time to hammer out the details :)

So, this weekend we got a lot of snow. Well, a lot of snow for Raleigh, NC that is. I was supposed to work on Saturday, ugh. But luckily the snow convinced the owners to close the salon for the day, and I took advantage of the stolen time.

Earlier this week, my maid of honor came over for the evening and helped me assemble the invitations. We used a printer {pip printing} who cut all the paper, printed & punched the holes in the paper for us. So all we had to do was tie in the ribbons & I had to stamp them. Every. Single. One. But it was so worth it because I love them! They turned out exactly how I wanted them to be.

Our guest list is rather scary, I might add. Mom and I took the time on Saturday morning {snow day} to stuff the invite envelopes. This is a scary sight, especially because it doesn't include all of my future family in law invites. I'll be bringing the invites over to my FML sometime this week. She's been nice enough to offer to address her side of the family for us.

I also decided to use silk flowers for our wedding. I was convinced {easily} because I am not a fan of spending a lot of money on something that just wont last. Flowers die, right? Well, I figured none of our guest will get up and walk out because our bouquets are silk, right? I didn't think so. Here is a glimpse of my bouquet. I'm so excited that I get to enjoy it until the big day :)

I am starting to get stupid excited! With Jonathan being gone until May, the days aren't passing nearly as quickly as I'd like for them to. And not that I want to wish the time away, but I do miss him terribly. Luckily, our MOH & BM are taking a trip with me Valentine's Day weekend down to GA to visit him.

{I apologize for the poor quality of these photos. They were all taken with the blackberry to tweet. lame-o, i know :)}

Happy New Year <3 the soon-to-bes :)

This year, Jonathan and I actually got to spend new years together. In the seven new years that we've been together, this was our second time being together. This was also the first of a life-long string of new years together. And that, friends, makes me smile from the inside out. 2010 brings a lot of exciting things our way. Jonathan and I have been waiting our entire relationship for this year, even if we didn't know it at the time. We will be tying up the last few loose ends before the wedding, getting married, moving in together for the very first time and enjoying the first of many years of happily married bliss. And I am just so excited.

We wish you all a very happy, eventful and beautiful new year. May your year be filled with just as many wonderful, life-changing events!
Happy New Year!!

Love,

The soon-to-be Hodgeses

Five months of planning: summed up!

So I apologize, I have been terrible with keeping this blog up. Heck, the point was to document all that was involved with the planning process, but {surprise surprise} the planning process was so busy that I just couldn't find the time. Oops.

So here, now that most of the planning is done, I will recap for you.

Where I left you last was that our church backed out on us, and we were left scrambling to find a new one. Thankfully {as noted earlier} St. Francis came to our rescue, and things there have been unfolding wonderfully. That was, after all, where I wanted to be married all along. We have attended the orientation, the music orientation, and {dun dun dun...} the engaged encounter workshop! We are officially {cathloic-y} licensed to wed. {well, not really--but we did get our certification for making it through engaged encounter--no easy feat ;) 12 hours over all of grueling question answering and issue discussing!} Thankfully, J and I have been on the same page about most issues all along. Yeah, I think that's called soul mates :)

On the weekend of August 9th, mom, Kelly, Ms. Hodges and I ventured out to David's Bridal on Capital Blvd. to try on a few more dresses just to make sure I was certain in my dress choice. After several dresses that I was less than impressed with, we found one that might be a contender. Mom and Ms. Hodges had their votes in, but I had my concerns. And after a brief talk with my maid of honor in the dressing room as I was coming through the "birth canal" of the dress, I made the decision to stick with the dress I originally had my eye on at the other store.

On August 15th, Mom and I traveled back to Burlington to actually purchase my wedding gown! We spent the afternoon with the gown on and trying on different veils and hair pieces, etc. It was very surreal to know that the gown I had on was actually the dress. Don't girls wait their whole lives for that? :] Luckily, with the purchase of a gown, the veil was free which was a nice touch. We ordered the gown in just the right color and size and it was put to the back of our minds since we knew it would be several months before we were back there. Check, another thing done.

September came much quicker than I expected, and soon it was time for the bridesmaid sleepover and our engagement party! On September 11th, Abby traveled in from Greenville SC {this was the first time I saw her in about two years!!} and the rest of the girls came over in their pajamas {as requested} and an ultra fun night ensued!! I have to say that I have the best bridal party ever. Each of these girls are a different definition of a best friend from all different portions of my life!

September 12th was the engagement party, and it was awesome to have all of our family and friends all in the same place celebrating our love. Ms. Hodges made a lovely cake and we had the food catered by one of Eileen's HS friend's husband. Everything was great, the future mother in law meltdown aside.

October was a month for getting things done. We booked the limo {then pursued to wonder if we made the right decision after having several failed attempts to contact the company or receive a contract. I am happy to report that those issues have since been worked out}. We also paid the church. This was made a pressing issue for me after I had a terrible nightmare that my wedding day snuck up on me and I hadn't paid the photographer or the church. Needless to say, the church was paid the next weekend! On Oct. 26th, J, my mom & I went over to Jerri Long's house to discuss cake flavor and design. We have decided on a lovely, simple design with a fairly simple flavor which I'm sure will please!! Trust me, you won't be disappointed! Jerri Long works out of her own home and is not a licensed baker, but her rates are extremely reasonable and her products are masterpieces. Please, let me know if you would like her information!!

In November, my girls ordered their dresses. Funnily enough, even after I gave them all the option to choose their own dresses, they all picked the same one! With a bridal party full of such lovely ladies, they could have worn potato sacks & not disappoint! I also ran into some future decisions drama in November where J and I were forced to take a closer look at what we wanted for post wedding location, occupation and family situations. All, thankfully, has been fully discussed and we are on the same page with all. I really do love that man!

December was hectic but successful! On December 7th, my mother and I traveled back to Burlington my dress was in! I have probably never been so excited about a single item of clothing before. I can't wait for you all to see it. It's just so....joey! That next weekend: Dec 11 & 12th was our engaged encounter workshop at St. Francis. We {as mentioned before} survived! It was all easy breezy until I started getting cabin fever, cold and tired. Definitely not good conditions for discussing heavy, life important decisions. But alas, we managed to get through it! We played Wii that night to bond on a lighter note and get some activity since we'd been sitting in elementary sized cafeteria chairs all. day. long.

Jonathan and I celebrated his 24th birthday {actually on 12/18} on Tuesday 12/15. I cooked him a hearty love-filled meal and we soaked up some of our last days together. Then, on December 16th we chose our wedding song. It is definitely different than I would have ever picked, but truly fitting. We ended the year spending the holidays with our respective families as it was our last to be just in one place, and we rang in the new year with our good friends: Eric, Kelly and Tyler with a lovely dinner at Twisted Fork followed by a small gathering at Tyler's with lots of fun games: madgabs, catch phrase, buzz words, etc.

On January 2nd, Jonathan packed up and moved to Georgia. I am not going to lie, this sucks. We've done the long distance thing before, but I just miss him. At least this time, it's only for a short while and this time there is a wonderful reward!!

I promise I won't let as much time pass before my next update. If I do we'll already be married!!!

Shut out...literally!

So-- My family & I are Catholic.  I have attended Catholic churches all of my life, and though Jonathan is not Catholic, he has graciously agreed to have the wedding in the location of my choice.  So-- through default we have decided to have our wedding at St. Catherine's.  My family & I currently attend this church, and this is also the last church that my Uncle John presided at, so despite it's lackluster appearance, we were happy to have it there.  Only DAYS after our engagement, I quickly called the church and set the date!  Though our date isn't exactly "set" until after our first meeting with the priest, if there are no other weddings on that date at that time, we are penciled in.  

So today was our first meeting with the Priest.  Fr. Tighe welcomed us in, and we were having a very successful first meeting.  Thank goodness!  As the meeting was coming to a close, Fr. Tighe was simply explaining the course of events that will happen between now and our wedding day, which he goes on to say that we will go through our calendar and set in our next meeting.  At that point I let him know that we have already booked our date with the N. Raleigh Hilton & that Connie (the receptionist) has confirmed it and penciled us in.  His face fell.

At that moment, he pulled out his blackberry just to see if she really had put us down for the date.  "No worries, he says, I'm sure there is nothing to worry about."

Ha!  Wrong!  

Not only had Connie not penciled us in for the date, but it is the date of ordination.  So I'm thinking Ok, so.  Father Tighe can't/won't be there, but he wasn't who I was planning on using anyway!

Then he goes on to say: "The Bishop has put a freeze on May 22nd for any weddings as all Priests in the Diocese are required to attend."

Ok. So not only can Fr. Tighe not officiate our wedding at St. Catherine's.  NO Catholic church or Catholic Priest in a three hour radius can hold our wedding.  Crap! Crap! Crap! CRAP!  Stupid Stupid Stupid receptionist!!!!!!

So we leave the meeting with Fr. Tighe explaining that both May 1st & May 29th are available and that we have first dibs on either of those dates & that he will hold them for us until we tell him which we want.  Uhm, that's all well & good except we have already booked the reception venue, booked the photographer & printed the save-the-dates!!

The whole way home (which is about a thirty minute drive) Jonathan & I are trying to strategize how we are going to inform my mother without giving her a heart attack.  We decided that this tactic did not exist.  

As I walked in my mom JOKINGLY asks "So is the wedding still on?"  and my only response was "Mom, breathe..."

I explain to her everything that happened and that we will just have to select a different church (Non-catholic) to have our wedding.  Her approach was a little different.  She wanted to change the date.  This is crazy.  So, in hopes of clearing all of our heads, Jonathan & I drove down six forks & stopped in EVERY church along our way to North Hills (we were finishing our registry today).  Every. Single. Church apologetically turned us away.  We had to be members.  Crap.

Well--Jonathan & I figured we'd forget about it all for a while & just finish out our registry before coming home to tackle the situation.  We had a very successful afternoon at Target.  We were agreeing very easily on almost every!  Despite the growing knot in our throats, it was a very pleasant afternoon.

Then we got home.  My mom was in the garage defrosting the freezer.  I greeted her, and she reassured us that she called Fr. Tighe to ask if we bring our own priest (from another state) if we could USE the church on the same date.  She was waiting for him to call her back.  THEN she shares her next idea.  She remembered that St. Francis is not run by the Diocese so there is a slight chance that they may not have to attend the ordination & do our wedding if the church is even still available!

So I go into the house and make the call immediately.  The wedding coordinator there was so cheerful (a giant leap from the woman I dealt with at St. Catherine's) and assured me that there would be NO problems about Jonathan being a non-cathlolic & us not being parishioners, etc.  So I told her our date and she starts with "Well, we already have a booked for that day at 11AM..." Crap "But we still have 1pm & 3pm available." YES!

So Miss Gladys walked me through all the registration process & has sent in our request to officially book the date (which she ASSURED me there would be no conflicts as she has already spoken to a friar about it).  So thank the Lord!  As my Aunt Jo Ann pointed out--today is the 12th (which is a special number in my family) and all things have to work out!  Very true!

So our wedding is on May 22, 2010 at 3pm at St. Francis of Assisi in Raleigh, NC.  This ends up working out even better because this is the exact church I wanted to get married in since I was a little girl.  This church also allows for later weddings (later that 1pm that is) which means we don't now have a 5 hour gap between our wedding & reception!! WOOHOO!!!!

In lieu of a registry: please make a donation to bail the bride & groom out of jail (oh, and their photographer)....

Hi everyone!  

I'm sorry that it's been so long since I've updated.  Things have been a little crazy lately, as summer usually is.  I ended up leaving my job leaving me unemployed for a month (and on the job hunt in a really bad economy), so that took up most of my time.  We also had our entire family in town for a few weeks for my nephew's first birthday party & christening.  One of my childhood best friends also got married that weekend--and it was really wonderful to see my old group of girls again. 

As for wedding planning.  It has gotten to that point where it's actually time to start really "doing" things rather than just talking about them.  My mom came to me with a list of things that have to be done and dates in which they have to be done by.  not to mention their "budget."  needless to say I had a little bit of a freak out.  I'm thankful for my mother who has the "planning" gene as well as her overwhelming "calming" abilities.  Either way, it is still really hard to swallow that everything has to some how get done by a certain date.  It's hard for me not to think of May 22, 2010 as D-Day.  I have to keep reminding myself not to wish this time away.  I waited my whole life to be engaged...I need to remember to enjoy and savor it.  It'll be over before I know it.  Right?

Our first minor hiccough was ordering our wedding bands.  J & I went into Kay just to look, and we both ended up finding rings that we wanted--so we ordered them.  When they were delivered, my ring wasn't right.  It came back as an oval rather than a circle due to a sizing mis-hap.  I went in to find out what my options were.  The salesman let me know what I could do.  He also showed me some other rings in case I wanted to consider a whole new band all together.  I ended up finding a wedding band insert that resembles my mother's.  With the help of Kelly (my maid of honor) it didn't take long to decide to simply exchange the ring.  Problem solved.  All i had to do was let Jonathan know it was about $120 more than the original ring.  no biggie ;)

The next episode is a little bit scarier, as well as a bit funnier.  

On July 19th, Jonathan & I had our engagement photo shoot with Nancy Ray.  We decided to head to Millbrook High School to just take the photos around the outside of campus since we couldn't really think of anywhere else in Raleigh that held any kind of sentimental value to us.  When we got to the school, we decided to first walk around and check out a few places to take pictures.  When we walked past the front doors, we of course tried them to see if we were lucky and if any of the doors were open.  They were.  Score!

We wandered inside and got about an hour's worth of AMAZING photos!  It was so much fun to explore our old stomping ground which has now been transformed into a beautiful new school with bits and pieces that are still the same.  Nancy got to capture our love on film in the hallways where we fell in love.  Priceless.  

Well...almost.  As we were about to leave, we saw that there was a police officer over by our vehicles, so we of course ran out thinking we were getting ticketed.  Ha--we wish!

When we exited the building we, were greeted by several police cars, several police officers and a security guard.  And wait for it.... the High School's alarm going off.  uh. oohhhh...

The officers were upset, to say the least, and explained to us that we had committed an arrest-able offense and that we could serve some serious jail time.  oh. my. gosh.

After the officers searched the building, they discovered that our feeble attempts to convince them that all we were doing was taking photographs were in fact true.  They decided to let us off with a very stern warning.  thank god!  For another perspective on this story, see nancy's blog.

Jonathan & I will be registering on August 8th at Bed Bath & Beyond & Macy*s. 

Jonathan & I have our first meeting with the priest on August 12th 

I will be ordering my wedding dress on August 15th

Our engagement party will be on Sept 12th (if we ever get the invites out) :)

My girls will be ordering their dresses by nov 12th

I'll keep you all posted :)  

Fall Into Perfection :)

I'm happy to say that plans are swimming along wonderfully.  We have moved the date to May 22, 2010.  This date leaves us some breathing time between Jonathan's Grad School semester & the wedding allowing us to go on our honeymoon directly after the wedding.  Who wants to wait a month or two to go on their honeymoon, anyway!?  

The church has been booked and our first meeting with the priest has been set for July 22nd.  

Yesterday Mom, Kelly & I drove out to Burlington to the Bridal Mart.  I tried on a few dresses that were nice dresses.  None of them, however, felt like my "WEDDING DRESS."  After taking the dresses off, I was somewhat discouraged.  There was one still hanging in my little dressing nook, but I really contemplated even trying it on because it didn't look like what I was looking for.  Alas, I tried it on anyway.  There were no mirrors back in the dressing part of the store, so Kelly & I wandered out to the big mirror where my mother was sitting.  Much to my surprise, the dress was perfect!  I can't believe how real the wedding is starting to feel now!  All the little details are starting to fall into place and everything is being set into motion!  We're Getting Married!

Today, we had a meeting set with Ana, the event coordinator at The North Raleigh Hilton.  Mom & I went over to the hotel & met Jonathan and his mom there (yes, Ms. Hodges decided to come).  Again, much to my surprise, everything went very smoothly.  The venue is beautiful & accommodating.  Towards the end of the meeting, Ms. Hodges borrowed me for a few minutes and took me into the little library where she gave me a very tearful apology.  She apologized for the way she's made me feel over the past six years, and she welcomed me into their family.  After we chatted, we went back out into the lobby area where Jonathan & my mom were, and she gave my mother an apology as well.  Courageous, if you ask me.  Heres to new beginnings and moving forward!  

Pieces are falling and they are landing perfectly :)  

XOXO

Mommy to the rescue

I think we've overcome the date issue.  I never realized how difficult it would be to choreograph people, places, etc.  We made a few calls & have found that our church, a few venues of choice & families all work out on a particular date!  There is nothing more relieving than that!  

So far our first choice for a reception venue is The Renaissance in North Hills.  They offer all inclusive packages that keep the stress level low & the money reasonable.  Plus it's beautiful!  I like the idea that if our guests stay there that it's close to my parent's house and there is lots to do within walking distance ( movies, restaurants, coffee, shops, etc...).  

Other venues we are considering are a couple of the Hiltons & Brier Creek Country Club.  We will be setting up tours for all of these places and will be making a solid decision here in the next little while.  

I have already designed our wedding favors.  I just have to go in and change the date on those (thank GOD I didn't bite the bullet this weekend & go ahead and order them!)

I have also already chosen part of my bridesmaids' gifts & will be ordering those soon, too.

The List... Oh the list.  I think this has potential to be the most stressful part of our wedding.  I have a million people in my family.  Well, a million may be a slight exaggeration, but I do have lots of family.  Getting the guest list to a solid 150 is going to be VERY difficult.  Between my family, Jonathan's family & friends we could easily exceed the alloted 150.  Peoples feelings will be hurt, and I'll have to be the one to hurt them.  I hate that.  I just have to remember that we cannot please everyone.  

As for everything else, I think it will all work out nicely.  

I'm not doing anything lavish.  I want simplicity.  I also want everything to mean something.  So as for our center pieces, decor, etc, we are being practical.  I'm not a huge flower plan so that will all be done sparingly. 

I have a photographer who I am very excited to be working with.  I'm not certain she is available on our wedding date yet (as it has just changed) but I am at least using her for our engagement session.  She is super talented & just seems amazing!  Check out her site!  www.nancyrayphotography.com  Lemme know what you think.  Her photographs are beautiful, aren't they!?  

So things to still really tackle:

the list

venue tours

meeting with priest 

engaged encounter courses through church

DJ

cake

transportation

deciding on honeymoon destination

etc etc etc

until next time!

XOXO