Music related folks drive me nuts.

I need help! I'm going nuts trying to figure out this music stuff. We're in need of ceremony musicians (preferably a string quartet) and a DJ for the reception who can play a mixture of salsa, pop, and more traditional wedding reception music.

We've only really talked with the Augusta Symphony Orchestra for the ceremony music, and I just really was not a fan of their attitude. I don't think it's too much for professional musicians to play the music that we choose for our wedding.

For DJs, I've been in contact with a couple and they really aren't following through with providing references or a sample contract. Kinda irritating when you email, speak with them on the phone, email some more, and you still don't get something you've been personally told is "not a problem" to supply.

SSSOOOOOooooo.... if you have any suggestions for ceremony musicians and/or DJs I'd super duper appreciate it. Thanks!

Happy birthday, Me!

Tim was able to take a bit of time off of work to come up to visit me for my birthday! He came up on Tuesday (the day before my birthday) and brought Voltron. It was soo great to come home from work and eat dinner together and watch Glee together and everything. I, of course, went to bed early while Tim read his book. Pretty much a perfect night. :)

On my birthday morning, I woke up and got to play with Voltron while I got ready for work. It was so fun! He gets so excited when you wake up so he can finally play instead of laying around. Too cute! Work was good - My CCCE, CI, fellow student, and I went to the Urban Market near Grady for some amazing burgers, fries, sweet potato chips, and milkshakes for lunch... Totally recommend Grindhouse Burgers if you're in the area! I got off of work a little early and came home to hang out. After a brief nap, we video chatted with my sister and had a wonderful breakfast themed dinner made by Jessica - breakfast pizza and cinnamon cake! So yummy! Juan, the older of my younger brothers, was able to come over for dinner, too. All in all it was a great family dinner! Jessica even gave me a platter off of our wedding registry as a birthday gift! Tim had to leave so he could be at work in the morning..... And then I moped around for a while. Two more weeks until I move back to Augusta and only about 6 more months before we get to go to bed together and wake up together every day. I'm so ready to not say goodbye anymore!!

Anyway, it was a great birthday! I so appreciated everyone who called, texted, and facebooked me. It definitely put a smile on my face every time my phone would buzz with a new email notification! :)

Down to the Details

For the most part, all the big stuff is decided on and booked and done. The only big thing that continues to elude me is the whole music thing. For some reason, anyone related to music in any way has decided to only occasionally semi-respond to my emails and/or phone calls. Come on, guys. You're supposed to be professionals. *sigh* Hopefully I'll be able to nail something down soon. Beyond that, we're really just working out the details now. It's crazy that we're at that point already! Hopefully it'll be pretty smooth sailing from here! Some of the details we're working on now are the wording of the invitations, finalizing the menu, finalizing the centerpieces, how we want to arrange the ceremony and reception, and choosing linens for the tables. With every item I cross off my to-do list, I can picture the day that much more clearly. I just want the day to be here and get married and dance and have fun! I'm excited to keep moving forward and piece the details of the day together. And even more excited that it's just over 6 months away!

Sick day. :(

I've been dealing with a cold all week and finally my voice is entirely gone on top of all the other cold symptoms. So, my CI told me to take the day off and hopefully tomorrow I'll at least feel better even if I don't yet sound it. But now I'm stuck at home in bed feeling yucky with nothing really to do all day. My plan: to catch up on TV shows as I fall in and out of drug induced sleep. Here's an update on some wedding plans:

We finally picked out wedding invitations! Yay! I'm excited about them. And we chose the fabric/color of the sashes for the chairs for the reception, so now we can turn our attention to napkins and tablecloths. Programs are pretty much done, just need to wait until it's closer to the wedding to print them. Found the ribbon for the cake and bouquets and my veil is pretty much done! I think my mom is putting off finishing it b/c she really wants me to wear it differently from how I want to wear it. We'll see. Now that I have my shoes I'll go try on the whole ensemble and we can try the veil both ways to see which I like better.

I've been playing with how I want to wear my hair. I've found some pictures of what I think would work well, and I'm really looking forward to trying them out when I get back home. I had my hair cut to a bob last year right before we got engaged, so it's just now getting past my shoulders. Still trying to figure out the music thing. I didn't appreciate the attitude that accompanied the Augusta Symphony Orchestra's string quartet and I've been directed to another organization so we'll see how that goes. DJs are crazy expensive. I've been in contact with one who is more reasonably priced but he hasn't really been returning my last couple of emails, so we'll see how it goes. That's pretty much it. Not too much going on lately. I'm definitely looking forward to being back in Augusta permanently so things can keep moving more consistently.

And now it's nap time. Hope this made sense. I'm kind of out of it....

:-)

My last couple of blogs haven't been too wedding-y, so here's a wedding filled one! First, I thought this video was wonderful. It starts out as the Father of the Bride's speech and turns into quite a production! Take a look here!

Second, I think the registry is complete! It's kinda hard to think about what you'll need when you've never needed to do it before. When I lived on my own in Milledgeville, Jessica already had practically everything. Same with Tim and his roommates. So it really is like starting from scratch. The things i'm most excited about from the registry are our casual china, cookware sets, mixer, and flatware. Our casual china is the perfect mixture of our tastes. When I saw it I could picture eating dinner, doing the dishes, and a color scheme to decorate with. The only problem is that they're seasonal, so we'll see what happens. We registered for two cookware sets: one non-stick and one stainless steel. Anyone who knows me knows I'm not that big into cooking, so the lower maintenance the better. My mom has the same non-stick set that I registered for and my cousin has the stainless steel set, so I've worked with both and really like them. As far as the mixer goes, everyone I know who has one swears by it. Its versatility in preparing meals (and desserts!) is especially attractive. The flatware that Tim and I settled on reminds us both of sets that our parents have/had while we were growing up. (Side note: I just said "were" growing up... That's weird because I definitely feel like I'm still growing up...) I held it in the store, which definitely helped me settle on it.

Third, I finally found shoes! Yay! They're everything I was looking for and fit quite well into our budget. Annndddd..... I don't know what else. It's like everything is happening all at once, but little by little things are falling into place. My mom and I were talking today about how we're both ready for me to move back home so we can actually get things done without needing a million texts, photo messages, and emails as part of the necessary process. Still need to work on finalizing our ceremony musicians, DJ for the reception, and rentals... and a bunch of tiny details. One of my bridesmaids, Amy, will be returning from Rwanda for a visit in a couple of weeks! I'm really excited to see her in person and catch up and do wedding stuff with her! It's going to be a busy time! :-)

A talk with Barbie

Last night Jessica, Blake, and I went to a Halloween party at their neighbor's house. There were quite a few crazy costumes! There were a lot of people, food, and drinks. :) As I was moving through the party meeting all the neighbors and chatting about costume choices (I went as a candy corn, by the way) I came across a woman dressed as Barbie. She showed me her pink purse and shoes to match her outfit, told me which house was hers down the street, bragged about her new dog, and then asked me what I do. When I told her that I'm finishing PT school and doing a clinical rotation at Grady she hugged me. She went on to tell me about her aunt who is in a rehab facility right now and is not expected to live much longer. She told me that every time she visits her aunt all she hears about is how the PT helps her walk around and encourages her in every thing she does. Barbie told me that she thinks encouragement is the most important thing that the PT provides for her aunt. She talked about this for a long time. I could tell that she really needed to talk to someone about her aunt, so I listened and let her talk. It really made me realize how physical therapy doesn't just affect the specific patients but their families, too. While her aunt is worsening medically, whatever activity she does with her physical therapist gives her and her family hope. Barbie seems to be having a hard time with her aunt's prognosis but appreciates anything that keeps her aunt doing as much for herself as she can. And she credits physical therapy with a huge part of that.

Hi, Me!

I'm finally starting to feel like myself again. It's amazing what being away from the stresses of the classroom can do for you! I didn't even realize how often I was having headaches until I stopped having them. I'm back to my generally happy self - less negative, more positive. My use of :) in texts and emails has even increased! It hit me over the weekend that I started to recognize myself again, and I really missed me.

Over the weekend, one of my oldest friends got married! It was a beautiful wedding and Kelly was glowing! I was very excited to see her so happy. It was so fun to spend a weekend with my girls and my fiancé celebrating such a wonderful event. We ate, danced, laughed, and ate some more. It was a perfect weekend.

I'll be heading back to Augusta this weekend for a fun-filled wedding planning weekend. Meeting with my coordinators, Carol and Dianne, catching up with my parents about a few things, and trying on the shoes that my mom found for my wedding day! Hope they work out!! :)