Happy Holidays!

We hope that everyone had a lovely holiday and has a very happy New Year! We had a great holiday - we are lucky enough to have both of our families here in Arlington so we got to visit each of them for all holidays! We celebrated Hanukkah with my family on the 23rd and then again last night (a night late, but the thought still counts!). We spent Christmas Eve with Jason's family where we got to meet our little niece, Esme, for the first time (see the picture below - I don't think Jason has ever looked so elated)!!! Then, we had Christmas morning with my family (so Jake didn't have to wait to open his presents), spent the afternoon with the Bells, and then the evening with my family again at an Andrew Lloyd Webber concert! We plan to have a low-key New Year's Eve together - just the two of us and Rufus... and maybe a bottle of champagne and a slice of celebratory cake!

Here's Jason and Esme


And Jason with Rufus and me with Ella Grace


Wedding planning! We have now signed contracts with Thorpewood and their caterer and have paid deposits to each! So it is official now!!! Allison, my dad, Jason, and I will all go back up to Thorpewood on January 10 for a tasting. We have to make a wish list out of this GINORMOUS list of food that the caterers sent to us - we have to pick three of each course to try!

The biggest news is that I have found my wedding dress! Allison and I went shopping for it this weekend... and bought it straight off the rack! It is quite pretty - It is a little fancier than I envisioned, but it's really pretty and I'm really happy with it. The only thing Jason knows about it is that it is ivory instead of white. I decided on the ivory because it has a slight antiquey look to it that I like a lot. So far quite a few people have seen it in person: Emily, Mrs. Bell, Cindy, Mrs. Paul, Karen, and my dad. Eddie and Erin have seen a picture of it (on a model). The only person that has seen it ON me is Allison... and I think I want to keep it that way til wedding day! I am going back and forth about wearing a veil. I ended up snatching up a discontinued one that looks pretty with my dress that I bought just in case I decided to wear one. If I don't, then I'll probably wrap my flowers with it or something. Needless to say, it was cheap so I wasn't too concerned about buying it even if I ended up not wearing it. I managed to get a great price on the dress as well which I'm thrilled about because now I can spend more on a photographer! Basically, any money that I save will go towards a better photographer.

We also found a darling flower girl dress at David's Bridal that I really want the girls to try on! It is SO cute. It is a short-sleeve, empire waist, ivory chiffon dress with a teeny little stripe of beading around the bust. And it is SO flowy! Flowy is the number one priority for the girls - they LOVE flowy dresses!

Kaitlyn

Aaaand... we have a date!

October 25, 2009! It’s a Sunday, so we’re planning to have an early afternoon wedding – maybe noon or one o’clock. We get the place for 8 hours total, so we’ll spend about 2 hours setting up and then 6 for the ceremony and reception. Which means that we will be done by 8 or 9 pm which is just magical because I won’t last much past then – especially with the craziness of wedding festivities.

And the place for the date is Thorpewood! I’m thrilled and Jason is too. The paperwork is in the works – so it’s not really final yet, but it will be. We will go back to visit in the spring to do a tasting as well as check the place out when the leaves are full since they were bare-naked when we saw them! The menu looks good and they even have a pastry chef, so we may even get the cake through them to make things easier. However, I will still taste cakes elsewhere… yes, yes I will!

Allison, Karen, and my grandma took me to try on dresses this weekend – nothing really jumped out at me. It was all just too… fancy. I think some people really enjoy trying dresses on and showing them off… this one lady there really loved it and was looking at herself in the mirror for long periods of time and talking about each dress… but it just makes me curl up into a ball. I do not like being put on display but I guess I need to get used to it!

I also want to make a shout-out to Mrs. Hilary Pool Strickland who passed many, many bridal magazines and books on to me. Thank you so very much! Those things are not cheap - I really appreciate your generosity! PS - Congrats on becoming a doggie-mommy over the weekend!!!

A final note - it is strange to call Jason my fiance now. It is SO exciting, but I feel like such a snob using the word. I can't figure out if it is because I feel like I'm flaunting the fact that I'm engaged (and thus acting kind of like a snob) or just because it is such a fancy-sounding word (and I don't really use fancy words)... hehehe...

Kaitlyn