Eric & Leandra's Wedding - a wedding journal


8/28/02 It's been almost a year since the last time I wrote in this journal and we are just shy of our 1 year anniversary... This site was chosen for the 15 Minutes of Fame Award from Wholly Matrimony this month. I hope that anyone stumbling upon our little spot on the web enjoys seeing how a wedding is planned and the beautiful results. We are just as happy (if not more!) than we were a year ago... enjoy and thanks for visiting! 8/29/01 Deep breath. Ok, I dropped off my dress yesterday at a local dress place to have the bustle redone. I bought the dress last August from David's Bridal and they suceeded in destroying all faith I had in that establishment by doing a shoddy job on the alterations. Sure, the dresses are a good price, but the alterations are WAY too expensive for the quality of work offered (at least in the Duluth store in Atlanta). I pick up the dress tomorrow after a brief fitting and hopefully everything will work itself out. We finally got the pictures of our arrangements from the florist and they weren't QUITE what we wanted ...which is why I wanted the pictures more than nine days before the wedding. <sigh> The table arrangements are done and I think we may actually have a final count! 8/23/01 My parents have arranged for a stretch limo to take various members of my family all over town :) including Eric & I to the hotel after the reception. Yeah! We have yet to receive the flower photos from the florist which were supposedly sent early last week. I am picking up my wedding dress tomorrow & getting my haircut today (finally) And lastly, I am trying to hunt down all people I have yet to hear back from so we can organize a final count and table settings. 8/14/01 I put up some photos from the bridal shower. The flower photos for us to preview are on the way via snail mail, I faxed all the info off to the DJ, I have my parents working on the transportation and Eric's parents are working on the Long Island reception. 8/11/01 Happy 25th Birthday to me! 8/1/01 We are finalizing the info for the DJ and the rehersal dinner, I have received a third of the response cards back so far and i am actually excited to get the mail when i get home ... 7/17/01 Ok, well, we still haven't "got" our wedding bands, they were ordered over a month ago and paid for a week ago ... we were having them engraved and the guy managed to put a "G" where a "Q" is supposed to be (it's a latin phrase) sooo, they are redoing the rings which means we'll get them this weekend if everything goes as planned (long silence). I sent out the invites this week as well. 7/10/01 We had our rings sized this weekend and they are being engraved this week...whew! I would also like to thank everyone who came to my bridal shower, I had a lot of fun and appriciate all the wonderful gifts I received... when I get photos back I will post them. 6/25/01 Our minister sent us possible outlines for the wedding ceremony, so we have picked out what we would like to say. I am still waiting for my wedding ring to come in so I can pick the two up together. 6/14/01 I just compiled all possible information needed to order our wedding invitations (wording, lettering type, style, etc.) and thank you cards... Now I have to locate some cards to use at the reception for seating purposes and finish designing the program. 6/11/01 I just made our hotel reservations at the Wyndham for the night of the wedding. Eric's wedding band came in this weekend and mine should be arriving in the next two weeks, so we will pick them both up then.

6/7/01 We just received a letter from our DJ letting us know that we can make up a song list online. We will be getting on that shortly! 5/30/01 This weekend we visited Fosters to look at wedding rings and while shopping we discovered that my engagement ring had been resized too big a year ago (and I was wondering why it was still a little loose) so it is being resized and reengraved free of charge. We found beautiful plain platinum wedding bands for the both of us, mine is 2.5mm (same width as my engagement ring) and Eric's is 5mm wide. I spent yesterday calling all over the greater Chicagoland area for a tuxedo place that carries the style of tux that we want and I finally found one - now it's vest decision time! 5/22/01 Happy 25th Birthday to Eric!
5/11/01 We have decided on a wedding invitation and cake design, both of which are going to be taken care of in july when i go home again. We would like to have the invitations in the mail mid-to-late July. I am also going to visit with the florist to view a mockup of the table centerpieces. I have an appointment for my first dress fitting (and hopefully the only one needed) in June and the only major thing left is to purchase the wedding rings - which we will be doing here in Athens from the same place Eric bought my engagement ring.
	4/23/01 I have added other hotels, rates and phone numbers for our out-of-town guests. We have decided to have our rehersal dinner at Gino's East in Rolling Meadows.
4/16/01 It's been a week since we got back from our last trip to Chicago to "wedding plan." We have completed the ceremony and reception timeline. We decided on hors d'oeuvres, the dinner menu and what we would like for the cake flavors. We revamped some of the flowers and feel that we now have a better representation of what we originally wanted. The biggest decision (for us anyway!) was the choice of Hawai'i for our honeymoon. We are staying at the Hilton Waikaloa Village on the Big Island and we couldn't be more excited! We also tasted more cake than anyone ever needs to taste and have decided to stick with our first choice - Deerfield's. 3/13/01 Well, we have finalized where we want to go for our honeymoon. We have an appointment with the travel agent in April to discuss a few things! We are also meeting with the site coordinator at Medinah to narrow down menu choices and what we are going to do with those ugly sea foam green chairs they have. yuck. Eric has suggested a few changes to the floral decor - and, of course, more cake tasting! yum! 3/4/01 We have been engaged for one year today! -leandra. 2/19/01 I added a rough layout for the ceremony and reception rooms at Medinah. We are planning a trip to Chicago in April to research tux places, talk with the florist, more cake tasting and finalizing some reception information. 2/5/01 I added a picture of my parents to the family page. 2/02/01 Yeah! Finally, our Mikasa registry is online. Also, I have added information for our out of town guests who will need a hotel room in Chicago. I created a new friends page and added some pictures. We are planning a trip to Florida for a little vacation time that doesn't include weddng planning ...although I must say that I am looking forward to some more cake tasting! 1/22/01 My mom sent in the deposit for the florist, so we are likely to get flowers on the big day :) The DJ (finally) sent us our confirmation letter, so the music is a go as well. On a side note, Mikasa has lost our registry information (a different store than the one we wasted our time at LAST TIME) ...so that's why the Mikasa registry still isn't on-line yet, but I'm working on it. 1/4/01 Happy New Year! We sent the deposit to the DJ and I met with the florist over my vacation. We are using Jay Frank of Crestline Entertainment for all of our music needs. As for the florist, we discussed color schemes and table arrangements, etc. We have decided to go with late summer colors...red, orange, blue/purple and yellow. BRIGHT! I have also added a younger version of Eric to his groom page...now you can see what we both looked like "way back when!"
	12/16/00 I added Eric's bio today, so if you want to read a funny rendition of how he and i actually got started and what his life was like before me, visit how it began... 11/27/00 We booked our photographer, Postilion Photography. We also spoke with a florist, whom I will meet with again in December to go over some ideas. We are in the process of redoing a contract with the DJ that we have decided on. And last (but not least!) we have purchased the bridesmaid dresses! 11/9/00 Happy three year anniversary to us! From now on, it's all wedding anniversaries! :)
11/7/00 This weekend, Eric and I finished our registry for Bed, Bath and Beyond (yippee!), we are still able to add things as they come up, but the bulk of our wish list is taken care of. We also tried to register at Mikasa, but only after picking out our patterns were we told that anything we put down at that store is for that store only. Not too wonderful, considering most of our loved ones live in different states. So, I emailed Mikasa.com and we will just have to see. As for us, we are doing well and are looking forward to our visit to Chicago for Thanksgiving and our meetings with about 5 different forms of wedding vendor peoples.
10/24/00 We have "officially" decided to register at Bed, Bath & Beyond & Mikasa
	10/26/00 As you can see, I found a "close enough" picture of the ring for those who haven't seen the real thing yet. Today I transfered all the website information over to our new server that houses just our website!
10/7/00 Well, I just spent the day putting together this website, at least, the start of the website. I am planning on making weekly changes once we start meeting with vendors and decide on colors, etc. Please check back here often as things tend to happen/ change pretty quickly when you are planning a wedding!