One year until our wedding day!

Mr. Lock and I have our venue, and our wedding date will be May 24th, 2014!  That means that today we are officially one year away from the big day!

After the venue hunt, we slowed right down on wedding talk.. I think I needed a break after a very exciting and hectic few weeks, plus I have a few other events coming up soon that need some attention.  Fortunately, finding the venue is the really big thing... since our ceremony will be on site as well, the venue covers a huge portion of what we need for the wedding day.  Next on our list is booking a few vendors... DJ matters to me a lot, and our officiant (we're hoping to use the same officiant Dr. McVet used, as she is a family friend of theirs).  We are debating what to do about photographers.

The thing is... we want a beautiful wedding, but we also really, really want to be budget-conscious... we do not want to be house poor and wedding poor all at once!!  Our parents are being very generous, but since we went with a fancier venue... we are going to look for other ways to save money where we can.  For example, we are most likely going to make the centre-pieces ourselves -- well, my future mother-in-law and I.  She is quite good with flowers, and I think we'll look up some really cute do it yourself ideas online.  I'm not picky over flowers, so simple and colourful is fine with me.  Other than using a florist for the bouquets, I am very fine with the centre-pieces being more homemade.

So, photographer is the other huuuuge expense... and frankly, I really want to cut where I can on that.  We have a couple of ideas of good friends who are very good photographers, so we may try to work out a deal with them... it's something we're still mulling over and trying to consider.  I might ask for some quotes and see how we feel after that.

Now that we've hit exactly a year, though, I also recognize that I need to start dress shopping!  My mom seems to be most looking forward to that part.  I have no idea what type of dress I want... other than I need to be able to dance in it!  We'll see what I end up with once I get out there and try some on.

At times, I feel a bit complacent about wedding planning... I think it's just a bit overwhelming. Most of the time, though, I'm excited and I want to look up colours and styles and flower ideas... I think I just need to get through this very hectic time of year, and then use my summer break from school to be very, very productive on the wedding front.

So, I get married in 364 sleeps...