Going Retroactive for a Bit

So, I thought about it, and I thought some more, and I decided that the whole point of a blog is to tell someone's story. In the case of this blog, it's the story of a bride that is overly excited about her big day and looking to save a few pennies by making everything myself. Regardless, the only way to properly start a story is from the beginning. So for those of you who are actually reading this, and know me in person, bare with me while I give some background.

Without going into too much detail; Tom and I have been close friends for 11 years. I met him during my senior year of high school. He lived in Missouri, I lived in Maine, so we had a friendship. We talked on the phone pretty much daily through my college years, and at the very least we sent each other e-mails to keep in touch. We never intended to have a relationship, and we actually supported each other through various relationships along the way. Needless to say, a greater power took over, and we fell in love anyway. About ten years later, we decided to finally give a relationship a shot. I was at a point in my life where I really just wanted to start everything over, so I gave it a chance. I visited Missouri, and had a wonderful time. Three months later, I moved from Maine to Kansas City to live with Tom. The following February, he proposed. We set the date for September 10, 2011 knowing that it was going to be a long engagement. We figured that this way people can't accuse us of rushing into things. On a more logistical level, we also figured it would take that long to be able to afford a wedding. We initially started wedding planning in Missouri, we had this beautiful garden picked out to get married in, and the whole wedding was going to have a "Midsummer's Night Dream" theme. Fate stepped in again, and we moved back to Maine during the summer of 2010. Fortunately, I had not yet put any deposits down on the wedding in Kansas City, and we just decided to start over from square one. Being less than on the wealthy side, and wanting to wow my guests with a ceremony venue, since most of the guest list is coming from out of state, many of whom have never seen the ocean, I decided to look into having the ceremony at a state park. After racking my brain about local state parks, I came across the idea of having the wedding at Fort Popham. Imagine the ruins of an old fort, surrounded on three sides by ocean and sand beach. Our ceremony is going to be held in the courtyard of the fort. To my surprise, the venue fee is nothing, and after writing a letter to Maine State Parks and Recreation, it's mine. I confirmed it on Saturday, actually.

The next thing I needed was a reception venue, again, we aren't on the wealthy side. So I hit up google and started looking for options. After coming across some rather ridiculous venues ($1,000,000 in insurance? $8,000 catering minimum? Really?!?) I was fortunate to find the Kennebec Tavern and Marina. As the title implies, it is on the water and has it's own marina. We would have the reception in Sequin Hall, and since there is a restaurant attached that insists on doing its own catering, we would be getting away with about $25/person for the reception. That is more of what I was looking for. The added perk? Since we are getting married on the water, and having the reception on the water, and saved money in the process, we are hiring a boat captain to taken me and Tom on a private cruise up the Kennebec River after our ceremony so that we can arrive at the reception in style.

I guess in terms of wedding inspiration and theme, I guess you can say it created itself. We are having a nautical theme, but not a cheesy whimsical one, instead more of an elegant, historical boat theme. Tom and I are history geeks after all. I'm letting the fort stand for itself in terms of decoration, I really can't compete with the ocean. We are going to have an arch to get married under, an aisle runner to mark the way, and flower cones decorating the aisle. The reception venue is a whole other story. The room is already decorated in a nautical theme, with wooden boats and stuff, I'm just going to go along with it. I'm hoping to get wooden sailboats for centerpieces, along with mason jars filled with sand, seashells, and a candle. Hopefully the wedding arch and flower cones will also be able to make an appearance at the reception. My colors are going to be victorian lilac, celadon, and ivory. In English, that's a silvery lavender, blue-ish light green, and well, ivory. They fit into the antiquated theme quite nicely. I have also met, and chosen my florist, who is going to follow the color scheme with green hydrangeas and lavender roses.

That's my background, in more of a small novel than an outline, but now the stage is set, the story is started, and I can start sharing my projects!