July 20, 2006

Well it's about time!  We've returned from our grand wedding-planning trip to KC.  My parents' checkbook is much slimmer and my BFWB is a lot thicker, but (would you believe it?) we have seriously taken care of almost everything for the wedding!  We're not quite ready to sit back and relax until the end of May, but we're pretty close!

Photography

Almost as soon as we got to Kansas City we met with Kristy Cummings, one of the photographers I was considering for the wedding.  We met at the Starbucks near our house and didn't have to look through her sample albums for more than five minutes before I KNEW...she was the one!  Mom still wanted to discuss silly things like rates and availability and talk it over with Dad, but I was immediately won over.  Here's a link to her website where you can see some of her work.  Her style is very intimate, very personable, which is just what I'm wanting--we don't want a bunch of stiff, posed, blank smiles.  That's not the way we are, and that's not the way our wedding should look, either.
Mom talked it over with Dad, and after looking at several other photographers' work and rates online we decided that Kristy Cummings really is both the best artist and the best value--a perfect match for us!  I called her at 11pm that evening and I think I woke her up, but she still let us book her for our wedding.  :-)  Already exhibiting the patience necessary for interacting with me.  :-P
I should say, though, that she wasn't the only photographer we considered, though she was the only one we seriously looked at.  I also considered Brian Lawliss photography and had a meeting scheduled with him for Friday, but after looking through all his online work we decided that his style is, erm, not exactly of the caliber that we're looking for.  The price was great--$500--but maybe that's all you can get for the money.  Suffice to say (even though it's not my money), I'm really glad we spent the extra money to get a photographer I'm really impressed with and comfortable with.  The third photographer I considered was Bixler Photography.  Their work is very well-known in the KC area, and it looks very nice, but the price seems pretty exorbitant and I'm not really "in love" with their style.

Tuxes!

Right after the Kristy Cummings meeting (yes, a scant two hours after we got to KC), we met up with Dad at Sir Knight's on Antioch to see about tuxedos for the men in my life.  The girl who helped us was really fun and friendly, and helped us find just what we were looking for.  We knew that Jeff wanted to wear a tux, and so did Chris and Luke.  We weren't sure what we'd do for Dad and Bob, so went in with an open mind on that matter.  What we ended up finding was a VERY snazzy tux style for Jeff and Chris, with a blue vest and tie for Jeff and champagne vest and black tie for Chris and the dads.  Both the dads expressed that they'd be more comfortable in their own suits rather than rented tuxes, so they're going to rent the shirts, vests, ties, and shoes, and wear their own black suits.  There's only one style of tux that Sir Knight's offers in kids' sizes so that's what Luke is getting, along with the blue vest and tie to match Jeff's.  All the men are going to wear ivory shirts to match my dress.  The great thing about the champagne vests is that they have champagne, ivory, silver, and black all in the pattern--they work with our color theme AND my dress!  I took some pics of the mannequin wearing Jeff's tux; hop on over to our Photos section to see it.  I'm going to contact all the other guys (or, in Luke's case, his parents) pretty soon to let them know about sending in their measurements.  It'll be a while yet before we need to worry about ordering them, though, so we're in no hurry to get the outfits sized and ordered!

Chocolate Fountains, Ahoy!
Bright and early the next morning Mom, Jeff and I drove out to Mission Hills to visit with Susie Simpson, owner of Chocolate Splurge.  She had samples ready for us and we got to dine on pretzels and pineapple dipped in milk and white chocolate as we discussed the different options for the chocolate fountains.  We ended up choosing a 25" fountain to be filled with milk chocolate, and a smaller 18" fountain of white chocolate (or maybe caramel; I keep going back and forth on that one).  Her price is $1.50/person to bring the dipping foods, and while that really does seem reasonable I think we can do it ourselves for much less.  She helped us calculate how much of what we'll need to buy, so now it's just a matter of filling up a few carts at Sam's Club in the days leading up to the wedding!  Her melted chocolate was DELICIOUS and I'm pretty sure you're going to have to bodily restrain me from sticking my entire face in the fountain at the reception.  :-)

Stars?  Please?  Stars?

One of the singularly most difficult quests we went on was the search for plastic glow-in-the-dark stars. After meeting with Chocolate Splurge we hopped on over to US Toy since it's in the same area.  I figured if there was anyplace I could get massive bulk quantities of glow in the dark stars it would be at US Toy.  Unfortunately, I was mistaken.  We found other great stuff--white frosty-looking gift bags for the out-of-town guest bags, little wand things for people who don't want to use real sparklers for the grand send-off,  and sparkly star garland to add to the centerpieces--but didn't get what we were really after.  I'd also searched online and come up empty-handed, as well as calling several other stores in advance.

Visiting the Wynbrick

We'd been planning on going to the Wynbrick to measure the windows and plot the arrangement of tables, but that fell through.  We still drove by, though, just so Dad and Jeff could see the outside of the place.  They both really like it, and hopefully some other time we can return to figure out the specific arrangement of things.  I'm quite excited about that part!

DJ!

The next afternoon we went out to Shawnee to meet with Steve, owner of KC Soundworks.  We all like him tremendously and he's just what we're looking for in a DJ.  I knew from the get-go that I didn't want some big ol' Emcee who would take over the show and embarrass everyone by forcing them to participate in group dances, get drunk and ramble on the mic, etc.  Steve isn't like that at all.  He's very funny yet very mellow.  We enjoyed talking with him about what songs to play when, what he'll do to get the crowd going, etc.  He's a real pro and had tons of ideas about what has and hasn't worked in the past.  He has devised a big sequence for the bouquet and garter toss which I'm sure will be a HUGE hit near the end of the reception.  I think Jeff plans on staying in communication with him with ideas about specific bands or songs we'd like played at some point--the whole DJ thing is really Jeff's deal, and I'm glad--he's much better at that stuff than I am.  Anyway, we booked Soundworks and that's another thing to check off the list!
Since we were in the area anyway, we succumbed to the urge to have lunch at Mr. Gyros.  We ordered seven Greek wedding cookies and took them home to play with an re-organize that night, playing around with how they'll sit on the tray.  Again, check the pictures section to see our ideas there.

Never-ending shopping

Saturday night Mom and I punished ourselves further and decided to make our Big Trip to Michael's.  We walked in, grabbed a cart, and started filling it with $400 worth of (among other things), crystal beads, beading wire, embossing tools, ribbons, silk rose petals, kids' activities, decorations, and who knows what else.  We went to two Michael's and they didn't have all the Swarovski crystal beads we'll need, so Mom is going to go back and buy more whenever they get them.  The same goes for the beading wire--we need a couple thousand yards of it, altogether.  I think working on those bouquets will be our project for the Saturday of the Monson family reunion; that'll keep us holed up in the hotel room, lol.
Mom and I are both very creative, patient, even obsessive people, and letting us loose in Michael's was great--we really let the ideas flow, with everything from handmade flower girl baskets to the perfect shades of ribbon for wrapping the bouquets!
After Michael's I was really ready to go home, but my feet were swollen from trotting around in my 3 1/2" wedge sandals all day and I knew it was really the perfect time to go shoe shopping.  We drove up to Zona Rosa and I lugged my train into DSW to start matching.  I'm actually surprised at how difficult it was to find shoes that were 1)cute, 2)comfortable and 3)matched my dress.  All the ivory shoes looked dirty next to my light ivory dress and all the white shoes looked grey.  That was seriously the hardest part--matching color.  There were only two or three pairs that looked good; of those, one wasn't available in my size and the other had a HUGE heel that I knew I could never walk, stand, and dance in for seven hours.  Luckily the third pair isn't just acceptable, they're FANTASTIC!  The hell is sort of low but not so low I'll have to stand on a stool to reach up and kiss Jeff, the color is a perfect match straight out of the box, and they're comfortable as all get-out!  I love them!  I left them in KC and will break them in there, but I really didn't want to leave them behind-- I want to wear them everyday!
As if shoe shopping and a $400 trip to Michael's wasn't enough for one day, we stopped by the Wal-Mart on Boardwalk to see if they had the glow in the dark stars we needed.  Miracle of miracles, they did!  We bought the lot--about 40 packs in all.  Each pack has 40 stars and we put about 12 in each favor box.  I still can't believe how cute it is!  A great idea; I'm so proud of Jeff for thinking of it!  After a quick dash to the OTHER Michael's across town for all the Swarovski crystals THEY had, we called it a night and collapsed at home.
That night Jeff and I put together 150 clear favor boxes, lined them with tissue paper and stuffed them with glow-in-the-dark stars.  We still need to print the tags and thread those onto the ribbons, so the boxes are currently ribbon-less and tag-less.  Hopefully that'll change on the next trip home!
Sunday was my day off.  I didn't even get dressed that day, and just took the opportunity to sit and relax with Jeff.  We ate a yummy home-made dinner, watched some movies, and enjoyed our only real day of "vacation".

Oh, The Things You'll Rent!

While in Kirksville I'd called several KC-area rental places to see about prices on the white wood folding chairs we'll need, as well as the possibility of renting glassware, silverware, and stemware.  I wasn't completely sold on the "real" stuff--I thought plastic would be a TON simpler and no one would really notice the difference.  We got to our meeting with KC Fiesta promptly at 11am.  The co-owner of the service was who I'd spoken with on the phone and, lo and behold, she was on the phone when we walked in the door.  As her scheduled 11am appointment I had hoped she'd be available for us to talk to, but instead we just got to sit awkwardly for ten minutes as she leisurely finished up her phone conversation, incorporating the word "shout" no less than 10 times.  After she got off the phone we talked for all of two minutes, when the phone rang again.  Again, she made no attempt to keep the conversation brief and again we sat awkwardly and waited for her to finish up.  This happened a few more times, and I was really started to get irritated.  Once she caught on that we didn't want to spend the day sitting and listening to her talk to other customers she started letting her voicemail pick up, but we were already left with a somewhat sour impression.  Their chairs and tableware are lovely and we are going to be renting from them, but I just wasn't impressed with her lack of professionalism--especially after how much money we were paying them.  As long as they give us what we ordered I don't suppose it's a huge problem, though.
After leaving that meeting and offering to give each other "shouts" the entire car ride back to home, we decided to stop by Party America and see about their prices on tableware.  We decided to go with disposable plates in a heavy-duty plastic--we bought half silver and half cobalt blue.  We also bought heavy-duty clear disposable forks.  After looking at the disposable wine glasses and coffee mugs we've decided to call KC Fiesta and add them to the rental agreement--the disposable wine glasses and such looked really cheap and flimsy.  I think it's worth the extra expense (about 10c apiece) to go with the real deal.  Still need to order our napkins and matchbooks, but that shouldn't be an issue, either.
After Party America we went to the Cards 'n' More going-out-of-business sale.  We had hoped to walk in and find everything we needed and loved, but left empty-handed.  They didn't look all that picked-over--tons of nice stuff leftover--but we still didn't have much luck.  The ring bearer's pillow has been a huge source of stress for me (Bridezilla, anyone?)--I can't seem to find any that mesh with my simple, streamlined, elegant tastes.  Every pillow I saw was huge and froofy, covered in lace and hearts.  I was really getting frustrated with this--I'd looked for pillows at Joann's, Michael's, bridal shops, online sources, Cards 'n' More, even Wal-Mart, and couldn't find any decent ones.  So Mom and I decided to make our own.
We dropped Jeff off at home (correctly figuring he wouldn't want to spend a couple hours in the fabric store with us) and set out for Joann's.  We bought half a yard apiece of an ivory silk (for the front) and an ivory polyester( for the back), 10 inches of an elegant beaded ribbon, a small brooch to attach the ribbons to, and a spool of narrow ivory ribbon.  We're going to make an envelope-style pillow just the way we want it--so there! :-P.  Mom has really been wanting something to make for the wedding, and this will be a great opportunity for her to do so.
Joann's was having a big sale on wedding stuff, and I found a very simple garter (my feelings on garters are pretty much like m feelings on ring bearer pillows), flower crowns for the flower girls and more cute little doo-dads for the flower girl and ring bearer activity bags.
We went to Wal-Mart after that, where we got more things for the activity bags, 300 more rose petals for only $6, and the canvas bags and decorations for the activity bags.
And so ended our Monday, aka Shopping Extravaganza Part II.

Victoria's Secret!

The last big part of my bridal ensemble is the requisite strapless bra.  I've had strapless bras in the past, always from Wal-Mart or Sears, and never any that were really very good.  I'd been dreading the strapless bra part of things, but figured for an occasion as special as my wedding I could hopefully find a better-looking strapless bra.  Of course, Victoria's Secret is the place to turn!  The salesgirl was really helpful and after trying on a few styles I found this one, which is undoubtedly the most comfortable bra I've ever owned, much less the most comfortable strapless bra.  I have TONS of Victoria's Secret lingerie and underwear (tmi?) but this was the first time I'd paid more attention to the fit than fashion.  I'm just glad my dress doesn't require one of those complicated strapless, backless contraptions.  I'd wear one if I had to, but I think strapless alone is enough of a difficulty!
After Victoria's Secret we went over to Deals and bought 30 bags of those squished glass marbles (for the centerpieces) and a few plastic tablecloths for the outdoor tables (we're going to have several tables inside near the music and some outside where it's quieter).
I thought after that we HAD to be done with wedding-related shopping and purchasing, at least for this trip to KC, but of course I was wrong...

Beautiful Little Flower Girls

Wednesday morning found me, Mom, Julie, Emily, and Olivia at the bridal shop on Antioch, trying on flower girl dresses (well, just Emily was trying on.  Everyone else was watching).  She tried on several that were really cute, but we finally came up with one that is PERFECT.  Best of all, darling Miss Emily actually WANTS a dress that's as poofy as possible!  We added not one but TWO layers of crinoline underneath in our quest to make the dress as poofy as possible.  The dress is just darling, and the style should be able to fit three of the four flower girls (Olivia is getting one in a similar style, altered to make it even more similar).  Mom says they'll be so cute no one will even be paying attention to me.  But hey, that's what I want.  Sort of.  My grandma won't REALLY not even notice me coming down the aisle, will she?  All I know is that the four of them are just going to be sickeningly adorable.  They go back to get measured in January and will order the dresses and shoes then.  Check out the photos section to see how Emily looks modeling the dress in the pink sample that they have in-shop.  We'll be ordering them in ivory, of course.

And finally...

Wedding Cakes, Part Deux

On the way out of town Wednesday afternoon we stopped by Aunt Judy's to say hi and discuss our progress.  I rather regret doing that now, though, because it ended up seeming like an intervention.  Aunt Judy wasn't impressed with the crystal bead bouquets and thinks we've bitten off more than we can chew, but she couldn't believe we weren't planning on having a cake (notice the use of the past tense there).  Mom and Jeff also ganged up on me (Uncle Gordon mercifully seemed fairly neutral, or at least quiet, on the matter).  So next time I'm home I get to go to Little Bit and see about ordering an...ugh...wedding cake.  I wouldn't be doing this at all if Jeff didn't want a cake, but since it's his wedding too then we'll do what he wants.  And that means...a cake.  Oh well, there are worse things that I could have to do, right?  I'm sure it'll all be OK.  And I still get my Greek wedding cookies in a pretty arrangement, it'll just be next to a wedding cake.  My only request is that the cake have either chocolate or raspberry incorporated in some way.  White cake is so boring.

I can't believe it; I've just either written the world's longest wedding blog entry or one of the shorter narrative novels in existence.  Either way it's quite an accomplishment.  So was all the errands and meetings and shopping that we did over those six days.  Now the only big things we need to worry about is the cake and the stationery...I'll save stationery discussion for another entry after my fingers have a chance to rest and recover from all this typing.

--Katie

July 12, 2006

Call me crazy, but I'm not especially looking forward to the myriad of appointments we have tomorrow and Friday.  I'm glad we'll finally have all of the "major" points hammered out, but driving around Kansas City (from Shawnee Mission to Liberty and back!) all day for two days won't exactly be a picnic.  Maybe I'll figure out a fun way to amuse myself.  Personalized t-shirts for Jeff, me and Mom, emblazoned with a witty saying ("Mission:  Hire a bazillion vendors")?  Nah.  Maybe I'll adopt an inexplicable British accent and see if anyone thinks to ask why I'm British and my mother is American.  Or maybe I'll pull Dave Foley's "I'm sorry I assure you I speak absolutely no English" bit and insist on using nothing but my fractured Spanish.  Wait...I want these vendors to WANT to work for me...perhaps I'd best just suck it up and play nice.

I just called all our potential vendors and verified their availability for May 25th; I did that so if they got a firm commitment from anyone else for that day we wouldn't all be wasting our time w/ meetings that could lead nowhere.  I don't know if I either 1)needn't have worried or 2)did the smart thing by verifying it, but either way, everyone is still free.  I now have EIGHT meetings for the four days I'm home.  What fun! lol.  Methinks that while we're out running around we'll HAVE to stop by Mr. Gyro's and "sample" some Greek Wedding Cookies and baklava.  Just to make sure they're still up to par, you know.  Call me a stickler for detail, but I'm actually quite concerned about the integrity of the cookies.  Maybe I'd better sample two or three to make sure the first wasn't just a fluke.  :-)

I'm going to make by-the-minute schedules for Mom, Dad, and Jeff so we all know when we're doing things.  I hate to have to schedule everything so precisely, but if we want the wedding to go off well we've gotta make sure everything gets done.  Heck, maybe all this organization will carry over to next semester and I won't procrastinate so much on papers and assignments!  Naaahhhh...

Had a good long talk with Katie (W.) recently.  I really don't want to be an unnecessary burden to her at all and DON'T want to seem so demanding (I can be demanding to those who are required to love me unconditionally, however! lol), so I told her as far as her dress is concerned she can pretty much do what she wants--I only ask that it be blue and preferably be tea-length.  If we can find the time when she's not working and I'm not in some meeting or another, we're going to go look at some.  I know how overpriced most bridesmaid's dresses are so I told Katie that it's absolutely fine with me if we find an off-the-rack nice-but-not-officially-bridesmaid dress for her.  After all, why pay $200 when it's so completely unnecessary?

I kind of go through wedding planning "spurts."  I suppose part of that has to do with me being halfway across the state from where the wedding will be, and part is because the wedding is still the better part of a year away.  But I'll go for several days at a time where I THINK about the wedding but don't do much, then several days where it's a whirlwind of wedding-related phone calls, plans, activities.  Fun! lol.
 

--Katie

July 9, 2006

Again it's been several days since I posted an entry, this time because I've been reading the Etiquette Hell site, obsessing over every detail of the wedding planning so far in constant fear that I'm unknowingly committing some horrible faux pas, and eventually spending my hours curled in the fetal position on my sofa, clutching my BFWB and vividly imagining every possible thing that could go wrong.  All this, and the wedding is still 10 MONTHS AWAY.  There's no way my behavior is healthy.  No.  Way.

But exaggerations aside, I truly am worrying about details of the wedding I couldn't possibly hope to control.  I was just reading the "Guests from Hell" section of the page, so now in my mind every guest intends to show up in jeans and t-shirts, get too drunk and offend hapless relatives.  Hundreds of people are, at this very moment, gossiping behind my back about the sheer tackiness of the wedding site, how horrible a dessert and dancing reception will be and how arrogant we are to add items such as fine china and nice cookware to our registry.  I can sense the gleams in the eyes of every guest who intends to deliberately not return the RSVP card, or to do so with several uninvited guests apiece.  Vendors are penciling in our wedding on their schedules with no intention to show up and provide their services on the big day.  In short, I'm really freaking out for no reason whatsoever.

I don't know what brought about all these outlandish and (most likely) completely unfounded thoughts and fears; the only thing I can think of to blame is Etiquette Hell.  I mean no disrespect at all to ANY of our guests, and part of me knows that none of our guests or vendors or relatives would ever dream of committing the atrocities I've been reading about for the past few days.  But I've always been a worst-case-scenario type of person with an unreasonably-vivid imagination, so I'm having no trouble whatsoever imagining every possible disaster occurring.  So now in my mind I'm picturing all our dearest friends and relatives in the worst possible light, a completely illogical process that I am completely aware will come to no good ends.  I'm not helping anything at all by worrying about things that won't happen and that I can't control, and am only embarrassing myself in the process.  I might as well be worrying that a meteor will drop from the sky and land directly upon the wedding party, or that Jeff will wake up tomorrow and run away from this crazy lady he asked to marry.

It would also do me good to recall that I'm not some uncouth hick, I do have a basic grasp of etiquette and the support of others who possess the same, and, most importantly, I am aware of the importance of avoiding any great breach of etiquette.  I really have no business worrying that all my wedding plans are horribly tacky and improper; truthfully, I doubt I could be so improper even if I tried.  I'm no Emily Post, but I know the basics to avoid--mentioning gifts in the invites, ignoring guests at the reception, putting unreasonable requests on those who are kindly helping us pull this wedding together, etc.  I think.

I'll end this by saying to everyone reading this that I am really, truly sorry that for the past few days I have been imagining you evilly plotting to ruin my and Jeff's special day in a myriad of ways.  The sensible part of my brain (yeah, it's still in there somewhere) realizes the sheer stupidity of these completely illogical obsessions, and I sincerely promise to do my best to banish these horrid, unreasonable thoughts from my mind and restore you all to the positive light in which I always view you. 

I'm going to make a mantra:  "I must not obsess over completely improbable misdeeds and complete disregard for etiquette... I must not obsess over completely improbable misdeeds and complete disregard for etiquette... I must not obsess over completely improbable misdeeds and complete disregard for etiquette..."
 

--Katie

It's been quite a while since I updated this; Jeff and I were in St. Louis for the weekend of the 4th.  But of course with 10 months to go until our wedding, we spent a good deal of our "relaxing weekend" working on wedding stuff!

Probably our biggest achievement was figuring out the wording for the invitations, announcements, newspaper announcements, rehearsal dinner invitations, response cards and day-after brunch inserts.  I wish I could take credit for all of that, but credit definitely goes to Linda--she did pretty much the whole thing!  She used to do it for a living so it was pretty easy (or at least it looked pretty easy) for her to figure ours out.  I had been fretting about the wording since we started planning the wedding, but Linda got me straightened out pretty quickly and we're both very happy with the end result!  I won't post it all on here (gotta leave some surprises for the guests, as Mom says), but I think she did a really great job; I can't wait until we get the stationary printed so I can see the finished product!

Last Monday (the 3rd) we ran around doing more wedding stuff.  First stop was Neustadter's, the jeweler where Jeff got my engagement ring back in October.  After getting my ring cleaned and inspected (it's still in great shape, and the lady who helped us--who I later learned was the owner--complimented me on the stone; of course, I deserve no credit for it!) we shopped more seriously for our wedding rings.  I kind of like the idea of a simple design with several diamonds in a row, set in a white gold band to match that of my engagement ring.  After looking at several other contenders I finally discovered the perfect one.  It's got Hearts on Fire diamonds (which are apparently special, though they don't look any better than high-quality "regular" diamonds) in a .25-carat total weight, set in 14k white gold.  Looks great next to my engagement ring, and gives me that "stacked ring" look without having gold halfway up my finger.  Plus, the smaller diamonds in the wedding band accent my engagement ring's solitaire, and the solitaire accents the wedding band's diamonds--a win-win situation!

After Neustadter's we went to Bed Bath and Beyond to round out our wedding registry a bit--we hadn't registered for any fine china, flatware, or stemware, so one of the registry experts there helped us choose the perfect table settings--perfect for all those fancy dinner parties we're going to have here in our tiny apartment! lol.  Here's a link to the pattern we chose, it's called Crestwood Cobalt Platinum by Noritake and, like I said, it's on our Bed Bath and Beyond registry.  We'd initially been hesitant to register for fine china since we didn't figure we'd have much of a use for it, but I've since realized that 1)I love to entertain, 2)we won't be living in a tiny apartment in Kirksville forever and 3)better to receive this stuff as gifts now than to have to pay for it later!  I also love the flatware (yes I know it's a popular pattern but it looks lovely with the china!) and the stemware (notice how the top turns out a bit in the same way the china's teacup does? Yeah I did that on purpose).  Isn't it all pretty and elegant?  Oh, and here's a link to our everyday china--it's very different than the fine china, but I love how contemporary and bold it is!, the everyday drinkware and the everyday flatware (which is found on the JC Penney registry).


While adding to our registry we decided to update both the Bed Bath and Beyond one and the JC Penney one; when we created them we filled both registries with silly things just to amuse our friends who happened to view the registries; now we're re-working them to include (mainly) things we actually NEED (or really really want).  Our Bed Bath and Beyond registry is the "main" one, with almost all of our kitchen stuff and of course the fine china and casual stuff.  Our casual flatware, kitchen electrics and bedding is all on the JC Penney registry.  Kind of haphazard, I know, but neither store had everything our hearts desire--but that's why you register at two places!

Still looking for the perfect comforter or duvet...I just can't find any that I absolutely love.

Also, while in St. Louis I found two dresses for wedding-related activities--a light blue/turquoise dress with eyelet flowers and a solid-white strapless dress with white sash; I think I'll wear the latter for the rehearsal dinner and the former for the day-after brunch or bridesmaids' luncheon or something.  I'm also toying with the idea of getting rid of the white sash on the white dress and wearing a brightly-colored belt or something instead--even if I'm looking bridal I want to have a bit of color in my life!

Oh!  I almost forgot one of the best things I found out while visiting the Hoops' in St. Louis--Luke is going to be our ring bearer!  I'm so glad he is going to be part of our wedding; it's just a shame I haven't had the opportunity to get to know him or his parents thus far--but if they're like the rest of Jeff's family I'm sure I'll love them!

I know I always say this, but this time I honestly think that most of the wedding planning is on hold until we're in KC next week (so soon?!).  So I suppose this is adieu for now, but check back again to see if I've written anything else fascinating or profound!

--Katie