I Now Pronounce Thee Done.

I guess it's about time for me to recap the wedding experience. Unlike diligent blogger Jon, I didn't manage to make daily reports. But the again, Jon wasn't in the process of getting married. Apologies if I forget anything or anyone; it was a somewhat crazy couple of days.

FRIDAY

Erik and Trina are supposed to arrive today, so good chunks of the day are spent cleaning. We've also scheduled lunch at Lexx for Andrew's family and mine to meet up before the wedding. Andrew has opted out to wait for Erik and Trina to arrive and to continue cleaning. Donna and her Andrew are going into Harvard Square. That leaves Andrew's parents, Meredith, my parents, and me. Everyone arrives in a timely fashion and the food is good. Andrew's family gives me a white purse for the emergency kit Meredtih and I have been putting together, which is another worry off the list. Our families get along fine and I get a tasty four cheese macaroni and a so-so white chocolate bread pudding.

Later on, we stop by Andrew's aunt's house to see some of his family, including Andrew's ten month old first cousin once removed, Logan. Logan is at a particularly curious age and seems particularly interested in Andrew. Much as he complains that he doesn't like kids, Andrew seems to do pretty well with them one on one.

The day goes on. Erik and Trina get delayed by evening traffic in Connecticut, so we eat the takeout we ordered before they arrive. They get around nine with a sleeping Orin in tow. We reheat the pizza and chat for a while before heading off to bed.


SATURDAY

Andrew and our guests go out to see the local toy stores. I opt to stay home, get my nails touched up (for free!), and plan the "rehearsal dinner". Since we're not having an actual rehearsal, we've decided to just have a nice meal with some of our friends. I make reservations at Kushboo, our local Indian restaurant, then start calling people to see who's coming. Andrew, Erik, Trina, and Orin get back from shopping and we head over to Baja Fresh for a late lunch.

Our guests start arriving in the evening. We have a few late arrivals, so Andrew stays behind to wait for them while I take everyone else over to the restaurant. Kushboo is very accommodating, especially considering that w end up with one more person than we anticipated. Once everyone arrives, we have 11 people and one baby: Dave, Keng Qui, Tim, Les, Jon, Erik, Trina, Donna, Donna's Andrew, Andrew, and me. Since we all share similar interests, everyone gets along very well. Aside from Orin fussing and no one remembering the name of Superman's third obscure girlfriend, the night is a success. We come back to our house and continue chatting until we kick everyone out so we can get some sleep.

SUNDAY -THE BIG DAY

Sleep turns out to be an unattainable dream; we wake up around 3 AM and don't really get back to sleep. I get up a few hours later to prepare for Meredith arriving around 8:30. The stylist comes at 9 to do my hair and makeup. Everything goes pretty smoothly, but I'm still nervous. All the last minute concerns I have no control over are hitting pretty hard, to the point where I keep tensing my shoulders. To try to calm down, I watch my favorite relaxing movie: Toy Story 2 with commentary. It's fun, familiar, and a good way to kill time. Eventually, we head outside and Trina spots the limo at the end of the street. We climb in and head for the restaurant.

I call my mom from the limo to let her know we're on our way. She helps my anxiety by telling me everyone is already having a great time and not to worry. In spite of my worries, we approach the restaurant on time. I call one more time so Mom can alert the photographer to come down and take pictures as we exit the limo. We're greeted b the staff and head upstairs to the dining room.

Once we arrive, I feel about ten times better. The room looks fantastic and everyone got there without incident (even my mother's brother and his family, who were coming in by train with very little time to get to the restaurant). I greet as many people as I can, pick up by bouquet, and get a quick look a the cake. This was one of my worries; last I heard, the florist and the restaurant staff hadn't talked and the cake was supposed to be decorated with flowers. But once I see it, I'm convinced they got in touch.

After the greetings, I talk to our officiant and gather our wedding party to start the ceremony. The Grover "reading" comes in right on cue (thanks to Donna's Andrew) and goes over very well. The only hitch is when I have to say my vows. I'm both nervous and really happy, which tends to make me giggle. I mess up one line and have to repeat it. Andrew does just fine and the rest of the ceremony goes smoothly.

The photographer grabs us for various family group pictures after the ceremony. Once those are done, we get to mingle and sample the appetizers. The only real problem with any of the day's events is the music. We spent hours picking out music and putting it in order....and no one can hear it. I guess if we had dancing, it would have focused more attention on the music, but as is, I guess no one minded since everyone was talking anyway. If something had to go kind of wrong, I guess it was pretty minor and didn't really bother anyone but us.

After talking to people for a while, we sit down for dinner. The food is quite good for the most part and everyone comments on how tasty it is. Andrew gets the tofu entree and I get the chicken, so we each have an opportunity to try a bit. My dad and sister both make beautiful toasts. I manage to thank everyone for coming and remember everything I meant to say without notes. Andrew and I circle around from time to time to talk to people at other tables when we're not enjoying our food.

I get the room's attention again to call attention to the favors and announce the cake cutting. The waitress tells us that there's cardboard about an inch in somewhere, but I never figure out exactly where. We cut the cake with Andrew's parents' cake knife from their wedding. We feed each other without too much frosting mess and everyone seems happy to discover that the cake inside is chocolate. The cake and dolci is a big hit all around. I make my last announcement and present my bouquet to my sister for luck with her wedding. People begin to leave and we're eventually down to one table. We head out before 5 and the rain that's held off until now makes an appearance. Will and the limo driver provide umbrellas, so we get to the limo relatively dry. We return home in plenty of time to feed the bunnies. I change into more comfortable clothing (those shoes will probably not be worn again), and take a brief nap on the couch. Around 8, we decide we're hungry and go out to Chili's with Erik, Trina, and Orin. It's a nice, casual end to the day and I'm feeling quite satisfied as we go to bed.

(I may add an entry for Monday at some later time, but I'm running out of steam, so this is it for now. Additions and comments welcome.)

W Minus Five: Real Progress

Now this is more like it. I think the list is actually getting smaller. Andrew's family is now back in town and his sister has been a huge help. Stuff has just generally been coming together in the past few days. Plus, Andrew is done with his job, so I can freely bug him to do wedding related stuff.

Things That Are Done (Or Mostly Done)

Pen for the guest book - Andrew's dad is supplying us with a nice pen from his large collection of free pens he's received. This is a relief, since pens seem to cost either 99 cents or 30 dollars with not much in the middle.

Confirm ceremony plan - Our officiant is all set on what we want to do. Just one or two tiny details to iron out, but this is essentially done.

Get hairclips and other dress accessories - Meredith and I visited the mall last night and got this taken care of.

Make emergency kit - We also took care of most of this at the mall. We still need some lipstick and a travel sewing kit, which Meredith is taking care of. Aside from that, maybe a nice bag to put it all in.

Clothes shopping with Andrew - This may not be necessary anymore, but even if it is, it shouldn't be too tough.

Plan family lunch - I think we're on for Friday, probably at Lexx in the center. Note to self: Call on Friday to reserve a table.

Figure out jobs for people - I think this is pretty much worked out. I should work out who will take what to the site and make sure they have it ahead of time.

Finalize menu with planner - I just got off the phone with her. All I need to do is make sure we have a final seating count and get the name of the person who will be there on the day.

Things To Do

Buy other part of favors - This should be really easy.

Get something old and something borrowed - I know what the something old is and will pick it up on Friday.

Resize Andrew's ring - We'll be doing this today or tomorrow.

Call and confirm vendors - I will probably do this Thursday or Friday. The only one I absolutely need to talk to is the photographer.

Check prices for parking garages - This is easy, I just need to sit down and do it.

Tell Andrew I love him - It's not that I haven't; I just need to keep it up.

Bonus: Andrew is working on cleaning today!

W Minus Seven: One Week To Go

A busy and fairly eventful couple of days, though I still feel like I have virtually nothing done. Thursday was my next to last day of fake job before the big day. I did get a call back from our officiant, but I'm still waiting on an e-mail from her finalizing the details of the ceremony. It doesn't help any that I think I left my e-mail program at work on and it has a nasty habit of grabbing up all my mail from Gmail before my home program gets it. I've been checking via webmail, but it's still pretty annoying. Note to self: do NOT forget to turn off e-mail program at work on Tuesday. In fact, consider disabling automatic checks for personal e-mail address altogether.

House cleaning is proceeding slowly. Andrew is working on a freelance job which I can't really say much about, so I can't ask him for help at least until Monday. Which would be OK except that the majority of the stuff that needs to be cleaned up is his and I don't have a clue where he wants it. I did get most of the front hallway and living room vacuumed; both areas sorely needed it. And to be fair to Andrew, he did clean up the kitchen prior to this job coming in. I gave the bathroom a good scrubbing then we reorganized the kitchen, resulting in a new "bunny corner". There's still a lot to be done, but it feels pretty overwhelming right now.

Andrew dropped me off at my parents' house Saturday evening so that I could go with my dad to pick up Donna and her Andrew. I've seen a fair amount of my parents lately. I'll frequently stop by their house after work since it's a short walk. And with Andrew needing some time alone to get more work done, my visits have been getting longer. After work on Thursday, I stayed for dinner out at an Italian restaurant near Mom's work. I do like visiting with them, and getting to spend some time with just my dad is especially nice.

Anyways, Donna called us from the airport and Dad and I headed out to pick her up, with Pedro in tow. Pedro absolutely loves car rides and behaves very well one them, so we like taking him too. He spent the majority of the ride curled up in my lap, happily relaxed. Logan was the usual horrendous mess and we ended up accidentally leaving the airport, then looping around the terminals an extra time. Once we found Donna and Andrew, we had a pretty uneventful drive home.

We got back to my parents' house and various belated gifts were exchanged. Then we got the big news: Donna and Andrew are engaged. I'm quite happy for them. Andrew is a great guy and I'm sure they'll continue to make each other and their two cats very happy. It gives me someone to pass my accrued wedding knowledge on to before I forget all of it. And my parents only have to remember one son-in-law name.

Andrew called and said he was exhausted, so I took Mom and Dad up on the offer to stay the night. I chatted with Donna and Andrew for a while, then went to bed for a less than easy sleep. Guess I'm just not used to being in a strange bed sans fiance. I woke up somewhat early for me, got a morning greeting from Pedro, and had breakfast. Everyone else was going up to Maine, so I got a lift home before they left.

The one wedding related thing I've managed to accomplish is getting a pretty complete music playlist ready. I have to check on some things with the iPod and speakers to see if I can shuffle the reception playlist. Otherwise, I need to put it in order myself. On the positive side, the wedding dreams have either stopped or stopped being memorable. Still nervous though.

Things To Do

- Get a pen for the guest book
- Confirm ceremony plan with officiant
- Finalize menu with planner
- Buy other part of favors
- Get hairclips and other dress accessories
- Get something old from Mom and something borrowed
- Make emergency kit and find someone to hold it
- Resize Andrew's ring
- Go clothes shopping with Andrew
- Call and confirm vendors
- Plan family lunch
- Figure out jobs for everyone
- Check prices for parking garages
- Tell Andrew I love him

Notice how the list gets longer instead of shorter? Yeah, that's really good.

W Minus Ten

It is ten days before I get married. There's a part of me that's still pretty suprised by that. The rest of me is busy freaking out.

Prior to now, I've been relatively calm about this whole thing. I've never been nervous about the marriage aspect of it and I'm not now. As I see it, we'll wake up in the morning together and go to bed at night together and the only tangible difference will be the addition of a couple of rings. It's not that I don't place any importance on getting married; if that were true we probably wouldn't be going through with this. It's just that since we've been living together for several years, we share a house, and we parent two rabbits together, I don't see this as a new begining or a life altering event. It's more a formal confirmation of what we already have. The worry is because of the event, not what it symbolizes. Andrew feels much the same way, but he got a head start on being nervous about it, so I have to cram an equivalent amount of worrying into roughly two weeks.

To be fair, we have accomplished a lot. I just spoke briefly with our officiant, who is supposed to call me back, which would mean the really essential stuff is pretty much set. But there are still those little things to deal with and that nagging fear that something more important than the music is going to go wrong. For two straight nights, I've had dreams about things going wrong at the weddings, one of which involved Darth Vader (who, weirdly, was not at all related to the problem we were having).

To (hopefully) calm my nerves and possibly make for some interesting reading, here's what we've got done and what we have left to do:

Things We've Done

- Booked the location
- Sent invitations and recieved responses from pretty much everyone
- Decided on the menu
- Ordered the flowers
- Hired an officiant
- Bought speakers for the iPod
- Purchased and recieved wedding rings
- Decided on outfits
- Gone to salon and made home appointment for the day
- Hired a limo
- Bought a guest book
- Obtained a marriage license
- Contacted photographer
- Had my mom order favors

Things To Do

- Get a pen for the guest book
- Finish selecting music
- Confirm ceremony plan with officiant
- Finalize menu with planner
- Buy other part of favors
- Get hairclips and other dress accessories
- Get something old from Mom and something borrowed
- Make emergency kit and find someone to hold it
- Tell Andrew I love him

If you notice any obvious omissions, please let me know. I may have done them and just forgotten to write them in.

So we do have a lot done. But there's still a lot to do, and this doesn't even touch on cleaning the house for our coming guests. I can only imagine how crazy "normal" brides with their much bigger weddings and 100 or more guests, must get my this point. Or is it comforting to have worked over every detail for months on end and have a rehearsal and so on? I like to think my smaller wedding is saving me some stress, but you never know.

Given what I've still got to do, I'm not sure if I'll get back to the blog before the big day. I'll try to at least post a rundown of how things went, though most people who actually read this will be attending. Until then, I expect to continue being stressed out and having odd dreams.

Oh, and Happy Birthday, Donna!