Are the invitations done yet?

Not quite but I have another great story to go with it.  I had hoped to print out my invitations on Monday and finish them by the end of the week. Today is Thursday night and as of Tuesday, I had printed my invitations but had made a small mistake. Yes, just a small one. I had printed 160 invitations with the words aligned about half an inch off. Not a big deal, but I was really frustrated with myself. Because I don't like to waste and the info on the messed up invitations was still accurate, I intended to keep the invitations. Kevin even helped to change the design to cover up the mess up. Unfortunately, this morning when I woke up I couldn't help agonizing inside about the invitations. I'll admit; I was obsessed. NO PEACE!

The fact is that I love cards. When I was in my senior year of high school I planned on studying graphic design with intentions of starting my own greeting  card line.  Obviously, I didn't go that direction, but I've still carried the same dream and the same passion for cards.  When you get a card, you feel special. If the card is designed well, you feel even better. In my eyes, I wanted to send an invitation card that not only made people feel special, but that whipped their bad day into a great one.

So to keep the story short, Kevin and my big big sister, Jo, convinced me to reprint the invitations (It was probably the agony in my voice that convinced them).  I was hesitant and I'm stubborn so I wasn't going to do it, but tonight at around 8:30pm  (Thursday) I drove to Kinkos once again... I've been there almost every day this week. Nice place, 24 hours by the way.

So Mr. Douglass from Kinkos was gracious enough to reprint the invitations for free. I didn't use any excuses or even try to convince him to reprint them.  I was actually planning to just redo the order. Not only did he reprint my invitations for free, but he printed the invitations immediately and offered to use their paper to print it, free of charge.  I decided to use my paper although I was unsure if I'd have enough left to print my last order.  Needless to say, things worked out perfectly.   Instead of having to come back Friday to check the order and then Saturday to pick up the entire job, I got all my invitations reprinted immediately FOR FREE and I got my reception cards printed out immediately as well. Couldn't get much better than that!  

WOOHOO. The verse to go along is  "O Lord, you have searched me and you know me." Think this was God's reminder to TRUST IN HIM.

A few words from the designer herself...

Spring break just started for me and I plan to print wedding invitations at Kinkos THIS WEEK> I'm currently designing the RSVP and reception cards on the fabulous Microsoft Word. Who know you could do it all on word? Anyways, the invitations are complete...in terms of the design...so I'm excited!  I love designing things and I love different types of paper and I love fonts and I love cards! In the process of designing the invites I've probably thought of 30 other designs so if anyone ever wants to use my word template and change it around a little I have ideas! I'm happy to say too that the invites will be handstamped and I didn't even have to buy it. (The things you can find when you're just looking around!)

I found this beautiful flower stamp in my sister's drawer and although I'm no stamper, I couldn't let it go. okay back to work. 

March already?

Today is Sunday, March 8th and I always try to make it my day of rest.  Set aside some time to hang out with Kevin today and although we've been dating for almost 3 years, our time together was just as or probably even more enjoyable than it was when we first started dating.  As we get closer and closer to our wedding, it seems like I become more and more thankful for our relationship and I guess I value it more.

Why am I thankful?  Okay here we go... just to name a few. 

1. I have someone who listens and cares and challenges me each day.

2. Our relationship has grown closer and progressed with each extra year we know each other. Just seems to get better.

3. I have the best family, parents, and church community that really support us and encourage us in our relationship.

4. We balance each other's weaknesses very well.

5. We think of crazy ideas together.

6. We have a whole lot of fun and laugh a lot at each other and with each other.

7. We've developed balance and self-control in terms of the boundaries in our relationship that's helped make our relationship healthy. 

8. The fact that I have great friends that also encourage me and understand me.  Can't just have a man..always need other people too. So I'm glad that I've learned that I need other people too! It's made my relationship with Kev even better.

Too many questions

I think the people who love weddings are the ones who aren't planning it. Seems to be the consensus that when you are actually planning a wedding it becomes stressful and a pain. I'm enjoying some parts of wedding planning, but not as much as I thought I would. It's like you take twice as long to plan an event than you would a typical event.  It's just because people have this fantasy type of idea that your wedding needs to be perfect.  When you're planning, I think you realize that all the fluff and stuff is pretty stupid.  Not to be harsh, but I'm guessing that people tend to make bad choices about marriage or tend to neglect their future marriage because they get so caught up in the hair and veil and color scheme. PLEASEEE... can we get some common sense in here?  What's the use of planning so much and stressing if it just makes you more uptight and anxious and unfocused about your wedding?  

HMMMM... I think the divorce rate is about 50% right now so if we're really realistic, you may be planning a wedding for a marriage that won't even last.  Some may say that's pessimistic and I admit, it could be, but in my opinion, most people are overly optomistic about relationship. When they start dating someone they say, he's the one or she's the one and they have no idea the number of issues that are between them and a great relationship.  

Part of me may be a little bitter because well, I have no time to enjoy planning my wedding. I was thinking of what the color scheme of my wedding would be, Kevin and my wedding, but unfortunately, it was in the middle of my studying. So while I was at the library, I got a little distracted and decided to find wedding books to think of the color and type of flowers I wanted for my wedding. CRAZINESS!! Well, here's to the next few months. I'm just letting go of the perfect wedding day and instead what I'm going for is a fun enjoyable day, with lots of celebration with fam and friends. 

Less than 6 months

Yesterday, was exactly six months from when Kevin and I will be married.  Hard to believe.  What amazes me though is how my wedding planning has turned out nothing like planned, but in many ways has been BETTER.  At first, I was going to modify my sister's wedding dress which my mom had made. Things didn't work out as planned, which was disappointing, and instead I ended up finding a GREAT deal at David's Bridal. I won't lie or even pretend I got it for full price but I got a dress on sale for $99 and it was marked down from $450. Can't beat that. Now while I didn't pray specifically for a dress, I did pray for my wedding planning and after the idea to modify my mom's dress didn't quite work out, I did kinda ask God not expecting anything really for a dress, whether borrowed or rented or bought. Love the dress though. Simple, different, and right for me.

In many other parts of my planning, things have worked out the same. Just better than I could expect. 

Winter Reading

So in effort to keep perspective on why I'm planning a wedding, my goal while I am on my winter break is to read marriage books.  I used to think of marriage books as something for old Christian women and men and honestly, I had no desire to touch them, but my aunt and uncle from Toronto gave me this marriage book and the font was right size and the book was new so I decided I'd start reading that one.

I've read up to page 50 so far it seems that this book is alot less about marriage than I thought.  It's more about how to follow God and little inserts about marriage are added in.  I used to think I shouldn't read a book about marriage until I actually get married, but now that I'm reading, I'm thinking that my goal to learn about marriage BEFORE marriage is actually a really good decision. Thinking back, I read a number of dating books even though I didn't have a boyfriend and never had had one before and I tend to think that doing so, helped me be more cautious and wise when it came time to date. So I'm hoping and I think it's true that if I read about marriage before it actually happens, I'll be much more prepared, a better wife (did I just say that?), and just more aware of what is ahead. 

What is ahead? Well, from what I've been reading and through my reflection, I'm thinking, just thinking and realizing that when people say marriage is hard, it really is very very very hard. Now, I feel like playing hockey in college was one of the toughest things for me emotionally and physically, and caring for my grandparents has been pretty tough as well, and training for a marathon wasn't that hard, but I'm starting to see that I'm going to be crying, yelling, fighting, hurting because marriage really will be that hard.  At the same time, I've been really comforted and excited because I'm seeing that marriage, if it is approached at from God's angle it can be REALLY REALY satisfying and can add so much to your life.  

So we'll see what happens after page 50, but I've shocked myself because I haven't read this faithfully in a while!

What do you know? Over a DRESS!!

So one thing that I've been realizing all today and yesterday is that my vision seems to have gotten a lot worse. At work and even now as I type, I feel like my eyes aren't able to see the words too clearly. I hope and pray that I keep my eyesight.  WIth contacts most people think I'm 20/20, but actually I'm legally blind without corrective vision. I always wondered why God would give me bad eyesight...after all, I got my first pair of glasses when I was 3, but I guess we'll have to wait and see God's plan. Inside I'm learning that if I go blind, then I go blind and I won't cause a ruckus over it. There must be some purpose for it. 

Well, since this is a blog dedicated to my engagement, today I went to Kinkos after work. I didn't plan on it but went on a whim because I just felt like going there to check out the prices. I think I'm a "on the whim" type of person, no matter how disciplined I may be at times.  Yesterday as I was looking at the invitations I had bought, I realized that it would be pretty hard to print my own invitations even though a whole kit was provided.  Using the invitations i've already bought, I'd have to manually feed like 200 invitations into our printer plus manually feed RSVP cards and the such. Not much fun. So I went to Kinkos to look into printing my own.

After a quick trip to Kinkos, I snuck over to David's Bridal although I didn't have my bridal party members, my sister, or anyone with me and decided I was going to try on a couple of dresses. I think I tend to buy better when I'm alone. There was noone to give strong opnions or any opinion at all or anyone to take many pictures for me. In fact, the lady who helped me out took pictures on my cell phone for me because I hadn't planned on coming.  While I hate to obsess over petty things like a dress which I'll only wear for ONE DAY, I have been stressing over this. First, it was over my bridesmaid dresses and this time it was over a wedding dress. For the past few weeks I've been searching online and thinking about where I was going to find my bridesmaid dress and then my wedding dress. Last week, I confirmed my bridesmaid dress and it had been killing me that I didn't know what I was going to wear yet.  I think i just like to get things done quickly. 

So I can't forget to mention that in my stress I did halfhearted ask God to help me.  That's all, I asked him just to help me because I couldn't believe I was letting a dress stress me out, but when I tried on the two dresses, which let me say were  $99, they both ended being pretty beautiful. I liked them at least. And so I called my sister who willingly bussed her two kids with her to David's Bridal, and then I called Kevin who was just about to eat and put down his fork to come take a look, and then I called my mom, who was on the road and without hesitation, turned the car around and said she would be at David's Bridal in minutes... I called them to get their input and literally in less than 2-3 hours, I literally found a dress that fit my strict criteria...something inexpensive and beautiful.  Can't get much better than that!