5 days to go and this is so much fun! I can't believe how quickly everything is coming together in these final days, I'm trying to take all of it in. My brain is completely checked out at work (sorry bosses, I seriously hope you don't read that!) but I am brimming with energy- which is great becuase usually I'm fried by the time I get home :-)

So much has happened in the last couple of weeks to: the bridal shower, the bridesmaid's luncheon and even the bachelorette party! The shower was TONS of fun, it was especially nice that Sparkle could make it down and meet all of my friends. It was really nice to have her there. My bridesmaids are the awesomest because they did a great job! It was a tea party theme with tons of finger foods, mimosas and of course tea. Andrea put together a beautiful slide show and they all put their heads together for any embarassing questions they could use for the 'how well do you know Ponti' portion of the afternoon. Turns out that Matt also contributed some (in my opinion TRICK) questions for the 'how well does Ponti know Matt' game. I failed miserable- but there's always time to get to know each other after the wedding, right? lol.

The bachelorette party- now that was crazy good fun! Not exactly PG but we managed to behave ourselves as best we could ;-) My good friends Aly and Michelle hosted that one and they really know me because they picked a Sex and the City theme which was perfect! We ate take out, drank martinis, watched a couple of episodes and then made our way out to a few bars and clubs. We eventually found ourselves at a korean karaoke house (you know, the kind with private rooms?) and embarassed ourselves pretty badly with a few madonna covers. It was awesome. We even wore outfits inspired by our favorite charaters. I, of course, was Carrie! This is pretty much the only picture that I'm willing to share otherwise my mom just might ground me if she saw the rest, lol:



I'm not even in this one (which is a shame because I rocked my Carrie outfit) but my girls looked good! Look at my sister there in the front, such a model, lol.

Anyway, this whole engagement has been such a blast and the big cherry on top will be this weekend when all of our friends and family will be here to help us celebrate. I absolutely CANNOT wait! I'm sure people are expecting us to be all hectic and busy but really, I'm worried everyone might get sick of seeing us lurking around the hotel trying to hang out, lol. 5 days to go!

Two posts in one week, my oh my!

So, I went to my hairstylist today and really, she's more than just a hairstlist/ therapist. She's a whole one-stop shop. Now, I trust this woman with my hair so I'm sure it goes without saying that I would trust her with my life too, but I also trust her recommendations. So when I came to her today complaining that I couldn't find a make-up artist for the wedding who would work a Sunday at a reasonable price, I knew she'd come through. She hooked me up with a personal friend who is AMAZING (and just so happened to be nearby coincidentally) and doesn't take new clients anymore (or work on Sundays for that matter) but would take me on, on a Sunday AND at totally reasonable price because I'm a client of her friend. Yay for me! Yay for me! Finding a make-up artist for the wedding was my big nagging chore this week and I solved it in one trip to my hairstylist. Awesome.

Long time no hear, huh? Somehow everything went from totally chill to hyperdrive in no time. Can you believe there's only 20 days left!? So much to do! And we've done so much already. Today, Matt and I make a trip down to the county clerk's office to apply for our marriage license, which was cool and bizarre all at the same time. I don't know, I just can't seem to get over the fact that we're actually getting married in a few weeks! It was cool though, getting the marriage license. It made everything seem so real and final, which is exciting! No turning back now, Matt!

I also went to pick up my dress from the seamstress today and I was so exciting to try it on and bustle it. Everything was ok until I tried to sit down in it- that thing doesn't leave a whole lot of breathing room! It was by far the prettiest dress in her shop (if I do say so myself!) and I can't wait for Matt to see it. Funny thing though, Matt has been pretty laissez-faire about the whole wedding planning process (shocking, I know) but I was surprised about how adamant he was about not seeing my dress until "the big reveal." Makes me glad that he's actually looking forward to it.

Anyway, that's about all the update for now. This weekend Sparkle is coming to visit for mother's day/bridal shower/ wedding help so I'm sure I'll have a lot to talk about then!

Receiving everyone's response cards has been my favorite thing by FAR in this whole invitation process! I LOVE getting the mail everyday and seeing all the little envelopes! I get all excited to tear them open and see who will (or won't, sadly) be able to come. Bonus if there's a little note written inside too. Makes me look forward to the big day even more! That's funny thing about being on the receiving end of reponse cards- it makes you more aware of how you should respond in the future. I'm totally writing people little notes in theirs! I hope it'll make their day as much as it makes mine!

Ok, yesterday I looked at my little countdown ticker and its only 59 days to the wedding! Exciting? yes. Nerve-wracking? Absolutely! From a purely logistical standpoint I mean. I really hope I've crossed all my T's and dotted all of my I's! I've been religious about checking and double-checking but it scary to think about something going awry!

On another note about the invitations, I'm really glad that everyone's starting to receive them! I'm a little amused by the stamps we had to use- the weight of the envelopes required a 58 cent stamp instead of a 42 cent stamp, and of course the post office was just fresh out of pretty wedding ones, so Margaret Chase Smith stamps it was! Apparently she was the first woman appointed to both the house and senate. Glad I could honor her on my wedding invitations, lol :-)

Anyway, if you haven't received yours yet (cuz say, oh, you live abroad) they're in the mail!

So, I've been getting lots of questions this week about when everyone is going to get their invitations already. I feel a little bad now, I thought I was supposed to wait until 2 months before (i.e. now) but maybe I should've sent them a week or two ago? Either way, I still need to print out the direction cards (totally last minute of us, oops!) but hopefully they should go out on Saturday! It'll be nice to get the big box full of them out of the living room though ;-)

The coolest thing though- I read in modern bride last month about this cool service called dialdirections.com that texts directions from point A to point B to your cell phone for free. So you just call DIR-ECT-IONS and mention the event name and they send directions to your phone! Its awesome, I've already set it up for directions to the reception but its really good for parties or whatever too. Way convenient if you lose the direction card though.

Ok, I'd like to pretend that I'm mature and not at all excited about this but I'm not that cool. I came home from work today to find a giant box from Macy's on our doorstep. I see that the sticker outside says weddingchannel.com so I know this must be from our registry and I'm totally giddy, sitting here at home waiting for Matt so we can open it together. I'm really surprised though- I wasn't expecting things to arrive this soon since the invitations haven't even gone out yet so I know it must be from someone close to us. Maybe this is a little tacky to talk about how excited I am to get a present, but would it be any better to mention that I'm truly appreciative to whoever sent it for whatever it is? Btw, its been like, half and hour. Matt really needs to come home. Anyway, tacky or not, I would just like to say thank you! As-of-yet-annonymous-gift-giver! I know you probably must read the blog to know about our registry this early but I already LOVE my big brown box here on the floor! You and the contents of this box will forever be remembered as "our first" :-)

ps- formal thank you to follow- as soon as Matt gets home!