The Heart Warming Stories.

Through the last few months it has been awesome to hear stories that have stemmed from our upcoming wedding. I thought I would share a few of them.

CRUISE??? Our friend J lives with her parents. I have only met the parents in passing once and Jessi knows them but that's where that line seems to end. Anyway. J's parents were trying to plan an upcoming cruise. Mom asked the Dad how about a cruise in September. The Dad reported no they can't because they have a wedding. Mom inquired what wedding and the Dad reported the one's on the fridge. Over to the fridge they go. Mom goes "that's not our wedding that save the date is for our daughter's friend..." at least the save the date worked for someone.

It's Only Logical My niece and nephews were not told about our engagement for some time. One of the big reasons was because a 2 year engagement for children seem like eternity. But also because they hadn't quite put together Jessi plus Ellie equals relationship. My sister wanted to tell all three and answer any questions that came along with it. My sister sat them down and informed them that Aunt Ellie was getting married. One of them inquired if it was to Ernesto... after debunking that Heidi informed them it was to Jessi. Tyler responded that this was great. Then after thought and processing. Justin pipes in "Well it is only logical, they are best friends and they live togeter." Katie, not a hundred percent sure with if this was okay decided to test the water with one of her friends and mention it. Her friend piped up and reports that she too had an aunt who married a girl. Katie felt relieved that this wasn't so weird. Justin went into school and during "Share time" told his whole class about our wedding and how it's legal in MA.

A Castle??? One of our friend's daughters saw the save the date... First question, "Are they getting married in a castle?" Yes many people have asked us that and the castle was used in our save the dates due to the significant castles and time period has had in our relationship. But hearing about this little girls excitment around this kind of made me want to run out and book our wedding at a castle.

I am sure I am missing some awesome stories that have been sparked by our wedding. Feel free to share. But I wanted to get these down so I can reflect on them in the future. :-)

So it seems like people have been infected...

by our STDs... YAY!!!I mean... I am glad people are starting to receive their save the dates. I can honestly say when we put them in the mailbox and they stuck to metal mail slot door Jessi and I had fantasies of them being stuck to the inside of the mailbox and people not receiving them. It was interesting to track the mail across the continent as people received them and notified us. :-). There are some regions we haven't heard from yet so that's a little concerning. We were very excited to send them out and things worked out better than we expected. Like the return address labels that have a little E <3 J on them. AWWWWW. :-)
In other news I realized that next year is a leap year which means it's one more day longer away than I had planned. :-/ I guess I will get through that extra day. :-)

Details removed to protect the innocent

OUR STDs are HERE!!! CLAP CLAP CLAP....

WAIT A SECOND... that's not what I meant.... What I meant to say.... Finally our Save-the-dates have arrived... (Applaud) What did you think we meant? We spent a lot of time thinking about these and weeding through and finally we picked them. They originally told us 3 weeks and it was sooner.. The part that killed us, is Jessi was stalking them online and they were within driving distance for over a day. And we just wanted to knock on their door and say "Gimme!"

This is all very exciting for me, we are rounding up the last addresses, only about a dozen left to find and then the addressing and mailing out will occur. It's like everyday this becomes more real and closer to a reality. We are talking center pieces, Jessi's dress, invitations, and honeymoon. It's crazy, this is a step closer to happening and I haven't noticed any luggage of Jessi's packed so this is looking even more promising. ;-) So by Halloween most people should have a Save the Dates... or as I like to say an Ellie and Jessi STD... ;-)

Get Fired Up!

Over the last week-ish, we've been reaching out to people who's addresses we don't know, asking them to fill out a Google Docs form with their contact info so we can be ready to send out Save the Dates when they are ready. This form auto-fills to a spreadsheet that will make creating labels (and eventually seating arrangements) super easy. It's also WAY easier than calling/emailing/texting everybody we know, asking for their address, then typing it in ourselves--it saves about 2-3 steps depending on how often we have to contact some people (if you got a request and haven't filled it out, DO IT NOW or I will hunt you down like a wild animal).

One of the highlights of my day has been logging into Google Docs and seeing if the entry count has gone up at all. If it has, I gleefully scroll to the bottom of the spreadsheet to see who's added him/herself. One of the best parts has been seeing who does and does not add their children, what type of dietary restrictions (yup, we're gathering all the info; if we don't have to make people do this twice, that makes me (and them) happy. It's such a simple thing, seeing addresses on a spreadsheet, but these addresses mean we're ACTUALLY going to send the Save the Dates, and eventually ACTUALLY send invitations (which means I'm going to be ordering invitations), which means I'm going to be getting my dress altered, and choosing Ladies of Honor dresses, and Men of Honor suits, and an Ellie suit, and all of the other things that come with getting married.

SAVE THE, Rainforest, whales, children, african elephants....

Well... actually here we are talking about SAVE THE DATES!!!! woohoo... So after much debating, discussing, and debacle.. we have chosen, edited and ordered our save the dates. It's reassuring that we are running on time with the majority of things. It also makes everything seem so real. Although we have looked at our engagement pictures a million times I hope that with in the next month we will finalize the pictures we want and order them soon. The more things are decided on the more we are moving away from a traditional "everything has the same style" to sticking with the theme of "us". Some might not see or understand how certain things pertain to Jessi and I but we feel we are being very truthful to us and that is what matters. Now we are slowly obtaining addresses so maybe we can mail them out on time. I will say the most off putting aspect of ordering the save the dates was after we ordered we were given 10 minutes to order an additional amount at half price... I wondered if we could have order less to begin with and saved money by taking advantage of the 10 minute deal afterwards. Then again one can not bank on a "random" deal like that and could end up costing much more. So all join in with a Hip Hip Hooray and hope for a speedy delivery so we can start the addressing process. :-)

Even STAMPS are a Tough Decision!

You all know how much of a perfectionist I am...I can't even decide on stamps. Do we go with really wedding-y stamps like the one on the left, or something more natural and a little less obviously wedding-related like on the right (each image has the word "Love" written on it)? There are other options for both styles of stamp, as well as some that are completely unrelated to weddings or love, but might fit our personalities a little more, like this "Celebrate!" stamp.

And those are only the stamps offered by the USPS! Zazzle offers a myriad of differnet wedding-y designs, and even has the option to create custom stamps. However, those include a mark-up a $.56 mark-up, putting them at $1 each, which is ASININE!! So yeah, we'll be going with USPS stamps.

Now to decide on one...

It's Crunch time!!! (Random Post)

Okay it's not really Crunch time, but it sounds so forceful... or like I want a chocolate bar. MMM, Chocolate. Anyway, I don't post much but honestly I think about the wedding A LOT. The problem with wedding planning is the hurry up and wait aspect of it. I get too excited when we plan something and then I want the wedding to be tomorrow so I don't have to wait any more. As Jessi has mentioned we are finalizing our order for save the dates, which the only reason I think we haven't ordered them is because we have been slightly lazy and addicted to the TV show Weeds. Luckily for our friends and family we are almost out of the seasons and after the withdrawals we will finally be able to order them.
Second order of business is the whole weight loss thing. I don't need to be little I just want to look better in my little outfit and be in prime dancing poorly shape. I know Jessi and I are eating better most nights and are trying to put exercise back into our lives. Over the last month it's been really difficult. But a pound a month would put us both down 14 lbs which we both would be happier with.
I struggle a lot with the desire to be unique and to be wise with money and environmentally friendly. The three of those are difficult to combine, often I see something unique and environmentally friendly but then it's 5 billion dollars. (dramatic for effect) Sometimes I wonder what people "expect" from my wedding, if anyone ever thought about it. I know that our wedding needs to be us and what we want but it's interesting to think about. It's like when I bought my first car, Nissan Maxima, everyone saw it and said, that car doesn't fit you... (They were all out of clown cars apparently) I really want this ceremony to really capture Jessi and I and the reasons we fell in love and the sparks that keep us growing.

Say Cheese!!!

So after a lot of discussion and thinking and debating we have decided on a photographer. Honestly, this was a difficult decision and for me who is slightly obsessed with photographs I'm sure Jessi was not looking forward to deciding on this topic. The problem was we saw two great photographers, both very nice people with talent. This could be looked at as a win win or a lose lose situation. As Jessi mentioned one was a family friend and the other was someone Jessi met through an expo. I have no doubt if we were going to get a professional videographer that we would have gone with Jimmy. However, we don't want something that fancy for a video and photos were the issue on the table. We went with Erica Ewing and I have strong beliefs that this will pan out well. I think the hardest part with the whole wedding thing is not hurting anyone's feelings. I felt like this with picking a venue, photographer, people in the wedding party and even invitee list. It's hard to remember this day is really for Jessi and I. Jessi and I are such people pleasers that this becomes hard to keep in mind. To be a little selfish and to pick with the gut at times and not on emotions or I don't want to be de-friended on facebook ;). SO... what's next from here. Venue-Check, Photographer- Check.. now save the dates and invitee list. yikes...