Sun Moon Stars Girl )-(

Welcome to my little place to vent…

The lucky number today is: 70!

Andrew & Sabrina’s wedding - we had an awesome time. Again used it as a “what we loved” and noted details for our own wedding.
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The lucky numbers today are: 36 & 50!

The lucky numbers today are: 14 & 16!

The lucky number today is: 94!

I spoke to my mom and my sister today; Both have received their invitations already. Since they are in NJ and DE, respectively, I think everyone should receive them by Tuesday.

Over the past few weeks, Kris and I got the majority of the envelopes addressed and stamped, as well as the RSVP cards written out and their envelopes labeled and stamped. So we spent Monday through Wednesday evenings putting the actual invitations together. We put the announcement and invitation cards on the purple backing cards, the reception cards on the silver backing cards, and made the second reception cards and put them on the green backing cards. Then we started stuffing envelopes, making sure we’d placed the correct RSVP cards within the right envelopes, and also “personalizing” the direction cards. We even double-checked the directions and gave additional direction cards to some of the out-of-town guests that *may* not come from the direction we originally thought.

I just wanted to let everyone know that the invitations have been sent. Feel free to leave a comment; I will pass compliments along to Donna, since her artistry adorns the lovely cards.

Also, I wanted to mention that we have our tasting this coming Saturday night to determine our menu. We will be posting descriptions of the dishes we decide on. If you can’t decide based upon a cartoon, you might want to wait until then to decide your entree and send your RSVP card.

We submitted our information ages ago, and finally our first session of Pre-Cana (our marriage counseling class) was this Friday. It took a while to get everything organized, because the couple that is hosting the session had a daughter who was getting married, and there are two other couples in our small group setting. I joked with Kris that it would be funny if I already knew anyone there, since before we met the hosts told us they had to coordinate with 2 other couples from UCI. Wouldn’t you know it - there was I knew, not well, but it was someone I’d previously taken a class with.

Well, I can start off by saying I can definitely see why everyone says you get out of it what you put into it. Kris and I seem to be the most “boisterous” of the couples there, so I think this class is going to be really helpful. Second, it was not what we expected at all - but in a good way. One thing I totally didn’t realize is that the Catholic church really stresses the marriage & spouse as your most important relationship. Understandably, this should be the most important person in your life. What these classes are pointing out are that so often this relationship gets bogged down by friends, co-workers, and especially, your children, but what matters most is that if your marriage is strong, then all your other relationships will be strong. The other huge thing we’re learning about is how much your parents and relationships with other people shape how your marriage relationship interactions will be. There’s this whole empahsis on HIStory and HERitage.

So far it’s been a pretty interactive and fun process. We start out listening to a description of the topic we’re about to discuss from the host couple. Then they both give some great examples from their lives. Then there’s a workbook that each couple has (you could really almost do this on your own, but having a host to guide you through it is really helpful), and after the introduction we are asked to fill out a worksheet individually, then share with our fiance`/finacee. Then we discuss with everyone else if our answers surprised each other, and we each go through our own specific examples.

The first exercises we did were about important experiences and people in our lives and why they were important, and what we admired in ourselves and how others would described us and why. Then we looked at the “recipe” for a great marriage, and finished up with a worksheet about communication and our hopes and dreams. Now we have homework for next time - another worksheet on communication AND we have to write each other a love letter.

Our next session is scheduled for Memorial Day, and I’m really looking forward to it. I was dreading this whole thing and thought it would be a pain, but I think I will actually be sad when the classes are over! Since the whole thing is a 12-hour course, it will probably be broken up into 4 sessions of 3 hours each. One down, three to go.

I thought I had taken all the necessary steps to avoid a painful wedding nightmare. I made myself responsible for collecting and disseminating the needed information. Somehow a simple task I thought we’d taken care of weeks ago is now back at step one. I am so frustrated and upset, but I will start at the beginning.

I really wanted to be a “modern thinking” bride and incorporate some new ideas into our wedding, especially as far as my attendants are concerned. I’ve seen so many horrific bridesmaid dresses, bad color choices (raspberry is still hot pink in my mind), and I myself was party to the “everyone is not the same body type and therefore does not look good in the same dress style” phenomenon. I’m still somewhat traditional in the sense of still wanting some limits - everyone in the same color (though it still may not look wonderful on everyone), and I certainly wanted everyone in the same length dress - but tea-length, since floor-length would just be too hot in the high summer heat of August. Even with those limits there were still plenty of choices of gowns, especially because the company I chose to go with has three separate design groups. And I will note here that I went with that company, the Dessy Group, because the bridal shop I had purchased MY gown at offered me a “30% discount” (What does that even mean anyway? 30% off of what? They don’t publish a price anywhere, so how do you really know you’re getting a discount?), and the dresses would also not be taxed if they were shipped out of state - which is where they had to go anyway. I’m also going to say now that if I could turn back the clock I would have someone else in NJ place the order at a bridal shop there because any money we may have initially “saved” does not make up for the frustration this problem has caused me. And my mother. And my girls, too, I’m sure.

Moving on. Ok, so I picked out the color and the length. I brought my cousin to a bridal shop WAY back in October when I was out in NJ. We had a great time because the particular shop we went to had a really good variety of Dessy group dresses. We both tried on different styles to get an idea of what might look good on her and the other girls. Jerilyn pretty much picked the style she wanted right then and there. Laura was a little harder to get to the store, but we had some time during our respective trips home for Christmas. Luckily she found a dress she liked right away too, and I think it was the very first one she tried on! Also, luckily for Jerilyn, the maid of honor’s (Laura’s) dress pick just happened to be the same material. So we now had the only three limiting factors: color, length, and material, and only one girl left to pick a dress - from at least 10-15 other styles.

By early February, Valerie got back to me with her dress style choice and measurements. Since I had already obtained Jerilyn and Laura’s measurements, I made a trip to the bridal shop, IN PERSON, at my very earliest convenience, to place the order. I wanted to make absolutely sure that my order was taken and written down correctly, ensuring I had done my part to make absolutely sure my bridesmaid dresses would NOT be an issue. I had read in quite a few places to make sure the dresses were all ordered from the same shop, at the same time, so that the dresses could all be cut from the same dye lot of cloth. I even went the extra mile to pick styles made from the same material so that hopefully everything would be cut from the same BOLT of cloth. The woman at the bridal shop gave me her word that she would place the order for every dress at the same time, and estimated they would be in by April 27th - easy to remember as that’s Kris’s birthday.
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