Wedding Planning!

[Young Val]

So, I just got the call that my dress is in and I am suddenly terrified. What if it doesn't fit? What if I don't love it anymore? What if it looks terrible on me?

I'm trying hard to get back on the wedding band wagon, haven fallen off hard over the last month or so.

I've been calling hotels to try to block off some rooms, trying to arrange transportation to and from the wedding for out of town guests, trying to obtain a beverage caterer (as the one we booked doesn't have a liquor license and we are NOT having a dry wedding).

Planning the bachelorette party is turning into a nightmare, partly because no one is letting me plan it. I get that that's supposed to be the Maid of Honor's job, but since I'm the one who needs to buy a plane ticket in order to attend, I think a little flexibility is required, here.

I also now have two bridal showers scheduled when I wanted zero.

I am basically exhausted and cranky. Which is pretty much how I'd describe the entire planning process. I cannot wait to be married. I never want to plan another wedding again.

[Eaquae Legit]

I never want to plan another wedding again.

Ayup.

[Young Val]

Honeymoon is booked!

Since we're paying for the wedding ourselves, we don't have a lot of extra cash for a lavish honeymoon. The plan was to do some small, local getaway for a few nights post-wedding, and then hopefully plan a big trip abroad in the first five years of our marriage.

Still, we wanted to do something a little bit special, so we rented a luxury town home directly on the shore of Lake Superior for three nights. We'll be staying in a cute little lake town, Grand Marais, which reminds me a lot of the coastal towns back in Massachusetts (from the pictures online, anyway. I haven't been up there, yet). The town has plenty of shops and restaurants and things to do, and there are lots of gorgeous hiking trails up to the boundary waters right there. The place we rented has a beauuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuutiful modern kitchen, so we'll go out for a fancy meal once or twice, but mostly just shack up and cook for ourselves. I'm SO excited!

We'll be up there Sunday through Wednesday morning, and then come back down to the cities so David can get to class Wednesday night. We each took the rest of the week off, too, so we can relax and get settled in at home, and start on a mountain of thank you cards, before getting back to real life the next week.

Yay!

[steph]

Honeymoon is booked!

Since we're paying for the wedding ourselves, we don't have a lot of extra cash for a lavish honeymoon. The plan was to do some small, local getaway for a few nights post-wedding, and then hopefully plan a big trip abroad in the first five years of our marriage.

Still, we wanted to do something a little bit special, so we rented a luxury town home directly on the shore of Lake Superior for three nights. We'll be staying in a cute little lake town, Grand Marais, which reminds me a lot of the coastal towns back in Massachusetts (from the pictures online, anyway. I haven't been up there, yet). The town has plenty of shops and restaurants and things to do, and there are lots of gorgeous hiking trails up to the boundary waters right there. The place we rented has a beauuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuutiful modern kitchen, so we'll go out for a fancy meal once or twice, but mostly just shack up and cook for ourselves. I'm SO excited!

We'll be up there Sunday through Wednesday morning, and then come back down to the cities so David can get to class Wednesday night. We each took the rest of the week off, too, so we can relax and get settled in at home, and start on a mountain of thank you cards, before getting back to real life the next week.

Yay!

[Petra456]

Yay! Sounds lovely!

[powerfulcheese04]

This isn't really wedding planning... but, kinda close!

Nate and I booked our first anniversary trip a week ago.. which sounds relatively similar to your honeymoon, Kel. We're going to a cabin in the mountains outside Charlotte for several days!

Even cooler... the dogs get to come with us!

[Young Val]

Kim, your anniversary trip looks awesome!

Ok.

-Hotel rooms blocked off.

-We've got a quote for shuttle service back and forth between the hotel and the wedding. It's more expensive than we hoped it would be, though not outrageous. Still, I think we're going to go ahead with it and trim the budget elsewhere.

-First dress fitting! Yes, I still love my dress. Yes, it basically fits (alterations are needed of course but that's to be expected. All I really wanted was for it to zip--yes, zip! no corset top for me--up easily and it did). However. A new assistant seamstress got self-tanner, bright orange self-tanner, all over the back of my bodice. My white bodice. I'm almost positive she got fired, and I feel sort of bad about that? But only a little bit. Because really. YOU HAVE A JOB ALTERING WEDDING DRESSES. Maybe smearing orange goop all over your hands is not the best thing to do just prior to an appointment? I remained totally calm about it, and they SWEAR to me they're getting it cleaned (on their dime of course) and that it will look perfectly pristine when they're finished, so we'll see when I go back for fitting #2.

-Beverage catering continues to be a headache. We're talking with two: one is cheap and pretty much universally terrible, the other is juuuuust on the cusp of being pricey and we are having a hell of time getting a price list for the actual alcohol (the priceyness just covers the bartenders, insurance, garnishes, sodas, etc. Not the booze). They've suggested we just contact their supplier directly and ask for a quote. Which, fine. I can do that. But it's just one more thing on a list of things to do. And just, argh.

-I may wind up forgoing the bachelorette party altogether and I have some conflicting feelings about all of it right now, but the prevailing one in this exact moment is "good riddance!" even though I'm sure I'll be sad about it later. And maybe I'll pull something together anyway. Whatever. SO effing stressful.

-The DIY decorations, the flowers, the vases/jars, the star garlands, continue to go rather well. I'm working at a good pace, although I am a little bit behind where I hoped to be at this point. Have to go snag some more paint chips from the hardware store. I am burning myself far less often with the glue gun than I used to.

-I REALLY need to book my hair/makeup trial ASAP. I've book for the wedding, of course, but I haven't booked my trial yet and I need to get on that. It would help if I had the faintest idea what I wanted to do with my hair. (It's staying naturally curly. Beyond that, I'm at a loss).

-Coming, slowly, to terms with the fact that David and I are going to have to get married before our wedding. If that really is the case, I'm sort of in the camp of let's just do it NOW and not tell anybody. But I feel weird about that, too. Wish I could just get this officiant nonsense solved in my favor, but it's unlikely.

-OH. And I need to order damn pies, because the freaking State never got back to me about altering a temporary event license so I could make my own. So I have to find a bakery and get on that, too.

Guys. I know my wedding is going to be wonderful. But I am SO DONE PLANNING IT. As Witch Baby would say, planning a wedding is the clutchiest thing I have ever tried to do.

[Wind Swept]

Mmm, damn pie.

[Young Val]

Ok. Help me out here.

Many of our guests will be generous enough to bring us gifts for our wedding. Ninety-nine times out of one hundred, gifts are not opened during the wedding reception (we most definitely will not be opening our gifts during the reception).

Please tell me when and under what circumstances you opened your wedding gifts.

My plan, and one that I gave virtually no thought to whatsoever--that's how obvious it seemed to me-- is as follows: Gifts will be transported from the reception to our apartment by the same wonderful family member who is watching our cat for us during our honeymoon. We honeymoon for three nights, and then come back to our apartment for a "staycation" for the remainder of the week. During that week, we doing lots of wonderful, newly-wed, vacation-y, indulgent things like eating decadent brunches in our apartment with left over wedding pie and taking lots of naps and drinking wine and watching my bouquet fade and playing cribbage and other things which are decidedly not G-Rated. But somewhere in all that, we will be opening the gifts and cards we received for our wedding, making a master spreadsheet to help us keep track of it all, and busting out our thank you cards like nobody's business. I envision us doing this alone. In our pajamas.

David's mother, however, is APPALLED by this idea.

We are apparently supposed to host some sort of party post-wedding, and invite all our wedding guests to come over and watch us open the presents they gave us? Which, ok, I have several thoughts:

1. I can think of nothing more mind-numbingly boring than watching someone open 150 presents one after the other, unless of course, I am the person who has to open 150 present one after the other with 150 people watching me do it. IN NO WAY does this sound like something I want to do.

2. I have never heard of such a thing before in my life. Ever. Is this a thing?! David's mother insists that it's a thing. And that somehow I will be offending everyone on the planet if I continue to insist that we open our gifts in private. Personally, I think she's out of her mind on this one.

3. She has insinuated very heavily that if we decided to go ahead with my incredibly offensive plan to open gifts in private without hosting a big old gift-opening party, that she and a few other close relatives will be inviting themselves over to our apartment regardless of our wishes, so that they can watch us open these damn hypothetical gifts.

Now, I know that this is really a boundary issue. Recently, there's been some mounting issues with my future in-laws making random demands and bizarre things when related to the wedding. They always bring these things to me, alone, and leave David out of it. I, of course, talk about it all with him, but the situation is getting a little crazy and it's stressing me the eff out. After our wedding I want a week to bliss out and cry and suffer emotional hangover and come to terms with the immense transition that just occured in my life and kiss my new husband's face again and again and again. I have no intention of hosting yet another party that week or any other, frankly, and won't be opening the door for my in-laws if they come knocking that week. I know I need to communicate this to them as nicely as possible, and I'll enlist David to help me do that, but I'm sort of irritated that I have to do it at all.

I LOVE David's family. They are wonderful people and have been so kind to me. And I know that weddings bring up lots of emotional stuff for many different people, not just the bride and groom.

But I am starting to resent what seems like a sudden spurt of insanity from all directions.

So please, tell me either way. Is a gift-opening party normal? Is it a thing that people do? I have NEVER heard of this in my life and if it's some big tradition I'm unaware of I'd like to at least be sensitive to that while shutting it down.

[Mich]

I've also never heard of it in my life. Did she imply it's some kind of family tradition thing or something? From what you said, it doesn't sound like she did, just that she thinks it's something normal that everyone does, like a wedding reception or something. What did David say, if you asked him?

Edit: just asked my friend, and he says "that's common." So apparently we've been attending weddings under rocks.

[LilBee91]

I've never heard of such a thing. The only wedding gift-opening parties I've been do were bridal showers and bachelorette parties, which is a very different setting. I'm not a wedding expert by any stretch of the imagination, but that just seems weird. My roommates have had friends who invite immediate family and close friends to help open presents, but really for the purpose of having somebody help you keep track of who gave you what and addressing thank you cards and all that, which is more of slave labor than a party in my book.

[Syphon the Sun]

I've never heard it done any other way that how you planned it, Kelly. That's how we did it.

[Jayelle]

It's absolutely a thing, most people I know have had them. Both my sisters did, however, I didn't. I wanted to take off on my honeymoon right away (which was really similar to your honeymoon).

Most ones I've been to are come-and-go, so they weren't that boring for the guests. You come, have punch and a snack wish the couple well in a much more casual setting then the wedding. At the end, they get a bit of a send-off. I've never been big on them.

I do think that you're completely in your rights to not answer the door for at least two weeks after your wedding. Dropping by is not okay. My mind goes immediately to - what is she going to do when you have kids?? I would put my foot down for this, because when you have a newborn someday, you will (probably) really really not want her just dropping by anytime and she'll want to even more.

[Young Val]

Thanks for the input, guys! Conclusion: while I personally have never heard of it before, and while the tradition is clearly not widespread, having some sort of audience for wedding-gift-opening is apparently something that many people do, and is not something made up by my future mother-in-law to torture me. So. I will be respectful of that when informing her that we will not be doing it.

Jan, we are already aware of the potential difficulties and boundary-issues that will arise in the next few years when we start to expand our family. David's mom is a great, great, great person who always means well, and that's super important and means a lot. While we might have differing views on a LOT of things, she is not ever coming from a malicious place. She loves us and wants us to be happy.

That said, she drives me freaking crazy and oooooo the first grandchild situation is going to be a mess.

[Petra456]

I didn't know that an opening presents party was a think either! When my sister got married they just opened their presents at the reception, but they also didn't get very many presents to it was maybe a 15 minute thing and most of the guests had gone home by then. I've never thought much about the whole thing, but the way I would be most comfortable with is just the two of us at home after all the wedding day stuff is over. It could be that very night or after you get back from a honeymoon, whenever you're relaxed enough to really enjoy opening presents and not feel rushed.

[Eaquae Legit]

I actually can't remember what we did, except it must have been with my family since I remember clearly that dang envelope with my mother's handwriting all over it with the gift inventory (for thank-yous). But your plans sound totally reasonable to me, Kelly!

[starlooker]

It's a.thing - perhaps a midwest thing? My cousins and I have all done it very casually, with just extended fam and close friends the morning after the wedding. Ours was very impromptu at Buffalo Wild Wings. The impromptu-ness and venue threatened drama, but it worked and a good time was had by most.

[Luet]

I've never heard of it either, so maybe it is a regional thing. We opened our presents alone, the morning after the wedding, before heading out on our honeymoon.

[powerfulcheese04]

I've vaguely heard of it before. But we definitely did not do it.

We left our reception and drove an hour and a half away to a bed and breakfast for a night then got on a cruise ship for a week. It was delightful to be out of contact for that time and just be together.

I think it would be super weird to have a present opening event. I've always found them a little awkward (I mean, my bridal shower was fun, but it's a little weird to open that many presents in front of people.)

Our presents were taken from our reception to my parents' home. Nate and I spent a couple hours the day after we got home opening presents by ourselves upstairs in my parents' house. It was fun and peaceful and private.. which is how I think it should be.

[steph]

I've never heard of this tradition before.

That being said, I did open presents in front of all our family. BUT our receptions was 3 weeks after our wedding and everyone was still there from the reception the night before and going to church with us, so it seemed natural at the time. If my reception had been the day of my wedding, I would have been gone the next morning and we'd have opened them on our own, just as your plan is. It sounds lovely and perfect to me.

[Noodle]

We'll be staying in a cute little lake town, Grand Marais

I'm late to comment on this, but Grand Marais is a great choice for a local-yet-far-enough-away-to-make-it-special honeymoon. It's a great little town. Kinda tourist trappy, but quaint, and cute.

RE Gift Opening: it's most definitely a thing. All the weddings I've been in have done it. Usually, (in my experience at least) it's a wedding party and family thing. For us, it was held at our parent's house the next morning (Sunday) at around 10 or 11. We invited the wedding party and any family members that wanted to come. We served a small brunch and opened presents. It's usually a very relaxed occasion, and a convenient excuse to hang out with your friends some more.

The benefit is you can have assistance with creating a list for the thank you notes. We gave our maid-of-honor a notebook and she took notes about who gave what. That way we could take the notebook along on the honeymoon and crank out thank you notes during down times. Think of it as the last wedding shower that just so happens to happen after you're married.

[Young Val]

Done and Done:

-Got many many more paint chips from the hardware store to continue with all DIY decoration projects. Didn't feel nearly so much like I was "stealing" this time, since the clerk saw me, smiled, and absolutely did not care that I was taking fistfulls of the things.

-We have agreed to go with the transportation company. Waiting on the contract from the vendor.

-Picked a beverage caterer! Went with the pricier one. Need to adjust the hours a bit, which, yes, will jack up the price a bit more. Waiting for them to get back to us on that, and then will hopefully have the contract by the end of this week. Setting up wine tastings with the supplier, too.

-Booked the sound system (remember, we are self-djing via itunes). PEOPLE. WE ARE UNDER BUDGET ON THIS. We've been over budget on eeeeeeeeeevery single line item so far. All of them! Now granted, we planned for this, so we've got some wiggle room and we've still got our heads above water, so we're fine (well, David is hyperventilating about all the money we're spending, but otherwise we're fine). We got everything we need for 1/3 of the money reserved for this purpose. And the stuff we got is AWESOME. THANK YOU WELL-CONNECTED MUSICIAN FRIENDS! Even though the amount of money is so small, it's seriously so awesome to be able to enter this number into our spreadsheet. Victory!

-Started making our playlists for Ceremony, Cocktails/Dinner, and Reception. David and I plowed our way through three bottles of wine and spent 4 hours sifting through our itunes. We've got a long way to go to cultivate these things, but we've got an awesome start. Ceremony music (Entrance, Recessional) is completely done.

-Started talking about ceremony, structure, and readings. Still have a lot of work to do on this.

-Booked our hotel room for the wedding night

-Made some updates to wedding website.

-Decided on and began creating "favors." We're doing mini recipe books for all the guests. Six recipes that have been milestones in our relationship (the first meal David ever cooked for me, the cake I made for his birthday, anniversary dinners, etc) with each recipe prefaced with a little story/blurb about its relevance in our life. The immensely talented DARLING girl who is doing our invites/save the dates, etc, agreed to lay it out for me.


Whew!

[steph]

I love hearing all this positive progress!!

[Petra456]

-Started making our playlists for Ceremony, Cocktails/Dinner, and Reception. David and I plowed our way through three bottles of wine and spent 4 hours sifting through our itunes. We've got a long way to go to cultivate these things, but we've got an awesome start. Ceremony music (Entrance, Recessional) is completely done.

I am so curious about what songs you went with. When I think about my wedding, the music is probably one of the most important things and I always love to hear what everyone else chooses to play and why they chose that song.

-Decided on and began creating "favors." We're doing mini recipe books for all the guests. Six recipes that have been milestones in our relationship (the first meal David ever cooked for me, the cake I made for his birthday, anniversary dinners, etc) with each recipe prefaced with a little story/blurb about its relevance in our life. The immensely talented DARLING girl who is doing our invites/save the dates, etc, agreed to lay it out for me.

This is quite possibly the cuties thing I have ever heard of for favors, and it's just so you it's perfect!

[Young Val]

I am so curious about what songs you went with. When I think about my wedding, the music is probably one of the most important things and I always love to hear what everyone else chooses to play and why they chose that song.

The entrance music (for David, the bridesmaids, and last but not least--me! The same song will be playing throughout, with my entrance coming at a crecendo toward the end) is the second half of Kate Nash's "I Hate Seagulls" (roughly 1:20 in, beginning with the lyrics "I have a friend"). I spent about 20 minutes this morning looking for a recording of it on youtube, but all I can find are live versions, which are lovely, but don't have the urgency, tension, and beautiful release of the album recording (oddly enough).

The song made my "Possible Entrance Songs" list several months ago when I had my iPod on shuffle during my bus ride home. I started to tear up while it was playing and I could just sort of SEE myself walking down the aisle to it.

In the end, after many many tough cuts ("Whole Wide World" by Wreckless Eric did not want to go down, man), it came down to "I Hate Seagulls" and "The Luckiest" by Ben Folds. The problem with "The Luckiest" is that both David and I start ugly-crying the minute the piano intro starts. Like, red-faced, hiccoughing, snotty weeping. Pretty uncontrollably. To the point where David thought he'd be too overcome to speak his vows after hearing it.

When we listened to "I Hate Seagulls" though, we both cried, but in sort of a calm, happy, perfect way. And like me, David said he could SEE our wedding happening when he listened to the song. He could visualize it and felt like he was there, in the moment, while the song was playing. So that was our winner. ("The Luckiest" is going to be the last song of the night. Arguably the last dance is more important than the first. It is my secret hope that David and I will stand on the dance floor, hold each other and weeping hysterically, while all our friends and family form a circle around us. Like in a movie! It's well within the realm of possibility).

I Hate Seagulls*yes, I know that grammatically, this song is a mess. I don't even care.

I have a friend
with whom I like to spend
anytime I can find with
I like sleeping in your bed
I like knowing what is going on inside your head
I like taking time
and I like your mind
and I like when your hand is in mine
I like getting drunk on the dunes by the beach
I like picking strawberries
I like cream teas
and I like reading
ghost stories
and my heart skips a bit every time that we meet
it's been a while and now your smile is almost like a memory
but then you're back and I am fine
cause you're with me and I'm in love with you
and I can't find the words to make it sound unique
but honestly, you make me strong
I can't believe I've found someone this kind
I hope we carry on cause you're so nice
and I'm in love with you


As for the Recessional music, it will be "Home" by Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros. There was never any question about this. I knew we were getting married long, long before David proposed, and the first time I heard this song back in 2009, I knew it would be the song that played as we left our ceremony as man and wife. I think I brought it up as an option two hours after David proposed, and he agreed immdiately. Both of us LOVE this song, in a funny, inexplicable way. We listened to it inccessantly after we moved out here, and it helped us dig deep and get through a lot of difficult things in the beginning. We still get crazy grins on our faces whenever it comes on the radio and turn the volume way up. We just love this damn song.

Home

Alabama, Arkansas, I do love my Ma & Pa
Not the way that I do love you

Holy Moley, Me-oh-My, you're the apple of my eye
Girl, I’ve never loved one like you

Man, oh man, you’re my best friend,
I scream it to the nothingness
There ain’t nothin’ that I need

Well, hot & heavy, pumpkin pie,
chocolate candy, Jesus Christ
There ain’t nothin’ please me more than you

Ahh, Home
Let me come Home
Home is wherever I’m with you
La la la la, take me Home
Baby, I’m coming Home

I’ll follow you into the park,
through the jungle, through the dark
Girl, I’ve never loved one like you

Moats & boats & waterfalls,
alley ways & pay phone calls
I’ve been everywhere with you

That’s true

We laugh until we think we’ll die,
barefoot on a summer night
Nothin’ new is sweeter than with you

And in the streets we're running free
Like it's only you and me
Geez, you’re somethin' to see.

Ahh, Home
Let me come Home
Home is wherever I’m with you

La la la la, take me Home
Baby, I’m coming Home

“Jade?”
“Alexander?”
“Do you remember that day you fell out of my window?”
“I sure do, you came jumping out after me.”
“Well, you fell on the concrete
and nearly broke your ass
and you were bleeding all over the place
and I rushed you off to the hospital.
Do you remember that?”
“Yes, I do.”
“Well, there’s something
I never told you about that night.”
“What didn’t you tell me?”
“While you were sitting in the backseat
smoking a cigarette you thought
was going to be your last,
I was falling deep, deeply in love with you
and I never told you ‘til just now.”
“Now I know.”

Ahh, Home
Let me come Home
Home is whenever I’m with you
Ahh, Home
Let me come Home
Home is when I’m alone with you

Home
Let me come Home
Home is wherever I’m with you

Ahh, Home
Yes, I am Home
Home is when I’m alone with you.

Alabama, Arkansas, I do love my Ma & Pa
Moats & boats & waterfalls & pay phone calls

Ahh, Home
Let me come Home
Home is wherever I’m with you
Ahh, Home
Let me come Home
Home is when I’m alone with you

[Wind Swept]

Grooveshark works everywhere, right? I Hate Seagulls

And Home is a fantastic song. Good choice.

[Gravity Defier]

I Hate Seagulls

Oh my god, I just listened to this and Kelly, YES. Very Yes.

[Petra456]

Both are amazing choices, and Home is quite possibly one of my favorite songs : )

[Young Val]

Our budget has sky-rocketed. The problem with getting a wonderful, cheap little venue like our apple orchard is that it doesn't HAVE anything. We have to rent all the chairs and tables. And then we either have to set them up ourselves, or pay the delivery company several hundred dollars to do it for us. Etc, etc, etc.

We are spending WAY more money than we ever dreamed of in the beginning. Technically, we can make it, but we didn't really want to spend quite this much on our wedding. Costs just keep mounting and mounting, though, and weird technical difficulties that no one ever imagined pop up and we throw money at the problems to make them go away.

It's even more frustrating because we've begun to talk about the merits of either buying or building a house (both are legitimate options) and of course we'd need a good chunk of money saved to get that done. We're looking to have a more permanent residence 5 years after the wedding, so 2017ish. By then we'll hopefully have at least one child, possibly a second on the way. And we'd have those five years to save up, and we're pretty good at squirrelling away money at this point, but it would be nice to be able to put some of this money we're putting into the wedding into a house instead.

Not that I regret our choices or think that we're being extravagant. On the contrary, I think we're being extremely frugal. We lost out quite a bit though, on choosing a venue that wasn't all inclusive. I LOVE our venue and wouldn't want to get married anywhere else, but ugh. Money, money, money.

Almost 5 months out. SO much still to do.

[steph]

I hate how money has to dictate everything in our lives. Grrr.

[VelvetElvis]

This isn't really wedding planning... but, kinda close!

Nate and I booked our first anniversary trip a week ago.. which sounds relatively similar to your honeymoon, Kel. We're going to a cabin in the mountains outside Charlotte for several days!

Even cooler... the dogs get to come with us!

Having our dog with us was the only hting that made our terrifically terrible honeymoon ok.

[Young Val]

YOU GUYS, YOU GUYS! THE OFFICIANT THING IS WORKING OUT. MY FRIEND IS GOING TO BE ABLE TO LEGALLY MARRY US ON OUR WEDDING DAY! THIS IS THE BEST WEDDING RELATED THING THAT'S HAPPENED IN AGES.

[thoughtreader]

Woo!

[locke]

as stated in the other thread, we got our marriage license today, it's officially down to one month away! Ahhh!

In sadder news, one of my groomsman, a best friend from growing up in Missouri, isn't going to be able to make it. His factory closed last month, so he was laid off from that job, but was still planning on making the trip, since they had money set aside for it. then a few weeks ago, their car went kaput, and the money for the trip became downpayment money on the replacement vehicle.

Only two of my cousins are going to make it to the wedding, so I'm calling one of them and seeing if he wants to be a groomsmen. It's not to make sure we have even numbers, neither of us care about that, but because being hte only male cousin making it, we'd like to acknowledge them a bit more.

We met with our photographers on Wednesday to nail down the day of schedule. We've had our meetings with the pastor, it's all becoming a little bit surreal that it's all happening. When we start talking about the actual rehearsal my stomach starts to churn, in a way, I can't believe it's really happening.

[Young Val]

Printed out all of our invitations this weekend! David came up to help out this time, and we got the whole suite (five separate items) printed and cut in just about three hours, as opposed to the two days it took me to print and cut the Save the Date bookmarks last fall.

I still need to pick up stamps and order envelopes, so we can't mail them out just yet, but what a relief to have them done and ready to go. They are also GORGEOUS and I love them so, so much.

My second dress fitting went remarkably well. The stain in the dress is completely gone. The dress needs another round of major alterations due to the weight I've lost. The seamstress was wonderful about it; very professional and matter-of-fact. Kind and funny without making me feel stupid or self conscious about my body. She also has a plan in place to accomodate any further weight loss on my part between now and the wedding, and just in general I felt awesome about the dress and me and me in the dress.

Still need to book my trial hair appointment, figure out what to do for engagement photos coming up in July, order alcohol, email bakery and set up delivery time, figure out my accessories, pick a damn bridesmaid dress, pick the two final readings for the ceremony (we've got it narrowed down to about 5 at the moment), assemble and mail invitations, and start making week and day-of spreadsheets.