It's been pretty exciting around here for the last couple of days finishing up all the wedding plans. We are definitely looking forward to spending a week together in Hawaii with nothing to do but sit on the beach. It will be a much deserved break for both of us and we hope to come back refreshed and ready to take on the world.

I too had a wonderful time at our rehearsal dinner. Several of my aunts and uncles were in town already, so we invited them to join us. It was nice to have a chance to see them since sometimes it's tough to talk to everyone the day of the actual event. But then again we are only having a 104 guest at the reception, so we should be able to see everyone.

Well, I'm starting to yawn too, so it's off to bed.

Eighteen hours and counting! Roger and I just finished packing for our honeymoon, right after we got home from our rehearsal dinner. The rehearsal went smoothly (not as smoothly as I would have liked, considering I was kind of nervous). Following the rehearsal, we had a great dinner at the Ole Store with our nearest and dearest friends and family. Good food, lots of laughter, and very relaxing!

Tomorrow I'm off to get my hair done at 9:30 (already got my manis and pedis with the gals this afternoon), then it's down to St. Olaf to decorate, do pics, and then the ceremony is at 5 p.m. It will be a fast day, if today was any indication.

We are so grateful to everyone who has been so supportive and wonderful over the past few weeks and those who are participating in our wedding: Wendy, Shawn, Ryan, Paula, Mark, Char, Eric, Elizabeth, Jennifer, Travis, Jean, Calli and Abby. And we are most grateful for our parents. Enough said.

Yawn. It's time for bed. Big day tomorrow!

Thank goodness the wedding is in eight days, because I'm getting very tired of blogging to this page, like some princess who can't wait for her wedding day and thinks that she is the only one who has every been married before. ;)

There's not much left to do! Thank god, since there really are only eight days left. Since I last checked in here, we finished out sessions with Jennifer. She and I met one final time to discuss the actual ceremony, and today the wedding program is almost finalized and will be printed next week. All of the set up for the ceremony and the reception has been confirmed, and I've put together quite a demanding "to do" list for those lucky people who have volunteered to help on the big day. The luminarias arrived in the mail two days ago, and the cellophane gift bags for our party favors arrived just today. (If you're looking for a web site from which to order paper goods, gift wrap, gift bags, ribbons, etc., try Papermart. A strange ordering form, but heck -- the bags arrived today in perfect condition so I can't complain!) Paula and I are making one more trip to Paper Depot tomorrow to search for some last minute paper goods. Monday evening we'll meet with the photographer to discuss all the "must take" pictures (gosh, he's booked for seven hours so I'm starting to think he can't miss the must takes!). Wednesday I've got a last minute haircut, and then I'm off of work .... which gives me Thursday to finish up anything and Friday to hang out with the gals (for manis and pedis, of course!). Friday night, rehearsal and groom's dinner and Saturday, the big day. Next Sunday, Roger and I fly out to Kauai for eight days ... we can't wait!

Last week the folks at work threw me a lovely office shower, and then, last Tuesday, Tim and Wendy had a "couples shower" for both of us, meaning both men and women were invited (what a concept, I know!). In fact, the men outnumbered the women at the festivities! I took a few pictures but still haven't bothered to get them off my camera; Paula and Ryan, bless their hearts, took a whole bunch of pics which Paula put online at Ofoto (you may have to register, but please do -- that means she'll get more free photos!).

We're continuing our weekly meetings with Jennifer, which I'm positively looking forward to since they seem to be the only time when I'm able to step back from the "wedding" and think about the "marriage." As Roger put it when we were first engaged, weddings are an "industry" and it's easy to get wrapped up in the details of the party. However, we've been thinking more and more about the ceremony lately .... Elizabeth tells us she's started the sermon, and Eric has selected several poems to read. It's been most fun deciding how our friends and family will participate during the ceremony.

The only thing that's really left to do is call the florist with a few more additional requests and flesh out "the day of" list (you know, who and what is supposed to be where at what time).

The wedding bug must be catching ... my co-worker Chris just got engaged this past weekend, too!

Updates galore!

• My mom and dad were in town this past weekend .... mom tried on about a thousand dresses and settled on three. Which one she'll pick for the big day is beyond me. Dad also found and bought a new suit for the event. Suit buying was a helluva lot easier than dress buying, that's for sure!
  
• Mom and I went to the florist and finally nailed some stuff down ... centerpieces, my and Wen's bouquet, and all the other bouttineres and corsages have been chosen. The process wasn't quite as difficult as I thought it would be, either. My dear friend Jean has also offered to lend her assistance in the decorating arena as well.
  
• Roger's sister Char has accepted our invitation to read at the wedding, as well as our friend Eric. I've asked Eric to select and read one of his famous poems. My favorite: The Shirt. Somehow, I don't think it's too approprioate for the ceremony though, do you?
  
• We got our engagement photos back a few weeks ago, and we think they're pretty great! While we haven't decided which ones we want to order, here are two photos we especially liked: 1 and 2.
  
• My first wedding dress fitting is on Saturday afternoon.
  
• I'm picking up Roger's wedding band this afternoon, in addition to going to my stylist. Hopefully he can make the headpiece work with my full head of hair.
  

That's it! We're counting down the days and things are all coming together.

If you're from a small town, you don't send out invitations in the mail ... you just put something in the local paper! Yes, Roger and I had our first wedding shower this past weekend in Belgrade, in the basement of the Crow River Lutheran Church. Friends of Roger's family put the shindig on, complete with speeches, gifts, dessert, coffee and ... karaoke. No, we weren't asked to perform: Cindy, a friend of Roger's family who hosted and emceed the event, performed a few hits herself including "My Girl" and "I've Got You, Babe." (She even lured her husband away from the Vikings came to sing Sonny's lines.) The shower was certainly one to remember, and we're very grateful to the kind people who planned such a fun and memorable event.

Roger and I both took a few hours off work this afternoon to hammer out a few more wedding details. We met with our pastor who will be performing the ceremony, Jennifer, who had the results of our "test" we took a few weeks back. For the most part, we passed! (Well, you can't really "pass" one of these tests ... they mainly just focus on areas you are good at as a couple and areas you need to work on.) We also took a little bit of time to start discussing logistics of the ceremony ... which Bible verses we might want to read, how the congregation would participate, how things would go, etc. etc. Jennifer has been wonderful to work with -- so reassuring for something that can be a bit overwhelming and a bit scary. We both left our meeting this afternoon feeling relieved, and at the same time, excited for the next one (and pretty darn excited to get married, too!)

We then met with our caterer and the executive chef at Bon Appetit and came up with a wonderful menu for dinner ... we had a pretty good idea of what we wanted so it only took us about 20 minutes to hash out the entree and the salad. We'd tell you what we're having, but Roger wants to keep it a surprise. We'll just reveal that it's not going to be chicken.

And finally this afternoon I had a fitting at Bravo Bras, a "by appointment only" office/store that does personal fittings for everyday or special occasion (my strapless dress required a little more complicated undergarment). Despite not having a storefront location (they're in an office building in Edina!), that place was hopping. I guess I should have figured that for those of us who don't shop at Victoria's Secret, we must be shopping somewhere else!

Nothing too new to report on the wedding front. Response cards are trickling in the mail, so I guess that makes all this real, right? Also, Roger's mom was in town yesterday and we talked a bit more about our wedding cake. While we're open to lots of possiblitities, we showed her these pictures of cakes we like.

My mom and dad are planning to come to town this weekend, too ... Mom needs to find her dress, Dad needs to get a new suit. And hopefully mom will be able to help me with this whole flower thing ... like what to actually order! Flowers? I don't care, as long as they look nice!

Details of our wedding are even making the Mirror Project!

It seems hard to be writing about something so festive in light of this week's events, but thinking about the wedding is keeping my mind of more worldly things. Burying myself in the details of centerpieces and party favors — not to mention leaving the television and NPR off — have provided some relief from a terrifying and exhausting week.

So, with that being said, here are more wedding details to report! First things first: Roger dropped nearly all of our invitations in the mail on Tuesday (with the exception of those missing addresses for now), and as of today, we've already received five reply cards back! We had a fun time assembling the invitations; Roger had an especially good time wax sealing shut every single one of them ... but it was worth it as they turned out great.

Wednesday night, Wen and I took to the Mall of America and found the most beautiful dress for her to wear during the ceremony has my maid of honor. Deep burgundy, crushed velvet, tiny straps ... enough said. She will look exquisite.

And, most exciting: we booked our honeymoon the other day with Uncle Ron! (Well, he's not really our Uncle, but seems like it after this spring's trip to Birch Lake.) Anyway, we're going to Kauai and we'll be spending seven nights at the Hanalei Bay Resort.

Who said that it takes a year to plan a wedding? Give Rog and me a good couple of days, and we can knock most everything off our wedding to do list. First meeting with caterer? Check. Pastor? Check. Florist? Check. Speaking of meeting with the pastor (Jennifer Koenig at St. Olaf), our first session involved taking something of a "compatibility" test -- more like an assessment of the things we do well in our relationship, and the things we could work on. Our results should be back in the next week or so, followed up with a few more conversations with Jennifer.

More deets (that's details, in case you're wondering -- thanks Wendy!):

Food: We met with the folks from Bon Appetit on Thursday, and since their menus weren't finalized, we will be meeting with their executive chef sometime next week! Should be fun. Roger's mom has been experimenting with cake flavors (do any of you readers have a good carrot cake recipe?), and we should in the next few days show her photos of cakes we like (I'll try to post them here).

Flowers: I hate this part! I know nothing about flowers and just want to say "Make it look pretty." We did see some great photos of centerpieces in the latest In Style magazine ... fruit, not florals. Eric and Jean, my trust decorating guru friends, will hopefully be coming to the rescue soon!

Music: We have almost finalized our arrangements with a woodwind group for the ceremony!

Invitations: They are done! We picked them up from the printer on Thursday, spent most of yesterday afternoon assembling them (Roger makes an excellent wax seal) and addressing them, and they should be in the mail tomorrow or Tuesday. So, it's for real now!

Photos: We had a blast on Friday afternoon doing engagement photos near Lake Harriet. Our photograher is fun to work with -- he should be a blast on the wedding day. Proofs will be back in a week or so and we will post a few to our site!

Registries: Crate and Barrel was our host this morning for a special registry event ... they opened their doors early for us, fed us lucious Godiva chocolates and wedding cake, and enticed us to add more items to our registry.

See, give us a few days and we can get a lot done! A good feeling. But what, now, are we forgetting?!

Not much on the wedding front this weekend. We just finished the rest of our registering today at Target, whch means we're finally done. At the end of the week we are meeting with the pastor and hopefully the caterer. We are also hoping that our invitations will be done so we can get them sent out soon.

Of course no weekend would be complete without doing some wedding stuff. On Saturday we went looking for tuxedos and found a wonderful place in Savage. The best part Melissa, the gal who helped us. She was so catty and brutually honest. She wasn't afraid to say that something looked like crap and that we shouldn't even consider it. This of course was promted by me picking out the gaudiest vest colors, shoes, and tuxedo's. Needless to say, it was a great experience.

On Sunday morning we went and registered at the Marshall Field's in Burnsville Mall. It was nice because we went before the store was open and we were the only one doing it. However, it turned out to be a disaster because the bedding we wanted wasn't sold there. The Bridal Registry person had to look it up in book and type each piece in by hand. It wasn't until we went to Southdale to confirm our bedding selection that we finely realized that not only had she entered the wrong items, she got the size wrong on half the items. The moral of the story is go to the Southdale Marshall Field's to register since they seem to have a much bigger selection of everything.
We are almost done registering, with the exception of a couple of items we need to add at Target.

Some interesting conversations going on over at Indie Bride, especially in the Kvetch section .... like "Who to invite." That guest list is a monster, isn't it!

Roger and I have been debating on where to go for our honeymoon. After hearing this chilling (and fascinating!) story on NPR this morning, I don't think we'll be heading off to the Grand Canyon anytime soon. November honeymooners, beware!

This can't be real. No, it just can't be.

Lots of updates to report:

• Not only does Roger have a Best Man, I have a Maid of Honor! Wendy has agreed to do the honors!
  
• Last Friday I found a beautiful Che Bella headpiece to go with my dress. The headpieces are available at a few locations throughout the Twin Cities, but I picked mine up at The Bridal Retreat in Savage — literally down the road from our apartment in Burnsville.
  
• Made a second trip to the Paper Depot in Minneapolis on Saturday morning; somehow, my envelope count the first time was off by a few. Roger and I spent well over an hour in the store admiring the gorgeous papers and stamps ... and while we're not planning to stamp any wedding invitations, we're thinking about doing the thank you notes! (Yes, that's we — Rog wants to help!)
  
• On Sunday, we registered! We hadn't planned to register at Crate and Barrel until we saw the dishes (so much better than anything we saw at Daytons ... uhh ... I mean Marshall Fields). We also registered at Target, but the experience at C and B was a heck of a lot nicer. Next Sunday morning, we'll register at Fields, too. It seems so strange, asking for all these gifts. Oh well. We'll get over it. ;)
  
• And if you've been keeping up, yes, now Roger can blog too. A couple of glitches with the Blogger system, not to mention Hotmail, but expect to hear from the both of us from now on.

I'm finally able to get on this blog too!

Let's see where to start...

I've got a Best Man! I asked my best friend Shawn Kellett last Thursday to do the honor. We met in college, were in the fraternity (Theta Chi) together at SCSU and still get together every week on Thursday nights for guys night. Don't worry Shawn, guys night is grandfathered into the equation ;)

Lynsey and I did some other wedding errands over the weekend as well. More on those soon...

We're making progress on invitations! My former co-worker Kim is finalizing the design and this weekend we went envelope shopping ... how exciting! Actually, if you're looking for a huge (and we're talking huge, here) variety of specialty papers, check out Paper Depot in Minneapolis (right next to the Farmer's Market).

I found my dress! Thanks to my mom and Paula who pulled dresses over my head last Saturday for two hours straight, I've got something to wear on the big day. Check it out!

Welcome to our wedding web site! (How crazy: our invitations, which go in the mail early next month, say "Please visit www.struthers.org." Now if we aren't the modern-day bride and groom.) More information is coming soon (including all that stuff on the left), so stay tuned and visit often!