and I've been preparing for our wedding and starting to prepare for a classroom of six year olds (although honestly, even that has been pushed to the side with all the little wedding to-dos that are popping up left and right!). Between our two crazy schedules, it leaves very little "just us" time. 

Tonight, we desperately needed that. So he picked me up, we got ice cream at Chick-fil-a, and we drove around, just talking. 

Although we love to be silly, a lot of our serious talks throughout engagement  have centered on one thing: expectations. It's hard to go in to marriage without them, but they can be so dangerous. If you want to listen to a really enlightening talk on how damaging expectations can be, just watch this Andy Stanley sermon. It's super relatable, and I highly recommend it, whether you're engaged, married, or even single! 

Basically, desires are healthy, but when we turn those desires into expectations, where we become unhappy when they're not fulfilled, it can get messy. 

This semi-serious post may seem like it was more work than if I had just stayed true to my word and shown you how I asked my bridesmaids, but I want my blog to be an authentic space, where I share "real life" wedding planning with you- not just the cutest crafts and decisions. An important part of our engagement season has been working on and growing in our relationship, which isn't always easy. Ultimately this wedding is leading up to a marriage, and that's what really matters. 

Plus, I figured, hey, you've waited almost eleven months to see how I asked my bridesmaids, what's another day going to hurt?! ;)  

Smitten Whittens: My Best Wedding Planning Advice

We’ve all heard the advice: enjoy your first few days of engaged bliss, and then, when you’re ready to take on wedding planning, the first thing you should do is talk budget.

Now, I’m here to tell you this is fabulous advice (heck, I talked about that with my parents a little before John and I got engaged… Curiosity got the better of me one day when I had a feeling a wedding might be in the next couple years!), but I’d like to give you even better advice. Don’t just have a budget talk; have a numbers talk.

A “numbers talk” includes budget, but it isn’t limited to just money, because for me, budget has not been the trickiest part of wedding planning. The real thorn in my side has been the guest list.

Now, you should know I’m a total planner, so I wanted to get down to business ASAP. However, I didn’t want to freak our families out a few days after our engagement by sitting them down, and asking them to help create an estimate guest count. I also wasn’t worried about just families; I was worried about John. He is not a huge fan of awkward conversations, and a conversation where you’re essentially asking your parents how much they’d be comfortable contributing and how many people they’re thinking of inviting versus how many you’re hoping to invite is, well, awkward. 

Now, in hindsight, I say embrace the awkward, because ultimately, it will save you a lot of stress, guilt, and frustration. You’ll go into venue-shopping with a clear idea of capacity requirements, and you won’t want to cry when you think about how much more the catering (and bartending, and linens...) will cost than you anticipated. Let me tell you how I can say all this with confidence...

Like I said, I didn't want to force awkward on everyone, so I decided, “No need to freak everyone out! I will just create a ballpark guest-list myself!” (Can anyone else tell how terrible of an idea this is already? Yeah? I thought so.)

In my mind, the guest list was great. It included all of my family, all of John’s family (plus a handful or two of question marks where great-aunts and second cousins would naturally go), plenty of family-friend spots, and John’s and my closest friends.  The list was right around 150. So, when John and I found out our dream-venue maxed out at 200 people? That’s fine! We aren’t expecting any more than 140 people to actually come! Our favorite venue was the perfect size, so we signed the contract immediately!

I later realized I was way wrong. I asked for a guest list from John’s family, and went through my family’s address book. I told my parents I was being “cut-throat,” and my poor, selfless parents just nodded and let me decide which of our family-friends made the cut, even though they were the ones footing the bill. I was determined this celebration would be about John and me, and it only made sense to invite people who would be in our future. Will they be on our Christmas card list? Nope? Well then, they're off the list. 

Now, when I received the guest list from John’s family, I realized how selfish I had been- John and I couldn’t just decide who was important enough to invite to our wedding. Our family's opinions mattered too. After understanding my embarrassing mistake, I went back to my parents, and apologized. I had been overly aggressive when I was trying to keep the guest list small, and I didn’t even consider whom my parents wanted to invite.

Ultimately, when all was said and done, our guest list was a little over two hundred people. Yikes. I had sorely underestimated our guest count, because I shied away from a numbers talk with our families.

Now, obviously there are people who won’t come, but a lot of my guests are family (both of my parents come from bigger families) and a lot of John’s guests are family-friends who live nearby, which means lots of people will come. And we are so, so excited about that and very blessed to have so many loved ones! We are also very thankful we are right at our venue's limit and not way above it!

Whew. That was a lot, but I just wanted to give y’all our story, so you’d understand why it’s important to have a numbers talk! Now here is a short list of how to have a productive numbers talk:

1. Come in with grateful heart. No matter what your parents can contribute, they should have some say in your wedding. I don’t care if they’re renting out Disney World or cannot contribute financially. Either way, they have supported you since you were born, and they will give crucial emotional support leading up to the big day. If you go in with no expectations, you will be delighted with whatever comes!

2. Come in with an open mind. Know that what you think is a reasonable guest list and what your parents think is a reasonable guest list might be two totally different things.

3. Have the same talk with both families. Don’t do what I did and be super strict on one side and not even address the other! If you are truly going in with no expectations, no one should feel offended that you brought this up; it's just part of wedding talk! 

4. Do what makes you happy. Yes, I've been saying to be flexible and open-minded, and while I had to learn to do all this, I never gave up my vision for what John and I wanted: an intimate, casual yet classic, Southern wedding about the marriage. Thanks to my mother’s great advise she’s given me for a long time, I’m a firm believer a wedding should be what you and your groom want. So if you are set on a certain venue that you know has a capacity constraint, or you are dying for a small, intimate wedding, go for it!  However, make sure you’re clear about this during your numbers talk so everyone is on the same page with how many guests to invite!

Is anyone still with me? I know it's a long post, but I promise, doing this will make you the happiest bride-to-be in all the land! I also promise my future wedding posts won't be nearly as wordy or boring! Next up: music. 

Three Weeks 'til Wedding

Okay, technically, it is less than three weeks.  What?! I mean, WHAT?!

People (and by people, I mean the two to three sweet friends who optimistically check my blog on occasion in hopes of there actually being a new post), that is just crazy. No, I have not been a good blogger, but by golly, I've been busy with the following: -Student teaching - Falling in love with with my kindergarteners during said student teaching -House hunting - Buying a house (!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!) - Applying for jobs - Getting a job (!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!) - Graduating - Wedding planning - Beginning to set up my classroom - Trying to get in shape for said wedding Now, we obviously have a lot of life to catch up on! I've decided that every day, for the next three weeks, I will blog. And I mean it. Unlike the last several times I did the whole, "I'm back!" thing for a good post or two and then disappeared into the abyss that is real life (which can get a little cray-cray).  Tomorrow, you'll read a post I wrote in February. I thought it was my best wedding advice then, and after re-reading the post, I would agree with February-Chelsea. Except for when June-Chelsea gets stressed about the devilish details and would say the best advice is to just hire a wedding planner! ;)  Here's to three weeks of Whitten Wedding posts, so I can document this amazingly fun, time-consuming, and emotional journey that has led (and is still leading) up to our wedding- maybe with a dash of other stuff in between, because I'm pretty darn excited about the whole "job" thing. :) 

Picking Our Wedding Theme (and Colors!)

If you're reading this, congrats- you've made it past Hump Day! The past 12 days I've been away from the blog have just flown by, thanks to several big assignments due for practicum teaching and full social calendars on the weekends. However, don't think I've forgotten about filling y'all in on wedding updates! I still haven't shared our wedding theme and colors with you!

You should know by now I'm obsessed with weddings. I'm also the most indecisive person ever at times. This makes for a bad combo when picking out wedding details. One thing I knew: there would be pink. Lots of pink. I know pink is probably cheesy to some, but I am one of the pinkest people I know, and I know looking back, I'd be mad at myself for worrying about what others thought, and not going with my favorite color.  This summer, I wrote down my three main theme ideas for our wedding. Here they are, in the same format I wrote them down months ago: 
Sweet, Romantic, Southern - Blush, black, and white - Mercury glass - Blush pink peonies  - White anemones - Checkered dance floor

To view my inspiration board on Polyvore, click the image. 

Classic, Bold, City-Meets-Southern - Pink, black+white OR navy+white - Patterns (stripes, trellis) - Thick grosgrain striped ribbon bouquets - Some patterned table linens - Peonies, hydrangeas (mini), dahlias - Kate Spade vibe - Gold accents

To view my inspiration board on Polyvore, click the image. 

Cheery, Bright, Southern - Baker miller/ hot pink, white, gold, khaki  - Bright pink and white peonies - Milk glass, hobnail style - Peaches and peach baskets - Hydrangeas, tulips, ranunculus  - Colorful flowers - Gold accents
(Side note: I fell IN.LOVE. with this wedding featured on Southern Weddings! It's seriously my favorite Real Wedding post, and hopefully you'll see why if you read it. That wedding inspired my peach obsession, as well as my attention to small southern details. Bonus: I later realized the gorgeous bride works at Southern Weddings, so I can still keep up with her newlywed life!)  

To view my inspiration board on Polyvore, click the image. 

I know this looks ridiculous, and I'm so silly, but dreaming like this helped me visualize things better. I still love all three of these general looks, but I had to decide which best represented John and me. I knew anything too fancy just wouldn't fit us as a couple, or our outdoor venue, for that matter, so the first was out.  Easy enough! Now moving on. 
I was seriously so obsessed with the idea of incorporating peaches into our wedding, since one of our hometown's most adorable traits is its Peach Stand! Plus, peaches would definitely be a cheap and yummy centerpiece on some tables, and they just scream summer in the south! However, let's remember, I wan lots of pink at our wedding, because I'm a pink girl. Not a coral girl, not a peach girl, but a true-pink girl. On top of the dilemma, I realized it would be hard to walk the fine line of southern without being kitschy, which is definitely not my style, so the third was out. 
That leaves us with style 2, or what I'd originally thought of us "Classic, bold, city-meets-southern." Now, while I love the black and white stripes, bold and bright Kate Spade vibe, I leaned more towards the navy and white. I can't quite explain why, but I just thought it was more "us." Navy and white has a classic, preppy feel that I love. 
Ultimately, I decided to combine aspects from all three styles: the checkered dance floor from the first (because, swoon), the stripes and colors from the second, and the southern details of the third. We're still figuring out details and making lots of little decisions, but here's the overall look we hope to achieve:

To view my inspiration board on Polyvore, click the image. 

Our venue (bottom right picture in the board above) obviously calls for southern details, but not bushel baskets like the peach theme. Antique silver and julep cups are my dream flower vases. The picture of a dinner jacket is just because I adore men in dinner jackets, especially just the groom, because it feels so Rhett Butler to me! Alas, John doesn't feel the same way, so all tuxes it is. Luckily, he's handsome in anything, and I guess settling on a tux isn't too bad... ;)

My one concern: how bad do will navy and white stripes be in contrast with the black and white checkered dance floor and the groomsmen tuxes? I appreciate honesty, so tell me what y'all think! Be back on Friday- I'm hoping to have a special picture to show y'all (possibly from our engagement shoot....!)! 

Picking a Wedding Style

Ideally, one of the very first things a couple decides on when wedding planning is a wedding style. However, John and I may have done things a bit backwards, because we didn't really intentionally hone in on the overall style we wanted to achieve until after picking a venue (which definitely affects the style) and setting a date (which obviously determines the season, which affects the style).  
The date, my parents' anniversary, was obviously super important to me; it was kind of a no-brainer for us. Okay, technically, it was a no-brainer for me because of the anniversary thing... Honestly, John just wanted a summer wedding because he wanted to get married before football season started... Yep. 

Hehe.

The venue was almost as easy to choose as the date. When we visited Vesuvius Vineyards for the first time, we knew we'd found somewhere special. You can read more about how we picked our venue here. 

Simple yet grand house in black and white- the two most versatile colors ever- plus naturally pretty grounds? It doesn't get much better than this!
Even though John and I weren't intentionally thinking about our wedding style when we picked Vesuvius, we picked a place that spoke to both of us- a place that fits the combination of our tastes. It's the perfect balance between down-home Southern charm and Old South swank. 
Obviously, our venue inspired us while we thought of our wedding style, but so did all the weddings we went to this summer. We were able to go to weddings, see what we loved, and make mental notes of those things. Seeing other weddings got us asking questions like, "When we get married, will it be a big party, or a small celebration? Will it be modern or traditional? What kind of dancing will there be?" 
Obviously, there is a lot to decide on when planning a wedding. Here are the basics we decided on together:

• We want the whole day to be a joyful celebration with our closest friends and family. Our list quickly grew with big families and fabulous friends, and it wasn't easy, but we finally settled at 200 invitees. 
• We want our ceremony to reflect our genuine love for one another and our beliefs about the meaning of marriage. 
• We want everyone to have a good time. To John, that means lots of food and drinks. For me, that means lots of dancing and cake. 

More than anything else, I knew the style of our wedding needed to be classic and southern. I cannot even explain how many times I've used those words to describe my vision to people. Here's my position on wedding trends, no matter how cute and genius they are: fads may come and go, but pictures are forever. I know it's inevitable that one day our wedding will look outdated, but I am attempting to avoid trendy and cheesy at almost all costs... Minus sparklers. John has warned me they're definitely trendy, but I just can't get enough of 'em! I love love love sparkler exits, and I have such happy memories of sparklers with John, so they're definitely going to be our exception to the rule. 
Figuring out our style has been an interesting process, but the bigger challenge was (and still is!) nailing down a specific theme.... Stay tuned for that, but expect a Five on Friday post first! That's right- everyone's favorite Friday linkup is back, and I can't wait to join in! One sleep until the weekend, friends!

Creating a Wedding Hashtag

Yes, the entirety of this post will be about hashtags. No, I do not blame you if you leave now, because hashtags kind of get a bad rep. (I highly recommend you click that link, if you love Justin Timberlake, Jimmy Fallon, and laughing.) However, you should know that wedding hashtags aren't a stupid trend. They are useful, and here's why: they help document the wedding from the guests' perspective.  Our photographers are going to be AMAZING (seriously, they're fab, and I cannot wait to share more info on them soon!), but I'll be honest... I can be a bit impatient, and to get the gorgeous pictures we want, we'll have to wait a while for the end result. Having our guests take pictures on their phones and then using our special hashtag will create an archive of wedding pictures for me to pore over before we get our professional photos back. Although I know some people don't use the hashtag-searching-feature (or whatever the technical term is) on social media, I love it! I love knowing John and I, along with our family and friends, will be able to search for all posts with our hashtag and see everything documenting our wedding. So, now that I've convinced you that hashtags are indeed useful, it's time to talk about the actual hashtag itself. It has to be at least semi-original, because if we were to use the popular hashtag #whittenwedding, we would see the 314 pics with that tag on Instagram already.  My first thought? Something simple without a lot of room for spelling errors. #whittenwedding, #thewhittenwedding, and #whittenwedding2015 were already taken, and no one else seemed to be okay with just doing #weddingwhitten (it's just #whittenwedding backwards!) so I was kind of out of luck.

Second thought? Something witty. My best friend (and MOH!), Kara, liked #gettinwhittenwithit but that breaks all kinds of rules in my book. 1. Room for spelling errors ("Is it gettin' or getting?"). 2. John's last name, Whitten, does not even kind of rhyme with jiggy- the actual word in the Will Smith song, so I don't really think that counts as clever. I told her we could use that for the bachelorette if she really wants! ;)

So, I felt pressure to come up with something funny or cool, but that just wasn't in the cards. I mean, when it comes down to it, it's just a hashtag. Want to know what John and I decided on? 

From now on, this chica will be using #smittenwhittens to document any and all wedding planning leading up to next June 27th! Is it the most creative hashtag ever? Probably not, but John and I both like it- we'd like to think it describes us pretty well! (Well, technically, it just describes him well- I'm not a Whitten yet!) 

We hope our guests like the idea of using hashtags on social media as much as we do, but we also hope they understand our wishes for an "unplugged" ceremony. More on that later! 

Setting a Date

I kind of posted a little out of order when I told you our venue before our date... Oops! Normally, I'd say venue should be first priority and then setting a date based on availability. However, a couple months ago, I realized something: my parents' anniversary falls on a Saturday next summer.   I had an inkling a summer wedding might be in the books for us, so in my mind, that anniversary date was my "dream date." A couple of things on this: I'd checked the calendar to see when John's parents' anniversary was too, because they had a summer wedding as well, but theirs fell on a weekday, so it was out of the question. Obviously, once John and I got engaged, we talked about the date. At first, John was worried we might be stealing my parents' thunder by sharing their anniversary, but I thought it was, if anything, a good way to honor them. 
Thankfully, when we went to Vesuvius Vineyards, the date was still available, although they warned us several other couples were thinking about it. John and I took a big breath and committed.
We are officially getting married on June 27th, 2015. 
Eeek! With the contract signed, we could start planning everything else! My next concern? Talking to Pastor Steve Morgan. He's the man who married my parents and baptized me. He's been a part of my family's lives for a long time, despite moving before I was old enough to get to know him. Thankfully, I met him by chance on a church mission trip in high school, and I feel like our paths have crossed too many times to ignore. I'd had visions of him marrying my future husband and me for years, until he retired last year. I resigned myself to being open-minded about our officiant, until John and I picked that special anniversary date... I just knew that I'd kick myself if I didn't ask him to officiate our wedding then! 

A blurry photo of my first ceremony with Pastor Steve: my baptism. (Is it just me, or does this resemble the beginning of the Lion King?)

Thankfully, he was thrilled I'd asked, and his answer was "YES!" He and his wife are traveling in England right now, but John and I are looking forward to premarital counseling with Steve next year. 

I don't know when I got so sentimental, but it warms my heart thinking about these special details of our wedding. After all, these are the most important things about the wedding! Without a minister, we couldn't get married, and without a date, we couldn't start booking everything else... And I couldn't update y'all with our wedding countdown- only 318 days until I'm John's wife!

Location, Location, Location: Picking a Venue

When I was younger, I thought I'd get married at The Dairy Barn in my hometown of Fort Mill, South Carolina. I was a junior bridesmaid in a gorgeous wedding there twelve years ago, and I've been in love with its magical southern charm ever since. 

However, The Dairy Barn has grown in popularity since then. In fact, before John and I got engaged, he already knew he'd be a groomsman in a wedding taking place there next summer! Now, John and I aren't "hipsters" in the slightest, but we weren't exactly crazy about having our wedding somewhere a few weeks after our friends. Plus, let's face it: John and I are southern, and we wanted to incorporate that into our big day, but I'm not at all a rustic girl. 
I was determined to find somewhere beautiful yet reasonable- a combination that is trickier than it may seem. Here were my thoughts about our potential venue: 
- I don't really care if it's indoors or outdoors. - However, if it's indoors it cannot. have. hideous. carpet. - Also, no hideous wallpaper or decorations. The plainer, the better.  - It must not be ridiculously priced.  - It must be beautiful. 
Now, I looked at a few places online, including:  The Ballantyne Hotel

The Ballantyne is gorgeous, and it's in Charlotte, which is a big bonus. I loved that it was very clear on its website what was included (like chiavari chairs- swoon!) and pricing. I also loved that it was a hotel for convenience for our many out of town guests, but at the same time, I hated that it was a hotel for carpet. Yes, I realize this is probably stupid to most, but not to me. Ultimately, I realized a ballroom just wouldn't be our thing, so the Ballantyne was out. 

Pretty, but... Not us. 

The Cliffs at Glassy

I really loved The Cliffs website when I saw it for the first time. And the second time. And the third time. This place was gorgeous, especially this chapel: 

I mean, who wouldn't want to get married there?!
Obviously, lots of people want to get married there, since they do three ceremonies each Saturday and you don't get to pick which of the three time slot you get... This seemed a little nuts since you'd be paying lots to rent it, just for an hour or two, and on top of that, still have to rent a separate Cliffs clubhouse for the reception. It was definitely out of our budget, and in hindsight, the small chapel would not have held all of our guests.   Vesuvius Vineyards

I don't remember how I found Vesuvius; my best guess is WeddingWire, but I'm not quite sure. Regardless of where I found it, when I read about it for the first time, I thought, "Why am I just now hearing about this place?!" It turns out, this venue has only been around for a few years, even though the gorgeous plantation style home is the oldest in the entire county. That may be why it just oozes southern charm! I fell in love the instant I saw Vesuvius in pictures, and it was even more beautiful when John and I went and saw the estate in person. Although the actual vineyard on the property is small (and the grapes haven't produced wine yet), there is so much else it offers. Sprawling land, a gorgeous home to get ready in, and a lovely reception pavilion that gives the best of both indoor and outdoor worlds- the indoor comforts of restrooms and ceiling fans and the beauty of the outdoors, which means less decorating is necessary! 

John and I really clicked with the two owners of Vesuvius, and it didn't take us long to realize we wanted to work with them. I was ecstatic we'd found such an incredible place that fit all of our requirements (and then some!) at our very first venue we toured. While it's forty-five minutes away, I think it will be well worth our drive. What do y'all think?!

One Month Check-in

Hi, friends! I know, I know... I said a while ago I was going to get back in the swing of blogging. I had the best intentions, too! However, this past month has been a bit jam-packed with fun, and I've been the best kind of busy. More specifically, I've been the "newly engaged" kind of busy, and I adore it. I've been trying to get as much "planning" done as possible before school starts next week (say it ain't so!), which means if I've been on the computer, it's been to look up flowers and tablescapes and letterpress vs. thermography. I have always had a passion for all things wedding, so this extreme-planning has been a blast, but I've missed the blogging community!

Still just as happy as I was our engagement weekend! 

I think John's and my one month engagement-versary (because that's a thing, right?) is the right time for me to get back into blogging. Now that I've really used this time to soak in being engaged to my fiancé for exactly one month, I can share all this joy with y'all! In order to catch you up on planning and life in general, I'm going to post each day this week, sharing bits and pieces of what I've planned so far. Here's to a fun week of posts! 

Friday Bride Day

Y'all, the struggle is real today. And by "the struggle" I mean "the struggle to keep a rational head and remember my grateful heart while trying to make wedding decisions." Yeah, I think I'm transitioning into stressing-over-nothing-for-no-reason mode.... Which is stupid, because I have so much to be thankful for, and stressing over something so minute is selfish. 

My dad reminded me of this the other night, as I lamented about limiting our guest list and the process of registering...  If these are my only worries, I am lucky. I mean, yes, these things like flowers and entertainment are EXPENSIVE so I want them to be just right, but ultimately? This wedding is one day. The family John and I are creating, along with the family we already have, is forever. 

Just because I'm keeping perspective doesn't mean I can't share my planning successes and lamentations with y'all! Here's a list of things we've done so far:

• Decided on a budget
• Picked and secured a venue
• Set a date
• Found and secured our officiant 
• Found photographers
• Found and booked videographers
• Found entertainment
• Started our guest list
• Created wedding website

Honestly, even though I feel like I've gotten so much done, there's a bazillion more things left, and I am determined to get the majority of the big things done before school starts! Here's what's happening in the next week:

• Meeting with photographers to sign contract
• Meeting with potential caterers
• Meeting with a potential florist
• Insure ring (!!!!!COUGH JOHN WE HAVE TO DO THIS LIKE YESTERDAY COUGH!!!!!)
• Checking out the venue again- John's already seen it, so he's probably going to stay home while I go with my mom and cousin. I can guarantee an excited post with pictures after that!
• Dress shopping!!! There's a designer consignment bridal shop near our venue, so I have an appointment after looking at the venue! So excited for two of my favorite women to be there!
• Blocking out hotel rooms- Not as glamorous as the first two things we're doing while we're in the area, but it's a necessity! 
• Pick out a color scheme- I can assure you: all three of my top ideas heavily feature PINK! ;) 
• Skyping with potential DJ- You can definitely expect a full post on my DJ vs Band thing soon... I never thought I'd end up leaning towards a DJ, but this guy seems great! 
• Finalizing the guest list- I'm kind of cut-throat, surprisingly... Not family? Haven't seen or talked to you in years? Very little chance we'll keep in touch after the wedding? Probably not number one on the list... (Kidding, sort of.) 
• Finish asking wedding party- one flower girl, ring bearer, and bridesmaid (well, kind of two...) to go!
• Registering- Can't. Even. Talk about it. Seriously, this is what stresses me the most. 

Basically, anything and everything on this list will get its own post. I love reading about other people's planning journeys, and I certainly find it therapeutic to write out mine! As overwhelming as this to-do list seems, I'm going to remind myself that while it may suck figuring out the guest list, you know what doesn't suck? Having so many (healthy!) friends and family who support John and me.

Do y'all have fun weekends ahead?! I sure do! My cousin and her precious baby are visiting from Michigan, and I cannot wait to squeeze them as soon as I get home this afternoon!