Another Busy Weekend

Well, this weekend was pretty busy for both of us. Not only did we celebrate Valentine's a little early, we also celebrated Austin's birthday and I had my first wedding shower! Since Austin's birthday is the day after Valentine's and Valentine's was on a Monday this year, I decided to just go ahead and give Austin his presents this weekend.

Friday night I had tickets to the Stars vs. Black hawks game for Austin's Valentine's gift. Since the Black hawks are the reigning Stanley cup champions, the crowd was sold out. I was also able to get a new Stars jersey for my favorite player, Steve Ott. I had tried to order one directly from the NHL but apparently they didn't want my money so I bought it at the game. I guess it was good luck since we went down 3-0 at the end of the first period but managed to come back and tie up the game, eventually winning in a shootout! Shortly after we got home, my MOH, Jessica, got into Dallas! We spent the night talking about all of the exciting things that have been going on in her life and her upcoming trip to France this summer. We also spent a good portion of the night going through old cd's and seeing all of Austin's old music.

Saturday Jessica and I went to my bridal shower hosted by a friend of Austin's mom. I had no idea that there would be about 40 people that so many people would show up just to shower me with gifts! Melanie met us there and spent the day taking pictures for us.

Here's the cake they got for me

Jess had a very important job, collecting bows, ribbons and wrapping paper!

Jess and Callie got us new towels!!

I know, we're just adorable

We also decided to treat Jessica's mom and aunt to dinner at Blue Goose Saturday night since they've both been pretty great with helping get Jessica down here. Even with Jessica's job and school and her mom's job, she's always been able to make sure that Jess has been able to be here for all of the important events. After dinner, Dan and Mel came over with Dani to try out all of our new glasses and bar ware and we were up a bit too late... Luckily I'm the only one that woke up with no hangover since I had an appointment with Savy pretty early in the morning.

Sunday I treated Austin and several of our friends to the Stars vs. Blue Jackets game (which was a pathetic performance on our end...) for his birthday. Even though it was a sad job done on our end and we lost, it was still a lot of fun. We also were able to get the transportation booked for the day of the wedding, so we did get something wedding related done!

Now that we're under the three month mark, we are both in full wedding mode and trying to get it all done in time.

100

This morning when I logged into my computer, I noticed that I had placed a reminder on today's date that as of today, I have 100 days until I am a married woman. That seems like no time at all! I remember when I got engaged over a year ago. I remember last May thinking that it was going to be such a long wait. I remember thinking that I was going to have too much time to plan everything. Now, I feel like there is almost no time at all.

I had put forth a to-do list for February and I haven't really gotten anything accomplished on that list, its been mostly handled by Austin and his mom. I have my second dress fitting on Saturday and I plan on talking with a friend who is going to do my hair. Since Ashley works at A Bridal Blossom, she'll be there for my fitting and hopefully I can figure out a time for us to get together to do a trial run. Fingers crossed! As to the limo, I've turned that over to Austin's mom who has been absolutely wonderful and a huge help. She found a company that will be able to handle things and exactly as we want. Austin is also working on the honeymoon and he's filled out all of his paperwork to get his passport. Now, all he needs to do is get his picture taken and actually take the application somewhere to get it finalized!

One thing not on my list that I've started on is the programs. I've started to look around and found a template that I had to modify a little in order to get exactly what I want, but its started. I've also selected all of the readings and Austin and I are working on getting the ceremony worked out. Once there is more information on that, I'm sure I'll make a post dedicated to them.

And another month is coming to a close...

Well its the end of January, so I figure now is as good a time as any to go over my January checklist and create a list for February. In January I had the following list:

1. Assemble all of our invitations
2. Order rings  Mine is bought and in a safe, we're still looking for Austin's
3. Order tuxes for FI, GM and readers
4. Have dress altered
5. Decide on my accessories and the BP accessories.
6. Finalize room designs with our event coordinator, event designer and florist
7. Finalize any changes with my florist (I decided in the last two weeks to completely change our flowers...)
8. Address invitations going out to any people our parents are inviting
9. Get FI a passport
10. Book the honeymoon
11. Order cakes


All in all, I feel pretty happy with everything we got accomplished. No, I didn't get everything checked off, but did get a good start on the few things left on my list.


For February, I'm going to try to accomplish the following:


1. Order Austin's ring
2. Meet with florist to finalize changes (we have a meeting scheduled)
3. Get Austin his passport (he has scheduled to take off)
4. Book the honeymoon
5. Hair Trail
6. Dress fitting #2
7. Book day-of transportation

I need a break

I don't know what happened, but this week I started to get extremely stressed about the wedding. All I could think about was the fact that there was so much to do, so much to pay and almost no time to get it all done. I don't know why it hit me this week, but its been really starting to get me stressed and worried. I was starting to get burnt out.

Maybe it had to do with the fact that I've been working about 50 hours a week. Maybe it has to do with the fact that our new catering company started this week and I still haven't been able to meet with them about the wedding. Maybe it had to do with the fact that, due to stress, I've barely eaten at all the past several weeks. Maybe it had to do with the fact that people are always asking me about the wedding. Maybe it had to due with the fat that people are trying to tell me how to plan my wedding. Maybe it had to do with the fact that I've not told a lot of people that my family wants no part of this and will not be attending. Maybe it was just the fact that I was getting tired of feeling like it was just me.

Whatever it was, it was making me a wreck. And in turn, I was venting to Austin and there wasn't anything he could say that made it better.So we decided to take a little break from wedding planning.

Last night, I watched a movie until Austin came home from work. We had a fire going. We had a couple glasses of wine. We ordered Italian food. We watched the Stars win against the Oilers. All in all, it was a fantastic night.

I'll try to get a couple things taken care of today, but this weekend is going to be as much of a wedding free weekend as possible. And its going to be fantastic.

Check and Check!

This weekend has been a pretty productive weekend. Since I had Monday off for MLK, I decided to really get to work on all things wedding related.

Saturday, I was able to finally meet with a jeweler in order to discuss my day-of jewelry. It actually took a lot longer than I thought it would, but I'm very happy with what we were able to come up with. I know Anne is going to make me something fantastic, unique and totally me. Anne is also going to be making the jewelry for my Maid of Honor and Bridesmaids, so I'm very excited about that. I was having a hard time finding something that I loved and they would love and that would work with no luck. After a couple hours with Anne, she was able to come up with a couple great ideas! It should take her a couple weeks to make it up, and if its not what I want exactly, she'll redo it and try again. But I have complete faith in her. Bridal party jewelry, check!

I also went to my first fitting on Saturday. I went to A Bridal Blossom, the same boutique that a friend Ashley works at, in order to get this done. Since Ashely was working on Saturday, she was able to not only act as an employee, but she already knew my personality and how I wanted to look. And since she's going to be doing my hair on the big day, she was able to figure out exactly what she would do for the wedding. Nancy, the owner, was a huge help and was able to not only get everything pinned, but she came up with a fantastic bustle! The detail on the back of my dress had me worried about the bustle and I couldn't think of how to get it done and keep the details, but she did it!! Nancy also offers a service that we are taking advantage of: On the day of the wedding, she will be on site for two hours two steam my dress, the flower girl, the MOG and the bridesmaids' dresses. Now I don't have to worry about getting it to the INFOMART and making sure it still looks great. Nancy will take care of that for me! First fitting, check! Second fitting, scheduled!


Since I was off on Monday, I was able to sit down and get all of our invitations going out to the parents' friends addressed and assembled. Since both Austin's mom and dad are helping with the wedding, I wanted to give them the chance to get us a list of people they wanted to be there. Both of their lists consist of about 75 people. My big goal for January was to get everyone included on their lists an invitation ready to be sent out. We've got all of those invitations assembled, stamped, labeled, and the RSVPS have stamps. All that is left is to drop them into a mailbox at the end of next month! Parent invitations, check!!

Today, I was able to book the rooms for the wedding party for the night before and of the wedding. Being the kind of person I am, I've decided to pay for the first night for the entire wedding party. Since a lot of people in the wedding party are taking the time to come to Dallas from Arkansas, I figure its one nice thing Austin and I can do for them. Wedding party hotels booked, check!