Wedding Details, Part 1

Thank you to everyone who left such nice comments and sent emails after I posted about getting engaged! Many of you also asked for wedding details, and I am here to share a few with you today.

First up, the date and location. We will be getting married on July 6, 2013. The ceremony will be on my parent's ranch, with just family in attendance, which means about 40 people. In addition to all the other reasons to pray for rain, I would also really like some so it's nice and green and beautiful for the wedding!

A reception will immediately follow, as soon as we can make the one hour drive, in the beef barn on the fairgrounds in my hometown. The beef barn is a great wooden quonset hut with a cement floor and big doors at either end that we can open for a breeze if it's warm, and it most likely will be. It seems a very fitting location for us, as we were both very active in showing cattle growing up, and this same barn is where I spent 11 fairs housing my 4-H beef projects as a kid.

The preacher. We are very blessed to have found a man who grew up on a ranch in Wyoming, and who takes marrying a couple very seriously. I really appreciate that he wants to make sure God is at the center of the whole affair, after all God is the most important guest and part of joining two people in marriage, and that he understands and lives the same lifestyle we do. Beyond that, his personality is great, he has a fun family who I hope can attend with him, and I'm thankful that he wants to meet with us a few times prior to the actual wedding.

The photographer. This was a biggie to me, surprise surprise. It was also a big surprise to find out that two other Wyoming photographers are getting married the same day. One of which is a friend of mine, and one of which would have probably been my first choice for a photographer. After learning this, then scouring our (I scoured, he listened to me as I scoured) possibilities, we made a decision.

Three weeks and a couple emails later, I still hadn't received a contract, so I freaked out, scoured more, found someone really good and available, and booked her, at which point the first photographer finally emailed me a contract. I felt really bad, as the first person is someone I am acquainted with, and I really hate having to let someone know that I'm no longer using their services, even if is because of no fault on my part. I still feel bad. I'm also convinced that the new photographer probably thinks I'm a complete basket case because I've changed my mind about four times on what package I want. To blow the budget or not....yes, no, yes, no. This has been my mind the last week Today I finally reached a compromise, and kept things within the original photography budget. Hopefully we can get a contract signed in the next couple days and the whole photographer thing wrapped up until the big day!

So there you have it. There have been countless other ideas, decisions and changes in the last couple months, and I'll be sure to post an update from time to time. There are a lot of things that I want to wait to show you until I can include a photo or two (the dress, meal, decorations...), so those may not show up until afterward.