One more check! (well almost..)

Well I talked it over with Mr. Stilts and I have officially let our florist choice know that we have decided to go with her. Now (and this is the reason I said "almost" in the title) all we have to do is get the deposit check in the mail. That might be a little harder than it should be. First of all, I always hate asking my parents for the money and I hate asking Wes to ask his parents for the money. I know that they have all told us they would help pay for the wedding but I always feel weird asking for it. I also know that they won't hesitate to write the check (well except if I was asking for like a million dollar check...ha ha) but I still get apprehensive about it. Mr. Stilts and I are so fortunate to have families who are willing to help us out and pay for the majority of our wedding. I do think though that once we get this certain check in the mail, we won't have anymore "big" checks to write for a while. Mr. Stilts and I are planning on starting to pay for somethings on a monthly basis just so that we won't have as much all at one time. Like our DJ total is $600.00 so we figured we could pay $100 a month for 6 months and he would be fully paid by December. One less thing to worry about come March 2010. Mr. Stilts suggested that if we can do this, some things like the DJ we wouldn't even consider to be part of the wedding. So we could even do that with the bagpipe player and organist because we only lack $250 for that one. My advice to anyone planning a wedding- pay as you go! If you pay a little at a time then it won't be such a huge hit on you right before the wedding. The one time you really shouldn't be worried about money. You will have plenty of other things to worry about. So I am feeling good about this. I think if we can do this, we will be able to use more the "wedding money" towards the reception (food, alcohol), flowers, unexpected things, etc. There are SO many aspects of planning a wedding, you really have no idea until you are in those shoes.
I got the swatch of my dress from the bridal shop the other day and I can't stop looking at it. I swear I love my dress so much I can't wait until mine actually comes in. It's a shame that we only get to wear it once. That's why I don't really understand the concept of having two or more dresses for the wedding. If I am paying THAT much for one dress, I am going to wear it as long as I can because I will never get to again. Well except for when I am feeling nostalgic and I end up wearing it to vacuum around the house or something (oh yeah, I will probably be one of THOSE people).
So anyway, we are moving right along it seems. We still need to buckle down and work on the guest list some more. Mr. Stilts and I actually talked about that last night and he agreed that we needed to just do it and stop saying, "we'll get to it later". We really need to be able to get a better idea of the ball park we are going to be in. I know things might change as far as that goes over the next 8 1/2 months but we need to have somewhat of a clearer idea now. I really hope that we can work that out. I really want to be able to invite all the people we want there. I know this is one thing we have been trying to tackle from day one. When we made our first "list" it was well over 300 people. Now we are trying to whittle it down to a max of 200. It's so much of a back and forth thing because on one hand, you don't want to leave anyone out but at the same time every person you have to pay a certain amount for and it totally adds up. Their food, champagne, table, chair, cake, save the date, invitation, place card, favor, etc. etc. etc.....it goes on and on. I pray that we can work it out so that we are feeling good about it and don't come away from it feeling like some people are going to be upset with us.
So in conclusion, florist- half check. Next on the agenda- guest list. I already have a headache........