Just What I Always Wanted!

I'm waiting to be taken to the DePere Community Center for the WI bridal shower. I'm kind of nervous. Which is silly.

But - I look really cute.

I'm pretty excited over all. And there will be dancing later!

Mini-Moon

Despite pangs of work-related guilt, Jon and I went ahead and scheduled our wedding smack in the middle of the busiest time at Hearth: Annual World, which consists of the annual appeal, the annual report, and the annual meeting.

But I could not bring myself to also schedule our honeymoon during that season. I would be crazy-busy before the wedding/honeymoon and probably spend too much time worrying about work while on the honeymoon, and then be over inundated with catching up upon my return.

It just didn't seem like a good idea.

However, neither did returning to work the Monday after as if nothing had happened. Saturday: wedding. Monday: office meeting! It just didn't feel right.

So we decided to take a "mini-moon" right after the wedding and hold off the "real" honeymoon (which will last at least a week if not more) until the following spring.

Qualifications for the mini-moon location included:

• not more than 3 hours from Boston


• an in-room jacuzzi


• not more than $200 a night (preferably for less!)


• not a Holiday Inn, Super 8 Motel, or any hotel/inn with a jingle

So where are we staying?

The Hartwell House in Ogunquit, Maine. We are staying in the Polly Reed room. Not only do we have a jacuzzi, but we have "French doors opening up to a balcony with views of the garden." And the inn is only steps away from the The Marginal Way (a 1 mile walk way along the coast) and the beautiful Ogunquit Beach. Not to mention we get breakfast and afternoon tea.

Sounds good to me. Can I go there tomorrow?

Because if I have to wear uncomfortable shoes, so do you!

Jon and I picked out tuxedos on Saturday.

We shall not be renting them from the Men's Wearhouse, as we were both thoroughly underwhelmed by their service and selection. I'm sure they're not all the same (then again ... they probably are) but they didn't have actual tuxes to show us, just a catalogue - which I had already looked at online. They did have samples of the vests/ties/bow-ties, but accessories be damned, if you ask me. Doesn't matter if Jon has the most beautiful vest on if he picked the wrong tux from the catalogue (a double-breasted pin-stripe suite on Jon: I think not).

Thus we are renting our tuxes from Classic Tuxedos. They have locations all over New England, but we went to the Boston location on Newbury Street (yes, aren't we posh?) for our appointment. They have an entire store of tuxes - and they let you try them on. Wow.

The chocolate brown Calvin Kline tux was $160 plus tax to rent. As that was about $50 more than the bridesmaids' dresses, I thought that was unfair. And Jon is a cheapskate as well, so no hunky men in chocolate brown tuxes (I was informed, though, that my choice was at the very forefront of fashion - and let me add that the Men's Wearhouse will not be offering a chocolate brown tux until late fall).

Jon chose a basic 2-button tux with a notch lapel cut in the American style. He and the dads will wear a black vest and bow tie (Jon was very insistant on the bow tie .... I thought a regular tie would have been OK for our "casually formal" event). The groomsmen will wear a chocolate brown vest (I can't be sure I've chosen the right swatch color from, the online catalogue... but trust me, in person it's the right shade of brown!) and tie. Both colors will be in a herringbone-pattened material, which looks quite snazzy (see swatches).

Piece of cake - er, cobbler

This wedding planning stuff is a breeze! I don't know what everyone gets so worked up about.

Mom's in town. She flew in Friday while Jon and I were at The Harvard Book Store listening to David Sedaris read from his new book (I'll have to post more about that on my other blog ... it was hysterical!).

Together, Mom and I have:

• finalized flowers with Karen-the Amazing-Florist (who is not named Kelly but at least her name begins with a "K") at Dandelions
• picked out invitations, (box of 50, including envelopes, and response cards/envelopes) at Staples for $29.99
• printed out invitations
• addressed envelopes (in Mother's best teacher handwriting)
• started creating paper flowers for the reception centerpieces (they're wicked cute!)
• booked Doyle's for the rehearsal dinner (best part: no deposit necessary!)

Aren't we productive?

Power Tools!

No one has bought me any power tools yet off our gift registries. Come on, people. What could make a better bridal shower present than a 10" compound miter saw?

I could make such wonderful things .... a coffee table, shelving, a jewelry box exactly the way I want it to be ....

::sigh::

I mean, we all know that I registered for the tools, not Jon.

Why, yes, he is a penguin

Ah tuxedos ..... What a pain ....

Jon and I (he actually doesn't know this yet, I forgot to tell him yesterday - sorry, honey!) have an appointment with Classic Tuxedos on June 14. They called me out of the blue, and since I haven't done anything about tuxedos yet, I figured I might as well make an appointment.

I checked their website today and found the most beautiful (and probably woefully expensive) chocolate brown tuxedo (by Calvin Klein). So sexy! (Well, it's easy to make a tux look amazing with a ridiculously handsome male model wearing it.)I doubt we'll end up with this tux - I'm sure we'll choose some boring black-n-white inexpensive combination (although hopefully not with a god-awful shiny vest ... I hate those).

But isn't it va va voom?