Guest List
Our guest list had kind of gotten out of control during Christmas time when we were sending out cards and letters. We kept adding people we had forgotten and hadn't gotten a total. Today I cleaned the list up to see just how many people we were talking about. Right now the list total is at 124. Not bad... For the reception hall, we need at least 75 for dinner or they add a surcharge. This means we'll need about 61% of the people invited to show up at dinner. I think that's doable, right? Of course I'd love for everyone who is invited to come, but that's not realistic.

Marriage Prep Part III

This weekend is phase three of the Catholic marriage preparation process.

Phase one was meeting with Father Mike a while back to just talk about what we needed to do. It was a pretty casual meeting that had an analogy about a table or something... Father Mike is a nice guy with a great sense of humor.

Phase two was the FOCCUS meetings. Couples from the church volunteer their time to meet with engaged couples and do an "inventory." It's a quiz with about 100 questions about different subjects like money, communication, relationships, etc. Each person takes it separately and then we come back a few weeks later to talk about the results. It was also pretty casual and low stress. I think it went alright. The Williams' were nice people and Barb made great pizza!

Phase three is the Engaged Encounter. It's a day-long retreat at the church. All the couples who want to be married in the church have to participate in this before their wedding. I'm not sure what to expect, but this is also run by a couple from the church. Hopefully it will be fun and educational.

Musical Update

We have secured our vocalist.

The very first time I went to church with Adam, the person up at the front of the church who led the mass had a wonderful voice. I liked it so much that when we got engaged I asked him if it would be weird if we asked this woman (who we don't know) to sing. He got her number from his mother (who works at the church - another benefit of having connections) and gave her a call. She agreed to sing. Now we just need to get together sometime and actually meet her! :)

Organist-wise, Adam called the normal church organist earlier this week and hopefully we'll get together with him soon. His style is a lot like my dad's so I think it should be ok since I have some specific pieces I want played (hello Widor toccata!) I have the music all picked out. It's just a matter of running it by the two musicians and making sure that they have copies of the music.

Things are working out splendidly.

Flowers (Part Deux)

So I guess we were successful in our flower quest this morning. As with most of the parts of the wedding, we'd done a considerable amount of research beforehand and just wanted confimation that what we'd chosen wasn't completely retarded. We sat down with a nice (and totally flaming) guy named Brian. We went through the list of flowers needed and managed to come in under (a revised) budget. The fact that we had a 15% off coupon definitely helped.

The flowers are a mix of yellows and purples. Calla lillies, carnations, hyacinth and hydrangeas make up the majority of the items. I think they'll be throwing some filler greens or smaller flowers in a few of them and the cake flowers will be roses, but overall, that's what it turned out to be.

I don't have pictures of any of them except for the bouquets that the Catherines will be carrying. They'll be in a purple though, not blue like the picture shows. It will also be smaller that that one. Brian said 2 or 3 bunches tied together with a ribbon.

Directions Posted
Adam typed up some quick directions to the church and to the reception site. We're assuming most people will be staying in Appleton or close to highway 41. If you need further assistance getting where you need to go, contact us and we'll try and get you there.

Pictures from Mom
Along with her Christmas letter, my mom was nice enough to include some pictures she took while on the dress adventure we had when she was here in November. I jumped at the chance to scan them and post more pictures of me looking stupid. I've determined that I just must generally be stupid-looking since that's how I appear in every photo ever taken of me... *sigh*

Looking fearfully at dresses at David's Bridal (which is NOT where I got my dress. Talk about pushy salespeople!)

Looking at headwear at Bridal Staircase (which is where I DID get my dress. Nice people. Good volume discounts.)

Looking at scary shoes at DSW. I *heart* shoes. Not these ones though. (Nice flash reflection, mom!)

Lodging Update

I updated the logding page with information from La Quinta. Adam called them yesterday and set up a group block of rooms for a discounted rate. We'll be checking with the Holiday Inn across the highway soon. The Days Inn in Neenah refused to do a group rate because they really have no competition. Therefore we recommend staying somewhere in Appleton.

Variety of choice equals competition equals better prices.

Who will buy my sweet red roses?

A random Oliver! reference opens this entry about flowers quite nicely, don't you think?

We finally found a day that we can go to the florist and talk with their bridal consultant (or whatever it is they call it.) Adam and I both have next Friday off from work (my last day of vacation this year *sniff*) so he called and made an appointment this afternoon.

Honestly, this is probably my least favorite thing to do. I am not a flower person. Thinking about flowers makes me think about gardening. And that makes me think about that time I killed a cactus. Which isn't an easy thing to do. I am so not green-thumbish.

But I digress.

Perhaps the title of this post is misleading since I will not be buying red roses. In fact, there will be no roses at all. I don't like roses. Chances are since our colors are purple and yellow there will be lots of carnations, calla lilies, and hyacinths.

But I suppose this is why we're talking with the professional flower person. Because I don't know what I'm talking about.

Wedding Fashion

Now, I can't get into details about my dress here since Adam has free rein on reading this and that all is supposed to be a surprise. I will say that I got a call from the place I ordered it to tell me that it has come in. Yes, 23 days after I ordered it, my wedding dress is available for me. Seems strange to me, but whatever. My dad, Cheryl, and Joan (Adam's mom) will be heading up to look at it this Sunday. Fun, fun.

The second order of business is shoes. Here are the shoes I've chosen:

They're pretty comfortable and I plan to prance around the apartment in them for awhile to stretch them out. They are 4" heels which, while boosting me to a whopping 5'7"ish, still gets me nowhere near Adam's 6'8" head. I still have to reach a bit to get my hands up to his neck (a la slow dancing mode) but it'll have to do. I'm afraid I'd have to venture into stripper shoe territory to get something much higher. (Don't think I didn't consider that... but I figured it might not be the best choice for the overall outfit.)

Next up (since my dress is already here and I was going to wait for it to choose these) are the veil and other head adornments. I know basically what I want and now I just have to find the specific model.

After that is the fun of undergarments. < totally sarcasm

My motto for the day is: I can live with the uncomfortable, big shoes but I can't live with underwear that jabs me in the side all day. I await the adventure.

Engagement Photos

We had our free engagement photo session with our photographer last night. He's a great guy and he downloaded and burned all our pictures to a CD before we left last night. This means I get to spread them around right away. Woo!

This is the picture that will be on the Christmas cards we send out as well as in any newspaper announcement(s) we do (click to see the full-size pictures):

And here are a few fun outtakes. I'm so not photogenic.

And my personal favorite: