Well then. That certainly was fun.

I just wanted to thank everyone for coming, for braving the 50 degrees with a high chance of rain outdoor ceremony, for not laughing too hard, and for making the reception (and the rest of the weekend) so much fun. People seemed to enjoy themselves so that's certainly a good thing. I'll refrain from embarassing anyone here though, i'll leave that up to robin.

Maybe if i get ambitious i'll post the ceremony up here. Maybe. I'd say no one is reading this, but I know that Karyn is at least. She's strange that way.

Of course, on the downside, half my company got laid off yesterday, so that was a nice end to the weekend.

Just a remind for all the slackers:

Ceremony is at 11:30
Cocktail Hour is at Noon
Reception is at 1
Scott falls asleep at 3
Wedding ends at 5

There will be a shuttle from the hotel to the wedding around 11am on saturday morning. FYI!

Also, we have the big swank room upstairs.

I'm going to bed now!

Ok, I'm going to talk to the hotel about keeping the shuttle transportation after all, since I get the impression some people booked rooms but didn't tell them they were part of our reservations (I hope no one paid full price! If you reserved from our block of rooms you got a nice discount!)

I won't know until tomorrow at the earliest if that's still possible.

Also, we're working on where we'll all go to hang out after the wedding. I suspect we can cram a decent amount of people into the 2-bedroom suite that we've got, but on the off chance that we end up with 50 people all wanting to hang out, we're going to talk to the hotel about kicking back in their dining room (at the vigilant suggestion of Karyn!)

I'll keep updating here as I have info, since apparently some people are still reading!! (yay for technology)

Also, we've been tentatively offered the largest ballroom at the Bridgewater Manor because they don't have another event up there that day, which absolutely ROCKS. We're going to look at it tonight to see if it would be silly to use a massive room for our smaller wedding, but it would give everyone a lot more space. (Although I admit I'm partial to the room we chose, since it has a nice view of the pond and flowers outside). We'll see how it goes!

The weather has been changed to rain/wind now! Because just rain wasn't going to be bad enough.

By the way, the hotel tells me only like 4 rooms have been booked under our reservations, so I cancelled the shuttle transportation since it looks like there's almost no one staying at the hotel. This is strange to me, since so many people are coming in from out of town and claimed to be staying there! It's only 5 minutes down the road anyway. Although I do wonder where everyone plans to sleep.

If anyone is still reading this and is staying at the hotel either the night before or after the wedding and wouldn't mind someone crashing with you, drop me an email. We have a couple of people looking for someplace to sleep!

Item #1: Weather update: We've gone from Rain/Thunder to plain old Rain (). Which is somewhat disapointing i guess. I mean, if it's going to rain, it may as well do so in a spectacular fashion. They're saying 60% chance of rain, so i guess it could be worse!

Which brings us to Item #2: my foot is actually alot better today, so even if it's raining i may actually be able to walk down the aisle unassisted! Yay for me. I still may get a cane with a sword in it, just so when people i don't know start telling me i should dance with them i can grip it menacingly.

Ok, so I went to a podiatrist this morning to find out wtf is up with my foot. He says i either have a stress fracture or some generic inflammation. He gave me some anti-inflammatory pills which seem to have made things somewhat better. I still can't really walk so well, but at least i'm not hobbling along at a snail's pace. Hopefully it'll be better by Saturday.

I think Robin jinxed it! It's worse than ever now... . Rain/Thunder they say!! I guess if it has to rain, it may as well thunder too. We like thunder storms.

I'm going to hobble to the doctor in a bit, to find out if i'll have to hobble down the aisle on Saturday. That should make it a day to remember! Watch out if i'm still hobbling, if i have a cane there's a good chance it has a sword hidden in it!

They felt Joshua's wrath. They've changed it to mostly cloudy that day with a 20% chance of precipitation! I wonder how he linked that little picture...... Is that going to work?

Well, I pick up the fluffy dress tomorrow, and I don't know where to store it to keep it from wrinkling. Such is life.

I need to go revel in the glory that is the Matrix some more.

They have broken the contract! . So much wrath for them. Whoever they are. Why don't we have weather controlling machines yet?

I picked up my tux yesterday. I look suave. I mean, it's impossible to not look suave in a tux, but regardless, i look suave. Promptly left it at my mother's so as to avoid further infilitration of cat hair onto the suit.

/nothing

After yesterday's false start, today is Official Start Watching the Weather Forecast^TM.

Good news! Due to the wonders of modern science (wonders....or blunders?) the forecast for the day preceding the wedding day has changed and the wedding day itself now is scheduled to be . This weather forecast is now a binding contract, and any downgrade in the forecast will result in breach of contract, and other such legalese.

For the record, the reason i'm actively watching the forecast is because we plan to have the ceremony outside, in case we never mentioned that. It'll be fun for when the officiant says, "Do you Joshua take..." and i'm 50 feet away running from bees....

Hey, what's this blog thing? I remember this.

I thought today would be the day to start checking the weather daily to see if we could have the ceremony outside or not. Apparently, May 14th + 10 days is only equal to May 23rd though. So i'll have to wait until tomorrow to start being neurotic. On the downside, May 23rd is supposed to be in Bridgewater. I don't know how accurate these 10-day forecasts are, but at least it's something new to worry about!

On an unrelated note, i was looking through our referrer logs because i'm a geek and that's what i do, and i found some other random blog that linked to us (do a find in page for "robin & joshua"), it was crazy. I don't know if we should be happy that some random person read this or worried that we've fallen into an apparent trend towards wedding blogging. Apparently we rank pretty high when you google for "wedding blog". Way higher then wedding-blog.com apparently (which could have something to do with the site not actually responding)!

So, I went to pick up our marriage license today which we applied for last week. (Note: I could've had a gun in less time!) Anyway, when I picked it up, the clerk handed me this bag of stuff labled, "Newlywed Kit". It was starkly reminiscent of those bags of stuff they give you on the first day of college. The first thing I noticed in this bag was the container of Excedrin Quicktabs. Then I saw the laundry detergent, followed by aromatherapy soap and deodorant.

The Excedrin made me laugh (they clearly know their market) but I was pretty sure I should be offended by the rest. Then I remembered I don't get offended, but at least it makes for a good story.

Ok, it's not even a very good story.

I take abuse for not updating our blog, but secretly I'm sure no one is still reading anyway!!

Just about everything is taken care of, so I have nothing new to report! Soon we'll all be sitting around, eating delicious food, listening (and dancing) to a great band, and I'll be wearing a goofy big dress, and it'll be a grand old time!!

Just a reminder (not like anyone is still reading this, (if they ever did)) but the special rates at the hotel are only good until like May 2 or so, so be sure to reserve the room soon if you plan to!!

Too much on my mind to update on everything that's been going on. Let's just say we may find ourselves in a nice new apartment soon...

Invitations are in the mail!!!

Ok today on Robin and Joshua's Never to be Read Wedding Blog we have Volunteer Day!! (insert cheers and trumpets here).

First off, I'm looking for someone who plans to get a suite at the hotel the night of the wedding, and would like to share the costs of the room! I have a friend (one of the bridesmaids even!) coming into town from far away. She's staying with my sister for the time she's out here, but since I'm hoping a group of people will go back to the hotel afterwards and keep frolicking, she was hoping to stay there that night. The hotel isn't that expensive, except when you've been in school your whole life like some of us. So if there is anyone who wants to share a suite with my friend, (she's one of the easiest to get along with people in the universe, so don't be scared!) drop me an email at this address. Even the one-bedroom suites have a pull-out couch/bed in the livingroom, so I'm not asking for anything weird! But I know some of my friends will be getting hotel rooms so they don't have to drive home after a few drinks, so this is the easiest way to reach you all!

Next item on the volunteer list is a little different. We have a really hard time asking people to help with the wedding, because we genuinely want everyone to just go enjoy themselves. However, there are some details that simply have to be taken care of, and I doubt I'll be in a state to do it. We need someone, directly after the wedding, to gather up the centerpieces from the tables at the reception hall, put them in their car, and drive them over to the Children's Hospital at Robert Wood Johnson in New Brunswick. I can give excellent directions to whomever volunteers, and it's really only a 20 minute or so trip from the reception hall, so it's not terribly out of the way. We would really appreciate any volunteers for this! Again, if you're interested in this job, email me!

Ok, it's been almost a month since the last update but since I've started waking up with memories of wedding nightmares, I figured I would update again so I could keep track of what's done and what needs doing.

Bridesmaid's dresses came in today. They look right, but I won't actually know until everyone gets them and tries them on. Hopefully there's no big disasters since I have to mail them out across the country!

I bought shoes! Online, even! And they fit. It's like a miracle of some kind.

(Not) surprisingly, our invitations are still where we put them when we brought them home a month ago. It's conceivable I might lose my mind if people don't give me their final lists with proper names so I can work on getting them addressed and sent out before June. If anyone is reading this that perhaps has a list still to send me, sleep with one eye open!

We went and looked at wedding rings the other day. It wasn't terribly exciting, but I need one to act as a cork to keep this engagement ring on my finger. It keeps threatening to fly off whenever I make any quick moves. The woman behind the counter must've thought we had some kind of arranged marriage or something, or maybe that I was pregnant, after listening to us talk about how we could feel the oppressive shackle clamp as soon as we tried those rings on! She also told us the price of platinum has risen 30% over the last month and it will probably only get worse because of the lovely economy. I'm tempted to believe her.

We also called one of our favorite restaurants regarding the rehearsal dinner, and it looks like all is set. I just need to remember to call them around April 26th or so (the day Throwing Muses is playing in NYC! That should be easy to remember) and reserve the room.

I'm an accomplishing maniac.

Ahhh things are accomplished!

We got our invitations yesterday and they look great. I'd tell you what a good deal we got but I'm not allowed.

I ordered bridesmaid dresses three weeks ago so they ought to be coming in within the next three weeks. I can't be held responsible for shoe-related catostrophes though.

Meeting with the florist in a few weeks to tell her everything we discussed originally is out the window! She's gonna love that.

Soon I get to start addressing invitations and putting them together and whatnot. That should be lots of fun and not at all tedious!

We also have our cake-topper now too. I can't tell you what it looks like or everyone will make fun of me. It'll just have to be a secret.

Joshua has no idea that I'm dragging him to start trying on tuxedoes tomorrow. Shhhh! Don't tell! Tuxedoes. Tuxedos. Yeah that last one looks right.

So much left to do. So little sanity left!

1) Why doesn't Joshua update this thing anymore? It's all me!
2) Why does everything cost more than you'd expect it to?
3) Why did my most recent chicken pox vaccine make my arm so very sore?
4) Why do so many college students think they can plagiarise and I won't notice?
5) Why haven't we ordered dresses or invitations yet?
6) Why does Joshua think I'm going to ever forgive him for making me watch Battlefield Earth?
7) Why haven't I signed a contract with the florist who took my money yet?
8) Why did I let him make me watch Battlefield Earth???

I'm going to order bridesmaid's dresses next week, as soon as I finish grading final exams! We still haven't ordered invitations. I think we're behind since we haven't done anything wedding-related for so long! Several of my students noticed my ring though. "I saw it sparkling from across the room" and "It's so big!" were among the comments it got. Everyone pat Joshua on the back for a job well-done! (Even if he can't watch tv in it).

I'm afraid to go look at theknot.com to see what it says we should have done by now. I don't know how people plan weddings without going crazy.

Lynn said we've been slacking too much in our blog, but we have an excuse! I've been busy finishing up my grad school applications (mailing them today!) and unfortunately Joshua has come down with a bit of illness, so we haven't done much wedding-related lately. We both got haircuts, though! Joshua's is very short, and mine is missing at least 4 inches off the bottom.

My to-do list is still huge, and with any luck we'll get more accomplished this week. Alternately, this may be the beginning of the true slacking that everyone knows we excel at!

I'm gonna have to hide my hand while I sleep.

Ok, slowly but surely, things happen. Chose our Ceremony Musicians, a harp and a flutist. She seems really nice, and we like what we've heard, so hopefully we made a good choice.

I've also crossed over into officially being a girl now: I can't decide on bridesmaids dresses! I thought I had it all picked out, nice and easy, no real stress... And then I totally changed my mind about the entire thing. I blame the florist. She told me to look for pictures of flowers to get an idea of what I want, and once I started looking at pictures it was all over. So, my To-Do list has grown and my Completed list got shorter. Definitely not the way these things are supposed to work.

I haven't given up. Really. There's just not much to say about trips to the florist. I do have this end of month recap for you all though. Apparently, October was an incredibly busy month.

On October 1st we have:
Reception Location

On October 30th we have:
Reception Location
A Band
A Photographer
An Officiant (note to robn, apparently we did choose the richard simmons people....whoops!
A Diamond Ring
a florist
AND we sent out save the date cards.

Plus, i ate loads and loads of brains. You are all under my power. You will buy us Star Wars Pinball as a wedding gift.

Sigh, looks like Joshua has given up on updating this thing with all our latest ramblings. That didn't take long.

Florist found and deposit left. No links for you!

Ok, I need to finish preparing tonight's lecture so this is going to be short, but I figured I should put something on top of that brain-eating post that Joshua made. Apparently, I'm marrying a dork.

We have 2 appointments with florists this weekend, even though we have no idea what we want as far as flowers are concerned. Hopefully we'll know by tomorrow!

I also have this really nifty ring that I told Joshua he didn't need to buy. I never would've expected to love a piece of jewelry so much. He's a dork, but he rules.

Oh, for those people who are thinking of making hotel reservations, I just thought I'd mention that Joshua and I will be staying there that Saturday night as well, so we can all keep frolicking and whatnot after the reception ends at 5 pm.

That about sums up the latest bunch of stuff. Next stop after flowers: invitations.

IMPORTANT WEDDING INFORMATION

That is all.

Well, we haven't updated lately because we were busy recovering from that outbreak of actually DOING stuff. We're working on figuring out what we want flower-wise and then we'll call florists. I mailed out a stack of Save the Date Cards today (although it wasn't all of them, it was a good chunk). Things might start to calm down briefly. We hope.

Would probably be a good idea if we actually signed a contract or something with that band we chose. Otherwise I'm hiring a DJ who will play nothing but songs by the Wedding Present all night, and no one will dance to that.

In the meantime, I have mid-terms and papers to grade. (Although I feel the need to point out to anyone who is reading this that when a professor tells you not to download your paper off the internet because she'll know, she probably assumes you won't hand in, "An Essay Concerning Human Understanding" by John Locke and hope she doesn't notice. I guess I took that for granted. Next time I'll add that into my announcement.) But I digress.

Ok, what a weekend. Friday night we trekked up to New York City to see the Delegates play. I'm too lazy to include links today so you'll have to make use of your scrollbar if you want to go visit their website. Anyway, we really liked the way they sounded, they were really good at energizing the crowd and they looked liked they were having lots of fun on stage, so we decided we're going to hire them. Band chosen!

Then we got to drive way too far to visit the second photographer. He takes really nice wedding pictures. But what it comes down to is that they're just that: wedding pictures. L.D. Bright creates museum-quality artwork with one's wedding as the subject matter. We can't really afford him (especially since there are WAY too many people on our guest list) but we're determined to find a way. The photographs are all we'll have after the wedding so we want them to be as amazing as possible, and no one can top L.D. Bright.

So now our next objective is to find a florist and maybe register someplace. I need to hurry up and finish training for that third job so hopefully we can afford all this stuff. Starting to address Save the Date cards too. But first I have to go grade papers!

Look, robn already posted about the photographer trip. She's so good.

In other news, we're going to see the Delegates play live on Friday night at Swing 46. Which is good. The bad part is the show doesn't start until 10:30 and we have that appt with Viccini at 9:30 am on Saturday and that photographer is over an hour away. So much for a relaxing weekend. We really want to have a band decision made by Sunday, but i'm not sure that's possible (unless the Delegates just completely rock). I'm just aiming to have a clear list of candidates so we can have a decision made by the end of next week. We shall see.

So, we met with Photographer #1 tonight. He was a crazy old hippy who nodded appreciably when I told him my birthday (at his request, for astrological reasons), and later talked to me about Cartesian Dualism, Chakras, and Rastafarians. He had more character in his long grey hair than most wedding vendors have in their 3-piece suits. I may not agree with his take on souls, but I sure as heck loved his photographs. He's not a typical wedding photographer by a long shot. I almost cringe to call him one at all, but that's what he does. He's an Artist way more than a wedding photographer, and it really shows. His photographs were museum-quality, and he doesn't go in for any of the usual wedding stuff whereby the bride and groom give a list of situations they'd like to be sure to photograph. He says it's all done by instinct (and once you've seen his results you believe him). We aren't hiring a videographer, so I'm of the opinion that we really need nice photographs. This man more than qualifies.

The problem? Apparently his work is well-known enough that his customers pay the price. He had pictures of some NBA star and of Regis Philben in some of his albums because he's photographed several celebrity weddings. That sounds like a good thing (speaks more of his quality) but in reality it's a Bad Thing. Maybe even a Very Bad Thing, because it means he costs double what we had budgeted on the high end of our photograph guesstimates. (Which may mean we have to settle for someone else).

We have another meeting on Saturday (Never get involved in a land war in Asia. Never go in against a Sicilian, when death is on the line!) so we'll see what happens. I suspect I won't be satisfied with a place that hires out 10 different photographers to do their work, which is what this DiBella guy seems to do. We'll see!

If she wants a car for the money we paid for the ring she'll have to settle for one of these.

I just want to reply quickly to that Christopher Priest link that Joshua put up and say, "Right on!" If he would rather buy me a car, then far be it from me to object.

Oh, and that poll is not scientific! Joshua is cheating by entering multiple band votes from different IPs, while I'm stuck here not able to vote at all.

He's a rotten cheater.

Tomorrow is a meeting with Photographer #1. (Then Saturday I get to see if Tom Dibella can figure out which wine I put the iocane in). I can't wait to be done with all this deciding stuff.

Today was a busy day as far as weddings go.

We met with the officiant tonight. He was very nice, seemed to understand our desire to have the ceremony be as religion-free as possible. He also had tons of good information on ceremonies/receptions in general. So, scratch another thing off the list of things to do. We're kicking ass and taking names here! Still wish we had the whole band thing sorted out of course. We're trying to decide between a band and a dj. Bands have the benefit of being, in general, a bit classier. The DJ has the benefit of costing 1/4 as much as a band (plus as she likes to say, Sinatra actually sounds like Sinatra). So our website came with some built in polling app, figured we may as well put it to work, so without further ado:

Band or DJ

From the better late than never dept (unless yr christopher priest):

Took off from work today to go pick out a diamond for robn's ring. My mom hooked us up with her friends Bob and Adrienne who got us a really, really, really nice stone for a very reasonable price. It's sparkly. She won't quite need a wheelbarrow to cart it around when we get the finished ring (in about two weeks), but it's definately nice. Who knew i'd ever be talking about a nice diamond engagement ring. It's bizarre. Anyway, Bob & Adrienne were super nice, and very helpful, so when the wedding rolls around, make sure you all tell them you read about how cool they are ;).

Who am i kidding, the only people reading this won't talk to anyone at the wedding anyway.

We're off to meet a potential officiant (or as robn likes to say, someone to officiate) at Bennigan's (he says he's a regular there!).