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Stuff is Getting REAL!

Saturday was CRAZY busy. Andrew and I dropped one of the dogs off with the Dog Whisperer for a week for her check-in.  THEN...we went to the bank and added him to my account. We now share a bank account. Granted, it's the savings account for the wedding, but nevertheless.  This is adult-type behavior!  Of course, so is getting married. 
After the bank, Andrew dropped me off at the nail salon so that I could get a manicure before our engagement pictures on Sunday. While I did that, he went and got a haircut and his beard trimmed so he'd look all spiffy.  When we finished there, we headed to the stationer to order our invitations.  Wow. Actually sitting there at the table, finalizing the wording and reading it back to yourself, saying, "This is what people are going to read when they get our invitations" is rather a big deal. Maybe that's just me.  We're supposed to get proofs this week.  After that, we went to a local furniture store where I have $600 in gift cards to spend to check out the inventory and went to the jeweler where Andrew bought my ring and looked at wedding bands.  It's amazing how much wedding-related stuff you can cram into one weekend when you have to!  

Today, we are 95 days from the wedding.  That's it.  I am so excited and so rattled-- there's so much to do!  There is nothing left to do!  And today, we finalized our proofs for our invitations, so they have been ordered.

At any rate, I got an idea from one of the weddingbee bloggers to try for a picture a day leading up to the wedding from the 100 day mark so here goes: 

100-- October 18, 2012

Holiday drinks at McDonalds?  

 

99- October 19, 2012

Thankful!

 

98- October 20, 2012

Saturday night- Mass 

 

97- October 21, 2012

Instagram from our photographer during the engagement pictures :)

 

96- October 22, 2012  

(Filler Picture)- Andrew driving, lookin' good after his haircut and beard trim on Saturday

95- October 23, 2012

Slightly doctored image of our invitations :)

 

Tea Time!

My BFF and Matron of Honor, Brandi (also mother to my flower girl-- she's a woman of all trades), hosted a bridal tea for me on Sunday, along with Karen, Andrea and FMIL Carol.  Everything was beautiful, perfect, fantastic, and it was good to catch up with some friends and meet new ones!  The thank-you notes went in the mailbox today.  Woo!

 One of Andrea's famous self-portraits, with the lovely Karen. I think she's better at taking photos this way than I am at taking them looking through the viewfinder sometimes!

 Andrea and Mere-- both brides AND bridesmaids :)

 Food!

 Fantastic gifts-- our friends and family are very generous!

 Karen, Me, Andrea and Brandi

 Jaime, me and Sara-- Sara had been a newlywed of all of 1 week and 1 day ;)

 Me and Karen, resting our feet

 Cute napkins that Brandi stamped with my married initial

 Wreath Brandi made for the door-- it's now on my door :)

 Delicious cake

Me with Becky and her Mom-- Becky is my oldest friend in the world and her Mom was my kindergarten teacher

Now..we're getting down to the details as we are 100 days from the wedding!

Long Time, No Post...

Yeah, I'm terrible.  It's been ::mumbletymumblety:: since I've last updated.  Things have been kind of crazy.  I moved in with the fiance'.  Then, my furniture moved in.  And the dogs are united.  All three of them.  And we've had doggie boot camp-- complete  with a dog whisperer!-- to try and get them to get along. The week after I was "officially" moved in, Andrew had to go to California for a week and left me here with the canine trio.  

In September, we went to Atlanta for a night so that we could say goodbye to Chipper Jones.  Andrew grew up in Atlanta, and is a fervent Falcons and Braves fan.  Last year, we did go to a game for his birthday weekend...and even though we have instituted some "austerity measures" in these last weeks leading up to the wedding, it was his 30th and there was no way I was not going to get him to a game so he could see Chipper play one last time.  And, for the first time EVER, the Braves won a game while I was there!

Last weekend, we went to New Orleans for the wedding of one of my sorority sisters.  It was a quick trip-- we drove down on Saturday, came home on Sunday.  Bonus: running into one of the bloggers for Weddingbee (who Sara and I were both following) whose wedding was also in New Orleans the same night when we hit Bourbon Street after the reception. 

So...we're nearing the 100 day mark until the wedding.  Yikes!  We've had our meeting with our "sponsor couple" at church (we met with them rather than having to attend an Engaged Encounter weekend due to Andrew's work schedule). I've had my makeup and hair trials.  I have spoken with the seamstress who is doing the alterations on my wedding dress and we're meeting at the beginning of December to get that going.  I have a meeting scheduled with the florist and I need to go to the shop that we chose to order our invitations through and get that going.  I may do that this weekend, actually, while my Mom is in town because SUNDAY is my BRIDAL TEA!  I am so excited and nervous.  We're having our engagement pictures taken on the 21st and we need to set a meeting with the caterer to choose the precise menu we're serving. Oy! 

And now, I should probably get back to attending to the house, etc. since we're having a house guest this weekend.

What a Weekend...

Whew.  Crazy, but fun...
Friday night, Andrew and I went over to Brandi's house to help set up everything for dinner the next night...we laid out tablecloths, hung banners, etc. and basically set things out as best we could, not knowing what the food would be delivered in.  On Saturday, we headed out to a local park and visited with a bunch of sorority sisters-- many of whom I haven't seen in a VERY long time.  It was fun meeting some husbands, babies, and a few girls I didn't know :)  We were wiped by the time it was over, so we headed for Andrew's house and I napped until it was time to get ready to head to Brandi's house. There was a slight snafu with the balloons, but all was well in the end. Also, the caterer apparently delivered part of our food to another location, and they had to make a second delivery, but we were fine. A good time was had by all :)
Sunday, we did our usual thing...ended up at brunch, went to Target, Lowe's and we went to Mens Warehouse to pick out tuxes (!!!) for the wedding (!!!).  Picked up a couple of sets of blinds for the house, which were hung by the time I got home from work yesterday-- score!  They look really nice. 
And now...have some pictures :)

 "Come Right In"-- cute wreath made by Kelly

 We decided it would be fun to practice our door songs at some point...

 Gathering at Brandi's Saturday night

 The group (girls and kids) at the park on Saturday afternoon, before the rain

Take Me Out...to the Ballgame

believe that I've mentioned before (maybe?) that the fiance' is employed in the wine industry.  This has perks-- he (obviously) gets free wine-- some of which is good!  He has been able to travel to Argentina, Italy and California for work.  Also, he works with some really cool people that I've been lucky enough to meet and get to know in the last year or so.  

Tonight, one of the distributors in town held a party for customers/purchasers/etc. during a local baseball game. It was a little humid, but not too bad.  The team lost both games (it was a double-header, due to bad weather earlier) but we still had a good time.

(picture from my phone)

Tomorrow, we'll (hopefully) be going to eat dinner with some friends-- namely two members of my wedding party.  Saturday, we're having a reunion for my sorority, which I'm looking forward to.  Many of us were together in February for the funeral of one of our sisters, so we're looking forward to gathering for a better reason.  I'm looking forward to catching up with some people I haven't seen in a decade, and passing out the shirts I designed, because we all know that where 2 or more sorority members are gathered,  there will be a shirt. 

 (proof courtesy of CustomInk.com)

(Nifty letter from http://www.dailydropcap.com)

A Wedding Theme?

m I the only person who things that the theme for a wedding should be "Love", or "Commitment" or "Forever"?  I ask because, in my research since February (has it only been since February?!?!), I have seen people searching for items and crafting things and generally spending a considerable amount of time, effort and money on things which I think are kind of ridiculous for a wedding.

(All images from http://gadgether.com/bizarre-wedding-themes)

Maybe it comes from the fact that we're having a traditional church service, so we will use the "official" vows for the church, and there will be no unity candle or sand-pouring business.  We don't feel like we need a "theme"-- the theme is US.  The wedding will be celebrated by an officiant of my religion, the reception will feature delicious food which we decided on, and is being catered by a company who I worked for.  The DJ will play music which includes selections we have specifically chosen for OUR wedding.  We aren't making people come in costume, aren't getting married by a close friend who got ordained for the occasion, and aren't riding away on an elephant.  

What do you think? 

(Nifty letter from http://www.dailydropcap.com)

4th of July

esterday was July 4th, so Andrew and I were both off from work. We ended up spending the day with Frank and Erin at their house.  I headed over to Andrew's around 12:30 and we got over to Frank and Erin's at about 1:30-ish...I was thinking we would eat a late lunch, so I had had breakfast, and that's it.  *But* we didn't eat until around 6:30.  By that time, I had a massive headache, was nauseated and, even though I knew I needed to eat something, the last thing I wanted to do was have smoked Boston butt and pasta salad... fortunately, the heat and food did everyone in, and we left around 8.  I crashed on Andrew's bed and took a nap before I headed home.  I feel silly insisting that I need to eat something-- I feel like people will look at me and go, "Sure, you NEED to eat!", but really--sometimes, my blood sugar just bottoms out (especially if I have something like cereal at breakfast) and there's a fine line between, "I could eat" and "OHMYGOSHIAMSOSICK!".  Guess it's back to packing crackers and granola bars for me :)

What did YOU do for the Fourth? 

{ 205 Days to Go :) }

(Nifty letter from http://www.dailydropcap.com)

I Should be Asleep

h...we had the most mundane of weekends ;)  On Saturday, I had a hair appointment and Andrew had inventory.  I missed my lunch with the girls because we were playing with my hair for the wedding.  I brought my veil with me to my appointment, so my hairdresser and my Mom are the only people who have seen it so far.  I ended up meeting Andrew and Dan for lunch and then Andrew and I picked up some paint cards and headed over to his house.  Today, we cleaned out the room that will eventually be the guest room.  We're going to have to paint in there, which makes me a bit nervous, since we're going to have to paint over the wallpaper-- it was applied directly onto the drywall, so we can't take it off without damaging the wall.  BUT it has to get done before we can move anything into the room.  

The heat finally let up a bit today-- it wasn't miserably hot, and we were able to stay in most of the time.  We let the dogs out briefly, then we'd let them right back in, since they don't have any shade in the backyard.  We're hoping that once the wedding is done and we're in the same house that we can start putting our nickels and dimes toward a deck or patio.  That's the plan as of now, anyway.  We'll see. 

208 Days!

The "Save the Date" cards have gone out!  (This picture was from round one...)

Well...that was not expected...

nstead of waking up, showering, and going into work as I normally do, this week I've woken up with a headache almost every day.  So, I've been waking up, medicating, going back to bed for a bit, THEN going to work.  Thankfully, we have flex time where I work, so I can come in anytime between 6:30 and 9:30 AM- I just have to be there for 8 1/2 hours.  Yesterday, I woke up with a MONSTER headache and I got it under control, or so I thought.  It came back with a vengeance.  And after drugging myself with a combination of Maxalt, Excedrin, ibuprofen and whatever else I thought might work for three or four days this week, I finally threw in the towel.  Home I was, and home I remained.  I left to pick up my refill of Maxalt at the pharmacy, and headed back home.  Andrew came over tonight with dinner and we watched a couple of episodes of Mad Men...I wanted to watch more after the 2nd one (!!!Don Draper Drama!!!), but he has inventory tomorrow morning and I have a hair appointment, then lunch with the girls. So, Don, Betty and the rest gang will have to wait. 

It's getting hard to navigate my house: I have boxes stacked in the hallway, my shelves are emptying...  CDs, books and DVDs are packed.  I left out anything wedding-related and my photography books/manuals in case I need them before I move and get them unpacked.  I'm dreading going through all of the things I have stashed in the attic space and back of the closet: Christmas ornaments, a Rubbermaid tub of shirts I keep saying I'm going to make into a t-shirt quilt but haven't yet, a box of scrapbooks and annuals from high school and college that I dug into pulling things for Brandi's funeral in February and never re-sealed.  I am so excited to move into the house with Andrew and have "our" place instead of "yours" and "mine".  It will be nice to not have a time limit on our togetherness and to actually be able to see him during the week as opposed to now, where it's a half hour drive either way, and we both have to go home first to check on our dog/dogs before doing anything.  Moving day is coming quickly, then he'll be leaving on a business trip not too long after so I'll be ALONE in a new house.  Well, alone with three dogs to keep me company.  And I'm sure I'll have plenty to keep me occupied...unpacking, maybe getting some painting done...and I'm sure there will be something wedding-related I can take care of :)

210 Days to go!

And tomorrow is Hawaiian shirt day...

tayed late at work tonight because I got in a little late...had a migraine this morning when I woke up, so I went back to bed for awhile.  Now, I've had a filling dinner of cereal and I'm fielding a few emails regarding our sorority reunion in two weekends.  Oh, and we're 212 days away from the wedding :)  The big decisions have been made, deposits placed, my dress is hanging in my closet...now we've just got to pay off the balances with vendors and wait until January-- which is taking forever!

"...because when you realize you want to spend the rest of your life with somebody, you want the rest of your life to start as soon as possible."  When Harry Met Sally