By the way...

Anybody else pissed about this whole change in the postal rate thing? Thank GOD they are finally creating a stamp that supercedes it for future changes. I have about 30 $.39 stamps at home left over from the "save the dates" that I sent out, and I can no longer use them on the return envelopes as I had planned to do when I send out invitations. No biggy, really...I'll get some $.02 stamps to use them up on other stuff in the future, and then I'll be picking up some of the "first class FOREVER" stamps when they start selling them, so the invites won't have an issue. (Not that I'd expect them to raise the price again within a 6 month period, but it's the USPS...I wouldn't put it past 'em, really.)

The night got away from me...

Ok, so I didn't send out the hotel website link last night from home, as I had planned to do. I'll try to get to it tonight.

Last night, I got busy with some other things I needed to get done before we slammed down a yummy lasagna dinner that Jesse had made so we could run out the door to get our registering at Bed, Bath & Beyond taken care of. Which we did. So now we're done with it all! (Except for some updating online now and then, of course...)

So, here is the link to the registry at BB&B. Please pass it along to those who need it, and thank you for your help with that! We will not be noting our registry information in any of the invitations (as it has been clearly indicated by any and all columns regarding proper etiquette that it is really not ok to do that...), so we're relying on word of mouth to spread the info to those who want to look over our registry in case they want to buy us a gift for our wedding.

Last week was my week off...

Let's see...last week was the week I planned to take "off" from planning. And I was rather successful. (Except for the registering on Monday night thing. And then following up with the florist via e-mail on Tuesday and Wednesday. Oh, and starting to try to search for ceremony musicians in spare time on Thursday. I wrote a note to the cake lady, too, and I never heard back from her...I'd better give her a call.)

Anywho, seems there's no rest for the semi-weary when it comes to this stuff, so I'd best forget about trying to take any time off from planning from now on, I suppose! I like it, really. I just keep wondering if I'm forgetting anything. Crummy feeling, not knowing if I'm hitting all the marks I need to hit. Again, checklists help, but there's just that lingering feeling that I'm not doing everything I should be doing, you know?

And I'm dizzy on and off again these past two weeks. Stupid vertigo. I thought I'd kicked whatever was causing it, and I had for about a month, I think. But it's back. Even while I'm sitting typing this, it's making me spin. (Usually it saves itself for less dangerous places, like staircases.) I will attempt to eradicate this bout by taking the dose of Advil Cold & Sinus I have in my purse for emergencies. I feel a bit stuffy in my ears suddenly, so it would make sense that it's a sinus issue.

And apparently it causes me to share totally unrelated material when it comes to posts. Sorry!

Ok, the REAL point to this post is to say that I finally got the website link from the Sheraton, which is where we've reserved a block of rooms for the wedding weekend for those coming in from out of town. I've asked Jesse to please take care of setting up the block of rooms at the Embassy Suites (and I'm not sure he's taken care of that yet, actually...), and I'm not sure if we'll do a 3rd hotel. (Maybe the Marriott...I don't see a huge point in doing that, though. Unless people have certain rewards plans they're a part of and all...) I'll update if necessary.

I'll send the link to the website out later tonight from my e-mail at home. Must get back to dealing with the head spinning thing now. Bleh...

Happy now? :P

For those who were worried about whether we would ever get around to this task, Jesse and I were finally able to get out to one of the stores we plan on registering at to take care of business yesterday.

We are officially registered at Crate & Barrel now.

Please, don't mock any of the choices we have on the list, if you can avoid it. Between the employees that randomly handed out unsolicited suggestions (like matching up our stemware properly, so our table doesn't look silly or strange when we throw dinner parties...you know, one of the many things Jesse and I have all the time in the WORLD to do every week! I don't think this particular salesperson realized that it wasn't 1962 anymore, and people like Jesse and I could give a flying fig if our stemware matches...especially since we're both partial to the stemLESS glassware, thankyouverymuch.), and the feet and legs hurting from all the standing and staring at things as we attempted to make decisions, and the fact that it took a little over 2 hours in the middle of a rather exahusting day to get it all done? We're lucky we didn't wind up picking out full sets of furniture, including patio and/or dining tables we don't even have the space for, just to get those salespeople to lay off already!

Don't get me wrong...they're all very nice at the Crate & Barrel store. Really helpful. Very friendly. But once we've told someone that, no, we don't need to see the catalog for spring in order to make more registry choices (she was the 4th person to suggest that we "go ahead" and put the big furniture items on there, because "people like to go in on gifts sometimes..." Yeah, like we hadn't heard that already from 3 people on the first floor of the store, dammit!), and we already have a catalog at home, and dear LORD we're almost done here, woman, so back off a bit, please!! You would think she might stop chasing us around the furniture section with said catalog in hand, pointing out that we "can look at the actual pictures of items to see if we want them." (Becaaauuuse seeing them in person right there in the store isn't better than looking at pictures of them? I really didn't understand her logic. Not at all.)

But it's done. We've registered. I was very excited to go and register before we did it, and I was very happy to go and have a beer with Jesse after we registered and before we had some dinner with friends to celebrate a birthday.

Next week, we will visit Bed, Bath & Beyond to register for more everyday items, as well as some of the things that Crate & Barrel doesn't have, or of which they don't have a big enough selection for us to choose from. It should be a much shorter registery, though, I'm thinking. We'll see...but our plan is to hit that store on Tuesday night, I think, so we should have a registry to view there by Wednesday morning.

Anyway, please pass the word along to those that have been asking and wondering where we were going to register. It's done! YAAAAAAAYYYYY!!!!

Ooh! THIS is where the stress comes from!

AAAAAAUUUUUGGGGGGHHHHHH!!!

I need a beer.

And a good cry. TGIF.

So, as previously mentioned, Jesse and I have decided to honeymoon in a lovely place that looks tranquil, beautiful, and luxurious, called Virgin Gordo in the British Virgin Islands. We will be staying at Little Dix Bay Resort for 7 days, and are looking very forward to the trip, even now with 7 months to go before we leave! Since Jesse’s work is kind of stinky about how time off is taken, we will be having our wedding, and then heading back to work the Monday after, not taking off for our honeymoon until the Monday after that (i.e. Nov. 5th). This actually works out pretty well, I think. This way, we can celebrate Halloween here in town (which is always fun for me and him…we like passing out candy to kids, and I like dressing up for work and everything. Ooh! He gets to dress up for work this year, too, if he wants! Last year, Halloween fell on a day off for him, so there wasn’t any point. Um, don’t ask me where this Halloween tangent came from. My mind is still trying to adjust to that damned daylight savings crap we had happen this past weekend…), and rest a bit after the wedding, and the dog doesn’t have to be in boarding for such a long amount of time successively. She really misses us when she gets boarded. (And we really miss her too, we’ve found!)

As you can see in the post prior to this, I’ve shared the news that the bridesmaid dresses have been found, and all bridesmaids are making their efforts to get measurements and sizes to the matron of honor (who is currently searching for a new title, since she hates the way “matron” sounds…I told her it’s her own darned fault for getting married before me, but whatever! Any suggestions on new title for the “matron of honor” are being accepted in the comments section of this post…), so we can get them all ordered and on their way to us ASAP! All girls seem very happy with the choice, which makes me happy as well! It’s a very pretty dress…

Since we’ve found the dress, we have a very solid idea of what we will be doing for tuxes. They’ll be black, and then the groomsmen and the ushers will wear a “truffle” colored vest and tie, while Jesse will wear a “champagne” colored vest and tie. We’re planning on checking out tuxes in April or so, which is pretty well on track with the checklist from The Knot. Is it bad that I use that thing as a wedding bible these days? Thank goodness for little helps like that checklist!

Last night, Jesse and I met with a florist to discuss the ideas we have for decoration, bouquets, boutonnieres, and all that good stuff. After an initial issue with time management (we had agreed to meet at 6 p.m., and she thought we had said 6:30), we sat down and got to work, and I really wound up liking her a lot! She was very happy with the design I’m drawn to for our centerpieces, and said that since she’d like to have something like that in her own portfolio to show to future clients, she’d be willing to give us a discount on them, even…which will be nice, but since I don’t have any frame of reference, she could just SAY she’s giving us a discount when really she’s charging a normal price for them, so whatever. I don’t care. We’ve chosen roses for our flower, and will not be varying from that except in my bouquet and the bridesmaids’ bouquets, so that should keep costs down to a certain point. Since my Twin has given me a certain spectrum of costs for things, we’ll have to see if this chick we met with can stick anywhere near the idea I have. I didn’t mention any numbers last night, but I’m expecting the proposal to come in a day or two, and then we’ll have something to work from.

I’m not going to mention any of the design ideas out here, though, so I’m sorry! I want some things to remain a surprise for most of the guests, so it won’t take away from their experience of seeing it all for the first time when they see me walking down the aisle/when they walk into the reception/etc…

As on track as things may seem, I’m feeling more and more like it might be time to call a coordinator for some help on things. I certainly want to make sure we get the best help we can for that day, so setting that in stone right now wouldn’t hurt at all, I’d think. And then if I need help with stuff like finding the right kid-sitter for the reception (and possibly for the Thursday and Friday night before the wedding, too), and getting that section of the party set up perfectly, I can rely on someone who has more expertise than I do with finding that sort of “vendor” here in town. But I want to wait until after we meet with the caterers to discuss options they have for bringing in rental furniture, and seeing about having a buffet of kid-type food for the kids available in their little area, and all. Hopefully, we’ll be meeting with them in a couple of weeks. I need to take next week OFF from wedding meetings!

More to come in updates this week…Jesse and I went to our Catholic Engaged Encounter weekend this past week, and I would love to chat about the experience out here. Probably tomorrow or Friday…we’ll see what the work schedule does.

Happy Wednesday!

YAY!!

We've found the bridesmaid dresses!

It shouldn't be as much of a relief as it is, but maybe it feels so good because we all agreed on it on the same day that I confirmed booking for our honeymoon in Virgin Gordo. I dunno.

Very exciting!!

Conundrum. Sort of...

I’m having a problem processing something, so I thought I might sound it out here on the ol’ wedding blogaroo…

Jesse and I went downtown on Friday night to see a friend’s art show that had opened that day, and then to grab a bite of dinner and some drinks at the bar/restaurant in the Hotel Phillips called “12 Baltimore.” I’d been looking forward to checking things out there for a while, and it seemed like the perfect night for it. (Since our wedding reception will be ending at what I consider to be the kinda early hour of 11 p.m., we’ve been planning on gathering those troops that are still raring to drink, dance, and be merry and head on in to 12 Baltimore before retiring to the suite we will be staying in that night, which is one of the 2 suites they have at the Hotel Phillips.) So we had some yummy dinner and some very good beer, and split the tab at the end of it all, and then headed home for some well-deserved rest.

Last night, Jesse had planned on making us some chicken gyros for dinner. Before hitting the grocery store, he checked his account online to make sure everything was in order, and thank goodness he did! He called me and told me that his checking account was in the negative because he had several charges from the Chophouse, one charge from the Hotel Phillips, and then one charge from a Days Inn that were being deducted from his account as the bank processed the info from the merchants. All totaled, they had deducted over $170 more than the $32.55 they should have from his account. I checked my account, and they had done the same thing to me, however since I used my credit card to pay for my half of the bill, it wasn’t as detrimental to my account info. I told him I would call the hotel, and then let him know what was going on.

After about an hour had passed, the hotel controller called me to discuss what had occurred. Apparently when 12 Baltimore went to close out their tabs on Friday night, they thought that the charges weren’t being processed due to some error they were seeing on their credit card machine. So the hotel closed out the tabs as though we were guests, which made everything seem right in their books. On Monday, when they realized what had happened, they cancelled the charges to our accounts for all the transactions that reflected the Chophouse as the merchant, and charged us instead through the Hotel Phillips. For some reason, the hotel charge that occurred on Friday night shows as being processed through Days Inn Kansas City as the merchant. However, the controller for the hotel said that he can’t help us with that issue, as they are in no way affiliated or related to the Days Inn.

Wow. Ok, so both Jesse and I have several charges in the same amount over and over again to our separate accounts, and this Days Inn charge just HAPPENS to be in the same exact amount as the ones from the Chophouse and the Hotel Phillips, and on the same date as all the ones that came across from the Chophouse, but this guy is telling me that he can’t help me with that one?

Can we say “pissed?”

As this gentleman explained to me, we have to take care of it through our bank. (And I know what the bank will say when I try to tell them what he said, which is that we need to clear it up with the merchant! AUGH!) For now, the charges show as “pending” in my account, and I would assume they are reflecting the same way in Jesse’s account as well. 3 of the Chophouse charges have been refunded to me in my account, but one still remains as “pending” as well as the one from the Hotel Phillips, and of course the one from the Days Inn.

The problem is that I had just sent in the paperwork to reserve a block of rooms at the hotel for the wedding weekend. I was all excited to stay there the Thursday and Friday before the wedding, and then the night of the wedding after we were through hanging out in their bar at 12 Baltimore. And now? Now I don’t want to deal with them ever again.

I’m so very disappointed.

But then again, I’m sure glad I found out about this before something happened to 10 or more guests at our wedding!

For a 4 star hotel (which they were recently appointed by AAA’s travel department), they aren’t acting too 4 starish, in my opinion…