1 MONTH AND COUNTING!!

Well, followers - we've finally done it...we are on our way into the final stretch of the wedding countdown with: 

T-MINUS 1 MONTH TO GO!!!!!

Can you believe it?!

We celebrated the 30 day to go mark today by going down to the courthouse and getting our marriage license!  Pretty exciting stuff!!!! As we walked up to the counter I could feel my heart was racing, almost like we were getting married right there, right then.  Of course, that was certainly not the case, but it just felt so "official" that we were actually getting married.  When asked to "sign here" under the Bride signature I had such a surreal feeling and it felt like everything was becoming a reality.  I probably took the longest I have to sign something, but I wanted to savor what was happening.

I absolutely can't believe it has been 11 months since Mr. Hess proposed, and it feels like the last year was a blur.  We have spent days upon days, months upon months and meetings upon meetings pin-pointing and deciding every little detail to bring our wedding day together.  I can say I have truly enjoyed the experience of planning a wedding, but I am more than anxious for the day to just get here already!!!  Being SO close to the wedding day, I have SO much to share.  Unfortunately, what I don't have is TIME.  So...with that said, I'll be posting and updating when I can throughout the next few weeks to fill you in on what I feel you really need to know....but I know it's not going to be as much as I usually do. (sad face).

Me and my Roadster...aka Groom stand in.

 I'm actually looking forward to posting MORE about the wedding after it finally happens and I am excited to let you all in on the secrets I've been hinting towards the entire road of planning!  Fear not friends and family, because after the BIG DAY gets here whether you were there or not, I'm going to be able to share EVERYTHING!!! YAY! :)

But for now, all I can do is pop in every now and then with some hints, stories, and in this case videos.  Here I am (in my happy place...on our balcony) talking about the month ahead.  These next 4 weeks are absolutely going to FLY BY and I hope you're ready for it!  I know I finally am!

30 DAYS TO GO!!!!

Until next time,

Presh

2 MONTHS TO GO!

I absolutely CAN.NOT.BELIEVE. the wedding is now less than...

2 MONTHS AWAY!!!!!!

Normally, I would be stressing out at this point, running around like a crazy woman & spending every free second of the day trying to get something done.  Well, wait...I kind of am!  But, I'm trying my best to do all of these things sans the stress....so we'll see how it goes! ;)

Even though I have a break from my night job right now, I have a brand new one - full time wedding planning! :)  The good news is, I LOVE this job!  After going through what I have and planned what we've planned, I could really see the appeal of why wedding planners do what they do.  At the end of the day, it's for one purpose, and that's to join 2 peoples' lives together in marriage.  I would imagine this job is very rewarding at the end of the day when there is a happy, newlywed couple standing in front of you, giving you inspiration to move onto the next.  If you do enough reserach and find a handful of great and creative vendors in each of the main categories you need to plan a wedding, the stress level of the wedding planning process would seem to go down and eventually turn into fun...right?

At least that's what I'm telling myself.  We are officially into the detailed, pick this not that, add this to that, take some of these away from those kind of decision making at this point.  This is where the the more tedious of tasks come in, but this is also where some of the fun things begin to happen as well!  For one?! MY Bachelorette Weekend is coming up...THIS WEEKEND!!!! I can't believe it! I have been to a bachelorette party or five in my day, lol, and it's just so crazy to me that it's finally MY turn.  I know from here on out that time is seriously going to disappear...the weekend after that is one of my best friend Ashley's wedding!! She is a bridesmaid of mine, and I am also in her wedding.  Her BIG DAY sure did come fast, and I know mine is going to feel like a split second right after hers - so we're getting down to the wire & I am SO EXCITED!

There are definitely TONS of things I could be writing about during this stage of the planning process, but the trick is that Mr. Hess and I don't want to give too much away.  These are the details we are planning to go into our ceremony, our reception, our decorations & accessories.  Believe me, it is KILLING me not to do a blog about a few things we've put together, but I know keeping the element of surprise will be well worth it when I can share everything with you AFTER the big day.

For starters? INVITATIONS!!!!! We have officially decided what OUR wedding invitation and enclosure cards will look like and they are being assembled as we speak! I can't wait to get them in my hands and into the mail at the very beginning of June.  I'm very much looking forward to posting about those bad boys, once I know they have all gone to their rightful owners...they turned out PERFECT!!! :)

So, what does one focus on @ the 2 MONTH TO GO mark?

Well - there's tons, but here's a look at what's posts are coming up :

• Invitations
• Videographer (I know there's someone out there for us!)
• Bachelorette Party & Bridal Shower (YAY!!!)
• Writing our Wedding Vows <3
• Wedding Favors (or...hmm?)

And I'll leave you with that for now.  I'm sure there will be plenty of updates and stories along the way....

60 days to go...(but who's counting?!)

Presh

4 MONTHS TO GO!

OMG.....(in 2 days) our wedding is 4 MONTHS AWAY!!!!

I'm doing this month's check-in post little early because we are going to hit our "4 MONTHS TO GO" mark when Mr. Hess and I will be in Chicago!  I had to do something wedding related before we left...right?! SO - I thought it was time for a video update.  Here I explain everything that we've been trying to book, negotiate, and settle since our 5 month mark:

In the video I mentioned a few things: 

Invitations!  We have FINALLY BOOKED a company to do our invitations:  

• Paper Charm Custom Designs.  Our contact's name is Angela and I picked up her business card at a bridal show we went to last October.  Everything she does is hand made and she can put a lot of special touches and creativity into whatever she does, so I know we are in good hands.  Once we get proofs back for our invitations, I'm sure I will be writing more about this!

Her link is below, and it directs you to her blogpage:

www.papercharm.com

Catering!  WE ARE DOWN TO 2 PEOPLE!!!!  

• Millenia Catering - http://www.milleniacatering.com/.  On of the top 3 preferred caterers of our venue.  More on a smaller scale, and every event is personally ran by Chef Lo.  He understands our contemporary style and is very accommodating.  The thing we love most about him is his attention to detail and only does one event per day.  He has thrown in a lot of "extras" into our package for free and is a pleasure to work with!
• Big City Catering - http://www.bigcitycatering.com/. On the top of our wedding coordinator's preferred caterers.  Offers an overall great package of everything we need with a contemporary style!  Has done tons of events at our venue and is highly recommended by some of our other vendors.  
• BOTH are within the same price range, give or take a few dollars, and we are equally impressed with them.  WHAT TO DO?!

SUGGESTIONS?!?!?! It's our goal to BOOK a caterer by the end of this coming week and sign a contract.  Any type of feedback would be greatly appreciated! :)

And on that note, I'm now off to go pack for Chicago.  I'm so excited to see the city for the first time and spend another few days "away" with Mr. Hess!

124 days to go... 

Presh 

5 MONTHS TO GO!

...AND THE COUNTDOWN CONTINUES!!!!! 

Today is our 5 MONTH MARK, and boy does the time keep flying by! I know I am going to say this each month, but REALLY....the time seems to go by faster and faster!  Since today hits another reality check in my brain that we really are getting married, I wanted to share a few updates by video.  I normally do a Monthly Focus video at the beginning of the month, but in lieu of doing 2 similar videos pretty close to one another (booooring), I combined the March focus video AND the 5 month update into one video update!  You can thank me later for not wasting your time.... ;)

I'm sure you've gotten the basic ideas of what's been going on in the last month and what we're hoping to get done in the crazy month ahead!  The challenge for Mr. Hess and I will definitely be staying productive even though we will be traveling a lot of the month!  YOU HERE THAT MR. HESS?! No excuses! :) But regardless of what we DO or DON'T get done, I'm getting to the point of truly enjoying this entire process! We've gotten a lot of the headaches out of the way and I'm SOOOOO excited to do some of the TO-DOs for next month, especially register for our wedding gifts and pick out our wedding bands...it's almost like getting the best double birthday present(s) ever!

And as far as the wedding dress hanger goes, I posted an entire blog post about that - and I'm SO happy it's finally here!!!! :) I got it from etsy.com (my favorite handmade accessory website), and to read alllll about it, here's the link to that post: http://misspreshnmrhess.blogspot.com/2011/01/bride-groom-hangers.html

As I mentioned in the video, I hired a company called Weddings in the City to help the day of our wedding day run as smooth as possible.  WITC is well known in Orlando and know exactly how to help you organize how you're going to get everything done for your big day!  My friend Britt had Ashlie Shea as her wedding coordinator, and after I met her and went through Britt's wedding day with her I knew I didn't need to look any further...this coordinator really knows what she's doing!

Here is the time line information I was talking about in the video:

The company is centered around "the city" and the packages go off of characters from the TV Show Sex and the City - which is one of my favorites!  Mr. Hess and I decided to go with the day of coordination package, or the Miranda, so we could be as involved as possible in everything to do with planning (DUH!, lol).  I knew hiring a coordinator for the day of was an absolute MUST, just to have a piece of mind that everything WILL be done and will run perfectly...and if something is missing or doesn't turn out exactly as planned, I'm confident she will do her absolute best to fix it and I probably won't even know about it! :)

For more information about WITC, check out their website:

http://www.wedinthecity.com/

By now you know I am trying to be as organized as possible.  Well, what can I say? I'm a planner, and now I've turned into a planner and a blogger.  After the feedback I've gotten so far from sharing all of our experiences with you, you will no doubt see plenty of posts to come, as well as different blogs from me throughout the alllllll important milestones of our lives! I already have one HUGE topic to go off on after the wedding is over, and no it's not babies...yet.

Hope you enjoyed the updates, CAN'T BELIEVE we're now under the 6 month mark!

Presh

6 MONTHS TO GO!!!!!

Can't believe TODAY is the 6 MONTH MARK!!!!!!! 

WOW!!!!!!

I know everyone says it - but this time counting down to the BIG DAY is just flying by!

1.22.2011 marks 6 months until I become Mrs. Hess - and I couldn't be more excited about it!  Besides today being an incredibly loooooooooooong day at work (both jobs) the thought that there is only 6 months left to plan is both overwhelming and exciting at the same time!

I just spoke to my friends Britt and Ash recently, which Britt just got married last November and Ash is getting married a month before me - and I keep saying the same thing....I'm trying so hard to stay on task and get my monthly list checked off of things on our "TO-DO" List, but I can't wait for the day to just get here already!  I'm ready for all of the planning to be set and perfectly put together, and to see the results of what we have been working so hard on for the last 5 months! I'm trying not to stress out, but it's difficult to not feel overwhelmed at times.  SO - on that note, I am going to take a deep breath: WOOOOOSSSSSAAAAAA! And check number one for this part of our planning off, as I AM SO EXCITED TO ANNOUNCE is DONE!!!! :)

What is this phenomenal task you ask?...

OH, my RING?! It's officially PAID OFF!!! :) :) :)

CAN'T EXPLAIN THE FEELING this gives me, such a sigh of relief.  Now, Mr. Hess and I can actually put money away to save on the wedding and not save it for something we already owe on.  And, by the way did I ever post a picture of this thing? I have to say, Mr. Hess truly impressed me with this one, and this isn't the best picture - but I'm sure you'll see more of it down the road:

Not really the clearest of pictures, considering its' from my phone - but it works!

I'm sure I could do an entire post about my ring one of these days - when I get pictures of it that do it justice.  But, needless to say I AM SO EXCITED out of everything we did this past month, that we accomplished this task!

Also, I'm proud of what we've done since the "7 MONTHS TO GO" mark.  Since then, we have:

• Met with a DJ/Lighting company that I LOVE - close to booking them.
• Took our Engagement Photos, and just 2 days ago officially decided to purchase the CD with the rights to ALL of them - this was not an easy desicion, but well worth it.  And, that I might add this is ALSO paid for! :)
• Ordered our SAVE THE DATES! (WITH addresses!), and paid for!
• Took my family to see our venue, and they LOVED it!
• Did an incredible amount of work on our website - it is about 90% ready to go! CAN'T WAIT to release it!!!
• Bought a NEW CAR! I get her TOMORROW...you will see a post on this very soon, I'm sure!
• Took in an amazing stray Puppy, YES, that's right - we're KEEPING HIM!
• Designed and practically ordered all of my bridesmaids' gifts.  (Not giving too many details about this one)... ;)
• Put my dress, my shoes, and my BIG DAY accessories all in one spot at my Mom's for safe keeping! I could do an entire blog post about this alone....but I'll save the element of surprise for later...
• Booked 2 trips to travel with Mr. Hess for work - hey, we've got to get away from all the planning and stress somehow right? I think this will be a great (and almost paid for) way to do it! :)
• Set up an appointment to look at a warehouse full of stuff to decorate our venue with!  After this meeting (next Friday), I will have a lot better of an idea of what our space will look like.  Not to mention, this will help us order our tables and chairs!
• Started browsing for invitations.

And the list goes on and on and on...It's funny, somebody asked me the other day - "Are you just constantly doing wedding stuff at all hours of the day, all day long?" Well, my answer to them was "Yes, absolutely."  With an iPhone, you can get e-mail after e-mail, browse the Internet and keep track of a budget wherever you go - what do you think I'm doing?  When I'm driving - all I can think about is what I need to do when I go home.  When I'm working, all people want to do is ask me how everything is going...needless to say this wedding is basically on my mind 24/7! Not like that's a bad thing...

So, that's my 6 MONTHS TO GO update!  Good news is, January isn't quite over yet, because there's still some things I need to get checked off...but we're getting there!  Until then, enjoying this time while I can...

180 DAYS TO GO!

Presh

7 MONTHS TO GO!

OMG, OMG, OMG! Today, the wedding is officially...

7 MONTHS AWAY!!!!

I can't believe it!  I feel like we have a lot of the big stuff covered, but I'm also starting to feel all of the pressure of having to get everything done.  Good news is I now have a monthly "TO-DO" list, and I seem to be checking off almost everything every time!


So far, in December we have:

• BOOKED a Florist! Can't wait to see the final designs...
• Attended 2 cake tastings, called around for more pricing, and BOOKED our wedding cake baker for a steal!
• Begun to discuss and book our table and chair rentals with our venue!
• Set up our Engagement Photo Session (less than 2 weeks away!)
• Contacted a linens company that we met at the bridal show.  CAN'T wait to see their stuff in person.
• Contacted DJs and lighting companies.
• Gotten a LOT done on our wedding website...not releasing it until it is fully COMPLETE!

By the END of the month (about a week and a half to go!) we need to get the rest of the list checked off:

• Order our signature monogramed stamps.
• Go over our budget (eek!)
• Finalize guest list and begin to put addresses together for Save the Dates! (AHH!)

So, in retrospect, we seem to be well on our way for now.

On a side note - I was in the best mood today thinking about our wedding.  7 whole months is all that's standing in our way to being married, that's CRAZY!!!!!  On my way home tonight from a long day, I was thinking about what we need to do and completely out of nowhere BAM!!!!!!! There is a guy in the middle of the road who apparently ran out of gas and failed to put his blinkers on right in front of me.  Well, the road was dark, and he was wearing all black, so of course I didn't see it until it was too late.  I slammed on my breaks but hit the car head on, my airbags went off, and I knew right away my poor little car was totaled. 

I have been debating for the last year on when a good time to start car shopping would be, and let me tell you now is NOT the time.  It's WEDDING SEASON people, don't you know this?!?!? Luckily, there were no citations and the cops understood where I was coming from.  Let's just keep our fingers crossed that my insurance company is very nice to me.  For now, I do not have a car and I start the search for a new car....well, right now.

A BIG THANK YOU to Mr. Hess tonight for saving me from a horrible nightmare.  It's so good to know that he will always be a phone call away to come whisk me away from life's uncertainties and it's crazy how great just a hug from him can feel.  I'm so lucky to have him on my side no matter what, and instead of getting upset he kept me calm and told me everything was going to be okay.

Also, he happened to notice today was 7 months until our big day, and decided to bring home something special for me.  Someone must have told him I was going to need these today...

They are even lime green...one of our colors! :)

LOVE YOU MR. HESS!!!!!

211 days and counting...

 Presh