T-Minus 365

We're getting married July 1st 2011. That's the day before her 25th birthday so on her birthday this year we made the drive to Peoria and enjoyed time in the park where our ceremony will take place.

It was a cool feeling, standing in the spot where we will become a forever couple. She ran around and visualized where chairs will be, how she'll walk in, and what the view will be. Good news? Liberty Park is lined with mature trees. Shade for the wonderful guests.

Photographers will be met with next week and selected hopefully by the day we move. So much is happening so fast, yet it's all so great. Here's a few shots of Liberty Park from her birthday/scouting trip! Can you picture it?

The Vendor Search Begins

So I have spent the last week or so making a big list of photographers in the Peoria area. It's been an absolute blast, looking through all the websites trying to get a feel for what we want. I'm a budget number cruncher and photography is an expensive business. The worst part is, this makes me want to go buy my own digital SLR camera, which not exactly in the budget right now. I digress, as I usually do...

After a string of emails to my inbox I have finally started scheduling some meetings with photographers. The first one is today and I'm a bit nervous. Developments in my life make question what I can afford I can't seem to muster the courage to really find out from parents what they're expecting to contribute and what they want from the event(which I think is important). plus there's a 1,000 questions to ask the photographer and I'll write them down here in a bit, but what will I forget? Will she seem cool? Will we feel comfortable with her? Will she be out of my price range?? Ahhhh!!

www.shelby-studios.com is the site for Cindy who we are meeting today in Washington. If anyone is out there, check the site and let me know what you think of the pictures.

I can't wait for Jes to get home from college for kids today so we can talk and experience the excitement around going to see our first vendor. I know she's tired and working some really long days right now, I hope this wedding can be everything she wants it to be.

Developments

I have to make this quick because I'm just having some lunch. I can't wait until I have some more time this summer to blog, both here and on my professional one!

Two huge developments!
1. change of date. Our wedding had to be moved because of my new graduate school plans. Wow I'm glad Je is cool.
2. Jes has a dress.

Life is good. I can't wait to marry this girl.

A post from Jes

So, it looks as though Kyle and I will have to move our wedding date because of conflicts with school calendars. But I don't even mind because... I'm going dress shopping this weekend. Yay Me!

Weddings in Film

So we're starting to actually get into it. I feel so lucky to have such a wonderful woman who actually is excited about being my wife. I feel like it's all going to go very fast, but it'll be great. Hopefully lots of video, pics, and stories will come out of it. I know I'll want to relive it forever with her.

We've set a date, June 4th 2011. Be there or be square!. We've got a website up and going. You can find it by clicking...HERE! It's slowly getting updated. It already has some cool stuff in Peoria to check out if you'll be there before or after the wedding. My favorite part so far is the "wedding party" page. Seriously, check that out.

Here's the point of this post. I love to rent movies(especially since I don't have cable...too expensive!) I wondered how many about wedding there are and I want to watch more of them. I went IMDB and yielded this search for the keyword wedding. It's over a 1,000 titles. Some of them don't really seem to have anything to do with a wedding. LOTR comes up and I don't remember wedding stuff in that.

I wanted to create a list of movies to watch, but I'm not going to read a 1000 little snippets to make my list.I guess I'll head off to Google and try a bunch of different searches. I was really counting on IMDB here.

Well enough playing around here. Jes is about home from work and we have a very important dinner date at Arby's to attend. I guess I should put on pants that are acceptable to be seen in public wearing.

Planning Month 1

Jes and I have been engaged for a little over a month at this point. We're getting ready to start the "year of the fiancee/fiance" (sidenote: why the different spelling?) I had no clue just how much stuff there is to figure out.

Obvious things: venues, wedding party, guest list, attire, cake, photography, etc...
Not so Obvious Things: What to eat, wedding colors, how to seat people, engagement party, save the dates, officiants, etc...

Luckily, we have got a long time. We've got a small number things squared away. One of them is not the budget which makes me nervous. We need to know if our parents are helping or not. It's hard to ask about that considering her parents are separated and my parents are going through a nasty divorce right now. Not really the best examples of marriage,but I digress.

1. We think we've found our reception venue after thinking about three towns and countless places. We looking at East Port in East Peoria, IL. www.eastportbanquets.com if you check it out let me know what you think!

2. Outdoor wedding. Some garden/park in Peoria...still working here, but it's winter so kind of hard to work on this.

3. Late Spring wedding. April/May. Then again this has been every season but Summer so far. Don't hold your breath on that one.

4. Wedding party. That was fun! I think we have the perfect set of people. More to follow on that.

5. Colors are...Purple and Green. Shockingly, these work together in the shades she likes.

6. Engagement party is in two days at Maggie Miley's(our first date spot).

We're really excited for all the fun we will have planning(and actually having) our wedding. Feel free to leave us comments here. I'm working on a wedding website as well so that we can do RSVP's and stuff that way, but I'm not quite ready to release it. We'll just say...Coming Soon!

I'm Yours

This is kind of our song. If we have a song at least I think this is it. When music is such a large part of your lives, it's hard to pick one song. I'm sure that'll be a point of contention for us since we're both music teachers(band/choir).

Anyway, Smile and watch this video. Maybe this kid could play at our reception :)

Being in love and engaged is fantastic.