Ta Da.....

For all of those who are just starting to read the blog, WELCOME! I am going to assume that my audience has increased as our save the dates were sent with the Christmas cards. So, Ta Da....here it is.

I do realize that I am slacking on the posts. Sorry about that but it has been very busy. Where to start...oh yes the cake. The cake has been ordered. It will be a 5 tier square with rounded sides half bridal white (for my peeps who don't like chocolate) and half marble with the french butter icing. We planned to have a black satin ribbon going around the cake. Village bake shoppe told us that we had to get the ribbon. So, I thought, how hard could this be....apparently, very hard. Nobody has 1" black satin ribbon!!! Mom and I finally found some at Tuesday Morning. If you thinking well where is the bling...don't worry it will be there. I can't give everything away.

Last post, I had mentioned Hawaii. Yes, that is now our honeymoon spot. VIP vacations is also able to do a registry for us. Since we pretty much have 2 households worth of stuff, we really don't need to much in the kitchen or living area. So, our honeymoon is really what we both need and would enjoy. Check out the registry page on the website for more information.

We only had two issues so far with the wedding (besides not being able to find black ribbon), the church called and offered us a different time for our wedding. After much thought, we decided to keep the ceremony at noon. Also, Village Bake shoppe sent me a letter saying that they are no longer doing flowers. I was like what the ....! Good news is that Nancy, the actual florist is taking over the business. So, everything should be the same as it originally was....all that for no changes at all.

Chris and I went to NYC and got our wedding rings...or wedding bling! It was very cool to be up in NYC for the holidays. We strolled through Rockefeller center and even bought our Christmas ornament up there this year. Naturally, we stopped in at Heartland brewery to get away from the crazy shoppers on 5 Ave. Check another item of the wedding to do list.

I do hope that everyone liked their Christmas card. Thanks to Kelly, 007, 007's better half, Aunt Mimi, Mom and Dad, you all got an awesome save the date. Actually, their hard work was mostly spend on the envelope of the save the date. I thought that they turned out really nice. It was a rocky start in putting them together but we were able to manage as everyone chipped in for great job.

Chris, Mom and I went to our invitation vendor to start work on our invites. Man is there alot of information that has to go on these cards. I didn't think that an invitation was so involved until we met with our vendor and started going through all of the different options, fonts, # of cards, colors, etc. The invitations are still a work in progress so more to come on that in the next post.

Up next, rehearsal dinner and tuxes.

Hope everyone has a very merry Christmas and happy new year!

And away we go....

Ok so I did lie abit. My last post was awhile back but nobody is really reading this anyways except for Trego!!!! And...I'm back!

So, what has happened during this long pause. Well, I did get back to bridals by Sandra to actually pay for my dress as well as get a few other bridesmaids there to check out the dress that Nelle picked out. Both Jess and Kelly looked great it in so it looks like that is the one. I am a bit jealous as the dresses are black (my favorite color) and I have to wear white...stupid traditions. Anyways, it was very cute to see Lil'C all dolled up in her gown too. Everyone seemed to come to this appt. When Marty saw me, I saw him shed a tear or two. I actually expected that from my Dad but it was very touching to see Marty's softer side.

Chris and I have been jet setting all over the place since the last post. We have gone to OC,MD, Vegas, Syracuse and even saw an Eagles game. However, play time is over and now we must get back to business in planning this wedding. I believe that Chris and I have finally decided on a Honeymoon spot...Hawaii. I have basically put Chris in charge of this (only fair as I had to do the whole dress thing without him). He wasn't to thrilled with going there in the begining but now I can see that he is really excited. With some fellow Slackers currently out there, I hope that they share all the details of what need to see and do while being out there for two weeks. More info to follow once we have booked with the travel agent.

Chris and I did have our 2nd meeting with the priest. All went really well. He told us that we will discus our test that we took at our engagement encounter next time. The preist did mention that he didn't see any issues with our results. We did have to finish our last bit of paper work to make it offical. Both Chris and I had to be swore in individually and answer questions by the priest. Once we were done with that, he basically told us that we are free to get married now!!!! Wooo Hooo! Our next meeting with him is in Feburary and after that one more meeting one month prior to the wedding to pick out readings and such. So, it looks like everything is in shape for the church side.

No word yet on hotels. I am going to work on that this week. However, I did purchase my wedding shoes. They are so awesome!!!! Even better that they were on sale. Sorry no give aways on these bad boyz....

We will be going for our cake appt in the begining of November. We chose to go with Village Bake Shoppe. So more to follow on that....but first we have to make it through a trip to NY, Key West and PSU....on that note... away we go...

OK so its been awhile...

Yes, I know it has been awhile since our last commentary. However, we do have a lot to report.

The florist has been booked. We have chosen to go with Village Bake Shoppe. The woman who worked with is us absolutely wonderful. She was so accommodating, listened and helped us with so many suggestions. Both Chris and I never thought that the flower appt would take 2 hours. However, we took just over 2.5 hours. After her helpfulness and the price quoted, both Chris and I looked at each and said that it was a done deal....

As for the quartet, well mom listened to track 1 and it was all over..it was the quartet or nothing...needless to say we now have booked the PA string quartet for our ceremony.

Chris and I also fulfilled our catholic duties by going on our engagement retreat. Let's just say that one full weekend without any booze is no fun at all. The retreat was nice but the beds sucked. Yes, Chris and I did have to sleep in separate rooms with a roomie. The topics of the retreat are the norm subjects that every engagement couple needs to have somewhat discussed: money, careers, kids, etc. Chris and I were pretty much on the same page. However, it was funny to see what the other couples said about some of the topics and how it caused a bit of a stir during our group sessions. I did have to make a prayer in order to get a glass of wine...needless to say I whipped that prayer in 5 secs flat. HA! Chris and I did find the nuns secret stash of beer. Sadly, it was warm. Now i don't know about you but to me that is a sin! We survived our weekend and we received our certificate. Now, we have to wait until the middle of August until our priest gets our focus test results back. One might ask -- Christine, what is a focus test? Well, the focus test (excuse me...the focus survey) is a 180 question SAT exam oriented test with number 2 pencils and all. We were told that if we answer the questions wrong that the priest might have to call the cops....Chris and I are waiting for the red, white and blue to show up at the house.

Other wedding details: During this silent period, two others have recently got engaged. One is a friend of the family who will be getting married next July and the other is my cousin who will be getting married next May. With all of this and with the girls already having their dress, mom got it in her head that we were behind the eight ball on this task. So, with much "encouragement" from mom, I caved and we started to go dress shopping.

This was not an experience that I was looking forward too....please note that i am not a dress kind of girl. I would be completely happy with just coming down the aisle with Adidas pants and slides. Sadly, mom would kill me if that actually came true. So off we went dress shopping. It wasn't as bad as I had thought. However 4 dress shops later we finally went back to Bridals by Sandra's and I bought a dress. No there will be no picture of it here. Sorry you will have to wait a little less than a year to see it.

While making this "big" decision, Janelle and Diane were with me at the dress shop. They both tried on dresses to see if there were any that they had liked. Janelle found one that made her look like she had armor attached to her...clearly that wasn't going to happen. She did find one though and it is really different. I am hoping that the rest of the bridesmaids like it.

Whats next:
Well, I will be going back to the dress shop with 2 maybe 3 more bridesmaids to find out if they like Janelle's dress or if we have to bag it and find another one. We will also be looking for a dress for Lil' C. Chris and I also going to do some fact finding around which hotels will accommodate our out of town guests. If any one has any suggestions, I am all ears....

I will make sure that my next post isn't this far out.

Beerfest Survival and Recon Mission

Hi Everyone,

I hope all is well with all of you. All is good here.

Several things have happened since my last post. Mom and Aunt Mimi did a bit of a recon mission at the ABW (Allentown Brew Works) Bridal show. Since I wasn't able to go, they decided that they would check it out. They did tell me that they had a great time and that the food was very good. They also did find some vendors that might prove to be useful.

The second bridal show, at Stabler, was ok. Mom, Dad, Chris, Tim and myself all went. Before you feel entirely bad that Tim went with us keep in mind that he had some awesome meatballs, delicous cake and was able to check out some of the models. (Plus we also paid him in beer afterwards). Overall though, Chris and I were able to make an appt for Village bakery & florist for our cake and flowers. We also found some cool ideas for invitations. Despite Mom's hard work in collecting all of the vendor signatures on my card, I didn't win any of the prizes in the drawings that they had. "E" for effort Mom!

This past week we did meet with the Garden of Eden as a florist. They were very good and nice to the both of us. However, the best part was thier parrot. Yes, I did say parrot. As you walk in the door, the parrot says "Hi" to you. As we left to go to the other room to for our consultation, the parrot says "Bye-Bye". During our consult, the parrot had a mind of his own. Sadly, with being in the other room, Chris and I couldn't figure out what he was saying but it sounded funny.

Chris and I have recovered from our AC Beerfest excursion this past weekend. We had a blast. Between, beef jerky, good music and lots and lots of beer, it was awesome. We were quite partial to the music as Toga Party (the band playing at our wedding) was one of the bands playing. They were so nice... They even dedicated a song for Chris and I at the Beerfest (Sadly, I don't remember what the song as that was hour 3.5 into the beerfest -- awesome).

Also, wanted to give a shout out to my cousin Gina to recently got engaged. Congrats!!!! Let the fun begin....

Engagement Party Blow Out!

I know it has been awhile since my last post and I am truly sorry for that. However, I do have some good stuff to report on.

The last two weeks Chris and I have been narrowing down our photographers. We have ruled out a videographer. Hopefully, we will be able to make a decision this week and start to work on a florist. If anyone has any ideas on florist, please comment on the blog and let me know.

Now the good stuff...
The family engagement party was a hit. Well, it hit me at least. Mom and Dad through a great party with awesome food and booze at the Saengerbund. Trego helped out by supplying the music equipment so the tunes could rock all night. Lanette was kind enough to make those so good pretzel treats that everyone overdosed on. Thanks to Chris' mom, we had beautiful and very delicious cupcakes.

There were three really good parts of the night. The first is when I got to polka with Charlie (something I haven't done in awhile). Charlie took me out for 2 spins on the dance floor. The second good part was where I won money playing LRC. Whoever invented that game should be given a medal. Nothing like drinking and playing a game that is fun with no thought process at all whatsoever. The third good part was when someone had an awesome idea to drink shots out of the test tubes which were part of the center pieces. Well, all I can say is that I paid the piper the next day for joining in on that stunt.

I really appreciate everyone who was able to come out for the party and everyone who wanted to continue the party back at the house (from what i remember)...hahaha. I do have to make one apology though to Todd. Todd -- you asked for captain and OJ. Well you got captain and bad OJ...that was the reason why it smelled funny...sorry about that....lol.

I will have both parties' pictures posted somewhere for everyone's enjoyment. Check back on the wedding website to find out where they are.

Until next time.....

Oh what a night!!!!

Chris and I would like to personally thank everyone who was able to come out on Saturday night to the Blue Monkey. I have to say that I had a very good time. It was really great to see everyone. From the Oakland Drive crew to friends in Great Bend, we had an awesome turn out. We had just over 30 people who were able to make it. The food was excellent and the drinking were flowing (especially those lemon drop shots…oh my). From what I heard, the martini’s were excellent. What else could have been better than having the beer on special and the Aardvarks playing upstairs?!? The Miller’s Dinner after 2am run was definitely needed (gotta love those bagel sandwiches and the blue cigarettes). The only problem was that the roads in Catty were not plowed at all. Chris had to kick the truck into 4 wheel drive as soon as we crossed over the Hockey bridge. However, we all made it out alive and well.

Thank you again to all who could come out! For those of you who were unable to make it, I am sure that we will be seeing all of you soon!

P.S. – Nate, and you said the book was bad……

Burst into flames??? Nah :)

Well the plans just keep rolling in….I need to stock up on more beer J.

First off, we have decided on a band and will hopefully have those details finalized next week. TOGA! TOGA! The DJ details are also be worked out too. While, working on all of these music details for the reception, we thought it might be a good idea to get your help as well. I have put a Reception Music Request webpage on our website. This webpage allows you to submit your song requests. This will help the band and the DJ out (and us for that matter) when coming up with the songs that should be played. To get to the website: www.weddingwire.com/lammfeichtelwedding password: lammy13

The transportation for the wedding party has been ordered. If you like, you can check out the link @ www.thepartyride.com. We have reserved a 30 passenger bus…..the more room the better (for the coolers of course).

Chris and I met with the priest this past week. That was interesting…the good thing is that neither Chris or I burst into flames as we walked into the Rectory. The meeting was a lot of information gathering and I totally butchered Janelle’s middle name…oops sorry about that Nelle. However, I was all sorts of nervous as my previous experience with a certain priest has left a bit of mark (now don’t think dirty). Sadly, it was quite obvious to the priest that I was nervous and he compared me to the main character on Bones. (I didn’t take offense as I completely love that show.) All in all though, this guy seems to be pretty cool. Chris and I did find out that we have to take classes or go on a retreat for counseling. After that is done, we have to take like a 180 question SAT exam (yup – no. 2 pencils and all). Apparently, depending on how you answer the questions the priest might have to call the cops. I am just curious to see how fast they call them on Chris and I ( ;) kidding of course).

Well until next time…………..same bat time…same bat channel.