We're Planning A Wedding!!

FINALLY we are going to do a wedding post!! Yay!!

Do you like the banner? We made it for our wedding website, and similar things will appear throughout our big day!

We are so excited to be planning our wedding, even through all the ups and downs that have been going on.

We are getting hitched in Laura's home state of Idaho (woohoo!) on the last weekend of June next year!

Laura's beautiful hometown

First of all, we got ourselves the most wonderful wedding planner - Brandi from Soiree Weddings & Events! We are so thrilled that she is going to help us plan our big day. We thought it was very important to have a professional help us make our day everything we dreamed about because it would be so difficult to plan everything from a different country. We are so excited to work with her!

Because we are super awesome planners, when we were at home in December, we checked out two wedding venues!

Riverside Lodge in Garden Valley, Idaho

We almost didn't make it to this viewing! Garden Valley is about 1.5 hours from Laura's house, but we had to pick up the keys at the office in nearby Crouch (attractive town name, right?). When we got there, we couldn't find the office, so we parked where the Sat Nav told us it would be, and called the letting company. The woman told us we had 'gone too far' and to come back where we came from. So we drove back through the town, and called again. We were told that we were in fact 9 miles away and had to go into Garden Valley. ....Okay.... so we drove. And drove. And drove. Finally, our poor pregnant wedding planner called the woman again. To our surprise, the woman said we misunderstood - that she was telling us where the cabin was, and that we did need to get the keys from her in Crouch. As you can imagine, hotheaded Laura & her dad were seething at this point. They were SO annoyed, and Sarah & Laura's mum were trying to calm them down. L was worried we wouldn't see the lodge before the sun went down - complete disaster in the countryside where there are no lights! When we finally got back to the office in Crouch, she waved us down. The office was - no joke - 100 feet from where we first called her from. So the whole fiasco was because instead of 'you've gone too far' which implied we were far away, she should have said 'oh, you're right here!' Seriously. So Laura & Bob successfully got through the conversation with her without being unpleasant (besides their kick-ass dagger eyes, of course) and we headed off to the venue. It was, thankfully, still light outside once we got there, so all was forgiven :)

We also visited the Roseberry Barn in McCall, Idaho

The barn was beautiful, but we absolutely fell in love with the lodge. Once we arrived, there was just no question. It is in the middle of nowhere, surrounded by mountains and a river, and just absolutely beautiful. The best thing is that because it's so secluded, it can just be one big celebration for a whole weekend!

Beautiful view from the back of our venue

So we booked it! Venue = sorted!

We have chosen our bridesmaids, but as we haven't asked all of them yet we will do a post dedicated to them when we have!! We will say we are so lucky to have so many wonderful ladies around us, and will do as we become Mrs. & Mrs.!

We had a wonderful photographer, Sara Byrne, contact us on Twitter a few weeks ago now. We'd been looking for an awesome Boise based photographer, and we immediately spent hours pouring through her wedding photos - and loved them. We had to book her only a week later to secure the date , and am excited to be her first 2014 booking, and first lesbian wedding! (Though that's not surprising in Idaho, we expect to be a lot of people's firsts!) Also, her fiance and co-photographer has incredible facial hair - and we only work with men with good facial hair (please refer to our mustaches post).

Phew! We've been engaged for 2 months today (the time is FLYING, we are still constantly staring at our rings!) and feel like we've got a lot done already.

Oooh when we were in Birmingham a few weeks ago to see our lovely friends Lauren & Sarah, they took some stunning close-ups of our engagement rings - we thought we'd share with you! They are so beautiful, and we love that they aren't yet scratched haha!

Sarah's ring - it says 'Past, Present, Future' on the inside with a few diamonds - as they say, it's all in the details!

Laura's!

Happy planning!