Matt was right...

Okay, I'm not above admitting when I'm wrong (also I promised Matt that I would write this post). The problem with being a planner for a living is that you can at times get a little lackadaisical about the planning process. And while that can be a huge relief from the typical bridal stress, it can also backfire...

For about...oh, three months...Matt has been asking me if we could get the rehearsal dinner location booked. To which I always responded "Oh, we have all kinds of time, you don't have to book a restaurant six months in advance." Here's the problem: I've always had a vision for the wedding ceremony and the reception...but no vision for the rehearsal dinner. Never thought about it, actually. So we finally narrowed it down to our top three choices, two microbreweries and a local Italian restaurant, all downtown. I decided that I wanted to see the party rooms in our top option. But it took about a month before we had time to head down there to eat. When we finally made it down there, it was perfect. The seating host assured us that they weren't even booking that far out yet so we should be fine. So I smugly grinned at Matt because I was totally right in not being concerned about this.

Wrong.

Monday morning I get an email from the restaurant telling me they actually were booked. No big deal, on to our other two options. Nope, booked...oops.

Now, this didn't really bother me because I hadn't been too concerned about the rehearsal dinner in the first place, but Matt was not happy. So I frantically started coming up with back up options, trying to dig myself out of this hole. Then we had a realization. We can't even do our rehearsal at Simon Estes because they do the 4th of July festivities there the night before our wedding, so we really had no need to stay downtown at all. Matt suggested our favorite pizza place, Felix and Oscars, and I was on board. I called the next day and they are available! Phew! I'm out of the dog house, except for the fact that I had to acknowledge to the world that Matt was right.

We started thinking of where to hold our rehearsal and I jokingly suggested that we should just do it in Matt's backyard. The more we started to think about it though, we decided that was actually our best option. His deck will be the stage, and he was talking about even mowing the crazy shaped sidewalks into his grass so we can practice. This is bound to go well...

So at the ceremony, if anyone looks a little confused or disoriented, please bear in mind that we practiced on grass fake sidewalks and a deck.  :)

Yum!

On Wednesday night we went to the Marriott to sample our wedding menu options. Since I was out of town during the Marriott's official tasting celebration (supposedly they go all out and have the ballroom decorated and set up like an actual reception, I've heard it is really cool.  Kind of disappointed that we had to miss it!), we were able to set up a private tasting opportunity. We brought a tasting crew with us and we knew we were in good hands.

Our tasting committee - Best Man John, FOB John, MOH Emily, Matt and I - excited to try some food!

Matt and I had narrowed the options down to four that we would like to try- one chicken, one fish, one pork and one beef.  Out of those, we had to narrow it down to two options (plus there will be a vegetarian option) and we had to pick one out of two salads.

Caution...the rest of this post contains more details about our food than anyone probably cares to know...

First up was the salad. Matt had already come to terms with the fact that he would have to try the salad, despite his hatred of all things green. He choked down some Caesar salad and then actually enjoyed the spinach salad option! Okay maybe he didn't enjoy it...but he didn't hate it, and that's a big deal for Matt! John and I were voting for Caesar, Emily and Matt voted for spinach, and Dad didn't really have an option. Then John, in a total Foodie moment, decided we should wait and see which entrees we were going to pick and pair them with the appropriate salad. After we all made fun of his sophisticated salad logic, we agreed and moved on.

The first entree was a roasted halibut in a dill cream sauce served with a rice polenta and green beans. Best. Fish. Ever. We had all cleared our plates in a matter of seconds...this could be a hard process if they are all this good!

Mmm...fish

Second option was ribeye with a brandy reduction sauce served with roasted garlic mashed potatoes and asparagus. The ribeye was good...but not outstanding. Matt wasn't a fan of the sauce, and none of us were overwhelmed by the meat, although the potatoes were awesome and I am a huge fan of asparagus.

Matt enjoying his ribeye

Third was chicken picatta served with baby red potatoes and assorted squashes. Although Matt didn't care for the squash, for the most part we were all a big fan of everything on our plates.

Emily and Dad excited about their chicken...

...But not as excited as John was!

And last was pork tenderloin with a kahlua sauce served with sour cream mashed potatoes and asparagus and carrots. Ohhhhh my gosh, this might be the best thing I've ever eaten. I loudly declared, "I don't care about everyone else, but I am eating this at my wedding."  I also asked the chef if he would come to my house and make me kahlua sauce with all my meals. Aaaaamazing. (I apologize if I've now over-hyped this and it lets you down, but it was delicious.)

Yum, I want to eat it again!

We took a vote and unanimously decided on the fish and the pork. Then after a brief discussion, we decided on rice with the fish, and the sour cream potatoes for the pork. And green beans for everyone since we love them. We then asked John, who we had now deemed our salad connoisseur, to determine which salad paired best with our entrees and he went with the spinach.  Done!

Here we are, stuffed, with all of the options from the day!

And then, the friendly people at the Marriott decided that we needed to try their desserts, even though we will be serving cake at the wedding.  Score!

I was a little bit excited...apparently I hadn't eaten enough already!

At the end of the day, Matt decided that he was going to be eating the fish at the wedding and I will be eating the pork. Good thing we got that important decision out of the way!

Practicing holding our wedding meals of choice

We didn't decide on a kids option or vegetarian...we'll leave that for another day.  We all left saying that we couldn't wait for the wedding so we could eat the food again!  Thanks Marriott!!

The personal attendant (and other things)

Big accomplishments lately!  First of all, after a lot of debating, the honeymoon is booked!  We finally decided on Couples resorts because they include several excursions, whereas Sandals does not.  So we will be spending 6 lovely days in Ochos Rios in July!  After finally committing to booking the trip, we immediately got notice that the credit card had been denied due to a fraud protection.  Eek!  Luckily Matt was able to get in touch with the credit card company and all is well.  Jamaica, here we come!  We have several things in mind for the trip including a waterfall excursion, catamaran cruise, horseback riding, snorkeling, and more.  As I'm typing the list it's occurring to me that 6 days might not be long enough!

Our other big accomplishment is that we finally finished registering this weekend.  This was turning into quite the struggle for me because I realized I needed to come up with some sort of color scheme for the house (Matt put me in charge of that project) and I couldn't just pick out everything in the colors that we liked (which 90% of the time involves either blue or brown.)  That concept was so overwhelming for me that I avoided it for as long as possible, but finally we were able to commit to the items we liked, and we have a basic idea of what the house will look like.  Until we change our minds.

Also, I got to meet Carli, my personal attendant, for dinner last weekend.  From here on out Carli will be known as Personal Attendant/Flowers, Accessories, and Footwear Consultant.  As we were eating it occurred to me that Carli is an expert at every aspect of the wedding for which I have no vision whatsoever.  So we have mutually decided that she is taking over the wedding from here on out so that I don't have to make anymore decisions.  She also was asking for a list of duties for the day of the ceremony.  I told her that her primary job will be to keep me from killing anyone (if you've spent much time with me, you'll know that I have little to no tolerance for people).  So I'm adding an additional title to Carli's job description: bodyguard.  On the day of the wedding, Carli will have my cell phone, and unless your name is Matt Heeren or John McKeown, you will have to go through Carli to get to me.  I'm guessing this will be HUGE stress relief!  Thanks in advance, Carli!

So, blog followers, help me come up with the duties that I need to pass on to others the day of.  What did your personal attendant do for you?