Drumroll please..................

We've selected our venue!!!!

Ceremony space via Our Forever Promise Weddings

Reception space via Catering DSM

We will be getting married at the Temple for the Performing Arts! I am very, very excited. It is right in Downtown Des Moines, and will give our out of town guests a great feel for all that the city (and the state!) has to offer. It is a gorgeous, gorgeous space, PLUS I have a personal connection there. Growing up, I sang in the Des Moines Children's Choir, which eventually became the Iowa Youth Chorale. We rehearsed in one of the smaller rooms in the Temple, and had concerts in the same space where we'll have our reception! One of the first conversations Mr. C and I had was about our love of singing. Had he grown up in the DSM area, he probably would have been in that choir with me.

From a practicality standpoint, the venue is awesome. As I said it is right in the downtown area, which means that it will be very easy for guests to get around. Most of the local hotels offer a shuttle service to and from the airport, and it is a very walkable downtown, so we can probably get away without having people rent a lot of cars. Plus, there are wonderful restaurants, shops, parks and museums right around the area. And, there will be plenty of places for us to go for some great photos the day of the wedding!

Can you tell I'm excited?

Today's happy song

We've been working on making some big wedding decisions the last week, and some days it has gotten exceptionally stressful. Then, every now and then, you're cruising around on the internet and you hear the perfect song to bring you back to the place you want to be. Today, for me, this was that song.

Wedding Craft One Conclusion, or Please, Please, Please

Check out Part One of this post!

Sorry to leave you hanging with that last post, but I wanted to make sure all of my girls had received their
necklaces before I gave too much away. Actually, I totally blabbed with my mad and matron of honors and asked them before they got them, but patience has never been my virtue.

So, the big reveal!

We'll have to see how many knots actually get tied, but I thought it was cute. I won't make them actually wear the necklaces day of if they don't want or if they find something better, but my dear future sister-in-law put it on right away :) Made me pretty darn happy!

Here's a look at the supplies:

The papers I designed myself on InDesign at work over my lunch breaks. Nothing too exciting, but they get the job done. I printed them on some leftover thick paper we had sitting around the apartment, cut them apart using my fun little paper cutter, punched the holes, slipped the ends of the necklaces in, and then put them in the boxes. 

I had planned on purchasing boxes online, and had actually placed an order when my coworker asked if I had any need for some old cardboard jewelry boxes she was getting rid of in our gift shop. Heck yes I did! She gave me a stack, and saved me a few bucks. Honestly, the biggest expense was shipping them to my ladies across the country!

I'm so glad I did these. They came together really well, only took about an hour when it was all said and done! 

Wedding Craft Number One, Or Hopefully No Green Necks

So, as I've mentioned before, Pinterest is a wonderful and terrible thing. There are so many IDEAS, which also means there are so MANY ideas. It can be a little dangerous. But, pretty early on, I found one that I knew I wanted to do.

I have a number of remarkably special women in my life, but for me knowing which of those women to ask to stand with us was pretty easy. There are other great women not in the bridal party that I am really hoping to include in other ways, because gosh I'm lucky and know a lot of amazing women.

But, I wanted something special to ask my bridal party. On pinterest, there were lots of suggestions, but this was my favorite:

Via Cafe and Cream

I debated for quite some time about the type of jewelry to get for the girls. Finally, I decided on a necklace. Most of my girls don't wear extra rings or bracelets, so it was a pretty easy choice. I also wanted something in a knot or bow shape. Initially, I looked on Etsy, and did actually find a necklace I liked until I did the math and realized that, for five girls, I'd be looking at over $75. 

In the grand scheme that isn't terrible, but I wanted to see if I could find a less expensive option that I still liked. After much web browsing, I found an adorable necklace from Forever 21. I don't think the girls will mind me telling you that the final tally was $1.80 a pop, and I really don't think they look cheap at all. The true test is if they turn anybody's necks' green. 

Waffling, or It Is All About Two Families Coming Together

A few posts ago, I weighed the pros and cons of the various locations we were considering for our location. As you may recall, Mr. C is from Connecticut, I'm from Iowa, and we live in New York. We did a lot of thinking and decided that, logistically, we were really leaning towards having the wedding in New York. We even went and looked at a really great venue that we were very very happy with. Both of us walked away imagining our wedding day there. Here's a photo of the site. Lovely, right?

via Matt Ramos Photography

The night after our venue visit, I called my parents and let them know that we'd found a place that we really liked. I'll preface this by telling you that my parents are awesome. They are exceptionally supportive, have always been there for me eve during some really tough times, and are some of the most practical minded people you'll ever meet. That's why it was such a shock that they were so upset when I told them we were looking to get married in New York. Mr. C and I had both assumed that once we laid out the practicalities of it, they'd understand and be right there with us. 

Now, they both said that no matter what, they'd be wherever we were with bells on. But, I could tell they were really unhappy. It took about a week for us to connect again, and to be honest I was over everything wedding. I cried more times than I can count, had my awesome maid of honor bring me some chocolate milk, and was generally just miserable. Finally, I got my parents sat down over Google Chat, and we were able to talk everything out. Their big suggestion was to do two separate days, one in Iowa, one in New York. Two days, two groups, hopefully with some people able to travel but really one of my family and one of his. 

Mr. C and I sat down and had a big heart-to-heart about this. I was pretty distraught, trying to figure out how we were going to work two parties into our budget, and how we would be able to make everyone happy. And then, Mr. C, in his brilliance, said the exactly right thing. "Isn't this whole process about our two families coming together, to celebrate our new family? And if we have one day with your family, and one with mine, that is kind of contrary to the point." 

So, we completely scrapped the idea of two weddings. I called my parents, and told them we were going to get married in Iowa. Mr. C's family, bless them, are totally okay with it. We'll try to do a special dinner with his grandparents and anyone else who can't make it, and try to set up some sort of live video feed for the ceremony so they can watch. We actually went over to see his parents and sister this weekend, and they really reassured me. I can't tell you how lucky I am to have this awesome family that I get to be a part of. They are really supportive, and now we can start moving forward with the actual planning of this thing!

It's What's for Dinner, or Groceries and Recipes

I feel like we've divided the chores in our place pretty well. Mr. C has absolutely no interest in cooking whatsoever, so I do almost all of the food prep in our house. As payback, Mr. C takes point on laundry and also does most of the post-dinner dishes.

Overall, I probably spend around 2-3 hours over the course of a week gathering recipes, figuring out the best schedule for meals, and prepping our food. We go grocery shopping together, from the list that I put together. Here's what this week's list looked like:

Vegetables/Fruit

Zucchini

Broccoli

Spinach

Apples

Fish/Meat

93/7 Ground turkey

Chicken breasts

Frozen salmon

Carbohydrates

Whole Wheat Rotini

Whole Wheat Spaghetti

Canned black beans

Canned cannelini beans

Dairy

Shredded cheese

Reduced Fat Feta

Fat Free Greek Yogurt

Condiments

Rice wine vinegar

Light sodium soy sauce

Snacks

Vegetable tortilla chips

Pretzel rods

Honey mustard dip

This is pretty typical of what we buy when we go grocery shopping, which happens about every week and a half. Our pantry is pretty well stocked, so we only need to occasionally buy things like the vinegars and soy sauce. We go through quite a bit of pasta and beans, and I work hard to incorporate lots of fresh vegetables. 

So, you've seen the groceries. But, what do we actually do with them? To make planning a little simpler, I've loosely assigned cutesy names to each day of the week, to give me at least a little bit of guidance. Here's the list of what we're cooking chez us this week. 

Meatless Monday: Grown up mac & cheese with beans and squash

Turkey (or other poultry) Tuesday: Greek turkey burgers

Wok Wednesday: Crockpot cashew chicken

Thursday night I've got a meeting at work, so Mr. C and I are on our own (which likely means Subway for supper)

Fiesta Friday: Black bean quesadilla

Scrimping Saturday: Leftovers!

Seafood Sunday: Grilled salmon

Then into next week, it looks like this: 

Meatless Monday: Broccoli peanut pasta

Turkey Tuesday: Chicken with a homemade creamy pesto crust

Wok Wednesday: Spicy salmon stir fry

Lunches are made up of a combination of leftovers, soups we've got in the freezer, crockpot bbq chicken, and Mr. C often goes out for lunch with coworkers.

So, that's our meals. I'll try to share some of the recipes as we make them, and hopefully I'll remember to take pictures before we eat all of it!

The Question of Where, or Pick a State, Any State

We just wrapped up a very fun but very exhausting weekend at Mr. C's reunion. It was great getting to spend time with some of his friends, especially the couple who live down in New Orleans that I hadn't met yet. But, as I said, it was exhausting, and I felt like I spent most of the weekend telling people that we haven't planned anything for the wedding yet.

On the way down, we had a big talk about the beginning logistics for the wedding. This gets complicated very, very quickly. You see, I am from Iowa, Mr. C hails from Connecticut, and we now live in upstate New York. So, where do we get married?

Iowa:
Pro: Traditional for a couple to be married in the bride's hometown
Pro: Most of my family and many friends still live in Iowa.
Con: We would have to travel back to Iowa many times for planning, flights for which cost about $1,000 for the pair of us round trip, plus any days off of work.
Con: Mr. C's grandparents actually live in Upstate
NY, and a trip that far would be very difficult
Con: All of Mr. C's familiy and friends would have to travel

New York:
Pro: Where we live already, so less stress for planning
Pro: Easier trip for his grandparents
Con: No real emotional attachment for either of us here. We live here, but we don't necessarily feel like this is "our" place.
Con: Higher cost of living (aka cost of wedding) here than in Iowa
Con: Very small number of our friends live around here, so everyone would have to travel. I don't think some of my good friends would be able to travel this far.

Connecticut:
Pro: Where Mr. C's family still lives
Pro: Not too far from where we are now, so it costs a tank of gas rather than a pair of plane tickets to visit for planning
Con: Not many friends or anybody other than Mr. C's immediate family in the area. All of my family and friends, and most of Mr. C's would have to travel.
Con: Higher cost of living than both Iowa or NY

We sort of agreed that if we're getting married out east, it may as well be here over Connecticut. So, really we're deciding between Iowa and NY. At this point, it is looking like New York may take the cake, for purely financial reasons. Flying back to Iowa for planning is EXPENSIVE, and that's money we could be using for the wedding itself rather than purely traveling. Plus, if I DIY anything, it'd be hard to transport there for the wedding itself.

Still, we have time and other people to consider before this decision is final. We are hoping my parents will be able to visit soon, so they can actually meet Mr. C's family. In addition to everyone knowing everyone, that'd be a good chance to talk about logistics and expectations. It doesn't look like that will happen for awhile, but hopefully before too much longer!