It's All Happening!

The crafts are (almost finished). I had my hair and make-up trial yesterday and, as my friend Marcy would say, I looked "ha-cha-cha". Programs are finished but not assembled. Gifts have been purchased for people that helped us. Dress is being pressed. Half of our vendors have been paid.

Yup, it looks like we're about a week and a couple days away from the wedding.

And I have been so much more busy than I thought. In all honesty, it's probably a good thing that I don't have a job right now because there are so many ridiculous things to DO - places to drop by for two seconds but they're so far out of the way it takes up a whole hour. Appointments and meetings and last-minute-planning-get-togethers and blah blah blaaaaaah.

At the same time as doing wedding stuff, there's the whole "we're going to be gone for two weeks" thing and there's a lot of junk to take care of there, too. I need to get keys made for my family and some friends in case they need to get into our house. Someone needs to get mail, someone needs to get Fair Shares (although this is already taken care of). And I'm a staunch believer in coming home to a pristine house, which means that lots of cleaning needs to happen. But I'm lazy so the apartment is a pit.

What else has been happening? I've been reading a lot. I finished The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake. It's about a girl who can taste emotions through food. For example, if she ate a cake that I baked for her, she would taste that I felt rushed, stressed, but ecstatic. That kind of thing. It was really, really good. I'm almost finished with Unfinished Business, which is great but also kind of stresses me out. It's about a man who was laid off from his job at 55 years of age and makes a list of his "unfinished business" - writing a condolence note to a friend, finding family members he had lost contact with, saying thank you to a professor that changed his life. I love the style and tone of the book but it's stressful because I already feel like I have so much unfinished business and I'm only 22. Mary (future-sister-in-law Mary) let me borrow Peace is Every Step, which I started a couple of nights ago. It's written by Thich Nhat Hanh, a Buddhist monk, and it's all about taking deep breaths and living in the moment, being content, being happy. It's nice and it's broken up into pieces, which is good, too. I have such a one-track mind these days and it's always going in a thousand different directions.

We've been getting lots of wedding presents, and subsequently we are running out of space to store them. This makes me nervous but it is also exciting.

We were lucky enough to be parents for a week and a half when our friends, Jared and Kate, asked us to kitty-sit for them. Her name is Monster and she is 12 weeks old. She is ADORABLE. A teensy black cat that liked to hide under the couch and dart from side to side of the room. Occasionally she would cuddle with me, which is coincidentally when I loved her most of all :)

My mom returned the white dress she bought to wear to my wedding. She got a new one today that is pink. It made me feel better.

I've been catching up with lots of friends, friends that used to live here, friends I went to grade school and high school with, and who are now back in St. Louis because college is over and they didn't want to be in their college towns anymore. This kind of makes me feel better for not having left.

Adversely, I realized this past weekend how many of my friends are going far, far away from home - or already have. I have a friend who is moving to London for grad school in the fall. Another friend who is moving to China, for good (for now). Another who is going to start volunteering in French Ghana for nine months. And those are my GOOD friends - friends that I invited to my wedding. There are so many other acquaintances I have that are doing more amazing things like that.

And here I am, still in St. Louis. But I'm content.

I'm also nervous all the time. Jiggly leg nervous, feel-sick-to-my-stomach nervous (although this is getting better). Which means that I start a project. Which is bad timing, which creates clutter, which means more mess in the apartment.

But really, everything is great. Pete is wonderful, I'm feeling good most of the time, my parents aren't acting insane (although my dad is all distant and my mom thinks that he is "distancing himself from the big thing that is about to happen" (ugh)), my bridesmaids are all getting along, and all of my friends have been AMAZING. Offering to help with anything, letting me borrow books to calm me down, accompanying me to wedding-related appointments, buying me cute/sexy lingerie (what? oh well), throwing me showers and etc etc etc.

But it's so much. So much is happening! It's all happening!

I think I just need a glass or two of wine.

I wish I liked wine.

Only One Month To Go!!

I know I've been saying it for the last eight months or so, but I CANNOT BELIEVE IT.

One month from today, I'm getting married.

Exactly one month from this very moment (as I type these words, it is 11 AM) I will be posing for pictures with my bridesmaids. My hair and make-up will be finished. The flowers will be picked up from here. Mostly likely, I'll be freaking out (which means subsequently drinking champagne and/or shots of something fruity).

But that isn't what this post is about. I am getting so, SO excited. Everything is coming together, as I'll soon outline.

So, some stuff we've accomplished in the last month:

1. Went to our first pre-cana session last Sunday - and we have another one this upcoming Sunday. It wasn't too bad!
2. Bought wedding bands - we're picking them up tomorrow, since they had to be sized.
3. Booked the rest of our honeymoon (the way home), with the exception of one last night. It'll probably be somewhere in Nebraska. Yay?
4. Finally, FINALLY we met with our officiant. It was like a cat and mouse game to get a hold of him. It was ridiculous. But we met with him and it went really well.
5. Decided on a cake for Pete and I to cut. We wanted one that had chocolate frosting but I saw a cake in the most recent issue of Martha Stewart Weddings (seriously, best wedding magazine ever. I'm probably still going to buy it after the wedding because it's just so pretty) that I just fell in love with. So, since Lindsay is awesome, she was fine with us changing the design. (Seriously, if you need her to bake you anything delicious and you live in St. Louis? Give her a call; she's awesome.)
6. Picked a first dance song - "Love and Some Verses" by Iron & Wine. (you can listen to the song below on youtube)



7. Sent invitations. And we received about half of the responses back! It's so much fun to come home every day and see who is coming. And only three different groups of people declined so far - out of like 60.
8. Had a bridal shower in Cape Girardeau with Pete's family, and then had a surprise bridal shower the following weekend with my grade school friends and Soulard neighbor friends! I've never had a surprise party thrown for me, so it was super fun.
9. Finished all the bridesmaids gifts. Everything is ready and assembled!
10. Began to buy gifts for all the other people that are doing awesome things for us.
11. Bought cake toppers from this store - they're naked. Pete is going to paint them.
12. Found a place to get my dress pressed.
13. Got all of the groomsmen/ushers fitted for suits. I think.
14. Started burning CDs of This American Life and some other foodie podcasts for our road trip.

Whew! Busy busy. It's probably a good thing that I don't have a full-time job right now. Seriously, there's so much stuff to do!

Mini Cakes

Delicious. I have no idea how anyone could have so much patience with these tiny pieces of clay... See more pictures here, on Kim's flickr page. Also, her blog.