101 in 1001 Goals: April Progress Report!

Written by Sara on May 10, 2010 – 9:00 am -

So, as a reminder, here are the goals that I wanted to accomplish in April, and how I did:

- Send my brother Brian at least one care package at college. [OOPS. Um, yeah, didn't do this one. This one's going on the list for the fall semester!]

- Take a trip with my best gal pals. [Well, one of my best gal pals! Jordan's sister Larissa and I trekked up to Minneapolis for a weekend, and had A BLAST shopping!]

- Send flowers randomly to someone I care about. [Check! Sent flowers to my lovely maid of honor and cousin, Kristen, to celebrate her getting her dream job!]

- Buy a pair of wellies. [Yeah, I wish...I just can't justify the spending right now!]

So, 2 out of 4 isn’t bad…right?

On the brighter side, here’s goals that I accomplished without even trying:

- Participate in premarital counseling. [J and I started this in April; read more about our premarital counseling here!]

- Write and mail at least 10 handwritten letters. [Sent 3 more handwritten letters in April, this time to 2 of my Aunts and 1 of Jordan's Aunts!]

- Go on a hike. [I took Wyatt the dog hiking in a recreational area near our house on a supremely lovely day; we had fun!]

- Have a marathon movie-watching session of all of the “Lord of the Rings” series with Jordan. [We watched the LOTR series while designing our wedding ceremony programs!]

- Try at least one new wine every month for one year. [In April, I tried a Malbec! Yummy.]

Here are my goals for May:

- Make or bake at least one Rachael Ray recipe.

- Try beets…again.

- Learn how to drive a stick shift/manual vehicle.

- Go bowling…and actually try to bowl well.

Be sure to tune in again in June to see how I did!


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Our Wedding: Girls Getaway!

Written by Sara on April 20, 2010 – 9:00 am -

Gillis Women

My lovely sister-in-law Larissa and I had a lovely girls weekend in Minneapolis this past weekend! We drove up to the Cities on Saturday morning, and hit up the Medford Outlet Mall on the way up.

My goals for this trip: A) purchase make-up and perfume to wear on my wedding day, B) find two dresses, one to wear for the rehearsal dinner and one to wear for the gift-opening brunch, and C) find socks for my groom and his guys.

I am so excited to say that I accomplished all of these goals! Larissa and I had a blast working our way through Sephora, a lovely beauty store where I purchased Bare Minerals! I am SO excited to finally have make-up that makes me feel wonderful.

I found a few super cute dresses at H&M, although I am not sure which one I will end up wearing for the rehearsal dinner. I also found a super cute green dress at American Eagle to wear for the gift-opening; it will look adorable with a jean jacket and sandals.

Last, Larissa and I found the most perfect socks for our guys at Express. They are grey and yellow argyle, and they are WONDERFUL!

It was a quick trip, but so, so relaxing; I needed some girl time!

How are you keeping your sanity while planning your wedding?

[Photo of me (left), my sister-in-law Larissa, and my mother-in-law Nachole ... beautiful ladies!]


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Showcase Wednesday: Guest Post – Wedding Party Shake-up!

Written by Sara on March 10, 2010 – 9:00 am -

Hello readers! I’ve asked my dear friend Luke (film blogger extraordinaire) to write a post about his upcoming nuptials, and how uniformity within a wedding party is seriously overrated. Enjoy!

Luke here from Journalistic Skepticism. The lovely Sara asked me to write a little bit about my own tumultuous wedding planning experience. But I exaggerate – it’s actually been a relatively eye-opening learning experience. And before you become too confuddled, let me clear things up – yes, it is possible for a male to plan a wedding.  (Well, just barely at least.)

We’ve set a date for August 14, 2010 (based almost entirely on the economic sensibility of a late-summer wedding), and it will take place in Minneapolis, so hopefully the snow will have disappeared by then.  Though we’re currently living in Sioux Falls and plan to move out to the East Coast in June, we chose a location like Minneapolis to centralize our guests, who range from mostly Midwesterners to some out-of-staters.  Though neither of us are originally from Minneapolis, it’s a major city with more options in terms of site choices, and it’s a familiar, easy-to-get-to locale for our guests in neighboring states.

For our wedding my fiancé and I found ourselves in a predicament.  Though we were ready to name several people to be a part of our wedding party, when it came to traditionalism we faced a problem – our subset of friends included far more females than males.  In fact, our final tally of attendants includes two men and – count ‘em – 10 women.  When choosing our party, we opted for a mix of mostly college friends, siblings, and high school friends.  And with such a large core wedding party, it became easy to bestow some of the other ceremony functions on others, though we haven’t entirely filled every other role.  One of our as-yet-undecided bits is whether or not to have ushers.  Our ceremony count is around 100, so I ask you: are ushers really necessary?

But I digress. In lieu of the boy-girl pairs of the typical wedding, we opted for mix-and-match gender aisle-walking companions.  This shake-up also involved coining some new terms for our crew – groomsmaids and best women, since our best men ended up being some lady friends of ours.  And in order to break up the uniformity of having the many groomsmaids dressing identically, we opted for a single color scheme with three different dress options, a feature that I know many of the wedding party members greatly appreciated.  Because, let’s face it – everyone is built differently, so not every design is going to be suitable.  So to come to terms with the fact that these ladies were buying the dresses for keeps, why not opt for something they actually enjoy?

BridesmaidComposite

Our chosen groomsmaid attire

When planning a wedding, perhaps seamless traditionalism is your number-one concern.  But for the sake of picking the best possible wedding party, there’s something to be said for being a little gender-blind and breaking just a couple rules.

A big thank you to Luke for shedding some insight on how to beautifully break down the Wedding Industrial Complex’s so-called “rules.” I can’t wait to see the fruits of your efforts, Luke!

[Image credit: David's Bridal]


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