Bridal Shower #2

I had my second bridal shower on Sunday, May 17th. My sister, Jennifer (also my matron of honor) hosted it at her house. It was a Mary Kay shower, so guest's were invited to purchase items for me to wear for the wedding, or to bring me another gift if they chose. It was so much fun! This shower was for my side of the family, which is not very many people. Since I am the youngest child in my family, I don't have a lot of close relatives - heck, my 2nd cousins are closer to my age than my first cousins are! However, 3 of my cousins from Iowa came as well as all my bridesmaids.

We played 2 games. The first was about me. I had to leave the room and everyone had to answer questions about what I was wearing that day as well as other questions about me! Kim was the winner of that one! The 2nd game was a board filled with pictures of me from ages 6 months to current and everyone had to guess how old I was in each picture. This was a tough one! The winner of this one was my cousin Ann.

After that, I applied makeup to see which colors I wanted to wear for the big day! The other girls took turns playing and sampling the makeup. It's just like when you're little playing with mom's makeup! Everyone was so generous and I was able to get everything I wanted and more for the wedding day!

Me with 2 of my bridesmaids - Megan and Kim


My other 2 bridesmaids - Maria and Jennifer


Me and my mom!

Bridal Shower #1

I had my first bridal shower this past weekend in Rockwell, IA with Brent's family. It started at 10:00 and was just a "come and go" shower until 11:30. Pretty casual, but fun! My mom took pictures with her camera, so I have to get them from her. I just have a few images of all our loot that I had to haul home (we managed to get it all in my 2-door car even with Maggie in the back seat!), as well as my corsage and the flowers Brent brought me at the end of the shower. Yes, Brent walked in at the end of the shower with a dozen pink roses for me. All the ladies went "Awwwwwwe"! It was pretty cute! I have to get busy writing thank you notes now!

All of our gifts that I'm not allowed to use until Brent moves in!

My pink corsage!


The pink roses Brent brought to me at the shower.

I also had my first dress fitting May 2nd at Mestads in Rochester. I was a bit nervous about how it was going to fit since when she measured me she said I was in between 2 sizes and she ordered the smaller size! It fit pretty good, but the sides did need to be let out just a bit. Also had to get it bustled. The total came to over $200 in alterations and I didn't even have that much that needed to be done. They always get you some way!

I have my second bridal shower this Sunday with a few of my family members (I don't have much for an extended family) and my bridesmaids. It's going to be a Mary Kay shower so I can get some new makeup for the wedding!

I can't believe the wedding is less than 7 weeks away (46 days)! We are feeling pretty good about having everything done. We really don't have much on the list left.

The one thing we are waiting for is to hear about a job for Brent. He has had 2 interviews with the Owatonna Police Department as well as the Waseca Police Department within the last month. Either job would be wonderful as we would still be able to live in Waseca and wouldn't have to try and move right away. I am saying a prayer every spare chance I get that one of these positions works out! It would be wonderful if we could get him moved up here before the wedding. We did spend a little bit of time packing at his house last weekend in anticipation of good news. Keep your fingers crossed for us!

Wedding invitations were mailed out last Monday and it has been so much fun receiving RSVP's in the mail everyday!

Dress!

Just got a letter today that my Wedding Dress is in! YAY!!  I have an appointment for May 2nd for my first fitting - hope it fits, it's been a rough winter! :)

Wedding Update

Even though I was helping my mom for most of my furlough, I did manage to get some wedding things done as well.

On Monday, Brent took the day off from work so we could head to Mankato to get some things done.

1. We met with the Pastor and went over our PREPARE inventory with him. Although, there weren't any surprises for me, it was pretty interesting and it gives us some things to think about as we count down the days to the wedding.

2. We met with the wedding coordinator at the Holiday Inn. We got a lot things for the reception figured out and need to schedule a taste test sometime, though I'm not sure when since almost every weekend from now until the wedding has something going on! Oh - and the best part - I locked my keys in my car right before our appointment. So, that was $35 down the drain!

3. We went down and applied for our marriage license. Since we had the meeting with the Pastor, that saved us $75 (well, $40 since I spent $35 getting my car open - ha!)

4. We met with the organist and soloist who will be playing/singing at the wedding. We have our songs all picked out. It was so fun to hear them played. I think Brent got a bit nervous hearing the processional song being played in church!

5. We ordered the memorial bouquet for the ceremony.

Whew - Monday was a big day for checking things off of the to-do list!

While at my mom's this week, I worked on the boutonnieres and corsages. I mostly tried to work on them while mom was napping. I was able to finish them today.

Last night, we booked our flight for our Honeymoon. Brent's cousin owns a beach house on the New Jersey shore near Atlantic City, and he is letting us stay there. We are planning on leaving July 5th and coming home July 10th. We are both really looking forward to it!

The Boutonnieres / Corsages

Mens / Womens

Furlough

This past week was my furlough from work - a week off from work - yay! But, without pay - boo!  The original plan for this week was for my mom and I to work on wedding stuff (like the boutonnieres and corsages and addressing the invites). However, God had another plan.

My mom retired at the end of January and was loving it - until the second week. She started having a lot of back pain. None of us really thought much of it because my mom has had back troubles in the past and it always gets better. But, this time was different. After over a month of pain without any improvement, she finally decided to go to the doctor. She had an MRI and on March 18th we found out that she had a tumor in her back. It was very shocking for all of us, not to mention scary. We didn't know what to expect and the worst thoughts go through your head. She had an appointment with a neurosurgeon in Rochester on the 19th. The doctor originally wanted to wait to do surgery until April 7th, but my mom insisted that was too far away and something needed to be done asap as she was in so much pain. They scheduled the surgery for March 26th. 

On March 23rd, mom went to the Owatonna hospital by ambulance because she couldn't handle the pain at home anymore. They kept her there for pain management until the day before her surgery. Then, they took her by ambulance to Rochester to get her ready for surgery.

March 26th was a long day. We arrived at the hospital at 5:30 am. Mom was taken into prep at 6:30. Her surgery started at 9:10 and ended at 1:30. We didn't get to see her until about 4:00. It is really tough to see your mom in so much pain. However, the good news was that they were able to completely remove the tumor and it was benign. Mom was also able to wiggle her toes and move her legs! 

The recovery from surgery, wasn't so smooth. Mom was in quite a bit of pain from the surgery and was on a lot of pain medication. However, our family doesn't tolerate pain medication very well and a lot of complications came about. Mom ended up staying in Rochester until April 1st. 

I went to Owatonna the day she came home to help take care of her. My stepdad was there as well, but he has a bad knee, so it was a challenge for him to do everything by himself. I stayed over at my mom's house all week and it was great to see her improving a little bit each day. She's using a walker to get around, but I'm confident that won't last long! 

I'm thankful that I was able to be there to help her out. It's amazing how things work out sometimes. Now, we just need to get her all back to normal - hopefully better than before since this tumor has probably been causing her trouble for a LONG time! We only have 84 days until the wedding!!

Less than 4 months to go!

Brent and I got a few wedding things done this past weekend. Saturday we headed up to the Mall of America to check about getting his ring re-sized. We are afraid it's too big, but the next smallest size seems like it might be too small! So, we ordered the next size and we will see how it fits when it comes in. The bummer is that we got our rings at Helzberg in Mankato and the store closed back in December, so now we have to go all the way to the MOA to get our rings cleaned and checked. Although, that gives ME a reason to shop! Not that I usually need a reason!

I also found some cute clothes to wear for our honeymoon. Just a few cute dresses and some fun summery tops. I haven't been on a real vacation in forever, so I'm really looking forward to it!

On Sunday, we headed to Target to register for wedding gifts. It's hard to find things to register for when we both have our own homes and already have 2 of everything! We have decided to get some new things like glasses, dishes and silverware and get rid of our current ones. Just to make things "fair". We also found a few fun things - like the Wii I've been wanting forever!

We also worked on assembling the invitations. We have a pocket folder, the invite, and 4 enclosures w/rsvp envelope all put together and closed with a seal. Brent was so cute putting glue dots on the back of the invites and stuffing everything into the pockets. It was fun spending time together and getting things done. It goes so much faster when you work as a team!

In the next few weeks, I need to work on getting the corsages and boutonnieres made. I am taking my required work furlough March 30-April 3 and plan on getting lots of things done during that time. Brent and I will be meeting with the pastor and the holiday inn that week.

I also need to get back on my diet and exercise routine that I was doing last summer. I need to fit into my dress when it comes in!! Ever since the holidays, I've been slacking. I wish the weather would get nice so I could go out for walks. Spring is only a few weeks away - I hope!

Oh - and some not so great news...Brent did not get the North Mankato job or the Waseca County job. North Mankato hired someone else and Waseca decided to not hire anyone. These city/county budget cuts are really hurting us! We are preparing ourselves for a "long-distance marriage". I guess the important thing is that we both have jobs right now and we keep telling ourselves that things will work out eventually. We keep praying anyways!

The invitation ensemble


My little helper ready to get to work!

Wedding Weekend

This weekend has been my "get ready for the wedding weekend". Friday night, my personal attendant Elizabeth, was so gracious to offer help with cutting down my invitations and enclosure cards. I printed everything on 11x17 paper, so it all needed to be trimmed down. Did I mention, I'm doing 175 invitations? That's a lot of cutting my friends. We worked for about 4 hours and still didn't get them all done, but are more than half-way, so that is good! Next step is assembly and addressing.

Today, I headed to my mom's house to work on the bouquets. I was still tired from all the work last night, so I had a hard time getting up my energy, but once we got going it wasn't too bad. They all turned out beautiful! Next, we have to work on the corsages and boutonnieres. That will be another weekend project. 

Tomorrow will probably be spent cutting down more enclosures as well as working on the video to show at the wedding. So much to do!

My bouquet. The Bridesmaid's bouquets are similar - less pink and more white.