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.