We're Alive!

Dear Lord.

My last post was on May 29th, and it feels like it was just a few days ago. It is now June 16th...and for the first time since we've been engaged, it seems I got swept away in wedding planning chaos.

I will have to do several posts to get caught up on everything we have accomplished, but here's a short recap:

Josh and I kicked it into high gear when we realized that we only had FOUR months left until the wedding. Those four months consist of summer, and even in a normal year when there is not a very special wedding looming, summer always flies by. In the midst of this knowlege, we were invited by my dad to take an impromtu road trip to Texas for my "Grandmama's" 96th birthday. Knowing it was probably the last time we'd be able to do anything even remotely relaxing/vacation-like until October, we readily agreed.

That trip to Texas put me even more behind in blogging world though! In the last 16 days alone, here is what we accomplished:

*We finalized our wedding floral contract with the amazing Holly at The Scarlet Bloom.
* We bought all the materials for making the ever elusive pocketfolds. I promise at some point, these will actually come together and I will have photos to share!
* All my girls have been measured for their dresses and ordered them...only to find out the store we ordered them from had a BIG "CLOSING" sign on it immediately afterwards. After a panicked phone call, the gal there assured me they were only relocating. I told her it was not nice to do that to stressed out brides!
* Mom and I found the flipping most adorable bridesmaid shoes ever. After much searching and stressing about the "right" color pink.
* Joshy and I made a trip to our local Men's Warehouse and actually sat with an awesome consultant completely designing the look for all the men in the wedding. Josh was so happy at the end of that, I think it finally made it real to him...that he got to put in his two cents about something that directly affects him.
* I met with our harpist for the final time, gave her a deposit and scheduled a time to meet with her before the wedding.
* Our tasting is scheduled at the reception hotel for this upcoming weekend. Once we have that detail complete, we can finish our invitations!
* Josh and I visited our local Helzberg Diamonds (we are loyal customers, that's where my gorgeous ring came from) and picked out his wedding band. We also came to the conclusion that we don't want to purchase a wedding band for me. My ring is so intricate already that adding a wedding band actually detracts from the look.
* Our DJ is booked, all we have to do is arrange a time to sit down with him and figure out playlists.
* My paychecks are finally going straight towards the wedding. We had a lot of catching up to do after living above our means for a couple months. Now, each check I get buys something we need or chips away at the remaining balances of things like my dress, the reception, etc. It's looking like we're gonna be able to pay for this thing outright!

*Phew*

Josh and I also had so.much.fun on our trip to Texas, we have decided as a couple that we are going to travel much more often. We realize that we can travel modestly and not spend an arm and a leg each time. Our new goal? To get to all 50 states together. Although we have been to many states individually, we have only been to 3 together (including exploring all over our homestate of Colorado). I will post a separate blog about our adventure in Texas as well as all the other important stuff above. For now, I needed to have a checklist of just everything I need to catch up on! I promise, we're still alive and wedding planning is going great! Stay tuned!