My Indecisiveness

I think I've mentioned this before that I am VERY indecisive. Case in point, finding (and nailing down) our venue! I don't know why I am indecisive. I just have the hardest time making decisions, especially when I'm given multiple options. When I was little, my mom would treat us to shopping trips at Toy's R Us. I loved Toy's R Us when I was little! And I think everytime we visited the store, I ALWAYS ended up with two Barbie dolls that I just had to have! Ha! Somehow I always managed to find two Barbie dolls, both completely different that I wanted. Unfortunately, everytime my mom would tell us that we were only allowed to pick out one toy. Kaitlyn would find her toy rather quickly compared to me. I, on the other hand, seemed to study the toys, and come up with solid reasonings on my selections. Well, we would typically hang out in Toy's R Us until 1) I either narrowed it down to one Barbie or 2) I'd take so long with option 1 that my mom would just end up getting both! Maybe I subconsciencely knew this, and that's why I would always select two Barbie dolls????

My indecisiveness then turned out favorably for the majority of the time, as I would normally come home with two Barbie dolls. However, now...my indecisiveness has not worked out in my favor. Why? Well, it took my sooo long to figure out our reception venue, I was finding out that ceremony venues were already getting booked! Eeks! I need to jump on the ceremony venue bandwagon now!

If I thought that finding the reception was difficult...Ha! Boy, was I wrong! Since we ended up selecting the Hershey Country Club as our reception venue, I now needed to find a different place to have our ceremony. It took us such a longgg time to find something that I liked! Oh for those you don't know me too well...not only am I indecisive, and I'm also kinda picky.

Danny and I would drive up to PA to check out ceremony sites. We checked out churches, golf courses, parks, gardens, the Hershey Mansion, the PA capital, and to no avail... none of these would work! Don't worry though, we were able to find a place that, I consider, magical. This saga will continue...until next time a tribute to my sister and I in our Barbie car!

And They're Off!

They took effort. I mean a HUGE amount of time and energy (and patience), but I love them! I love them so much, I was actually really sad, and a little reluctant to let them go. But if I continued to let them sit in their small, beautiful envelopes on my kitchen table, then none of our guests would receive a Save-the-Date!

Yes, I love them and I am very proud of them. You see, I made each of the 50 Save-the-Dates by hand, with love, of course. I started this fun, albeit tedious, project in December. And I finished them March. What took me so long? It was actually coming up with the actual "Save-the-Date Concept." I didn't know what I wanted to do. There were several different styles that I liked, including the Photobooth Style:

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Calendar Save-the-Date:

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Card Save-the-Date:

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Which one did I end up choosing? Well, you will just have to wait and see! I'll post more about theses lovelies once they each arrive safely at their destinations!

A Little Obsessed

Are you asking yourself what I'm obsessing over? Blogs. I'm obsessed with blogs. I love them. Can't get enough of them. No, really - I look at blogs during lunch, on my hour commute to and from work, when I'm at home, right before I go to bed, and can we say for the majority of the weekend? ha! Reading this, it sounds a little unhealthy, but what can I say, I am a little obsessed.

To me blogs are a gateway to see what is out there, what is everyone else doing. Should I do that? Can I do that? And the blogs I'm loving right now are, well of course, wedding blogs! But not only wedding blogs, anything that is about creativity, design, uniqueness. I want to incorporate elements in our wedding that are unique and catching, something that when looking back on, I'll continue to love. And where am I finding all this inspiration? Blogs.

So, I'm pretty sure by now you get that I'm obsessed with blogs. If anyone should know its Danny. If I'm on my laptop, I'd say there is a solid 99% chance that I'm reading a blog. I just can't help it. It makes me happy! Danny will ask, "Are you on Weddingbee?" And, I think to myself..he should know better - of course! Weddingbee is one of my favorite blogs. For this blog, it's not just about the content, it's more about an actual community. We're encouraged to participate and share our wedding planning experiences with everyone else, just as much as the bloggers are. Plus, they even have "Bee Meet-ups." The one for DC was a couple weeks ago, and at the time I was unable to go, or I found out a day too late, but regardless..I didn't make it.

What do I love most about blogs? Imagery. I can truly say that I don't read everything on all of the blogs I look at. When I'm on my laptop looking at blogs, I'm mostly just scanning their images. If anything catches my eye, then I read it. Is it a little ironic that I'm writing a post that doesn't have any images? Oh well...

So here it is, my list. My favorite blogs that I just LOVE.

1. Weddingbee
2. Wedding Chicks
3. Style Me Pretty
4. iDIY
5. Green Wedding Shoes
6. 100 Layer Cake
7. Design Sponge
8. Ruffled

Venue. Check!

After a couple weeks went by from checking out the two venues, I went to back up to PA to visit my parents and to continue working on the wedding plans. I had just started my new job at Cannon Design as a Marketing Coordinator, which was going great! I was kept busy, and didn't have much time to think about the two venues. I was pretty much just replaying the pros and cons of each, but that's about it.

It was sometime in June, when I was in PA and running some er

rands with my mom, when out of the blue we decided to stop by and check out the Hershey Country Club.

And then it happened. I loved it.

The pavilion was going to be the place were Danny and I were going to have our first dance, mingle with our guests, eat amazing food and cake, and dance until the stars go blue.

How did I know? Well, when we walked in, I just fell in love with the ceiling, fireplace, and the chandelier. It looked like a rustic cabins, and I was loving it. I told the coordinator that this was going to be the place, and I gave her all of the information that she needed. She pulled together the contract, and sent it to me by the following week. Yes! We have a venue people!

Pic from my first visit!

First of Many Parties

My parents threw Danny and I an engagement party in May. It was held at my parents house, and it was absolutely lovely. My family, and a bunch of my parent's friends, and some of mine were there and it was a blast celebrating with everyone. My mom did a fabulous job planning the party - she prepared most of the food herself, including:

• Tasty-Will-Grab-Multiple Meatballs
• A-M-A-Z-I-N-G Avocado Shrimp Dip
• Cucumber & Onion Salad
• Garden Salad
• Dinner Rolls and Cute Butter Balls
• Zezty-Oh-So-Good Wings
• Olive Tray with International Cheeses and Grapes
• Will-Definitely-Have-Seconds Beef Barbeque
• Disappearing-Puffed-Pastry-Hors D'oeuvres (They were gone before I had one!)
• Pink Heart-Shaped Chocolatey Engagement Cake with Buttercream Icing!

We had a great turn-out - over 70 people came out to celebrate Danny and mine's engagement. Below are some pictures, enjoy!

Thank You, Details

Early on in the wedding planning, to put this in a time perspective, around April, May, and June, I had the toughest time getting my butt into wedding planning gear. I’m not blaming it on my lack of interest or wedding planning fear. No, I’m blaming it on the all the details! Oh, the tiny details, how I love you!

It should have been at this time that I accomplished all the major tasks, setting the date, finding our venues, and booking our photographer. But instead I got wrapped up on all the tiny details we could possibly include. Are we going to be able to include all of these details that I gawked over for months? Hopefully!

From bouquet details to center pieces to stationary details to…oh the list could continue on. I looked at this detail-eyeing time as a time figuring out what I liked and what I didn’t like. I was trying to figure out our theme; a comprehensive theme complete with a color palette. Looking back, I think was working backwards.

I'm blaming the details for getting me off track and putting me behind schedule. So with our date set..it was time to find our venues. I knew I wanted to have some part of the wedding extravaganza outside, and I was leaning with the ceremony. For the reception I was leaning towards having it at a country club - where the food and beverages would be taken care of. We wouldn't have to worry about finding a decent caterer or purchasing our own alcohol. Two things that I didn't have to worry about sounds good to me.

One day in May, my mom and I drove all across central PA checking out the country clubs. As is typical of Kelley, I found two country clubs that had great potential. My goal was to find a venue that would be hassle free for everyone, where we could have both the ceremony and reception at the same venue. Here are the pros and cons of the two country clubs that I liked:

Harrisburg Country Club:

Pros - Beautiful location, nestled in the mountains; surrounded by a golf course (def. plus in Danny's book); Option to have the ceremony and reception outside.

Cons - Small ballroom; Cost of alcohol is per drink versus a single cost per person - this is a BIG con.

Hershey Country Club:

Pros - Surrounded by a golf course (again, a plus in Danny's book); Absolutely AMAZING venue. All-inclusive price per person; Top chef in PA - yep, he was ranked the number 1 chef in PA

Cons - Unable to have the ceremony outside.

Since I am a very indecisive person, it took me a while to make a decision on the venue, maybe a couple weeks? Not sure, but I definitely had to sleep on it.

Something Borrowed

If it seems like it took us forever to set our date, your right. If we still wanted to have our wedding in June, we were left with June 19th and June 26th. It was about this time when I was toying with the possibility of having our wedding in September. Hmm? It's still warm out, that's a check in the right box. However, there were a couple drawbacks with having it in September, 1.) I wouldn't be able to have real peonies, and 2.) my sister would have to take time off from school. This was brought up by my mom. I didn't think it was too big of an issue.

So, June was the more practical month. Between June 19th and June 26th, June 19th is a more meaningful date. Why you ask? Well, it's the date that my parents got married. I asked Danny how he felt about having the same wedding date as my parents. His response was sweet. He said that while he would prefer to have our own date to celebrate on, he said that it was up to me. Yea, he's a sweet guy. But he happened to add, "It'll be easier to remember our anniversaries." He did have a point. He and my date could help remind each other.

I asked my mom if I could borrow their wedding date, and her teary-eyed response was "yes, of course."

We have a date people! June 19th, 2010.

Now that our date was set, it was time to solidify our venue or venues.