Category: Wedding Ceremony
A Little More Bling
Needless to say, I have been slacking on my blog posts lately. We have gotten so much done lately, that it has been hard to keep up with writing about everything, but I hope to post a bunch of new things in the coming week. To start, about two weeks ago, Jack and I accomplished one very important task - we finally picked our wedding bands. We had shopped around at a couple different stores and although it seemed like Jack could find a ring he liked at just about every place we went, I never loved any of the rings I was seeing for me.
I should start by saying, I originally thought about just getting a plain white gold band. However, when I tried one on at the first store we went to, it got completely lost behind the higher setting of my engagement ring. Now don't get me wrong, I love my engagement ring, but the wedding band is the "important" one. It is a gift we give to one another on our first day as husband and wife; it is a symbol of the commitment we will make that day. The last thing I want is for the symbol of our marriage to be hard to see. So then I started to look at rings with diamonds part of the way around the band in different settings. It seemed that at all the stores we visited, they all showed me the same 2 or 3 settings. After visiting 6 other shops, we finally ended up back at the jeweler where Jack bought my engagement ring. What a different experience! Instead of showing me one ring at a time, they took out a number of trays full of rings and told me to take my time and look at as many as I liked. The woman who helped us pick out our rings and complete the order was really helpful and definitely knew what she was doing. She was quick to say also that if there is a setting that you like but the size of the stones was not right, that they custom make each ring, so whatever we saw could be adapted to what we want. After trying out a number of rings, I finally put one on that I got really excited about. It did not get lost behind my engagement ring and it looked great on its own or with my ring. It was not what I expected to pick, but I love it and Jack said that he liked the way it looked with my ring too. I can't wait to get to wear it!
After picking mine, we moved on to look at men's rings. Jack decided he wanted white gold too so that we would have rings made out of the same material. After trying on a few different styles, he found a ring he really liked as well. After taking a quick break to go outside the shop to discuss all this, we went back in and placed the order. I can see why Jack felt comfortable at this jeweler when picking my engagement ring. We both felt really good about our choices and felt very relieved to check this important item off our list.
Big Additions
After taking my sweet time for the last few months, I finally got around to asking three of my close friends to be ushers in our wedding. From the beginning I wanted to have ushers so I could include more of my friends in the formal wedding party. Mary and I went back and forth on the topic a few times, but in the end, with some encouragement from Mary, we decided that the wedding party wouldn't be complete without these final additions.
So last night, Chris, Bob, Ken and I all hung out in Downers Grove. After a couple beers and half-way through our cigars, I asked them to be a part of our special day. Fortunately, they all happily agreed! Although it was rather uncermonious, I'm really happy that I was able to share a night with just the guys for this event. My best man, Steve, I was able to ask in person, however, my other two groomsmen both live out-of-state, and I had to ask them over the phone.
The bottom line is that now our wedding party roster is complete (we think). I have my guys, Mary has her girls, we both have our ushers, ring bearer and flower girl, and of course, our parents and families!
Small Additions
While it's somewhat old news, we forgot to blog about this one. (You can't really blame us, we've been going non-stop for weeks now!) Mary and I decided to have an un-official (more on that in a second) Ring Bearer and Flower Girl. We've asked that Mary's nephew, Andrew, be our Ring Bearer and my niece, Annalee, to be our flower girl!
Why "un-official?" Well, at St. Johns, the have a policy about allowing children of a certain age walk down the aisle. I suppose it's understandable because it's kind of a long aisle and there is a lot of potential for a child to change his or her mind and just walk the other way! So although we can't have Andrew and Annalee walk down the aisle, we still can't wait to see them in our wedding party and all dressed up.
Photo Opp
After much researching, debating, discussing, analyzing, delaying, walking, budgeting, negotiating, we have officially signed a contract with a photographer! We decided to go with Mr. Stacey Photography. The name may throw you off a bit, but as with any interesting name, there is a story. Mr. Stacey Photography is really two photographers, Stacey and Yola. Stacey is actually a guy (a pretty cool guy, too). Due to the common association of the name Stacey to a female, they named their business "Mr." Stacey to avoid confusion. Why not use his last name? I don't know, but that's not too important to me at this point.
There were so many factors to consider in this decision, and while it was all about photography, it was so often comparing apples and oranges. Some studios offered unlimited time, while others included two photographers in their prices. So it was really difficult to effectively break down and compare the overall value for our money. In the end, I think it really came down to the quality of their work. Mary and I both really liked what we saw both online and in their albums during our visits. the pictures were clear and crisp, yet exciting and truly representative of how we wanted our day captured. We also both really like their approach to capturing multiple perspectives of our day, e.g. through the eyes of our guests as well as us.
Their service includes a photo album credit as well as a engagement photo session to help us "get comfortable in front of the camera." Anyone who knows me knows that I like to take a lot pictures, but I'm not used to being in front of the camera too much. With Stacey and Yola, though, I'm really confident and excited about the great pictures we'll have when all is said and done!