-Start planning early! We had a year and one-half long engagement, which allowed me to plan one big thing each month and enjoy the process, rather than feel stressed or overwhelmed by it. This method helped a lot, especially since I was in nursing school at the time!

-Invest in a good photographer & videographer, but remember that ensuring your personalities mesh well is just about as important as the quality of the vendor’s work, because they are going to be in close proximity to you at all times on your big day. Our videographer was good at what he did, but he was annoying and far more concerned with flaunting his level of expertise than with paying attention to our wishes for the video.

-Shop prom racks at any & all department stores or formal wear stores in the spring for potential bridal or bridesmaid gowns – many times, no one will ever know the difference! Trust me, because I did it and people oohed & ahhed just as loudly over my unique dress that cost a small fraction of one from a chain like David’s Bridal!

-Shop ETSY and eBay for wedding accessories! These are great resources for wedding favors, hair accessories, bridal party gifts, etc. My favorite eBay vendor was Butterfly*Enchantress Designs – I found perfect handmade seashell hair pins for my summertime outdoor wedding, and they will make custom orders as well. http://stores.ebay.com/Butterfly-Enchantress-Designs and http://www.etsy.com/

-I highly recommend Good to Go for catering needs – the food was amazing, professional servers, great presentation of food, and the best prices by far! (1019 Riverside Drive in Macon, 743-4663)

-Eat your own reception food! I’ll never forgive myself for having no clue just how tasty those crab cakes were that we hand-picked for our perfect menu.

-Indulge in a scheduled after-party – there is no shame in stretching out your big day into multiple festivities, and those aunties and old family friends of your parents do not need to know just how cute you sound when you slur your words, profess your love for your new hubby, and sing along to the music after lots of champagne & Irish car bombs!

See? Wasn’t that fun?!

Made by our wedding videographer and played the night of the rehearsal dinner. It’s pretty good, and it features “Bravado” by Rush. (I wish YouTube and Google made it possible to set the preview image of videos.)

Thank-you cards! Although I have penned many, there are still piles of cards left to be composed. I feel terrible about taking so long to get these notes out, because we really are overwhelmed with gratitude for all the wonderful gifts we received. However, I like to personalize each one, so if anyone on my list is reading this, please be patient with us!

In other news, I am off to bed now. Tomorrow is a work day!

Want to get married? You should do it at Mountain Valley Chapel.

Now that the frenzy of fun has slowed down for us, and we can finally sit back to watch a movie without feeling guilty or making tons of mental lists, we are turning our attention back to our sadly neglected site. Sorry it’s been so long, but we are vowing to be better. Look forward to a recap of our fantastic wedding journey, from before the big day to the present…promise!

We met Jerome, our wedding photographer and arguably one of the best CIT students our program will produce, for some engagement photographs on Monday. We’ll begin posting them on Flickr very soon. He took most of the shots with his own old-school Nikon (it uses film), and a couple with my Canon.

He brought the developed photos to me at Panera yesterday, and I have to say I was impressed. There’s a sample above. More soon.

Autumn and I just returned from a day in Atlanta registering at Crate & Barrel. This wraps up our three weekends of wedding registration, adding to our already completed lists at Macy’s and Target. So, friends, you can now go shopping for your favorite couple.

Tomorrow, we are meeting with our photographer for some engagement pictures. We plan to throw an engagement bash — for ourselves, since no one else offered to — sometime in the near future.

Next weekend, we’re meeting with our videographer to make our “Love Story” video. Should be a hoot. Pray for good weather.

Spring Break will have us staying local and doing more wedding things, along with those real life commitments that keep getting in the way.