5 days to go!!!!!!!!!!!

My wedding is FAST approaching. We are finalizing last minute details and I'm definitly stressed, but I'm excited and happy. My mom flies in tonight and she'll get started on my cake. I pick up Erin tomorrow night. It's the down hill slope now!!!
I've been working on cleaning our house and getting it all ready for us and for guests. That's been hard since we're combining so much stuff. We got Josiah's drum set mostly set up (I say mostly, because there's no room for his cymbals, but that's ok.
Josiah has been FANTASTIC throughout this whole process. He has done all kinds of things that have made my life easier. I gave him a list of things to do today since he doesn't have school this week and he's just happy to do them. I couldn't have found a better man.

IT'S ALMOST HERE!!!!

I just can't wait!!!!!!!!!! I'm 8 days out and super duper excited. My mom arrives on Monday, Erin Gentry arrives on Tuesday, Uncle Thomas arrives on Wednesday, Mandy, Aunt Lorie, and Aunt Judy arrive on Thursday and it just keeps going!!! I love all these people and all the rest of you that are coming!
Josiah and I have planned a good date night tonight so that we can see each other before the chaos of the coming week. Now we need to spend time cleaning up before guests arrive. It's going to be fun.
Josiah was so sweet. He knows my mom loves Diet Mtn. Dew and he went and bought her some today so she would be all stocked up.

YIPPEEEEEE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

12 Days and counting

Things seem to be coming together. i did my brial photos and they turned out great. Now I'm just cleaning my house now that Josiah has moved in most of his stuff. That way it's clean for all my guests next week. I'm amazed as to how everything is coming together.

Bridal Photos

Yesterday I got have my bridal photos taken. We (Cindy, Grandma, and I) went to the downtown library and took some, then headed over the the state capitol and took some inside and outside. It was a lot of fun. Everyone who walked by was saying "congratulations" or "your dress is beautiful". All wonderful complements. My FAVORITE complement was a little girl probably just shy of 3 years old said "It's a princess."
We did all kinds of different shots and I look foward to looking at them later this week. I would post them, but then my fiance could possible see them, so they'll have to wait until after the wedding.
It was good to wear the dress for an extended period of time because I figured out a few things that will hopefully help at the wedding. First of all, I'm not allowed to sit. Sitting is not comfortable in this dress. Really, I should say that I don't want to sit for very long. I also found out that my hair, despite super duper hair spray, likes to fall after about 2 hrs. So one of the last things I'll have done is my hair.
It had a ton of fun!

Bridal Shower #2

26 Days to go....
I had a lot of fun this weekend at my second bridal shower. Everyone is so kind and generous. I enjoyed being able to spend the time with everyone especially my 6 year old niece Destiny. She was a joy to have tugging on my arm the whole time.
We had wonderful food prepared by my church small group along with neat games hosted by my future mother-in-law and great gifts provided by all attending. Josiah and I are nearly set for our life together thanks for all the gifts!

I'm scheduled to have my bridal photos taken on Sunday. I'm very much looking forward to that. That will be 20 days until my wedding. YAY!!!

The results of Bridal Shower #1

I had a blast at my shower the other night. I got to see so many people I care about and just enjoy spending time with them.
I received some encouragement on good ways to strengthen my marriage. For example, Martha gave me a frying pan to keep Josiah in line. :)
It was also nice to have my mom in town and have that experience. She was so kind and purchased some end tables for me along with my douve and cover.
Things are moving right along with wedding planning. I'm going to have my bridal photos on the 28th.
I'm 33 days away!!!!

Bridal Shower #1

Due to the volume of people I know I've split my bridal showers up. Tonight is one with close friends and co-workers. I'm getting really excited, especially because my mom is flying in for it. I'll write all about it a different day.

Invitations

Josiah and I spent last Friday getting invitations ready. It was quite the process to get 300 envelopes labeled with both an address and return address, stamp them and stuff them. It took me quite a while to cut out our registry insert cards on our paper cutter (which we decided to 'invest' in for the project). It was fun because we watched Enchanted and Hairspray while doing it. And BOTH movies were Josiah's pick! :). It was nice to get them all done. I went to the post office on Saturday and got the bulk of them in the mail. I finished off the last few Tuesday morning and got them on their marry way.
So far I've only had 1 returned and that was because I forgot to put a stamp on it. They are DONE!!!!!!!!!

Saturday of fun 42 days to go

Yesterday I was able to go get fitted for my dress. Everything is ready for my dress. I have my shoes, bustier (sp?), hose, and vail. I was able to chat with my parents about all kinds of wedding details and things are coming together.
WOOHOO

Good News!

The envelopes, registry inserts and tissue are all ready! I just have to pick them up....

Super Bowl stuffing party here I come!

Did I mention my dress is finally in?? I am planning on going on Saturday for a fitting. There should only be 2 minor adjustments (I bet the seamstress spends about 10min in alterations). YAY!!!!!

The wedding odds and ends I finally got to see

I was able to go up to Layton with Josiah and see all the stuff that's been ordered. We got to see candy, our engagement photo on canvas, our gobblets, our guest book, and my jewelry. My siser is doing an absolutely fanstastic job and she showed us the sketches of the arrangements and we were very pleased.
Josiah had a couple of great ideas and Jenni is going to look into them and see if she can acquire them.
We plan on getting the invitations all ready this weekend! It'll be a super bowl stuffing party :).

Niece

A mildly unrelated to wedding event happened yesterday. Jael Rose Marshall, my soon to be niece was born. She is as cute as can be. She'll now be present for all the family wedding photos!!!

Earings

I forgot to tell my ear piercing story.
Last Friday I went to Iris Piercing in Sugarhouse. They had quite the inviting atmosphere. When I was a kid (about 5 yrs old, if I recall correctly), I had my ears pierced, but I had a lot of trouble with them and they kept getting irritated so I quit wearing earings. Because I had them for several years I had small little scars that made it look like my ears were pierced, but they werent. Because of the scars and because of all the trouble I had with my last go round I thought I would check out the experts.
I thoroughly enjoyed my experience at Iris. I was a little thrown by the number of piercings that the peircer had, but he was very friendly and knowledgable. I was very comfortable with their sanitation techniques. They had way more precautions than I would have ever thought about. I think it was cleaner than my hospital room when I had foot surgery.
I paid a fair bit more for the whole thing because I got medical grade titanium posts for my earings along with a larger gem stone to cover my old holes.
The after care was stressed as LEAVE THEM ALONE. They say you just shouldn't touch them, get them wet, or play with them. There is no twisting involved either. They said it's because your body won't actually fuse with this metal. The only thing I'm supposed to put on them is Saline if they get touched. I've had to use it about once a day because I can't seem to not touch them, or they get wet in the shower.
All in all, a great experience. Now I'll be able to wear pretty earings to my wedding. (I want to note that I've been thinking about getting my ears pierced for at least the last year, but now I finally had an excuse to do it)

Brass Quintet

I "booked" the brass quintet last night. They are a little pricy, but I have always wanted a brass quintet at my wedding so it's worth it. I asked the trumpet player to send me some ideas for a processional and a recessional. She's going to tell me where I can find them online to listen too. I really want to hear what it sounds like so I know what to look for in ques etc.
I'm continuing to work on bridesmaid gifts. It's hard to know what everyone will like. I might have to get different things for different bridesmaids. Hmmm.... Still working on this one.
I chatted with Shekinah about my hair. We are going to do a test run some time soon.
I don't know when my bridal photos will be, but I guess it's good it's not this week since my dress isn't in yet.
FUN FUN FUN!!!

Wedding Cake

I talked with my mom extensively last night and it looks like we've finalized our cake plans. It's going to be 4 layers (well, 3 edible layers) with Fudge cake and sour cream white cake. We finally found a descent monogram for the top. Who would have thought that finding a descent 'M' would be so hard! I found several 'N's and other letters that were fantastic, but the 'M' was just ugly. The cake's decorations won't be too hard to do and I think it's going to be awesome! Simply Elegant!
Over the weekend I also found bridesmaid dresses and got at least 1 ordered. Josiah looked at Tux designs and worked out a color scheme. I am working on finalizing an address list. I have worked on who to send to each bridal shower (I'm having 2).
On Sunday, Melissa Whitman (Mary Kay Rep) did a test for my wedding makeup. It went quite well. We went with 2 different styles and I like the second one.
I started thinking about bridesmaid gifts and can't say much here about them other than I've got a couple of ideas.
An odd idea I had last night (which could be fantastic) was to have a friend (Erin Gentry) go to Wendy's about 11am on the wedding day and pick up a bunch of dollar menu items so that we all won't starve! I don't want to get weak in the knees due to hunger.
It's getting so much closer!!!!

this past week

So the last few days have been fun. We ordered some more stuff and got it monogrammed. My sister Jenni has been working hard on planning the wedding. And I am REALLY excited. Jenni said that she is going to use a lot of tall flowers to help the room feel full. She said that she was going to use a lot of greenery as well, such as moss, grass, etc. It’s going to be awesome! I’ll get my tulips and lilies J. We will also use a lot of candles and some light colors to brighten it up. I just can’t WAIT!
Instead of doing a unity candle, Josiah suggested we do communion. So that’s what we will do.
We are trying to contact the DJ and set up an appointment to meet with them. I’ve also been talking to the brass quintet people about orchestrating them. It’s coming together pretty quickly and I like that.

Sunday of fun

So I have the flower girl dresses now and also my jewelry for the wedding. We ran into some trouble with the bridesmaid dresses and I will have to find something else. Oh well.
We also decided to go a different direction than using Modern Display. They weren't treating us quite like we would prefer so my sister Jenni is going to do the wedding coordinating. I think this is FANTASTIC!
We also made some decisions on food and party favors. Things are coming along. We are using Sandy's Fine Foods and also a chocolate fountain. We're going to have dark chocolate and white chocolate fountains and have 3 types of fruit and 3 treats for the fountains. We're looking to have ham and cheese kabobs, stuffed brauts, and mini cordon blue bites.
We are working on finalizing our address list and also the people planning my 2 bridal showers are working on that. Sorry this is vague, but it's all exciting and I dont' want to give away all the details.

Breaking the silence

I apologize for not updating since Nov. 5th. The truth is, not a lot happened. In the last week, on the other hand, has been quite busy.
I'm working on setting up a walk through for my wedding cooridnator at my church. Once that is done, then she can give us a price estimate etc. Sadly, the church isn't open on Fridays, so this has been difficult.
Jenni McMillen-Ott designed my invitations. She did a fabulous job. I hope to be ordering them along with envelopes here in the next week or so. Then I will work on addressing and stamping them when I have the time. I'll probably put together some kind of "stuffing" party.
Josiah and I are going to try to find a time to meet with the DJ for a consult.
I still need to set up the brass quintet.
I think we've found our chocolate fountain people which is exciting. We also might have figured out what we are going to do for party favors.
It's all coming together.
According to my facebook countdown we are at exactly 2 months and 2 days!!!!!!!!!!!!!!