My Wedding on a Budget: 5 Days to Go!

Only time for a bullet list:
- Spoke to Izetta and music is set (cleared by Father as well)
- Jenny has possession of Jon's Baptismal record and all else necessary (sigh of relief)
- Reviewed the itinerary with Mom
- Flowers arrived...a day early! Which was a mini-crisis because there were so many (much more than we anticipated) and they overloaded Karen's kitchen which she was busy with other things today. So Mom and Aunt Anne went it immediately to begin cutting them and getting them in water buckets. Jerusha came in to take a look as well.
- We just realized that the bouquets can't be tied until the morning of because they need to be in water, which means Jerusha (the photographer) cannot do it herself, as she'll be quite busy with that other very important job she volunteered for. I called in my Go-Pher girls: Sara & Michelle! They'll tie the bouquets!
- Mom was worried because she didn't get the yard mowed due to having to go in for flowers unexpectedly. Jon jumped on it and got it all done.

My Wedding on a Budget: 15 Days to Go!

Meeting with Father
A trip to Liberty after work today so that Jon and I could meet with Father Pat one more time. It's a lot to go through so I'm glad that's one area where we have somebody else (Father Pat!) completely in charge who really knows the routine. We need to finalize what music is being played when and get that all to Isetta. There are some things that Father Pat is really hardline about that are kind of bothersome. For example, he wants us to kneel up front the entire time. He said it's easier that way and not room for us elsewhere and it's too hard with the bride's dress. Well, I have never been to a wedding where the couple kneeled the entire time. (Through the ENTIRE mass too!) But I think there will be something extra holy and neat about it. Jon and I usually hold hands through mass especially when we are kneeling. I think this will make it easier for us to pray together through the mass and keep our focus on what it should be. In the end there isn't anything that I'm worked up about. He's letting us get a ton of people in that church which is probably more than a fire code would allow.

There are actually a lot of things I like and appreciate about the traditional Catholic wedding ceremony that I did not know until he told us. For example, the congregation stands at the beginning of the procession, and remains standing for the entire entrance through the bride and not just for the bride. This "show" isn't just about me.

After our little meeting Jon and I took a little stroll through the Apple Festival. He took me on a "romantic ride" on the ferris wheel. I was disappointed when my camera died and I couldn't capture the moment.

My Wedding on a Budget: 33 Days to Go!

Readings...Check!
What a lazy, rainy day! I guess it was quite all right considering it was Labor Day and technically you are supposed to celebrate by doing little to no labor...so that's what we did! We slept in some, but not too late and it was still raining. It was cold, cold, cold outside which is just crazy because it was just Saturday that it reached over 100 degrees! Now it's in the 50s! Unbelievable! Between the cold, the rain, and two very busy days, Jon and I laid low. We cleaned up the kitchen from our gather last night. (Friends and family cooked out and had a little shindig.) We did make a trip down to Greystone because Pa was extracting what little honey we got from the bees this year and I definitely wanted Jon to see how that went. I would have made more salsa today but didn't want to take on the cold rain to pick tomatoes.

Instead I took advantage of having Jon inside with me for the day and we decided on our readings. We'd sort of already narrowed down our favorites over the other times we'd looked through the book in the past. The book I have, by the way, is one I found and took from Grandma Rousculp's house at the time of her funeral. Of course, Jon and I were not even close to being a couple at that point and I was dating no one so I'm not sure why I took it but I guess I knew (hoped) one day I'd have a reason for it. It's kind of an extra role Grandma can play in my wedding planning. None of the readings we chose are too standard. I really like the message of God being love and that having love in your life is having God in your life and you cannot have one without the other. If everyone could simply see God as love, it would be that much easier for everyone to realize there is something at work in this world outside of themselves and something powerful beyond belief. I think most people believe in love. If they believe in the power of love, they believe in God; perhaps all people just done like to put that label on it, but God's power and presence is nothing more than something so simple as love. And that is why Jon in my life brings me closer to God, because the love I can experience with him brings me so close to the love of God.