Bengals Season Starts

And Wedding Planning Ends (for the time being).

Dresses Ordered!

All bridesmaid dresses ordered! Should be in by Thanksgiving!

Here's the bridesmaid dress (although it's a terrible picture of this lady sitting down!). It's a short A-line dress.
http://simpledress.com/classics.php?id=2&page=aline

We're ordering it in "Watermelon" with an embroidered sash. Click here to see the color and the sashes together (just on the wrong dress):
http://simpledress.com/accessories.php?id=2&page=longsash

More Registering....

More registering….this time at Kohl’s. How are we going to choose between all this stuff???

Visited Dress Shop

Used my work trip to New York as an excuse to visit the studio where I ordered my bridesmaids dresses from – Simple Silhouettes! We found the little shop and had to ride an elevator that said “Two People in the Elevator at one time….or else you WILL GET STUCK!” But the elevator door opened to a colorful studio where I even got to try on some dresses and take some pictures with my co-worker, Yvonne.

Sent the Save the Dates Out!

Bridesmaid Dresses Finalized

Jayme & I went back to Carrie Karibo’s shop to take another look at the bridesmaid dresses. We decided on the dress and the sash to go with it. Sent out detailed instructions to the bridesmaids about ordering.

Put Deposit Down on Florist!

Busy Wedding Weekend

A busy wedding weekend…we drove to Dayton on Saturday to get my engagement ring fixed after the electrocution incident and decided to pick out our wedding rings. Brian (of course) picked out a plain “comfort” ring, while I decided to use my Grandma’s wedding ring in my design.

We also went to Men’s Warehouse to pick out tuxes- took 15 minutes flat. Much easier than dress shopping! And finally, did some more registering. Who knew a washcloth at Macy’s would cost $22!?!

Continued the wedding weekend theme on Sunday as we finalized the guest list and wedding budget today. We met with the priest who will be marrying us, Ft. Kiff, who was Brian’s old highschool teacher. We also took the controversial “Save the Date” picture by the pool. Did we really jump in? Or didn’t we?

Started Registering

Brian & I went out on a “date” to start registering at Bed, Bath, and Beyond. Once again, a wedding process that is completely overwhelming to decide what items you’re going to want people to buy you in 9 months for a house you don’t have yet. But Brian & I had fun and he even let me register for the big silver colander!

Family Visits for Some Wedding Shopping

Mom, Aunt Karen, Meghan, and Janel drove down from Avon for some serious wedding planning before they headed back to Seattle. While they probably thought I was a little crazy, I had to get the most out of their visit, so they could help with the important wedding details of the dress, the bridesmaids, and the CAKE! To get an idea of my insane plans, here’s our itinerary for the weekend! Very productive…

CINCINNATI VISIT – ITINERARY

Thursday, July 19th
· Visit 20th Century (bring camera, measuring tape, & notebook)
· 2:00pm – David’s Bridal appointment by Kenwood
· Wendy’s Bridal in Kenwood until 8pm (no appointment needed)
· Visit Hotels at Phieffer road exit for guests

Friday, July 20th
· Bridal District in Reading
o Bridal & Formal (300 W. Benson – 821-6622)
o Cincinnati Bride (301 W. Benson - 10am-5:30pm - 761-7750)
o Benson Street Bridal (8901 Reading – 10am-6pm – 821-6250)
o Patricia’s Cake (samples daily from 10-5pm)

Saturday, July 21st
· Cake tastings
o Bonomini (Saturday before noon - sample set out) 1677 Blue Rock, Northside
o Take the Cake (Saturday at 12:30pm) Hamilton, Northside (241-2772)

Sunday, July 22nd
· 11am - Bridalrama (Duke Energy Center) - Bridal and Formal fashion shows at 12:30

I found my dress the first day of searching! I tried on a billion dresses, all of them pretty. But I just kept coming back to this one at Wendy’s Bridal in Kenwood. In all honesty, I was probably just ready to be done with the whole process! The first bridal store we went into I felt like fainting just looking at all the overwhelming dresses. But by the end, I was so wore out, that I just wanted someone to pick out a dress for me!

This is NOT my dress, but just a fun picture of me trying on dresses (mom took a ton!):


On Friday, we visited the infamous “Bridal District” for some more dress shopping. I ended up liking a very different dress than I ever would have thought, but the trumpet dresses looked flattering on. One of our favorite memories was when we walked into “European Bridal” and asked for trumpet dresses within my price range. The lady looked at me like I was crazy- “I’m sorry, how much? You mean you’re actually finding wedding dresses for that price???” Needless to say, we didn’t stay in that store for long.

Jayme, Kate, & Janel- Taking a break for lunch after some Wedding Dress shopping:


Right as I was about to throw in the towel, we walked into “Carrie Karibo Bridesmaids” where we found a number of great bridesmaids dresses that weren’t your typical ugly dresses that no one wears again. Meghan, Janel, and Jayme modeled a lot of dresses and we picked out the short A-line style in “Watermelon.”

On Saturday, we went back to Wendy’s Bridal again to confirm that my favorite dress was for me. I went ahead and bought it…and the veil to go with it. What a purchase! We also went to a couple bakeries for a couple cake tastings. Our favorite by far was “Take the Cake” in Northside. Delicious!!



And here's us after a long day of wedding planning! So tired....

No Turning Back Now...

Made our final decision to go with 20th Century, so we met them to work out the final details and put down a deposit. Yikes! There’s no going back now….money has been paid!

Church Switch

After considering some additional logistics, we decided to get married at St. Cecilia’s in Oakley instead of Christ the King. This would allow us to start the ceremony earlier and would put us 0.2 miles from 20th Century. We really like that St. Cecilia looks like an old European church- perfect for us!

Our Love is Electrifying!

While getting ready one morning, I got a bit of a “shock” to my system when I went to plug in a hairdryer and got electrocuted! Turns out the cord had exposed wired and when I plugged it in, my engagement ring acted as the conductor to cause a serious spark! I quickly ran to the sink to cool my hand, but when I saw my ring was damaged, the tears started falling. I couldn’t believe my luck…after being engaged for only 2 weeks, I managed to damage my engagement ring! Thank goodness we already sent in the papers to have it insured! Guess it could have been worse and I was very lucky to be alive.

One Last Reception Visit

One more Reception site visit- to the Radisson in Covington, KY (the one with the revolving restaurant). We figure we will have checked out a cheaper option (The Benchmark), and traditional option at a hotel (the Radisson), and 20th Century. It was a really nice hotel and ballroom. It would have been nice for our out-of-town guests, but we would want to rent a shuttle to get our friends back to the Hyde Park area. It had the typical “wedding reception” feel ,but just wasn’t us.

Second Reception Visit

Brian & I met during our lunch break to visit “The Benchmark” in Covington, KY. It was more within our budget, but the location wasn’t the best.
I’ve also priced out the following sites: Receptions, The Phoenix, The Madison, The Cincinnati Club, Cincinnati Museum Center at Union Terminal. RSVP, Drees Pavilion, Paul Brown Stadium, Hilton, Cincinnati RiverCenter. At least we’re doing our due diligence, but we keep coming back to 20th Century. It’s just so perfect! Close to our friends, great atmosphere, affordable, close to the church, and on and on…

Meet the Priest!

Brian & I met with the priest at Christ the King (the original church we wanted to get married in). We were a little nervous and didn't know what to expect, but Ft. O was nice to take us through the process. We even got a bubble test and essay questions to work on at home! This marriage thing is scary....

First Reception Site Visit

After work on Friday, we stopped in for our first reception site visit at 20th Century Theater in Oakley. This is a place Brian & I both brought up as a good idea for our reception site, so we knew we had to check it out. We didn't realize how much we would love it! The owner, Mark, was so cool. We could tell he had our same idea of just wanting to insure our wedding was a great party. We didn't want to seem too eager, but the place just fit our personalities perfectly.

We'll need to look into some other places first before we make a final decision. I've been getting information emailed to me from all over and there are a lot of EXPENSIVE options.

Engagement Party

Lisa & Eric had us over for a little engagement party to celebrate. So nice of them! They broke out their wedding video and we all started talking about plans. Once again, I haven't quite gotten used to all this wedding talk. I'm still getting used to being engaged.

The Reception Search

Brian & I have our first official wedding "meeting" to talk about church and reception locations. So overwhelming to try to find a nice, but cost efficient reception location that fits our personality. After some serious searching, we had our first official ban on all wedding talk for the night.

Brian Proposed!

It finally happened! It was so surreal, almost like an out-of-body experience. We're both so excited. Even at our dinner to celebrate, Brian started asking about wedding plans. Felt weird to be actually talking about it. Just can't believe it!