Wedding progress

Yesterday was the day of the week that I was most excited for! I took off from work at noon, and met some family friends at my parents house. They were coming to town from the other side of the state and we were going to the wedding location! I’ve known D since I was 5 years old, and her son and I met in kindergarten…21 years ago. Her daughter is a few years younger than me, but she’s like a little sister and she’ll be a bridesmaid. D’s mom, nana, came with also. Nana and I have a lot in common (she married an MP in the 50’s or 60’s, and up and moved her life to be with him in Ansbach, Germany) and she absolutely LOVES to talk about the wedding. Of course I do too, and she is the only person (other than my own mom) who doesn’t get tired of talking about it. I was super excited for going to the place because I’ve only seen pictures of it in summer time. When I found it online, I went immediately to see it then. In January. And it’s an outdoor location. And it snows quite a bit here. So I was anxious to see it in all its glory and see in real life how it will be next July when we get married there!! It was a bonus that there was a rehearsal going on when we were there, so I was able to watch how they did it. So we were driving there and everyone was talking in the car, and Nana basically yelled for everyone to stop talking, and she said in her sweet little voice, “Stacy, what progress have we made on the wedding since last time we talked? But before you answer that, please tell me how Seth is.” It was so sweet that she was concerned with how he is doing more than the wedding. As much as I enjoy talking about the wedding and talking about him (sharing stories) in general, it always makes me happy when someone, who hasn’t even met him, cares enough to ask how he’s doing. After I told her how he’s doing and what he’s up to, we resumed the wedding talk.

There was someone coordinating the rehearsal, and I asked John, one of the co-owners of the place, if they had a wedding coordinator. He said usually the pastor is the one who coordinates the wedding. (Oh, that’s good to know, I wouldn’t have guessed that and I was somewhat stressing over how it would all go smoothly). He also told me that the DJ keeps the reception going smoothly and somewhat coordinates that as well. That too was good to know, because I was curious how all that stuff played out since we definitely aren’t having a wedding planner. We walked all around the grounds, saw the waterfalls (and the koi fish in the ponds at the bottom of the waterfalls), and the flowers, trees and big open grass areas, and the river, and the little walking bridge, and the pavilion where the reception will be. Seth had made it a point to let me know he prefers round tables at the reception (I hadn’t really thought about what shape of tables we’d have), and John only had long rectangular tables. He said that lots of people put two rectangular tables together to create more of a square shape. John said if we wanted round tables, we’d have to get it from an outside vendor. I had been researching this and it was going to be a few hundred dollars to get tables, linens, and also delivery for this. But John informed me that they will be purchasing round tables for next season, and they’ll also have linens available. There will be a small charge, but it will be worth it. We talked about the seating chart a little bit, and Nana and him talked about the flowers and the amount of time he spends on them. John showed me a new listing of decorating things we can pay for, and there is some tooling on the ceiling. Nana thought this was very pretty and thought that we definitely needed it so she gave me a $50 bill to put in our wedding fund to get that done. She also told me that if I ever need any help financially paying for this, to please please please let her know. She never had the big dream wedding that every girl dreams of, and she wants to make sure that doesn’t happen to me. She said that she doesn’t cook food anymore, but she wants to help out in any way that she can, even if it’s financially. After that, we headed home (and stopped for some ice cream, I might add), recharged Nana’s electric scooter that died while she was driving it up hill, and then we went to the Casino for a night of hanging out, eating, gambling and people watching. D’s son, J, who I met in kindergarten, works at one of the restaurants in the casino so we ate at his restaurant. J hugged us when we got there, his mom, nana, my parents and me, and one of the hostesses that was there, asked if I was J's girlfriend. I didn’t hear this part, but my parents and D did. If only he were so lucky…he had his chance back in kindergarten! Ha. Really though, if I would have heard this, I would have kindly had to tell her that my fiancé wasn’t there with me because he is deployed. I love telling people who Seth is and where he's at. It makes me proud. So we ate; it was a buffet and Friday nights are unlimited crab legs and prime rib (I don’t care for either), and then we went to gamble. (Last time I was at the casino, we went in December after Seth came home from Germany, and we went with his brothers and sisters, parents, and grandma, and my parents. When we got there last time, my dad had dropped me, my mom and Seth off at the door, and he was going to go park the car. Seth opted to go with him to park the car, and I later found out that this was when Seth was going to ask for my dad’s permission to marry me. Seth later told me this, and then said that my dad was talking about something else and Seth didn’t have a chance to ask. Haha I can only imagine what was going through Seth’s mind when my dad was talking!!!) My dad and I don’t gamble, we don’t really get it, and as he said, “if I’m going to waste my money, I’d rather it go to the public schools (lottery tickets), rather than the Indians.” This was a very valid point, especially since we both work at a public school district. So we walked around and peopled watched. Man, casinos are really the best places for people watching.

I really wished Seth was there with us. I would have liked to have a date night with him there, and then go watch him gamble. He’s better at gambling that I ever will be so I just watch him. It’s fun though. I was thinking about the last time we were there together, and going to this table, or that table, or this bar or that one. And it always sucks seeing other couples so lovey-fucking-dovey in love and I can’t have that right now. It’s just annoying and makes me more lonely sometimes. Although I wouldn’t trade him, or what we have for the world, it just makes me miss him more and wish that we could have regular date nights.

All in all, it was a very good and successful day doing wedding stuff. It’s about 11.5 months till the wedding and I can’t wait as we get closer and closer!