So Much To Do

It's official...

...the save the dates are all addressed, stamped, and on their way to our guests! I can't believe that it is already time to be sending these out. Time has seriously flown by. We started out with 16 months to plan and organize, and now we're down to 6 1/2 months!

With that being said (and my last wedding nightmare still fresh in my mind) it's time to get down to business. The other night I sat down and organized a list of projects that still need to get done. I took a mental trip through our venue as if I were a guest and wrote down every project that came to mind:

The lists above (which don't include decorations like table centerpieces or items for the altar) may seem a little crazy! I promise I'm not a madwoman who thinks she needs to complete hundreds of projects. I wrote a list of items that I would need underneath each task to make my future shopping trips a little easier.

Though my project list is not three pages long, there are still quite a few things that need to get done and I plan on starting a few this weekend. With two days off a week and not having to worry about homework or exams, I should have plenty of time to get projects completed.

Here's the rundown:

- Guestbook : We're planning on creating a photo guestbook. A nice bound journal or sketchpad + polaroid camera + photo corners = perfect.

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- Ribbon Wands : Our venue doesn't allow guests to throw petals, or confetti after the 'I do' (it's on the lake and items could easily blow into the water polluting the area and causing harm to the wildlife). To make for fun photos the guests will have ribbon wands to wave after the ceremony.

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- Tissue Packets : Packets of tissue for "Tears of Joy"

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- Birdcage Card Box : I already have a little birdcage to put cards in. All that I need to do is create a cute banner or sign.

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- Program Fans : Since our wedding is in May and it's possible that the temperature in the central valley will already be climbing, we thought that fans would be a better option for our programs than traditional booklets.

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- Seating Chart Frame : Our seating chart will be posted on a big board rather than given to our guests via escort cards.

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- Flip Flops : We will be offering our heel wearing guests a more comfortable option for the reception. I started this project this summer and I'm happy to say it's nearly complete.

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- Menu : Each table will have a menu with food options. I haven't decided if each place setting will have a menu or if there will be just one framed menu....it all depends on how much time I have.

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- Drink Menu : I found a really cute chalkboard sign at Goodwill (I used it for Zac's 30th birthday...check it out here and here) and we plan to place it on the bar with the drink options.

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- Bathroom Basket : A cute little bathroom basket will be in each of the bathrooms with items that guests might need throughout the evening.

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- Games : Games will be set up on the lawn for guests to enjoy during cocktail hour. We'll need to get together a few more games and create a chalkboard sign to put on the lawn.

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- Candy Buffet / Dessert Bar : Though we have tons of jars and glassware for each of these tables (shown here), we still need to get small favor bags and take home boxes for the goodies.

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In addition to those projects, we still need to finalize ideas for centerpieces and start buying supplies to get everything in order.

So what do you think, did I bite off more than I can chew? Any other DIY brides out there have a lot of projects to complete? If you had a DIY wedding did you need to cut down on some of your projects before the wedding day arrived?

Bridey Part 2

Bridey time is back! That's right! The brides have reunited for another session of Bridey time. (Not familiar with the term "Bridey"? Check out this post to get in the know.)

Holly, Samantha, and I got together on Saturday for a wedding catch up and planning sesh. We gathered together our wedding binders, a small array of snacks, and some Disaronno. We mixed up some Disaronno and cranberry juice (which funny enough tastes just like a cherry coke) and got to work. We had each worked a long day and were excited for a cocktail and wedding talk.

Deciding to make it tradition to take pictures of our rings each time we get together, we each grabbed a glass and lined up for a photo. From top to bottom: Holly, Samantha, me.

After opening our binders and sorting through our wedding papers and fliers, we laughed when we saw that each of us had the newest Oriental Trading Wedding catalog. It called for a photo.

One great thing about our Bridey dates (other than the fun of getting together with some great girls), is that we all have different styles when it comes to our weddings. It's nice to look through wedding ideas and talk about our weddings because we all have something different to bring to the table. It's also really fun to find ideas to forward to the other brides to be.

Holly and Ryan:

April 7

Holly and Ryan are having a purple and green, fantasy/renaissance style wedding.  Their ceremony will be on the beach with a small group of very close friends and family. Later the two with have their reception at another location closer to home. To go along with the reaissance theme  the bridesmaids will be wearing free flowing dresses and the cake will be complete with a fairytale castle topper. Holly is planning to have soft curls and will be wearing a veil and a circlet. It should be a beautiful wedding and ceremony!

Samantha and Matthew:

June 10

Sam and Matt are having a bright summer wedding at a winery. There ceremony will take place under a large shady tree between the vineyards and tasting room. In addition to having some wine touches (like corks in centerpiece vases with votive candles, and wine bottle table numbers) there will be fun pops of color (in the shade of malibu blue) and black and white polka dots. Samantha will be wearing malibu blue heels with a cute bow at the toe while her maid of honor, Michelle, and I will be wearing the same shoe in white. I'm excited to be a part of their wedding and I can't wait to see it all come together.

Teeny and Zac (Us!)

 May 4

I'm sure that if you've been keeping up with the blog you know that Zac and I are getting married at a venue by the lake. Our wedding will have a vintage vibe with ceramic birds, birdcages, lanterns, plenty of candles, and diy projects (including a candy and dessert buffet). Our guests will be entertained by games on the lawn during cocktail hour and photo guestbook complete with props.

As you can see, our themes and plans are all very different. I just love hearing about what the other girls are going to do for their weddings and the plans they have to make their days special. We plan to have a bunch more Bridey days before we each walk down the aisle. I love having time to hang out with these ladies!



Whatcha Gonna Do With All That Glass?!

Check out all of this glassware!

Zac and I have slowly been gathering together glassware of different sizes and shapes for a variety of wedding related projects. So what are we planning to do with all of this glass?

#1. DIY Candy Buffet Table

Rather than making individual favors for all of our guests, we will be creating a candy buffet table so that guests can enjoy some treats throughout the reception and create their own little goodie bags to take home. At the Premier Bridal Showplace Bridal Show, we found a few companies that would create a candy buffet table and provide set up and clean up services for large events like a wedding. After looking at a few of the companies' price listings, Zac and I decided that we could reduce our cost by creating the table ourselves.

Something like this is what we had in mind:

We have a few glasses that should make for a really interesting candy buffet table. Like this martini style glass....

...and this giant brandy style glass.

#2 Centerpieces

Going over our guest list, Zac and I have determined that we'll probably have around 15 tables to plan for at our reception. To keep thinks interesting, we are hoping to create up to 5 different centerpieces so that things don't look so predictable.

We have a few ideas already of what we would like to do, including using lanterns, candles, and vases with lemons. Recently at work we discontinued our half bottle carafes of wine. This meant that we no longer had use for the glass carafes. I asked if I could have some of the carafes to use as vases at the wedding and my work was kind enough to give me 10 to keep.

The carafes are a nice size to use as small vases for floral centerpieces. Though these carafes won't be centerpieces on their own, the flowers they will hold will definitely add some nice pops of color to the tables.

In addition to getting rid of the half bottle carafes of wine, the restaurant also discontinued half glass carafe options as well. Guess who got a whole case (6 dozen) of these cute, petite carafes? Thanks to a very generous manager who knew that Zac and I were trying to do as many diy projects for the wedding as possible, I was able to take home a bunch of these adorable little glass carafes. We're thinking that they will look cute on the tables with small bunches of yellow billy ball flowers.

#3. DIY Dessert Buffet Table

As I mentioned in a previous post, when it comes to dessert, Zac and I really wanted to offer our guests some variety in flavors. We thought that providing our guests with assortments of cupcakes, brownies, cheesecake, and other desserts would be more fun than just a traditional wedding cake. Earlier in the summer I found a bakery that specialized in dessert tables. After checking out their website we were able to see some of the beautiful tables they have created, as well as all of the delicious flavors they offer. After contacting the owner and discussing package options we realized that the cost for a package with minimal variety would be about $5 per guest. Expecting at least 130 guests, this dessert table could get kind of pricey. In addition we would still need to get a small two tier cake. It was clear to us that hiring this company was out of the question, but we know that we can still create a nice dessert table at a smaller cost.

To help us put together a cute (and organized) dessert table we have picked up 4 of these cupcake holders: 

As well as a few of these three tiered glass cake stands:

We're not done collecting all the glassware we will need to create both of these tables for our guests, as well as the centerpieces for the reception tables, but we definitely have a great start. We're very grateful that we have family and friends who are willing to help us set up our creations. Thanks to their help we will be able to have these creative elements at our wedding at a fraction of the cost to hire companies to do it for us!



Organized Bride

No doubt there are a lot of things to keep together and organize when planning for a wedding. Contracts, photo ideas, price listings, etc. The papers start piling up and keeping it all together can get stressful. From day one I knew that I would need a place to keep everything organized. Not only would it make things a little easier on me, but I also thoroughly enjoy projects and organizing. (School supplies like binders, dividers, and cubbies have always made me very happy. I'm satisfied with my status of 'nerd'.)

After Zac proposed and we began planning I put together a little binder to place all of our ideas for venues, colors, decorations, and any other items that we would need to figure out. Rather than going to the store and purchasing a "Bridal Binder" or "Wedding Organizer" (which can be anywhere from $20-$30) I pulled a white 1.5" binder from my pile of school supplies and considered it done. Most organizers are essentially decorated binders anyway and I couldn't justify paying for something with the word "bride" or "wedding" on it when I could just as easily make the same thing...for free.

Once we booked the venue and the wedding date was official, I printed out a cover page for the binder with our names and the date to make the binder a little more "bridal".

I added one packet of plain white dividers (that I already had in my school supply pile) to keep everything in order.

As we started to collect more papers, fliers, and ideas it became clear that I was going to need more dividers to keep everything separated a little better. After 'Bridesmaid Day' with Samantha and Michelle, and taking a look at Samantha's wedding binder, I was inspired to add some colorful dividers to the mix. My white dividers were great in keeping everything in a proper place, but Samantha had some wonderful dividers with pockets in the front to hang on to all of the loose papers/fliers that couldn't be holepunched. I loved the pockets and headed to the store a few days later to reorganize my own wedding binder. Thanks to Samantha's inspiration and four packs of dividers later the binder is now much more organized.

You might also notice that the binder is a lot thicker now. Four packs of dividers equals twenty categories. It might seem a little crazy but it actually makes organizing everything much easier.

I used 18 of the 20 categories (one of which is a place to put all of the information I need for Samantha and Matt's wedding). The categories include: budget, checklists, guest list names and addresses, venue information, photography contracts/receipts, apparel, decor ideas, etc. Having the pockets really makes it easier to keep everything in their proper category.

Having all of our contracts, price listings, and comparison sheets together has really made organizing our budget and planning the wedding a lot less hectic. Only spending $8 on dividers instead of buying an organizer for $30 wasn't a bad deal either.

Pin-Head

Is anyone else out there addicted to Pinterest?

Right after graduation I was introduced to Pinterest by one of my favorite blogs Young House Love. I've loved their blogs for years. I started following (Zac refers to it as stalking) their posts in 2007 about a year after Zac and I first moved in together. They have tons of helpful hints regarding house projects and we have similar design tastes (Sherry shares my love for crisp white paint and ceramic animals). But enough blog plugging gushing.

Since being turned on to Pinterest there is has been no going back. You can find me on Pinterest here. Feel free to follow me!

  I have WAY too much fun browsing through many, many pages of pictures and pinning inspiring ideas to different boards for future projects. Pinterest has definitely been a help in planning the wedding, at least when it comes to ideas for centerpieces and other decorations. Now I can stop flooding my computer space with saved pictures and put all of the photos I like in one space on the internet. Plus, with Zac's birthday coming up (he's turning the big 3-0) I'm able to save all of my 'surprise' ideas (more on that later) in one space where Zac won't be looking.

My Pinterest account has also been the home for the ideas that have inspired our work on Project Wonderland. (Update: Zac has finished putting the capstones on the top of the wall. We are still planning on adding stone but for now it looks fantastic! I'll post pictures of the progress later.)

There are some really creative people who have posted on Pinterest. It feels like a little DIY community and I love it!!! If you don't have an account you should definitely head over to the website (http://www.pinterest.com/) and get in on the pinning fun!

Bridey

The last few weeks have been filled with some fun bridal time, which the girls (my fellow brides Samantha and Holly, and Samantha's maid of honor Michelle) have termed "Bridey". As silly as our name for it might be, celebrating, discussing our weddings, and planning has been really fun with these ladies.

Not too long ago Samantha put together a "Bridesmaid Day" to hang out with Michelle and I. 

Samantha picked up two bottles of champagne from her wedding venue, a wine tasting center called Appellation California. Here is Michelle with our yummy Sunday afternoon treat.

Michelle brought chocolate and I added some fresh strawberries for us to enjoy with the delicious champagne. We spent the afternoon catching up on the newest details of Samantha's wedding planning, looking for bridesmaid shoes online, and watching the first Sex and the City Movie. It was such a fun afternoon. Thank you Samantha for having us over. :)

A few days later we attended a vendor event hosted by David's Bridal. Our friend, co-worker, and fellow bride, Holly was in attendance as well. The vendors included a florist, a bakery, a dj, and a candy buffet table service to name a few. Dawn, a photographer from Composure Photo and Video was there as well. She snapped this photo of all of us girls and a few days later it appeared on her website. Samantha and I look like we're headed to our first day of school with our binders. What can I say, we're organized brides.

Michelle also captured this photo of Holly, Samantha, and me.

The shot definitely reminds me of the old Saturday morning cartoon, Captain Planet. Anyone remember that show?! This picture is very "Let our powers combine!" Ha ha. If you have no idea what I'm talking about check out this clip:

The vendor event was a fun experience, but since Zac and I already have a photographer (Van's Studio of Photography) and the dj in attendance was not on the list of approved djs for our venue (Wolf Lakes) it was more of an enteraining experience than a productive one. Afterwards, Samantha, Michelle, and I headed over to Elephant Bar to get some dinner and cocktails. (Holly was unable to join us.)

It was a fun night with the ladies, getting our Bridey on. :D I'm definitely looking forward to several more days/nights like this in the future. Michelle and I have a few nights like this ahead of us as we have a bridal shower and bachelorette party for Samantha that needs planning! We're going to have a lot of fun creating some special events for the bride to be. 

Making A List and Checking It Twice Part 2

After experiencing my first wedding nightmare, I've decided that it's time to revist my list of to-do's and get a handle on things that need to get done.

The last time I peeked at my list it looked like this:

9 - 11 months

- Research and choose a ceremony site.

- Research and choose a reception site.

- Start interviewing caterers.

- Look for a ceremony officiant.

- Begin to narrow down and finalize your guest list.

- Start shopping for your wedding dress.

- Settle on wedding colors (if you haven't already).

- Set up appointments with florists.

- Look for reception bands.

- Research photographers.

- Research videographers.

- Start your registry.

- Start thinking about your honeymoon. (Planning in advance can help you get better prices on airfare and hotels.)

- Choose your bridal party.

I've managed to cross one item off of this list:

- Start shopping for your wedding dress.

Thankfully that task has been taken care of and I am the happy owner of a beautiful dress that I can't wait to wear!

Another item that we can check off of this list is:

- Look for a ceremony officiant.

Zac and I decided early on who we wanted to be our officiant. I guess since we haven't yet figured out the best way to ask this person to marry us, we can keep this item on our list for a little while longer.

Instead of just continuing on with this list I've decided to add onto it and get as much accomplished as I can in the next few months. I looked at other lists in my Bridal Bargains Wedding Planner as well as the list I created after my disturbing wedding nightmare. So with that in mind our new list looks like this:

9 - 11 Months

- Look for a ceremony officiant

- Begin to narrow down and finalize your guest list

- Set up appointments with florists

- Set up appointments with djs

- Hire dj

- Place order for wedding cake

- Plan out and purchase items for at least two of the reception games

- Design and create the invitations

- Begin purchasing coffee mugs, plates, bowls, and jars for the dessert and candy tables

- Purchase supplies for and begin putting together the guestbook

- Choose our top three photos from our engagement photoshoot to use for the save the dates

- Begin purchasing flip flops in a variety of sizes for the reception

- Look at JoAnn's Fabrics for different fabrics for a variety of wedding related projects

I'm looking forward to getting started on all of the crafty parts of the wedding plans, especially working on the invitations and save the dates. Being a scrapbooker, the idea of working on paper projects excites me to no end. (Yes I know, I'm a weirdo....but that's me.) Gathering things together for the guestbook is another project that I am excited to get underway. I think what Zac and I have decided to do for the guestbook will be fun for our guests and a keepsake we'll really enjoy looking at years after we say 'I do'. (I'll be sure to share the details about the guestbook project once it's well underway.)

I think this will be plenty to keep me busy over the summer. If I can get as many of the little projects done as possible this summer I will have more time later to focus on the bigger decoration details. Look forward to some update posts as things get checked off the list. :)

Budget Brides Unite

This afternoon after work I went to a late lunch with my friend and coworker Samantha. Sam got engaged back in April. Check out her beautiful ring:

The two of us have been excitedly planning our weddings and dealing with the same decisions and obstacles over the last few months so we decided that it was time to get together and bounce some ideas off of each other. It was so nice to have someone to talk to who understands and is going through the same things. To avoid becoming that annoying girl who always talks about her wedding, I make it a point not to mention any details in conversation unless asked about it. With Sam, the topic of our weddings is always on the table and rather than being an arena to go on and on about them, our conversations are platforms to help each other out, get excited about our big days, and compare ideas to make our events extra special.

Both Sam and I are definitely trying to pinch every penny when it comes to our weddings so the best part about our conversations is sharing with each other ways to cut corners and make things easier on our wallets. I was so excited today to hear details about her wedding plans and I look forward to our future planning adventure together.

Sam is a total sweetheart and so is her fiance Matt. I've known Matt since we both got hired at The Cheesecake Factory together almost 6 years ago. Samantha and Matt have been together for two and a half years and they are so cute together.

Photo by Chad Adams Photography

Congratulations you two!

Wedding Nightmare!

Last night I had my very first (and hopefully last) wedding nightmare. It was completely vivid and so real that for a while after waking up, when I was still in that half sleep state, I was still nervous and panicked about the whole thing.

Having served tables for a number of years at two different restaurants I am used to having vivid server nightmares that seem so unbelievably real they leave you worried for at least a few hours after you wake up. For those of you who are not familiar with server nightmares (and I envy all of you) they can really be stressful. These dreams usually involve getting sat more tables than is possible for you to take care of at once, having demanding guests, dealing with separate checks that are never right, forgetting to put in orders or having food that doesn't ever hit the table, etc., etc. Basically anything that can go wrong does go wrong in these dreams nightmares. For some reasons, these nightmares seem to last much longer than any other nightmares and especially longer than the nicest of dreams. (It's really messed up, right?!) While I've had my fair share of server nightmares, I have never experienced a wedding nightmare and I'm hoping that I won't have to ever again.

So in this wedding dream my mom was over at my house askng me questions about when both the dj and the hair stylist would be arriving at the venue. My answer wasn't just that I didn't know but the reason that I didn't know was because I hadn't hired them yet. My mom of course freaked out. She couldn't believe that it was so close to the wedding and I hadn't yet chosen and hired two key vendors. I assured her that we still had plenty of time until the wedding and she shouldn't panic. This is when the dream turned into a nightmare. My mom gave me the craziest look before walking over to the calendar and pointing out that the date was May 3rd. It was the day before our wedding!

Needless to say, my dream persona began to freak out but surprisingly only a little bit. For some reason dream me thought that I could fix it all and get it all together by the next morning. (I kind of appreciate this about my dream self.) My mom left my house yelling about how she needed to get this all fixed because I wasn't taking it seriously.

The dream then jumped to the next day and we got to the venue....which of course since it was a dream was not our actual venue, Wolf Lakes. Instead it looked like the inside of a warehouse. Of course it was a big, mostly empty warehouse, but it was a warehouse nonetheless. In the dream I wasn't surprised by the venue, only surprised that the decorations weren't up yet. My mom was there with a few other ladies asking me where to set up the games for the reception cocktail hour. Of course, dream me hadn't figured it out yet and I told them that I hadn't picked out the games yet and I certainly hadn't gone shopping for the materials for the games. My mom was speechless and walked away.

I headed to the bridal room to get ready. To my surprise I still didn't have anyone to do my hair, so I started to do it on my own. I was sure that I could figure out something nice to do with it even though I hadn't practiced. I put my hair up in curls and within seconds it had fallen down and the curls wouldn't stay. The frustration mounted and after a while I could feel myself getting really panicky and upset.

A few minutes later my mom and the ladies were back saying that the venue wanted to know when the cake would arrive so that they could get the table ready for it. Dream me made a face to my mom instead of saying anything. I hadn't ordered a cake. Before my mom could freak out on me I assured her that we could just whip up some cupcakes before the reception started and everything would be fine. My mom lost it! She demanded to know what I was doing the whole engagement and why I didn't seem to have anything done when I had a whole year to get everything ready. My only explanation was that I thought that I had more time. Without saying a word, my mom left in a huff and that was the last time she appeared in my dream.

I guess what I got out of the dream (aside from waking up freaked out) was that I need to start putting some things together for the wedding. Over the last few weeks (since school has ended) I have been asked from a bunch of different people how the wedding planning has been going. I told myself that as soon as graduation was over I would have time to go full force with the planning. The reality of the matter is that I have taken a much slower start getting prepared than I anticipated. My main thought is 'we have time'. So I think that my subconscious was reminding me that time goes by quickly (a point that my mom has been driving home since the day Zac and I started planning back in January). Thinking about it, Zac and I have already been engaged for 5 months. (Zac actually proposed 5 months ago today. Check out the details here.) It doesn't seem like it's been that long already but it has.

So I think that it's time to get a few more of the major items and a few of the smaller details marked off of my list. Before the summer is over these are the things that I would like to get accomplished:

- hire a dj

- take care of the cake order

- plan out and purchase items for least two of the games

- finalize the guest list

- design and create the invitations

- begin purchasing coffee mugs, plates, bowls, and jars for the dessert and candy tables

- purchase supplies for and begin putting together the guestbook

- choose our top three photos from our engagement photoshoot to use for the save the dates

- begin purchasing flip flops in a variety of sizes for the reception

- look at JoAnn's Fabrics for different fabrics for a variety of wedding related projects

If I can get these items taken care of before September I think that I will feel a lot better about all of the smaller details.

Hopefully I won't have to deal with wedding nightmares anymore. I'm sure as the day gets closer and more details are added to my list, my stress level will increase, but for now I'm feeling okay about everything. This one nightmare was enough to force me to narrow down the details and determine what things I really need to work on.

I can't wait to get started.

Making a list and checking it twice...

Yesterday, while in a meeting for my internship at Fresno READS we got on the topic of list making.

If you know me at all, you'll know how much I LOVE to make lists. It's a small obsession, a compulsive disorder of which I have no desire to cure. On occasion my list making can get a little crazy, but I believe that for the most part, my lists come in handy in organizing what can sometimes be chaotic times. (Though they mostly just keep me organized in less than chaotic times.) We'll just say that I have numerous lists around our house (in notebooks, on loose sheets of paper, and on two dry erase boards) for a variety of reasons. In addition to lists of homework assignments, grocery lists, and craft lists, Zac and I have created a list of items to get and projects to complete for the house. We have managed to get a lot of the list taken care of but there have been a whole new set of items added to that list including:

-Getting furniture for the main living room

-Getting a more comfortable sofa bed for the office (so that when the guest room is already occupied, other guests don't have to deal with sleeping on the futon)

-Moving the washer and dryer into the garage and expanding the downstairs guest bathroom (I am so excited about this change!)

-Finish digging the trenches and leveling the ground in the back left corner of our backyard, so that we (and by 'we' I mean Zac) can begin construction on the outdoor fireplace, sitting area, and fish pond. It's going to be such a wonderful adult space to hang out, relax, and entertain guests.

There are a bunch of other items still left of the list which we will eventually get to. In the meantime we are enjoying all of the items we have already been able to complete. (Perhaps later, I'll post some before and after photos of some of the rooms in our house.) It gives me such pleasure to take a pen (or dry erase marker) to each list and begin to cross items off. It makes me happy and gives me a little sense of accomplishment. (I'm sure some therapy would tell me what that's all about! :P)

Planning a wedding involves a fair share of list making. Once I started thinking of all of the things that we would need to put together, organize, and do to prepare for the big day, I started to feel a little overwhelmed. (When I wasn't feeling uber excited to get started.) I wanted to put together a list to get me going.....but where to start? I also wanted to be sure that I wasn't missing any important 'to do's. The first step was browsing wedding planning to - do lists online. I also purchased a copy of "Bridal Bargains Wedding Planner". (I got the same one for Sarah and Amy when they got engaged, and it seemed to be at least a little helpful to the process of organizing.)

The book has a section with a master checklist that covers everything from announcing your engagement to sending out 'thank you' cards after the wedding. The large checklist is divided up into several smaller sections that are labeled by month. It definitely makes the overall list of things to get done a lot less overwhelming.

Just to make sure that I had all of my bases covered, I looked at the checklist provided on theknot.com. Just like the list in the wedding planner, they had a large list of things to get done, that were divided up by month. So I compiled the lists together, weeding out the items I didn't need to worry about (like hiring a wedding coordinator) and created a checklist that was appropriate for our event. After dividing it up into monthly sections, I had a few small lists that I could start working on. Here is a look at the first two.

12 months +

-  Get organized! Start a notebook/file folder to house all your wedding-planning paperwork in one place.

- Announce your engagement to family and friends.

- Envision your wedding style and/or wedding color scheme.

- Decide on a wedding budget and determine who will be contributing to thes budget.

- Choose a wedding date.

- Envision your wedding dress. Begin browsing through photos to determine the style of dress you would like to try on.

- Put together a rough draft of a guest list to give you an idea of how many guests you expect to invite.

- Get in wedding day shape.

9 - 11 months

- Research and choose a ceremony site.

- Research and choose a reception site.

- Start interviewing caterers.

- Look for a ceremony officiant.

- Begin to narrow down and finalize your guest list.

- Start shopping for your wedding dress.

- Settle on wedding colors (if you haven't already).

- Set up appointments with florists.

- Look for reception bands.

- Research photographers.

- Research videographers.

- Start your registry.

- Start thinking about your honeymoon. (Planning in advance can help you get better prices on airfare and hotels.)

- Choose your bridal party.

As of now these lists look like this:

12 months +

-  Get organized! Start a notebook/file folder to house all your wedding-planning paperwork in one place.

- Announce your engagement to family and friends.

- Envision your wedding style and/or wedding color scheme.

- Decide on a wedding budget and determine who will be contributing to thes budget.

- Choose a wedding date.

- Envision your wedding dress. Begin browsing through photos to determine the style of dress you would like to try on.

- Put together a rough draft of a guest list to give you an idea of how many guests you expect to invite.

- Get in wedding day shape.

9 - 11 months

- Research and choose a ceremony site.

- Research and choose a reception site.

- Start interviewing caterers.

- Look for a ceremony officiant.

- Begin to narrow down and finalize your guest list.

- Start shopping for your wedding dress.

- Settle on wedding colors (if you haven't already).

- Set up appointments with florists.

- Look for reception bands.

- Research photographers.

- Research videographers.

- Start your registry.

- Start thinking about your honeymoon. (Planning in advance can help you get better prices on airfare and hotels.)

- Choose your bridal party.

Look at all of those lovely slash marks! I made the last item on the first list bold and highlighted because I wanted to keep it as a reminder. I've started to make some changes (though, admittedly, not as hardcore as the changes I made at this time last year) but I still need the reminder of this task. Getting back in shape is an ongoing process and I won't cross it off of my list until I am completely satisfied.

We are just about to come up on one year until the wedding and I am happy to say that we have completed all of the big, important tasks. We have chosen a date, chosen our bridal party, found and booked a site for the ceremony and the reception (since the venue includes catering we don't have to worry about interviewing or hiring a separate caterer), and booked a photographer. According to the lists, we're ahead of the game! :) After graduation, I will have more time to dedicate toward getting everything together. I'm hoping to get as many of the smaller details accomplished as soon as possible so that the last few months before the wedding can be as relaxing as possible. (Don't worry, I was laughing as I typed that last sentence. Please trust that I am not delusional. :D)

For now I'll sort through my lists and get my pen ready to start making slashes through items as we get them taken care of......the compulsive behavior continues!