Rehearsal Dinner Invitations

By now, everyone in the wedding party should have received an invitation to the rehearsal dinner to be held at Pazzo's.  The rehearsal will be at St. John Cantius at 7:30pm on Friday 9/26.  Don't be late!  Immediately following the rehearsal, we'll be going straight to Pazzo's.  If you have any questions or feel you have mistakenly not received an invitation, please let us know right away!

Rehearsal Dinner Venue Selection

After some initial disappointments in finding a rehearsal dinner location, we finally committed to a restaurant (not a moment too soon, eh?).  The restaurant has three different locations, one of which was the location for my sister's wedding reception.  The dinner will be at Pazzo's Cucina Italiana at the corner of Adams & Wacker looking out onto the Chicago River!

Of course I am looking forward to enjoying the evening with our families and our wedding party, as well as the great location, but I'd be lying if I wasn't also really looking forward to the food.  Pasta station...here I come!

A great big thanks to my parents for scouting the location and hosting the event!

A (long) Overall Update

So my wish to catch up on all past blogs a couple weeks ago did not quite work as I had hoped.  I was able to post a few, but shortly after, I was right back to my to do list and our website (unfortunately) was not my top priority.  I'll try to just abridge some things so that you don't get too bored reading this.

1. About a month ago, I was able to finalize the entire flower order.  We decided to start with Del's Florist, which is the flower shop that our church regularly uses, and although I was not able to make an appointment because they were closed the day I call, the woman at the shop was gracious enough to meet with us anyway when we just showed up one day.  We told her we did not live near by and we were completely fine if she had to help anyone if they came in to the shop, so I think that because we were polite and understanding, she was understanding of us as well and helped us right then and there.  I brought tons of pictures of flowers that I liked from magazines, but unlike when I collected pictures of bridal gowns, there was not a strong common theme amongst what I liked.  Thankfully, the woman was extremely nice and would give me much more information when I asked for it since I don't know much about flowers.  I generally knew what colors I wanted though and between her suggestions and input from my parents, I think we picked some great arrangements.  At least for the flowers, it was one-stop shopping!  I am anxious to see how they will turn out, although I am sure they will be great. 
 
2. I finalized all the pieces to the gifts for my bridesmaids.  I can't say much more here since I know at least one of them reads the blog regularly, but I am glad to have everything for those and I am excited to give them their gifts.
 
3. I had to send in our first "final payment" for the wedding last week.  With each thing that I check off my list, I realize it brings us that much closer to our big day.  But there is something about getting into the "final payment" stage that makes me see that it is not that far away any more.  In fact, we only have a few weeks!
 
4. In and amongst all of our planning, we were able to celebrate my grandparents' 67th wedding anniversary.  That's right, you read that correctly - 67 years!  And although they have their aches and pains just like any person does as they age, they both are so grateful to have one another through all these years.  It was a great moment for my family and I to be with them to celebrate and for Jack and I of course, a great reminder as to what unconditional love is as we prepare for our wedding day.
 
5. As Jack has noted in his recent blogs, much of what has been taking up our time is closing on our condo and all of our packing.  When it came to handling condo details, I pretty much left it all to Jack.  He certainly has done so much with our wedding plans, but now that we are heading into the final stretch, we are down to a lot of the little details that all along I just knew I would handle.  So, with that in mind, he took the ball and ran with it in finalizing our condo closing, setting up appointments with the floor refinishers, the people to come and clean the place before we move in, our insurance agent, the movers, etc.  He has just been an ENORMOUS help with all of this!  And one of the great things with Jack is that he didn't leave me in the dust to not know what was going on.  He'd keep me posted with where we were at with things, ask me my opinions and then go from there.  I am just so lucky to have a partner helping with all this!
 
I am long overdue in posting about the Minster shower, so I will be sure to get to that this week, as it was a fantastic afternoon that is worthy of its own blog.

Groomsmen Gifts & Closing Countdown

Despite the fact that both Mary and I have been ridiculously busy in the last week, there isn't much we can cross off our list of things to do.  Mostly it has been phone calls with vendors, parents, family and bridal party.  Most of our vendors have been booked, so now we just need to follow up and finalize the details.  SOOOO many details.  Our heads have been spinning just trying to keep it all straight, let alone blog about it.


The goods news is that I've finalized all the groomsmen and usher gifts.  I have been thinking about this for some time, and it took me a while before I had a clue where to even start.  Fortunately, Mary was able to help me brainstorm some good ideas.  In the end, I'm really excited about each of my decisions, and even more excited to present these gifts to each of the men that will be standing up for me.


Also, what has been keeping us pre-occupied most of all lately, we'll be closing on our condo this Thursday!  As if closing on a home wasn't enough, we're scheduling a contractor to re-finish the floors starting immediately, a cleaning service to clean up after the contractor, and movers to move all of Mary's stuff and most of my stuff in!  Of course, I couldn't just work with all of those companies alone, I also have been coordinating with our condo association to make sure we have the green light.  All of that will be worth it, though, when Mary and I (and Bentley) can go to our brand new home after our wedding and just relax.  In just three days, we can call it our own!

On Their Way

I forgot to post this yesterday, but my dad, being the great dad that he is, took all the invitations into the post ofice personally and handed them to someone, as opposed to just dropping them in a mail box somewhere.  He told me that he even went so far as to tell the postal worker what they were and she assured him that they'd take care of them and they'd be on their way.  So as of yesterday, our invitations were mailed!