Flowers and Pictures and Music, Oh My!

Thanks to the FANTASTIC work of Marie Russell, our wedding planner at Bordeaux Events, we are narrowing down our list of vendors very quickly. We only have four months to plan and Marie has bravely taken on the challenge!

In just a few short days, Marie narrowed down our choice of venues and vendors to who was available for our wedding day (September 17!!!), has helped us come up with a budget, has mapped out a detailed "to-do" list, has given us tips and ideas...she has basically been a lifesaver for this busy couple that doesn't have time to do the legwork that she is doing for us. And she does it so cheerfully and with a smile. You can't beat that!



We will be traveling to the Outer Banks on the 26th of May to do some tastings, work on decor and design, and make our final selections as far as vendors go. Marie has set up our itinerary for us so we don't have to worry about anything other than showing up!

It will actually be a bit of a challenge since we may have to pull an all-nighter for our first meeting at 9 am since Matt doesn't get off of work until 11:30 p.m. the night before and it's a six hour drive, but we'll make it work. We always do! And we'll be live Tweeting and Twitpicking the whole day so you can join us virtually and help us select our cake, food, decor, etc.

I'll also need your help deciding on which wedding dress to choose. Pictures will be coming soon and I will put up a poll for voting.

In the meantime, here's what we DO know. We know where our ceremony and reception will take place. We will be staying in a large, 9-bedroom, ocean-front home for the week of our wedding. The ceremony will be on the beach in front of the home and the reception will be pool-side at the house.

And guess who is invited? ALL of you! Yes, we will be LIVE STREAMING our wedding so that those of you who can't come (we're limited to 50 guests after all) can watch the entire event live online. More details to come.

So who have we chosen thus far? Well, there's Marie of course, our wedding Fairy Godmother. Here's the rest:

• Photographer: Neil GT, who shot the cover of the current 2011 Outer Banks Bride Magazine. Isn't he amazing?!
  
  
  
  
  
  
• Florist and Designer: Renee Landry Style. Just look at her site. Are words even needed? It's like someone took all of my style, love of fun and taste and made a replica of me into a florist named Renee. She. Totally. Gets. It.
  
  
  
  
• Entertainment: This is MY wedding so there'd better be dancing!! If you've been a reader/friend of mine for awhile, you know about my deep-seated love of music so this vendor was crucial. We selected SoundWavz Entertainment, Inc. to be our DJ and they know how to get people moving. To quote Ke$ha in "Blow"..."DANCE!" That's an order! Ke$ha says so, so dance you must!
  
  
  
  
• Venue: As stated above, we have selected a gorgeous ocean-front house but the details on that will be kept a secret for security reasons until after the wedding is over. You WILL see pics during our stay, though, so be sure to vacation with us as we count down the days until the the big event starts!
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
• Dress: I am down to two choices but may add some more into the mix. Right now I have a maxi H&M dress from their Conscious Collection and an American Eagle dress. We will not be dressing formally, nor will we have a wedding party so we want relaxed, casual, beachy wear. I am marrying my guy barefoot in the sand! We wouldn't have it any other way! Better pics will be coming, along with the poll, to help us decide which dress is best.

So there you have it! I'll share more information on our vendors in detail as the planning moves along and I'll be sure to report which ones we choose the day of our trip to the Outer Banks. (we still need a caterer, baker for our wedding cake, and a videographer)



And last but not least, be ready for uushy-guushy, lovey-dovey posts that are all about our love story. I'll be sprinkling them into the mix here and there and you won't want to miss them! Especially if you have a vomit bucket on hand. ;) As the Boy Scouts say (and clearly they have this exact situation in mind when they say it), "Be prepared!"

Fine Print: So here's the part where the FCC or some other bureaucratic agency makes me tell you that I have received discounts from some of our vendors due to our writing about them here. What you really need to know, however, is that each vendor selected was chosen BEFORE any discounts were discussed. This is our wedding and we want the best for it and these are the best in our opinion. Discount or not, we would've chosen each one without hesitation. So there, FCC! :P