All that's missing are the photos. Care to share?

So I'd pretty much known that there was a bridal shower in store for me last Saturday. The real giveaway was the fact that my mom was flying up, by herself, for a weekend, in February, for no discernible reason. But I had no idea when and no idea where. When I opened the door to my own apartment and saw a crowd of people at the end of the hallway gathered around with cameras flashing and shouting, "SURPRISE!," you could say I was surprised. It was sort of the same kind of jolt you might get after shuffling around on carpet for a while and then touching something metal. I think I actually saw sparks, and I haven't seen the photos yet but I bet my hair was also standing on end.

I am only mildly embarrassed that the first words out of my mouth had something to do with my toilet overflowing that morning. It was an off moment, and probably one of the reasons I will never be President of the United States or Miss America in my lifetime.

I've already mentioned how touched I am by how many people came from so far away, people I haven't seen in months and months. Probably the only disappointing thing about the day was how little time I actually had to spend really talking to people. With so much to catch up on, five minutes at a time was just not enough, but I think sufficient plans have been made for future trips to Yankees games, belated birthday celebrations, beer festivals, and hikes that I can rest easy knowing that our time will come. This was a good catalyst.

Our apartment was completely transformed from when I'd left it that morning. Tables, confetti, streamers, and pink flamingos were everywhere. The stereo - the very one I haven't used in well over a year and surprised me in that it actually worked - was playing "Chapel of Love" and there were these beautiful pink orchids on the table. Siggi's mom knew they were my favorite and brought them from her greenhouse for me. The amount of food in the room was incredible, and I was mildly upset that I'd just come from having a huge lunch and dessert. Luckily there were lots of leftovers, and we are still eating them today.

Every detail was meticulously planned out. Siggi hand-painted personalized flower pots for each guest. The CD she'd made was filled with songs specifically chosen for me and Billy. The food was incredible, and I didn't have to lift a single finger to clean up. The thought that went into the day, the people who shared it with me - even including the ones that were only there in spirit - was just amazing. Even three blog posts don't do it justice.

From the champagne toast to the flamingo swizzle sticks to my niece drawing me pictures of monkeys to the flamingo leis, there wasn't a single moment I wasn't bursting with the joy of knowing that I am quite honestly surrounded by the best human beings on Earth. Thank you could never, ever say enough.

Teaser.

I don't have time yet for a proper recap of Saturday's party, but I do have a few quick photos to hold us over until I have more than 15 minutes at my disposal for blogging.

Showered.

Yesterday I was in the midst of writing a general update about wedding plans when the toilet started overflowing and the morning went to hell. I spent the next hour trying to unclog the toilet, mop up the inch of water from the floor, and locate the super to try to get the toilet to stop running. In the end I had to turn off the water because it just wouldn't stop otherwise. All this with a time clock; my mom and I had an appointment to go to the spa with Monica and we had to leave at 9:30am.

Luckily the super really is super; he came up within 15 minutes of my leaving a message of desperation on his voicemail and used his industrial superplunger to unclog the toilet in about 45 seconds. I spent the next 30 minutes sopping up all the water on the floor, washing it with soap, and then re-cleaning the sink, since that's where all the toilet water ultimately ended up. YUCK.

We were late meeting Monica, who was waiting downstairs for us in a cab. When we finally got downstairs and saw the cab, I did a little more than a double-take: it was a white stretch limo! Turns out it was totally unplanned; the limo happened to be the only car the service had available for us. Still, a fun start to the day.

The spa was great; we got manis and pedis and then went out for brunch and finally hot chocolate and cookies at a nearby cafe. When I opened the door to my apartment, there were 20 of my favorite women inside, crowded around the entrance with cameras shouting, "SURPRISE!" That and, two plastic flamingos wearing a tuxedo and bridal gown, kissing in the doorway.

I was - and still am - so incredibly touched by the day from start to finish. It was so great to see so many people there - people who came from really far away to be there, like Erica from Maryland, Melissa from Staten Island, Alste, Mandy, Sharon, Ashley, Anne, and Krissy from Poughkeepsie, Sha'lyce from the Bronx, and Aunt Cathrine and Peggy from New Jersey. Not to mention my MOM, who flew up from Florida on the snowiest day of the year just to be there.

There's no way I could really do the day justice in one post, so I'm sure I'll be writing more about the details over the next several days, but I do want to offer a very public thank you to everyone who was there and especially to the three amazing people in my bridal party - Siggi, Erica, and Peggy - who made it happen. I am so lucky to have all these special people in my life. Knowing all of you truly is a blessing. Thank you!

More to come on some of the fantastic details in the next few days...

You've brightened my day.

Quite possibly the most exciting part of wedding planning so far, we've started to get some response cards back! I'm delighted that they all come bearing images of tropical scenes, particularly on a day like today when I arrived home feeling so weary and apathetic I thought nothing could ease my funk.

I had been unsure of whether or not the postcards would be a nice touch or would turn out to be really cheesy. Now that I've gotten a handful of them to hang up all around me, I see that my plan has actually worked! For some reason it still amazes me when one of my hair-brained ideas actually bears merit.

Anyway, thanks! Keep 'em coming!

A bit about our invitations.

The process of making the invitations was harder than we expected. To save some money and add a little bit of a personal touch, we decided to do them ourselves. Indeed, we saved quite a bit of money, since in the end all we had to pay for was postage.

There were several iterations of design that came into play before we decided on our little flamingos.

The first was this design, a single card using a palm tree photo that Caitlin took on her trip to Costa Rica.

Billy hated this design, and it was immediately discarded.

We both really liked this one, and in fact almost used it until we went to visit the site again and realized that it didn't fit the personality of the island. After that trip, we came up with the next idea, which finally shows signs of our final design. As a side note, the orchid in the invitation above is from a photo we took of the very first orchid we ever grew together, so it had some sentimental value in it as well.

This was our working design for most of the process, but in the end it was too busy and cluttered. It features a map of the island where we're getting married as well as our beloved flamingos. It is informal and fun, which is exactly what we're going for with our whole wedding. Finally, Caitlin sat down with pen and paper and came up with the flamingo drawing that is now apparently going to be our trademark.

We went with a folded card, mainly because we already had them. Caitlin inherited them from her dad, who collected all sorts of art supplies in his day, and adds a little touch of him to the wedding as well. The invites were ultimately designed using a combination of Photoshop and InDesign (we downloaded a free 30-day trial of InDesign for this purpose, which added a whole other dimension to the design process; nothing like being on the clock while you're also working full time, in school, babysitting twice a week, and planning a wedding). They took 16 straight hours to print at the highest setting on our printer.

We also ended up changing the wording of the invites slightly at the bottom. Again, we were going for fun and informal so we ended up with, "Dinner and dancing under the Sandbar pavilion follow for all who wish to boogie with the bride and groom!" Because for sure we are gonna be boogie-ing.

Another component of the invites was the website, which was such a production, mainly because Caitlin had no idea what she was doing during the whole process. At first the whole site was built using thousands and thousands of jpeg files, which is death to all websites if someone happens to not have high-speed access to the internet. We finally ended up with what is there today. We purposely chose a neutral-sounding URL so that we could continue using it after the wedding, updating it with photos and stories as we continue our lives together.

Finally, the response cards. We mentioned that they were all to be hand-written. We bought 77 postcards from a gift shop in Florida and then wrote all the responses ourselves. They were all personalized depending on the guest, and took Caitlin about three hours to do. Her hand may or may not still be cramped. But the end result was great. The postcards cost about $10.

In all, we spent about three solid months working on the invites at varying degrees of pulling our hair out, but we wouldn't give up the process for anything! In the end, we're in love with our little flamingos. And now we have a mascot!

60 Days to Go...

The invitations are in the mail! The making of the invites was a longer, harder process than we ever imagined possible. As usual, Caitlin bit off just slightly more than she could chew, as the design of the invite was contingent on learning how to create a sister website. In the end, we're really happy with the design and all the hand-done touches. We hope you like them too, and are so excited to start seeing the response cards come back!

Odds and Ends.

Billy's home from his bachelor weekend and has arrived in one piece. A little tattered around the edges, perhaps, but all for a good cause.

Response cards are 95% written. Did I mention I'm hand-writing them?

Next item on the list: buy stamps and out they go!

Bachelor Party.

Billy's off for his bachelor party weekend down in Tampa right now. According to the website, his flight is in the air as we, er, type. He had about three hours of delays due to weather but it looks like he's going to make it tonight after all. Or, at least, very early tomorrow morning.

The guys have a great weekend planned, from the sounds of it. A day at Busch Gardens, tuxedo fittings, fishing, Super Bowl parties, etc. etc.

Meanwhile, back in Jackson Heights, the apartment will get a good scrubbing down, a task made much easier when there isn't someone leaving peanut shells around ten minutes after someone else just cleaned up the living room floor.

Just sayin'.