Ceremony Planning

Erik and I have been working on the ceremony in the background. We've done it in the car on the way home from Mother's Day and from his grandfather's 80th birthday party as well as from another friend's wedding. This planning of the ceremony, however, ended after I moved to NYC (as with most other wedding planning until last week!).

Soo.... in comes our officiant. He emailed me last week and was like, "Hey, um... need the ceremony...." So, Erik and I got back on it. And, after a few reviews from bridal party and non-bridal party members, it is perfect! I'm so excited about it. I was reading it tonight out loud to see how long it was going to be and it is 12 minutes... before adding dramatic pauses and time for readers to get to the microphone. So, are probably looking at a 30 minute ceremony from start (walking of the g'ma) to the end (us leaving!).

I'm going to send it to our officiant in the morning (E is still deciding on his reader). After that, it's program time!

Hotel Info

Hello All,

I have great news about the hotel. The special rates for both Friday and Saturday have been extended until AUGUST 3. We also had them lower the rates to $79 for both room options - 1 king & 2 queens. This also was applied retroactively for those of you completely on the ball with these things!

However, a bit of scolding for those of you who have not RSVPed yet: Please do so! And please indicate who wants what for food!

I love checking our shared Google Doc every day to see how many people are coming. We are up to 94 guests! Also, we were able to invite some people that we REALLY WANTED to come but just didn't have the space. We are super excited to be able to have those people join us on our special day. Unfortunately, we are working with the reality of a tight squeeze with our venue.

So, that's it for now. We have less than 6 weeks until the big day!

Sorry for Being MIA Part II

Life in the Big Apple has been a bit insane lately. Not only because I've been working at a new job but I've been adjusting to life where there's always so much to do. I'm lucky to have such a helpful future husband. He's been handling all logistical things that have come up in the last few weeks while I've been off attending firm functions and meeting celebs like Mariah Carey and Carla from Top Chef... He mostly has to handle these things because I don't want to make personal calls at work. It's hard enough in this economy, I feel, but to add making wedding-related phonecalls at work during work hours (which are all hours, it seems) would make me look bad. E and I both agree it's better to err on the side of caution when it comes to this job.

At any rate, after a 5 week hiatus from wedding planning -- I'm back! This break has actually been pretty nice (for me not for E). And by break - I'm referring to the break from the wedding planning not from E because I miss him terribly! I kind of hit a max-out point in May after I got the invites out, but now it's time to reassess the guest list and see if there is any more flexibility. Fortunately we think there is, so we'll be sending out some more invitations, which means we get to celebrate with all of our loved ones!

So... expect updates from me on a semi-regular basis moving forward. :D

Also, as a fun side note - Erik and I have been engaged ONE YEAR!!!

Sorry for Being MIA

So, I'm a quarter of the way through my summer associate stint in NYC! Time flies when you're having fun (and not getting home until after 9pm every night!).

Just to give a brief update on the wedding front, I'll write a little about some of the happenings. First off, E has been a BIG HELP the last few weeks. He also has the fun job of opening up all the RSVPs. Steph and I bust our butts to get them out and he gets to reap the benefits... that seems fair. Anyway, it's exciting for both of us — and not just because it's nice to get things other than bills in the mail. So... for those of you that have not RSVPed or booked your hotel - get on it! The special rates are only good for 3 more weeks!

We also have been busy planning our honeymoon and getting used to being apart. The first week was really hard for me. Knowing that he's coming in town this weekend, however, has made this week more bearable. Also, I think this is the first birthday of his that we've been able to celebrate together just us since 2004. Isn't that insane?!

Alright, well, tonight was another night where I didn't get home until 9pm... So... I'm going to decompress so I'm ready to take on the day tomorrow!

Quick RSVP Update

I'm about to leave for work (in NYC!!!!!!!) but just wanted to put this out there for those of my guests that read the blog.

Our RSVP cards do not have a spot to indicate who chooses what meal (major oversight on my part that I didn't realize until I made the RSVP spreadsheet!). So... if you could indicate who has what, that would be awesome. We have to know for reasons I don't have time to get into now. I'll post about it later. ;)

Anyway, check the right hand side of the blog from time to time to see the RSVP status. We currently have 14 guests (and 2 almost married people!) coming.

Mailing Snafus

Here I was thinking that the invitations were out and all I had to do was sit around and wait for the RSVPs to roll in. Well, I was wrong. Mostly due to my own stupidity. Exhibit A:

What, the post office doesn't mail things for free? I figure that 1 out of 90ish envelopes isn't so bad, but, seriously? Did I really forget to put a stamp on this? Yes, yes I did. The post office kindly returned it without any markings (well, not true - there was a blue arrow pointing to our return address stamp) and the sticker came off no problem. Then I was faced with a dilemma: Stick a stamp on it and mail as is or go through the hassle of readdressing it because of the arrow. Considering the fact that we are T-minus 10 minutes from leaving for Indiana for another wedding, I am opting for the stick the stamp on and away it goes. Sorry to the recipient.

But this one won't be hand canceled you may be thinking. And you would be right. However, it doesn't appear that hand canceling actually works. I give you Exhibit B:

See the red hand canceled stamp? Then see the horrible black lines through it? Yep, that's right - the origin post office did not run it through the machine but the destination post office did. Thanks, guys. You would think that the fact it was hand canceled in the first place meant something. Apparently not. I take solace in the fact that the hand canceling was free and the fact that at least there are not 2 black machine cancels through the stamp. At least you can still see it! (Thanks M for the photos).

That's all for my rants today. Off to the second wedding of the year!

First RSVP!

Despite the fact that we just sent out the bulk of the invitations yesterday, we received our first RSVP. And it was a YES!!! :D Hoorah!! We had to celebrate this momentous occasion with the requisite photo op.

Here it is (Caution: Spoiler for what our wedding invites look like):

Hmmm... Wonder what Marley picked for food? (I knew it was from her because 1) She told me she sent it like the day I gave it to her and 2) She had her return address on the envelope.) :)



First one! (I'm a huge dork)



Sorry guys, the bar has now been set high. You must use smiley faces or other symbols to mark attendance and include a personal note. :)

Yay! Guest attendance is officially 3 people! Bride, Groom & Marley... Funny enough we'll all have the same last name by the time of the event.

All Invitations Sent!

Today, a big milestone — ALL the invitations have been sent!

Bmaid Steph came over for the final push. I don't know how I would have done it without her! It took us a good 1.5 hours. Granted, during that time we were watching Bride Wars and um.... day drinking a little (it was 5pm somewhere). :) A little side note about Bride Wars: Awful, unrealistic annoying movie. I mean, the planner messed up and they messed up by not reading their contracts before signing! And one of them was supposed to be an attorney in NYC. She dressed very skanky to work (one meeting was with her in a pink bra and suit jacket) and was just inappropriate. It was very weird and just plain ol' annoying. Steph and I bonded over the ridiculousness of the movie. It made it easier to focus on invitation stuffing rather than watching the movie. We did pause for the wedding meltdown scene though.

Anyway... back to the subject of this post. Here's Steph in her helper glory:

Like I said before, stuffing envelopes took a surprising amount of time. There are several elements: 1) Invitation itself (very important), 2) response card with envelope, and 3) directions/accommodations insert. Not to mention inputting the number of the response cards into our master spreadsheet (it's a thing of beauty btw). Anyway, we had just enough of everything - almost ran out of the directions/ accommodations inserts. We just sent them to everyone (even bridal party/ close family members) so they could see E's handywork. He did such a good job on them — they match our invites perfectly. He's now in charge of the seating cards, menu cards, and programs. :) Everything will match and it will be awesome.

After all 90ish envelopes were stuffed, it was time to mail them out. I wish I had taken a picture of them in the stacked glory but, alas, I'm getting lazy with the photos. Photo overload? Maybe.

Anyway, next came the issue of hand canceling the envelopes. I had heard here that it was difficult to get the post office to do it. Martha suggested this, so, of course, despite the naysayers, I had to at least attempt. For those not up with wedding lingo (I know I wasn't before MS), hand canceling means that instead of going through the machines at the post office - they stamp them like back in the day. Martha also suggests sending your invitations to cities with lovely names and having them hand cancel them... A little too much effort in my opinion.

An excerpt from her wedding website on the subject:

Hand-Canceling
You can take your invitations to the post office and request that they be hand-canceled. Machines print bar codes on the envelopes, but hand-canceling -- just marking each stamp -- keeps invitations neat and prevents damage that machines can cause.

Special Postmark
The towns listed below will cancel your stamps for you, imprinting them with their sweet names. Enclose your stamped, addressed invitations in a large padded envelope or box, and include a note detailing your request. Address it to "Postmaster," followed by the name of your chosen town, state, and zip code; call ahead to let him or her know the invitations are on their way. Consider sending the envelopes Priority or Express Mail, so you can track the package. Allow enough time for invitations to be delivered, postmarked, and mailed out -- ask the postmaster how long it will take.

Bliss, New York 14024; 585-322-7740
Bridal Veil, Oregon 97010; 503-695-2380
Chapel Hill, North Carolina 27514; 919-942-4170
Darling, Mississippi 38623; 662-326-8408
Deary, Idaho 83823; 208-877-1470
Groom,Texas 79039; 806-248-7988
Harmony, Rhode Island 02829; 401-949-2745
Honeyville, Utah 84314; 435-279-8213
Kissimmee, Florida 34744; 407-846-0999
Lovely, Kentucky 41231; 606-395-5848
Loving,Texas 76460; 940-378-2259
Luck, Wisconsin 54853; 715-472-2079
Romance, Arkansas 72136; 501-556-5911

Here is the difference between normal and hand canceled envelopes:
Machine:

Hand Canceled:

I definitely wanted them hand canceled because we paid extra for our custom stamps (which ended up looking really cool - too bad I overbought by like double... sigh). Anyway, I went to the post office at around noon and went with a game plan to convince the postal workers that they should do this special service for me. I explained to the postwoman that we didn't use inner envelopes and I was concerned about my invitations being damaged. I noted the special stamp (big hit with the ladies at the P.O.) and even offered to cancel them myself! They had no problem doing it. They agreed with me about my concerns. In fact, I think that the special stamp sealed the deal. Yay! I've asked a good friend, M, to send me a picture of her invite once she receives to see if they really were hand canceled (yes, I'm paranoid). There will be a blog update at that time.

All this makes me think of one thing: I love living in a small town sometimes. Customer service is much better here (see this post for the Meijer Store Director who made it his personal mission to get my vases - which only ended up costing $14 total for 8!).

First Invites Out

Because my law school friends are scattering to the 4 winds, we distributed some invitations early (by only a week) last week at my Champaign Shower (will post on that soon). It was surprisingly stressful to get everything together. Stuffing the invitations was surprisingly time-consuming. I know I keep saying "surprisingly" but I guess I figured that since the addressing was so easy (and Erik stamping the return addresses and sticking labels on the RSVP envelopes was easy for me - not so much for him) that I assumed that putting them in the envelopes would be easy. Nope. Thank you, Martha Stewart, and your crazy "good" idea to number the RSVP cards for the silly guests who forget to write their names! This added a level of complexity to the invitation stuffing — especially since the addressed envelopes got out of alphabetical order. That was an unintended consequence of delegating the return address stamping (with our awesome embosser) to the groom.

Oddly enough, this kind of snuck up on us. Erik had ordered the paper for the accommodation inserts several weeks ago, and we were in a holding pattern until that came. Bad news: The paper didn't come in time. Result: Scrambling to get some decent paper at Kinko's and printed enough to give to the people heading out of town! Erik went the morning of the shower to pick them up. Can you say stressful?

At any rate, the ironic part was the paper came the next day! E is picking up the finished product today from Kinko's — I can't wait to see it on the Cougar 80 Cover paper we got. We plan on using this paper (we ordered 100 sheets) for our seating cards too - waste not, want not.

Sealing up the invitations was also a momentous occasion. I made Erik lick them since I was running late getting ready (have to look pretty for my shower). Here are the photos (you can see they obviously tasted bad):

You can see the pure yuckiness of the envelope glue. Just keep in mind - they were sealed with love. Again, we thought about that Seinfeld episode with Susan & George's wedding invitations. Please try not to notice the crazy mess in the background of the photo. I thought about cropping it out and then reconsidered. It was finals week. Judge if you want but it was spotless by that weekend!

Doesn't he look happy to not be licking the envelope?

Anyway, the rest of the invites will go out this week. I'm going to ask the Post Office hand cancel them; however, I'm a little worried that they may not (see the link). I'm thinking since this is a relatively small town they might. I'll keep you updated. As for the stuffing, I'm having a girly-wedding-help-day with Bmaid Steph. We're renting Bride Wars and stuffing the invitations/ painting the guest book — there may also be some day drinking involved (we'll see if I can convince Steph).

Fitting # 15

I had hoped that my fitting last week was going to be the second to last (the last being the week before the wedding). Technically, it was the second to last fitting — apparently, the last fitting is called a "pick up appointment" as in, I try the dress on, but nothing gets changed. So, this means that I have 2 more trips to Tina's before the sucker is done! TWO MORE! Tina said that we have hit a record with the number of fittings — I believe it! They are a lot of fun but I'm at the point where I'm just ready to see my dress!

Anyway, I brought champagne to my "last fitting" because it was a celebration of sorts. 3/4 of us finished our 2d year of law school with one of us finishing law school! We parting ways for the summer and this is the last time we'll all be at Tina's together. The dress is mostly done. The skirt is still not done, which is just frustrating because I want to see the whole thing! The bad news is that the dress won't be done until the week before the wedding (freakout!) but the goods news is twofold: 1) If I change sizes (however unlikely) it will not be a problem and 2) I don't have to store the dress at my apartment all summer, which is a relief considering I have curious cats that mean well but end up destroying things! She blocked off her calendar for me that week so there are no worries about rushing or it not being done!

So, without further ado, some pictures that are groom approved (sorry for the weird cropping — gotta keep some things a secret!):

The in-town girls got their dresses altered too and we all went together. Here's bmaid Stephanie strutting her stuff. I was VERY RELIEVED that the dress now looks normal on her! When she first put the dress on, I had serious misgivings about what I just made my bridesmaids buy. I felt really guilty (and still do a little because of the expense) but now at least I know that they can be pretty and flattering!

Tina pinning the ruching in the back because I wanted to see it before I left for the summer!



Almost final dress back. I decided to go with the longer train. I know, longer train and veil... I'm actually warming up to being a bride! Whodathunkit.



Weird cropping because you can see my dress front (Groom's request not to see). I'm not sure what Tina was doing but this is not how my veil is going to look! :)



My attempt... Not really but I thought that it would be funny to just wrap it around like a scarf. I wish I had more pictures of the veil, but it was hard to get it the right way. I'm debating whether I'm going to have Tina do it or whether I'll just look for one in NYC. Like I said before, if I can't find one I might just say screw it. However, as I wrote that last sentence it made me a little sad. Uh oh, I'm become a veil bride... Sigh.

Stamp Dilemma Resolved

I took all of your comments under advisement for the stamp dilemma. After careful consideration, we decided to go with the custom stamps from Zazzle.com, and we picked the Wordle ones (mockup on right)! It was a tough call but after talking to my FMIL about it, I feel really good about my decision. She thought the idea of the Wordle was so unique and agreed with me that it would distract from my handwritten addressing. I just felt that I'd already cut more corners than I would have liked - no inner envelope and no calligraphy. (I'm surprisingly bummed about the calligraphy actually).

Anyway, we wanted to do something special because the invites totally set the tone for the main event. We want to show our guests how much attention to detail we have (read: Meaghan notices the little details and hopes others do too).

Soo... I ordered them and waited patiently for them to arrive. I shipped them 2-day air because I didn't want any waiting mishaps (like with the paper for the accommodation inserts). They arrived late last week (before the paper btw) and much to my disappointment the background turned out lavender NOT light blue! I initially thought that this was my mistake but after comparing the mockup to the final product, Erik and I have determined it was not. Zazzle will be getting a friendly phone call from me tomorrow. Although the stamps were not insanely expensive, I would really like them to match. I'll let you know that that phone call goes.

Also, we decided we liked the wordle so much we are going to use it on our programs but one thing at a time.

Stamp Dilemma

So, it's getting about that time—time to send out the invitations. Or at the very least, time to purchase stamps for the envelopes. I just have to say one thing: Stamps are shockingly expensive! I bought a bunch of Forever stamps for the RSVP cards (before the rates increase on the 11th!) so I don't have to worry about those (sorry guys, no fancy stamps for you — just the plain 'ol Liberty Bell). In hindsight, I wish we had done RSVP postcards. They seem to be big right now and they would have helped us save on postage... On the other hand, I feel weird about asking people to write their names on something that isn't sealed with their food preferences. I don't think it is secret or anything but it still makes me feel weird.

Anyway, the reason I'm blogging is I've hit a bit of a snag with the stamps. Like the invitation design, I am having a hard time deciding. Do I go with something that the USPS has or do I custom make the stamps? Is it worth the price difference? I've already cut corners with the lack of inner envelope and lack of calligraphy (which still makes me a little sad) so I don't want to necessarily wimp out on the stamps. At the same time, I don't think people will actually notice or care. I mean, I would notice, but is that really a good thing? Here are my options:

This is the only "wedding" like stamp that the U.S. postal service has for the new rate. The colors will go with our envelopes, but we're not big card players so it seems kind of weird . . .

This is one that we can custom make at Zazzle.com. Custom making the stamps adds about 45 cents per stamp to the cost. What concerns me (and Erik) about this stamp design is whether the monogram is too much. It's already on our invitations so would it be overkill to have on the outside on the envelope too? Plus, we want to be able to use these stamps for TY cards so I worry that with the TY cards being our monogram only it would be overkill. I also worry about the impropriety of using the "wedding monogram" before the wedding.

This is not my favorite, but it does have our wedding flower on it. Well, it's probably the wedding flower — there have been some issues with the blue hydrangeas, but I'll save that for another post. Anyway, the font on this stamp matches our invitations which is nice, but I don't love it.

I think this one is Erik's and my favorite. It took me an hour to create the Wordle (I'm creatively challenged sometimes), but I think it was worth it. Is it bad that I had a hard time coming up with words that were wedding related but not party-planning related or overly legalistic. I asked E what the first would to come to mind with our wedding was and he had all these great words like "love," "cherish", "friends." Mine were "commitment," "true love," and "details". Not overly romantic. Another thing we like about this is that our guests will be impressed with the Wordle. Not a lot of people know about the website and it would have a nice "wow" factor to detract from my penmanship.

I'm leaning towards the last one but cringe at the extra expense (45 cents/ stamp). What do you think? Is it worth it?

Upgrades

This is a post dovetailing off of the Shower Post. In recognition of our deep appreciation for all the gifts we have received, I thought it would be nice to highlight a few of these "upgrades." I never thought things would be so much better with just a few small changes. Also, please don't be offended if your gift is not "featured" in this post. All gifts have already begun to be used (yay!) and we love all of them. These ones just make for more entertaining blogging because we have pictures of them and/or things were pretty bad without them! ;)

Change #1: Riedel Sauvignon Blanc Glasses.

I know what you are thinking—why spend $$ on fancy crystal wine glasses that you are never going to use because they are "too nice?" Well, you are wrong on one account—we will use them and already have (twice!). I got into Riedel glasses at a wine tasting in Atlanta (thanks, B) and this sounds snobby and a little yuppy BUT there is totally a difference! Sauvignon blanc is my favorite white varietal, and I can totally tell the difference, which shocked me. It tastes better and you can taste/ smell more of the wine. I don't speak "wine" but trust me it's better with Riedel. We even did a taste test with our old white wine glasses and it tasted almost bland in comparison.

The picture above is E & I opening these bad boys. In the bottom left corner, you can see MOH Kim diligently recording the gifts on the spreadsheet & clipboard I gave her!

Change #2: Matching bathroom decor

Until last weekend, Erik's bathroom decor consisted of navy towels he had had since college and a random plastic bamboo shower curtain that our kitty Celeste liked to gnaw on. Yes, the bottom of the shower curtain was completely destroyed with little teeth marks. I'm sure this has contributed to her digestive inflictions. Anyway, I used the decorating of his bathroom as my "study breaks" this past week and it looks wonderful! Now we just need to find a piece of artwork for the wall and it will start to look like a real bathroom... almost a year after we moved in...

Change #3: Fancy Coffeemaker

Old & New Coffemakers. The new one looks so much more badass next to the old one.


Our mugs enjoying the wonderfulness coming from the new coffeemaker.
[Guess which mug is Erik's]

Since we didn't receive this coffeemaker at our shower, we decided to use something we did get—a gift certificate to BBB!—to buy one! We had to buy a wedding present for a friend of ours so I used the opportunity to multi-task. Unfortunately, our BBB did not have one in stock so I had to order it. They had the nerve to try to charge me shipping, which I promptly told them was ridiculous because I tried to buy it in their store and have never been charged shipping when something was out of stock at other stores. The gentleman acquiesced and no shipping was charged!

Our main concern after that was getting the coffemaker in time for finals, but as you can see above that did not come to pass, and we will have fabulously brewed coffee for us in the mornings already brewed before we wake up (LOVE the timer!). We are both hoping that it helps us not hit the snooze so much! It also will prevent our little "war of wills" in the A.M. where we both lay in bed as long as possible to make the other person make the coffee (first person up loses). For the record, Erik wins 90% of the time!

Shower Time

Last weekend, we had our very first shower. E's Aunt J1 hosted at her home with my future mother-in-law's help, and it was just beautiful and perfect. She really got excited about the decorations and theme. She made it look like a French bistro to go with the crêpes she ordered for the event from Le Petit Crêperie. Aunt J2 and all the other aunts actually (gotta love those Polish ladies!) helped in the kitchen and helped make the finishing touches in decor. My favorites were the potted flowers in the windows, the uptucks on the table cloths and the hydrangea napkins at the bridal table (to match my wedding flower!). It really made me feel special. I love doing the little details so when other people do them I totally notice!

Here are some pictures of the set-up:

I believe there were 30+ women in attendance and 1 groom - lucky Erik! In his family, it is traditional for the groom to go to the wedding shower and only have the female wedding guests invited. Works for me! It was fun to have him there and, as mentioned here, we bought new outfits for the event (thanks again, Mom). Here's us looking cute sporting our new duds:

Shhh... don't tell anyone but I'm wearing my wedding jewelry! They don't show up that much in pictures but I still love the necklace and earrings. I don't want to take too much away from the dress afterall!

Three of my lovely b-maids were able to make it up for the shower. And let me just say, I am SO GRATEFUL AND LUCKY to have such wonderful friends. Bmaids Jess and Steph drove 8 hours total two weekends before law school finals to come. MOH Kim flew in all the way from NYC. She was in town for 25 hours, I think. That's love! I feel that when all these girls get married they will expect major payback! And I will be more than happy to fly/ drive all over creation for them!!

Funny story about Kim's dress. I may have mentioned this before but at the beginning of the wedding planning my FMIL wanted to wear FUCHSIA to our wedding (our colors were originally bright pink and dark brown). I think my response to her saying that was "Hell no!!" but it's gotten a bit fuzzy now. . . Her dress is going to be a lovely navy number to match the wedding colors! Anyway, as soon as Kim whipped out this dress I knew FMIL was going to say something. She didn't say anything but I knew what she was thinking!

Another funny thing: This picture. Are we related or what?!

She will probably kill me for posting this. What's up with our weird chicken arm mannerism? This will have to be nipped in the bud. I do not want all the wedding photos to have this arm thing in them!

Here are some pics of the bridal party:

MOH Kim, Bmaid Jess, ME, Bmaid Stephanie

Did I mention there were plenty of mimosas and wine?!!


Requisite Shoe Shot

When it came time for us to eat, my FMIL started to make this lovely speech about how I'm the daughter she never had and that she feels so welcome in our home. She came to visit a few months ago, and I went all Martha Stewart on her—leaving chocolates, towels, and travel size bath products for her in her "room." She even came to one of my fittings. Anyway, I don't remember much else of what was said because she was doing this

to me. Yes, that's her choking the be-jesus out of me! I tried so hard to look pleasant but boy was it hard! I seriously could NOT breathe and my face was being squashed into her CHEST! Apparently, this has happened before to Erik. Needless to say when I was reviewing the photos that Bmaid Steph so wonderfully took, I nearly peed myself when I came across this one! Oh dear.

Anyway, it turned out alright and the shower went on without any more "incidents."

See, we still love each other even though I'm both worried about my hair and whether she left any marks around my neck!

After we ate, we did the oh-so-boring-for-the guests gift opening! Well, we played a "newlywed" type game first (both doing not so great mostly because we didn't even know the right answers for ourselves!). Also, all the guests wrote us advice for the wedding day on cards. I may or may not put those on the blog... Basically, people know us too well. Most of the advice was DON'T FREAK OUT on your wedding day if it's NOT PERFECT. Got it. :)

Anyway, here are photos from the gift opening:

I like this picture because Erik was soo excited! See, it pays for the grooms to go to the showers!

We are just touched by the generosity of our guests. It really was incredible. Life is already much better in the B/ N household. But I'll blog on our "upgrades" in another post. I just have to say that all the thank you cards have been sent. It was the least that we could do (get them out in a super timely fashion) to show how much we truly appreciated everything.

And one last picture:

Hotel Confirmed!

Attention All Attendees:

The hotel block has been confirmed! We have a block of 50 rooms (we can get more if needed) for Friday and Saturday night. The hotel is 45 minutes outside of Chicago, so it's not prohibitively far if you arrive on Friday and want to do something in the City before the main event at 5:15pm on the 15th. As an added bonus, it's a walk across a courtyard from the hotel to the wedding venue.

There will be more details in the invitations but if you want to get a jump on it, here are the details:

Comfort Suites
1557 East Belvidere Road
Grayslake, Illinois
(847) 223-5050

2 Queen Beds: $79*
King Bed: $89*

MUST be booked by JULY 5 to get the special rate.

*Request Bayer/ Nelson block to get special rate.

Sorry!

Hello everyone,

Sorry for the lack of updates. The first 2 weeks back to school have been INSANE!! I'm starting to feel a little more under control now, so expect postings in quick succession. Just don't expect them tonight because E, Simon, Stephanie, Pam, Heather & I (and the class of 2010) are heading out for a 1980's bar crawl to celebrate being half way done with law school! Do expect pictures at some point in the near future.

Also, my posts will not all be after this one. I've post-dated several so that they show up around when they occurred (Fitting #?, 200 day count down, visit with brothers, etc.)

Tasting & Wedding Menu

On Friday, January 2, Erik's parents, Erik and I went to The Country Squire to do our tasting for the reception. Yes, it's super early but we were all available to do it and there's no telling when that would be the case again. Mike, our site coordinator, came up and said "hi" even though he was setting up for a wedding that night. I asked if we could see the ballroom all decorated and he said "yes!" It was great to see the hall decorated and set up for a wedding. We decided (after convincing Erik) to nix the chair covers because it's going to be cramped enough for dinner. I'm just hoping the weather is nice so that the guests can mingle outside with the hors d'oeuvres—otherwise, it may be close quarters. We'll have to take a few tables (including the head table) down after dinner. But we'll talk more about that with Mike when we meet with him in March.

Setting up the tasting was pretty easy. I had to call Mike with 4 different options of every part of the meal — appetizer, salad, entrée, vegetable, and potato. I also had to coordinate with our wedding cake baker to taste the wedding cake. Then all we had to do was show up and eat a lot of food! They gave us full portions of everything, which is why we brought 4 people!

The decision was actually really easy to make. All the components had a clear winner. We had a lot of fun tasting and critiquing everything. Erik & I felt like we were judges on Top Chef! Also, in keeping with the previous wedding milestones, I took pictures. See below.

The 4 of us trying the 5 entrées we picked out!

Wedding cake. It's hard to tell but there are actually 2 different coconut toppings. We like the flakier one better - the smaller flakes felt like sandpaper in our mouths. I'm also not sure why the cake lady put flowers on it . . . those will not be on the actual cake.

And, without further ado, our Wedding Menu:

Soup: Wild mushroom
Salad: Caesar
Potato: Twice baked
Vegetable: Stuffed tomato w/ broccoli au gratin
Entrée Options (guests pick on response card):

• Chicken Marsala
• Salmon w/ Cilantro Butter
• Filet
• Pasta Primavera (vegetarian option)
  

Wedding cake: Chocolate covered with buttercream frosting and coconut flakes.

Note that this does not include our hors d'oeuvres—we'll pick those out later.