The Day
It's here!
And I know it's going to go by in a blurry-eyed flash.
First things first: Breakfast. Then appointments at the salon. Then take care of some last minute-details, head over to the house, take photos.
And then the main event.
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It's here!
And I know it's going to go by in a blurry-eyed flash.
First things first: Breakfast. Then appointments at the salon. Then take care of some last minute-details, head over to the house, take photos.
And then the main event.
While we've been in wedding planning mode since October, getting things together for the wedding has largely been a piecemeal thing, with little spurts of expended time and money here and there as self-imposed deadlines came due. Today was the first day of sustained "all wedding, all the time" activity, and it's not going to end until probably Sunday.
Still so much left to do. All the big things are taken care of, but there are little things -- such as printing/folding programs, assembling bouquets and the small matter of writing vows -- that still must be tackled.
This evening we had the official "meeting of the parents." Rob and I had been stressing over it for a while, but it actually went really well.
Conditions have been such that I'm really too busy to blog right now. It's been fairly busy at work lately, on top of needing to wrap some things up before checking out for two and a half weeks. Plus, a couple small freelance projects came up -- certainly not unwelcome income at a time like this, but time commitments all the same. And, of course, there's the wedding.
Whenever I need a minor panic attack, all I have to do is check the countdown graphic on Annie's blog. (She and her fiance Dan are getting married the same day as Rob and I.) Right now it's saying "6 days until our wedding." Yipes!
In all honesty, though, things are going pretty well in the wedding planning department. Everything big is taken care of now, and we've been steadily whittling down the list of small tasks. My mom's arriving tomorrow evening, which should be a great help: She'll be able to take care of some things on Tuesday and Wednesday while I'm still at work, and she can help me with final errands on Thursday before everyone else arrives. (Plus, my mom and I get along pretty well anyway, so it'll be nice just to spend some time with her before this weekend's craziness hits full-force.)
Six days and counting. Whew. I'm getting tired of all this planning and talking about planning. Can the day just get here already? Because I'm so ready.
There's something very sobering about seeing your name printed on a marriage license.
We walked over to the Arlington County Courthouse this morning to take care of all outstanding legal matters pertaining to the wedding.
Back in January, we asked our good friend Dari if he would officiate our wedding. In Arlington County, ordinary citizens can be sworn in by a representative of the court to perform a single marriage ceremony. The process: Applicants submit a petition to the court requesting the legal authority to officiate a wedding, along with a copy of a court order for the judge to sign. (The clerk's office gave us an example petition and order on which to base our own paperwork.) Once the petition is approved, the court mails the signed order to the prospective officiant. Then the officiant returns to the county clerk's office to take an oath and pay a bond, which will be returned when the signed marriage license is turned in after the wedding.
We really liked the idea of having a close friend officiate our wedding rather than a minister or justice of the peace that didn't really know us. And Rob and I have known Dari about as long as we've known each other: The three of us started jobs at George Washington University right around the same time back in 2003, and in that time our friendship has evolved from lunch break commiseration to weekly outings to Kabob Bazaar and viewings of The Office.
So today we made an early-morning visit to the Clerk of the Court's office to have Dari sworn in -- as well as procure our marriage license. Everything went pretty quickly, and we left the office within 20 minutes, legally powered officiant and unsigned marriage certificate in hand. Out of everything we've done so far -- the invitations, the rings, the wedding dress -- seeing our names printed together on a marriage license has come closest to impressing upon me the "realness" of this thing we're undertaking. It's official, and it's happening soon. Still, I felt a glimmer of giddiness cut through the momentary sobriety. The big day's only three weeks away, and I can't wait.