Somehow, I thought being an industry professional would give me immunity from the chaos that often precedes a wedding. Boy was I wrong! (Although I prefer to call it being optimistic). :-) (see that look on Steve Martin's face ... it's the same overwhelmed look that's on MY face right now!)
This summer has yielded brides who have this glazed over, deer in the headlights look. And I've been taking notes. What have they left to the last second? What are they hurrying around doing the DAY OF THEIR WEDDING that could/should have been done before?
I have been receiving a TON of e-mails, calls and messages about what people can do to help. Y'all are SO SWEET and Erik and I are SO grateful for this outpouring of love and support! Keep being awesome (and AVOID saying things like "oh, chill out or we'll start calling you Grandma Alice").
For those of you who will be here, I'm happy to have hands available on Saturday. We're pretty good leading up to then. :-)
Let's start with the positives. Here's what I think we've done smartly:
+ Picked an awesome spouse-to-be! :-) Erik and I have spent a LOT of time focusing on the days, weeks, months and years to follow the wedding. So, yes, we're excited for the wedding, but more excited about the new beginning the wedding marks (if that makes sense).
+ Have awesome families who love us and are *excited* about the big day!
+ Made our dress/tux selections WAY ahead of time, so we're not worrying about "will they come in on time?"
+ Have all of our fun little details (kickin' socks, shoes, hair accessories) all purchased and in their box, ready to go!
+ Made all of our reading selections for the wedding in December, so we don't have to make many decisions about the ceremony ... they're already made!
+ Picked out our first dance song MONTHS ago ... and the DJ has our selection so we don't have to rush to give him a CD of our song on Saturday (yes, I've seen brides do this as they pull into the reception).
+ Gone with a reception site that does ALL of the decorating for us! While I love, love, love my sister, she and her friends spent several hours the day before decorating the church hall. I seriously have NO mental energy for that this week and am SO glad I don't have decorations and centerpieces flowing out from my bedroom! I seriously *heart* Kathy at the Petroleum Club for doing not only the decorations, but handling all of the correspondence with the cake people and DJ.
+ Take off the week before to be around Wichita and handle details. Some of our brides work up until the Thursday before ... and I TOTALLY tip my hat to them! I'm not sure I could do that!
+ Enlisted the help of awesome, awesome friends! I am SO THANKFUL my childhood friend Courtney will be my bridal attendant/wedding coordinator on Saturday! I used to think the job of "bride's personal attendant" was just some lame title you gave someone who wasn't a bridesmaid, but you wanted to do something. Um...WRONG! Courtney is doing everything from picking up our flowers to taking stuff from the church to the reception to checking into the B&B for us! Basically, I'm telling everyone to go through Courtney on Saturday if they need something/have a question. It's super-awesome because Courtney knows a lot of my family, totally wants to help and since she's doing this, it takes these items off my plate, as well as my mom's so we can really enjoy the day!
Areas where we should have been more on the ball:
- Ceremony music selection! Since E and I don't live in Wichita, it was sort of hard to coordinate schedules with the organist. All is well, we have an uber talented organist and vocalist ... but I didn't want "a bunch of music everyone else uses in weddings." SO that meant a rarely song used for the presentation of flowers to Mary. No biggie, except it had to be ordered from Austria. Again, no biggie, except I ordered it and it was shipped 3+ weeks ago and it is STILL not in my hands. :-( Thankfully my organist rocks, so we can really wait until last minute to decide on what we'll use.
- I, Karen, totally dropped the ball when it came to engagement pics! Due to my schedule, we had to push them back into July, which was far from ideal. This pushed our engagement guest album WAY back ... and when it had to be re-done ... FROM ITALY ... siiiiiiiiiigh. I totally dropped the ball on this one, but I learned a BIG lesson about how much time it takes one of these to be produced. Anyhow, it's *supposed* to arrive today, and thankfully I only have lunch with a girlfriend, so I'll be here most of the day to sit and stare at the front door. (EDIT: It was *supposed to be delivered to Wichita, but it looks like it's going to Salina. Now I'm going to have stomach acid all day being worried about if Erik is awake to sign for the package, or if he'll already be at work when it's delivered!) On the up side of things, I now have an awesome am on a first name basis with my rep (as in I don't even have to say my last name and she knows who it is .... not sure if that's a good thing or not!) ;-) BUT thankfully Erik has awesome neighbors ... and one of them has signed for the package before. So I'm hoping and praying if Erik isn't home, that they are home to sign for it!!!!
- Ceremony programs. This one is really a wash. It could go easily on the plus or minus list. I've been working on our program for about a month now, getting names and all information inputted. I was trying to wait on the Flowers to Mary music, before we printed it, but just gave up. I am having it printed and you will notice no music is listed for that part of the Mass. That's because we'll be deciding on Friday! Anyhow, it is a plus because it's out of my hands and at Kinkos now. And I absolutely REFUSE to do the folding and stapling. Yeah, I'm paying them a little extra to do it, but it is saving me time! I've seen brides doing this the night of, so I'm glad this isn't the case, but it would have been more ideal to get this done earlier.
- Sleep. UUUUUGH! I am SO trying to sleep this week ... but it's difficult to fall asleep and I'm waking up early. I have brides who haven't slept much the week of the wedding and I think being fully rested is VITAL. I'm TRYING to sleep! I really am! I think I'm going to have to make friends with Tylenol PM tonight .... because I have GOT to get some restful sleep!
- RSVPs. We set our date weeks ago, but we are STILL getting calls! OMG people! We're a few days out ... and now like 10-15 extra people want to come. I hope we don't run out of food/cake!
My married friends have been sharing LOTS of advice! Thanks, guys! Yes, I'm having a relaxing girls day on Thursday! Mom, Robin and I are having massages, then nails done. I'm SO looking forward to it all!
Also, we're having ice cream night Thursday at the Cold Stone Creamery on N. Rock Road. They're giving away free ice cream to benefit some non-profit organization. We'll be there about 5 p.m. ... so come between 5 and 6 and you'll probably catch us. Seriously, come one, come all!
After that, we're having a girls movie night to go see Mama Mia! So if you're a girl and wanna come with us, hollar at me!
And what the heck do wedding movie posters have to do with this post? Not too much, but I don't like long, long posts w/o pictures ... and I'm NOT sharing photos of me right now. ;-) So these will have to do!
