The Cat's Outta the Bag!

Well, I can now officially talk about the new developments in wedding plans! Thank you John for finally telling your mom! : )
So far, I have the place. It's perfect, and beautiful, and EVERYTHING I could ever have asked for, but never thought would ever be possible. You know those dreams you have that you think, "Well that'd be great and all, but no way..." Well, one of those came true for me when mom gave the go ahead for the place I'd been ogling over for two days. We just have to tour it in December when I get home, and then schedule the date. As of right now, they have November 5th open for the area that I want to use. So fingers crossed!!

Taylor Zillmer's dream wedding venue

To say in the least, a major relief (as well as giddiness) came along with finding the perfect place. When I had first stumbled across Castle Farms, it was the very first place I had looked at. No other place could compare for me after this. Especially since C.F. seems so flexible. Whereas all the other places are like, "This is what we do, this is how you will do it, and yes we do all the food." I felt like "wait...I thought I was the one getting married..." But with C.F. it truly feels like they want it to be your day.
I was getting very frustrated trying to find a place that had a garden (or at least pictures of it!), would be willing to be flexible with food (since I'm so darn picky), and would allow us to do the alcohol/beverage thing on our own. It seemed too silly for a place to limit us to their alcohol when basically John's whole family is in the beverage business.
So, after I found the place, and got an ok, and got a tour scheduled, I felt soooooooo much better. I also looked around at bridesmaids dresses, so I have a pretty solid idea on that front. I think I'm going to give my four bridesmaids a choice between three or four dresses.
The second spot I found myself in for wedding planning was colors. I had originally had an idea... but then I changed my mind. After mulling around a few other ideas (pink and purple being colors automatically ruled out), I think I've finally landed on two colors inspired from a peacock feather.

The very middle of the feather has a hidden blue that only comes out when light hits it at the right angle. This is a deep, midnight blue that also has a brightness quality to it that I love. The other color is the bright green around the very edges. With these colors we would have black and white accents.



I have always had a thing for peacock feathers, and when I stumbled upon one, it seemed ridiculous I hadn't instantly thought about it. Now I just have to merge peacock feathers and flowers without looking completely ridiculous! Piece of cake.
And speaking of cake, I'm pretty sure I know how I want that too look as well... and I definitely can't wait to go tasting for flavors!

I just keep thinking...I'm planning a wedding, while living in France for three months. Does life really get any better? Of course, it would be better if John was here to plan the wedding with me in person, rather than over Skype, and also to share the experience of France with Laura and Allison who are just as obsessed with France as much as I am... but hey, you can't have EVERYTHING in life, right? ; )

Which reminds me, today in France mom and I went to downtown Strasbourg to get some things taken care of. Our checklist for the day...

1. Stop at the post office to get stamps and such for mailing a few cards, one of which being a birthday card to my Aunt Kay
2. Get tickets for traveling to the south of France taken care of
3. Get a packet of 30 tram/bus tickets for mom and I going to and from Strasbourg on our day trips
4. Get me a notebook to keep all the wedding planning stuff organized in (rather than a random notebook we bought from the super-marché for our grocery lists)
5. Find a cute card to mail to Carter
6. Find something adorable for Kenadee for a Christmas gift

Things actually accomplished...

1. Stop at post office to find it open only from 9 to 12...
2. Got reservations for our trip to the South... only to discover we screwed the whole thing up and would have to go back sometime to fix it
3. Got a packet of 30 tram/bus tickets (our first success!!)
4. Went into three shops to find a notebook... no success
5. Browsed cute cards to mail to Carter...no purchases
6. Found something adorable for Kenadee for a Christmas gift... have to go back to actually buy it

All in all not a total failure of a day. Although we do have to go back tomorrow and do most of it all over again.