Double Digits

Last week, we hit 100 days out til the wedding, which means we’re down to double digits in the countdown! Eric *finally* booked an appointment to get tuxes for himself and his groomsmen. I have an appointment tomorrow to have my dress altered, and the alterations are probably going to cost as much as the dress! But since the dress was something I bought on amazon.com, I’m not really that worried about it. They might not be as high as I was initially quoted since I have a modesty panel, just need it to be put on the dress (hopefully with buttons) and I’m not sure if I’m going to have her do the embellishments on my veil or if I’ll do them myself.

My wedding ring came in, though it needs some alterations of its own as it doesn’t quite fit around my engagement ring like it’s supposed to. Eric’s ring should be here today and then we’ll take them to a local jeweler for adjustments. I’m also hoping to book the limo by the end of the month, and that will pretty much be the last thing to book. Then it’s just a matter of finalizing details and paying for everything. We had a meeting with a wedding planner, but she forgot and didn’t show up. So, now we’ve asked my sister’s girlfriend to take care of that. I’m expecting that the caterer and DJ will coordinate most of the reception, so really we’ll only need my sister’s girlfriend to help with the ceremony.

I thought I had successfully avoided the bridal shower question as we had moved within 6 months of the wedding and my sister hadn’t brought it up. Eric’s sister has brought it up before, but I’ve managed to wave her off for the most part. But then, my sister asked about it last month. I told her I didn’t really want/need one since I’m struggling to pad the registry with items as is (as I know some of my relatives prefer to give stuff as opposed to money). I’d prefer money, especially to help pay for some of the excursions we’ve been looking at for the honeymoon, but I also didn’t want to not have anything on the registry and have people try to buy something we already have. My sister suggested I could upgrade things, but I’ve already done that and my registry is still not up to par with what the wedding websites suggest (which is basically a gift per guest so everyone has choices). If I have a shower before the wedding, I’m afraid that will further deplete it to where people won’t have enough choices to buy gifts for the wedding (if they want to, I’m not expecting people to buy us things, but I know that it’s customary and people like to have options). I suggested if she really wanted to have a shower that she could have a honeymoon themed one, which would possibly encourage people to contribute to the honeymoon (either through just giving money or buying things we’d use on our honeymoon…like luggage, travel sized items, beach stuff, etc). She had suggested that I could have a joint shower with my cousin’s fiancé (they are getting married the weekend before we are), but I barely know her and after spending some time at a birthday party with her this past weekend, I’m not sure either of us would be comfortable with that arrangement. So, I’m hoping that if she insists I have to have a shower, she takes my honeymoon idea into consideration. Our honeymoon is paid for as far as the hotel and flight, but we still have to book airport transportation and we’re looking at a couple of excursions while in Mexico.

I’m so excited for the honeymoon, I’ve found many days where I’m just mentally over the wedding and ready to move on to the next best thing. The island is beautiful and so many places there have facebook pages filled with breathtakingly beautiful images that I seem to change my cover photo once a week instead of once a month! We’re definitely planning on swimming with the dolphins and we had talked about a day trip to the Chichen Itza Mayan ruins, but since it would literally take an entire day to do that, we’ve been leaning towards not. Last week, I found a tour to a ruin site in Tulum which can be done in a half day and is still on the water, so I’m thinking if we do any Mayan ruins (aside from the few on the island itself), that would be the best option. We’re only there for 3 full days and two half days, so I think it would be wise to not devote an entire day to an excursion. I’m fine with doing an excursion a day though and I could see going to swim with the dolphins one day, go to Contoy Island (a wildlife preserve) another day and then Tulum as well. Each of these excursions only takes a few hours, so we’d be able to just relax and explore the island the rest of the time. We’re hoping to book all our excursions after the wedding since we’ll still have a couple of months before we go. I just need to get off my butt and put aside some funds to renew my passport since it just expired in March. Hopefully I can get that done this month so I’ll have plenty of time to get it back before we head out!

I didn’t get either position I interviewed for, but in some ways I think that’s a good thing. I’ve been working on a huge project at work for most of the year and it looks like it may last at least until the end of the year, so it’s good I’m not leaving in the middle of it. I will continue to look and see if I can’t find something closer to home and hopefully I’ll find something by next summer.