It's hard to believe that we're less than a week away from the wedding.  I'm sorry for having slacked in my blogging lately; but it's been a hectic few weeks.  Toby's been travelling a lot for work (but is home now - yay!) and I've been trying to get wedding stuff in order while also trying to wrap up my projects at work - so there's certainly been a lot of juggling!

This past weekend, Toby and I had our second dance lesson - it was fun, but I'm definitely more optimistic than Toby when it comes to the first dance.  I figure you'll all be pretty forgiving, while Toby's concerned that my two left feet are not going to allow us to be very graceful (and I don't think he's even taken the fact that I'll have on a massive dress into his consideration!).  I spent most of the rest of the weekend working on the favors, escort cards (no grumbling about the assigned seats - do you know how difficult this is?!), programs, and Hershey Kiss cookies (thanks, Bootsy!).  Toby had a "Champagne Sunday" with our friend Dale to confirm the champagne selection (which was purchased on my lunch today).

 I'm pretty confident that everything will fall into place this week - my only nerves at the moment center around getting everything to Taylor Mansion on Sunday (especially since I have no involvement in that part!).  I'm sure this week is just going to fly by...

I've been meaning to write a new post for the last two weeks, but I wanted to be able to put a photo with the post so I stalled.  However, I still don't have some good photos from our showers but have decided to update anyway.  On the 26th, my mom threw me a wedding shower in Youngstown.  It was the perfect start to kick off the "wedding events".  Michelle flew in for the weekend and Molly and Chris drove down from New York the day before.  We had a cookout at my mom's house with Toby's family and my dad and my grandparents (and Molly, Chris, and Michelle).  It was a nice relaxed way for everyone to meet (and Charles spoiled us with some amazing pulled pork and smoked corn on the cob - man, can he cook!).  The next day, we had my shower at the Birch Hill Cabin in Mill Creek Park.  For those of you questioning what Youngstown has to offer besides crime and corrupt politicians, you just need to visit Mill Creek Park!  The setting was beautiful and we had great weather.  I was excited to have so many friends and family join us - I really felt very lucky.  Everyone was incredibly generous with the gifts they gave us as well.  In fact, I'm wondering if there's anything left on the registry!

The weekend after the Youngstown shower, Toby and I joined his family in Fresno for a shower hosted by his Aunt Peggy and cousin Angie.  We had a great time - Toby's uncle, Tom, came up with a lot of fun games to kick off the shower and I think everyone enjoyed him/herself.  I thought it was very nice, as well, that Toby's Aunt Carol and Uncle Bill and cousin Kathy came up from West Viriginia to be with us for the day - and that my mom came down from Youngstown.  Again, we were touched by the generosity of our family and the thoughtful gifts that they sent us off with.  I had to pick up a few more shelving units for the basement to store the gifts until after the wedding, when we'll be allowed to open and use them (yes, occasionally I do pay attention to all of the wedding etiquette stuff!).

Aside from the showers, Toby and I have both been busy pulling together the final details related to the wedding planning.  We obtained our marriage license (after a minor disaster); Toby's secured our wedding day transportation; my dress is in the hands of a skilled seamstress, to be delivered in another week; wedding favor creation is under way; the bachelor party has been (half) planned; and checks are going out to various vendors.  It's very hard to believe that the wedding is less than 30 days away now!  Holy cow!  I'm sure we'll have everything squared away prior to the big day, but it's still hard to believe!  I can hardly wait! 

Next task: Seating chart.  I'm giving the USPS the benefit of the doubt and hoping that the remaining 20 RSVP cards (which I'm sure were sent in advance, very courteously, by our invited guests) will all arrive tomorrow!

Over the weekend, I realized that we've talked about each of the members of the wedding party but neglected to mention the other people that will be front and center on wedding day (besides Toby and I, I mean).  We're going to be married by Bruce Niswander.  Toby has known Bruce for a number of years - they met while Toby worked at eBank.  Bruce is a lawyer, father of two girls, and an impressive networker.  He currently spends a lot of time in New York City, where he's working for NYU/Brooklynn Polytech (if you get a chance to talk to Bruce, be sure to ask him about his speech on the UN floor or his attendance at Mayor Bloomberg's parties).   It was important to us to be married by someone who knew us well and we were thrilled when Bruce agreed to marry us.  We'll also be having two readings during our wedding ceremony.  One of the readers will be Jascelynn Romeo, a cousin of mine.  Jascelynn will be entering her junior year of high school this fall and is pretty involved in extracurriculars (much like I was in high school!).  I actually read at her parents' wedding 17 years ago!  Our second reader will be Dave Ciccone, a friend of ours.  Dave is a Wooster grad and a Youngstown native (so you know he's a good ship).  He and his wife, Meighan, live about a mile from us with their new son, Luca, and are our favorite dinner partners! 

Lately, I've been focusing on some of the "look & feel" pieces that will make the wedding more personal and leave us with tangible reminders of the day.  Rather than ruin ALL of the surprises, I thought I'd share just one of the details that I'm pretty excited about.  In my wedding research, I ran across a blog that mentioned a "Blurb Book" guestbook. 

The couple used their engagement photos to create a hard bound photo book with blank pages on which guests could leave notes/messages.  It sounded exactly like what I had in mind for our guestbook.  Over the past few days, I've come up with a guestbook that I think will be great!  Toby's been out of town this week (California for work) so I just want to let him have a look before I pull the trigger and order it. 

I'm pretty psyched about it - so, dear guests, start thinking about the note you'll leave in the guestbook (blank pages so you won't be inhibited by lines!).