I can see the finish line!

If you would have told me back in March when I started this blog that I'd be basically finished wedding planning before memorial day, I'd say you were out of your mind. We didn't even have a date picked out two months ago! Yet here we are, May 15th, still 4 1/2 months out from the wedding, and nearly done.

Here's an update on what's been coming together over the past couple of weeks.

• I made a decision on a wedding dress! I'll go in to get measured by the boutique this weekend. All I'll have to do after that is shop around for some accessories -- shoes, jewelry, hairpieces, and what have you. Then I'll be done with clothing! Since my maid of honor Sophie is my only attendant, I'm letting her wear whatever she wants. No bridesmaid dresses!
• We finally met in person with our officiant Alan over the weekend. James and I still aren't exactly sure what we want the ceremony to include. So we spent some time bouncing ideas off each other. Alan was thrilled that we don't want our wedding to be a 100% serious affair. There will be nerdiness, you can count on that. :) We left the meeting with several good ideas. We'll continue to brainstorm with Alan in the upcoming months until we've found the perfect mixture of humor and romance...oh! We also picked out a great little spot on the beach to have the ceremony!
• My mom has started planning an engagement party for my Oklahoma friends during the first week of July. James and I will be in town that week anyway. As I said in a previous blog, this will basically serve as the "Oklahoma wedding" since I know very few folks from back there will be able to make the trek out to California. This is a way to let them celebrate with us!
• Sophie has started planning a bachelorette party! Since she'd like me to be surprised, she's keeping a lot of the details secret. I did mention however that I'd like to keep it mellow. I've already been to Vegas twice this year. I'm kinda partied out! So I think she's scheming up either a spa weekend or a wine country getaway... we'll see. I can't wait to see what she and my girls come up with!
• I'm scoping out hotels in Seal Beach and Long Beach near our ceremony and reception sites. I already have a favorite. Some of the hotels in the southeast corner of Long Beach don't have the greatest reviews and I want to make sure my family is comfortable while they're in town. My mom and grandparents have already purchased plane tickets. They were concerned with airfare continuing to climb, so they got an early jump on that!
• We've found out where we want to do our registry! Honeyfund. We went to a friend's wedding a couple weekends ago and this is what they used. James and I had already been keen on the idea of having guests just help out with the honeymoon, since we already own quite a bit in the household wares department. Using this site seems a little more official than just asking for money. Plus our guest would know which aspect of the honeymoon they were helping out with! There are lots of possibilites! -- a nice dinner out, a bottle of champagne, a night in a hotel, etc...

The only thing I haven't got the ball rolling on yet is invites. And yeah, that's kind of important. So that's the next step.

But other than that, all the big stuff is done. And it feels AWESOME.

**Louisa**