I went to David's Bridal today, just to look around. I have decided to go with them for the bridesmaids dresses, picking the color, Marine (really dark blue) and letting them pick the cut of their skirts (I want them long, but they can choose the fullness) and the tops. I'm going to pay for half of their dresses. I also looked at the veils there. HOLY COW. They were like $150! There is no WAY I am paying that much. So, I went to Hancock Fabric's, and bought 20 yards of tulle for $19.99, 6 5-yard spools of blue and white ribbon for decorations, not the veil, (3 for $.77 each, 3 for $.99 each), some clear thread ($2.09) and two 3-yard pieces of edging. Total of $40.98.

If I use even a yard of that tulle, I will be lucky. So, $40.98 - $18.99 (extra tulle) - $5.28 (ribbon) = $16.71 for the veil itself, of course with lots of tulle and ribbon left over to decorate with. I can mess up a lot before I get to the $150 range! I still need to get a clear comb with some beads on it to decorate it a little more, or a clip with some beads on it, but I'm hoping that will be < $5.00.

The vellum came in today, and I started printing some of the invitation examples I had made. The vellum is thinner than I thought, so I don't know if I should use a solid blue color for the flower underneath, or a faded black and white flower. I'll get some opinions. I did, however, discover that my printer won't print on the vellum by itself...I had to tape a piece of paper to the underside before it would feed through. I think I'll go to Kinkos to get them printed and cut, so I don't have to do that myself. Maybe they can do a muted blue for the flower, too. I'm ready to get the card stock and as soon as the situation with the priests is figured out and I put the deposit down on the VFW (hopefully Friday), I can have them printed.

Started on my guest list today, and I have 76 people or couples or families I want to invite. I then called my mom and we talked about who I forgot. Let's say another 40. DF has 35, and I am going to pick up his mom's list this weekend. I'm going to guess less than 200 invitiations.

I was at a loss as to what my youngest sister and god-child Janell would do. She is the only one in the family without a "job" at the wedding. 1 sister is the photographer, 3 are bridesmaids, 1 brother is an usher, 1 brother is going to be the server (alter boy), and 1 sister is going to do the readings. I finally thought of this...2 of the bridesmaids have daughters close in age, and I'm going to have both of them be flower girls. I am going to have the flower girls go up the aisle, and when they get to the front, the "flower girl attendant" (Janell) is going to intercept them and take them to the pew. She will keep them quiet, and if they need to go out because they are being fussy or loud or something, she will take them out. Then, when we are doing the recessional, she will tell them when to go. I talked to her about that today, and even though she is disappointed she can't be a bridesmaid, she thought that would be a good idea and was happy with it.

Complete Music offered me a quote the other day of $700 for an 8 hour event, with they providing background music for the first 4 hours and then the dance for the next 4 hours. I told Mom that, and she thought that was a little high. So, I asked them what it would cost for just the dance. He said $550, but then lowered the price for the whole day to $600. I had my fiance ask a local guy in town, the owner of the bar we met in, actually, if he could bring his equipment in to be the DJ, but he said that he didn't do weddings...but if I wanted karaoke, we could have him! I was tempted, but no, I decided to go with the $600 all day deal.