whirlwind wedding planning

I had barely any time to regroup after we returned from the bachelorette weekend. I just unpacked and then repacked, set my alarm for much too early, and poured myself into bed ready to leave again the next morning. This time I was heading south.

Both my mom and I arrived in South Carolina on Tuesday morning. We grabbed lunch and then met my sister at her new apartment with her new dog, Gemma. We kept that sweet sweet dog company while my sister headed back to work for a bit and then we spent the rest of day catching up and relaxing before heading to bed early. We wanted to be well rested since we had a mighty full day of checking things off the very long wedding planning list ahead of us.
My sister is a teacher and had to go in for most of the day Wednesday, so after we dropped her off at school we headed to our first appointment. Wedding planning from out of state (I'm in one state, T.J. is in a different world, my parents are in a third state, and the wedding is in South Carolina)  has been mostly smooth thanks in a big part to the dream team of vendors we're working with. Until now though, all our communications and planning has been on skype, or through email so I was really excited to meet everyone in person.

I was also really excited to visit the church especially because, while I've attended it for a Sunday service with my sister before, I've never looked at it through my bride-to-be-lenses. It was our first stop of the day and we were joined by our wedding planner and the florist. It was so weird and exciting to be standing at the front of the church where in just 136 days T.J. and will be standing and saying our vows. Our contact at the church showed us the room where I would wait anxiously with my bridesmaids and my parents before walking down the aisle. We admired the pretty double doors that opened down the center aisle and I pretty much just floated around the space, picturing our big day.  It's definitely starting to feel much more real.

I had to break out of my daydreaming to make some decisions about flowers for the church, and we also figured out a really cool feature for the alter, and
 then we were on our way to the reception venue.  There we figured out the flow of the event, and how everything would layout best in the space, which is basically a beautiful blank canvas. From the cocktail hour to dinner to dancing, I am really excited about seeing it all come together. Our wonderful planner and florist also came to this meeting and took measurements and made suggestions and answered my questions, basically they're fairy godmothers because everything seems so much clearer and prettier than it did when I was trying to puzzle it together in my head and on Pinterest.
(Above is just a sneak peek at a piece of the church and the reception venue to tease you with...)

A break for lunch, and a large sweet tea, was quite necessary at that point. My mom and I sat down to get re-energized and to rehash everything we'd decided on that morning.  But we quickly dove back into it, picking out tablecloths and linens and figuring out rentals which was a lot of quick decisions (not always my strong suit) but surprisingly easy I'm pleased to say. Let's just say I like what I like. 
We parted ways with the planner and left her to figure out the quantities of what we'd need and to sort out the contract. Mom and I then headed to pick up sister from her school. She did not want to miss out on our next appointment, the cake tasting. This was actually a much more difficult choice than I expected because there were about a zillion combinations of buttercream, cake, and filling. We tried as many options as our teeth would allow, it's a hard job but someone's got to do it.  
And after all that... we sugar crashed. We slipped into yoga pants, ordered take out for dinner and settled in for the night. And so concludes day one of "on location" wedding planning. A lot of decisions made, a lot of fabric swatches, and cake samples, and twinkle lights.

Figuring out how to blog about wedding planning without giving away all the fun details is a little tricky but I want to give you a snippet of what we're up to and record this fun time for posterity so bear with me and my vagueness.

Comments

  1. Well let me just say that those venues looks amazing and that had to be so much fun tasting all those cakes!

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  2. Kathy's Cakes? She did our cake and our guests are still talking about how delicious it was! We couldn't decide on one flavor, so all of our layers were so different! LOVE hearing about your Greenville wedding! Makes me miss home! :)

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  3. how did you decide the wedding would be in South Carolina?

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    1. T.J. is from there and we both went to college in that town. Also my sister lives there and since we've moved around a lot it feels homey to me. I'm excited to show it off for our out of town guests, it's such a great little town!

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  4. It was a whirlwind! But fun, and now I'm really getting excited : )

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  5. I know I am anticipating the big day and finally seeing it all come together, and love that your are letting us peek in as you and your family (and TJ) make your decisions and leave us wanting more!! :)

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