Tuesday, August 16, 2011

The Final Countdown

During a recent business meeting I sang a portion of Europe’s “The Final Countdown” (in relation to a major project I’m working on, which launches just days prior to my wedding). Though my musical expedition was inspired, several conference call participants promptly hung up … leaving me to believe that perhaps my musical talents would best be left to amateur karaoke venues (speaking of – I should tell you now that there will be karaoke at our reception. And here’s lesson #1 for our wedding: Warm up your vocal chords and be prepared to bring it).

Nevertheless I have been unable to get that song out of my head for some time now because, work projects aside, it is really is the final countdown to a lot of things … my 34th birthday (and GAR’s 35th – both happening in the next few days), our trip to Oktoberfest, college football season … but really it’s all leading up (or should I say “counting down”) to Sept. 4: Mr. & Mrs. Day.

For a few weeks now people have been asking me how many days it is to go. Until today I didn’t know. I wasn’t really keeping track. But, with us passing the 3 weeks to go milestone last weekend it seems that the time clock in my brain has started counting down days automatically for me … 20 … 19 …

And we are making progress, kind of. Last weekend we finally shot our engagement photos. What? You didn’t shoot yours 3 weeks before your “big day?” Never mind the fact that we’ve been engaged 8 months already, what are the chances our photographer will even have them ready before we’re married? Okay, so we were a little behind on that one, but it was worth it – we needed the trial run. While we have thousands of photos of us that were taken by friends, family and random strangers standing nearby famous landmarks we visited, we totally clammed up when a “pro” pulled out his fancy equipment and put in our faces (you know what I mean – get your mind out of the gutter!) Naturally all we needed to loosen up and work it for the lens Austin Power’s style was some good old fashioned liquor. Which led to lesson #2 for the wedding: Drink heavily. Hey, we’ve got to if we want the photos to look good, right?

I also had my final dress fitting last weekend. And (thanks to some tummy tucking undergarments) it fits! Hooray! I celebrated this major accomplishment by feasting on a platter of fried goodness and a bucket of beer (hey now, it was LIGHT beer) at Ale House. But not before my Groom-A-Saurus Rex lived up to his moniker by pitching a small (though rightly justified) fit at the bridal shop. If you’ve been reading this blog you already know that we’re not exactly “traditional” when it comes to wedding planning – GAR has taken a very active role in the process, including the wedding dress selection process and my subsequent dress fittings. He’s been there through them all, but during the last occasion they tried to kick him out of the store due to some “no boys allowed” rule another woman in the shop demanded. Simply put, GAR refused to leave … and he did put up a fuss about it. My favorite quote from him was “It’s not all about the bride! What about me? What about the groom?” Well put darling – you pave the way for underappreciated grooms everywhere! And listen up everyone for lesson #3 for the wedding: Don’t mess with the groom on his wedding day or else you’re in for a world of hurt!

We’ve also been tending to smaller details, like the seating chart (apparently people think returning those little RSVP cards that come with the wedding invite is optional … I assure you it is not), favors, centerpieces, programs, etc. And this week will be a busy one too – I’ve got my hair “trial run,” a ceremony run-through with our DJ, plus scoping out possible locations for our wedding day photos, picking up the marriage license (oh yeah, that little detail …) and so on. Which really leads me to the point here – the big lesson … the lesson for all of you to come to grips with: You’ll be seeing (err … reading) less of me. Now I know that my blog posts tend to come and go in spurts as it is … so perhaps you were prepared for this. But, yes, I will be posting less often and what I do post will be less lengthy (try not to cry yourself to sleep over that sad news). Still, I’m going to try to keep you up to date. And, of course, when our engagement photos come back in November I’ll be sure to share those as well.

It’s the final countdown …

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