Hey newly-marrieds, send me your wedding details

I want to see your details, those quirkly little items that made your day all your own. The hand-painted signs, your sweet invitation suite, the original card boxes, tablesettings, etc.

If you want to see them featured on engageology, send them to engageology {@} gmail.com with your contact information and your photographer’s information (for proper credit).

I look forward to seeing them!

All photos by Laura Ivanova

The Budget: How Much Did We Really Spend?

Neither R nor I ever wanted an extravagant day. While I completely appreciate those weddings, and love attending them, we knew that it was most important for us to have our wedding, and have it paid off on the day it occured.

We didn’t want to incur or carry any debt from the wedding, just as we didn’t carry any debt for my gorgeous engagement ring – see below (which is a testament to the awesome saving-skills of my husband).

Well — the wedding is over, and we can proudly say that we do not owe a dime – to a single vendor or a credit card or anyone. This wedding is PAID FOR!

Venue Review – Arneson Acres

Venue grade: A+

We weren’t originally planning to have our reception at Arneson Acres. In fact, we were all set to have it at another location, with a ceremony at AA, until several surprises caused us to change venues.

We are SO glad that we did change!

More Cool DIY Coming Soon

I’m sorry I’ve been so absent. We’ve had a whirlwind last 10 days. Our venue surprised us with some information pertaining to double booking for our date, and also changed their liquor policies between April 24 and April 30. The prices tripled in 1 week! And, the policies changed, and we weren’t willing to make major sacrifices in order to appeal to their new situation (and couldn’t anyway).

On top of that, we’ve been preparing our new home (we closed on it on Halloween, have put a lot of work into it, worked with a contractor on a major remodel, and now need to prepare it for a family brunch on Sunday!).

To give you an idea, we’ve got 14 bags of yard waste (leaves, grass, sticks, branches, etc) waiting for the trash man on Wednesday.

In the last week, R painted and installed new closet doors in the entry, painted the exterior of our addition, and other projects, all while doing some very important work on our cardbox and cupcake stands (info coming soon!). We’ve been cleaning like crazy, because if we just leave the cleaning ladies to do everything, they’ll be here for about 6 hours (we’re tidy, but a major remodel = major dust!).

So, I promise a DIY project — probably tomorrow. And some decor DIY, and a sneak peak at our favors, and then we’ll be married (in 5 days!).

Make a Decision, Already! Wedding Venue Battle

We are stuck… between a rock and a hard place.

We’ve got 2 potential venues, both have some great benefits, both have some downfalls. Both would be perfect for our wedding, I just can’t decide!

Tick Tock, Tick Tock, Playing the Waiting Game

In a non-wedding note, we are stuck in limbo.

The GTB and I put our home on the market last week (Monday). We had our first showing on Wednesday and an offer on Thursday!!! The good news is that we sold our home in record time. The bad news is that… (gulp) we’d officially be “homeless” on October 31 if we didn’t find our next home.

Well, after an exhaustive 20 home tour with our awesome realtors, we zoned in on 2 homes.

1. S. Minneapolis (just of 50th street, near Xerxes (LOVE the area!). The house is recently remodeled, the updates are all so thoughtful, the basement is perfect and there’s a great study just off the master bedroom. Swoon.
2. Edina. This home seem to have avoided being remodeled during it’s 50 years on this planet. The wallpaper is EXTENSIVE, the kitchen needs to be gutted (the oven is aqua enamel), but the location is AWESOME, there’s a ton of potential and the yard is 1/2 an acre!

These 2 homes are really 2 sides to a coin. Move-in ready, big-kid on the block beautiful home with a tiny yard or small-fry in a gorgeous neighborhood with lots of potential, that just needs to be shined up.

Well, it turns out that our decision between the two was made for us (and I couldn’t be HAPPIER!!!).

Stay tuned for more info….