31 days and counting!

Tonight we had our pre-wedding photo session with our photographer Nicky with Mint.  She is fun and we are so looking forward to working with her!  We're even more excited to see the pictures from tonight's shoot.   I wore fake eyelashes that I put on myself.  And I hadn't tried any practice runs.  It was a bit scary but I didn't get anything stuck together that wasn't supposed to be there, so it all turned out ok.  I was able to get some good advice from my buddy David.  20-something years ago he taught me how to apply liquid eyeliner, and now he steps me through fake eyelashes.  THAT is a good friend to have!  :)

It almost feels that we have more things to do now than we did - but it's just because all the decisions really have to be made!  I go for my dress alterations tomorrow which means I have to make the commitment to the shoes that I purchased a few months ago.  This means that during the ceremony I will likely tower over Kandi, the heels are high, but she said she's ok with that for a few hours. 

We need to make the programs.  And while we plan on DIYing those, and have bought some of the materials we haven't finalized a few of the things that would be going into the program so of course that has to happen first! 

We need to finalize the layout of the reception space, but to do that we need to know how many tables we will need and for that everyone needs to RSVP (cough, hint, cough).  And we have to finalize the layout so we can make sure we get the right rentals which we need to get pretty quickly.  And of course, we need the RSVP's to get to the caterer - but everyone knows that, right?  (hint, rsvp, hint)

And then there are the decisions like hair and make up, undergarments (oh my!), transportation, accessories, song lists, and all the other tiny little details that go into making the big day awesome.  When exactly are we suppose to have time to do laundry?  Or get the house ready for all the out of town guest?

We know it will all work itself out somewhere, but my goodness it keeps us busy! 

Where did the time go?

I got back from traveling for work for a few weeks.  While I was tired, I was excited to get back to the routine of work, and follow up on all the things that had come up during my travel.  What did I come home to?  Well, I looked at our checklist on theknot.com and promptly freaked out.  Where did all the time go?  I thought everything was still several months away.  And now, we didn't. So - I made appointments.  My first full week back we had an appointment every single night.  We saw the list, and we began to check it off.  Cake tasting and design.  Check.  Final tasting with caterer. Check.  And check and check and check.  Ok, so they weren't all the same size check marks, but there has definitely been a large forward motion since I got back. 

This weekend we are meeting with our photographer at both venues to get her creative juices flowing, and we're going to set up a time to do a bit of a late engagement session.  At this point it's more of a pre-wedding session, but I think it's a great idea to be able to meet with her at least once before the big day to learn more about each other.  And as girls who in more than 10 years have never had professional pictures taken, we're all about making up for it now!

Some surprises from the journey.  Who knew it would be so hard to figure out how to do your hair?  So many considerations.  So many tiny differences making it a completely different style that you have to chose between.  So NOT my kind of an area.  My way of doing my hair every day is combing it, and then in an hour or so when it's dried - sticking in an barrette to keep it out of my face.  Almost worse than that is finding someone to professionally do my make up.  I mean, seriously?  My version of daily make up is tinted lip gloss. And yet - I get that it's important for the make up to be good, and to last all day. 

Another surprise - picking songs for the wedding ceremony.  We both love music, and we know how important a good song can be.  We want a great song.  I have no idea where to start.  Seriously.  There are SO many great songs.  How do you pick which one is going to forever be "the song you played at your wedding".  When my mom got married I was almost 5 years old.  I still remember hearing my aunt sing the song she sang, and I will always think of my mom's wedding and my aunt when I hear the song.  I need to pick just one song with that kind of meaning?  Too hard.  Kandi is on song detail.  Her favorite way to search for songs is on YouTube.  This has led to some awesome songs for the reception, but nothing yet for the wedding.  It's tough.

It's been an exciting journey, and we know it's not over.  51 days to go, lots of errands to run this weekend including helping my mom find a MOTB dress, the photographer, the florist, and of course the invitations will be going out by this weekend. 

Oh.....Did I just leak that information?  Gee, I guess I did.  :) 

The shortest month flew by!

We won an engagement shoot! Well, actually we didn't. And yet we did.

We generally both fall into the "we never win anything" category so when they called my name at the bridal show while we were chatting with the photographer we were both shocked. I walked up and found out I'd won a $25 gift certificate for the bakery that was there. It was really yummy too! So we kept chatting with the photographer and generally getting to know her. Then someone who had won an engagement shoot walked over to talk to the photographer. Not only did she already have an engagement shoot planned for the next day, but she was getting all of her photography for free. The photographer turned around and gave it to us!

Our shoot was the Friday before Valentine's day and it included professional make up - which was fun for us to try. Yes - I said US! :) The photographer is hoping to have the proofs available for us to check out this week, but in the mean time we have this photo that our friend Brian snapped when we stopped by after dinner so he could get a picture of us in all of our cuteness.


And we are cute, aren't we?

I had gigantic fake eyelashes and a bit more blush than I would do again.

Kandi, while not a fan of the stuff all over her face, commented that she really liked her eye make up. Not that she's going to do it again when we go to the movies, but she might be open for trying something like that, though a bit more subtle, for the ceremony.


Ah, the ceremony. The realization that if I want a dress in October I'd have to order it in 2 weeks is very much not lost on me. Even if I got a job tomorrow, is that where we'd want to put our money right now? It's tough. We talked a bit about pushing out the date until next spring. neither of us want to do it, but if we want to have even 40% of the things we've talked about over the last 10 years we're likely going to need to push the date or win the lottery.

You can't win if you don't play, right?

I did take that part time job and I started on Monday. The week before that I had an interview for a position I'd be amazing at and would love to have - and I'm supposed to hear something by end of this week. No pressure, right? Ok, lots of pressure. But I know that I've done everything I can and now it's all in their hands so I can't obsess over it. It will or it wont happen.

Eating healthy hasn't been so good. I made my goals for about 3 weeks but certain "times" have made us really want convenience food and hours spent curled up on the couch. We haven't been at our dietary best to be sure. I'm hoping to bounce back shortly before I we go right back to where we were.

We also went to another big bridal show where we got to take lots of pictures together in photo booths. Our printer/scanner is being icky right now, but I'll post those and share our quickie reviews as soon as we can make it all work! We looked SO cute! But of course, right? :)