Cruisin!

The other day we officially booked our honeymoon! Yeah! This decision was rough as we were originally going to do Italy, but now that the wedding has moved up, going to Italy in November/December isn't advised. Then we were thinking Argentina, but it would require quite a bit more planning than we really wanted at the time. So in the end, we decided that we're going to go on another cruise. I say another because we did a very short one two years ago to the Bahamas. It was our first, but this one we just booked is quite a bit longer and it's cruising the Mexican Riviera. Mazatlan, Puerto Vallarta, and Cabo San Lucas will be our stops along the 7 days. It should be quite a bit of fun and it doesn't hurt that the cruise ship is brand new (well two years old) as well! Oh and lastly, you should check out my mom's website HERE. She's our travel agent and the one that booked our honeymoon. She has great rates and can help you with vacation and travel plans! Now that our commercial break is over...lol

Not much else on the wedding front, although Monica and I discussed the bakery we're going to go with. We also discussed photography and the florist as well. We have an appointment to meet with the florist the same day we head up there for the tasting of the food. She still hasn't given us any prices which kind of makes me a bit nervous, lol. I also understand it's tough to give a price when there are so many different kind of flower combinations that you can do. I still don't want us dropping over $1000 in flowers though either.

I see some of you have booked hotel rooms already, so it's definitely working. Let me know if there are any problems! That's it for now. Take care!

Guys go to bridal festivals!

I honestly have never planned a wedding before, so I didn't know all the things that go into it. I mean we've got wedding books, magazines, and brochures for days. All of these different vendors wanting our business. It's pretty crazy really. One place to gather all these companies together in one place is at a bridal festival. Now, I had never been to one, and I didn't even want to go to this one but I could tell Monica wanted me to go. So last Sunday, Monica, her mother, and I all headed back up to the city of Loveland to attend their bridal festival at some ranch out there. This festival was one we wanted to attend because we wanted to know what kind of vendors Northern Colorado had because we're getting married right there. I was pretty surprised that I wasn't the only guy, but there was no question that this event was directed toward the ladies.

Our mission was to find a florist, photographer, a bakery for the cake, and just whatever else we came across. Our budget has been increased from when I initially posted last year due to the amount of people we're expecting. And I'll tell ya, a lot of these vendors didn't want to help us keep our costs low!! We're spending a bit more on the photographer for the wedding, but we decided that this is going to be the only way we can remember the wedding, so our budget needed to be increased for that portion. The company we're rolling with actually will provide us two photographers for the entire day, full access to all the pictures, three photo books, and a few photo mosaics (Google the word if you don't know what it is). All in all we're getting a very good deal. Monica fell in love with another flower, a blue dendrobium orchid, and I have a feeling we'll be seeing some of those at the wedding. If you don't know what one of those looks like, check the picture from my blog posting on Tuesday. It has a picture of one.

One of the cool things about these festivals was all the prizes they give away. We didn't happen to win any, but Monica was VERY close to winning us a free honeymoon! She was selected with seven other brides to dig in a cake for one of six keys. They then all took turns attempting to open a lock box. Whichever key opened the box, won the vacation. Monica's didn't open it. Ah well. Check the video out at the bottom though, and you can see the cake madness, hehe.

It was a good trip up to Loveland, and we now have a photographer, florist, and a possible place to do the cake, although we have to go back up for a tasting. All the decisions to make for one night is just crazy. Happy Friday all!

Location hunting!

A couple weeks ago, Monica was in the middle of the most stressful time for accountants…tax season! She was working weekends, late during the week, etc. Just not the most enjoyable time. During this time though, we needed to get a place hammered down so we could officially say what day we were going to get married! Monica’s mother, Monica, and I had checked out a few places on Lookout Mountain, and while the price sounded right, after talking with Monica they just didn’t seem to be the place we wanted to get married. You see, I had a vision, and I’m glad it was in-line with Monica’s. The vision was that we have a place where everything occurs. Ceremony, reception, lodging. We don’t want guests having to drive home afterward because we plan on having a wedding in the evening. This is where the Embassy Suites Loveland comes in. Monica and I knew we wanted the wedding outside of Denver, but not too far, and when I came across the new hotel they have just north of Denver in Loveland, I knew as soon as I saw it that it was the place.

Monica and I really liked the pictures and it appeared to have what we were looking for, but we needed to find time to go up there and see the place. Well with tax season going on, I became one of the few men in history to go look at a wedding site solo. Monica trusted my judgment and she gave me complete decision making rights on this trip! Yeah! Now, I don't know how many of you have ever stayed in an Embassy Suites before. One of their main selling points is that every room is a suite. I mean who doesn't like to stay in a suite? This Embassy Suites that I toured though is a Hotel, Spa, and Conference Center. It got the extra special treatment, and they just opened their doors one year ago. To say this place is huge won't be doing it justice. You will just have to see for yourself, or go to the Accommmodations link and look at their pictures and virtual tours. This is by far the best Embassy Suites I've ever been in and I made the decision that we were going to have the wedding there.

Hehe, of course Monica was included in this decision as we found time in the middle of the upcoming week to head out there with her mom, and both women liked the place just as much as I did when I saw it a few days prior. We signed the contract right there. We were able to get incredible room rates. $79 for one or two people. That's in a suite!! They provide a free breakfast in the morning, and it's not a lousy piece of toast and an apple. They have a chef there so you can tell him what kind of waffles, omelets, etc you want made right there on the spot. They then have a large breakfast bar so you can compliment it with bacon, sausage, fruit, cereal, whatever. Every evening for guests they have a cocktail party from 5:30 to 7 in which they serve free beer and wine!! Now this won't apply for us since Monica and I are getting married at 5pm and most will be staying one night, but that's pretty cool! So again, the room rates are $79 for one or two people, $94 for three, and $109 for four. The rooms all come with either two queens or one king and they all have a pull out sofa.

I'm pretty glad that Monica is open to my opinions about this wedding as well. I know a lot of guys dread this stuff, but it's kind of cool. This past weekend we went to a bridal festival, and I'll blog about that later. I promise you that I didn't want to go to that, but it actually turned out to be pretty entertaining. Monica was very close to winning a honeymoon for us and although she didn't win, I have some video of her digging through wedding cakes looking for keys, lol. Laters all.

Blue!?

Wow! It's been four months since I've posted! Well there's a reason for that. With Monica and I planning on having the wedding in June of 2011, there really wasn’t a need to post anything as I didn't have any news. Well that's all changed! I'm sure most have heard that we've moved up the wedding date to November 26, 2010. Let me extinguish the main rumor...NO SHE IS NOT PREGNANT! Lol. We've been asked numerous times why we moved up the date and it's all really simple. I turn 32 in October, and I want to be done having children by the time I'm 35. Monica doesn't want children till marriage, and she wants two. Moving our wedding up 8 months means she can get pregnant sooner. It's also cheaper on the pockets to have a Fall/Winter wedding instead of a Summer one. The main reason that we decided to move it up though is because we figured, why not? What're we waiting for? So it's all set! November!

I think I made it pretty clear that I didn't want to stand on the sidelines and just show up on the wedding day. I want to be a part of the planning process too! It's my day also right!? There's been quite a bit of wedding talk around the Archuleta/Johnson household and one of the main ones up to a few weeks ago centered around colors. If any of you know Monica, you know that she has this obsession with the color blue. I mean, I love the color too. In fact it’s my fave by far. However we ran into a small bump in the road when discussing potential wedding colors because with a Fall wedding, I’m more wanting a burnt orange and brown, or something Fall like. With that said though, I’m perfectly happy with blue! Monica’s been hearing it from a few people that she should scrap blue for more ‘Fall’ colors and I disagree. So in addition to deciding on a date, and a location (check the website, I’ll blog about the site in a few days), we’ve also decided on wedding colors. They’re going to be sapphire blue & white. Personally I think they’re great colors, and I’m glad the bride stuck to her guns.

I just wanted to put in a brief entry to let you all know that I’m back and will be at least through November! I have a lot of things to talk about. Everything from me going to select our location solo, to heading to a bridal show with Monica and her mom this past weekend. Yeah! I hope the week is going well for you all and I’ll get back at you in a day or two. Check the website! You can make hotel reservations now!