one month to go!

Posted Thursday, June 25, 2009 11:01 AM

I write this post with mixed feelings. On the one hand: I'm thrilled that I'm 30 short days away from being Erik's wife! On the other: recent events have estranged my parents and siblings. In brief:

In November, my parents offered to host a post-reception barbeque. We graciously accepted, on the condition that they thoroughly clean their house. They agreed.

Fast forward to two weeks ago... my sister let slip that my shower (planned for this Saturday) would be held at my parents' house. Up until that point, my mom had implied that my aunt was hosting. Their house was still as messy as it had been in November; they'd done nothing to clean. I was appalled and embarrassed.

(PS: In case you think I'm exaggerating about the mess: this room is indicative of the entire house.)

Taking drastic measures, my brother, sister, Erik, and several friends worked from 2PM Saturday until 11AM Sunday (with a 4-hr break to sleep) moving their junk to a storage unit while my parents were out of town. When mom and dad returned, they were livid. Since then, my sister has moved out, my brother has been kicked out, and my dad has taken them both off his insurance. Now no one's talking to each other and I've been asked to mediate a "family meeting" on Saturday. Right before my shower. At least the house looks nice...

So on to the happier news:

1) Erik bought our rings yesterday!

2) We're completely done with gifts!

...And since I was always at a loss about what to buy for them, here are the details: digital picture frames ($45) for the parents; ties ($10), belts ($25), and beer koozies ($8.50 each with volume discount) for the boys; activity buckets (filled with bubbles, crayon roll, and coloring/sticker book, with finger puppets attached to the outside with velcro) for the ring bearer and flower girl (total $7 each); envirosax (paid $5 each with discount code), microbead pillow (with hand-sewn covers - $5 each) and assorted gifts (~$15/each) for the girls.

3) We've done a lot of searching for Erik's suit, no no avail, so on a whim I ordered one online from Nordstroms... it arrives next Monday and we hope it works!

4) Finished up the guest book pages with old cardstock leftover from the invitations - they should make for some really cute memories.

5) Finally got a shot of the completed favor boxes. You can't tell by this picture the sheer amount of room they occupy, but they're taking up the entire spare bed. I decided not to do tags on each one because I'm too lazy (we'll just say I'm "going green"?), so we'll do a sign on the table indicating that guests should help themselves.

6) RSVPs are due tomorrow... I still haven't received about half of them, but our guest list is shaping up to be about 130-140 which is a-m-a-z-i-n-g. Both Erik and I are really happy that the crowd won't be as unmanageable as we first imagined.