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!