"You're wet." "Yes, It's Raining."

This bride-to-be has been showered!

This past weekend, a lovely group of ladies gathered at one of my favorite local bakeries to throw me a (mostly) surprise bridal shower. The only information I had was the date and the time I needed to be ready by.

Before getting into the shower, though, let me start with the day before; the day Charlotte got six inches of rain in three hours! The downpour wouldn't have been much of an issue for most as it occurred mostly mid-day, before most would be driving into town. (Luckily, Douglas didn't have to drive in that rain to get here!) However, one we knew who would be arriving Friday evening wasn't coming by car, but by train. Brideswoman Vanessa enjoys taking the train and almost never comes away from a trip without a story. This trip, she had a story. The train wasn't leaving Raleigh! Why?

Charlotte's Amtrak Station Under Water

Charlotte's Amtrak station is known to flood, but this was ridiculous. An hour or so later, her train was ready to leave Raleigh and give the trip to Charlotte a shot. By the time we showed up to pick her up, the parking lot had drained but the station building was off-limits (lights were off) and the tunnel where the riders would leave the platform from was flooded, so Vanessa got to trek across gravel to leave, with the other passengers, out of the service entrance. It took a while, but we got her! She then informed us that one of the cars in the parking lot was her conductor's. Ouch!

We finally got Vanessa back to our place and hung out for a few hours. Then, around midnight, while we were discussing some logistics for wedding stuff the girls were helping me out with, we get a knock at the door. SURPRISE!

Brideswoman Noel is at my door!!! This little lady had paid me a surprise visit once before in DC, but that was with Vanessa as a co-conspirator. This time, Vanessa was also surprised! We didn't know if Noel was going to be able to come in at all, so for her to show up was that much more awesome!

With Best Man #1, Brideswoman #1, Brideswoman #2, and Future Husband under the same roof, it was time to pack it in for a few hours of sleep. Putting my head down and wondering what the next day would hold, this image never crossed my mind:

We Have Bands - Wedding Bands, That Is!

Who knew the impact of crossing one little item off the to-do list?

Future mother-in-law, Jane, and I were able to make an impromptu trip to Roanoke early this weekend. It was a quick in and out trip with the major objective being making some decisions about the rehearsal dinner. On that end, we had success. On top of that, we were all able to pop into the venue and see that the window trims are up and the tables and chairs are in and the bathrooms are finished! Ladies and gentlemen, the venue is DONE!!! Being able to see everything in the space, Douglas and I were able to discuss blocking, seating, etc. Another big deal from the trip was that I was able to make some decisions about the table decorations!

But the tables are for another day. Jane and I had some time before lunch, after which we would head back to Charlotte, so Doug and I decided it was a good opportunity to pop into a few jewelry shops to look at rings. First stop, Jewells Fine Jewelry. If you are ever in Roanoke, I recommend popping in. They have an array of different jewelry styles and the ladies who work there are fantastic! We were in the shop for maybe five minutes before Douglas was holding a lovely black ceramic Benchmark ring, that he had been considering, in his hand! This was big because other jewelry shops didn't have a sample of the rings, you had to just order from a catalog. So Douglas is able to actually check out a ring in the color, material and very close to the style that he was considering. Score! We all loved the ring and the hard part became deciding which of two styles he liked best! While Douglas was deciding, I was able to check out some simple plain women's bands. This was exciting because I just was not liking any of the jeweled bands most stores showcase. They just didn't work and I couldn't even comprehend spending so much money on such thin bands. But that's just me. I found a style that I liked when one of the ladies asked the other if she had shown me "the sample ring". In a flash, a sample ring was brought up from behind the counter - a nice little white gold number in a similar style to the sample I was just looking at. After slipping it on my finger, we were floored by how perfect it worked with the engagement ring! They looked like they were made as part of a set. BINGO! I had found a wedding band! The style - Comfort Fit. The material - white gold. The size - PERFECT! "We can hold this very ring for you, if you'd like." After checking it out and seeing that it's pretty much brand new, I told her "yes, please"! I had found MY wedding band! I was wearing MY wedding band with my engagement ring and loving it! I bounced up and down with excitement as Douglas made his final decision on the style that he liked and asked a few more questions about the ordering process as he would have to order his. As soon as all was said and done, Douglas and I looked at each other. I was too excited. "Douglas, we BOTH have wedding bands!" was followed by a perfect high-five. (are we not perfect for each other?) The store is holding onto my band for me until Doug's comes in and we'll pick them up together. The only detail we have to decide before putting the order in for his ring is what to have engraved on the inside as it's free if he gets his engraved before it's sent. Mine can be engraved in-store. After having major success at the first jeweler we stopped in that morning, Douglas, Jane and I walked next door to have a celebratory lunch.

Once I got used to the fact that we had just secured our wedding bands, my wedding mojo was completely re-energized! So far, the wedmares about being unprepared for the wedding have not resurfaced. I still have some details to figure out, but none as significant as the rings. I am back to being excited about the wedding, having fun finalizing details, and am so ready for the bridal shower on Saturday! That's right, you heard me, READY for the bridal shower! "Let's do this, I'm a cashew!"(Not safe for work or children)


Did I mention that they were kind enough to clean my engagement ring for me before we purchased anything? I honestly didn't realize how dingy my ring had become until I saw it cleaned again! I'm doing my best to keep it shiny and clean for the shower, but man do I need to make sure it gets cleaned again right before the wedding! So sparkly!

As if finally finding rings we loved wasn't enough, it also marked the point where we had shared a significant wedding planning moment with each of the parents!

I found the dress with Liesa, my mom.
We found the venue with Larry, Doug's dad.
And now we found the rings with Jane, Doug's mom.

Yes, yes, I know that John, my dad, is missing from the list, but he gets to walk me down the aisle and that's not part of wedding planning. ;-)

So what's next? Tomorrow I'll be calling to schedule my dress fitting, hopefully for next week!

We're getting married!! Let's do this!

The Terror of the Three Month Countdown

It's here, whether I like it or not, it's here. We are officially three months out from our wedding! *clears throat* Let me rephrase, "HOLY SHIT, WE'RE THREE MONTHS OUT FROM OUR WEDDING!!!"

I have been denial about this benchmark coming for a long time. Three months means full speed ahead, no excuses, do it or forget it. This is the time when you start wondering "why, in the world, did we decide to plan a wedding from over two hours away?!" I love our location, so I don't have regrets on choosing Roanoke, but not having a car (and being about three hours away) makes it a HUGE pain to knock out small things - like throwing together a table setting, popping into a jewelery store or florist, stopping in at the dress shop after work to twirl in the dress and put a few hair decisions to rest and revisit the veil decision to put that to rest. Alas, these small things have turned into months of agonizing with websearching, sketching, and going in lots of circles in my head. UGH!

The good news is that I finally busted through my planning-block and made some headway on some wedding decisions this past week. I have a shot list for the photographer, some fun ideas for the girls, a rough idea for a day-of hairstyle, and stumbled across a Final Four bracket approach to choosing our First Dance tune! We even had a brief stint of entertaining an idea for the honeymoon, but we ultimately decided it wasn't what we wanted to do. At least there's some headway being made in the honeymoon department.

The bad news is, August is going to FLY by. I haven't even peeked at September yet. I'm too afraid to. I need to make it through August first. What am I trying to squeeze in over the few weeks August has to offer?

• Bridal shower (2 weeks!)
• Dress fitting (Roanoke trip)
• Trip to see Mom & Dad before the wedding, go shopping for Mom's outfit (PA trip)
• A potential move (if Doug's internship goes full time)

and that's all that I know of at this point! Throw in work typical life stuff (like Louis' bday) and we have ourselves a full month! AH! It is going to fly by!

You know what, though, I'm going to be very happy come the end of August, because one way or another, Douglas and I will be living together again! It will be very nice to be together again, especially leading up to the wedding! We can make all the jokes we want, but it's been hard living apart for the past couple of months.

On a last, totally disjointed note (to go with this totally disjointed post) - our venue is nearly complete! It has tables and chairs now! And...guess what. The chairs are....PURPLE!

Hiatus

Hey, folks.

Instead of blogging yesterday, I decided to accompany the future-brothers-in-law to a viewing of "Transformers 3". The movie was so bad - yes, worse than the 2nd one - that I just am too flabbergasted to write about the wedding. So that's my excuse for this week's missing entry.

Next week's entry will be lacking as well as I will be off on a business trip.

I'll see if I can make it up to you with a week or two of double posts when I'm back in town.

Happy July, everyone!

Planning from a Computer

As some of you know, Douglas and I became a one car family while we were living in Maryland. My dear Rav4 never fully recovered from saving our lives in a crash with a drunk driver back in 2006 and it finally got to a point where it was better to take her up to PA and leave her with Mom and Dad should they need a backup vehicle. Between my taking the metro while in the DMV and working from home in NC, being a one car family hasn't been too difficult - until now.

For the first few weeks of Doug's internship in VA, I didn't really have anywhere to be, so being stuck at home until the evening wasn't too big of a deal. Then, the wedding stress set in. I needed to start working out ideas for decor on the tables, figure out shoes, and play with flowers. Alas, being carless, I could not quell my curiosity with a quick run to Michael's or A.C.Moore or Sears. Instead, I threw myself into the classifieds of wedding websites, Craigslist to find local yard sales, and the full array of sites between Pier 1 and Pottery Barn. It didn't take long until I was in a downward spiral of obsessing over details because I couldn't find what I liked or what I thought I was looking for. Before I knew it, I had wasted many evenings up to my digital elbows in websites with nothing to show for it. How could I not find inspiration or even a lead on the internet?!

I went through every extreme - "Holy crap, that's too simple, I need to put a lot more on the tables!" to "Screw centerpieces. Everyone forgets they're there anyway." I was pissed, frustrated, irritable, simply not happy with the fact that I was obsessing over these details that really shouldn't require this much effort and stress. I also felt really stupid for letting it get to this point.

I finally decided to express my angst through Twitter and low and behold, a college friend who follows me throws out a suggestion, a website she used to get stuff for her wedding. Always on the look out for another wedding resource, I checked it out. The very first thing I saw made me giddy - they let you shop by color! Score! This means not scrolling through tons of pages, liking a design and then learning it doesn't come in the color you want. So I opened a tab to shop by red, one to shop by purple, and one to shop by plumb. It only took a minute or two to find a few things worth bookmarking - which had not yet happened in all of my searching! I was bouncing in my chair. After taking a few minutes to come down off of the I-finally-found-something-interesting high, I decided to send the finds out to my girls and mothers to see if they really were as good as I thought they were, or if I was being deceived by my look-what-I-found haze. Verdict: total find!

After a fun phone conversation with Mom and a suggestion by one of the brideswomen, I decided to order one of each of the goodies to see in person to check out the colors and sizes. This would also give me something to play with instead of simply visualizing. What accent color will work best? How should they be put together? Will the idea for a little embellishment work as well as we think it will?

Now my frustrations have turned to excitement. Right before writing this post, I got the email saying that the goodies have shipped! I will finally have something material that I can play with and experiment with and actually feel like I'm doing something for this wedding other than paying deposits and drawing sketches.

It's good to get a reminder every few months that it's all coming together...cause we're running out of time!