Thursday, August 31, 2006

A day in the life of a soon to be bride...

6:45 Get up, get ready, go to work.
8:15 - 11:30 Work hard
11:30 Go get marriage license and scarf down lunch. Find out officiant idea won't work. :-(
12:30-4:15 Work hard
4:15 take off early and go to seamstress for dress fitting. Am told am tiny but have big bones which is a problem but get dress taken care of.
5 head to new florist, get lost due to bad directions, then eventually find it around 5:45
5:45-6:45 Have very pleasant meeting with florist and think he's "the one"
6:45-7:30 Drive back to my part of town
7:30-8 Return some things to Target and buy present for friend who just had baby
8-8:30 Drive home
8:30-9 Scarf down lean cuisine
9-10:30 Write thank you notes
10:30 - 11 Wrap aforementioned present
11-midnight too wound up for sleep (don't seem to be getting much these days), so read book
midnight pass out from sheer exhaustion.

I'm very sleepy. *yawn* Today's schedule is just as packed, but with different items.

Saturday, August 26, 2006



What a find! I was so excited to find a 2Petite amazing dress on the clearance rack at the Loft.

What a great lunch! I have amazing friends and future in laws.

What a day! Fun pics, wonderful party, then we showed the site to Heather & Catherine. Ben and I both were in such great spirits this evening.

Kara and Jessica did an amazing job - the flowers were beautiful, the food was excellent, and the champagne punch was delicious. Thanks, guys!

Hooray! We have an officiant!!!!!

Plus, I got shoes today and realized that my pearls will be great. What a great Christmas present from my wonderful future husband.

Will post pics from today's events later.

Sunday, August 20, 2006

And to mark the celebration of my 100th blog...


....I'm posting a pic of a portopotty...
but come on...this is hilarious...this had to be on purpose...

We saw this in a neighborhood that's being built close to the house a few months ago.

Saturday, August 19, 2006

This is post 99..what an achievement

So, we have people coming over today and we must clean the house before they get here - and what am I doing? Writing a blog.

Went to Bluewater again last night. So.Yummy. Seared Tuna is the best I've ever had.

But must note fashion again. Fashion currently is meant for very skinny girls. Very skinny girls. Yet, lots of girls seem to be wearing this stuff. Very bad. Not only are the clothes meant for very skinny girls (I rank myself in the skinny girls category, but not the very skinny girls category, so there's no way I'm wearing this stuff), but they're just ugly. Ugly colors - grays and army greens and too much black. Yuck. Fashion = bad right now.

On a brighter note, we've got to return a gift to targ. that we got two of and I have lots of gift cards to targ., as well. I wish I could use those at dill.s - haha - we've gotten hardly any of our silverware or china. I think from now on, I'm going to purchase china for friends - K said she hardly got any of hers either - and it's so expensive to have to complete once the wedding is over. Guess we know what I'll be asking for for Christmas! :-) My theory about getting hardly any of the china is that people wait until very close to the occasion (be it shower or wedding) and you must order the china....but they want to bring something in hand & wrapped up...so they go elsewhere instead. I know this would have deterred me in the past - bec I usually wait until pretty close to the event to get the present.

We received another present yesterday on the front door stoop. That was so much fun!

Think we might go to the ATL tomorrow and look for a tie for ben to wear. we saw some really pretty ones back in the spring and are hoping that there will still be some cool ones around. Plus, I want to eat at the Cheesecake Factory, as I never have before. He showed me his suit the other night and he looked fabulous. In review, this was sort of a random paragraph. Sorry, readers.

Less than five weeks now....this is wild.

Oh, the season premiere of my favorite TV show is on our wedding night. :-( Chris & Amy said they'd take care of it for me - I hope they remember.

Oh, speaking of - I can't wait to see C&A as well as dave & shanon today. I hope Brenda brings by Evan for a little bit.

Must run to grocery store & pedi appt before massive clean....

Thursday, August 17, 2006

Sent an email to future mother in law this eve, and started realizing many things to do.

- make music list (ongoing project, as I'm adding songs as I think of them to spreadsheet)
- find officiant
- get off of fence and decide on florist
- get off of fence and decide if I want additional linens
- do i want a sign in frame table? sign in tables are so 1986...
- get together some pics for heather to put together for display (on sign in table?)
- plan honeymoon
- take engagement pics
- send in applications & pics for maryville, knoxville, and/or chattanooga newspapers (not nashville, bec it costs $175 - insane!)
- decide on groom's dessert table decorations & what to display/serve (had some help on this - pretty much think i'm straight here)
- programs? have cards, but what to put on them?
- get dress hemmed
- get new shoes (before dress hemmed)
- figure out how want hair
- buy any hair ornaments required
- send out thank you notes for most recent presents
- give final count to caterer (SEND IN YOUR RSVP'S!!!!)
- discuss menu with caterer
- figure out who's sitting where at dinner
- give TN RP the diagram of how we want things set up
- ben to take care of wine & beer
- ben to take care of bartender
- get marriage license
- get some sort of musician for ceremony music? Where? UTC? Flamenco guitar to go with site? If not, what kind of music? And where do we put them on the balcony?
- Decide if want Terry's fam to video
- get items for welcome bags
- decide on favors - must get off of fence here, too
- invite recent new friends that we've become close to?
- many, many more things but i'm too tired to think of them *and* ben is wanting me to drive him to sonic for tator tots - but this discussion has been ongoing for the past 20 mins, so who knows if it will come to fruition...

But really, what does it all matter? I think this is why I keep putting things off (besides that whole work thing getting in the way): at the end of the day - whether we have favors or not - whether there's a flamenco guitarist playing - whether it's video'ed - whether it's announced in the newsaper - proper wedding dress or j.crew halter - we will be married.

I enjoy the details, but I've been enjoying my evenings at Livewell more now that we no longer have school. I'll knock some things off the list next week. :-)

Tuesday, August 15, 2006

It is so much fun...

...to come home to presents and fun RSVP's!

Should we open the presents? We weren't sure - so I'm going to email the sender to check.

I'm so glad I went with creative RSVP's - it has been so much fun to receive those.

I ran for the first time in over a week tonight - it was a surprisingly good run considering the break.

What a fun day!
Had the fam shower on Sat. Good times. I have some super fun great aunts and aunts. Mom did way too much - the place settings are beautiful! I even loved the silverware that Ben picked out - it's so shiny. I hope we get the rest of the silverware if nothing else, bec I'm not looking forward to having to buy it myself. Ben picked pricy stuff.

I'm flaky. That's that. I won't elaborate.

Also, I got a get out of jail free card with my mom this weekend which is super awesome - I don't ever have to worry about guilt trips again.

So, week 1 of not having school has been amazing.

Did the wake board tourney on Sunday - hung out with some of Ben's friends - everyone is fun - which means I did not pay one bit of attention to the wake boarding tourney.

Having people over on Sat for finishing MBA celebration - should be a good time. Must clean house every night this week. Which usually leads to a sinus infection for me bec I let it get so dusty, then clean, and dust is my bad (is 4 the highest they go?) allergin. Bad Stacey for letting the house get dusty. However, it should stay clean now that we have all the time in the world to clean.

Ben got his suit for the wedding on Friday - he's picking it up tonight. I'm anxious to see it. I'm sure he'll look hot. :-)

Must decide on florist. Must decide on ceremony music (and procure ceremony music musicians). Those are the two big things on my mind right now.

Oh, and Ben must find an officiant - that's a super big thing. We're only 5 weeks away - we can't exactly get married if we don't have an officiant. I guess if nothing else we'll get married at the courthouse the day before and just celebrate on the 21st. That was Ben's idea...

Monday, August 07, 2006

We are done!

Finito! Finished! No more! The end!

No, Ben didn't call off the engagement, again - we're done with the MBA. No more school two nights a week. No more papers to write...no more presentations to give...no more tests to cram for...no more cases to do...no more MBA. Period.

Big sigh of relief!

I got my invitation to the shower on the 26th today! Oh, my gosh, they are the cutest invites ever. Thank you so much Jess & Kara!!! :-)

Now that school is over, I can focus on finishing up some details (plus work on the five pounds I gained during Crisis 2006).

Hooray! We are done!

Wednesday, August 02, 2006

Be afraid...be very afraid!

Of Hurricane Chris!!!!!!!

It's so nice and quiet...

We've had our lights and the water fountains downstairs turned off since Monday and it's so nice and quiet at work. The bad thing is the increase in temperature, though - usually they freeze us but during peak periods they make it pretty hot.

It was thundering this morning while I was getting ready, and I thought it might help the valley some. However, it was just a tiny storm (and the only one on the whole radar for tn) - so no luck. Another hot day in the valley...but i'll stop there. I'm afraid I'll start rambling about business sensitive stuff.

I will say this, though - I don't like hearing people complain about rolling blackouts and what not. This country is addicted to electricity - deal. We do what we can.

Oh, the first response cards are coming back! It's exciting to check the mail everyday. Trace & Richard were the first to send theirs. Maybe I'll give an award for "Most Creative"! hehe. Chris & Amy had many, many creative ideas for theirs - it was hilarious. I can't wait to see what everyone comes up with.