GracieBebe

Oh, I did mention BDW in the interview but I have no idea if it was mentioned!

So, a couple months ago, a reporter from Air Travel Magazine contacted me to interview me for their magazine called Air Travel Magazine. She was doing an article on Castle DW's and was featuring our chateau as one of the castles. She told me that she was already in touch with our WC who is the owner of the castle, and that she found my contact info through tripadvisor which I thought was really sketchy. I contacted our WC to confirm this info and she said she was indeed in contact with the reporter for this article. So I felt a lot more comfortable responding to her. She sent me a list of questions that she wanted me to answer as well as a few followup questions. I asked her if we could get a copy of the article when it was published and she said it would be published in the August 2009 issue in China. I assumed that the magazine was an English (which after following up with her, she said it was) but the copy of the article she sent me is in Chinese. Our chateau is featured on pages 2-3 and my interview is on the latter half of page 2 and into page 3. I see some 9's in there next to 2009 which I know is our wedding date, but I have no idea what it is saying!!! LOL!!! I'll have to get it translated! Anyone have a clue? Ha ha! Air Travel Magazine Wedding Article.pdf

We chose Wednesday b/c we wanted an easy day to remember and 9/9/09 fell on Wed. Also, most of our guests will fly in on Saturday and it will give us a few days to get acclimated to the time change and jet lag.

Our wedding is early Sept so we sent out the invites by mid-April and asked for RSVP's by 5/31. We still had a few stragglers that did not rsvp until after that date, but we felt that they weren't officially RSVP'ed until they bought their tickets, even if we got the card back. We had most everyone booked by 5/31, 6 more booked by 6/30, and now we're just waiting on 2 more who have verbally said yes, but never returned the card and every time I ask if they bought their airfare, they keeps saying they will soon. But those 2 are my cousin and his wife who are coordinating with his sister and her husband to tour together after the wedding so I'm pretty sure they are definites. They're just really bad procrastinators. It will be interesting to hear how much it ends up costing them by waiting...

Quote: Originally Posted by autjo Grace - I just looked at your site and you guys are doing a similar trip that FI and I took when we got engaged! Except we went to London first and then got engaged in Paris The chateau looks like an amazing place to get married!!! Awww! Thx!!! We are so looking forward to it. Since we've never been to the place, I am excited to see it for real!

This isn't really a vent. FH is in Vegas for his Bachelor party and doesn't get home until Wed, and I just miss him... He already had to travel for work the last half of last week, was home for part of the weekend, but we didn't really have that much alone time together cuz we had a friend's 40th b-day party to go to and then he left on Sunday for Vegas. Other than the weekend home, it's the longest stretch of time we've been apart. At least he'll be home tomorrow!!!

Do you have any local news stations that do those help the consumer bits. Maybe you can report it there and they can do a story on it. This sounds like something that the news people would love to air. Poor little bride about to get married being bullied by a big chain wedding store...Her dream wedding "altered" by a large corporation, etc.

What a fab dress!!! You looks amazing!

Love the idea of making your formal dress with a sweetheart neckline. That will really look stunning on you and accentuate your curves even more. Your TTD looks fabulous on you too!!! Love the e-ring and can't wait to see pics of your wedding/anniversary bands and how they will all look together. Best of luck!

The photographer we are using is Javon Longieliere. His studio is a husband and wife team and they were voted one of the best on knot.com. I know he tends to book really far out in advance but it is worth a try. We are having him do our photos in France for a very good price (approx. $3200). His website is Javon Longieliere Photography 770-715-4410 Atlanta Valdosta Destination Georgia. Hope that helps.

You sound just like me! I am so not domesticated. I learned how to cook simple things like pasta which is just boil water, add pasta, drain and add sauce. But I am definitely not a very good cook. We eat out more often than in. As for cleaning, it just boggles my mind. I mean, I can do it, but I never seem to do it right either. I will literally look at a mess and won't know where to start, it just seems so overwhelming! I've tried to convince FH for us to get a maid but he's of the firm belief that we should't pay someone to do something we can do ourselves. My argument back to him is that we don't do it ourselves so we need to pay someone. He's now at a point where he can no longer stand the mess so he's teetering on the fence of getting a maid. Between both of us working full time jobs, his business which is like both of us having a 2nd full time job, external housework, friends, softball team, etc, and now especially when we are planning the wedding and a friend's jack 'n jack party, we just don't have the time! I think he's starting to get the message. As for you, I think keeping a maid around is fine. Especially if you plan to have children, you will find it a godsend! As for cooking, like the posters said above, try simple dishes, like pasta or baked chicken. Find simple recipes online or in cookbooks and try to follow them exactly. There are tons of beginner cook books and recipes. Or even try those recipes that use half pre-made stuff and half real ingredients. Those are super easy and taste really good. If you have the time, try taking a beginners cooking class. The thing I found out about cooking is just don't get distracted away from it cuz that's when you end up burning things or ruining the food. Once you start trying it out, you can move on to more recipes that require a little more experience. Even hamburger helper or tuna helper or pasta roni is a good easy way to start! Another idea is, you can buy pre-made foods at the grocery store. You can buy a fully cooked rotisserie chicken from the grocery store and all you have to worry about making is a few side dishes such as mashed potatoes or corn or green beans, etc. That really makes attempting to cook easy for a beginner. Now you're not trying to make a whole meal but just a part of it until you feel more comfortable. Hope that helps!!!

Love #3 and #8 but my vote goes to #3. It looks fabulous on you and the 1 shoulder top is so unique!

Ok, I know I just posted my bachelorette pics and we had a really awesome time but originally I had wanted to go away for my bachelorette party to either NYC or Atlantic City or Montreal, but my 2nd MOH (my 1st MOH is now a MOH in absentia b/c she is preggos and will be unable to travel to our DW) said that b/c she is out of work, she would be unable to travel that far and it would be better to do something local. So I agreed and we planned it for South Norwalk which is only about 1-1.5 hours away. Now a month later, she is still out of a job but she just got offered tickets to the 100th episode of So You Think You Can Dance and wants me to fly out to California (from Connecticut) with her last minute (the show is in 4 days) to see the show. I thought it was too expensive to travel to NYC and now she all of a sudden has money to fly out to Cali?? I mean, I understand not wanting to go away far for a bachelorette party, but don't lie to me. And not to mention, I'm pretty tight on funds as it is cuz she knows we're saving for the wedding and FH just left for his bachelor party in Vegas (yeah, I know, his buds were willing to travel) and FH and I also have a trip to Hawaii in Dec so it's not like I have a few extra thousands laying around for a last minute ticket to Cali. Then, get this. FH's friend who is going to Vegas with him, is able to go to Vegas but not to our wedding. Now, I understand, he says he is able to go b/c FH paid for his hotel room and that is still way cheaper than having both the friend and his wife to fly to France. But, earlier this week, we mentioned our Hawaii trip and how FH's mom might not be going. Well, next thing you knew, the friend says he and his wife would love to go if FH's mom backs out and he'll surprise his wife with it cuz we'll have the room to spare (it's a timeshare unit with 2 bedrooms). WTF!!! It was too expensive to fly to France for our wedding where accommodations were going to be taken care of but it's not too expensive to fly to Hawaii when Hawaii tickets are way more expensive (nearly double the price)?? Mind you, when they were considering going to our wedding, I found them airfare for $487 per person. Tickets to Hawaii are currently $879 per person. Is it just me or is that just a little messed up?? Are we being too sensitive about this?

We ordered 20 invites and paid approx. $200, but we got specialty scrolls that were handmade. It came with the invitation, rsvp card and envelope with stamp, ribbons and fake petals, and a mailing tube. The tube was wax sealed with a castle imprint.

All but 2 of our guests have booked!!!! WOOOOHOOOO!!! We have 24 guests who have bought their airfare now! We are just waiting for 1 more couple whom I hope will book soon as time is getting close!

All of them are beautiful but I have to say, #6 seems to be absolutely stunning on you! As for bridesmaid dresses, I say pick a color and have your bm's choose styles that suit their body styles the best. Personally, I think that looks better than having everyone wear the same dress.

I just had my 1st dressing fitting back on 6/26 and I finally got these pics uploaded to my computer. It was such a good feeling. The dress fit pretty well, but a little tight. I plan to lose a few more lbs so that'll be perfect. I decided to go with a french bustle. Here are the pics: This is the front of the dress: This is the back with the veil and it partially bustled. Here is the dress from the side with it fully bustled.

Here are a few pics from my bachelorette party back on 6/13/09. It was a ton of fun. We went to a sushi restaurant in South Norwalk for dinner and then to the bar next door. The band that was playing that night was the best bar band I have ever heard!!! It was such a blast and I love how much trouble my MOH went to to make everything so nice!!!

it's a ring guard and I already had that for my engagement band. I am now getting the engagement ring sized and the wedding band sized but b/c the wedding band is a wrap, they can't just leave it as the normal size and bond it together b/c it bonds in the bottom, not the top so the ring guard won't do any good.

For us, we are getting married in France and France has strict restrictions that you have to be a resident for at least 40 days to have a legal ceremony there so we are going to do a symbolic ceremony first and do the legal one after we get back. We are big proponents of pre-nups so we just don't have the time to get that done before the DW so we will get them done afterwards and have a legal ceremony here in the U.S. (maybe Hawaii, maybe Vegas, who knows...).

We are doing a charity registry for those who are not coming to our wedding but are coming to our bbq AHR.

We are using the one our WC recommended but our cost of hiring him includes us flying him to France. Turns out he is from Georgia but seeing his work, it is excellent and he has been voted as one of the top photographers on the knot as well as having won several awards so I'm not too worried.

Here's our wedding website. It's free and really easy to use and you can customize some of the pages so they fit to what you need: Mike & Grace - wedding website by mywedding.com

Oh that's great to know!!!! Thanks girls!!! I will totally look into it!!!

yeah, our wedding is in 2 months. I don't think that's enough time to get a new ring made!!! She said there was a slim chance it was possible so I'm kinda banking on that!!! xxx-Fingers Crossed-xxx