Wow is time flying by of what?! I got to get this baby up to speed!
So far the hardest part of wedding planning is being far away from our families and friends. Luckily though we do know some really great peeps in Chicago. The weekend after we returned from Costa Rica it was time for some celebrating! One of our favorite couples, Todd and Darcy invited us over for dinner on that Saturday. We still had a bottle of champagne left over from our trip and it was a perfect time to pop the cork! Afterwards we headed over to our favorite Michigan State bar, The Full Shilling to meet up with the rest of the gang. A few more champagne toasts later and we had a goooood night! There was a great moment when I sat back and watched our friends. I realized how lucky we are for all the wonderful people in our lives who will share our big day with us. From then on I decided that the most important element in this wedding is that all the right people are there. A live band or fancy centerpieces mean NOTHING if the people you love are not there to share it with you.
Ok, enough of the sappy stuff : )
It was almost a whole month before we were able to go home and see everyone after we got engaged. I missed that time before reality set in where you plow through wedding magazines with your best girl friends and Mom and fantasize and brainstorm about your dream wedding. Oh well, such is life. But never the less we finally returned home to Michigan for some more much needed celebrating. First step, see my Mom and Dad!! It was so exciting to finally show them my beautiful new ring! And to hear the details about how Ryan asked my Dad for permission to marry me hehe : ) Gary even admitted to tearing up a little.
The next evening we planned a nice dinner out with our families. This was the first time the Underritters and the Schlaffs were all together. It's amazing to see your new family and old family all in the same setting. My Dad made a nice toast to us...what a guy : ) And my Mom surprised me by reading a text message I sent to her the day after Adrienne and Joe's wedding. It read " I met a really special guy and I can't wait to tell you all about it". Looks like he was really special after all!
As far as the actual wedding we have made little to no progress : ( It's been difficult and a little frustrating looking at venues. We have to drive back to Michigan everytime, which is challenging with our schedules. And it's a little disappointing when you really like a place online and it's not what you thought when you get there. I have to laugh though about some of the places we have seen. Once place in Rochester wanted to charge us $30 a kid for pop and juice! Are you serious? I can go to Costco and spend $30 on all the kids total! Also, I love the cake cutting fee. $2.50/person to cut the cake-HA! Tell you what, I will go in the kitchen in my white dress and cut my own damn cake! All this nickle and diming makes me think I went in to the wrong industry : )
But nevertheless I think we are on to a very good ceremony and reception plan. We booked a couple more appointments in early August so stay tuned....
