Wedding Journal:  November

General Goals for November - get a handle on everything!  I feel like things are starting to spiral a little - there are so many little details to take care of - its never ending.  So many calls to make...so many plans...UGH!  My big current stress is invitations.  We just don't have the time to make our own - every free minute seems to go to wedding planning, house fixing/painting, spending time together, with friends, working, working out, going to class...where does the time go?  Not to mention we are supposed to fit dancing lessons in somewhere...looks like we'll be taking the wedding crash course after all!  Can't even keep up with this crazy website - luckily it has developed its own inertia!  Oh well....breathe.....

November 4-8:  Took a major and much needed break from wedding planning this weekend and went to Durango, CO to visit with Mike's grandparents, parents and extended family.  They had a huge 85th birthday party for his grandad, which was a lot of fun and there were almost 100 friends and family there!  For me it was a little overwhelming considering how few of them I knew, but everyone was so nice and we just had a lot of fun!  And I think I may have fallen in love with Colorado.  Durango is this beautiful, quaint little town nestled under these huge mountains.  The views from our hotel, Michael's grandparents house, from anywhere in the town were so amazing.  On Friday Michael and I snuck away for some touring and drove up to Telluride, down through Ouray and Silverton and back down to Durango.  It was about 5 or more hours in the car, with a few stops here and there for lunch and pictures but it was very worth it.  The mountains were gorgeous and the landscape was so varied it was amazing.  We were on the Million Dollar Highway which is this amazing twisty turny road carved out of the side of the mountain - more like clinging to the side of the mountain!  There were no guardrails along the edge.  There is literally about a foot if that between the car and nothing - just space, the emptiness between the mountains.  And the way we went, the passenger side of the car was on the outside.  The very outside.  I was clinging to the door handle.  Exhilarating but a little scary!  Not to mention that there was construction because a few weeks earlier part of the road collapsed!  But we did stop at the hot Springs in Ouray which was a really neat experience swimming in 100+ degree water in about 50 degree weather out in the open beneath these magnificent mountains!  Highly recommended!

November 13-14:  Wedding weekend.  Lots to do.  Cake tasting on Saturday at 11.  Sounds like breakfast.... and what a breakfast it was!  We went to Konditor Meister out in Braintree (where we proceeded to get lost about three times), for our first testing and possibly our last.  I know we should go taste some other ones but these were delicious, it has a great reputation, we could actually see them making the cakes there, and we are endlessly pressed for time!  We'll see, maybe we'll go to Montillio's or Icing on the Cake next weekend.  But Konditor's cakes are fabulous, though a little more ornate than our taste, however they will do whatever we want.  Have I mentioned that simple and elegant usually costs more than ornate and fou-fou?  At least in my wedding experience thus far!  But what type of cake, both inside and outside, will not be disclosed until the wedding!  

After the cake testing we decided to go to Papyrus at the South Shore Shopping Center and look at invitations.  As I mentioned I am desperately seeking simple invites with a Celtic knot design.  Who makes them - Crane's.  The most expensive wedding stationer.  I give up!  We do find another design we like a lot by William Arthur, but its almost as expensive!  But they are beautiful and the price does include the place cards, thank you notes, etc...So we'll see.  I am waiting for a quote and a sample from a British company so we'll see how that goes.  I would really like to get the invitations ordered by the end of the month.  With the holidays fast approaching time is becoming even more scarce!  Though we got nothing truly done, we did get some things accomplished and now had ideas and options - very important.  I felt good about today.  

Sunday we drove up to Portsmouth and dropped off my ring sniff sniff.  My hand feels so much lighter and sometimes I look down and scare myself that I lost it!  I will be very happy when I get the stone and the new setting back!  While we were there we looked at some wedding bands for Michael and they had some really neat ones.  I think the top contenders are some multi-metal designs or a titanium band.  Something different and ultra-modern.  And my ring is different  and ultra-antiquey.  Complete opposites :-)

Not too much else going on right now.  Had to by a 4" binder because I outgrew my old wedding binder.  The paper trail is massive!  Searching for a rehearsal dinner site.  Having extreme difficulties.  Our first choice gave us a per head count that was higher than that for the wedding.  The second is too small.  The third has too high a minimum for Friday night, the fourth may be too spicy....it goes on and on and on...

But some good news, NJL is faxing Michael a contract for our shuttle bus!  I will be so happy to have that squared away.  Now only two more limos to get!

More soon :-)

November 18th:  Tonight was a busy night.  I was a little stressed.  We met with Father O'Leary at 7pm to take the Marriage Preparation Test given by the Catholic Church.  It was actually pretty interesting.  There were about 150 questions ranging in topic from future in-laws, money, children, our relationship, drugs/alcohol, church, etc.  For example, one question was "do the actions of your future spouse sometimes frighten you." You had to mark agree or disagree.  I disagreed assuming the question meant violence or drugs or something similar.  Michael however agreed citing my road rage and driving skills as scary actions.  I somehow don't think we scored very well on this test!  But really, most questions addresses questions like "have you and your future spouse discussed what each of you expect from the other in terms of parenting?"   "have you and your future spouse discussed how you will allocate household responsibilities"  so most were pretty straightforward.  We get our results back in December so I'll let you all know if the wedding is still on at that time!  We meet with Father O'Leary once more in December for counseling and then in February we go on the Engaged Couples retreat and after that we meet with Father again to plan our ceremony.  Michael is holding up surprisingly well :-)  I on the other hand feel we are down to the wire!

After our meeting, which was over around 8 pm, we went over to our friend Chris's for a potluck dinner.  We thought we would be terribly late but as it turns out we were right on time!  Dinner was fabulous - Chris made a huge platter of mussels, Mea brought a delicious bread dip and salad, Rob and Heather made crab cakes and Eric and Deb made a delicious tuna dish with tomatoes and olives.  YUM!  Except Michael doesn't eat seafood.  Hmmm...he enjoyed the rice pilaf!  Luckily we ate before we came because we thought we would be so late - that's why we were in charge of dessert and dessert wine.  Brownies and dessert wine - how classy - but yummy!  At the dinner Mea brought some photos from our camping trip this summer to Lovell's Island a.k.a the Island of Killer rabbits.  We went out to the island on Rob's sailboat - it was a really great trip and except for the rabbits an absolutely wonderful time!  

November 20-21:  Saturday we went to try on bridesmaids dresses for Trang's wedding.  Her future sister-in-law drove down from NH and Trang's sister Marianne, Hang, Pam, and I all joined them out at Occasions.  We tried on quite a few dresses - including one stellar one that I was fortunate to try on that seemed to have a life of its own it was so ridiculously pouffy.  Five people could have fit under this skirt I kid you not.  That one was axed. In the end we all agreed on the one Trang had liked form the Watters and Watters website - a very simple but elegant two-piece with a sleeveless bodice and a line skirt with darts.  She's going with a bluish color that will look amazing for a summer wedding.  Very exciting!  After that we all were starving and wanted to go eat.  Because Diane was in from out of town we thought we'd go into the city and eat outside since it was a rare 65 degree November Saturday in Boston.  We ended up at the Marketplace and after some careful stalking we ended up with a great table outside.  However, as soon as we ordered the sun went in.  The rain held out until we paid our check at least!  All in all though it was a fun day!  

Michael has been working on his midterm for his class non-stop lately but I had to give him some wedding torture this weekend so Sunday afternoon we went to look at Tuxes and registries.  We were completely unsuccessful.  The tuxes at Men's Wearhouse were promising at least, and Michael found one he really liked so we'll probably be back.  WE decided he might as well buy the tux since we are going to a black tie wedding in a few weeks anyway and they are so expensive to rent anyway.  So hat accomplished we were off to Bloomingdale's in our continuing desperate search for a china pattern.  Hopeless.  Eternally hopeless.  Though we did see some Waterford glasses we liked...the china is either too plain or too fancy or too bright or too dark or too floral....hopeless.  Though while out at the Chestnut Hill Mall we did manage to find invitations even more expensive than the ones we already found.  Talk about Tiffany Taste on a Kmart Budget.  Sigh!  Overall the whole shopping experience left me rather depressed.  So fabulous guy that Michael is he suggested we stop at Vinny Testa's for dinner.  I could already taste the roasted garlic and the focaccia bread....yum!  Dinner was great - not to mention that we had it for lunch and dinner for the next tow days - that place is amazing!

Thanksgiving Week:  Well things were crazy.  Not surprising.  But Monday night, Trang, Hang and Pam took me out for my birthday to the Austin Grill in Cambridge.  Very yummy.  There was one in DC and I used to love their black bean burritos.  This time I had the steak and shrimp fajitas - need I say more?  YUM!  It was just a fun laid back dinner with great swirly frozen Margaritas.  Maybe we should have the rehearsal dinner there...something to ponder.

Tuesday we found out Michael had to work on Friday and most likely Thursday.  This was not good.  Not good at all as we were supposed to drive to PA Wednesday night.  I decided to drive home by myself and left early Wednesday morning.  I felt bad leaving Michael, but knew I would be more depressed if I didn't make it home.  He ended up having dinner a friend's house so he got his turkey too :-)  Thanksgiving in Williamsport was wonderful with my mother and grandmother outdoing themselves as always!  My grandmother makes the best stuffing in the world.  Can't be missed.  I drove back up on Saturday to avoid the traffic and spend Sunday, Michael's birthday with him.  It was a pretty quiet day. He had a bunch of stuff to finish on his midterm that was due Monday and I don't really remember what I did - probably wedding stuff!