The last three days were jam-packed with as many wedding (and shopping) things as humanly possible. I had to take full advantage of my matron of honor coming to town for the weekend. Adorable!

We spent most of our 46 hours together doing everything we used to do when she lived here. And when I say everything, I mean all the things we would normally do over a week or two we jammed into one itty-bitty weekend — from botana de queso at Los Dos Hermanos to coveting eye shadows at MAC to drinking peach bellinis at Macaroni Grill, we did it all.

Before she arrived on Friday, I had a tasting with our caterer. I wasn’t going to have one at all — our venue has an exclusive contract with our caterer — but I decided that I wanted to confirm my choices. I wish I would’ve taken pictures of all the food, because it was incredible. The dessert miniatures were delicious, the hearty mini chicken pot pies were savory, and there was so much more… teeny fingerling potatoes, little crab cakes, the list goes on. I was thrilled with how everything turned out — especially the items I specially requested that aren’t on their regular menu.

Then first up on Saturday (after the obligatory venti seven-pump nonfat no-water chai) was a trip to the florist to finalize flowers. I continued to gush over photos like this:

…and I shamelessly begged for peonies. Well, much to my delight, she thinks she can get them from California! Probably not enough to use them heavily on the tables at the reception (or, more accurately, my budget doesn’t afford enough room for liberal peony importing), but we should have some for my bouquet and at least some for the tables. I could have kissed her, I was so happy. Lily of the valley too, and tweedia. Hooray, hooray!

Next was Rebecca’s dress fitting. I didn’t take any photos at the seamstress’ studio, but I shoud have because her dress is beautiful. I can’t wait to see all three of the bridesmaid dresses together. I’ve only seen them one at a time so far, and the colors are better than I hoped. The lightest blue is oh-so-sweet, the middle blue is vivid without being overpowering, and the darkest blue — the one I was most uncertain about — is perfection. From the swatch, I feared it would be almost navy — way too saturated, and extremely dark. Instead, it’s a smoky gray-blue that effortlessly compliments the other blues. Rebecca’s sporting the middle shade, and it looks fabulous on her. Just wait until you see!

After brunch at Orchard Heights Winery this morning, we took a little trip out to the venue:

I am a wine snob in training (or geek in training, GIT), but Rebecca is blessed with an amazing palette. The owner of the vineyard calls those people “super-tasters.” She definitely qualifies as one of those and she had to come with me to select our wedding wines.

Never lacking in presentation, Zenith had a lovely fruit and cheese plate to accompany our tasting:

We chose two whites, one sparkling and two reds. The whites are creamy and decadent, and the pinot noir is very fruit-forward, soft and approachable. Yummy. The exact varietals are a surprise, but trust us, they’re going to be good.

I miss Rebecca terribly already, but it was an absolute delight to have her with me this weekend. It’s hard (okay, make that nearly impossible) to believe that the next time I see her will be less than two days before the wedding.

In changing blogging platforms — from Tumblr to Wordpress, in case you were anxiously wondering (which I’m certain you were not) — I realized that I never posted our updated wedding date!

Soon after we “decided” on the 17th, we looked at, and subsequently booked, a venue in Oregon. In the interest of having guests, we decided to have the ceremony on Saturday the 18th instead. A large number of our guests — to the tune of 90% of our guest list — are over 300 miles away, making our event a semi-destination wedding for many of our family & friends.

I thought that having a Friday evening wedding would save us a substantial amount of money, but that really wasn’t true for the month of April. In August, definitely, but not in the spring. Only two of the sixteen venues we visited offered any discount for Friday during the off-season, and in both cases that discount was 10% or less.

Now that the blog migration project is complete, I have tons of details to share, from photography to fabric, antiquing to bridesmaid dress shopping. Stay tuned!

My russell+hazel wedding binder came today, and it’s absolutely perfect. I almost didn’t get to pick it up because the concierge closed early, but I caught the manager just in time to get my much-anticipated box. I then proceeded to spend an unmentionable amount of time setting up my binder — printing my inspiration images, making notes, printing worksheets, composing to-do lists and to-buy lists and to-figure lists. It is now a delightful montage of photos and r+h post-its and bulldog clips and checklists and other lovely things. Why did I attempt to do this digitally at first? I suppose I was just waiting for my favorite paper goods company to come through.

For my personal reference: An example wedding timeline to help me remember things like reserving parking for the photographer.

Ladies and gentlemen, we have a date! April 17, 2009 — a little less than 11 months from now. Josh booked our honeymoon (and won’t tell me where we’re going) and that set our date. I originally wanted the first day of spring (March 20), but it’s a bit risky to have an outdoor wedding in March anyway. Still TBD on location, but we’re narrowing our list and should have a venue picked in the next week or two.