52 Weeks Out

We are traveling through Colorado on a fall color tour, and of course our first stop was Vail for a preview of what our wedding back drop will look like next year! Here is what we found.

Fall color!

Donovan Pavilion- Our wedding venue

The Wedding Deck

Our first "anniversary"

My tenderloin

Kyle and I were fortunate enough to find time away from work (which is killing both of us lately) to go out for a romantic dinner for our "negative one year anniversary".  This allowed for us to take time to pay attention to each other as well as to escape our daily stresses. We went to Cork, a 4-diamond restaurant in Chandler. It was an amazing experience.

Kyle's Kobe beef

We had made reservations and explained what we were celebrating, so when we walked into the restaurant, printed on our menus was "Happy Anniversary Erica and Kyle". Kyle thought this was pretty awesome, and they let us keep a copy of the menu. We then proceeded to have a 4-course meal to die for. Great portions made for a relaxing night without feeling too stuffed afterwards. We shared a bruschetta appetizer, each had a salad, Kyle got Kobe beef and I had pork tenderloin, and we topped it off with creme brulee. The best part was the cantaloupe martini, bottle of Emeritus pinot noir, and comped champagne to toast our celebration! Then the night manager gave us a tour of the wine closet, (they have a $30,000 bottle of wine), and we thoroughly enjoyed the entire evening. We can't wait to go back to try their winter menu!

Dessert!

I hope that this celebration is the start of a great tradition of anniversaries focused on good food, great atmosphere, and most importantly each other.

Our "First" Anniversary was a total success!

Our -1 Year Anniversary

September 29, 2012

Dear Bride-to-be Me,
You are going to be glowing with happiness and love. You will be so excited to see your closest friends and family, but moreso your CLOSEST friend and soon to be official family, your groom. Your ivory dress will be stunning, with hair and makeup accessorizing your natural beauty. The atmosphere of the mountains, that has always inspired you and given you peace, is here to support you and inspire you. You have worked hard, met your goals, and deserve every ounce of joy you are currently feeling. You can look back on the past year and know that you were amazing in your planning and preparation, balancing the vision of a perfect day with the consideration of the vows you are going to take shortly. You've built your relationship up with long talks about your future, your dreams of having a family, you shared your worries about maintaining it while still allotting time for each other.  You spent hours online, flipping through magazines, browsing through stores, envisioning your moment, your decor, your feelings. You've prepared with therapeutic talks and energetic walks. You found love. Focus on it today. You took care to make every guest feel as important as you do today. You honored your family, you toasted your friends. Take it all in, look around you, feel the love surrounding you, and hold onto it for those moments when it seems to have disappeared. Don't sweat the small stuff today, (you have Johnna for that). Relax, drink champagne, take lots of pictures (or have them taken) and never, ever forget the anticipation you felt just one year ago today, knowing that you were a mere year from this epic and everlasting occasion.
Love,
Your Eager Self

We've made it 1/4 of a year!

By "made it", I mean that we are still engaged, three whole months later, and still on track for a wonderful wedding in a little over a year.

Our engagement day- 3 months ago on Lake Michigan

Over that past 3 months, I have:

• Cried some tears
• Felt loved
• Let my creative juices flow
• Gone back to work and still kept planning a wedding
• Coddled many newborn babies
• Been to Colorado 2 times
• Kept my ring safe
• Found my dream venue!
• Explored endless online resources
• Marveled over photographers' websites
• Budgeted
• Shopped
• And fell even more in love.

Our Lovely Planner

Johnna herself!

Today I officially submitted our contract for our weekend-of planner, Johnna ('John-ah'), who I am very excited to have help me out on the weekend of the wedding. I did not know the options that were available for wedding planners prior to actually meeting with a couple and discussing the options. Although I am probably a bit too much of a perfectionist to completely let go of all the planning, I was more than excited to find that having a person coordinate the actual weekend is extremely reasonable in price, and will save me, what I hope to be, loads of stress and last minute snafus will go unnoticed.

As I believe I mentioned before, I met with this wonderous woman when I first went to Colorado after my engagement. She suggested a meeting at my absolute favorite coffee shop/bakery in all of Colorado, Blue Moon. It was fate. Then, when Kyle and I returned to Colorado for a second planning trip, we suggested a restaurant we had never been to in Frisco, but that was recommended by some locals, and it was HER favorite. Fate. She got the job when she sat through breakfast and completely put up with Kyle's requests for a juggler and his threat that there may be some debauchery occurring throughout the evening. Not only did she put up with it, but sarcastically egged him on! So if Kyle and Johnna can get along, I know I am set.

What I am most excited about is the list of tasks she will take care of for the weekend, anything from planning out an itinerary for our out-of-town guests (everyone) full of fun mountain activities to occupy their time, and getting all the place cards, table cards, centerpieces etc... before the wedding, so I don't have to be decorating when I should be pampering myself the morning of the wedding!

So Johnna, if you read this, we are more than excited to have you as a part of our day and appreciate you!

Distinctive Mountain Weddings