Oh October!

Just in case a wedding wasn't a big enough event for October we have added in our 5 year college reunion.... the next weekend! While getting married makes me feel kind of old the fact that we are at a reunion interval makes me feel really old!

 In the full spirit of embracing this old age hotel rooms are booked, vacation for the week is booked and I plan on eating a least 10 Rise 'n Shiners from KKD since this will be the first post-"lots of nightmares that my wedding dress won't fit day of the wedding diet". For those of you not lucky enough to go to school in Burlington, VT the Rise 'n Shiner is a sandwich made up of your choice of bread (go for bulkie roll), egg, your choice of cheese, your choice of meat (obvi ham) and a hash brown.... drooling already! I will be on vacation from work Mon/Tues for wedding re-coop in Wed/Thurs and back out Friday - considering how important I am I don't know how work will manage.... ahhh Jessica (or HAHA Jessica)

I am very happy to report that I have heard rumors that Aidan Murphy will be partaking in a Sig Ep basement Beruit tournament.... its a toss up weather to bet on Aidan winning or his mother blocking the entire outing..... I might go with Aidan winning considering if there was no Sig Ep basement who knows if his parents would have ever met.... on that note if the Sig Ep basement didn't exist I might have never met Corey and we might not be here contemplating My Big Fat Boston Wedding.... who knew a gross basement and cheap bear could produce such amazing things!

This will be only the second time I have been back to UVM since graduation, if we make it to Brewers Fest it will be number 3!

Until then I will just be here dreaming of eating Rise 'n Shiners after drinking cheap bear while actually eating tofu.... and of course doing my best to keep you all updated on MY BIG FAT BOSTON WEDDING!

Slacking

So I have been slacking on the posts.... and the gym.... and the healthy eating (I may or may not have had 12 string cheeses last week alone....) Considering that our engagement pictures are being taken on May 7th, a mere three weeks from now, it is a good thing I decided to go with the armpit fat minimizing dress choice! While I am hoping that the armpit fat is going to melt away as I watch the marathon runners out my window at work, I am pretty sure it won't happen.

Everything has been pretty quiet on the wedding front. The (almost) last batch of save-the-dates went out today, I am just waiting on three addresses from Corey and I have to actually get to the post office one day to mail the international ones but we will get there! We have finalized the booking for rehersal dinner - Figs in Charlestown, so delicious and I am sure that fried calamari and wood fired pizza is just what a bride needs the day before her wedding.... but they are too good to pass up!

Most importantly - (sidebar, for those of you who don't know, I secretly wish I was a professional bowler and I love to bowl even thought I never win and yes I don't win even though I took two semsesters of bowling at UVM) - we are bowling after the rehersal dinner! Lanes & Games here we come! Yes Chris & Jessica, people do actually go there. Lanes & Games is the most fabulously low keyed bolwing alley, they have candlepin (boo) and big ball (only real way to bowl) not to mention delicious pump cheese nachos, Stella on tap and the carpet-on-the-walls decor. It is in Cambridge near Alewife/Fresh Pond right next to the unfortuantly closed down Faces. I planning on wearing my very own for the occasion bowling shoes and I am REALLY hoping that maybe just for once I can win..... or in the very least just not lose!

6 Months to Go!

We have officially hit T-6 months until My Big Fat Boston Wedding! A big thank you to everyone who has put up with me so far, Mom, Dad, Corey, Jessica and a whole bunch of vendors. We really only have a few more big items to knock out, cake testing, food tasting, finalize the florist, gift bags and the little DIY stuff.

This weekend I am headed down to MD to see The Nanny. She has purchased a lavender dress for the wedding and is really excited about it, it has 12 layers and the sales girls told her it looked perfect! This also means I need to spend the plane ride organizing everything I have done/am doing/need to do for the wedding as she is going to want a full account as soon as she picks me up! Wish me luck.... we all know how I do with the details....

May the next 6 months be filled with peace, serenity and lots of tastings!

Q2 Challenge!

April brings showers, tax day and most importantly the beginning of the Q2 challenge!

I decided that Q2 would be the start of healthy eating and no booze Mon-Wed, obviously with the goal of losing (or even just slimming) the ever challenging armpit fat! I think there should always be boundaries, time constraints and I shouldn't knowingly set myself up for failure hence the fact that the no booze is only three days a week and we are starting with just one quarter.

For those of you wondering.... its not off to a stellar start. Considering Jessica and I drank half the bar at Tico and had fried Manchego cheese with mango honey dipping sauce and fish tacos last night I am going to go with maybe Q2 needed a one week grace period. I started the week off so well with yogurt and salads and this is how it is ending....

Tonight is healthy grill - grilled tofu, veggie and chicken! Wish me luck!

Big Day Out!

Last Thursday my mom came to look at additional florists, I will say this go around was a little bit easier since I actually knew some of the flowers names. We started off with a little breakfast at the club and then headed out, table clothes in hand. Our first stop was with Teresa at Mimosa she was very calm and listened to both of our ideas, plus she gave me a whole bouquet of flowers on the way out! At this point we have seen two florists and like two florists....



Flowers from Mimosa!



Next I wanted to go to M. Flynn to look for jewlery for me and the bridesmaids. The shop is run by two sisters and is both a working studio and boutique. The best part of shopping at M. Flynn is that if you see something you like but want it a bit different they will make it for you! Mom and I looked at a bunch of jewlery and talked to her about doing custom pieces, everyone will have to wait for the final results!

After a delicious lunch (and beverage) at Aquitaine it was off to Ilex to meet with Andrew for the final flower consultation. Andrew had some great ideas and brought up a few things we hadn't even thought of - such as using the material from gown alteration to wrap the stems of my bouquet!

I got in a cab to go home, with my bouquet, and here is the conversation I had with the cabbie:

Cabbie: Did you get those flowers from a wedding?
Me: No, I was meeting with a florist to plan the flowers for my wedding
Cabbie: Ohh, congratulations, when is the wedding?
Me: In October
Cabbie: Those flowers have to last until October?!

Here is what we learned on Thursday:

1. In Boston you can have a fabulous lunch for $12.95
2. To get from 96 to 40 on the same street it is only a 3-5 minute walk when it would be 6 blocks in NYC
3. Mom and I really liked all three florists.... what to do!
4. I don't deal well with anxiety or having to make decisions

Silver linings....

The above is one of the best silver linings in life.... a bombilioni, an amazingly delicious cream filled Italian version of a donut, I love donuts in a completely unhealthy way!

Anyway, yesterday I had a rare and uncharacteristically zen moment. I decided to take one of those every cloud has a silver lining type approaches to things. I am quite sure it will not last too long but here are the positive "silver linings" that have come out of the craziness that comes with planning My Big Fat Boston Wedding.

1. My mother is occupied by planning My/her Big Fat Boston Wedding and subsequently no longer has time to set me up on "blind friend dates", yes they are weird and even more awkward than normal old fashioned blind dates - these set-ups have started with intro's such as "Colleen, she works in Boston, in HR, moved to Boston from NY because her boyfriend was in Boston and she has no friends, you are basically the same person! Plus I know her mother and she says her daughter is nice"
2. In the quest to rid myself of all traces of armpit fat I am going to the gym and getting some quality cardio workouts in (side note: today at the gym I saw my old trainer who looked shocked that I was at the gym of my, seemingly, own will)
3. My dreams have never been quite so interesting to re-tell the next day
4. I have so many excuses to spend way too much time browsing on etsy
5. If I email Corey with the subject line reading "Wedding - Please Read" he actually reads them and I can sneak in completely un-wedding related rants/thoughts
6. Vendors are, or pretend to be, completely in love with all my thoughts and ideas
7. I won in an epic photo booth Battle against Carol aka my mom
8. Most importantly, I get to taste the left and right side of the menu and nobody will judge.... its for the wedding!

Wedding Bands.... a rare breed of people

The most important thing I have learned in the quest for the perfect band for My Big Fat Boston Wedding is don't judge a band by their name.... they all have awfully cheesy names. (Sidebar.... who thinks the guy on the far left in the above picture looks remarkably like Josh?)

It is hard to find a band that plays everything from Motown to Billy Joel to Rage Against The Machine (or Rage on the Machine as my dad calls it) but I am convinced there is one somewhere out there! It is also really hard to choose a band based on audio samples but it is even harder to crash another party on a random Wednesday or Saturday at 9:30 to hear them live. Fortuantly for me, the Ritz reccomended Music Management. They listened to what I wanted and made suggestions. They are also very familiar with the ballroom and will deal with all the details, big plus for me!

Below are our three favorites and we need to narrow it down because I am pretty sure we can't fit all three in the ballroom! Have a listen and let me know what you think (no need to sugar coat it)

Joey Scott & The Connection - we like them for  their vocal talents, they say they will learn any song and the fact that they have their very own sound guy!

The Hip Pocket Orchestra - their song samples are great and show that they can do everything from Jackson 5 to Beyonce to Gretchen Wilson (obvi not my pick)

Superband - they have the best mastery of modern music and sound great! Added bonus.... they play Dropkick

Vote/comment away! (no promises that we will take any one's opinion into consideration.... ha ha)

Amazing-ness!

Yesterday was a rough day in the world of My Big Fat Boston Wedding. First, the wedding has taken on a life and bank busting budget of its own. Second, I bought my dress while it was here on trunk show, aka I can't see it/try it on again until my actual dress comes in from the designer, which has been the source of a few "I picked the wrong dress" panic attacks. Third, I still don't have all the address and have got additional last minute guest list additions adding to current guest list which was already quite a "fatty".

This of course led me to a mini-breakdown which resulted in a denouncement of all wedding plans and a solemn declaration that I am moving to a "food truck" theme.

This of course led Jessica to the world-wide-web and the discovery of this little gem I like to call Taco Truck Heaven... if you can get past the onslaught of grammatical errors I encourage you to read the entire article.

Obviously I immediately emailed this to my dad and told him not to worry we are having a taco truck on the Boston Common for the reception. Below is how the conversation progressed (read bottom to top):

From: Geraghty, Scott

Done!  Shall I let your mother know or will you

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From: Geraghty, Colleen

I could be famous!! Plus I could use my $1,000 charitable giving company match!

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From: Geraghty, Scott

It would need to be more creative.  A homeless box bar…All cash proceeds to support a shelter.  Could probably get press on this.

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From: Geraghty, Colleen

Brown bag it?

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From: Geraghty, Scott

Then we can give up the room?  How will we handle alcohol in the Park?

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From: Geraghty, Colleen

We have the entire Commons at our disposal!

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From: Geraghty, Scott

I understand the truck…position it down by the stairs on Tremont.  The problem would be with the BBQ pit.  Smoke in the ballroom, I think, would be a bit over powering.  Don’t you think?

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From: Geraghty, Colleen

Why not go all out and get both J

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From: Geraghty, Scott

I am not sure if you are looking for a Taco truck or a BBQ pit??

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From: Geraghty, ColleenSubject: Crisis Averted

These people have AWESOME wedding ideas! Make sure to scroll down….

200 Days....

My Big Fat Boston Wedding is in 200 days! 200 days seems forever away but I am sure it will be here in no time. Here is what we have left to accomplish:

• Actually mail out the STDs (save-the-dates)
• Pick a band
• Taste and order cake
• Set the menu
• Hair & make-up test runs
• Engagement pictures
• Find some jewels
• Make sure the guys get fitted
• Finalize invitations
• A bunch of DIY projects from menus to table numbers to welcome guest bags for the out-of-towners (get ready Jessica)
• Have a million dress fittings
• Find a veil
• Most likely have 1,000 more wierd dreams

Most importantly this also means I have 200 days to get my tush into gear.

I have been really good about going to the gym. This weekend I was convinced that I gained 4 lbs in a week.... then I weighed myself in my birthday suit today and I was my good old normal weight, who knew jeans weighed so much!

We went to the gym on Saturday, Sunday, today and we are planning on tomorrow and Thursday. Corey is not a morning person and I can only go to the gym first thing otherwise I have all day to come up with reasons why I don't have to go to the gym. This morning the alarm went off and Corey decided that he couldn't get out of bed because it was still dark outside - I told him that I can't drive stick so in order for me to go to the gym he had to go also. This didn't do much, I then appealed to the accountant in him and told him that there was a direct correlation between my inability to loose LBs and his inability to get his butt out of bed, that did it!

And thus continues the battle of the armpit fat....

Dreams, Nightmares and Everything In Between

I have always been a terrible sleeper, it takes me forever to fall asleep and I can't stay asleep, I'm basically a walking Ambien commercial. If I get 5-6 hours of sleep a night I consider that a good night. I am still getting my normal 5-6 hours of sleep a night but those hours are now consumed by wedding dreams from the normal, to the weird to the straight up bizarre.

For example, on Saturday night I had a dream/nightmare that after the ceremony I was given a different bouquet that was round with a handle (think little flower girl bouquet). Not only is this not at all what my bouquet is supposed to look like but this one doubled as a salad bowl. Yes, I had to eat my salad out of the round ball bouquet, and ladies I wasn't the only one with this salad set up. Even stranger I distinctly remember thinking how this bouquet ball could be used at a later date to hold a pita pocket....

Here's to the next 5.5 months and seeing how much weirder things can get....

V is for Victory....

In the battle of "Carol vs. Colleen & The Photo Booth" Colleen & The Photo Booth have reigned supreme (who doesn't love Iron Chef?). It is official - there will be a Photo Booth at My Big Fat Boston Wedding! It is a great photo booth (see above) from Seacost Events and believe me there are a lot of not great photo booths out there. This photo booth prints two copies of each strip, one for the guest and one for the guest book! It also gives you the option to print in color, black & white or sepia, fancy!

I would like to point out that this is the photo booth my mother forwarded me from The Knot so really she is responsible for me finding the perfect photo booth and there was a coupon and that coupon got me $100 off PLUS and extra hour for free - giving my mom more time to enjoy it.

Everyone better ooh and aah over my photo booth at the wedding. I am going to suggest that my mom makes a speech announcing the opening of the photo booth. I want to prove to my mother that it really was the best idea ever!

Fun fact: Benefit Concepts (our flex spending reimbursement company) is going to be really confused when they get the photo booth contract I faxed over with my denist bill for reimbursement... I was just so excited to print the contract.... ooops!

KaBoom....

That is the sound of my dad passing out in NYC... yup, I can hear it all the way up in Boston. With save-the-dates comes final headcount! For those of you who don't know; my dad loves me, he loves great food, he loves great wine but he also really loves to save money. The final headcount has topped off at 209... the poor guy was really hoping for 140. After I explained that we all have a lot of family (Corey and my friends combined make up 59 guests - aka 28% of the guest list) I could tell that he was on the verge of a Father of the Bride moment:

Matty: Can I put Cameron back on the list if he promises not to eat?
George: You know, that's not a bad idea. Who else can we ask not to eat? My parents and your mother.

After pointing out that statistics say 15-20% of invited people do not actually attend we were in a much better place. Did I point out that I may have take a page from Dan Tosh's book and created a statistic to favor my cause.... not at all!

All I know is this wedding is going to be a fabulous time and I am certainly going to be eating!