An unexpected wave of motivation, and even more to come!

In a startling turn of events, this weekend turned into wedding prep checklist EXTRAVAGANZA. Deane and I were both of on Friday, and we did some venue-hunting (set to the tune of my new OTG, all potential first dance songs!), in addition to a lot of conversation about wedding deets. We looked around at some places, and he had an idea to check out a yacht club that he had done some electrical work on about a year ago. I was a little skeptical as we made our way through the gated community, then through the construction, the glorified dirt road, and the Caterpillars and tractors, in addition to orange barrels. But when all of that parted and showed the club house in its glory, I was pretty excited.

Say hello to our dream venue. We checked this place out on Friday, and it has the makings of everything we love -- a ceremony and reception site all in one, a beautiful view of the marsh, an ideal space where I could envision everything I wanted right where I wanted it, and a caterer content to let me bring my own food! Add these essentials to a place that allows dogs and has a "pretty much whenever" end-time, and I was in lurve. The price is pretty reasonable, so I am really hoping to commit to a deposit by the end of next week.

Sunday I set out to browse some wedding dresses with Deane's mom (since my mom is so far away!). I wasn't planning on trying on anything, but I quickly learned that browsing bridal dresses is basically impossible. They're all in plastic, you can't tell what they look like, and you have no idea if you are looking over a complete gem. I lucked into an appointment cancellation and put a lovely David's Bridal associate through 1.5 hours of sheer hell (i.e. I say "I LOVE bows", so she brings me a dress with a bow, and I say, "I love everything except this sick BOW") and found 3 dresses that I was head over heels for. There was a LOT of picture taking (thanks Debi!), and those photos have been uploaded and shared with the esteemed panel of judges, so I am waiting on some input, as well as taking a few days to decompress before I decide anything.

A huge shout-out to Mom, who, even though she is 350 miles away, has been firing ideas at my BlackBerry all weekend. I especially like this one for favors. I missed you during the dress shopping, but appreciated our hours of conversations which viewing the same websites, and the pictures of my try-on sesh.

I also picked up some Save The Date prototype materials, and I am pretty excited about a few ideas that I have for those little gems. Pictures to come as ideas develop.

In other FABULOUS news, I weighed in this morning (a day early, I usually weigh on Mondays, but whatever), and I am thrilllllllllled to report that I am down a total of SIXTEEN pounds and halfway to my weight loss goal of 32! There are a lot of people and products (well, mostly products) to which I attribute my success, so look for future postings on that, as well.

Have a great week!