Impromptu Dinner Party!

On Tuesday night we hosted a mini impromptu dinner party at our new casa!


When I got home on Tuesday night, at 6:30pm (guests were arriving at 7:00pm) I scrambled to hide all the loose "bits" of stuff we still had lying out around the house, that hadn't yet found a home from the move, and Todd scrambled to prepare an incredibly delicious meal. Poor Todd still had on his kitchen pants from work and I looked like a slave driving wife making him keep on his work clothes and get right back in the kitchen! Fortunately for me, he enjoys it (I am SO spoiled! A chef husband?! Yeah, you're jealous.)


Anyway -- originally Lor, Stef and Monica were going to come over for a little girls night to give Stef a nice send off to Paris (yup -- she left for Paris on Wednesday -- now I'm the jealous one!). Then Todd told me that his buddy Keith was coming over to help install our new thermostat (totally fantastic digital thermostat, only problem is the old one was vertical, this one is horizontal, thus some serious Spackle and painting is necessary). Then we decided to invite the other men (Josh - Lor's husband, and Jarrett - Monica's fiance) to round out the group, and we ended up with a nice little dinner party!


Todd brought home some (amazing) salmon from work, and some corn and green bean mixture, and I stopped at the store and got some chicken breasts and makings for a big salad. Todd grilled all the meats and made delicious sauces for everything. He's so talented! The girls all drank wine and sat around the dining room table (since it only has 4 chairs) and the boys all sat in the living room and watched the CAPS game (go Caps!) Everyone left around 9:30pm and because I had picked up some paper plates at the store, clean up was a breeze! It was a successful and fun evening and we can't wait to host again soon!

On Wednesday night we finally got around to watching Will Smith's latest movie Seven Pounds. Yes, you will probably cry. The plot was actually really creative. Todd figured out what was going on about 1/3 of the way into the movie. I still couldn't figure it out until the climax of the whole movie. But yes, I cried...a lot. I was very impressed, as I usually am with Will Smith movies (possibly because I love him). Although I am Legend made it difficult for me to be in the dark for several weeks...

Last night I went to a PartyLite party at Monica's house. We had all (well, Lori, Monica and I) actually been to one recently at Jess' house, so I felt like a pro at Monica's party :). She was a great hostess (no surprise there!) and we enjoyed snacks and wine and then started the party. I left early to head to Todd's softball games, which was probably good news for my bank account, because if I had stayed, I probably would have ended up buying more PartyLite goodies. But no worries, I plan to host my own party late this summer/early fall after the wedding, when our house will be completely set up and the mad dash to the wedding finish line is completed :)

Tonight is typically date night in the Kalinosky/future Kalinosky household, but Todd has to work all weekend, so we'll probably keep it pretty low key. I was hoping we could do some grilling out this weekend, but judging by the weather forecast, looks like it'll be too wet and rainy to enjoy being outdoors. Which is good, since I need to utilize this weekend to finally remove the last pieces of leftover "stuff" I still have at my old apartment.

In other news, I am happy to report that Whinnie has made it through the last 2 nights without peeing in the house! On Tuesday night (same night as our dinner party) she had a slip up and was enjoying being around our guests so much that while all of the girls were upstairs in the master bedroom watching Stef borrow clothes from my closet for her trip, instead of barking to go outside, Whinnie went into the master bathroom, looked around for the bathmat, couldn't find it (since I have been putting it up when not in use) and peed right on the floor. Which was annoying, but actually easy to clean up. However, the last two nights she has been sleeping through the entire night...either on my pillow or Todd's pillow. I'm talking, horizontally laying on top of the pillow above my head taking up the majority of the pillow and kicking her feet into my head as she has little puppy dreams of running and chasing squirrels. Which I much prefer over the constant pee-pee clean up.

Finally, this weekend I absolutely MUST send out my Shower Thank Yous as they are about to become WAY overdue...and soon we MUST get out the Wedding invitations or we're going to have a big party with no guests! I think on the wedding "chart" we had gone uphill, hit a plateau, and now we're approaching another great increase. Stay tuned because things are about to pick up!

Wedding Updates!

Wedding Celebrant -- Booked!

Florist -- Booked! (can't remember if I posted anything about this, or the Celebrant)

Invites -- Ordered AND received! LOVE THEM!

Tasting at Regency -- Scheduled for May 30th

Hair and Make-up -- Slooooowly getting scheduled. Have found two potential hair people. Will be scheduling trial runs soon. Still at a bit of a loss for a make-up person. ATTENTION FORMER BRIDES: SUGGESTIONS WELCOME!

Wedding Music -- Mom has been picking out songs on http://www.weddingwire.com/ and emailing them to me. I spent this morning trying to keep myself from losing it and bawling at my desk. All the songs are SO beautiful. I get choked up thinking about what I'll dance to with my Dad. I get choked up thinking about walking down the aisle. Of course these are all happy tears! :) Anyway, we should be meeting with our favorite DJ - David - soon to pick out the music.

Favors -- Bought! Now they just have to be put together, which will be a fun thing for mom and I to do one weekend...or several weekends...

Hair Highlight Appointment -- Booked! WHAT?! You know it's important to have your highlights up to date...psssh.

Still To Do:
- book kennel for Whinnie
- decide on final table linens and settings
- address and send out invites
- hotel welcome bags
- find Rehearsal dinner dress (might already have it...still debating)
- bridal party and family gifts
- MAIL OUT SHOWER THANK YOUS!!!
- have a cocktail...

There's like a million and one other things still left to do, but my head is so full right now that I can't think of them all to complete the list. LESS THAN 3 MONTHS LEFT!!

Dear Mr. & Mrs. Cardinal,

I am so sorry for our outdoor home renovations this weekend, which in turn caused you to become homeless. We will be putting up a brand new birdhouse with complete relocation possibilities, and perhaps even a bird feeder, in the big tree out front, as soon as possible. I am heartbroken over your loss, but my Dad says it's all part of the Circle of Life and that you'll persevere, make a new home, new babies, and new friends. I am deeply saddened by your loss, but hope that you'll continue to grace our doorstep with your beautiful presence once in a while.


Your friend,
Melissa

_________________________

The above letter is in reference to the hours upon hours of yard work that Todd, my parents and I did on Saturday. We started the day by ripping out all of the bushes in the front yard.














See all of those giant bushes, the huge "fir" tree (I actually don't know the species) in the corner, and the giant tree limb sticking out in front of our beautiful abode? GONE -- ALL OF IT! Dad took his chainsaw to the bottom of all of the bushes...then the "fir" tree...and finally sawed of some of the obnoxious branches on the big tree in the middle. Now the house looks 10 times bigger...AND we can see out of the bay window!

We landscaped the front, put in some new azaleas, hostas, and a few cute perennials that start with the letter O but I can't remember it's full name to save my life. We mulched the surrounding areas, and everything just overall looks 1000% better. Sadly we don't really have any grass now...but we'll put some seed down, and with all of the sunlight our front yard gets, we should have grass in no time.

The unfortunate event was that in tearing out the bushes from the front yard, we damaged the nest of a family of cardinals. It was completely unintentional -- none of us saw the nest, nor heard any baby birds, when we took out the bush. But the two baby birds did not survive, and Mr. & Mrs. Cardinal spent the entire day flying around our house wondering where their home had gone. I was completely heartbroken. As in crying, heartbroken. But my Gramma reassured me that the birds most likely did not have emotion (just motherly instincts) and that they would make more baby birds.

The upside to the entire day was that our front yard is now beautifully landscaped, and Todd and my Dad spent 4 or 5 hours ripping out the awful moldy shed that was built under the deck in our back yard. Now we have double the back yard square footage!! Can't wait to landscape the back and fence it in so that Whinnie has a new place to go potty...besides the bathmats!

I'll post pics of the landscaping adventures as soon as my mom sends them my way. It might have been frustrating to have your picture taken while you're sweating like a pig, ripping out weeds, tearing apart boards with a crowbar, sawing off branches, and generally dying in the 90+ degree heat that was last Saturday, but man is mom good paparazzi! We have tons of photos to document the whole thing! So, to both of my parents -- THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU!! We are more grateful than you know for all of the hard work you did for us last weekend! You're the best (free) hired help in town!! :)

Showered with love :)

It's amazing to me that in exactly 3 months and 3 days, I will be the new Mrs. Kalinosky.

This past weekend my incredible-beautiful-fantastic-amazing-every(good)adjectiveunderthesun bridesmaids threw me a bridal shower. (Four of my seven fabulous ladies!) All of my favorite ladies (minus one! Miss Sara Ross was MORE than missed! xoxoxo) were in attendance and it could not have been more perfect. We started the afternoon with blushing bride cocktails, which were refreshing AND delicious. There was a very classy spread of food(thank you Marissa for your awesome culinary skills!) including grilled baby vegetables, garlic shrimp, a crudites platter, several other items...and the pièce(s) de résistance - hand dipped chocolate covered strawberries (thank you Lori and Stef for staying up all night dipping them!) and a chocolate mousse cake. In the words of Rachel Ray - YUM-O! It'll be a miracle if I fit into my wedding dress tonight...(update in a moment -- back to the shower)...

So after a yummy champagne cocktail (or two...but that was the limit! I was driving precious cargo -- My 80 years young Gramma!) we played some fun shower games. My girls did some serious work on this shower! We started with The Price is Right, which I have to tell you, Jenny played the very best Bob Barker in town. She has a serious knack for announcing! And her Barker's Beauty (Monica) did an awesome job of displaying each item ;). There were two baskets filled with goodies and we had to write down our estimated cost of each item. At the end, we totaled our guesses for an over all basket cost, and whoever came closest to the actual cost won the basket! Winner number one was my very own bridesmaid/adoptive little sister Caitlin and winner number two was my next door neighbor (well, on my parents street) Vicky! Then we moved on to opening gifts, which coincided with Bridal Bingo. Everyone had a bingo board which they personally filled in with guesses on what gifts I would receive at my shower. Once I opened enough items that appeared on someones "Bingo Board" a winner would be declared. I got to decide what "counted" -- i.e. if someone wrote silverware, and I opened cooking utensils, I could decide if that was the same thing (which OBVIOUSLY it wasn't...ahem...CAITLIN!) The lucky winner of the Bridal Bingo was my future Mother-in-Law! And of course the girls had more adorable prizes to give out!Well the gift opening only took about 2-3 hours! Am I a lucky girl, or what?!

See all of those gifts?? They even extended outside of the picture! Lori was a fantastic gift distributor, keeping me going and opening quickly, and of course writing down each gift from each person for writing thank yous (just another item on the to-do list!) Possibly my favorite gift (which don't get me wrong, I loved ALL of the amazing gifts you all gave me -- and Todd did, too! -- but I don't think anyone will argue with this...) was the gorgeous cut glass pitcher my Gramma gave me. She read a story that went with the pitcher (here she is reading) and told me of how the pitcher came to be part of her life. The pitcher belonged to her Grandmother (my Great Great Grandmother). Gramma's Grandfather had given it to her Grandmother in 1921. It came with 6 drinking glasses as well, but they have all since been broken, but the pitcher survives, and now will reside with me until I one day pass it along to my daughter or granddaughter. On April 10, 2021 it will be 100 years old. I will cherish the pitcher and keep it on display (it's heavy as heck!) so that it can continue to circulate in our family for years and years to come. What a beautiful gift!! You can just barely see it in the picture of me opening presents up above.

After opening all of my fantastic gifts, we played our last game, which was called "Hunt for the Groom". The girls had hid over 80 plastic Easter eggs all around Marissa's house. Inside each egg were little chocolates and a picture of a man (as Jenny said, they were pictures of whatever man/celebrity she and her mom had cut out of People magazine...hilarious!). BUT, inside one of the eggs was a picture of Todd...so whoever found the groom, won the prize! Well, my Gramma found Todd! In fact, I think I remember her saying "that's a good egg!" So true on so many levels :)

At that point it was almost 4:30pm and everyone was pretty spent. It was the most beautiful and perfect shower and I couldn't have asked for more. I feel so fortunate and blessed to have such amazing women in my life, who care so much about me to put this all together. Thank you to ALL of my ladies who worked so hard to put this together. I am more grateful than I can ever begin to express!

Aunt Lauri, Gramma, Me, Mom -- Three Generations of Beautiful Women!

That night a few of the girls and I went out for a night on the town. Hopefully Jenny will send me her pics from that night soon, so that I can post them up here. We had a blast singing 80s songs at the top of our lungs. The next day when I woke up with no voice, the girls reminded me that this was not even an inkling of whats to come for my Bachelorette Party. I seriously can NOT wait!! SO FUN!! :)

Tonight I have my second dress fitting. The hem and bustle should be completed. Lori is going with me to make sure everything looks perfect (but she's so sweet she'll probably say that I look good even if I look like a stuffed sausage! he he he...:) Anyway -- if all is well and up to my standards (and yes, my standards have skyrocketed when it comes to this wedding!) then I get to take the dress home with me. And since my parents won't be home tonight b/c they'll be at dance class -- HOW CUTE IS THAT?! -- and I live all the way out in Springfield, the dress will be coming to my house until Saturday. I'll have to put it on lock down so my future Mr. doesn't try to sneak a peek. Actually, he's pretty good about that, so I'm fairly confident he won't purposely try to see the dress before the big day. But I can't blame him for being curious!

Anyway, as soon as I get my hands on more shower pics, I'll post 'em up for all to see. Fingers crossed for a successful fitting tonight!

Movin' on up!

Sorry I haven't blogged in so long. I have been beyond uber busy. I feel like I haven't slept in weeks. Could be because Whinnie hasn't been sleeping at our new house, and in turn keeps me awake at night. And - how kind of her - she has been peeing on the bathmats every night while we sleep. What a sweet dog. There's nothing I like more than blundering to the bathroom in the morning, eyes half open, fumbling for the light switch, trying while half-asleep to turn on the shower, and stepping in a giant wet spot. The other day she pooped in the bathroom, too. Lucky for me, I stepped right in it. (The only upside was that it was on the tiled floor, so clean up was a [stinky] breeze). Alas, this blog is not about the inner-workings of my dog's bladder and bowels.



Switching gears...



The move went off with a bang! Actually, I should probably say it went off without a bang -- literally. The only broken item in the entire move was one light bulb that Ramone (I loved his ponytail and leather jacket that he wore for a good portion of the move -- wasn't he hot??) didn't know was wrapped in a paper inside of a lamp shade and accidentally tossed it across the floor, shattering it at my feet (fortunately, I had on sneakers). Otherwise, all 9,000+ boxes of junk, items, and furniture that Todd and I have collected over the past however many years of living the single life all safely made it into our living room, bedrooms, and basement. It has been five days since I've seen the living room floor, but we're making progress. Slowly. But we're making it. I think Todd would appreciate it if I found a home for the contents of the 8 boxes of shoes (I mean, I'm totally not kidding) that I moved, as opposed to leaving them in the middle of our bedroom floor. And how we managed to accumulate about 4 boxes FULL of random wires, cables, and surge protectors is beyond me. If you need any sort of wire -- cable, telephone, kitchen appliance, I mean you name it -- we've got it.



Aside from the mess and current lack of organization, we love our new house. There is tons of space for our little family...and even some to grow ;) wink wink! (Though this morning, Todd declared that after Whinnie pooped in the bathtub, peed on the bathmat, and then threw up in the hallway, that he no longer wanted kids. I pouted and he said "well, we can still have them as long as the dog stops sh*ting in the house!" he had a nice "daddy day" today ;)

Todd's man cave is coming along slowly, as we currently don't have any furniture in the basement. But fortunately he has agreed to let me decorate. With all of his Michigan stuff, of course. Anyway, no complaints about the new house, except that my stack-able combo washer/dryer is horrendous. But it washes and dries just fine. It just LOOKS horrendous. Needless to say it's usually the last item on the tour. If anyone is selling their decent side-by-side washer/dryer for a reasonably low price, holler at me.

Last night we made our first big grocery shopping trip. It became clearly apparent that Todd and I have completely different likes and dislikes in the food department. It also became apparent that a)I can't cook, and b) Todd would prefer if I didn't try :). He did let me buy one of those "Voila!" instant skillet frozen dinners. If I screw that up, my time in the kitchen will be nought. Which we've already decided is probably a good plan. He likes to cook, I prefer to clean. We compliment each other perfectly!

This weekend my awesome bridesmaids are throwing me a bridal shower!! I'm super excited!! Slightly stressed thought about the fact that I always hate everything in my closet and am not sure what I'm going to end up wearing. On the upside, it's supposed to be about 70+ degrees on Saturday, so I won't freeze if I wear a dress. Anyway, I can't wait to spend the day with all my favorite ladies, being uber girly, and of course (you know me) being the center of attention! haha.

I'll be sure to give a great update post with a list of "gifts" -- HOORAY! Although my mom keeps telling me to quit looking at our registry because none of the gifts are going to be a surprise. I'm OK with that -- the surprise will be WHO they come from. And seriously, if anyone buys me the Dyson ball vacuum, I will kiss them on the mouth.

Have a wonderful "springy" weekend, folks!!

Busy Busy Bees

What have we been up to lately? Gosh...what HAVEN'T we been up to lately? Between finalizing wedding plans, getting our new house ready, packing, party planning, working, and only sharing one common day a week off of work, Todd and I have been in overdrive. I had to laugh out loud this past Saturday afternoon as we were running from a bank meeting, to brunch with his family, to home depot, to party city, to my Gramma's 80th Birthday Surprise Party, when Todd looked at me with a completely innocent face and said "soo...next Saturday the movers come -- and then the Saturday after that...do we have anything going on?" I said "I don't think so...why?" and he said "I'm just really looking forward to sitting down. :) Poor guy.

Anyway, a re-cap of the past week or so...

March 27th -- My brother, (soon-to-be) sister-in-law, Todd, Dad, Gramma & Grampa and I arranged a little surprise party for my mom's birthday. Dad took mom out to dinner that Friday evening. While they were at dinner, we set up some decorations, a few snacks, and cake, and all hid in the dark until they got home. Dad faked a stomach ache during dinner, and convinced mom they should hurry home. As they were walking in the door, mom was almost completely turned around asking my dad if he was going to be sick all over the floor, when she hit the light switch and we all jumped out and yelled "surprise!" Needless to say she wasn't expecting it, and she was very happy :) All of us "kids" had pitched in and bought her a new digital camera, since her's had recently died, and she was thrilled. We're all thrilled that now when she takes pictures, we won't have to stand in one spot for 30 seconds while waiting for the flash to go off!

March 28th/29th -- My previous post was about that weekend. (Alterations, etc.)

April 2nd -- We had an evening meeting with a possible wedding Celebrant named Diane. She was very sweet and very organized. She has been performing marriage ceremonies ever since she retired from the Fairfax County Circuit Court and has since married over 1300 couples! Amazing!! We really liked her and may very well end up using her services for our Ceremony. We have one other meeting lined up, and then we'll make the official decision.

April 3rd -- Todd and I had a nice date night complete with visiting Merrifield Garden Center, Macaroni Grille, and Wal-Mart. We felt like an old couple that had been married for 25 years...Gardening, Wal-Mart, old folks pasta dinner...but it was cute and we had a great time regardless :)

April 4th -- My Gramma -- the most amazing woman I know -- turned 80 years old on April 1st. Our whole family organized a surprise party (see how much we love surprise parties? 3 within 2 months!! ha) on Saturday the 4th. My brother and Marissa convinced Gramma & Grampa to come to their house to have Grampa help my brother with something...and told them they'd take them to dinner (at Denny's none-the-less!) afterwards. Boy was Gramma surprised when she walked in the front door and all of her favorite people (her family, of course) were standing in the dining room waiting to surprise her! Her face was priceless! The whole evening from the beautiful decorations, including pictures my mom printed out of my Gramma from the time she was a little girl, up until now -- to the fantastic food Marissa prepared (I know she liked it better than eggs & potatoes at Denny's!) -- to the sweet game board my Aunt made (we played how well do you know Ardith Ann/Gramma and answered questions about her life, which was an awesome way to find out things I never knew about her!) -- everything was perfect, and we could tell Gramma was touched. My most favorite part of the evening was the gift "presentation". Before we all gave Gramma our gifts, my dad read a letter to my Gramma. It was a letter that her father had written her on her 19th birthday. It was the most beautiful piece of writing I have ever seen/listened to. Needless to say, I was blubbering like a baby. All I could think about was how I hoped that when I turned 80 years old, that someone would read me a letter that my father had written me when I was younger. Any true daddy's girl would have agreed with me. Marissa was in tears, too. ;) It was the perfect evening, and my Gramma ended it by telling us all that she was going to share the evening as her blessing of family in church on Monday evening. But to have Gramma in our lives makes all of us the truly blessed ones.

So...the past few evenings have been spent elbows deep in baseboard grime (a totally different story in and of itself...but let's just say my baseboards will never get as dirty as they were on Sunday evening...blech...), house repairs, furniture building -- Todd built me a baker's rack for the dining room...I absolutely love it! Picture here:

and tons and tons of packing (SHEESH I have so much junk it's ridiculous, but I am planning a free-for-all for my friends after my bridal shower. Dishes, kitchenware, STUFF, all for free...up for grabs to whoever wants to take it away -- not to mention the 5 bags of clothing I'm donating to the Salvation Army...) If anyone is interested in helping me pack over the course of the next 4 evenings, come knock on my door -- Apartment 411. I'll buy you pizza.

Next post will be a delightful recap of the move, hopefully with pictures!

AND ONE BIG SHOUT OUT TO MY BROTHER MATT -- HAPPY 29TH BIRTHDAY, YOU OLD MAN YOU! I'll host a party for you in the stinkerdome...But Cooper is not invited unless you supply the gas-masks. LOVE YOU, BRO! :)

Update mania!

I've been slacking. That's the best way to put it. Blog-slacking. Not life-slacking, that's for sure. As far as "life moments" and wedding planning go, I am in no way slacking.

I guess I'll back it up to my last post, which was on March 19th. Since then, a LOT has happened:

We last left off with the great undergarment hunt. Lori and I headed out to Trousseau in Vienna. The best part of the experience was the staff. They were super friendly and helpful. The worst part of the experience was that I had to be subjected to feeling (and slightly looking) like a stuffed sausage. I'll leave out the gritty details, but it's pretty obvious what I did in the dressing room, trying on and stuffing into these "bustiers". My favorite part was when i asked the girl if there was a longer version of the bra that would come down lower on my waist and she said "no, but I can bring you a pair of spanx". Well, spanx a lot lady. Not only did those look even worse, they were about 90 degrees too hot, and all I could picture was me passing out from heat stroke in the hot July weather, wearing a girdle and polyester spanx under my heavy wedding dress. PASS. But I ended up with an underwear "ensemble" that I really liked.

Afterwards my dear maid of honor asked if we could run into Dunkin Donuts so she could grab an iced coffee. I think trying on body-skimming underwear and then having to go into a heavenly smelling dunkin donuts where you have every desire to cram delicious smelling chocolate covered glazed goodness in your mouth two at a time, while knowing every calorie and fat gram in that deliciousness is going right to your waist and hips and thus making those 400 little hook & eyes on the back of a corset impossible to fasten is sheer torture. I love ya Lori, but come on! Although I must say my willpower was impressive as Lori bought her iced coffee and a couple donuts for her hubby, I was able to put my foot down and resist my urge to gorge. I walked out donut free. And had a plain chicken breast for dinner.

Next up on the list was Alterations...which went hand-in-hand with both the underwear, and the donut defeat. I have not experienced a vast quantity of alterations in my life time. It was either you bought it fitting just right, wore it too big, or just didn't buy it at all. The only times I can actually remember having something altered was my dress for Jenny's wedding, and my dress for Lori's wedding. And those were pretty simple alterations. And I wasn't wearing heels while having them done (i.e. there was no hemming needed...just a few quick tucks on the side). WELL...ask any former bride and she'll tell you, wedding dress alterations must be 110%, A+++, absolutely perfect. After all, this is the only time you'll wear this one particular dress...but it's also the main focal point of the entire day. Well the whole process started with my mom helping me into the dress. At 5'0" tall, this was quite a feat for her -- and after she panicked that she was going to break the dress by pulling on the zipper, therefore telling me that she didn't think it fit me anymore, we decided that it would be best for Lori and some of the girls to accompany me to the next fitting. Regardless, the dress still fit perfectly and alterations went into full swing.

First was the hem...easy enough. Then came the bustle. Ugh. That was a chore in and of itself. The dress was a little more complicated to bustle, so after showing me about 6 different options for bustle, the perfect one was settled on. Bless that poor seamstress' heart -- she was on her hands and knees pinning up that dress for about 45 minutes. I'm sure she was in pain because I know I was. My feet were so sore from standing in my heels in one place with little movement for that long. And my shoes are actually really comfortable! Fortunately I'm planning on replacing them with flip-flops as soon as cocktail hour starts. Anyway, I get to pick up my dress in about 2.5 weeks. Fingers crossed for another perfect fit -- and a perfect bustle outcome!

Most recently we had another florist appointment at The Flower Gallery in Manassas, which also ended in complete success! Mom paid in full, that's how much we loved this florist! All the flowers were picked for the wedding and I am so content and thrilled about what we picked -- I know the whole day is going to be beautiful with these selections. Sadly I can reveal no more than that, as I want some things to be a surprise on Jul 25th! I can tell you that flowers such as Lilies, Hydrangea's and my beloved Stephanotis will be making an appearance. Think fresh, classic, elegant and SUMMER! I love them and can't wait to see what fabulous arrangements Debbie (our florist) will develop!

On top of all of the wedding plans, we've been full swing in cleaning and prepping our new house. Mom came over and did some awesome painting (goodbye ugly mauve paint in foyer and dining room, hello beautiful greenish/tan neutrals!) and dad did some repairs and faucet replacement (after doing our faucet, I can confidentely tell you that NO, he will NOT hire out to do more of them :) it was pretty gross!). The movers will move my furniture in on April 11th and then we'll be just about moved in! We absolutely loved our realtor (Kathy Worek) and can't wait for our housewarming party...stay tuned for pictures!

LESS THAN 4 MONTHS LEFT UNTIL THE WEDDING!! :)