Wedding Checklist

When I first was engaged last August, I did not realize just how much work we would be putting toward planning the wedding this year. So, here are all the different things that we have been thinking about for the last several months... and some other things we will be expecting to focus on for the next few months.

Venues
We have the church reserved, and the reception hall taken care of, but even with those, there are a lot of things to consider:

Ceremony Site: The Church of Saint Rita
Since we've decided to have a Catholic Mass, we have reserved the Church of St. Rita in Cottage Grove, MN, and are surprisingly pleased with our experience so far. But we still have to get our pre-marital course taken care of before our wedding - It's one of the Catholic things that is a must for marriage.

Reception Site: Historic Concord Exchange
For our reception, we are having 250 guests gather at the Historic Concord Exchange in South St. Paul, MN. It works very well for us, because it is such a unique venue. It can accommodate all 250 of our guests, and the majority of what we need can easily be provided. It is a historical landmark listed on the National Register of Historic Places as Building #79001235. And it looks like a castle.

Attire: The Wedding Shoppe
So far, all of our attire is coming from The Wedding Shoppe in St. Paul.

To get started with the attire, I do have my dress. It is a Mori Lee ballgown, and I absolutely love it. It was for a great price, and The Wedding Shoppe has an excellent alterations department as well.

My bridesmaids are all wearing Alfred Angelo gowns with a few other criteria (I like "criteria" better than "restrictions"). The dresses are all in grape - which is a deep purple - floor length, and satin. Since they are all different, I want them to be comfortable and love what they are wearing. All of my bridesmaids - I have five - love the color. So, I know they will all be happy with their dresses.

We don't have the tuxes figured out yet for the guys, but since those are rentals, we do have more time to iron out those details.

Music
Here is one area where I am really lucky. I'm in one of the ensemble's at my church, so they are performing the music for the ceremony. The only hitch is that I can't sing with them, but I'm over it.

The Concord Exchange also has its own DJ services, so they are going to be taking care of that as well. Looking at our budget layout, it is actually going to be under what I had originally planned.

Food
The catering is going through the Concord Exchange as well; they have a huge variety of menu options, which is wonderful. We still have to plan what we are serving, but we at least know who is providing it.

We don't have a baker quite yet... so the cake still needs to be figured out, but I'm sure we'll find something. There is a baker down the street from where I'm living, so I might check them out.

Decorations and Paper Products
We are planning to mostly turn the decorations and stationary into do-it-yourself projects. We have a rough idea of what to do for these, and we'll start ordering supplies very soon!

Invitations: Cards and Pockets
One vendor for our paper products that has been amazing is Cards and Pockets. They have wonderful customer service, and are providing a lot of our supplies for invitations and other pieces of mail.

Wedding Rings: Rogers and Hollands
Rogers and Hollands have been wonderful. My engagement ring was purchased there, as well as Tony's wedding band. We still have to finalize my wedding band, but I'm sure that we'll take care of that soon!

Photography
Our photographer is one of the women I went to college with. She is absolutely amazing, and I cannot wait to meet with her again to get her into a contract! I know her website is currently under construction, so when that is updated, I will add some more of her information as well.

There is so much more that I know I'm not adding, but this is a good start. It has the basics: Where it will be; What we'll be wearing; What we'll listen to, and what we'll eat; How people will know about it; what we'll get for each other; and how we will remember.

As we get further into the planning and into solidifying the details, I'll be able to put in more information and as the DIY projects come in, I'll be able to add some pictures and information for what we're doing for those as well. I'm very excited to be able to share these ideas and the planning memories here.