ATTENTION

ATTENTION     ATTENTION     ATTENTION     ATTENTION

NOTICE!

The first wedding gift has arrived here at Wedding Central, courtesy of UPS.

The winners in the "First Wedding Gift to arrive at Wedding Central" are......

Del and Susan Kelley!

Congratulations, kids, you can pick up your prize the next time you're in the Chicagoland area.  Bring the baby, get a bonus!

It's been a bit busy down on the farm...

RSVP's are coming back - which means that there will actually be people at our reception.  Which is good to know, because, ya'know - I was a little concerned.  

Folks, I got something to say, and I'm just gonna say it: I don't understand women's hair.

There.  I said it.  And now, the explanation.

Amanda went out yesterday to do a trial run on her hair.  She was gone three hours.  When she got back, her hair looked EXACTLY like it did when she left.  I mean, I could have done before and after pictures, and they would have looked exactly the same!

Ladies - don't yell at your man when you go get yer hair done and he don't notice.  We are only men, after all.  We can only notice so much!

In all fairness - they didn't use any product or anything, they spent time playing with bobby pins and, apparently, having a drink.  Amanda said that her hair was 'fuller', but I have no clue what that means, someone's gonna have to draw me a diagram.  

In other news, this weekend is the Bridal Shower, and I'm not invited.  Which I guess is a good thing, because it means that Tim and I get to spend some quality time here working on computers and trying to figure out what happened to the Cards this season.  What did happen to the Cards this season?  The answer, my friend...

Today we met with our DJ, talked about the music, and now we need to create a schedule.  I made him a sandwich.  Yes, I'm kissing up to the DJ.  Why not?  Incentives are a good thing, until they become bribery.  I know the difference.  :D

Well, I could ramble on forever, but it's more fun to sign off and let you wonder what's happening next.

Ciao!
Malcolm

P.S.  For everything we scratch off of the "must do" list, we add two more things.  This thing'll never get done!  Unless I hide all of the pens....

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