It may not feel much like September outside - hellooooo, heat and humidity! But the kiddos are back to school, #PSL is back on the Starbucks menu, and we finally got to flip our kitchen calendar and stop staring at the stunned kitten that was the August page. It can only mean one thing: September is here.

Yeah, I went school supply shopping. Never mind the fact I haven't been in school in 10+ years.

Nestled in between a few innocent emails from friends and family I spotted the E-MAIL SUBJECT LINE OF IMPENDING DOOM. "6 Months To Go!"

No matter how you look at it, six months is a horrible amount of time. Looking at October 17 as a looming deadline, the whole-grain Mini-Wheat planner side of me says "six months is going to fly by. October 17 is not that far away". The fun, frosted Mini-Wheat Amy says, "Burning in hell for six months feels like a pretty effing long time and the next half year of my life is going to kill me."

Let's get some perspective on this situation:

Ceremony location-confirmed/booked
Reception location-confirmed/booked
Photographer-confirmed/booked
Music for ceremony-needs to be done
DJ for reception-needs to be done
My dress-hanging in my closet
Bridesmaids' dresses-en route from J Crew
Tuxes-not ordered
Flowers-no clue
Food-not chosen
Guest list-draft is done; not final
Invitations-have started working on designs
Rings-still don't know if we'll buy new bands or have our existing bands engraved
Engagement photos-not done
Engagement announcement-not done
Colour scheme-picked
Centrepieces and decorations-idea list is growing

Thanks, TheKnot.com, for throwing me into a flap and effing up my TGIF mojo.

This weekend, H2B and I went to meet with our minister for the wedding. It was a good meeting, minus the fact that I was holding back projectile vomit* the whole time. Our minister has some pretty interesting ideas in terms of conducting the service, a huge relief because I'm not a big fan of a supertraditional wedding ceremony. For example, he doesn't say things like "Who gives this woman to be married to this man?" or "I now pronounce you man and wife" or "You may kiss the bride"...he's very big on this being a joining of two equal people. However, he gave us lots of things to think about that to be quite honest, I hadn't even considered, because TheKnot.com and WeddingBells.com and other planning sites/magazines don't really go into those details. Things like:

-choosing the readings for the service
-deciding whether anybody else will be participating in the service
-how will our parents be involved?
-what order will the processional happen...i.e. will the groomsmen come in first, then the bridesmaids, or will they come down the aisle in pairs and then split up at the altar?
-what music will be played?
-what time will the wedding happen?

These seem like such obvious questions and I can't believe we hadn't considered them beforehand. It's a little freaky to me that there are just SO MANY details to remember and keep straight, and I've been so caught up in the centrepieces and dresses and things I've really neglected the more practical to-dos that need to happen.

Right now we are tentatively thinking of having the service at 4:00 and dinner at 6:00. That gives us about an hour and a half for pictures and changing the room around, which sounds just about right.

I can't wait to get these details straightened out so we can move on to fun stuff, like engagement photos and invitations. I think we might try to nail down some of the un-fun deets this weekend. It feels like forever away but it's just 215 days! Crazy. We've been doing really well putting money away for it...I think I've saved $1,300 since January and I'm not sure what H2B has put away but it's at least that much, so paying for this sucker shouldn't be a problem.

In unrelated news, I should be getting roughly $650 back on my income tax return...sweeeeeeeeeeeeet!


*I threw up ALL DAY Sunday. So gross. It includes barfing into an empty ice cream container in the car during the drive back to Halifax and practically tearing the door off the men's handicapped washroom outside the minister's office to woof my cookies all over the one (thankfully!) empty stall.

I logged in to my marthastewart.com wedding planning page today and realized that in 230 days, I'm going to be married. That seems like a long time, but it's less than eight months! Let the freaking out commence.

Here's the budget I created, with much help from e-Martha:



1. Food and beverages piss me off the most about that budget. I'm frustrated that I'm looking at spending four thousand dollars wining and dining a bunch of relatives who probably wouldn't spring for a coffee at Tim Horton's for me. We are looking at ways to trim those costs without being cheapskates--lunch vs. dinner, one buffet option vs. three, and so on. Obviously, we aren't having an open bar--we're thinking of placing a couple bottles of wine or champagne on the tables or designating a signature cocktail, hooking everybody up with one drink, and then making it a cash bar for the rest of the night. I have some serious alcoholics in my family that would literally rack up hundreds of dollars EACH in booze, easy.

2. We plan on paying for our bridesmaids' dresses and groomsmen's tuxedo rentals. As we see it, we invited people to be in our wedding; why should we make them pay for outfits they'll never wear again? I've been checking out J Crew a lot for bridesmaids' dresses, as well as Alfred Angelo. I'd like to choose something people would be able to wear again to another formal event, not something super prommish.









I think if I pick one of the brown shades I'll opt for nice bright, bold flowers, like an all-red bouquet. If I go for red, the flowers can be a little more muted. The more I look at these pictures the more I like the brown dresses, actually.

3. Our flower estimates are pretty conservative because I'm not paying a florist :) The plan is to get flowers from Superstore--big bouquets--and put them together with my mom that morning.

4. For centrepieces, we'll likely do candles in glass canisters, fall leaves, and baby pumpkins/gourds. I know how it's easy to go overboard with table decorations and we want to make sure things are pretty and festive, yet simple. Glass vases can be picked up pretty cheaply at stores like JYSK or even the dollar store. My mom grows Chinese lanterns. Farmer Clem's is great for baby pumpkins, both orange and white. I think the table decorations should come together pretty easily and cost-effectively and will most likely be under budget.

5. H2B and I already have matching platinum bands that we wore even before we got engaged, just because. We might have them engraved on the inside rather than buying new rings.

6. For favours, we'll likely have big jars full of candy from the Bulk Barn so guests can help themselves. It'll be pretty easy to match the candy colours to our colour scheme (hello, JellyBelly!) Plus, we both love Reese's Pieces best of all so those will be featured for sure!

I haven't chosen a colour scheme yet but I'm leaning pretty heavily toward a red/cranberry shade. The runner-up is a chocolate-brown or mocha shade.

We still have a ton to do but things are starting to come together, slowly but surely. Everything that gets ticked off our to-do list is a huge sigh of relief. Our to-dos for March include:

-picking a colour scheme
-booking our photographer
-meeting with our officiant
-confirming our ceremony and reception times
-figuring out what our venue has for ceremony music options (piano? organ?)
-finalizing our guest list