45 Days and Counting

Hello again, my wedding blog...it's been a long time...sorry about that. I honestly have no excuse except that I'm a lazy bum...and wow, blogger just totally screwed the pooch by not saving anything I had written...and boy did I have a great post!

I guess I'll try to start over (damn you blogger!). My wedding is almost planned. I'm just finishing up the details, which are not my favorite part at all! The details are the exhausting work, and I have a short attention span. Things get old quick to me (which is probably why I can't seem to write a book, even though I try!).

However, the closer it gets the more excited I am. I am very happy that I chose to have a wedding during the holiday season. I love the holidays, it's just such a magical time of the year, and now I get to have a wedding anniversary during that time as well. But this does mean that between Thanksgiving, Zach's birthday (12/5), our wedding anniversary (12/11), Christmas, and New Years, that this time of the year will always be busy from now own. I told Zach, though, that I want to retain our June 18 anniversary, just to kind of give us a reprieve from that busy time of the year.

I'm looking forward to Christmas/Holiday music, which of course I am going to have played intermittently throughout our wedding!!

What's weird is I only go home one more time before my wedding and that's for Thanksgiving. Unfortunately I won't actually get to see my dad until a few days before my wedding since he won't be home for Thanksgiving. I'll miss him, as I usually do when he's working over holidays, but I'll still help cook an amazing Thanksgiving meal with my mom and get to spend the holiday with Zach, my mom, Linds, Nick and all our puppies!

I have to say that my parents have been wonderful throughout this entire endeavor. My mom has been over the moon with excitement, and I truly appreciate her for that! It's terrible when you have someone who second guesses your decisions or gets mad or tries to make it about them, luckily, my mom is not that way! My dad has been awesome as well...willing to pay for a large chunk of our wedding. I know he loves me and just wants me to have the best, I hope he knows, though, that I don't think of him as a just a checkbook. He's my daddy, and I love him and he has always supported and loved me through everything. And again, I appreciate him for that too! My sister, well, she's crazy, but so am I, and we love each other for our craziness! She's been supportive (a little bossy, but that's her) and I'm excited to help with her wedding once mine is done! And, of course, Zach has been a champ. He's helped quite a bit, in his own way of course, and he's taken the lead on things I just didn't want to have to do! He's my guy and I'm excited to marry him in 45 days!

Yikes

So I never said I was great at keeping up with a blog. In fact, I'm rather terrible at it, however, we live, we learn, and we move on.

But what is new in the world of my wedding planning, you ask? Well, a lot actually. Zach and I had our engagement pictures taken at the end of May (the picture at the right is one of my favorites). It was a fun experience. For the most part, Zach kept all of his faces from turning out ugly in pictures (something he is prone to do).....

And now we are three months later and just finishing this post! Well, we'll just leave it at that.

Wow....It's Been Awhile

So, I really haven't kept this up too well, but in my defense I did get a lot of stuff done in the beginning, then I kind of took a month off because I was tired...Planning is a lot of work.

However, there have been some new developments.

-Caterer...is narrowed down to just one...actually, I only contacted just one caterer, because that's just how I roll. I like the menu, it looks delicioso and they have cheesey potatoes, so it really can't go wrong.

-DJ. Zach and I have found our DJ (once again, the first and only one I contacted and looked at). Some may say this is a bad idea, however, I have been pretty lucky with all of the firsts that I've looked at...so, we'll go with it. We also got a SWEET deal because the guy misquoted the price in his email to us, so we got 400 dollars off the original price for four hours...I feel kind of bad, but not really!

-Horse and Carriage...YES we are having one. I contacted the lady last week and she is (hopefully) sending me a contract soon! Super psyched about this...it's such a fairy tale thing and it'll be so much fun (if the weather doesn't get nasty...which is a huge factor, but I'm thinking positively)

-Earrings...it seems so small, but I've been looking everywhere for earrings that will complete my outfit. I have three suitable choices, one pair is borrowed from my grandma and the other two pairs I bought recently. I think the winners are going to be the marcasite hoops with pearl drop, they're very pretty, but I will bring all three in to try on with my dress. I don't want a necklace, but I do want a bracelet, so I'm on the market for that now too.

On a side note, I've been thinking a lot about the something old, new, borrowed and blue. The dress is new, my claddagh ring I will be wearing is old (by only a few years, but I think it counts), I have nothing borrowed unless I use my grandma's earrings, and blue is either my shoes, or I'm thinking I could always wear blue underwear if all else fails. TMI? Sorry, but it's just a thought.

Uh...I think that's about it for now. As always, I am on the never-ending quest for shoes that will go with my dress. I want something with color, either blue or teal (not that those are my colors, I just like them) but if need be I think silver would work just as well. I will probably have three pairs in all...my winter boots, my heels, and a pair of flats for dancing at the reception. I've found some cute heels but of course, they are $150 or more and I just can't drop that kind of cash on shoes, let's be serious.

I think what's next is organzing: flowers, centerpieces, RINGS (I'm in charge of procuring the wedding bands...so we'll see how that goes), tuxes for Zach and the groomsmen, transportation for wedding party (horse and carriage only holds 4), and gifts for wedding party, parents, etc. A lot of it is little stuff, but I'm sure it will all work out fine. But the little stuff does get to me, so we'll see. (But the reason I'm doing all this craziness is because of the wonderful guy above, so I guess it's worth it!)

When a body meets a body, coming through the rye..

Sorry, the title of my post came from what I wrote about in my other blog, which is my literature blog. JD Salinger, the author of The Catcher in the Rye, passed away yesterday at 91, so I mentioned that in my post. That is one of my favorite books (though it's not too hard for me to like you if you're more than 50 pages and filled with thousands of vowels and consonants).

Anyways, the title of the book comes from a poem by Robert Burns called Comin' Thro the Rye. It actually goes like this:

O, Jenny's a' weet, poor body,
Jenny's seldom dry;
She draigl't a' her petticoattie
Comin thro' the rye.

Chorus:
Comin thro the rye, poor body,
Comin thro the rye,
She draigl't a'her petticoatie,
Comin thro the rye!

Gin a body meet a body
Comin thro the rye,
Gin a body kiss a body,[r] Need a body cry?

Gin a body meet a body
Comin thro the glen,
Gin a body kiss a body,
Need the warld ken?

And that, ladies and gentlemen, is how you completely write random things having nothing to do with your actual blog theme!

Onto wedding stuff. Zach and I are now in the process of picking caterers and what not. I'm going to the big DB (David's Bridal) with my sister on Sunday to try on a possible (cross your fingers) bridesmaid dress. I've found others that I like, however, these dresses are expensive! So DB sounded like a good option, plus I love the dress. (link to it here: http://www.davidsbridal.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/ProductDisplayView?storeId=10052&catalogId=10051&categoryId=-49998974&currentIdx=19&subCategory=-49998976|-49998975|-49998974&catentryId=6142398&sort=)

There are three colors that I'm looking at: Clover, Holly, and Kelly. They are all shades of green, Holly being Christmas Evergreen, Clover is a Dusty Jade, and Kelly is like a Bright Lilypad. So there you go. Lindsey likes Holly, as does Zach (like his opinion matters anyways...haha), however I've asked other people and they like the Clover or the Kelly. I originally wanted more of the Clover (Dusty Jade), but I kind of like the slight brightness in the Kelly. But what they look like on screen could be completely different than what they look like up close and personal. But I like that dress too. I wish I could buy that dress. It has pockets, and that's pretty much just awesome.

Well, that's the next few steps. Bridesmaid dresses and catering. Wedding planning is seemingly endless. Zach really wants to register, but it might be a little too soon (though my books/internet say 7-9 months prior is the usual). I think 10 months is pushing it, however it would be a fun thing to do together. (I'll just have to keep Zach away from the X-Box games, and the Wiis!)

That's all for now. So far, not too crazy. Oh, and I'm trying to get in shape so I can fit in my dress (I fit in it already, but it's a glove, so maybe a 5-10 pound weight-loss will make it pefect). I will blog about that endeavor another day!

Aaaaand we're off!

I don't really know where we're off to, but it sounded like a good title so I went with it. I haven't blogged in awhile...for shame, for shame, but that's me. I'm not very good at keeping up with this type of stuff.

Plus, I have two other blogs to keep up with (yep, TWO). I have to start a new one for a class and it has to be engaging for young adults. I'm getting nervous about having this many blogs. It makes me feel too exposed in the world of cyberspace, but we'll manage.

As for wedding stuff. I do have a few more details to add. Things are really coming together. Zach and I have figured out the officiant business. I originally wanted to go with a neutral person (not anyone from either of our churches) however it was really important to Zach's family that we go with his pastor. So I agreed, she's really nice and I like her. My only qualms with it are the "religiousness" level that it will be. I'm not a religious person, I would say more spiritual, and-full disclosure here-I have an issue with the Christian tradition (or just about any organized religion) because I feel that a lot of organized religions are exclusive rather than inclusive. Now I'm not one of those anti-religion people, I'm not an atheist, and I do know what I'm talking about. I'm not just making assumptions on what I have seen. I've actually studied religion a lot as it was part of my undergraduate studies. I took an entire class devoted to Jesus and I read the New Testament in the language it was originally written in (Greek--very unlike the King James "translation" if it can even be called a translation). I've also taken courses on religion pre and post-Christianity. So I know quite a lot about how it was formed and the belief systems it brought over from paganism. (No, I am not getting all of my info from The DaVinci Code).

Anyways, I digress (it's hereditary if you've ever met my father), so we chose his officiant and like I said my only concerns are with the level of "God, Jesus, Lord" and all that hoopla. I don't want to make it extremely religious specific, and seeing as I acquiesced to his pastor, I feel that a fair compromise would be to limit some of that religiousness. Now, obviously she's a pastor, so she's going to say some stuff, which is fine, but I would like to omit any saying such as "God bless us...." in our vows at the very least. And I would prefer not to have the Lord's Prayer because I would feel like I'm in a church service (Zach and I are still "discussing" this point so...we'll see). I guess I'm trying to say that I've never "felt" right in a church. It's always felt like going through the motions and I've never really been struck by that.

Overall, I want the ceremony to be about US, not God and us, not Jesus and us, but just Zach and I. And though some may see it that "God" brought us together, I see it as Zach and I becoming an entity through our love for each other. We can still be blessed in our marriage, and we can ask that life grants us the blessing of a long life together.

Understandably, Zach could want a very religious wedding, Lord's Prayer and all. And I am aware of that and that is where the whole "compromise" thing comes into place, and so far I think we've done a good job on compromising.

Anywho, I think that's it for now. I know, not too funny, not really much to say, I kind of turned this post into my viewpoints on religion, so yup, there you are for the day!