The Bachelorette

Ladies' Night

Well, I guess it's actually a ladies' day.

My bachelorette party is officially planned for May 31. We've had the date booked for a while, but we have been slowly working out the details. I realized this week that I really needed to get the final plans out to all of the girls invited since, as of Saturday, it's only two weeks away.

We're starting off the festivities with a wine tour from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. We rented a 14-passenger van through a limo company. We wanted to go with a traditional limo first, but they were just too expensive. The van is cheaper, and we figure it's a designated driver... it's just as good.

We're going to ride down to one of the Finger Lakes and tour as many wineries as we can fit in. Then, once we get back, we're going straight to dinner. There, my mom and future mother-in-law will join us, as well as a few pregnant friends who didn't want to go on the wine tour (understandably). All in all, I estimate that the big bachelorette party will end at maybe 7:30-8:00 p.m.! My kind of night.

No, seriously.

I'm not into the bar scene anymore. By the end of college (and the ripe old age of 21), I was pretty much over it. I love to enjoy drinks and get together with friends. But I prefer to do that over dinner somewhere, or at someone's (or our) house. It's more relaxing, you can actually hear people when they talk, it's more personal, and it's less expensive. And we're usually home by midnight. :)

I knew right away that I really didn't want to do a bar crawl or anything like that for my bachelorette party. I have friends coming in from out of town and the last thing I want to do is take a huge group out to bars and not even get to spend time with any of them. We did a wine tour a couple of years ago for our friends' joint bachelor/bachelorette party and I thought it was a great idea. So here we are.

And honestly, I could do without the silly bachelorette games and props and all of that jazz. But I'm pretty sure there will probably be some of that. The obligatory veil and penis straws and God knows what else. But I'm going to suck it up, likely embarrass myself, and just go with the flow. Because what the hell--you're only the bachelorette once.

Michael's bachelor party is the same day, except his is more traditional and they are going out at night. All night, in fact. They have a limo rented for an ungodly amount of hours with way too many guys invited. Big bachelor party. But it sounds like they're going to enjoy themselves and that is all that counts.

On May 31, we'll be only three weeks from the wedding. We'll deserve to cut loose and forget about things for a while.

And we'll have a good 21 days to recover from it all. ;) Just in time to get married.

No progress?

It seems like this last week, I've been doing a whole lot of nothing... except for freaking out. I honestly cannot believe it is mid-February. We are less than 4.5 months away now. I counted... only 19 weeks to go.

Looking back, we did do a few things last week, but in the grand scheme of everything left to do... we barely made a dent.

Last Monday, we met with a videographer. It was the first one we met with, so we didn't do anything yet in terms of a contract. I wasn't completely blown away by his work, he was a little pricier than we hoped to spend, and I wanted something to compare it to. There is another videographer I have the contact info for, and I know he's available for our date. I just have yet to set up a meeting for us, which... who knows why.

Also last week, I found bridesmaid shoes. I sent all the info to the girls and they agreed on them, so to my knowledge, everyone has ordered them or is going to order them soon. Here are the shoes:

I'm happy with those, and from what the girls say, they are, too. The price is right ($35 on shoes.com), with free shipping and return shipping should they need to exchange for a different size. One of my bridesmaids actually found a coupon code, too, so they ended up costing $29 and change. Not bad.

What else... we booked our interisland roundtrip flight between Maui and Kauai for the honeymoon. I stalked prices for months and they weren't budging. There were people who told me I could get them for cheaper, so I was waiting and waiting and waiting... but nothing. Ultimately, we decided to just go ahead and book them at $142/person. They're direct flights between Maui and Kauai, so it didn't seem like such a bad deal to us. We could maybe have found something cheaper if we had waited until much closer, but we're planners and wanted to get it booked and paid for in advance. I'm so glad I booked them when I did--the next day, the prices did finally budge--but UP. I went on the website and the prices had jumped overnight to around $170/person. I would have been kicking myself.

I started bidding on rental cars on priceline.com. I think it might be a little too soon for that, though. I think you can get better deals on priceline the closer you are to your vacation date. We're trying to get a convertible for the regular price of a compact car. We'll see what happens. We might go ahead and book compact cars for Maui and Kauai through the rental company, and then cancel if we end up getting a good deal on a convertible through priceline. Or, if we get close and aren't having any luck with the convertibles, we will bid on the compact cars to try to get a lower price. Either way, I'm determined to get a good deal on rental cars. With normal prices for just the compact cars, we'll be paying more than $400 for our 10-11 days in Hawaii. I thought rental cars were usually pretty reasonable, but it really does add up!

The shower and bachelorette party are planned... well, the dates are set at least. My bridal shower will be on April 19, and the bachelorette party on May 31. Once those things start to hit, reality will really begin to set in. I was figuring it out... April 19 is a Saturday, and we need to have our invitations out on that Monday (April 21, exactly two months before the wedding). It is just so weird to be thinking about actually having to get the invitations done to mail them out! Eeeek!

Anyway, I know we'll get everything done, but it does give me a little bit of anxiety to think of how the next few months will go. On top of all of this wedding stuff, we're ripping up our floor in our kitchen and dining area this weekend (hopefully) and doing a few other things (replacing some molding, adding a pantry cabinet, etc.). Then on February 25, the guy is coming to put in a new floor (wood laminate). So that'll be sure to add some stress to the next couple of weeks. I'm sure we'll love when it's finished, though.

Michael's birthday was on Saturday. It was low key. We ran a few errands during the day, then went out to dinner. His friend (best man) and I had concocted a plan last week to surprise him, so he and his girlfriend showed up at dinner without Michael having a clue it was going to happen. It was fun, aside from me suffering from agonizing stomach pains (prior, during, and after dinner). But I was determined not to let it ruin the night. The four of us ended up going back to our place for cookie cake. Once they left, I collapsed on the couch with my stomach still bothering me. I had a low-grade fever, but by this morning, it had pretty much subsided. I still spent the day "recovering" on the couch, though. Which is maybe why I'm feeling so unaccomplished.