The Wedding!

I'm only 7 weeks or so late on this. I wrote it up shortly after the wedding but I kept forgetting to post it. Now that I have other follow-up things I want to write about I figure I should post about the actual wedding first.

What a whirlwind!

Well it’s all over, those months of planning lead to a wonderful day that was beautiful and a lot of fun. This is going to a be a long entry as I wish to record as much as I can remember before it fades into a memory. But here’s a few cliff notes in case you don’t have the time to read it all. The first thing I must say is “Thanks!” I was so humbled by all the help people were willing to give to help make the day absolutely perfect. Family, friends and complete strangers (at least to me at the time) did so much for us from helping make the decorations to setting things up to providing beverages and snacks. It was such a great weekend and wedding. Things didn’t go completely as planned but it didn’t matter. I loved the small, laid back feel to the wedding and was so happy that I got to spend it surrounded by friends and family. It was absolutely perfect and in the end I was married to my best friend. The ceremony was beautiful and we both alternated between about to cry and laughing. I loved the handfasting ceremony and, while I’m not sure everyone participated in time capsule, it turned out really nice and will be something wonderful to open in 10 years. Afterwards we were able to talk, hang out and eat some wonderful as well as swim and play games. All in all it was just want we wanted and imagined :)

If you want the full details please read on . . .

Thursday: I don’t think I got any sleep Wednesday night due to a mix of anxiety and knowing I needed to wake up super early (3:30am) to catch my flight. I think I perhaps got an hour or so of sleep :( It was a bit fortunate that I couldn’t sleep and ended up waking up at 3am as the shuttle to the airport arrived 15 minutes early. The flights went smoothly and I got into Rochester around noon, completely exhausted already. We quickly grabbed lunch at Panera and headed off to do the second most important thing of the trip besides actually getting married, getting the license to get married. Being slightly worried about the clerks offices being busy with the newly passed gay marriage law, we had made an appointment at the small Gates clerk’s office right near the airport. Arriving there, we really didn’t need to bother with the appointment but better safe than sorry. It was rather exciting filling out the paper as it made it feel a lot more real. In no time at all we had our license and was on our way. We then swung by David’s Bridal to pick up my dress from being pressed. Another source of anxiety (getting my dress from Omaha to Rochester safely) was over. With all the excitement of the license and dress over with, my lack of sleep really hit me. I decided to try and take a brief nap but also really wanted to get in some swimming before heading out for the night. I’m glad we did decide to swim as it helped wake me up a bit and it was nice to just hang out with Tim for a few moments before the whirlwind of the weekend was to begin.

I really wasn’t sure how long I was going to last but I was looking forward to hitting up the Old Toad with friends. We got there around 6 and we were quickly surprised at how many of our friends showed up shortly after that. We sort of expected people to drop in and out all night but we had a good group for almost the entire night. I got my yummy veggie shepard’s pie and Erica had bought me all this Bachelorette stuff, like a boa, ring, necklace and tiara. It was fun :) It was really nice seeing a lot of the gang again and catching up a bit. I also got to meet a few more of the the “thems” who i’ve either never met or have only met rather briefly. It was definitely a good time, nothing to crazy but still a lot of fun. I actually had a few drinks and was able to stay up rather late considering the no sleep before and I think we made it to bed around 1am. . .


Friday: It started with an early morning of packing of the car of all our luggage and all the decorations and supplies for the wedding before heading out to Penn Yan. We made it just in time to meet up with my parents and head out to lunch. It was great to see them and to see that Grandma made it up safe and sound. Tim and I headed out with them to meet up with Tim’s parent’s at Bully Hill. It was a beautiful location and it was still cool enough to sit outside. We had a wonderful lunch and I think the parent’s hit it off. The food was good, the view stunning, the Sangria refreshing but not super strong and the conversation flowed easily. Couldn’t have asked for more. We did realize later that afternoon, however, that we completely forgot to bring the parent gifts. Things timed out wonderfully and without feeling rushed, we had plenty of time to get back to the hotel and head over to the nail place. I’m not sure why it surprised me but both of my sisters arrived around 1 when I wasn’t expecting them until two, so we were able to all head over together. For finding this place online, it was nice. Not a huge place but the people were really nice, they even had a little congrats sign for us. It was my first pedicure and boy was that nice. I mean manicures are nice but I think if I’m going to splurge on pampering in the future it will be for a pedicure, I could definitely get addicted to those :) But it was a nice, relaxing time to just hang out with my sisters, mom, grandma and Erica. Almost a bit too relaxing as I was again exhausted by this point. Erica was super awesome and had brought some olives, cheese, grapes and crackers along with soda which helped keep me energized a bit. She even had toothpicks so that we didn’t ruin our nails.

The plans for Friday evening had gone back and forth a lot in my head. I was torn between having the two families hang out and then just spending time with my family as I hadn’t had a chance to see them much. We ended up deciding on doing dinner separate that night but while my family headed back to the hotel to check-in, settle and rest, I headed over to the cottage to see how preparations were going. Tim’s family was planning a picnic including Erica and Ross and my parents were going to pick me up when they were ready to go. Getting to the cottage, I saw two sweaty men working hard on hanging the lighting and Bud whittling a power cord which looked dangerous. We then ran into the issue of setting up the chairs. The plan Tim and Erica figured before I got there was to put everyone under the tent and us outside the tent but it just looked rather odd with us being outside the tent and so far and there was the bigger issue of the center aisle (since we all didn’t factor in the poles holding up the tent). So it took a bit longer than expected but somehow it was all figured it. It’s sort of a blur to me as I was so sleepy and brain dead at that point. Then it sort of turned a bit awkward as their food was ready and they were starting to eat but my parents weren’t there yet, so I just sort of sat off to the side and then when they did show up, I felt a bit bad for ditching everyone. I know it wasn’t a big deal but it still felt strange.

So then my family and I were off to a local place for dinner. It had great views and good food, the downside was that there was no AC and it was hot! But once we sat down, there was a breeze and it wasn’t too bad, at least for me. Again still super tired so while my family had a few drinks, I just stuck with water (even grandma out drank me!) But it was great just being able to relax with them and joke around my with sisters and their boys. I had originally planned to perhaps go out for a few drinks with the gals later that night but I was so exhausted, I knew I shouldn’t drink. So after dinner, we all headed back to the hotel. I had a few things I needed to finish up, the first being the charm bracelet. Too bad the links I brought didn’t work with the chain but Erica was again a godsend and not only had a smaller chain that would work but then spent most of the night attempting to painstakingly attach all the charms. Meanwhile, my sisters came over to do a trial run of the make-up. I’m glad we did that as some of the things didn’t look so great the first time around. I remember being called Zombie eye a few times. But it was a lot of fun and great way to sort of wind down the night. But before attempting to go to sleep I needed to finish the letter for the time capsule. I had written it but just not written it out on paper. I think when all was said and done we went to sleep around midnight. I’m still not sure how I stayed awake that long. But of course being the night before my wedding, I needed something to distract my brain if I was going to get any sleep. Again, Erica to the rescue! She downloaded “The Wedding Planner” (coincidentally a movie I frequently used in college to help me sleep) onto her computer and we basically ran a loop of it all night. I would fall asleep within the first few minutes but wake up again near the end, so I would start it over again. So I did end up getting a decent amount of sleep just in 90 minute chunks ;) I’m so glad Erica was there that night as her presence and the movie, really helped me sleep and not freak out.


Saturday: The big day!!!

Woke up bright and early to get to the hair appointment at 9. As with most of the things surrounding the wedding, I had never been to this salon and had found it on the Internet and as with everything else I was not disappointed. I had done a trial run of my hair here in Omaha and brought those pictures along. The stylist was able to easily replicate it and even added a new element, twists along the top which I absolutely loved! It added more texture and style to my hair and she did the curls rather tight so that they wouldn’t fall out completely by the ceremony time. It was perfect and we headed out of the salon, perfectly on time. Next stop was Wegman’s where I was picking up subs for myself and the rest of the family. It was a rather big order and did get slightly messed up but nothing horrible. I didn’t really realize how long it would take to make subs, but we had the time and it was nice to just sit and breath before starting the jammed packed portion of the day.

We got back to the hotel and I was rather happy with how smoothly and on-time everything was going. I wasn’t all that hungry but Erica made sure I ate all of my sub and drank lots of water. I was able to spend a bit more time with my family before we all split up to get ready. Around 11:30 the photographer, Sonia, showed up and we began to get my make-up on. The photographer was awesome, she spent the time taking pictures of my sister’s doing my make-up, my dress and lots of my jewelry. She was always busy doing something and I can’t wait to see the pictures. The make-up went rather smoothly, thanks to the test run the night before but it did take a bit longer than I expected. Definitely not my 10 minute morning routine :) At Christine’s wedding, grandma called her fat and so I was expecting some sort of line to happen at mine. Since grandma wasn’t there for most of the getting ready, the line came from Steph. As she went to start my make-up she said, “I think you have a grey hair”. I of course laughed and Sonia laughed but was like sister’s aren’t suppose to tell their sister’s that on their wedding day. We both joked back, that we would. I love my sisters. Luckily my dress wasn’t complicated to get into but the sash took a bit more fussing. My sister’s really didn’t like the bows they were making so they came up with some sort of other method, though honestly I wasn’t too worried about it and from the pictures I’ve seen it looked nice. At about that time, we got a call that there was no pin for the boutonniere so Eric came up to get one and the photographer went with him to get some shots of Tim.

With everything finished and me ready to go, it was off with Erica and the photographer to the bridge for first look pictures. It was sort of strange walking through the hotel lobby with people around in my wedding dress but luckily most of the other guests were there for weddings as well so it wasn’t so unusual. Out in the parking lot, while waiting for Erica to get the car, people driving by kept saying I looked beautiful and I must honestly say I felt beautiful. With the hair, make-up and dress, I really felt like a bride. I was done up but still looked like me :) As we drove by the bridge, I could see Tim and Ross waiting for our arrival. I think that might have been the most nerve-racking part of the whole day. Seeing him standing their anxiously waiting to see me. We hadn’t seen each other since the previous afternoon and it was at that moment that it hit me that this was real. Everything we were planning for was now happening. So we set ourselves up on the bridge and he turned to see me. I so wish we had a video camera for that moment as he actually squewed. I guess he liked what he saw. I think from that moment on it was all smiles, we just couldn’t help it when we looked at each other and realized what we were doing. It was then off to Keuka Springs vineyard for pictures and it was so beautiful there. Sonia guided us along to different areas and it was just a nice way for us to sort of relax and get a handle on the day. I think if we had done the more traditional not seeing each other until the moment I walked down the aisle, we both would have been a nervous wreck. But we had a lot of fun trampling through the vines and getting wonderful pictures.

We even got done early and were at the cottage with time to spare. So we just all sort of hung out and I took a look at all the hard work Tim, Ross, the Krayer family and the cottage crew had done to get the tent and area looking amazing. It was all so beautiful and fun! The weather was really working out nicely, it was hot but there was a strong breeze coming off the lake. Perhaps a bit too strong as some of the pinwheels sort of came apart but I’d rather have it be breezy and bearable than super hot and humid. While heading into the cottage we happened to notice my dress had a lot of marks on it, we think perhaps from Erica’s car but it could have been from the casks at the winery. So poor, pregnant Erica did her best to clean them off, though honestly I wasn’t worried about it. I sort of had a what will be will be attitude about the whole day and I think others stressed out/worried more about it than I did.

And then the biggest miracle of the day happened, my family arrived early!!! Them getting there on time was probably my biggest worry for the day and it turned out fine. Shortly after they arrived the officiant arrived and we did all the paperwork stuff. Then we still had a bit of time to just sort of hang out but finally after we realized we had everyone there, we figured we’d just start a bit early. I walked with my dad back towards the cottage and Kevin hit the music. It was a great ceremony and we spent most of it either smiling/laughing or fighting back tears. Luckily when one was on the verge of tears, the other one was able to make them laugh. I flubbed my lines a bit but it was a lot to remember when you were on the spot and the nerves are taking over. It was a bit surreal to realize that this was actually happening and as many people had mentioned I barely even realized other people were there. And it seemed like it was over in no-time, one moment she was welcoming people and the next she was saying we could kiss. I really loved the handfasting part of the ceremony and was really glad we did it. After the ceremony we put the ribbons in the time capsule and we then grabbed a whole bunch of group photos, I think we got all possible combinations and were even able to get a few photos down by the water. Many people end up running behind with their day-off timeline but we had the opposite problem, I allotted too much time to things and the group shots were done by 3:15 or so. So we did really end up having an impromptu cocktail hour and I’m glad I pushed for having some sort of beverages and snacks for the guests as it would have been awkward without them. Again the neighbor’s and Tim’s parents were amazing, making cheese, veggie and fruit platters as well as rolling out the tables and coolers while we were doing our group shots. I’m also happy we provided everyone with water at their chair because I must have stolen half of them to hydrate myself after the ceremony. I was a bit lost as to what to have Sonia do and was thinking of just letting her go early but she kept herself busy taking even more shots of guests, my bouquet, the scenery etc. And again the theme of the day held true, we just sort of hung out and relaxed and Tim and I enjoyed the fact that we were married.

It was then time to head over to the restaurant, which I had never been to or seen but again it was really nice and cute. As we were sitting there, waiting to get our drinks, Bud makes a comment about an apron or bib as there was tomato sauce and if he should ask the wait staff for an apron. As I know Bud himself often wears an apron as a bib and because I was slightly worried about the sauce myself, I said sure. Tim sort of laughed at me and I had to explain the sort of inside joke to my family but better safe than sorry and the apron was white so you could barely tell ;) The food was amazing. I’m not sure if it was because I was hungry or it was just that good but I had a few helpings especially of the mashed potatoes. I knew we were having cupcakes and the such back at the cottage but their desserts were also too good to pass up. I think everyone really enjoyed the food.

The evening sort of broke-up a bit from there. After dinner, my family decided to stop at the hotel for a bit so Christine (who got no sleep the night before) could nap and so Grandma could rest a bit too. The rest of us headed back to the cottage and while I really didn’t want to get out of my dress (shocker, since I thought I’d want out as soon as the ceremony was over), I did want to go swimming. I also realized swimming could ruin my hair and make-up which looked so nice, but again I wanted to go in the lake. So, most of us changed into suits and went swimming, I just waded so that my hair wouldn’t get wet. It was fun and relaxing, though the bottom of the lake is muddy/slimmy and a few people lost flip-flops too it. By the time I decided to get out, my family had returned! I changed into my casual dress (though honestly I liked the wedding dress more!) The neighbors brought out some more drinks, cookies and the cupcakes! I was a bit disappointed on the size of the cupcakes (especially in relation to the size of their normal cupcakes) but luckily we had bought a lot more so that we could include the neighbors so I think there was enough to go around and people could try more than one flavor. But since the cupcakes just sort of showed up, there was no real good way to do a cake cutting without it being odd and we weren’t all that hungry anyways. So the cake part was forgotten for the night. There was more talking and hanging out and Bud took Tim, my mom and I out on a boat ride. I had never been on the boat before and it was definitely a lot of fun. The only downside was that when we got back Tim’s brothers and their families had left. I was sort of bummed that they left without saying good-bye but I understand with kid’s you don’t really have a choice and we’d see them the next morning. While we were out the friends had started a game of Apples to Apples which Tim joined in on while I played with bubbles with Christine. Grandma was feeling a bit left out so I spent most of the night with her and my family. Mom got a chance to unwind and go swimming with Liz which was great as she needed a break. But soon, people had to head out to get home and the party broke up around 10pm. We helped clean up a bit but again the neighbors and Tim’s parents were wonderful, helping us take down the party. We got back to the hotel and were surprised to see our room decorated with balloons, streamers and confetti. It was really nice of Andy and Eric to do that :) We showered, relaxed and spent a very nice first night as a married couple.

Sunday: We slept in a bit and lounged for a bit more before starting to pack everything up. We got a great new luggage set that I was eager to use and we had a lot of things to round up that had ended up all over the hotel in numerous rooms and even back at the cabin. Somehow, I think we ended up getting everything we needed back to our room and in our luggage. We then headed up to brunch in Canadaigua, the restaurant was really nice, however it didn’t really have a space big enough for our large group of 20. We fit but I felt like we were in the way a lot of times. But it was nice to hang out with the family a bit more before having to leave. Since we didn’t cut our cake the night before, we decided to do it after brunch. I must say I enjoyed slightly smooshing cake on Tim’s face and that cake was really good. Too bad we were both full from brunch to actually eat much more than what we fed each other. After that people started heading out and we said our good-byes to our siblings and then parents.

Probably my last post before the wedding

I'm sitting here counting down the final minutes of work before I can head home, finish packing, drop off the dog and attempt to get some sleep tonight before I'm off to Rochester! I go through waves of it sinking in that I'm getting married in 3 days and other moments where I don't really realize how close it is. I'm just getting anxious for it to get here. Tim is off hanging out with family and getting the last minute details all set and I'm here, alone and working. He's already in wedding mode and I'm just dying to get to that point. I was sort of worried that handing over all the last minute details and decoration decisions was going to be tough as I'm a planner but it hasn't been to hard. Tim has showed me what him and Erica have been up to and it all looks great. The rough part has been not being there to hang out with Erica or spend some time with his family. It really sort of bums me out that I won't get any time to spend with Liz or Bud or his brothers as by the time I'm in the same area as them, my family will be around too. It would have been wonderful to get more bonding time but sadly thing just didn't work out that way.

I'm also starting to get a bit nervous about the big day. Not the marrying Tim but doing so in front of people. For as outgoing as I may appear, I'm not a huge fan of being the center of attention and having everyone staring at us as I attempt to make it through the ceremony without bawling is somewhat nerve racking. I know they all love and support us but it's just rather scary. But everything really seems like it's going smoothly and while there are little worries about timing and the such, I think things will go rather well. It's just that these last few minutes of work are crawling, I just can't wait to actually get there and do this thing!

What's in a name?

I never really thought much about it before and I always joked that I couldn't wait to get married and change my name because having people always misspell it or make jokes about "How's George?" get really old. But now that I'm a few short days away from becoming Larissa Krayer rather than Busch, it feels rather strange. I just approved the proof of my new business cards and it just looked weird and not real. After spending 29 years seeing Larissa Busch, it feels like a lie to see it any other way. Like it's not me. Don't get me wrong, I'm super excited to become Mrs. Krayer and I've never even considered not changing it but it is a bit sad to be saying good-bye to the old name. I know that I won't become a different person but it's just odd to have one's identity change like that. It's going to take some getting use to and I'll most likely screw up a lot in the beginning, especially with my signature. But now that we are 5 days away from it happening, I'm slowly saying good-bye to seeing Busch. What a strange sort of feeling it is. . .

On a completely different topic, to help me fall asleep at night I've been watching movie, wedding themed movies. Saturday night was The Wedding Planner and last night was 27 Dresses. It actually helps watching them as they help trigger things I've forgotten to think about. Like last night in the opening scene of 27 Dresses, I notice the main character (who is always the MOH in lots of weddings), holding the bride's bouquet. And then I realized, I had no idea what my plans were for my bouquet. But at least now I have some time to figure that out rather than having to do it on the fly when I'm presented with that issue on Saturday. Watching these movies actually calms me down as I realize we really have thing together and there's not much left to do. I really thought this final week would be hectic and stressful but so far so good. I know Thursday through Sunday are going to be a whirlwind but I think they should be a fun whirlwind rather than frantic. At least that's the hope ;)

Sleep eludes me

For the past week, sleep has been difficult. Falling asleep has gotten easier as I'm so exhausted from the lack of sleep the night but staying asleep seems near impossible. I always seem to wake up about 2 hours before I have to, around 4am and my brain just kicks on. I'm thinking about the wedding, which is a bit odd as there isn't much left to think/worry about but my brain comes up with stuff. I also think about work as it has been super crazy and I have a lot to do to prepare for my 7 days off. So I've just been exhausted lately.

This post at 3:45am, however, is not just about me not being able to sleep. I'm actually suppose to be up this early (which of course meant my brain kicked on at 2am so I've gotten a grand total of 3.5 hours of sleep today) because I'm about to drop Tim off at the airport. I'm really going to miss him and I'm rather jealous of the fact that he gets to spend the next few days hanging out with friends and family, relaxing and finishing up the wedding stuff. It's tough for me as an uber-planner to relinquish control of these final details that can only be figured out when in Rochester but it's how it has to be and I totally trust Tim's decisions. Again just jealous that he gets to do some of the things I count as the "fun stuff".

So I'm really hoping I can get some more sleep when I get back and somehow figure out a way this week to get some sort of sleep or Tim will be marrying a zombie bride by the time next Saturday comes along. I better look into some concealer to cover the dark circles under my eyes when I go make-up shopping today ;)

10 days!

Tomorrow we'll be in the single digits which is just sort of crazy. It feels just like yesterday we were counting in months and saying things like "Oh that can wait or can only be done the week or two before." And now that time is here. We don't actually have a ton left to do which is nice. All the appointments are made, all the vendors have been confirmed and we are double checking our numbers to make sure all the money is in place to pay people. Now all that is really left is to pack and stalk the weather. It's like a roller coaster, yesterday it looked nice and today it says hot and humid. I really don't care about the heat but humidity will be rather tough. I guess that's what we get for having an outdoor summer wedding. But the weather stalking is sort of fun.

I was all prepared for these last two weeks to be hectic and crazy as that's what I've been told by a lot of people but either due to the size and style of our wedding or my crazy need to prepare and plan, it's sort of boring. So much so that I've turned my attention to the NJ party. We won't have all that much time to plan things for it as we'll only have 5 weeks but not much really needs to be planned. Invites are out and I'm not sure how much other things we'll do for it. But I at least want to start thinking about it since the wedding seems under control

Create-atuity

I'm not even going to apologize for not updating...  Here we go:

Throughout the preparations for the wedding I have discovered sort of a new hobby.  I really enjoy graphic design/publishing/layouts whatever you want to call it.  I've had a lot of fun making the programs match the invitations and the invitations match everything else.  Taking graphics and colors from one thing and using them on others.  I don't have a lot of fancy equipment- it's all been done within Microsoft Office, but I'm pretty proud of what we've come up with.  It's neat to do it yourself and come up with something you're happy with while at the same time saving money by not using professional printers (although, some of our stuff has come from Vista Print).

I've done this sort of thing in the past, making worksheets and such for school.  I guess this is the first time I've done it in this quantity, and been this concerned about the final product being produced.  It's all a little ironic... I'm the first to admit, and Larissa would readily agree, I generally have the attention span of a flea.  So it's impressive I'm able to focus on graphics and layouts and margins and measuring as long as it takes to get things to an acceptable level of "good enough".

So that's what I've been up to- knee deep in desktop publishing.  I hope my printer holds up for a few more days.

Only FIFTEEN more days until the Big Day!

So it begins . . .

The wedding dreams. Friends told me to except strange dreams of the wedding as it got closer but last night was the first one of the actual wedding that I remember. I had some a few months ago but they were more related to flights and getting to the wedding/honeymoon. So all I really remember from the dream is bits and pieces and emotions. It definitely wasn’t the wedding we are planning as it was in a huge church (with a zig zag aisle, I had to walk halfway up the church make a left turn walk a bit more and then make a right turn to head up another set of pews) and there were tons of people. Far from the small gathering at the lake we are going to have. I was also walking up the aisle by myself which felt really strange, like something was missing (duh my dad!). I also remember the anticipation I had waiting to see Tim. This was a strange shaped church and so while walking up the first set of pews I couldn’t see anything but the backs of people standing in the other set of pews. But when I turned the corner and saw Tim, I can still recall the wave of joy that washed over me in the dream. I then realized there was no music but that quickly cut in (it was the correct song, the one we’ll be playing that day, though at the wrong place where we will have the song start from). I finally get up to the front and the last thing I remember before waking up and the part that has been bugging me a bit is that when the priest goes to speak, no one can hear him. I mean we can barely hear him and he’s right next to us. So I’m all freaked out that people are missing the words. Then I wake up. Now I’m a bit nervous that since there will be no sound system people will not hear the beautiful ceremony we created. I’m sure I’m worrying for nothing as it will be a small group and the Reverend is use to speaking up, I just worry about us. Still it’s prompted me to at least look into having some sort of microphone, if I can figure out something that isn’t super expensive.

But with 17 days to go I can happily report the wedding dreams have begun :)

Small unexpected worries

There are the typical things brides worry about as the day gets closer. Is everything booked? Is the schedule/day of plans good? Will vendors and guests show up on time? How do I logistically coordinate all these small little aspects. For the most part, I think we have these things well handled. There was a slight worry with the planning as I didn't realize where we wanted to take the parents for lunch on Friday was as far as it was from the nail place, but luckily I was able to push back the nail appointment. There have just been these small but manageable, oh wait this isn't going to work or we should do this moments.

But there are two things I couldn't even imagine I'd have to worry about/come-up with back-up plans for that have presented themselves in the past few weeks. The first, I think is completely manageable and we already have a potential solution to. In exciting news, NY has finally allowed same-sex marriage! The law happens to take effect the day after our wedding, so I'm a bit concerned at how busy some of the clerks offices may be leading up to that date. As Tim and I won't both be in the state until the Thursday before the wedding and there is a 24 hour waiting period from the time you get the license until you can get married, that leaves us a window of about 6 business hours to get to a clerks office and get the license. I'm just worried the lines might be busier than normal. But we have found one smaller clerks office, that does marriage licenses by appointment only so we can reserve a time to get it done. I think we might just go that route so there will be no worry or stress when I get in.

Which leads to my main worry, that I have very little control over and can develop a plan B for as it would be out of my hands; our airport flooding. For the past month we have watched the Missouri River rise but have been told that it was going to affect the Iowa side more. Well apparently that seems to be changing as rain water and the rising ground water level have started causing issues in Omaha. Of course the airport happens to be surrounded on three sides by the river an has been working really hard to secure the levees, add pumps and build wells (for the rising ground water). It really seems like they are working to bail out a sinking ship. While all the news reports seem optimistic that they will stay ahead of the water, it's not going away any time soon. It seems to have gotten bad enough, that the city just sent out flood evacuation information flyers to areas that would be affected should the levees fail which includes the airport. So I just keep crossing my fingers that the airport will be open for both of us to fly out in a couple of weeks. Even if it is open to fly out, a coworker made a good point about parking the car there in case it floods while we are gone. So now we are trying to figure out a way that isn't super expensive to get to and from the airport without us having to drive. I really don't want to spend my honeymoon worrying if I'll get back to find my car under water. Part of me just wishes if it's going to happen, that it happens soon as we'll have more time to figure out a plan B. There's a small airport at Lincoln but that can't handle a lot of traffic. Kansas City which is much bigger than Omaha and could handle the traffic is now really hard to get to as the interstate heading down there is closed for the majority of the way so the 3 hour drive now takes 5-6. That leaves Des Moines which could be doable, we'd just have to get hotel the day before. But sadly there is nothing to really do besides keep an eye on it and hope we can fly out. Ugh

1 Month!

Not much to update but just wanted to say one month from today is the big day!!! So exciting :) And while not completely stressed out there are a few things I'm worrying about. After going over things with Tim about the nail appointment, we realized that where we'd like to take the parents is further than I realized and might not work with a 1pm appointment. I really don't want to change the lunch location as it's a really pretty and nice place and there aren't many others that would work, so hopefully I'll hear back from the place to see if they could move it to 1:30. Doesn't seem like it should be a huge problem as they'll still have 2.5 hours for everything.

I'm also freaked out about the airport here flooding. It's currently surrounded by water and every night on the news the airport is always on updating on the things they are doing to keep the water out. It seems to be working but the water issues seem to be getting worse each day. It just has to hold out 28 more days!

The final details

Well we are down to 35 days or exactly 5 weeks and the final details are falling into place. This morning I called about nail appointments and boy is that more involved than I ever imagined. I figured an hour or two since most places can do multiple people at once but it sounds like it's going to be more like 2-3 hours and that's with cutting two pedicures. But it should be fun and they said I can bring some food and drink (they have a small kitchen/fridge to keep things), so I'll have to pick up some things to enjoy while we are there. The schedule for the weekend is really starting to fill-out but hopefully it won't be too jammed packed. I think the last things to schedule for that weekend is reservations for lunch with the parents on Friday and Brunch on Sunday, though I really need to find out who all we be going to that before I can make reservations.

I'm am so relieved that the last undecided/unknown project has fallen into place. For the last month or so I've been trying to figure out an easy way to decorate the ceremony space. I wanted something more than just a plain aisle between white chairs to the small table that will be the "altar". I just had no idea what I wanted or what we could actually do. I'm sure I have been driving Tim nuts with all my ideas but never settling on one. I was just going to leave it up to him and Erica to decide that week before since anything we did do would have to be bought or made that week anyways. But recently I've been liking the idea of pinwheels or wind spinners or something. They are fun and whimsical which if we had a theme, I think that would probably be it. But of course we haven't been able to find any that would work, as most are really small or really expensive. So then I started thinking about making them ourselves, could pinwheels be that hard to make? Well the answer after some googling appeared to be no, so today we ran out and got the supplies to test run one. I wasn't really sure how this was going to turn out, thinking it either wasn't going to work or was going to look like a 5 year old did it. Shockingly though it turned out really nice. We are thinking of having a few of these lining the aisle and perhaps the table if they can't find something different to do up there. So Tim and Erica have one more small DIY project to do that week before but it's really quick and easy to do.

Now we just need to start making lists of things to bring and do that week before :)

It's all coming together

We haven’t been as good at updating the blog as I would like but at least I’m being better than Tim is. I might bug him to post as now that he is out for the summer, he’s been the one working on a lot of the wedding projects. It just amazes me how good he is as phrasing, wording and writing. I’m not good at being clever, funny or witty. I’m definitely glad that he enjoys doing the graphic designs, layouts and writing because I dread that stuff. It’s fun to come home and see something new he’s whipped up. Right now though most of it is for the NJ party part as the majority of the things for the wedding itself are done. So there has been some work on invites and RSVP and address printing for that set of things as I’d like those to go out in early July. We get to pick the menu for that event rather soon but I think we are going to do a simple buffet as a plated thing seems silly (and overly expensive) for a lunch time gathering.

We’ve officially booked our flights to NJ for the party and we really lucked out, not only were there flights into Allentown, which is closer, smaller and much easier dealing with than Newark or Philly, but there was a night flight on Thursday. That means we’ll have all of Friday to spend with family and I’m really hoping to get down to the shore. I’ve realized I haven’t been swimming in the ocean in a super long time as most of the oceans I’ve visited in the past 5 years have been too cold to swim in. While booking the flight I also had to stop for a moment and figure out what name to use for the ticket. The trip is only 7 weeks after we get married and I wasn’t sure if I would have my marriage certificate by then and have the time to get to the DMV to get a new license to use for airport security. After doing some research on how long it normally takes to receive the cert from NYS and contacting TSA. I decided to go under my future new name. Of course it then wouldn’t let me use my frequent flyer number as the name didn’t match but I think I can get it credited in the future. It just sort of dawned on me that while it might be easy to get my name changed, the fact that it’s changing is going to cause some minor hassles for the time being. Even if I tried to make a list of every place I need to contact about the change, there will always be a few I don’t think of such as frequent flyer programs. These next 6 months or so should be fun as they pop up randomly.

Finally in dress news, I had my final fitting a few weeks ago and the dress now fits really well. The goal is to not change size either way between now and July but definitely not put on weight ;) I was a bit worried in the way beginning about getting a dress from David’s Bridal and having it altered there as my previous experience with another store wasn’t great and I’ve heard horror stories about the alterations from friends. But I must say that my whole experience was super wonderful from start to end, all except for the very last thing. With the alterations complete, the last thing I needed to do was arrange shipping of the dress to Rochester. It’s was one of the main reasons, besides their dresses being in my price range, I went with David’s Bridal. I was not looking forward to flying with the dress. Though in actuality, Tim most likely would have ended up trying to fly with it as he’s getting to the area earlier. So I went up to the front to arrange shipping, a little worried that for some reason they weren’t going to be able to do it after assuring me each time I was there that they could. The lady up in the front wasn’t someone I recognized but I told her what I wanted to do, she didn’t seem to have an issue with the shipping but then asked where I was going to get it pressed. I said I was told that the Rochester store would do it and she asked if I had set it up. I responded that I wasn’t aware that I needed to set something up but that I had planned on calling a few weeks before to let them know. She then became a bit worked up saying that we needed to call the store and make an appointment and all this stuff. I also found out that she is actually from another store and was covering which is why I didn’t recognize her. I was secretly happy she was going to handle it all so I didn’t have to but then when she called the store and told them about the situation, they didn’t seem to understand what she was saying. She asked if they wanted to put me down in the books or make an appointment and apparently it didn’t seem to matter. She seemed confused and a bit put off that they didn’t want advanced notice on me coming in but she told me I should probably try calling again and setting something up and that I’d want to bring the dress in two weeks before rather than a week before. I was sort of under the impression that pressing was something I could have done same day but again I’ll and check. I really hope this goes smoothly though if it doesn’t I’ll just find another place to press the dress. It also shipped rather quickly as the dress is now hanging up in the Krayer home, having safely arrived in Rochester :) One less thing to worry about.

Two name changes . . .

While I've occasionally played around with my upcoming new name, I have officially used it for the first time. We had to bring Daphne to a vet yesterday and the woman while putting together her file asked "It's Busch, Bu right?" And I said yes but it was going to change in two months as I was getting married so she asked if I just wanted to have it switch now and I said sure. So Daphne's official file is Kr, Krayer and she is now Daphne Krayer not Busch. While filling out the paper work I thought it would be silly to write my name as Larissa Busch as Daphne's file was under Krayer so I wrote my name as Larissa Krayer for the first time officially. I then of course totally blanked and signed my normal signature but that's going to be hard to get use to. I've had a squiggle of a signature for years and sadly Krayer is a lot harder to squiggle than Busch but I'm sure I'll get use to it eventually. So now both Daphne and I have used our new names just a few weeks early :)

In other news, our vista print order arrived today and it was a ton of fun to open. It's just another step towards the big day!!!!

What to Wear?!?!

Women have it EASY.  Pick a white dress off the rack, get the opinion of your 15 closest friends and family members, PLUS the guidance of a professional whose only job it is to put women in white dresses...  Have it fitted to your exact body size and proportions.  Try it on and get more opinions AGAIN...  How can you go wrong?  Not to mention the inborn sense of style ever girl is instilled with at birth.  Guys, on the other hand, are forced to sail into dark, uncharted waters, pretty much on their own.

[editor's note: the previous paragraph is meant for entertainment purposes only and should not be taken seriously on any level.  It does not necessarily reflect the thoughts or opinions of this blog's author.  Furthermore, the blog's author realizes and appreciates the incredible amount of time, effort and thought that goes into a bride's preparation for her wedding day, even if the said bride in question needs no special preparation to be perfectly beautiful in every way.]

Renting a tux?  Most likely, your only previous experience with these monkey suits was for your junior prom 10 years ago.  What are the current styles?  Colors?  Fabrics?  Cuts?  Two buttons or three?  What sort of shoes?  And then... you have to put on the exact same shirt and pants some other dude spent last weekend in sweating in.  Gross.

What if you're not wearing a tux?  Then you're completely on your own.  This is the route I'm taking, admittedly by choice.  A tux would be too formal for our lake-side ceremony, and the last time I wore a rented tux last fall I ended up with an awful rash around my neck for two days after.  Not something I wanted to risk repeating during my honeymoon.  So my wedding attire of choice is a simple suit.  One I already own, in fact.  In an effort to make is special and match our wedding as closely as possible, I needed a few other garments to complete the look.

I had it in my brain pretty early on that I wanted a pair of bright blue Converse.  I've never worn this style shoe before in my life, and have no particular attachment to them or concrete reason for wanting to wear them, beyond the fact that I think they're sort of cool and would work with our casual-ish wedding.  So early on in our preparation I found a pair of "skydiver blue" Converse, and picked them up.

Larissa's dress has a bright blue sash, though not the same shade as my shoes.  It made sense to find a shirt that matched Larissa's sash.  After a bit of searching, we lucked out and found a shirt that matches it EXACTLY.  Score (insert a bit of ordering and returning because the store didn't have my size in stock.  We eventually got it right).

So now I have a blue shirt and a different shade of blue shoes, and a charcoal gray suit.  Next on the list was a tie.  We found a couple different options, and brought them home to try.  The first was black and bright pink (another wedding color) but really didn't work at all.  Next up was a black & blue that matched the shirt great, but left the shoes looking sort of out of place.  Just this weekend I picked up a solid blue tie that matches the shoes, and still looks good with the shirt.  So now we're set.  It was a lot of trial and error, but now I'm confident I'll look at least half as good as Larissa will in her beautiful gown.

~Tim

Sometimes it's hard living so far from family . . .

This week was full of fittings and trials for the wedding. As mentioned previously, I was not looking forward to my dress fitting and as the day approached, I really became anxious because I had no idea what to expect. Luckily like most people said it went perfectly fine. After grabbing a quick bite of dinner with Tim, I headed over to David's Bridal with my full dress assemble in tow. Heading back to the alterations department, I was a bit overwhelmed by a wedding party all getting their alterations done as well with dresses in the Malibu blue of my sash. While I love the color and it's a great in small doses, I'm not sure I would dress multiple people it and have them stand next to each other. My seamstress, Kim, was super friendly and helped me get into my dress since I was there solo. My first nightmare did not occur as she was able to easily zip up the dress. So I walked over to the mirror and Kim asked what my concerns were. I then admitted to her that this was the first time I had tried on my actual dress and she was a bit surprised. I explained that we just moved out here so the only person really around to help me get into it would be my fiance and that wasn't happening. So she gave me a moment to take a look while commenting that it didn't look like it really needed anything done. After a minute of looking it over and noticing it was a bit loose, she suggested we could take it in a bit. So she pinned that up, we grabbed some pictures and that was the end of that. Nice and simple. But while waiting for her to fill out the paperwork and just while talking to her about weddings and other things, it did hit me again that I wish I could be sharing this with my family and friends. There were other brides there with their mothers or sisters and sadly the only way to share this with mine are through pictures. I probably could have invited the woman who came with me dress shopping but as I was already nervous about the whole thing, I didn't feel like having people I don't know very well to join in. So that should be ready in a few weeks and then I'll ship it off to Rochester.

Yesterday was my hair trial. After discussing hair ideas with Tim to get his thoughts and opinions, I had formed a basic idea of what we'd both like. I then began hunting for pictures but was having a hard time finding exactly what I wanted. That was until the Royal Wedding :-P I wasn't a fan of all the hype but sadly Pippa Middleton's hair was exactly what I was looking for and therefore was the picture I brought with to the hairstylist. Apparently it's a very easy to do style that any stylist should be able to do so I don't have to worry much about someone in Geneva being able to do it. I think it turned out really nice and didn't take long at all to do. In order to "use" the hair, Tim took me out for my birthday last night and we got all dressed up. It was a lot of fun.

A friend had questioned that I was going to let Tim see my hair before the big day and again I explained it as I didn't want to waste the hairstyle and this seemed the best way to use it as I didn't have others to really go out with. I don't often think much about the fact that I live so far from friends and family but during this wedding planning stage, I sometimes wish I lived closer. I feel like I missing out sometimes on life experiences. Omaha is a great city and I love my job but I need to find someway to convince all my friends and family to move out here as well. I also of course need to start making better friends out here ;)

Kicks...

Time Flies When You're Having Fun

I am such a total slacker.  Please excuse my lack of updates.  Larissa is totally winning on that end.  Anyways...

Usually, like, 99% of the time, when you're REALLY REALLY looking forward to something, it seems like time slows to a crawl.  Whether it's 8:17 am and you're tapping your foot waiting for 5pm to come so you can get out of work (or 3:40 if you're me ;-) ), or you're a little kid waiting for your birthday or Christmas to come around on the calendar, time moves at a snail's pace.  This had crossed my mind back when I first proposed an we were in our early stages of planning and picking a date.  Going the more "traditional" route and having a year or longer engagement seemed like an eternity to wait.  I was (and still am) really excited when it turned out that July of this year would work so well for what we're planning.

I had NO IDEA, however, just how fast the time would go.  We got engaged on January 18th (it was a Tuesday, if you're counting).  The wedding, as you know, is set for July 23rd.  That's just over 6 months. Plenty of time.  And honestly, in the smack dab middle of January, picturing a summer day lakeside seemed like eons away.  Suddenly I blinked, and now we're down to 87 days.  Less than 3 months.  HOLY COW.  All the big super important stuff was figured out and booked months ago now, and we're on to the smaller, nitty gritty details that make this whole thing feel way more real and concrete.  Like... ordering and creating favors.  Buying a cake-topper.  Figuring out a rough schedule of the actual wedding day.  Whoa.  This is happening, and it's happening super-soon.

Don't get me wrong.  The last thing I mean to imply is that I am scared of the approaching date.  Far from it.  I'm so excited about it and looking forward to it that I expected time to creep by super-slowly.  But here we are.  Soon the school year will be over, and then it's on to Summer and the beginning of the rest of my life.

In other unrelated news, I recently signed my letter of intent to return to my teaching job in the fall (for all intents and purposes, renewing my contract).  This is the first time I've ever accomplished this, having been laid off from 3 different positions in 3 years.  I feel a little bit like a teenager who keeps getting dumped but is now in a really great relationship.  I've been burned one too many times in the past and I'm afraid to start trusting again.  I have to keep reminding myself that yes, they do like me and yes, there is money in the budget to keep paying me to do what I do.  Anyways... Unrelated to the wedding (though, a continuing stream of paychecks definitely helps in getting this event off the ground), but I felt like sharing the good news.

~T

All the girlie things

I love the wedding boards, they provide entertainment and advice, but sometimes they point out the rather obvious differences between a typical bride and me. Most of this has to do with regards to typical female loves, shopping, jewelry, make-up, clothes, etc. I’m not the biggest fan of shopping, I only recently started wearing jewelry and that’s mostly due to Tim, and make-up is still not a regular thing though I wear it more often now due to the business casual dress code at work. So when I see all these women talking about being so excited for their fitting or their hair trial or figuring out their make-up, it makes me realizes that not only do I not look forward to most of this stuff but I’m sort of dreading it. My first dress fitting is next week and I’m totally scared. Scared it won’t fit or won’t be like I remembered. I know things will turn out fine but I’m not bursting with excitement over putting the dress on, I’m the complete opposite. A few days after my fitting is my hair trial which made me realize I should probably figure out what I want done with my hair. I have a basic idea of what I’d like but have no idea if it will actually look good or work with my hair. I just feel like a visitor on an alien planet. These things aren’t exciting to me, the sort of scare and overwhelm me because I’m not a girlie girl and weddings are sort of the biggest girlie moment of a woman’s life.

I recently found a sundress to change into after the ceremony which actually closely resembles my original casual wedding dress idea I had a few months ago. We didn’t stick to the casual/informal dress idea for very long because I couldn’t find anything like this back in February and didn’t want to chance them not coming out and me stuck with no wedding dress (as it’s rather late in the game to order a formal wedding dress). So we went with the more formal approach and after showing Tim the reception dress and telling him this was my original idea for the wedding dress, he likes the more formal route we are going. I enjoy it too because I do love my dress (though man it’s gonna be hot, hence the second dress) but by opting to go the more formal route it has added more girlie things to the list. Had I gone with the sundress option there would be no fittings and alterations and no hair trials as I would have had my sister do my hair but now with the more formal feel, I think it would look better overall to have a more formal hairstyle. I wouldn’t have to be as dressy and girlie. But for as much as I’ve kicked and screamed in the past about dressing up, once I do, I actually enjoy it. I just have to remember it’s worth all the work and it won’t be as horrible or torturous as I imagine.

I don’t, however, think I’ll be bouncing with excitement and gushing on the boards about my fittings and hair trials . . . .

Turning Ideas into Reality

For the past few weeks/months we’ve been coming up with ideas of things we’d like to do for the wedding but they have always been just ideas or suggestions, nothing concrete until now. We’ve stopped saying oh wouldn’t it be nice to do x,y,z for the wedding and have moved onto the okay let’s do this and now let’s go get the stuff we need to make/do to get it done. It started with the wine charms and programs and has moved on to a variety of other projects and we are starting to actually mark things off our list rather than continuing to add to them.

The wine charms were a fun project this past weekend. Tim and I worked together to bead them and Tim designed and printed out the name label part (he’s so great with the computer). I’m thankful again for the small size of our wedding. While it was a lot of fun making them, I couldn't imagine it staying fun if we were to create 80 or 150 of them. We then ordered the wine glasses to go with them. Creating the design was a bit trickier than we thought and we are still waiting for the proof just so we can be sure they are correct before being made. It’s funny it was cheaper to order 36 of them rather than the 28-30 we needed, so we’ll definitely have a few extra.

We also started to look into the exact price and process of ordering a box for the Time Capsule for the ceremony. Again it was another moment of price shock. It wasn’t that the price was unreasonable (it’s handmade and personalized) but still we both were like that much for a box? We’ll end up getting it because it’s something that we’ll have for a very long time and it’s very nice, it’s just sometimes hard to get over the spending money part. The knee jerk reaction is to run but then you have to reason it out. We aren’t letting the once in a lifetime/big day excuse influence us into extravagant purchases in many areas of the wedding especially for things that will only be used on that one day but for this I think it’s acceptable to go for the super nice thing as it will be a keepsake.

I’ve also begun to realize there are a lot of little things that I sort of overlooked, the most recent one being that I should probably factor the photographer into lunch plans. I really need to start a physical list of not just the big picture things but the small details as well. I always rattle all these things we need to do when we are out shopping or out to dinner but once I get home I never remember to write them down or think it’s important to write them down. I have a feeling another Panera trip might be called for this weekend so that we can revise the ceremony script and start hashing out the details and getting them into a list. I just can’t focus at home and put things off but if I’m out with nothing else to do, it’s a lot easier.

Lastly is the dress. Now that both the sash and dress are here, I’ve really needed to make an alterations appointment for my first fitting. It’s just that I’m really nervous about it. While there is no reason to think it won’t fit, I’m still scared. But I bite the bullet and made the appointment for May 5th.

3 months from today we’ll be getting hitched :)

We have reached 100 days and counting

Today marks 100 days until the big day and things are still going really smoothly. Last weekend Erica and Ross drove out to the Penn Yan area to meet with some florists. One was a florist shop in near by Geneva (that we learned later Tim's father had worked for way back in the day) and the other was shop in Penn Yan. They came up with lots of great ideas but luckily while their ideas based on what I like were similar, they were different enough to be able to pick between the two florists. The bouquets had changed a bit from what was discussed in Buffalo but I love the ideas and the simplicity as I think it will go well with our casual wedding. The bouquet will be made up of bright yellow and pink gerber daisies with a very simple wrap, but it will be jazzed up a bit with the inclusion of two rhinestone butterflies (I love the sparkle!). The Penn Yan florist showed Erica a bright rainbow colored rose that she thought I might like from my description of wanting bright colors and loving a rainbow feel.

While I loved the flower, I just thought a whole bouquet of it would be way too busy and since Tim thought it was neat and unique, we decided to have his boutonniere be made from the rose. So I'm really excited that this last vender has been picked and things are moving along on that front.

We also have settled on our favors and have started moving along on that topic. We were toying around with the idea wine glasses and finally decided to go with that along with personalized wine charms so that everyone could (if they wanted to) use their glasses that night and not get confused plus they could serve as a sort of name tag/place card (though we aren't having assigned seating). Another bonus was that it's a DIY project I could do here :) So we spent an afternoon trying to find all the pieces we'd need to make them. We had seen some tag charms on Oriental Trading (sort of prompted the idea) but we were worried about the quality. But after trying a few different shops (even specialized bead/jewelry making stores) we couldn't find anything that would allow us to personalize a charm. We did, however, find some nice beads to go along with the charms. So we ended up ordering the charms from OT and they just came today. They are actually a lot nicer than I thought, so this weekend will be spent making wine charms!

On another DIY topic, we bought the supplies for and begun designing our programs. The sample one has turned our really nicely we just need to finalize the wording and add a bit more color and we can print those out. Sadly they can't be assembled until they get to Rochester for ease of transport. It's just nice being able to finalize ideas we've been tossing around.

Finally the last development of the past two weeks is that we've nailed down a location and day for the NJ party. It will be at a nice local golf course near my parent's house on 9/10/11 at 12. I find that date rather fun though I would have preferred the following weekend since it's right after Labor Day and we'll be flying on the 10th anniversary of 9/11 but at least security should be really good that day . . .

I think that's it for now but totally expect pictures of the charms as we'll want to show off our crafting skills :)

All's Quiet on the Western Front(?)

I feel as if I should update, as it has been a long time since I've said anything...  I'm unsure of a concrete topic, however.

I feel like we've got everything pretty much under control.  The big stuff is all nailed down, as you know, and we've got good ideas/head starts on the little stuff that is too last-minute to really work on yet.  We're still actively saving up money, and we've even put aside a chunk of cash for those 'day of' expenses like paying off the remaining balances for various vendors and such so we're not caught off guard and broke.

Larissa is pretty heavily entrenched in the message boards on The Knot, we've got lots of friends & family members who have gotten married previous to us, and we've both got a pretty good head on our shoulders.  What I'm getting at is that I feel like we've really got a good handle on stuff.  I'm hoping this will keep the stress at a minimum as the day continues to grow nearer, and we're not blindsided by some big terrible problem last minute.

Our wedding will be small and intimate enough that its not completely overwhelming to plan, while still leaving us the opportunity to have fun with it and do some pretty cool things.  I'm not going to give anything away now, but there should be some nice unique surprises for our guests come July 23.  It's too bad Larissa won't be flying in to Rochester until 2 days before the ceremony... I can tell she really wishes she could do a lot of the last minute detail stuff.  She'll have to trust it to me & Erica.

So in just under 4 months we'll be Mr. & Mrs. Krayer.  Sometimes it's hard to wrap my head around it, but mostly I'm just super-excited and can't wait for it to get here.  I'm glad we did not decide on 2012; I don't think I could handle the waiting...

That's one big field!

I knew it would happen eventually but I didn't expect it to happen this soon. Today my finger felt empty and I looked down to discover my engagement ring was missing. The worst part, I made this discover while standing in a rather large field after having spent the past 30 minutes walking all over it playing fetch with Daphne. I freak out because not only have I lost it but I might have lost it in this giant field full of hundreds of dogs and there is no way we would find it there. Tim is trying to reassure me that it's not the end of the world and perhaps I took it off or lost it not at the dog park. I mean it's not something that will easily fall off now that the weather is warmer and my hands aren't freezing (and therefore smaller) all the time. I had been reaching into my pockets a lot to get the folding dog bowl so I thought perhaps that's when I lost it. But then Tim makes a good point that it would have then fallen into my pocket and sadly it's not in any of them.

I begin to make us attempt to retrace our steps not wanting to admit it was gone. But then I start to retrace my steps mentally before we got to the dog park. I know I had it on when we were at home during our quick stop between dropping off groceries and picking up Daphne. I vaguely remember me thinking I should take it off because I was doing something or putting something on that I thought it best not to have it on (like I normally take it off when I put on hand lotion because I don't want that to gunk it up or dull it). But I couldn't remember what that was and therefore wasn't sure I actually took it off at home.

So we are wandering around this field and I'm scanning the ground everywhere while at the same time trying to remember everything we did between arriving home and heading out to the dog park and also trying not to cry and panic. I know it's not the end of the world and I wouldn't be the first person this has happened to but I felt so horrible about it. Then it dawned on me what it was that I did that had me take my ring off, suntan lotion! Before heading to the park I sprayed on suntan lotion (trying desperately to not have a farmers tan for the wedding) and figured that probably wasn't the best for my ring. And with the dog being so excited to go to the park and practically dancing in front of me to go, I must have forgotten to put it back on. So there was a very very good chance it was at home and even if it was at the park, I knew we wouldn't find it. So we gave up the park search and sped home. Thank heavens it was right where I thought it would be once I realized that I had indeed had a reason to take it off.

But that was definitely a scare and not something I want to have happen again. If only there was some way to safely glue it to my finger!

Have hit the horrible boring stage

People warned me that this would happen but I don't think I believed them since we are doing this whole thing in 6 months, but it did. I'm at the stage where there's really nothing that has to get done or that we should even really do. The first month or two was full of forming ideas, hunting down vendors, making decisions. And now that it's all planned and settled, there's not much that can be done right now. Sure I can play around with ideas and look at pictures of things like hairstyles but there are no decisions to make. All that stuff really has to wait at least another month and really doesn't need to be figured out until around June. I've been playing around with DIY projects for programs and other things but again it's just playing with ideas. We don't need to make any decisions and probably shouldn't for at least a few weeks. This past weekend we went hunting for supplies for some of these proposed projects but when we didn't find anything we loved that would work, we didn't feel a need to try every store and purchase something that day because we have time. It's a good thing, don't get me wrong. It's just sort of boring and all up in the air. Like I have all these ideas that would be great but we should probably at some point focus them and actually start making them happen but neither of us feels like that time is now or at least has to be now. I'm not so good with things being up in the air or unsettled, I'm much happier when there's a plan or things to plan.

Even some of the things I thought I could research and figure out, have thwarted me. My parents are currently checking out venues for the NJ party in the fall and I'm sort of jealous as it seems like they are having lots of fun. I'm super happy that they are really enjoying this and that I'm not burdening them with it but I wish I could be doing the same thing. So I thought to myself, we still need to find a place for brunch the Sunday after, so I can internet hunt for ideas. Well I could, if the majority of the restaurants in the area weren't seasonal places that are currently closed. So I can't even begin that hunt until May. :-P

So I sit and pine for something to research or plan or figure out. I know I should feel glad that everything is coming together so well but I'm a planner, I love to plan and right now there's nothing that needs planning right now. Can't wait for May to get here!

Brides are crazy

As we quickly approach the 4 month marking things are going rather smooth. I can't say this past week has been completely stress free as there has been some family pseudo-drama. I wish I could make everyone happy but it seems like in the end at least someone will end up disappointed or sad. The hardest part again is the distance. I really wish I could sit down with my parents and discuss things and see their expressions and reactions rather than having to rely on inferring emotions in emails or judging their reactions based on the sound of the voice over the phone. It sort of makes me wonder if we should have just stuck with having the wedding out here so that we could have at least invited everyone in the world even if no one could have made it. But the good part is that sitting down and talking things through with Tim, really helps because with these sorts of things he's very good at being the voice of reason and seeing options that I didn't even think of. We are even considering taking a very huge gamble when it comes to invites but first things need to get passed by our parents. There are certain moments in this whole process where I just want to elope and have it be done with but I know in the end we'd both regret that.

Beyond the family stress, this week I picked up my wedding dress :) It was a bit more of a process than I expected and my quick 5 minute trip took over an hour. On Thursday, after dinner, I stopped by David's Bridal and the receptionist rather quickly was able to go to the back to grab my dress. I was rather shocked at how busy this place was for a Thursday night and was happy I did my shopping weeks ago. She brought me the dress in the garment bag and had me sign a paper. I was about to walk out with the dress and head home but figured it would be good to at least open the bag up and make sure it was the correct dress (duh!). These things are huge and rather unmanageable but I was able to find a display rack to hang it on so I could unzip it. I opened it up and sure enough it was my dress but as I was closing it back up I thought I saw a mark on it. Since I was sort of in the main entrance way and there was a lot of people filing in, I didn't want to continue to be in the way and took the dress out to the car. There I opened it up again and sure enough noticed a small dark mark on the side of the dress.

I quickly brought it back in and put it on the rack so that I could take it out of the bag completely and look the whole thing over. The receptionist noticed I was back after checking in a bunch of people and asked what the problem was. I showed her the mark and the other mark I found on the back and she said alterations could probably remove them. She called someone and it took them a while to get there but they said it should be no problem. I spent the next 20 minutes or so just observing the craziness of women in pack and the sort of psychoness that are brides. I talked a lot with the receptionist about how busy it always seems to be and just sort of the strange things that seem to happen when it comes to brides and bridal parties. After the 20 minutes the receptionist began to wonder too what was taking so long and went back to check. Apparently the one spot wasn't a spot but there was a black thread in one of the under layers that she was removing. A few minutes later the woman returned and while the spot on the side was removed there was still a small spot where the tread was that could be seen in some angles but not in others. I really hated to be picky but I did spend a lot of money on the dress, so I asked if it was possible to reorder as I had plenty of time for it to come in. To do that the manager had to be called and we then all started looking at the little spot. She wanted to try one more time as she thought there still might be another thread in there and I said sure. About 10 minutes later she came out and said it was all good but if I still wanted to reorder I could. But it was perfectly fine, no spots or stains, so I finally was able to take it home. But it was rather fun being able to people watch in the store. Perhaps if I'm crazy I'll go one Saturday and just sit and observe :-P

I have also been slightly obsessed with wedding boards lately and while I tend to just follow the more relevant ones such as Upstate NY, July 2011 weddings and DIY (great place to get ideas), I've lately been reading more of the posts on the Etiquette boards as other posters on my main boards suggested Etiquette as entertain reads. And boy are they! People are just crazy and mean. Who knew there were so many rules out there and geez to people have opinions one how wedding should be. I'm really glad I'm not friends with these judgmental crazy women and I sometimes wonder why they put themselves through so much stress over little things like how to word an RSVP card. Just crazy! I love our informal wedding, it might not be the traditional/formal way to do it but it's definitely more us :)

All quiet on the wedding front. . .

I realized it's been over a week since our last post but we've been rather busy lately so the wedding planning sort of took a vacation and so did we! We just got back last night from a wonderful trip to Chicago. While we got to do some sight seeing things, the best part of the trip was being able to spend some time with Tim's brother, sister-in-law and niece. I had a great time and it was super wonderful being able to get to know them all better. It make me really wish Tim was able to have these opportunities to get to know my family on a more one on one way prior to the NJ family gathering this fall. I'm still a bit nervous that it's going to overwhelm him being in a room full of strangers and basically being the center of attention. I hope that at least his parents will be able to attend so he has some sort of anchor besides me in this sea of my family. I was in a similar situation at his brother's wedding but that was just me amongst 10 or so new people and I'm rather outgoing and talkative, whereas he'll be facing over 30 or so loud and sometimes crazy family members. It should definitely be interesting and I'm sure we'll all survive.

So needless to say there has not been much done wedding wise. I actually sort of forgot about having to pick up my dress this week and I really need to figure out plan B on the florists by next week. Then there are the smaller things like going over the officiant's edits, figuring out brunch options and looking into some hair salons (not in Penn Yan ;) )

But I think the thing that will take priority is figuring out what is going on with our flights. I randomly was checking our flights last week and noticed that almost all of our flights had some changes to the times. Nothing unusual as these flights are still months out but as I was going through all the changes I noticed that our Rochester to SF flights no long work. We leave Rochester at 7pm with a layover in Cleveland which did not change but our Cleveland to SF flight that was originally scheduled for 9:30pm now shows up as leaving at 4:45pm which means it leaves before we even get to the airport at Rochester. The thing says that if the new changes cause a miss-connect we can change for no fee but the issues is that Tim and I are on two different tickets/confirmation numbers and I was afraid that if we tried to do this over the internet, we'd get rebooked on two different flights. Tim made the wonderful suggestion that since we were heading to the airport anyways this weekend, why not look into it there. Well we did and the guy just seemed rather confused. He said that while he sees that 4:45 flight in there, he also still sees the original 9:30 flight so we should be all good. So we left it at that, it was early and I didn't think he was really getting it. So we need to call and get this all figured out. We should probably do that tonight. Oh the fun of air travel :-P

So yea not much exciting stuff going on, just lots of planning that I need to get back into after the wonderful vacation this past weekend.

Slowly but surely we are checking things off the list!

Well the first thing to report is that my wedding dress came in! It would be really happy, exciting news except it does mess up my timeline a bit. They told me it would come in around April 1st which gave me some time to tone up a bit and perhaps lose a bit of weight but I highly doubt anything has changed in the two weeks since I ordered it. So I guess what I'll have to do is pick it up next week, hide it away in the apartment where it won't get ruined or seen and then bring it in late April/early May to see if it needs any alterations. I'm actually hoping it won't as when I tried it on it fit perfectly. I just really want to tone-up my upper body which I've been working on as well as just getting back into exercise, so I figure I might slim down a bit just in the process of toning-up. But that should still give me enough time to do alterations if needed and get the dress sent to Rochester.

In other news, as Tim reported, we cracked out a first draft of our ceremony. A few weeks ago I was really excited to do this but once I started realizing what exactly was involved, I became less thrilled. It seemed rather overwhelming with all the choices and options. I really wasn't sure on the readings as there are so many out there, enough to fill multiple books worth (that I of course checked out from the library). Last week we divided and conquered on the readings by each taking half the books and marking the readings we liked. This weekend we figured we should probably start putting this thing together. As we were looking to get out of the apartment and I sometime have a hard time focusing on things I'm not sure excited about at home, we decided to head to Panera. It actually worked out really well and we were quickly able to knock something out. We found a few really nice readings that are us and get an idea of how we'd like the ceremony to go down. I'm most excited about our "unity" section as we have decided to do both a Time Capsule and handfasting. It should be a really wonderful ceremony. When we first started, I was sort of wishing we did go with something religious because they have a set ceremony and we don't have to figure much out, but now I'm glad we are doing this as it definitely reflects us and it's exactly what we want. So now we'll send it off to our officiant and see what she says.

In other wedding related news, the flowers are somewhat moving along. Erica met with what we were both hoping would be my florist on Friday and got some great ideas for my bouquet. It will be a really great color combo and have a lot of flowers that I like. The only thing is, as this florist is in Buffalo, there is a worry about transporting the flowers that far. Christine got her bouquet the night before and drove them in to Philly but that was a shorter drive and perhaps these flowers are more fragile. So while there is finally a more concrete idea as far as flowers and design, we have to figure out who will do them. I've gotten a few recommendations of florists in the area, but it will mean Erica will need to head out to Rochester to meet with florists. I'm so lucky to have such a great friend who is willing to help out.

Finally I've been getting a bit nervous, confused as what to do with my hair. I've finally decided to go with a professional to do my hair just because it does need to last all day and I don't want my sisters to have to worry about it the day of. There are a few salon's in Penn Yan but I have no idea who is any good and none really have a website. The other debate is the trial run. Apparently brides have test runs before to figure out exactly what they want. I figured I could do that on the Friday before, not typical but most likely doable. But now I think perhaps I should try to do a test run out here at a salon just to get some ideas of what looks good and what sort of hair jewelry would go well with the style I got with. I'm guessing salons will do trial runs for hair-styles even if I won't be going with them for the final hairstyle. Just another thing to figure out :-P

But at least the major things are coming together and all that's really left are the small things!