Jessica and Paul's Planning Journal: Getting close, 12 days to go!!!

[j_lehr]

I tried to start a planning journal several months ago but I wasn't very good at keeping up with it. I recently became unemployed and have been spending a lot of time browsing the boards. I love reading everyone's planning journals and have been inspired to start my own again. It is my hope that I can keep you as entertained as you have kept me. Everyone on here is so creative and your weddings have been absolutely beautiful.

I would have loved to have a Disney wedding...but it was also important to me to get married by our priest and I don't think I could have convinced Father Pat to go to Disney. I love Disney and we were just there at Christmas time, but I did convince my DF (who is not *gasp* Disney obsessed, like me) to spend a few days at Disney after the wedding. After the wedding we are going on a cruise for 6 nights then on to Disney for 5 nights!!! I really hope everyone doesn't mind me sharing even though I am not technically a Disney bride.

One of the things I love about reading other planning journals is looking at the pics. So I will definitely post as many pics as I can over the course of this journal.

But it is late so I will give you the basics for now. My DF, Paul is 42 and I am 31. This is a second marriage for both of us. I also have a 14 year old daughter, Nichole. While I wish I had met Paul earlier in my life, I know that we are both who we are today because of the things we have been through.

Here is a picture of us at Epcot over Christmas (we had just found Nemo!)

Paul proposed to me on the day we were leaving for our Christmas at Disney vacation, December 22, 2007. We had just surprised my daughter with the trip (she thought we were spending Christmas in Florida at Paul's sisters house) and the car service was due to come in an hour. I am running around the house gathering last minute items and he stopped me to ask me if I was surprised. I answered him, why would I be surprised, I knew we were going to Disney and he shows me the ring and says, are you surprised now. It was a really great way to begin a Disney vacation!

Here is a picture of the engagement ring.

Tomorrow I will post all the details: my dress, bridesmaid dresses, etc.

Thanks for reading!!!

Jes

 

[hmgolden]

I love your ring! Can't wait to see more details

 

[j_lehr]

I love your ring! Can't wait to see more details

Thanks! I love sapphires...even though I was born in January.

Thanks for reading.
Jes

 

[j_lehr]

My DF, Paul, always tells me I have the best of intentions, lol. Sorry it took me a few days to get back to updating our journal...why is it something always comes up?? (this is probably the reason why I wasn't good at this the first time around but I will try anyway)

Our wedding is in 6 weeks! So most of the planning has been done and this will be more of a journal for me to share rather than our step by step plan. I love to plan - vacations mostly, but l enjoyed planning our wedding and really until my recent matron of honor incident, have been lucky that everything has gone really smoothly!

You can read about the matron of honor incident here: http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=1538504

So now my bridal party consists of my two sisters and my future sister in law and I am actually really excited about that. I think in the long run that my ex-MOH did me a favor.

I go for my first fitting on Tuesday. I am super excited but a bit disappointed in myself because I never did lose those 10 pounds I wanted to lose. I guess I was never motivated enough which I don't entirely understand since I really did want to lose them. But I keep telling myself that the most important thing is that I am marrying the love of my life and he doesn't care what I look like.

Here is my wedding dress. It is Demetrios and I ordered it through Macy's bridal salon.

I tried on maybe 5 dresses and fell in love with this. I love the way it sweeps to the side...it makes me feel skinnier than I am! I am also one of those girls that went in with the idea of what I wanted and came out with something totally different. The idea just didn't look as good on me as it did on paper.

All of my bridesmaids plus my daughter is wearing the same dress. My daughter is walking me down the aisle but then she is also acting as one of the alter servers (we are having a catholic wedding). Here is the dress they are wearing, it is from Jordan fashions.

Our wedding colors are navy and silver so this dress will be in navy. But I only could find a front picture in red. My daughter is going for her fitting at the same time I am so I am hoping to get pictures of her in it. Here is the back of the dress in the right color.

My flower girl is wearing this dress. My niece Mikayla is our flower girl and she is 8. However, she is really small for her age so she looks like she is about 5. I think it works out great because I don't really have to worry about her walking down the aisle and she will also be able to keep our ring bearer on track (my newphew Dylan, who is 4)

The flower girl dress is also from Demetrios I think.

We are all wearing the same shoes...real basic, low heel (cause I am not a heel person and after reading all the reports of girls wearing flip flops...I am jealous. I really wanted to be like the girl from Father of the Bride and wear sneakers! I love sneakers!!) The bridesmaids shoes will be navy of course.

The girls are all wearing jewelry that my older sister, Melanie, is making. She does a lot of beading and made all the jewelry for her own wedding. When it is finished I will post pictures. I am wearing jewelry that Paul has bought for me. Our first christmas together, he bought me a cross that diamonds and sapphires and for this past Valentine's day he bought be sapphire earrings.

All the girls dresses came with a wrap which we are required to wear in the catholic church. I am having one made - the bridal store ordered material and the appliqués to match my dress. Will post pictures once I have some. =D

I think that completes the bridal party.

Thanks for reading,
Jes

 

[j_lehr]

Outside of the dresses (my favorite part ) , I wasn't really sure where to start, so I thought I would start with the ceremony. We are getting married at our church in a 2 pm ceremony on 9-22-2007 (exactly six weeks from today ).

Our official bridal party (as of now )

Bride: Me (Jessica)
Groom: Paul

Bride's side:

Matron of Honor: Melanie - my older sister
Bridesmaid 1: Tammy - my younger sister
Bridesmaid 2: Sue - Paul's only sister (but she is younger than him, older than me)
Flower Girl: Mikayla - my 8 yr old niece (daughter of Melanie)

I am actually not sure about Tammy's title right now. When my friend, Janne, was going to be my matron of honor, both of my sisters were bridesmaids. But when Janne backed out, I needed to promote one of them because it would have been weird to have Sue has my matron of honor seeing as I have only met her once (and she wanted to walk down the aisle with her husband, who is a groomsman). Paul and I decided to give Melanie the title because she is a better fit with the best man and Tammy is a better fit with the other groomsman. BUT I think Tammy's feelings are hurt that I chose one sister over the other and now I am wondering if I should make her a maid of honor? What do you guys think?

Groom's side:

Best Man: Rob - Paul's friend & co-worker
Groomsman 1: Chuch - his only brother (also younger than him, Paul is the oldest)
Groomsman 2: Jim - his brother in law (who is married to Sue)
Ring Bearer: Dylan - my 4 yr old nephew (son of Tammy)

We only invited my daughter and our immediate nieces and newphews to the wedding because if we invited all of our friends and families children, it would have exceeded our max guest list and budget plus we didn't want our reception to turn into a circus. Most people have been pretty understanding of this. We also decided we wanted all of our family to have a special role in our wedding.

Paul has 1 niece (Kristen) and 2 nephews (Kyle and Carter) and I have 4 nieces (Amber, Allison, Savannah and Mikayla) and 1 nephew (Dylan). My daughter is walking me down the aisle and "giving me away". She is quite proud of this. Kristen, 16, Amber, 16 and Allison, 14 are going to bring the gifts up to the alter (we are having a catholic mass). Kyle, 13, Carter, 11 and Savannah, 10 are going to "usher". Basically they are going to hand out programs and point people in the right direction and after the wedding give out bubbles.

If you got this far, I know you have been reading for quite awhile (thank you!!), so here are some pictures for you.

The flower girl basket:

The ring bearer pillow:

Our unity candle:

I don't have pictures of our flowers as I have no clue what the bouquets will be made of. I have no clue about flowers in general (except for the occasion roses I (hope to) receive, LOL). We wanted the flowers to be all shades of pink (except hot pink) and we are leaving the rest up to the florist. It is a family owned business and I used to bowl with the one sister so I am pretty sure they will do a good job so I am not worrying. The only thing I know for sure is that there will be these white lilies in my bouquet that have a hint of pink to them. We are also taking the ends of the girls navy dresses to wrap the stems in so that we can tie in the navy color.

I also wanted to post pics of our save the dates and invitations. Everything had a touch of navy in it. =D

Our invites were sent out on July 24 and we have already started to receive the response cards back. It is very exciting getting mail these days. We expect to have around 100 people at the wedding.

Thanks for reading and I really hope I am not boring anyone!!

Jes

 

[Glorydaz]

Hi Jessica,

heavens no, not boring at all!!! it's amazing how much fun it is to read about all the brides and plans and especially to see photos - it has inspired me beyond belief! all your details look fantastic but more so - your Df and daughter look very happy and that is the most important aspect of all...looking forward to reading more!

Michelle

 

[j_lehr]

I had my first dress fitting yesterday. I have to admit, I wasn't over the top happy like I thought I would be when I first put on my dress. I loved it when I tried it on but yesterday I just felt "big". I think part of the way I was feeling had to do with the fact that I have a nasty summer cold and I didn't really care for the steamstress. She kept trying to push me into doing things that I wasn't comfortable with or didn't like. (For example, she tried to convince me that I shouldn't wear a bra...I am big on top...maybe it would have looked ok but I would have been miserable and uncomfortable without that added support!!)

Here are some pictures. They arn't the greatest as my 14 year old daugther was taking them

The front:

The back:

This is with the dress bustled (well set to be bustled so I guess that is why it is a bit lopsided cause it is being held up with pins)

Please let me know what you think!

Thanks,
Jessica

 

[j_lehr]

My daughter also had her fitting yesterday too.

Thanks for looking/reading my planning journal.

Jes

PS: Coming soon (next few days): details on the reception & honeymoon!

 

[alltvseries]

 

[DisneyFairy19]

Beautiful Dress... You look gorgeous

 

[IloveChip]

Wow.. You look great in the dress.. I love the navy color for your bridesmaids!!! Great choices on the dresses and I have enjoyed reading your PJ!!

 

[j_lehr]

This made me laugh cause I am sure that is how I look for too many hours of the day. My DF is always like, you're on the Disney boards again?

Beautiful Dress... You look gorgeous

Thanks so much! I think I really needed to hear that. I think I am feeling better about things since I feel better (yay, my cold is almost gone) and I keep reminding myself that the only thing that really matters is that I am marrying the man I love.

Wow.. You look great in the dress.. I love the navy color for your bridesmaids!!! Great choices on the dresses and I have enjoyed reading your PJ!!

Thanks (again, it is really nice to hear that! Of course, who gets tired of complement? ). I love the color navy and at first I thought it would be too dark, but the first time I saw the bridesmaid dresses in navy (when they came in) I was so happy that I went with that choice. When the girls tried the dresses on originally, they only had red in stock.

Thanks everybody for reading!
Jes

 

[lurkyloo]

I love your dress - I too am a huge fan of the side sweep. I must've tried on about 15 of them cuz I just loved looking at my waist in them!

Good choice

 

[alltvseries]

This made me laugh cause I am sure that is how I look for too many hours of the day. My DF is always like, you're on the Disney boards again?

that's what my DF says when he knows I'm in the computer....don't know why?

 

[Iluffyou]

What a beautiful dress! You look great in it.

 

[j_lehr]

I love your dress - I too am a huge fan of the side sweep. I must've tried on about 15 of them cuz I just loved looking at my waist in them!

Good choice

Thank you! I didn't realize how much I would like it until the saleslady suggested I try it on. I am glad that she knew better than me what would be good. =D

that's what my DF says when he knows I'm in the computer....don't know why?

What's funny is DF is a big train geek (he even works for a company that makes model trains) so he is constantly on message boards about trains. Now how is that any different???

What a beautiful dress! You look great in it.

Thanks so much!! I can't wait to wear it. As of tomorrow, I have one month until our wedding!

Thanks to everyone for reading and posting!

 

[j_lehr]

Well I thought I would post my ceremony details. I am trying to do things in order so if I get this done, I can finally move on to all of our's favorite part - the honeymoon in Disney!!!

We are having the reception at a place in New Jersey called L'Affaire. I was in a wedding there last year and it was really nice. I wanted something simple but elegant. L'Affaire ended up being my 2nd choice, my first being really expensive - twice as much as L'Affaire - without any real obvious reason as to why. My DF, Paul, blackmailed me into L'Affaire by saying if we have the reception here, we can stay at the Poly at Disney. He knew I really wanted the Poly but at that time we were looking at moderates. So that is how we ended up at the Poly!

I won't go into all the nitty gritty details but I just wanted to share some photos. I am sure after the reception I can share more about the food, all I know right now is they serve a ton...they serve so much food at the cocktail hour no one will need to eat dinner! I have eaten there and the food was tasty but I have no pictures.

What I do have pictures of:

The favors:

It is a little flower pot with a bean inside that says Love. The bean actually grows. We are having a flower theme and I thought these would be perfect. Now I am a little upset because when I received them the boxes are a little beat up. Paul thinks I worry too much and he is probably right. Here is a picture of one I grew. Unfortuately I took the photo too late and the bean already fell off but the plant itself is still growing.

Since we arn't doing personalized champagne flutes (neither of us drink and we thought it would be a waste of money for something we will never use or look at again) I made wine charms to go on the base.

It is a little hard to see but they have my new last name. Thinking about it now, I wish I would have ordered charms for them to say bride and groom. Oh well.

These are the garters I bought. I found them on E bay. I really wanted them to be navy and the only ones I could find at all the online wedding stores were white, ivory or lite blue. I love these!! Not sure if they belong in the ceremony section but hey, that is the only time anyone will see them anyway!

I don't have any pictures of our center pieces because the florist is making them but I am in love with our theme. Since we are doing flowers as the theme, we are naming each table after a flower and the centerpiece will match. Each vase will have a navy ribbon around it to tie the centerpiece back into our main color scheme since the flowers usually arn't navy. =) On the table with the guest "book" (ooh, I forgot to get a photo of that, I will have to add it later - it is a vase for people to sign instead of a real book), we will have a vase filled with one flower from each table.

We also have an artist make signs for the tables so instead of using the traditional numbers we will have signs that indicate what table it is. So for the daisy table the sign will have a picture of daisies and the word daisy in navy. I can't wait to see them and of course once I have pictures I will post them.

I am having a little trouble with my music selections but I will save that for another post.

I think that is all for now. I am going to post my bridesmaid gifts next and then the honeymoon.

Thanks for reading!

Jes

 

[KimAshton]

You looks beautiful in the dress.

And so does your daughter.

 

[jasonandlisa]

Both dresses are beautiful! Congratulations!!

 

[Loriann70]

Love the dresses! Congrads!