BABY!

I'm super excited right now.  AJ is currently in the hospital and baby Renaud is on its way!  AJ and Joe are going to be a FABULOUS parents! 

Yay for Momma AJ and baby Renaud! 

Happy Memorial Day Weekend!

Summer is officially here.  Ok, so it may not be the summer I'm used to.  I realized today that this is probably the first memorial day I won't be on a beach.  Every year I've been home for Memorial Day.  But alas, I'm here in D.C. 

To celebrate, Ben and I have done...well a whole lot of nothing. 

OK, maybe not nothing. 

Yesterday we went to Top Golf with Val and Justin.  Top Golf is this high-tech driving range that has big targets around the course.  The balls have a microchip with your name on it, so when your ball enters a target, the computer system keeps score.  It's a lot of fun.

After Top Golf we went to home depot.  oh my gosh I can't believe we aren't done painting our apartment.  We've been here for 4+ months!  When we first painted the bedroom blue, we decided we wanted the trim blue too.  Now that we've painted it green, we decided the white trim would look better.  So now we have to paint it back to white.  So we've bought the paint - we just need to paint it.

The rest of the weekend, we have been bit of foodies.  Last night we made homemade pizza - whole wheat dough, mozzarella, turkey bacon, chicken, pineapple and bbq sauce.  It was heavy, but very good.  I've also prepped to make a great, patriotic dessert for tomorrow's bbq at Robin's - one giant sugar cookies with cream cheese frosting and fruit.  We're putting raspberries, blackberries and blueberries on it.  Maybe I'll upload a picture once its done.

We also had lots of wedding chat, and made some progress on caterers.  Nothing major to report.

I hope everyone is having a fantastic, relaxing Memorial Day weekend! 

A picture is worth a thousand words.

Since most of you reading this already know it, it’s probably redundant for me to tell you that I LOVE pictures.  They only cover all of the walls in every apartment/dorm room I’ve lived in. And now they cover my cube as well.

When planning a wedding, you have to decide what is important to you. Some people go all out on flowers. Others on food. Well I’ve decided pictures are going to be a priority for me.

I’ve heard from many a brides that your wedding day travels so quickly, that you often remember it based on the pictures.  So I am thigh deep in information about photographers.

I know I like more of a “photojournalistic” style than traditional wedding. Sure, there will be the posed shots of the families and everything, but I really like fun and creative pictures.  Cool color lays and/or framing can take a standard picture from nice to WOW – THAT’S COOL!

I’ve decided the big things for me are:

• I want the photographer to be there pretty much all day.  I love the photos of the bride getting ready with her bridesmaids. And getting dressed. And doing her makeup. And having her necklace put on her.

• Digital negatives and copyright – I want it. Being such a picture person, I want to be able to put the pictures on my computer. And print/order copies of them whenever I want.  Getting tired of that framed photo of the reception, oh look, here is another one to replace it.  Then I can also make the picture books how I want them. damn type-A personality :-)

Things I’m not so sure about.

• Do you really need two photographers? Do they really get two different stories from the wedding, or do you just end up with a lot of dupe photos?

• Packages that come with photobooks/large framed pictures. Do they really end up saving you money to buy the package? Or are you better off getting things done separately?

Any advice on negotiating with photographers and selecting packages?

The Preversary

Today is exactly one year until my wedding (or as I've started to call it, my preversary).   OMG ONLY 365 DAYS REMAINING TO PLAN!


Since getting engaged, we knew we wanted "the big five" secured before the one-year-preversary of our wedding.  Depending who you ask, the big five differs slightly.  Ben includes the caterer; I include the wedding dress.

Since we don't have a caterer, I do have my dress, and today is the preversary, we are going with my big five:

The Big Five

• Reception Location - Hibernian Hall
• Rehearsal Location - Middleton Place
• Dress - :-)
• Church Location - French Huguenot
• Minister - Uncle John

I know I've talked about the first three already.  But within the past few weeks, Ben and I seem to have firmed up the ceremony part of the wedding.  Despite all of the craziness, we were finally able to settle on a church: the French Huguenot Church.  It's very pretty and we are very excited.

Also exciting on that front, we have found a person to conduct the ceremony.  Everyone knows Ben's dad is a minister, but some people don't know that his uncle is a minister as well.  As a way to personalize and make the ceremony extra special to us, we have asked his Uncle John to marry us.  I had the opportunity to meet Uncle John at Will and Debbie's wedding last summer, and I couldn't be happier that he will be conducting the ceremony. 

CT and Bridal Party

It seems I've fallen off the blogging wagon again.  I blame my busy schedule. 

No excuses.  Now I'm back. 

Last weekend Ben and I traveled up to CT. to visit Will and Debbie.  After a very long drive on Friday, we arrived to their new house.  Saturday we woke up, received the tour of New Haven, ate some wonderful Mexican food, played lots of Rock Band, and just hung out.  We had a lot of fun.  Oh and we had a blast playing with their puppy, Lucy.  I want a puppy!

Dear Benjamin - if you're reading this, reminder, I want a puppy.   

It was also really excited because we were able to ask both Will and Debbie to be in our wedding.  Will is going to be Ben's Best Man, and Debbie will be one of my bridesmaids.  Now that I've asked them all, I can officially announce them on this blog :-)

Matron of Honor:
 Julie Sharkey (my sister)

Bridesmaids
Jane Harries (sorority sister and best friend)
Angie Cipparone (best friend from home)
Angelique Goldenberg (sorority sister)
Debbie Bryant (future sister-in-law)

Yay for wedding party!!

Jane has a blog!!

In honor of Jane starting her own blog here, I'm going to complete her survey :-)


Hi, my name is: Anna

Never in my life have I been: to Europe.  Hopefully that changes one day soon :-)

The one person who can drive me nuts is: like I'd reveal that someplace public like this

High school: absolutely ridiculous, but did a lot to prepare me for the real world

When I’m nervous: twirl my hair

The last song I listened to was: hmm not sure.  Whatever was the last thing on the radio last night

If I were to get married right now my best man/maid of honor: umm, I am getting married (see blog title).  And its my sister. 

My hair is: my most favorite and least favorite thing about me

When I was 5: I was in kindergarten

Last Christmas: it was really cute to watch my little niece and nephew open their Christmas presents

I should be..: at home making dinner

When I look down I see: a mess of papers

The happiest recent event was: hmm, I'm gonna go with New Year's Eve - for obvious reasons

If I were a character on ‘Friends’ I’d be: not sure...?

By this time next year: I will be 18 days away from getting married!!  I'll probably be running around like crazy.

My current gripe is: I'm hungry

I have a hard time understanding: quantum physics

There’s this girl I know that: finally joined the blog trend

I like you when: i can just relax and have fun around you

If I won an award, the first person I would tell would be: Ben/my parents/jane

Take my advice: live. laugh. love. <3

ok...now it's your turn!

Disney!

Happy Easter, everyone!!  I hope you had a great holiday weekend; I know I did!

Thursday night I flew to Orlando, FL to spend Easter with my family (Mom, Dad, Jimmy, Julie, her husband and their two kids).  Turns out it was a perfect time to go - weather was perfect and the lines weren’t bad either.

Friday, the family went to Magic Kingdom.  First stop – DUMBO.  When I went to Disney when I was four, I made my sister wait on line for THREE HOURS to go on Dumbo.  Luckily the wait wasn’t as long this time around; Shannon and I only had to wait about 15 minutes for our turn to take to the skies via a flying elephant.  It was really cute, and I was very happy that I got to share my favorite kiddie ride with her.  After Dumbo we made our way around the park until it was kiddie naptime.  Dad and I stayed for a bit and got on a few additional rides before heading back to the hotel. 

That night Dad and I went to my favorite park – Disney Hollywood Studios (formerly known as MGM).  I was amazed at the lack of lines.  We got to go on almost everything we wanted in just three hours.  And that includes the hour long line at Rockin Roller Coaster.  Man I love that ride – an awesome roller coaster with awesome Aerosmith music.   

Saturday some of the adults went to Epcot and then Hollywood Studios.  Epcot was probably the most crowded park we went to.  We skipped a couple rides because the waits were just too long. Saturday evening, we had a character dinner with Cinderella and her family.  The characters were really spot on.  It was great.  Of course Shannon did very little talking when the characters got to our table, and she completely turned her back on Prince Charming.  After dinner, we headed back to Magic Kingdom for one more night of kiddie ride magic. 

While I only had two days in the resort, I managed to visited thee of the four parks (and I’m OK missing out on Animal Kingdom) and get on almost every ride I wanted.  The kids were so much fun to watch and I really had a blast.  I really liked being able to see the park from a different perspective.