June 15, 2004

It has been a long time since I've posted anything here.

Sunday we had Tim's parents' 50th Anniversary celebration. I baked a 5-tier cake and we threw quite the nice shindig. It was nice to be able to see the church and realize that it wasn't as icky as I remembered it to be.

An email from my sweetie

I asked him "What five things have you done in your life that you are the most proud of?"


His response back... big points for him...

my kids
wiring the house (home repair skills learned)
going to MI for grad school (first great leap of independence)
asking you to marry me
taking the leap to go after this job (recent history aside)

Dilemma

Last week I was all content with my wedding planning and how far it has progressed. Things were smooth and I was feeling good.

But, the ugly green monster (jealousy) popped onto my back and bit me hard.

Tim was telling me that Laurie, his co-worker, was talking about looking for a wedding/reception location. They were looking at someplace on Bainbridge Island. Tim told her about Thornewood Castle and she was very impressed.

The minute he wrote that, I felt like I got kicked in the stomach. I couldn't believe that he had told her about it when he hadn't even wanted to consider it for us. I know that is a stupid thing, but it was bothering me. I was instantly jealous and hoping that they didn't select it. Then the regrets settled in and I was sad at the thought of not getting the "dream" wedding that I had been thinking about.

Later on that day, I talked with my mom and told her how silly I felt for feeling that way. She told me that she understood, and was asking what the price differential was on Thornewood vs. Slovenian. I told her that it was $1800. She said that she would pay the difference, if Tim agreed to do it at Thornewood. She wouldn't give us extra otherwise, but she totally wanted me to have the wedding of my dreams and felt bad that I was compromising all over the place. She wanted to try and make it happen since she never had the dream wedding.

So I told Tim. But he didn't seem all that excited. I don't know. It is weird. All he said was, "that would take care of the budget." I told him that he would need to think about it and let me know what he thought. He was silent. Later on that evening, he brought up the Bartelson's and what they would think of Thornewood. So I don't know what that meant. The next night he said something about Thornewood. I asked him if he was willing to go and look at it. He said he would.

I called them on Thursday afternoon to see about getting an appointment, but I could only leave a message and I haven't heard back from them. Hopefully we can go out there at some point this week or on the weekend.

Isn't mom great?

The weekend was busy, but productive. Friday night, Tim and I went downtown Tacoma to the old Winthrop (Crystal Ballroom) because there were a bunch of vendors set up for a free wedding preview type of thing. I got an email about it and we attended. The caterer I am interested in is the same guy who owns that building on 46th and Pacific that we'll be renting office space from. Kind of a small world. He was coordinating the event (along with the Winthrop).
They had tables with different place settings all set up, had plants with twinkle lights (a different vendor) lining the walls, then they had a couple of stations where they put out food for sampling. They also had a photographer, a harpist, and a DJ. We talked to the DJ for quite awhile. He and his wife were great. I think that we are definitely going to use them. They are in the right price range. Tim was talking to him about how much some are charging. He said that he does it more as a hobby and he has a real job, so he can do it affordably.

Anyway, that was an interesting evening. There weren't many people at the Winthrop, so we got to speak with the caterer/landlord for quite awhile. He told us a lot about the business, the types of things they do and said that he can work within any budget. So that was good. We were talking about different venues and I mentioned that I had wanted to have the shindig at Thornewood Castle in Lakewood, but that it was a little unpractical (pricewise). It was either have it there and not serve any food, or find a more reasonable location and serve food. He was nice and offered to get us a discount on a room there for our wedding night if we wanted. He does so much business with them, he can get us a deal. We're going to try and set up a time to talk with him in the next few weeks about catering and costs. One of the interesting things we learned from him was that they can provide cleanup service for $75 to $150 depending on the venue. We were relieved about that because that was one of my main concerns.

347 Days!

Last night, I found a dress.

I called the shop where Lisa bought her dress last year. I was going to set up an appointment to go up on my lunch hour to look around (it is in North Seattle). When I called, I got the voicemail that stated they weren't answering the phone because they were having a going-out-of-business sale. I was so upset! Serendipitously, Tim had to teach a class that evening (for work) at North Seattle Community College. I decided to go drop him off and then head over to the dress shop to see what they had. They told me that they were pretty picked over, but they still had about 50 dresses left. They said that if I didn't find my size or color, they could give me the info for ordering (which most places won't do anymore).

I had less than an hour to shop, so I quickly grabbed about ten dresses. After trying on a bunch, I narrowed it down to 3. Then narrowed it down to 2. The sales girl was stunned because she said that most people who've tried on this dress did not look good in it. It is a designer ("couture") gown so it isn't mass produced. She was excited when I tried it on because she said that it was one of her favorites and no one else had bought it. When I tried it on, she said that she thought that it was made for me. I thought that she may just be saying that to get the sale, but she didn't make a big deal over the others I tried on. I was in a dilemma. I still kind of liked the other one better... it was a very simple one, and it was slightly cheaper. So then she asked me about why I was having trouble deciding. Part of it was the fit... which would be cleared up with the alterations. Then she asked me if price was a consideration and before I answered, she cut the price of the first one so that they were both the same so it wouldn't hamper my decision. Then she asked me which Tim would like better. That is what decided it. I knew which he'd like better. Plus, the one that I liked slightly better, was completely strapless, so it would have been a challenge to deal with as far as more alterations to make me feel completely comfortable.

So I bought it and got it at a huge discount. It was originally a $996 dress and I got it for $340. The zipper needs some repair and then some minor alterations, but otherwise, I am very happy with it. :) The beading and decorations are way more sparkly and colorful in person, but this was the picture I found on the internet.

Another thing completed and checked off the list! The picture is the dress below in the larger pictures. Ignore the three small pictures at the top.

http://groups.msn.com/Kimberleesphotopage/shoebox.msnw?action=ShowPhoto&PhotoID=7

365 Days!

Today is the one-year mark to the wedding countdown. We are going out tonight to see a play. Should be interesting. I bought a card for the "pre-anniversary"... he'll probably think that is cheesy. Oh well.

He asked his dad about marrying us the other night. For some reason, he seemed really nervous about asking. I think that he didn't want to put his dad on the spot if he didn't want to. But he said "yes" so we are set. It will be interesting. My only concern (other than discussing our sex life with future FIL) is that he is very religious, and I was hoping for a less religious ceremony. I guess we can discuss that as things progress. I just don't want to offend him or cause stress.

I looked at a few cakes the other day. The bakery staff weren't very friendly, so I'm not really keen on using them. I guess they wouldn't necessarily be the ones I'd be dealing with, but you never know. I also will be interested to see how their store changes because they just got new owners. The cake will be an interesting thing because Tim had some very definite opinions on it. It turns out, he didn't like the flowers I put on Lisa's. Sheesh!

I went by the Showmans' club to check it out as a potential site. It was nothing to be excited about. It is a really neat old building from the outside, but it is old inside (circa 1959) that hasn't been updated much. Plus, it is for sale and there are no guarantees that they wouldn't sell it and we'd be stuck without a location. That makes me nervous. And I'm not excited about it enough to risk that. We looked through the Knot (for Seattle) and found a couple other sites that we can look at. I'm still all in favor of Thornewood Castle, but Tim doesn't seem to like that either. Probably because it is expensive. But to me, the location is more important than the food. I think that Tim would rather have more food than location. I don't know.