I am happy to report that, almost a year to the day that Jake and I got engaged and a measly 7 months before our wedding, Jake and I have booked our first vendor! That's right folks, an actual decision has been made. We need to sign the contract and mail in the deposit but essentially it's a done deal: Josh Gruetzmacher (a VERY talented photographer that I went to high school with) is going to be shooting our wedding! Jake and I met with him last time we were in SF and loved the vibe we got from him and everything that we talked about (and his pics, ob), so after getting the money situation figured out with my parents we were able to finally lock down a price and move forward with booking. Also as a result of this, Jake and I will be taking our engagement pictures next week! We are meeting Josh at 2:30 in Santa Cruz and taking our pictures on the UC Santa Cruz campus because (1) That is where we met and (2) It is one of the most beautiful and diverse locations I can think of : ) Where else can you be within walking (or hiking, depending on how you feel about hills) distance from old barns, ocean-view vistas and beautiful redwood forests while surrounded by the nostalgia of a place where you spent 4 years turning into an "adult"? Banana Slug territory, of course!
So now that our money situation is getting straightened out, a lot more decisions such as these will be made (for those of you who haven't planned a wedding and aren't independently wealthy: figuring out money/budget stuff with family sucks. period). I have an appointment to try on dresses (yet again, fingers crossed this time!) AND we are going to our (hopeful) venue tomorrow to meet with the events manager so Jake and my mom can see it in person and we can get moving with booking it. The venue is perfect for us: it's called El Capitan Canyon, located about 10 minutes north of Goleta (aka Santa Barbara for those of you who don't know central coast geography) and right across the beautiful 101 freeway from the Pacific Ocean. You can check out the website for details, but basically El Cap Canyon has about 200 cabins and tents located along a creek that goes through a mile long canyon, it's awesome. For the wedding we will have the top 1/4 mile of the canyon reserved for the entire weekend, which includes cabins around a meadow with a yurt and fire pit and picnic benches and 17 miles of hiking trails : ) The cool thing (or difficult, depending on how much of a Debbie-Downer you are) is that every guest HAS TO stay on the property, so basically Jake and I are envisioning a long weekend with 150 or so of our closest family and friends hanging out and having fun with us, pretty sweet huh? We think so : )
There! Fun new information has been reported. It is really starting to feel like we are actually going to get married... I think that after Jake's brother has wedding #2 this weekend (Jake is the best man) we can take a deep breath and really start to focus on getting everything together. I must say though, my goals was to get some major stuff figured out before school starts on August 30th, and though this "figuring out" has really all happened in the last week or so, I think I'm actually attaining my goal. Despite this, I think it's only a matter of time before I have to hire a planner because, as I keep saying, once school starts my brain has only about 10% availably for anything non-teaching related! Good thing we are getting the major stuff booked now...
I think that's about it for now, I haven't been sleeping well lately and should probably go to bed. Who knows, In less than 24 hours I could possibly have both a wedding venue AND a dress picked out! Actually that being said, the adjective "indecisive" was not used by accident while titling this blog, so I'm just going to stay hopeful that the venue at least will be taken care of tomorrow : ) Goodnight world!
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