I Feel Like a Cheater Pants!!!!

JEWELRY:
It never occurred to me that I would have trouble finding the perfect wedding jewelery. Sure, I've went on the town-wide search for the perfect jewelery for the perfect occasion more than one time, but I've always come out successful. I have boxes full of jewelery (all still packed, I'm afraid) but I never thought I'd have trouble finding something to go with the w-dress. Oiy! I was WRONG! I have been searching the city up and down for weeks!

The Nordstrom's semi-annual sale was started a week ago. The semi-annual sale is big doin's, at least in Seattle. Seriously, you KNOW there are more people downtown during the 2-week sale. The store is packed. The streets are loaded with signature "semi-annual sale" bags. EVERYWHERE! And they open early! Some people have their bags full before I get to work int he morning. It's craziness...and I was desperate.

For the first time ever I went to the Nordstrom jewelery counter. I always get shoes there and that's fine, but now I was buying jewelery at a mass retailer for of all things: the marriage of my and my jeweler beau!! I took a quick lap around when I saw it. It was cool.... pearls. Fake/Arty looking pearls...but pearls non the less. I was hooked. I knelt down and peered in the glass. Yup. I liked them. No. Wait. I think I loved them.

I ran screaming from the store.

How could I? How could I buy wedding jewelery and not wear something my honey gave me or something vintage...something from my world-wide travels? HOW!!!????

I was racked. I'll spare you the storied about the next 4 trips to kneel down and stare in the glass.

Finally, this week I still didn't have anything that would work. The piece Aaron made that I want to wear just doesn't "go" with the dress. I'll wear it another night this weekend. My good pal Cynthia went with me and helped me rationalize it. That's what girl friends do. Rationalize. She said there's nothing dirty about it...I should buy it.

I tried it on. I tried three of them on. We all stood around loving them all, but one especially. It would be the asymmetrical piece. We all knew it. I asked what the sale price was...it IS the big semi-annual sale after all. That's when they nicely told me that things under glass aren't covered by the sale. Not to be deterred I asked if they were negotiable...what if I paid in cash? Nope. Basically it came down to, "do you want it or not?" Well.. that's not fair because you KNOW I wanted it. I pinched my eyes shut and said, "I'll take it...and add a set of earrings too please."

(They took my money and handed me my goods in a regular Nordstrom's bag. That seemed fair since it wasn't on sale after all.)

I sheepishly came home to my jeweler and told him what I did. He said not to feel bad at all and that at least it was a line done my an artist.

"Ahhhhh....." a big sigh of relief. 'At least it was an artists' line'. Now it was all better. Next time I'll take him to help rationalize it!

THEY GOT ME AT WORK!!!
My last day of work for the next month was yesterday! My co-worker is also getting married this month. She's been engaged for a year and a half and is having 7 changes of clothes and 500 guests. I'm having 40 guests and 3 outfits (if you count shorts and a linen shirt as an outfit). It's been fun comparing it all through our engagements. On Friday I got a meeting request from our project controller saying she needed to meet with the two of us on Monday afternoon. I spent time preparing for the meeting and invited other people (who she then dis-invited). And when it came time for the meeting, not knowing she dis-invited them I was calling the other people up, "Hey! We have a meeting, let's go!" Meanwhile, she's calling them back, "Don't come..." So it went. Off to the conference room and you guessed it: Surprise Party, complete with cake and ice cream.

Both of us were TOTALLY surprised. We got cards and presents...and best of all, advise. Seriously, my co-workers told some great stories. I'm always a little surprised when the engineers get excited about something so emotional and, well, 'girly', but they clearly take weddings, honeymoons, and most importantly marriages darned seriously. It was super fun!

We're off to do last minute details like, oh I don't know: Write Vows.

Until the next time we can write.... stay tuned.

Places Everyone, Places....

CEREMONY UPDATE, We call her "the Reverend LuAnn":


Man, things get real when you do a first rehearsal!! We met tonight with our newly "ordained" officiant (and my former landlady and very good friend of ours) to go through the wedding ceremony plan. She brought us her certificate so we know really she's ready to go. She studied our state marriage license and she thinks we're all good to go. I worry that it'll be way too short but it's a simple and thoughtful ceremony and I suppose that's what really matters. Besides, will I be married to my beau when it's done? If the answer is "yes" then I think it's juuuuuust fine! I've also noted I'm a little behind on vow writing. I don't 'spose on wedding day you can say, "my dog ate it"....best to get down to business.

HONEYMOON UPDATE:
Today, Aaron and I both exchanged phone calls with the travel agent. We're hopeful that we'll soon be purchasing our honeymoon. There are so many details to sort out and our agent seems to be checking into every last one of them. Since Aaron like the nitty-gritty too they're working out things out. Me? I'm purchasing swim suits and shorts...now those are details I can get excited about!

WORK UPDATE:
Yes, they have made me work throughout most of this engagement, but not for much longer! Tomorrow is my last day of work for the next month. On the one hand there's no way I want to leave, "there so much to do" I say to myself. I worry that they'll get along without me just fine and not need me when I come back and then I worry that everything will go to hell in a hand-basket while I'm gone and I'll be tainted for not doing a better job of prepping people for when I leave. ARGGGHHHH!!!! No difference though, tomorrow's the last day for the next 30.

Stay tuned, tomorrow we should have music, work, and ceremony updates!

Count Down!

We are fast approaching the point where there's not much more that we can do. Not that there isn't more to do...just that time is running out so we just can't do.

A LITTLE HELP FROM OUR FRIENDS:
In the past week our local friends have swooped in to relieve us of most of the last minute wedding chores. (This is certainly the highlight of the past 2 weeks for me) Jane, Mark, Cynthia, Luann, Melissa, Brigit, Lance and the "3-Dayers" (the girls I walked with last summer and their hubbies), and a few others I might be forgetting at this very moment have all volunteers to take on the lion's share of what's left to do. There aren't enough "thank you's" to really sum up how much more fun things have gotten since they took away the hard stuff. THANK YOU!!! You'll all get to meet them when you're out here.

LIGHTS, CAMERA....MUSIC:
What's a wedding without music? BORING! This week Aaron started taking all the music that our friends gathered for us and began burning it on to CD's to cover the pre-wedding, post-wedding, and ice cream social events. So far the pre-wedding mix is awesome.

This weekend the "3-Dayers" came over to have a BBQ and get directions for wedding weekend and to play music samples for us. As always, it was super-fun hanging out with them. We were able to pick 3 pre-wedding songs that we like. Still need processional music. They are coming back later this week with more choices. I wanted to walk to the Muppet Show Theme, "It's time to get things started...it's time to dress up right...." I think it's prefect. Right words. Up beat. Something everyone knows. Well, everyone but the guitar players. And it's not that they don't know it. It's that as incredible as they are on guitar they are having trouble replicating a 30 piece jazz band on 2 acoustic guitars. *sigh* Too bad to, since I was practicing my Gonzo trumpet solo for weeks.

WEEK(s) OF BEAUTY:
Holy buckets there's a lot of beauty appointments the weeks leading up to a wedding!
Aaron had his first ever salon hair cut. That's mostly because I think I convinced him that while it's not a 100% chance of a good hair cut at an up-scale salon, the odds were almost certainly higher than SuperSavers or wherever it is that he usually gets his hair cut. He said he'd take the chance on the salon if I made the appointment, because talking to salon people is "girl work". No worries there, I was on it! And can I say, he got a GREAT hair cut. Not saying if he'd do it again or not, but it was a fine wedding cut. The groom is tough to keep up with!!!

For me it's sort of been a long string of appointments for hair, brows, color, and toes. The good people at Swoon humored me by putting on about 4 different colors of toe polish for me until I picked one I liked. They've offered to do a pre-wedding touch-up if I want. I seriously doubt we have time for that but it's alway nice to know it's an option.

And finally.....
HONEYMOON
Yes, we're going on one! We're not 100% sure where or for how long. We're hoping to book tomorrow. Just like all the other wedding planning we consider it a "just in time" event. We're hoping the travel agent can get us a good last minute deal. We'll know tomorrow night...we hope.

Now we just have a few days to finish up work and get most of the wedding stuff in order because you all start showing up sa-ooon! Good times!!

Tree Huggin Wedding

I realize it's been two whole weeks since we've last blogged. It's been a dense, exhausting, and many times stressful two weeks. We're on track though! All signs point to being married in less than two weeks!!!

TREE HUGGERS:
The past couple of weeks have been pretty exciting and fun at times. About a week ago we got to go to the Sky Nursery and pick up our first registry gifts. Everyone said the registry is fun. I felt weird about it but they were right!! The car was stuffed full of a giant pot and the coolest cork crew maple tree. I can't wait for folks to see it. Aaron and I were smooshed into the car with a couple of trees and a pot. We were an air recycling mobile unit. Tree huggers for sure! We loved it. And the garden is taking shape.


GARDEN:
Speaking of the garden, we can't wait for everyone to see the yards. One day last week Aaron came home with a car PACKED with very cool plants and flowers. We bought them in lieu of a decoration budget. Hopefully some of them will live past this season. Not wanting to be left out, I bought a car full too the next day. We spent Sunday planting, planting, planting. It so pretty to have all the flowers and greenery.

I SWEAR I Do!

Look out!! Things are starting to REALLY happening now!!

Officient?  CHECK!

Tux? CHECK! (pretty much, anyway....and he looks ga-oood!)

License?  CHECK CHECK CHECK!!! We get to get married!!!  YEAH! We did find time on Monday to dodge out of work a little 

early and hit the court house.  We could have licensed our vehicle too.  Be careful what line you get in to.  I had no idea I'd have to raise my right hand and swear to anything but I did.  Anyway...the papers are filed under "W" for wedding.  Don't let me forget.

Flower children?  CHECK!

Readers? Mostly CHECK!

Ceremony?  Mostly CHECK!

Photographers? (yes, plural) CHECK CHECK (one check for each camera)

Music chosen?  Well, we've got people on that!  In fact, big shout out to my upstairs neighbor Mark who keeps sending us CDs full of music.  We get to pick and choose without doing all the leg work.  It's SO nice.  

Everything else on the list?  If it isn't about food or music I just crossed it off.  Enough all ready?  Will we be married if we don't have fancy draping or special flowers?  I think so!  And with that in mind we're slashing the list at every opportunity.  That's why we no longer have to worry about party favors or a big balloon arch.  Decorated porta potty, well, yeah that's still on the list.  Priorities.

In other news can we talk about Nestle Toll House Cookie Ice Cream Sandwiches?   I simply call them Big Eds.  It was hot on wedding ceremony planning weekend.  Aaron and I were exhausted.  We walked 3 blocks to the Walgreens, bought a Big Ed to split.  We sat on a shady bench overlooking the parking lot and shared Big Ed.  We took turns passing it back and forth, talking with a mouth full of ice cream... As Aaron chomped down the last bite I read the Big Ed package out-loud.  Now maybe we were a little punchy, but guess what the number one  ingredient in a Big Ed is?  If you're Aaron you thought, "sugar" and said it confidently while dabbing some crumbs off the corner of your mouth.  And you'd be wrong.   Nope, the number one ingredient in an ice cream sandwich?  Cookies!!!  That's right --- cookies!?!?!  I think that's a little like saying the number one ingredient in a snack cake is 'cake' or number on ingredient in beer is 'beer'.  What's the number two ingredient then??? Is it ice cream, frosting or foam??? ...before we were done we were both heaped over with laughing until our bellies hurt.  COOKIES!!!  DAH!  They have really spoiled our "what's the number one ingredient" game.  I don't know what we'll do now.

That's all we know today.  More news on the incredibly shrinking list.  Thanks again to everyone who has been helping with the various details. 

Cheers!  

Nation's Birth and the birth of a Ceremony!

Happy 232nd Birthday, USA!  Very exciting times here as we celebrate July 4th in style.  The house is coming together, cable got installed today (though we haven't actually watched any yet), we zipped out and some wonderful fireworks at our local park (who thought the little townlet of Kenmore would have such great fireworks?) AND we spent today creating our wedding ceremony!  Feels great to have gotten to actually work more on wedding stuff rather than house stuff for the first time in weeks.  Aside from entering all the wonderful RSVP's in our wedding spreadsheet, this has been the first tangible thing we've done.

Not only that, but we're really happy with our plan!  Fun, a few surprises, just the right touch of gravitas as befits such a ceremonious occasion and, at the end of it, we do in fact get wed!  How perfect is that?

There's lots more to report and photos to post, but it's been a long day of planning and it's time to break in the new cable box for a bit before bed.  Be well, everybody, and we'll add more soon!

PS - and Happy Birthday to my sister, Abby, too!   She's not 232.   :)

Wish You Were Here

Wish you were here.   Really.  We could use some help unpacking.  

So the movers came and went on Sunday and it was pretty much uneventful.  One was cranky. One was affable.  Both worked right along and got the job done.  Best of all they were careful with the new floors (which look better and better every day).

We've spent two days straight now putting stuff away.  Selling stuff.  Giving away stuff.  Storing stuff.  Stuff, stuff, stuff!  But we need it.  :)  The deck looks truly awesome --- it's FULL of plants and flowers from two houses.  

So far it looks to me like we have four of everything: Shampoo - four; TP - four; Uncle Ben's Rice - four; Desk - only 3.... you would think 2 of everything but seems we had a spare of everything and once combined we have four of pretty much everything you'd need to start a house.  (Update: one desk sold tonight and another will be sold tomorrow night!)

We're doing a pretty good job of making things fit.  Aaron moved the clothes bar in my closet so I can have two rows of clothes.  It's great!!

All that and we still found time to do some wedding stuff.  We've printed the Marriage License Application and filled out our respective parts.  Perhaps Monday we'll have a chance to get to the Licensing Office to get it going - 3 day waiting period in Seattle!

Afraid that's all the energy I've got for writing tonight.  MUCH more to come.  Good night,

Anner