snowflakes at least are pretty.

Guess which day my wedding is on?

This is something I just have to laugh at.

Pretty typical of my life.

eleven days

is not enough time.

[Posted with iBlogger from my iPhone]

brown paper packages

Is it a no-no to open gifts before the wedding?
Got some big packages and they are taking up space...
and curiosity.

..I'm not going to tell you what I do.

Invitations

Most invitations have been mailed. Hurrah! Unfortunately we had a bit of an oopsiedaisy and some of them got mailed out without return stamps and without being taped shut. So I apologize if anyone received one that was ripped or missing a registry card and stamp.

Also, we realized after accidentally inducing much panic that many people think the reply card reads respond by Oct 13th. It actually says Oct 31th. But they look a lot a like.

So far Andrew has about 53 people coming and I have 3. This of course doesn't include the wedding party. It's slightly ironic considering I wanted to invite the world and he only wanted his family. Another lessons in learning that perhaps he was right.

Corsages are Nice

Well gosh. It's been awhile.

Sneak peak! My sister Bird has been working hard on making corsages and boutonnieres for the wedding party! I can't wait to see them all completed because they look incredible. She's using ribbon and fabric which will be much cheaper and just as pretty as buying flowers! The picture is of Andrew's and our little ringbearer's.

progress comes at a price

So much stress. I had no idea. I always thought the engagement part of a relationship sounded so fun. Pure bliss and romance as we plan a beautiful wedding.

We're in Iowa again and are actually getting a fair amount of work done for the wedding, but now that we are below the hundred day countdown, it seems as though we'll run out of time.

Things we've done this week:

1.) Finally had a realization that we were both thinking about this wedding in two completely different, conflicting ways. I'm not sure that is going to change, but at least we are fully aware of the other person's perspective. While Andrew looks to this wedding as a lesson in budgeting and saving money, I look to this wedding as giant party. I feel as though my wedding is a once in a lifetime event (and probably the biggest event in my life) and I want to throw a wonderful celebration. And we all know, that if I'm throwing a party -- I want a PARTY.

2.) Discussed (but haven't resolved) processional music. While I was thinking to pick something epic and grand, Andrew thinks nothing but Cannon in D will suffice. This conversation has yet to be fully resolved.

3.) Went to another couple's wedding and realized we aren't as creative as we thought. But we still want to try. We're getting tired of hearing all about how so and so's wedding was "the best" or "the prettiest," I feel like our wedding is feeling a titch insecure and inadequate.

4.) I tried on my dress again at the bridal shop for Janna, Sandy (Andrew's aunt), and Erin. I still love it.

5.) Sandy, took me out to fabric stores to look at tulle for the veil she is making me. I'm very excited to see it completed.

6.) My sister ordered her bridesmaids dress online and it was hideous when she got it. I'm just glad we didn't order six of them at one time. Back to the drawing board on that one.

7.) Picked out invitations.

8.) Fought about what the RSVP card should look like. For an hour. So silly. I can promise you, after our wedding is over, we won't even remember what it looked like.

9.) We're still struggling to send out Save the Dates. Collecting addresses is a lot of work.

10.) Today should be a good day. We are going food tasting and tuxedo shopping. These should be fun, right?

those curtains are worth it.

Going into this wedding planning, I didn't think I'd be incredibly picky. "I'm very sensible," I thought.

But somehow, in a matter of days, my feminine spirit has overtaken any practicality that I thought I'd be able to maintain. Suddenly, beautiful > economical and visions of satin, silk, velvet and jeweled elephants are running through my head. How much for a chandelier? "How did this happen?" I can't help but wonder. The notion that "plain and simple will be best" has long disappeared. Now I have a desire for elegance and grandeur.

Unfortunately, this desire for wedding aesthetics did not overcome my fiance. He was still firmly rooted in the idea of saving as much money as possible. This became evident when we both chose different reception venues as our favourites. He chose the country club and I chose the 1923 vintage lodge. And for several days the beautiful vs. economical war raged. After an epic struggle, I unknowingly made my winning move and he gave up the fight. Since then, he's realized that when it comes to weddings - decisions should be split 60/40.

Have I become BRIDEZILLA? Goodness, I hope not. I'm coming to realize that being a woman is an uncomfortable buisness. I dislike the fact that we can not decide things together and that my "femaleness" makes me a tyrant.

But we decided on the reception venue at last and I will have a beautiful reception full of velvet curtains at the Elks Lodge 290 in Waterloo. My fiance is very kind.

November 20th, 2010
Kelly & Andrew will be married at the 1st Reformed Church in Aplington, Iowa.
To be followed by a reception at the Elks Club Lodge in Waterloo, Iowa.

it's time for you to catch up.

2 posts from andrew in less than 1 week.
get stoked on that readers because it probably won't happen again.

my future is looking pretty good.

by the end of november i will have a job that i love and a wife that i love more.

the problem is getting to the end of november.
as of right now i have an apartment to clean, bills and student loans to pay, 2 coaches and 1 full sized bed to move along with various other possessions. to make this situation just a little worse, i have not worked in a week and a half. money is stupid and i wish i had enough to get through the next month.

november please come quickly.

lest i already forget.

as i do so often with blogs and tweets and status updates, i have nearly forgotten about this blog.

we have accomplished very much since my last entry.
i have learned that when it comes to wedding decisions the groom to be holds 40% of the vote while the bride to be holds 60%. does this upset me? no, not at all.
for those who plan on getting married at some point and fear the stresses of wedding planning, head this advice. if your bride wants something to be pretty, it does not matter how much it costs she deserves it. that is my new attitude going into this wedding business.

of course pimples

Typical of our relationship, we forgot to plan and pack outfits for our engagement pictures. To remedy this, we took a trip to Kohls. After spending a good hour holding up shirts, trying on, tucking, and whining, we gave up on the concept of trying to look overly nice for our pictures. Andrew bought a black tshirt. Casual is cool, right?

I'm glad Aunt Liz is a pro at photoshop, because of course my face broke out this morning. Didn't they mention something about pimples being a sign of stress?

Regardless, I'm excited. We'll post a few later.

the new eyebrow shaper

Yesterday I shaved Andrew's eyebrows. I am still convinced that plucking would be more effective, but he protests too loudly. Janna Voss (Andrew's mom) brought out the shaver and passed over the responsibility (gladly?). As I took-up my role, as Andrew's official "eyebrow shaper," I got a glimpse into our future. While we like to imagine our marriage full of cute and precious, it will really end up being more about keeping each other well-groomed and fed. And that makes me smile. Never did I think I'd feel okay about picking things out of another person's teeth, or eliminating uni-brows, but somehow it just feels right. This will be good.

The second day I was engaged, older married folk probably laughed as I boastfully proclaimed how capable of planning the picture perfect I was. Up until yesterday I felt as though I was doing quite well. After all, hadn't we picked a wedding date the second day of our engagement? Composed the tentative guest list by the next week? And purchased the perfect wedding dress? Started a registry by adding a tent? Yes, I'm sure they were laughing. And yesterday threw me for a loop.

Andrew and I are in his hometown in Iowa for the week with intent of picking a church, reception and caterer for our wedding. We started yesterday with reception venues.

After visiting three venues (which seemed as though they were hundreds of miles and thousands of cornfields away from each other), we were discouraged by the amount of money we were supposed to dish out to have a reception. Now of course we knew they were going to be expensive, but I suppose we were a little naive. Suddenly we were shuffling through stacks of papers and pamphlets and being bombarded by hidden fees. Chair covers for $2 each is not okay.

Before bed last night, I was about ready to googlemaps directions to the courthouse. The only thing that held me back was that I couldn't think of another occasion where I would get to wear my perfect wedding dress. That would be a waste. But this morning I woke up with a renewed spirit; after surviving a vicious thunderstorm that shook my bed and made me too terrified to fall asleep in case an Iowa tornado hit.

After saying a quick kitchen prayer, Andrew, Janna, and I piled into the moldy-orange juice van and headed out to another day of reception venue hunting. Clearly the prayer worked. We found our two favourite places today and will now continue to debate. Of course we each like different ones. That seems to be a rule. We have seven days to decide, but I'm hoping to make a choice before that.

So I feel pretty good now. I've mastered eyebrow shaping and I'm once again pretty confident I can plan the picture perfect wedding after all.

initial thoughts on engagement and marriage.

when initially confronted with warnings of the intensity of wedding planning, andrew john voss laughed and was convinced that neither him nor his fiance, kelly lynn holtom, would have any problem creating their dream wedding.

shortly after being faced with a wedding-related decision, andrew was amazed by his once nonchalant attitude.

this blog has been created to share stories with friends and family as we plan for one of the most exciting days of our lives. perhaps this will be used as nothing more than a forum to vent our frustrations, maybe a diary of our love, maybe a blog address that will sit empty for the rest of its existence.

no matter what the future of this blog may hold, we are confident that our marriage is designed to last and that the coming years and months will be the happiest of our lives. thanks for taking the time to read.