Updates on a few wedding related...well, you could call them "nightmares", sure.

Pashminas and shoes are ordered, scarf #30 is nearing completion, and the hunt is on for green ties for our groomspeople.

H: Hm. Hey, you know, we should consider a videographer...

Early on in our planning process we visited the prospect of hiring a videographer to record our ceremony. Because we didn't want anything particularly fancy, it was another one of those "perhaps-we-could-DIY it" things that later turned into "that's-not-very-practical-since-we-don't-want-to-do-it-and-don't-want-our-guests-to-either". We figured then that we could get a tri-pod and invest in a really nice camcorder, but then two things occurred to us:
1) we wouldn't use a camcorder after the wedding (but maybe I'll end up eating those words when we have kids...), and
2) sooooooooooooo much could go wrong with that scenario. The sound may not come out right, the camera may still have the lens cap on, the batteries could go dead, or worse; we may miss something very important.
No, in the end we were nervous enough about it to determine that this was another one of those special somethings best left to the people who know exactly what they're doing. So we went hunting (on Amazing Photographer Jessica's preferred vendors list...) and found Cael and Deana at Reel to Real Productions. I emailed, and almost immediately Deana emailed me back (which was fantastic!)
We met the next evening, sampled their work, and then got down to business. Josh and I were aiming for Package A, which would only capture the ceremony itself which is the most important thing to us. We were quite content with that, until Deana mentioned that they'd be happy to add on to the package since they'd be there anyway and they would also be happy to work with our budget. Then we were surprised and elated. So we shall now get the ceremony AND the formal dances! Very cool :-)
So last night we dropped by again, this time with signed contract and check in hand and made it official. And we're in cinematic business!

H: The usefullness of dreams

I had a dream last night. A wedding related dream. It's not the first that I've had and it certainly won't be the last, I'm sure.

In this dream I suddenly realized that it was November 19th. I wasn't ready for the wedding, I only had two of the bridesmaids that I wanted (and the others I hadn't seen in forever and didn't particularly like). But the most upsetting part of this dream was that I hadn't yet ordered them their pashminas!!!

Since we're having our wedding outside in November and our bridesmaids will be in various stages of dress (sleeves, sleeveless, short, long, etc. etc.) I early on determined that I wanted to gift them something that would keep them nice and warm. After a bit of searching, I came across these:


I've had my eye on them for a few months now, but still had yet to order them. Having that dream however really kick-started my procrastinating be-hind and they should be here next week.

I've had quite a few wedding dreams now, and they usually have to do with me missing out on something that I really wanted; my bridal shower, my wedding party, mailing out the invitations, the pashminas, my dress, the venue, the list goes on.
Incidentally - in one particularly colorful dream - my venue was a high school gymnasium, the dress was out of the 80's, I didn't get to send out my invitations, I didn't know the bridal party, and suddenly Michael Jackson was there offering me a homemade apple fritter. True story!

The good thing about these dreams - and what makes them particularly useful - is what happens to me when I wake up; I get things done!

H: The Shoes. Yes, THE shoes

Been a looooong time between posts again and again, I don't have a terribly good excuse except that we've been busy. We recently decided to start looking for a house. To buy. Yes, we may become homeowners....exciting! And....just interesting I suppose. A year ago, my life was very different and a lot has happened in a short amount of time. I'm not complaining, quite the contrary it's been wonderful meeting my partner and growing more and more. Not to say that there haven't been growing pains, but all in all it's been remarkable. I'm extremely lucky to embark on this new and exciting life with the person that I love.

Incidentally, I've been following the Prop 8 trial very closely, and I'm warmed by the notion that I may get to celebrate my marriage in a State where our gay and lesbian brothers and sisters will get to celebrate theirs, too. Just my two cents.

Anyhoo, back to the frill!

I thought now would be a good time to let everyone in on my most exciting find yet; Khussa shoes!!!! (The extra exclamation point is the "I-would-have-called-my-mother-to-gush-if-I-didn't-know-she-was-busy-running-around" exclamation point.)
Josh and I are the same height (6 ft), and I knew early on that I didn't want to tower over him while standing at the altar (with our egalitarian relationship, I felt that would send the wrong message). I considered just about everything and looked just about everywhere; kitten heels, flats, ballet flats, the list goes on and on but nothing ever seemed right (and ballet flats look terrible on me. Seriously.) I couldn't find something that was satisfying; something that was simple, but comfortable and elegant with a bit of bling to boot. One day I was dinking around on a wedding website when someone mentioned Khussa shoes.
They're the shoes that belly dancers wear and they look something like this:
After I stopped twitching from the Convulsions of Joy, I took a closer look at these little beauties. As I mentioned before, they're shoes used by belly dancers so they're not your typical right/left. Actually, there is no right or left at all. They're made of leather and must be worn so that they'll mold to your foot, thus allowing for ultimate comfort, plus they come in a vast array of colors and patterns. I tell ya folks, when I found these, you could have knocked me over with a feather. Or a receipt showing an extremely, EXTREMELY reasonable price (think $30 and under).
I haven't ordered them yet, but I will in the next week or so.

*Squeal!*

H: Favor project update.

We are now up to around 30 scarves.
Moving right along!

H: "You don't have to worry about the wedding anymore..."

When Josh uttered the above words to me last Monday, I was a bit confused and then frightened and then confused again when I realized that he was of course not saying that the wedding wasn't going to happen. He was saying that I didn't have to worry about it. You know, THE "it". The one that plagues every bride and groom with a budget on the brain. That's right, folks. You guessed it. The odds are very, VERY good in our favor that we won't have to worry about money.
Let's back up, shall we?

*wavy lines and squiggly sounds*

For those of you who don't know, Josh is a veteran of the Iraq war and as such emerged with what is now called Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, or PTSD. It's formerly known as "shell shock".
Last year sometime, Josh applied for benefits that he's entitled to because of his disability and was denied, so he let it rest. Then at the urging of his therapist, he re-applied. We got the letter on Monday that his benefits have been approved effective July 2008. You read that right. 2008. They retroactively set his benefit (on purpose) and sent a corresponding payment, enough to cover the majority of our wedding and enough to make us believe that with our plans and budget we'll have no trouble paying for the rest ourselves.

We're hardworking people and we believe in ourselves, each other, and our ability to work together beautifully so we knew that we'd do it somehow, but still a huge weight has been lifted.
We have now paid our amazing photographer and we sent the check to our fabulous DJ this morning. Incidentally, because of his kindness and generosity we decided to pay fabulous DJ his full amount and you know what he said? That he'd be happy to stick with our original agreement. Seriously. How fabulous is he? So we sent him the original agreed upon amount plus a donation to the Joe is Awesome Fund, and organization that is dedicated to injecting money into our ailing economy. :-)

Part of me is worried that the other shoe will drop. That a man in a dark suit with a coiled wire running up his neck into his ear and dark sunglasses will knock on our door and demand that money back under penalty of complete ruination. Who wouldn't worry about that?
But there's no sign or indication that that will happen, and all in all it's one more thing to add to the pile o' events that constantly tells me that this wedding is going to be as amazing as the man I'm going to marry, as wonderful as our relationship is, and as beautiful as he makes me feel.

H: How holy are we, anyway? Part 3

I noticed that I forgot to update what happened when we met again with the matrimony coordinator, Karla! Oops.
But first things first, HAPPY BIRTHDAY TRACY!!!

We met with her this past Monday (though we almost didn't since her printer wasn't functioning- she made it happen, though). We got the results of our FOCCUS test, which in an of itself is pretty interesting. The answers are broken up into different categories (personality, finances, etc.) and shows all the results with everyone's answer, including the church's, and our three answers (consisting of either A= agree D = disagree or U = uncertain) would be at the left with the question following it. For example:
M F C
D D D I am sometimes afraid of my future spouse.
(M = male, F= female, C= church.)

For most of them, we were all in agreement. (Incidentally, Josh and I had 100% compatibility for the personality section and apparently that doesn't happen a lot. Yay us!)
For those that we were not in agreement on, the test set the question aside as a topic of discussion, which I thought was pretty cool.
Once Karla explained how that worked, she gave us a homework assignment; take the test home, and write in what you had decided on for the topics to be discussed. For example, if you feel that your spouse is messier than you'd like, you discuss it and then write in what you've determined i.e.: "so-and-so will be making a conscious effort to pick up more", or "so-and-so will leave a list for so-and-so to take care of during the day" or "so-and-so can handle the mess", etc. Whatever is decided. Once we're done with that (there's no rush), we'll take it back to Karla and she'll put it in our church file. Where it will stay. Forever. And ever. <-- How she said it to us.
She said that she knew it sounded weird, but the Church keeps a file in case, God forbid, our marriage should fail and we should seek an annulment. Yikes.
While we were there, was also got the chance to talk to her, just in general about who we are as people. I got lesson in how Canon law works and how laws are made, and I discovered that the sacrament that Josh will be receiving is a sacrament (little "s") not Sacrament (big "S") which is fine. Also, the position of the church is no longer that those who commit suicide go to hell, and the ban on birth control is more of a preference by a previous Pope than a mandate. All in all, it was another pleasant visit with Karla, and up next is to do our Pre-Cana counseling and get Josh's baptismal certificate from the church in Georgia where he was baptized.
To be honest, I find it all pretty interesting!

H: Fabulous bridesmaids and the dresses that love them

One of the things that I knew early on was that I didn't think that having all the women in our bridal party in one dress was very practical. For one thing, my darlings range in size and shape and finding one cut that would fit everyone isn't likely, and I want them to feel gorgeous (which shouldn't be too hard for these gals as they're simply magnificent), confident, and comfortable on the big day. Also, since I am unfortunately not able to purchase their dresses for them (and ooooh I wanted to), I felt they should have a say in what they buy. I want them to wear whatever they purchase again and again, and also purchase what they can afford.
The more I think about the concept, the more in love I become with it. They'll all be in the same color (Navy blue) with a bit of variation I imagine due to different designers and I think that's just the bee's knees. The only parameters are to be conscious of the weather, and if it'll offend Grandma consider re-thinking it.
Tracy has her eye on this little number from j.crew:

(seriously, how adorable is this?)

Nordstrom also has a really nice selection, such as this little beauty (that I think would look great on Robin):

Sooooooooooooo many possibilities. One of the things that I'm really looking forward to is getting together with these wonderful women to shop and giggle and strategize and accessorize to our heart's content.

Wishing a warm welcome to 2010, the year of our wedding!

Happy New Year!
2009 was crazy. Seriously, seriously crazy. So much happened, so many intense emotions emerged, and Josh and I learned so much about ourselves, about others, and about the world itself. We feel truly blessed for the year, and are very, very happy to be emerging happy and healthy for 2010! With that in mind, here are some of the things (in no particular order...and trust me, this is only some as our list is VAST) we're most looking forward to in 2010.

• Getting to spend good quality time with our friends and family.
• Working with the incomparable Jessica and everyone at Stout Photography.
• Getting all the girls together for girlie time and dress shopping.
• The fun of planning a wedding with the people we love.
• Boogie, boogie, boogie-ing courtesy of the glorious Joe Kalamares from SJ's Disc Jockey.
• Being blessed by the church.
• Our wedding ceremonies.
  
• Growing our love more and more each day.

Josh and I are truly blessed. We thank God that there are so many who love and support us, and for them we are truly grateful.