Where Were We?

My mom called me yesterday to express that she is concerned that we've haven't really booked any vendors for the wedding yet. Well, we do have a pretty awesome photographer, a really creative florist, a guy who makes wedding cakes for $1.25 a slice (what, what!) and, of course, our fabulous WP. So what are we missing? Hmm. A caterer. A DJ. A "local band" my dad swears he can find for free. Rentals. Linens. Chairs. Silverware. Invitations. You know. Everything else. Oh and also, the dress. A pretty big one as well.

We are trying to find a time when my mom and I are both free to start checking some of these things off the list. This is proving to be pretty difficult for the entire month of October. Between the Texas/OSU football games we're going to and the Tech games my parents are going to, we've got nothing. So I think we are just both going to take off a random Monday or Tuesday, invite Mark's mom to come down and go look for dresses. Then I need to get the WP and me up to Muenster to meet with the florist to start deciding what and how many flowers we want. Next week we are finally meeting with that DJ, so that might get crossed off soon too.

Last week, Mark and I started our marriage preparation classes with St. Gabriel's in McKinney. It's Mark's church now and will be our church once we get married, so we opted to do all the prep work there, as opposed to driving back and forth to Sacred Heart for the next several months. Back when we first got engaged and were trying to pick a date, we had to go meet with Fr. Ken in person before he would even open his calendar to give us his open Saturdays next summer. So we ran up there one weekend to get the ball rolling. As many probably know, there's a lot of prep work required if you want to get married in a Catholic church. Depending on what parish you want to use, there are a series of things you must do before the wedding. Fr. Ken started right into us, telling us that in his experience of marrying hundreds of couples there are three factors that greatly increase your odds of staying married: 1. Both being at least 21 (check!), 2. Having dated for at least six months (umm hello, check x 5!), and 3. Participate in some sort (any sort) of marriage preparation, whether in the church or elsewhere (working on that check!). First up for us in the marriage prep category is meeting with a sponsor couple.

I was actually excited about starting to meet with a couple from Mark's church. I like meeting new people and was pumped to get this process started. So last week we braved the thunderstorms and drove over to the snazzy part of McK and met Mike and Denise, married 21 years and parents of two high school boys (not to mention their fabulous house on the golf course with the infinity edge pool and television as big as an entire wall in my apartment!). They were so nice and excited to meet Mark and me (and to hear some wedding details!) and were super easy to talk to right off the bat. As part of the initial meeting, Mark and I had to each take a "compatibility" test that included 156 statements that we were supposed to either agree with, disagree with or mark as undecided. Denise told us to be totally honest and not put down what we thought the other wanted us to say. Then they send off this test to some place that scores us and we spend the next five sessions together talking about things that will be strengths and weaknesses in our marriage. I'm pretty sure I know where the "red flags" are going to come up. Let's just say I know Mark agreed with the question about me using the "silent treatment" when I'm upset about something. Oh Lordy. But I am looking forward to going back over to their house next week. We're ready for the challenge!

Next up? Well, I'm working this entire weekend, but by noon on Sunday I'll be free again. I'm meeting another B2B to try on bridesmaid dresses that afternoon and then my parents are going to come up to Dallas to run some errands and grab dinner. In the meantime it's t-minus four days until my huge alumni reunion weekend at work... AHH!