Battle of the Dates!

So we finally met with Father Facura to set the date. We met him at the church and he meets with each of us separately and then together. He basically went down a list of questions like was I free to marry, was I there of my own free will, etc. etc. after swearing on the Bible. When it was Ryan's turn Father Facura gave him the third degree and asked him several times if he was dating anyone else and if he had a girlfriend. His reply was, "No, no, Father, she's enough for me." LOL Well, for me the paperwork is easy since I received all my sacraments at that church all the way from baptism to confirmation. We just have to take those classes sometime between now and next August.

So we requested the date we had in mind and it was all set with him. We chose the 2 PM time. Everything should be all good then, right? Well, it turns out that there's a wedding on Ryan's side of friends that may be that month and then a cousin I never talk to whose wedding might be that month as well. AND the venue that was sorta high on our list is booked already that day! Well, over a year in advance! Their other open weekends are the 30th of September which also coincides with Va Beach's Neptune Festival and October 14 and 28th. So we can either change the date or find another venue . . . hmmmm. But the fact that it was booked really made me get into gear. Now I'm like, "What if all the venues are booked?!" I know that's unrealistic but I really would feel much better just having a place booked for ourselves already.

On another note, I took my sister with me to go dress-trying-on. Unfortunately, I can't find any pictures of the dresses online nor were we able to take pictures of me trying them on which was such BS but oh well. I'm definitely not going with a white dress. I tried on some spun gold-colored dresses and they really go well with my skin tone. And surprise! Wedding dresses are actually pretty flattering. My tummy all but disappeared under there!

On that note, the past few months I feel like I've been gaining weight. The scale says I've only gained like 2 pounds and yet my pants are tight. Sighhh . . . so I decided to try Weight Watchers for a few months. I've researched it a lot and "hmmm-haaahed" over it and decide to just try it for three months. If I've lost weight then great! Today was Day 1 and it wasn't too bad. I also have been to the gym twice this week which is another plus. So we'll see where this goes. Ryan and I are trying to incorporate more vegetables in our diet so we bought a steamer. That turned out to not go so well tonight since the directions told us a time that was too long. I just reminded Ryan that it was our first time trying it and it was an experiment.

What else is on my plate? Oh yes, I need to start studying for my CISSP certification that my coworker and I are planning on taking at the beginning of August. The exam is 6 hours long! July weekends are pretty much taken up with other weddings and bridal showers. T'is the season!

And there are other things on my plate that I just won't ever talk about here that really stress me and depress me sometimes. But this is not the place to talk of such things. This is all about my wedding and its planning . . . so there. Gotta love 'blogs!

Meeting of the Parents

Well, the meeting of the parents was a success like we both knew it would be! Ryan's parents came in early on Friday afternoon. We took them to Old Town, Alexandria and had dinner at a Japanese steakhouse along the waterfront. We all really enjoyed our meals. We then went walking in the more historic part of Old Town. I love Old Town because it has so much character. They have lit lanterns along the streets, I'm sure they are gas lanterns but they really add to the feel of the place. The tour leaders dressed as colonial people help a lot too. His parents really enjoyed that a lot despite the fact that it got fairly muggy when there was no breeze.

On Saturday, we took his parents on the Metro to DC and took them to see the World War 2 Memorial since that is the latest addition to the Mall area and his parents haven't been there in years. We also took them to a lot of other memorials like Jefferson's, Lincoln's, and Roosevelt's. We did A LOT of walking and by the time we came home we were all pretty sun-burnt, even me! Now THAT'S saying a lot. I have a little tan spot on my chest from my heart pendant, I tanned THAT easily! My parents rolled into the area in the late afternoon along with my doggy, Aja. We took all the parents to dinner at McCormick and Shmidt's in Crystal City. They all really hit it off! We then came back to the apartment afterwards and the 4 of them just chatted away. Since we had booked both sets of parents at the same hotel up the street they all made plans to have breakfast this morning at the hotel's continental breakfast without us and everything went well.

We took Ryan's parents to the Booz Allen Classic today since his dad LOVES golf. It was great seeing a lot of big names like Phil Mickelson and Ernie Els even though neither of them did well. His dad was like a little kid in a candy store and was so excited! I know we definitely tracked some miles walking today. My legs are COMPLETELY sore and tight and my sunburn is even MORE uncomfortable after all the sun we got today. I haven't even been to the beach yet! After Ryan and I parted ways from his parents at the tournament we met up with my parents in Fairfax where they spent the day with family friends. We showed the ring to the family, hung out for a bit, and were on our way home, completely exhausted!

All in all, it was a wonderful weekend! Everyone had a lot of fun, we spent a lot of quality time together, and the parents really liked each other and are both really excited for our wedding and the planning. Now to get my butt to bed to get some much-needed rest!

P.S. I'm a size 6!!! Yeah, I wish I meant women's clothing. I meant ring size. The ring came back from my mom's jeweler just the perfect size. $25 vs $60, my arse!

Where's My Ring?

Haa haa, I was just thinking of that old Lifesavers commercial where the little boy asks the little girl to marry her and the first thing she says is, "Where's my ring?" and of course it's a Lifesaver. Haa haa, anyway, dear Leslie, my ring is with my mom right now. The week before Ryan proposed to me he had asked me what my ring size was. I thought I was a 6.5 but I really haven't worn a ring in a long time so I wasn't really sure. So the ring comes and it's just a little bit too big. Not so much that if I flung my arms around really fast or anything that it'd go flying but enough to make me worry when my hands were wet.

The day we got engaged we went to a Kays Jeweler at the mall (Tysons Corner) to ask about ring resizing and such. They guy was non-plussed when I told him we just gotten engaged. Maybe he didn't care since we didn't get the ring from him. Pah. I asked him to size the ring for me and to get my ring size. I remember him telling us that it was a 6.75. So we figured maybe Diamond.com sent us the closest thing they had since the ring was guaranteed to be shipped by Mother's Day. I remember trying on one of those ring-sizers and I thought it was a 6.5. So I thought I'm definitely a 6.5. The guy tells me it's going to be 60 bucks to resize and it would take about a week because they would have to send it away to get done. I'm like, "Well that's not too bad, I guess" but of course I had nothing to compare it to since I'd never gotten a ring resized before. I wasn't willing to part with the ring just yet (hey, I'd just gotten it!) and so I said we'd be back sometime down the road. We decided to get this tiny piece of plastic that's suppose to temporarily help keep the ring a bit more secure. The thing was freakin' 10 bucks! It worked fine for a while but then the plastic itself started getting loose. I've lost the thing twice now and it has miraculously reappeared but I got so annoyed with it that it just sits in my jewelry box now. (Ryan's mom and Renee, if you are reading this, the jewelry box has proven to be a Godsend!)

So I told my mom the story about our trip to the jeweler and she balks at the price. She's like, "My jeweler resizes my rings for only $10!" Granting of course, Ryan and I live in a place with a higher cost of living than my hometown (3.5 hours away) but my mom has been going to that jeweler for years and has resized numerous rings for her and he actually does the resizing rather than sending it away like Kays does. I'd have no idea as to who to go to here aside from just walking into a store. So I decided I'd leave it with her over Memorial week so that she could take it to her jeweler. It ended up being perfect since she was actually on vacation that week. She calls me from the jeweler the Tuesday after Memorial Day and tells me that her jeweler says the ring is a size 6.5. Then a few minutes later he says it's a 6.25. All these numbers swirling around that ring! I have NO idea what size it really is. So I was confused since the jeweler at Kays told me something different. Maybe he meant 6.25 instead of 6.75. So then I didn't know what size I should go down to. Should I just go down a quarter size? Would that be enough? Well, I'm planning on losing weight, should I go down to a 5.75? My mom and I went back and forth on the phone asking ourselves what the best size to go with was. I finally decided on 6.0. Her jeweler was only going to charge us $25 instead of $60 quoted to me by the guy at Kays! It's more than the $10 because it's platinum. I figured at that price, I could get it resized again if I had to and STILL spend less than at the Kays up here, good Lord.

So the ring has been with my mom for over a week. She will be coming here this weekend to meet with Ryan's parents and will bring the ring with her. I miss looking down at it and seeing it. When I look at it I'm reminded me of the fact that he loves me and he is committing himself to me and a life together. These are of course things I knew before the ring was given to me but now it's like a visual reminder when I look down at it, sorta like tying a string around your finger. It just makes me feel loved and puts a smile on my face.

Haa haa . .alright, a little something!

Well, it would seem that I can't keep you all updated fast enough. The reason is because there just hasn't been a lot of updating going on. I've got to call the church so that I can setup an appointment with the priest. THEN we'll have a date. Our parents are meeting this upcoming weekend and I get my ring back. I'll explain everything later but I wanted to get something up and I'm exhausted. Oh yes, and may the weight-loss begin! Will explain everything soon . . . I promise!