Let the Planning Begin!

Well, the day after our engagement, Andrew and I agreed that we would be taking it easy for the next week or two, settle into "engagement" mode, and retrain our mouths to say "my fiance," instead of "my boyfriend/girlfriend." Three weeks later, my mouth is STILL getting used to it!

Four days after the engagement, my mom sent me an article titled "Top 10 Mistakes Wedding Guests Make, and How to Avoid It." Hmm, interesting tid bits, I thought. And ooh! Another article that looks intriguing. One thing led to another, and I ended up clicking on The Knot badge that was in one of the articles. Something I swore not to do till another week or so! Thus began the planning.

The next day (5 days after the engagement), Andrew and I went to Barnes and Noble. I felt the need to buy my 3-ring Wedding Planning Binder with everything I should need and know in wedding planning. Along with that came books on wedding ideas, on bending the rules on traditional weddings, and 1,001 budeting ideas. There goes waiting a week or two!

Since then, I have read every one of those books, three magazines, and have torn The Knot and Brides websites apart, and not trying to overwhelm myself with *too much* information. ;-) I can only focus on what I need to be doing in the first month/month and a half, since we are looking at a November wedding and don't have the "suggested" one year of planning.

Three weeks of being engaged, and I have my wedding shoes (reminiscent of Cinderella's glass slipper, but an open toe stiletto!), and my wedding dress!!! Yes, I work FAST! It only took one week and four bridal salons. And I honestly found my dress at the second store, but I had to check out the last two stores for peace of mind.

We're now visiting ceremony/reception sites ~ appropriately starting at Disneyland this past Thursday morning! Oh, it's my number one choice! :-) Picturing the wedding there, we will have the ceremony in the Rose Court Garden, followed by cocktail hour in Neverland, and the reception in the Sleeping Beauty Pavillion, which - funny enough - looks more like the Beauty & The Beast ballroom. Our wedding consultant, Traci said it probably wasn't named Beauty & The Beast Pavillion because the grooms would be offended. ;-)

Sunday morning, we have an appointment with Malibou Lake Mountain Club (and yes, "Malibou" is spelled correctly). Also on our list of sites to see is the original Queen Mary docked in Long Beach. It's so classic, and with the cruises that my family and I have taken on the Cunard ships (Queen Elizabeth II, Queen Mary II...and my parents just took a cruise on the newest ship, Queen Victoria), it would be such an experience to be married on this legendary ship.

More to come...