Bridal Shower!

My bridal shower was Saturday! I had a really great time - my girls put together such a nice afternoon! The shower was held at the recently-redone church hall, and I really can't get over how fantastic the place looks now. Our families made all of the food, which was fantastic. Everything was so good!

The only part of the day that was a little less awesome was the fact that I was sick. I'd been home sick from work for a few days, and really wasn't feeling well Saturday morning. For the whole day, I was pretty drugged up with cold medicine. Luckily, you can't tell from the pictures!

Mark and I in gingerbread form, courtesy of Aunt Johna - we got sent home with this giant cupcake because there was so much else for dessert. We're currently looking for people to help us eat it, any volunteers?!

The hall before everyone got there.

Laura keeping watch.

Surprise!

The men (Jeff, Uncle Mike, Mark and Dad) stayed to help serve the food. I was especially glad that Mark and my Dad could be there to see everything as I opened gifts!

A shot of the crowd.

Getting ready to open gifts.

Our gift assembly line - Michelle would hand me a gift/take the wrapping paper. Laura was collecting the cards and writing down who gave what. Melissa was collecting the bows for a hat. Even with all the help, it takes a long time to open everything!

This was one of the gifts from the bridesmaids - an afghan Laura made for us. I'll have to post a close-up of this at some point - it's covered in hearts. So talented!

Our littlest guest during the gifts - the underside of the table was clearly more interesting than all my kitchen tools!

Getting the bow hat.

Ta-Da! I think Melissa did a fantastic job on that hat.

Me with the girls.

This is my, "So, I'm really supposed to fit all that in my apartment?" face.

Us, at the end of the shower. I can't believe how fast the wedding is coming up.

80 days from today!

Virtual Great American Bake Sale

Every year across the United States, Share Our Strength asks people to host bake sales in their communities. These Great American Bake Sales raise funds for after-school and summer feeding programs–food programs that many kids depend on when school is not in session. Share Our Strength is a national organization working to make sure no kid in America grows up hungry.

I'm participating in the first-ever blogging community Virtual Great American Bake Sale. For the bake sale, Cooking During Stolen Moments has put together ebooks of submitted recipes and has them available for sale here: http://stolenmomentscooking.com/welcome-to-the-virtual-great-american-bake-sale/

She has no set price for the books, all she is asking for is a donation. All of the proceeds will go to Share Our Strengths.

The recipe I submitted, which you'll find below and in the ebook, is one that my aunt used to make. It's so easy to make, and is so addictive! With the upcoming wedding, I've been making more of a conscious effort to learn the recipes that both of us grew up with so I can pass them on to our kids someday - and this is one that will definitely go in that file.

Aunt Pat's Peanut Butter Candy

Ingredients:
1 C. Peanut Butter
1 1/2 Sticks of Softened Margarine
1 3/4 C. Graham Cracker Crumbs
2/3 C. Confectioners Sugar
2 C. Semi Sweet Chocolate Chips
1/2 C. Milk Chocolate Chips

Mix together peanut butter, margarine, graham cracker crumbs and sugar until combined. Press into a 9"x13" pan.

Melt together the chocolate chips and spread over the peanut butter mixture.

Cover and refridgerate until chocolate is set. Cut into squares and serve chilled.

It's sneaking up on me

The Knot provides a wedding-planning checklist. Once you have your account set up with your wedding date, it lets you know what you should be working on, and what you should have done already.

I've been using it as a general guide. For a lot of things, they'd prefer you to get them done really early. For other things, I'm simply on a different timetable. Like, we have our menu-picking meeting one month before the wedding because the chef likes to work with what's in season. The Knot wants me hanged for not taking care of that detail yet.

This morning when I checked the list, "Send out Invites" was added to it. Oh, silly Knot, I thought, I still have time! Until it dawned on me that I really don't. My invites should go out in a month.

They're designed, aside from a few little things that need to be cleaned up with the RSVP card. Now I just have to find somewhere to print them. I think for my own sanity I'm going to delay (forego?) the gym today and stop at some copy shops in the area to get quotes on printing/cutting.

Its days like this that make me wonder why I ever thought it was a good idea to DIY anything.

Surprise first fittings

The dress shop called me about two weeks ago to say the girl's dresses were in, so I made an appointment for this past Saturday to try them on. I figured it'd be a good idea to make sure they were the right color and that nobody's was four sizes too small or anything.

Apparently, the dress shop took that to mean I had scheduled fittings.

I was lucky - I didn't need any real alterations to my dress. A bustle and some cups and that's all. The girls all needed the same alterations - the top taken in and the hem shortened. And, for the record, I love that color on them!

At the end, we made an appointment to go back two weeks before the wedding for a final fitting and any last-minute changes. I'm pretty excited that it can be checked off my list until then!

If the shoe (almost) fits...

I haven't been overly picky about most things wedding. Until I tried to find shoes.

Mark and I are roughly the same height, so I can't wear a big heel - but all of the shoes I liked have heels to them (and not necessarily tiny ones either). I ordered a pair off the internet a few months back, but they were too tall and went back. This past weekend, Laura, Michelle and I went on the hunt for shoes and came up short. I thought the week before Easter the stores would be full of white dress shoes, but no such luck.

So, Sunday night I caved to the power of the internet and my credit card and ordered four pairs of shoes from Zappos.com. Yes, four. In a variety of sizes, heel heights, styles and colors.

My mammouth box of shoes was waiting on the doorstep when I got home from work today, and I had a party this afternoon turning the living room into my personal shoe store. I was pleastly surprised with all of them. One of these pairs will be the winner; I can feel it.

Right now, these are my favorite:

The heel is a little higher than the rest, so I'm waiting to see what Mark thinks when he gets home. The only problem is that they're half a size too small and Zappos is out of my size. If Mark approves, I'll be hunting the 'net for the right size!

Wedding Soundtrack

Mark and I have been kicking around song ideas for different things at the wedding. There's so many choices, and so many different things to pick songs for!

We're pretty settled on our first dance song:



I'm really liking this one for our entrance at the reception:



And, this is the song my Dad picked for the father/daughter dance:



We still have to pick songs for the last dance of the night, cake cutting, bridal party entrance and settle on songs for the ceremony. Any suggestions?

Double-Digit Countdown!

The countdown to the wedding is officially in double-digits- today marks 99 days until the big day.

Aside from a few bridal magazines, I haven't bought a lot of bride-to-be things. One of my splurge purchases was a 100 day countdown calendar. It's one of those page-a-day numbers, and each page has a different tip or thing to think about before the wedding.

I don't know if it's the calendar, or the fact that we're less than 100 days from the wedding, or if it's just the natural progression of things, but I feel like things are finally real. When we started planning this almost a year ago, it seemed so far away. It's almost here now!

This weekend will be a busy weekend too. Saturday Mark and I have a meeting with Father Matt, and then I'm going shoe shopping and to Chrissy O's. I'll be trying on my dress with the veil and all - and the bridesmaids dresses came in so the girls will be able to try them on too. And, after the meeting we should be able to pick readings and music for the ceremony, and start working on programs. Soon, everything will be done! I wonder what I'll do with my free time then?