Sun Moon Stars Girl )-(

Welcome to my little place to vent…

I still have the wedding day story to share, but I’m going to do that in a later post. In honor of our one-monthiversary, I’m going to share some fun stories of the highlights from the days following our wedding and on the honeymoon. I’m also going to say upfront that this is a rather long and extensive post because it encompasses almost two weeks’ worth of stories!
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Most of you probably already know that we’re back in CA after almost two weeks of wedded bliss in paradise. We’ve got LOTS of pictures up in my gallery - there’s three albums of honeymoon photos, as well as more pictures from the wedding (compliments to both sets of parents and Eileen McEneely for the new additions!), and even some from the day of the rehearsal (again compliments to my parents, but more so to Kris’s).

Stories and more pictures when we get back from our honeymoon!
We added pictures to my gallery - the first photos we had online were courtesy of Judy Babicz. I promise to label them all when we get back - please feel free to leave some comments in the meantime!

Actually, Kris and I had already purchased most of the gifts for our bridal party and parents, but they still needed to be wrapped. So today we made a trip to get some gift bags and tissue paper. We actually got most everything at this one store and we are so happy we did not get the wrappings in California because not only would it have been a pain to bring all of it with us across the country, but it would have cost us almost $100 for the same amount of stuff we got for much less (and who cares, because everything still looks really cute!) As soon as we got back from the store we wrapped our bridal party gifts.

We also want to make “guest care packages” which mostly consist of an invitation to brunch at the hotel and directions to the church and back if the guest are staying Friday and Saturday nights. We had a heck of a time getting the invitations to print correctly, but I am happy to say those packages are pretty much ready to go!

Val stayed over to help Kris and I put the favors and place cards together, so that was the first thing we got done on Sunday morning. The task actually went pretty quickly considering how complicated it was. Our next focus was on redoing my bow bouquet, since it had fallen apart directly after the shower. Kris is really creative and had great ideas for getting it all together - he even made me a handle - and I have to say he did the bulk of the work on it. It was so sweet of him, especially considering it wasn’t a “manly” thing to have to do, and he certainly wasn’t at the shower to provide his expertise! We also worked on a way to keep the “keepsake chest” shut since it is where all of our cards are going to go.

One of the surprises Val had for me was that she had picked up her dress earlier the previous day, so the next thing we did was to try on our dresses. I showed her and Laura where the hooks and loops were for the bustle on my dress. Valerie helped me into my dress and tried the bustling. It was quite a task to get the corset laced up, but the bustle was actually pretty easy once you knew where everything was.

The X-Games were on TV, and once again they included a small segment of their version of crazy-stadium rally. While I’m excited for the most part about the exposure for our sport, I was disappointed with both the set-up and course. If people really think that’s what rally is, we are gathering the wrong kind of fan base. There was WAY too much carnage for a stadium event; it seemed almost designed to be that way and that was a huge disappointment. Anyway, we watched that (hopefully Val wasn’t too bored while we were watching!), and I’m really glad we didn’t try to make plans to go see it in person like we did last year because it wouldn’t have been worth it.

We finally remembered that our across-the-street neighbor was having her graduation party, so we went over just in time for some dessert. It was good to see them, especially because Stephanie is going to be helping us out by picking up my friends Renee and Toy from CA and bringing them to the church and reception. Afterwards we came back to the house and Val did another trial with different colors of makeup for the wedding on me. We took a bunch of pics - I’ll upload some of those to my gallery as soon as I can!

After Valerie left, Laura tried on her dress. Both of them look so great in their dresses! And to my relief, the color matches exactly!!!

First, I just want to say right away that “Bachelor” is in quotes because Kris did not really have a bachelor party. He didn’t really want one, but I wanted him to at least go have dinner while my girls brought me out. So basically Ray took him out and they had dinner and did a couple other nice “guy hanging out” things. I’ll let Kris describe more details if he feels like he needs to. After all, this is my blog, not his.

Once again, our day started at the airport. It was so nice to have a ride with the limo driver there waiting for us! He handled taking all our luggage, which was a nice treat - since we have experience with dragging our luggage through the train and stations, and that was an adventure! Anyway, it was a hot and humid day already at 5:30 in the morning! When we arrived at my parents’ house I was too excited to go to sleep, and I wanted to open all the packages of things I had ordered over the past few months just to check to make sure everything was here. I finally did fall asleep, and Kris and I slept most of the day. When we woke up, we spent a lot of time unpacking and reorganizing our gear. We had just enough time to shower before our respective rides arrived.

I said hi to Ray, then goodbye to the guys. I put on my shoes and then Val did my makeup. She does such an awesome job - I know I’m going to look awesome on my wedding day! Jerilyn arrived and changed, and we were ready to go to dinner. Our first stop was one of my favorite local restaurants, the Garlic Rose in Cranford, NJ. Laura surprised me with a “Bride to be” tiara and veil, which she said I had to promise to wear. Val followed by pulling a feathery white boa out of her purse, and I was so excited that I said, “No problem!” and put both items on right away. We enjoyed some “bridal” blue sangrias (white wine with blue curaco) and the infamous garlic spread while we waited for our entrees. In between courses, my mom and bridesmaids also surprised me with a few more gifts - lingerie, sunscreen, aloe, and a beach cover-up!

After dinner we dropped my mom back off at my parents’ house, and met up with Laura’s friend Jackie, who is coming to the wedding with her. It was so nice to finally meet Jackie (or re-meet her, I may have met her when they were much younger) after all these years of her and Laura being friends and seeing all sorts of pictures of them at various concerts and parties together.

Our next stop was The Breakfast Club 80 in Old Bridge, NJ. We were a little surprised at being the first people there, but we had a table reserved because Val had called ahead to arrange for our bachelorette party to be there. It was great to have a place to put our purses and just hang out while we waited for the place to get jumpin’. In retrospect, it probably wasn’t the best idea to go to a place called The GARLIC Rose before going out clubbing, but once again we were lucky to have some time to freshen up before anyone else was there.

Laura and Jackie were the first to get one of the club’s signature drinks - The Incredible Hulk in a fishbowl! While the drink was visually appealing, it was a bit too cumbersome to bring onto the dance floor, which was another great reason for having a reserved table. I used my voucher to get a free drink, so I opted for the Pretty in Pink drink. It too came in the small fishbowl. By this time Jackie and Laura had finished off their drink, so they went to the bar and got the 80 oz. fishbowl of the Pretty in Pink also.

By this time there were plenty of people on the dance floor, and one of my favorite songs from high school came on. It was “One Time Love” by TKA, which is this crazy song Marisa, Ray, and I used to listen to when we first tried to go clubbing back when we were 18. We had so much difficulty finding a place where all three of us could get in that we just had fun driving around and instead had a club in Ray’s car! Anyway, I dragged everyone else onto the dance floor and we just went crazy. Most of the songs were ones everyone knows the words to, although there were actually a couple I’m surprised that anyone else in my little group actually knew. Needless to say most of the place was singing along as they were dancing, and went absolutely NUTS when “Bad Medicine” by Bon Jovi came on (remember this is a club in NJ). I had a blast.

Although I didn’t get another drink (Jackie offered, I’m sure the other girls would have too - I was just having too much fun dancing to get anything to drink, and in retrospect it probably would have been better for Laura & Jackie not to have gotten the Pretty in Pink or should have gotten the smaller size, because it was just too sweet, and between the three of us we could not polish it off before we left), and no guys really hit on me (I’m actually really happy about that!), I did have a great time. I had one guy ask me why I was wearing a crazy tiara and boa, so I pointed at the crown’s words, and my ring, and he got really excited and said to me, “Oh wow! Congratulations!” He then took my hand and spun me around twice, very gentleman-ly and courteous. It was quite nice actually.

The only “down” parts of the evening were that I was a little bummed that so few people came, but thinking about it, there weren’t many people on the guest list to begin with. I know more would have been there had it been shorter distance-wise or better timing. Then there were the skeezy guys - aren’t there always a couple??? There was this one like 40-something guy who kept trying to dance in on Jerilyn and Valerie (who ironically are also engaged). Jackie noticed the guy too, and we gave each other the same “ew!” look about him. I had to keep grabbing Jer and Val’s hands to spin them around or something to get them away from that guy because I’m really conscious about these things. Then there was the guy who came over to our table and kept trying to talk to us. He asked why we had a table reserved, so I showed him my crown and ring, like I did with the guy earlier in the evening. He then asked how old I was - I lied and said I was 30, but he still said, “You’re too young!” I have no idea how old he thought I was. I grabbed Jackie and said, “Let’s go to the bathroom,” to try to get the guy to leave. I felt bad I abandoned the rest of the girls with him, and he asked Val some questions, but luckily one of the roaming girls with shots in the test tubes came over and he finally left. Jackie and I quickly ran back and apologized for leaving.

Everyone was really tired, so we left kinda early. Of course I’d had a long flight, but Laura and I had also had a long day with her dog (which I will write about after the wedding and honeymoon). Val had also had a long day with her new puppy, and Jerilyn wanted to go meet up with her fiance`. I had one more guy sincerely wish me good luck as we were leaving which I thought was so nice. Once we got back to the house we got Val set up in the den since she was staying over and had a bit of girl talk before I headed upstairs. Kris got home a bit later, but he and Ray had gotten stuck in all sorts of traffic coming back to Jersey from NYC. We both had a great time - this week is going to just fly by so quickly!

Obviously I had to post-date this since it was so late when I got back!

So Kris and I are almost ready to depart for our whirlwind week in NJ before our wedding. We’ve cleaned the house, done laundry, put everything away. The wedding accessories, toiletries, clothes, and more are packed. We’ve even got our bags 85% packed for our honeymoon in Tahiti.

And guess what we got in the mail today - one final RSVP card! So, lucky number 10, thank you!

More to come in the next week - but I don’t know how much time we’ll have to blog. We’ve got a lot to do - my bachelorette party, we have to get our marriage license, there’s lots we need to assemble and organize for the reception, and we’re planning a trip to Six Flags Great Adventure!

These numbers are: 5 & 78.

Well, my mom was the only person to guess what the numbers were, very early on. It was a lot of fun with her quick emails soon after the invitations were sent, and then little notes around the house when we came out to the east coast in May. After about three or four tries, she had the answer. The only other person to wonder was the woman (Rosemary) who helped us book our honeymoon at Enchanted Honeymoons.

So what the heck was up with these numbers anyway? Early on in planning, my mom made a great suggestion to number the back of the RSVP cards - just in case people forgot to write their names when they sent the cards back to us. Kris and I really wanted to save people the trouble, and I found a fun silver pen I wanted to use - so we wrote everyone’s names on the cards. We also numbered the cards, which was a great idea because we could tell at a quick glance who still hadn’t RSVPed by saying such and such a number was missing from the pile. They were just numbered alphabetically, and I really wonder if anyone even noticed this lightly penciled number on the upper left back corner of that response card?

Today’s “un”lucky numbers are not really unlucky. The only thing different about these is that we never heard any response (either way) from these people - whether actually getting their cards back, a phone call, or email. At this point we can only assume they are not coming.

Well, Kris and I both thought it would be fun to record when we received each card by posting a very simple thing like “today’s lucky numbers.” If you are curious as to what your number was - leave me a comment!

Updated 8/3/07 - As we received #10 in the mail!

Yesterday my mom told me my grandma had a simple request for a new tradition. Grandma would like me to wear her garter, then pass it along to my cousin (who is getting married next year), who will then pass it along to my sister. While I am honestly a little weirded out by the thought of wearing such a personal item from anyone else besides myself, I thought the tradition idea is pretty cool. I had finally gotten my “something borrowed” from my sister when she said I could use some of her silvery starred bobby pins she’d worn at the prom - but the really the “something borrowed” is supposed to represent “borrowed happiness” to fulfill your new marriage, and come from an older married couple. Obviously with something from my sister it wouldn’t truly represent this tradition, and yet anything from my grandmother would.

My something old is a PERFECT handkerchief that I found in my old bedroom when visiting to check out possible reception sites. I wasn’t sure where it had come from, but the lacy design and light blue embroidered flowers made it the perfect wedding item. When I questioned my mom about it later, she told me it was my dad’s mom’s (she has already passed). This news made the hanky even more perfect - as my “something old.”

There’s too many “new” items I’ll be wearing to pick just one, but this is usually represented by the wedding gown, unless it’s one you got from your mom, grandma, or someone else - then it might be considered “borrowed” or “old.” I am going to use my wedding gown (and my shoes and my…so many other things…) as my “something new.”

The bobby pins and garter will be the “something borrowed.”

As for “something blue” - there are the lovely blue flowers on the hanky, as well as the periwinkle earrings I will be wearing (depending on whether you’d consider them blue or purple) and the aquamarine blue anklet bracelet I have. In addition (trying not to give too much away), the garter I’d already bought new and some of my undergarments have blue accents as well.

As far as the garter from my grandma - the only real concerns are its current shape (Will it fit me? Is the elastic too old?) and the possibility that it won’t get much further down the grandkids line other then to maybe one of my guy cousins if it is accidentally removed instead of the “tossing garter” during that fabulous time at the reception. Regardless, I will do my best to respect this simple request from my grandma whom I cherish, and my part to pass it down the line when the time comes. I hope it will be waiting for me in my old bedroom when we get to NJ in a week!!!

First, I would like to once again thank Andrew & Sabrina for their suggestion and example for our wedding map! The new link is off to the left, and also available on our wedding webpage. We still suggest using the directions we originally provided with the invitations to get to the church or the reception, as Google maps does not account for the divided barrier on Rt. 22 and NJ law prohibiting U-turns - if you are from out-of-state you will need to utilize what are known as “jughandles” to turn across Rt. 22. However, this map gives a great overview of NJ and the relative location of where all our wedding activities will be taking place.

The rehearsal dinner invitations have been sent out! Kris and I received our “tickets” on Friday. Kris’s parents got pretty creative with these invitations. We were both pretty excited to see them when they told us they’d “done something different” because we really had no idea what to expect. The best part is that they had no idea what we were doing for the place cards for the reception, and I think the similar theme will tie in nicely. (Sorry, no pictures or other hints yet - but we will have them up in just a few short weeks!)

We’re working on the table arrangements and seating chart. This is a huge pain in the butt to do when you don’t have 100% of the responses. It’s all speculation - if this person comes, then they can sit at this table, but if this other person comes, then these people have to be moved over here… We started working on the place cards, which we will also be using to hold one of the favors - but those can’t be finished until the seating is worked out.

We decided on the readings and finished “customizing” the ceremony, so we were able to finish the ceremony program wording. We’re looking forward to the mock-up from Kris’s parents (since they are awesome and printing them for us!). I’m sure they will be just as fabulous as the invitations and save-the-date cards.

More to come in these next few weeks!