and so it begins...

Today is the seven month mark until my fiance and I walk down the aisle and I will become Mrs. NewName. Today also marks one month since we officially began co-habitating. Every moment from our engagement to this point has happened so quickly that I wanted to begin some kind of journal about these experiences - both the successes and the pitfalls.

Planning our wedding has been a joint effort and mainly fun, so far. FI and I are paying for the wedding ourselves, which means that he has a vested interest in every decision that is made. I feel lucky that we've worked well on compromising and incorporating aspects of each of our visions. Although we were engaged in March, we didn't start planning until May - about 9 1/2 months before the wedding. Our engagement is relatively short for our geographical area but, choosing a wedding date that is off-season has been a huge help in securing the vendors we like and in saving money. So far we have booked/finished:

• Church booked
• Reception hall booked, first tasting attended
• Guest list finalized
• Photographer/videographer booked
• D.J. booked
• Dress ordered and rec'd
• Save the Date's ordered and sent
• Headpiece purchased
• Monogram dress label ordered and rec'd
• Garter purchased
• Invitations chosen (will be ordered in October)
• Pre-marital seminar attended
• Favor boxes and candy molds ordered and rec'd

It's been fairly low-stress and we have all of the major vendors booked. We're working through a short-list of things we'd like to finish by the end of August but, really, it all feels as if it's coming together nicely. Someone please remind me of this when I have any sort of freak out as our day approaches!!