Cya Later August

Well August 2010 is almost over and that means summer is leaving. This summer was full of adventures and many of them shared here on the blog. With the fall starting it means even closer to our wedding day. We have a long to do list and we are attempting to mark stuff off as fast as we can. Below you can find a short list of highlights from this last month.

Invitations sent: This was a big accomplishment and as I said before makes the wedding seem so much more real.

RSVP's: These are coming in and it makes checking the spreadsheet exciting every time I open it. When there are more names added it is so much fun imagining them being present. It also lets me begin to work on place cards, seating and tabulating the final numbers.
(Friendly reminder to RSVP if you have not already)

Decor: Thanks to a big sale at Hobby Lobby Dan and I went yesterday and purchased all the ceramic pots that we need to make our topiaries centerpieces. I am unsure if I have mentioned this before but we are taking the pomander balls and elevating them on wooden dowels and making them into a topiary (definition below). Also Dan and I are nearing the completion of 26+ cloth pomander balls. I was doubtful for a time we wouldn't be able to finish.

• Topiary: designating or of the art of trimming and training shrubs or trees into unusual, ornamental shapes

Catering: We have mostly (prolly 90%) finalized details and the menu with our venue. We are still in the process of determining floor plans and small day-off organizational details. This is the largest weight off my shoulders. I am also very excited to say that Dan and I are coming under budget in this category as long as alcohol isn't imbibed at astronomical levels.

Photographer: We have been in contact and are beginning to work out a time line for the wedding day. As my clever and bright maid of honor Katie suggested I will be devising two day of schedules to account for the unpredictable WI weather.

Whew it was a busy month and we only have busier times ahead. Take a look at that calendar Nov 6th is a mere 67 days away. I started writing on this blog when we had over 300 days left. Time is really flying.

Hotel Blocks

I just wanted to quickly mention this to bring attention to it.  I just revamped the Hotel Accommodations page to be a lot more straightforward and readable.  If you intend to book a room at the Hilton, please use our hotel block.  The prices for normal rooms (outside our block) have skyrocketed.  To use our block you will have to call and ask for it, you can't book online.   *** EDIT*** I found a way to book the Hilton reservations online, you just have to use the Group/Convention Code: WINHOE .  This is detailed on the Hotel Accommodations page.  The block code may be useful over the phone as well in helping find the hotel block.
I imagine when it gets closer to the day the same will occur with the Sheraton, but I'm not sure.  However even at the same price, its better to use the block, as it gives you free cancellation until 48 hours before the check-in, where a normal booking would not.
The block rates are only available until October 6th. Judging by the Hilton prices, I don't know if we will be able to add rooms to the block at the same rate.  So if you know you are coming, book your hotels.
Cheers!

Girls, Girls, Girls

What do you get when all the bridesmaids and bride get together?

Answer: One crazy memorable night!

This last weekend I hiked all the way up north to meet up with all the girls in my wedding party. The whole weekend from start to finish was quite the adventure.

The weekend started when I left my Dan and got in the car Fri afternoon. I had such high hopes for the trip and was excited for it to start. The journey was going oh so fabulously until I drove head first into the blackest sky I think I have ever seen. The torrential rainfall that followed forced me to take a pit stop at a gas station. Luckily I had Dan helping me determine how long the storm would be around and was watching the radar on my iPhone. Thankfully the storm only lasted 20 mins or so and I was back on the road. When I got to Madison the skies cleared and I even got to see a rainbow. It is so magical that we are so mad when it storms but the second we see a rainbow all is forgiven. I also have to mention that at one point there was a double rainbow. I didn't go crazy about it but did give Dan a quick call to let him know. :)

Once the night in Madison was done Rose and I got on the road for the Twin Cities. We had a long trip ahead of us. With only a few near accidents and plenty of road rage we made it to Katie's house on time and exactly when Betsy pulled up. Once hugs were given and we sent Dean-o (Betsy's husband) on his way, we made it up to the house. All four of us at this point spent some time talking about the past and it really felt that we could very well have been in Chippewa still in High school. Its so crazy that with some friends you just never feel like time has passed and that everything is so comfortable. That is exactly how I feel with my best-est friends from high school. Once Shannon and Becky got to Katie's house it was time for the introductions. Neither group had met before and Rose was the only bridesmaid who knew all the others. So while we were celebrating ME, I also wanted them to get to know each other so that the wedding wouldn't be the first time.

Katie did a great job planning and hosting the event. After a couple (2) glasses of wine we broke out the martini recipes Katie had and got the party started. Katie made sure that penises were a plenty and that alcohol kept flowing will we snacked on some hors d'oeuvres. We eventually made it to Grand Ave (I believe) and went to a bar / restaurant in which I got a goody bag of bachelorette specific items. This particular place (The Wild Onion) caters to bachelorette parties and was the perfect place to go. This bar had a DJ later on in the night. Excellent I say as dancing and I go hand in hand. Without too many crazy escapades (yes there was some expelling of excess alcohol and getting sorta calmly guided out of a bar) we made it back to Katie's house after a fun and successful time out. We all were pretty exhausted and ready for some sleep and it didn't take long before we all crashed in our respective beds.

The following morning was a nice reality check. Even though I am getting slightly older I can still to a certain degree get away without a hang-over. I did drink quite a bit of water the night before and did the other thing. So I was pretty content. Plus Paul (Katie's husband) made us fresh cinnamon roles straight from the oven. This helped a bunch to get me ready for the long trip home. After some last bit of talking got over I said goodbye to all my friends.

I was left with a great sense of joy after this weekend. My friends are amazing and it was awesome for all 5 of them to make Saturday a very good and memorable night. A special thanks to Katie for hosting the event and one for Betsy for traveling from El Paso, Texas. Sheesh that makes my drive seem short. Shannon and Becky for making the trip from Madison and to my sister for accompanying me in the car and dealing with my love of Lady Gaga. Hehe

If this party tells me anything about the wedding, I know it will be a really fun evening.

Once in a Blue (Honey)Moon, Part 2.

  So last time we left we had taken a leap of faith in trusting a sudden third party touring company.  The first of hopefully few snafu's happened concerning them and the trip.  Lori, the Travel Agent, sent me an quick email a few weeks ago saying,
  "Jeni's last name was misspelled on her international flight ticket.  So the company will have to credit the initial ticket and charge you for another ticket.  You'll see 3 charges and a credit (my ticket included). "
   I am paraphrasing, but the general message and feel is the same.  It seemed that it wasn't going to be a big deal  and they would just make a instant credit then charge, and we wouldn't notice the distance.  Of course, since I'm talking about it we know this isn't the case.
   So it took about a week after that for the charge (with an additional 2 cents) to show up as pending on my card.  The next day it went through and took a big chunk out of our wedding account.  I thought this was a strange practice, considering the refund had not appeared yet.  I am somewhat naive in this area, but I figured there would be no way they would make the second charge before the credit was applied.  I'm just lucky we have a good buffer zone in our wedding account at this point.  Still I figured the credit would follow in the next few days, it didn't.
  After a few days I was starting to get worried.  This compounded with the fact that to get to the actual airline, I would have to get through at least 2 middle men to talk to someone who could do something was really upsetting Jeni and I.  I sent a message to Lori inquiring about the situation, asking about the status of the refund and also why the ticket was 2 cents extra (out of curiosity).  She looked into it and it seems that the credits and debits are dealt with by completely different departments at Air New Zealand.  She attempted to track down the credit, but it seemed it was somewhere lost in corporate loops.  Every couple of days I continued to check the account looking for the credit, to no avail.
   We kept going back and forth with Lori, it had been almost a week and a half.  Lori even offered to write us a personal check for us until the credit went through.  We refused, but it was a nice gesture to show us that she was definitely in our corner with this.  I was trying to get names and numbers of people to contact within the travel tour company and / or Air New Zealand to try to bypass the middlemen, but just as I was resorting to that, the credit appeared on the account.  Almost 2 weeks had passed since the charge on the account.  This really made us relieved, but also furious that it had taken so long.
  There were many things that make no sense in this whole process. (1) Why could the name on the ticket not be changed?  Its obviously all electronic, and clearly as a programmer, I know that this has to be editable.  It may have something to do with security, but I have a feeling its more to do with corporate stupidity.  (2) Why did the credit not happen before the charge?  For a large portion of people who aren't as prepared as we are,  they would not have a buffer zone in their account, and would not really have the breathing room to loan a large company over $1000 for almost 2 weeks.  (3)  How could it take almost 2 weeks to process a credit to an account?  (4) Finally, why was the charge 2 extra cents?
  Well we do know the answer to (4)... it turns out the New Zealand exchange rate had changed slightly in the few weeks since the original tickets, so we lost out on that (dang!).
  Anyway, it all turned out OK, but it doesn't instill a lot of confidence in this long chain of people middlemen.  At least we know that Lori is behind us and on our side for sure.  Hopefully this is the only snag in our trip, and I'm hoping we can get all the stress done before we depart so we can have a wonderful honeymoon.   Tonight I get to look over activities to do at the Glacier!  More parts to come maybe.
Cheers!

Lick-ity Split

This is the week to check that mailbox and see the invitations we slaved over. Well sort of. We luckily didn't make the actual invitation but did spend a long time hand addressing and stuffing the envelopes. It was also a lot of work to keep it all organized. I am very happy to have this part done and to look forward to the last three months until the big day.