I need some HELP!

I am starting this post with something funny because I need to laugh before I vent. 

So last week I was all optimistic about my wedding and all the things I had planed. And then this weekend we are singing a completely different tune. 
I knew a wedding was expensive, but I never thought it was THAT expensive. 
Yesterday, I talked about how Babe and I went and looked at venues this past weekend. They were expensive! Most didn't include food or anything really other then then the venue. I am basically freaking out! How am I supposed to pay for a party this expensive.. I'm convinced I might go bankrupt. 
I know there are ways to cut your wedding prices down but some of these solutions are not feasible for us. (Babe has a large family so that impacts our guest list and wedding party.) This is making me stressed, overly stressed to be exact. I want this beautiful day and I want to marry the man of my dreams (which I get to do regardless) but I don't want to feel broke at the end of the day. And that is exactly how I feel right now. I think I might just hire a wedding planner! 
So am I asking for input, how do I put on a wedding without making my bank account go in the negative? 
Let me give you some simple info for my wedding:  Guest count: 100-120 Wedding Party: 10 people (5 bridesmaid, 5 groomsmen)
HELP ME!
Today's link up is brought to you by Chits and Giggles! Now if you are planning a wedding, been married or anything in between go have fun reading all the posts in this link up. 

Post Weekend Recap Business

Have you ever had a weekend that goes by so fast and then like a blink of an eye its over? Oh wait, that's every weekend. I propose we have 2 day work weeks and 5 day weekends.. who's with me? Okay, everyone.. lets do this weekend recap business! 
This past weekend Babe came home from his training on Friday night (he was staying till Monday before he headed back to more training). We just went to dinner and hung out at home, you know the typical boring Friday night... (But, my favorite kind of nights!)
Saturday was wedding planning day one. We looked at two different places, one that we hated (it looked like 1900's threw up, and I'm totally down for people who like that style, it's just not me or Babe's) and one that was pretty cool. The local Science Center holds weddings (have I talked about this before? Oh well, if I have, just go with it) and you can get married with dinosaurs (yes you read that correctly). I think that's pure awesome, but it comes with an awesomely hefty price tag. So, chances are that place is out. But back to Saturday, I finally met one of Babe's friend's fiancé. I have seen said friend many times before, but never met his fiancé (Babe is even in their wedding). So we hung out with them for a while and his fiancé and I really hit it off, which is awesome!! 
Sunday, we had a semi lazy day till we went out with Babe's friends again to go fishing! Yes, I said fishing. I had never been fishing till Sunday, and it was pretty cool. Granted I didn't actually do any of the fishing, I just sat there and drank some beer and hung out, but if that is what fishing is, I'm down.  This was a good relaxing weekend, but it sucked that Babe left again for another week of training. Gosh can't it be the weekend again? 
So I love link-ups! Here is another one,  by Keep Calm and Blog On!
Happy Tuesday everyone!

5/16/15

Don't hate me for another wedding post (there will be a lot of these)! I'm excited to have so much planning done in such a short time. Babe decided to come home this weekend (instead of us meeting half way from where his training is) so we decided to go look at wedding venues.

I'm excited because I have narrowed it down to my top 2 I like, and those are the ones we are going to visit. They also both had my date (5/16/15) available (so no more pretend date!) So I'm super excited about that.

Like last week, today I am loving and hating Thursday (and in case you missed it, you can read about it here). Today is mostly I hate day, because its been 4 days since I have seen Babe and I just plain ol' miss him. Also work is kinda dragging today, which is making Thursday go by soooooo sllloooowwww.

I know this post is kind of pointless today, but I had to share that we picked our date. Hopefully everything is this easy.

Now, I am linking up with Ashley over at The Grits Blog and Jessa at Life of a Sports Wife today. I love this link up because there are no rules. (Well, that makes it harder sometimes to come up with a topic to write about). Now, go to their blogs and read because they are AWESOME.

Till tomorrow :)

 

Week 1 of Many till the BIG Day

Happy Wednesday. 
So, I give this great news on Monday and then I am a no show to this party yesterday. I had one of those days where I didn't know what to talk about and didn't want to write yet another post with no substance or real content. So I decided to take a nap for the day, but I am BACK! 
Today is kind of exciting for me, as it's Wedding Wednesday and this is the first time I get to participate. I have made some progress without him (Babe, now is what I'll refer to him as) here (and very newly engaged). 

// We have made a potential guest list - which is super hard. If I had the option, I would invite everyone I ever met in my life to be there (because I want to share my happiness with the world) but lez-be honest, that can't happen. Plus it would be super duper expensive. Babe also has a large family, so that means stuff gets cut on my end. But good news, with it being the first draft no one gets the boot. 
// We came up with the basic type of wedding we want. Babe wants a semi-formal wedding (after 6pm, sit down dinner, the works...) so thats what we will have. I am not a formal person (like at all, ever) so we are compromising with the reception with a lot less formalities in it. 
// I picked a color scheme. What do you think? 

// I picked a "pretend date" because we all know the venue with help dictate when it will really be ("May 16, 2015" here we come) 
// We made a list of venues that we want to visit for the wedding, and priced them up for the amount of guests we will have. 
//  My Maid of Honor (MoH) called me and wanted to start planning (which is awesome) and we came up with a game plan. 
// We came up with a pretend budget, and figured out how much my family (since I'm the bride and they typically help pay) will help and how much we will pay. 
Now writing this and reading it, I am surprised at how much progress we made in 4 days. We are kind of in a holding pattern with everything until boyfriend is back in a couple weeks. But I say we have made some good progress.

BIG News!

I have some BIG news, I mean really huge news (and if you looked at my Facebook or Instagram then you already know it). Boyfriend asked me to marry him this weekend, I'm ENGAGED! Yay!! 
It happened in a very "us" way. He took me to Disney, which was our first date (and if you don't remember, here ya go) and renewed my Disney ticket. Long story short, Disney raised their prices (again) and we were not sure if we should renew my ticket, but we did (because he knew how much I love going there) :).  So we walked around the park and Boyfriend said he wanted to go to dinner to celebrate. I honestly thought it was because of his new job. He wanted to go to all these fancy restaurants, and I was like lets save money. But we ended up at a nice(r) Italian restaurant. He was trying to surprise me with the ring and have the restaurant present it to me, but it was very opened and squashed all his plans. We had dinner, and I kept complaining of a headache (typical me) and that we would just go home and rent a movie. He told me he was cold (and I should have suspected something since he is never cold in a restaurant) and he went to the car (apparently to grab the ring). He came back and we started talking about all the things we needed to do the next day (he was leaving late Sunday night for a business trip). And then he said "well, you might want to go get your nails done... Will you marry me?" My response "is that fake?!" Yes, that was my response, not you typical one or the right one, but when someone shows you a diamond, kind of all thought processes go out the window. But when I finally caught myself, I said YES!

I was in shock!  So we are leaving and Boyfriend told me he forgot something at work and that we needed to go back and get it for this trip. I still had my headache (no matter how shock I was, it didn't go away) and just wanted to go home. But, no we HAD to go to his office. So of course, I start calling everyone I know (my best friends, my mom, you know the usual) and they are were excited to hear my news (of course, they were). We make it to a gas station, and Boyfriend comes out and says he can just print it off his email, so we are now heading back to the apartment. We make it there, and I am off in lala-land. Make it upstairs to the apartment, and Boyfriend opens the day and standing there are all our friends and my parents. I was so surprised I screamed bloody murder (everyone said it was funny, but you know having like 15 people standing in your apartment when you aren't expecting them is scary or is that just me?) So my Boyfriend (his new name should be Fiancé, but I don't know about calling him Fiancé on here... however when we get married he will be renamed Husband) planned this whole surprise party. It was a lot of fun that everyone came out to celebrate with us (and thank you if any of you read this).  All and all it was an awesome weekend. And I can't believe it all happened, I am still sitting on cloud 9 (except for the fact Boyfriend is gone for 2 weeks, so major boo!)  But I am excited to share this new journey with everyone.