Tuesday evening we met with our second possible caterer, Mirabelle Catering.  We really liked him too.  We met with the actual chef, as he pretty much runs his business.  And he does cakes, too, though not if he does the catering too.  He doesn’t like to have the responsibility of the cake and the catering at the same time, which makes sense.  All his food presentation is really neat and very unique.  We’re planning on sending him a menu as well to get an approximate cost.  We’re sort of hoping that there will be a big difference when it comes to that, so it makes our decision easier because, though the two caterers we’ve talked to are different, we like them both a lot.  So I know that everyone says do what makes you happy and don’t worry about everyone else, but this decision is going to be hard if their prices are relatively similar.  But I guess everything will fall into place.  Now we just need to get a response from our priest about the church hall and get the reception venue booked.

On Thursday, Kyle and I headed into Jeffersonville, IN to meet with our first caterer.  We met with the President of Chardeau’s in an old elementary school, where their business is set up.  We really liked her, and she even offered to meet us and give her professional opinion on the two venues we’re considering for our reception, so we’re probably going to take her up on that.  Once we get together somewhat of a menu, we’re going to send it to her so she can give us a cost estimate.  Then we can compare to the other caterers we’re going to meet.  We’re going to see another one on Tuesday.

Today, we sent in payment for the retainer for our photographer.  We agree to his contract, but in it we’re supposed to put what package we want, which we’re not sure about.  So hopefully, we’ll be setting up a meeting with him to discuss that soon.  We also paid the reservation fee to reserve our date for the church, so we’re officially on the books.  Spending lots of money today.

We were going to meet with Uncle John about the invitations, but he is sick.  Hope you get better soon, Uncle John!

Lastly in wedding news, I got some wedding planners this weekend, so I get to start reading and making lists and checking things off and putting things in the little pouches in the books.  I got one from my Aunt Janet, and one from Kyle’s family for Kyle’s birthday.  Kyle got “The Idiot’s Guide to being a Groom.”  He also got a suit for his birthday, which looks very nice on him.

And, last of all, Happy early Birthday to Grammo!

I’ve been promising news in the past few posts, and I’m finally able to post it.  We even revamped the website for it.  We have picked and confirmed a date, and we didn’t even have to rig the votes in order to get what we wanted.  Majority rules.  Kyle and I will be getting married the evening of December 31, 2009 at St. Louis Bertrand Catholic Church in Louisville.  Our name is in the book.

We will be paying our deposit for our photographer tomorrow, and we’re meeting with two caterers this week and next.  Once we get our guest list finalized, we’ll choose our reception venue, which is down to two places.  We’re meeting with Uncle John this Sunday to discuss invitations.  We’ve also spoken with a musician who is going to coordinate all the music.  So we’ve put some more things on the Wedding Details page, as well as the home page.  And we promise, soon we will have stuff up on the other two pages.

So Kyle and I entered our first engagement/marriage contest.  It’s for a KitchenAid package, and a weekly prize of different KitchenAid appliances.  We had to write a story of the one gift we want from our registry.  And it really would be a KitchenAid mixer.  And you can go look at our entry and rate it.  Unfortunately, it’s all just a random drawing for the prize, and it doesn’t matter how highly our entry is rated, but if you want, you can still go look.  It also had a 500 character limit on the story and 100 character limit on the “How we met” section.  So it’s not nearly as talkative as we normally are.  Anyway, if you want to go look, click the picture below:

Earlier this week, I called some caterers to check out prices and to see if they’re available on the days we’re looking at.  Then I called one place we’re considering for our reception venue.  Kyle and I went over there on Thursday during our lunch and got information.  It’s a nice place, though we’re still considering the church hall right next door to St. Louis Bertrand, if it’s big enough.

We also e-mailed with my Uncle John, and we’re going to meet  him soon to talk about having him do our invitations.

And today, Kyle and I are going to Lexington for Alyx’s birthday, and then we’re staying in Richmond and heading back to Louisville tomorrow.  While in Richmond, we get to look at some decorations that Dana bought, and then on the way back, we’re going to stop in Georgetown to see Monica so she can measure me for the dress.  She’s ordered some fabric samples, though they probably won’t be in yet.  But she’s going to make a pattern little cotton-type dress first, so we’re making progress on the dress too.

Finally, on Sunday, we might try to make it back to Louisville in time to go to this wedding show at which the photographer who we think we’re going to book will be, so we can meet him.

So we should have a lot of news very soon!!  Very exciting!

I guess a lot of people who normally read this may not be able to read this right  now.  Kyle and I are still without power from the ice storm, so we came down to Lexington to stay with Holly and Alyx for the weekend.  However, we were making a lot of progress before the storm, and you can expect an update soon.  We’re pretty confident on the date, but we have to check a couple things out first.  So check back soon, and we should have some news up here.

Ever since the magical engagement on Thanksgiving day, it seems that every conversation with any of our friends begins with the same question, and ultimately the same response.  No, we have not chosen a date yet.  We have, however, narrowed it down considerably.  We would like to have a year to plan our wedding so that we are not rushed and do not look over important details in the planning process.  We would not like to be engaged for much longer than a year because we’ve been dating for over 5 years now and before our conversations opened with “Have you picked a date?” they began with, “Will you all just hurry up and get married?”  I hope that we can avoid sliding back to that.  We have, in fact, narrowed our choices down to 5 dates to choose from, each with their own merits.  We have discovered in this process that Caitlan’s decidophobia and my commitmentphobia make for very long staring matches in our apartments.  That is why we have decided to leave the choice to you!  That’s right, you, the faithful KyleandCaitlan.com blog reader, our wedding guests.  Please carefully consider the date that would work best for  you, vote for it, and let us know why in the comments.  It would make life here much easier as Caitlan and I sit in silence for hours.  And now, the dates:

December 12, 2009: This seems to be the earliest reasonable date.  It gives us plenty of time to prepare for the wedding and is not situated so close to Christmas that we would interfere with our guest’s plans with family.  It should not be forgotten that on this date in 1787 Pennsylvania became the second state to ratify the Constitution of the United States of America.

December 31, 2009: A New Year’s Eve Wedding!  The wedding would be on a Thursday at 7:00 P.M. and our guests would be invited to celebrate the coming new year with us at our reception.  Drinks, dancing, and the singing of Auld Lang Syne at midnight.  You know you’ve always wanted to sing Auld Lang Syne at a party, this could be your chance.

January 1, 2010: Start your new year off right with our wedding! Hopefully you wouldn’t have to work and will have recovered fully from the party on the previous night before you witness us give our vows.  To top it all off, our anniversary, 01/1/10, would be a palindrome!

January 2, 2010: This is really if we want to have a wedding around the new year, but wanted to be married on a Saturday. On this date in 1788 Georgia became the fourth state to ratify the Constitution, and they tried to leave the union shortly thereafter so that may not be a good idea.

January 9, 2010: For good measure, if December and New Years are bad times for most people this gets us deep enough into January for most of you to have no good reason not to come. It may be pushing our relationship into the “Will you all ever get married” phase, and that’s dangerous territory.

So there you have it.  In the words of the Great Olmec from Legends of the Hidden Temple: The choice is yours.

I actually made a lot of progress this weekend.  Kyle and I went to bookstores on Friday to look at wedding books, but there are so many that we didn’t get anything.  And then Andy came up, so we didn’t get to do much planning.  I told Kyle we really need to decide on a date soon.  But we don’t really know how.  But our problems might be solved by when my church is available.

Last night, my mom and I went to church at St. Louis Bertrand, where Kyle and I would like to get married.  A priest who I hadn’t heard before was doing the Mass, and I really enjoyed his homily.  And we was young and enthusiastic.  So afterward, I went up and introduced myself and told him I wanted to get involved in the church.  This made him very excited because he’s trying to build up the involvement of young adults in the church.  So we exchanged e-mail addresses (I actually got to give out one of my business cards!), and said we’d be in touch.  I hadn’t planned on telling him I was thinking about my wedding there too until I had gotten better acquainted with him.

But after the service, there was a free spaghetti dinner in the church hall, so my mom and I went.  And the hall is actually really nice.  So my mom said we should see how big it is by counting the tiles on the floor.  Now the priest we had met was up there by now, so he saw when my mom, inconspicuously as she says, starts stepping on each tile to count.  He looks at her and me, and says, “Joan?”  And then starts yelling out random numbers as he realizes my mom is counting.  She keeps going.  And I went over to explain to him why she was doing this so she didn’t look too crazy.  So I told him I recently got engaged, and my mom was trying to estimate the size of the place.  He said they could have told us, but it was more fun this way, since people probably all thought my mom was crazy.

He also informed me that the church was filling up fast, but he said Saturday weddings, and we’re thinking Friday maybe and in the winter, so hopefully there will still be open days.  So I’m going (and probably Kyle) to meet with him Tuesday or Thursday evening to look at how I can get involved as well as look at the book of dates.  So we might have a date this week.  And if the hall is big enough (it might be too small), he also said it’s extremely cheap for a reception place, and he doesn’t think people have booked that.  So that’s pretty big news.  I’ve got a contact in the church now, and I really like this priest, and I think Kyle will too.  So this is all exciting.  Two blog entries in one day!

So I think I’ve found the dress.  My mom came up just to see it yesterday.  And then I e-mailed pictures to Monica, my seamstress childhood friend, who did a wonderful job of fixing my bridesmaid dress when I melted it with an iron last weekend.  That’s a whole other story.  But anyway, she might make my wedding dress because it’s way too expensive to just buy, and it would be way cooler to truly have a one-of-a-kind wedding dress as well as a one-of-a-kind ring.  So we’ve e-mailed, and depending on what date Kyle and I pick, hopefully she’ll be able to do it, once we actually talk.  Of course, I can’t describle what it looks like or anything because Kyle’s not allowed to know.  Or put up pictures either.  But if you want me to describe them to you in an e-mail or send some pictures (the only person I’m going to be secretive about this is Kyle, I think), let me know.  As long as you swear an oath to never show Kyle.

Also, on the bit about secrecy.  The two weddings I’ve been in, the brides have only had their moms see the dress before the day of the wedding.  Then the bridesmaids got to see it to help her get ready and stuff, but all before that, it was a secret.  Is that a thing to do?  I don’t know if I should be less sharing of the dress.  I know my bridesmaids will see it, as will Monica and my mom.  Holly and Rita were the first to go dress shopping with me.  And Rita came yesterday to the trunk show.  So anyway, if you have any comments on that or if you want to know details, post away.

One more decision might be made.  Kyle and I asked my Aunt Janet and my cousin Jerusha if their daughters could be our flower girls.  Juliana and Tori are both still quite young, so we’ll see how grown up and not shy they are when it gets closer to the day.  But hopefully they will be our adorable flower girls, whenever our wedding might be.  And hopefully we’ll be able to get back to you on that date once the holiday season is over.