Wedding Weekend

*All pictures were stolen off Facebook. Also, this got rather long.

The wedding weekend was a ton of fun. But no one told me how utterly exhausted I would be by the end of it. They told me that my face would hurt from smiling too much, that I needed to focus on eating enough and not drinking too much, that the entire thing would be over before I knew it. But no one told me that I would basically collapse as soon as it was all over. At least it gave Kevin and me a chance to catch up on all (and I do mean all) of the television we missed last week.

We're so glad that so many people were able to come spend the day with us and celebrate our marriage. It's especially impressive because 80% of the guests were from out of town. Since so many people were traveling so far, we tried to plan some extra events to give us more time with everyone. We invited our extended families to the rehearsal dinner, organized after parties for both Friday and Saturday nights, and arranged for breakfast to stay open an extra hour on Sunday so we could see everyone one last time. It worked out really well, and I'm glad we got to spend some time with our family and friends outside the incredibly hectic formal events.

My mom and I arrived at the venue just before noon on Friday and quickly discovered that it was far bigger than either of us has realized when we toured it a year ago. We almost got lost on the way to my room, and we definitely got lost when we went in search of the dining hall to meet my dad and some friends for lunch. But by the time I finished unloading the car, I'd more or less figured out the layout of the place.

I'd planned to plant myself in the lobby to greet people as they arrived, but I found myself too busy to really hang out there. By the time I was finished running around it was just about time for the rehearsal, which actually got rained out. We were able to figure out the processional order and go over the ceremony with our officiant, Alex, though.

Then it was time to head out to the rehearsal dinner, where the bar service was a little slow at first, but the food was delicious. And thus began the process of flitting from group to group, making sure that I got to say hi to everyone. This was sort of a theme of the weekend. There are so many people there to see you that it's hard to make enough time for them all. You have to settle for some time with everyone instead. At least we stuck to a fairly small guest list.

Enjoying the Rehearsal Dinner

Nearly everyone else that we invited made it to the after party, which meant a lot more running from group to group to say hi as people arrived. There were also a few too many shots that evening. And while I was sure I made it to bed by midnight, my Fitbit informs me that I was out past 1 AM.

On Saturday morning I woke up with a hangover, unable to go back to sleep because of the too bright sun and the million things I needed to do. Kevin and I were at breakfast almost as soon as it opened. Then we went back to the room where I showered and did my hair while Kevin napped.

The bridesmaids, the best man, and I had a 10:00 appointment to get our nails done. It was a lot of fun to hang out, although the process of getting fake tips is way more involved than I remember it being. Of course, it's also been over a decade since I got fake nails, so perhaps my memory is faulty. The spa was on the small side, which meant that our appointments were staggered and it took a little longer than I'd expected. But we made it back to the venue for lunch. Then we had just enough time to drink a couple of mimosas and get pretty for pictures at 2:30.

I'm really glad we decided to take all of the family pictures before the wedding, and they all showed up early to see the first official look of the dress (and the tux, honestly). Our photographer had staged a nice entrance that we messed up when Kevin turned around too early and I tripped on the stairs. Oh well. It will make for more spontaneous photos, which are always more fun.

Kevin and (some of) his guys

After the first look we cycled through pictures with parents, siblings, extended families, and finally the bridal party. We finished up right around 4:00, and went to hide while the rest of the guests arrived and sat down. By that point my feet were killing me, so I welcomed the opportunity to sit down for a bit. If I had to get married again, I probably wouldn't try to wear new shoes for the wedding. I really wish I'd had time to break mine in some more so I could have worn them for longer.

The wedding party

The ceremony was short and sweet and lovely. I believe our sense of humor came through, with the Calvin and Hobbes and Isaac Asimov readings we picked. And I may have slightly improvised my vows, but it all worked out. I'd figured out most of them before hand, but then I wanted to add a couple of things when I heard Kevin's and ended up flubbing a bit. The good news is that no one heard them anyway, thanks to the wind that decided to gust right during our ceremony. And I must say that although I've walked down the aisle as a bridesmaid three times, walking down it as a bride is an entirely different experience.

Resting our feet

After the ceremony we signed the paperwork, took a few pictures with just the two of us, and it was time to party. The most stressful and overwhelming part of the entire day was arriving at the cocktail hour. There were suddenly a million things to do, and everyone wanted to congratulate me and say hi right away. But I ignored everyone and ran to the bar to get a bottle of water and handed my shoes and flowers off to our wonderful coordinator. Then Sarah and I disappeared to tie up my bustle, and I was finally able to go say hi to the guests. We also got some fun pictures with the Mudders next to a North sign that I'm really excited to see.

Signing the license

Dinner was delicious, and I'm glad Kevin and I decided to sit apart from all of our guests at a sweetheart table. It gave us a few precious minutes to eat and be together and decompress slightly from the crowd. It also made us feel like a king and queen ruling over our court. I'm also glad we had a coordinator to handle all of the details on the day of. We didn't need to worry about herding people or finding the cake or favors or anything at all except enjoying ourselves. I highly recommend hiring someone to deal with all those details. I can't even imagine how stressed I would have been if I'd had to juggle all of that on top of everything else.

We were seriously far away from the rest of the tables

Zach and Sarah's combined Best Man/Doctor of Honor toast was absolutely perfect. They compiled a top ten list of the reasons "we are gathered here today", which was a lovely callback to a college tradition. Then we started dancing and running around to visit with as many people as we could. For all that I was worried about getting too drunk, I found myself with barely enough time to drink. Then again, I wasn't carrying around a bottle of champagne, like Kevin.

Champagne

We skipped the bouquet toss, and I handed the flowers off to my cousin instead, when she asked for them. We also, by happy accident, included a song on our playlist that my cousins had choreographed a dance to. So they taught that to Chev and me and we had fun dancing together when Pharrell's Happy came on towards the end of the night.

She carried the flowers around forever

Designing the playlist ourselves ended up working out really well. People seemed to enjoy the music. And although I'd been worried that we wouldn't have enough music, we ended up having to cut some songs out. I'd forgotten to allot time for toasts and cake cutting. The only thing I might change is to go back and include Garth Brooks' Friends in Low Places. I'd toyed with adding it, and ultimately decided that not enough people would appreciate it. Then my aunt remarked on its absence, because it had been such a hit at my cousin's wedding a couple of years ago. Oh well.

Happy!

The best picture of the night

The evening was capped off by a game a Dr. Killebrew, organized quite effectively by the Doctor of Honor, Sarah. Then Alex and Chev performed a rap for us at the after party, after which Kevin and I escaped back to our room.

On Sunday morning I slept in longer than I have in weeks (7:00 AM, woo!). Kevin and I were the first ones at breakfast, and it was a while before people really started arriving. It was really nice to see everyone one last time before the weekend ended, and we found ourselves making plans to see most of our college friends again soon. We're going to have a very busy June.

After breakfast I took off for home to walk the dog and feed the cat while Kevin dealt with all the details at the venue. Our parents came over for a bit while we opened the presents that people brought to the wedding, then they slowly trickled out. I attempted to go out and run some errands, but soon realized that I was way too tired.

Seriously, I did not expect to be as exhausted as I was. But I guess I'd been running on adrenaline and caffeine for longer than I realized. Kevin's mom mentioned that the same thing happened to her, and they ended up pushing their honeymoon back a day because of it (it helped that her husband piloted his own plane, so their plans were fairly flexible). I'm really glad that we decided to wait before taking off on our honeymoon, otherwise I may have slept straight through Barcelona. This way I'll have rebalanced somewhat and be able to actually enjoy our trip when we leave at the end of the week.

It was completely fantastic to see everyone who was able to come to the wedding. I wish we lived closer to a lot of people, especially family. But with my brother moving here in a few months and my cousin headed to Boston, that may start to change slightly. In the meantime we'll have to find more time to visit Colorado. And more ways to convince people to move to the East Coast. Especially writers and people who own their own businesses and can technically work from anywhere.

Reader, I Married Him

If I've managed to time everything right, then this is my 500th post. Which seems like a pretty good milestone to line up with my wedding day. That's right, as of a few hours ago I am officially a married woman. And, yes, I have been planning this since November.

I don't think there are many people who read this who aren't celebrating with me right now. But I still wanted to commemorate the event on my blog. Pictures and details will be coming at some point. For now it's more likely that I'll be taking a Honeymoon-related hiatus from this space for a while.

Coming Together

We're definitely in the homestretch now.

We've written names on all the place cards and packed up boxes with things that we need to take to the venue for the weekend.

We've paid all of the vendors except the photographer who will get paid at the wedding.

We're bought all the music and pulled together a playlist.

Kevin has his tuxedo and I'm picking up my dress on Friday morning. I wore my wedding shoes to work on Tuesday to help break them in. Now I'm reconsidering wearing shoes at the wedding, because Jesus Christ did those shoes hurt after an hour. Okay, I won't really walk down the aisle barefoot. I have a plan to stretch them out, and I have a pair of backup shoes in case the fails miserably, and I was honestly planning to be barefoot for most of the reception anyway. 4-inch heels or no shoes at all is basically how I roll these days.

All of the presents are wrapped and packed up in the aforementioned boxes.

Champagne for morning-of mimosas has been bought. As has orange juice.

Family members are beginning to arrive.

At this point I believe we've covered everything that we need or want to. A few guests who are coming in from out of town have yet to book rooms at the venue, but I figure that they're adults and nagging them about it is not my problem.

I've finally, finally reached a state of zen. After months of stress dreams and randomly waking up to wonder about this or that detail, I'm letting it all go. There will be good food and music and plenty of alcohol. There will be good friends and family who will continue to love us no matter what. As long as Kevin and I are married by the end of the weekend, it will have been a success. Because that's ultimately the only metric you can use to measure a wedding.

So now it's time to relax and visit with all the people that I don't get to see often enough.

Oh. And write my vows. Fuck.

Final Details

The wedding's getting really close. I'm at a point now where I'm oscillating between feeling on top of everything and freaking out because I remembered something we forgot.

Honestly, we're in a good place and almost everything is taken care of or soon will be. But we only have one more functional weekend before the wedding (the other has been taken over by Easter-related revelry), which makes it feel like it's a lot closer than it is.

Most of what's left is reporting final guest counts and paying the vendors. We'll take care of the florist and the cake this week and I believe we have to pay the venue/caterer next week. We've finalized the times for everything and figured out the seating chart. We finally bought a guest book and found some place cards.

The to-do list isn't terribly long anymore. However, everything left still feels pretty major. We need to fill out all the place cards, which can be done while watching TV one evening. I have my final dress fitting tonight, after which I think I can take the dress home.

We also need to finalize the playlist for the reception. It's maybe half done at this point. I didn't realize how hard it can be to fill a few hours with music. If you have any suggestions for songs, let us know. I think we still need about an hour's worth of music. Maybe more. We also need to acquire most of the songs.

The final bit is the ceremony. We found some readings, and we figured out the legal side of things. But the ceremony itself is still largely a mystery. Without any religious doctrine to fall back on, we need to figure everything out ourselves. This is proving harder than I thought it would be, and we're mostly not thinking about it at this point. Maybe we can just improvise the whole thing?

The Mystery Present

Kevin and I have been receiving a steady stream of wedding presents for a while now, and they're all wonderful. We're so excited, and we feel so loved. And while most people are including a note so we can send a personal thank you note, we recently received one present without a note.

We got this rectangular stoneware baking dish in the mail with no identifying information at all. The gift receipt actually said that I'd paid for it, which I definitely didn't do. So I'm putting up a public thank you note to make sure that whoever purchased this for us knows how much we appreciate it.

Isn't it lovely? This baking dish was one of the first things I put on the registry. As I've gotten more interested in cooking, I've discovered that I need a few more tools than I currently have in order to make some of the dishes I want to make. This baking dish was key to two dishes I've been wanting to try forever.

Lasagna:

And Chicken Enchiladas:

Both came out spectacularly, and I'm hoping to make them more often in the future. So thank you so much to whoever sent us this lovely dish. We really appreciate it, and it's already getting a ton of use.

Oh Right. The Ceremony.

Everything was under control. We'd ordered the flowers and bought our clothes and tasted the food. People were booking rooms, gifts were arriving. The playlist was beginning to take shape. I had a couple of details to take care of. Things like Buy a Guestbook and Finalize Guest Count. But there was nothing immediately pressing and I mostly just wanted to skip forward two months to this big party with all our friends and family.

Then I remembered the ceremony. That fifteen minutes that is technically the whole point of the day. When we make our vows and say something flowery about love and everyone cries or tries not to cry.

You all don't mind if we skip that part, right? You're just coming for the open bar, anyway.

Kidding.

I spent some time looking for readings, but everything felt too sappy or too religious or just wrong in some way. Or they'd already been used at our friends' weddings. I looked and looked and couldn't find anything that seemed like it might work.

So I asked Kevin to help, and he found two perfect readings in about half an hour. I have no idea how he did it except to assume that he's magical. Really, he was probably smarter about searching for them.

There are still probably some details to iron out, but I feel more in control of the ceremony now. If all goes well it should be short and sweet and perfect for the two of us. And then there will be good food and drinks and what promises to be a pretty awesome party.

Wedding Shoes

I got the call last week that my wedding dress came in. When I scheduled the fitting, the lady reminded me to bring my wedding shoes. Which meant that it was time to buy wedding shoes. I'd been trying to put this off in the hopes that there would be more selection when Winter turned to Spring, and this ultimately left me with a single afternoon to buy shoes.

I didn't think this would be a problem, since I had a good idea of what I wanted. But it turned out that what I wanted wasn't really for sale. There were plenty of styles I liked on the internet and I foolishly assumed that Bloomingdales and Macys would also carry them all in store so I could try them on. This wasn't the case.

I walked all the around Tysons Corner, which is a sizable mall, twice and found only four pairs of shoes in the color I wanted. Two of them pinched in weird places and were a bit too high to actually wear all day. The other two were fine, though not quite as special as I was hoping for. But they are the sort of shoe that I'll still be able to wear to the office after the wedding, which is probably important given what I paid for them.

I ended up with a pair that I like and that I should be able to wear all day long. Though I should probably try to spend a bit of time breaking them in around the house. After I bought them, Kevin and I met up to do other wedding related shopping. We have now purchased all of the bridesmaid gifts, groomsman gifts, paernt gifts, and wedding favors. We also looked for a guestbook, but ended up even more indecisive than we had been when we started. But we still have time on that.

It's nice to have so many of the purchases out of the way. At this point it's just a matter of paying off balances once we get a final head count and doing some of the things that we aren't spending money on. Like putting together a playlist. We should probably get on that. The wedding's getting close and it's nice to have so few things left to do.

Bachelorette Party

This past weekend we had the Bachelor/ette parties, which were an absolute blast. People started arriving as early as Thursday evening for the weekend shenanigans. On Friday morning the guys left for a ski weekend in some hills that Virginia claims are mountains. That evening the girls gathered at my house after work for an old-fashioned slumber party. Except that now we're old enough to drink, which makes slumber parties a lot more fun.

We started the weekend with pizza, board games, and Disney movies. And a lot of wine. On Saturday morning, Sarah put together a fabulous brunch with Jen's help and we sat around drinking mimosas until we ran out of alcohol. Then, because we needed more beer and it was absolutely gorgeous out, we walked over to Safeway with the dogs. It was a long walk, but it was so nice to be out in the sun on one of the few nice days we've had in a long time. Then it was back to the house for margaritas before we went out to dinner.

The restaurant we picked was delicious, but the bill was an absolute mess. Our waiter didn't really understand math or computers and managed to make 402/6 = 78, which is not even close to correct. It took a while, and a bunch of people, to sort everything out, but we got there eventually. Only to later discover that the waiter had attempted to charge the entire bill to one card, in addition to overcharging everyone else. At least it all worked out in the end.

A most excellent group of ladies

After dinner we bought as much champagne as we could carry and trouped back home, where there was a beer pong tournament, silly Bachelorette games, and an attempt to watch Magic Mike, which has entirely too much plot. Also Jen made delicious brownie pops with butterscotch frosting to share, and she even left me with the recipe.

On Sunday we woke up with the goal to get as drunk as we could before the boys got home at noon. Noon turned into 1:30, and we were all pretty happy by the time they arrived. The afternoon devolved into beer pong and visiting, as it usually does when our group gets together. Though we did make time to check out our neighbor's open house. I don't think the real estate agent was entirely prepared for us.

People trickled out all day until it was just Kevin and me around 9:00. We promptly fell asleep and were still exhausted for work the next day. (It really didn't help that I'd forgotten about the massive presentation I had to give, but I powered through.) All in all it was an absolutely perfect weekend filled with good food and friends. I can't to see everyone again at the wedding.

Wedding Bands

We bought our wedding bands last weekend. Contrary to what I've heard from a lot of people, this was the easiest, cheapest part of the entire process. It went sort of like this:

Me: I want something like this
Sales Lady: Like this?
Me: Now quite
Sales Lady: Like this?
Me: Yes. Perfect.
Kevin: Can I try on those two?
Sales Lady: Here you go.
Kevin: I'll get this one.

So that's one more thing we can check off the list, which is finally getting shorter instead of longer. The rings will be here in a few weeks, after which we'll just need to keep them safe until April.

Wedding Hair, Take Two

Over Christmas, my aunt mentioned that I should start looking into a hair salon for the wedding pretty soon. My cousin had several trial runs for her wedding style, and the whole process can take a while. Soon after this, one of my bridesmaids asked me to send her the salon information when I had it so that she could book an appointment, too. I realized it was probably time to start looking into this.

A quick Google search later, and I had some serious sticker shock. One salon offered packages starting at $850 and a la carte options, with a minimum of $320. Another salon advertised $95 per trial and $95 day-of. A third place didn't even list prices. These were the lowest prices these places advertised. Given the length of my hair, I was sure the cost would be higher than this.

A second, more in-depth search of the internet revealed that I had, indeed, found the lowest prices in my area. Many brides ended up paying far more (up to $1000). And they all thought this was reasonable!

Granted, I'm not one to spend a lot of money on my hair. I still balk at haircuts that cost more than $20, which is the main reason my hair gets so long. I take a lot of pride in it, but that's mostly my own doing rather than a salon's. For as long as it is, my hair is actually pretty low maintenance, mostly because I keep it braided so much of the time. These prices still seemed way too high for me to consider.

So I scratched the salon idea. I've been braiding my own hair since it was long enough to braid. I actually remember practicing with yarn when I was about six. I'd keep my eyes closed to get a better understanding for the feel of the process. When I was eight, I learned french and fishtail braids from the other girls at school. That was also the year I asked for an Addy American Girl doll. She had the longest hair, the better for me to practice on. By the time I hit middle school I was braiding my own hair almost every day, and in high school I was frequently experimenting with new things.

Since then I've learned about a lot of new braids. Waterfalls, feathers, laces, ladders, and more. There are online tutorials that make all of this look pretty simple. Pick up extra hair here, drop some hair there, don't pick up any at this point, and you get a really cool effect. I hadn't tried out new braids on my own head for years, but I had a few basic staples that already incorporated some of these techniques. It was time to start playing again.

Now that it's been a few weeks, I believe I've settled on the style I'm going to wear for my wedding. I haven't really perfected it yet; it never comes out exactly how I want it to. But it's getting closer. And I still have plenty of time to practice. I'm also hoping that I can use my bachelorette party to recruit at least on of my bridesmaids to help me with the trickier bits. If you're curious, it's going to be a variation on the style Daenerys Targaryan wears in the last episode of the first season. For more detail, you'll have to wait until the wedding.

Finalizing Food

On Saturday, Kevin and I drove out to our wedding venue for our catering tasting. We had already mostly selected our menu, but this gave us an opportunity to try all the food and fine-tune things. We were able to tweak the salad and the sides to our liking. We narrowed down the appetizers. And we even got to taste the wine.

I'm really happy with all of the food we picked. It's great that we can offer our guests so many options for the reception dinner. And all of it tasted delicious. Though it wasn't hard for me to decide on the chicken for myself. Between the crab and the sauce, that dish was a clear winner for me. Kevin preferred the Rockfish, a nice local treat.

While we were eating everything, we also went over a bunch of details with the coordinator. She has the information for all of our vendors, and it really feels like everything is coming together. We have one more meeting, closer to the wedding, to go over all the final details. For now, I think we're on top of everything. Though it's a good thing that she reminded us about the need for a guestbook. We probably would have forgotten that completely.

In the meantime, I've been practicing my makeup and hair. I think I know how I'm going to wear my hair for the wedding. Now I just need to keep practicing the style until I have it perfect so that it looks good on the day of.

We're going to start looking at wedding bands soon, probably next week. I have a good idea of what I want, but I think Kevin will need to shop around a bit. And it's time to start pulling together the playlist for the reception. There are about a million songs that I keep hearing and mentally adding to it. We'll have to sit down and sort through everything to get a list the right length.

This and That

We're making headway on a bunch of things related to the wedding planning. Over the weekend Kevin and Zach went to pick out their tuxedos. Kevin bought his, and the rest of the guys will be renting. I can't wait to see them!

We've also figured out the bridesmaid and groomsmen gifts, though we're holding off on ordering them until next month. We've mostly figured out the wedding favors, too. I'm really excited about what we picked, and I hope everyone else likes it.

On the food front, the cake has been ordered, and a catering appointment has been set up. Scheduling the meeting with the caterer was a little tough. He usually does appointments on weekday afternoons (between 11 and 3), but Kevin and I both work full time. We were able to get something set up for a Saturday, though. I can't wait to taste all the food and pick out the meals.

Since we had to print out the invitations before we finalized the menu, the options on the invitations are pretty vague. As soon as we have everything set, I'll put the menu up on the wedding website. That way people won't have to pick their meals blindly. Though that could also be interesting.

The invitations themselves are addressed and in the mail. Writing out the addresses wasn't nearly as painful as I was warned about. Though I supposed that doing it together while watching How I Met Your Mother helped a lot with that.

Our to-do list is getting smaller and smaller. At this point I'm just waiting for my dress to come in so I can start the fittings (next month, probably). I still need to make an appointment for my hair and buy my shoes. And we need to put together a playlist. But I believe everything else is basically taken care of. As much as it can be at this point, anyway.

Next up: Bachelor/ette parties! So exciting!

Cake Tasting

On Sunday, Kevin and I drove out to Middleburg to pick our wedding cake. We had set up the appointment back in November, at which point we had selected three cake flavors to try. The chef told us that there would probably be 3-5 flavors available in addition to what we chose, and I assumed that would include some chocolate. So for our three we picked one chocolate and two non-chocolate flavors.

It turns out that every group coming in gets to pick 3 flavors, and then everyone is able to taste all of the flavors that everyone else picked. And of the nine cakes we were able to sample, the only chocolate was the one I'd chosen. Since I basically knew what I wanted, it was good that Kevin had so many options to choose from.

As he was serving us the cakes, the chef warned me that I'd picked the richest chocolate cake on the menu and there were plenty of ways to lighten it up. As if I hadn't picked it on purpose.

We settled on a second flavor and then went through all the options of designing the cake. It turns out there's a whole lot that goes into this: frosting flavors, tier shapes, decorations, real or sugar flowers, colors. We figured it all out, though, so that's one more thing to check off the list. Plus, we now have a bunch of leftover cake samples to enjoy.

Jewelry

One of the benefits of having a rich grandmother who liked jewelry is that it's pretty easy to come up with something old, something borrowed, and something blue to wear for the wedding. I spent some time on Christmas morning going through her jewelry with my mom and settled on a necklace and a ring to wear in April. I'll pair them with the earrings my dad gave me for my 18th birthday and be good to go on the jewelry front.

Registering for Gifts

As you can tell, Kevin and I did a lot of wedding-related stuff last weekend. One of the strangest and most fun things we did was registering for wedding gifts.

We started at Crate and Barrel. We've received several sets of glassware from them as gifts over the years. I love that they sell everything separately, so we can easily replace broken glasses. I wanted to have the same flexibility with plates and flatware, so we went there looking for those things. We also found some small kitchen tools that we never quite got around to buying for ourselves.

Setting up the registry at Crate and Barrel was really easy. A lady gave us a scanner and showed us how to use it. There were kiosks set up throughout the store where we could use the scanner to set up our registry once we were done "shopping". I really appreciated the hands-off approach, because that's how I prefer to shop.

After Crate and Barrel we went to Macy's where there's a bigger selection and some higher quality products. The experience was really different there, as we were assigned an associate who helped us set up the registry. I always find this annoying because I'd mostly rather not be forced to interact with someone when I'm shopping. It didn't help that he was never actually around when we had questions, so the whole thing seemed a little silly.

Macy's has a ton of programs that we didn't sign up for because they made me feel greedy. For example, you can link a Macy's credit card to your account. Then 10% of every gift purchased through the registry comes back to you as cash. There are also a variety of bonus gifts that can be added on when you hit a goal amount in a certain brand. The whole thing made me feel vaguely uncomfortable, and we tried to avoid it. But we did end up adding a set of pots and pans that, if bought at full price, will result in a bonus frying pan. So we'll see what happens with that.

We're also unsure about how to add a few things to the registry. We could always use more serving dishes and utensils, but we don't have strong opinions about what those look like. In fact, we'd prefer an eclectic collection that represents our families and friends as much as ourselves. Likewise with artwork. It would be cool to have a few things to hang on the wall or put on a shelf, but we'd almost prefer for those to reflect the people we know and love rather than ourselves. Most of the chotchkies we already own are reminiscent of specific people, like Kevin's grandmother's lighthouse collection, or the angel I received as a gift from the family I stayed with in Mexico. These are things we'd never buy for ourselves, but they have a lot of meaning because of where they came from.

Aside from these two registries, we're also in the process of creating a honeymoon registry. The idea behind these is that someone can pay for a meal or a night in a hotel during your honeymoon. Since Kevin and I already have so much of the home stuff we need, this seems perfect for us. We still need to figure out some of the details before we can pull that together, but we have time. I don't think the registries need to be completely done until the invitations go out.

Invitations

Kevin and I spent Sunday morning on the couch figuring out our wedding invitations. I really love that my iPad made it so easy to do this, because I'm not sure it would have gotten done otherwise. Both of us have set up our computers such that it's difficult for two people to be working on them at once.

Back in the Spring I rather impulsively picked some stationary for our save the dates. This didn't necessarily lock us into a specific design, but it was certainly easier to just go with it. Especially since neither of us had particularly strong feelings about paper.

Putting together invitations was surprisingly difficult, though. We went back and forth about whether we needed enclosure cards and place cards. It took us forever to figure out the wording we wanted in places. We also had to put in a special request because the RSVP card only had places for three entree choices and we have four entree choices. This may be the most ridiculous rich person problem I've ever encountered.

Ultimately we figured out what we needed to order and what we wanted everything to say. We'll get a proof of the design back in about a week, and after we approve that the invitations will be shipped to us. I'm hoping to have them in the mail by early-mid January, so keep an eye out for them next month.

This whole thing is really starting to come together. I'm getting excited!

Honeymoon plans

We bought our tickets for the honeymoon, which means I'm starting to get really excited about it. We'll be in Europe for two weeks, splitting the time between Barcelona, Paris, and Ireland. There are so many things we have planned that I'm super excited about.

We'll spend some time exploring Barcelona, and probably get in any beach time Kevin wants while we're there. We're planning to take an overnight train from Barcelona to Paris, because traveling by train is fun and it will give us a chance to see some of the countryside. We're going to tour the Aran Islands and check out a distillery or two in Ireland. We're also definitely going to spend a night in a castle.

Beyond that, I'm hoping we'll have a lot of time to just relax and wander around. Go to some bars and see some local music. Soak up the fact that we won't have any responsibilities for two whole weeks.

I'm also really excited because the flights to and from Europe aren't actually that long. Every time I've gone, I've been living farther west, so the travel takes a whole day each way. But the flights we booked are comparable to flights from DC to California, time-wise. It's still a good chunk of time, but it doesn't feel quite as daunting as I was expecting. Europe is so close!

Wedding Flowers

Kevin and I finally put down a deposit for a florist. This took a little longer than I would have liked, mostly because we had trouble getting in contact with several people who came recommended. But I'm really happy with the people we decided to go with. They responded to us promptly, offered flowers at what I think is a reasonable price, and were incredibly accomodating.

We don't have any really specific ideas about flowers. We decided on a Spring wedding pretty quickly, mostly because we love all the natural flowers and how colorful they are. This has also affected the color scheme by convincing me that we don't need one. Our theme is seasonal flowers, and we're hoping for lots of color.

The guy we talked to at the florist understood this immediately. He has promised us something colorful and seasonal that won't clash with the bridesmaids' dresses. I probably won't have a better idea of what we're getting until they actually show up on the day. That's perfectly fine with me. I'm more than happy to let a professional handle this, especially because I still barely know the difference between different types of flowers.

Here's to checking one more thing off the to-do list. I can't wait to see what everything looks like at the wedding.

Engagement Photos!

This is the rare post that I'm putting here and on Facebook. But since the two places don't have 100% crossover, I think it makes sense. Kevin and I took engagement photos in late September, and now I can share them with the internet! Gotta love the modern age.

Hurry Up and Wait

After realizing how much we still had to do for this wedding, Kevin and I sent out a flurry of emails to a wide variety of vendors so we could start nailing things down. That this happened to coincide with a major deadline at work did not do good things for my stress levels. But now we're in that frustrating place where all we can do is wait for people to get back to us. Which makes it hard to see the progress we're actually making. So I'm recording it here to make myself feel better.

Rehearsal Dinner. Kevin called a bunch of possible venues. Some were already booked, some couldn't accommodate our (admittedly large) party. Why do we both have such big families? At any rate, we narrowed it down to two possibilities and went to explore on Friday night with Kevin's mom. We got drinks at one and dinner at the other, and we have hopefully made a decision. But there are a bunch of details to iron out, along with payments to be made and contracts to be signed, before I can say anything more than that.

Flowers. We have feelers out to a couple of florists. One email bounced back to me, which was rather disappointing. The florist came highly recommended, but without a working email address I don't feel comfortable using them. We have one appointment scheduled for next Saturday and are waiting to hear back from another place. Hopefully we'll have a better picture of what's happening after that.

Cake. Much to my surprise, Kevin has decided that he wants to be in on this decision. Even though we are definitely getting a chocolate cake and he hates chocolate. So my plans to drag my Doctor of Honor, Sarah, along on a girl's day full of cake eating have been scrapped in favor of trying to squeeze in a tasting or two between everything else. Luckily, the place I contacted said we don't need to schedule anything until January. So I made an appointment, and I'm officially not thinking about this until next year.

DJ. Honestly, this was the easiest thing to scrap. It turns out I care way too much about the music to let someone else pick it. (Much to my horror, I'm mimicking my step-mom's behavior here from when she married my dad.) Plus this is an easy way to save money and (for now) sanity. Check back with me in the Spring when we're frantically trying to pull together a playlist, and you can laugh and say "I told you so" to your heart's content. But I've been to a few weddings that used iPods instead of professional DJs and I couldn't really tell the difference (except that the iPods tend to let the entire song play, I hate that mixing/fading thing DJs always do that cuts off the end of a song), so we're going to cross our fingers that this works out. It sounds like a perfect problem for future Caitlin and future Kevin to deal with.

Invitations. Um, well, I've looked at these. I think we have an idea of the design and all that. But we need to figure out what they're going to say and actually order them. I believe the plan is to send them out in early January. That means we probably need them by Christmas. Also, there is a surprising amount of work that goes into these, not to mention all the different pieces. At least this can be done during the week.

Honeymoon. Kevin's mom recommended a travel agent who we've been in contact with. Plans are becoming more solid, but they're still pretty up in the air. We probably ought to buy tickets soonish, though.

I believe that's everything we have to worry about now. There are a few things, mostly gifts, that are on the horizon, but can probably be put off until after Thanksgiving at least. I'll feel a lot better when we can check some of these off our list.