Wedding Madness

I'm getting married in 3 days. So weird! There is total chaos in the house. We have so many guests and so much going on! It also seems like there's some fun surprises in store :) It's fun but a bit overwhelming. Ok, no more time to write - I'm off!!

(Wedding) Material Girl

Though I got a ton done this weekend, it wasn't as rushed and busy as every day has been for the past... well, while. My parents and brother came, so they got a break too. They LOVED my apartment and I felt really great that I got to show it to them before the wedding. It felt like it made it real.

I had a good boot camp class yesterday and have been sore all day. I started another Blue Print Cleanse today, so I've been a bit tired. My wellness coach said that a cleanse may not be the best approach for me, since I may not have as much junk in my system to clean out, given my healthier diet in the past few months. However, it feels appropriate after the bachelorette party, and I can always add fruits or veg broth if I need it.

My dad luckily liked one of the songs I'd selected for the father-daughter dance, so yay! I liked it too, though I think it will be hard for me not to cry. But that's probably true of most of the appropriate songs. So I think we're getting to a good place, music-wise.

After my family left today, I spent a lot of time on the couch watching bad romantic comedies, drinking juice, and doing wedding stuff. I updated the various schedules we're maintaining (wow, its going go to be busy!), created the welcome packet (which took a surprising amount of time), and the wedding program (which was surprisingly quick). I also created a clip art we can use on all the wedding materials we're handing out. It's nothing fancy, but I think it'll help pull things together.

My parents had brought the wedding program from the wedding they attended yesterday, so I thought I'd use it as a template. But I got annoyed having to type it up, so I did a few Google searches, and lo and behold, I found the same template they'd used! It was pretty funny. I liked the wording so I used most of it :)


All of our guests were supposed to book their hotel rooms by Friday. Unfortunately, a few were too late. My dad called the hotel and found out that the entire hotel is booked with our guests! The block is full and there are no more rooms. We booked a few on reserve, but probably not enough for all the people who haven't booked yet. Apparently only TWO of our family friends have booked rooms, so there are probably quite a few desperate calls coming our way...

20 days left...

Last Minute Details

Time is going so fast these days! I leave 2 weeks from yesterday to go to Reston for the wedding. Aack!

The biggest worry on my mind in terms of time is that MJ and I haven't remotely practiced our first dance. We will only be in the same city 7 more evenings and we each have things planned on some of those nights. Oi! I suspect my mother and aunts will force me to get up at the sangeet and dance a little, so I need to practice something for that too.

We of course still have a bunch of details to iron out, but I think we're on top of most stuff. We've asked the various friends and family members if they will do dances, speeches, MC, etc.

I spent last night working on finalizing some key moment songs. I picked my bridal entrance song. That was fun, since most of them are about how beautiful the woman is and how she takes the guy's breath away. Hee hee But, I've also been looking for some ideas for the father/daughter dance. It's hard to find a Hindi one - most of them are extremely depressing and/or slow. Ideally, I'd like to find an old one, but I'm not picky at this point.

I'm also looking for gifts for the two friends who planned my bachelorette party and will be involved in the reception. It's hard to find the perfect gift to express my appreciation for them and their friendship, but I think I have some good ideas. Hopefully they'll like them!

I found out this morning that my favorite cousin in the whole world will not be coming to the wedding. She got turned down for a visa in India. I'm very upset, as we are like sisters and I never imagined I'd get married without her there. We've always talked about how her first trip to the US would be for my wedding. But there are some things that are out of our control I guess...

I'd love to write more, but my brother is on his way over! My family's coming to NY for about 24 hrs and I'm so excited to show them my new place!! MJ's also at his bachelor party in New Orleans this weekend, so it works out perfectly :)

Check! Check! Check!

25 days to go! It's starting to feel a little more real after this past weekend. It was very productive and we got a lot done.

We found a hair and makeup artist we liked. I like her work and her personality meshed with our's. She's a bit pricier than we were looking for, but we feel more comfortable with her than we have with the others. In general, it seemed like there were two distinct categories of makeup and hair artists. One category was in the $500 range, their work was more traditional and less consistent, and they used lower grade brands of makeup. (One even asked me what airbrush makeup was!) The other category had a more contemporary look and used more expensive brands, but was also almost double the price and often had an attitude. (One asked me for a photo of myself before she'd accept a meeting!) Overall, searching for such an artist was not a pleasant experience. Hopefully this one will work out.

We also met with some people who will be providing food for our house guests and the boxes we will be giving to our wedding guests. One was a man who used to work in the temple and they asked him to start a restaurant with pure Hindu food. The restaurant's ambiance leaves much to be desired, but the food is fantastic. It tastes like the Indian food people make at home, not the type you get in restaurants. So we'll likely hire him to make the food for our house guests the entire week before the wedding. My parents are having a lady come to the house to start making snacks and sweets for everyone too. (Our guests will not go home hungry!)

The final thing we did was to do a walk through at the venue with the DJ. He gave us a good feeling of being on top of everything and knowing what to do when. We have been slacking on putting together lists of songs and not all the key moment songs are ready, so we need to start focusing on that.

We went out a communication to all our wedding guests today as well, so that they feel informed and can plan better. (And, hopefully book their hotels. The area we're getting married in is notorious for not having available hotels and we're afraid our guests won't have a place to stay!)

Probably the most important thing is that we were able to discuss a lot of the details for the wedding events and get some final pieces nailed down. We thought of some fun activities for our guests that they'll hopefully enjoy. I'm starting to think this would be an awesome wedding to attend if it weren't my own ;) (since I can't participate in all of the fun stuff!)

I took last week off from the gym, but somehow didn't gain weight. But I went to boot camp last night and hit the elliptical this morning, so I'm back on track!

Less than a Month Left!!

My friends are the best! I had an absolutely fantastic bachelorette party! I'm really glad we decided to move it to NYC so more people could join us for different events. We had a wonderful, jam-packed weekend with lots of quality time and fun. The organizers planned a very thoughtful itinerary. I couldn't have asked for a better bachelorette party and I'm so touched that so many people spent so much time & money on lil ole me!

We've finalized our cake order and are focused on getting my hair/makeup artist solidified by this weekend. It's been tough to find someone who's work we like and who does both hair and makeup. They also generally seem to be some of the least technologically advanced people I've met. Many use their husband's email accounts and/or don't have any pictures to show us. How can we sign up with you if we've never seen your work? But I think we're getting close.

As I mentioned before, I absolutely love my new apartment. It's gorgeous and comfortable... BUT I also now have a 45 min commute each way. I don't mind because I can read on the train, but it means I'm not getting home until 7:30 or 8 most nights, at which point I have 3.5 hrs to go to the gym, make & eat dinner, and do a few wedding things before bed. I feel behind on all the wedding details that need to be done and am constantly exhausted. I was going to the gym in the morning, but am too tired now.

MJ and I are scheduled to practice our first dance tonight for the first time! Exciting stuff!