We are getting some guests

All invitations where sent a couple of weeks ago, and now are the responses on their way. At the moment are we about 30 people, that is about the half of what we are expecting. We invited a bit more than 70 people but as always are there people who can't come.

All the planning is landing now as well. We have the menu ready and the drinks. We have a back-up if my flower project isn't successful. The DJ is booked and confirmed, the photographer is booked, just need to confirm as well as the car needs to be confirmed.
We have got confirmation about the priest and the cantor and will hopefully meet them next weekend. That weekend we will also meet with the hairdresser and the boarding kennel which will look after Jatsie during the wedding day. We will also meet with the pastry chef who will make our wedding cake. Ohhh I'm looking forward to that!! =)
Maybe we will be able to have a look at the ring as well.

The only thing that we don't have under control is my dress. I need to call the shop and ask when they expect it to arrive.

Planning

Another small step towards the big day. We now have the florist booked and they will deliver the flowers to the site. It is just the bouquet and the corsage; all other flowers will be grown and arranged by us. The bouquet will look like a mix of these.




We also visited the gold smith and decided to start creating my ring. They will start with the gold ring and then I'll fit it and after that adding the stones. The ring will be a more petit version of this ring.



The underwear shopping was no big success. It ended with that I ordered my underwear at Asos and is now waiting for them to arrive. A wonder bra and spandex power panties =) Not the most wonderful to have under, but hopefully comfy.

We are also having discussions around the honeymoon. At the same time that we plan the wedding, we also renovate the kitchen. This renovation now threatening our budget for the wedding... it is not the wedding that is overrunning budget, but the kitchen! There for the honeymoon is under discussion. When is the big question and the other one is Where? And for How long?
Are we going for just a short trip this autumn or are we saving and going for a longer, but not too long or fancy trip in spring?? Well, we don't have to decide yet. Let’s see what the kitchen ends on first and then we can plan more seriously. We will know in a couple of weeks.

Plans for the weekend

We are going to the crime scene this weekend. So now we are booking different people to visit. First we will visit the florist and talk about the bouquet. I have printed at lot of images and have written down what I like and what I expect and what I don't like. I have written down colors and flower types. I think I have all covered =)

After that are we going to visit the gold smith and at last order my wedding ring. I'm excited and can't wait to try it on, even though that will be a couple of months in the future...

We where trying to book a visit at the cake-factory =) as well, but they only accept visitors on weekdays, so we have to plan going there another time. I think we have rather good view of what the cake will taste like, but the look of the cake is another matter...

We will also go looking for underwear for me. Something that is comfy under the wedding dress.

Well, the weekend is fully planned.
We haven't broken the budget yet and plans is going easy.
Wonder when something out of the blue will hit us? Maybe when we get the price suggestion for the honeymoon I'm planning... that will for sure break the budget!
And we actually have a problem. My work will force me to take three weeks’ vacation when I don't want to, which means that I don't have enough days to cover the honeymoon *sigh* we can't afford to go on unpaid vacation and I would hate to limit the honeymoon!
This means that we might postpone the honeymoon to next spring...

Happy Valentinesday

14th of February, half a meter with snow and -4 degrees Celsius. Do you know that it is just 6 months!! to our wedding? Just half a year, time flies. I hope the weather is a bit (or much) warmer in August and the snow is exchanged with lot of flowers instead!

I wonder if we still are on track with the wedding plans... let see

Eight months before
• Book the photographer - Check
• Book entertainment - Check, DJ booked
• Register - Hm, I think in Sweden this has to be done no sooner than 3 month before the wedding
• Purchase a dress - I'll go measuring on Tuesday and order it after that. Exciting!
• Start meeting caterers - We have met with Husby Säteri and they will fix most things for us, but we'll still have to decide on a menu and how much flowers they should help us with.
• Reserve block of hotel rooms for guests - Check
• Launch a wedding website - We have started one, but it isn't launched yet. We want to wait until we are ready to send the invitations.

Six to seven months before
• Purchase invitations and hire a calligrapher - We will make our invitations ourselves. But I haven't ordered the paper for this yet... guess it is time to get started!
• Plan your honeymoon - Check, we have more or less decided, waiting for travel agency to come back with price suggestion and availability.
• Meet with the officiant - This have to wait a couple of more months. We hope to be able to meet him (yes, it will be a guy, not the officiant I was talking about in another post. She was on vacation when our wedding is to be) in May or something like that.
• Send save-the-date cards - Check, done a long time ago ;)
• Book a florist - Not done yet, but we will visit one within a couple of weeks.
• Procure transportation - We have our plans ready, just need to contact them and say which time he is needed.
• Start composing a day-of timeline - This isn't on paper yet, but I think we will have to start doing this soon =)

I also need to add that it is high time to start looking around for seeds and bulbs for the wedding flowers. Even though it doesn't look like spring outside my window it is high time to start sowing!
Off I am to look in seed catalogs =)

DJ booked

Finally we got an answer from the DJ we have contacted regarding playing at our wedding. He was free the night of our wedding, but he is no more =)
We got the recommendation from Husby and after a look at his web page we decided to contact him. I think he will be a good choice who can play varied music at the party. And he fit into our budget as well! =)

Otherwise we are laying low with the wedding plans at the moment. We have been in contact with the goldsmith and her suggestion is within our budget. The only 'problem' as I see it is that she will turn my engagement ring into the wedding ring. I have been thinking about this and I think I would like two rings after all... I have some drawings of what it might be able to look like, so we will present them for her and see what she thinks. But it'll have to wait until next time we are there.

Sometimes it is not so fun to do the planning at a distance. Especially not if you want to do something NOW!

Ring.. reception.. and flowers!

Yes, a lot has been done in just a couple of days. We are visiting my fiancé's parents and we have visit Husby, the castle where the reception will be, we have also visit the goldsmith and been to the florist.

The florist didn't have time for us =( not to book a time before Christmas either, so we need to find another weekend when they can talk to us. I'm a bit disappointed, I had hoped for a better welcome and more interest from their side, so we might go looking for another florist. We haven't decided yet though...

The welcome at Husby, the castle where we will have the reception, was very warm. I liked our contact very much and she was really helpful. The castle was very beautiful (some pictures will be shown here after Christmas) and we will have the whole place for ourselves the whole weekend. Very nice!
We have some suggestions for the menu from Husby, but we are not satisfied with them so we will sit down and create a menue ourselves which was absolutely ok with them. We also got two bottles of wine to try!

The goldsmith was a really nice girl, she made a couple of drawings of what could be done with the engagement ring that I have (see picture here). We liked one of her designs very much and she will give us a price for it before Christmas. I hope it isn't too much... our budget for the ring isn't that big.... and I liked what she showed us a lot. In the design she didn't create one more ring, but adds on my engagement ring, so I need to give it to her a couple of weeks and can't wear it until the wedding. Hm. I might have to get a new engagement ring ;)

Tomorrow will we go looking for a frockcoat to my fiancé and maybe find shoes to me as well...

Wedding flowers Part I

I hope to be able to grow some of the wedding flowers myself. We have a rather big yard and one of my spare time interests is gardening. I also hope to get some help from the mother of my fiancé and my mother. The flowers will be used in the reception area and might also be used in the church depending on how well they will grow =)

The flowers that we will grow are

Dahlias – White pom-poms and decorative forms. Here it might be possible to add some orange to spice the color scheme up a bit. These will hopefully be in peak flower in August and they are very easy to grow, just put the tubers in the ground, water and wait.

Sweet peas – In different shades of lilac and also white and maybe pink. I hope these will flower as late as August. I haven’t grown so many sweet peas before, so I don’t remember how long they where going…

Stock – This annual has a lovely fragrance but is a bit hard to please. It doesn’t like hot summers so it might not be possible to keep it blooming until August. I’ll try to germinate them at different times during May and June and seed them at a place which gets a bit shade during the hottest hours.

Zinnias – Also an annual which comes in a sea of different flowers, most of them hot like red and pink, but hopefully will I find a color mix that fits our colors scheme a bit better. The shape of the flower is much like a Dahlia.

Amaranthus – This unusual annual will bring some flow to the flowers. The flowers of the Amaranthus are long tails of burgundy or green.

Gladiolus – This spiky flower is also pretty easy to grow, just put the small ‘bulb’ into the ground and wait. Here will we have loads of lilacs to choose between and of course whites.



To be able to bring all flowers to the wedding in good shape, I’m going to grow them in pots to be able to take the whole pot with me. We will probably leave for the destination a couple of days before the wedding.
More flowers for our wedding will be presented in coming posts.

Weddingflowers part 2

Just though I should show you some of the nice wedding flowers I've been seeing during my inspirational tour on different websites and blogs.

The first one is a simple bouquet with sweet peas, stock and roses. I particularly like the color scheme and the form and ribbons on this one. I think it is my favorite.



This is also a lovely bouquet in the same color scheme as the one above.



Then we have a nice rose bouquet in hot yellow. I love the color but it is a bit too much for my color scheme. I LOVE the grass and the small details such as the pearls and lace or ribbon.




Here are some with trailing designs, but not too much. I like the round form, but my fiancé likes a more trailing form, so maybe something in between in style with these?










The design on this bouquet is a bit different, but I don't like the color on the roses and I think I would like some more flowers in my bouquet.




This one also has a wonderful design




And I also found a table decoration that would fit perfect in front of the bride and groom.




I nearly can't wait until I get to speak with the florist. That’s the problem when you are living away from the area where the wedding shall be. All contact with local suppliers has to be done in such a concentrated form, and maybe not when you are in full mood for planning.
We will try to be able to look at the castle, visit the person who should fix the hair and hopefully the make-up as well, visit florists to choose one and talk about the bouquet design and also make a visit to the church to have a look inside. *phu*
And I have probably already forgotten something.... oh, yes; we need to visit someone who has grooms outfits as well. All this should be squeezed in into a couple of days and hopefully before or just after Christmas!