Wedding Wednesday! I now think that the Pantagraph is a bargain. It's $40 to submit your engagement announcement and $45 to submit your wedding announcement. The Peoria Journal Star can be up to $43 for engagement (I spent $30) and up to $125 for wedding, which includes all the same things you would get for the Pantagraph announcement. Kiiinda crazy. We'll see what the Farmington Shopper costs. We (me, Joy, and the girls) went flower girl dress shopping on Saturday. We found a $40 one at JC Penney that's super cute. Our concern now is that it doesn't come in the right size, so we need to do a little more research on that. I really hope it comes in their size, because I'm honestly kind of over the whole flower girl dress thing. It was fun the first two times, but I just want it to be chosen at this point. We also went around to a whole bunch of bridal stores in Peoria looking for a sash/belt for my dress. I'm coming to the conclusion that I'm too p
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Yesterday I was in Joliet for the first ILACADA (Illinois Academic Advising Association) conference. I have to be honest when I say that I am usually unimpressed with conferences. I think they are important for networking and kind of "recharging one's batteries," but generally the sessions sound good to me but then don't deliver what I was expecting and wanting. This conference was different, though! The first session was about passion, something that I feel is lacking for me sometimes in my job. We were asked to grab someone nearby to us and talk about our three biggest personal passions and our three biggest professional passions. I dislike these sorts of activities because I'm horrible at coming up with things right off the top of my head. After 30 seconds of contemplation, the personal passions I came up with were my family, traveling, and animals. (I honestly don't have much that I am passionate about, which is kinda sad. I like a lot of things, but don
Wedding Wednesday! I got the right color of pocketfolds in the mail, so I can start DIYing the invitations. I started to, but realized I needed to change something in the wording, so I'm glad I caught that before I printed all 65 of them. I did a little crafting this past weekend. I made a few pomander balls, which will jazz up the chapel by adding some color and interest. I also strung some beads and pearls; I'm maybe going to try to make my own hairpiece, but we'll see! I made an appointment to talk to I Do Events in Washington next Tuesday. I wish I could afford for them to pimp out the entire chapel and reception venue, but obvs that's not going to happen. I'm going to see what they can do within my budget in terms of centerpieces for the tables at the reception. That's it for now. 122 Days Until Our Wedding!
Friday night was graduation at Braden Auditorium for Heartland students. I have to be honest when I say that I wasn't so excited to help (mostly because I had no idea what I was supposed to be doing) and I didn't really feel like giving up my Friday evening for it. But since I made the commitment, I went. Right when I walked into the Brown Ballroom I knew that I made the right decision to show up and help. Seeing graduates in their garb just makes me so happy. I handed out programs to the graduates and helped them line up (and be quiet) outside in the lobby before they walked across the stage. There was just such an air of pride and accomplishment; it made me happy to know that I helped (some of) them in a small way maybe. Gayle and I watched and listened to some of the speeches, namely the student speaker and the Distinguished Alumni speaker, Tim Rixstine, a former Alumni Board member who I know. They made me tear a few times (dorky, I know), but I just have so much pride
I just saw something on Pinterest called Wedding Wednesday and I feel as though I should incorporate this into my blog somehow. Wedding Wednesday isn't anything in particular from what I can tell; it's probably just a catchy theme from a blog or website. But I like the idea of it, so maybe I should make wedding-only posts on Wednesdays? Or maybe the only time I post anything wedding-related should be Wednesday? Maybe the latter with all of the updates from the previous week. We'll see how this turns out. So... to kick off Wedding Wednesday ... here's an update! After the "I almost chose the wrong wedding dress" debacle, I decided to try on my dress. It was the first time I've had it on since I bought it and I really do love it. Chloe was like, "What is with all of this material?! How can I hide in it?! Can I lay on it?! It's so comfy!!!" Next weekend when we go to look for new flower girl dresses, Joy and I are also going to some bridal
Philip moved in this weekend! My place is too small for the two of us, but we'll make it work for now. It'll be interesting to live together after seeing each other only every weekend or less for the past 8+ years. Have I talked about us looking for a house? I'm going to talk to CEFCU on Friday to see how much we can get pre-approved for. It probably won't be much, but maybe enough for us to get a small-ish starter home. We just really don't want to sink rent into something crappy when we could spend as much or a little more to create some equity on a place that we can make our own that would likely be bigger with a yard. I am excited and nervous to go! Philip doesn't think we'll be able to afford anything, but I just need to find out to be sure. As a part of our meeting with CEFCU, I have to gather all sorts of financial documents, including all of our checking, credit card, and savings account statements. I was asking my dad for a copy of my savings a
For the past 24 hours I've had the horrible feeling that I chose the wrong wedding dress. I really am turning into one of those brides, I fear. But rest assured, the feeling has passed. We (me, Brooke, Joy, and the girls) are going to look for different flower girl dresses in a couple weekends' time. We chose this one a couple of months ago and I really do still like it, but I see the point that Joy was making. It's shorter on the girls because they're tall and it's not as "flower girly" as it could be; as Joy put it, it looks more like a normal dress than a flower girl dress. My main concern when we were choosing their dress was price--I know it's a lot to spend for two girls. My second concern was the color--I really want the girls in plum to match the bridesmaids' dresses and because I want to be the only one in white. There are very few flower girl dresses that come completely in plum (and none that are long) and so the selection was slim.
I hate for everything tenth blog post to be about my mom, but that's how I roll, so either love it or leave it. Last night I was talking to my dad about some wedding stuff. I'm not really sure how much he cares, if at all, though he says he does. I was talking about some real detailed stuff that he probably doesn't even understand, but he was still quiet and listened. At one point he stopped and he said, "I'm sorry that I can't offer you any advice really. Do you think it would be different if your mom was here?" It's a good question. Towards the beginning--right when we got engaged and I was in the first planning stages--I was upset often. I was already frustrated and not sure if I could handle it all and I didn't really feel like I had anyone to talk to or help me. Since then, my feelings have subsided quite a bit. I did have a moment in the dressing room at Bridal Elegance, right before the consultant brought the dress in to me that I ende
This past weekend was just lovely. Philip came over after he got off of work on Saturday. He came up the stairs with flowers in his hands, for no reason other than he is a very sweet fiance! I was putting the flowers in a vase in the kitchen while Philip was looking at my wall calendar. I came over to look with him and he pointed to Sunday, May 13 and said, "I'm gonna come over and stay on this day because I start work here on that Monday. Is that okay?" I said, "Of course that's okay," while not quite understanding why he would come over on a Sunday if he had to work in Peoria on Monday. Not a very long visit! And then he goes, "You didn't hear me. Because I start work here on that Monday." It didn't take long for it to register that he meant HERE, as in Bloomington. I was so excited! I hugged and squeezed him and just couldn't believe it, because it feels like we've been battling the distance FOREVER. Well, we have, really! A