36.

Here it is: there are only four more Fridays between now and the wedding.

In Becca's perfect world, all of the crafting and plans would be done.
Maybe there would be a few trips to the store to get a few things, but everything else would be done.

In reality, there are a lot of things still to do:
Signs need painted.
Bridesmaids bouquets need assembled.
Corsages need made. (They are also made of wooden flowers, like my bouquet.)
Paper flowers need created.
Burlap runners need to be cut. (At least we have the burlap now!)
The ribbon curtain needs to be completed. (At least we have a lot more ribbon now!)
The programs need to be assembled. (At least we have all the bits now!)
The music still needs to be downloaded & arranged in the order we want it in.
The favors need to be made.
The kid-table stuff needs to be acquired.
I still have a lawn game to make. (I have 1/4 of the required materials.)
We still haven't purchased our rings.
We don't have a cake topper or a cake serving set.
We also still have to decide if we are going to have anything on our cake besides the topper.
And then there's the doily crafts that need to be done...

Yikes.

I'm sure I'm missing some stuff, but that list alone gives me anxiety.

My mom and dad are coming over this weekend with the intention to help out with some stuff.
We're going to do the corsages, maybe prep some more stuff for paper flowers.
My plan is to start to download the music this weekend.
I'm going to have dad help with the sign painting this weekend, too.
I could probably also wash the doilies that I'm going to use for various things.

Oh so many things.

In fact, I am also taking Monday off to work on wedding crafts.
And my bachelorette party is probably going to be my bridesmaids helping me with crafts.

I think it's mostly so that my head doesn't explode.

I got my haircut for the last time before the wedding today.
I'll probably need a trim before the actual day, but no proper cuts should happen again until after we're married.

Atkins is still happening.
Despite having cake and empanadas at a goodbye last weekend, and cake at our final tasting today.
(And there was a 1/4 donut on National Coffee Day...)

That's it.
I'm down about 7.5 lbs, including some that I've gained back.
I've been doing it wrong the whole time though -- I haven't been getting my fat and protein amounts, but I have been good at the carb count thing. (Except for those three days mentioned above.)
I've spent an exorbitant part of these last two weeks feeling hungry. (My calorie count has been between 800-1500 calories / day, which leads me to question if it's the cutting of the carbs or the lowering of the calories that has caused me to lose weight.)
I will be able to do better with the tracking of things now that I know what I'm doing, and that all of the carb-heavy things are done for a while. Those two things should help Atkins actually do what it's supposed to.

Oops -- I spent way too much time talking about a personal thing here on the wedding blog.

Oh well.

There is other drama going on the scenes as well, but I don't want to get into that.
Just know that it's happening, even if it's not explicitly mentioned.
That drama makes me doubt a lot, which prevents productivity.

Here's hoping things get done!

Getting Real Now.

Yesterday, we hit the seven-week mark. 

It was also the day of my bridal shower, and the day that Jake went suit shopping with his aunt.

It was such a great day.

One of Jake's attendants, Sam, drove up from Colorado Springs (about 3 hours south of where we live now) on Friday evening, and we had brunch with him, his mom, and his granny. (He's Jake's best friend from high school, and the aforementioned matriarchs of the attendant's family were like family.) We went to the Cracker Barrel (my first time there and I'm already planning my next trip!) and, during and after the meal, we were cracking up. We were at the restaurant for about two hours, catching up and sharing laughter. 

I drove Jake back so he could get his car and meet his dad, his brother, his niece, and Sam at a restaurant for lunch. (How he had room for more food was beyond me.)

I quickly changed my shirt and threw on some makeup so I could be on time.

Then I hit game traffic. No big deal I thought.

Except it was. It really was.
I didn't end up getting to my own bridal shower until 1:30. 

And everything there was perfect.

My bridesmaids worked so hard on everything. The decor, the food, the games...everything. It was wonderful.
I was able to spend some time with some of my friends, some of my family, and some of my work family. There was laughter. There were tears (thanks, mostly, to my mother). The food was amazing. The punch was great. The sangria was yummy. The naked cupcakes were so great and thoughtful. The decor was perfect. They worked hard -- and completely spoiled me!
The only part I didn't like was opening gifts in front of everyone. That's my least favorite thing to do, like, ever. Even at birthday celebrations. 

We received lots of great gifts, and I received a couple of personal ones (a trip to a spa and some lavender-scented warming things for sore muscles and bad days). We even got an overnight stay in a local bed and breakfast! Wow!

Afterwards, I took some water to the suit-shoppers. I made sure that I didn't spy on the groom in his suit. He didn't want me to, so I was honoring his request. (Apparently, it's perfect, though.)

I was glad and relieved that he found something. (And the only part of his suit that needs altering was the pants.)

Today was spent recovering from our busy day yesterday.
I could do more days like yesterday, as long as I had a day break every now and then. (Ambivert, here.)
Jake couldn't handle it -- he's such an introvert. :)

This upcoming week brings the deadline for RSVPs.
Next weekend, then, will be spent heavily on the seating arrangements. 

The week after is when our details follow-up call occurs with our site, and we'll schedule our rehearsal dinner then, too.

The final week in September brings about the final cake appointment and the finalizing of the decor.

Then comes October and the massive rush to get everything done.

There will be lots of time on the computer, getting my photo projects finished, in the next few weeks.

There will be lots of time after that spent crafting and painting and getting everything else finished.

Yikes.

It's getting real now.

60.

It's Labor Day weekend, and here, on Labor Day, we find ourselves at exactly two months until our wedding day. Gulp.
We accomplished some stuff this weekend. (YAY!!)
We now know Jake's ring size (10.25) and his preferred thickness (5mm-6mm). We've even found some contenders on Etsy! 
I finished everything that I could on one of our still-outstanding crafts. I need more supplies before I can completely finish it. 
We got some super-special (AND AWESOME!) props for wedding photos!

Saturday is the bridal shower. I'm so excited to see what wonderful plans my girls have for me! They've been hard at work. I'm also looking forward to hanging out with people who love me and who are excited about the upcoming celebration.

This month has more upcoming stuff, too:

-Jake is going suit shopping with his aunt after the bridal shower on Saturday.
-The RSVP's are due to me on the 16th.
-We have our details phone call set up with the Tapestry House on the 23rd. (That's when we'll give them our final expected-guest count and set up our rehearsal appointment.) That also means it's six weeks from the wedding.
-The next Friday (the 30th), we have our final meeting with the baker to get everything finalized, cake-wise.

And, there will be more crafting happening over the next two months.
There's going to be a day when we have a paint day. (There will be a few subsequent days in which we assemble more blue flowers, each of which takes about 2 hours!)
We have to make the mothers' corsages, and, depending on his choices, we'll need to make the boutonnieres, too. 
I have to wash, starch, and stitch the doilies together for the few tables we're going to use them on, and the garland we're going to have.
I have to add more flowers to my bouquet and decide on what I want my girls to carry.
We need to assemble the floral arrangements that will sit in front of our table.
We have to make the favors, too.

We also need to acquire our cake topper, our cake-cutting set, billy balls, two vases, burlap for the table runners, the kid-table stuff, ...and I know there's more. There's always more (or at least it feels that way)!

I need to finalize the seating arrangements, too, but that has to wait until after I get the RSVP's back.
I need to check in with my parents about making some special things for me, too.

Despite all this that's left, I do still love weddings.
Photographing them.
Planning them.
Yes.

(Though this is the only one I plan on having.)
Maybe we'll do a vow renewal / retie the knot at some point in the future? 

(Good thing I have two friends getting married in the upcoming year/s -- I can help with theirs!)

71.

We are now at 71 days until the wedding.

My bridesmaids are busily planning the bridal shower (which takes place on September 10).
That same day, Jake and his aunt are going shopping for his suit. Gulp.
That's when things get real in my head.

See, I've always been a planner. For everything.
I like to plan out every eventuality in my head so that when a situation arises, I am prepared.

So me having wedding plans in process and having a dress and shoes and be talking about the wedding is nothing new. I've been doing that for years -- even saying, "Oh, honey, we should [do or have this] or play [this song] at our wedding" is nothing new: Jake has heard that for nearly the last decade.

But when you throw in someone else making decisions and actually buying things, that's when it becomes real for me.

Yes, my last post was about my friends buying their bridesmaids dresses, but I am convinced that they love me enough that they'd have done that even if the wedding was still another six years away.

Well, maybe they would have.

And, anyone who knows Jake, will know that he doesn't usually do things until he nearly has no time left to do them. So the fact that there are only days (like a little over two weeks) until he goes to find a suit means that time is almost up. We are almost ready to walk down the aisle.

Or at least that's what his shopping trip is triggering in me, based on his history.

And if I know him, he'll probably not commit to find something on the 10th, but just start "gathering ideas" -- even though, really, there is very little time left.
Not that the world will run out of dark gray suits any time soon, but he doesn't understand that if there is tailoring that needs to happen, or pressing that needs to happen, or ordering that needs to happen, those things take time. And ours is not the only event happening in the next few months; stores and tailors and shipping companies will be busy with other orders and other events, and I'm afraid he'll run out of time. Or make a rash decision because he feels time crunch.

We still have unfinished crafts laying around our apartment in various states of completion. It's all a matter of my commitments freeing up. I have already off-loaded three crafts, one each to my bridesmaids, and I don't want to give them anything else to do. That would make me feel crappy.

Oh well.

If it gets done, great. If not, great.
The important thing is that I'm marrying Jacob on November 5 and that's the only important things. The rest is trivial.

Bridesmaids Dresses!

Today, my bridesmaids met me at David's Bridal here in town and spent some time trying on dresses.

We were fortunate in our findings, and the girls were able to save some money on their purchases because I bought my dress from there.

One of the dresses is a cream color strapless floor-length dress with a sparkly accent in the belt area.
Another is a biscotti lace halter-top knee-length dress.
And the final dress is a gray lace halter-top floor-length dress. This one makes me nervous because it's a new style and the stylist who ordered it said that it would be here the last week in October. (Um, my wedding is the first week in November!) She assured me it would be here for the wedding, and I'm like, "yeah, but what if it needs altered or hemmed??" I'm sure everything will be fine, but still -- why do weddings always have some sort of dress snafu accompany them?

I just hope that they wear them again -- that was my only request. I didn't care what colors they were (I had a preferred palette, but not like "everyone's buying eggplant") and I didn't care what style it was or how long the dress was. I wanted to make sure that they got a dress they'd feel beautiful in and look gorgeous in and, most importantly, wear again.

Here are the dresses!

I can't wait to see them all in the dresses again! (That will probably be the day of the wedding, and if so, that's fine with me! It's nearly here anyway!)

Less Than Three Months -- YIKES

The last published post on here was from February. There have been a few other posts started here and there and abandoned for one reason or another. (Mostly, I think it's because a lot of the posts require photos that exist on my phone and without having iCloud on all of my devices, it's hard to get the photos from the phone to the post without having started the post through the app.)

Mostly...there has been a lot happen since February. :)

I decided to use the skeleton of invitations that I made as program holders instead.
This was helped by the fact that Jake's parents wanted to pay for the cake and that I was having issues getting myself motivated to finish hand-lettering our names inside of each invitation. So, we traded the cake for invitations on our package at our Wedgewood event center.

We know where we're getting the cake from. We know what we want the flavors to be and what we want it to look like.
We have a photographer.
We have a celebrant.
I have my bridesmaids picked out (and I've even purchased their gifts! Huzzah!)
I have my outfit chosen.
I break the shoes in when I'm at work.
I have my bouquet.
Alterations are underway on my dress.
We're getting RSVP's back.
The table numbers are done.
Most of the centerpieces are done.
The song list is nearly complete.
My girls are busily planning the bridal shower.
We've chosen our food, table linens, and table arrangements.
We have most of our decor already.
We have enough games for people to play at the reception.
The programs are in progress.
The list of things to do is getting smaller. :)

Here's what's left:

• Card box sanded & refinished.
• Seating chart.
• Day-of timeline for the vendors & crew.
• Jake's attendants.
• Ribbon curtain.
• Jake's attire.
• Ceremony editing and finalizing.
• Yard games. 
• Celebration flags.
• Favors.
• Corsages made.
• Finish the blue roses.
• Kid's table design and activities.
• Wedding signage.
• Acquire a guest book.
• Photographs from our childhood & relationship.
• Photographs from loved ones who have passed on.
• Making doily runners & garlands.
• Bachelorette party planning
• Office party bridal shower planning.

That's it! I think. :)

The blue ones are not my responsibility.
The yellow ones I'm going to delegate.

The red ones I'm only going to be half responsible for.

Phew -- seeing it like that makes me realize that it's not so bad after all, and it does seem doable. Hooray -- let's do this!

Magazines & Mimosas

One of the events that I almost instantly knew I wanted was a brunch with the most important women in my life: my closest friends, the moms, and Jake's aunt.

All seven of us gals gathered around a feast of wonderful brunch foods (thanks to my love for making crepes!) and drank mimosas and coffee. Those that hadn't yet seen my dress crowded into my closet to "ooh" and "ahh" over the lace and tulle A-line. We talked crafts and decor, thumbed through bridal magazines, and caught up on the details of the wedding so far. They were all so full of wonderful ideas! One of my friends who was in attendance is Krista, my wonderful photographer friend, who had photographed our engagement photos the day before, and, amazingly, she had posted a preview of the session on her Facebook page overnight -- we spent a bit of time in awe of those.  (I'm still in awe of those!)

Everyone there was super supportive of the DIY ideas that we had thus-far generated, and they were all willing to help out. (Hooray!)

Jake and I are now zeroing in on the paper flowers that we want to make. (Jake and I along with my bridesmaids are going to be making those and they will be featured at every step along the wedding day, from the centerpieces and other reception decor to my bouquet and maybe even the cake.)
I'm mocking up invitations and teaching myself how to create amazing hand-lettered fonts. (My mom is going to help me start making those next month so we can get them out in May.)
Other projects that we're going to be undertaking are making doily runners / doily garlands, creating a ribbon curtain replete with circle garland, wedding day signage, and wedding day paper goods (programs, seating cards, etc.)

It's a good thing that the wedding is still nearly nine months away -- we are going to have our hands full!