Sorry to be so absent but my they actually want me to do my job!

Ok

So after a summer of relaxing (if you think being a nanny for a two year old and a 3 month old relaxing) I am back to my day job. The kids came back and everything including (god forbid) wedding planning was put on the back burner untill I could get everything in order and the 90 13 and 14 yearolds on the right page. So now I am back into the swing of things I think I will be less neglectful of the blog.

So anyway lots to update on the wedding front. First and formost I got my dress! Ok so I just ordered it but still I know what I will be wearing yeah! After visiting Yolanda's and LaReine close to home with limited sucess. I went on a whim to Christina's in Andover when I was home do my mother's grocery shopping on my day off last week. Well it was a fabulous experience! First and formost Mary who was helping me was just awesome. Since I was alone she zipped and unzipped me into about 25 dresses. She was very helpful and went back to the racks several times to find other dresses that she thought I would like. She gave honest advice and was so helpful. Christina's is a very nice shop and even though I was looking at bridesmaid dresses I was not treated like a second class citizen as I was at La Reine when I went to look at dresses. I will blog about that experience in the future, but today I would like to stick to the positve. Anyway after looking at many dresses I found about 5 that I thought were contenders and I called Mom to see if she could run out from work and check them out. We narrowed it down to 2 and then I decided on the one I liked best. So I have a dress! It is going to be all ivory but I am still throwing around the idea of having a contrasting sash so I may have the shop order an ivory and a blue or brown sash. It is a Waters bridesmaid style 9296 and has just enough poof to make me feel bridey but not too much to be overwhelming. Here is a picture.

Hee Hee, I get all giddy just thinking of it! It will be a little longer in the back so I have a small train and will have a french bustle after the ceremony!

Yeah another thing checked off my list. Now just to get Sue to get hers!

Here comes the brideS!

So...Sue and I are currently planing a very traditional alternative wedding. Since I really like a good oxymoron I guess it is fitting. It still cracks me up that I lived, for a short while in college, on a street called Park Drive and my favorite meal at school is the boneless rib sandwich. That said while a wedding for two women is fundamentally the same as one between a man and a woman there are some distinct difference to consider when, as we like to say around our house, you get two brides for the price of one!

I guess it is important or maybe just helpful to explain that Sue and I would both be considered "femme" to some extent. We are by no means girly girls but have been known to wear makeup on special occasions and don skirts when the feeling strikes us. I guess Sue would probably be best described as sporty and I would be described as outdoorsy.

I think the most common first question both Sue and I have received after announcing our engagement has been, "What are you going to wear?" I think most people really wanted to know which one of us was wearing the dress and which one of us would be attending the wedding in drag. This would make sense if we were a stereotypical butch/femme relationship but alas Sue and I just don't fit into that mold. So we are both going to be wearing dresses on the big day. However the mental image of two women in big poofy dresses standing up together seemed... well, just silly. I mean really just picture us trying to do our first dance (that is just asking for trouble and a really embarrassing wipe out). So Sue and I will be going the brides maid dress route. It is amazing how many come in ivory and they are really nice, actually it is a little hard to imagine a gaggle of maids dressed in some of these get ups, it seems more than one person in one of these numbers would be a bit overwhelming.

So there you have it, there will be two brides in white walking down the aisle each escorted by their fathers. So it is traditional with a twist and I am sure it will be a blast!

birds on the brain

So a while ago I got the brill ant and of course not very original idea to incorporate birds into our wedding theme. When I first came up with the idea I was obsessing about having my at that point nonexistent wedding at The Barn at Gibbitt Hill in Groton, MA. Since it is a country setting in an elegant but rustic barn, I had visions of birds on branches that I saw on wedding bee as my centerpieces.

While Sue just tolerated my bird/wedding obsession before she proposed, now that we are officially engaged and neck deep in wedding planning Sue has jumped on to the bird train with me. Since she was not a huge fan of the birds on a stick idea we started thinking of alternatives. We were all hot to trot on painting wooden bird houses and flowers floating in votives. We even bought a sample house and painted it blue and brown using crackle paint on the roof. Our thoughts were this 1. it went along with the theme and the colors and 2. it would be less expensive than floral centerpieces. Then of course we booked our venue and our shabby chic birdhouse centerpieces just didn't fit into the modern urban look of the State Room. Additionally we began to rethink the whole no flowers on the tables thing. So we once again were back to the drawing board. We found some pictures of birds nests filled with blue hydrangea which were great but Sue still felt they were still a bit country. So my fabulous bride to be came up with the idea to make silver wire birds nests to put our centerpiece flowers in. So we are off... now just to figure out how to make a birds nest out of wire!!!! Stay tuned for Sue and Sam's adventures in wire sculpture. I guess I should go and clear off the craft table I think it will be getting lots of use in the next few months.

Meetings Meetings and More Meetings

So now that we have a place to get married and have the ability to feed out guests (the part that I thought would be the hardest) I have now realized that I have so much else to figure out. The online check lists are starting to really freak me out and since Sue and I started this process a bit late (our wedding is only 9 months after our engagement) the number of lilac exclamation marks that are on the online list double every day (ok so not every day but the whole thing is pretty daunting).

So we have started something that I never really thought about whilst I was secretly reading Martha Stewart Weddings all these years and stalking the wedding bee these past few months, meeting with the vendors. Ok so it seems like I should have realized this but somehow I just envisioned the whole thing falling into place effortlessly while I worked on cute craft projects that would make our day oh so special!

Now that I have had my epiphany the meetings have begun. Not knowing where to start since I am avoiding the check list like the plague, we started looking into a photographer.

This is very important to me so I am willing to spend a decent chunk of money on the pictures, but I have my budget and I am trying to stick with it (it should be said that Sue has the budget and she is keeping me in line).

So our photographer search has begun. We are looking for a fabulous, reasonably priced, photojournalism style, digital, and the rights to our images. Oh and we also want someone who has shot a gay wedding before. Since we are in Massachusetts the latter is actually the easy part its the reasonable prices that is the tricky part.

In the running are
Mara Brod- http://www.marabrod.com
Kelly Griffith- www.closedcirclephoto.com
Jill Kurzontkowski- http://www.strutphotography.com

If all goes well we will have a photographer by early next week and maybe the check list monsters will stop chasing me in my dreams!

The Second Date I brought a uhaul!

Ok, so not quite but we definatly have been on the fast track for this relationship.

I thought you all might be wondering on how Sue and I met and started our relationship so her it is.

Like any normal person who is still single in there thirties, we met online. Thanks Match.com. So I had my profile and so did she. I read it liked what I saw and "winked" at her we soon began e-mailing back and forth.

We made a date for the following week and continued what I thought was pretty witty banter. I had rented my friends condo in P-town the intervening weekend and for some reason my friends couldn't make it. I love P-town so much so I drove myself down and parked myself on the deck overlooking Cape Cod Bay and thought hmmm, wouldn't this be better with a friend. So I jumped on the laptop and asked Sue to join me. Since she had some plans already she headed down late Sat night for dinner with me.

I won't say that it was love at first sight but there was definitely some fireworks. Fast forward a little over a year later and we are engaged and will be married under two years after we met. Not record speed by lesbian standards but pretty fast all the same. It sure has been a fun ride so far.

We have a venue!

So it is official we will be getting married at the State Room in Boston! We will be using the Harborside Suites. The ceremony and the reception will be held there and I couldn't be more excited.

This whole process has been a bit of a learning experience and I really never imagined that we would be able to have such an amazing venue but heck it all worked out. I guess thinking outside the box has been really helpful.

So long story, short I am getting married to the woman of my dreams in a very dreamy place! Wow life can be great.