It's "almost completely" official!!

It just took one phone call and then...

We have a date!

Yes, we officially have a date on hold at the place we recently found.  We talked with someone after hours today to get the details and they were able to hold the date.  We were excited, and began calling friends and family.

And then, it just took one phone call to potentially change the date.  Turns out that my mom's job has 7 days in the middle of October where absolutely no one is allowed to take a day off.  Our originally planned date falls on the first of those 7 days. So, she will be going to work on Monday to do some begging to have the day off, or at least a half day.  If that doesn't work out, we may have to talk about changing the date.  There are very, very few people we would change a date for, but a mom absolutely ranks on that list.  We thought briefly about doing it on November 11th, but Kandi's mom was worried about flying out in November Ohio weather.  So we went back to our original October plans.  Mom's are important.  And, being that less than 10 people have heard the date so far, it wouldn't throw too much off if we had to change it now as long as we know very very soon.  Of course we hope that they will be accommodating at her job - but if not we know that we will have to be. 

Now, on to better news.

On Saturday we had a bit of an adventure.  We took Kandi's Aunt Patti, my mom and brother to go see the reception site.  Neither of them had seen it before so it was fun to see it through their eyes for the first time.  And while we knew it was awesome, it was still a bit of a relief to see that they all liked it too!  And, in the week since we were last there they are building a new structure outside.  It will be ready in the next week or two so we'll have lots of time to think about how we might use it in our grand plans!  While we were there we got to see Emily, who we spoke with at the desk the first day, and she was excited for us to have secured a date too.

We then rushed off from there to a wedding dress shopping trip!  My brother went home, and Kandi came in to watch us get all set up, and get a tour of the huge facility at Azteca Bridal, but walked outside for the actual search and try on parts.  :)  We're so traditional that way.  We figured we'd be about 45 minutes.

We walked out of there two and a half hours later.  We had no idea it had been that long.  Kandi just about killed her phone's battery playing Angry Birds, but at least she had that to keep her busy. Well, that and the handy restaurant bar in the same plaza.  Seriously, the bridal place should give all the future spouses a discount card. When we walked out there were 6-8 guys sitting there staring at the traffic as it went by for lack of anything else to do.

There were some great dresses and I found a few that I was surprised I liked.  One in particular seemed really nice.  The girl trying on dresses next to me said that another shop had it for even less - and conveniently I have an appointment there this week!

On Sunday, we had a wonderful development.  Kandi's mom and Grandma called specifically to ask what colors we were using so they could work on finding color coordinating outfits.  Both of them.  This is kinda huge.  Kandi's Grandma wasn't exactly hot on the idea of any non boy-girl wedding based on her religious beliefs.  Early on, she expressed her doubts that she would be willing to attend.  But more recently, she's talked with Kandi about what she's going to be wearing and even sent her a few catalogs.  And now - she wants to pick out an outfit.  That's the power of positive prayer right there!  :)

So - we know we have a church.  We know we have a reception spot.  We know we'll have our family around us.  Now everything else will fall into place, right?

Right?

I hear the laughter already from all the bridal websites I've read before.

Ok, it won't fall into place.  There will be a huge amount of work and a huge amount of money that we still don't know where it will all come from and yet - we know that we have the important pieces.  The rest is just details.

Many.

Many.  Many details.