Wedding Planning Week Recap

If I could be any event, I think I would like to be an oyster roast taking place right after an 8am 5k run complete with lemon, cocktail sauce and golden frothy beers on the side. Aphrodisiac HEAVEN!

Dustin would like to be an all-you-can eat pancake breakfast on a chilly autumn morning in Missouri with fresh amber-colored syrup straight from Vermont drizzled over pads of quickly-melting butter.

Today, we were a wedding in many parts that will, eventually, add up to one whole wedding event. In other words, we were up at 8:45, to the florist's (A Floral Affair...apparently, they appear in magazines all the time and have won multiple excellence awards...when you meet Dawn, her adorable puppy Rascal and her completely devoted and hardworking team of floral designers, it's easy to understand why! Dawn picture to the right with my mom and I) by 10 so we could pick and choose flowers, linens and everything else under the sun for two hours. We hit up Sister Kat around noon and had a nice little chat about stuff we didn't know or remember (aka-a reminder session of all we need to have ready for the big day and when we need to get it to her by), followed immediately by an hour and forty-minute food tasting at the Westin which consisted of a few passed hors d'eouvres, sit-down appetizer, salad, three possible entrees and cake (we took that to-go 'cus we had another appointment to jet to).

 

At 2:45 we found ourselves seated in Pastor Dan Quiram's office at Island Lutheran church to discuss the possibility of him doing a reading or saying a prayer at our Catholic church ceremony and by 3, we were both sweating bullets (seriously) from being grilled about our religious convictions and faith, our definitions and motivations to marry and then (a separate question) our motivations in marrying one another...and many other sweat-inducing questions. I thought I'd lose ten pounds before we walked out the door.

If you're wondering...he did, in fact, agree to do a reading, though we were fairly sure he was 

going to say "no" at the end of the interrogation. It was intense. More intense than our meetings with the priests at our Catholic church and pre-canaa sessions. Just severely intense.

It was so stressful, Dustin asked if we could please go get ice cream to make him feel better. Of course, we did (despite our attempts at watching what we eat...79 days and counting).

This is Mom's favorite ice cream store on the island (really it's in the Tanger outlets just off island, but who's counting?) and she's right. It's pretty amazing and that's coming from a girl who doesn't really dig ice cream all that much (sensitive teeth). So if you're ever on the island...keep this place in mind and you'll be glad you splurged your diet on this ice cream!

But the day finally came to a perfect climax when we met up with our fabulous friends 

Stacey and Todd who are, consequently, getting married six days before us just up the road on the island, as well! We met Stacey and Todd a year ago on the island when D and I discovered the Art Cafe. I should mention that we are also pretty much in love with the Art Cafe and go there just about every time we are in town to create a new piece for our home (also, it's a great excuse to see our two favorite islanders). D has made two coffee mugs already and I have made a chips and dip plate and a serving platter. The concept behind the Art Cafe is awesome. You go in, pick out a piece of pottery you'd like to paint (options range from dishes to tiles, letters to wall hangings, picture frames and vases...etc.), paint it, leave it with the wonderful owners who will then glaze and bake it then VOILA you have a new _______ (insert name of object you want to paint here). We commemorate most of our visits with a new piece from the Art Cafe. It's a relaxing fun time and we love getting our creativity on during a rainstorm or cool island day!

So we met up with T+S for dinner at Murphy's Irish Pub (just a hop, skip and jump away from the Art Cafe), then headed down to check on the Tiki Hut (which wasn't open, but happens to be just outside the site of our rehearsal dinner and isn't being torn down after all-for those of you who are familiar with the Tiki Hut's plight!). From there, we headed over to the Big Bamboo where D and I first met back in 2003 (click there for story on how we met taken from D's old myspace blog) and had a blast sharing stories, talking, laughing and just enjoying some quality time catching up with one another. This was definitely one of the highlights of our trip so far. We don't get to Hilton Head nearly enough and when we're here, we're always strapped for time since we're planning the wedding with every moment our eyes are open...so meeting up with these two was a real treat and we can't say enough about how awesome they are and how lucky we are to have met them (and they don't even read our blog, so I'm not scoring us any brownie points here). Hopefully, you who are invited will come to the wedding and get to see exactly what we mean. If you're at their table, consider yourselves lucky and highly awesome in our eyes.

A few other things of note from the week...

-Invites are picked thanks to Gene over at Pretty Papers

-Hair and make-up decisions have been made thanks to another Gene over at the Westin's Heavenly Spa

-All the music for the church ceremony has been worked out thanks to the incredible musical and creative genius of the church's breathtakingly talented organist (and hopefully our new friend) Jonathan Davis

-The menu is just about set and it includes a delish Indian vegetarian option with the help of 

Deepak, an Indian intern in the Westin's kitchen, Bill Ryan, the chef who is working specifically to create our dream menu, and Anissia Shalton, the dream of a wedding/even planner the Westin (and we) are lucky enough to have found. Not to mention we were only able to enjoy this tasting thanks to the incredible service of Linda, the wonderful server that took care of us and everything we could possibly need this afternoon.

-Our engagement photos have been taken and are being tweaked. Special thanks to Tim Zielenbach for taking the time to come out here, meet with us, hang out with us and coax us into playing in the water on the beach, despite the chilliness in the air. (I strongly encourage you to visit Tim's site and treat yourself to some spectacular photography that could keep you entranced for hours. Tim has an uncanny ability to capture the beauty in every moment, whether it includes tears or smiles, old or young, weddings or casual photos. Every moment is a blessing when you see it through Tim's shots. And if you're looking for a photographer-and friend-I can't recommend him enough!) Here is a brief sample Tim sent to us the evening of our shoot...

And, of course, we have to remember to give a shout-out to my Connie...aka..MOM...who is all over every detail and tirelessly works with us (as we drag her around for her opinions) to put every detail and piece of this wedding together little by little. She has been absolutely incredible every single minute of every single day and, really, without her there is NO way we would be this together or this prepared for our wedding. If you read this...THANK YOU, MOM!...You are completely kick ass.

We have been incredibly blessed to work with such amazing, talented, accommodating people during this process. If not for them, it wouldn't be nearly as fun, exciting and enjoyable to put our dream event together. We really are so blessed.

And thanks to you guys for reading! More updates to follow!

xoxo

N