3 Months and Counting

Saturday, September 30: 3 months to the wedding.
Sunday, October 1: 90 days to the wedding.
Saturday, October 7: 12 weeks to the wedding.

Another month has flown by in wedding preparations. At this point, I think I've got all the major pieces covered and have shifted to working on more of the details. In the past month:

• Food. Confirmed that two of my clogging friends are willing to coordinate food. They are in the midst of preparing to serve 2,000 for lunch on Saturday, so we'll talk details after they recover from that. But I figure if they can handle 2,000 for lunch, surely they can handle a light reception for 200.
• Cake. I met with the cake decorator last week to discuss details of what we want and settle on price. I know her through BRBC and she was recommended to me by others who have had her do their wedding cakes. (Unrelated, her daughter, AG, started working for me in the library in August.)
• Photographer. Have a photographer that I know through BRBC agree to do our wedding. He traveling to a wedding the second weekend of October, so we'll talk more details after that.
• Videographer. I believe Jesse is confirming our videographer this week--another friend through BRBC who has done other weddings.
• Flowers. I met with the florist over the weekend to talk about some details. Expect to meet with her again in the next week or so to decide on more details.
• Sign Interpreter. Jesse has confirmed a sign interpreter for the wedding. His sister isn't sure she wants to have an interpreter, but I'd rather have one available and leave that decision to the last moment.
• Hair stylist. It looks like a former PHC student will be doing the hair styling for myself and my sisters (bridesmaids) for the wedding.
• Guest List/Invitations. Over the last week or so, I finally (with much help from Jesse) got all of my guest list names compiled in one place. Last night, I ordered the invitations. At the moment, the number of invited guests on the list is just under 440. Hopefully, I haven't missed too many people. Since the church doesn't actually seat 400 and their reception hall doesn't either, we are counting on a number of people not being able to make it due to distance or timing. But I expect we'll be able to handle everyone that does come!

Nothing definite has been settled for plans beyond the wedding. We continue to discuss various ideas for the honeymoon. I think we have narrowed our decision down, but nothing completely settled. Housing is also something we continue to investigate. We looked at one basement apartement just over a week ago. There's a possibility that we'll be looking at a couple of apartments or townhouses in the next week or so.

We had our third pre-marital counseling meeting last night. I still find it a bit uncomfortable when I have to admit that I didn't learn anything about myself or Jesse in going through the prep materials for the session. The session was focused on the fact that marriage involves leaving your parents/family and accepting your mate as from God. Well, we are both living independently already, so not a lot of "leaving" issues to address. We've both been raised in Christian homes that believed and taught us of the permanence of marriage, so no revelations in the committing to your mate part either. Next week should be a big one--looking at individual expectations going into the marraige. Expectations like roles in the marriage (from who cleans the bathroom to who keeps the finances), standard of living (where, how quickly, what type of furnishings), and a bunch more. As soon as I find the time to go through it for myself, I'll be looking forward to discussing it!