Honeymoon: Check!

Uh, so I'm super stoked about our honeymoon spot this fall. Actually, our two honeymoon spots... The Monday after the wedding, following 2 exciting nights as husband and wife in Austin, Clay and I will be going global with our marital status to the beaches of Puerto Vallarta. Hola, Mexico, aqui venimos!

After a 3-night retreat at a lovely beach-side hotel, we'll continue the romance with a short drive up the Pacific Coast to the small town of Sayulita. Here the trip will conclude after 4 more nights in a private beach-front cabana. [yeah!]

[Note: I find it difficult to write about beach destinations and romantic getaways without tapping into my cheesy vacation brochure inner voice. You the know the one. Now where did I put my Danielle Steel novel?]

Moving right along...

Top 10 reasons why I love P.V. and Sayulita as our honeymoon destinations (Letterman-style):

10. Two-and-a-half-hour flight from Houston. Long plane rides are for the birds. Let's get this party started!

9. Margaritas. Fish tacos. Need I say more? (Yes I do: Chile. Con. Queso.)

*8. Awesome, secret service-type men who save a spot for you on the treadmill... and hold onto your coconut drink as a post-workout refreshment.

7. Experiencing a first among firsts as newlyweds: neither of us has ever been to the Pacific Coast of Mexico.

6. Adults-only policies. Sorry, kiddos.

5. Relaxation-to-occupation ratio. It's high. On purpose. We will officially be the laziest vacationers this side of the Gulf.

*4. Strange, exotic wildlife that washes ashore to eat fistfuls of sand.






3. Affordability. (Gotta love the dollar-peso exchange rate.)

2. Justifying purchase of the Rosetta Stone-Spanish like 4 years ago.

And, the number one reason why I love daydreaming about our future vacation on the Mexican Pacific Coast:

*1. Complimentary oxygen tanks in every room!







* Actual photos from our hotel brochure. Awesome. Send you a postcard!

Florist: Check!

Ever so delighted and pleased to announce that we've *officially* booked a florist for the big day. Brooke Howsley from Pollen Floral Art charmed my pants off and won me over with her professionalism, creativity, and mad organizational qualities. (I'm such a sucker for all of these things. As you well know by now.)

[Images from Pollen's website and blog]

Plus, she's practically my neighbor. And she has pretty red hair. And she met me at one of my favorite coffee shops for our initial consultation. Hyde Park, represent!

She even got a shout out in a New York Times article from earlier this week. Go Brooke! (Ok, we get it. I'm a fan.) Much thanks to Tara for sending me her way. What a gem! Can't wait to see her floral touches at play on October 30.

In other floral news...

I'm totally excited about the DIY portion of our wedding flower package-combo-mix-bit-thingy. In an attempt to save some pennies (even though Pollen was super affordable), we will only be using Brooke for bouquets, corsages, and boutonnieres. (The most important stuff, really.) The reception flowers, however, will be purchased wholesale from one of the following 2 companies and assembled by a lucky, as of yet undetermined bunch of amateur floral arrangers. Aka, my [insert flattery here] friends. Look out, it could be you!

[Austin Flower Co. on 35th Street and Texas Specialty Cut Flowers in Blanco, TX]

For now, I'll just be flipping through my wedding books, perusing the wedding blogs, and quietly stalking any photos of centerpiece arrangements that I can get my hands on. I have absolutely no experience in floral selection or floral arrangement, but darn it all, sign me up for another creative wedding opportunity! By far my favorite part of this whole process.*

*(Aside from the bit about marrying my best friend, creating a new life together, etc, etc...)

Wedding Cake: Check!

We did it! We signed off on a cake vendor this weekend! Hooray, Team Clay & Meredith!

After Simon Lee backed out on the original quote they submitted back in January (jerks; I keep vowing to give them a long Yelp post), I was totally bummed thinking I had underestimated our cake budget. Are all cake vendors sneaky with their pricing? Do wedding cakes just cost an arm and a leg, and tough cookies, I've gotta deal with it?

After blogging and mourning over my wedding cake woes, several awesome friends reached out with both condolences and suggestions, which is how I found out about Kyle, TX-based cake shop The Sweet Stuff, owned by Type-A, uber responsible and organized Michelle. (You can tell, we have a bond. Awesome, trustworthy wedding vendors are so key to my grassroots, DIY-wedding. They complete me.)

Beautiful cakes, competitive pricing, and awesome service... I was literally bursting on Saturday morning after our breakfast cake tasting and consultation! (What? People have coffee cake for breakfast all the time. Don't judge.)

Here's the skinny on what we chose:

Flavor White Cake
Filling Fresh-Sliced Strawberries & Bavarian Cream
Icing Buttercream (aka, Heaven)

All that for literally half of my original budget (instead of double my budget with Simon Lee.) So excited, relieved, and above all, just ready to get married! Apparently, a good cake find will do that to a girl.

Wedding Website: Check!

Oh hiii there... remember me? Your favorite blushing, blogging bride-to-be? Contrary to popular opinion, I do still exist, and I do still carry way too many thoughts on the topic of weddings than is probably healthy or medically recommended. Fear not!

Truth be told, not too much excitement has been happening in my world of weddings as of late. [And really... Thank the Lord!] I was told early on to expect a lull in the planning right about now, and thus far that seems to be the case. Down-time is my friend. [Again... Hallejuah, sister!]

I did want to share with you something that's been up for a while but never been blogged about, and that is.... the Wedding Website! Which you can explore and test drive (and Ooh and Aah over) by going to clayandmeredith.com.*

[Intro page - clayandmeredith.com]

[Home page - clayandmeredith.com]

I'll admit now that I took the task of the Wedding Website way too seriously for my own good. Refusing to give in to the boring, cookie-cutter wedding site, I tested out an insane number of alternative website options in the hopes of finding something more unique and personal, including Wix (an awesome free flash player), Tumblr (for more of a blog-style format), The Knot (free and easy), Wedsite (most unique templates I saw), and MyWedding.com, before finally settling on the Classical template from EWedding.com (as seen above).

What started out as a fun exercise in creativity quickly turned into a frustrating nightmare in web amateurism. What do I know about customizing my own website? Very little indeed! Don't get me wrong... I'm stoked about how everything finally turned out... I just can't look at the finished product quite the same without remembering the long (and often painful) journey it took to get there.

Lesson learned: don't try to take on more than you can swallow, Miss Meredith. Gah! I have a feeling I'll be learning that lesson for the rest of my life...

* Note: Proper wedding etiquette calls for mention of the bride's name before the groom's in all wedding correspondence; therefore our wedding website really should have been named meredithandclay.com Whoops. Oh well, we didn't know that until too late, so what the hell, Clay can come first! We're going with it. At least it's alphabetically correct, right? Let this be proof that you really can do what you want with your wedding and EVERYTHING WILL STILL BE OKAY. No one will get hurt. The world will not stop turning. Things will be fine. (And in the end, you'll likely forget all about what made you so worried in the first place.) Amen.

Save the Dates: Check!

Phew. Man, was this a tough one for me. For a while there I wasn't sure if there'd even be any Save the Dates, let alone if I'd manage to get them in the mail before Halloween (joke). I kept rationalizing to myself reasons why it was okay that I was a full month behind schedule: They're not mandatory. Just a bonus really. And no one needs to "save the date" this early, right? I mean, can't I just send out a quick email? Pass along the word through the grapevine? Anyone? Bueller?

But alas, the wedding gods got to me once again, and I decided to try for one last push in order to check this task off my to-do list. I'm so glad that I persisted, because I feel so good about how these turned out!


So far, there's been only one minor glitch, and that was with the website listed on the cards (a technical error I haven't quite figured out yet, but something to do with the content not translating correctly between different web browsers). I took that faulty webpage down and will be working on it this week, and so look for a post in the next few days where I officially reveal our wedding website, glitch-free. (A way fun digital learning experience; can't wait to show you!)

Though these S-T-D's were homemade and originally concepted, I must give credit where credit is due. It takes a lot of moving parts to create something so seemingly simple, and an even greater endeavor to make it appear effortless, and for that I am oh so grateful to the following lovely people:

Photographer Clay F and his tripod
Location Fain Ranch, near Enchanted Rock
Designer Jessica W (bless you, dear woman)
Printer Tony M from CSI
Paper Mohawk Milkweed Antique Vellum
& French Speckletone Kraft Envelopes
(thanks to Jessica P from Clampitt Paper)

Couldn't have done it without you all; my most sincere thank you's! Who else could have brought on a spontaneous rendition of the happy dance outside the Speedway Post Office?

Save the Dates: big ol' CHECK! I guess this wedding's really happening, huh? A hundred something people just marked their calendars for October 30 and will be showing up at The Allan House expecting some semblance of a wedding. Guess there's no turning back now. We're just gonna have to go through with it. Clay, you still good? Here's hoping.

Rehearsal Dinner Venue: Check!

And the winner of the Austin rehearsal dinner venue search is... the ever-fabulous... Fabi + Rosi! (To jog your memory, here is a list of the other top candidates previously in the running.)

I'm so happy we ended up with this place! Elegant, but down-home. Fancy, but servin' up fried jagerschnitzel (aka heaven). Dress-up, but not to the point where you don't feel comfortable in your own skin.

In other words, the perfect setting for a quiet, adult evening amongst family and friends before the chaos and craziness of the big wedding day. Bon appetit!

[Photos courtesy of Yi and ChristmasCarol on Flickr]

Wedding Dress: Check!

Like whoa.*

*Note: I considered leaving this post at that, but then I decided to give you a few more details to chew on (though not too many!) - I mean, it is the wedding dress. A checklist item this big merits at least some explanation. For the record, though, this initial statement pretty much sums it up, and so you may stop now if you wish; no further reading necessary.

A few weeks ago, as mentioned in this blog post, I bought a dress in New York City. Bought. That's not the same as finding the dress I'm going to wear on October 30 (although, it might be). Any dress I buy or heavily consider is subject to a rigorous obstacle course of tests paneled by only the harshest and most scrutinizing of judges (i.e. Lauren, Sarah, Melissa, & Courtney).

Here are the 10 stages of wedding dress selection, according to, well, me:

1. Earmark catalogs, magazines, or books, and/or capture screen shots from online galleries and stores.

2. Select promising gowns off the rack. (If satisfied, skip to step #4; if still panicking, go to step #3.)

3. Enlist your friend, sister, mother, or sales associate to select a gown off the rack for you.

4. Try on selected dress. (Eek!).

5. Take pictures of selected dress and/or dress feature while you are wearing said dress. Important for when you get home and realize you've completely blacked out most of the dress-shopping experience.

6. Bring home information about the preferred dress (stock number, price, size, etc), and "sleep on it." This step may be skipped altogether if you get either, a) overly excited and credit-card-happy, or b) overly nervous and credit-card-happy.

7. Purchase the dress. (Omg!).

8. Invite trustworthy friends and family over for mimosas. Get them tipsy. Try on the purchased dress in front of them, and make them tell you the truth.

9. Conduct the Mom Test. Try on the purchased dress in front of Mom, and cross your fingers she doesn't think it's too tight, low, sexy, modern, or any other common motherly clothing worry.

10. Do your happy dance on top of your living room couch while no one is looking. Voila! You have yourself a wedding dress!

Pre-New York, the furthest I'd gotten with any dress was step #6, with a few gowns not getting past #1, and several gowns dying after #4. Looking back, I was far from close. But I knew I'd find my perfect fit in due time.

Brutal, yes. Overboard, maybe. But do I feel amazing and confident and ecstatic with my purchase? Like whoa I do.

Just think, I haven't even picked out jewelry, shoes, hairstyle, makeup...

Officiant: Check!

Why hello there, blog readers! I'm back! Oh how I've missed you so. (Or at least, I've missed the idea of you when I delude myself into thinking that people are actually interested in perusing any of my flighty wedding gibberish.)

It's Monday, and that means Spring Wedding Break 2010 is officially over. Done. So long, down-time. Hello, coffee cups and late evenings. Back to the daily grind and my second job that is part-time wedding planner.

I have to admit, stepping away from all of this wedding stuff for a week was really... hard. I kept catching myself daydreaming about honeymoon destinations or drumming up ideas for the wedding website (no, Meredith... bad Meredith). But I stayed true to my mission and did not undertake even one ounce of wedding work, much to the approval and gratitude of my saintly fiancee. (To be truly accurate, I did scout out a possible rehearsal dinner venue with Carroll and Courtney, but if drinking creamy pinot noir and eating salty mussels is considered work, then by all means sign me up for that career track.)

Some progress did manage to occur while on break. We had put the wheels into motion a few weeks ago for booking a wedding officiant, and lo and behold, it all came through and was confirmed just last week. Hooray! An official officiant! A very important contributor to the whole "getting married" thing, don't you think?

And so who is this mystery person? Meet Claude, great uncle to Clay and wedding officiant to both Clay's parents and sister. How cool is that? All in the family. I had the pleasure of meeting Claude, a Methodist pastor, and bonding with his wife Charlotte in the Bahamas last spring: truly kind and terrific people. We're so grateful that they're willing to make the trek down from Georgia to marry us. We really wouldn't have anyone else!

Which brings me yet another step closer to becoming a missus. Such happy news! 222 days and counting... Oh yes, the wedding planner is back.

Wedding Caterer: Check!

Man, I just keep knocking 'em out of the park.

Another huge weight was lifted off my shoulders this past week after Clay and I officially confirmed... The Salt Lick!!... as our wedding caterer. Brisket, pork ribs, sausage, and chicken, mmmmm, boy howdy!

Out of the handful of caterers I considered (Pink Avocado, Dagar's, Crave, Tacodeli), the good ol' folks over at The Salt Lick were surprisingly the most put-together and by far the most affordable. Lisa, their event coordinator, is totally in for a big bear hug from me. The two of us just might be planning soul mates. I heart her.

Yes sir, looks like we'll be having a genu-ine Texas backyard barbecue this October. Hilarious, considering I'm not the biggest meat eater in the world. But alas, beef. It's what's for dinner.

The stomachs of my vegetarian friends are simultaneously doing backflips right now, I can just hear them.

(Badass) Photographer: Check!

It's been a big week for the wedding planning (huge), because Clay and I have officially secured an amazing wedding photographer for the big day. I still can't believe it. None other than the awesomely talented Cory Ryan will be there with us on October 30 to capture every last mushy matrimonial moment. Bless her heart.

Like, wow. How lucky are we?

Photography was definitely a big one for the two of us. We both work in "visual" fields (I stare at beautiful designs all day long at my advertising job, Clay does film production/editing), and so we knew we couldn't just hire any old photographer. Our wedding photographer had to be good. Really good.

We also wanted to be comfortable with whom we hired. This person shares one of our most intimate days together. We're essentially inviting them into our families and closest circle of friends. (So help them.) We have to like this person. They have to fit. And they have to be fun.

So how did we get so lucky as to score The Cory Ryan? Seriously, she fits all of our detailed criteria to a T.

Must be meant to be, this whole wedding event thingy.

Wedding Night Hotel: Check!

We've officially booked a wedding night hotel! Yes, that's right, drumroll please... For our first night together as Mr. and Mrs. Clay Fain, my **husband** and I will be staying in a fifth-floor balcony suite at none other than Austin icon, The Driskill Hotel. Cue happy dance!

Other contenders included (in order of preference): Hotel Saint Cecilia (Liz Lambert's latest Austin creation), Mansion at Judges' Hill, Stephen F. Austin Hotel, Four Seasons Hotel, and Hotel San Jose.

Ok, so while this may not rank as highly as nailing down the catering or securing a photographer, the wedding night hotel is still tops on my personal wedding to-do list. That and the honeymoon. Come on, it's our first time together as a married couple! I knew from the start these were two details I wanted to focus on first.

And while the honeymoon remains to be booked, holding on to the wedding night hotel gives me something to look forward to throughout all this wedding planning chaos. I can just envision it now: ordering gourmet room service late in the afternoon, perched on fluffy white pillows and surrounded by fancy antique furniture in our 600 sq ft room, while curtains to the open balcony doors flutter lightly in the crisp Austin October air.

Fast forward to October 30... now!

Venue & Date: Check!

It's official! Clay and I will be tying the knot on October 30, 2010, at The Allan House in Austin, TX.

(This makes me do my wiggle dance every time I think about it.)

And the best part: the date is totally awesome (I'm kind of a numbers freak). 10.30.2010. Clay's calling it the Countdown Wedding.

Hooray for making plans! Let's do this thing!