Bachelorette Party!

This weekend I traveled to Charleston for my bachelorette party! It was short, but sweet, and I had an amazing time with three of my favorite people!

Friday night, I got a late start home from work, so I didn't get home until 5:45. I ate a quick dinner, packed up the car, and rushed out the door at 6:15 to go pick up Pearl. We left her house around 7 pm. Google maps told us it would be a 5.5 hour drive, but we didn't make any stops, and we ended up getting into Charleston around midnight (half an hour earlier than expected). Amy and Michelle were already there, they had gotten in a little before us after driving for most of the day. We pretty much just went to bed, haha, we were all exhausted from traveling!

Saturday we got up around 9:30 and headed out to explore Charleston. My sister made me wear a sash that said "Bachelorette" and a pin that said "Bride-to-be", and she and the bridesmaids wore nametags that said "Bachelorette". Since Cara and Ilana couldn't come, my sister had brought little stuffed animals (a dog for Cara and a monkey for Ilana) to represent them! She made nametags for them, and they came everywhere with us that day, riding in people's purses :-D

We went to a local diner for brunch, then walked around for a while, stopped in a tourist shop to pick up a free map, and explored the market, which was really cool! They had all kinds of homemade crafts as well as some more touristy stuff (tshirts, etc.). We all got magnets that say "Who Let the Girls Out? Charleston, SC", and I got some little gifts for a few people (a bar of soap with a toy car in it for the little boy I babysit for, a bracelet for Ilana, and a Yankees picture for my dad). There was a really nice older man who was selling sports pictures (where I got the one for my dad), and he told us stories about when he was a kid growing up in Charleston, and how they used to go into the back room of the church (because it had stone floors so it was nice and cool in the summers) and listen to baseball games on the radio. He had some great stories!

On our way back to the hotel, we stopped at the general store and got some freshly made ice cream - it was SO GOOD! Then we hung out in the hotel for a few hours, played board games and relaxed, until it was time to head out to dinner. We went to a really good seafood restaurant called Coast, where we had a delicious dinner, and then stopped at a candy store on the way back to the hotel so Pearl could get some gummy bears. We played one more game, and then went to bed early.

On Sunday (yesterday), Amy and Michelle got up and left really early. Pearl and I slept a little later, but got on the road around 10 am.

It was a great weekend!

This week we need to get our table arrangements figured out so my mom can get final numbers to the florist. I also need to finish up the bridal party gifts, and next weekend we are going to Florida because Marcus's mom insisted that we come down to have an auf ruf (Jewish thing - basically you attend Saturday morning services a week or two before your wedding, and the rabbi says a special blessing over you and then people throw candy at you, haha). Things are getting crazy! It is SO CLOSE!

Here are some pictures from the bachelorette party:

April Showers bring May Flowers, but February Showers bring Weddings!

This weekend, Marcus and I traveled up to Maryland for my shower (which of course also included a busy weekend of wedding planning). We flew up Friday night, got in late, but still had time to discuss plans for the weekend before going to bed. Two of my awesome cousins from Israel happened to be in the States this week, so they ended up coming to my shower! It was great to get to see them.

Saturday, we slept in, then I went and got my hair trimmed for the last time before the wedding. Then we went over to the Bolger Center to choose where exactly on the grounds our ceremony will be. We found a really pretty spot, convenient to the parking lot and the building where the reception will be, so that went really well! I also got to check the mail - so at least we got one day's worth of excitement over receiving RSVPs! After that, we headed to my cousin's pom competition (she's a senior in high school, and is her pom squad's captain this year!). That was fun, although they didn't win. Then we went to Mama Lucia (an Italian restaurant) for dinner, where we ran into our florist randomly! When we got home, the adults went to bed, and Marcus and I stayed up talking to my cousin Noa until after midnight.

Sunday, we slept in again, then headed over to my aunt's house for my shower. I was a little nervous about the shower, since my aunts are crazy and you never know what will happen when they plan something, lol, but it turned out to be really fun, and it was GREAT to see everybody! We played lots of fun games, ate yummy food, and I got a bunch more awesome gifts. Overall, a great success! Meanwhile, my dad took "the guys" (Marcus, my sister's boyfriend, some family friends, and my cousin) bowling...I was SO jealous! After the shower, my sister and her boyfriend and my Israeli cousins all got on the bus to head back to New York. That evening, my mom and I spent a lot of time going through pictures to find a couple I was looking for for various wedding-related projects (one to go on the guest book table, and two for various parts of my sister's present). We also went out to dinner, even though we were still full from the shower, lol. Then we came home, watched a couple of home videos, and went to bed.

Monday morning, we got up a little earlier and headed to the florist. My parents had changed our centerpieces, so we wanted to see the new ones, and we ended up making a couple of changes ourselves. But I think everything is finalized now with the flowers, so that's good! Then we went home, ate lunch, and played cards until it was time to head to the airport. I also spent some time looking online for a barrette to use in my hair for the wedding.

It was a busy weekend, but a lot of fun, and things are getting much more finalized now! I can't believe there's only 6 weeks left until the wedding, it seems like we still have SO much to do!

Some BIG Checks (finally)!

The ongoing Invitations Saga is finally over! This morning, I took the invitations to the post office and dropped them off to be hand-canceled and mailed. I am SO relieved to finally have them out. Now we wait for responses. I'm jealous of all the people on The Knot whose RSVPs are coming to them - my mom INSISTED that our RSVPs go to her, so instead of getting to check the mail excitedly every day, I just have to wait impatiently for my mom to email me updated lists of who has responded. I also have mixed feelings about the RSVPs...while I am very excited to be done with the invitations, and excited to get responses and finalize the fact that people will actually show up (lol), part of me is worried, because I know that some people won't be able to come, and I will inevitably be disappointed by some of the "no"s. At this point, it's still POSSIBLE that each individual person we sent invitations to could say "yes"...but once they RSVP "no", that's it. I'm weird, lol.

Another big check - last weekend we took our ketubah to Michael's to figure out framing. We weren't sure how we were going to do it, because we want to display the ketubah during the reception (so we wanted it to be in a frame for that), but we need to have it out of the frame to sign it at the ceremony. Well, the lady at Michael's was VERY helpful, apparently they do lots of ketubahs, and she suggested that we go ahead and get it framed, and just leave the glass out of the frame so we can sign it IN the frame, and then after the wedding we can get the glass put in. Brilliant! So that's what we decided to do. While at Michael's, we also purchased a couple of 8x10 frames for our baby photos that will be displayed on the guest book table at the reception.

Since the last time I posted, several things I talked about have been completed also! We got the marriage license, no problem, so that's ready to go. I also attended all FOUR of my dress fittings, so now my dress actually fits me, and is nice and crisp and clean (she cleaned it for me as well). It is back in my possession now, hanging in my closet until the wedding.

We also finished compiling a CD of classical music to be played while our guests are arriving to the ceremony location. We will have live musicians for the ceremony itself, but since we wanted a mix of classical and Jewish music, we decided to hire musicians to play the Jewish music (they are Klezmer musicians actually) and make a CD of classical music to be played before the ceremony begins.

A week from tomorrow night, we will be flying up to Maryland again - this time for my bridal shower. I'm excited to see everyone who will be there! And of course, my mom has our whole weekend fully booked with other wedding-related stuff, too. I'll be getting my hair cut for the final time before the wedding, we'll be going to the florist to finalize some stuff, and we'll also be going to the venue to decide on the exact spot where we want to have the ceremony (the grounds are HUGE, and they say that you can do it anywhere on the grounds). I'll definitely be posting again when we get back from that trip, to write about the shower and also other stuff we get done between now and then!

Little Things

Our planning has kind of stagnated recently, and now that we're officially in 2011, I'm really feeling the pressure to get stuff done! We have gotten a few things done though...

1. Favors and cake topper - we ordered these a few weeks ago, and they have both arrived to my parents' house! My mom says the favors came out GREAT!

2. Dress fitting - I went to my first dress fitting on Saturday. On recommendations from people on The Knot, I went to Dora Baker, who runs a bridal dress alterations business out of her home here in Atlanta. She was very nice and helpful. She has to let my dress out a bit at the waist so that it will fall correctly before she can see what else needs to be done. I go back on January 20th to get the rest done (hem and bustle), and my dress should be ready for pickup on January 27th!

3. Bridesmaids dresses - ALL of my bridesmaids have finally ordered their dresses! This is a huge sigh of relief for me, since I had been really stressing about it. But it looks like they will all come in with a couple of weeks to spare before the wedding :)

4. Photo montage - Marcus and I went through a whole bunch of photos and finally narrowed down to 100 the ones we want in our photo montage (which will be shown at the rehearsal dinner). We will be mailing them to the videographer this week!

5. Maid of honor gift - I had already bought gifts for my bridesmaids a while back, but I FINALLY came up with a good idea for my maid of honor. I purchased her gift last week, and it should arrive sometime this week.

6. Invitations - this is an ongoing saga :-P My mom keeps changing her mind about things, and I was ready to kill her at one point last week. But we are OH SO CLOSE to finally being done with the invitations! We just have to send all of our spreadsheets to Marcus's dad (once they are completely finalized) and then they will begin printing! I really hope we get them out by the end of the month...

7. Marriage license - Montgomery County, Maryland (where we'll be getting married) is AWESOME, because their marriage license process is SO simple! We had to call their office to request a "non-resident marriage license application", which they promptly mailed to us. We have filled it out, and just need to sign it in front of a notary public. We were going to do that today, but everything is closed due to the snow, so we'll try again tomorrow. Once we sign it, we just have to mail it back along with the $55 fee, and we'll be all set!

So my to-do list is slowly but surely shrinking. Once we're done with the invitations, I'll feel a lot better. I think that's really the last BIG thing. After that, it's all details.