After a few days of emails back and forth, we officially got our horse-drawn carriage reserved for our ceremony!! This is the one big splurge I asked for ($400 for 2 hours, will cover ceremony, pictures, and the first bit of the reception) and FI was more than happy to oblige for me!
I'll arrive at the ceremony (outdoors) in the carriage, and we'll leave together in it, then take a short ride around the city for about 10 minutes while our guests clear out, then go back for pictures. We're getting married in front of an historic covered bridge that's closed to traffic, and the carriage company has permission to take their carriage across it, so that will make some cool photos. Then we'll arrive at our reception in the carriage as well!
This is what it looks like!
We talked to the company owners at a bridal show back in January and I was afraid our date was going to get taken before we had a chance to get the deposit in and paperwork taken care of. I emailed them this weekend and they still had the date open. They're holding it for us and we're going in on Thursday to sign the paperwork and put in the deposit.