Holiday Time...

Hey everyone!

So, it's holiday time (and exactly 5 months before the BIG DAY), and we're excited to be spending our first Christmas as an engaged couple together in Aurora. We got about 4 inches of snow over this past weekend (probably a lot less than some of you judging from seeing highlights of the Browns game yesterday) so it made driving downtown yesterday to see Wicked a little interesting. If you are at all a musical theater fan, we both would HIGHLY recommend you see this play. It was great.

Wedding-wise, we have almost everything big taken care of, and are tasting some cakes this weekend to get that done. The limo will be booked very soon, and the other big things we have left are registering and figuring out where we're going to get the tuxes. Other than that, everything is moving along and we are on task and on time with everything.

Over the holidays, we will be traveling some - to Anna's parents' this Saturday until Christmas day, and then I will be heading to my parents' in Virginia from the 26th - 30th to see them a little bit. Unfortunately, Anna has to work, or she'd be coming along.

Anyway, have a very happy holiday season, and we will be positing again in early '08.

-Bruce and Anna

Update: Wedding Rings Purchased

Well, another one of the big remaining items (and bigger expenses) for the wedding has been taken care of. Today we purchased the wedding rings, which we are excited about! We'll post photos once they have been sized and we have them in hand.

We look forward to sharing more news as we move forward, including the cake tasting that will be happening soon!

- Bruce and Anna

PS- We'll also be registering soon, so we'll be sure to share that with everyone as well :)

PPS - Anna just said as I was proofreading this that "this post includes everything Anna loves - diamonds, chocolate and shopping... The wedding planning is just now getting exciting!" Nice...

Update: Invitations Have Arrived!

The recently-ordered invitations have arrived. They look great and it's another thing to take off the checklist! We also have reserved the limousine, which is a positive as well.

Next on the To Do list:

1. Register for gifts
2. Finalize blocks of rooms for our guests
3. Figure out where we're ordering the tuxedos

We'll update everyone on this as we move forward!

To leave you, I thought I'd include a photo of the apartment with the Christmas decorations up!

Can you spot the animal in the photo above?

Wedding Invitations Ordered...

So, we have ordered our wedding invitations and are working to do a couple final things like get our limo set up, and a couple other things. Everything else is going well as the holiday season begins.

Hope you are all well...

- Bruce and Anna

Passports have arrived!

We have received our passports, not more than 2 weeks after we went in and applied for them... Apparently the backlog of requests has gone by the wayside.

Anyway, we have them, and are moving forward with additional planning!

We have also secured a block of 10 rooms at one of the preferred hotels, and we will be getting that information out to invitees at some point in the future.

Hope everyone has a nice weekend!

- Bruce

Things are Moving Along...

Hey everyone! You've probably been saying to yourselves, "Boy, I wish Bruce and Anna would post some new information on their Blog so I can get an update about how the wedding planning is coming along... It's been nearly a month!!"

Well, your dreams are about to come true, because we have some info. to share below...

1. We got the DJ signed up and ready to go. Over the next few months, we'll be picking the majority of our songs, but a sampling of what you'll hear is below:

Stayin' Alive
Three Times a Lady (yes Seinfeld fans, this song will be played, except I will not be driving a mail truck like Newman was when he ran over a sewing machine and it burst into flames...)
Jesse's Girl
Pennsylvania Polka (unfortunately not the Polka Boy version...)

2. The florist is booked, and Anna has had a couple meetings with him to talk about what we want... I have stayed out of those discussions, as I fear me saying "those look nice" will only lead to me being ridiculed later on because they don't go with the colors or something...

3. Anna has decided on the bridesmaid dresses, and her wedding dress has come in to the bridal shop. This is very exciting. She keeps asking if I want to see it, but I have done a good job of deflecting the conversation because I am not allowed to see it prior to the wedding. (See, I do know a little bit about this stuff...)

4. We have purchased our honeymoon flights and have reserved our rooms. We are going to St. Martin, French West Indies, located about 190 miles southeast of Puerto Rico... It's going to be great! Now, all we need are our passports!

Next Steps:

We are working on getting our marriage license, our passports, our wedding rings, figuring out where we'll register, the invitations, as well as some other small things like the limo, the cake, what time the wedding and reception will take place, etc.

Everything is coming along, and Anna has been doing a great job! I pitch in when I can, but to be honest, she is running the ship, and I am like a little Cabin Boy on the yacht that she is the captain of...

Anyway, hope to talk to you all soon!

- Bruce

UPDATE: Honeymoon Hotel Booked

Our honeymoon hotel is booked. We are staying at the Hotel L'Esplanade in St. Martin from May 19-25, 2008. Our room will be a deluxe loft, which has a second level bedroom with an amazing terrace which should allow us to see the Caribbean Sea. It's going to be great!

On another note, we have also been working to finalize the DJ for the reception. (Did you like how I used "On another note" in that sentence? A pun...) We've talked to a few people and received an info pack today from the one we would like. We'll see what happens...

For those of you who are girly girls and want to know about the wedding dress/bridesmaid dresses, Anna has made her decision on bridesmaid dresses, and is having her girls send in their sizes to the company so they can be made. They are very nice - I have seen a photo. I have not seen, nor have I wanted to ask about the wedding dress... Apparently that is bad karma...

Finally, in other news, we're heading to a Indians/White Sox game tomorrow night, so we're very excited about it (me a little more than her.) Oh, and Anna started her post doc today. We'll see how she likes it when she comes home!

Until next time,
Bruce