Wedding Cakes

SO glad none of these were my cake.

An interesting thing occurred

Right after the wedding I was so full of stuff to blog about that I thought I'd have to split it up into multiple posts.

But now, it seems like I don't have anything to say.

I think it's because I know I won't be able to describe my views of the wedding to my satisfaction.

Perhaps things will change when I see the wedding videos. :o)

Wedding pic webpage

Click here!

Sneak Peek

Wedding pictures!

The pictures are up! Sorry, but I won't post a link here until the mass email first goes out to friends and family with the link. That will be done later this evening so be watching your Inboxes!

Quick post

This is going to be a general post because if I went into any detail regarding the wedding, I'd be writing forever and I'm sure you'd get bored. I've decided to break things up and comment on specific wedding things in no particular order.

First topic: my name.

As I'm sure you all know, I went back and forth with this for quite a while. It wasn't until I was filling out the social security form that I decided what I was going to do.

I was going to let my middle name go *poof* and move my last name to my middle and take Chris' last name. As I was filling out the social security form, I actually started crying because I didn't want to give up my middle name. My middle name means a lot to me (I've been told it's a combination of my dad's middle and my sister's middle) and I wasn't willing to part with it.

What I ended up doing was moving my last name to my middle (so now I have two middle names) and took Chris' as my last. Which is kind of confusing to people and has posed a problem (if you can call it that) with my middle initial. Can you have two middle initials? I guess not. Which means I write down the first one? (D) But then the A gets passed over and I don't like that either. Whatever. It's not something I can't live with. This still is the best option for me.

And I wonder how long it will take before I can introduce myself as Nicole Parrish? Probably quite a while.

Speaking of dancing...

I forgot to mention: Chris and I have our first dance lesson tonight for our first dance. Wish us luck! (me more than him) ;o)

In a perfect world...

What would I like from next weekend?

I want everyone to enjoy good food, a fabulous cake, drinks galore, and shakin' their tailfeathers on the dance floor.

Everyone have their party hat on? That's what I want.

In a perfect world...

Dresses!

One of the things that I didn't know was such a big deal for people until I got involved in one, was wedding attire.

My assumption was that the bride cared about her dress & what the wedding party would wear. I wasn't prepared for the grandparents, aunts, parents, and even guests to be concerned too. Is this color okay? What about such and such style? What are your colors?

And I suppose I'm not the best person to ask, because...well, because I'm okay with everything! :o) Hey, I'm the one that seriously considered making my brothers wear bridesmaid dresses. (just joking)

But I certainly understand the concern. And perhaps the next time I'm invited to a wedding, I'll be a little more aware. ;o)

Beginning to run into problems...

So I *finally* received the pictures we ordered from the photographer in the mail. Including the bridal portrait that turned out better than I thought it would. I kinda liked it from the sample online, but I wasn't sure how it would look blown up to 16x20.

My mom and I went to Michael's on Monday to try to get it framed. So we looked around at the stock frames and we don't like anything. So then we look into having it custom framed...picked out the mat, the frame, (spent a while doing it) and then I ask, "How long will it take?" "About two weeks." Ooooooooohhhhhhhhh no. We don't have two weeks. Woops.

We decided to order it anyway (I won't go into cost--more than I expected) and if it doesn't come in, we'll just frame it with a stock frame for the reception. THEN we find out the 16x20 portrait I ordered (standard) is actually 16x24 (NOT standard). So it wouldn't even fit in a standard frame if we wanted it to!

Talk about frustrating. I'd like to blame someone for this, but that's not how I roll. Especially when I still have to deal with this person. At any rate, the Michael's lady was so nice and helpful and put *RUSH* all over the order & told me to call on Wednesday, so hopefully we can get this thing banged out in time for the wedding.

I really hope so considering how much we spent on this dang thing. :o)

Are you excited??

Perhaps it was the mood she caught me in. Perhaps I was in the same mood when others asked me the same question.

That seems to be the most common question: are you excited. And other forms: are you getting excited? Are you nervous/anxious? Are you ready for the wedding/big day? Do you have everything done for the wedding?

As a bride, are you supposed to feel excited? I would assume so since that's the most common question I get. Except, it's not often I feel that way.

I'm pretty honest with people and usually answer with something like, "Eh." lol That's Nicole for ya. I started to think something was wrong with me because I just don't feel...giddy about it. And I thought about just coming up with something to say to people like, "Oh my goodness you have no idea!" because when I'm honest, I sound like I'm really not looking forward to it or too stressed out to enjoy the process.

Why am I not excited? I've tried to figure it out. Do I have too much on my mind to feel anything, let alone excited? Am I so even-keeled that I'm really not "excited"? Has it not hit me yet? Am I actually kind of dreading it because much attention will be on me (not something I look forward to--I'd rather just sit in a corner I think)? Is it because we'll be legally married some other time & this is just show? Is it because we already live together?

And then I figured it out. I do get excited. I just don't remain excited. It comes and goes. And usually it's regarding one specific thing. Are you excited about your groom's cake? Super duper excited! Are you excited about the drink luge? I wish I could see it now! Are you excited about getting married before the ceremony? Completely. Are you excited to walk down the aisle with your dad? I plan on sobbing before the wedding so I use up my supply!

I thought I was crazy until I came across this lovely post from Offbeat Bride. And I realized that I don't need to be excited, nervous, anxious, or any other word you can think of to describe a bride and what she may or may not be feeling. I don't have to feel excited 24 hours a day. I can be whatever I want to be and however I want to feel.

Autumnal Air

I have to admit...I cringe every time a see fall & Halloween decorations now. I used to love them. Not so anymore.

I walked into Ingles today and it felt like I was smacked in the face by the Halloween candy. And my next thought was, "Uh oh. Is this the beginning of the end of my love affair with this season??"

Why such dread? Because it means we're that much closer to the wedding. Not that that's horrible thing. On the contrary.

What it translates to me is that I'll have more to do. More on my plate. More appointments to meet with people. More emails. More money. Thank you notes. Decisions. More more more. Oh, not to mention a job and a thesis to write.

Piece of cake.

P.S. On the job note: I had a phone interview today for a temp, part-time secretary position at the fitness center. I will be ecstatic if I get called in for an in-person interview and absolutely floored if I get the job. Sweetness: On campus. Part-time (good for me right now). Possibility to turn permanent. Loads more money.

Dance lessons

I've been brushing up on my dancing skills for the wedding.

Getting married before/after getting married

I just think it's so amusing that our wedding ceremony will have no legal merit whatsoever. I know a lot of people do it this way, but I never envisioned it for myself. Chris says, "We can wait until after the ceremony to get legally married." Uh huh, sounds like a good way for him to high-tail it outta here! ;o)

So wait. When would our anniversary be? The day we were legal or the day of the ceremony?? Can we have TWO anniversaries?! Sweet.

For some reason I'm excited about being married before the ceremony. But at the same time, will it take the magic of the ceremony away?

Do we do it sooner rather than later? Does it make a difference?

Hmmm...

Ya know what?

I reserved our hotel reservations in Gatlinburg, TN today!

At a hotel 3 months old
In a room with a whirlpool AND fireplace

For cheaper *CHEAPER* than our room in Candler on our wedding night.

Crazy.

So yeah, originally we weren't going to go anywhere on our pre-honeymoon, but we figured we have the days off, we might as well do something.

That something turned out to be Dixie Stampede & Dollywood. Um, yeah. I'm crossing my fingers that I get to meet Dolly. Not joking.

T minus...

2 months and counting!

The invitations went out Thursday (I figured it's better to be early than late) and we've already had several people RSVP.

So exciting!

AIM romance

I teared up when Chris IMed me this:

Chris: Putting this on my syllabus

October 26 – I will not be here, due to some pretty lady having laid claim to me and us getting married on October 24. I will be back on October 28 to share my experience of both a wedding and being a new husband.

Equal Rights

See this blog post.

Then note: we've chosen a minister to perform our marriage ceremony who has refused to sign all marriage licenses in protest of NC laws that prohibit same-sex marriage. That means we'll have to go get married by a Justice of the Peace before our actual ceremony.

A small price to pay in the fight to award all people equal rights.

Unity Ceremony

We have plans to do a "ring-warming ceremony" in our wedding. I had envisioned it a little differently, however, so now I'm re-thinking the plans. The way I thought of doing it was actually have a space of time set aside for it, so have the minister start the rings around and we all just stand around looking at each other while a "musical interlude" is played (instead of starting the rings at the beginning and going on with the ceremony while they're being passed). I think the latter may work better though. But I still want a musical piece done, so maybe the former is the best way to kill two birds with one stone. I don't know! I'll mull it over.

P.S. Almost a week later, my wasp sting is still "smarting". I wish it was over already!

Changing names

This post from The Broke-Ass Bride is one of the few posts on name changing that is actually worth something.