We're Married!!

We had the most amazing weekend! Everything yesterday was absolutely perfect, and we feel so unbelievably blessed to have such wonderful family and friends! Thank you all for being a part of our wedding day!! More posts to come when we get back from Hawaii!

Like a Kid on Christmas Eve...

With five days to go, everyone is asking if I'm excited... Tomorrow is my last day of work for three and a half weeks. The weather forecast for this weekend looks AMAZING (Alexis sent me the weather update this morning and said "Don't think you can get any better :)". We'll be celebrating with 111 of our closest friends and family. I will be marrying my best friend and joining a wonderful family. Oh, and this time next week, we'll be on a plane to Hawaii. I seriously feel like a kid on Christmas Eve! Can't wait for this weekend!!

Operation Chick-LeNoir Baltimore Style

With 2 weeks before the wedding, we decided that it was time for another bachelorette party, this time Baltimore-style! Last Saturday was a pretty miserable day weather-wise, but by dinner time, Hanna had passed and the girls and I headed out for dinner and drinks at Power Plant! We had a great time! I have included some pictures below...

A Few Random Things

16 days until the wedding, but who is counting!? The last few weeks have been quite busy! I had my final dress fitting last night, and I absolutely LOVE my dress! All of the guys have been fitted for their tuxes and all of the girls have their bridesmaid dresses. We might actually pull this wedding off!

One of the things that the bridesmaids did for me at my shower was ask all the guests to write down their dreams and wishes for Ryan and me on a pink card. We ended up receiving 19 cards, so starting on the 19th day before the wedding, we will (or already have) been reading one card a day. The dreams and wishes that we've read so far have been so nice, and we really appreciate everyone taking the time to do this!!

On a different note, a question was asked about the photographers at the wedding, and I wanted to share the same information with our guests (or the ones who read the blog). The question was whether it would be ok to ask the photographers to take pictures at the reception. What I mean by this is special request pictures that you might want of you and your family, of you and your new friends that you meet at the reception, of the people sitting at your table, really just about anything. The answer to this is Yes, of course - please ask the photographers to take any pictures that you would like. There are 2 reasons for this: 1) I absolutely LOVE pictures and the more pictures the photographers take, the more this benefits us; and 2) We are paying the photographers enough money to basically own stock in their company so we want them to earn their fees by taking as many pictures as possible. The pictures that the photographers take will be posted on their website after the wedding and will be available for you all to see and order directly from them if you want. Once we have ordered our album, Ryan and I will get the digital rights to all of the pictures taken, so if you are not in a hurry to get any pictures that you might want printed, we would be more than happy to email you pictures that you like.

The Jewelry Party with Crystal

Last Saturday, the bridesmaids surprised me again! This time it was a bridal shower! About a week earlier, Crystal had emailed me to ask me to go with her to a "Charity Jewelry" party and then shopping and dinner on Saturday, August 16th. I was so excited about the party and shopping, but we had already scheduled a meeting with the Deacon to plan our ceremony that day. So, with much prodding from Ryan, I emailed the Deacon to ask him if we could reschedule our meeting. No problem. The meeting was rescheduled, and I was all set to go to the jewelry party and go shopping with Crystal. I honestly didn't think anything of this, just that it would be fun to hang out with her. That week, I had my first dress fitting, and Linda and Crystal were kind enough to join me - what fun!! Ryan and I also had our traditional "last supper" with Stacey (my niece) before she heads back to college. As the week went on, I began to get suspicious of this supposed jewelry party. Not only was this Stacey's last weekend at home before going back to school, but I also knew that Melissa (another bridesmaid) was coming to MD the same weekend to look at some reception venues for her own wedding. I woke up at 2:30am on Thursday night with a revelation that my bridal shower was going to be that Saturday. I could not have been more excited, but it was killing me that I couldn't talk to any of my friends about it! I did tell Ryan my suspicions on Friday night, but he just played dumb and acted like he knew nothing about it. On Saturday, I headed to Crystal's house and when I got there, everyone was patiently waiting for me (I was running late) to surprise me! So exciting!! Everything was beautifully decorated, the spread of food was awesome, and of course there were lots of yummy desserts and favors! In addition to all that, everyone completely spoiled me (and Ryan) with amazing gifts. I really don't think I have laughed or smiled that much in a long time (aside from the bachelorette party)! Thanks to Crystal for hosting such a great party and to the bridesmaids (including Crystal) for thinking of everything! I know I say this often, but I am truly blessed to have such wonderful family and friends to celebrate with! Only 28 days to go until the wedding... But who is counting!! See below for a slideshow of the highlights from the bridal shower.

The Countdown Begins

We are at the 30-day mark today - the big day is quickly approaching! And, that means a few things...

1) It's starting to feel kind of real now. Yes, I know we have invited people and I have a dress and we've booked a million other things, but for so long I've been saying "We have so much time, we'll get it done." Now, with 30 days left, I'm a little freaked out about how it will all get done. On paper, we don't have much left to do, but it still seems like a lot.
2) If you want to book a hotel room at Pier 5, Admiral Fell Inn, or Brookshire Suites, you have 10 days to do this. The last day that they will accept reservations for the block of rooms that we have reserved for our guests is August 30th.
3) You also have 10 days left to RSVP for the wedding. By now, you all should know how much I love getting mail, so please, please, please send me those RSVP cards! Some of you have told me that you're coming, and I am very excited about that, but with everything else going on, please don't expect me to remember this when it comes time to do the seating chart!

On a different note, my bridesmaids threw me an amazing bridal shower this weekend, and I want to thank them for such a great party and everyone else for coming to the party and for spoiling me (and Ryan) with so many wonderful gifts. There will be a new post shortly with pictures and the story of how they tried to surprise me!

Reminders...

Just wanted to remind everyone to RSVP for the breakfast on Sunday. Please email me if you need Ryan's mom's contact info.

The deadline to reserve a room at the Courtyard under our block of rooms for the discounted rate of $199/night is August 20th. If you would like to stay at the Courtyard, please get those reservations in!

The deadline to reserve a room at Pier 5 Hotel, Admiral Fell Inn, and Brookshire Suites is August 30th.