Here Comes the Bride

...In 230 days!My wedding ideas have been heavily influenced by one of my favorite books, Legendary Brides by Letitia Baldridge.

Grace Kelly looks so poised and dignified in her photos. I especially like how John F. Kennedy and Jackie Bouvier had a traditional ceremony followed by a very casual farm reception. I hope to follow their model and have a classy, elegant ceremony followed by a very casual, outdoor reception on our farm.

I have decided that I am going to do my own wedding cake. After taking cake decorating classes over the past several months and learning how to do tiered cakes, plus with the experience of baking many cheesecakes for the restaurant for nearly four years, I feel like it is something I can handle. It will save us so much money and I just love the thought of doing my own cake. I will be making practice tiered cheesecakes over the summer, as well as preparing the real cake several weeks in advance (the cheesecakes freeze and thaw well; that is how the restaurant uses them) so it would not contribute to the last minute stress.

This past week, my mom and I enjoyed the rare treat of spending an entire day together running errands and doing wedding planning. We looked at churches, wedding veils, and discussed many little details.

We had lunch at The Cheesecake Factory, which brought to my mind memories of the last time we ate together at The Cheesecake Factory slightly over four months ago on my birthday. I remember we mostly discussed what we knew of Stephen and our preparations for his upcoming first visit. I was very hopeful at the time because I was so impressed by the little I knew about him through his correspondence with my dad, but there were still so many uncertainties and our prayers were just that the Lord would make His will very clear. As I sat in the same restaurant a few days ago, I reveled in God's wonderful faithfulness as I admired the gorgeous engagement ring sparkling on my finger!

Over the past several weeks I have corresponded with over twenty churches in my search for a sanctuary that will hold our number of guests. Very few churches allow non-members to use their facilities, but we were able to obtain special permission from a couple churches and have now narrowed it down to one in particular. We hope to firm up the details this upcoming week if we can secure the neighboring church's parking garage (it is downtown and the parking is extremely limited).

God has shown His presence beautifully in so many details-- from the way He orchestrated bringing us together, to the peace and clarity of His will in our courtship, and through many other details not even mentioned here, so I have confidence that He will make His leading very evident to us as we begin the planning process.

Soon I already need to be choosing my "save the date" cards and invitations! I don't know if most people buy them all together so they coordinate or if I can just buy the "save the date" cards now and then the official invitations in a couple months. I honestly always thought the "save the date" cards seemed to be a waste of money, but since our wedding is going to be near Christmas and a lot of guests will need to make travel arrangements, my mom and I decided it would be wise to have them. Following are a couple of my favorite formal invitation styles:

Do any former brides have suggestions as to where (online) one can find high quality, traditional, and economical invitations?

A December wedding is going to be a challenge because flowers will not be plentiful and the outdoor reception is going to be very weather dependent. We may have a reception hall as a back-up plan in case it is raining, freezing, or even worse, snowing. A few people have said that snow would be so beautiful, but seriously, around here if it snows it shuts everything down and most people hardly know how to drive in it. This is Virginia, not Colorado!

Of infinitely more importance than the church location, invitations, weather, and other minor details is the prayer that our wedding will be a blessing to our guests and that God alone will be glorified through our wedding day and entire marriage! I pray that our focus will be fully on the sacredness of the vows and the covenant we are making before God in the presence of our families and friends.

It is such an exciting time! I am so happy and in love with Stephen and in awe of God's faithfulness!