One Week...

Wow. Where did the time go?

One week from today, I will be waking up early with butterflies in my stomach. I will rush out of the house at 8 o'clock in the morning to get to my hair appointment. I will hang out with my sisters (both new and old ;) ). I will have my make-up done by my not-to-distant future mother-in-law and I will step into the most beautiful dress I have ever worn.

My godfather will be there, my flower girl, my sisters, my mothers, and my dad all to support me on what is sure to be one of the most important days of my life. I'm sure the goodbyes will be sentimental as we break into groups to head to the church. My sisters will then step into the car with my godfather, and my own father will chauffeur me to the church. Perhaps on the car ride I will read the letter Mishka is writing for me to keep me company during our "can't see each other" period.

When we get to the church I'll be hiding in the back until I hear my music play. The parents will be seated, then the bridal processional will begin, and finally Canon in D will signal that it's my turn. I won't even try to imagine what seeing Mishka for the first time on our wedding day will be like, but I'm sure it will be truly magical.

Our friend and officiant will take us through our wedding mass and before we know it... we'll be kissing for the first time as Husband and Wife :).

As for the rest... the reception is going to hold a lot of surprises I'm sure. Drunk relatives, heartfelt speeches, and delicious food (which may or may not end up on my dress O.O). I can't wait to start recapping it for you all, but to start envisioning what might happen... Well I just don't think I could even imagine :).

Man I can't wait!

Bridal Shower Recap

It is difficult to write my bridal shower recap. But, if I ever plan to make it through my wedding recaps, I guess I'd better try.

The reasons I'm having difficulty is that it's hard to capture the emotions I felt that day in words. It was most certainly, one of the happiest days of my life. I ran the gambit of confusion, surprise, elation, and an overwhelming sense of being absolutely and completely loved. There was love everywhere in that room.

But I should start at the beginning no?

It all started when my two friends, D & H (who I rarely ever see) invited me to lunch. Invited me to tea in fact. It was only a week earlier so I was totally unsuspecting. They played it very cool in the car with me (they offered to pick me up - still I had no clue ;) ).

In fact, even after seeing all my friends and family gathered around me, it still didn't really hit me that my shower was finally happening. I was busy making my confused face:

It wasn't until everyone yelled "SURPRISE!!!" that it all hit me in a wave. Let's cut to my "OMG I'M SO HAPPY!!!" face:

Yes, I look gross, but one of the prices of a surprise shower is that you're not as prettified or styled as you'd like to be.

Let me pause for a detail shot of what greeted me upon arrival:

That was a picture of the most delicious cake I've ever eaten. Thanks Cake Boss! And also the crossword puzzle my FSIL designed and the recipe box my FMIL had customized for Mishka and me! Yay!

Anyway, the point is, I was surprised. And that was what my mom and my bridesmaids had been desperately trying to do for months. I know it was hard, with me living in the same house, but it was important to my bridal party and my moms (both blood and "in-law") so I tried to keep my eyes shut and ears closed when I sensed Bridal Shower planning afoot.

But back to the day. If we can backtrack just a little... it seems there is a lot of this shower that I can't strictly recap because I wasn't there. Due to the fact that the shower was a surprise, most of my guests arrived well before I did. So there was a lot of mingling of people who really didn't know each other (special thanks to my future mother-in-law and future sister-in-law for arriving so early so that no guests would be without a host). I've heard it went pretty well, and my proof are facebook pictures like these:

Some of these people are my friends, some are my family, and some are my future family. The last picture is a shot of three of my beautiful bridesmaids who made my day so special. Unfortunately, my fourth bridesmaid was taking this picture so I don't have a picture of the four of them together :(. It's unfortunate, but it's something I'll be sure to rectify at the wedding :-D.

Anyway, this is what they all looked like as they waited for me to come in the room. Talk about people coming together ;):

Another unfortunate is that I don't have any pictures of the yummy food we ate. I think we were all too focused on the fun party and socializing to take the time to photograph the food. At some point during the meal, my bridesmaids all got up to make a beautiful heartfelt toast. My maid of honor even started to cry (quite unexpectedly) which got me all teary eyed too!

Eventually it was time to move on to gift opening. I know this is one of the most dreaded activities by attendees since it can get rather boring, but as I mentioned my future sister-in-law had a solution for that. She had me tested on "Mishka Trivia" before I opened the gifts and I had to get the answer right before I could move forward (side note: I actually did pretty well! I think there were only 2 out of the 20 questions that I struggled with).

I'd like to say the whole thing was as relaxed as this picture makes it look:

but it was really more like this:

with a flurry of people and activity around me. You can see that most of the people in the background are blurred because they're all moving.

And who's that in the background? Why yes, it's MISHKA!!!! He gave a little testosterone to our all-girls bridal shower :).

And one of my favorite shots of the day is me with my ribbon hat put together from all the wrappings on my gifts. Super fun :).

Whew, We Dodged a Bullet.... or rather a Blizzard!

Did I ever mention to you all what Mishka and my original plan for our wedding was? We had a fun idea about a Halloween wedding? We'd have a masquerade reception and our wedding colors would be black and orange. And what better weekend to take place than the Saturday before Halloween? My mom pointed out that a weekend in October would be ridiculously difficult for my busy college student sisters to attend so that idea ended almost as quickly as it began.

So, of course, I took notice when that particular weekend passed and thought to myself "wow, we could be getting married right now". However, it was less sentimental and more in shock that Mishka and I dodged a serious weather bullet by choosing a wedding date in the middle of January. Of course, for those of you who live in the Northeast, you already know where I'm going with this...

source

Yup.. October blizzard. I didn't actually take that picture, but it very much resembles our front yard. There were tree branches down, power outages, dangerous driving conditions, broken windows... you name it really.

I've told several people (mostly my family) about the Halloween blizzard wedding that could have been and I got some mixed response:

"Well you know that means you're going to have beautiful weather at your actual wedding"

"Oooooh, it's a sign you're going to have snow on your wedding day!"

"Oh, wow, well I'm glad you went with New Year's Eve..."

For my part, I'm torn. Do I believe that the blizzard was sent to warn me of future weather problems? No, not really. But am I much more concerned about inclement weather than I ever was before. Because if we can have a blizzard in October, who knows what we could have in December...

But it also makes me feel prepared for the worst. Because I know people who went to weddings during that blizzard. And if they still got married during power outages and "states of emergencies" then so will I. Because really, all I need is myself, Mishka, and someone to marry us (and probably a witness or two). It's not the wedding I've been planning for over a year, but I know that in the end, no matter what, Mishka and I will get married.

And that's really all that matters.