Wedding Wednesday

Today's Wedding Wednesday post is being written from our apartment. After ten days of living in the hotel we were finally able to move back into our home yesterday. Sleeping in our own bed has never felt so good. Just after we thought we had gone through enough the past ten days, last night we discovered our car had been broken in to. The front passenger window was shattered and our GPS and iPod were stolen. While it is disappointing and frustrating and quite possibly the worse timing, they are just things and can be replaced or repaired. If we have learned anything this past month, it is that P and I are stronger than ever and can get through just about anything together. Of course there were moments when emotions ran high out of frustration and exhaustion, but I know I could not have gotten through it without him.

Now on to the wedding.....it is in 17 DAYS! It is so hard to believe is coming up so fast. Our to do list has 30+ lines and growing but we are hoping to tackle LOTS of items this weekend. Here's hoping to nothing but good things for the next 17 days!

Wedding Wednesday: Traditions

Happy Wednesday! We are still living in a hotel but should be able to move back into our apartment by close of business on Friday - fingers crossed!

When it came to planning our wedding, P and I knew it would be very traditional: married in the Catholic church followed by reception with friends and family. But there are a few traditional wedding things where we are going to stray a bit.

• Receiving Line - instead of doing the traditional receiving line out the church, P and I will be doing a receiving line as guests enter the reception area from the cocktail hour. The main reason we have chosen to do it this way is we our constrained on time at the church after the ceremony to get pictures. We also thought this was a great way for us to get to greet and interact with each guest and not have to do the obligatory walk around to each table during the reception. The receiving line will only consist of P and I which we hope will speed up the process.
• Bouquet Toss - I have never been a huge fan of the bouquet toss at weddings. It is awkward to be called out as the "single woman" or  the "still not engaged woman" and then have to pretend like you care about catching the bouquet. I think it is a bit antiquated to assume that every single woman at a wedding is dying to be the next to get married. Plus, I did not feel like paying extra money for a toss bouquet.
• Garter Toss - our reasoning not wanting to do a garter toss is pretty similar to the bouquet toss. Plus neither of us would have been comfortable with a room of our family and friends watching him slide a garter down my leg. No thank you.

The one key thing we have learned along the way during wedding planning is we have to do what we are most comfortable with. Sure there has been some individual compromises, but we both know on April 13th we are going to have the wedding we want!

Even though today is the first day of spring it is still freezing in DC with highs only the 40s through the weekend. We are hoping that it warms up considerably in the next three weeks!

What a Weekend

We had a very full and adventurous weekend.

My older sister came to town on Friday night. On Saturday she had a full day of interviews with two counties in the area for potential teaching positions. I played chauffer and drove her around while getting other errands done along the way. After coming back to the apartment to freshen up and pick up P, we headed out to celebrate St. Patrick's Day. The first bar we attempted to go to was packed. Like couldn't breath, let alone get a drink packed. Plus we had heard of a guy puking in the bar's alley on our walk in and decided it just wasn't our scene. So we headed over to the Irish Channel in Chinatown and celebrated P's Irish heritage with drinks and green jello shots! After a couple of rounds of drinks we met up with our buddy John for dinner before calling it a night.

Cute Leprachaun in the bar!

Whiskey Sour in honor of Grandpa. Made with Jameson in honor of P's heritage

The weekend's big adventure began on Sunday morning. We woke up to soaked carpet in our bedroom, closet, and hallway leading into the living room. Early Sunday morning, like around 2am, a pipe burst in our neightbor's apartment. Their unit was completely flooded with about an inch of water. We are fortunate that we only share part of a wall with them  (a stairwell blocks the rest) but there was enough water to soak the floors in the affected area. Starting around 8am we had the apartment maintenance men, plumbers, and carpet specialist in and out of our apartment. By 10am carpet and padding was ripped out of our bedroom and closet and heavy duty fan were blowing. After talking with other units who had been impacted (seven of us total) we were all able to piece together that our units would be uninhabitable for 3-4 days, the apartment building was not planning to pay for our hotels, and our closets would need to be completely empty so the cabinets could be removed. Throughout the whole ordeal we have not heard from anyone from the apartment's management company. All of us have emailed management but have gotten no response in the past 24 hours. Despite the huge inconvenience, we are lucky that none of our property was damageed and none of the items we have been gathering for the wedding have been damaged.

A glimpse of our bedroom

Enjoying the hotel life

Despite our new living circumstance, P and I are prepared to tackle many things on our wedding to-do list this week! We are less than four weeks and counting!

Wedding Wednesday

This week's wedding Wednesday installment is bittersweet.

My beloved grandfather passed away on Friday afternoon. He had been sick for several months and while my family had lots of time to prepare it has been a tough couple of days. My grandfather was such a charming man who loved his family. I will always remember his great smile and sweet blue eyes. I know he is in a better place now, but I miss him so much.

Despite the sadness, the timing of our wedding - which is now ONE MONTH away - could not be better. It was so great to see family and be able to hear how excited everyone is for the big event next month.

The past thirteen months have been a whirlwind of excitement, anxiety, and planning. Now that we are in our last month before "I Do," I feel incredibly calm. We still have lots of little things to finalize, but I know they will all get done. And most importantly, I know that in one month I will be married to the person I'm going to spend the rest of my life with and really, that's all that matters.

It's March!

I cannot believe it is already March. That means there is only full month before the wedding! If work continues at the same tempo, this month is going to fly by and next thing I know I'll be walking down the aisle!

We still have quite a few to-do's to check off the wedding planning list:

• Buy items for and stuff welcome bags
• Finalize, print, and tie ceremony programs
• Final meeting with DJ
• Meeting with priest
• Obtain marriage license
• Final dress fitting
• Purchase remaining gifts for bridal party and VIPs (and wrap all gifts!)
• Work on our speeches (P and I are planning to say a few things at the rehearsal dinner and reception)
• Create wedding weekend timeline for bridal party and VIPs
• Make arrangements for Calvin for the wedding weekend
• Work on seating for reception (RSVPs are due in two weeks!)
• Finalize rehearsal dinner contract
• Meeting with reception coordinator to finalize all day-of details

It seems like a lot but a lot of them are pretty easy and quick to cross off the list. Just lots of finishing touches left now!

This weekend I'm looking forward to spending some time with my high school bestie Megan and my mom and Meredith in Maryland!

TGIF!