In love with cornflower

What a day...

I met up with my darling sister-in-law-to-be this morning and we took a drive up to Party Dress Express in Fall River to pick up her bridesmaid dress. While we were there, we got to see all of the dresses (minus Sam & Sara's, which were already picked up) and let me tell you-- I LOVE CORNFLOWER. Talk about gorgeous. These dresses looked so pretty-- the shade is just right. It's light and summery, but it isn't too casual. And the best part is that all of the dresses carry the same shade of blue, even though they're different materials. The girl working at the store told me that she never sees batches of dresses come through like this where the materials are different but the shades of color match perfectly. Awesome! Lisa tried her dress on and I was instantly in love with it. It looks amazing on her and the color is just fabulous. So glad we didn't go with chocolate brown after all!

After that, we accidentally got on route 24 in the wrong direction and decided to make the most of our wrong turn and take a detour down to Newport to visit Andy at work. It was a lovely day to be on the island, and on top of that, we got a mini-tour of the Vanderbilt Hotel and the awesome additions and new artwork all over the place. It was fun. We left there and continued on our way home, all in all making it a successful and fun day together.

Then I came home and slaved until 11pm over two short stories, but THEY'RE DONE! And even better--they've been emailed to my program and they're ready for workshop. Now I can breathe for 2 or 3 days before the work for residency starts rolling in.

Tomorrow Matt comes home! Finally! He's only been gone since Thursday, but I feel like it's been a month, probably because we found out about the house while he was away so we haven't actually sat down together to share the excitement. So excited to see him tomorrow. We had a few minutes at the airport when I dropped him off, so we visited the spot where we first me/where I first tackled him and hugged him for like 5 minutes. Ahh, memories. I can't believe that was 2 years ago and we're about to MARRY each other. I find it all really amazing and fantastic.

The other reason I can't wait for him to get home? We have a lot of wedding stuff to do and I need him around for it. Plus we need to get a move on with house stuff, like calling inspectors for quotes and applying for that mortgage of ours. Thrilling stuff, right?

Well that's all. Just wanted to share my love of cornflower blue Bill Levkoff dresses & other thoughts on life. Time for bed!

We got a house!!

We got word last night that our purchase and sales had been signed by the seller!! Yay!! It's funny-- Matt has been out of town every time we put an offer on a house and get word about it. He got an email last night and forwarded it to me and then called... I was so happy! We've been waiting for this for a while. It feels really good to be DONE looking for a home because we FOUND it. Yessss!

Can't wait to move in, paint, decorate, and throw a party :)

RIP Uncle Mark

Today was the second funeral for my family in a matter of 8 months, and frankly everyone is ready for something good to celebrate! My great-uncle passed away last week and today we had his funeral. The mass and burial were beautiful ceremonies and as sad an event as a funeral is, it's always so nice to see extended family members whom we usually only see at graduations, weddings, funerals, showers, etc. We used to have family reunions every winter, but we haven't had one in a while unfortunately. I think everyone was in agreement that the next time we all see each other should NOT be at a funeral, but rather at the wedding.

I just got home from the funeral and dropping Matt off at the airport, where he was catching a flight down to Philly to meet his aunt and uncle and then travel over to Cape May, NJ for his cousin Jonathan's graduation from the Coast Guard. Matt gets to hand Jon his diploma (both gentlemen in uniform!) because he's family and in the military. I'm so excited for Jonathan, and while we're at it, for my bridesmaid Sara's boyfriend Eric who is coincidentally graduating in the same class as Jon! So bizarre how that worked out. But congrats to them both! Such a great accomplishment.

In other news... we're waiting to hear about the offer we have on house #3. Everything should be fine since we've already met with the builder & agent, but it's real estate and we've been disappointed before, so I'm keeping my emotions in check and only getting excited when we get a YES. Which we will. Because this is the house. But more on that later when it really is our house!

In other other news, Matt doesn't get home until Sunday afternoon, so in the meantime I'll be printing response cards, organizing photos for our videographer's slide show, buying card stock and printing favor cards.... all while working on 2 short stories that are due by June 1st for the residency, covering 2 events for the paper, working in Middletown all day tomorrow, then tutoring after that. I'm anticipating being exhausted at the end of the weekend, but I'm looking forward to Sunday evening and Monday when Matt gets home and we can relax a little (which we won't, because we really can't right now haha... but I can dream!)

Off to teach & cover a story.... it never ends!

Invites & favors & houses OH MY!

Well, things are moving right along. Two nights ago we printed some of the cards that are going along with our favors and we also printed 60 invitations (we quit when Matt's computer battery died). Seriously, I have no idea why anyone would ever pay hundreds of dollars for professional invitations when they're so easy to make on your own. We just loaded them into the printer and hit print. Of course they don't have embossed letters or anything fancy like that, but who really cares? We don't need that stuff. They look really nice and they were ridiculously inexpensive. I'm a happy camper :)

We also worked on the favors, which came out really good too. To recap, we donated money to the Lance Armstrong foundation and got yellow Livestrong bracelets as favors. Then we got blue cardstock at AC Moore (note to self-- buy more), cut it down to printer paper size, and printed 4 "cards" per page. We cute the little cards out, punched a hole in the corner, then tied them to the bracelets with simple white ribbon, thus incorporating all of our theme colors into one little package. They're simple yet meaningful, and again, wonderfully inexpensive while still being special.

Why to people go into debt over a wedding when it's so easy to do it on the cheap and still have it look good?? I've always been thrifty and into bargains anyway, so it doesn't bother me to incorporate money-saving into my wedding planning. In fact, it's been really fun.

In non-wedding news, we've been looking at houses aaaand I don't want to say too much too soon (learned my lesson with Youngs Ave), but we may have some happy news soon. We're doing some minor negotiating on a house we like a lot in a neighborhood we LOVE.... so we're hoping this one works out. To be honest, it feels good. But we'll keep praying for it to turn out well and we'll let the world know the second it's official.

Shifting gears--I've been squirreling away some bridesmaid gifts since last summer and the last of them finally came in yesterday! I can't say much on here, but I'm really excited. I also bought my girls flip flops to wear at the reception if their feet start to get sore (because we're going to be DANCING OUR BUTTS OFF all night long, in case you didn't know!) and when the box came in a few weeks ago I just had to laugh. I opened it up and it reeked of rubber and chemicals because, well, it's just a big old box of flip flops. It cracked me up actually. The people at oldnavy.com must have been like "Who is this nut and why does she need 9 pairs of white flip flops in various sizes??" haha

Also! I got a phone call that my ring is ALL DONE and I can go look at it/pay it off anytime I want, which is exciting! We picked up Matt's ring last weekend when we were on the Cape and it actually fits him now. Can't wait til we get to wear them!

And one more thing... I'm SO on the hunt to figure out when my shower is. See, the thing is... I'm just like my mother. She figures everything out, so I'm naturally inclined to do that same. It's not that I don't want to be surprised (because honestly, I really do like surprises), I just also have this urge to know everything that's going on. I asked my friends to please make sure I'm at least dressed cute for the shower, so they've taken to telling me on random days of the week to dress nicely in order to throw me off the scent. Jerks. I WILL FIGURE IT OUT!!  :-P

Until next time, my friends....

First Dress Fitting....

Well today was exciting/exhausting! I had my first dress fitting today and was accompanied by my mom and future sistah/mrs. of honor, Lisa. I was a little concerned as we were driving there that my dress might be cursed. When I brought my mom and grandmother to see it and put the down payment on it, it was pouring out. Then, in December when I paid the balance and brought the dress home... it was pouring out. And today as we were driving to the fitting... you guessed it! It was pouring out (with a little thunder thrown in for good measure). Hopefully it's just a coincidence and August 7th will be sunny and warm (not too warm) and rain-free.

Anyway, the fitting was great. My dress is a little big and has to be taken in on the sides and hemmed from the bottom because I'm so short. I'm also doing something with the top.... but I can't say much more because I think Matt reads my blog, and we don't need to be passing along any hints to him about what the dress looks like. All I know is that it was awesome to have it on again and I can't wait to wear it in August! It was great to be there with my mom and sister (awww, I really love being able to say I have a sister!!), and I'm sure it'll be even more wonderful on the wedding day when I have all my other sisters around, too.

After that, I took my mom to see the ring I picked out and made another payment on it, and then we met Matt at Men's Wearhouse where he was in the middle of choosing the tuxedos for the guys. He decided on the more lightweight tuxedo and the guys will be wearing Maize colored vests and ties (here's a link if you want to check it out). I think the nice yellow color will compliment the cornflower dresses so well. We also opted for an extra shirt for each guy in case they want to change into a fresh shirt before the reception. You never know with August! It could be hot and humid or warm and mild... but just in case, we figured a fresh shirt never hurt anyone. The guys also will wear pocket squares instead of boutineers because they're cleaner looking and you get to keep them! Those and the socks are your tuxedo rental souvenirs, boys. How generous of Men's Wearhouse haha

And after THAT, Matt and I grabbed lunch and then bought some supplies to assemble our wedding favors. I was pretty impressed with our bargain shopping-- for $5.34 we were able to get 12 sheets of cornflower cardstock, a pad of blue rubber-stamp ink, and two spools of ribbon. Thank you, A.C. Moore!

We then got slushies and came home because we're totally drained, but we won't be home for long... Mother's Day shopping needs to be done (couldn't find anything while we were out!) and Matt needs some fancy star-shaped screwdriver for something on his truck. So, there goes our Saturday! But it's ok because we accomplished a ton of stuff. Tomorrow we need to tackle the invitations!

And one more thing-- Happy Mother's Day to all the moms out there :) Hope it's great!

Getting in some kind of shape...

So Matt and I are both fairly active people. We both enjoy being outside, walking or jogging or riding bikes, sometimes going on little hikes.We both like working out at the gym when the weather isn't great, too. I've been really good about staying consistent with my workouts lately and I'm starting to see some differences in my body that I like, but I'm not there yet. First problem is probably my diet; with ulcerative colitis, you're kind of limited to what you can and should eat. I do my best and stay pretty healthy, although my sweet tooth really gets the best of me most of the time. Matt's a lot better with that than I am. But anyway, the other night I happened upon this website regarding a 100 push ups challenge. It's really interesting. There's a whole training routine that builds up your strength over 6 weeks and the end result is the ability to perform 100 consecutive push ups. CRAZY, right? Well, Matt agreed to try it with me so we'll see how it goes! I am really trying to get my upper body and arms into shape so I'll look good in my dress, but I have such poor upper body strength, it's sad. I'm sure this will whip my arms into shape. Besides, I'm compteting with my mom over here who does kettle bell workouts daily and has freaking arms that rival Michelle Obama's! Seriously, she's cut. Maybe training to do 100 push ups will give me the edge on my mom that I need haha

Wish us luck! We're starting tomorrow (and we have grand plans to go to the gym at 5:00 am too, but we'll see if that actually happens) and I'll keep our progress updated on this blog :)