And here is the Chapel!

Here it is! The lovely Day Chapel at the State Botanical Gardens in Athens, Georgia.

Ever since Cole and I first visited the gardens, I knew this was the place I wanted to get married!

And now an update on the wedding planning:

I have created an excel workbook containing several different sheets to help me stay organized as I plan this wedding from over 750 miles away! The different sheets are: Guest list (which will turn into my RSVP management), Budgeter, Vendor Inquiries, and Event Schedule.

I have emailed about 11 vendors now (photographers, videographers, DJs, and caterers) trying to whittle it down so I can just meet with a few of them when I fly back down to Georgia for in-person meetings. Whenever I receive their responses on their rates, I enter it in my excel work book so I can compare them all on similar criteria. For example, for the photographers, I enter in how many hours of coverage, the number of photographers, whether or not they include an engagement session, etc. :)

The event schedule is a simple timeline (I create lots of timelines as a project manager) of the different activities that will take place the day of the wedding (the date shall be revealed next week!) such as getting ready, photo session, ceremony, and reception. I may even go to the extent breaking out the reception schedule for first dance, speeches, etc. later on too.

Now, the color scheme/theme. I'm pretty sure that the color scheme will be a mango-yellow (yummy), silver, and cream/white, and there will be a theme around love birds (notice the blog design). I'm picking out invites, programs, and a ring pillow from Etsy which all have birds on them. There are more wedding details that I have been working on too--I may share them in a later post.

One thing that I always keep in the forefront of my mind is the budget, which is why I'm going to set up a Smarty Pig account to help me reach my goal. If you haven't heard of it, it's a pretty cool savings tool that I found in one of the wedding magazines I perused (it's not just for weddings though). Once I have my account set up, I will try to post my goal so you can follow along to see how I'm doing. And if you are feeling generous, there's even an option for you to contribute to my savings goal! (Just don't use a credit card because they'll charge you a 2.9% fee)

I'll wrap up this post with another picture of the beautiful chapel.