I saw it first on Offbeat Bride, so props to them.

I met my friend, Bridesmaid L, at St. Nick’s bazaar on Friday, and we hit the jackpot in the flea market. I picked up these 4 glass jars for a grand total of $3.50. Yessssss. L helped me carry them, in the rain, across the parking lot and then over the guard rail and across Pennsylvania Blvd. back to my car. I gave them a good scrubbing and have tucked them away for safe keeping.

I also officially asked L to be a bridesmaid after our trek in the rain. I had planned to all along, but I couldn’t think of a better (or funnier) moment. She’s very excited and already planning the bachelorette party. I mailed my card for Bridesmaid E a couple of weeks ago since she lives in New York, so I’ve got 3 confirmed girls! I’m just waiting for the right moment to ask FH’s sister to join the party.

Did you ever find wedding decor in surprising places? Or has any of your wedding party gone above and beyond for you? I feel really lucky to have these ladies by my side!

I’m going to start with what’s possibly the best song to describe how I feel about FH – “Everything” by Alanis Morissette. It’s a bit scattered and it’s dark at parts, but then you step back and see how amazing and beautiful it is. Yeah.

When I first started thinking about my Northeast PA wedding, I didn’t see a lot of reception venue options out there. There were the standard hotels everyone goes to, and a handful of country clubs. Most of them weren’t for me, though if I can get a good deal at one or two country clubs I would be happy to entertain the idea… But the point is, I was wrong! There are more wedding venues in NEPA than you can swing a dead cat at (I am nothing if not classy).

We’ve narrowed down our list of places to visit based on a few major factors:

• Price. The boy and I are on a budget. Our parents will help us as much as they can, but we’ve gotta be economical. We’re looking at more affordable options, as well as those that throw in things like the wedding cake and some basic centerpieces.
• Location – again, since we’re looking to keep our spending under control, I’m not expecting to be hiring a limo or any sort of driver the day of. This means that our families will be driving themselves around the day of. I don’t want to make them drive to Berwick or anything crazy like that.
• Party minimums – since our wedding is going to probably be around 100 people (please God, no more than that), we need to make sure our location can 1. fit that many, and 2. doesn’t require a minimum higher than that.

We have 2 visits scheduled for next week. I’ll report on them after we’re done, so wish me luck! If anyone has advice on good questions we should be asking while we’re there, I would be much appreciative. I can pay you in cookies and smooches.

• FH needs to get a letter from his parish priest saying we can marry at the college chapel
• We need to find a pre-cana course we can attend and knock that out of the park
• We both need a copy of our baptism certificates from our churches, dated within the last 6 months
• 4 letters (2 each) from people close to us who can verify we’ve never been married before
• The priest will have to fill out a request for a dispensation as I am not Catholic

It sounds like a lot. It feels like a lot, but Fr. Hockman assured us it’s a lot of paperwork but nothing that will be a problem. He’s never had a wedding denied, so that makes me feel better. He was also really open to how we want to put our ceremony together. I’ve been reading about other brides’ experiences getting married in the Catholic church, and it seems to vary a lot. Some priests are so strict with their rules! I think we’ve found a good fit and we’ll have the flexibility to have a meaningful ceremony for all parties.

So now, it’s up to FH to get things sorted with his church while I research this marriage preparation business. Has anyone else gone through this? If you know of a good course to take in NEPA, I am all ears.

Twitter has been a great source of wedding info for me over the past couple of weeks – when it’s not being all fail whale

People tweet about contests and giveaways and I’m finding there’s a LOT more out there than I thought. I might have missed a lot of them if it wasn’t for their tweets. So without further ado, here are some of my favorite wedding peeps over on Twitter:

@wedshare – offers some good advice and links to some interesting articles. Stuff outside of the ‘how to make your own paper flower pomanders’ variety.

@MarthaStewart – mmm Martha. All things crafty and wonderful. You already know the deal.

@WeddingWire – they tweet a lot about special sales and promos when they hear about them. Important stuff for brides on a budget.

@WeddingPaprDiva – they make glorious invitations that will one day be mine. Yes, yes they will.

@themanregistry – cause you know we gotsta have a little sumthin for the boyz. Ye-eah.

@weddingbee – my obsession. I can’t deny the bee love. A lot of the current bee bloggers also have twitter accounts. Take a look at who Mrs. Penguin is following here and you’ll figure it out!

At work today, I was telling one of my friends about some of our plans and how we are visiting the church next week. One of the guys in our department overheard us and he came over. He’s offered his “wedding planning and DJ” services once before and I politely declined, haha. He made the offer again and asked me what kind of ideas I had. This conversation ensued:

Me: “Well, I was looking at a lot of butterflies.” *points to picture of Martha Stewart cake*

Co-worker: “I’ll do you one better. Forget butterflies. Picture this – HORNETS.”

Me: *slowly backing away* Suuuure………

Yeah… it’s funny and has made for a good joke, but what scares me is if I told him yes, he would totally go through with it. Then my ceremony would end up looking like this:

Did you ever get some really funny suggestions for your wedding theme? How did you handle them?

FH and I are set to meet with him next Tuesday to go over the particulars, but it sounds like our ideal date in October 2010 is available. YAY!

Doesn’t some good wedding news just brighten up your whole day?

Well… I called another number at the chapel today and there was a message on the main line that explained everything. Due to classes being out for the summer, the college chapel was closed from June 1 – July 6, then operating on a limited schedule until classes began in late August. PHEW! I’m so relieved to find out why I didn’t get a call back, though it is a little frustrating that they didn’t change their individual voicemail messages as well. Since it’s July 3, I think I can hang on for these last couple of days.

Did anyone else ever get married at a college or university and run across this? Or did your ceremony venue ever go on ‘summer vacation’?

Can’t you just imagine chairs wrapped in this with a matching table runner:

Then have a cute little favor boxes filled with, um, something tasty, lol, at each setting. I wasn’t sure I was really into the polka dots until I saw those boxes. I like the idea of using them sparingly with the purple and black theme. The rest of the table would be pretty simple, maybe some tulips in a small square vase with some tea lights around it.

And then (get ready, I’m almost foaming at the mouth over these), I’d scatter these around the table:

BUTTERFLY CONFETTI!!!! The precious, I wants it. I may have to buy these now cause I’m afraid they’ll disappear before I’m ready to buy. Dreamy sigh.