Flower Girl Sign

My Flower Girl, Harper Rose, is quite the little girl. I saw on marthastewart.com about having young children holding signs at a wedding and decided this would be perfect for Harper instead of having a her carry a flower basket. I found a light saber like toy in the clearance bin at the grocery store. The batteries were dead but for a $1 I couldn't help but grab it. This past weekend my friend Jess and Irena came up to help me with several projects. One of the projects we started to tackle was the sign. I wrapped the bottom of the light saber toy with white satin material after changing the batteries of course. I then tackled making the sign. I cut foam poster board in the shape of a pennant and added white letters I cut out of poster board to spell out YAY...It isn't finished yet but I am happy with the progress well minus the fact on one of the pennant I put the letters YAY upside down.



That is me releazing my epic failure. I am going to fix it this week by getting another posterboard but this time I will make sure to write the letters correctly.

Guestbook

With only 3 weeks left until our wedding Matt and I have been busy with some final details. We have received all, well almost all, our RSVPs back and are getting ready for the big day. One of the things we needed to decide on is what we were going to do for our guestbook. I didn't want the typical guestbook. You know the one with lines in it where everyone signs their names.

Something similar to this...



There is nothing wrong with this except I wondered how often I would look at it or if I would even look at it at all. I figured it would be packed up after the wedding with a bunch of other things and I would just never glance at it. Plus, how many times do you walk right by the guestbook and never sign your name. So Matt and I decided to do something different. I thought about doing a photobook, but never got around to putting it together. Plus I would have wanted to use our engagement photos which would have cost me more money than I wanted to part with. So instead I decided to do a poster. Something like this...



I even designed one, but then I designed something completely different. Something that would match our invitations and theme. I uploaded and ordered it last night and am super excited to get it in the mail soon along with a bunch of other things that I ordered from vistaprint.com. I think I should do a post just on what I ordered from vistaprint.com. I love that website.

and they are sent out...

So after a month, yes a MONTH, away from home I arrived to a disaster of a house and about 1000 things to do. After cleaning the house, which is an ongoing process, Matt and I were able to get the invitations out. It was a process and when I say a process the whole Design your own, scout out the cheapest printing options, revamp the design, create and merge mailing lists, print labels, stick labels, stuff envelopes, remember you have to stamp the small envelopes inside, stamp all the envelopes, restuff and send out said invitations.

Here they are... ahhh I am happy with them. Though there is at least one spelling error, I have decided I am ok with that.







Check out two of those replies we got back. I love seeing what everyone wrote and pretty much love someone crossed out ONE and replaced it was TWO.

Shoes shoes and more shoes

So there is only so much you can do on a boat and when you have wedding plans to make there is even less you can do from a boat. There is one thing you can do and that is shop. I had yet to purchase any of my accessories until a couple days ago. After scouring the internet and looking through about a 100 different shoes. I found and purchased two pairs from DSW.com. Check out these fun shoes.




(pictures from dsw.com)

I have yet to decide which ones I will wear for the wedding, but I am excited that these guys will be waiting for me when I get back.

Engagement Pics are in

So here I am, lying in my bunk on a boat in the middle of the Gulf of Mexico somewhere and low and behold I get an email saying our engagement pics are in. I figured it would be more fun to write this blog then attempt to sleep for the second time tonight. So here is the link to the site where our engagement pictures and wedding photos will be.

http://www.pictage.com/1086725

When you click on this link you should be prompted to signup for notification when our pictures are released. I haven't released our engagement pictures for two reasons.

1. I am pretty sure Matt hasn't seen them so I figured I would give him a chance.

2. If you signup on the link before I release them then you will receive a $5.00 credit to order any pictures if for some reason you feel inclined to purchase a photo of Matt and I.

Anywhoo there you have it. I will release the pictures in a couple days. I am enjoying my time on the boat, but can't wait to get back to Massachusetts.

Bridesmaids dresses order

After months of stressing and wondering how this convertible dress idea will come together I finally broke down and order myself one. If I liked it I would then order the bridesmaids dresses from there. I had spoken with a seller on etsy.com and found someone who was willing to make the dresses at a reasonable price. After returning from Louisiana and just in time for Kory and Brett's wedding (literally came in the mail the day of the wedding), I got the dress and fell in love with it.

I love the color, the fabric, how it looks. I even had my bridesmaid Irena try on the dress and thinks she looks amazing in the dress. So out went all my worries. I knew the dress would work.

Below is Irena wearing the bridesmaid dress.




So the dresses have been ordered. One more thing checked off the list.

Food and Engagement Pictures

So this past weekend Matt and I were busy with wedding planning. On Saturday, we finished up designing the invitations minus a small part and they are all ordered. I will discuss that in another post. On Sunday, we headed to a local state park with Neely to check out possible places to get out engagement pictures done and had a reservation for food tasting at our venue.

First off engagement pictures. Matt and I hired a local photography company and chose a photographer name Joe King to do our wedding. As part of our package he was also going to do our engagement shoot. We had previously scheduled our shoot for June but since I was in Louisiana we had to cancel. After several weeks and lots of stress, we were able to reschedule our shoot for Wednesday July 13. We had finally decided on using a state park near our place, but since neither of us had been there we decided we should check it out. It was a really nice place. We had to reschedule our engagement shoot again this time due to weather, but here are few pictures I took of the park.






Later Sunday evening, Matt and I headed to the Holiday Inn in Mansfield to do a food tasting. We entered the hotel and were greeted by a waitress named Jessica. She set us up in the back of the restaurant to give us some space, not that there was many people in the restaurant, and immediately started to bring us some food. First off salads. We were given both a ceasar and house salad. I immediately dove in, when Matt reminded me that we were going to be getting a lot of food and I should pace myself.
Next came the main courses. She brought out 3 chicken dinners and 1 filet. Seriously these were full plates. She went over each of the dishes and let us dig in. Matt and I both looked at one plate and literally pushed it to the side since it was smothered in mushrooms. After several bites of all the dishes and sides we made our decision. We decided on Steak. Yep that is right we went with the filet cause both Matt and I couldn't stop eating it. I think it was one of the best steaks I have ever eaten.
After the main course came dessert. Cause if cake isn't enough for our wedding guests we will have another dessert as well. We tried the chocolate mouse, cheese cake, and truffles and decided the cheesecake.

I didn't take any pictures of the food. Mainly cause I think Matt has come to the idea that I am completely insane about photographing things. So you will have to wait to see what your plate looks like at the wedding.

For those of you staying at the hotel, I will have to recommend the hotel restaurant Pike's Peak. The food is great.

Dressing the Guys

So I know it has been forever since I posted. I have been busy with a new job and traveling for work to Louisiana. I have been extremely busy and when I was in Louisiana I realized there are still about 100 things that need to get done by the end of summer.

So first to get crossed off the list was picking out tuxes. Matt's nephew, Pat and his wife and another couple set up a time to meet with this tux company called Tuxedo's by Merian. We had heard about them through our reception facility and were planning on using them prior to Pat suggesting them. They are unique in the fact that they will do fittings offsite and also drop off and pick up the tuxes. Last night the 6 of us met at the tux shop and picked out the tuxes we wanted. I have to say the two guys who run the store are awesome. They asked us questions about our wedding and helped each couple pick out a tux that would work. Matt and I didn't want to go with black tuxes since our bridesmaid dresses are navy so we decided to go with this tan/brown color. The guy even offered to make hankies for the guys with extra fabric from the bridesmaid dresses for free.

We have setup a date for all the groomsmen in all three weddings to get together and get fitted. Since there is overlap in the three weddings it will hopefully make some people's lives a little easier with only having to get fitted once for multiple weddings. Oh and the best part is Pat and his friend scored us a deal on the tuxes.

So one thing done and only about 99 more to go.

Dressing the younger girls!

We have two very fun girls who are going to be part of our special day. One is Matt's niece, Nicole. She is about to turn 9 and a Justin Bieber superfan. I really mean she is a super fanatic and total fashion diva. She is going to be a jr. bridesmaid mainly cause she is too young to be a bridesmaid (probably not if we lived in England) and in my opinion a little too old to be a flower girl. I wanted her to feel special and apart of the wedding so I decided to make her a jr. bridesmaid. Plus I wanted to ask my god-daughter to be our flower girl and she will be 3 1/2 at the time of the wedding so Nicole got promoted.

Our flower girl is also a fan of Justin Bieber (though I am not sure she totally knows who he is) she does know she likes him and that if she combs her carebears hair a certain way it looks like Justin Bieber (yes she really did say that). Harper loves to dress up and walk around the house in her dress up shoes. She is a little princess in the making. Harper is pretty much a fashion diva in the making so I think her and Nicole will get along pretty well.

Both of the girls' mothers will be in the wedding so I am hoping that will help on the big day when we are getting ready and when they have to walk down the aisle in front of so many people.


So we needed to find a dress for both girls and I wanted two things.

1. I wanted it to not be super expensive.

2. I wanted the dress to look age appropriate and make them look super cute.

So in my search for these dresses. I started with bridal shops but those prices seemed really high for a dress for a young girl who will definitely outgrow the dress in a year. I also didn't like a lot of the dresses I was seeing. I then found these two dresses.

This is going to be Nicole's dress.

from JCPenny.com

and then this is Harper's dress (unless she outgrows this dress).

I think both dresses are extremely cute and even Matt agrees. I also think they will look great together and tie together my dress and the bridesmaid dresses. I can't wait to see them in their dresses and all dolled up for the big day. And both dresses we got for steals so nobody is going to be out too much money.

First DIY project

I knew my wedding was going to involve a lot of DIY projects. I come from a family of crafters so there is no way we won't have about a 100 craft projects to do before the wedding. My mom is the ultimate crafter. She does or can do pretty much anything and my sisters well they are scrappers. You know scrappers right, like from the movie New in Town.



When I saw this movie, I died laughing cause so many things in it are true and those women sitting around the table are my sisters.

So when we first started planning the wedding, I started scouring theknot.com, weddingbee.com, and every other wedding site for possible gifts for my bridesmaids when I came across a small travel jewelry tote. It was just what I had wanted for myself a year ago but couldn't find one that I liked. THe one I had came across looked cheaply made and I wasn't impressed so I continued to look and look. I then came across some tutorials on how to make them. I spoke with my mom and she stated looking for them as well and even came across some at Marshalls, but I had it stuck in my head we could make them. Notice the we in that sentence. I then produced what I had in mind and was super proud of my little sample that I was going to send my mom. I didn't sew it but she would get the idea and since she is a master sewer I knew she could sew it all together if I was able to cut out the fabric.




Then my mom put together what she had in mind and that made my sample look like scrap material. Luckily for me my mom is the ultimate crafter cause these things look amazing and she has them all put together already. So that DIY project that I initially said we were doing turned into a 'Mom Project'.







Thanks to my awesome Mom I have one DIY project done. Now about 99 more to go.

Late Happy Birthday to one of my maids....

This past Friday one of my Bridesmaids had a birthday. I meant to write this post on her birthday, but completely forgot. That doesn't mean I forgot her birthday, I just forgot to write the post. My bridesmaid and good friend Irena just turned 29 again.

When I started this blog, I knew most of my bridal party wouldn't really know each other too well, if they had met at all so I wanted to write a post about each one of them and what they sort of meant to me. I started with my two maid of honors and am now moving onto the rest of my bridal party.

Irena is this crazy, quiet friend who currently resides on the Cape, but just like me she is what the Cape would call a wash ashore. She grew up in Ohio and spent time in Fargo and Minnesota after college doing America Corps. Fast forward a few years she ends up working for the State of Massachusetts as a state beach inspector and working right next to me. I remembered being so excited when I first met her. Oh how it was nice to have another mid-western in my office to possibly hangout with. I think I knew from the start we were going to be good friends, though Irena being her shy self was very reluctant to hangout with me. After pestering and some probably coercion she finally started to hangout with me. It didn't take long until before we were good friends. You see Irena is one of those friends who will drop everything if she knows you need help. I was in bed sick for several days with a fever and Irena drove ~ 40 miles to pick me up and take me to the hospital and then home with her. She then spent the next couple days nursing me back to health. That is just one of the many awesome things Irena has done for me. Irena has also taken me on some adventures and if she had her way we would have gone on many more. She is what I call "Family Fun" meaning she loves to pick up the local newspaper and scour for fun free or low costing family things to do around Cape, Boston, Providence, or where ever. I think the only place I have ever dragged Irena is to the beach. Yes you read that right, the state beach inspector doesn't like to go to the beach to lounge in the sun, but she has humored me on a couple occasions.

So, Irena this post is to you. I hope you know how great of a friend you are and that I am still searching for a puffy pink dress for you to wear at the wedding.

We survived Pre-Cana

Today we graduated from Pre-Cana class or as they would like it to be called Transformed in Love. After spending two Sundays in a small catholic education center we came out alive. I think the best part of the class is a tie between watching Matt grimace at every topic or worksheet or the random crazy people in class. They had both engaged couples and married couples in the class and it was broken up into 11 topics. The married couples took turns going through the topics and sometimes wondered where they find these people. Here are a few examples:

- One married couple who were there to teach about communication have been married for 20+ years and have 6 kids. I should refrain that and say they have 6 girls. Matt commented that the guy wanted to commit suicide. I thought he had lost his mind as him and his wife did a role play of how to argue.

- Another married couple have 5 boys and talked about Natural Family Planning and not using birth control. I am wondering how Natural Family really worked for them.

- One engaged girl shared with the class today about how they had been working on the communication and working through arguments using the TLC method. Then she said that there was no TLC last night when she ran out of gas and he had to come pick her up. I was dumbfound for two reasons. First why would you share that you ran out of gas and second why would you throw your fiancée under the bus and discuss your fight.

Anyways, after two long Sundays and about a 100 grimaces we are now done with Pre-Cana and have been Transformed in Love.

North End = Bakery Heaven

A couple weekends ago, I went to watch some friends run a St Patrick's Day road race. After the race, my friends Jess and Bob headed to the bar for a couple drinks and then we were off to the North End of Boston to grab some lunch yummy lunch and amazing pasteries.

The North End of Boston is known for many things. It is one of the oldest neighbors in Boston, location of the Old North Church, and where Paul Revere started his famous ride to let people know the British were coming. There is a cemetery that overlooks the Boston Harbor that has headstones that date back to the 1600s. The neighborhood is small with several one-ways streets that wind up and down and it is easy to get lost. The area is dominated by Italians and is well known for its Italian heritage and eateries including some amazing bakeries. There are several places that are a must see in Boston and I would say here are a couple you should consider checking out.

1. Pizzeria Regina - It is one of the best pizza places in Boston. There are several locations around Boston but the North End is the original and so good.

2. Mike's Bakery - Oh where to start. Black and White cookies, Gelato, Canolis, and lobster tails galore. This is no place to be if you don't like sweets. The line is long but don't be scared the workers are amazing and filter people in and out fast. I think it will take longer to decide what you want. There are some small tables if you are lucky to be able to sit and enjoy your goodies.

3. Statue of Paul Revere - This is something so amazing to see, but hey if you are at Mike's it is a stone's throw away and then you can say you were at the place where he left to warn about the British.

4. The Rose Kennedy Greenway - This is an open space area that used to be the location of the major highways that ran through Boston. Many years ago Boston started this project called the Big Dig which moved all the major highways to run under the city and remove the old highway structures.

Yes, I know what you are thinking I probably got the history part from Wikipedia, but to tell the truth I only verified it on Wikipedia. I actually knew all of that and have visited the North End probably a 100 times cause I love it that much.

Below are some pics I snapped from my trip there a couple weeks ago.

How it all started

Ok, it is about time I get around to writing the blog I was asked for so long ago by Kristine. She wanted pics of the ring and already knew how Matt asked but I figured I would put it all together.

So leading up to Christmas, Matt and I had been busy with Holiday parties, Road races, friendly gatherings, my birthday, and throw Christmas shopping in there along with working our days were quite busy. With Christmas falling on Saturday I had Christmas Eve off and we were busy finishing up wrapping presents then visiting some of his family to deliver Christmas gifts. We had planned to open Christmas presents on Christmas Eve after we ate dinner. So after the dishes were done we sat down and handed out presents. Trying to keep with the Lermon family tradition on opening presents, we opened them one by one. We both did pretty good picking out presents for each other and spent the next two hours lounging and playing with our new toys. Around 11 pm I was getting pretty tired (also was chatting with Kristine via gchat) and decided to get ready for bed, Matt was in the bathroom so I decided to take Neely out quick. While heading back to the house I see Matt at the mailbox.

I holler " I already got the mail!"
Matt responds "WHAT?"

I repeat but this time louder thinking he didn't hear me. He waves me off and walks in the house with me following about 5 steps behind him. As I am taking off my boots, he hand me a card and I sit down and open it. I read the card and he hands me another card, I figured this one was from Neely and I was correct except it had a notecard in it with a clue. I read the clue and figure out it is sending me to the alarm clock so I head into the bedroom. I didn't find a clue and head back to the living room where Matt tells me to go back and look again this time picking up the alarm clock. I head back in the room and there is another clue and this one is sending me back outside to the mailbox. I grumble that I was already outside and put my boots and coat back on. The next clue is confusing me and with some help from Matt I locate it in a DVD case. The last clue also through me for a loop and with Matt's help I figure out it is sending me back outside. Errrrgh I was just outside! So here I am thinking, whatever Matt has me fetching better be good.

Note he wrapped some of my presents with packing tape and placed them in several boxes and all that I want to do is go to bed. So I head out and find a DVD sitting on the seat of his truck. I pick up the DVD and head back into the house to find Matt sitting on the couch waiting for me to return in the house with the DVD. I put the DVD in and find a movie that he put together with pictures of us through the past couple years and Neely to music. At the end he wrote "Will you marry me?" I almost missed it cause I had a few tears flowing and was sort of clueless to what was going on and kept turning away from the tv. Everyone should cut me some slack on this cause I was tired and ready to go to bed and I wasn't putting any of this together.

So obviously I said "YES!" otherwise we wouldn't be getting married, but that is the story. He was going to ask me on Christmas Day morning but decided to do it Christmas Eve night and that is why he was in the bathroom so long. Guess he was nervous.






The top picture is me trying to get creative, but it didn't really come out so the second two are of it on my finger.

Fate, Coincidence, or is the Universe telling me something

I have been in many weddings. Well 3 to be exact and I had to buy a different dress for each of them and I didn't mind, but part of me always wanted to be able to wear those dresses again. The last wedding I was in my friend Jennee let each bridesmaid pick our own style dress, while she picked the designer, fabric, and color. I loved it. I could get a dress I wanted and would potentially wear again. So now almost 2 years later I wanted to do something similar and had initially planned on it. I would let my maids go to David's Bridal and pick out the dress they wanted to wear as long as it was short or knee length and in Navy/Marine I would be happy.

Then, through all my wedding blog reading I came across a bride who had her maids wear convertible dresses. That got me a thinking. I had purchased a convertible dress a year ago from Victoria's Secret and I LOVE it. I was able to wear it to 3 weddings and I wore it in 4 different styles. Yep at one wedding I even wore it two different ways. So if you have no clue as to what I am talking about you can check out this (http://www.dessy.com/accessories/twist-wrap-sample-on-loan-short/). There are so many ways you wear this dress. I think there is probably over 100, though I am sure that all of them wouldn't look good on me but I do have some favorite styles.

Here is a pic of me wearing mine at a wedding August.



So that got me thinking, why didn't I think about convertible dresses. The ladies would all have the same dress and same material, but they could wear it however they feel. The material is stretchy, flows, and is often made with some sort of jersey material so it is comfy as well. This dress is definitely re-wearable. I got so excited about it so on went my search to find this dress. I started looking and I found a few designers that make it. I called a bridal shop in Minnesota to see if they carry that dress, the lady said 'Nope, and they couldn't get a sample.' That didn't discourage me I kept looking and looking. These dresses are super simple but range in price from $100 - $200+ depending on where you order from and what not. I started to scour the wedding blogs some more and found a girl who used and etsy seller (http://www.etsy.com/listing/53886910/infinity-dress-in-hundreds-of-color). If you don't know etsy.com you should check it out. It is my new other obsession though I haven't purchased anything from there. So I checked out this seller and other sellers on etsy who make this style, but I liked her dresses and she had good reviews form several other bride bloggers and on etsy. So I sent her an email asking about price and fabric options. She is going to send me several fabrics she has in stock and her price was actually pretty reasonable, then I sat and had about a 1000s questions run through my head.

What if the dresses didn't look good? What if they didn't come or everyone hates their dress? Would this be too casual for a fall wedding? Am I sure about ordering a dress that I can't have people try on or even see it before it is purchased?

After several emails back and forth with some of the maids and many phone calls I think this is the way I am going. I left it at that and figured I could stew on it some more during the week. Then today in my inbox was an email from Target saying come look at our new stuff. So I went to their website and what did I see. The same style convertible dress and it was a whole lot cheaper than what the etsy seller had but they didn't have navy, but I ordered one still figuring I could always return it.

So here I am thinking I need to listen to the dress angels. I have a feeling that all signs are pointing to the convertible dress.

Everything works out in the end....

So after ranting, venting, stewing, fuming, and being close to tears over this pre-cana class we have to take it all worked out in the end. The lady from the Boston office finally called back and we played phone tag for several days, than when we connected she told me not to worry about the fee and to just come to the class. She said we could just pay the original fee for the class. So I proceeded to sign us up.

Wheew.... or should I say Uffta Daaa... cause after conversing with Matt and over and over I finally got him to cave on the Dollar Dance. I think it was cause I explained it over and over and over again. Letting him know that he wouldn't be dancing full songs with people just 30 secs to a minute tops. I said Jennee and Misty will collect the money and let people know when they can dance with him. He then said he would ok this Dollar Dance thing on 3 conditions:

1. Mike (Best Man) will collect his money and Misty and Jennee can mine. - FINE, I will just have to explain to Mike the ins and outs of the Dollar Dance.

2. His dancing section will be heterosexual only. - OK but I have no control over that.

3. He does not have to dance with Brutus (For those of you who don't know Brutus, put it this way you are better off) .. - Again I have no control over that but I am pretty sure Brutus will not attend our wedding. Actually I will be shocked if she does and even more shocked if she wants to dance with him let alone speak to him.


So in the end the whole Pre-Cana class is worked out and fine. So I melted down for really no reason, but I am still not happy about having to take the class and I also get my Dollar Dance. That means there will be one Minnesota Tradition at the wedding....


Now lets see what else I can get...

Minnesota vs Massachusetts...

Oh how I love Massachusetts. I am a transplant Massachusetts resident, but my love for Minnesota runs deep. I mean who can not love county fairs, food-on-a stick, cheese curds, lefsa, oli and lena jokes, the Great Minnesota Get together, tubing adventures down the mighty Zumbro River. These are all things that remind me of home that I can not get in Massachusetts.
Yes, I might be able to find a river to float down while sitting on an inner tube, but it is not the same. You just don't see people doing that out here.

Yes, there are county fairs or sort of. I mean they have them, but they cost a fair amount to go to and they aren't the same.

Minnesota knows how to do a couple things right 1. county fairs and street festivals and 2. food on a stick. I think that the later is a direct result of the first one.

Since moving to and becoming a resident of Massachusetts for 9 years now, I think I have fallen in love and settled on the direct fact that I will probably never move back to Minnesota. Not that I have anything against it. I mean things are some what cheaper and life is pretty nice back there, but I don't miss the extremely cold winters followed by Hot and sticky summers. So when Matt and I were discussing marriage and wedding and all that great stuff I knew I wanted to have a wedding in Massachusetts. I mean this is where we live and where we have a life. It also helps that Kasson really only has one hotel and not many places to hold a wedding reception. Though the fair grounds do come cheap and I know the fair board President (aka Mom) so I am pretty sure I could have easily had the reception there. It just didn't seem us and I wanted a wedding that was us. So here we are now planning a wedding in Massachusetts and I am left to miss some great Minnesota wedding traditions and pondering if and how we do put them in our wedding. Here is a list of things.

1. Dollar Dance - yes I had to explain this to Matt, the DJ, and many people along the way. Matt says 'No' but I am pretty sure he will be saying 'Yes, Fine, Do it' come October.

2. Polka Music - what wedding in Minnesota doesn't have polka music. No worries our DJ already has some polka in his list so we will be 'Rolling out the Barrel'.

3. Eating and then Dancing. I am still trying to figure out how to make this work but I have been to many weddings in Massachusetts where the wedding party is introduced and then immediately is the first dance. Then people sit and each salad for 20 min while other dances go on and then by the time you get your main course you are starving and pretty much inhale your food. I mean you don't need 20 mins to eat a salad. In Minnesota things are done right. You eat then you dance... so I might try to incorporate that thought out here. I have met a little resistance from the reception site and dj. Yes I know they do weddings for a living but this is my wedding and I would like my guests not to be starving.

4. Free Keg Beer... well this one I can't do anything about. The wedding reception coordinator and Matt both looked at me like I had 2 heads when I asked if we could purchase a keg or 2. Who knew you couldn't do that?

Those are just a few things I have been thinking about lately. I want a Minnesota wedding in Massachusetts. If only that was possible. My Mom is going to put Minnesota into the wedding somehow. I hope that doesn't mean it is going to snow on our wedding.

Really Pre Cana Class?

Ok, this is going to be a little bit of a rant so take this as your for warning before you continue to read. Matt and I decided that we would get married in the Catholic Church. We talked about it long before we ever got engaged. Matt really wanted to get married in the church and I agreed even though I would have been happy to run off to Vegas. Matt and I were both raised Catholic, had never been married, and knew all about the Catholic Pre-Cana class before we decided to get married in the church so I take it I shouldn't be surprised or upset too much, but I still am. First off our wedding is in October and it is March and we are already planning on taking the class. We have spoken with the priest and I got all the class registration information ready and even sent it in. I researched all our class options prior to signing up and the class that fit perfectly into our schedules and budgets was being offered that the Middleboro Church where we were getting married so I signed us up. Everything was peachy until last week when I got a call from the church stating the program has changed and now the Archdiocese of Boston has this new and improved pre-cana class. I was like ok so what is the problem. The lady went on to tell me the hours of the class had changed from 10 hours to 17 hours and that the price had increased from $50 to $200. Yep that is right you read that correctly $200.

So I a gasped and bit my tongue as the lady continued to remind me that I took CCD as a kid and that she was sure my parents paid for that and that we would be taking this class and getting a catered breakfast and lunch. I was thinking that better be a really good breakfast and lunch and I better not see Dunkin Donuts. She was than like there are scholarships available if the price is too much and you need to call this woman to register.I said I would have to speak with Matt and get in touch with the lady and I would let them know what to do with my previously sent $50 check.

And now here we are 5 days later, I have called and left 3 messages with this woman from the Boston Archdiocese asking her to call me back. I haven't heard from her and just to note her voicemail message is old and refers to information for January. I have researched other pre-cana classes but since this is a diocese wide class we are going to have to pay $200 no matter what and not many classes are offered South of Boston and I refuse to drive more than 30 minutes to take this class and I also refuse to take the class during the week. So I took my research even further. I spoke with a person who took the class recently on Cape and she directed me to the Fall River Diocese. I called the Fall River Diocese and instantly spoke with a woman who directed me to a website and gave me all the information I needed about their classes. Their pre-cana classes are less hours and cost $150. Hmmmm it would save us $50. So I looked at their class schedule and we could take a class in Mansfield. Mansfield is just as far as Middleboro from our place and we could save money. So I call the church speak with this lady about getting in contact with the woman from the Boston diocese (I want a scholarship to take this class) and she agreed with me that she is hard to get in touch with and that it would be ok if we took a marriage prep class somewhere else.

So here I am.. pondering what to do. Do we take the marriage prep class in Middleboro like we planned and fork over the extra $150 for the class or do we take the class in Mansfield and pay $150 for the class?

Also I still am wondering why I really need to take this class. What does this class offer? When we spoke with the priest (Father Jay) he told us we would have to meet with him twice after the classs to go over some things. One of those things he wanted to go over with us is the sacrament of Marriage.

So here is my thought.. Matt and I went to CCD classes when we were kids. They teach you about many things and one of those things are the sacraments. I can list them all to this day and when we were getting ready to do a sacrament such as first communion we went over all the information about the sacrament in CCD class. So if marriage prep is required and is meant for us to learn about the sacrament of marriage and such than why and I mean WHY do I have to pay to take this class on Marriage prep and still learn about the sacrament from Father Jay.

Anyways.. that is my rant... I know both Matt and I are going into this class already so negative, but right now I want to say let's throw it all to the wind and just elope... No worries we won't.

Matron of Honor #2... Misty

I wrote about my first matron of honor (Jennee) and wanted to write about my other girls as well during this whole wedding planning process. So here I am thinking about what I accomplished today and figure why not write about the other matron of honor. She is just as close to me as my first matron of honor and she is also pretty much a part of the Lermon family (she attends more Lermon family gatherings than I do).

So where to start... Well Misty is all of five foot one inch and can pack twice that in a cross check or personality. We became friends in high school, mainly cause she thought she was way to cool to be my friend before high school, and have basically been good friends ever since. Just thinking back to our old high - school days makes me want to visit her mom's daycare and feed a bunch of 4 year olds a load of silly stories. Misty and I shocked our parents when we were fresh out of our first year of college by traveling to Europe for 3 weeks. This probably doesn't sound all that shocking to some, but you have to remember we grew up in towns without stop lights, more than one main street, and the only form of public transportation is the school bus. So off we were to Europe with our first stop being Ireland where we would stay with my family whom I had only met a few of and we were getting picked up by someone neither of us knew. Thank god my cousin looked like my Dad and we left the airport with the right guy. After Ireland we were off on our own for several weeks on mainland Europe. We had to figure out how to read train schedules and how to use subways. We seemed to manage with only a few issues and made it to our third planned stop Denmark where we stayed with a good friend and his family. We some how made it through Europe without getting lost, beating each other up, and having a great time.

Misty, also has one other thing to thank me for and this is a big one. She met her now husband because I dragged her along to hangout with me and a couple of friends. Yep you are welcome.

Misty is one of those friends that is always there to listen, lend an ear, and always reminds me to the fun in everything that surrounds me. She is a teacher and runs an educational program and after school program. She has two awesome little kids that keep her and her husband, Dave, busy. Her daughter, Harper, is actually going to be our flower girl (aka Princess for a day).

So what made me think of Misty today. Well cause I put in the mail 2 books for her and a magazine for her son, Cohyn. So I sent her a text and her reply was "you are the greatest". Hearing your friends, who have always been there, say that makes me feel even better. It is nice to know that 1300 miles away I have this amazing friend and thank to technology we can talk every day and sometimes we do.

So here is to good friends, who have been planning my wedding a year before I was even engaged, and are going to stand next to me on my big day.

Things to do in Boston part 1...

So I know many people are going to be traveling to the wedding and will also be taking a vacation at the same time so I figured I would start a things to do or see list. One of those things to do would be a brewery tour. Boston/ Southern New Nengland has many small micro breweries. I have been to a total of 2 in Boston, but know of several others people could also try out. This weekend, I was planning on hanging out with my friend Irena when her husband asked if we wanted to go with him and his brother to the Sam Adams brewery before we went and did some girl things. We took them up on the offer and had a lot of fun on the brewery tour. Here is a link to the Sam Adams Brewery, http://www.samueladams.com/share-passion/tours.aspx. I would suggest if you are from out-of-town that you might want to take public transportation or have a GPS handy on getting to the brewery. The hours for the tours are listed and it is open Monday-Saturday. It was pretty busy this Saturday and there was about a 2.5 hour wait to get on tours, but it was a Saturday with nice weather on a long weekend so I think if you went during the week the wait might be shorter. There is also a free trolley service at the brewery that will take you to a local pub where you can eat and have a Sam Adams on draft. They told us if you go to the bar and order a Sam Adams on draft ($4.50) to show them your tour pass cause you will get to keep your beer glass. That is actually a good price for a draft beer in this area and you will also get a souvenir.

Other breweries you can also visit are:

Harpoon Brewery - Boston, MA http://www.harpoonbrewery.com/ (they do week day tastings not tours)

Wachusett Brewery - Westminster, MA http://www.wachusettbrew.com/index2.html

Mayflower Brewery - Plymouth, MA http://mayflowerbrewing.com/

Cape Cod Beer - Hyannis, MA http://www.capecodbeer.com/

These are just a few but you can do a search and find more. Most of these beers except Sam Adams you won't be able to get out of the New England area so if you are a beer lover I would suggest checking out some of these places. They are also usually free or cost a couple of dollars and don't usually take more than an hour of your time.

I Heart Shutterfly

I think everyday or maybe every other day I get an email with a promo code from shutterfly. Today I got a promo code for free set of return address labels. So I hopped right on the shutterfly site and made myself some return address labels. For those of you who have received your save-the-date cards already you might have noticed the return address label was for Matt. He made and purchased the first set from Vista Print. Mainly cause Vista Print is cheap and he ordered a bunch of them. I did notice the other day that our supply of return address labels was low and that we were probably going to have to reorder and then in comes the shutterfly code. Now I know these labels won't match the ones Matt made for 2 reasons. 1. I added my name to the label so the say M.Lermon and M. McCloud and 2. they don't have an eagle on them, but I DO NOT CARE. I am personally just excited that I saved money. I would share the project with you guys, but Shutterfly says only cards and photobooks.

Jennee's card

So below is a card I made for Jennee, one of my Matron of honors, and I wanted to tell everyone about it and her. No worries I sent one to Misty my other Matron of honor but I will talk about her a little later. So card below I designed using shutterfly and some pics from a wedding we were at this past summer and then the saying I found on a wedding blog website. I wish I would have found it earlier and that this was how I asked her to be a part of my big day. Instead I asked her over the phone and I am not sure if I even asked her. I think it went more like this.

ME: "Friend (Jennee), you know you are one of my matron's of honor right?"

JENNEE: "YES, Friend and I would love too"

I don't think that is asking but more or less stating. I think that is what happens when you have been friends with someone for 25 years. So I am going to tell you a little about her and our friendship.

Jennee has been a friend since the first day of Kindergarten. We met on the school bus and have been friends ever since. We were probably two of the most unusual friends except we were both tomboys through our younger years. Jennee has been a friend who I can always count on through the years. She is always there to listen, lean on, or just to share a laugh with. We have been separated for the past ten or so years by about 1300 miles, but I think that has made our friendship even stronger. We often exchange random phone calls during the week just to say hi or wish the other person a Happy Tuesday. I had the honor to stand up for Jennee on her wedding and am super happy that she will be standing next to me on my big day. I wouldn't want it any other way. So this post is ode to Jennee or Matron of Honor number 1.

The inside of the card says:

Will you be my Matron of Honor? Will you share my special day with me?

Will you help me plan my wedding? Will you try on dresses at shop that don't fit

and pretend they look nice? Will you dance the night away with me? Will

you smile endlessly for pictures? Will you help me from tripping on the dance floor?

Lastly will you hold my dress when I pee?

Classic Navy 5x7 folded card

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This way to the Food and Music!

The wedding reception venue has been booked. I am super excited. We have booked the Holiday Inn Mansfield, MA for our reception. Here is the link to the hotel. http://www.holidayinn.com/hotels/us/en/mansfield/bosmf/hoteldetail

All our guests will be able to get a special rate of $99 per night for as long as they stay. Having a place to eat and dance the night is away is awesome, but to also be able to crash only steps away from where all the partying is taking place is going to be even better. You don't need to rush out and book your rooms now the hotel has 200 rooms so you have some time. The hotel has a salt water pool and is close to a commuter rail station for all those out of town guests who want to take a day trip to Boston and not have to worry about driving in the city and getting lost in one of the many one way streets and having to find parking. Also nearby is Patriots Place which is where Gillette Stadium (the home to the New England Patriots) is located. Surrounding the stadium are various stores and restaurants including Bass Pro Shop.

Forgot to add my fan club

I forgot to add photos of dress shop fanclub. Here are two great friends. Thank Irena and Jessica for everything.

Dress shopping is for the birds...

So today I had scheduled an appointment at a bridal salon on Newbury Street in Boston. For those of you who don't know Boston this is the shopping street in Boston. Irena and Jessica were coming up to go shopping with me and I was super excited. This was technically the second time I went dress shopping, but the first time with having a fan club. We were off and had a very interesting experience. The shop was small and basically a converted apartment. I figured since we needed an appointment we should be early and was excited to try on their dresses. They had very simple dresses and I loved several of the ones I saw on the website. When we arrived 15 min early we were asked to leave and come back in 15 mins. So the three of us slowly turned around and headed out the door to find a coffee shop and returned at our correct time. I then asked to try on a couple of the dresses and she brought out the samples she had (which was not many) and they were all size 10 or smaller. I wanted to be like hello most people are a 10 and I can not tell really what it will look like, but I did find one that I loved. When I inquired about ordering it she told me to wait and then just order it online around April or May. I thought this was weird and thinking you mean you don't want me to come in and get sized or order from you. So we left and headed to David's Bridal. At David's Bridal Irena, Jess, and I pulled 8 dresses that I would try on. Yep 8 dresses including the dress that I fell in love with the first trip to the store. After trying on all 8 dresses I told the lady I was going to think about it and maybe come back when she said well one of them I can not hold for you cause it is discontinued. OK so back on the dress went and then we added a little flair or bling and I decided I LOVED the dress. So at that moment I said "YES" to the dress. I won't say which dress I picked but it is one of the attached.

Mark your calendars

So we met with the priest last night from Sacred Heart Parish in Middleboro and have set a date and time for the wedding. Mark your calendars for Oct. 28, 2011. The ceremony will take place at 6:30 pm with reception to follow. The meeting with the priest was interesting. He had to interview each of us separately to make sure we were entering the marriage freely and did not commit a crime to get married. I guess when he asked Matt that question he said no I bought the ring. I wish I could have seen the priest's face when he said that. The priest seemed nice and is our age, which I think is sort of a rare thing. I know there can't be many young priests.