Shelter, seating and elbow-resters

Yuppers– We have a tent, chairs, and tables. And linen. But, as of yet, I’m not sure what to do about plates, silverware, cups, etc because I do NOT want to do plastic and I really would prefer not wasting a bunch of paper ware. I suppose we could do recycled paper ware. And it would cut down on the time dedicated to someone cleaning and stuff. But in a way it still seems like such a waste. Any suggestions?

B&B and Wedding/Reception Site planning

This weekend we spent a few hours checking out bed & breakfasts and then we even made a decision! It is beautiful and now we have an idea of where we’ll be spending the nights of our wedding weekend.

As for the wedding site and reception site, we have narrowed our options down to 3 options and are leaning heavily on 1 of those. After this next week we will hopefully be able to publish where the wedding will be and, best case senario, it will also be the same place as the reception. Yey!

Hmmm

Well, we’ve stayed up countless nights but now I think we are planning on talking my parents into letting us use their land.  They have 80 acres out in the sticks… but oh do we have plans for many of those acres.

The Possible Options

Como Park Zoo and Conservatory

1. Sunken Garden: holds 90 people standing, with 10 chairs available. It’s naturally beautiful, it’s indoors, but it only has 2 isles (which includes the place that everyone is suppose to stand. Candle light weddings are available, which is the plan in this place and is probably absolutely gorgeous. View a 360 degree view of the Sunken Garden.

2. North Garden: holds only 30 – 40 people standing, with 6 chairs available. And it is indoors (which is kind of mandatory because I don’t want the father of the bride to have a conniption).

Weisman Art Museum

This place would be awesome to have a wedding at. It’s not full of natural beauty, which I think means it might require a little more work to turn it into a wedding place; but there would be chairs for people, everyone would have a place to be and there could be the traditional walk up the isle.

Still Undecided

We’re still figuring out the place, which means a person can’t really plan anything. But I think my dear sisters, Jelly and Chris, will be my bridesmaids (Jelly: “can I plz plz plz stand 4 you? and wear a pretty dress?”).

ComoWeddings Wrote Back

Como Weddings wrote back with all their gardens at the available times for the week that we are looking at and I think we are leaning towards 22 August. Elav’s favorite number is 22, so that will be a good date. 8/22/8 will be the date (if it’s the American way of writing dates) or 22/8/8. I like it.

Wedding Site and Date

Just waiting for Como Park to email me back with available dates and times for their parks. Between 17 and 30 of August would be really nice for Elav and I’m not sure what my schedule will be.

I figure if I can pick our wedding site and time, our reception site and time and the colors of our wedding that everything else can wait for a few months.

Engaged

On Tuesday 20 November 2007 Elav and I engaged ourselves to each other. I proposed to Elav through a print I made for him (I’ll get his permission to upload a photo).

I told my parents last week that I was proposing to Elav at Thanksgiving. I drove down on Monday and then Tuesday my dad called me to ask if I had anything to tell him. I did.

We are at his and his parents’ house in Rockford, IL and we told everyone (his immediate family) all last night.

Now I have been looking at wedding planners online and I bought a wedding book today. We were considering getting married on July 12 (exactly 3 years after we “officially” hooked up) but Elav doesn’t get finished with school in Rockford until the end of July and he would also like to stay at his current job until he hits 2 years (August 16) so he gets max benefits. SO, I have been thinking maybe we could get married Saturday 23 August 2008.

Also, we are thinking about having our wedding at Como Park.