19 days to go!

I can't believe we will be getting married in 3 weeks. This weekend was more wedding errands. Graham and I went by our reception hall on Sat. morning to make sure our slideshow will play at the reception. I started to get a little worried when the lady could get the show to come up but couldn't get it to play. She kept hitting "play" but nothing happened. She said she has had that problem before. I called my brother and he said to hit "enter". Voila! I'm so glad it worked since he put a lot of hard work and effort into it. The lady was very impressed just with the first 30 seconds. She kept saying how good it is! I can't wait for all of you to see it. Josh did an amazing job (Thanks, Josh!). I left there wondering how many other brides didn't get to play their slideshow though because they hit "play" instead of "enter"!

After that, we headed over to Nathan's parent's house - aka: wedding central. Gail showed me the bouquets, corsages, ring pillow, rehearsal centerpieces, etc., etc., etc. Everything looks fantastic. It got me really excited. We are lucky to have family members that are helping us so much with everything.

Later, Graham and I went to the pool. I think it's the first time this month that I've gone. We had a good time and I think it's the most I've actually played in the water in a long time. At one point, we were playing Michael Phelps and that "other guy" that lost by 1/100th of a second. :) That night, me, Nathan and Graham went to dinner and walked around on Main St. in St. Charles.

Sunday I went to a baby shower for my friend, Janet. She is having her 3rd child - a girl. It was a sea of pink as she opened presents. Congratulations to her and her husband, Jaime! I can't wait to meet Baby Morgan (and I LOVE that name!).

I almost made it all the way through a Sunday night without waking up. But I woke up this morning when Nathan got up - sometime in the 4am hour - and had a hard time falling back to sleep. I was of course thinking about wedding stuff I didn't get done this weekend and stuff I need to do. I finally just wrote it all down on a notepad I keep by the bed and that allowed me to finally go back to sleep. It also didn't help that Nathan almost burnt the house down (not really) while he was cooking bacon and the stupid smoke alarm kept beeping! I kept yelling for him from the bedroom but he couldn't hear me because he turned the stove vent on to air it out. I finally had to call him from my cell phone to ask him to stop the beeping. What a morning! Let's hope the rest of the week goes better. :)

Dawn

Bachelor-Bachelorette Parties

As most of you know, this weekend was the bachelor and bachelorette parties for Nathan and I. We both had a great time and hope that everyone there with us had a great time also. We want to thank everyone for coming out and celebrating with us. We'd like to especially thank Mike Alley, Kelly Doria, Chrissy Clauser, Amanda Sextro and Kim Hayes for their financial contributions toward everything. I'd also like to thank everyone who brought me a gift, paid for a drink and/or contributed in any other way (like Ann who made me a sucker bouquet and Brian who drove the minivan for the guys). I hope I'm not forgetting to mention anyone else but just know that we truly appreciate everyone that participated in any way.
My day started off at the nail salon with Kelly. We got pedicures and then went to lunch. Then we started the bachelorette party with dinner at The Drunken Fish. I believe we had about 22 girls at dinner. We met up with some others after dinner at Trainwreck Saloon and then we went to Pure nightclub. Finally, some of us got hotel rooms and hung out in the room for a little bit before going to sleep. I posted some pictures below from throughout the night.

Nathan's day started out with paintball. I think this is the part he was most looking forward to and he said all of the guys had a lot of fun. Let's hope no one ended up with poison ivy though since I heard that there was some in the woods that they were playing in. Nathan (and I'm sure all of the other guys) ended up with some welts but he had a blast. Later, about 12 of them went to dinner at Fifteen (Jim Edmond's restaurant). Unfortunately, they had really bad service and I don't think any of the guys would recommend going there if you're thinking of checking it out. But they were all together and I'm sure they made the best of it. Finally some of the guys headed out to some bars after dinner. They lasted longer than the girls. I think we finally went to sleep in the 3:00 am hour while they lasted until 6:00 am. I've posted some pictures of the paintball below.

Thanks again and we will see you at the wedding if not sooner!

Love,
Dawn

Stacy and Tracie

me, Angelia and Jesse

Amy, Becky and Sarah

Sheila (sorry Sheila, this is the only picture I had of you!)

Me and Ann (she brought me the sucker bouquet. How sweet!)

Chrissy and Janet

Beth and Kristen

Mom and Kelly

Toni and Amy

Bethany, me and Aubrey

Rachel and me

Erica, me and Jessica

Amanda, Emily and Heather

Monica and me

Me and my smokin' hottie mom

Me and Kelly (matron of honor)

Me and Amanda (bridesmaid)

Me and Chrissy (bridesmaid)

Me trying to do a shot.

Nathan the morning after his bachelor party (not too bad on 3 hours sleep!)

Mike walking into waffle house the morning after the bachelor party

The group that went to dinner at The Drunken Fish

Me (embarrassed) dancing on stage at Trainwreck

Christa and me

The group that went to paintball

Miles (groomsman)

Nathan

Brian (groomsman)

Josh (usher)

How to be a Perfect B*&%$

I got this email forwarded to me today and I just had to post it. Enjoy!

Subject: HOW TO BE A PERFECT B*&%$

Jennifer's wedding day was fast approaching. Nothing could dampen her excitement -- not even her parent's nasty divorce. Her mother had found the PERFECT dress to wear and would be the best dressed mother- of-the-bride ever! A week later, Jennifer was horrified to learn that her father's new young wife had bought the exact same dress! Jennifer asked her to exchang e it, but she refused. 'Absolutely not, I look like a million bucks in this dress and I'm wearing it,' she replied. Jennifer told her mother who graciously said, 'Never mind sweetheart. I'll get another dress. After all, it's your special day.'

A few days later, they went shopping and did find another gorgeous dress. When they stopped for lunch, Jennifer asked her mother, 'Aren't you going to return the other dress? You really don't have another occasion where you could wear it.

Her mother just smiled and replied, 'Of course I do, dear. I'm wearing it to the rehearsal dinner the night before the wedding.'

NOW I ASK YOU - IS THERE A WOMAN OUT THERE, ANYWHERE, WHO WOULDN'T ENJOY THIS STORY?

Babies, Babies and More Babies

This weekend we went to a BBQ at our friends, Jim and Chrissy Clauser's house. They wanted to get everyone together because it's been a long time since we've all hung out. But my have times changed. I think there were 23 kids there for about 12 couples. It was a lot of fun. There was good food, cold drinks and kids galore. Here's a picture of all of the kids (minus one who was inside after he took a tumble down the stairs-poor guy!):

Here's a picture of Beth and her cutie-pie, Alivia (who is seriously one of the best babies I've ever seen!). As soon as I put the camera up to my face, Alivia smiled on cue! I think Beth is prepping her to be a model or something!

Saturday was a busy day for us in general. Besides the BBQ, we had two appointments. First, we met with the reception hall lady to discuss linen colors, the set up of the room, the itinerary for the reception, etc. Later, we met up at the church with Nathan's sister, Rachel, and the organist so Rachel could practice singing some of the songs for the ceremony. She sounded good and I can't wait because I love the music we've selected.

Sunday, me, Nathan, Graham and my mom went to the mall to do a little shopping. We had to verify the tuxedo styles before they order them this week and we had to get Graham an outfit for the rehearsal. And I needed an outfit for the bachelorette party - which is next weekend!!!
I had to laugh at the BBQ because my friend, Amy Yount, said she thinks all of the girls are more excited for the bachelorette party than I am. Most of them are moms and don't get out like this a lot (not that I do!) and it's really the first time we've all got to party together for a girls night out in a long time. I'm sure I will have tons of pictures to post from that next week!

Love,
Dawn

P.S. My mood is so much better the last few days! I think I was just having a few rough days! :)

Trying not to become a Bridezilla!

I'm starting to feel a little . . . what's the word?. . . moody, maybe? I think I am just ready for this wedding to be here so I can stop worrying about it. I know I am not the first bride to feel this way. We are 37 days out and part of me can't count the days soon enough but part of me feels like I'm running out of time to take care of details. And in all reality, my to-do list isn't too bad. We've done a lot of stuff early so that helps. I think what's getting to me is that I can't do some stuff until closer to the actual wedding.

For example, I'm looking forward to doing our programs but I can't until I know that the readings, etc. we chose are approved by the wedding coordinator/priest. We need more bowls for the centerpieces but I'm not sure how many more until I know how many people are coming so I know how many tables we'll have. It's things like this that are driving me a little batty (not to mention that I can't get some return phone calls from some people). And I like having control over the details so it's hard for me to let some of them go.

I guess I'm just wondering if some of you past "brides-to-be" felt this way as the last month approached. I just feel like I'm in a funk. Let me know if you can sympathize or if I'm just plain crazy and off of my rocker! But remember, be nice, because I warning you that I can't be held responsible for my actions up until the big day! :)





Teetering on the brink,


Dawn

Another Sleepless Sunday Night

I don't know what's going on with me lately but last night was like the 3rd Sunday in a row that I woke up and couldn't fall back asleep for hours. I'm not sure why I wake up but then I start thinking about all of the wedding details that still need to be taken care of and that's what keeps me awake. I tell myself that there is nothing I can do about it at that moment and to go back to sleep but it doesn't really work. Anyway, maybe next Sunday night, I will take a sleeping pill to help me get through the night.

Friday I had another wedding shower. This one was thrown by my co-workers. They tried to surprise me but there were too many clues so I knew exactly when it was. My stomach was nervous waiting for it at 10:30. However, even though I wasn't surprised, I was very touched by their efforts and generosity. There was a lot of food (some people in other departments made some dishes too), a ton of desserts and gifts. We got a lot of gift cards and some very nice gifts. If I have time to scan some of the pictures into my computer, I'll post them (on second thought, I don't think the scanner is working-sorry!).

Nathan had to work all weekend but he and I went to dinner at T. Arcobosso's on Sat. night with Kelly and Seth. It's the first time the 4 of us have done this and it was a nice time. Then we went to see The Dark Knight. Even thought we bought our tickets ahead of time, we didn't get there until about 5 minutes before the movie started so we got stuck sitting in the very front row. That SUCKED! But the movie was good. I wish we could have hung out after the movie but since Nathan's been working so much and getting up at 4 am, we headed home.

Sunday, I ran some wedding errands with my mom. We got all of the gifts for everyone involved with our wedding. I also got some pearl earrings to match my necklace to wear on the wedding day.

I also want to remind everyone that has not RSVP'd for the wedding yet that the deadline is fast approaching. You have until Aug. 13th which is next week (I can't believe that!). Please send those in so we can give the reception hall a head count. Thanks!

Dawn