Christmas 2008

We started off on Christmas Eve going to Gregg's house to have dinner with his Mom, Dad, and Grandma. We had a good time spending time with them and got to eat a lot of great food! Before leaving Gregg's house, he gave me my gift....it was a new 32" HD TV!!!!! I was so excited! It is so much bigger than the old TV I had, and the HD channels are awesome!




When we got home, Gregg and I gave each other the rest of our gifts. I had already given him his new hockey gloves earlier so he could use them in his last hockey game before the holidays. I also got him some new workout clothes and Xbox games, to go with his new Xbox that his parents gave him. He also got me a new digital camera, Rutgers shirt and nice fleece!


Christmas morning we headed down to Sharon and Andrew's house to spend the day with my family. Of course, when we arrived there were toys EVERYWHERE!! Unfortunately, Charlie was not feeling well and he had to stay home. The rest of us got all the gifts together, and the kids opened theirs first. They were very excited with all the cool toys they got. Here are some pictures of the toys that Gregg and I got for the kids:

Here is Ally with her Barbie for President doll!

Here is Nicky with his HUGE Nerf gun!

And, Amanda with her Tini Puppini Dog!

After the kids were done opening their gifts, the rest of us exchanged ours. We did a Secret Santa this year, which was great. We had all picked a name on Thanksgiving, and we only bought gifts for that person. It was great! Helen had me and I got a cool light up night light, and a gift card. Andrew had Gregg and gave him a gift card! We both can't wait to use our gift cards to get some new stuff! We spent the rest of the day hanging with everyone! Here is a cute picture of Gregg and the girls!

After dinner at my sister's house, we left to head up to Gregg's house to see his family. We got to eat some more there, and hang out with everyone, including Gregg's Mom and Dad, Grandma, sister and brother-in-law. We exchanged all of our gifts and again got some really great stuff from everyone! I got some new workout clothes, sweatsuits, and Rascal Flatts concert tickets!!! Gregg got his new Xbox, some workout equipment, and clothes. We both loved everything we got!

By the time we got home, I was exhausted! Gregg wanted to hook up the Xbox and ended up playing it for awhile while I went to sleep!

All in all, it was a great Christmas!!!

A new post--finally!!!

I have really slacked off on the blog lately, partly because we haven't really done anything wedding related in quite awhile. After we booked all the big things, there hasn't really been much to do. I did get to pick up my dress a few weeks ago and it is now hanging at my mom's house. After I picked it up a few weeks ago, I was able to try it on to show my Grandma and Charlie, which was cool since neither of them had seen the dress yet!

I need to start really working on things after my marathon next week. Gregg and I will be heading down to Disney World next Thursday as I am doing the Disney Half and Full marathon next weekend as part of the Goofy Challenge! So, along with running, we will get a little mini-vacation down at Disney! I can't wait for that!

When we get back, I will need to start really working on things. We will need to pick out what kind of invitations we want to get, and what types of flowers we are going to get. I do have some ideas for flowers, but I haven't even thought about invitations yet, I guess I should start thinking about that! I also need to start gathering pictures for our video that will be shown at the reception. I have a feeling that I will start to get busy again with wedding planning after the marathon!

I am going to try to keep up better with the blog, since everyone has been hounding me about not updating it!!

We Booked our Officiant!

We haven't really done much for the wedding lately, because we have most of our big vendors booked and we don't really need to do a lot of the smaller stuff yet. But this weekend, we met with and booked our officiant. We are using Rev. O'Sullivan, who also was the officiant for Gregg's sister and Brother-in-law's wedding last year. We met him on Saturday morning at a diner in West Orange. The meeting was very quick and he just gave us a big packet of information to go through. We basically get to design the whole ceremony ourselves. He gave us examples of vows, readings, ceremonies, etc. We need to go through each part of the ceremony and pick out what we want. We don't need to choose anything till a couple of months before the wedding, so that will be a project for later on.

This week, I need to finalize things with our florist and put a deposit down on that. And, we need to finalize the bridesmaids dresses so we can get those ordered before the holidays.

It is hard to believe that it is less that 10 months till the wedding! Today we are at 299 days, time is really flying, before we know it, it will be August! I can't wait!

Trip to Davids Bridal

The other day, I found out that my veil had come it to Davids Bridal in Wayne. Since Gregg was working late tonight and then going to play hockey, I decided to take a ride over to the store after work to pick up my veil. While there, I decided to buy the undergarments to wear with my dress. I was surprised to hear that they actually had them in stock. So, I tried them on to make sure they were the right sizes and got to take them home today. I am trying to spread out buying all the little things, so we don't get hit with paying everything right before the wedding.

After leaving Davids Bridal, I decided to stop at my Mom and Charlie's house to drop off everything, since I don't really have anywhere to store them at my apartment. My mom is going to store them for me until I need them.

Now that I have my veil, I can start to figure out what I am going to do with my hair. I have a few hair people to call and decide which to use for the day of the wedding. I will have to go for a trial at some point, but I want to try to let me hair grow out a little more before going.

Not much else going on as far as wedding planning. I still have to finalize details with the florist, find a hotel to stay at the night of the wedding, pick out Bridesmaid dresses and get those ordered. There are alot of other smaller details to take care of little by little as well to, so I am sure I will be busy!!

Make-up Trial

I went for my first make-up trial today in Little Falls, with a lady that was recommended by a few people I know. I was very excited about going, but I wsn't sure what to ask for. When I got there, she asked me what kind of look I wanted, and I wanted to laugh...since I don't wear make-up that often, I had no idea. I knew that I didn't want to look overloaded with make-up. I told her that I really wanted a natural look, and she said fine. She told me over and over that she could add more later if I wanted. At then end, I was so happy with the look she gave me, it was natural and I loved it! Here is a before picture:

And, here is the after picture:

I was very happy with how it came out! I am going to book her for the wedding as she did a great job and her prices were the most reasonable out of anyone that I called.

I also found out today that the veil we ordered came in, so I am going to go pick that up this week and then I can look into hair people, and go for a hair trial, which I am really looking forward to.

That is all for today, but I should have more updates as I finalize details with the florist this week!

Save the Dates and other Weekend Happenings

Our Save the Date magnets came in the mail on Friday and they are so cute! We loved them. I had been updating everyone's addresses in my computer, so that when they finally came, I could mail them out. Luckily, I was off on Friday, so when they came I worked on getting the labels printed and on, so we could mail them on Saturday. It was a lot easier than I thought it was going to be, and I was able to finish them pretty quickly.

Also on Friday, I went to Garden State Plaza to talk with a make-up artist who does make-up for weddings. She was so nice, but her prices are a little high for the day of. While I was there, she did my make-up for free, as long as I bought some make-up. She did a great job and I bought some new make-up to wear! Now, if only I wore it on a regular basis!!

On Friday night, Gregg had gotten us tickets to Devils Opening Night at the Prudential Center in Newark. We had so much fun, and the Devils WON!! It was a great game, and we had good seats. We were in the upper level, but we were in the first row of the section, so we had a great view.

On Saturday, we went to Ally's 6th birthday party at my sister's house. There were about 20 little kids there!! We did Arts and Crafts with the kids and had a lot of fun. We had to leave a little early because Gregg had a hockey game, but we had so much fun while were there, and it looked like the kids had a lot of fun as well.

Today, I went out for my 9 mile long run for the marathon while Gregg went home to help his Dad. After running, I came home and just relaxed as I was kind of tired. We are going to eat and rest for a bit and then we are going to play hockey tonight. I am actually playing goalie AGAINST Gregg's team. This should be interesting. I am used to playing on the same team as Gregg, and I like that much better. Well, at least it will be good practice for me!!!

Second Florist Appt.

In the afternoon yesterday, I went to visit another florist in Hasbrouck Heights. This lady works out of her home and only does weddings. She has been in business for almost 35 years, and came highly recommended by a few people that I know. Right away, I liked her so much more than the first guy. She asked about the wedding and my dress, so she could get an idea of the type of event we were having. We went through each area, and she listened to what I wanted and looked at the pictures I brought with me. She even had other pictures for me to look at for ideas as well. It was a lot of fun talking with her about all the different flowers. In the end for the same flowers, the price quote she game me was approx. $1000 cheaper after figuring in taxes and other fees. I was amazed!!!! Her prices were very reasonable and I was very happy with her. One of the main reasons I liked her was the fact that she only does weddings, and she only books one wedding a day, so she and her business partner will the ones making all the flower arrangements, and they also deliver and set them up.

All in all, it was a good day, and I am very happy that I found a potential florist. I may go to talk to a few more, but I am not sure yet.

In other news, we got the proof of our save the date!! It looked so cute, I loved it! The company sends us the proof to approve, and once approved it takes about a week to get them in the mail. I can't wait!!