What happened to the weekend?

SERIOUSLY!

Where do the weekends go??

It feels like I just left "Z" at 6:15 on Friday night and here I am again, like there wasn't a Saturday & Sunday in between.

Oh wait, I know where it went!

Lets see....went to bed late Friday night...woke up early Saturday morning to make it to my DB appt by 10.

Found my dress! The very first one I tried on!! I would post a picture, but you'll just have to wait to see it in person!

Had to be at work at 2pm and worked until 9pm. Dan & I went to the gym & worked out. As much as my entire body needs it, with the dress I'm getting it's the upper body that'll need it the most!

Went the bed late again. Got up Sunday morning and started cleaning our spare bedroom so we could find the bed (hidden under a bunch of papers and boxes). Had to go to work again from noon to 7pm. Got home and could barely walk in the door!!

We had taken my old bed apart & had the mattress & box spring sitting in the entry way waiting to go down to storage. There was also a folded manual treadmill that I wasted 50 bucks on and baskets of laundry that blocked a path into the living room. And we were expecting Adam, Amanda & Ava for dinner any minute!!

I quickly grabbed up the baskets & other crap laying around and threw it all in our bedroom, closing the door slightly so no one could see the disaster area. At least you could walk into the living room!

Amanda, Ava & I hung out in the kitchen while I made chicken quesadillas for dinner and the guys moved everything down to storage. Ava got to watch tv while the adults ate dinner. She thoroughly enjoyed watching the Packers/Giants game...

Ava could hardly contain her shock when the game went into overtime...

After dinner the guys moved Dan's futon into the spare room which meant my big comfy chair would fit in the living room!! I missed my chair!

After relaxing for a bit Adam, Amanda & Ava went home for the evening. Dan & I both had to be at work this morning at 8 so we decided to call it a night too (after transferring a bunch of stuff from our room the spare room).

And just like it didn't even happen, the weekend was over!!

I think this coming weekend we'll be visiting our reception site and possible ceremony site...which means we'll be in Illinois!! So I know the days will fly by entirely too quick.

Oh well...I hope everyone had a great weekend!

Dress Dilemma

I've decided to let my girls choose their own dress, as long as they're in the same color. However, now that I'm looking at the flowers I'm thinking the dresses would clash horribly.

When we were originally planning for Aug of next year I immediately thought of yellow (or canary at DB). That was just a pretty summer color. Well, here we are planning for November 1st and that yellow all of a sudden doesn't seem so perfect.

I want to incorporate all those pretty fall colors into the scheme of everything (flowers, decorations, etc) and now I'm thinking I need to change the dress color.

So here I sit...with Sunny's Bridal Bible and the latest 800 page issue of Brides trying to figure out colors. Now I have never been very good at coordinating my own outfit so I'm scared to death of trying to coordinate colors for the wedding.

Two of my girls plan on going with me to my appt on Saturday at DB and I'm hoping actually seeing the colors first hand I'll be able to make a decision.

I really love that yellow though, its such a pretty color...and I hate to keep changing my mind. I'm trying really hard not to become Bridezilla!

Ladies, if you read this please BEAR WITH ME!!

Some Relief

Amanda, Dan & I attended the Bridal Show here in Madison on Sunday. It was very interesting and according to Adam, I walked passed a news camera that aired Sunday night on FOX. So I was on tv, but I missed it :(

The awesome thing is we've booked our ceremony/reception music and the photographer. They don't mind traveling to Illinois as long as we get them a hotel room for the night.

We also have the reception hall booked. It'll be at the Wellington in Arlington Heights. There's a hotel literally across the parking lot and I'm looking at churches in the area so travel will be light.

I'm super excited now! I've heard from a few of my friends that live in other states and it sounsd like they are all planning on making the trip up.

We've contacted everyone we wanted in our wedding party and they're all excited. My first appointment to look at dresses is this Saturday at David's Bridal. There's a couple other places here in town I want to look at too, but figured I'd start where I know the prices :)

Dan & I also joined a gym so we can slim down before the big day.

Things are actually falling into place. I can't believe it was only 2 weeks ago that Dan proposed!

I breathed a big sigh of relief last night when we finished our first big project. Now the big thing is paying for it all! LOL

We've considered putting the house hunting on hold until next year. But we haven't made any final decisions yet, because we both really want to get a house.

Oh well, we'll figure it out I'm sure :)

Final Date

If you thought I was freaking before, well guess what!!??

The wedding has been moved up to November 1, 2008! Yup, that means we have a little over 9 months to get this thing planned.

I have an appointment at David's Bridal next Saturday to start shopping for a dress. I had to pick out 3 that I liked on the internet so I have the dress #'s to bring w/ me as a start. I've also picked out a dress for my bridesmaids. Hopefully 2 of my girls will be able to go with me.

My best friend (and Matron of Honor) is coming up for a long weekend in April. I'm sooooo excited! This will be her first time in Illinois/Wisconsin. We're hoping to get a lot done while she's here and still have time to party.

Dan, Amanda & I are going to the Bridal Show here in Madison on Sunday. Even thought we're pretty much set on having everything in Illinois it will still be nice to see what there is to offer up here. Dan also got tickets to a show in Oak Brook in a couple weeks, so this will be interesting.

I think we've both decided that since this is the one and only time we'll be doing this (marriage) we might as well do what we want and not focus too much on how much its going to cost.

So look forward to more desperate pleas for help and lots of information. I'm not sure how early you're supposed to send Save the Date cards, but we'll hopefully be doing that soon :)

Oh! And I'd also like to say THANK YOU! to everyone that's responded to my questions. You have all been a huge help!!

Too Early?

Is it too early to be freaking out about the wedding??

Last night Dan started researching places to have our reception. I'd like that have something not too far from where the ceremony will be, and we're thinking it would be nice and convenient to have a hotel attached.

So Dan pulls up a couple places and checks out the menus and packages available for hotels w/ banquet facilities. Everything sounds great....until he gets to the pricing. Is it just me or is $45 a person a little expensive?? No wait, not a little, a lot expensive! We obviously plan on having a budget...but is it normal to plan on over $10k just for food?

We've been planning on buying a house this year and Dan brought up the suggestion to wait and buy after the wedding. But I'd rather have a house than a super expensive wedding.

I'm not sure how many people we plan on having at the reception, but I was figuring 250 when I calculated the food cost.

I had to call up my mom to calm myself down. She's ordered me a book about planning a wedding on a tight budget. I'm soo lost! There's a bridal show this weekend at Alliant Energy Center, but I'm afraid to go now! And of course all the show stuff is for vendors and caterers up here...so I don't know what good it'll do me.

Is it normal to feel like this? I think the house is more important, but the more I think about the wedding the more I want all the stuff I didn't think I did. Why does this have to be so complicated?

Good Times w/ Friends

Saturday was the Zimbrick Awards Banquet (Holiday Party). We mingled, had some (cold) dinner, but most important...we got our drink on! Or at least Amanda & I did :)

I had a great time introducing Dan as my fiance to some of my co-workers. It's still so weird to say that...I keep fumbling and say boyfriend then have to correct myself.

Thank you Porsche & Justin for coming down to watch Ava so Adam & Amanda could have an entire night off and join us at the banquet. There were caricaturists, a fortune teller, and a photographer available and we took advantage of all of them.

It's interesting to see how 2 different caricaturists view their subjects.

Sunday morning we all got together for breakfast before Porsche & Justin headed home. I'm so glad we got to hang out a little bit, since we never really get to see them anymore.

Sunday afternoon we met up w/ our friend Kristin and hit the 2008 Home Expo at Monona Terrace. We had a good time walking through the exhibits and getting ideas for our future home.

It was a pretty quiet and low-key day...went to Panera for dinner and relaxed at home.

All in all, it was a great weekend!

Ring

Everyone has been asking for pictures of the ring...so here ya go :)

They're not too clear, it was hard to get a really sharp picture...

Great News!

I got home last night around 6:15. As soon as I walked in the door Dan told me I needed to take a look at the sunglasses he'd just bought me (they came in a big case) because they had a funny rattle. I was like..."okay, what do you mean their rattling?" He handed me the case, I shook it and there was an obvious noise coming from the box. I opened it...and what did I find?? It wasn't a broken pair of sunglasses, it was an ENGAGEMENT RING!!

He asked if I'd marry him, and of course being caught completely off guard it took a good 15 minutes before I was able to say yes.

Needless to say, it was a great New Year's Eve! After several phone calls and a stop at Cub we finally made it to Adam & Amanda's for dinner.

We had a great time playing with their little girl Ava, who is almost 3 months old. We all took turns with the Paraspa & did our hands, elbows & feet. Once Ava went to bed we played a couple of games & watched the ball drop in New York. Amanda even let the future bride and groom use their champagne flutes from their wedding in August.

I hope everyone had as a great a New Year's Eve as we did!