And the Wedding Planning Begins.....

I have been in NY for just under a week now.  After a very long and tiring 18 hour drive from St. Louis, we arrived at my parents' house.  I got to show Mike our wedding/reception venue, and he loved it just as much as I did thankfully.  It was a lot of pressure to pick the location without having him with me this summer to give me feedback.  He was so happy with it he took pictures to send to his side of the wedding party to show it off right away!

After I showed it to him, we spent a few hours wandering around the area checking out the bars, restaurants, activities, and lodging.  Since for a majority of our guests this will be a destination wedding, it seems like most want to make a vacation out of the trip and come in for a week.  We've been brainstorming up ideas for things we can plan on the week leading up to the wedding for everyone to do if they choose.  Of course, they can't go wrong just hanging out on the beach next to the lake staring off at the gorgeous mountains in the background.

The day after that was the day that Mike left for Ottawa.  Pre-season is never fun.  He's gone for an indefinite amount of time and I don't know when I'll see him again.  I realize that it's only a couple of weeks, but still, I get sad when he leaves for two days during the season, haha.  Bauer was depressed all day when he realized Mike wasn't coming back.  He's getting back to his normal self now with the help of my parents' dog Nash who wants to play all the time.

Now we communicate through a couple of texts, AIM (saved only for the times he's on the road, otherwise it never gets used), and skype if our schedules permit and his roommate isn't in the room getting annoyed at us.  I hate skyping with another person in the room.  No one wants to hear someone else's conversation.  No phone calls though, since he's in Canada and that costs money.  It sucks not to usually hear his voice right before I go to bed, but there's nothing that can be done.

Now I'll just wait and see what happens.  Every organization does their pre-season differently so trying to gauge a time when I'll be able to see him again is pointless.  He's been in the first round of cuts only a few days in, and in the last round of cuts making it down barely in time for the start of the regular season.  You just never know.  So I sit, check daily to see what's available for rent in the city we expect to be in, and wait for the news.

Thankfully this time around I've got wedding plans to keep me busy while he's gone.  There's a wedding association in the area with something like 70 different vendors of all types that I went to check out yesterday.  The advantage to using the association is that if you use at least 4 vendors in it, you get discounts from each of them.  I'm all for saving money.  My mom and I walked in thinking we were just going to grab a bunch of pamphlets and business cards and instead ended up talking to someone and decided to just make an appointment for next week to go over every vendor so we can more easily make a decision.

As we were talking to the girl helping us, what Mike did for a living came up.  She couldn't believe it.  Her husband had just retired this year from playing hockey and was back in school finishing up the degree he'd started.  When I told her Mike was a goalie she started to laugh, because her husband was a goalie too!  Turns out he played with a ton of our friends.  I know we say it all the time, but this was a prime example that hockey is such a small world!  We talked hockey long enough that she made sure to make our appointment at a time she'd be there to help out.  I went from being nervous to immediately comfortable because of our connection, haha.

When I got home I decided it was time to figure out my dress.  I sent out emails to all of the stores in the area asking about the designer that I've fallen in love with.  Don't bother asking who, I'm not going to say because I don't want Mike to have a clue about what my dress will be.  There is one dress in particular that I love so I wanted to know which stores carry it, if any.  I'd rather try it on before ordering it, ya know?  Just in case it doesn't look very good on me and I have to find something else.  I'm not a bet it all on black kind of girl.  My fingers are crossed that at least one of them has it.

I also got an email last night from the photographer from our first engagement shoot.  It was just a notice that we could send a link to family and friends to pre-register on a site to get $10 off if they wanted to buy any of the pictures.  She didn't say when the pictures would be ready, but I'm taking that as a sign that they'll be ready pretty soon, and that has me super excited as well.

When I was setting the appointment for next week to discuss vendors a bridal show in October was mentioned.  I figured I'd most likely be in Binghamton for it and wouldn't be able to go.  Imagine my surprise when I checked their schedule and saw that not only is Mike on the road that weekend, but playing in Albany the day of the show!  Now I can go and then drive up to Albany after to watch the game, then just follow the bus home after.  Thankfully it's a Sunday, so the game is early so I wouldn't be getting home too late.

I started working on our wedding website before we made the move, but there's still so much to do on it before letting people go on it.  I've got to get that up and running pretty soon.  Also I think my mom and I are going to be heading out tomorrow to try to figure out what exactly I want for my centerpieces.  I have something in mind, but not a firm idea.  We most likely won't get anything tomorrow, but I just want to look around, get some more ideas, and work my brain around what exactly I want.

I think once I get that stuff taken care of I'll be able to start thinking about what I want as far as flowers, invitations, and the cake.  Honestly, I don't have a creative bone in my body, so all of this stuff is going to be supremely difficult for me.  Looking at other pictures doesn't give me inspiration, it makes me want exactly what someone else had or know I want nothing that looks remotely like what someone else had.  My brain will probably hurt by the end of these next few weeks, but I need to get as much done as possible before moving.  Wish me luck!