Let's go on a date.

2.26.2009

Yesterday, Flo and I booked our reception venue. It was surreal, but not in the way I thought it would be. TV, books and internet really do skew your mind and emotions. We should have popped some bubbly and celebrated…but instead we rushed to get something into FedEx by 4:45….we arrived at 4:39….sweet! Then rummaged around Whole Foods talking about how starvin’ Marvin we were and went to get some Mexican food at Dona Marie and then went to Cake World! YUM. Not wedding cake quality, but it was delectable. And that is how we spent the day in which we booked our venue.

Dying for the goods, aren’t you? Well….not just yet…. It is kind of like asking my bridal party before I ask my sister to be in the wedding…. I need to tell more people about the date and location.

TODAY I booked the wedding venue. It is a place that we had looked at quite a while ago and then finally go Flo to agree with me on it. He is more of a traditionalist and always assumed it would be a church wedding. This is an outdoor venue, not a church. We are exploring ways to make both happen. Maybe I should save that for another topic. Today, we will just discuss dates, not details. I did smile uncontrollably today after booking the date, that really made it all come together. As if it is solid and the planning can begin. Now, I can't wait for someone to ask me if we've set a date! The news was shared with a few close friends who were unfortunate to be within an ear shot or email blast away.... thanks for listening, girls.

So here it is:
Date: Check
Time: Check
Venue for ceremony: Check
Contract: No check, this is to follow
Deposit: Nope, not yet
Venue for reception: Check
Contract: Check…I signed my life away on this thing…
Deposit: Check….one of the top few largest checks I’ve ever written!

We are well on our way. Ohh….the Las Vegas Bride story…. Wow between LVB and the Catholic weddings, I sense a few more blogs waiting to happen!


Here is a picture of the happy twosome!

Welcome to my party...so far it's a party of two.

2.20.2009

Most girls already know who will serve in their bridal party long before they get engaged. When they do get engaged, the first thing that happens is the bride-to-be will ask her bridal party. I’ve been engaged almost two months now… not one person has been asked. Why? Because I have NO clue who to ask. Not that I don’t want to ask people or have no one to ask, but being in a wedding is a commitment and knowing myself, commitment is a pertinent word for it. I am indecisive, spontaneous and a little out there once in a while. Remember…event planner by day I am. Planning an event for me and Flo is going to be the ultimate. Have you ever been to one of my birthday parties???

This coming June, I will be in my first wedding EVER. How does one girl make it to 31 before ever being in a wedding?? Call me lucky I guess. Admittedly, I am quite stoked about it, especially with it being my first ever. The experience has been quite easy too—I am over 2,000 miles away from the bride and can’t do too much to help. It will be that way for me also, as most of my party is going to be from out of town.

What I am lacking as a bride, when it comes to bridal party, Flo is making up for and then some. His party is already solidified. He is just waiting for my green light to make the calls. My thought process is that we should at least have a date and a location set? Possibly put down a deposit to really make it official?? Flo is cool with that…but ready to get the ball rolling.

Me…well….the decision will be made soon. Flo comes from a family of three boys, where I am two girls. His was born into an automatic wedding party plus throw in a friend or three and he is all set. I was born into a possible maid of honor, if she wants to deal with being one! This won’t be her first, but hopefully the last for rockin’ out in a dress that will one day just collect dust. Can’t even promise that the dress can be “worn again”.

The goal is for me to begin asking next month. I decided to ask my party with a fun little gift as opposed to a phone call, text or coffee. My fabulous friend, Dallisa, of Sugar and Spice Cards (
www.sugarandspicecards.com) has been recruited to design and create something for me to mark the occassion. For the time being, it has to remain a secret…. Well also because I don’t quite know what she is making either…. We will all find out together, sort of. Photos will be posted of the gifts after I receive them. In the meantime, visit her site, she makes the greeting cards by hand, they are quite fabulous!!

A little background

2.15.2009

Is a timeline on when something goes from "background" or "the past" to history?? Flo (future hubby will now be known as "Flo") and I have known each other for 13 months now, we have a history of 13 months, we have a past of 13 months....so here is the background on "Our Story":

In March of 2003 I moved to Las Vegas because of "the weather". Little did I know that this would be paramount to my life story one day. After wanting to move a few times since being here, I always knew that there was a reason why I stayed. After years of enjoying great weather on my own...I finally met my weather man. Flo moved to Las Vegas at the cajoling of his mother. There was a job opening for a CBS weather anchor and with her encouragement, he applied. Happily making the move from Green Bay to Las Vegas, he has no clue what was in store for him down the road....

This story will raise your eyebrows, make you laugh and possibly grab a tissue. It all begins before it really began. Our lives were parallel to each other about a year before we finally found each other. Unknown to us, we had a mutual friend. We were invited to several parties where we could have met, but if one of us was there, the other was not. This happened at least three times. In November/December of 2007, I had become quite ill and went through 3 misdiagnosis until I was finally diagnosed with Diabetes four days before Christmas. Needless to say, the holidays were neither merry nor bright. On New Years Eve, while the rest of the world was out celebrating and looking forward to a new beginning, I was on the couch, struggling to keep my eyes open while watching local news coverage of the festivities. Flo was at work, on the other side of my TV, doing local news coverage at Fremont St. While I flipped back and forth on channels, I recall seeing Flo, who, at the time, was unknown to me. He was swarmed with drunken people hooting and hollering in his ear and in his shots. I remember saying that it must suck to be him or worse, his wife. Less than two weeks later, I was feeling a little down and out so I did one the things that brought me great joy—taking my Beagle to the dog park. Little did I know that this was the day that my life would change forever….. The story as told by Flo: We met about in January of 2008 at a dog park, when our dogs made a connection. After her Beagle tired out my Golden Retriever, my Golden came to me looking for a rest. Shesh's beagle wandered over to me and left a surprise at my feet and Shesh rushed over with a plastic baggie. He obviously wasn't turned off by me or my Beagle. After talking for quite some time, Flo had asked for my digits. I hesitated and offered to take his number instead. After a few days, I had sent a text while he was snowboarding with the fellas. He responded once her returned home that evening.... I was coloring my hair for the first time since being sick (Remember, November 2007....hello roots!) and gave him this line "I don't mean to sound cliche, but I have to wash my hair, can I get back to you?" He obviously believed me and several thousand texts later...here we are!

THE PROPOSAL
For quite a few months, we had been talking in terms of forever and we both knew that the engagement would happen soon. As with most girls, it could not happen soon enough. Some great friends of ours had referred us to an amazing jeweler who made house calls! Back in October, we had her come to our house and we picked out what I liked for settings and stones. The final decision up to him. My parents were in town for the holidays and I knew that he was up to something when he had taken them to breakfast one morning. In keeping with tradition, he had asked them permission to marry me. He shared no details, other than he had the ring. No one had any idea of when the proposal would happen. It was New Years and he was doing a live broadcast, again, at Fremont St. Although he was working, my only request was that we are together at midnite so that we can smooch! My parents and I went into the crowd, counted down and just after the"3-2-1 HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!", he handed me a note and said, "Read this". At first, I thought it was an "I love you but it won’t happen just yet" letter, but after getting a few lines into it, I knew what was about to happen. As I was reading it, tears filled my eyes and just as I finished, he was on one knee with the ring and said, "Will you marry me?" With the fireworks going off and thousands of people around us, I’d swear all of that went silent and we were the only two people there. At some point, I said "YES!" I was in shock and just filled with such emotion. We were at Fremont St. among thousands celebrating the New Year, my parents were there and all of the strangers around us, suddenly became friends!



We barely have any photos of the actual engagement, but it was caught on tape, thanks to his clue-in photo team. Like all proposals, it was the most amazing and surreal moment of my life, so far. Never have I felt such joy, happiness and love at one time. It's just you and I now, Flo.

Venue. Zenue.

2.07.2009

Who knew how difficult finding-and confirming- a venue would be? All of the timelines and check lists dictate that it is verboten to plan anything without your date and your venue. Agreed. However, it doesn't stop me from drawing up some inspiration boards. This blog isn't necessarily public yet and you sure as heck haven't seen my wedding wire profile, but I have inspiration boards.

Last Friday my fantastically involved fiance called four potential venue sites. Two called us back. Yes, two. Understanding how the wedding business works on weekends, I gave them a fair shot and waited until Tuesday to write them off. In all honesty, we pretty much have our hearts set on a reception venue, but felt as though we needed to see more places. We now disagree with ourselves.

Here is what we are looking for: a bring-your-own-vendors location. I work in events and have great trust in certain vendors and would like to call on them for my wedding. (I still chuckle and get butterflies when I say the wrods "my wedding"). We began looking last year way before the ring was ever put on my finger and found a location we loved. I called them on New Years Day, left a voicemail stating that I understood it was a holiday but to please call me back. Today is February 7. She hasn't called back yet, so we cut them off of the list also.

Until anything is confirmed, details are being kept hush-hush....but we have agreed upon a location and look forward to booking it. I won't shout out of the non-responsive vendors, but if anyone really cares to know please ask and I will share my thoughts. This doesn't mean that your experience will be negative also.

Just seems as though everyone is hungry now for business and you can't get someone to call you back! Oh...this also includes a dress shop. I called one two times and have not heard a word back. I'm sure they'd love me to show up on a busy Saturday afternoon with three girlfriends.

This was a random ramble. Random Ramble Saturday. I did some dress trying on today and will share that in a separate post.

YAY! Hooray! First Official Blog

2.04.2009

Finally. As if I've been engaged for eight years and haven't planned a single detail... I finally begin my blog. It took quite some time to find the name, but I knew that eventually it would come to me.

Thus you have my OFFICIAL wedding blog: Jennifer & Tedd: Nearlyweds. The address is Sheshlywed so that I can easily remember which blog belongs to which topic.

Enjoy my ride as I plan my own wedding from start to finish!

Cheers!