Monday, July 30, 2007

Weekend Recap

The weekend was great. The engagement party surpassed any expectations I ever had. Mark and I were overwhelmed by it all: the great turnout of my family; the amazing food; the adorable little bistro - of which we had the upstairs all to ourselves; the cake that made me (almost) cry...my stepmom and sister had it made to mimic the cake that I saw in this month's Martha Stewart Wedding magazine (page 261) that made me decide on my wedding colors - I plan to have one made for the actual wedding, but my stepmom wanted us to have a replica of it just in case I decided to change the color theme between now and the actual wedding. :o)

I'll post pictures later tonight but for now, just know we were spoiled with love (and presents!) and really couldn't ask for more.

Well, I could ask for a vacation, but I won't press my luck...

Thursday, July 26, 2007

Celebration

OK, since the last post was sort of negative, I thought I'd talk about something a little more upbeat. Tonight after work, Mark and I are heading to my dad's in Indiana for the weekend. We originally planned to go and help clean out my grandma's (who passed away in May) house this weekend - the one she lived in for over 60 years. All 8 kids and several of the cousins are getting together to get the house ready to sell. It's not going to be easy OR very fun, but to give us all something to look forward to, my step mom and little sister decided to throw Mark and I an engagement party!

This will be our first formal celebration so I'm actually pretty excited. On Saturday morning, we are having a champagne brunch at a cute bistro to celebrate the fact that I'm FINALLY getting married. Since these ladies know how to throw a party, I can't wait to see what they have up their sleeves. Aside from asking me about possible wedding colors, I have no idea what the theme is, etc...

The invite had an adorable little message and included this picture of Mark and I on the front (please note that my handsome fiance' HATES having his picture taken):



They actually put another version of this picture in the front of our invite that had been drawn on using Microsoft Paint. It was flipping HILARIOUS - I'll try to scan it in later - and I almost wet myself upon opening the card. They hid the real picture behind it so at first I honestly thought they had sent it to everyone. This is just the kind of thing they would do to me, after all.

There. Now you have proof that I'm excited about something slightly wedding-related. Baby steps, my friends....baby steps. ;o)

Monday, July 23, 2007

And the madness begins...

It took me almost 31 years but I'm finally engaged to be married to the man of my dreams. There were many times I thought I'd never find him but now that Mark is in my life, I know without a doubt he was fully worth the wait.

Some people enter this phase of their life nervous about what marriage will bring or how it will change their lives. I'm not one bit worried about that part. What I am nervous about, however, is planning the actual wedding.

Growing up, I was a tomboy, a late-bloomer. I never had those floaty white daydreams of what my wedding would entail. I never pinned my favorite blanket to my head in a mock veil and strutted around my bedroom humming the wedding march song. Never did I think this fact was a problem until that sparkly ring was on my finger and I was forced to think about planning an "affair to remember."

The first thing I did was run out and buy a Modern Bride magazine. I used leftover "Yes!" and "Maybe!" stickers from my old Lucky Magazines (those things are so cool) and went about chronicling my favorite things between the pages. I saw one dress I liked. ONE. I wrinkled my nose at about a hundred more.

Don't even get me started on the bridesmaid's dresses.

I've now - one month into my engagement - purchased a total of four bridal-related magazines and I'm nowhere closer to knowing what I want the theme to be, or if I even want this to be a big affair at all. Mark hasn't helped much either, because he just wants to "enjoy the engagement" for the time being. While that's a noble thought, it's been sort of hard to do with all the "When is the date? and "Where's the wedding going to be held?" questions. (Grrr...)

I keep hoping a Fairy Wedding Mother will just pop into play and tell me what to do, or wave her magic wand and make it all happen for me. But she's late. And my glass slippers are stuffed somewhere underneath my 50 pairs of way-more-comfortable flip flops. What to do, I ask? WHAT TO DO????

I'm not quite to "panic mode" yet, but I'm not really having much fun with this crap yet, either.