Decisions, decisions!

I'm back from a fantastic weekend home (two parties in one day!) followed by a two-day wedding planning trip where we ironed out lots of details, answered lots of questions, and created lots of To Dos for ourselves - through howling wind, icy rain, and gray skies, no less. The quick recap...

Makeup
The makeup trial went fairly well, although I was definitely scared of the first red lipstick she tried. It was way too much for me. I have to find the perfect red between now and then. In other words, makeup artists, beware: I'm about to start harassing you.

Hair
The hair trial was great, and lasted approximately seven minutes before she was done! Throw a flower in, add a few more curls, and I'm ready to roll...

Flowers
I think it can be summed up this way: Pro: Having a floral/event designer who understands your vision perfectly. Con: Paying for said vision. It's going to look great, and we're going to reduce costs by creatively recycling some flowers from the ceremony for the reception and DIY-ing most of the containers, but still... The bright side here is that she will also handle all tent decor (including the ceilings), which we'd budgeted for on a different line item, so in all it should be fine, even though it gives me a mild heart attack right now. Stay tuned for much more on our flowers and decor decisions...

Food + Drink
We're going to propose a menu rather than going with one of their standards, both to cut costs and to have more of what really makes us happy and less of what isn't a priority for us. Hopefully we can nail down the menu by week's end that will make us (and our budget) smile. We're still trying to find the sweet spot between full bar, wine/beer/champagne, signature cocktails, etc. But the dessert! Such a victory! We are officially doing individual strawberry shortcakes that are so great-looking (my bad for not photographing them, seriously) and so delicious that I want to squeal with delight just thinking about them. Major home run.

Cookout
I think my favorite part of the trip was our official barbecue tasting, where we settled on the caterer for the Welcome Cookout. The details for the food at our big kickoff event (which I'm more excited about than the reception, to be honest) are coming together really nicely.

Rentals/Logistics
I now have no doubt that the biggest money-making venture around is to rent event tents. The cost of a simple tent is outrageous. Want a liner for said tent? Doubly outrageous. While we're profiting from tent rentals, let's go ahead and add in nice-looking chairs, chargers, the works... because they are all so prohibitively priced we could make a fortune. Even if I had an unlimited budget to dress our reception the way I really wanted to, I'm increasingly thinking I'd opt out solely to protest the sheer rip-offness of these items, seriously.

And... Scene
So that was the wedding planning trip. Lots and lots of little to-dos got checked off the list: stealing official visitor guides for the welcome bags, drawing the walking map to all events, collecting info for our sponsored activities, and so much more. Huge thanks to my mom and sister for making the trip with me, and my aunt and awesome teenage cousins for thoroughly entertaining us at dinner. For a full sense of the trip, imagine us rushing around doing all of this nonstop, my increasingly pregnant sister getting increasingly hungry, requisite shopping stops at my favorites stores because we all know how much I need another cardigan, and my mom making us sleep with the ocean-facing door open to the frigid night air so that we could listen to the surf. And no complaints or getting sick of me, not even once!


With my sister (in her adorable red maternity coat) during a rare respite from the rain, standing on the beach deck and overlooking the lawn where we'll have our Welcome Cookout