Four Months and Counting...

According to my mother's monthly text message, we're just four months away from tying the knot. That's right, folks. Four months from today, we'll be bustin' a move on the dance floor of the Three Village Inn. What song will it be? The electric slide? The chicken dance? YMCA? The Grease montage? Oh, please let it be the Grease montage. Please. Please. Please.

In actual fact, we don't have the music situation squared away yet so it might just be rounds of row row row your boat. Maybe I can dig up some old mixed tapes.

So where are we at within the wedding count down list?

Side note, there are approximately thirty bridal related magazines at the bodega at the 34th Street Path station. There were even several on getting engaged. I don't really understand what is in that magazine. I don't think I want to know. Anyway, according to various wedding expert sources, we should:

1) Book the rehearsal dinner and day after brunch venues. We're working on that one. We know where the post-wedding brunch will be. My childhood abode. Thanks mom and dad. The rehearsal dinner is another story. We have one place in mind because of its proximity to the wedding venue and affordability. However, at the end of the day, since we are paying for most of this ourselves, it is still just another expense. Then there is the question of the guest list. Do we invite all out of town guests? How can we possibly afford that? Do we just invite those actually in the wedding and close family and let all of those who traveled far to be with us fend for themselves?

2) Check on the wedding invitations. "Umm....hi, costco....umm...are they ready?"

3) Select and order the cake. Attend several tastings. Cake. Yummy. Well, it is included at the Inn. Too bad. We like to taste.

4) Purchase shoes and start dress fittings. Well, my first fitting is not until August. I'm thinking gold. I like the Manolos below, but I'm not Carrie Bradshaw so if anyone sees some knock offs, let me know!

5) Schedule hair and makeup artists. Luckily, one of my best women volunteered.

6) Choose songs. Grease montage!

7) Plan welcome baskets for guests, if desired. What says Long Island? How does one get a thick accent into a welcome basket? Seriously, they are desired. We have some ideas.

In any event, it is nice to see that without having looked at the "lists" in a while, that we are looking pretty good.

Grease is the word!

You oughta be in pictures

So today begins our meetings with photographers. It is a duty to which I have not necessarily been looking forward. I know how much these things can cost and I also know how we have the negative of that cost. I think too that this is the first thing that we have to seriously consider that feels like it falls into the typical wedding category. I ranted against being typical when it came to our wedding and so far, though, I think we are both happy with our choices and we are by no means going over the top, we have succumbed to some aspects of it. (I am wearing a white-ish dress!) While part of me wants to just let people go to town taking pictures and hope that we can group together some coherent album of the event, the other part of me knows how disappointing those pictures can be when you actually look at them the next day. We are going to want to have a few quality photos later on and we are going to want to have someone do that for us.

That having been said, I have found some reasonable "packages" on-line and so now the quest begins. At the beginning of the week, I had planned it to be a whole intensive weekend of meetings both in Long Island and in NYC. Since I know myself pretty well at the age of 33, I recognize that I have this medium-level compulsive behavior when it comes to any sort of personal planning. Yet, I think I act this way for a reason. I understand how busy both Arthur and I tend to be and I want to make sure that we get as much in as possible. Plus, I don't want to have to schlep back and forth to Long Island fifty million times if it can be avoided. However, after realizing that we do have some time, that I had a very full day on Saturday, that Arthur had a weekend project to take care of and after two nights of work related drinking, we decided to just do the city meetings today and to postpone the island ones for a weekend when we aren't so crazy. That was quite the relief and, knowing we didn't have to catch the LIRR in the morning, led to heavier drinking than was anticipated on Saturday night.

In any event, today we meet with:

Shira and Hannah from Bella Pictures.

I expect that these will be two totally different meetings. Shira is an independent photographer working only for herself. I found her at Indiebridie.com. Hannah is a consultant from Bella pictures who will create a package for us and match us up with a photographer based on our needs and personalities. If that's the case, she or he will do it for free, will know instinctively who to target in the photographs and won't take any pictures like this:

First comes love...Then comes...

What comes in between love and marriage?

People keep asking me what is new in my wedding world. I don't have much to tell them. I haven't had anything to say since I bought my dress in early December. And even though it is lovely and perfect, I'm not one to go on and on about it. Did I mention that it is lovely and perfect?

It makes me feel a little guilty - like I should be doing something, like I should have something more to tell them. What should be new? I suppose that my musings on The Bachelor are not enough to warrant more than an uncomfortable smile from anyone I try to divert. The bridal checklists say things like "10 - 8 months before: browse this, shop around for that, keep a record of this..." "6 months before: make this, buy that, pay for this..."



These checklists are, in fact, helpful, but at the end of the day, I know that we need to a) find someone to take a few photos that look good and that don't cost us any first borns or the like b) buy some pretty paper letting everyone know where and when to be and c) find someway to get good, danceable music playing on October 3rd. Of course, there is still d, e, f, g, h, i, j, k, l, m, n, o, p, q, r, s, t, u, v, x, y, z, aa, bb, cc...x^2, x^3-1, A=1/2bh, etc., but I have chosen to narrow our immediate wedding concerns down to a, b, and c so that I can be calm, cool and collected before we get to all the factorization and geometry.