A Dream Come True

I cannot contain my excitement right now!  I just finished the most wonderful day with my parents and my future in-laws!  The ONLY thing that could have made today absolutely perfect would have been if Dave was home and could have joined us in our festivities!  I’ll lay out the day for you with as much excitement as I can share through the Internet!

10:00 Families met at Boulder Ridge Golf Course in Lake in the Hills, IL. Our parents have met a few times before so this wasn’t a first meeting; it was still fun to have everyone together!  Dave’s parents hadn’t seen the venue yet and they fell in love just as quickly as we did!  YEAH!!!   Following some great conversation we traded cars and the ladies headed out to look at wedding dresses while the men headed to Lake Zurich Golf Club for a little afternoon golf! 

12:30 We had SO MUCH FUN at Wedding Belle’s in Barrington!  We met up with a family friend and she took it from there!  I had tried on dresses at another store about a month ago and found 2 dresses that I really liked so I knew the style I was looking for.  The nice things about Wedding Belle’s is that you buy the actual dress you try on.  They have a few styles that they can special order but for the most part they are sample dresses that other stores have sent to them to sell.  So what you see is exactly what you get.  I decided (since I had the time) to try on a variety of dresses even though I had a dream dress in mind.  I tried on poufy Cinderella-ish dresses, mermaid dresses, lacy dresses, beaded dresses, simple dresses, dresses with straps…you name it I basically tried it.  And let me tell you…SO FUN!!!  I narrowed it down to a single dress (the second one I tried on actually) and every other dress was compared to the feeling I had in that one.  None compared (and the feeling I had today did not compare to that of the one I felt in the dress I liked at the other store).  So they have you put the dress you REALLY like back on and then they have you go downstairs and Marsha does your hair and Adele finds the perfect veil.  Oh my gosh!  We were all in tears!!!  Good, happy, loving tears!  I could not believe the look of it all put together!!!  The dress, the hair, the veil, the hairpiece (which my future mother in law offered to pay for!)…such an amazing feeling!  And…DRUM ROLL PLEASE!

I SAID YES TO THE DRESS!!!!!

That is all the detail you get…especially since my fiancé reads this blog!  Sorry honey bunny!  No freebies here!  All I have to say is I love the elegance of the dress and the feeling I had with it all together!  I did not wait to take it off!  And knowing that it’s just chillin’ at my parents house right now is killing me! I just want to wear it all the time!!!  I guess I have to put it out of my mind!!!

2:30 I cancelled the other appointments we had for the day.  Hey!  When you know…you know!  Why waste your time and the time of others!?!? 

3:00 The ladies headed to Lake Zurich to meet up with the gents and we enjoyed a few cocktails and some wonderful conversations!  Following a tour of the clubhouse and some history of the club lessons with Uncle Mark and Dad Fedota the Fedota clan invited the others to come see the church.

6:30  We got to All Saints and walked through a few of the logistics that we already knew.  It is all beginning to feel so incredibly real and it’s still more than a year away!  How crazy it that!  I have the addresses for the Save the Date cards and am hoping to get those out in the next few weeks!  AHHHHH!!!!  This is really happening! 

7:00  Tour of Palatine.  I gave my future in-laws a nice little driving tour (as much as you can direct from the back seat!!!!) of Palatine.  They saw FHS (where I teach & went to HS), Pleasant Hill (my elementary school), the house I grew up in, the condo I currently live in, the general vicinity of Durty Nellies, the apartment I lived in when Dave and I started dating, and a few of the local restaurants that Dave and I enjoy frequenting! 

9:30  Conclusion of dinner at Gianni’s in downtown Palatine and our goodbyes.  I didn’t want today to end but I know it’s just the first of many wonderful days together planning this amazing event for Dave and I! I can’t believe how much of a dream this has been!  Oh my goodness!  I, no WE, are so incredibly lucky to have so many people who love and care about us!

Off to sleep for this chica!  All this excitement really made me tired!!!  PHEW!!!!  I know I will be having such wonderful dreams!!! 

I don't think he knows what he's in for...

Knowing that he wants to be as much of a part inplanning OUR wedding as possible Dave has graciously given up a few days of hisvacation here in the states to wedding planning!  Oh what a man!  I love that he is as into the planning anddetails as he is!  I think at times he’sinto it more than I am!  And I love himmore for that every day…even when I don’t think I want to admit it!  Dave has gone on blind faith decisionsthrough me a few times in the past (I’ve done most of the contract negotiations(something I am not as comfortable with as some may think) and have narrowedthings down like photographers, florists, etc.) but seeing as he is home in theUS for a few weeks we’d both like to do as much in this time together as wecan!  So I’ve started my list of WeddingTo-Do’s (which is tough when we realize that we are still more than a year outbut we have to remember that the next time he’s home we’ll be down to the 6month countdown!)!!

Here is a brief sampling of the tasks on my list(any maybe I’m writing them here so I don’t lose the list!!!)

*Narrow down/select musicians(band, string quartet, jazz ensemble, DJ, etc.)

*Secure hotel (potentialtransportation/shuttle)

*Select the groom/groomsmen tuxes

*Narrow down centerpieces

*Write/submit the announcement tothe paper

*Finalize guest list

*Send out Save the Dates

            *Meet with the pastor 
            *Finda location for rehearsal dinner

            *Engagement photo shoot

            *Beginto form registry list ideas

Boy oh boy! I do know we will be so busy in the next few weeks!  I hope to do as much as we can together inthe short time we have!  I know it willbe a magical evening and just want to have fun celebrating with our family andfriends!  :)  

Ahhhh!!!  I can’t believe how incredibly excited Iam!  Now I just have to get through thenext few weeks!!! XOXO

School's Out for SUMMER!!!!!!!!!

Okay, it is time to officially switch hats!  Let’s take off the teacher hat and put on the floppy sun hat!  YEAH!  SUMMER VACATION!  Well, sort of!  I am just about to finish my last school day for the year!  But where has this year gone!?  When I was growing up my dad would ALWAYS tell me how fast the years will go by when I’m older…and I never really understood what he meant.  I mean, to me, it’s simple…there are 365 days in a year (if it’s not a leap year of course!), and there are 24 hours in a day in which there are 60 minutes per hour.  I always thought my dad to be a very VERY intelligent man…but I just was NOT following his math!  I mean, it’s not like you can literally make time go faster.  Yet now that I’m a grown-up (scary thought I know) his statement could not be truer!  It feels like just yesterday I was leaving for England not knowing what to expect (at all)!  (Note to readers…that was officially a year ago!)  And I can recall picking apples and decorating gingerbread houses so vividly!  Then it was December and the best day of my life (thus far) occurred (we got engaged!)!  And it was being lazy in Florida and skiing in Colorado and a spring break in London followed by a final 9 weeks of school.  WOW!  SO FAST!!!  But yet…it was still 365 days!  SO weird to me!  How does that happen!?!?!?  

I will be returning to London this summer, just not right away!  I will being taking 6 credit hours towards my +30 in the next 3 weeks…I know…I’m crazy!  But I’d like to get as many done as quickly as I can!  I’m taking an ELL (formerly ESL) course, a Safety & Sanitation course, and a course that has something to do with technology (I just can’t remember the name of it!).  Dave will be returning to the US for 2 weeks at the end of June/beginning of July and we are trying to get as much family/friend time in as possible before we leave to head over the pond!  However, our time is quickly filling up between weddings, wedding planning, Brewers games, a favorite holiday (MINE…4^th of July!) and being lazy on the lake.   Upon our return to London we have bunches of things to look forward to: weekend trips with friends (hoping to get to Ireland or Scotland or Wales), spending time together, the celebration of our 1 year wedding countdown and of course our lucky fortune with Olympic tickets!!!  GO TEAM USA!!! 

I know that the summer will pass just as quickly as ever but I am looking forward to some good old fashioned R&R!  Bring it on!!!  (Of course…that means on like 4 days on the calendar that I don’t have something already planned to do!)