We’ve hit 5 months until our wedding!

Well…technically, that was yesterday, but it still counts.

So, what have we been up to as far as wedding prep in the past month.

Not….a lot.

And I feel weird saying that, but at the same time so much of the bigger stuff is done so we don’t have to run around like a chicken with our heads cut off.  It’s why our engagement has been so long so that we could do it calmly and slowly.  And to keep my random freak outs to a minimum.

But those are becoming a bit more frequent.

I had my first freak out on New Years when I was all “OMG OUR WEDDING IS THIS YEAR! LET’S ALL HYPERVENTILATE!”

Up until that point it was all, “meh, we have so much time, our wedding isn’t until next year”.  Can’t say that anymore!  So, I had a moment. A kind of long moment…..but it’s okay because it’s over now.  I’ve only had a couple of those moments since the first one; I have no doubt they will increase as time grows closer.  Luckily, I have a calm fiancee and I work with three other bride-to-be’s so I have places to go and scream at all times of the day; whenever the need strikes.

Outside of screaming, we have gotten a few things done.

Most notably, we both (FINALLY) have our wedding rings!! YAY!!!!

Devon, being the easy man that he is, found his wedding ring in about five minutes.  We set aside a day before we went back to school after the holidays, to go ring shopping.  He’s not a big ring/jewelry wearer in any capacity; he was a bit when we were younger but he’s fully out of that “phase” now.  So, the fact that he found a ring her actually really liked as quickly as he did, is magical.

His ring is a black Tungsten textured ring.  He thinks its appropriate that the science teacher has a Tungsten ring and it fits him really well. 

Now, my ring was a struggle.  If you’ve followed along on Instagram, you’ve heard some of my annoyance.

I am allergic to gold in all forms.

Yes, it’s true.  I promise.  It makes me itch, get hives, swell, etc.  No, I do not know why it does that, I just know that it does.

I had to essentially say that over and over again to all jewelry store employees I’ve come in contact with lately.

I could do a platinum ring, but my engagement ring is sterling silver.  While the difference in metal isn’t super obvious, it’s noticeable to me, so I wanted to have the metals match, which means I would want my wedding ring to be sterling silver.

That’s a lot easier said than done.

Most companies won’t make a ring in sterling silver.  And I get it, it’s not an expensive metal and they’re going to make more off of platinum or gold.  But, I want what I want; it’s my ring that I will wear forever, so I want it to be what I want (and most preferably something that won’t make me scratch my finger off).

I finally found a company online, called Two Birch that will pretty much make you any ring that you want, in any metal that you want; including STERLING SILVER.

Now the metal has been half the battle for me because I also have a marquise shaped engagement ring, which isn’t as common as a round solitaire is, so a lot of rings don’t fit it well.  If you can’t remember, this is my engagement ring:

It’s beautiful, but I knew it was going to be a little bit of a challenge to fit to a wedding band.

I purchased one ring from Two Birch that I loved, but it just didn’t fit my engagement ring as well as I would have liked. It kind of fit well on one side but left a weird gap on the other side.  This is the first ring:

Beautiful, right? It just didn’t gel as well as I would have liked.  Luckily Two Birch has a fantastic return policy, so I was able to send it right back and exchange it for the ring that I finally got to fit the shape of my ring perfectly.

I originally wasn’t going to show my ring, but….I can’t wait, so I’ll show the stock photo:

Isn’t that gorgeous.  That chevron shape in the ring is what the shape of my engagement ring needed to fit securely on all sides.  There are no gaps and it looks like it was made for my ring.  This stock photo is enlarged, so the ring itself is a lot more delicate in person. There are two rows of stones, but each row is very thin, so while the ring looks huge here it’s not nearly as ostentatious in person.  But you’ll get to see that in June.  🙂

I guess the only downside to doing all of this online is that it takes longer to get your ring and have issues resolved.  My ring (the second/final one) is a bit too big, so I had to send it back to have it re-sized.  Luckily, they do have an amazing fitting process, so I did the measurements they needed and it should be perfect when it comes back, but just waiting for the whole shipping process makes me impatient.

Outside of the ring shenanigans….

We set up our planning session at our venue for February 22nd.  That’s the day where we get to plan our menu, decor, tables, etc.  The venue only does these on Tuesdays and Thursdays, which is kind of a pain for us since we both work, but they gave us a 4pm appointment, so we can just high tail it over there when school lets out for the day and do what we need to do that evening.

I think I’ve figured out bridesmaids dresses…in that I don’t care about them.  And that probably sounds bad, but I honestly don’t even care if they match as long as they are the color they need to be.  So, I think I’m just sending my three loves off on their own to do as they wish.  Luckily, all three of them are of a similar body shape (my one bridesmaid, Michelle, is just like a foot shorter than the other two……but….yeah – that’s only a slight exaggeration; two of my bridesmaids are like 5’10 and 5’11 respectively and Michelle is like 5’2) so they can all work something out amongst themselves.

I started looking at wedding shoes.  I’m not wearing heels; this much I know.  Mostly because my feet hate them and because Devon and I are the same height without shoes on…so….no need for all of that.  But, I am so not a “shoe girl”.  It’s just not how my life works.  I know a lot of people that have done like Toms for their wedding, but I feel like I want something a little nicer than that…but nothing super fancy either.  I’m hoping with spring coming, I see something cute in a white-ish hue that I’ll like.

We also decided that we aren’t doing a rehearsal dinner.  Our venue provides a coordinator for the day of the wedding that Devon and I will plan with the week of.  That person will be the one making sure everyone walks where they are supposed, when they are supposed to and at what speed as the wedding is happening, so rehearsing is just essentially everyone walking…and I like to think our party is pretty smart and knows how to work.  So as long as our coordinator is there to give them a nudge, we will be just fine.

For now, that’s pretty much where we are.  Once we have our planning session in a few weeks we’ll probably be able to get a lot more of the smaller things done.  We’re in a good place right now.  That’s not to say I won’t have more random panic attacks as the weeks and months dwindle…but…I guess that’s to be expected.

150 days and counting…..