Playing Catch-up

Hello! Well, as you've noticed, "Saying 'I do'" has undergone a makeover! I decided to graduate to the "big kid"designs that Blogger now offers and not live in the dark ages anymore!

Secondly with 4 days left of the month, I had already hit my 1000th visit for the month of September which is more than I've ever had! It's not the thousands that some blogs get in a day, but it's certainly a far cry from the 1 visit a month I had when I first started...and that was my mom!

http://my-bits-n-pieces.blogspot.com/2009/04/how-i-increased-traffic-to-my-blog.html

Also, Friday night Chris and I went out to dinner with Mike and Kerry. We went to City Cafe which had been suggested to us as a good rehearsal dinner space since it's so close to our hotel. This place was very nice. It had a great bar, good food, and live entertainment starting at 9. They actually had one of the wedding bands playing that Chris and I had looked at back in February called East Coast. The bar and dance floor were packed. But, I have to say...I felt like I was in an episode of what should be entitled Jersey Shore: Long Island Edition....for old people.  It was quite an eccentric crowd, let me tell you. I'll call City Cafe and get their pricing on dinner for a group, it was a nice space and could be fun. But, I don't have my heart set on this place, and think we can arrange something better. However, the real point of this story is that during dinner Kerry asked me to be a bridesmaid in their wedding next September 24th! I was so surprised and excited that I was asked to join their wedding party. It's going to be such a fantastic and special time, and I can't wait to be a part of their day! I am going to order my bridesmaid dress at the new J. Crew Bridal Boutique on Madison Avenue either this week or next week. I've been wanting to check this place out since it opened, so I'm happy to have the excuse to go there.

I suddenly understand why blogs like Weddingbee.com don't let you blog for them until your 8 months out from your wedding. It's like September came, and all of a sudden all I can think about is wedding, wedding, wedding. All of a sudden everything I've researched, every idea I had, everything I haven't booked, now suddenly needs to be called to action. I normally handle pressure fine but for whatever reason, last week was just an awful mess of stress, being overly tired, and not being able to shut my brain off. It all came to a head last Wednesday night as I had an absolute breakdown. Just as I was putting the final sentence on my post about the Long Island Bridal Extravaganza...something happened and the entire post was deleted. I panicked....and X'd out of the screen hoping I did that before the automatic save that blogspot does, which is "usually" so helpful. Well, it saved, and the entire post was gone, and it was 11:00 at night. So no surprise, I cried, but I sat down and rewrote the whole thing...not as good as the first, but the same general idea. As I finished the post, I stood up and got my foot caught in the lanyard attached to my USB pen drive which was in the computer, and completely broke it in two. Everything I have ever planned with the wedding is on that USB pen drive. All the engagement pics I edited...is on that pen drive. My LIFE is on that pen drive. I change and add stuff to it every day and hadn't backed it up in quite some time. Stupid? Yes. It was a lesson learned. So....I cried.  LUCKILY, it was salvagable and nothing was lost. I saved the information to our computer, but the pen drive is pretty broken and should not be trusted for future use.

In moving my plans into action this month, I really slacked on all the blogs I normally read. Not to mention, I feel like I add a new blog to read to my google reader every week, which truly gets overwhelming but I love them all! Well last week I did some catching up, and boy did I find some amazing stuff, and boy will I try to stay on top of these. There truly is some amazing stuff out there on these blogs if you just allow yourself time to read through  the posts!

First of all, I decided that I am going to invite the Obama's to our wedding!! Apparently, lots of people send their wedding invites to the White House, and the White House sends you a regrets letter wishing you the best of luck. Gwen at Gwenniepie.com, got her decline letter from them last week, and after reading the comments, I could see that lots of people do that! How cool is that?? It's certainly a little piece of history to hold onto to look back on one day. Of course, it would be cooler if they actually came, but the logistics of having extra security at the wedding would stress me out too much. ;)

I watched two videos that were amazing. Firstly this one. It's long, but it's beautiful and just like a movie!(I forget which blog I found this on!)

Aimee & Troy's Arthouse Short from Elysium Productions on Vimeo.


Then I found this proposal video:
Wedding Videography: Graffiti Wedding Proposal Video!

This week we have an event at the Sand Castle which I'm sooo excited about, our 6 YEAR ANNIVERSARY! (we have BIG plans..to be revealed later this week), our Save the Dates are being ordered, we officially booked our limos AND my parents are visiting to help with some wedding plans and to watch me run the DIVA Half Marathon on Sunday!! Unfortunately, work has been nutso this week, hence the delay in this post. But there is lots happening and lots to report on this week!