one week later

And we're both still here, despite Matt getting sick the day after the Wedding. Now that he's been put back together maybe I'll have the chance to update the rest of the world on everything, but for now:

NINE

...and today I pick up my Wedding Band.

In late breaking news:

I returned the first wedding band I bought Matt today and brought home another. In the beginning I was nervous to look at rings for him by myself. I'm terribly fickle and I didn't want to get him something that he wouldn't want to have on his hand forever.

No better way for him to remember me than that GOD FORSAKEN, uncomfortable useless piece of metal on his hand... but I digress.

I showed him what I picked out today- and he loved it. He still loves it.

Wedding Band: Check!

11 days left on this roller coaster.

I never was a patient child.

Responde s'il vous plait?

Seriously.

Waiting for some of these is KILLING me. I know the status of most of mine. But well let's just say Matthew has his fair share of friends and family not currently reporting. And at this rate we won't be making our room minimum and we'll be inviting strangers!

In other news the hotel block has be released back into the hotel. So you may still get a discounted rate if you call. But you may not. So get on the bandwagon kids!

I'm finding things to occupy my time while I wait though. Finally getting around to making sails and the rest of the masts. I keep burning CD's for the DJ. I should stop burning a new copy every time I add something to the play list in iTunes. I made a list of everything that we each need to pack for the hotel. I even made schedules! Mostly so that I don't have to have 400 people calling me the day of asking me where I am or where I'm going. I also wanted to see it all laid out for my own sanity. I need to know that everything is going to get done- and I'd like to know on what time table.

Registries

People have complained that they can't seem to find us, even after hiding Wish Lists etc. So here I am to provide you with links that will take you straight to the registry.

Amazon!

Target!

...Tupperware won't let me give you a link. Sorry.

Deep breath.

Most people who know me will find what I am about to tell you all unbelievable. I don't care about the little shit anymore. Yes it would be really nice to make welcome bags for all of our out of town guests, but that could/would get expensive. And I don't really have any anal retention left to find the perfect things to stick in said bags. Mind you, if I find myself bored the week or two before the Wedding I'll be making them. But it's not in my immediate plan. Hell, I still haven't ordered our cake OR our rings. But my dress is fitted and paid for, he's been fitted for his tux, the photographer is paid for. RSVP's are slow but steady. I think I've got everything I need. So with that said: I'm done. D-U-N, done. No more stressing out about Wedding crap. Because really, in the end it's all crap. I won't die without it. The important points are covered.

I'm sure I'll order a cake, so don't worry about that. It's just that getting into South Buffalo is sometimes hard for me. I've taken deep breath after breath since I picked up my dress Saturday. I don't think I really need anything else from this Wedding. I just want to wear my big dress and dance. And I think that just knowing that my dress is safe and sound at Aunt Karen's does something for the crazy half of my brain. So now for, I dance, breathe and wait.

Dancing through life,
Skimming the surface,
Gliding where turf is smooth.
Life's more painless,
For the brainless.
Why think too hard?
When it's so soothing,
Dancing through life.
No need to tough it
When you can sluff it off as I do.
Nothing matters.

Crap.

I may not have a Judge for the Wedding now. I wasn't paying attention when we picked a date, we're getting Married on Rosh Hashanah. Weeeeeeeeee!

Crap, crap, crap.

Thank You, I'm Sorry.

Four words, two phrases. But what an impact they can have.

People seem to forget how much we need to hear those precious 4. We as a society are becoming self interested and self absorbed. Leaving no time for either. Throughout our Wedding Planning I have made a conscious effort to say both of these things repeatedly to the people who needed to hear them.

The thank yous are mostly directed at our Wedding Elves that I've met. Although, they sometimes get the I'm sorrys too. Whether I'm calling to ask another question about our contract or I'm late for our appointment. But there's one almost elf who has give me a sorry, that was followed by my thank yous, but I feel as though he could use an I'm sorry from me.

I don't know how long it took, or how many people had to look at all of my correspondence back and forth- but Michael C and the Finance Dept at Team Pictage not only deserve a big Thank You, but an I'm sorry too.

I'm sorry for all of the pestering and email back and forth. I was very nervous about what was going on and exactly where I would land. Thank you for taking time out of your days to check on things for me. As a consumer on the other side of the country, sometimes you have to wonder if anyone out there is actually concerned about your problem and whether or not they're even working on a solution for you.

Thanks to all of our emails and the results that I can see this morning, Michael and Team Finance [that's what I've decided to call you, you can submit a team name change to HR] worked to find and fix a problem for me. And I can't even being to tell you how much I appreciate it.

Thank you and I'm sorry.

the Book of Love

I should mention, I'm thankful I have a Matthew. Mostly because he is the first grown up I dated. Funny how that works out huh? I am most thankful that he loves me. Totally and wholly. And I love him with all my little might. Sometimes that's hard- for both of us. I can be terribly difficult and he's a lot bigger than I am! But he can close his eyes take a deep breath and I love him, even if he is ginormous.

I don't usually get to see how other people catch him looking at me. But this? This makes me cry, because he loves me. Every last bouncy and annoying little bit of me. And I can see it.

The book of love is long and boring,
No one can lift the damn thing.
It's full of charts and facts and figures
And instructions for dancing.
But I,
I love it when you read to me.
And you,
You can read me anything.

The book of love has music in it,
In fact that's where music comes from.
Some of it is just transcendental,
Some of it is just really dumb.
But I,
I love it when you sing to me.
And you,
You can sing me anything.

The book of love is long and boring,
And written very long ago.
It's full of flowers and heart-shaped boxes,
And things we're all too young to know.
But I,
I love it when you give me things.
And you,
You ought to give me wedding rings.

You ought to give me wedding rings.

Pictage, see also Prick

What company preauthorizes a consumers credit card without telling them first? Pictage.

What company preauthorizes a consumers credit card one week before a payment? Pictage.

What company leaves any form of an apology out of all of their correspondence with an unhappy consumer? Pictage.

- - - - -

I don't like the thought of putting this on the internet for all to see. But really, holding on to my money long before it's theoretically yours? Not cool friends. Not cool.

I called the NYS BBB this morning. Let's hope the money actually shows up in my account before I get hit with the IFF, otherwise it's off to the NYS Attorney General. Because in NYS, you can't preauthorize someones credit card without their consent.

FIVE!

I came home from work to find the first FIVE RSVP's! This makes me giddy.

I ALSO came home to find that the mail I'd left in the mailbox for the mailman to take for the last FOUR DAYS has now been collected. Double yay!

OH MY GOD!

Thanks to a BEAUTIFUL British Bride Friend in England, I may have just found a way to do a Photobooth FOR UNDER $100!

Holy crap! I am beyond excited!

a To Do list; for me, not you

[ X ] call Maislin
[ X ] book hotel room
[ X ] call Paula Andrew
[ X ] breathe
[ X ] decide on tuxes
[ ] work on Sails
[ ] buy wedding bands, I know we're terrible
[ ] manicure
[ X ] decide on favors

80 days!

This past weekend my lovely sisters and wonderful aunt gave me a wonderful shower. Complete with pink cupcakes and rosy red embarrassed cheeks. Thankfully the cheeks didn't last long. Judging from the gifts my friends got me it would seem that they know me terribly well. Since I got a cupcake cookbook, cookie sheets, a cookie scoop and spatula, oven mits [...I don't typically use them and end up burned], cooling racks, cupcake pans! You get the idea. I've also been armed with party gear thanks to a new blender, some glasses and a cocktail book! I'm so thankful for the ladies that made it out to have lunch and spend some time watching my sister torture me.

In other news: the invites are going in the mail today and tomorrow. I can tell you're excited. We were going to get custom stamps, but those cost more than DOUBLE! what it costs to mail them. So I said no thanks. While it does make me sad; since I designed a monogram and all. I think I'll just use that for stickers or something. And really, it only took me 5minutes to make. So it's not like I wasted 6 hours of work.

We also managed to find a dress for Cait this weekend. It was kind of a rush job. But well, it needed to be. But it was on sale and it's snazzy. So yay.

It seems like all I need these days is more time and money. Which is terribly annoying. But I'll get it all done, fret not!

Here is your ray of sunshine.

So Friday sucked. In the worst way possible. BUT! Saturday and Sunday were amazing. They more than made up for the suck known as Friday.

Saturday I picked my dress up from the cleaners, who got it done in record time. Thanks Bridal Kare! Then it was off to have the dress fitted. I thought this was going to be a nightmare for several reasons. It didn't even come close. She adjusted the bustle because I wanted to make sure it was up and off the floor. She's adjusting part of my strapless bra so that it fits me better. She's replacing the zipper and fixing the beading... all as if I had purchased my dress from them. Which means I'm saving $300+.

Thank heavens for Bridal Chateau. Honestly.

Today I was setting out to fix the reply card disaster. I managed to end up with this strange white-ish blob on my reply cards. Not cool friends. NOT cool. I took the handy dandy little jump drive back to the fine folks at the Office Max on the Boulevard, and everything was fine. Blob gone; crisis averted. AND he trouble shot his way through a paper jam, and printed proof after proof for me.

In the mean time, my goal was to mail the invites between 3mos and 90 days to the Wedding.

Today is 90 days. Oh well. They'll be worth the wait. ; )

Invitaion: Fail

Today was one big boatload of fail in the invite department. It's taken me what seems like ages to round everything up that I wanted for invitations. The biggest problem with this is that I started looking at things entirely too early, so I kept changing my mind and I wasn't too terribly eager to commit to something. I was looking at new things every week so I didn't want to pick a style and then find something better just days later.

I bit the bullet today and decided to sit down and just do it. After about 4 hours I had Information Cards, Invitations, Reply Cards, A map; that I later scrapped. And I moved the ceremony time up 30mins.

We went to buy the Parchment Card stock, only to find that they had 3 sheets. I need roughly 105 sheets. Awesome. We went to Office Max to see what they had. Found something I wasn't super excited about, but we bought it anyways.

Time for printing! Wrong-o. The color machine was working, but the B&W wasn't. So they could print my Invitations... just nothing else, unless I was willing to pay 49 cents per page... which I was not. They said we could go to another location but that we'd probably have to leave everything and pick it up some time tomorrow.

So I have envelopes. No invitations.

But hey, we bought 4lbs of taffy for the shower. So it's not a total wash right?

for your added convience..

Matt and I went ahead and made our Amazon Wish Lists Private. So that way people would stop being directed to those instead of the Registry.

This week I continue to taste taffy for favor bags for the shower, terrible job really. Actually I lie- it's wonderful.

Anyone need 50lbs of lemon taffy? No, I'm serious. Do you?

I also have my dress fitting this weekend which has me all sorts of nervous. I know I shouldn't be. I'm just afraid to hear how much the repairs/alterations are going to be.

Deep breaths kids, deep breaths.

We've made it to double digits: 97

I decided we're gonna do some shout outs tonight. Because I can do what I want here. Right? I thought so.

First and foremost, Amanda. What in Gods green earth would I have done without her? I mean honestly- how am I not myself. Think about it. She doesn't even LIVE in NY, but off she went on an adventure to find me boats. And she was victorious. Armed only with her wits and a UPC Code she set forth on NY/PA. And she won. Hats off to you Amanda.

Next up is Marsha. Marsha, Marsha, Marsha! Marsha is my florist. [ www.vannormsflorist.com ] And I love her to itty bitty bits. She didn't try to sell me things I didn't want. And she LISTENED to what I wanted and didn't want as far as colors and flowers. All too often vendors try to pigeon hole brides- because they think they can. Marsha didn't even come close. Thank you, from the bottom of my weary little heart.

Melissa. Oh, Melissa. How do I love thee? Let me count the calls. [ www.munelitphotographic.com ] I think it's safe to say that I get Mel and she gets me. I met her by chance and thank heavens. We took an afternoon to bond... and a few late night chats. It's fairly safe to say that I can't stop laughing- it's hard for her to take serious-esque pictures of me. I'm working on quiet thoughts for her though ;). Thanks for agreeing to come on this whirlwind adventure.

Insert sigh of releif here

I ordered a veil from www.etsy.com and I was terribly nervous that it wouldn't match. It arrived today. And it does indeed match. I just have to decide if I want to take the time to sew beads around the edge of it. I might- I don't know, we'll see how bored I get.

Dress: Check
Veil: Check
Shoes: Check
Old: Check
New: Negative
Borrowed: Check
Blue: Check
Six Pence: Check

WOOOOOOO!

110 days. How did this creep up on me?

I think I'm finally starting to let go.

I made my LAST Florist Appointment. I bought 18 little boats. I bought a new veil. I got myself some adorable shoes. I've even got my something borrowed. It's winding down. But everyday I smile because there's a Wedding coming. A ridiculous party. A fabulous good time. And it's all mine to share.

I've stopped freaking out about things- because I can't anymore. I can't stop whatever is going to happen. I can hope for the best and deal with the troubles as I get them. I wish I had done this sooner. I'd still like Matt and I to take a dance lesson of seven before September, but if we don't? We can fake it... just like everyone else.

Someone asked me recently when Matt and I were going to drop the whole Pirate thing. And it got me thinking... do I have to? Ever? No not really. You do what you want on your Anniversary, I'll do what I want on mine. If someone is honestly disturbed, dismayed or bothered by Pirates being involved in a Wedding that is not in fact their own, they are more than welcome to stay home in September. I'll have all of their fun for them. It's ok, I don't mind really.

I don't honestly think that Matt and I will still calling it swashbuklin' on our 50th Anniversary. But who knows? Maybe we'll be terrible old people obsessed with puns and other ridiculousness. Maybe we'll spend the rest of our days swabbing poopdecks and manning mast heads... but probably not. We'll have french toast though. Every Saturday if I can help it.

There's a Weddin' in my future.

I totally let out a little squee when I hung up the phone. My Aunt just called to tell me that she's gotten a few reply cards in the mail for the shower. Now, I didn't think that they'd be out and about that fast. And I know that there are people who haven't gotten them yet. But man oh man- this kinda makes me stop and look around.

I have a Wedding to go to. Mine.
I have a smallish to do list, which is better than a big one.
But I need to get my bee-hind in gear.

I need to figure out if this Photobooth is in the Budget or not. I'm so very digging on it. Mostly because it would serve 2-ish purposes. Favors and Guestbook. MAN OH MAN! If only money were no object. But it is. And I do not have unlimited time to decide.

Registries on Fire.

I some how managed to get myself THREE Target Accounts all tied to one email address. Their Customer Service Rep assured me that what he was seeing was an impossibility. He was wrong. I did in fact have three, and the crisis has thus been averted.

Apparently the other 2 accounts caught up with me yesterday because I couldn't actually log in to add things to the Registry. I found it when I would search for it- but I did not posses enough mojo to log in and edit it. I was more than a little worried. Mostly because it's chock full of stuff we need/want. Matt hated the first trip to Target so I could only imagine what would happen the second time around.

....

Hmm, I managed to walk away mid thought. And here I am coming back to the keyboard almost 3 hours later. So I say oh well, it can wait.

Seamstress?

The Bridal Shop I bought my Dress from was seized on Friday. I may or may not have a Veil at this point. Because I assume they ordered it. But I don't know for sure. Awesome. I have to find out if I have a Veil or not and I need to find a seamstress.

Wahoo.

Miss me?

I'm sure you did. Since we last talked I bought three pairs of shoes for the Wedding. Don't worry I'm returning two pairs. I bought a veil; I know, I know! I didn't even do Veil Night. Sorry- I'm too damn picky. Besides, I'd rather have my accessories be cute little family things. Not the veil- I'm just going to take that off. I also managed to find myself graced with two HYSTERICAL Photographers for the Wedding.

I decided last night that Matt's getting a Grooms Cake. I'm excited about it. I need to find an outlet for that energy though... otherwise it won't be too much of a surprise. Oh well.

I still don't have favors picked out. I'm completely unsure as to what to put in them. Mostly because I don't want it to melt. I know it won't be a scorcher, but it could be hot enough to kill chocolate.

Knowing that there are only 143 days left almost makes me panic. Almost.

Let them eat Cake!

I am truly truly relieved. I thought that I was going to order the cake 6 months in advance since our date seems to be so popular. But ours is only the second Wedding on the books for the bakery. : D They told me not to worry so much, that I can order my cake as early as today or I can wait until 3 weeks before the wedding.

3 weeks makes me nervous though.

I'm going to wait to order it until after Easter. They're still taking orders for Easter pastries and breads- so I'm going to go back in when their business has calmed down.. and when I've calmed down some. Although, I'm much more at ease after hearing what Debbie needs from me. I was worried that she'd tell me that she couldn't do what I wanted on the cake.

It's kind of amusing though, I have 3 weeks to get a sketch of what I want on the cake, which seems like all the time in the world. Yet ordering the cake just 3 weeks before the Wedding makes me panic. I am a strange one.

6 months

So that's all that's left. And that doesn't seem very long. This has me worried. Granted there isn't much left for me to do. But there's enough to keep me busy. Not to mention it would be nice to have the living room painted and furnished by this fall. Since we will be having people coming from out of town who we will be entertaining and they may want to see the house. But I'm getting ahead of myself here.

What's left:
Dance Lessons
Invitations
Cake
Flowers
Favors
Aisle Runner
Ties for the Boys
Shoes for the Girls

[x] I'm not sure how I feel about these anymore. I want to go... but I'm not so sure I want to add another thing to my to do list.
[x] I will not enjoy addressing these. But I'll deal.
[x] I know where I want the cake from and what I want it to look like. I just have to get the decorators on the same page.
[x] I know I want red flowers. But there are lots out there. So I've been trying to weed out the ones I DON'T want to make any more floral consultations go more smoothly.
[x] Favors... ooooooh favors. I can't decide between those little chests I linked earlier and round metal tins. I also need to figure out what to put in them
[x] I was going to ask a friends mom to sew the runner for me, but the fabric I wanted was too expensive. $450+shipping for something I'm going to walk on? No thanks. So I'm left trying to get creative, but I think it'll work.
[x] Ties, simple enough
[x] Shoes: my one true love and current hate.

In other news I got my second box today... I still haven't gotten Thank You cards printed. I stink.

While I am terribly excited to get the gift of a Matthew, I know I'm ridiculous. The gifting process that goes with Weddings has me giddy. Matt and I had been living together in apartments, so we had limited space. But now we have a whole HOUSE! So some of our registry items are a touch silly. But well, we need a fair amount to fill and furnish this little ranch.

Today, the first box came. I made a mess with styrofoam peanuts and fell more in love with Kitchenaid than ever before. And as I was sitting on the floor cleaning up my mess it hit me: I have to send thank you cards now.

No big deal right?
I don't have thank you cards.

I should probably go get some...

Legal mumbo jumbo

In an effort to smooth things out later we went and had Matt's name changed. Which means I'll have just over 6 months to get used to him being Mr B before I become Mrs B. It's going to be an interesting ride. But I'm sure I'll manage. : P

I have an appointment with another Florist next week so I'll hopefully be able to check that off the list. And I have a friend looking into a runner for me as well. I feel like there's so much that still needs to be done- especially since we're almost at the 6mos mark.

Oh well, I guess I'll just hustle my little butt off for the next 2-4 weeks and see if I can get the rest of my to do list done.

: D

Now I know that all my headaches were worth it. Because I keep getting Phone calls and Messages from people saying that they love the StD's. Which makes me happy.

We went to Target today to add things on to the Registry. Because well, they were pretty much empty. I could tell that Matt was not enjoying the processes. And Target was super full. So I think I'll go back by myself to finish the rest. He stuck it out, and that pleases me.

I wanted to get shoes and a veil today as well. But work isn't going to let that happen. So maybe I just do that Th/F next week when I'm not running around.

SEVEN MONTHS!

The Check's in the Mail.

Well, not really. But the Save the Dates are! So check your mail boxes! Hopefully they'll get to all of you by Monday-ish!

YAY!

A little late, buuuuuuuuuuuuuut: MY MAGNETS ARE HERE!

So as long as the envelopes can withstand all of the stuff that needs to go into them they'll be mailed on Wednesday!

YAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAY!

My very first terrible vendor experience.

I had called a hotel about 2 months ago to set aside a block of rooms for people. I told them I would need 50-100. There are people coming in from out of town as well as people living in town who wanted to spend the night away from home.

They said "No problem!" Started giving me details. I hung up the phone feeling confident and completely at ease. Fast forward to today. Amy! Calls. She was unfortunately confused, she thought I was getting Married 10/19 not 9/19. Since it's back to school time they can only give me a block of 15 rooms.

...

33 is the low ball on rooms. That's doubling up on people who know each other and might stay together. That's expecting/hoping that some of the people will be staying at their parents houses.

So now I look for a new hotel and see if I can find one that'll give me ~50 rooms.

Keeping myself busy...

While I patiently wait for our Magnets to arrive I've been planning Registries. I will freely admit that this is the second most exciting part of the whole Wedding Planning process for me.

Some people think that Registries are the Devils work. I am here to tell you, no. They are not. The Registries are about your life together as Husband and Wife, and God willing: Parents.

It's about all of the little things that make your house into a home. And it's about the two of you. I will also freely admit that I put Wilton Cake Decorating Tools on there... as well as Cookie Sheets. Mostly because Baking is a big deal to me. And how am I to be expected to throw fabulous Cookie Exchanges if I don't have the proper tools and equipment?

I'm also trying to get the things that *I* want out of the way so that way Matt doesn't have to sit there and wait for me. But more importantly I'm hoping to take some of the tedium out of it so when we have to go 10 rounds over silverware- he'll have some stamina.

Picking paint for the house was terrible. I can only imagine what silverware will be like.

SO! What was your #1 must register for? What do you wish you'd Registered for?