Wedded Bliss: Checking things off the list

I'm pleased to announce that we have even more wedding to-do's that we've checked off the list in the last couple weeks. Before I left for California I was feeling not very thrilled about how much I had to get done and that I didn't really want to have to plan our wedding. Don't get me wrong, I love the fact that I will be getting married to Chad; it's something that I've been looking forward to for a long time. I was just feeling overwhelmed with the amount of work that had to be done. On the trip, I felt renewed and refreshed and am now looking forward to planning the day that Chad and I begin our marriage. I want the day to reflect our love and our faith in Christ and still be a celebration of all our family and friends who are sharing the day with us.

We have our photographer! It was hard for us to decide on who we were going to have take the pictures, but we eventually made the decision to work with Jeff (view his website here.) He is my friend Jenny's older brother and actually did all their pictures for their wedding. I went to high school with Jeff and his wife, Jess, and I've always loved the work that he's done. (Man, were there enough links in that paragraph for you?!)

Not only will he be photographing our wedding, but we are going to have him doing our engagement session as well sometime this fall. I really want to have the session in fall because not only is it beautiful, but that way we'll have plenty of time to incorporate the pictures on our wedding day. Needless to say, we are beyond thrilled to be working with him and that we have something so big taken care of already.

The next thing that we've discussed is bridesmaid dresses. My side will be wearing gray and I wanted to find a dress that they love, especially since I'm not the one who will be buying them. These are their dresses, and I want them to be comfortable and happy with what they are wearing. We've narrowed it down to the following choices:
This one (I can't get a picture of it, but it would be the one in stone)
This one from jasmine bridal:

And, this silk chiffon dress from jcrew:


We've also got in contact with our host and hostess, and the coordinator from our reception venue. We still have so much to do,
but it's becoming so much easier to plan now that I've been blessed by the good-attitude fairy:)

Up next: Reception Decor and Cake decisions