Success!

The wedding was a complete success. So now I have no use for this blog.

Luckily, the fun can continue. If you want to follow me over to another blog I've started, please feel free. So far I have done some wedding re-caps and have posted some pictures.

The blog is also just a regular blog where I talk about what's going on with Pat and I...regular blog type stuff. I haven't been great at keeping it up, but I'm going to work at it since it is so fun to stay in touch with friends and family across the country.

If you do follow me over, leave me a comment - I'd love to know who's reading!

http://underwood92708.blogspot.com/

(New blog link)

TEN days!!!

How did we get here already? Time has both flown and dragged. Some days it seems like yesterday that Pat proposed and other days it feels like I've been planning this wedding forever. I am so excited to see how everything comes together next Saturday. Woah. NEXT Saturday!

Mostly? I can't wait to be Pat's wife. We have such a bright future ahead of us that I can't wait to see what is in store for us.

My big question now...what am I going to do with so much free time after the wedding? I'm kidding - I already have a million things lined up! Those of you that know me well would have guessed that.

My last day of work is next Tuesday and then we have a busy few days to prepare. It's going to be so much fun!

First Fitting!

I have my first dress fitting in a little bit. I'm both nervous and excited! I haven't seen "my" dress yet, just the sample that I tried on. I hope I still love it!

The bridesmaid dresses are also in so I'll be picking those up as well. I am so excited to see everything in person! I hope the girls love their dresses.

We're down to the small details now. The seating chart, the place cards all that fun stuff. I am going to miss stalking my mailbox for the rsvp cards!

The next few weeks will be full of final meetings with vendors, dress fittings and hair trials I suspect. Not a lot of free time, but that's what the honeymoon is for, right?

Speaking of the honeymoon - we're going on a 7 night Caribbean cruise with Royal Caribbean. We're both really looking forward to it! We leave on October 5th, so we have about a week in between the wedding and the honeymoon to decompress!

Tomorrow is Pat's birthday, but we don't really have any plans. Well...I have a ton of wedding projects to do, but nothing exciting for him. I'm sure I'll figure something out.

Well, it's time for that fitting! I hope everyone is well!
22 more days!!

Well the invitations went out to rave reviews. Most people didn't believe that I actually made them and that made me so happy. I am really proud of the way they turned out. It has been SO fun getting the RSVP's in the mail.

We've had a few bumps in the road with people being upset about it being adults only, but that was largely out of our hands. We've also had some sad "no's" but there's nothing I can do about that either.

My dress is in, although I haven't gone down to get fitted yet. Crossing my fingers that it fits! The bridesmaid dresses should be in within a few weeks. I hope they all fit as well!!

The guys went and got fitted for the tuxes last week, I was so happy with Pat taking the initiative on that! They're also going away for his bachelor party this week. I hope they have a really good time. One of the groomsmen has a camp on a lake so they'll be doing some boating and fishing. I know they'll have a great time. Pat deserves a little break, he works so hard!

I also acted as a day of coordinator (DOC) for a wedding yesterday. It was great to see it run "behind the scenes" so I can have some ideas on how to make our day run more smoothly. I had a great time and I hope I was able to help the bride out some. This may be something I consider getting into after the wedding.

We still haven't booked our honeymoon yet. We're pretty set on a cruise, but we're both being lazy about it.

I think that's it. Any questions for me? I haven't had any comments in a while. Is anyone still reading?

Nightmares

All along through the planning I've had dreams about the wedding, but lately they're turning into nightmares. Not your scary vampire type, but more that anything that could go wrong, does. Last night's dream revolved around nothing being planned for the morning of the wedding. I didn't have a hair appointment, the photographers didn't know when to show up, I didn't even have my dress altered! The guests were hanging out in the hotel instead of going to the church, my bridesmaids couldn't find me, it was just a mess. I certainly hope the morning of the morning of the wedding is nothing like that dream!

So wedding related updates - the invitations are finished and will be going out this week. I am so excited for everyone to receive them and I can't wait to get the reply cards back!

This Sunday we have a family reunion with my Dad's side. I'm sure there will be a lot of talk about the wedding since the last time we all got together we had only been engaged for a couple of months and nothing was planned yet. I'm looking forward to it!

My bridal shower has been planned for the end of next month. My Dad's cousin Claudette was kind enough to offer her house to us, which was so nice of her. I hope we have a good time, although I get a little uncomfortable being the center of attention.

So that's the update! We have another meeting soon with the priest to plan our wedding liturgy, but that means Pat and I have to choose the readings first. We also have to figure out readers, Eucharistic ministers and someone for our music! Still so much to do for the ceremony!

Last night Pat and I met with Father Murray again to go over our FOCCUS test results. I'm pleased to report that our scores were exceptionally high! We need to set up another meeting with him in about a month to plan the wedding liturgy. We're still hoping that Father Bob can marry us, but he won't know until early August what his schedule looks like.

I am knee deep in invitation land these days. I love how they're turning out, I just have a few more kinks to figure out. I can't wait to send them out so everyone can see them!

There is so much I want to talk about here, but I don't want to give everything away just yet!

Three months!

Exactly three months from right now our ceremony will be ending and Pat and I will be married! We have so many exciting (and sometimes stressful) things going on!

I am in the middle of making our invitations. Yes, I said making them and yes, I am crazy. They're quite the labor of love, but I really do love them and I can't get enough craft projects.

All the major things are done and now we're down to the fun details. We have a meeting with our priest Monday night to plan the wedding liturgy and to talk about the logistics of it all. We also have to go over the results of our FOCCUS test that we took months ago!

So things are moving right along. We're having a lot of fun planning everything and I love that we're both on board with all that we're doing.

I know these next three months are going to FLY by, especially with everything we have going on. Not to mention summers usually go by too quickly anyway. I'm so anxious for 9/27!

The 4 month mark!

Wow, four months! Time sure is flying now!

We celebrated the year anniversary of our engagement on the 14th. I can't believe it has been a year, it truly feels like yesterday. I hope I never forget that feeling of being surprised, shocked, excited - everything!

We have our tasting at Martindale coming up next Wednesday, which is also my 30th birthday! I can't wait to taste the dishes, I bet we'll have a hard time choosing which ones to serve!

We had a nice Memorial Day, it was pretty low-key although we did get some wedding stuff done. We decided on an invitation design and I'll be ordering the materials this week. We also finalized the guest list (for about the tenth time). Is it final this time, Pat?

I hope you're all enjoying the nice spring weather. We've planted some tomatoes and pumpkins and they're doing great already! It's so exciting to watch them grow!

I spent all weekend working on wedding stuff...for other people! I came up with this idea for coasters (which you will also see at our wedding) and the business has taken off! I guess brides love the idea of having "Eat, Drink & be Married" coasters! I have to admit, they are pretty cute. So I produced over 800 coasters on Saturday and now I just need to get them shipped out. It's really fun though - and it gives me an excuse to be crafty!

This weekend we have our day long Engaged Encounter at the Catholic church. I am curious to see what this will be all about. I am optimistic that we might get something out of it. Time will tell.

We planted a "garden" this weekend. I use the term loosely. It's really two tomato plants in pots and some mini-pumpkins that I doubt will grow. I hope we get something since this is our first adventure into gardening!

On a personal note, my 30th birthday is coming up. I'm not sure how I feel about that!

May already?

Seriously, WHERE is the time going?

Well, I did find my dress and I love it. It should be here in August. We've now moved on to bridesmaid dresses which need to be ordered VERY soon! I know my Mom is also starting to think about her dress.

The only vendor I have to book still is our florist. I might try to get on that this weekend.

Oh, and Friday night we most likely found our rehearsal dinner location so that's good news as well! I love when things fall into place.

I think we'll be having our tasting soon at Martindale so we can set the menu. That will be a huge weight off my shoulders.

We have a wedding to attend in June in North Conway that I'm really looking forward to. Pat's friend Troy is marrying a girl I knew from high school. I'm sure it's going to be a great wedding and a ton of fun. We always have so much fun when we hang out with them.

I'm trying to think of what else to update...any questions about the wedding? Life? Anything?You can leave an anonymous comment, you don't have to register here.

Another Update

It has been so long since I've updated here. So what have we been up to?

Well, the major thing is that on Easter Vigil I received all three sacraments and I am now Catholic. This has been taking up a lot of our time and energy, but it has all been worth it. It was wonderful to have both sets of our parents there for that night.

I went shopping with my Mom and Saturday and I *think* I have found a dress. I'm not sure what's holding me back from ordering it because it's really perfect for me. I guess I just need to bite the bullet and make a decision! (I'm not good with decisions).

I have been fairly crafty lately and it has been so much fun. I've been making coasters for the reception and also a monogrammed runner for the cake table. I have so many other projects lined up!

Last weekend we worked more on our registry, which has been both fun and frustrating. Again, I'm not good at making decisions! But really, we're not finding everything we like at one store so we might have to branch out to another.

This weekend we're going to a wedding band expo so hopefully we'll be able to find a good deal on our bands. We both know what we want, it's just a matter of buying them.

Things are going really great with wedding planning and I hope it continues that way! I can't wait to share our special day with all of our family and friends!

Today's February 27th!

That means just 7 months until the wedding!

We're getting excited and anxious for September to be here already. We can't wait to celebrate with all of our family and friends! Speaking of that, I need to check the hotel block that I've set up to make sure there are enough rooms!

I have started buying all the supplies for our centerpieces. Our living room has been taken over by wedding supplies lately. When you're buying items for 20 tables it takes up a lot of room!

There is so much left to do, but I know it will all come together. I hope all the personal touches I'm hoping to include will add something to the day. Even if they don't, I'm having a blast doing them!

What's your dress like?

I get this question all the time. My answer is "I don't know." Why don't I know? Well, because I simply hate clothes shopping. I have been dreading buying a dress ever since the ring went on my finger. Seriously, why can't I walk down the aisle in jeans?!

The one thing I've always been excited for (since I was a teenager) was Filene's Basement's Running of the Brides in Boston (http://filenesbasement.com/bridal.jsp). It was always my dream to do this, although I have no idea why. Much to my disappointment I missed last year's event. Then I learned that the store in Boston was closing. My dream wouldn't be reached.

This morning when I was reading a wedding blog, I learned they were doing it again, just at Hynes Convention Center in Boston! I was so excited, frantically trying to find out when it was happening.

It's happening on Friday!!!

I called my Mom and she agreed to go with me to the madness. So maybe, just maybe, after Friday I'll have a real answer as to what my dress looks like!

It's our wedding year!

So my first post in 2008, the year we're getting married!

Not much has happened on the wedding front lately. I think we've decided on a design for our cake, I just need to call and set up a tasting. I've ordered some invitation samples that should be here soon. I'll be designing these and creating them myself, and I'm very excited about them.

So far most big things have been figured out. We still need to figure out transportation on the day of the wedding. It's these logistical things that can be frustrating. We also don't know the exact time of our ceremony yet...it will depend on whether we can get Father Bob to officiate or not. So that's still up in the air as well. However, we're only talking about an hour or so difference and Martindale is completely flexible so I'm not overly concerned.

I guess that's pretty much all that's going on at this point. Very soon I'll be going to look for gowns and bridesmaid dresses. I also need to meet with a florist to discuss some options. Thank God I still have eight months left!