i DID end up changing my date!!

sooo....girlies...if you have read my past posts you may know that i was stressing BIG time about my wedding date b/c of the $ situation. the date was pretty much perfect...(may24)...however...when FH and i did our final budget, it came out to be SUPER high, and we were both a little worried about it. FH had been trying to convince me into switching to Feb. or March to save $$...but we came up with an even better solution.....so......

we are now booked for Aprl 26, 2008 at chateau la mer!!!! only a month earlier....and we are saving 20 dollars a head!! (for our 230 guests....that comes out to be over 6000 dollars!) we originally would have only saved 15 a head, but FH was able to talk CLM down a little more! (SO happy!) our church ceremony will begin at 10:30 am (we were able to get the church to start before 11)...and we are going to take most of our pictures before hand...(DUet agreed to come to my house at 6:30am...and FH and i will meet for a photo shoot at 8am. that will give us enough time to get to church and get the CH in time to fit a few photos in there as well. it will be tight, but we are saving SO much $. FH and i are doing this mostly on our own, so it is a big deal to us. I realized this....when you are on a budget you can not always have EVERYTHING you want (unfortunately)....so we had to give up a little bit of time (a May wedding would have given us an extra hour between church and CH)....but is that worth 6k?? prob not in the long run. i am so happy b/c i did not want to switch reception halls and i did not want to have a winter wedding if possible. and....best part is ....we can still go to italy for our honeymoon b/c it will still be warm at that time. thanks girls, for all of your advice on things! my decision was difficult but i think will work out in the end!