Where I've Been

Even though most of our planning is complete, it seems like little things, errands or appointments are creeping up on us. It seems like just about everyday I/we have an appointment to go to or an errand to do. I'm surprising myself with how calm I've been though. I figure the important things will get done, and the not so important things - well, who cares if they don't get done!

Tuesday night we went to the Westin for our second tasting. I think I've mentioned that because of so much turnover, somehow our file went missing. They never were able to locate the notes from our file, so we had to go back for another tasting (including the appetizers) and go through everything. Mainly, we wanted to sit down with their coordinator, Robin, and make sure we feel comfortable that they will make our wedding the way we want it!

The tasting was just as good as the first one. We had already selected the entrees, but needed to select the sides for each entree. Now - here it is:

• Seared Rockfish with a basil butter sauce, creamy mashed potatoes(SO YUMMY) and grilled asparagus.
• Roasted chicken with a port wine sauce with a triple potato tart (it's like layered potatoes) and green beans.
• Mushroom ravioli comes as is in a madeira cream sauce.

We did a complete walk through to select the locations for the DJ, dance floor, 2 bars, guest book table, name cards table, cake and our sweetheart table.

We chose a sweetheart table for various reasons. We feel that so many of our friends have significant others and after being with us the entire day, we want them to be with their significant others. I know when I've been at wedding before with Ian, there's nothing better than watching a couple make that commitment and see the love between them, and be able to share that experience with him and having him there made me that much more enthusiastic for the newly wedded couple. We thought about sitting with both sets of parents, but that's hard to do when one set of parents is divorced so we went against that idea. Plus! I won't have seen Ian very much that day so I really would love to have some time together where we can talk about how the crazy day had been for each other. So - a sweetheart table works well for us!

Robin asked if we had seen the guest rooms or the suite. We had not seen them, so she got the keys and up we went. The hotel just redid all of their rooms and let me just say - for those of you staying there - AWESOME. I also think they should make a point to show the suite to people deciding on having their wedding there - it honestly is a great selling point. I was amazed by the suite. It's huge with 2 full bathrooms (which is fantastic for all of us girls getting ready in it), has a pool table, is all hard wood floors, has a big flat screen TV, a kitchen, windows that run along the entire living area, and seating for probably 15-20 people. I will be staying in the suite with my girls the night before the wedding, and then Ian will be joining me in the suite on our wedding night. Although, I have a feeling we'll be getting a late night visit from Ian and his boys the night before the wedding for them to play pool. NO - it's not happening buddy!

Tonight, I am meeting with our florist to go over last minute details, additions and deletions from the contract and make sure everything is good to go with him.

I am getting RIDICULOUSLY excited for my girls to all be here this weekend for my shower and bachelorette party. I have no idea what is up their sleeves - but I'm thrilled that we'll all be together! Tomorrow night we're picking up Laur from the airport and then the weekend fun begins. I cannot wait:)

Looking through knottie bios, I came across c_washington and couldn't help but smile at one of her pictures towards the end of her and her new hubby in their wedding attire playing Wii.

Pictures Post!

We really enjoyed our 3 day weekend!

We had a fabulous dinner with Alina on Thursday. Alina - I hope I get to meet Andrew at our wedding!

Friday

I had a half day so used it to my advantage - dropped of our final payment for the ceremony and musicians, went to the bank then went browsing for Ian's wedding present. We had dinner with Julie and her hubby around the corner and then finished watching Schindler's List - which by the way, is a sad but very good movie.

Saturday

Errands, errands and more errands. As one of the errands - Ian dropped our rings off to be engraved. They'll be ready for pick-up in 1 week!

Sunday

Marked Sunday as my no wedding, errands or chores day. I made a home on our couch and spent much of the day there - including taking two naps. We watched Charlotte's Web (the new one) and it was quite cute. Loved it. Makes me somewhat excited for all of our wedding craziness to be over to have more lay around the house days.

Monday

Cleaning, cleaning and did I mention - cleaning? I also cleaned out lots of bags of clothes to give away. I figure I'll get a head start on clearing stuff out so when it comes time to moving (if we're moving), we will be much more organized. We also ordered supplies for the OOT bags.

Here are some pictures from Chris and Chrissy's wedding from last weekend:

C&C saying their I-Dos:

Ian and Chris busting some moves:

Me sneaking up on James (Ian's best man):

Was there any alcohol involved - maybe - just a tad.

In Need of a Long Weekend

This is going to be a super short post - I have to review a very long document (1000 pages - eek).

We picked up the card box and it will work perfectly. Done! Also while at the mall, we swung by Macy's and picked up Ian's tie for the wedding, and one last gift for his best man. Done!

I have a half day tomorrow and then a 3 day weekend and I plan on sleeping A LOT!

I also got asked a question by a fellow bride-to-be who is also a date twin! Yes I am starting to stress a bit about one thing out of my control - the weather! Otherwise, I'm trying to forget about the other things! Thanks for reading!



Tonight, I am having dinner with my friend Alina. Alina was one of my AMAZING roommates when I studied abroad in Spain. She is from California and is in DC for the day to visit American for grad school. I'm thrilled she's staying long enough to have dinner with me:) And here's a picture of Alina, Nicole, Me and Sarah - we were all roomies! This was a picture from my 21st birthday party - the girls arranged for everyone to sign these huge card they'd made for me. Oh how I miss those days.

1 Month to Go

AHHHH - I cannot believe we are one month away from saying our I-Do's. Last night, we met with Erin, our fantastic month of coordinator. I felt such a relief handing over our contracts and having someone have my back for everything. I really think hiring Erin was one of the best wedding decisions we made!


I've come across a few great wedding sites recently and wanted to share them. The first one is one that I heard about on the knot that has amazing photos for ideas for flowers, hair styles, dresses, etc. It's called Project Wedding. I also wanted to spotlight The Unbride who happens to be an amazing photographer who is getting married in the DC area in the fall. We also have the same colors so I've been loving looking at her ideas. Her blog is also super spiffy and I'm jealous of it:) Additionally, I found Unveiled Society through Justine's blog and am just starting to get into it. It has a whole lot of other fellow bride blogs that are great resources. Check them out!


Also, I've been checking out lots of knottie bios recently. Here's Ctinaleigh who has lots of great ideas, pictures, etc. in her bio. She also has managed to find the time to make the awesome bio - I on the other hand, started to make a bio and pooped out. I am impressed with anyone who manages to complete one, let alone have it so nice and organized and up to date! Love that she and her STB hubby are so into their pups and even had them in their engagement photos:





We have the majority of our responses in which is just fantastic. We're waiting on a few more but at least now we have a pretty close estimate. Invited: 190. Attending: 130 plus or minus a few. I think it will be the perfect amount of people for us and not too many that we won't have enough time to pay attention to each guest. Also, we'll have plenty of dancing time which is super important to me!


A fellow knottie who is a date twin of mine is selling her card box because a family member made her one and now she can't not use the one the family member made. So I'm picking that up from her tonight at Montgomery Mall. Here's a picture of that:

It's pretty plain but nicer than me trying to make a box, right? I might spruce it up a bit with some pink or black accents. I'll see how it looks tonight!

This weekend's main project is going to be: finishing the design of the programs and getting pricing on printing at Kinkos should we decide not to print them ourselves.

And since I'm in a picture posting mood - here are a few of the dresses that I LOVED that I tried on before I found the one:

Talk to Me Gut - Please?

Last night's fitting went much better than the first one. The dress is starting to feel like mine. It still needs some minor adjustments in the bust. The length is perfect. They are adding a hot pink tie underneath the dress to attach my grandmother's wedding band as my something old and borrowed. I tried my dress on with the earrings, the headpiece and the veil and thought whoa, I look like a bride:)

After I got home from my fitting around 10 last night, Ian and I had to have a huge discussion about law school. I found out yesterday that I've been accepted to American University but need to make a deposit within 24 hours. It wouldn't be a big deal to just go ahead and make the deposit even if it is the wrong school, except for the amount - $700 NON-refundable. We had to decide what is right for us. Right now, I'm still waiting to hear from U. Maryland and Wake Forest where I'm currently on the waitlist. I think either one of these two schools would be a higher pick than American or U. Miami. However, then money makes a difference - at Miami, I have a decent scholarship versus any of the other 3 schools. But I'm scared to live in the city of Miami, and move THAT far. Ideally, I'd love to move to North Carolina. WHAT TO DO?! WHAT TO DO?!

So we talked - and it reminded me of why I am so in love with the boy. He is so incredibly supportive. Honestly if the situation were reversed, I'm not sure I could be as good as he is being. We decided that I couldn't turn down American at this point because things are still up in the air - so even if we lose $700, it's not the end of the world. But at least putting down a deposit gives me a definite option besides Miami should I decide that Miami is indeed not for me.

So once again I'm in limbo, not sure which way I'm going to fall. I just keep looking and praying for their to be a choice that makes sense, that falls into place, that my gut will tell me which school is where I'm meant to be, or what area we're meant to start our married life in. But, my gut is speechless right now - maybe overstressed like the rest of my body and mind? I keep talking to it hoping it'll speak back to me - but so far, no such luck. But what I do know, is that I have a loving, supporting (soon-to-be) husband who is by my side through it all, and that in itself makes me feel a little less in limbo.

It's a Blur

I feel like as we get closer, my weekend recaps become longer and even more all over the place than before. Our weekends in some ways feel extremely long because of how much we get done, but in other ways feels super short because we don't have a lot of quality time together nor do we have just relaxing time. I also start panicking every weekend fearing that I'm going to forget to do something that is important.

Weekends are full of minute details that tend to be tedious and somehow exhausting. Wrapping 7 bridesmaid gifts had me wanting a nap. After doing a load of laundry I feel I need to lay down for a few minutes. Who have I turned into? An 80 year old woman - maybe so.

Also, any sense of keeping up with housework has gone down the tubes. We barely manage to clean up about once a week and by the end of the week when we need to clean again, our house looks like a tornado has hit it. For the life of me, I cannot gather the energy to hang up my clothes I wore to work, so throughout the week, the pile of work clothes piles all over the bedroom leaving paths for us to walk through. The mail amounts during the week until finally we can take it no more and we HAVE to clean for about 2 hours. I will be slightly relieved when all this wedding craziness is over and I can relax and thoroughly clean. Wow - I'm a loser.

So here's a little breakdown of our weekend:

• Saturday was a big craze. Ian was up an running by 7:30 for his usual long Saturday run - this week was 7 miles. I got Tessa up at 8 am took her for a walk to greet Ian and cheer him on during the last mile. Tessa thought him running was a game and proceeded to bit his shorts as he ran by. We then took her to the vet where we got medicine for her pink eye, and the doctor performed the lovely procedure of expressing Tessa's anal glands. Tessa was mad at us after that - can you blame her? We then went to Ian's bank to close out his savings account, went to my bank to open a joint account, as well as Ian open up a regular account. Then - off to grab bagels and go to get a card for Chris and Chrissy. Ian dropped me off at home and off he headed to get a haircut. It didn't turn out so well so we know he'll be styling his own hair for the wedding. Off to Baltimore we went for Chris and Chrissy's wedding at my college chapel, and their reception was at a nearby golf club. It was very lovely and I was taking notes the entire time to remind myself of things I'm missing. I had far too much to drink and danced the entire night - good times.
• Sunday I woke up with a killer headache but worked through it in time to go see my goddaughter, who also is our flower girl, in her dance recital. She's 6 years old and is so freaking cute I can't stand it. On our way home, we did our grocery shopping. We then cleaned up our house and did lots of laundry. Made a yummy dinner. Emailed tons of people that haven't sent in their response cards (we've received about 50 of the 100 response cards - eek!). Stayed up to wrap the bridesmaids presents. Wrote thank you cards for the gifts we've received thus far.

It was a busy busy weekend. Tonight, I have my 2nd dress fitting. Hopefully I'll come away in a better mood than my last fitting!

Lurkers - Good or Bad?

After posting about my nerves about our florist yesterday, I soon got a phone call from the owner. You see, I had posted on the DC Knot Board to get opinions from those who had used this florist (most of the responses were good). The owner, Sharone, could not have been more delightful on the phone. He was upfront and said he'd seen my concerns on the knot and wanted to make sure I was comfortable with everything. So we set up an in-person meeting to go over the contract, meet me and see the pictures that I had in mind, and show me flowers he plans on using. He also explained the situation with the bride who was not 100% satisfied with her flowers. The explanation made sense and I felt more comfortable. It also helps for any vendor to know your skepticism (in a nice way of course) so they know to be especially careful with their services for you.

Getting this phone call was also a reminder to be very fair on the knot. My post was in no way bashing his business, nor was I asking for anyone's rants about his business. And although I dislike vendors being able to lurk on the boards (which are supposed to be helpful to brides), in this case it did not offend me. The times that lurkers offend me are when they post about how fantastic their business is to unknowing brides. I think lurkers that use it to know how good their services are, and to hear reviews in order to improve their business are smart.

Last night we went to Bacchus of Lebanon in Bethesda with some friends and had a very long dinner filled with delicious food, good wine and had a great time. Although I don't think my body likes getting home past 11 on a worknight.



This weekend I am:

• Taking Ian's ring to be engraved (but first have to decide what to engrave it with)


• Taking Tessa to the vet for an eye infection


• Going to Chris and Chrissy's wedding in Baltimore


• Continue our Project Move Preparation (otherwise known as cleaning out closets and cleaning in general)


• Writing thank you notes


• Going tie shopping for Ian


• Going to see my flower girl in her dance recital


• Update our registry


• Wrap bridesmaid gifts


• Preparing final payments for wedding vendors

Not sure what other details we'll accomplish this weekend. Hoping Ian will start the research for the out-of-town bags but he's a procrastinator so who knows. I'm sure I'll have pictures from the wedding to post on Monday.

Have a great weekend!

Ideas

I have been trying to search for a last present for my junior bridesmaid and flower girl. One of the presents I got the older ladies wasn't quite appropriate for the younger girls. I came across a website through a recommendation on the knot: NNichols. I found some adorable items and snatched the last one of two items for my two younger girls. I wish I could show pictures but since I grabbed the last of them, they aren't on the website now! They have some very cute stuff, bulk favors (that are super cheap). Would totally love to order more from this website in the future. I'll let you know the result when my stuff arrives!

I have started getting a little nervous about my florist. I've heard some unfavorable reviews on the knot boards. Not all of them are bad - some of them have been very good. But the inconsistency makes me nervous so I'm going to go meet with the owner again to let him know what I've heard and see if that puts my fears at ease. Otherwise, the deposit was not much and I can try to find another florist - but we're cutting it close at this point.

Also heard this morning that one of our guests never received their invitation. EEK! Is this common? We've had a lot of issues with the mail recently - some shower invites never made it to guests, now our invitation not getting to a guest. I would think it's just our mail - but the shower invitations went out through my Matron-of-Honor at her house. Not really sure what the deal is. I have no idea if more people didn't receive theirs. We sent out exactly 100 invitations and have only received 45 response cards. They are due to us by - um - Saturday. I guess we'll be making quite a few phone calls:(

We opened some wedding presents last night that arrived. That's always such an exciting feeling! We received our napkin rings, toaster oven, and our first piece of china (the sugar bowl). It's all so fun! The only not fun part is that we're keeping everything packed in the second bedroom. Since we'll be moving so soon after getting back from the honeymoon, I'm keeping everything packed neatly and securely so we don't have to repack anything. But it will make moving into a new place together that much more exciting - we'll have all new stuff (instead of the hand-me-downs or college stuff we've been using).

Now, about that move, the question we're getting asked by people almost everyday - where are you guys moving and what school are you going to? Uhh - I don't know yet. It's stressful not knowing! I'm just putting it on the backburned until we have a clear choice to make.

The Countdown Begins

As of today - 1 month and 1 week.


We managed to watch two movies this past weekend:

1. 27 Dresses - LOVED this movie. I probably helped that it got a lot of hype, so therefore I went into thinking that the hype was going to be overrated. But seriously, thought this movie had a lot of humor and a couple twists.


2. P.S. I Love You - Kind of the opposite happened with this. Even though it was rated badly, I thought I was going to love this. Well, after 1.5 hours of sobbing my eyes out, Ian decided it was time to turn the movie off. We finished it the next day, where I proceeded to sob my eyes out. I wasn't sobbing because I felt some connection with this couple (although, I found their relationship somewhat odd), but instead was sobbing thinking of how I would react if Ian were to check out earlier than at least 75 years old. I just couldn't stop the tears from pouring out of my eyes and making my face and eyes all red and puffy. Not really sure I recommend this one unless you feel like sobbing your eyes out. Honestly - not sure if I have tears left for the wedding (which may be a good thing - me no likey mascara down my face). On second thought, maybe I should watch this before the wedding as a way to prevent me from getting teary eyed. Hmm - now that's a thought!

Last night we met with our priest and everything went as planned. We went through the order for procession, recession, the mass and any details we wanted incorporated. He then asked us each several questions: hobbies? favorite music? favorite band or artist? how did you meet?

We left out the details of how we met and just stated the basics - at a bar in Baltimore on St. Patty's Day. I don't think our priest needs more details than that!

I've been going through knottie bios recently and came across BensBride08. She had a lovely wedding but what impressed me above all were all of her DIY projects! She made freaking color books for the kids at the wedding - seriously, a little crazy, but amazing job! Check it out - I wish ours came out as well as hers - but I'm sorry to say that ours aren't half as nice as ours!

Rain Rain Go Away

No - it's not raining today (finally!). But, I looked at the Farmer's Almanac and here's what I found:

June 2008
1st-3rd Clearing skies in Maine, pleasant rest of region. 4th-7th Wet weather for much of Northeast. Big thunderstorms for Mid-Atlantic states. Rainy skies for the Belmont Stakes. 8th-11th Mostly fair. 12th-15th Showers for much of the Northeast, then fair. 16th-19th A spell of pleasant weather. 20th-23rd Heavy rains, then turning fair. 24th-27th Hot and dry, followed by thunderstorms, especially Maryland, Pennsylvania. 28th-30th Mostly fair and hot.

We're meeting with the priest tonight and I think he needs to work some magic to make sure the above does not happen! Ahhh - the things I wish we could control. I'm hoping the prediction is wrong! And yeah yeah, I've heard that rain is supposed to be good luck. I don't care - I don't want the rain!

Anyways - I didn't post yesterday after leaving work yesterday around lunch time with my stomach making odd gurgling noises and feeling quite ill - that's always a lot of fun!

Weekend recap:

• Got a headpiece and some hair jewelry. I had been looking and looking...tried on tiaras (looked like poo on me), tried on combs with some sparkle (looked like poo on me), or the ones I did find that didn't look like poo on me were too much money to be spending on jewelry for my hair that I will never be wearing again. So, we went to I Do, I Do and found a headpiece that actually adds just a touch, but isn't overwhelming and looks quite tasteful. I found some clips to match and the whole things was less than $200 which I think is a good deal considering that most of the headpieces I tried on were about $250 alone without the 3 clips to match.
• Finalized our music selections.
• Bought materials to wrap the bridesmaids gifts.
• Wrote out all of our ceremony selections for our priest.
• Had a quick trial run to change the lipstick color with the makeup artist.
• Took both Moms out to a restaurant in Fulton for Mother's Day brunch.
• Cleaned our 2nd bedroom to get rid of stuff since the wedding items are starting to accumulate - and by accumulate, I mean that if you're staying at our house anytime in the next several weeks, you might have to use one of the boxes full of stuff as your pillow.

It was quite a successful weekend. I had a mini breakdown and Ian insisted I take a break from everything, curl up on the couch and read some of my book. I did that and drank a glass of wine long enough to get over my stress and regroup to get more completed.

Tonight, we meet with our priest to finalize everything for the ceremony.

1 week until we get to start working with Erin, our coordinator - can't wait! It seems like everything is falling into place...now, about that weather forecast??

6 Weeks to go!

As I checked our wedding website today - I saw that we have 42 days left! It sent me into a mini panic attack. I am getting super excited to have all of our friends and family together, but the nerves are starting to hit me as well. How were you feeling several weeks before your wedding? Did the nerves hit you about now? I am overly excited as we get closer though!

I didn't accomplish anything wedding related last night, but did manage to grab some yummy chinese food and watch Grey's.

I verified all of our guests' hotel reservations yesterday, and contacted the few that still need to book a room. We only have a few rooms open in our block out of the 25 we had originally blocked - it's going to be amazing have 45+ people stay there with us!

I also just did a list of everyone who needs to be on the two buses we're renting. Both buses are now full so it looks like we'll be upgrading one of the buses to a bigger bus! We have one bus for the attendants, our parents and grandparents, and another bus for all the guests who wish to take the bus from the hotel to the ceremony and back.

I'm getting a list together for the rehearsal dinner and sending that off to Ian's parents this weekend.

List of to-dos for this weekend:

• Quick makeup trial for the lipstick only
• Wrap bridesmaid gifts
• Write out ceremony selections
• Find hair piece
• Take ring to be engraved
• Finish choosing music selections

We're also going out to brunch and taking both of our moms on Sunday.

Have a good weekend!

Calmer

The owner of the store was fantastic. She apologized and was very proactive. She had already called the manufacturer to figure our a solution. The solution was for the manufacter to rush order the section that needed to be replaced. Problem - it wouldn't be here for 4 weeks and then all the alterations would have to be made then. I went by the store after work to decide what is best. After trying on my dress, I decided not to risk the timing and move forward with it as is. It's still beautiful without the changes and maybe it all happened for a reason anyway! Overall, the owner recovered well and I still like where I got my dress!

Oh - and I can wear my pink shoes for the wedding day. The dress is long enough for them!

I'm excited that we've received many responses already! Although considering that we're supposed to receive them all by May 17 - I think they're coming in a little slowly. We haven't received many "no" responses which is exciting.

Here is the most recent list I made of things I need to get finished soon:

• Ceremony - finish choosing music
• Donate $ to Washington Animal Rescue League
• Get Ian's ring engraved
• Get present for Ian
• Create a gift box
• Wrap bridesmaids presents (good reminder Kim!)
• Present for junior bridesmaid and flower girl - any good ideas for these??
• Write out ceremony readings and intentions for priest
• Check with hotel on a vegan meal option
• Get hair accessories
• Cancel previous makeup person

Tonight, Ian is heading out with some friends for drinks so I have another "me" night - yay! I think I will work on some of these to-do items while watching a movie!

Speaking of movies, we watched Rendition last night (Reese and Jake) and thought it was another good movie! It wasn't rated that well, but it was good I thought - rated it a 3/5 on Netflix.

Dress Issues

So my dress fitting was not the best. Some things that were supposed to have been added to the dress by the manufacturer were never done. I had the store call and deal with them just to verify and got a call today saying that they hadn't been done. I'm sorry I can't go into more details about what was supposed to have been done - the boy reads this!

Well, I am being refunded the money I paid to get the extra things done. But when I hung up, I realized that it wasn't enough. The dress I had wanted for my wedding day is now not going to be the way I had imagined it. I called the store back and asked that they contact the designer again to try to get 10% reimbursed. She thought it was highly doubtful that they'd do it because the problem should've been discovered within one week of receiving it. I argued that the store never asked me to come in within a week so I couldn't have possibly done that. I feel like I should be compensated for the inconvenience, not to mention me just having to deal with the dress as is instead of some personal touches I had wanted. I'm clearly bummed - and very upset that I'm going to have to fight for some type of compensation. My dress was not cheap and I don't feel the service has been up to par. Not even an apology. It's really upsetting that businesses don't take more responsibility for these things. I know I'm okay with my dress no matter what - it's beautiful even without the changes. I guess I kind of have to be okay since there's nothing I can do about it 6 weeks from my wedding!

I am speaking with the owner of the store at 5pm today so I'm hoping she has some type of resolution to try to make me happier with her and the designer. I'll let you know what happens. But right now - I'm just feeling a bit bummed.

Mission Shoes

Saturday we woke up bright and early to head to Baltimore for the March for Babies. We had a great time chit-chatting while walking those 4 miles. (Stacy - send me the pics from the event so that I can post them!!)

It also inspired Ian to realize that he wants to run a marathon. Now, sometimes Ian gets this ideas in his head that are great in theory, but in practice he has trouble keeping the motivation, or finds that this idea wasn't so great after all. But Saturday night, I found him researching marathons and getting training schedules. Depending on where we end up in a few months, he is going to run on October 11 in Baltimore. He starts training this week. He seems incredibly motivated and found a cause he'd like to support - National Association for Children of Alcoholics. I'm sure I'll be blogging about this topic quite a bit in the next few months since I'll be on the sidelines supporting him through his training. Super excited for him though! I think anyone who sets out to run a marathon is remarkable and even more remarkable to go through with it!

We went to see our soloist sing at her parish on Saturday. Our chapel arranges all of our musicians for us. While she has a lovely voice - truly beautiful voice, it's just not my style. I prefer a soloist that doesn't have as much vibrato. Unfortunately, I believe our music coordinator has already booked this woman which means he's going to have to go back to her and tell her we're going with someone else. Wish I had heard her before he had officially booked her. I'm contacting our music coordinator today to see if we can go listen to some other options. Eek - not much time to figure this out!

I went shopping yesterday for hair accessories and ceremony shoes. I found shoes:

They don't look very pretty in the picture - and I find the bow a tad bit annoying, but they are comfy and hot pink and don't have a huge heel. I'm taking them to my first fitting tonight to see if they are low enough. If not - I'm probably just going to wear the white flats I already purchased because white low heels that are somewhat cute have proven to be impossible to find. Although, I'm fairly determined to find some type of heel that is comfy and cute and low. I'm on a mission - Mission Shoes!

We've gotten the first set of response cards on Friday and Saturday!! Very excited about running home everyday to check the mail for those:)

Will post tomorrow about my experience at my first fitting!

We watched Michael Clayton this weekend - it was a pretty good movie. A little hard to follow when you're sleepy, but overall was quite fascinating.

Last Minute Details?

My dresses arrived yesterday to work but I forgot them there so I couldn't try them on last night:( Oh well - something to look forward to this weekend.

This morning I stopped by and picked up the unity candle set from Caitlin, an old friend from high school who is getting married in 2 weeks (hi Caitlin!). Very excited to have that done! She also gave me another candle set that she isn't using and might be perfect for the bathroom. Sweet!

Tomorrow, I am heading up to Baltimore very early in the morn to walk in the March for Babies with Stacy and her friends (and I'm dragging Ian with me). It's for a fantastic cause, plus it'll be my workout for tomorrow. Yay! If you're not doing anything tomorrow at 9am and you live near Baltimore, head to Camden Yards where the walk starts to support a great cause!

Some wedding related items for this weekend: look into heels for wedding day (since my first fitting is Monday!), hair clips, go see soloist at her church to listen to her sing. I have a call later this afternoon with our hotel to answer several questions. Erin - I cannot wait for you to step in in just a few weeks. Seriously - for those of you engaged - hire a Day-of-Coordinator!

Not a whole lot going on this weekend - I feel like I might be missing something. What else needs to be done and I can accomplish now? What did you do for your wedding that you wish you'd had more time for?

As I chatted with Caitlin this morning, I asked her what kinds of last minute things come up that I should be prepared for. She mentioned that the Catholic wedding program is a bit stressful, and she didn't anticipate having to hunt guests down for replies and after hunting them down, realized that some invitations never got to them, and that she hadn't received some replies even thought they'd been sent out. Two great things to know I think! What other last minute things come up? What are some things I should be prepared for?