In the mail!

Well not quite yet! I walked to work with the save the dates in my bag...and forgot to throw them in a mail box on my way! So, in a few minutes I will go get them in! I recommend everyone do save the dates! It forces you to gather addresses and get organized which will make invitations much easier!

For the most part these went off without a hitch. A few minor snags.. my apologies to Lynn and Kelsey, I hand wrote the "L" in Castle Woods and it's probably only one word too.. but it was late and I had no more envelopes left. I figured you wouldn't mine ;)

URGGHHH!!!!

Half way through printing the save the date envelopes the printer ran out of ink!! It's 11:00PM and I actually thought about driving out to the 24 hour Walmart in the suburbs to get ink... oh well.... I'll hit Cartridge World tomorrow and they will go out later in the week!!!

We did so much!!

Well it's Sunday night and Mike and I are relaxing with a glass of wine after a fun-filled weekend!

Friday we were both able to get out of work early so we could make it to Iowa by early evening. We were really excited to have dinner at Huckleberry's, the restaurant we were considering for our rehearsal dinner. I'd eaten there sometime in high school, but not since then so we were unsure. Turns out we LOVED it! It's a cute pizza, italian place in the District of Rock Island, very quaint with a touch of Chicago!! Needless today say, we booked! After dinner we went to a martini bar with the fam and then met up with Mel Mel and JJ later for a night cap.

Saturday we had a lot on our agenda. First stop. a local vendor where we picked out our gift that we will be giving our guests at our wedding. Just a hint, yuummmm..but we'll keep it a surprise for now! Next stop was a visit to our cake baker Jeff. Upon arrival Jeff made a comment on how I sent him "quite the package"..basically I sent him some ideas to use as inspiration when designing our cake. Jeff showed us a picture of his design and I was speechless. It was perfect and I am so excited to see the real thing! Jeff then gave us three different flavors that we had selected to taste. We took them back to my parents and clearly had a favorite! All I can say is that Mike and I are still talking about how good this flavor was and how we can't wait to eat it again! So, we definetely had a clear winner.

Later in the afternoon we meet with a potential officiant Rev. Roger Butts. We chatted with him and got to know each other over a couple hours. We really took a liking to him, he even had us both a little teary at one point. So, Rev. Butts will be marrying the Brown's on Aug 2.

After all the events of the day we went out for a fun dinner with Mom, Dad, Mel and JJ and then out to the Lodge. While Mike and I were enjoying a drink when we got all sappy again since we will be staying there on our wedding night.

All in all it was an excellent weekend! I feel very relieved since we were able to accomplish so much!!

p.s SAVE THE DATES AND HOTEL INFORMATION WILL BE MAILED THIS WEEK! YAY!!!

Coincidence, I think fate

I was just reading a profile on my astrological sign, Taurus. I learned that my lucky numbers are 2 and 8..... hmmmm

08.02.2008

Super Exciting Weekend!

It's Wednesday but I am already getting ready for the weekend! Erin will be in town from Kansas City so we will be doing lots of eating, drinking and shopping. We will also be visiting Paper Source hunting for the perfect paper for my save the dates! I can't wait to get them printed and out the door!! It will seem official to me then!

Also, limo has been booked.. yay! Another thing to ease the stress :)

cracking up!

http://www.theabbeyhotel.com/Video.html

mike and i were cracking up when we watched this video the other night, not sure why we found it so funny but we did!

this is a teaser video from the Abbey, you may have seen this on the hotel site... but somehow we missed it!

just another manic monday

Mike and I took a much needed break from planning this weekend and did a lot of sleeping! This week we have a couple of goals.. picking a limo service, a rehearsal dinner site, ceremony music, and getting our save the dates printed and in the mail. I'm most excited about the save the dates! Erin, one of my bridesmaids and a super talented designer, has created some lovely options for me to pick from. They look awesome!!

Another thing I am considering is to hire a "day of" wedding coordinator. I know if I don't have someone making sure everything is getting done and vendors are showing up throughout the day I will be very nervous! I will be talking to her later in the week.

Still a lot going on... an a lot I would like to share, but there has to be some surprises!

p.s. hotel info will be posted soon!!

back to square 1

All this talk about the Abbey and its possible conversion got me thinking back to why Mike and I picked it to begin with. Both the Abbey and the Abbey Station are almost 100 years old. Many of the orginal details have been kept up or fully restored to look as beautiful as ever. I love the beautiful celings in the ballroom and detailing that makes me feel like I am in France(lol). That being said, this was not that easy of a decision to come to, one reason being that the outside of the Station does lack some aesthetic appeal. I mean it is still on the train tracks and in the middle of some box cars. Regardless, Mike and I both felt this place was the most "us" of all that we looked at. We had a lot of fun looking at other places and I really enjoyed exploring the QC again for the first time in years. Here are some of the places we looked at that were on the top of our list before we decided. Two are from Stoney Creek Inn and the other is the Blackhawk Lodge...and then some pretty churches before I learned they don't joke about having to be a member in order to be married in their facilities.

Abbey to become "Re-Habbey"

Yes, front page news! Our ceremony venue, the Abbey Hotel, will most likely be converted to a swanky rehab facility sometime in the future. Think Intervention, if you've ever seen that show. I guess this means 5 years from now, instead of spending the night at the quaint hotel where we were married, one of us will have to acquire an addiction to get back in!

P.S...
Dad called today and all is fine for August. The change will not be taking place before then and hopefully not at all!

Phew!

deep breath

It may appear as though I have been slacking here... but that's not the case! This weekend was another jammed packed one spent planning. We spent Saturday and Sunday in the QC again. I was estatic to get one major "to do" checked off my list, you can probably guess but I won't say :) Mike and I also took a little tour of some rooms at the Lodge Hotel in Bettendorf and decided that even though we both LOVE this hotel, we will probably recommend our guests stay somewhere a little closer to the Abbey Station.. but we'll see. I have to say the Lodge has an amazing brunch on Sunday, next time I plan to be feeling better so I can enjoy the UNLIMITED champagne. We also decided where we want our rehearsal dinner but need to confirm they are available. A couple more key things to go and I will be very relieved!

O, and I've been spending some time on theknot.com lately. Below are a couple of my favorite weddings I've seen.

http://weddings.theknot.com/ODB/THEMES/REALWEDDINGS/View.aspx?ID=27475

http://weddings.theknot.com/ODB/themes/realweddings/view.aspx?id=23591&style=Outdoor%2fGarden&pageIndex=2

Champagne and Lodging

Well, it's almost Friday and Mike and I are planning to head on over to Iowa again to take care of some business. We still have so much to do...tonight we are going to make a list of the things we want to get done this weekend. One thing we will be doing is dragging our bums out of bed Sunday morning to have brunch at the Lodge in Bettendorf. We are also going to take a look at the rooms there to see if this is the hotel we will recommend people stay at. I myself would like to make my way to the Black Bear Lounge after our reception to enjoy some champagne and more dancing! Some other hotels we are thinking of are Stoneycreek Inn Moline, the Radisson Davenport, Holiday Inn Rock Island and the Isle of Capri Bettendorf. We are planning on getting a block of rooms once we decide which hotel we will suggest people stay at. That info will go out with the invites. Until then, the links for the hotels are below if you want to take a look!


http://lodgehotel1-px.trvlclick.com/

http://www.isleofcapricasinos.com/Rhythm_City/

http://www.stoneycreekinn.com/locations/index.cfm?LocationID=10

http://www.radissondavenport.com/home.aspx

http://www.ichotelsgroup.com/h/d/hi/1/en/hotel/RKIIL?&sitrackingid=9333216&sicreative=1075515497&sicontent=0&siclientid=1952&cm_mmc=Google-PS-HolidayInn-_-G+B-AmericasEast-_-IL-RockIsland-_-1075515497_holiday+inn+rock+island%7C-%7C100000000000001341356&gclid=CIuGppStwJICFSMLIgodB1jRXg

The Big "C"

Yes, the CAKE. Mike and I both love cake so this is another thing we are excited about. We've booked the baker and the cake ideas are in the works. Well, there is one minor snag... the dress comes back to bite me again. The baker likes to have images of the dress and flowers along with our ideas then ties all the elements together in the design. So, needless to say I am stalling a bit. This snag has not stopped me and my internet searches! No one will know until August 2 what the finshed product will be, but here are some cakes that I really like and Mike too :) I have an underlying theme running through my head...we'll see if I can pull it together!