Day 611 - Last entry

Not even sure what to put here. I'm running around ensuring everything is ready for tomorrow but not the slightest bit scared. I was smiling at something David said yesterday that I thought I'd share with you.

Everyone keeps asking David if he is getting excited and/or nervous. He is so relaxed and laid back and he said one time when someone asked and he seemed casual they said, "Am I more excited than you?" he said, "I don't know how to explain it. It's not that I'm not happy, or not looking forward to it. It just .... it just feels right."

That about sums up the emotions in the house lately. Our daughter has been coming into our room in the morning counting down the days. I even accidentally captured her excitement at the rehearsal when I ended up recording her squealing about our wedding. I believe she thought it was our wedding that day and not just practice. Regardless she was extremely excited! I'm scared that I'm going to forget something but then I remind myself of just how organized I am so with the exception of mother nature and others I can't control what happens and I'm just going to have to relax and enjoy the day....YA RIGHT! ;p

But really, I've done this before. I've choreographed 24 kids into a shakespearing play which we then executed in front of an audience of their family and friends. I can choreograph a measely 70 adults to do the same....right? :p

No matter what happens tomorrow I will be happy because tomorrow I marry my best friend!

<3 your hippie bride, will return as a hippie wife 

Day 603 - Feels like home

With 9 days left until our wedding it's down to those last minute details. The flower baskets, the seating charts, the garter, the boutineers, the wedding favors, the bubbles....the emotions!

A few days ago while in the shower, very suddenly and with no explainable reason I started to bawl. It wasn't happy tears, I was sobbing and confused all at once. Just as quickly as it washed over me it was gone and I was content again. I stepped out of the shower still looking confused. I have shrugged it off as being tired and my body just needing to get emotional for no reason.

The last person I expected to be excited is perhaps more excited than all of us. Our daughter! She has been running into our bed in the mornings squealing, "you're going to get MARRIED! We're going to go to your wedding and you'll have your wedding dress and I'm going to stand and be quiet and watch you get MARRIED!" she bounces up and down with her eyes wide and her hands clapping together and flapping around. Every time she hears a song that has become associated with our wedding in some way she will stop what she's doing to look at us and squeal, 'THAT'S YOUR WEDDING SONG!" or "THAT'S THE SONG FOR YOUR WEDDING!" She has even decided that at our wedding she wants to dance to a song she now calls "our song" with her mommy and daddy. So in addition to having our first dance we are going to follow with our first dance as family with our daughter.

She has watched us practice our dance together and has even insisted that I practice our dance together. This mostly consists of her sticking her arms out and spinning around. But I play along and the day of the wedding I will do the same if that makes her happy.

I asked David the other day how he knows he loves me. He responded that it was just a feeling. I asked, "And what does it feel like?"
"It feels like home." I laughed and began to sing the song for a second before he continued, "a longing, comfort. Feeling safe. Not being able to imagine life without you." He said more and has had variations on the same thing but to be completely frank I must cut this short as my seating chart is quietly waiting for me to complete it and Uncle Jer has taken our excited daughter out for a smoothie. I must take advantage of the toy free floor. :)

<3 9 days <3

<3 your hippie bride

Day 529 - Calm waters

It's amazing, a few weeks ago I was stressing about all those extra details and now here I am waking up each morning just excited to be getting married in 2 months. It's hard to believe that in 83 days I will marry my best friend. Have I said that too much lately? It's starting to sound redundant over here but as redundant as it may sound it feels new each morning.

There are still a few things that pop up to stress me but for the most part it is simply other people's roles now that I am dealing with. Speakers, speeches, readings, vows... just a lot of words put together and of course our first dance as husband and wife.

We met with the Justice of the Peace yesterday to arrange the order of the ceremony, readings and vows. Having that sorted out now I am focused on writing my thank you speech for the bridal party and those close to us.

We have solved the extra guests problem and don't have to worry about turning people away at the door. A great sigh of relief for all.

• 19 days left until I run the marathon
• 22 days left until my bridal shower
• 25 days left until my first dress fitting
• 26 days left until I protest Prop 8 with my daughter
• 29 days left until my daughter's 3rd birthday 

So many things I have to accomplish in the next few weeks it's a little overwhelming. You'd think I'd be at my wits end. Instead, I'm living in the now. I know, looking ahead, that in 2 weeks I AM going to be stressed, tired and overwhelmed....probably easy to weep. But I feel that there is nothing I can do to spread those days further apart and so I will instead take a deep breath and enjoy the now. Focusing mainly on training for that marathon. Train, train train! In the next week I will be running 5km every second day on a flat stretch. The next week I will start running that 5km up a hill every second day. The final 5 days I will spread out getting only 2 days in. The focus then will be on sleep since the marathon will be early in the morning.

The bridal shower I don't have to stress too much about personally. I simply have to be able to walk after the marathon.

The dress fitting should take care of itself, with all that running I should be in prime shape....here's the hope.

The protest will be a pretty simple activity too, simply remembering to get there on time and with the beast in good spirits.

Lastly her birthday, perhaps the only part I have to prepare for. I am hoping for good weather so we can have it at the playground this year. This will reduce the amount of preparing within my home. I have a small dwelling and if there are any more than 5 adults here it gets very crowded very fast.
Having it at the playground will require some transportation planning on our part and getting the cake there etc. But I feel that will be much better than trying to make room in our own little itty bitty apartment.

Frustratingly we are still waiting for some RSVP's but considering how many are left it's not too bad in the grand scheme of things. Only 9.5% have not RSVP'd and 2 of those told us they were going...they just haven't carved it in stone yet.

I guess I should get back to some DIY projects with this 2 week break I have. But first.... some meditation while I still can.

<3 your peaceful hippie bride

Day 358 - That was easy!

I was absolutely thrilled to have all my girls in one spot at once. as much as each may not be as close to the other as much as I am close to each of them it really is so nice to have them all together. 

As it turns out I will have one less bridesmaid than initially anticipated but it is with no drama and without heavy heart. I know it is for the best considering her current changes in life and where life is taking her. We are still great friends and will still be in touch. I'm glad she was honest with herself and I when I brought it up because I would have hated for her to put down a hefty deposit and then regret it later.

As far as picking the dress goes, it was actually really easy. All the girls agreed on one dress and although the original plan was for the maid of honor to have a different color combination than the bridesmaids they all loved the same combo. So instead we will make something else personal, perhaps a different color on her bouquet etc. 

girls in deep though (42)

It has been decided! 

 After dress shopping was complete it was off with my Maid of Honor to do some more bridal accessory shopping. With our daughters in tow of course. My daughter found this adorable lace umbrella and then gestured for the rain to come down.

 

<3 your hippie bride

Day 347 - Post Halloween invites

My hubby to be is the best the best fiancé ever! And who knew he looked so great in pink?

We took our daughter out trick-or-treating in our bridal fugly with her as a flower girl complete with curlers in her hair. It was super adorable.

 ♥ 265 ♥

I'm sending out the last of the wedding invitations soon. Once that is done I'll have to redesign the invitations a little and send out the open dance invitations. I'm not sure if I made an entry about that final decision, however, to balance the cost of a wedding reception with the desire to have everyone there we have decided to have people for the dance after the ceremony. Of course we ensured each person who would be invited to only the dance understood that it wasn't us shunning them it was us wanting to include them.

<3 your hippie bride

Day 218 - Extreme Couponing

I have been couponing where I can and shopping for a bargain everywhere. Today I managed to save our wedding budget $133.90 by acting on a tax free event. This meant rushing my poor daughter outside in such a hurry that.... well let's let the video tell you the story

Worth it in the end...hoping to save another $300 plus dollars soon. I took some of that saved money and bought her new shoes. :) 

Day 191 - We can make this work

We can make this work. We can afford this venue. We just have to alienate all our friends and only invite family we like, family we don't like and the bridal party. That's it! We won't have all those people we really want in attending but we'll have the view.....sure...we can make it work.

Took my maid of honour and our little monsters to view the venue once more. I wanted someone else to see just how awe inspiring this venue is. She too loved it. Very little....in fact no decorating needs to be done. It's absolutely amazing!

Alas, we have shrunk our guest list by 150 people in hopes to just barely scrape by. We all agree in the long run it is worth it and people will understand. Those who don't aren't really that friendly after all. 

Day 181 - I've seen the curvature of the earth!

The guest list has now entered his dreams evidently. Earlier yesterday he had commented on how he felt I was looking thinner. I didn't comment then but later in bed I asked him what had made him notice. His answer will make you snicker.
Him - I don't know if it was from the address book or something but you chose female guest.
Me - I chose female guest?
Him - ummhmmmm
Me - Why don't I have my camera on?
Him - MMMMM you're sexy! *snore*

Today, flustered with David, I grabbed the beast and went for a busride together. We had no destination in mind, out was the plan. While the bus rounded a corner I saw one of the venues on my list of places to look into. I pulled the cord and we were off. As the elevator climbed I thought about what colors and views the room would hold for me.

I am here to tell you, I have fallen in love. I am scared to even ask the price. There is no way I can afford this view, this absolutely, fabulous view!

But I had to ask. I took the information and tonight David and I will set down and hash over our guest list. Trimming the fat to see if we can minimalize the guest list in order to maximize the view! So beautiful!
I am thusly trimming the list and preparing the "sorry" lists. I wish I could invite everyone but if I am to be able to afford this venue I will need to cut back drastically.

Day 6 - Red & Black..edit: Wine & Pink!

Today when discussing colors one of my neighbors suggested red and black. Although it seems obvious I hadn't previously considered it whole heartedly. I will have to think more on that now. The maid of honors would of course have their choice of combination. One combination would be Red Dress with black accents/sash and shoes with red bouquet and black accents/ribbon. The other would be the reverse. The bridesmaids would all have one combination and the maid of honors the opposing.

Right now I'm trying to find an old website I used once a million years ago to create my original theme. I was only playing around at the time where the whole thing seemed so distant. But my beast squealing "mom" in the next room isn't helping my concentration any. Overall life has mostly returned to normal.

Although I read this site about planning your wedding in 6 months and that'd be fabulous. I just don't think we can and by the time I know if we can it'll be too late to send out invites. I sure would love to get married this coming summer though. Maybe I should go look at dresses and start figuring out how much we could afford if we were to get married this summer. Pretty sure it's not happening though. Not on our budget. If I want to save up for this wedding I need a lot more than 6 months! We're still not even sure if 20 months is enough but damn it, it's going to have to be!

If I find that website I shall post some sample photos of color themes but if not, this is all until Monday from this hippie bride. :)

Edit:

I'm 99.6% sure these are my colors:

This color wine with a light pink accent. The men will have this wine color with light pink flowers.
The girls will have this wine color for their dress with light pink accents. Their flowers will be both light pink and this wine color.
FYI this wine color is the toenail paint color I've been talking about forever now ;p