frenzy

over labor day, the boy and i went to utah for a weekend full of wedding planning. it felt like total frenzy pretty much the entire time. planning a wedding from a few states away in just a few short months is a little wild. things started to come together, other things totally fell apart, and new things cropped up. my mom and my sister saren and niece eliza were the best helpers, devoting their entire weekend to wedding prep. like i've mentioned before, i'm learning a lot from this experience and trying to relish the uniqueness of this chapter of life.

our three days in utah included:

-a suit fitting for the boy, during which we got a call from his mom, who was picking up the invitations...and the return address was misprinted! ahhh! it was a bit crazy trying to figure out what to do next, and our awesome friend who owns the suit company that is making the suit was so patient and helped us to stay lighthearted about it :)

-an invitation addressing party with my sister and parents and the boy's sisters, mom, brother and sister-in-law. we couldn't stuff, stamp, or seal the envelopes due to the typo, but we did get hundreds of them addressed. it was really fun to have parts of our families together for the first time. my dear friend dani also came to help and for sunday dinner, and my cousin who is doing our flowers came with my aunt to strategize about how to set up and beautify my parents' house for the reception. our invitation addressing party dwindled down in numbers, but continued late into the night.

-a meeting with our wonderful caterer to show her the prep space and talk about yummy things to share with our guests!

-a final dress fitting with our seamstress. i get so anxious about my dress because i feel like there are so many different options and i want it to be just right, but once i have it on for a little while, i get so so so excited about it.

-a fancy dinner with my parents, the boy's mom and my sister and niece.

-a trip to ikea to buy vases and to home depot to buy spray paint, followed by fun in the garage turning the vases navy and gold.

-attending church together.

-a lunch date with my best friends abby and cath at my favourite place. it was soooo nice to decompress and get their opinions and validation and advice. we stayed in our booth chatting, chatting, chatting for a couple hours.

-a trip to our dinner venue to scope out the space. i am in love with this place.

-the realization that we are going to be missing several family members on our big day and at our celebration, which is super hard for me to swallow.

-a beautiful walk with my sister around my parents' mountain neighborhood. some autumn leaves are just barely popping, which is beautiful - but i kindly asked them to hold off and be just right in peak foliage the week of october ninth :)

-a family wedding shower with aunts, cousins, moms and grandmas from both my side and the boy's side. it was so, so, so wonderful. my sister saren and my mom threw a little mid-afternoon tea party with little sandwiches, tea cookies, fruit and candy. we went around the circle of incredible women, and they each offered a tidbit of advice with their gift. the boy (and my dad) came at the end, which was really fun. i was just filled to the brim with gratitude for all these beautiful souls in my life - i'm related to half and almost related to the other half and i can't believe my good fortune.

phew! now we are counting down the days of the last month, and there still seems to be so much to do! i think all the wedding planning work is really going to pay off though :) i am getting so, so, so, so, so excited.