WW: Invitationapalooza

Tonight I print out all the invitations, inserts, and finish addressing the last few invitation envelopes. Then tomorrow all that stuff gets cut down by the wonderful Chris and on Friday I'm headed down to MD to enslave enlist Julibean and her Sasquatch for help assembling. We'll also stop back at Curvaceous Couture to check out the veil I'm totally in love with, so that's another thing I can scratch off my list.

Meanwhile I've ordered snazzy cufflinks for Jason, socks for the groomsmen, and some additional items for the bridesmaids gifts.

m'Dad bought a tuxedo and we're still debating whether or not we'll just tell the fathers to wear black ties or we'll get them blue ties or something special. m'Mama bought a dress but that doesn't mean we're going to stop looking. She's not 100% sold on it and I'm meeting her at a dress shop in our town that's going out of business to try on a few things and possibly catch something on clearance.

I've set a date with the amazing Ashley and creative Courtney to have a paper flower making pow-wow and get the centerpieces done. I cannot even put into words how at ease I'll be once THOSE are done.

Once in the invitations are all set and in the mail I can breathe and work on other things, like, oh, idk making all the bouquets and organizing the rest of my life. Oh yeah, and pack maybe a little? Because even if we don't know where we're moving we're still going to be moving come May.

On a complete tangent:
I've decided to make completely anal RSVPs. I've heard that sometimes when you leave the RSVPs open so the guests write their names in themselves they forget and you have to like, brand the back of the RSVP with a number and correspond that number to a version of your guest list so you know that, Oh it was just Crazy Uncle Jerry who forgot to write his name in, but he's having the Veal.

Or you get people assuming that they can bring dates. No, I will not pay an arm and a leg for your random flavor of the week other who I have never met. And no, you can't just slip that person's name on there and think I won't notice because your name is effing printed in my special scripty font and all official like.

I'm not dealing with any of that bullshit. Each RSVP has the names of the people who are invited. A few have a line to write in a guest's name, but there are less than 6 people who we're extending that option to. We just don't have the room to invite people we don't know. Period.

I've already had some friends ask if they can bring a date. In some cases yes, I know their significant other, and no, I wouldn't mind it if that person tagged along. But I'm not going to sacrifice someone Jason or I actually want at the wedding who got shafted onto the B-List just so you can have a date. Husbands and wives are a different story, I'm not that snide. But unless you're engaged or living with your significant other, I'm sorry, you'll have to wait and see if there's room at the inn.

So hear this friends. I love you all. I love all of your significant others (even if I have yet to meet them, I'm sure they're wonderful people if you've chosen to have them in your life) and I have them on a tertiary list. But please don't get upset if you don't see their name on the RSVP, this whole political undercurrent to wedding invitations is trying enough, I don't want you mad at me too :(

Countdown

Today is T-minus 100 Days until our wedding.

100 Days is a funny thing. We had a 100 Days 'till Graduation party in college. It was epic:

Laura and I with our Pool Boy Ron.

Some of the boys I lived with Freshman year. Chris, Glenn & Jar.
And btw Puppy, you look so funny clean shaven!

Me with my gbf Seth, my favorite shortie Jen, and our friend Aida.

Scary that starting next year I'll have known some of these people for a decade. BAH! We're OLD!

That is all.

It's happening

Dear Julibean,

When we open our bakery we will be making and selling these:


We could do it to support No Shave November or find some legit reason, but it's happening.

That is all.

March Madness

This whole not being home on the weekends...every weekend..?

It's rough.

I'm exhausted. The weekend was wonderful. Although I was too tired to go to dinner Friday night for our anniversary. I felt so horrible, but I couldn't even move. My body felt like lead, it was awful.

The NH Shower was amazing. Like really. My girls are just incredible and Amanda and MamaKoala are party-throwing-machines!

I'm just so tired. I've been too exhausted to do anything. At least I unpacked the car load of presents and organized them and stored them in the basement. At least I wrote out all the thank yous already and all but two are in the mail. At least I unpacked my bag and repacked it for this coming weekend.

Still doesn't mean I don't have three loads of clean laundry to put away when I get home, or a million errands to run this week including getting my taxes done.

Ugh. I want to cry I'm so tired.

No Dancing

Today, dancing would be inappropriate.

Today, pretty much any sort of rejoicing would be inappropriate.

I didn't sleep well last night. I had a horrible nightmare and woke up at 1:30 and couldn't get back to sleep. So I was awake at 3:33 when Jason txted me.

News, Japan, when you get up.

I have a one track mind right now, so my first initial reaction was OMG HE GOT A JOB OFFER IN JAPAN WTF ARE WE GOING TO DO WITH OURSELVES?! But then I realized I was crazy and sleep deprived and I should probably just ask what he was talking about.

Once he relayed that it wasn't anything to do with him and everything to do with a devastating earthquake and tsunami in Japan I felt relieved and stressed at the same time.

Up until a few months ago we had multiple military friends stationed in Japan. Fortunately those friends are back in the states and as safe as any military personnel stationed here can be.


My heart goes out to all of Japan, and anyone who has family or friends there. It's going to take a long time for them to get back on their feet after this.

For now I'm mostly concerned with flooding on the West Coast of the US, Dan does live near water.

(Image borrowed from CNN)

Half a Decade

They say a picture is worth a thousand words. I think this one says a whole lot more than that:

Happy 5 year Anniversary!
Sharpie hearts Silly

WW: Another Dress Adventure

I'm not going to post any photos on the off chance Chris reads my blog, but Julianne found her wedding dress!

Huzzah!

We started off Saturday morning at Curvaceous Couture. Julianne, Casey, Cynthia and I had been there previously and there were one or two dresses that she really liked and wanted our mother to see.

What's interesting about Curvaceous Couture is it feels like an upscale bridal salon and they treat you like you're the most important person in the store, but they still have that homey family run business feel. Yukia Walker, the owner (who's pregnant - congrats!), is pretty much the illest bridal attendant ever.

She freaked Julianne out a little bit though. Apparently Julibean had mentioned something about her first experience at Curvaceous Couture on her blog and Yukia had not only read it, but taken action. Originally Julianne really wanted to try on a bunch of mermaid style gowns (girl has a nice butt, we like to flaunt it), but CC didn't really have many on hand. So after reading that, she ordered some mermaid style dresses.

I thought it was great that Yukia was so interested in pleasing her customers and catering to whatever need they had. Julianne thought it was weird. This is what the internet is for people! No doubt she's found this post and is reading this right now. (Hey lady!)

Julianne left CC with a few styles written down. I left with a style written down for an incredible veil. But I think I got the wrong style number or designer since I cannot find it ANYWHERE online. It was beyond perfect, white beaded flower (I was planning on making beaded flower bouquets for my bridesmaids so that's an epic awesomeness in coordination right there), with a feather or two, and it was the perfect angled birdcage. My note says it's a Kristina Eaton design but something makes me think it's actually a Sara Gabriel. It just seems more her style.

So if you are reading this Yukia, and you haven't already heard from me by phone, you know the veil I'm talking about? Can we find out what it's called and exactly which designer it is? kthanks.

After that we drove down to Virginia, met up with Becky and Andy, sent Chris off to hit the driving range with Andy, and nabbed Becky to stop in at Curvy Girls Bridal. They're new. Their website isn't fully up yet. But they're pretty fabulous.

The salon is a little bit more over the top than CC is, but they are also family run. They have a bunch of different designers than CC had so there was a little more variety. But they also freaked Julianne out a little. At the time of our appointment there wasn't anyone else in the store, so when Julianne came out of the dressing room for the first time there were like 20 people standing around because they wanted to be a part of it.

The CGB ladies are extremely nice and professional, the place was not as homey as CC but they did in fact have a "man cave" with the TV set to ESPN so any men who got dragged along could have a moment's silence away from all the estrogen. They do need to invest in slightly more stronger clippies. They were using plain plastic oversized clothespins to hold the dresses tighter to get the feel for how it would be in your size. The plastic guys weren't getting it done. They need the industrial metal clips, so that would be my only complaint.

Long story short Julianne found a fabulous La Sposa gown that was the right amount of mermaid and the right amount of ruffles. The price was perfect (hell it's about the same price as my dress and mine has half the fabric), and VA taxes are a far cry cheaper than NY taxes.

One less thing to worry about now that Julianne has found her dress. We'll start looking for bridesmaids dresses within the next month or so.

Overall the ladies at Curvy Girl Bridal were wonderful, but they definitely were not as hilarious as Yukia and the staff at Curvaceous Couture. If you're a plus size or just slightly curvy lady in the Baltimore/DC/N.VA area, I highly recommend going to either place (or both!) to find your wedding dress. They really understand brides who aren't a perfect size six.

...my fingers are kind of itching to try that veil on again...I might have to go back to CC to buy it!

c25k: Week 2, Day 1

For today's workout I didn't do the whole thing. I did more than half of it though. It wasn't because I was tired, because I was really just doing my run to get somewhere.

I ran over to Casey's house and made it there in about 16 minutes. It was only about a mile and I was jogging with a little back pack too.

Felt fine, it was really cold out though and my legs were hurting but I probably could have finished the full work out if I didn't have plans to watch a horrible episode of What Not to Wear and have my hair dyed.

Sum Up:
1 mile in 16:32
on the streets of my town
cold, and with a back pack of stuff

MM: He's so hot right now

If for some reason you forgot. One of my all time favorite movies is Zoolander. It's just so priceless, how could you not LOVE IT?!

Anyway, one of my favorite lines from the movie is right at the beginning when Hansel is talking about people he admires.

I wasn't like every other kid, you know, who dreams about being an astronaut, I was always more interested in what bark was made out of on a tree. Richard Gere's a real hero of mine. Sting. Sting would be another person who's a hero. The music he's created over the years, I don't really listen to it, but the fact that he's making it, I respect that. I care desperately about what I do. Do I know what product I'm selling? No. Do I know what I'm doing today? No. But I'm here, and I'm gonna give it my best shot.

"I don't really listen to it, but the fact that he's making it, I respect that." QUALITY IN A CAN.

c25k Week 1, Day 3

I didn't actually think she was serious, but Julianne told me she wanted to go for a run with me Saturday morning. I am not really a runner, although I'm trying to become one. Julianne is even further from being a runner than I am.

She was wonderful this week and got to the gym 5 days in a row. That's impressive, I can't even do that. When I woke her up this morning before seven she wanted to hurt me. We got dressed and went out into the misty morning.

For some reason we decided to take our walk/run on the trail in the woods behind their house. About two minutes into the warm up Julianne "remembered how hilly it was"...we're not joking people, it was hilly.

I tried not to think about it. We did pretty well running up and down the little crests and peaks. We hit the main road and Julianne was pretty much done running because her shoes weren't cooperating. She's in the market for a new pair that doesn't let her foot fall out the back.

So I basically continued walk/running and Julianne power walked while I back tracked to her.

Probably the hilight of our run was the following:

An old man called me frisky.

Then he proceeded to tell me to slow down.

All in all, the work out felt good. I have absolutely no idea how far we traveled, but it was a good time.

Countdown

Today is T-minus 120 Days until our wedding.

That is all.

c25k Week 1, Day 2

Yesterday was a momentous occasion. Here's why:

Usually when I go for a run, I go with Casey. We don't necessarily run together since she has a much faster pace than I do and let's face it, is already a runner. But she holds me accountable and makes me get out the door and do it.

Because of a doctor's appointment she couldn't go running with me yesterday. The old Elise would have just given up, lost motivation, and sat around watching Glee with her Dad. Not the new Elise though. On my way home from work I strategized a path I could run from my house to a park and then back around again. I knew it was about a mile but I wasn't sure if running the streets instead of a park would change my pace at all.

I went out and actually got to the park a lot faster than I thought I would and immediately realized if I left the park immediately I would make it home halfway through my workout instead of at the end. I wound up running little random laps in and out of the park and after the 4th running interval (halfway through) I started my path home.

My workout was done roughly 3 houses down from where I live. So I'd say it was a successful distance/time I made up in my head.

I think next time, now that I know I'm walking/running about 1.5-2miles each time I'll head over to the other park that is further away from home. If worse comes to worse I'll have an extra long cool down and have to walk a few blocks outside the workout.

On the upside I didn't really feel nauseated at all this time around and my knee (which was bothering me a bit after my first run the other day) feels fine!

25:13 total time
The loop from my house to the park that I took was ~1.2 miles
The laps I did within and around the park were probably ~.5 mile
~1.7 miles total

Dance Party Friday: Spin it

Yeah. I went there.

After work Mama and I leave to go see Julianne for the weekend. Dress shopping, and hopefully no cat fights.

Thoughts on Being Thorough

Basically until Jaclyn's Baby Shower on the 26th, I am out of town every single weekend in March. Tomorrow afternoon my mother and I leave for Julibean's in MD. Next weekend is my NH Bridal Shower and the weekend after that Jason and I are in Troy for Pre-Cana, a meeting with the florist, and a details meeting with our Event Coordinator at the Hilton.

Since my manager at work is pretty much the coolest guy ever, he doesn't mind if I work an extra half an hour one day to leave a half an hour early on a Friday to get a head start on traffic. He doesn't even mind if I stay an extra hour four days a week to leave at noon on a Friday afternoon. When I have to be somewhere I usually leave the office between noon and two o'clock and make up the hours throughout the week. I get to where I need to be around the time whoever I'm meeting is out of work or in time for dinner.

It's convenient.

I've also become a champ at packing. I think about where I'm going and what I'll be doing and what I'll want to wear. I put aside things up to three weeks in advance and right now I have two different weekend bags sitting in my room. The one for this weekend is already 80% packed and the one for next weekend is about 50% packed.

I realize that sounds a little crazy and it isn't really a habit I picked up from either of my parents. It's just something I do. Apparently my sister does it too. And Jaclyn is the queen of packing. Sometimes her brother asks her to pack his bag for him since she can make it fit in there like magic.

I appreciate the fact that if someone said,

Holy crap! I read this wrong and we have to be at the airport in 30 minutes! We need to leave now!

I might be nervous, but damnit I'd be packed and ready and get to where I needed to go in time. Unlike some other people I know who pack last minute and wind up forgetting pants. Yes this has happened. Yes I'm looking at you Jason and still laugh over the fact you borrowed a pair of my Dad's pants for Easter Dinner.

I don't think I ever realized it, but I can blow outta town like a BAMF. I can have a bag packed, in the car, and get on the road within twenty minutes if I needed to.

BUT, I don't want to have to do that. I don't like stressing out right before a car ride. I like to be relaxed when I get behind the wheel.

My mission tonight it to finish packing my bag, and then get my mother to pack hers so I can pack the car tomorrow morning before I leave for work. That way the only thing I have to do when I get home is corral her into the car and get on the road.

WW: A Week in Review

So Jason came to stay with me Presidents' Week. It was nice. It gave us a little sneak peek as to what it would be like living together. Sort of at least.

Last Friday night Laura swung down and we hung out with Casey and strategized our plan of attack for everything we needed to get done that weekend. Saturday morning Julianne and Chris showed up and while we got our hair cut Chris dropped the 'rents off at the airport for their annual trip down to Florida.

We had a very productive day. Julianne ordered her bridesmaid dress and wound up finding a very cute dress at David's for her wedding that is currently in contention. We searched and searched for silver shoes for Laura for the wedding but could not find any.

Then when Jason got into town we tried a new restaurant for dinner. Julianne and Chris are still looking for a local place to have their rehearsal dinner. The Chophouse was pretty delicious, not gonna lie. We think it's a place that Chris' parents would like and as long as the dinner is timed correctly they won't have to rent out the entire place.

When we got home we popped open a few bottles of wine and got to work. Laura, tape maven, wielded the new tape gun I bought like a champ and got all of the pockets tacked down on the pocketfolds. If anyone is interested, the tape gun is Laura's new best friend. When we did her pocketfolds we literally had to hand cut and tape each one individually. Tedious is a good word for that one.

Julianne folded all of the belly bands and I spent some time gluing down the layers to the monogram piece for the belly bands. Then we got incredibly distracted and wound up watching multiple episodes of Jersey Shore. I'm not proud.

Sunday we all woke up and munched on some delicious banana bread compliments of Queen Bang herself, Julibean. Laura had to leave us because her slave-driver of a company doesn't give her off for President's Day and she has appointments with Jim back at home to look at houses. (Scary that friends are popping out babies and doing things like house hunting!) We glued down all of the belly bands and glued on all of the seals as we watched episodes of Sherlock. BTW if you for some reason get the BBC watch it! It is utterly fabulous on so many different levels. We all LOVE this show now.

Anyway...Then the real fun began.

We took a trip to Mens Wearhouse to register for tuxedos for the groomsmen and Jason. We're flipping through the book together while they're fitting a group ahead of us and Jason drops a bombshell.

He points to the following photo and says,

I was thinking something like this!

For a moment I think he's joking. I look at my sister standing next to me, then back at Jason pointing to the man in the white tuxedo, then back at my sister standing next to me, then back at Jason pointing to the man in the white tuxedo.

It's then that I realize he isn't joking and did in fact truly want to wear a white tuxedo to our wedding.

Now let me add that Jason had mentioned wanted to wear white before. It was always after me explaining that the groomsmen would all be in silver vests but would be wearing different blue ties that match their respective bridesmaid. So I guess since his comment always came after talking about vests and ties that I assumed he meant he wanted to wear a white vest and tie, which was my intent all along.

Jason is a man of few words. I know this. I love him even though he doesn't always communicate the way I'd prefer him to. I'm over it though. Obviously I'm the vociferous one of the pair. We're both pretty comfortable with this most the time. However, when he doesn't communicate properly something like wanting to wear a white tuxedo to our wedding I get a little flabbergasted.

We sat down with the guy, I really can't remember his name but he was fantastic. Really funny and personable, kind of sarcastic in our dry way. Thought us nonchalantly going back and forth about the white tux was really funny. We wound up registering Jason for the same tuxedo as the groomsmen but with the white vest and tie instead of the silver but we have up until two weeks before the wedding to change it if we want.

I am definitely against the white tuxedo. So is my sister, so is my mother, so is my grandma-like friend Marlene over at Priscilla of Boston who we called to find out what color (white or ivory) I ordered my dress in because I'm a very forgetful bride and can't remember.

The only concession I'm willing to make here is a white dinner jacket a la Indiana Jones & the Temple of Doom. I'd be all over that. It's sexy, it's eye catching, and it's a compromise that I don't think would look horrible in wedding photos.

My only rule is that whatever color the white dinner jacket is, we have to make sure it matches (close enough) to my dress. I won't be able to get a swatch of my wedding dress until it comes in in April, but we'll see what happens or if Jason winds up in a plain tux.

After tuxedos we went to CozyMel's for lunch (delicious!) which is my new favorite Mexican Restaurant close to home. And then said goodbye to Chris and Julianne so they could head home.

During the week Jason and I printed, punched and stuck all the monograms onto the belly bands. They are now completely done. I'm still conversing with my mother over invitation layouts but I'm hoping to have them printed and cut down by the end of next week. Invitations are almost done! Huzzah!


(Photos borrowed from Mens Wearhouse & The Gentleman.)

Aaaaand We're Back

I know I've said it before, but looking at my calendar and seeing all the crazy numbers this month:

• March 11th is our 5 year anniversary
• March 12th is my first of two bridal showers
• March 20th we have our details meeting
• March 25th is 100 days till the wedding!!!

It's really time to get this show on the road. I am recommitting to the Couch to 5k Challenge and tonight I went on my first run in oh idk, three months?

Basically I found a great new playlist of mp3 podcast whatever you want to call them for the entire work out. I had been listening to a track my friend Kari had put together and she only ever made a mix for the first two weeks. Basically I'm gonna Go Nicole Myself on this one.

The mixes are great and I really like how she used a slower song and a faster song because it gives me a good beat to run to and a decent beat to walk to. Granted I'm still working on my stride so it's a little pathetic to see me at the end of the intervals because I'm starting to drag my feet a little on the run portion, but it can only get better from here.

Week 1: Day 1
Casey is now my butt kicker. I may or may not have mentioned before but sometimes I dream about running. I think it means I'm supposed to be a runner. Getting there however is a bit harder than it should be, so I have enlisted Casey to kick my butt and make me go running with her at least 3 times a week. The girl runs at least 6 times a week so it's not like I'm really making her go out of her way. Add onto that she is working on schoooling for physiology and exercise science and "training" someone is good experience for her.

Let's not forget that this Saturday marks 120 days to the wedding. Yesh! Time to get my jiggly but into gear!

Casey and I went over to a little park in Valley Stream and she basically ran off within about 30 seconds of my warm up walk. It's okay, she offered to totally kick my butt and murder me by making me run with her until I wanted to keel over and die and then get up and do some more. (Not really like that, but she's working on a program with her brother that had him running full miles in two weeks (not too shabby)!) But this was something I wanted to be able to do on my own if Casey wasn't around or available and while I love her encouragement and ass-kickedness it's really something I need to learn how to do on my own. I promised her when I got up to actually running a mile or so then I'd let her kick my butt once a week and we'd do whatever interval, speed, distance, etc. run she wanted.

Onto the recap:
The park is cute. Not huge. I like it. There's a lot of runners, a bunch of walkers, and some peeps playing b-ball. There's even a Public Safety patrol that must have lapped me about two times driving around. All that makes me feel pretty safe.

I ran/walked a little over a mile in about 23 minutes. That includes a 5 minute warm up and a 3 minute cool down. So not awful. Especially since the last time I ran a full mile and had it timed way back in high school I could only do it in 11 minutes. Yeah, I know, I'm awesome.

What was great about this run was I never really felt like I was torturing myself. Sure, I am horribly out of shape and I felt nauseated on the last leg of the run, but I pushed through and felt fine within about 10 minutes after I completed the work out. Other than the slight nauseated feelings during the running intervals toward the end I felt great. I didn't feel like I was dying, which I usually do when running. I didn't feel dehydrated or sore.

This morning I woke up and had a little soreness to my knee, but I think it was just a bit of a hyperextension if anything. I plan on doing a low impact work out tonight, something upper body probably so I don't stress it out any more.

Next run is planned for Thursday. And then I'm hoping I can squeeze one in on Saturday morning in Julianne's complex before we have breakfast and go dress shopping. I've got this people, this time I'm serious.

March = m'bitch