Video Recap

This recap "music video" appears at the end of our DVD that we were given by our videographer.

We figured out how to get the video off the DVD and onto our computer, and as a result, we're able to share it via YouTube.

Obviously, the quality of the video is greatly affected when uploaded on the internet... but I always figure it's better than nothing. :)

Our video is ready!

Michael went and picked it up on his lunch break. I can't wait to watch it!

Unfortunately, I have my cake decorating class tonight, so we can't watch it until later. But I think we're going to preview the "recap" music video that he does to give us a sneak peek.

Eeeeeeeek! So exciting.

Mission: Accomplished

Last night, we met with a videographer... and walked away with a videographer for our wedding.

It is such a weight lifted off of our shoulders. The guy does wedding videography on the side--he works full-time as a multimedia person for a local church, so we met with him there and he showed us examples of his work. It was of good quality, and we really liked his prices. Everyone else we looked at was $1,000+, and packages often included things we didn't really need/want.

All we were looking for was ceremony and reception coverage, professional editing, and we wanted to have a "recap" of the day set to music so anyone could easily watch the "short version" without having to sit through the entire video. This guy offers exactly that. His coverage is completely unlimited, he'll be there as long as the day goes. Also, we get TEN copies of the DVD included in the price. Most videographers will give you two or three and charge you an arm and a leg for each additional copy. I don't even know what we'll DO with ten copies.

Best part? All of this for $750. Woohoo. For an additional $50, he'll come to the house before the ceremony and record some footage of the girls and me getting ready. We figure, what the hell--for only $50 extra, we might as well have him get those extra memories.

He's young(er) and fun, so we're excited about finally booking this vendor. Now we don't have to worry about regretting anything.

Also, this afternoon, I had a hair appointment to get it cut and highlighted. I took pictures of potential wedding day hair with me to show him because I wanted to schedule a trial. It was funny--the minute I showed him, he was drawn to the one that is actually my favorite. That helped solidify things a little. Of course we will have to wait until we see what it looks like on me, but I'm excited. This is the style we're going to use as inspiration:

Mine will most likely look a bit different since I don't have curly hair (it's naturally pin straight). But he said he has product that he'll put in to give my hair texture, and then we'll set it in some curlers for a bit. He told me I should try to find some type of hair pin--oye, just another thing to be on the hunt for.

We made an appointment for me to get my hair freshly cut and highlighted for one week before the wedding (June 14). Crazy guy, he actually suggested waiting to do my trial until then. Ummm, no. I cannot wait until one week before the wedding to test out my hairstyle. What if I don't like it? Then I only have like six days to find something new. So he budged a little and scheduled me for a hair trial on May 17. I'm still freaking out that it's still a little too long to wait, but I suppose it'll be here before I know it.

We'll see how it goes!

100 Days

We are officially at 100 days. It's one of those magic numbers; those milestones that seem to make things way too real. Tomorrow, we'll be in the double digits.

Holy crap.

I remember back in college (I can't believe it was four years ago already), there was a "100 Days Until Graduation" happy hour for all seniors. Of course, given that graduation was in May, the 100 days was sometime in January or February, but what I remember most about that whole experience was that we celebrated 100 days and then BOOM. Graduation was there, in what seemed like a blink of an eye. And then it was over.

I'm anticipating a similar freefall for the wedding.

We have a lot left to do, but at this point, I am feeling confident about the progress. I'm really on a roll with the invitations right now. I'm "in the mood" to work on them, so basically every night I am doing something different for them. On Tuesday night, I spent about three hours making a wedding map to fit on a "Map & Directions" insert. Fun, fun.

We ended up making some changes to our invitations--we're not going to include a "Sunday Brunch" insert because we don't want to invite EVERYONE to my mom's house the morning after the wedding, and including it for some people but not others was getting too complicated. So we decided we will send out separate Sunday Brunch invitations at a later time, and it left me another insert to play with. So "Accommodations & Directions" was split into "Map & Directions" and "Accommodations."

Yesterday, I took our newly-designed and printed "Map & Directions" cards downstairs to the copy center at work to have them cut. Today, I plan to take both the "Accommodations" and "Reception" cards for cutting as well. I'm waiting on a few more last names of significant others, or more specifically, I'm waiting for a certain someone (*clearing throat* Michael!) to text/call his friends to get those last names. I need them before I can print our super-duper, redesigned, totally anal RSVP cards. They're awesome, if I do say so myself.

Last night, I stamped our return address on the back of all of the invitation envelopes.

Progress, people. It's progress!

Tomorrow night, I think we are going to finally meet with another videographer. I am really praying that he is everything we're looking for because with just a little over three months to go, this is something that really needs to be booked. Like, yesterday. I just have this vision in my head of what I want it to be, and a price that we want it to be under, and I really, really want this guy to be the answer to all of that. Let's hope.

Updates on past posts

I realize that sometimes I post about things that are unresolved and then I never post how they turn out. Whoops. Sometimes I get comments asking about them, so I figured I should go back to some open-ended posts and provide updates on some things.

I get questions a lot regarding my adhesive tape situation with my invitations back in November. People write in saying they have the same problem, and ask what I ended up doing to resolve it. Well, the answer is... I answered that question on the blog back in December! So there, I am pointing you in the direction of the answer. :)

Following up to a videographer post back in January... we still have not booked a videographer. We met with one last month, but he wasn't exactly what I am looking for, and his prices were a bit high. We haven't given him a definitive "no" yet, but we want to meet with other people. I just talked to another guy today, and we'll hopefully be meeting with him in the next week or so. I'm crossing my fingers--this is one that we need to resolve quickly.

These shoes did not work out. They were just not comfortable enough, and as you can see from the photo--they offer no support whatsoever. I'd be better off going barefoot than to wear those things. I ended up ordering three more pairs of shoes from endless.com, but alas, those did not work out either. Thank goodness for free return shipping. I'm still on the hunt for the perfect sandals/flip-flops. I am eyeing a really sporty looking pair--my mom was sort of appalled, but at this point, I just really don't care. Something like these:

I know they are ridiculous, and totally non-bridal (dare I say TACKY?), but what the hell. I just want something comfortable, no one is going to see them, and it'd be nice to be able to wear them again after the wedding. We'll see what happens there. I'm seeing a lot of new pairs popping up online since this is the season for sandals to start coming back, so hopefully I'll find something soon. Actually, I need to find something soon. I technically should have them before my appointment with the seamstress for my hem on March 29. Pressure!!

I got my veil in from Occansey Designs, and I really like it. It came in really quickly (like less than a week), and I'm impressed with the quality of it. I just haven't had a chance to take any pictures since I took it over to my mom's to hang it in her cedar closet there. I go for my first dress fitting with a seamstress (for a hem and bustle) on March 29 and I'm hoping to get some photos of it then.

Finally, on the dinnerware debate... We made the decision to go with option #2, which was this set from Bed Bath & Beyond:

Anyway, so there you have it... updates on some of my past posts. Wonderfully boring, huh?

Well, tomorrow, hopefully I'll have some hilariously entertaining pre-cana stories to tell.

If not, we'll talk about hair.

No progress?

It seems like this last week, I've been doing a whole lot of nothing... except for freaking out. I honestly cannot believe it is mid-February. We are less than 4.5 months away now. I counted... only 19 weeks to go.

Looking back, we did do a few things last week, but in the grand scheme of everything left to do... we barely made a dent.

Last Monday, we met with a videographer. It was the first one we met with, so we didn't do anything yet in terms of a contract. I wasn't completely blown away by his work, he was a little pricier than we hoped to spend, and I wanted something to compare it to. There is another videographer I have the contact info for, and I know he's available for our date. I just have yet to set up a meeting for us, which... who knows why.

Also last week, I found bridesmaid shoes. I sent all the info to the girls and they agreed on them, so to my knowledge, everyone has ordered them or is going to order them soon. Here are the shoes:

I'm happy with those, and from what the girls say, they are, too. The price is right ($35 on shoes.com), with free shipping and return shipping should they need to exchange for a different size. One of my bridesmaids actually found a coupon code, too, so they ended up costing $29 and change. Not bad.

What else... we booked our interisland roundtrip flight between Maui and Kauai for the honeymoon. I stalked prices for months and they weren't budging. There were people who told me I could get them for cheaper, so I was waiting and waiting and waiting... but nothing. Ultimately, we decided to just go ahead and book them at $142/person. They're direct flights between Maui and Kauai, so it didn't seem like such a bad deal to us. We could maybe have found something cheaper if we had waited until much closer, but we're planners and wanted to get it booked and paid for in advance. I'm so glad I booked them when I did--the next day, the prices did finally budge--but UP. I went on the website and the prices had jumped overnight to around $170/person. I would have been kicking myself.

I started bidding on rental cars on priceline.com. I think it might be a little too soon for that, though. I think you can get better deals on priceline the closer you are to your vacation date. We're trying to get a convertible for the regular price of a compact car. We'll see what happens. We might go ahead and book compact cars for Maui and Kauai through the rental company, and then cancel if we end up getting a good deal on a convertible through priceline. Or, if we get close and aren't having any luck with the convertibles, we will bid on the compact cars to try to get a lower price. Either way, I'm determined to get a good deal on rental cars. With normal prices for just the compact cars, we'll be paying more than $400 for our 10-11 days in Hawaii. I thought rental cars were usually pretty reasonable, but it really does add up!

The shower and bachelorette party are planned... well, the dates are set at least. My bridal shower will be on April 19, and the bachelorette party on May 31. Once those things start to hit, reality will really begin to set in. I was figuring it out... April 19 is a Saturday, and we need to have our invitations out on that Monday (April 21, exactly two months before the wedding). It is just so weird to be thinking about actually having to get the invitations done to mail them out! Eeeek!

Anyway, I know we'll get everything done, but it does give me a little bit of anxiety to think of how the next few months will go. On top of all of this wedding stuff, we're ripping up our floor in our kitchen and dining area this weekend (hopefully) and doing a few other things (replacing some molding, adding a pantry cabinet, etc.). Then on February 25, the guy is coming to put in a new floor (wood laminate). So that'll be sure to add some stress to the next couple of weeks. I'm sure we'll love when it's finished, though.

Michael's birthday was on Saturday. It was low key. We ran a few errands during the day, then went out to dinner. His friend (best man) and I had concocted a plan last week to surprise him, so he and his girlfriend showed up at dinner without Michael having a clue it was going to happen. It was fun, aside from me suffering from agonizing stomach pains (prior, during, and after dinner). But I was determined not to let it ruin the night. The four of us ended up going back to our place for cookie cake. Once they left, I collapsed on the couch with my stomach still bothering me. I had a low-grade fever, but by this morning, it had pretty much subsided. I still spent the day "recovering" on the couch, though. Which is maybe why I'm feeling so unaccomplished.

Kicking myself.

I'm officially having my first regret of wedding planning. Hopefully this is the only one.

I've never been a big fan of wedding videos. I don't think anyone really likes to watch them more than once, and I thought spending $1,000+ on having someone come to our wedding and film it was stupid. We spent a lot of money on a good photographer, and figured we'd have our moments captured in awesome, photojournalistic photographs.

Well, about a month ago, I had a change of heart.

I guess now that it's getting closer, I'm getting more emotional about it all. And I think that years down the road, there actually will be value in having it all on tape--the vows, the best man/matron of honor speeches, our crazy families, the dancing, etc. When I was on the fence about it all, I started asking around. Someone said, "Well, what about your kids and grandkids? It'd be really special for them to have a video." Someone else chimed in, "Wouldn't it be nice to have your parents and grandparents, aunts and uncles, all on tape to have long after they're gone? All happy and dressed up?"

All good points. Damn you, voices of reason.

So I began the search for videographers. I want a good one. I don't want some crappy video. But I also just want the basics. I want there to be some basic editing so we don't have to sit through six hours of boring to see the highlights. And I'd also really like the "recap of the day" feature, where the videographer slices video pieces of the day together, set to music. You get to see the whole day in like 3-4 minutes. Perfect for most people who want to see your video.

And our last requirement? We'd like it to be $1,000 or under.

Oh, and... available. This person needs to be available.

And that last thing--well, that's what is causing all of the problems. 'Cause, you see... we have less than five months to the wedding. So all of the people I've found who have great websites and great video samples on those websites? Well, they're booked. Of course they're booked.

I'd like to give myself a swift kick in the ass for not realizing I wanted this sooner. We could have booked this last summer and found someone without a problem, I imagine.

But now? Noooooo.