Drum roll please.....

Two weeks ago I was driving to a dress shop talking about the wedding on the phone with my mom. (What will we talk about when the wedding is over?) We'd been talking about having the wedding in May of 2011, Memorial Day weekend. TWO THOUSAND ELEVEN!!!!!!!! 20 months away. It felt like a REALLY long way away. But, I thought that would be the only way to get everything I wanted.

So, my very tip top priority was asking Fr. Dave Pivonka to marry us. He was my spiritual director at Franciscan University and is a dear friend. I thought for sure 20 months away he'd be free. He wasn't. So what now?!

We tossed around a few other dates but none "felt right". Then mom suggested that we just have the wedding THIS May. My response was "sure Mom, whatever", thinking that getting ANYTHING I wanted would be impossible. Mom called my top reception venue choice and my top Church choice. They were both free ON THE SAME DATE in May 2010! We took that as a sign, and booked um dano.

Then I called Adam Bitter, a remarkable musician who we wanted to do the music for the Mass.

I called my good friend, photographer Scott Stanley, he trained me to photograph weddings. I love his work and I love the connection he tries to foster with his clients. He understands photography is about relationship and I couldn't imagine anyone else photographing our wedding.

Mom called Bob Kuban. You know...Look out for the cheater / Make way for the fool hearted clown / Look out for the cheater / He's gonna build you up / Just to let you dooooooooown. We always wanted him to play at the reception.

And of course, I called back Fr. Dave Pivonka.

And guess what?! EVERYONE WAS AVAILABLE ON THE SAME DATE!!!!!!!

Can you believe that?! It was like our date just fell into our lap! It was just meant to be! And, ironically, a very significant date in my history (graduation from high school, first day of the Crusade for Life). As hokey as it sounds I feel like we didn't choose our date, our date chose us!

How did you decide on the date for your wedding?

(Photos Courtesy here, here, here, here, me and me)

Wedding Crashers

I drove to Indiana for Mrs. E's beautiful wedding. I figured "heck, I'm only SIX hours away from home, maybe I should stop by and say hi". It was, um, a HAIR out of the way, but SOOOOOOOOO much fun it was totally worth it. I called my Mom when I was halfway there to ask if they wanted some company that weekend. She was happy to have me and reminded me that I would never be considered "company". ;-) Thanks Mom.

As we were plotting what we'd do with our brief visit we hashed out QUITE a plan. We had been tossing around a few potential reception venues. One was Andre's West, not too far from my parent's home. SOOOO, since it was a Saturday night in the middle of prime wedding season, and we were dying to see Andre's West in ACTION and we didn't have anything else to do. . . Mom and I decided to CRASH a WEDDING. It was the most hilarious thing I've done in ages. Mom and I got all dolled up and waltzed right in to the venue like we were Vince Vaughn and Owen Wilson. We totally held it together until some random woman waved at Mom and I lost it in a fit of giggles! :-) I'm sure other guests thought we were very rude, walking around critiquing everything... but in the end we decided that our venue will be ANDRE'S WEST! And a special thanks to cousin Sandy who figured out a route which bypasses the TWO sex shops you have to pass to get there... which was my only hestitation in going with it!! ;-)

No luck

Since J and I live in Birmingham, but are getting married in St. Louis, we have to squeeze a lot of venue searching into very short trips home. My first and only qualification for a space was that it was different. After some unsucessful visits, I'm wondering if it's neccesary to have a unique space or if I can tranform a "cookie cutter" space into something magificent.

Here are some unique places that ended up being losers.

1. The Landings at Spirit Golf Club: Dad's #1 choice, since they offered him a free round of golf if we booked with them. This was the first place we visited. It was lovely, had nice views of the golf course, was in our price range... but it was just TOO small. Sorry dad.

2. The Kemp Auto Museum: Very sleek, modern and sexy featuring some awesome old cars. Also a tad too big. I'm afraid it would feel cold and impersonal to our guests.

3. The Old Post Office: I fell in love with this venue from the outside, but once inside it seemed kind of oddly configured and cramped.

4. The Crystal Ballroom in the Renaissance Grand Hotel: Where as the Old Post Office and the Landings were too small and the Kemp Auto Museum was too large the Crystal Ballroom was JUST RIGHT. I loved it. In fact I'm wiping the drool off my keyboard as I type, I love it so much. It has floor to ceiling windows that feature stunning views of my beloved St. Louis. It's truly grand. It makes a statement. But, alas, if we went with the Crystal Ballroom we could only invite 5 people. And they'd have to byob. It's way out of our price range.... so unless we win the lottery this one's out.