Wedding Extravaganza Weekend!

Hi All!

This weekend, Justin and I immersed ourselves in all different wedding related activities.  On Saturday morning, we met with the pastor of his parents' church, Mario, to discuss having him "officiate" our wedding.  He is going to :)  We also met with Nancy about cupcakes, and she was more than willing to try new things and told me she could make "sparkly" cupcakes, so I was sold.  Justin, being more practical, told her we would check a few more bakeries and then get back to her.

Then, we went to JoAnn Fabric to look at scrapbooking materials, since we have decided to honor Erica and Drew by stealing their photo guestbook idea.  I had already purchased some fun background paper, and we found cool self-adhesive squares that guests can write on and then stick to the larger page with their photo.  We also bought some paper that Justin cut into swatches so we can show people exactly what we mean by "blue and green."

We met with Jim and Donna, who were themselves immersed in a Marriage Encounter weekend, and talked hotels and quilts.  Justin's Memere Thibeault has offered to make us a quilt as a wedding gift, and we're very, very excited.  We picked a pattern a few weeks ago, and got to look at fabric swatches this weekend.  As far as the hotels were concerned, Donna had a spreadsheet of the places she had visited, and we were sent on a mission to check them out and see what we thought.  And we did, but not until Sunday! ;)  Donna also provided us with the super sweet cartoon, not-to-scale map of Kennebunkport, which was exciting because all we wanted when we were in PA for Erica's bachelorette party was a map just like that!  We also got our video and workbooks for our pre-marital counseling, and we passed the little pre-test in the back of the book, so we're looking forward to that as well! :)

Saturday night we relaxed at Jim and Donna's, and I played Wii for the first time.  Justin mostly kicked my butt, but it was still fun.  We had a blast!

Sunday (that's today!), we headed down to Kennebunkport.  We stopped by a few hotels and then went to The Colony for a tasting.  It was more of a mini wedding show, and we got to meet some florists and bakers in person.  I ate a champagne cupcake, and it was delicious!  Actually, every single thing we ate was delicious.  After today, I'm positive that we made the right decision for a venue.  It was raining again, and we still loved it, but determined maybe Justin shouldn't come to the wedding since it always rains when he comes to Kennebunkport....just kidding!

And now, it's back to Boston (I almost wrote, "home to Boston" - not quite yet!) to watch the Pats and let everything we did this weekend sink in.  We think we've reached a decision for lodging the weekend of the wedding, and we're thinking of places other than The Colony.  More on that in the next blog! :)

And we have a wedding party!

Phew!  After two months (Wow! We've been engaged for two months!) of waiting for and missing opportunities, Justin and I have finally managed to ask each of the people we wanted to be a part of our big day to be a part of our big day, and they've all said yes!

I apologize, in advance, for the lack of information about and insight how the groomsmen were chosen.  I am not Justin, and I don't want to speak to why he chose to ask the men he did.  Perhaps this will inspire Justin to blog..... ;)

So, the players will be....

Maid Of Honor:

• My sister, Margaret, who I didn't need to ask when she was the first person to find out we were engaged, because she's always known she'd be my maid of honor!

Best Man:

• Justin's brother, Dan

Bridesmaids: 

• My best friend, Erica, without whom there would be no Justin and Monica!  We've been friends since a mutual high school friend, Jess, started calling me "Erica" and Erica "Monica" when we were 15, and we've managed to be friends despite the distance ever since!
• Rachelle, my very special friend from my Buffalo days who has always been there when I needed her, including when I needed a date to my brother's wedding.  Rachelle has been to lots of holidays at Dad and Pat's house, and I can't imagine my wedding without her!
  
• Nicole, who began teaching on the same team at the same as me, and who I quickly realized was someone I feel like I've been friends with my whole life, and who I hope I will be!

Groomsman:

• Justin's brother, Phil
• My brother, Ken
• Justin's friend, Mike Jones, who you will most likely only hear referred to as "Jones"

And there you have it! Justin and I are super excited to have these amazing people stand with us when we get married!

Cupcakes galore!

Here are the fruits of my looking-at-hundreds-of-pictures-of-cupcakes labors :) When we meet with Nancy next week, we will bring her these (and probably a few more) photos as examples of ones we like.

We both like these:

and we are also fans of the initials:

I admit, it probably helps that these cupcakes are already in blue! though I am not a fan of the food coloring, so we'll probably have a collection of blue, green, and white.  Mmm, cupcakes. Any opinions on flavors for the cake part? :)

I'm so excited....

Yay!  I just made an appointment to go try on wedding gowns at David's Bridal on October 24th!  Though I am sad my momma can't be there, I've recruited Margaret, Nicole and Rachelle (so far!) to help me and to "ooh" and "aah."

Also, I got the necklace I ordered today and it's beautiful.  And sparkly.  And just in case you didn't know....I LOVE sparkly.  Just ask Justin :) I promise once I have a nice picture of me in it, I will post it.

And finally, I sent an email to a friend of Donna's who makes wedding cakes to try and set up a meeting to discuss our wedding cake....well, cake and cupcakes, that is.  I'm supposed to be looking up cupcakes on the internet...so here I go!

300 Days Until We Tie the Knot!

That is all :)

Look! It's pretty!

After Justin left today, I had nothing else to do but bide my time on the "interwebs," looking at and for wedding goodness.  I had been so focused on school the past few weeks that my bride fever had subsided, but it's back in full swing now! :)

I have been looking at lots of items on www.etsy.com, a website that only sells handmade and vintage items, mostly hoping to find something pretty to wear in my hair.  I hadn't purchased anything, since I don't have a dress yet, but today I broke down and bought a necklace that I thought was too beautiful to pass up and had the right colors in it.  I contacted the seller, and she's even going to make me earrings that will match!

So, now I'm extra super excited, and hoping I love it as much when it arrives, and I pick a dress, and ten months have gone by....we shall see!! :)

Save the Dates!

Hi!

We now have all the components of our Save the Dates - cards, magnets, return address labels and addresses! Special thanks to Erica for the Vistaprint.com tip - that's where the labels and magnets came from!  Justin and I spent some time this morning putting everything in and on the envelopes - next weekend while I'm in Boston we'll turn our Excel spreadsheet of addresses into address labels, and off the Save the Dates will go! :)  Thanks to Donna for all her work on the Roy/Thibeault addresses!

More to come....tasting at The Colony and dress shopping this month!! :)