four hundred one

four hundred one days left to the wedding, unchecked items on my huge list include: florist, church (officially), videographer (if we need one), bridal party transportation, some cake items, engagement rings, all the stationary imaginable, guest list... and more things that i can't remember.

have i mentioned how wonderful my groom is? i can't tell you how much he has helped with all this stuff. this past weekend we worked together on one piece of our stationary, the program. i went through all of my old paper from school and found some amazing paper to use. it has a great texture and is a nice ivory/antique white. jordan is the one who came up with the idea to hold the four pages together. it looks superb! you will all have to see for yourself. he also had an amazing idea for our guest book... but i refuse to say more, again you'll have to see for yourself!

here is another photo dump of my favorites:

four hundred seventy three

well we are a step closer to the church, we have at least set our goal on one church in particular...drum roll please...............and the winner is............bonhomme presbyterian church! this past sunday we went to the 8:00 service and just felt at home. this coming sunday we are planning to attend again but go the the 'contemporary' service to try it out as well. in order to have a wedding at bonhomme you must be a member, which is fine with me because this seems like an amazing church.

after visiting i did some more research on bonhomme and here are some fun facts:
bonhomme presbyterian church was founded in 1816 and is the second oldest presbyterian church east of the mississippi river.
it has a gorgeous old stone church that was built in 1941 and is currently planning on undergoing renovations
they are located on conway road in chesterfield just off hwy 40
they are actively involved in mission trips from just around st louis all the way to russia

four hundred ninety eight

hooray we are now officially in the four-hundreds! goodbye gloomy old five-hundreds, four is the new top number for the next ninety nine days.

so as of today i have a few major things checked off the semi-imposing list. lets see... photographer, reception site, d.j., caterer, dress, shoes...we still need one of the most important things. a ceremony site. yes yes i know we have over a year left, but there are a lot of tiny problems, and usually money is at the root. for those of you who don't know... churches are freaking expensive. seriously, i am looking in the range of $700-$1700. currently i have four churches in mind.

option 1: bonhomme presbyterian... gorgeous, classic, big. absolutely stunning. however they only cater to their members (another process that would take minimum six weeks) they are also semi-expensive. in the middle upper range.

option 2: dardenne presbyterian... the church i grew up in, gorgeous, beautiful, big, light, airy, low end of the price range. however it is a different church now compared to what it was when i grew up in it.

option 3: peace chapel... adorable, historic, quaint, beautiful...it is seriously my dream place however it is in the middle upper price and it is tiny. max people is 130. (150 if people stand in back...) so that would cut down our ceremony guest list.

option 4: second presbyterian church... on taylor ave (jordan says thats a sign) beautiful, tiffany glass windows, historic, huge, classic, stone. this is definitely one of the pricy ones... but reasonable if i become a member.. so who knows. another downfall is that it is farthest away from the reception site... 40 min. so i don't know if that is a huge 'no' for guests.

anyhoo. im still thinking and weighing the options, its definitely going to be a topic of conversation between jordan and me this weekend.

tell me which you like best!