Rehearsal, Dinner & Decorating

We had the rehearsal at the church at 4:15. Michael was running a little behind, because he accidentally put his bag of clothes in storage. That's what happens when you decide to get married & move out of your apartment in the same weekend!! We also had a little problem with the lights - the key didn't work to get into the room with all of the light switches. So, we went through the details of the ceremony with limited light. Then once we started to do a walk through someone was able to come and get the door open, so we could have some light.

Then we all headed to Anjon's, an italian restaurant on route one in Scarborough. We enjoyed some delicious food, heard a few speeches and wonderful stories. Then Mike and I thanked everyone for their help and support (the speech of course was very brief). Then we gave out some gifts, took a few photos and then headed to the Best Western for some poker and snacks. The girls and I packed up some stuff for the night and stopped by the hotel briefly. Then we drove to Yarmouth to Katie's moms house to get some much needed rest! Surprisingly I was able to sleep better than the night before.

Then the next morning Kim (Katie's mom) had tons of food ready for breakfast. She made the most delicious bacon & egg sandwiches! YUM. Then we packed the car up and headed to the Wyndham to decorate for the reception. Fortunately, Ashlea remembered the daisies we needed for the centerpieces were still sitting in the windowsill at Kim's. We ALMOST forgot them!

The rest of the crew met us there to get all of the decorations and favors in place for the reception. It was the bridesmaids, Gram, Mom, Dad, and Aunt Laura. Thanks for all of your help everyone, it looked beautiful!

Wedding Festivities

It has certainly been AWHILE since I have updated. The last few weeks have, of course, been very busy - from the weeks leading up to the wedding & taking are of preparations up through this week and moving into the house. There will be many blog updates in the next few days.

July 11th we had the bachelorette party in Boston. We stayed at Jessica's apartment, had a bbq, a few drinks, and then headed to Tequila Rain. The girls made me a lollipop bouquet and we made $100 selling them, which we used to buy more drinks. There was a groom getting married on the same day that kept stealing the bouquet - Sarah was annoyed by him. The girls compiled a list of tasks for me to take care of (I completed 10/25?). Then there was lots and lots of dancing! The night ended with a downpour and some dancing in the rain. It was so much fun!

July 15th-17th I took a much needed break from wedding plans and preparations and headed to the vineyard. Katie, Danielle, Sarah and I left Wednesday night and enjoyed the beach and the sunshine for two days! It was very relaxing and refreshing, which is exactly what I needed before heading back to do more plans. Then that weekend Mike had his weekend with the boys. He went with his father & brothers to a Fenway Fan day and then did some other fun things.

     The week of the wedding was extremely busy. My mom came on Tuesday and we worked on many different last minute projects. Then Wednesday I went to Tasha's salon - Studio 41 in Kennebunk for a trail run for my hair style. Tasha had three different styles based on some pictures I had sent her. Then Katie, my mom and I stopped for lunch before meeting Sarah in Eliot for my final dress fitting. 

     On Friday we dropped Sage off at Doggie Cottage for the weekend. In the morning the girls and I headed to Portland to get manicures and pedicures. I had a meeting in the afternoon at the Wyndham and the girls went to pick up the reception daisies. We had a few other errands in the afternoon and then we went back to the apartment to start getting ready for the Rehearsal Dinner.

Sage's New Friend

Sage made a new friend on Saturday. Unfortunately for Sage, but fortunately for the hungry guests - the friendship didn't last very long! The lobster was delicious!

Reading Challenge

Summer is when I feel like I can really enjoy reading! During the school year I don't feel like I have enough time and/or focus to get into a book. Unless of course I am driving in the car (audiobooks are the best)! Now that summer vacation is here, I thought about possibly joining a book group and trying to branch out from the books that I typically read. Instead I joined goodreads.com, which keeps track of all of the books I have read or would like to read. Which I think is great, because I always forget about books that I want to read when it comes time to choosing a new book. From this website I then joined a group, which doesn't really discuss the books, but instead poses different challenges. Here is the July challenge with my book choices.

1. J for July (book)............................Jeremy Fink and Meaning of Life
2. Group B-Day Book (Jes)...................................Someone Like You
3. Character/Setting in UK.........................................Remember Me?
4. Summer Heat (in title)............................A Thousand Splendid Suns
5. Where want to vacation................................The Last Summer
6. Western........................................The Man from Stone Creek
7. Title involving food..........................................Comfort Food
8. Reread..........................................Twilight
9. Young Adult.................................Inkheart

10. From the Group Shelf.................................The Devil Wears Prada

I am currently listening to Remember Me?, which is hilarious, especially since it is read with the English accent. Lots of reading and new books to look forward to! I am not really looking forward to the Western, but you never know?!

Move # 1 - Kittery to Dunstan's Landing

It is official - I am no longer a resident of Kittery. It was a very sad day when I left the apartment - the last three years went by so quickly. The first move started when Dave and some of the guys moved Katie out on Thursday night. Then Mike came by on Friday and the two of us loaded all of my stuff into the Clean Harbors truck.

The most obnoxious part of the whole thing was that our landlord decided to have someone paint both sets of steps Thursday during the day (without informing us). By the time Katie and I showed up there was no way of getting into the apartment (so we had to find errands to do for a few hours). Then he was quite upset that we would be moving things out all day and tried to put plywood down to keep from scratching the paint (which didn't work too well). He even showed up at the apartment at 6:00 to watch the guys moving stuff and make sure everything went okay (it was kind of creepy). Then sure enough he showed back up on Friday to touch up the paint and I then informed him that I would be moving stuff later that night too (luckily he didn't show up to watch).

Anyway - all of the stuff was moved out and I went back to finish up the cleaning on Monday. Then Katie picked up the rest of the kitchen/living room items, got rid of all of the trash and took care of the last minute details. Now all of my big stuff is sitting in storage until we get back from the honeymoon and we can move into the house!!!!!!! So, sadly this was only move #1 for me. The 2nd move will be the day after the wedding when we move everything into storage and then the final move into the house (hopefully August 3rd). CRAZY!

After all of the moving I forgot to get a picture of all the stuff loaded into the truck - BUMMER!

Wedding Projects

While I am waiting for Mike to get to Kittery with his work truck I'll post some updates on the wedding plans and projects. These are a few of the things I have been working on lately. It has mostly been the favors and the out of town guest bags. Unfortunately the fun, crafty projects will be put on hold for a little while, until all of the moving is out of the way. I would much rather being doing crafts than packing and cleaning.

The card box my mom made.

Guest bags - soon to be full of goodies!

Tic Tac Favors - "Mint to be"

Wine favors - guess you can't really see the labels

Guest book - Fill ins. I am still playing around with this idea?!

I still have a few projects to work on, but they will have to wait. I'll update with moving information soon.

Sale Pending!

As you may or may not know, Mike and I have been looking at houses for probably the last month or so. A couple of weeks ago, we found one that we thought we liked and made an offer. We went back and forth with the builders a bit, until we saw this house for sale and decided we wanted to take a look at it before making any final decisions on it. Unfortunately, we had to wait 4 days before we could see the new listing, so we had to let the offer fall through on the other house.

But, I am happy to say that in the end it didn't matter, because over the weekend we put an offer on this one. We went back and forth again (waiting and waiting) and we finally reached an agreement yesterday. Unfortunately, thought the real waiting has just begun, because the closing date isn't until August 3rd (right when we get back from the honeymoon). So, now we will just be waiting and hoping that all goes well with the inspections, loans and all of that other fun paperwork kind of stuff. Mike and I really excited and we'll update with more pictures and information in August!