You've Got Mail!

Or you will in the very near future. Invitations were put in the mail this morning. So keep your eye out for it.

Engagement Photographs Now Exist!

So - yesterday was hot.

And yesterday was humid.

And... it was a great day to take pictures at the Chicago Botanic Gardens - as long as you don't mind heat.

Or humidity.

Or nekkid children.

This would be said photo in front of said staircase

Or crowds of people who like to stop in the middle of a stairway where you are obviously trying to take a picture there, I mean, if there is a guy with a camera standing in front of a staircase pointing it at the two people standing in front of the staircase, isn't that a pretty damn obvious clue that you need to move your fat arthritic posterior from in front of said staircase?

But I digress.  I must be crazy from the heat.  Or from looking at the truly awesome photos that Jeff Anderson took of us yesterday.  I mean - they look good.  They look REALLY good.

So - we decided to share.  Amanda already has, like, 140 pics on Facebook.  I know because she tagged me in all of them.   But I figured I'd put some of them out here, as well.  So, I have a bunch out here, most of them cropped to widescreen, and suitable for framing - on your widescreen computer monitor.

And now, I'm gonna go find some air conditioning.  Because it's hot.  DAMN hott!

But first - picture type goodness:

TTFN - Ta ta for now!

Malcolm

P.S. - I normally don't have a problem with half-nekkid children, honest.  However, some parts of the anatomy should be naked in the kind of sun we had yesterday, and most boys shouldn't be hanging that thing out for exposure anyways, without massive amounts of sunscreen.  I mean, really.

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.  ;)

What Really Happened...

Malcolm didn't really watch movies and eat popcorn in his PJs all day. His computer crashed so he was on the phone with his brother Michael trying to fix it. Technology.....

But I had a fantastic bridesmaid day! I went with three of them (Anne, Kirsten, and Denise) to David's Bridal. My fourth bridesmaid, Melinda, had surgery a couple days ago so she was not unable to come. She got to see pics though.

I knew they were getting black dresses and they were each getting their own style dress. I want them to love their dress as well and be able to wear it over and over again. Unlike so many bridesmaid dresses that can only be worn for that event. I also wanted them to have the wine accent color in either the sash, pin flower, or peek-a-boo skirt (the guys are wearing wine colored vests and ties and the flowers will be orange yellow so the girls need the wine color somewhere).

They were trying on bunches of dresses while I held/played with baby Ruth (Kirsten's daughter, not a candy bar). We figured out the peek-a-boo skirt wasn't going to work - it looked strange on the dresses the girls were liking. And because of the detailing on some of them, the sash wasn't going to work either. But the flower was working well for everyone.

At one point, Denise tried on a dress and Kirsten really liked it. So she tried it on and liked it. So, of course, Anne had to try it on as well. I started laughing at the thought that they were all going to pick the same dress anyway and poor Melinda would have been out of luck choosing a dress. Anne liked it too but not as much as the other girls. They each tried on a few more dresses.

Anne fell in love with a dress first. Denise decided on the one they tried on and liked. And Kirsten quickly found one she liked as well. They all stayed in their dress of choice while I got in my wedding dress (I wanted Kirsten and Denise to see it on my in person, they had only seen pics up to this point).

Now, the first time I had my wedding dress on, I was more or less in shock that I was actually trying wedding dresses on. Wedding planning had not really begun yet so my mind said this whole wedding thing isn't real yet. I didn't have a strong emotional reaction when I first had it on. I really liked the fit and detailing on it, though. Anne started crying so I knew that was the one to get.

This time, when I put it on and saw myself in the mirror, my hands started shaking. Kirsten and Denise loved it on me and thought I looked great. Then our consultant took a pic of all of us in our pretty dresses. I must say, we all looked fantastic together.

After getting back into our regular clothes, the girls purchased their dresses and we headed out to lunch at B-Dubs (Buffalo Wild Wings). I gave them some more details about the wedding. And then just talked about anything that came across our minds basically. It was fabulous having girl talk time. After a couple hours, it was time to go our separate ways.

Thanks for a fantastic day girls!!