jennandjeremy.com

We continue to lead extremely hectic and busy lives as we ramp up for our wedding, which is a mere 42 days away.

Making matters more hectic is Jenn started her new job Monday, so we've lost a lot of the time we previously had to work on the wedding. A silver lining to that dark cloud (well, a dark cloud according to our kitty who no longer gets to lay on Jenn while she's home) is that Jenn's schedule, which she sets herself, matches my own, and we ride the school bus (ok, the CTA, we've gotten into the habit of calling our jobs 'school') in the morning to work together, where I get off at the Chicago stop, and she continues on into the loop to her building.

It's nice taking mass transit together in the morning. We have our morning schedules worked out so that we both are finishing getting ready at the same time, come downstairs and I grab a bite to eat for breakfast (Jenn's job provides breakfast food). From there, thanks to the CTA bus tracker website we know exactly when the next bus is due, so it's extremely easy planning our morning jaunt down Milwaukee Avenue into the loop.

We're still ping-ponging back and forth on the arrival times home - I have a half mile walk from the office to the blue line train I take home, and the girl is still figuring out traffic conditions at different times in the afternoon, however I'm confident we will work it out, so we're getting home within a few minutes of each other.

On a side note, Jenn taught me how to cross stitch, and I'm currently working on the Eagle and Tri-force emblem from The Legend of Zelda, which I can't wait to post pictures of. I'm planning on framing the work when it's complete - I've put that much time and effort into it. I easily have 10 hours worth of stitching done, and I'm about 3/4ths of the way complete. Had I been a thinking man I would have taken some pictures of the piece as I was going along, but alas, I did not. In the mean time you can check out Jenn and my's other crafty endeavors here, of course. The plan is to finish the cross stitch before the wedding, so time will tell if I can accomplish that.

Posted by Jeremy on Sat, 08/16/2008 - 07:57. | Permalink | Jeremy's blog | Add new comment

We are officially under the two month mark and while we have a lot done, there is still plenty to do!

Done (in no particular order):

• Dress, veil (thanks entirely to Jeremy's sister and parents!) and shoes
• Invites mailed
• Table cloths, napkins, and center pieces (although we might expand on this)
• Hotel reservations
• Rings
• Venue, dj, caterer

To do (in no particular order):

• Cake or non-cake plans (Yes, you read that correctly - there might not be cake in the traditional sense. We like breaking traditions :) )
• Guest book and card box
• Tux and shoes
• Hair, make-up, jewelry
• Time lines
• 'Vows'/toasts to be read at the reception
• Marriage license
• Find and fill out required paperwork to change my name

I must say that the more we get done and the closer the wedding gets, the more excited I get! I can't wait until September!

Posted by Jenn on Mon, 07/28/2008 - 08:31. | Permalink | Jenn's blog | Add new comment

Jeremy and I finished up the invites tonight and just returned from the mailbox! :)

Posted by Jenn on Thu, 07/17/2008 - 19:28. | Permalink | Jenn's blog | Add new comment

Just wanted to sound off on some of the wonderfulness that's been going on in our neck of the woods these last couple of weeks.

First, Jenn and I went down to Millennium Park on the 3rd and watched Chicago's fantastic fireworks. It's definitely a spectacular show, and next year we won't be so enthralled by the pretty explosions and get some shots of the actual fireworks.

Last weekend we made a trip out to Ikea to pick up a few things for the wedding, and found the most adorable metallic table that wound up working as a fantastic deck table, so Jenn and I picked up two chairs as well and were able to enjoy the wonderful deck our place has last weekend. We need to be a bit more careful as both of us saw more sun than our skin was used to.

Last night we made a trip over to Target, and found some fantastic wire shelving that probably quadrupled our shelving/storage in the bedroom closet and in the office. We managed to free up a significant amount of space on a minimal investment - definitely a good buy!

This morning I tried my hand at baking (ok, Jenn helped, a lot :) ), and whipped up some molasses cookies (ok, they were supposed to be chocolate chip cookies from a cookbook, but we don't have vegan chocolate chips in the house so we made the cookies sans chocolate chips). They turned out exceptionally delicious (dangerous even). I think I'm starting to finally get around in the kitchen pretty well, thanks to Jenn's extremely awesome watchful eye and general 'skill' as an overseer. Now all I need to work on is not making such a huge damn mess every time I attempt to help her :D

Finally I'd like to comment on Risk (yes, the board game). Specifically Lord of the Rings Risk. We've played two games thus far, and are split 1-1. We're looking for another person (or people) to play against, as Jenn and I think so much alike there are times when we're both thinking three or four turns ahead, as we both know what the other person is going to do before they do it :) It makes the game extremely interesting, but also extremely difficult and frustrating and really makes the gears grind, which is a wonderful way to spend an afternoon :)

Posted by Jeremy on Sun, 07/13/2008 - 17:51. | Permalink | Jeremy's blog | 1 comment

Well we've got the contracts back from the reception venue and dj, chose the caterer, and reserved a block of hotel rooms for out of town guests. We still need to reserve our room, finalize times with the venue and dj, select songs to be played, and choose the menu. In addition to all of that, we also need to figure out cake related details and a seemingly endless list of other things. (Please see the links under Wedding Information for updated information.)

We've started working on the invitations that need to go out in about 2 weeks which has forced us to look critically at our guest list. Like I mentioned previously, there were about 250 people on our initial guest list but because of budget limitations and venue space restrictions, we've had to cut the list down to about 150 which was not an easy task. If you ask me, I'd say that trying to get the guest list down to a more manageable size has been the hardest wedding related task to date and we apologize if we offend anyone.

Personally I still can't believe that anyone would look forward to planning a wedding. Being able to call Jeremy my husband makes me happier than I could ever begin to describe, but wedding planning is not a task that I would wish upon anyone. But as long as we end up married at the end of the day and have a bit of fun - it will all be worth it. :)

Posted by Jenn on Tue, 07/01/2008 - 07:35. | Permalink | Jenn's blog | Add new comment