No seriously… are you comfortable?  Do you need to use the restroom?  There’s a lot that goes into the best day of a girl’s life, are you sure you’re ready for it?

Alright, you asked for it!  Well, as 2011 is quickly slipping away from us, I want to take the next several days to catch you up on the wedding, honeymoon and our first holiday season as husband and wife.  It’s hard to believe that in just a few days we will be counting down to our first kiss of 2012!

Now back to the wedding, let’s just say that October 15, 2011 was an absolutely perfect day all across the board.  With a fall wedding in Indiana, you never really know what you will get with the weather; with rain on the radar, we hoped for the best but planned for the worst.  We worked down to the wire up until our rehearsal and then left it all up to fate from there.

At this point, I must take a moment and insert my extreme gratitude for all of the people who worked their tails off on the day of the rehearsal to make sure everything was perfect:

As I mentioned before, I could not have survived this wedding without my amazing mother who literally thought of every small detail and worked so hard to have everything done in time.  From the calligraphy on the invitations to the flower arrangements to the flower girl baskets and ring bearer pillow: everything was perfect.

The next person I couldn’t have lived without was my dear friend and bridesmaid, Erin, who flew into Indiana extra early to help keep me sane.  Little did she know that she would have to run all around the state of Indiana that day. (okay… slight exaggeration, but it sure felt like it!)  We delivered and unloaded all of the favors, signs, champagne flutes, etc. to the wedding venue.  Following that we helped put together the flower center pieces.  We then ran across town to get my last-minute bustle adjustment from Carmel Tailoring & Alterations who saved the day from a horrible alterations job I had done in Nashville.  We then hustled to a nail appointment and back to the hotel to get ready for the rehearsal dinner.

Meanwhile, my cousin Jenny helped my mom ALL DAY with flowers and then proceeded to pick up my finished dress from alterations.  Did I mention, Jenny had found the alterations company for me by calling a dozen alterations companies in Indy to find out who could do a last-minute job?  THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU!  I am so grateful for you ladies for helping make my life so much less stressful and making my wedding perfect!

That evening we met at Holcomb Gardens where I had to walk everyone through the plan I had in my head for executing this garden wedding.  Because Butler would not allow for seating to be in the grass, we had to get creative with our ceremony.  Our guests would be sitting on the pavement facing the long garden stretch and we would be walking towards the guests rather than through the aisle.  It was a totally different concept, but ended up working out really well.  Unfortunately the first and only time that I was actually able to put together that plan in my head was at the rehearsal itself- so I’m pretty sure my entire wedding party thought I was crazy!

We survived the semi-unorganized chaos that was the rehearsal and headed to Buca Di Beppo for our rehearsal dinner.  We enjoyed a great night of food, drinks, laughs, and tears with our closest family and friends.  We thanked our families and bridal party with gifts that they could enjoy at our wedding and keep as a memory of their part in our big day.  For the groomsmen, we gave them all a new pair of Chuck Taylor tennis shoes so they could get down on the dance floor comfortably.  In addition, we gave them each one of our favorite beverage dispensers, a Tervis Tumbler, which had a Butler bulldog and their name on it.

For the ladies, they each got a necklace and earrings made by my talented mother out of green Swarovski crystals to wear at the wedding and a pair of flip flops for the reception.  Our flower girls also got a necklace along with mini versions of their flower-girl dresses for their American Girl dolls.  Last but not least, our adorable ring bearer got a mini pair of chucks that he rocked during his infamous walk at our ceremony.  We are so grateful to all of our family and friends who helped make the ceremony flawless!

This brings us to WEDDING DAY!  Mother nature brought her a-game with a sunny fall day; not too hot and not too cold – with just enough breeze.  At this point, I knew that there was not anything else I could really do but enjoy the day, so I just rolled with the punches.  The next 24-hours flew by faster than I could have ever imagined!  Jordan and I decided to not talk to each other or see each other the entire day until we met at the altar.  In separate rooms, (on the same floor – yikes) we each got ready with our bridal party.  I was so lucky that one of my bridesmaids and best friends, Kasee, happens to be the most talented updo/styling masters out there!  She intricately designed my dream hair style which turned out better than I could have imagined.  I also had a makeup artist come to the hotel so that we never had to leave the room.  I had a great morning with my best friends, sipping champagne and getting beautified.

During this moment I must insert a HUGE shout out to our fantastic photographer and our videographer who met us at the hotel and spent the entire day with us.  Pete Nagy with Peter Jonathan Images was our photographer and Mary Howald with Sorella Filmworks filmed the day.  Both were so easy going and fit in perfectly with our day. Not only were their finishing products perfect, but we didn’t even notice they were there!  (Trust me, that is a good thing when you have a million other things on your mind.)  Although we didn’t notice them, we certainly didn’t go unnoticed in their eyes – they captured every moment that we didn’t even remember to help us recall all of those little moments that slip by.  Check out more of their work at: peterjonathanimages.com and sorellafilmworks.com

Jordan + Mandy Goetzke from Mary Howald on Vimeo.

After we were finally ready, we hopped into the limo which took us down to Holcomb Gardens.  The moment we pulled into Butler campus the waterworks started for this girl.  All of the memories of my time at Butler came rushing back; from the time I met Jordan and the wonderful relationship that evolved there – and now we would get married here!  I continued to cry the happiest tears while my mom and friends worked to get me in my dress, get my veil and jewelry on and calm my nerves.  After a pep talk from Whitney and hugs from my sweet flower girls, I was finally to marry the man of my dreams!

A large golf umbrella covered me up as I walked out to the gazebo where I would hide until it was time for me to walk with my dad.  As each bridesmaid and groomsman stepped forward, I couldn’t believe this moment was actually happening.  I grabbed my dads arm firmly and at this moment, which I was sure would bring me the most tears at all, I gave a pep talk of my own.  I told my dad that we had to get it together otherwise the only pictures of me captured as I walked towards my soon-to-be husband would be of my ugly cry face.  For the most part, we did pretty well.  Of course some tears were there, because what girl doesn’t get emotional when her daddy is about to hand her over to the love of her life?

Our ceremony was a perfect representation of our relationship and all of the things that were so special to us.  Our family friend, The Honorary Sara Lioi, was our officiant which was so special in itself.  Throwing us for a loop, Sara and my mom had arranged for someone very dear to my heart, Suzanne Richards, or “Aunt Suzi” as I had known her as for most of my life, to give our marriage address. For those who don’t know, Suzanne was also the attorney who handled my adoption case and delivered me to my parents when I was born.  Because this day was also shared with my entire birth family, her address was very special to my family and was an amazing surprise to us.

Other personal touches included the reading from our dear friend, Erin, which she selected privately and shared with us for the first time during our ceremony.  Erin chose “The places you’ll go” by Dr. Seuss which was the perfect selection.

Additionally we honored our grandparents who shared the day with us in spirit.  I chose to have my maternal grandparent’s wedding rings tied into my bridal bouquet in remembrance of them and their huge role in my life.

Finally, we chose a special song to be played by our musicians that’s lyrics were especially meaningful to us: “I could not ask for more” by Edwin McCain.  During this song we released a sky lantern which we had asked our close family and friends to write wishes for our marriage on the night before.

We concluded the ceremony by sharing our own vows and exchanging our rings. Sealed with a kiss, we couldn’t have asked for a more special ceremony.

Following the ceremony, the bridal party hopped in the limo and took pictures around campus while our guests headed over to our reception venue, Laurel Hall.  We were so lucky to even get to sneak into the historical Hinkle Fieldhouse for several shots!  I must share my utmost gratitude to “Park Monkeys Valet” (parkmonkeysvalet.com) who provided our guests with a flawless valet service as well as a convenient shuttle service to and from the hotel to the reception venue.  They insisted I wait to mention them as a vendor only after they have delivered their service.  Did they ever deliver!  Chris was my contact and was there the entire day (again, unnoticed to me) to help valet our guest’s vehicles for the ceremony and provide them with safe transportation to and from the reception so they could enjoy the party without any worries!  Thank you Chris and the Park Monkeys team for everything!

While we took pictures, guests enjoyed a cocktail hour with appetizers and beverages during which the Cocktail Sax Band played music in the background.  The bridal party arrived and relaxed upstairs with a beverage until it was time for dinner.  Guests were seated at tables named after places Jordan and I had been together with pictures of us at each place in a frame on the table.  (Even more of a reason why Erin’s reading fit in perfectly!)  We enjoyed dinner, drinks, delicious food and cake and speeches from my dad, Wes: the best man, and Collette: my maid of honor.

We moved from the dinner room into the solarium where Jordan and I shared our first dance… (Yes, it was to the first song we ever danced to together back on college: KC & JoJo: “Tell Me It’s Real”… no judging please.)  Then my “dadio” and I danced to “Crazy” by Patsy Cline, one of his favorites that always will remind me of him.  Jordan danced with his mom to “My Wish” by Rascal Flatts and then the dance floor was opened up and it was time to party!

Everyone danced and enjoyed some beverages and had a great time until they kicked us out!  Personalized wine was at the door for favors for the guests as they left.  (We were determined to come up with favors that people would actually use…and who wouldn’t want wine?!)  For the under-aged guests, we also had bundles of the famous Ohio sweet treat: buckeyes.

Guests left and we… went to bed partied on!  The bridal party hopped into a party-bus and headed to Broadripple for a night out (wedding dress and all) and closed down the town as we danced into the wee hours of the morning.

We woke up early on Sunday for brunch with our family and friends before we departed back to Nashville to leave for our honeymoon.  My aunt and uncle helped put together an amazing brunch in the hotel banquet room complete with mimosas and groom’s cake!  Speaking of my Aunt Jackie and Uncle Jim – another duo that we couldn’t have lived without in making our wedding weekend perfect down to the last moment.  Thank you for everything!

Thank you to everyone who shared in our amazing day, we are so blessed with such love and support in our lives.  As far as this marriage thing goes… well it really is just about as good as it goetz!  Stay tuned for honeymoon and holiday updates coming soon!

Last night we celebrated with our amazing family and wedding party after our rehearsal at Buca di Beppo!  We had a blast and a few happy tears, but it was definitely a great kickoff to our wedding weekend.

Right now it is 62 and sunny out and is looking to be a beautiful day.  Although it’s a little windy and chilly, the sun is shining bright and we are moving forward with our outdoor ceremony at Holcomb Gardens!  As a reminder to all of our guests, valet will be available at Holcomb Gardens for your convenience!

I am in the process of getting hair and makeup done, so on this note I will bid you farewell for now.  Thank you for all of your love and support, we cannot wait to share pictures with you later!

Well here we are just two weeks away from the big day!  I cannot believe that in just 14 short days we will be surrounded by all of our family and friends and having the best party ever!

The past two months have been absolutely crazy.  We have both been working full time while trying to plan a wedding in another state sans wedding planner.  I definitely don’t know what I would have done without the help of our family!  I especially want to thank my wonderful mother who has taken all of the stress of of me and onto herself and has spent the “relaxing” days of retirement running errands, making jewelry, tying ribbons on bubbles, helping me assemble invitations, picking out music, looking for shoes, selecting menus,… the list literally could go on for days!  On top of all of the tasks that she has so graciously taken over for me, she also manages to keep me on schedule and email me as each deadline approaches to keep my procrastination in check.  Thanks madre, I could not have done it without you!

That being said, I will admit that I was a little bit of an overachiever as far as my wedding undertakings were concerned.  I knew in my mind exactly how Jordan and I wanted our perfect day to go and have been convinced I could do a lot of it myself a lot better than any wedding planner or company could do for me.  When I figured out in my mind what I wanted our invitations to look like, I had the absolute worst trouble finding anything comparable to the vision in my mind.  I found some samples on Etsy that came semi-close, and emailed the individuals attempting to explain my vision to see if they could put it into action.  Can I please just say how incredibly insane the prices of custom invitations are?  I just couldn’t even think about paying someone that kind of money for an invitation when I knew I could design it myself!

So the project began right then as I decided to take a trip to hobby lobby and pick out everything I needed to make my own invitations!  I bought samples of paper and ribbon and glue and I came home and designed my invitation template.  I hand cut and folded the invitation pocketfold exactly like I had found online and cut all of the enclosures to size and was pretty proud of myself and my finished project.  The only problem… it took me hours just to make one exactly how I wanted which is when I realized there has to be an easier way, there is no chance that these people are taking this much time to make these invitations.

This is where my online search began.  I searched website after website to find pre-folded pocketfolds, invitation cards, enclosure cards, mattes, bellybands, etc.  I found the best price I could find and decided to just print my design on the already ready to assemble sets and assemble them all myself.  After designing the invitation and all of the enclosures, I finally had my finished invitation set and I couldn’t be happier.  Although we had some printing challenges, (who knew that most printers don’t actually cut to the edge of the paper and when you see invitations with designs all the way to the edge it meant they were cut down from bigger sheets…) I cheated the system and figured out how to get exactly what we needed and after a night of printing invitation after invitation and enclosure after enclosure, we were ready to assemble!

I took all of my supplies with me to Columbus and my aunt and I spend an afternoon gluing the invitations to the mattes, gluing the mattes to the pocketfold, trimming all of the enclosures and stacking them with the rsvp envelope, stamping all of the envelopes and stamping all of the rsvp envelopes while my mom hand addressed each envelope with her beautiful calligraphy.  A couple evenings of slaving over the computer to design and print the invitations and an afternoon of assembly and our invitations were complete, just as I envisioned in my head!

Hope you enjoyed the finished product as much as we did!

As always, thanks for tuning in – not too long and I will officially be Mrs. Jordan Goetzke!

Just when I considered possibly giving up the idea altogether, I came across Mary Howald with Sorella Filmworks.  I began looking through her past wedding videos on her blog and absolutely fell in love with her work and her personality.  The quality of what she produced along with the way she captures the weddings she shoots had me hooked instantly!  I started showing Jordan her videos and pulled up some of the work from her competitors and the quality couldn’t even be compared.  She blew the rest of the vendors that we had been referred to out of the water and we both knew, hands down, that she HAD to shoot our wedding!

I loved that when I asked her about pricing, she gave me a very honest response and a reasoning behind her price.  While the price at first may have felt in the higher end along with some of her highly referred competitors, she said something about her service that stood out to me and made me love her even more.

“We only have one package because we feel that we need that amount of time to create a great product.  We want to get bridal preps, special moments before the ceremony, ceremony, photo session, reception, emotion…all of it!  I used to have smaller packages, but I wasn’t able to create the product I was looking for.  I felt like I needed everything in there to create my vision.”

So many of the other videographers offered packages which required you to pick choose certain aspects of your big day to be covered.  You could opt for a lower price package and miss out on some of the moments that you would potentially like to capture but questioned if it would be worth it for the extra time.  You also could pick certain packages based on the quality of the final product and time it took to shoot, edit, etc.  I loved that Mary refused to lower her standards nor subject the quality of the finished product based on all of these extra factors.  Her bottom line was that this is what she loves to do, she knows what it takes her and her team to get you the best possible finished product, and she does a darn good job at it!

Make sure and check her our for yourself: Sorella Filmworks

I couldn’t be more happy that Mary has joined team “Good As It Goetz” and I cannot WAIT to see her work her magic as she captures our big day!

First of all, can I please say how fast this past year has flown by?!  I am sure that I have already mentioned that a time or two thousand… but now that I am less than two months from walking down the aisle, I really cannot get over how fast time flies.

It has definitely been an exciting past couple of months.  We have had the great privilege to attend weddings of several of our good friends and are so happy we could be there for their big days.  Congratulations to three new wonderful couples: Kate & Jon Klimek, Tyler & Josh Mitchell and Saige & Joel Smith.  We are so excited for all three couples and thank you for allowing us to be their to celebrate in your becoming husband and wife.

After the most recent wedding of one of our groomsmen, Joel, to his beautiful bride, Saige, we drove back to Nashville for the week.  We quickly turned right back around and headed to Columbus this past weekend for our wedding shower.  My birth mom, Devry, planned the absolute perfect shower for Jordan and I in Bellefontaine last Friday, August 19th.  So many members of our family and friends joined us at the beautiful Heydinger home for an outdoor evening Jack and Jill shower.  We couldn’t have asked for a more beautiful setting and the weather was perfect.

We cannot begin to express the gratitude we feel towards everyone who came and made the evening perfect for us.  Thank you for the great company and generosity!  A special thank you to the Heydinger family for opening your home to us and to Devry for putting together such a special evening that we will remember for a lifetime.

54 days left!

My boss gave us amazing tickets to the Titan's game! It was our first time at a NFL game.

Well, here we are again less than six months from our wedding date!  Didn’t the past year fly by so fast?!  I cannot believe that so much has happened and we are already back to the final months of wedding planning and preparing for married life!

I am starting to pick up where I left off one year ago – sending out save-the-dates, picking out bridesmaid dresses, menu & flower selection, parties, showers… the list goes on.  I feel like time is flying by and I have so much yet to do!  We have had a very exciting year and I would love to catch you up on what the soon-to-be Mr. & Mrs. Goetzke have been doing:

Jordan moved down to Nashville after graduation and has been working hard at Walgreens.  I have been working at an Aveda salon that has three locations here in Nashville and have had the privilege of working at all locations with some of the most amazing and talented women I have ever met.  I am very blessed for the opportunity and have made some of the best friends I could ever ask for who have become our Nashville family.  We upgraded from the condo I was renting to a beautiful house in Franklin where we have a fenced-in yard for the doggies and plenty of extra room to entice visitors from our out-of-town family and friends!

We had a VERY exciting year in our world of sports!  As everyone knows, my cheesehead fiancé is obsessed with all things Wisconsin sports related.  Fortunately for him, all of his teams have had a very big year.  We jumped on a red-eye on New Year’s Eve after a night celebrating the entrance of a new year with good friends and flew to LA where we got to watch Jordan’s Wisconsin Badgers in the Rose Bowl.  Jordan works on the side for a Wisconsin sports website/magazine and got to enjoy the game VIP style in the press box and it was very exciting despite their ultimate loss.  We enjoyed a couple days in LA where we took a private limo tour of the city while also humoring my desire to check out all of the celebrity homes!  We also got to catch up with some of my family out there and I met my beautiful new baby cousin who is absolutely ADORABLE!  We had a blast and I definitely wouldn’t mind spending more time on the west coast if the opportunity presented itself!

As the excitement of the Rose Bowl started to die down, the Packers stepped up and took the spotlight and made it all the way to the Superbowl.  Everybody looks forward to the Superbowl for all of the funny commercials, junk-food and parties… but I usually never get excited about the game itself so it was a treat for me to actually have a team to cheer for.  Don’t get me wrong, I live in Nashville now so I am starting to understand more what it’s like to live in a NFL town, but being from Columbus, Ohio I am definitely more of a college sports lover.  (Just like my daddy!)  Anyways… We decided to have our first party at the new house and invited our friends over for a Superbowl party!  We had a great time with good friends and this time we came out with a WIN!

Last but DEFINITELY not least – our mutually favorite team and #1 sports passion approached – BUTLER BASKETBALL!!  We definitely never imagined this year would live up to the hype of last years run to the national championship, especially after the loss of Hayward, but those dawgs are full of surprises and came through again!  We were so excited when we made it to the tournament and again to the sweet sixteen… but when we kept on winning our adrenaline was on high… that is until Jordan’s worst nightmare came true!  Our Butler Bulldogs would face his Wisconsin Badgers, a match up that gave him anxiety beyond belief!  Of course he couldn’t help but cheer for Butler, but deep down I think he would have been okay with either outcome.  We made it all the way to the national championship AGAIN and the amazing unity of the Butler community was shown once again and I feel so honored and proud to be part of such an incredible university.  Although the last game was not as pretty as last year, we proved that we have what it takes and got our name out to the world.  Although we didn’t get to attend any of the tournament games this year, we had a blast meeting up with fellow Nashville alumni and watching the game together.  (Shout out to the alumni department who sent us a big box of pom-poms, foam fingers (or should I say foam dog bones), bulldog masks, etc. – THANKS!) That brings us to now, where we are just 5 months from saying our vows on Butler’s campus, a day that will surely bring us closer to each other and our amazing alma-mater; we couldn’t be more excited.

Thanks to all of our friends and family for a great year, we really appreciate all of your love and support!  You can catch up on our past year in photos below!  I will try to keep the updates coming now that we are in the home stretch to our big day.

First of all, a HUGE congrats is in order to a couple who have been amazing friends to Jordan and I over the past 6 years!  One of my beautiful bridesmaids is no longer a bride-to-be, but officially Mrs. Pamela Fairchild-Clark!  Jordan and I were so honored to be part of Pam and Cody’s gorgeous wedding on June 12th in Indianapolis!  It was such a special day and it was so much fun being a bridesmaid for the first time!  We are so lucky to have them as friends and wish them a lifetime of happiness!

Now onto our updates!

A lot has happened in the past couple months since I last wrote.  Jordan graduated from pharmacy school (finally!) and officially moved down to Nashville!  Our families got together in Indy for his graduation in May and I am so proud of him for making it through!  I started doing some work for a tour manager on a fantastic national tour which really restored my faith in the industry and got me back into gear and focused on what I came down here to do!  I have been spending a lot more time focusing on my career and really trying to figure out what I want to do.  Having had this great opportunity working on the tour side, I have been really interested in working on the road with a tour for a little while!  This being said, I have absolutely no clue what is in store for me and while I have been spending more time pursuing my dream… I have been spending less and less time on wedding planning.  With our scheduled date being just months away and SO much left to be done, wedding became a huge stress factor and not as enjoyable as it should be.  With my work path so unpredictable and the wedding being in a different state from where we live and from where either of our families live… it just didn’t seem realistic to us that we could make everything happen in the amount of time we had to work with.

After talking with the venues, photographer, families and friends, we decided that we would postpone the wedding date for a time when we could all enjoy it more.  After five and a half years of dating, we figured we would rather take a little bit more time and really be able to put the time into planning and have it be more enjoyable for us and our families!  We have not set a new date yet because I would like to get some kind of grip on what is going to happen with my career first.  (Especially if I do end up working on a tour where I would be traveling, I want to know what kind of schedule I have to work with!)  We really like the idea of a fall wedding, so we’re thinking around the same time next year.  We also have to coordinate with the venues, catering company, photographer, etc. again so we will work with them and of course I will update you as soon as we have a new official date!  (P.S. Did I mention we picked the absolute best people to work with, they have all been really great about everything and held onto our previous deposits for the future date!)  Your wedding date is probably the only single day in your life where you can have all of your loved ones, friends, families, etc. in one place for you, so we want to make sure it’s the best day for everybody!

So that is the update and I suppose probably a good explanation as to why I haven’t been on here with any updates!

Oh! One last thing, we did FINALLY find the perfect bridesmaids dresses.  I went out with some of my beautiful bridesmaids… AGAIN…still in search of the perfect color green and the perfect material.  SUCCESS!  Thanks to the amazing ladies at Bella Bridesmaid, we found exactly what I’ve been searching for!  All of the girls love it as much as I do, so I am very excited!

That’s all for now!

Well this post is definitely a little bit late… but totally worth talking about!

Jordan and I had our engagement pictures during the crazy March Madness tournament!  It was so much fun because I got to be in Indy for the pictures and enjoy part of the tournament with my Butler friends.

Side note… How about them bulldogs? Made it all the way to the championship game! What an amazing run – so much fun and so proud of my Alma mater!

Our fantastic photographer, Pete Nagy, met us at the IMA in Indianapolis for a great shoot.  The weather was just starting to turn and we made it just before sunset.  I am really happy with the final product and am still deciding which to use for our save-the-dates!

I wish we could have held out a little bit longer so there was a bit more green on the trees, but the photographs turned out really well regardless.  (Definitely more motivation towards losing some major lbs before wedding day… blah)

This weekend I am going bridesmaid dress shopping here in Nashville with one of my lovely bridesmaids, Ms. Julia Daily!  It’s about time we get that nipped in the butt.  I am also in the process of getting save-the-dates together.  I am going to do a magnet!  My reasoning is… how many invitations/letters/post-cards/etc. do we all get in the mail daily?  Sometimes there comes a point where we haveta do a little out with the old, in with the new… Regardless however, whichever lovely cards we decide to display on the fridge the one thing that I never seem to have enough of is MAGNETS to hold all these lovely items.  This way it is the best of both worlds and maybe, just maybe, the money put into my save-the-dates will last on your fridge just a little bit longer… even if it is just to hold up the next invitation that comes your way!

Thanks for checking in, I hope you enjoy the pictures!  Make sure to let me know which one is your favorite – maybe the one with the most votes will be making an appearance on a magnet very soon!

The fun part of the wedding is now in full force!  We are at the point where we are starting to pick our colors, food, bridesmaid dresses, tuxes, flowers, cake, etc.  I have been really looking forward to this part of planning – it’s so hard to believe I am down to less than 8 months till wedding day.

This weekend I was spoiled to have 3 of my bridesmaids with me in the same town.  (Spoiled because no two of my bridesmaids live in the same place – they are all over: Chicago, Indy, Nashville, Denver and Phoenix)  They were so awesome and took time out of their short weekends to try on bridesmaid dresses!  We figured out a general style at least that we are going for and now that I know that the three of them feel most stunning in – I have a better idea of what to narrow it down to.

Lets back up for a minute… I forgot one very important detail… COLORS!  We had a hard time picking our color scheme.  At first Jordan and I wanted to do dark brown and aqua with pink and green accents.  Sounds weird I know but think somewhere in between this:

and this:

But we hit a small roadblock and COMPLETELY changed our mind.  The main problem was the brown.  We really liked the idea of brown tuxes and I still think if you found the right color it can be incredibly stunning… but that is the exact problem – finding that right color.  There aren’t too many designers that carry brown tuxes and when they do – there aren’t as many varieties as there are black.  We wanted a really dark chocolate brown because we didn’t want it to look like a wedding from the 70′s.  Because our groomsmen are as scattered as our bridesmaids – we wanted to save them the time and money and have the tuxes easy to access. (ie. Men’s Warehouse or the like…)  After trying on the only brown tux they had to offer we agreed that it was probably a safer bet to stick with the always classy black.

Because we change to black tux – we decided to change our color pattern all together.  After looking at tons of pictures, I decided that aqua bridesmaid dresses are a bit too cold feeling and I wanted something that would warm up the theme a little bit and also not clash terribly with the fall colors that will be surrounding us in pictures.

This all being said, please allow me to introduce our new color scheme:

I absolutely love the damask print and I think it is a really classy and fun way to add some nice detailing and save some money.  I really think by using a beautiful damask print runner on the tables, there is less of a need for elaborate floral arrangements and a nice small arrangement with tons of candles will be really lovely.

The bridesmaids will wear green dresses and the guys will do black tuxes with matching green vests – except for Jordan who will wear a white vest to match my dress.  (Which have I mentioned is AMAZING!)

This brings our little detour right back to bridesmaid dress shopping!  We had a great time and I have beautiful and amazing bridesmaids and I am so lucky!

Did I also mention – they are also all taking time out of their lives to do a bachelorette party for me in VEGAS?!  Talk about some awesome friends!  In September my amazing friends, mom, aunt and yours truly will be taking over Nevada!

Well, that’s all for today – check back in soon as I’m sure to have more updates in no time.  Goodnight!

So I know that I promised that I wouldn’t take as long to post again this time… and look what happened!  I am so terribly sorry, but I at least am writing this time with good news!

I FOUND “THE DRESS”!

I am so excited, running of the brides round 2 was even more successful than the first.  So… I know what you’re thinking – “didn’t she say she bought 2 dresses at the first running of the brides?!”… and you would be absolutely correct.

Last ROTB I could not decide between two dresses.  Let me just say, if I haven’t already, that wedding dresses are God’s gift to women!  They are so slimming and flattering and I got so excited about my waistline shrinking so much that I convinced myself that I fell in love with both dresses last time I went.  After I got home and as time passed – I realized, that I loved the fit and the prices of the dresses more than I loved them for my special day.

Now don’t get me wrong – both dresses are beautiful – they just weren’t EXACTLY what I wanted.  After thinking about it over and over again, I realized that this is the ONE day in a girl’s life where you can get away with having exactly what you want and nobody can tell you otherwise… and the more I thought about my wedding day, the less I thought about the dresses that I purchased.  I definitely wanted to have that feeling that I had a dress I couldn’t live without…

In the meantime I had been thinking about one of the first dresses I tried on at Demetrio’s in Indianapolis.  It was beautiful but out of my price range.  I knew the next running of the brides was coming up so I decided to wait for that before I dug as deep into my pockets as I could go to pay for my dream dress – hoping that MAYBE I would find something close at ROTB2.  The day before ROTB2, my mom, aunt and Devry and I went to a store in Bellefontaine to try on dresses there so they all could know EXACTLY what I was looking for.  Sadly, we didn’t even find a dress there that was just what I wanted – so we left with a general idea and prepared ourselves for another morning of waiting in the cold and running with the best of them.

(ps. To watch exactly what we went through watch this video courtesy of the Columbus Dispatch – You will even catcha  glimpse of yours truly! ROTB VIDEO)

Bright and early the next day – we waited in line and ran in with the other brides and grabbed as many dresses as possible.  At this point I was very discouraged and convinced that I would not find anything I loved nearly as much as the expensive Demetrio’s dress.  I was not even willing to try on any dress unless it met all of my qualifications.  None of the dresses we pulled met my standards – my mom and Devry went to barter with other brides while my aunt and I stayed in our try-on spot.  A bride near me borrowed our mirror to try on an absolutely stunning dress and to my surprise she took it off and decided it was not for her.  I immediately asked to try it on if she was done with it.  The dress was absolutely perfect – even BETTER than the Demetrio’s dress… AND… it was my exact size!  It was fate!  My aunt rushed to find my mom and Devry and they all fell in love with it the minute they saw it also!

The most important aspect for me was that everyone else agreed that “the dress” was “THE” dress… We were all a bit anxious about this because we all had certain details that we liked that were different and didn’t think we would find one that we all agreed on.  They kept telling me that I needed to go with MY instincts and what I felt perfect in – but I just felt like the perfect dress would call to everyone.  When everyone agreed the minute they saw this dress I was overwhelmingly happy!  It was an amazing moment that I got to share with my family.

To make it even better – I sent a txt of the pic to my bridesmaids.  When Jordan H. got it – she immediately took time off of her work day to call me and when I answered she replied with “Mandy, that’s the one!”  Nothing could have made my day better at that point than a great friend taking the time to call me and reassure me that I picked the perfect dress!

Luckily Gma Cathie and her sister were able to come and our amazing groomsman and friend, Greg, stopped by to give their opinions as well.  I was really excited to see what Greg thought because he’s always been a great guy to get advice on to know what men really think.  (aka. He tells me my black uggs make me look like Santa)  I wanted to get a guy’s opinion but couldn’t show Jordan – and he assured me that Jordan would love it – perfect end to an awesome day!

Now that my dress success post has turned into a 900+ word novel – I will end this post – but check back in later this week because I have exciting updates on color schemes and bridesmaid dresses!  (Oh… and not to forget a Vegas bachelorette party!)

Thanks for staying tuned!