There’s a road under that river. Read the Wedding section below to hear more…
Hello! I hope all of you had a great week.
Our squirrels are gone! The final one was caught just a few days ago, and the loud noises in the attic have stopped also.
We are going to wait a few more days before we repair all the damage though just in case we have a straggler. We did notice that they tried chewing through the roof and they tried chewing on a metal pipe, so we may need to get those repaired as well.
Sadly, Wes’ grandma passed away last week, and she had a beautiful service. Many people came and it was a great way to celebrate her life.
Next Friday also marks 6 years since my dad passed away, and we’re trying to think of something new to do to celebrate his life. I bought introductory flight lessons awhile back and I’m starting to think that I need to schedule that because I know he would love it if I followed in his footsteps. I’m still a little terrified and intimidated though!
Spending
April hasn’t been the greatest for spending so far. We have car expenses (the Jeep needed an oil change, transmission flush and license plates renewed), I bought some clothes (for the warmer weather), and I have had a lot of wedding stuff that needed to be paid for.
We need to buy more dirt for our house as well. It’s been raining a lot here in St. Louis and we had a lot of ponds form in our front and backyard. We put down over 1,000 pounds of dirt last month and it doesn’t look like we even put down a handful!
Business Income
April has been a super busy month for me so far. I added a new staff writing client, and I’m trying to do as much work as I can right now so that I can enjoy May and June a little bit more. With the nicer weather, my sister moving, a few vacations, the wedding, and so on happening in those two months, I need to finish as much as I can now so that I have more time later for other work.
I know I have time, I just need to get back on schedule and work on time management.
If anyone needs any help, check out my Hire Me page and let me know what services you are interested in.
Being healthy
Working on being more healthy hasn’t exactly been going very well. I’m eating better than ever, but I haven’t worked out in forever. Lets hope that all changes soon!
Wedding Planning
The wedding is less than 2 months away. AHHH! Who else wants to scream with me?
We finally received our wedding invitations in the mail the other day. I know, I know. Our wedding is in less than 2 months and I don’t even have these out yet. Everyone keeps asking me if theirs was lost in the mail.
Nope, I’m just that lazy.
Luckily, I did send out Save The Dates back in 2013, so everyone already knows what day the wedding is on. My goal is to get the actual invitations done sometime over the weekend. I have horrible handwriting though, so addressing the envelopes will take me awhile to do.
We also need to think of a backup plan for the wedding too, just in case it rains. Our ceremony and reception are entirely outdoors, and if it rains then the road will flood to the property and we will be screwed. Other events have been canceled at the property because of flooding, so I’m not just overreacting…
Watch this video from my Instagram that shows the flooding problem (that water is over a foot deep – the road dips in the middle right where the water is).
I’ve tried contacting many other wedding venues, but for some reason a lot of them have been pretty snarky about the whole situation. They either get mad that they weren’t our first choice (I guess they really don’t like the work “backup”), they accuse me of wanting to bring the flood to them (LOL, seriously, that actually happened), and so on. Finding a backup wedding location must not be the norm for St. Louis… But, I guess the snarkiness that I experienced is just how a lot of the wedding industry acts, so I’m not super surprised.
If you were an outdoor bride, did you have a backup plan for your wedding? Please tell me what you did.
Main things that we still need to do include:
- Find a bartender. I tried looking this week and this is actually a lot harder to do than I thought it would be.
- Signage. We want multiple signs for the wedding. We want some for the bar area, directions for the actual property (such as bathrooms, dancing, ceremony, reception, etc.) and then signs so that people can find the location of the property.
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Have you been doing well with your income, spending and being healthy?
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Simon says
Working on being healthier and balanced has not exactly been going very well. I’m consuming better than ever, but I have not exercised in permanently. Thanks for sharing.
Michelle S. says
I hope it gets better for you Simon 🙂
Income Surfer says
Glad to hear the squirrels are gone Michelle. Good luck on the wedding, it will go fine. Ours went well enough, our families wigged out and acted like asses, but we still got married and had a great honeymoon in the northern Ozarks. Well southern Missouri really
-Bryan
Michelle S. says
I’m glad that you have faith it will go fine 🙂 I’m not worried about anything except for flooding.
DC @ Young Adult Money says
Sorry to hear about Wes’ grandma. As far as the wedding venues go, you’re right that it’s pretty crazy how snarky some of the companies in the wedding industry are. Seriously makes me want to dive into that industry! So much money to be made if you can get a business off the ground and actually treat people with respect.
Michelle S. says
Yes, that’s what I keep saying as well! The number of companies that are actually nice to their customers is very small.
Brian says
This is going to sound dumb, but is there a bartending “School” (they do exist) in your area? If so contact them. They will have plenty of people who would be willing to work that gig. While they may not be the most skilled, they will be eager since it will be something they can use as experience.
Michelle S. says
I thought about this, but I’m a little worried that they might not show up since they don’t work for an actual company. I’ll contact them today though and get over my fear!
John @ Sprout Wealth says
Sorry to hear about Wes’ grandmother. That’s crazy that you’ve encountered the snarkiness when dealing with a backup location. You’d think they’d be logical about it, but I guess that would be asking for too much. 😉 April seems to be going well for me and can’t complain. Have a great weekend Michelle!
Michelle S. says
Yeah I don’t know what their deal is. I contacted around 20 backup locations and I’m pretty sure only one or two were nice to me.
Katharine Paljug says
I definitely know that “what will the weather do?!” panic. I had an outdoor wedding in Virginia in July. Everyone asked, “Are you worried it’s going to be too hot?”
No, I was worried there was going to be a hurricane! Trees down, power out, flooding… eesh.
We had contingency plans, and they were kind of based on the fact that if there was horrible weather, we were pretty sure a lot of the guests would be MIA because of cancelled flights, etc. So we planned to either (a) stay in the church where the ceremony was taking place, or (b) go back to the house and have the caterers deliver there.
Would it have been a little crummy and made me sad not to use the venue we’d paid for and be in the pretty gardens and everything? Sure, but I think by that point it would also just have been ridiculous and hilarious and we would have just been glad to be married. And plus, cake and champagne are delicious no matter where you are.
Luckily, we ended up having perfect (if very hot) weather, and everyone had a great time. I’ll keep my fingers crossed that the same happens for you!
Michelle S. says
Thank you Katharine!
Holly@ClubThrifty says
Awwww…..I’m happy that your wedding is coming up. I hope that the weather is perfect!!!!!
Michelle S. says
Thank you Holly!
Grayson @ Debt Roundup says
Sorry to hear about Wes’ grandmother. I am glad to hear that those pests are out of your home. Hopefully there are no others. I can’t say much about the flooding, except a backup plan is imperative.
Michelle S. says
Thank you Grayson.
Dee @ Color Me Frugal says
We had an outdoor wedding at an outdoor chapel in the mountains. Unfortunately it was really dry the summer we got married and there were a lot of forest fires that summer. There was actually a fire burning two miles away from our site the day we got married. I spent the two weeks leading up to the wedding feeling terrified that the venue would burn down before we could get married. Our backup would have been the reception hall, which was not at all set up for a wedding but would have had to make do (and we already had it reserved that day!) Luckily we had a beautiful outdoor wedding with no fire! There was even a light rain that morning (gone by the time of the ceremony), which I think helped out the firefighters 🙂
Michelle S. says
This is so nice to hear Dee! Thank you 🙂
Michelle S. says
Yes, I am very surprised that no one was interested, especially since I told all of them that I would pay all of theirs fees as if I 100% were having a wedding at their location. It could be FREE money for them if I didn’t show up!
Kelsie says
We had an outdoor wedding, and we loved it! We didn’t have a back-up plan, so it would have been TERRIBLE if it rained. You’ll feel much better when your day gets closer and you can check the forecast, but I would definitely keep working on a back-up plan.
Michelle S. says
Thanks Kelsie!
E.M. says
I’m glad the squirrels are finally gone! It must be a relief to have peace and quiet now. I would be really worried about bad weather if I had an outdoor wedding, too. It’s a legitimate concern! I hope that the weather turns out nice for you!
Michelle S. says
Thank you!
Stephanie@Mrs.Debtfighter says
Sorry to hear about Wes’ Grandma! Crossing my fingers that you don’t have rain on your wedding day! 🙂
Michelle S. says
Thank you Stephanie! 🙂
Tonya@Budget and the Beach says
I’ll keep my fingers crossed it doesn’t rain or flood! I’ve been doing ok on the spending and really well on the healthy eating and working out!
Daisy says
Yikes, I hope your venue doesn’t flood on your wedding day! I can’t imagine that it would. That would just be terrible luck! We have had to have a contingency plan just in case our wedding day has poor weather, since we are marrying outdoors and near a lake; we anticipate that there will be a lot of bugs, but who knows what else!
Congrats on eating so healthy and sticking with it. It can be difficult to stay on track. My wedding is 3 months away and I find with all of the festivities, I’ve not been eating very healthy.
Cat Alford (@BudgetBlonde) says
So excited that your wedding is sooooo soon!! 😀
Poor Student says
I really hope you can have a nice outdoor wedding! I don’t know much about St. Louis, but how likely is it to rain in summer? Around this time I think it rains a lot there, but I’m guessing it should be less around your wedding time? Or not really?
Andy Bland says
All the best on your wedding day. Hoping there’s no flooding.