Our -1 Year Anniversary

September 29, 2012

Dear Bride-to-be Me,
You are going to be glowing with happiness and love. You will be so excited to see your closest friends and family, but moreso your CLOSEST friend and soon to be official family, your groom. Your ivory dress will be stunning, with hair and makeup accessorizing your natural beauty. The atmosphere of the mountains, that has always inspired you and given you peace, is here to support you and inspire you. You have worked hard, met your goals, and deserve every ounce of joy you are currently feeling. You can look back on the past year and know that you were amazing in your planning and preparation, balancing the vision of a perfect day with the consideration of the vows you are going to take shortly. You've built your relationship up with long talks about your future, your dreams of having a family, you shared your worries about maintaining it while still allotting time for each other.  You spent hours online, flipping through magazines, browsing through stores, envisioning your moment, your decor, your feelings. You've prepared with therapeutic talks and energetic walks. You found love. Focus on it today. You took care to make every guest feel as important as you do today. You honored your family, you toasted your friends. Take it all in, look around you, feel the love surrounding you, and hold onto it for those moments when it seems to have disappeared. Don't sweat the small stuff today, (you have Johnna for that). Relax, drink champagne, take lots of pictures (or have them taken) and never, ever forget the anticipation you felt just one year ago today, knowing that you were a mere year from this epic and everlasting occasion.
Love,
Your Eager Self

We've made it 1/4 of a year!

By "made it", I mean that we are still engaged, three whole months later, and still on track for a wonderful wedding in a little over a year.

Our engagement day- 3 months ago on Lake Michigan

Over that past 3 months, I have:

• Cried some tears
• Felt loved
• Let my creative juices flow
• Gone back to work and still kept planning a wedding
• Coddled many newborn babies
• Been to Colorado 2 times
• Kept my ring safe
• Found my dream venue!
• Explored endless online resources
• Marveled over photographers' websites
• Budgeted
• Shopped
• And fell even more in love.

Our Lovely Planner

Johnna herself!

Today I officially submitted our contract for our weekend-of planner, Johnna ('John-ah'), who I am very excited to have help me out on the weekend of the wedding. I did not know the options that were available for wedding planners prior to actually meeting with a couple and discussing the options. Although I am probably a bit too much of a perfectionist to completely let go of all the planning, I was more than excited to find that having a person coordinate the actual weekend is extremely reasonable in price, and will save me, what I hope to be, loads of stress and last minute snafus will go unnoticed.

As I believe I mentioned before, I met with this wonderous woman when I first went to Colorado after my engagement. She suggested a meeting at my absolute favorite coffee shop/bakery in all of Colorado, Blue Moon. It was fate. Then, when Kyle and I returned to Colorado for a second planning trip, we suggested a restaurant we had never been to in Frisco, but that was recommended by some locals, and it was HER favorite. Fate. She got the job when she sat through breakfast and completely put up with Kyle's requests for a juggler and his threat that there may be some debauchery occurring throughout the evening. Not only did she put up with it, but sarcastically egged him on! So if Kyle and Johnna can get along, I know I am set.

What I am most excited about is the list of tasks she will take care of for the weekend, anything from planning out an itinerary for our out-of-town guests (everyone) full of fun mountain activities to occupy their time, and getting all the place cards, table cards, centerpieces etc... before the wedding, so I don't have to be decorating when I should be pampering myself the morning of the wedding!

So Johnna, if you read this, we are more than excited to have you as a part of our day and appreciate you!

Distinctive Mountain Weddings