100 days

Image via weddingbycolor.com

Today we are at the 100 day mark. 100 days till I marry my Man. Tomorrow we will be in the double digits! Wow time has flown. I would like to a moment to take some inventory on how I am feeling right now at this moment, 100 days before the wedding. Here goes:

At this point in time I am more excited about the honeymoon than the actual wedding. I mean I'm excited to be getting married, but I'm more excited about our trip as a newly married couple than the actual wedding day. Awful I know... or is it? Thinking about our honeymoon has relieved some of the stress of planning. But at the same time it has made the planning part less interesting. I'll think, "I don't want to research flowers anymore, let's look at hotels in Paris instead..." So although good that I'm excited about our trip, it's getting me a little off track.

I am pretty behind on some things, but I'm ahead on others. While Jeff and his guys still have no idea what they are wearing, the bridesmaid dresses have already come in. Invitations are ordered just not sure how we will addresses them... We have plans for our table numbers and escort cards now we just have to make them. And still deciding what our guest book, card box and favors will be...

I spend my days going back and forth between being really stressed and very zen about it all. Luckily I'm having a zen kind of day today. But watch tomorrow I'm going to see two numbers instead of three in my count down and I'm going to freak out!

Image via weddingbycolor.com

But for tonight I'll watch some Big Bang Theory browse some sites and dream about the honeymoon.

Anyone else have bipolar wedding emotions? Zen, stressed, a little of both?

California already!?

It feels like we were just in California, but at the same time it feels like it's been forever since we were last there. Either way we're heading back for a thanksgiving/birthday/wedding planning trip! We have to meet with our venue to have a planning meeting 5 months before the wedding and we will be at the 5 month mark on the 28th! Eek! And since Thanksgiving is right around that time we decided to use the meeting as an excuse to head home for the holiday! Since I moved to NY, 4 years ago, I have never been home for Thanksgiving, or my birthday which also occurs while we will be in Cali. I'm excited to eat good food and spend time with our families!

The only downside to our trip is since we are coming for Thanksgiving we will not be able to afford the trip out for Christmas. We chose Thanksgiving over Christmas because of the 5 month meeting. This will be Jeff's first Christmas away from home and my second. I'm bummed we won't be with our families, but I'm looking on the bright side and thinking how cool it will be to spend our last un-married Christmas just the two of us. It will be nice to relax and enjoy each other company on this holiday. Sort of a "calm before the wedding storm." When we go home we're usually running around trying to spend as much time with each of our families, driving from one location to the other. It will be nice to have a laid back Christmas for one year.

personal photos ahead

Jeff and I in Rockefeller Center weeks before becoming engaged

I'm sure after we get married and have kids holidays will become even more stressful. We usually spend Christmas Eve with my Mom and brothers. Christmas day we head over to  Jeff's families house for dinner, them move on to my Grandmother house to see my Dad and his family in the evening. I'm always worried about someone feeling they didn't get to spend enough time with us. (The last couple years I haven't gotten to spend much time with my Mother on Christmas day) Our system works pretty well and we will also be using it for thanksgiving, but I always feel guilty about someone not getting enough of our time. When we have kids someday I'm sure people will be letting us know more openly that they wish they had more time with us...

My Mom and I showing off our matching peace sign sweatshirts

Well we will have lots to do in California from our planning meeting, Thankagiving, visiting with family and friends, and my birthday (at Disneyland!) I'm a little nervous because we only have one more trip planned after this one before the wedding. So we've got to make this one count!

Do you split up your holidays with your fiancé/husband/ significant other? Do you feel like someone doesn't get enough of your time?

Where to start?

I'll admit that before I was even engaged I did a little bit of wedding research. Nothing crazy, just browsing I would say. And now that I'm in the trawls of wedding planning I will say, I knew nothing about how many sites were out there devoted to helping you plan a wedding.

The first site I perused was theknot.com This site was great for inspirational pictures and helping me look up possible venues.

When I was ready to seriously  search for venues, these sites were my best friends:

Weddingwire.com

Herecomestheguide.com

Weddingcompass.com

I really liked wedding compass, because you could narrow down your search to specifics such as, outdoor, garden, or historical building. It also had some venues that none of the other sites had.

After our venue had been chosen, I had a new list of sites I visited on a regular basis.

image via Projectwedding.com

I really like this site, and they update pretty regularly. Their wedding dress search options are awesome as well, and much easier to browse than theknot in my opinion.

 

 image via OneWed.com

Their blog is great and features a lot of what I like to call, "hot off the presses" info, like designers new dresses and new design inspiration. They were the first that I saw to showcase the Kate Middleton inspired dresses. I follow them on facebook and they post links to their latest bog entries, so I get a little taste of their site everyday. Also I won a health food bag from them! Score!

 image via Stylemepretty.com

A jaw dropping beautiful blog featuring real weddings. A lot of great ideas on this site. Their look book of wedding dresses was great as well. Not as many designers as other sites, but I feel they really pick and chose who and what they want to be featured on their site. So you know they picked the best and their favorite.

Etsy.com

The wedding section... I could spend hours. Just go look at it...

And last but not least my favorite site

image via ravishingradish.com

Weddingbee.com consists of  a number of real brides blogging about their planning experiences. I have gotten so many ideas from this site. They also have a boards section where you can post a thread and get advice. The people who blog, post on this site are very nice and helpful. It's nice to talk to people who are going through the same experiences in the planning process. And like I said before, GREAT advice given on this site. And for the most part, everyone is very supportive and helpful.
 

There are SO MANY resources out there for brides. Thank goodness because I would be lost without them.

I'm also always looking for new sites so if you have a favorite that's different from mine, let me know!