Wednesday, September 24, 2014

Weighing In & Wedding Planning: Venues

This morning was the first time I've weighed myself in a while.  Since I've been working out consistently for about 10 days now, I was of course expecting a miracle, but instead, I just got a reality check...

177.5

Still in the same area I have been for the past few months.  Now that I have a great workout buddy, a consistent workout schedule, a wedding to get in shape for, and I'm eating really well, I know I'll be out of the 70's in no time!

On a more exciting note, I am pumped to join the Wedding Wednesday link-up!

Wedding Wednesday

Mary at Little Bit of Class Little Bit of Sass will no longer be hosting after this week, but Kristyn at Chits & Giggles will be taking over.  I am excited to share my wedding ideas, and to read about the plans of others!

For those of you that did not read my last post, Nick proposed a few weeks ago!


Our wedding date is 6/6/15 so wedding planning is already in full swing!

We chose an early date because I am a HUGE procrastinator, unless I have a tight deadline.  If I had a year or more to plan, I would just wait until the last possible moment, and then scramble to get everything in place.

This week, I am going to share a little bit about the venues we chose.

The wedding ceremony is going to take place at Library Park in the town we live in.



The stone building was erected in 1894 and was the town's original library, village hall, firehouse, and jail, all in one.  In 1923, the village hall, firehouse, and jail were relocated, but the library remained there until 1978.  After that, the building was put on the National Register of Historic Places, and is used for local events. 

We had to put down a $100 deposit to reserve the park.  This deposit is fully refundable as long as there is no damage to the property, and we clean up after ourselves.  Our reservation also includes access to the first floor the library building, for no extra charge.  We plan on having the ceremony outdoors, but in the event of rain, we'll move into the building.

Conveniently, our house is only about a mile from this park.  The plan is to have the girls get ready at our house, or my aunt's (she lives about 2 miles outside of town), and the guys will get ready at the other house.  Nick and I do plan on seeing each other before the ceremony so we can get a bunch of pictures taken care of beforehand.  We will still do a first look shoot though, so there is still some element of surprise for Nick seeing me in my dress for the first time, hence getting ready at separate houses.  

Our reception will be a short 15 minutes away from the ceremony site at The Heights Event Center. 


I nabbed these photos of The Heights from the web since I haven't taken any myself yet.  

You can get an idea of the set up of the room from the first picture though.  Behind the point of view of the photographer, is the dance floor, the piece of wood sticking out to the left is the bar.  The second picture is of the foyer area outside of the reception hall.  

It's such a nice, large space for a very reasonable price!  The owner/event coordinator of the venue is also amazingly nice.  Like, the nicest person I have ever met.  He is beyond excited to work with us, and is ready to help us in any way possible.  The reservation fee for the center is $3 per person which includes set up and tear down, waitstaff fee, and white linens!!  We can also use any decorations they have on site for no extra fee.  What a steal!

The owner of the venue also owns a restaurant so they do in-house catering.  Nick and I already did a food tasting with him at his restaurant, and daaayyyyyuuummm, their food is SO good!  I'll save the food details for another post though :)

So far, wedding planning has gone very smoothly, and things seem to just fall into place.  I really hope it continues that way!


Thursday, September 18, 2014

I'm back! Again!

I apologize, once again, for my long absence.

Life got a little crazy the last few weeks, and I just had to step back from blogging.

Some of the craziness included:  being super busy at work, and not having time to write; my brother calling off his wedding; my brother and 9 year old nephew moving in with us; wedding preparation activities for my friend Heidi's wedding that is in 3 weeks, and....



I'm engaged!!!!!!

Nick proposed over Labor Day weekend, and we have already been very busy with wedding plans. 

 We have chosen 6/6/15 as our date so we really need to be on top of things.  

Our ceremony site and reception venue are already booked, we have decided on half of our menu so far, our bridal party has been chosen and asked, colors have been decided and decor planning is in process, I am meeting with a potential photographer next week, and I have an appointment to try on bridal gowns on Oct 3.  

I think we're doing pretty awesome so far!

Not only has blogging taken a backseat over the past few weeks, so has fitness.

I have finally started getting back into a routine this week though.  

My neighbor, that has a two month old, wants to get back into shape, so we have become workout buddies.  

We made a workout schedule that goes like this:  Monday - Insanity DVD; Tuesday - Running & Abs; Wednesday - Barre DVD; Thursday - Running & Abs; Friday - Yoga to stretch it all out; Saturday & Sunday - on our own to do our own things.

We unfortunately didn't do anything on Tuesday because I ended up going to a bridal show after work, and got home late.  Monday, we did do Insanity and last night was Barre.  My body hurts, but it's such a good hurt!!

I have also been reading through Chris Powell's Choose to Lose book, and I will start carb cycling next week.

I am beyond excited to be back...back to blogging, and back into a fitness routine.  

I am also super excited to share some of my wedding planning details with my blogging family!