Less Than 100 days away!!

And much has been done in the past week!

I had my first fitting on Tuesday. Anne came with me. It was nice to see how the dress will look when it is bustled. I didn't need very many alterations made. Most of the charges came from the bustle. I also needed it taken in a little in the back and a snap button needs to be sewn back on. $160 total, not too bad. If I needed the hem altered, it would have cost a whole lot more.

After the fitting, Anne came over to the house and had dinner with me and Malcolm. The two of us talked about bridal shower ideas and Anne showed me where she wants to take me for the bachelorette party and I'm super excited about that! Soon after, I went to bed. Anne and Malcolm stayed up watching Serenity and she asked him questions for one of the games she has in mind for the bridal shower.

Our wedding invitations, RSVP cards, and envelopes arrived this week. We will start putting those together and get those out to you guys in the next few weeks.

Joe put the bouquets together for us on Wednesday. They look very nice, but are not done yet. He arranged them and put the floral tape around the stems to hold them together. I will be wrapping the stems with ribbon and adding bows to them. He had several suggestions on how to make them look fuller and jazz them up a bit. But I like how they're coming along so far.

Next weekend, if the weather cooperates (fingers crossed), our friend Jeff will be taking our engagement pictures for us at the Chicago Botanic Gardens.

If You Liked It Then You Should Put a Ring On It

Oh wait, he did put a ring on my finger already.

BUT, our wedding bands arrived a couple days ago from James Avery. And they fit both us perfectly. Both bands have a verse from Song of Solomon inscribed on them in Hebrew. They say: "My beloved is mine, and I am his/hers". We like that verse and the Hebrew makes the bands very unique. We are very happy with our choice.

Let's see, what other wedding stuff has been going on?

A parent from my daycare has been doing my hair for the past couple years. She told me that she would do my hair and make-up for free that day. Thanks Bobbi!

Joyce (my former daycare assistant director) and her husband, Harvey, are catering the rehearsal dinner. He works with someone who drives limos on the side. Joyce was so excited that he might be able to drive us for the wedding, for free. Unfortunately, we found out he has plans on our wedding day. So no free limo for us. Oh well, we weren't planning to have one originally.

I have my first alteration appointment on Tuesday. The hem is always the most expensive alteration, but mine is the perfect length. So I'll be saving a lot of money there. I know it has to be bustled and one of the hooks for the straps needs to be worked on. But there shouldn't be a whole to do to my dress. So hopefully it won't cost a whole lot.
Anne will be coming with me. We will probably start getting thoughts together for the wedding shower. Should be a fun time!

Our friends Joe and Leslie are helping us put the bouquets together on Wednesday.

And we are getting our invitations ordered in the next couple of days so we can start putting them in envelopes and get them mailed out to guys by the end of August.

We have been very blessed with how everything is coming together. Thanks to everyone who has been helping.

Take care everyone!

Amanda

Excuse me, are you ahh...ahhh... allergic? To flowers? Ah-CHOO!

So, Saturday afternoon we made a command decision to get out of the house, since it was 90-something degrees with 90-something percent humidity. Air conditioning isn't cheap, but if someone else is paying for it, why not go enjoy it?

We went to Michael's, where we tried to get flowers a few weeks ago. And of course, they had fall flowers on sale, moving out the fall stuff for the winter merchandise. Which meant, for those of us having fall weddings, summer was the time to go get greenery.

Although, upon further reflection, it would be better termed "redderry, orangerry, and yellowerry."

We got a mess of flowers, and I'm not allergic to any of them. I was also told not to put them in water, something about them being silk, and not needing water. Bah. I've been putting flowers in water since I was knee-high to a short dog, and I don't see a reason to stop now!

Speaking of which, I need to check the water in those things - they don't seem to be drinking any of at all.

Malcolm

FOOD FIGHT!

OK, not really.  More like a food tasting.

Last Wednesday night, Amanda and I had the food tasting for the wedding - and it was pretty good.

Starting with the appetizer - we had the most heavenly Tomato-Basil Bisque.  Rich, creamy, with a golden orange color.  And the mouth waters.  We also tried the minestrone, and it just didn't cut the mustard.  In fact, it could have used a shot of mustard, but I digress.

I had forgotten how many ways you could play with salad and dressings.  But we picked a spinach salad with a warm bacon dressing.  Of course, the salad also has bacon.  Bacon, bacon everywhere...

For the main course, it's gonna be roast beef or chicken parmesan - guest choice.  And for the kids, chicken fingers with french fries.  I hope we don't have any vegetarians in the house - this could get awkward.

And by awkward, I mean they aren't going to get really full.  ;)