Getting Organized

So I finally took everyone's advice and put a binder together. I'd picked up several bridal magazines in the airport on my way to visit my sister and had pulled out pages with bridal gowns and wedding rings that I liked. My sister had also given me some great bridal magazines she picked up for me with advice about favors and budgeting and invitations and such. The end result was a pile of paper that was in chaos. So I now have a binder with sections for:

-budget
-vows
-wedding rings
-photographers
-flowers
-location
-music
-dresses
-honeymoon
-invitations
-guest list
-food
-entertainment
-decor

And I feel so relieved to have everything in a place where I can easily refer to it.

We are tentatively setting a date for August 20, 2011. And we are seriously considering having the wedding at Letchworth State Park. We will be attending Nick's cousin Shannon's wedding in Buffalo, NY in July of this year, so we are hoping to allow time to visit Letchworth while we're in town. I am *in love* with Letchworth from all of the online photos I've been looking through, but I want to be sure that the photos aren't misleading. Plus, we'll also need to make sure there is a picnic area that is in a pretty location, so we'll have shelter in case it rains.

In the meantime, I've kind of been obsessing over flowers. I have been looking through friends' wedding photos that are posted on FaceBook as a starting place to figure out what I like. And I've become quite smitten with my college classmate, Leah's wedding bouquet. I hope she doesn't mind my posting some of her wedding photos here! She got her flowers from her family's garden, though, so she's not even sure what all was in there. So I've been listing some of my favorite flowers out that may correspond to the color combination. Here is the list I've come up with of my favorite flowers:

-tulips
-grape hyacinth
-wisteria
-red bud tree blossoms
-poppies

Now, the first two on the list, I can get from just about any florist. But the last 3 are much trickier. I can buy an entire Wisteria or Red Bud TREE, but no one seems to sell cuttings from these trees. Hmmm... And poppies? Well, I can buy poppy SEEDS off the internet for growing my own poppies, but once again... no cut poppies.

So I'm still brainstorming. Got any ideas?