Another Nightmaaaaaaare!

It's been a while, but I guess I was due for another anxiety-inducing wedding nightmare at some point. This weekend Matt and I spent a fair amount of time weeding through our wedding registries online, getting rid of things that were marked as "soon-to-be-discontinued" and replacing them with other items, as well as adding a few things we had yet to add to our registries. It was a lot of fun, but it put the wedding back in the forefront of my mind.

So in this bizarre dream, it was our wedding day and not only was it pouring out, but the ceremony was at this weird place that wasn't our church. The ceremony went fine and we were kind of rushed out because another wedding was coming in (kind of like a drive-through chapel or something!) So for some reason I need to climb this very steep hill on my hands and knees in my gown with my bouquet in order to get to the parking lot around the back of this weird building. On my way up (soaking wet and filthy), I realize that we took a limo to the church and I get angry because we paid for a trolley. At the top, it was suddenly nighttime and most of our guests had dispersed, but there was a really random assortment of people hanging around. My dad was there and I kept asking him where everyone was and he wasn't sure. I tried calling my mom and Matt and my bridesmaids over and over and no one was answering my calls so I naturally got really upset and started crying. Then my dad announced that it was 9:00pm and we should get going and I was freaking out. "We didn't take pictures! Where is everyone?? Why is it pouring out?? I'm soaking wet! I'm a mess! Did everyone go to the reception and forget about me?? Where's my trolley?? Where are my friends? Where's my GROOM??" and all the while I'm crying and crying... and then suddenly I woke up and realized it was a dream and said, "Oh thank you God, it wasn't real...."

Yeahhh.....Where does this anxiety even come from?? I'm not stressed about the wedding at all! It'll turn out great and I've been saying that since the beginning. Maybe I'm not stressing out enough for my subconscious? It would be great if these dreams would just stop... Kind of hate them.

So in other news, I went out with my mom and Sara Kopp the other night to the Christmas Tree Shop and we purchased some cute blue votives to go on the tables with the short centerpieces. I'll admit that I kind of don't care too much about design details so I told them whatever they thought looked good was fine with me. I do like the votives, though. I really want a lot of candles to create a soft, romantic feel in the room. It's all about romance, people!

I bought some wedding shoes online the other day because I've been scoping them out for months, and they were really disappointing in person. I mean, they were still really pretty, but I had them on for 3 minutes and my feet already hurt. Sorry, but I'm all about comfort. I sent them back the next day and I'll be going out on a shoe mission with Sonja someday soon to find an inexpensive, comfortable pair of wedding shoes. Can it be done?? The way I shop on the cheap, I think so. It can be done!

And finally, this weekend Matt and I checked out a house that we absolutely fell in love with and we'll be putting an offer on it tonight. It's the second house we've put an offer on (the first one didn't work out because the seller was beyond picky and claimed our offer was too low-- mmkay, not thanks) and we're crossing our fingers, toes, eyes.. everything. The house is beautiful and spacious and it's something we could see ourselves growing into over time. Anyway, we're praying and wishing and hoping a whoooole lot.

It's spring!

I can't begin to explain how happy I am that the weather is finally nice. Winter was long and cold and dark, but now we have lots of sunshine and blue skies, and I've been able to leave the house in flip flops and short sleeves. Heaven! I know it won't stay like this since it's pretty unseasonably warm for March, but whatever. It's a nice sneak peek at the coming months and it's a great reminder that winter does not last forever, even though it feels like it sometimes.

Yesterday Matt, Lisa and I went up to New Hampshire for Jonathan's going away/graduation party. What a great day we had. It was 70 degrees and sunny and there was lots of good company and delicious food. Every time we spend time with the family, I realize how lucky I am to be marrying into such a fun and wonderful family. They really are a great group of people and I know I'm lucky because plenty of people don't have such great in-laws! When we're finally married, Matt and I are going to have the best family ever.

Guess who's 24

On Wednesday I celebrated my last birthday as Kristin Costa. When I turn 25 next year, I'll be Kristin Offiler. So weird! Being 24 is weird, too. I swear, yesterday morning I noticed 3 gray hairs on the top of my head where there had only been 1 the day before. The aging process is beginning! No!

It seems like every year on March 10, the weather is beautiful. I can't remember a birthday in recent years that hasn't been spring-like and unseasonably warm. It's pretty fabulous, if you ask me. I took myself to Target and the beach to celebrate getting old, and it was so nice out I just wanted to eat the day whole.

There's not much wedding stuff going on at the moment... Our flowers are all set (big relief), we're meeting the videographer on Sunday to discuss our vision of the wedding, and we're still house hunting. This is definitely that interesting limbo-type place where lots of things are about to change, but not just yet. 148 days til the wedding. Hopefully we'll have a home by then!!

FIVE MONTHS!!

I nearly forgot that today was the 7th! I can't believe that this is the 5 month mark until the wedding. How exciting! The weather has been really nice for the past few days, so it definitely is starting to feel like spring is in the air. Once spring rolls around, summer isn't too far behind. I could count by seasons, but I think months makes it feel a little more official.

So 5 months... I should really check into those annoying to-do lists on every bridal website and in every magazine to make sure we have everything done that we should have done up to this point. I think we're going to order the favors relatively soon and start putting those together so it's out of the way. We've been kind of distracted with house hunting lately (the process is exhausting!) so there may be little wedding things we should be getting done soon. Not sure. It's funny-- I've been really stressed out this past week, but it's entirely related to my 2nd submission for school and  the articles I've been writing for the paper. It's all around just a lot of work (work that I LOVE, don't get me wrong) and I've been feeling spread thin, as they say. I guess at some point the wedding will cause stress, but I hope it doesn't. I've enjoyed going with the flow and I think if I can just keep my head on straight, I'll be ok. As for now, 5 months out, I am still rating low on the wedding-stress-o-meter. Not sure about Matt, but I think he's hanging in there, too. Our main stressor is probably money, but we're doing fine so far and if we just keep on keeping on, we'll be good.

A little fun tid-bit to share with whoever reads this thing: Matt is officially a freelance photographer for Southern RI newspapers now! I took him with me to a political story I had to do last week and he snapped some photos and our article/photo combo will run (or already has run... have to check on that!) in the EG Pendulum. I'm so excited for him-- he loves photography and doesn't have tons of free time to get out and take pictures with his work schedule the way it is, so hopefully this will be an outlet for his creative energy (plus, it's a little extra income and some portfolio-building, too).

I think I'm going to take a break from the massive amounts of writing I've been doing today and go for a drive. The sun is out, the sky is blue, and it's almost 60 degrees-- I wait all winter for days like this!!

Quick word of advice

I have a tip for anyone who may be attending a bridal expo in the future (I may have already mentioned this, but it's still an issue and it's driving me nuts!)

When you go to an expo and fill out your information for EVERY contest you see, do yourself a favor and give them an email address that you made specifically for the expo. Otherwise, you will be inundated with junk mail for the rest of your life. Like, longer than you'll be married. 90 years from now they'll STILL be sending you crap that you don't need or want.

Consider yourself warned...

Tick tock...

I can't believe it's March already. I'm beyond excited that we're almost out of the woods with winter! I'm totally and completely over the snow and the cold and the constant gray days. Today, for the first time in about 9 days, the sun actually came out. It looks like it's clouding over a little bit right now, but just seeing the sun for a little while reminded me that winter is almost over! It's March! We can do this!

My 24th birthday is next Wednesday, which is strange. I don't really feel 24, not that I would know what 24 should feel like. It's definitely a grown-up number, I'll tell you that much. This will be a great year-- I'll marry Matt, get my Masters degree, (hopefully) buy our first home, and (also hopefully) land an awesome job thanks to my degree. That's the plan, man. 24 will bring lots of great changes.

At the moment there isn't much to update about the wedding plans. Things are still chugging along like always, the florist issue is pretty much settled, and we're starting to think about all those little details that don't become important until just about this time in the planning process. School is kind of kicking my butt lately (or, more accurately, I'm kicking my own butt) but it's great. I've also been hitting the gym about 5 days a week to get myself in shape. When I get out of the habit of working out, I forget how good it feels to exercise. It helps with everything-- energy levels, rusty joints, sore muscles. Plus I always feel so positive after a work out that it can't hurt to keep busting stress that way as we get closer to the wedding!

I'm off to do some writing and maybe a little browsing of theknot.com ;)