Wedding Wednesday - March Edition!

I know a lot of bloggers planning their weddings do a weekly "Wedding Wednesday", but I just don't think I have that much to say on a weekly basis between now and December about the planning, so I decided to try a monthly version!

At this point we've gotten a TON of the planning done, now it's just working our butts off to pay for it all!  Here's the run down of what we have done:

Venue: The Columbus Athenaeum for ceremony and reception.

Photographer: Erica Coffman of Erica Kay Photography will be doing both engagement and wedding photos for us!  She's a doll and I can't wait to work with her - I found her through Instagram of all places and was IN LOVE with her pictures.  We met with her just before our cruise and knew we had to have her!

Videographer - The fella's at Addvision will be capturing the moments as they happen and letting us replay some of our favorite moments after our day and for years to come with our family & friends with a  trailer teaser to share and the full day on HD DVD so we may never forget our vows, our friends and family on the dance floor and the way we looked during our first dance.  I debated heavily on the expense of the videographer but got a coupon for them via The Knot just before Christmas and saw it as a sign after drooling over the teaser videos for weeks online of other peoples weddings!

DJ - Columbus's own Mark Dantzer, formerly of WNCI 97.9 turned full time wedding DJ and podcast maker was on our vendor's approved list and I called him up and snatched him before the bridal shows started happening because I knew he wouldn't last.  I admitted to him I listened to him on the radio growing up and was having a bit of a fan-girl moment.. no big deal.

Officiant - Damian King will be performing our ceremony!  He was highly recommended on The Knot and since we don't belong to a church I wanted someone who will actually do a real ceremony and not just "I do", "I do" and it's over in 5 seconds.  Damian performs all types of weddings (multi-faith, non-denominational, etc) and I'm excited to have his experience and enthusiasm on our day.  We met with him and felt like old friends.

THE Dress! - As you all know, I said Yes! to the dress just a few weeks ago and went shopping in the Bridal District of Reading, Ohio, a suburb of Cincinnati.  I went to Bridal and Formal and had a fabulous experience.

Hair/Makeup - One of my bridesmaid's sister does hair, so she agreed to come to our hotel to do our hair!  We're working with January Adams, a licensed aesthetician, who will come to the hotel also for our makeup. Easy peasy!

We've met with our coordinator at the Athenaeum, Gina, and we've picked our bar selections, our decor, and colors.  She's going to be incredibly helpful and has been working and coordinating weddings at the Athenaeum for over 8 years.  They do all the set up, tear down, in-house catering, and just make it all work.  I'm so glad we went with them for the fact that I don't want my family, friends, and bridal party rushing around to set things up and have everyone stressing out on that day.  My goal is to relax, do as little as possible, and enjoy the day to the fullest and soak up every detail.

What's left?  Well, we need to choose the cake and flowers (also from the vendor list, so not high priority to find someone, but the cake is what Kyle is looking forward to most!), honeymoon location, registries, take engagement photos and make our save the date's and invitations.

The next thing on our To Do list is choose our Honeymoon location!  Since it will be mid-December, we think it would be best to do someplace more tropical but we're not big "sit on the beach" kind of people since I get so sunburnt!  I want to be warm but have options of things to do!  We're thinking of an all-inclusive somewhere (Jamaica? Punta Cana?) or a cruise but would love to go to Hawaii but can't stand the thought of being on a plane for a whole day each way of travel.  Suggestions are welcome!