An Open Letter to the Wedding Industry

Dear Wedding Industry,
   
     You are overrated. You think that lots of things are important that I found trivial. Somehow there has become this great misconception that lots of material items are necessities at a wedding. My wedding and reception was wonderful. I didn't have all sorts of take home things for my guests, many details in your mind were skipped, my wedding didn't require me to take out a loan or go broke. Rather, my family and friends gathered, we worshiped, we prayed, we said our vows, we rejoiced, we ate, we drank, and we danced the night away. And we slept really hard when it was all over.
    My wedding and reception was beautiful! I couldn't have wanted anything else. I am thankful I didn't buy into your lies of what is important and what isn't. I am thankful I didn't spend thousands upon thousands upon thousands of dollars on a dress that I will wear once. I am thankful that I am didn't have to take out a loan or spend ridiculous amounts of money on one day of my life, while yes, my wedding day was very important, I also know that the next ninety (or really how many ever years we live) years are just as important as today. I am thankful for the time I had with my family and friends and the fun we had. I am thankful for my family and friends who have promised to hold Marc and I in prayer and journey alongside us for the rest of our lives. I am thankful that your lies don't rule the world.

  Love,
      a recent bride

Eight: Goals for this Month

For the next few Tuesdays I am linking up with Lauren at Life. Love. Lauren and Tiffany at The Austin Family Diary for their Tuesday Topics. This week's topic is "Eight: Goals for this month."

Marriage License

IT IS DONE.

We have applied for our marriage license. BAH! This stuff is getting real fast! (not that it wasn't before but stuff like this makes it seem sooooo much more real) They said we could pick it up in a week or so depending on how long it took them to process it through the system. It is nuts to think that we seriously just applied for a wedding license.

In other fun news today I am meeting up with some friends in a town south of me for lunch. Should be marvelous, I feel like I haven't seen them in eons! It should be marvelous.

a photo from hiking at the Arb last night

Then this afternoon I have a great plan to go running, no watch, no headphones, just Dakota and I. We are going to run and run and then run some more until my legs say we are done. I am excited to finally have a little bit of free time that allows me to go on this type of a run - the kind where you don't have to watch the clock or anything.

I am thankful for a day off as it doesn't really seem like I had one last weekend with synod assembly.
Now to go switch the laundry (the never ending piles of laundry).

After I finish the laundry today I am kissing my wool sweaters and other ridiculously warm clothes good riddance until next October/November (must. think. positively.) and putting my shorts in my drawers. Have you gotten to put away your winter clothes yet?


What do you like to do on your days off?
Do you have a least favorite chore? (mine is matching socks)
Do you ever run without any watches or music?

One Month

The countdown is now down to days rather than just months, and not hundreds of days, one month from today I will be getting married. Whoop Whoop! Seriously this count down at times has felt ridiculously long and at other moments have flown by. I can hardly believe in one month all this preparation and planning will be playing out as it is. There is a large piece of me that is ready for it all the play out, there is another piece of me that love the details and allows me the freedom to work details on something other than mission trips and work projects.



What's Done:

• I have a dress and it has been fitted
• I am picking it up in May when I go to Fargo to run the Fargo Half Marathon
• Church and reception hall are reserved
• Pastors - picked (complicated when many of your friends are ordained)
• Caterer - automatic when you get the reception hall
• food tasted (seriously this is the best job ever - I would love to do this every night for dinner)
• Cake - person selected 
• working with her to go back and forth about selecting exactly what we want - who knew there were so many amazing options
• We are now in the nailing down of the final details portion of this
• Photographer 
•  Fiances uncle and a friend
• Hair appointments 
•  reserved for bridesmaids and me
• DJ 
•  Fiance's uncle 
• Rehearsal Dinner 
• space reserved (at a camp I co-direct in my spare time)
• menu planned
• Guest book figured out
• save the dates sent
• children's bulletins made
• centerpieces done
• reserve transportation for post wedding/ pre-reception 
• Bridesmaid dresses (ordered and several of them have picked them up)
• Invitations
• Groom, Groomsmen, Usher tuxes
• Fabric Banner
• DJ
• need to get him a list of what songs are musts and what songs are not to be played
• figure out usher's gifts
• Closets cleaned out
• Flowers picked out
• set up golf outing for the guys

TO DO:

• make bridesmaid gifts
• in process & almost done
• figure out groomsmen gifts
• Pay the flower place
• Pay the cake lady
• Make labels for reception - who has what meal and what not
• Wash all the mason jars
• Put labels on mason jars for people to write their names
• Make food for rehearsal dinner
• this can't be done until later
• Contact the people who have not turned in the RSVPs
• finish designing bulletins
• Get bulletins printed
• Pick up my wedding dress
• May 17 - before the Fargo half I am picking it up
• Get marriage license
• May 9 - we are going to go get it
• Make a schedule for everyone for day before and day of wedding
• Make a list of info for host couples at reception
• Find someone to light the candles at the reception before everyone gets there

Surreal

Today I am off to Fargo to go try on my wedding dress again (seriously haven't seen it or tried it on since October). The wedding/being married stuff is becoming real really fast. It is a bit nuts to say the least. While I am excited to go try on my wedding dress and all that fun stuff I am also excited to hang out with one of my friends for a few hours and eat yummy food.

It seems strange that things are finally falling into place and everything is really happening. We are 43 days away from wedding day, I am jazzed, I am ready to be done with this strange period of transition, I am ready to be done with the planning and the craziness of it all. I am ready to be married and on with it. Although I am super super super excited to see family and friends I have my fingers crossed that from when they start arriving till Sunday afternoon goes slowish and that I take at least 10,000 photos (I LOVE pictures) and that I have the mental capacity to remember it all! [Yes, I know this is a utopic dream - but I don't care]

Living in a small town I always get jazzed when I get to go to a bigger town so that I can have a wider variety of food. The problem always comes in only selecting one place to eat.

Perks of going to the big city:

• great yarn shopping
• yummy food
• friends are near
• chances of running into people from work is lessened
• I remember that I don't like a ton of people and am happy with my little town

Downfalls of going to the big city:

• I have to drive
• I sometimes dream of living closer to a city (2.5 hours to big cities in nearly every direction sort of sucks)
• it pretty much sucks up my whole day

Unrelated side note: I did get up earlyish and got in a great run with my sweet puppy - the distance isn't quite what I would like to be at right now and the transition from the treadmill to the road is always a roughish one for me.

Any tips for transitioning back to running on the road?

Anything exciting happening in your world today?

Do you have to go somewhere to get to the "big city" or do you live there?

Any good runs happening out there?

Two Months

What's Done:

• I have a dress (still needs to be fitted)
• Church and reception hall are reserved
• Pastors - picked (complicated when many of your friends are ordained)
• Caterer - automatic when you get the reception hall
• food tasted (seriously this is the best job ever - I would love to do this every night for dinner)
• Cake - person selected 
• working with her to go back and forth about selecting exactly what we want - who knew there were so many amazing options
• Photographer 
•  Fiances uncle and a friend
• Hair appointments 
•  reserved for bridesmaids and me
• DJ 
•  Fiance's uncle 
• Rehearsal Dinner 
• space reserved (at a camp I co-direct in my spare time)
• menu planned
• Guest book figured out
• save the dates sent
• children's bulletins made
• centerpieces done
• reserve transportation for post wedding/ pre-reception 
• Bridesmaid dresses (ordered and several of them have picked them up)
• Invitations
• I just picked up at the printer this past week
• envelopes are addressed, stamped, and return address on them
• I need to finish stuffing them and drop them in the mail hopefully today or tomorrow

TO DO:

• Groom, Groomsmen, Ushers tuxes 
• picked but now we need them all to turn in their measurements
• set up golf outing for the guys
• make a fabric banner
• fabric is all cut just needs to be tied to the rope
• make bridesmaid gifts
• in process
• figure out groomsmen gifts
• DJ
• need to get him a list of what songs are musts and what songs are not to be played
• figure out usher's gifts
• Make labels for reception - who has what meal and what not
• Put labels on mason jars for people to write their names
• Make food for rehearsal dinner
• this can't be done until later
• Flowers
• have a date set with the florist to look at flowers and pick them and all that happy jazz
• I need to clean out my closets and kitchen. I know I have been saying I need to do this for months, but push is finally coming to shove and I need to seriously get going through all my stuff and get rid of some, keep some, and seriously make room for Marc and his stuff.

What am I missing?

Wedding Flowers

While my mom was up for Easter we went to the florist and got to pick out what flowers we wanted for the wedding. I am not certain what I would do without pintrest. Seriously. I have little to no knowledge of what flowers are and what they look like or what would look good together. I went in with some ideas and the florist took what I liked and switched it to the green color for the wedding and it should be fun! I am excited. It is sort of a strange thing to realize how close we are starting to get.

What is even crazier to realize is that the next time my mom and dad and brother are up here we will be getting married!

Random fun: We mailed out our invitations last weekend and we started to get them back and so far it is all people who I knew were coming to the wedding for sure (pastor, organist, grandpa, grandma, & a family from town here) but it is ridiculously exciting to be getting fun mail.

I am over the top excited to see everyone!

Three Months

No I haven't fallen off the face of the earth, some how my blog fell to the back burner, and really it isn't the end of the world, but I am back, more importantly my colleague is back from vacation and I can breath again. I continue to work on wedding stuff and we are exactly three months away from go time.


What's Done:

• I have a dress (still needs to be fitted)
• Church and reception hall are reserved
• Pastor - picked (complicated when many of your friends are ordained)
• Caterer - automatic when you get the reception hall
• food tasted (seriously this is the best job ever - I would love to do this every night for dinner)
• Cake - person selected now to pick out an exact design
• Photographer - Fiances uncle and a friend
• Hair appointments - reserved for bridesmaids and me
• DJ - Fiance's uncle 
• Rehearsal Dinner 
• space reserved (at a camp I co-direct in my spare time)
• menu planned
• Guest book figured out
• save the dates sent
• children's bulletins made
• centerpieces done
• reserve transportation for post wedding/ pre-reception 
• Bridesmaid dresses (ordered and several of them have picked them up)
• Invitations
• I just picked up at the printer this past week
• envelopes are addressed, stamped, and return address on them
• invites are stuffed into envelopes
• will be mailed out just after Easter

TO DO:

• Groom, Groomsmen, Ushers tuxes 
• picked but now we need them all to turn in their measurements
• set up golf outing for the guys
• Mail invitations 
• make bridesmaid gifts
• figure out groomsmen gifts
• figure out usher's gifts
• Make food for rehearsal dinner
• this can't be done until later
• Flowers
• have a date set with the florist to look at flowers and pick them and all that happy jazz

What am I missing?

**I AM TOTALLY GETTING JAZZED TO SEE ALL MY FAMILY AND FRIENDS WHO ARE COMING UP FOR THE EVENT**