I am still making invitations.
Few things to know about making stationary:

• Having access to two printers helps alot in the printing department
• Make sure your chosen cardstock is compatible with one of these printers
• Make sure your chosen cardstock can be cut by your table cutter

I failed at the last one and spent my weekend cutting paper. I am really thankful that I have granny scissors accessible. Granny scissors are spring loaded scissors with extra long hand holds for people with arthritis. I have a repetitive motion injury in my right hand from cutting an insane amount of models for my 3rd year of Architecture school. Ever since then my grip is weaker and just simple cutting or hand sewing aggravates the injury. Even with the the special scissors, I was still sore and had Adam do all the hole punching and the Best Man finish out the non crucial cutting.

They will be going out by the end of the week. I am determined.

Now I still need to find my calligraphy pens... Yes I am that kind of an art nerd.

But why hand address the invitations. Well because there seems to be a lot of etiquette about it and that I was already castigated by Adam's mother for not hand addressing the save the date cards. "Its okay but the invitations better be hand addressed."
I don't know what she would do to me, but I don't want to give her a reason. She also scolded me for getting my bridal shower thank yous out so late. Not that I moved or anything. Not that the holidays landed on me or anything.

I am just getting kind of sick of her scolding me. Fucking go scold your own daughter. Yeah I may not know a lot about etiquette but I have enough class to keep my legs closed to men i know are married. That and her after the fact bullshit is annoying me.

After everything is planned and laid out she comes in after the fact and makes suggestions that she wants heard or enforced. Fuck it. Its already done. You chose not to be available when things were going down so now STFU.

Things that need to be made:
Favors to make. That should be quick and fun.
Programs to create. I think I am going to make a super tiny folded booklet with a bit of ribbon.
Place cards and chart.

I am glad that I no longer have to make centerpieces anymore. I was planning to, but with the change to a professional florist, I no longer have to.

The situation with Adam's sister and his Mom is making me nervous. I understand that the baby is a bundle of joy and all but  No kids is no kids. We are going to stick to our guns. I think I am going to come out looking like the evil sister-in-law though. Sigh.

My stomach hurts.
 

Yes I know counting down is weird. Honestly I have nothing else in my life at the moment because all the arrangements have consumed a lot of my free time.

I am finding that the biggest pain in the ass of the whole wedding process is actually the stationary and guest list.
Once you pick everyone out and scheduled people to come and do things, everything else is kinda cake.

It probably doesn't help me much that I decided to hand make and design all the stationary. I don't know how I got talked into this and why I didn't just go with a kit product, but it is what it is now.

Also I find that a lot of Grooms seem to be on this lets make it the most unique wedding ever kinda kick. Atleast this is what I get from the women's network wedding weekend program block. Adam seems to be on the same kick, but he seems reasonable about it. He actually woke up in the middle of the night to tell me that he had attended our wedding in his dream. Unfortunately the wedding was nothing like we wanted and there was no one there we knew. I assured him that nothing like that will happen.

We have to have a talk with his family this weekend about all the planning. It is just going to be difficult because Milly is visiting with the baby. Yaay. We will see how that goes

The count down begins.

Adam and I spent New Years at my parents house. It wad was a very nice and fun visit. Adam and I swapped being hungover. I had the worse of it though. I could not stop booting. Then I got into the car for 6 hours and that also was a nightmare.

It is a 100 days before the wedding. I am freaking out. I have been so nervous that I haven't been able to sleep. My Mom, despite being as far away as she is, seems to know when I feel like this and always has a knack of calling me up and making the whole thing worse.

I know that my Mom was super stressed with my sister's wedding and the general disorganization of the whole event. I think she feels like  this is what will happen with mine. So after arguing over the phone for 3 hours, then shot my Dad an email explaining out whats going on and the resolutions. I think this helped because things became far more civil.

I don't know. I don't know.

So when you sign up for a wedding website, it sends you a count down to your big day.

As of today 4 months and 4 days.

Reading that made me all together nauseated and anxious. I totally want to marry Adam. That is not the issue.

I just have a ton of work to do.

Also I am getting nervous over Adam's family. As the day gets closer his family is getting weirder with me. I know Adam is not happy with his parents because they expect so much from him and not from his siblings. With the same hand where they expect him to perform they all expect him to fail. So whenever he does something wrong he gets verbally bashed in the head. When his siblings do something wrong they get coddled and nurtured. They demand a lot of Adam. They demand minimal from his siblings and whatever they do come through it is met with an over appreciation. When Adam needs a favor, no one can be bothered to help and its only with a pleading that borders on grovelling do his parents come through. Despite this, Adam always comes to the rescue whenever they are in need.

In short Adam is quite fed up with the whole business.

It just makes wedding plans very very awkward.

Also I think my future in-laws are going to attempt to be very cheap with the rehearsal dinner. I already know that is going to piss my parents right off. His parents do have money and always have. They are people that pretend that they don't have money though. Which is odd. Like go around acting all woes me they can't pay the bills but they totally have the money. I mean they live in a custom built home on a lake front property and boast how much they made here and there. So I do not understand.

My parents now have money. They work very very hard and have fought for their place in the sun. They do feel like money should be enjoyed and not horded. They also do not like people who value money over family. Never be cheap with family. You can not take the cash with you. Money won't love you back.

Right now I think Lori is going to try to take my parents to a pit BBQ or have a dinner at home. These are normally very fine just not for a rehearsal dinner. My parent's feel that since that it is the only portion of the whole wedding that the grooms parents contribute, that the dinner should be something really nice. I agree with my parents and so does Adam.

The next issue is that Adam's parents promised him money for the wedding. I really doubt they are going to come through with it. This will make Adam very very sad.

Now that the place is selected. Everything is coming together. We found our DJ and photographer and that last thing until August that we need to schedule is the Officiant.

Deposits are really expensive and because the economy is so crappy a lot of people are asking for a lot up front. I am just glad we had started scraping our pennies together and were able to get the ppl we wanted to participate in the wedding.

Its official we ahve the Carousel Ballroom for the whole week of April 17th. What they do their is that they only hold one wedding a week so we can come in through the week and set things up.

I think we made out like bandits.

Also a coworker brougth up some good points that we can go and get pictures taken at my school. This has a very classic architecture so I can get architecture and nature shots.  The down side is that now we really do have to get a limo together for te bridal party.

I have to look into getting a party bus for the hotel. I think if i can get the new holiday inn express o cut me a deal that I maybe able to setup a shuttle from there to the wedding. That would be really cool.

The saga continues.

We have been so back and forth for the last 2 weeks over places that Adam and I got into this big fight that required apology flowers afterwards. In the entire course of a relationship, its the first time that I have received flowers because there was a need to apologize.

So tired of looking over and over again at numbers. But I think Adam's favorite place, the Carousel Ballrooms, won. We got the guy to come down in price and I believe it includes taxes. So its wins.

I say that like its a dump but it isn't. I was shopping more with my eyes and the want to impress my family.

The upside is that we were able to get the price lowered and got the 5 hours of premium open bar included into that.

So we are are going to see the finally paperwork soon.  It looks like are are going to have it April 17th.

I have also set up our website http://adamandgiselle.ourweddingday.com/ . There isn't much on there right now but I am working on it.

Yaay we picked a site.

We visited the Riverstone Manor and Mallozzi's today and went with Mallozzi's.

The italians were just giving us to good a deal. We are still going to have lunch and eat cake at the other locations but its already a done deal.

Mallozzi's came about a 1000 under all the other places even with the worse case scenario budgeting with all the extras. 

So yeah bitches when you come, drink up because its on till the break of dawn.

On another note I recently got updated on my sister's wedding. I am so glad that she is going first. She has like 140 people coming and is going to have to server hamburgers and hotdogs buffet style at her reception. I feel so bad for her because she is going to regret not waiting and giving herself time to save up.

I have decided not to share any details to my sister, othe then the date, because she would either take it as bragging or get depressed/jealous and be mean to me. It will just protect myself from a fight that doesn't have to happen if I just keep quiet.

Anyway ... So excited.

Adam is really set on the Carousel Ballroom, even thought i don't think it has the right price or the right space for what I want. I told him that  I really want a nice setting, if not to get married in, at least to take pictures in. He is just so sold because the head chef/director is friends with a man that he idolizes. I think he believes that if we hold the wedding here that his idol will show up to the wedding. 

I think that is a dumb reason to want to be there. He tires to mask  this fact because we can get filet mignon for 30 dollars a plate but he forgets to consider all the other cost which brings everything up to almost 90 dollars a head. I told him that we still get a more at a better price because we get a more liquor and can have a filet mignon for 74 a head. Probably close to 80 with taxes.

I don't know. He doesn't care if there is a hotel or a place to take pictures. This is fine, but I care. Even without my wants in the picture, the place he wants to be in is still not the best place at all.

This whole wedding stuff is going okay for me. I think its because I told my parents they weren't invited to the wedding. Instead of trying to convince my otherwise, they have decided to give me a few months of silence, which will probably end in June when I go down to Maryland to Victor's graduation from Arundel High.

So we are looking at places in really no order

The first place is the Carousel Ballroom in Sterup square.

Pros:
Nice Space
Head chef is a friend and the director of the place

Cons
Up level pricing
No real place to take a picture
Guests Have a lot of moving around to do in cramped space



Second One is the italian family owned Mallozzi's Banquet hall

Pros:
Lower end of the pricing with a lot of upgrade
Wedding space is outdoors with good places to take pictures
Very nice and affordable hotel that they own across the parking lot

Cons:
We have to guarantee a number of guests to make payments on
If less guests show up. We lose the difference.
Menu is great but not as excellent as the Carousel or Riverstone.

Third Place is Riverstone Manor

Pros:
Outdoor wedding
Beautiful scenic veiws
Customized menu

Cons:
Uplevel in Pricing
To my understanding no backup to outdoor spot.


All these places are giving us 5 hours. So this weekend is when we are going to visit the Riverstone Manor for the first time and Malozzi's and Carousel a second time. Hopefully this weekend we will pick a place.