It’s been almost a month since we announced our engagement, and early on, I made the quiet decision to keep details of our big day to a consolidiated to one post each month unless it pertains to a specific DIY project, since when I concocting up a fun project, I have a hard time keeping it to myself.

It’s an exciting time in our lives; we’ve been busy with the big move-in and will continue with consolidating our belongings and making a dedicated bedroom for Pete’s almost-six year old daughter Julia over the next few months. Good news: Pete brought in his flat screen, and we no longer have my dinosaur of a TV in the master bedroom. Bad news: His nice couch is too big for our new living room. And his shelves. And his desk.

In terms of our wedding planning, here’s where we are:

We picked a date and location for our wedding within a short week of becoming engaged.

Waste no time. The date will remain undisclosed until after the ceremony (call me crazy, but you’re not all invited, and I don’t want to chance random uninvited people popping in on our special day) but we are comfortable saying that it will be this December! The selected date was picked to celebrate and honor a day that’s special to my family rather than being a day that our chosen to appease the masses or because it was when a venue was available. Really, what’s fortunate is that the only venue we really loved was willing to accomodate us happily. They’re cool people, more to come on them.

These days, a 5 or 6-month engagement comes across as a bit fast, especially when all of the Say Yes To The Dress-type shows “need” 9 months to order and fit a dress. It’s not as though I want to sound like I just “want to get it over with” but I never saw myself being engaged for more than a year, we’ll be keeping it modest and we won’t need a lot of time to save, and moreover, an engagement closer to 6-months seems like a more comfortable fit for both of us, especially when you factor in that it’s Pete’s second marriage and there’s a kid involved. Kids aren’t patient, she just asked this morning if we were going to get married tomorrow.

The location for everything, both ceremony and reception, will be–drumroll please– Preferred Plants right in our hometown of Rochester. We didn’t spend any time looking around at venues, and Preferred Plants isn’t even a place that hosts weddings or private parties, but maybe we’ll get them to change their minds on that (wink, nudge). The owners are friends of Pete’s, and are so graciously willing to accomodate us and what could be 100 of our closest friends. It’s really pretty inside.

We’re designing our own save the date cards and invites.

This seemed like an obvious decision. Pete’s a designer. A graphic-turned-web designer who has all the fonts and programs and know-how that anyone would need to create customized pieces. They’re coming along nicely, and they’re really special. I’m excited to share them with you guys sometime soon.

Our layout is original and charming, but I’d be remiss not to say that I scoured both Pinterest and Minted for ideas (mostly in regards to what the cards needed to say and for paper stock inspiration).

We’re shopping for quotes from local print vendors at the moment instead of printing them at home; I’ll let you know all the tips and tricks pertaining to managing your own production in a separate post down the line, because it doesn’t need to be overwhelming or expensive.

I’m relaxed (when I’m wearing blinders).

I could love and embrace just about any theme, any number of dresses, shoes, decorations, and an entire Pantone palette of colors. Frankly, it’s exactly how I am about home design and decor. Since the possibilities are endless, I’m wearing blinders. I know myself well enough to understand that I’d get too easily overwhelmed with the whole process if I allowed myself to be mired in those kind of details. Pick. Choose. Go. We even have a flower-girl-slash-maid-of-honor-slash-bridesmaid dress for Julia already, and it was only something like $10 at The Gap last winter. Go figure, it’s adorbs, pictures to come.

I’ve been browsing a couple of wedding blogs, but not allowing myself the opportunity to get overwhelmed by a Top 100 List like this because I really don’t have that kind of time. From inspiration blogs like Green Wedding Shoes and OnceWed, to lifestyle blogs like our friend’s Road To The Aisle, to sources like Etsy Weddings, my blinders have been keeping me in line, identifying ideas that might work (for instance, the venue could sort of be likened to a rustic barn), and keeping me away from ones that wouldn’t (i.e., we won’t be getting married in a stained glass-adorned church with pews, as much as I adore gothic architecture, and there probably won’t be hired swans).

The location itself solves a lot of our wedding design woes for us: Preferred Plants is a luxurious faux-plant shop (I even used some of their products for this DIY Network post a few months back). In using the venue, we’re also using their stock and decor indirectly which will liven the space, add color, texture, and charm. It’s bound to be a floral, rainbow paradise for our wedding (and also filled any seasonal decor that they may have in stock, since it will be in December after all)!

What else?

I made a new board on Pinterest for wedding ideation. Because, why not. It’s not especially loaded with visuals yet, but it will be. And not that I’m going to buy or DIY everything that I pin, but so far it’s helping us (me) narrow down the look and feel that I hope we can achieve in real life.

As we pick a photographer, I know I’m going to have to learn to stand straighter for pictures. Until I uploaded this next photo taken in Preferred Plants and looked at it up close, I thought the whole photo was tilty (since it was taken by a 5-year old). Nope, just me, tilting in a striped shirt.

And we still have a lot to do. But not that much? I’m not overwhelmed, and I’m looking forward to all of it.

Squeal!