Applying for the Marriage License

Another big one is checked off the list! Thank goodness I live in Macomb County... I heard getting your marriage license in Oakland County is a bit difficult.

A couple days ago I downloaded the forms off the Macomb County website. The instructions were quite clear, but it was a lot to digest for something that seems so important! The only information I needed was both of our full names, and birth information. I also needed both of our parents full names and birth states. That was it. Then I went down at 8:00 this morning and took it to the County Clerk's office.

Before I left the house, I read over all the documents again. I had overlooked something that seemed important to me at the time. I filled out the application so carefully and neatly in blue pen. I saw this morning very clearly where it said, "Use Black Ink Only". I got a little nervous but figured I better go and see... Of course no one said a thing.

When I arrived it was quite hectic. When it was my turn in line, the woman did not seem happy to be at her job. Once I presented my documents to her she immediately changed her mood to excited! She started asking a million questions about where and when... It was pretty cute!

Once I paid my fee and swore that I was telling the truth... I was told it would go in the mail back to us on Monday! How exciting! Only 23 more days to go!

The Baptism

Yesterday Greg was baptized into the Catholic church! It was such a beautiful ceremony. It was also a 5 hour long event! I am proud of Greg for the commitment and the hard work he did to get to this point!

Checklist Update!

So far at the knot.com I have completed 39 items on their little to-do list. Unfortunately today I received an email telling me that I was slacking on my wedding planning. Supposedly I am over due on 13 items on their handy checklist.

• Contact newspapers to announce your engagement (you may need to have an engagement photo taken as well). Not so sure we are even doing this!
• Finalize the guest list. I am trying - really I am!!!
• Start looking into registering for gifts. Already!?!? Yikes!
• Request demo tapes from ceremony musicians. Hmmm.... Do we really want those violinists?
• Think about how you might want to wear your hair. Again, trying...
• Begin looking for a baker to make your cake. Cake tasting --- yummm...
• Brides: Start shopping for bridesmaids dresses. Does trying to schedule a date count?
• Make sure your maid of honor and best man are aware of what you expect of them. Like what? Making sure I don't go crazy?
• Register for your wedding gifts. I thought we already went over this???
• Brides: Decide on the bridesmaid dresses. Again, wasn't this above somewhere.
• Purchase and send guests save-the-dates if your celebration is over a holiday weekend or at a faraway locale. Ugh, I don't know about that one...
• Book a baker, choose your wedding cake design, and send a deposit. I thought it said to look above... We must really be behind!
• Brides: Collect necessary measurements from attendants or pass along vender information so that they can order the dresses themselves. Hopefully this is not necessary and they will get dresses together when we go shopping...

I think it is the lists like this that are stressing me out! Geesh! Hopefully this shower business will be finalized soon and more stress will be relieved!

Pachelbel's Canon in D

In preparing for the actual wedding cermony, the church has given us a booklet with song suggestions. One song that always makes me think of a wedding is Pachelbel's Canon in D. Most everyone knows this song. When I hear it I usually get teary eyed.

This comedian is absolutely hilarious. He doesn't change my high opinion of the song, but he does make me laugh my butt off! I think you will be hearing this song at our wedding! ;)

I found THE dress!

I finally found it! Well, I found it a while ago so I should say, "I finally bought it!" The very first time I tried on dresses with Melissa I found it, I just didn't know that I found it at the time.

I went back to the store with Jenny at happened across the same dress. It looked familiar but I wasn't sure if it was the same one. I put it on and it fit like a glove and I fell in love... I danced around in it and made sure it would be comfortable sitting in it and all that good stuff. The only problem was that the dress was a little above my price range.

The women at the store were awesome enough to give me the style number and designer name. Of course I spent the next few days looking for the dress on the internet. Low and behold, I found the dress for almost $300 less than it was in the store! After shipping and insurance, I could save $250!

I found a local seamstress to look at the dress and tell me her opinion on the alterations. She charged about the same as the store that sold the dress so I went ahead and bought it online! I even got to order the propper length that I needed. As we all know, I need a little extra help in that area :)

So - in a few months or so, I should have my wedding dress!

I would offer a picture of it, but since Greg also looks at this site - I can't! Sorry!

Bright Beginnings

Yesterday Greg and I participated in a 6 hour retreat at St. Edmunds Catholic Church in Warren. It was a pre-marriage seminar that is designed to open the doors of communication on a lot of things that young couples probably don't think to talk about before they decide to get married. Luckily for Greg and I we talk about almost everything and took today as an opportunity to keep talking and sharing our thoughts about what our future will hold.

We discussed how we feel about each other, each other's families, what we have in mind for our future family together and how we intend to bring up our children. All these things we have discussed and this seminar just solified that for us.

There were a lot of people there, which was a little overwhelming at first. Once we got going though - we quickly realized we were there for us and no one else would know what we were discussing between the two of us.

The speakers for this seminar were good. The preist, was the preist for St. Edmunds. The other two speakers were the two people that put the retreat together. They were both good speakers, but the guy, John, was very engaging. He had a great presentation about him that reminded me of the comedian Jim Gaffigan. Even when he was talking about serious things that were not funny, I wanted to listen and listen good.

Now that that step is over, we only have a few more things to do as far as the church goes!