Late Night

I am still at work and it looks like I am stuck for the near future, yuck!! A late night on a Friday is always depressing. I just want to relax and start my weekend but why not take the opportunity to blog.

This week was a very busy one. I managed to get a lot of work done on the wedding. Here is the recap.

I was able to weasel my way into starting the catering process much earlier than normal. The Monona Terrace doesn't typically assign a catering sales person until 3 months prior to the wedding but I got one now. I am super happy because when you commit 50% of your budget and have to wait until 3 months before to find out that you don't have enough money is not a good thing. I was worried (as always) because I began to look over the menu and figure out the cost per person and got uber overwhelmed by all the little fees and restrictions and such. I spent quite awhile looking it over and came up with a mild estimate. Which I thought was high and so I needed some advice from a catering person. I emailed Sue and over the course of three days she got herself assigned to our wedding and we scheduled a phone conference. Throughout our conversation I got some good ideas and we came up with a preliminary cost per person. I have to admit that we were 3 dollars apart in our estimate with me being over estimated. I guess I am REALLY good with catering menus. Who knew certainly not I. A bonus is Sue will be at the tasting on March 14th so Dan and I get to meet her in person. That should be so helpful.

In addition to the catering I contacted a honeymoon travel specialist. Also Dan and I have chosen the location at least tentatively. We want to spend our first vacation tramping (hiking) through the New Zealand countryside. To all who voted on our honeymoon poll thanks for voting the most for our 1st choice. I say tentatively chosen because we have to consider cost and travel distance for our honeymoon. New Zealand flights are not only long (24hrs +) but super expensive. So if the cost is too high we will have to choose another location. I think the back-up locale is Hawai'i but I don't really want to stay in the US. I have had a passport for two- three years and have not traveled abroad yet. Its about time to get a stamp. One great surprise about New Zealand is that our travel agent Lori went there for her honeymoon. She should have some great ideas and recommendations. I am going to be cautious that Dan and I still make the trip our own. Lets be honest we aren't the greatest trampers (thats hiking in New Zealandish).
And for those of you who are Flight of the Conchords fans, Dan and I will be making lots of references to the show. Those who don't know the show I demand you go watch it. It is super funny and who doesn't love a New Zealand accent.

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3371/3286889124_ff2c9d8943.jpg

Check out the pic. New Zealand rocks!!!!!! Best travel advertisement ever.

With the help of my mom we got information on the hotel blocks. It turns out that the Hilton and Sheraton (owed by the same company) are not very negotiable. Unfortunately you can't beat having the hotel connected to the Monona Terrace, super convenient. So we will have to figure out if we want to block some rooms or have our guests (you all) chose the hotel that fits your wallet and likes. Of course we will have all the information here when we decide for sure. Oh and we will be sending our Save - the -dates soon. So the info will be there too.

Dan got a call back from the florist. Not much information was gotten except that we most likely can't get local flowers no matter what they are. It seems WI winters are too harsh to spend the energy to run a greenhouse during the winter. I'm probably still gonna stick with roses but perhaps mix in something else to give some variety. We will see if we get more info from this florist otherwise we will shop around. I really don't care much who does the flowers cuz they would be beautiful just stuck in a plain vase. Can't go wrong with fresh flowers.

Anyway gotta get going a time point calls me. Have a great night and weekend if I don't get back here this weekend. I'm going to try and do some planning but after tonight I might just sleep all day tom. :)