Focus at the Church, Found Bridesmaid Dresses and Lost a Priest

Well its been kinda crazy the last week or so with wedding projects and Christmas projects taking up most of our time. 

Lost Priest.  So earlier, we received an email from the church that said the priest we picked would be elsewhere on our wedding date, did we have a family friend who could officiate, if not Mary could ask the others at the church if they were available.  I guess you could say I blanked out at bit.  We had just signed contracts with the reception venue and photographer and sent many of our "save the date" cards.  Eak, what if there was no priest.  I sweated for all of an hour until Mary at the church got back to us and promised that no matter what there would be someone at the church to marry us on July 23rd.  But at this time, we have not been assigned another officiant.

Found Bridesmaid Dresses.  As for the bridesmaid dresses, put 4 alpha females in the same room with totally different views on what they want to wear and ask them to all agree on a dress...well lets just say it was interesting.  Several hours later, a bit of giggling, a bit of "you're kidding right, I'm not trying on that dress, its ugly ugly ugly" and the dress style was chosen.  Have to say, we were really thinking that purple dress, white socks and green shoes may really work since we got to see Rose strut her stuff in a green dress with white socks and purple high heeled shoes.  I've got pictures!

Focus.  Last but not least, Shea and I attended our one and only Focus meeting with the church counselor.  Earlier, we had to complete a list of 162 questions, a bunch of questions that Shea said were flawed...flawed...flawed.  Personally, I got a crack out of several of them, including the one that said something like, Will you have a problem seeing your future spouse NAKED. hahaha.  Anyway, this Saturday's meeting was to go through our answers.  It went well and we were able to finish everything in one meeting.  I guess the thing that surprised all of us was that Shea and I had similar scores on our spirituality/religion views.  I believe I said..."cool."  Anyway now we have to attend 2 all day Saturday Pairs counseling sessions and tada, we've been counseled! ha.

The Reception Venue has been locked down

Shea and I found our wedding reception venue, Sweet!  Its the Hyatt Place Dallas/Garland.  We signed the contract earlier this week.  Its a relief to cross this one off the list.

If you want to stay at the hotel, Hyatt is offering a special rate of $79 per night if you mention that you are attending the Flynn & Davis Wedding.  Please let us know if you have any problems obtaining that special room rate.

Hyatt Place Dallas/Garland

5101 North President George Bush Highway  (Tollroad Hwy. 190) 

Garland, TX 75040, USA

Phone: 972 414 3500 Fax: 972 414 3550

http://dallasgarland.place.hyatt.com/hyatt/hotels/place/index.jsp

 

Hyatt Guest Services & Amenities  

§   complimentary hotel-wide Wi-Fi Internet access

§   complimentary continental breakfast buffet

§   24-hour made-to-order menu items and pre-packaged snacks

§   specialty espresso coffee drinks

§   self-service check-in/check-out kiosks

§   complimentary newspaper

§   complimentary parking

§   complimentary 24-hour Stay Fit; fitness center with Life Fitness; cardio equipment

§   complimentary shuttle service within 5 mile radius (e.g., Hawaiian Falls Waterpark and the Firewheel mall, which includes the AMC Firewheel 18 (air conditioned movies).

§   outdoor pool

If you don’t want to stay at the Hyatt, following are different hotel options :.

Directly across the freeway from Hyatt Place is the Holiday Inn Hotel Garland

5110 North George Bush Freeway

Garland, TX 75040

(972) 495-1144

http://www.holidayinn.com/hotels/us/en/garland/dalgl/hoteldetail

About three exits North of Hyatt Place on George Bush Freeway near Jupiter are more hotels (e.g., less then five miles away using the north bound service rd.):

Homewood Suites Plano Richardson

www.homewoodsuites.com

2601 East George Bush Turnpike

Plano, Texas

(972) 881-3339

Candlewood Suites Hotel Plano

www.candlewoodsuites.com

2401 E. George Bush Turnpike

Plano, Texas

(214) 474-2770

Comfort Suites

www.comfortsuites.com

2301 East Pres George Bush Highway

Plano, Texas

(469) 429-0700

There are also more hotels at Campbell and Highway 75, if you prefer to be on that side of town.  Please let us know if you need more information about those hotels.

We just hired our wedding photographers

Its been a pretty productive day, Shea and I hired our wedding photographers, a husband and wife team named George Troup Photography.  They live really close to St. Joseph's and have photographed several weddings there.  If you do a search on their website you can see pics of the church.  Anyway, both Shea and I really liked them and their pictures.  http://www.georgetroupphotography.com/

On a sidenote, just finished watching my new favorite comedy...Raising Hope...to funny.

Wedding Dress Shopping

This Saturday, November 20, 2011, Mom, my friend and bridesmaid Suz and I want to Ocone’s in Fort Worth to try on wedding dresses.  I mentioned to the consultant that I'd fallin in severe like with a gown that I'd seen on the internet.  I’d even called to find out how much that gown was and they said its only $5100 (which was way way way outside budget).  The consultant immediately said I think I have something similar and went to pull the gown.  I also showed her pics of different gowns that I liked.  She pulled several gowns and I honestly didn’t try on an ugly gown.  But back to my dress…it was the first one I tried on, the one that is very similar to the gown I saw on the website (but in my mind better and much much less than $5100).  I tried on 6 or 7 more then narrowed it to two, and kept coming back to my favorite; I tried it on three times.  And in the end I said “Yes, yes please to the Dress.”  It was a very productive 3 hours!  Fun, fun, fun!  And no I had no idea that I’d be getting the dress at my first stop.