Day 527 - Spoke too soon...

Alas, the nightmares have not disappeared. As we are finding these uninvited guests on our list we face a new dilemma. We have some guests who have not RSVP'd yet and as such we are not sure if we have room for these extra people our guests have sprung on us! With that...a new nightmare.

Last night I had a dream/nightmare that we were (or at least I was) at some sort of self-help-group for brides-to-be. It was much like the setting we had for our birthing class of years past. A group of people in similar situations as you all discussing their plans and complications. Each would go around the table as on the first day of a class like this and introduce themselves and state how long before their wedding.

In birthing class it went like this, "Hi, my name is ____ and this is my spouse _____ and we are ________ months/weeks pregnant with our 1st/2nd/3rd/8th child. We are having a girl/boy/baby of undetermined gender."

In this class it went like this, "Hi, my name is ______ and I am marrying my spouse in ________ days/weeks/months/years."

My introduction was, "Hi, my name is Gena and I am excited to be marrying my best friend in 1 day and 1 hour." I said it so casually like I had all the time in the world and then it's like the person in the dream realized at that moment that it was a shockingly short amount of time and why the hell are they here when they should be getting ready for tomorrow! My me in the dream said, "HOLY SHIT! I'M GETTING MARRIED TOMORROW!" I rushed out of the room to find David because we still had to deal with the unexpected guests and those who were not determined whether they were coming yet! I sat at the computer with my veil on and sent a mass message to all the "undecided" guests saying in much more formal terms, "You, poopy heads...tomorrow is our wedding...are you coming or what?!" I didn't click send because as I was typing my MOH came in with her dress on and was panicked that I was not in my wedding dress yet. Evidentlly it had taken me a day to get home from the self-help-class and we needed to hurry to the venue.
At the venue it was total chaos. Guests had brought friends who of course were not on our seating chart. No one knew what the fudge was going on and not only were the "undecided" there but they too had brought extra uninvited urchin to the event. Our slim guest list was now an overweight 200 guests and we were not able to have our wedding on time. Instead David and I had to hide in other rooms (so as not to see each other) while the bridal party flipped through the guest list like elementary school, "Is uncle bob here!" "HERE" "okay... you go with the Best Man, he will see you to your seat. How about Cousin Sally?" "present" It was terrible. And those not on the guest list had to sit outside in their best suits and wait until 8pm that night when they might be able to squeeze into our open dance. Which of course we have room for a few more there.

I woke and shook my head, "clearly I need to deal with this problem head on."

I am still not sure how to approach this...what is a nice way to tell someone, "hey...we didn't invite that person. I'm sorry you felt the need to do so without first asking us...however, if you wish to have them come to the open dance there is still room there. Maybe they can chill at the mall for 4 hours while they wait for the open dance. Next time....consider our guest list before you rewrite it."

<3 your sleep deprived hippie bride

Day 526 - Nightmares are over!!!!

As indicated by previous blog entries, whenever I have had a dream of our upcoming nuptuals it has always resulted in a nightmare.

Everything from the invitations not being sent out and no guests attend to getting dressed in shaggy gardening clothes because I haven't picked out a dress yet!

Last night.....I had a sweet dream. It was the night before our wedding and I was simply content and excited to be marrying my best friend. Is it possible, could it be, the nightmares are passed us and I can now just be happy to be marrying my best friend in a 2.5 months? Oh how delightful would that be!

<3 your excited hippie bride

Day 525 - Wedding crashers...

What is so complicated about an RSVP that people do not understand? Lending back to the beginning or at least the early part of our engagement I was asked, "Do I really have to RSVP? You know I'm coming." To which I gave a resounding, "YES...YES YOU DO!" Sure I may figure you are coming, I also figure most of the people I invite are coming. So, yes! Yes you absolutely need to RSVP.

I suppose I could have said, "Do I need to send you an invitation? You already know I want you there!" *facepalm*

But now we face a new problem. All along people who were not given a guest would ask if we would mind if they brought this guy/girl they just met the other night. Because of space we could not offer a guest to each of our guests. Had we done that we'd have only been able to have half the guests we invited. We'd have basically had to decide whether we wanted our friends there or our family. Our answer to these requests were for them to check back with us in April of 2012 after all the RSVP's were in. If there were any who RSVP'd with "not attending" then we'd clearly have room for an extra person or two at that point. These people were more than happy to oblige and as indicated in my previous post... by April.... they were broken up with that guy/girl and the extra space was not necessary.

We are fast approaching May now and still a few stragglers have not RSVP'd, this we expected, anticipated and are prepared to chase down those meal selections. What we were less prepared for were the guests who did not ask if they could bring a guest but we have now found out planned to bring one anyway. I don't understand how they planned on that working out. If you have an RSVP and it does not imply a guest then you have just invited your best friend since childhood to attend a wedding with you and they will not have a seat or a meal. What's worse is it's not the people in question who have told us, it's mutual friends who say, "Oh I didn't know you invited Sally Sue." and we squint and say, "who?"

Now we must sit over our guest list and thumb through to see how many other wedding crashers we should be prepared for! Not what we signed up for. As it is we are over quota right now by 3 people and that's before these uninvited guests are tallied in. I don't want to have to beg my Venue co-ordinator to make an exception for guests I didn't even invite! How embarrassing, it makes me look so unorganized when in reality I have kept on top of my numbers the whole time. It's my guests who haven't.


*sigh* oh the politics of weddings. I believe I have officially entered the realm of, "I can't wait to get this over with!"

<3 your flustered hippie bride

Day 518 - The curse of the guest

Today I am starting to wonder if my guest list is a curse to my guests' plus ones.

Let me explain. Our guest list has been so extremely shrunk over the months and for the most part our guests don't have plus ones. Some of these guests did as they were dating them for a while and/or living with them.

As the guests rsvp'd it became apparent that with the online RSVP I needed to give the plus ones their own RSVP ID because some guests's plus ones desired a different meal than the guest. I had told the guests I would rectify this in time. Since then, each time I add a plus one by name to the guest list ..... they break up!!!

This has happened half a dozen times now! Each time it goes like this:

Me - "Hey, can I have your boyfriend/girlfriend's name so I can give them their own ID."
Guest - "yeah sure it's Sally/Sam"

Me *insert name on guestlist*

~ 2 weeks pass ~

Guest - "So...um... you might as well take Sally/Sam off the guest list. We...well... we're no longer together."
Me - "what?! Are you serious?! I'm so sorry."

I would leave the plus one on the guest list for a few weeks and when I was certain the time had passed for reconsilliation I removed them.

I know people break up and life goes on. It's just tripping me out that my guests keep breaking up within weeks of having been added to my guest list. I'm relatively scared to add any other official names. I think they will remain plus one and any other alternate meals will just have to be run through us privately.

In wedding related news, picked up our marriage license today! Now to book an appointment with the Justice of the Peace.
I also found out I can't change my name for 3 weeks after I'm married. What's up with that?!

That's all from me, don't break up <3 your hippie bride

Day 511 - HOLY MOLY!

This week I've hunkered down hard on the wedding to do list. I finished paying for David's ring today, I bought my wedding dress lingerie yesterday, I've been finishing up my DIY list and sent out the last of the invites. I am also tieing down all those extra details that aren't physical.

As I did all this I realized today marks 101 days before our wedding meaning that this Sunday we hit the double digits! OH MY GOODNESS!!!!!! I don't even know how I feel about that!

<3 your overwhelmed hippie bride

Day 502 - Productive!

I love when my maid of honor is around. I seem to get right into wedding mode when she is around. I think mostly because she typically is focused on it. Today I checked off so many things on my wedding list. They may seem small and trivial but at this point there are just a lot of trivial things left.

Bought the girls headdresses, designed the open dance invitations, bought lingerie for the honeymoon, bought another bouquet holder for the bridesmaids so I could finish another bouquet! Oh and made a payment on hubby-to-be's wedding band. :) All-in-all super awesomely productive day.

Now to lose these last 10 lbs...off for a night jog.

Only 110 days left!!!!!!!

<3 your excited hippie bride!!! 

Day 501 - Passed around

WOW! That was INSANE!

Today I set out to do the simple...or what was supposed to be the simple task of applying for our marriage license! I called my local department who directed me to another department who told me where I needed to go. For simplicities sake we'll say that I was told to go to their centre midtown on Mario street (Hubby-to-be is racing with the kids on mario kart....so sue me) To give an idea I will lay it out like this:

• 1:34pm I take a bus to Mario street midtown which is about 10 minutes bus ride away. 
• 1:50pm I wait in line at the centre and at my turn I tell them I am here to apply for a marriage license. The lady tells me I need to go downtown (30 minutes away) to the vital statistics department on Horatio St. Flustered I leave with a piece of paper that has the vital statistics phone number and address. 
• 2:10 while waiting for hubby-to-be to check his text and tell me what bus to take I check my balance to see if while I'm here I should make a payment on his wedding band. Don't want it to be a wasted trip. I decide against it and head for the terminal completely annoyed.
• 2:18 while waiting for the next bus to Horatio St. which isn't due to arrive until 2:30 I stare at the number. I think to myself, "My transfer expires at 4pm if I go all the way downtown to Horatio St. I will arrive at 3pm....and chances are they are going to tell me it's the wrong place. So I call the number Of course they tell me that I don't need to go to Horatio St. that I need to go to Mario St.I inform the representative that I am currently at Mario St. and they told me to go to Horatio. She gives me another number.
• 2:20 pm I phone the other number who tells me "You don't need to be on Mario or Horatio st. you need to be on Bowser Road Inbound!" This is a 4minute busride from my home!!!! I could have been done SO much faster! This is rediculous! Right in front of me is a bus which will take me there so I thank her and hop on said bus. 
• 2:22pm I call hubby-to-be while waiting for bus to leave and tell him, "I should be home soon." I explain what has happened and then say, "And if this place turns me away then we just aren't getting married!" 
• 2:26pm Now off the bus at Bowser Road Inbound I realize I hadn't acquired an exact address from the lady. I have a pretty good idea where it should be as Bowswer Road is pretty abandoned. But to be safe I call the city back and explain that I have been bounced around a lot and want to make sure I get to the right spot since my transfer expires at 4pm. On a side note I was supposed to meet my boss at 3pm so there is even more stress on this timeframe! 
• 2:30 I go stand in line. A gentleman says, "Can I help you?"
  "Only if you want to. This is my third try!"
  "Your 3rd marriage? Are you sure you want to?"
  "No no...my third attempt at applying. First they sent me to Mario St. then Horatio st. now here, if this doesn't work I'm giving up." He laughed and asked if the man knew he was getting married because "it doesn't make a good present."
  "Yeah he knows." 
• 2:41pm I exit the building successfully completed my application. FINALLY Head towards bus terminal. 
• 2:50 I'm approaching bus terminal from inside a building when I see the bus home is getting ready to leave. I run like a mad woman at the doors to get to the bus in time. I push softly on the first door as I exit and it opens to the right so naturally I think the next one which is 2 feet away will also open the to right. I hit the edge with my wrist and all 100 lbs of force behind me SMACK might as well have ran into a wall for all the good it did...evidently THAT door opens to the left..... ouch! Swollen and injured I board the bus where a less than impressed driver grudgingly lets me on. 
• 2:53 I arrive at my stop and begin the walk home rubbing my throbbing wrist. Walk in the house take off my jacket and see my boss pull in. Phew, that was close.

What  a day!!!!!! I think I'm going to have fat friday a little earlier this week....aka today! :p

<3 your sore hippie bride