RAIN, RAIN GO AWAY

I'm taking a break from building my ark so I thought I might as well blog! For our out of town blog fans, we are getting absolutely drenched here in southern California. It has literally been raining for almost four straight days, yikes! So although the past few weeks have been insanely busy, thanks to this weather, my school was let out early today because of the flooded roads and pouring rain. A little ridiculous? yes. Incredibly awesome? Oh yes! So this gives me a little extra time to update you guys on some exciting wedding news!

Save-the-Dates: We are currently gluing, stuffing and sealing our save-the-dates and cannot wait to send them out! My cousin Stephanie designed them for us and they look amazing! We love them and we are so thankful for Stephanie! Be on the lookout for yours coming soon :)

Bridesmaid Dresses: I have been looking everywhere for bridesmaid dresses. I couldn't find anything that I liked at all, especially at a reasonable price. I was beginning to lose hope and thought I would have to wait it out for spring (yay pink!). Then, about two weeks ago I was searching randomly and found IT! I have to say it was almost as exciting as finding my dress :) I quickly contacted some key players in the wedding and happily received a stamp of approval from every single one of them! Not to mention, they were very reasonably priced AND are from Nordstroms who totally rock at everything. We went ahead and ordered them and I received the first two in the mail yesterday! My mother graciously modeled one of them, and it looked amazing! Such a relief to get that checked off the list.

Pre-Marital Counseling: Our church requires us to participate in a ten week program to prepare us for the journey that lies ahead. Our first group session was this past Tuesday and it was great. We were both a little nervous going in to it, especially since we each had to take an individual survey to "evaluate" our relationship. Although the first session wasn't that scary, we found out they definitely aren't going to sugar coat anything. Marriage is a lot of work, but we know it is worth it :) Our results weren't very scary either. We found out our strengths are spiritual beliefs, financial management and parenting which we think are very good things to be good at. We also found out our area of weakness is conflict resolution, which most people who know us could have told us that :). We are excited for the challenge and to gain some great tools for our marriage.

Also, a few tiny things are going on as well. We have officially scheduled our next meeting with our caterer for next Saturday. We are also bringing along my good friend Erin who has just started a wedding and event planning company with a friend of hers. We are so excited that they have agreed to help us out with the wedding! Erin has also put us in contact with her brother who is putting together his photography portfolio and has volunteered to take a second round of engagement pictures for us. Also, stay tuned for the official release of our wedding website!!!!

Whoo! That is a lot of updates! We have officially passed the six month mark so things are really taking off. Hold on to your hats folks! Have a great rest of the week and stay dry!