A Whole Lotta Shakin' Going On

I apologize for my seeming absence the past week or so. There's a lot going on in this life of mine (why is it that as soon as the warm weather hits, so does everything else?). Between social dates, weekend mini vacations, a family medical emergency out of nowhere and trying to fit in fixing supper, there's not been a whole lot leftover (time and mental ability) in the end for some good old fashioned writing.

Something that I've been getting excited about again though despite everything else is the gym. Justin and I made the conscious decision last November that we were tired of being fluffy and sedentary, so we started eating better and in December joined the Y next door to where I work. It'd been over a year since we'd taken Krav Maga classes (if there are any offered in your area, take them! Greatest exercise you'll ever do and some awesome self defense training to boot) and we were both feeling the repercussions.

Here we are almost seven months later, and although I was out during the month of May in order to study for part of my CPA exam, I was able to maintain the ground I'd gained since the end of the year.

I get a little bored with the gym sometimes, partly because I don't know enough about lifting and exercising to switch routines up myself and partly because I feel like I'm not seeing the results I want (more than likely a side effect of reason number one for boredom). I've been getting more motivated as of late to get back into things at least three times a week though for several reasons. One, we've got a boat trip with Justin's friends coming up in July and it is bathing suit season. Two, I'm a bridesmaid in my friend Flo's wedding over Labor Day weekend and I want to be rockin' an awesome physique for her. And three, well, I'm getting married next year and would love to be rockin' an awesome physique for me, Justin, my dress and my trip to an exotic beach on the honeymoon :)

Really though I just like the thought of being active in life, and seeing the results of that hard work. Slim down the areas that are known problems thanks to genetics (and to just being a woman), become stronger in my upper body, help myself bounce back after having children in the future, and hopefully aid in keeping myself healthy over the course of time.

I've recently added water aerobics (it's not just for old ladies!) and the 100 pushup challenge to my normal cardio and light weight lifting routines in hopes to give my body something different to handle. Gotta keep things on edge, never knowing where the next muscle soreness is gonna be, lol. Plus it helps keep things fresh and keeps me motivated in showing up when I'm supposed to (except for when Justin is just being super lazy and it rubs off on me).

Anyone else have a specific workout routine(s) they're trying to help get into shape for the big day or just life in general?

The Good, The Bad, The Unaffordable- Venues, Part 1

Okay, my next admission may be means to revoke one of my girl cards- to date, I've oogled more over wedding venues than engagement rings. *ducks* Yep, almost blashphemous I know, but aside from some totally unattainable baubles at Tiffany's & Danhov, a lot of my Google sessions post-wedding discussion have revolved around the good, the bad and the unaffordable in the world of location, location, location.

As I've said before, I knew that I wanted to pull off a simple, southern affair. And to me, that meant one thing- a barn. Or some other equally country-esque establishment. Either one big enough for both the ceremony and reception, or just for the reception itself. Fortunately, with Central Kentucky being "the horse capital of the world", farms, barns and general country things are all around.

Talon Winery - Ca"barn"et Barrel Barn

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Talon Winery sits on the outskirts of the city and is an absolutely gorgeous background for a wedding and reception. They have several locations for an outside wedding, including a gazebo, and their Barrel Barn with its extended patio would provide all the room you needed for your reception. Tables and chairs are included with the rental. And check out the inside!

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The open rafters and twinkle lights get me everytime! Unfortunately, this location catered more for an outdoor wedding and with our early spring date (and general luck), Justin and I didn't want to hedge our bets on a perfect weather day. Even more unfortunately, the barn ended up being more than slightly out of our budgeted range. I eventually dried my tears and moved on.

Black Barn at Cardome Center

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Back in the day, Cardome was sold to a group of nuns who started an academy for girls, but unfortunately the school was no more after the late 1960's. Since then, the property has been owned by non-profit organizations and the facility houses a lot of community activities (and also has a gorgeous Japanese Garden). And look, they have a barn! Unfortunately, it is just that- a barn.

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While there was a lot decoration wise that could be done (like in the picture above) to help fancy things up a bit, it was a little less on the inside than what I was hoping for and I wasn't sure how into spending a ton of time on room-altering decor I was gonna be.

The Round Barn at Redmile

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Anywhere near a horse farm in this part of the state is gorgeous, and as The Red Mile is a smaller track here in the city, the landscape is beautiful. And take a look at that unique, round barn! We'd have the backdrop, the feel, but I was a little iffy about the space.

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While pictures are often deceiving, I just didn't feel like there would be enough room for our guests seating plus a dance floor (and their in-house catering was a bit out of our league).

As I kept combing through venues here in town that I thought might fit what Justin and I were looking for, I started getting more and more discouraged. The "perfect" ones were either too pricey in their rental fee, too pricey in their in-house catering, didn't offer tables, chairs, etc. with the rental, only had accomodations for an outside event or was just too formal for our tastes.

So I did what any other bride would have done- I started to think outside the box...

It's Gonna Cost What?

When Justin and I sat down at the end of last year to discuss all things marriage, there were 2 items at the top of the list: timeframe and budget. And as money (or rather access to it) usually dictates the timeframe, we knocked out two birds with one stone; while a late fall of 2010 wedding was preferred, financially we wouldn't be ready until spring 2011.

Being the nerdy accountant that I am (and just general lover of lists), I'd prepared a budget outline several months before Justin and my's meeting of the minds. I'd written down everything I could think of that we'd have to buy/rent/make/borrow and attached what I thought was a reasonable estimate. It was obvious that Justin wasn't as familiar with the costs of a wedding when I had to save my toes from his dropping jaw upon showing him the probable price tag.

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We identified pretty early on the most important items on our list- for Justin it was food (and that we have an open bar) and for me, it was photography (I still giggle over the look on his face after I told him how much I'd alloted for a photographer, poor boy). Everything else had it's place, but these two came with certain expectations from each of us (and I'd like to think we did pretty well, but that's for later!).

As we'll be paying for most of the wedding/honeymoon ourselves (something that I felt very strongly about), we're working with a decent to us/smaller than most people's figure and it's my personal goal to come in under (even if it's just by $10). There's nothing out of the ordinary or extravegant on our list (I'm calling the affair "Simply Southern"). And both Justin and I are good with money (okay fine, I'm a little bit of a tightwad) so hopefully it'll be easy to keep on track.

How did you all decide on when you were going to get married and how much you were going to spend?

Bullet Points & To Do Lists: A Love Story

I love lists and I love details. If there's a blank piece of paper and a pencil laying around, it's soon covered with a list of some sort- groceries, goals, to do, baby names, the list goes on and on (get it? Yeah, yeah, I know). My friend Brittany even got me an awesome To Do List paperset with it's own clipboard for my birthday

(personal photo)

Because of my obsession, er, fascination, I thought this wedding planning stuff was gonna be a breeze.

But did I mention that in relation to details, I also have an inherent ability to overcomplicate the simplest of ideas/decisions/situations? Justin lovingly calls in "micro-managing" but it's really me just being a pain in my own ass. Either way, it's a trait that I've known is both a blessing and a curse, and situations like this wedding only reaffirm the knowledge.

For example, I already have an "End of Wedding Day Task List" that includes things like "Take kegs and taps back to store", which is important- 10 months from now. And while some will say that it's a good thing to have a head start, writing it down to remember is one thing, already trying to figure out who'll perform the task based on other items included on that particular list when it probably won't even be discussed until a few weeks prior to the event is just plain unnecessary. Sigh. Yep, that's me, the little over thinking detail monster. But I'm working on it.

Overall, my love for planning has been super helpful, despite my need to overthink things. It's helped with our budget, timing of tasks and finding vendors that we really look forward to working with. And it saves the boy from having to do much else than just give an opinion on a list of final contestants (so to speak), which suits him just fine.

Cheater :)

Co-Habitating

I'm an accountant. I work for a small firm, which allows me to dabble in lots of different areas throughout the year, but January through mid-April is always our busiest time. In February we start working Saturdays and by mid-March we're pulling 50-60 hour weeks.

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Justin and I met in January and made things official in February. At the time, I was living in an apartment with two friends from college that was 20+ miles away from work. Justin was a new homeowner 7 miles from my work. Can ya see where this is heading?

What started as spending a couple nights a week at his place to try and spend some time together slowly became additional days as I figured out I got more sleep because of the shorter commute. By the beginning of summer, I was visiting my roommates at the apartment instead of staying there. Ever the gentleman, Justin gave his "Do you want to officially move in when your lease is up" spiel (which may have been fueled by my ever accumulating belongings in his spare bedroom). Of course I was over the moon. My mom wasn't surprised, my dad started to give me the "What's your backup plan?" speech, but stopped himself. And we didn't tell my mamaw until almost the end. Mostly because of the fit she had when my then 4o-something year-old uncle moved in with his girlfriend 14 years ago, I didn't want to give a lot of time up front for her to mull it over. And I made my mom come with me.

My awesome Mamaw and Papaw (personal photo)

Come the end of that August, the last of my things were moved and I said goodbye to a few years of great memories. Even though I'd already been living at the house for several months, those first days after it being "official" were a little scary. Partly because it was a big step in mine and Justin's relationship and partly because now there was no backup plan. Despite already being settled into a pseudo husband and wifey routine, it was one of those moments in life that it just hits that you're growing up.

It does seem more common now for couples to live together before marriage, and for varying reasons (financial, waiting longer in general to marry, or just because). For me, I'd felt for a long time that I would prefer the settling period happen before the marriage. In my mind, getting all the kinks of cohabitating worked out would seemingly make the actual transition into marriage a little less overwhelming. Instead of focusing on moving, getting used to your significant other's quirks, likes and dislikes, and trying to find that groove while building that foundation of a new marriage, you'd come home from your honeymoon with a fresh perspective on each other, but still have that familiarity waiting for you. But that's just what I thought woudl work for me. I'm a big proponent of the sentiment "To each his own." :)

Anybody else make the decision to move in together (or not to) before the big day?

I Don't Want to Freak You Out

It's always interesting to hear about how people's relationships began. They met at a club/bar and exchanged numbers, got the two day later phone call and went out on a date. They had an 8am class together in college and helped keep each other awake. They lived across the street from one another, met one day while checking the mail, dated, broke up for a few months and then got back together.

It's also interesting to hear how the beginning of the relationship progressed. Was it just a lot of dates out and about or were there a lot of evening visits to one another's home? How long did they wait until their first kiss? The first overnight stay? The first I love you? Everyone moves at a different pace and I love to hear how each couple's fairy tale goes.

Attempting to ice skate (personal photo)

Justin and I saw each other at least twice a week during that first month after meeting. The group met up on Mondays and Wednesdays to run/walk and as the weeks went by, he started staying longer and longer after we were done to talk and hang out at Kent and Emily's. We got to know one another through long emails exchanged throughout the course of the work day. And I must admit, I did get on myspace pretty frequently at night just to see if I could catch him online to say hello, lol.

We technically spent our first night together a week after meeting. I had a get together of friends at my apartment on a Saturday and he, Kent and Emily came. I let them sleep in my bed and Justin and I each took a respective couch in the living room. The next morning found me reading him funny stuff out of one of Meg's Cosmo magazines.

The second overnight came a few weeks later when I stopped by his house on my way back from visiting my parents. We just sat there in his living room and talked for so long that when we looked at our watches, it was after 2am. He didn't want me driving that late, so he told me to stay. I remember as I climbed into his bed (still fully clothed), I scooted as far to "my" side as I could so as to not give him the wrong idea. Considerate of me, huh?

On the night of Valentine's Day, we went out to dinner at Ramsey's, just a little family owned chain of restaurants in the city with good country cooking. He wore a button down shirt and nice khakis and I had on my favorite red sweater. And although this was our first "real" date (as in he asked if I wanted to do something), we had snuck in a dinner and a movie a few weeks earlier after it was determined to be way to cold to run after work.

I came back to his house for a little while after supper and when he walked me out to my car, I gave him a quick peck on the lips in thanks for the evening (which was all his idea) and the beautiful flowers he'd sent. Two days later, we shared our first "real" kiss after making ourselves official.

About three weeks into the deal, I sent Emily an email with a little blurb about how there was something different about this one, and asked her if it was silly to think that after such a short time that I could really be falling in love with him. Three days later, while sitting in the living room of my apartment, he told me that he had something to say and didn't want to freak me out, but that he was falling in love with me. I just hugged him and then asked to show him the email I had sent Emily those few days before. How nice that the two of us were on the same wavelength. And how awesome all at the same time! I remember telling Emily later that I'd always wondered what it felt like to be those people who said they just knew. And now I do.

(my 24th birthday, personal photo)

Addendum to My Open Letter

Well, although they still might not perfect, these babies are much, much better looking than my first attempt :)

Just needed some smaller sized tissue and a few more sheets than the instructions called for. Now that these little boogers are back in my good graces, the ideas for how to put them into use during the ceremony/reception are flowing. Can't wait to start showing you some progress I've made.