Wedding Wednesday: Taking a Break

45 Days 'Til the Wedding

YAAAAAAAAY.  In a month and a half, I'll be a married woman!  Woo hoo!  I'm excited.  I'm finally super excited. My "excitement" level took a bit of a hit sometime in the middle of the engagement, when I ran into a few snags booking vendors and accepting my monetary limitations.  But now that we're heading towards the homestretch, I'm really looking forward to the wedding day, and formally starting my life with Ben.  

I basically went through a rundown of all the wedding details I wanted to accomplish over the weekend. And on Monday, I did complete my second fitting for my wedding dress.  I LOVE the dress. It looks perfect. Dare I say, I look perfect??? I don't know! But it's awesome and I'm excited for Ben to see it.  

SO:  What now?  More honeymoon drama unfortunately.  I've written about several "realizations" we've had to come to when planning this honeymoon.  A recap:

• Realization Number 1:  Back in January when we booked the honeymoon to Greece, Ben and I agreed it would be good to purchase vacation insurance, just in case we needed to cancel our trip.
• Realization Number 2:  At the beginning of April, Ben and I finally accepted that we would have to postpone our honeymoon until a few months after the wedding.  
• Realization Number 3:  And this is a new one.  I discovered Monday after going through the pre-surgery teachings, that planning an overseas honeymoon probably won't be practical, or safe, in the year 2013. And now, Ben and I are talking about scheduling it for Spring 2014.   

The reason we're thinking about postponing it even further into the future is because after the transplant, for at least six weeks I'll be going to the transplant clinic for check-ups twice a week.  During first 3 months after the transplant I have to be closely monitored to ensure my body doesn't reject the kidney, and if there are any signs of rejection I need to be close to my home transplant center.  The doctors are OK with travel after three months from the procedure, but that kind of only means travel within the continental U.S., where there's more certainty with acceptance of health insurance and more available information on U.S. transplant centers.  
This is not ideal of course.  But we really have no other choice. As much as I just want to be like, "Well, f*&K it! Let's just go anyways!" I also kind of want to be healthy, after such a long battle with being unhealthy.  

Right now, Ben and I are looking into other honeymoon options within the U.S.  At this point it sounds like we're doing a 2-3 day thing after the wedding, then a five-day thing three months after the transplant, then EVENTUALLY, a 10-day celebration in 2014.  That doesn't sound so bad, right?  I'm getting used to the idea.  I guess it doesn't matter where we go or even when because I'll be with my HUSBAAAAAAND. Aw...yeah!

Another teeny-tiny drama:  RSVPs.  I'm telling you, NOBODY returns these things anymore.  The RSVP deadline is this Friday and right now I'm waiting on 15 more responses.  But so far the guest list for the reception is at 163. When everything is said and done we'll have about 175 heads for dinner, I believe.  And so far we have 13 children attending. 

What's Next:  Well...nothing really.  The "Wedding Wednesday Series" and I are taking a 12-day planning vacation due to the fact that I'm going into surgery Friday morning.  I'll be diving back into the planning pool May 15, exactly 30 days away from the wedding, and there will be lots to plan and talk about.  I'm kind of looking forward to this new phase of planning, because two obstacles for me will be gone! I'll have a new kidney, so hopefully I will have that super-strength and super energy that everyone talks about. And second, I won't be at WOOOORK.  I like working, but honestly, working can suck when you're engaged. You have to coordinate all your vendor meetings and planning sessions either after work hours (which for me, means AFTER 6 PM) or during the weekends.  So that combined with my illness, makes it feel like I have no time to do anything! I'm hoping that by eliminating the 8-9 hour block of working from my day, I'll be able to accomplish more things in a more relaxed manner.  Plus, I'll have a chauffer to drive me to meetings (Jocelyn) if I need to.  I can see us having little planning sessions at home over tea and big breakfasts or lunches.  Which could be fun!

Welp, here goes. Wedding planning pause starts...NOW. ;)