Long

Today was such a long day. Productive, but long.

Mom sent me a list of people to invite to the wedding. At least I think that's what it is. People like my dad's secretary are on the list. I don't think that everyone will come, but I guess I need to get an estimate from dad about how many of those people are likely to show up. I also need to broach the subject of money with my parents. I guess it's just figuring out how to ask them what they are going to pay for without seeming like I'm asking for money.

We sat down with a photographer. He seemed to be quite knowledgeable. He's been doing weddings for about as long as the two of us have been alive, so he knows what he's doing. On top of everything else, his rates seem very reasonable. We both feel that we don't need to sit down with anyone else; we're going to go with Soft Touch photography.

We had some time between this and the two Christmas parties we had later (that's right, two(!) Christmas parties on January 14th!), so we made a couple of stops. First was at David's Bridal to look at colors. I think we've decided on going with Mystic Purple for the bridesmaid dresses, and silver and platinum for the groomsmen and fathers, respectively. Then we stopped by Michael and Aimee's place to look at their wedding albums. I couldn't remember all of the details of their wedding, so I decided this was the best way to refresh my memory.

The first party was Alesha's work party. It was actually held in the basement of Catholic high school, which just happened to be a bowling alley. It was kind of neat meeting all of the spouses and children of all of the people Alesha works with.

The next party was really cool. It was the Moonen family Christmas. Alesha and I thought everyone knew about our engagement, but it turns out that only about half of them did. When Vicki shouted out, "Alesha's getting married!?!?!", everyone in the room got excited. I honestly think the most excited person in the room was Alesha's father. When we first saw him, he hugged his daughter, looked at her ring, then gave me a thumbs up. He was obviously proud, and enjoyed telling the story of how I called to ask his permission.

I found out today that Tom and Scher are going to go all out for our wedding. They don't want us to "nickel & dime" our wedding, so they're going to give us the funds to do anything we want "within reason". Words just really can't express how humbled and thankful I am.