a very helpful fiance.

When we first started planning our wedding, my dear fiance was less than interested. In fact, he even surprised himself with how much he didn't care about anything related to the wedding (besides the fact that we were getting married of course!). It was a little frustrating to say the least. I'd ask a question about the reception site, colors, guest list, ANYTHING, and he would respond with "whatever you want to do" or "I don't care" or some other generic statement that didn't help me at all. This went on for a month or two before I couldn't take it anymore. I am not really a crier, but on a trip back from the UP the tears came out. I told him that I wanted his opinion on things, whether it was the same as mine or not. He felt bad for making me feel like he didn't care, and said he'd try to get more involved in the wedding stuff. And has he ever!

He has helped me book vendors. I give him a phone number, he calls and gets quotes. We decide together which vendor to go with, he calls and takes care of it.

He researched and booked our honeymoon. I am ever so grateful for this one! Planning trips overwhelms me a bit because there are so many options!

He pretends to care about things that no guy should ever care about. Flowergirl dresses, centerpieces, you name it, he knows what we're doing.

He comes with me on all of the wedding shopping trips. What to know where to look for cake pedestals? He is your guy.

He has helped me with the crafty projects. He manned the paper cutter while we made our save the dates. He helped me make our mossy initials. And his latest project... bathroom signs! Check them out! He came up with these all by himself, with the exception of the paint colors and the little dots, which were my contributions. Aren't they cute?

I'm so glad I'm marrying him. And not just because he's good with a saw.

Does anyone else have a very helpful fiance when it comes to wedding planning? Was he always that way, or not so much at first?

motherofthebridestyle.

You may have heard of groomstyle but this is motherofthebridestyle...

I hate to brag, but my mom is a pretty cute little lady. She is short (like 5'1") and skinny and I have always been jealous of her for that (somehow, I got stuck with the taller and wider genes...no fair!). That being said, my mom is way too young, hip, and beautiful to be stuck in one of those stereotypical mother-of-the-bride dresses!

While she and my sisters were in town awhile back, she tried on this dress from David's Bridal and we all agreed that it was a contender for her wedding day attire.

Since there are essentially ZERO malls in the UP, she hadn't found any other possible dresses when I asked her about it last month. I told her she should just order the dress from DB, but she didn't seem completely happy with her choice. I had seen some cute dresses at Ann Taylor in their Celebrations collection, so I told her to look online. She did, and she fell in love with this gorgeous dress in pistachio (the green color on the right). Sorry for the poor picture quality!

I think it's the perfect color to accent the rest of our bridal party. Ultimately, she decided that this second dress was more "her", and ordered it (using a coupon of course... I had to get my thriftiness from someone)! It came in recently and she loves it! One more wedding-related task taken care of!

Motherofthegroomstyle will be coming up soon, but it will have to wait until next week since my FMIL and I will be searching for the perfect dress for her this weekend!

Did anyone else help their moms pick out their dress for the wedding? Where did you look?

so excited.

Check out what just arrived in my inbox! That's right, an evite to my own bachelorette party! I'm so excited! It makes the fact that I'm getting married in 5 months feel a little bit more real, and I like it.And of course, I can't wait for the party!

the great debate: renting vs. buying.

When we first booked our reception, we knew that the venue would not be providing dishes. They do not hold events there on a regular basis, nor do they plan to in the near future. We kept this in mind when booking our caterer, who is a family friend and has access to dishes through his work. We thought we would be able to use these dishes for our wedding, so we never budgeted for this expense.

A couple months later, I found out there were some circumstances which were preventing us from using the dishes for our wedding. We would have to rent or buy our own, or borrow them from somewhere else. Not knowing where else to borrow them from, we starting weighing the pros and cons of the two remaining options, renting and buying. Here's what we came up with:

RENTING
Pros
-Generally cheaper
-Don't need to wash the dishes after use (just scrape off food)
-Don't need to figure out what to do with the dishes after the wedding

Cons
-Waste of money (nothing to show for it after)

BUYING
Pros
-You can get some of your money back by selling them afterwards

Cons
-Generally more expensive
-Need to wash the dishes after use
-Need to do something with the dishes after (sell or give away)

As you can see, there are more pros for renting than buying. But I couldn't help but think that it is such a waste of money. After the wedding we'd have nothing to show for all the money we'd spent.

So I began pricing out some dishes. I found dishes and flatware for a decent price at Sam's Club. Plain white 10.5" dinner plates would cost about $2.40 per plate. I liked that they were plain white, as we are going for a simple, modern look. But multiply $2.40 times 360 and you get $864, and that's just for one plate. Then we'd need to add salad plates, bread plates, dessert plates, coffee cups, saucers, beer glasses, wine glasses, and mixed drink glasses. Needless to say, the numbers got a quite high, and the prices didn't even include shipping.
So what did it cost to rent 10" dinner plates? At $0.33 per plate times 360, it would cost $118.80. Muuuuuch better. I would even settle for the ivory plates with gold trim for the extra $745.20 we'd be saving.
Believe it or not, I actually considered buying for a lot longer than I'd like to admit. I just couldn't get past the fact that we would have nothing to show for the money we spent on rentals after the wedding. Plus some of the other items (the bread plates, for example) had less of a price differential between renting and buying ($0.75 to buy vs. $0.33 to rent).

After figuring out that it would cost us more than double to buy all of the dishes (and we still hadn't negotiated shipping) I finally caved and signed the contract with the rental company. That is, for everything except the flatware. During my analysis, I found that buying flatware from Sam's Club was actually cheaper than renting. So we went to Sam's and bought the Bakers & Chefs forks, spoons, and knives, and saved about $60 compared to renting at $0.37 per piece.

In the end, I was glad to know that all of my research had paid off and I had made the most of our money when it came to dinnerware. The rental company has been great to work with so far!

Did anyone else struggle with the rent vs. buy decision for wedding items?

he never leaves the seat up.

Here's another reading from Mara at The Wedding Cabaret. I swear they wrote this one just for us...

He never leaves the seat up …

He never leaves the seat up, Or wet towels upon the floor
The toothpaste has the lid on, And he always shuts the door!
She’s very clean and tidy, Though she may sometimes delude
Leave your things out at your peril, In a second they’ll have moved!
He’s a very active person, As are all his next of kin
Where as she likes lazy days, He’ll still drag her to the gym!
He romances her and dines her, Home cooked dinners and the like
He even knows her favourite food, And spoils her day and night!
She’s thoughtful when he looks at her, A smile upon his face
Will he look that good in 50 years, When his dentures aren’t in place?!
He says he loves her figure, And her mental prowess too
But when gravity takes her over, Will she charm with her IQ?
She says she loves his kindness, And his patience is a must
And of course she thinks he’s handsome, Which in her eyes is a plus!
They’re both not wholly perfect, But who are we to judge
He can be pig headed, Where as she won’t even budget!
All that said and done, They love the time they spent together
And I hope as I’m sure you do, That this fine day will last forever.
He’ll be more than just her husband, He’ll also be her friend
And she’ll be more than just his wife, She’ll be his soul mate ‘till the end.

So sweet! I love it.

a unique fall color scheme.

My cousin Heather is planning a fall 2010 outdoor wedding, and has asked me to help her plan it! She wants to incorporate some of the traditional fall colors. I found this gorgeous color scheme on one of my favorite blogs, 100 Layer Cake that I think would be perfect for a beautiful fall affair. It incorporates some of the traditional fall colors (red and gold) while bringing in a some unexpected shades of plum and midnight blue.
I am in love. That is, if it's possible to be in love with a color scheme? I think it is.

bridal events galore.

Planning of the bachelorette party, as well as two showers is in full swing! As discussed previously, my future sisters-in-law will be throwing us a bridal shower in the next few months. My mother and a family friend are throwing another shower as well! Since the guest list will be rather large, our moms thought it would be best to break it into two separate events. Works for me! My task for the next week will be to come up with guest lists for both showers. I've also been instructed by our family friend to pick out a signature drink for the shower her and my mom are putting together. Again, since I like to do things out of order, I think I've decided on which girly drink I'd like served.

Berry spritzers with your choice of champagne or wine anyone?

(source)

I'm drooling at the thought of them!

My bridesmaids are also hard at work planning my bachelorette party. All I know so far is the date and the location! We'll be spending our night on the town in Milwaukee! I can't wait to spend some quality time with all of my favorite girls!