A Very Wedding Weekend

The time had come for Brad and I to venture East and settle a few wedding related tasks...

Friday
I stayed home from work in order to get a move on with the invitations and left for Wenatchee by 3:45 p.m. The drive wasn’t bad and we arrived at Kelly’s house by 6:30 p.m. After settling in and seeing the Benzel Abode I did some more work on the invitations and then headed out to get some dinner at El Porton, a Mexican restaurant that came highly recommended by Kelly and Todd. After a full day of invitations and driving both Brad and I welcomed a drink (or two) and feasted on some good Mexican eats. After filling our bellies we headed home for more invitation making, some television watching and then it was off to bed as we had a long day that started bright and early ahead of us.

Saturday
We left the house by 7:45 a.m. and waved goodbye to La Casa Benzel. We grabbed a cup-o-joe and then headed off to meet “Becky” for our cake appointment at 8 a.m. Becky had lots of delicious samples waiting for us and we dove right in and started tasting. By the time we left we had agreed on six different flavors of cupcakes, fillings and frostings and signed on the dotted line. (We will also have a small cake for Brad and I to cut into and save for our one year anniversary.)

Next on the list was meeting with Chris at the Grandview on the Lake at 10 a.m. in Chelan. After many phone calls with Chris over the last number of months I was excited to finally meet him face to face and thank him for all of his hard work and patience. He happily went over the rooming lists with me and gave us a tour of all of the unit types we will be using. I was truly in awe of how beautiful the units were and absolutely floored by the “presidential suite” that Chris had so graciously upgraded us to at no charge! Seriously, it is a million dollar condo with the most amazing view. I feel so spoiled and lucky.

Since it was nearing noon and we still had a full day of meetings ahead of us we decided to grab Subway and take Colie to the park. She stretched her legs for a bit and cautiously watched the ducks as they waddled by. Once we were fed we were on our way to Tsillan Cellars to meet with the venue’s coordinator, Colleen, and our caterer, Pam. We discussed just about every detail you can imagine and did a walkthrough of the venue as well as a quick “here’s how it will go on the day of” tour. Between meeting with Colleen and Pam we took a slight “break” to do some wine tasting and select the wines we will be serving at the wedding. I have to say, by the time we were done tasting the whites and the reds I was pretty “happy!” The wines have been chosen and we will place our final order one month out from the wedding. Both Brad and I were rather chipper during our meeting with Pam, the caterer, and we breezed through it no problem. My mouth is watering for some of the items on the menu already…final numbers due to Pam in 5 weeks! Wow…time is flying.

After finalizing things at the winery we headed to the Eagles lodge to see the space and hopefully meet with our contact. Our contact wasn't in but "was maybe going to be back between 4 and 4:30 p.m." We decided to hang around and meet the local Eagles that strolled in and out (and yes, to have a cocktail mid-day!) We of course supported the cause by having a beverage or two ourselves. Brad filled out his application to become a member and some local Eagle "sponsored him." He also explained to Brad that when he filled out his own application years ago he was too drunk to remember it. Ha! Our contact, Bebe, arrived at 4:15 p.m. and we chatted with her. She is REAL excited to have us. The place is a total dive (in a good way) and the dance floor is hilarious. There is a rotating disco ball above it and Bebe was very excited to show it to us. Honestly, this place is going to host one hell of an after party

After we were done at the Eagle’s Lodge we headed to Leavenworth to meet the flower lady, Patti. She is amazing and her home is insanely gorgeous. It’s cabin like but VERY nice, something you would see in a magazine. (She also does interior design.) I gave her all the stuff I had cut out of magazines and screenshots from pictures on The Knot that I liked and pretty much said....”do what you think will work.” I gave her a Save the Date and an invitation to see my "style" as well as a color swatch of the bridesmaid dresses and a few other pictures so she could get the "vibe” I was going for. We ended up staying longer then we had planned and bringing Colie in to play with her dog and meet the fam. After that we headed out....got home around 9 p.m.

It was certainly a full day but GREAT day as well. I can’t explain how much better I feel about everything and I’m actually starting to feel like a wedding might just come out of all of this planning. We’re hoping to have the invites completed and dropped in the mail by Wednesday so be on the lookout for and orange envelope in your mailbox!