double digits

Oh. My. Gosh. I cannot even BELIEVE we are under 100 days to the wedding. I still have SO many things to do!!! But the good news is that the invitations are done and ready to be sent when my (pre-ordered) postage (that comes out April 30) arrives! Also... my wedding shoes came! I love them! and they were only $15! Fantastic, right?!

Now I just need an officiant, and a wedding night hotel room, and a honeymoon... oh and a new job and a new house... but who's cares about those minor details??

Sorry I don't have a more exciting post for this monumentous occasion (t minus 99 days)... But what I do have is this gorgeous picture I found on www.greylikesweddings.wordpress.com from a photographer by the name of Amanda at CelebrateLife Photography. Yet another inspiration for my e-shoot next month!


For now it's off to Maryland for the weekend to meet with a restaurant (Buddy's! My old 'home away from home') to go over a rehearsal dinner menu, and wedding band shopping! I can't wait to get my ring cleaned... like REALLY cleaned (not just with a toothbrush and toothpaste). Happy weekend!

*updates*

Two great updates...

One: I can't believe I didn't mention this before, but... Patrick got his orders changed (thank you Lejeune!) and does not have to report until about 10 days after the wedding (which even gives us time for a honeymoon!)

and

Two: Thanks to Danielle over at www.districtweddings.com, I may have found that loophole I've been searching for in regards to an officiant! Check out her website for awesome info on different DC venues!

life's a garden...

Dig it!

It's ok, I realize I'm a huge dork. But my wonderful neighbor Randi took pictures of our garden yesterday and I'm promptly stealing them to post here... PS: Mom- look for the pansy you gave us in front of the tree!
Ain't it purdy?! Hah! Pat and I did all this work on Saturday. We weeded, laid mulch, and planted flowers in the front of the house and around our little tree. It was a great workout, and I'm still sore from it.

I wanted to post this because it makes me feel better about accomplishing next to nothing on my to do list from yesterday. Here's my list and what I accomplished:

1 - finish addressing and stuffing invitations - CHECK
2 - wait for shoes to be deliverd- CHECK
3 - find someone to marry us
4 - check out videographers
5 - work on our play list
6- clean guest room - CHECK
7 - decide on a honeymoon
8 - book a hotel room for the wedding night
9 - nap
10 - 3 mile run

Yes, that is 3 things on my list of 10 that I got done yesterday. Even though I don't really count waiting for shoes I know won't be delivered til the end of the week accomplishing anything... So we'll say I got a solid 20% on my performance yesterday (but I didn't nap even though it was on my list, and that's semi productive so maybe we'll say 25%).

To my credit, when I started cleaning the guest room I turned it into an overhaul on the house. Not only did I pick up my clothes that were strewn all over and put them away, I also vacuumed the whole house, washed and changed the sheets on both beds, did all the laundry in the house (there was a lot I promise), did all the dishes in the house (again - a lot), and I mopped the kitchen and laundry room. This, along with straightening up the house to make sure the slip covers were fitting properly and dog toys weren't scattered all around, took me all friggin' day!

I also made it to the post office to return a package (shapewear I bought for the wedding that I don't need anymore - yay!) and I had them weigh one of my fully assembled invitations (since they ALL are assembled now!) and I discovered that they weigh more then what is allowed for a regular 44 cent postage stamp. So I went home and removed all the inner envelopes from the invites. Sorry guys but they'll just get thrown out anyways and I have really cute 44 cent postage I want to use! Plus it saves us 17 cents per envelope!

So all in all I'd say the day wasn't a huge waste, would you?

things i'm working on today...

1 - I WILL finish addressing and stuffing invitations (and as soon as it's payday I will be ordering my cute postage!)
2 - Eagerly await the arrival of my wedding shoes, which I ordered yesterday! That is if you count flip flops as shoes :)
3 - Trying to find someone to marry us (still searching for that loophole...)
4 - Checking out some videographers
5 - Continue working on our play list
6 - Cleaning the house because we have a friend coming to stay the night (that means I have to transform the guest room from my closet BACK into the guest room... this might take me all day)
7 - Get Patrick to decide on a honeymoon (or just agree with my pick)
8 - Book a hotel room for the wedding night (now that we've finally picked one)
9 - Nap (got NO sleep last night... running on empty here... waking up at 5 am doesn't help)
10 - 3 mile run (ha)

I am pretty sure there aren't enough hours in the day for all this junk but I will do my best! I'll let you know how it goes!

I will leave you with this gorgeous picture from www.oncewed.com, which is pretty much exactly what I am envisioning my engagement shoot will look like in just 3 and a half short weeks!Also, check out my sister's blog (welcome to the jungle link on my side bar) for some more pictures of this guy:

My new nephew... Murphy Thomas!

born 4/15/10 6 lbs 15 oz

Isn't that the sweetest picture you've ever seen?! I can NOT wait to meet him!

getting down to the wire

So as we draw nearer to the wedding day, Pat has yet to get any firm word about his orders being changed from that same day. Hopefully we'll get official word soon, or I might just lose my mind. In the mean time I am also currently looking for new housing closer to our soon to be new base. This is very sad news because I absolutely adore where we live now. We have the best neighbors in the world!

Since the wedding has kind of taken a backseat to more pressing needs, I haven't TOUCHED the invitations in I don't know how many weeks. However, we did order fun vases for a portion of the ceremony. They are engraved and they came out SO cute. Although, one (the bride's vase, of course) did have a bad scratch in the glass. The company I ordered them from (www.graciousbridal.com) was more then happy to just send me a new one. I didn't have to return the damaged one or anything. It was a very quick, and refreshing phone call to make. They are great and brides I recommend checking them out. They've got all kinds of fun stuff!

We are still trying to find a way around the Maryland marriage laws and have the person we want to marry us actually marry us, but I don't think that's going to happen. There has got to be a loophole somewhere, right? Will keep you posted on this one...

Still no set honeymoon, or even a room for the wedding night. Oh and no transportation or videographer yet. Although I just recently started looking into those 2 things. And here I thought I was ahead of the game. Nope... way wrong.

Well it appears that I should be very, very busy, so I guess I'll leave you with another inspiration board of ideas for the reception while visions of centerpieces dance in my head...

new challenge

So we are officially at less then 110 days to the wedding. At this milestone one of my lovely (PS: Stef... I had to retype that because at first I spelled it lovley... thought you'd enjoy that!) bridesmaids, Emily, and I have decided to take on a challenge. We are going to try and lose a pre-established amount of weight before the wedding. With only 109 days left now, I need to get a move on it!

But really, this idea came about because I had another dress fitting this weekend, and to my surprise, and total excitement, the dress had to be taken in again! Hooray! And now that it fits me so much better then it did when we bought it (when it was 4 sizes too big), I can now officially say I am in love with my dress!

I know for a fact I'm not the only bride-to-be who has doubts about her choice of dress. Especially when I bought it so early and so quickly! I was extremely doubtful, and almost tearful, worrying about how I made the wrong choice, and how was I ever going to tell my mother that I didn't love it. Well now she knows I had those feelings, but only after I was beaming in the dress at my last fitting. It's perfect and I can not wait to get my hands on it and wear it on my night.

Bringing us back to the task at hand, the wedding day challenge, at this fitting on Saturday the seamstress told me I'd need on more fitting, on May 1st, then I could take it home (pending any changes needed that day) and then I could just bring it back 2 days before the wedding to have it pressed.

Um... what? You're telling me that I am going to have to go 3 months in the summer without gaining or losing weight. It was my plan to keep on working out and losing weight right up to D-Day (please refer to previous post as to meaning of this term).

So I am kind of just ignoring this minor detail, for which I'm sure the seamstress will hate me for when I make an appointment sometime in June to have it taken in again. Because it will have to be taken in again, I promise you that.

Anyways... if you want to check out our newest venture... you can read all about it at www.2fitzillas.blogspot.com. Get it? Fit-zillas? Like Bride-zilla? Only with getting in shape? Well anyways, enjoy it. The more people that are reading it, the more motivated I will be!

usmc stands for...

...get USed to Making Changes.

So today my plans were to work on finalizing honeymoon plans, booking a hotel room for the wedding night, working on the invites some more... anything I could do to give me an excuse not to clean the house. However, the Marine Corps has decided to divert my attention away from current wedding plans because now I might have to start ALL OVER.

In the beginning of our engagement we were concerned that deployment MIGHT be an issue since Pat's future plans were so up in the air. After he came home and things settled down we were less and less worried because it was looking like there would be no deployment for a while.

Don't fret, no deployment yet. Just orders. For him to report. To a new duty station. On our wedding day. Are you kidding?

So as of right now... I might be getting married by myself on July 31st because Pat will be tied up in NC at his new station. Awesome. Oh this comes only a day after they tell him they might not let him re-up his contract because they currently have too many marines. So not only are they stopping us from getting married, but they are stopping us from having a career and money and a house.

THANKS A LOT!

So what do I do now? Besides hyperventilate...

Oh and on a side note - we still don't have an officiant because we just found out the one we were planning on can't legally perform the marriage in Maryland. Anyone up for a trip to the courthouse next week?