with 125 days to go...

FI and I were cleaning up the condo, getting ready for some friends to arrive, when I saw the clock...125 days?!?! Why does it take me by surprise every time we hit these increments?

INVITATIONS HAVE BEEN ORDERED!!!!!
Yes! I went to the stationery shop yesterday at lunch time and placed the order. The electronic proof will be in next week. With a little luck, I'll have everything in my hands by November 14th. A girl can dream, right?

I haven't posted any updates in a while so, I figured I'd snap a few pics and share the minor things that have been happening in our planning. A couple of weeks ago, I saw the bio of a local knottie (Riss91) who had transformed a pre-made wooden box from a local shop into her card box. Since I was going to be in the area of the store a few days later, I went in to see if they had any left - $15 later I walked out with this...

No, not as is. We'll replace the scene on the top with one of our engagement photos and FI will cut (and sand) a slit in the wood just under the moulding. I'll paint our monogram and wedding date over the scene on the front of the box. We'll add two hinges (that match the set on the back) to the front to secure the opening, paint them white and that will be it! I love that we found this solution for under $20 total.
While in the same store, I picked up these monogrammed tissues (6 packs in each set) for our bathroom baskets. Monogram overboard? Maybe but, they were a total of $4 and were too cute to resist.

During my last work holiday earlier this month, I dedicated the day to wedding projects. We had already purchased all of the crystals and glass marbles for our centerpieces and figured out how much we would need of each when we did our mock-up. To make things easier on our venue (read: to make certain things end up the way I planned them) I pre-measured what is needed for each centerpiece in ziplock bags and wrote the table number on the top. I'll give a photograph of our mock-up to the coordinator and all they will have to do is set up the elements and empty one bag per table onto the charger.
When we had our last appointment at the church, I told the priest that I would like to have my christmation to enter the church before the wedding. Since I was baptized Roman Catholic, my baptism is recognized by the Greek Orthodox church (no dunking in a baby pool on the altar for me!). Instead, I will have a short ceremony following mass where I receive a blessing and state my intentions to marry into the church. I have read quite a bit about orthodoxy but, our priest gave me a stak of books and pamphlets to read to prepare for my conversion. Just a little light reading material...LOL! I really need to make the time to get started on this.

And, today FI and I visited several hotels in the area to (finally!) book a block of rooms for our wedding guests. Every hotel we visited was just beautiful (two were renovated in the past year, one was brand new). In the end, we decided to book with the Marriot that had a full staff on the weekend. It was reassuring to me that they would be prepared to take care of us that weekend. We will have an Event Coordinator assigned to us that will help us with early check-ins, the morning after brunch, OOT bags and anything else we might need. As an added bonus, the bride and groom are given a complementary room on their wedding night for securing the block. So, CHECK for the room block and CHECK on knowing where we will spend our wedding night!

And, our aisle runner arrived in the mail a few days ago. If FI has time to print out the HUGE monogram on his plotter at work this coming week (one more reason to love my engineer!), I hope to get painting next weekend. Whenever I do start, I'll be taking pics each step of the way.