Holy canoli

I have a lot to tell you about!

Two weekends ago, Robby and I drove down and over to Grafton for a big Bergstrom-Barry family extravaganza. My parents, my brother and my two nephews also made the trip. We spent Saturday afternoon and evening hanging out with parents, siblings, Grandma, aunts, uncles, cousins, etc. I was a little nervous, but nothing too bad. His family was so welcoming and fun; it was a great afternoon! It meant so much to me to see all those family members around for our visit. It also meant a lot for my own family to be there as well! Robby had the wonderful idea for the get-together so our family could meet before our big day. It was a great idea - one of his many. I'm really glad we did it. Big big thank yous to all the travel, cleaning and cooking that went into the visit! I wish I had some pictures so share, but I managed to leave my camera in my purse the entire time.

In other wedding news, I found the bridesmaid dresses (yay, I found a great green!), I found my wedding shoes (many brains will implode at the sight) and today was our tasting at D'Amico! I knew it was going to be good and I knew it was going to be a lot of food but HOLY CRAP I had no idea a human could eat that much food in 2 hours. I was honestly in PAIN. (See what we go through for you people? Just to make sure your food tastes good? I hope you appreciate it) It was a great experience and I am just now coming out of my food coma - almost 3 hours later. It's really important for us to have good food at our wedding, and there is no doubt of that happening!

Take that, checklist!

A couple weeks ago, I confessed to Robby that I wasn't sleeping well and I felt really anxious. As much as I tried to fight it, I couldn't get the big wedding decisions off of my mind. I was worried, even though the logical part of my brain knew full well there was plenty of time. But you know how your brain can sometimes be all "YEAH WHATEVER, LOGIC. I'M NOT TRYIN' TO HEAR THAT."

Thankfully that anxious feeling has really died down. Because right now?
Church? Check.
Reception? Check.
Caterer? Check. (still anxiously waiting for the tasting!)
Florist? Check.
One of 2 hotels? Check.
And of course we've got things like our peeps, our pastor(s?), the guys have picked out the tuxes, my dress was ordered months ago.

And then today, we secured our photographer, Tirisha Dirks, and our DJ, Instant Request. That means we pretty much have all of our big decisions MADE. IT FEELS SO GOOD.

We have an appointment next week about invitations and I am now off to send an email to my girls about yet another dress. Yay!

OK- Now it's really happening!

We have been busy this weekend. Looking at invites, setting appointments, talking to DJ's, talking honeymoons, rehersal dinner planning and most importantly, we got rid of a bunch of Janna's stuff. We definitely have a stuff issue, as in, we both have a lot of it. We've lived on our own for a long time and you accumulaate a lot of crap. Right now, we'd need a 15 room mansion for all our stuff. We went through Janna's storage room and tossed bags and boxes and tons of other b words. We still have a looooong way to go, but it felt good to get a move on that. I'm planning on hitting my place pretty hard this week and making ready to toss a lot too. It really feels great to start doing things we've beenn planning for a while.

Speaking of which, I was perusing our registries and somebody bought us stuff! I still can't quite wrap my head around that idea, but now that's real too. This is so cool! When we get done with this ride ca we go again?

The worm has turned...

If you are reading this and you haven't sent Janna and I your address yet, well just you watch out!

In casual conversation with a pal of mine, I hinted that they wouldn't be coming to our Gala...if they didn't tell me where the #&^% they lived. Suddenly a bunch of my peoples are sending me their information. That's right. Wherever I go, people quake with fear and swear fealty to do my bidding, but you know, in a good way.

So come on, who's next?

Work work work - and it's actually fun.

Our trifecta is complete. For the most part.

Robby and I had a weekend full of wedding planning. We went to Target and spent a couple hours filling up our registry there. You should NOT be surprised to see many many DVDs on our list. We ran into a similar situation at Target as we did at Pottery Barn: lots of things are seasonal and therefore won't be around by the time we get married, so we'll end up going back closer to our wedding date.

We also walked around St. Paul looking at different hotels that are close to the caves. We want to set up a block of rooms at places we've seen. We have narrowed down our choices, so that is close to being finished. All I know is that I REALLY want to stay at the St. Paul Hotel! That place is incredible.

On Sunday we had our first appointment with a potential photographer. It went really well! I'm going to leave out names until we have made a decision, but the person we met with on Sunday has really set the bar high! We have two more appointments set up and I am working on a third. It felt great to get some more work done on our day.

Things that I'm slowly learning...

Not all businesses have your interests in the front of their mind. Oh, they SAY they do...

The bottom line is that this is the most important day of my life and if someone's going to be a part of it, even if that part is a business transaction, they need to be just slightly above incompetent at what they do, and they need to get it. The jeweller that I picked. He got it. The caterer that we picked. She got it. This may come a a shock, but large, multinational, corporate hotels reallly couldn't give a flying squirrel about your wedding day.

Capitalism marches on.

On that day...

Nathaniel Briggs patents a washing machine - 1797


Constantinople is officially renamed - 1930


France & Britain declare war on Russia, starting the Crimean war - 1854


Largest nationwide protest against youth labor held in France - 2006


Mr. August Busch is born - 1899


Mr. Frederick Pabst is born - 1836


Virginia Woolf drowns herself - 1941


Three Mile Island: America's worst commercial nuclear accident occurs in Pennsylvania - 1979


Paris is sacked by raiding Vikings - 845


Jesse Owens is posthumously awarded the Congressional Gold War - 1990


Vince Vaughn, Reba McEntire and Julia Stiles are born - 1970, 1955, 1981


Something to look forward to... on March 28, 2009: Janna and Rob get married! Save the date!!