Kevin & Reina are engaged!

Ok so things are starting to move fast!

Kevin & I had a cake testing appointment and we designed our cake! We have another appointment in March to figure out flavours and such but for the most part it’s a done deal. We went to Peace of Cake, a sweet little pastry shop in Stevensville. Kim was super helpful and we’re really excited! I won’t describe it – I’ll just let it be a surprise because it’s going to be AWESOME!

We met with a photographer (Kevin’s meeting another this week) so we’ll be deciding on that soon. Basically our main demands are: rights to publish (we want to put them on Facebook, obviously!) and their guarantee to stay the whole time. When I was researching photographers I noticed a lot were charging premium for release rights, and some also stay for only 6 or 8 hours. We’re starting at 2PM (and we’ll want them there before the ceremony anyway) so 6 hours might not cut it. And price is a factor too, obviously. We’re not made of money!

Speaking of money, OH MY GOD invitations cost a lot! Doing research I’ve seen some prices at around $2000 for 100 invitations! No. Way. I mean, letterpress looks pretty amazing but I couldn’t spend that much on invitations alone. I’m looking to spend around $500-$700 on the cost of invitations (including RSVPs and Save the Dates) plus programs, so it’s a tall order but I like the challenge of designing something chic on a budget.

We also decided on our honeymoon – we’re going to Montreal! If anyone’s ever been there, we’d love suggestions for things to see/do.

That’s all for now! I’m spending spring break (I know, I love teaching because I still get the same holidays) in Maryland so we’re getting some more stuff done.

Now that we’re in 2010 it’s starting to feel like the wedding is really just around the corner! We’ve met with our priest and have decided on Saturday, August 14, 2010 as our wedding date, and we’ll be getting married at St. Christopher’s Church (Kevin’s family’s parish) in Chester, Maryland. That puts us at a little over 7 months to go!

As far as planning goes, we’ve started to make some decisions about what sort of reception we’ll have and everything but have yet to meet with caterers and florists, etc. Ugh.

Good news though, I’ve bought my wedding dress! I went to David’s Bridal and found exactly what I wanted. In fact I went there knowing what dress I wanted from the website, and the woman told me to try several dresses on but I already knew which was The One. I wish I could post pictures but I can’t because I know Kevin will be naughty and look, even if I tell him not to.

Stay tuned! I set up email accounts for us to use exclusively for wedding planning so expect to see lots of web-planning. I think I want to try to find a way to have people RSVP via email if it’s easier for them.

reina [at] kevinandreina [dot] com

kevin [at] kevinandreina [dot] com

rsvp [at] kevinandreina [dot] com

So I’ve finally started dress shopping! I was starting to get worried because I SWEAR, everyone who finds out I’m getting married invariably asks whether I’ve looked at dresses yet. And theknot.com isn’t helping by emailing me literally every day asking if I’ve put down a month’s worth of paychecks on several yards of satiny fabric. But I finally got properly excited for dress shopping when I dropped by a boutique and tried several dresses on. It was fun! And I think I know what sort of dress I’m really looking for now.

I just wanted to post a few updates as our wedding plans have undergone a few big changes.

The biggest change is we’re no longer getting married in New Jersey. As much as we would have loved to use the chapel, it was simply too expensive to try and manage everything else related to the wedding and wedding festivities in the North New Jersey area.

Instead, we’re going to be having the ceremony near my home, on the Eastern Shore of Maryland. Although it’s not set in stone, in all likelihood we’ll have the wedding at St. Christopher’s Church (on Kent Island) and potentially will be having the reception at my house.

There’s some various other elements of our planning that have been slightly revised, but those are the biggest updates.

From Megan McArdle:

Good news for me:  wedding costs are apparently down 33%.  Bad news:  this seems to mean that I am going to have to hand craft invitations and centerpieces.  A gifted florist, I am not.

I’m no florist either, but still, savings are savings. Hopefully Reina knows more than I do on that front.

Actually the only new photos are those of the engagement ring, but I also added a few pictures of us from the past few years because people were asking! So take a look at the Photos page!

We need to get the word out to people that we’ve booked a date at the Chapel!

Saturday, May 22, 2010 at 11AM!

We’ll probably send Save the Date cards to family and/or people who live out of state, to make sure everyone can make plans for that weekend. By the way, there were no other available dates OR times for the Chapel in May 2010! Well we didn’t want to do Memorial Day Weekend so we didn’t even ask but that time slot was the only one available for May. Wowwww. Plus now that we’re committed to an 11AM ceremony we’ll have to start planning for an afternoon luncheon for the reception. But that can be fun too!

We bought our wedding bands, yay! There was a massive sale at Fortunoff because it’s going out of business (how sad!) so we went there to buy a baby shower present and thought we might take a look at the jewelry counter. We saw discounts of 50-60% all across so we decided to just buy the rings on the spot if we found what we liked. Kevin found his easily enough, a plain gold band about 5mm wide, after searching for his size for a while. We had a little more trouble with my ring because there weren’t many plain bands for women in my size. Eventually we looked at rings with diamonds in them (because more diamonds can’t hurt, can they?) and finally found a pretty little ring with a 1/4 carat of diamonds channel set. It looks very pretty with the engagement ring and doesn’t look too different from Kevin’s band so we went for it!

So one less thing to worry about, and at a good price too!

Kevin & I have both picked our entourages! I’ve known all along that my maid of honour would be my little sister, Rosie, and the bridesmaids would be my two younger sisters Romina and Rianna. Kevin finally got around to asking his friends: Kyle is the best man, who was his roommate for two years, and his two groomsmen are Steve and Rob, who also go to school with us.

Knowing Kyle, I’m thinking my bachelorette party is going to be EXTREMELY different from Kevin’s bachelor party.

I just went to Mass in the Chapel for the first time since it was renovated and I swear, it takes my breath away every time I walk in. The decor is all so ornate and delicate, and the colours are astounding. It’s quite small – I always seem to forget how small it is when I don’t go in for a while – and probably only seats about 150 people comfortably. I wish I could’ve taken a photo without being… impolite but I promise it’s lovely and feels very holy and serene. I might try to get Kevin to come to Mass one day with me before the semester ends.

I really think it’ll be perfect for the ceremony – now I’ve really got my heart set on the Chapel! I’m sure all our guests will love it as well!