Dum dum dum dum

Well, this is it. I'm getting married in 4 days. Holy Shit! Seriously having a hard time believing this is really happening. It all seems very surreal. This could be due to the fact that I'm exhausted and facing a 21 hour drive. Adam & I leave after work tonight and will hopefully get to Pentwater sometime tomorrow night. Then we will have two very busy days before our fabulous wedding! I am very excited, but I'm worried that it will all go by all to quick and I won't be able to spend as much time with everyone as I'd like. But what can you do? I will try and be a gracious bride. I will try and remember to suck in my stomach at all times. I will try and not spill red wine on my dress. I will try and remember to thank my parents, again. I will try and remember to tell Adam I love him. I will have a great time!
A week from now it will all be over-7 months of planning and prepping-done. It's all worth it though.

1 month!

so yesterday marked the one month until the wedding. We're getting more and more anxious. My roommate Dan has moved out and Adam and I are looking at paint samples to paint "our" bedroom. My room has been this horrible green for the last 6 years-a mistake I never fixed-and now it's time for a new look. I'm hoping this will make it feel like OUR room and not MY room. We've registered for new bedding and I'm moving my desk, bookcase and treadmill into the guest room. My bedroom is a hodgepodge of hand me down/secondhand furniture and someday i hope we can purchase a real bedroom set with matching dressers :) Adam will need to find dresser and I've been scoping out Craig's list and the new Ikea store. This weekend while I'm gone to MI for my shower he will install a ceiling fan and clean the carpets in the guest room. And hopefully move some of the appropriate items in. It will be so nice to have access to two bathrooms and a second space to check email watch tv and just get away. Not that 10' is really away, but it will help.

As I said, tomorrow I will head back home to Pentwater for a shower that my dear Aunt's Pat and Annette have been preparing for since, oh a week after we were engaged! No, I'm not joking. I hear it will be Florida themed with Flamingo's and all! Also, I've been told that the guest list is upward of 40 people! So it should be very nice and most of all I'm excited to see everyone-there are lots of people I haven't seen since i got engaged.
I will also use this weekend to finalize all the details that i can. I am printing out all of the programs at home-i designed them myself on in design. As i did the engagement invites and rehearsal dinner invites. I find that i can never get exactly what i want unless i make it myself. so i did. :) The wedding decor is coming together thanks to some inspiring photos I've seen. We had this whole RED theme going on and one day i realized; WAIT! i don't want a RED & WHITE wedding! So i freaked out on poor mom, she calmly set me straight (hung up on me) and we started over-ish. But now I've very happy with my Black & white wedding with silver accents and splashes of red :) Anything we can do to make the poor church hall look like a castle the better. (we've bought lots of alcohol;) But I keep telling myself; think back to all the wedding you've been to (I'm in the high 80's i think) how many can recall what it looked like. maybe you remember the dresses or the cake...but what you really remember is how much fun you had. So I tell myself what is important (out side of Adam and me) is that everyone have a good time! And i think the Pleva family can deliver. My parents are hosting 3 parties in 4 days. They're insane! I love them so much and they really have gone over and beyond anything I could have asked. My mother has sewn 250 chair back covers; 28 table runners; made 75 jars of strawberry jam; and made an hors d'ourve for the reception! My dad is killing deer for the welcome party and he laid new floor in the cabin. This and they've been writing checks like it's their job. Hopefully this weekend I can keep my cool and be the model daughter bride. Fingers crossed the dress gets of the plane w/o too many wrinkles.

Holy smokes, it's getting close.

So i have 37 days till my wedding, according to "the knot". You'd think by the knot in my stomach it was in 37 minuets. I can't believe how much stress and anxiety has just come over me in the last week. Everyone offers to help, including Adam, but there's just nothing for anyone to do, but me. I'm very specific about how i want thing done and it just helps me if i do them. then i know they're done how i want. So see i make a mountain for myself and i don't really care for climbing. This weekend Adam will be in Las Vegas so i have a weekend to get things done. My roommate also moves out so that will alleviate extra stress at the house. I will have the place to myself-well the dogs will be there too. It's just lots of little things...jam labels, welcome packets, scanning pictures, deciding on a final song so i can print the programs! ug. This last weekend i had a much needed girls trip to Miami. Boy did we have a good time.


I have some wonderful girlfriends. And I am really lucky. Even my mom and my aunt came...or as we refer to them the MOB and the GOB :)

Now I'm sure I've said this before, I'm not nervous about marrying Adam. I'm so excited and can't wait for that. Its just all the stress of planning a wedding. and waiting and thinking about each little detail until i feel like I'm going to throw up. Maybe it's time for another Yoga class. So for now i just do what i can, take a deep breath and check things off my never ending list. Tonight i try on my altered dress; with the veil, jewelry; the whole deal. I'm glad tara will be there, I might just pass out.

2 months

So yesterday was the two month mark to the big day. As slow as this engagement has gone I have a feeling it's going to be picking up quick now. We're very busy with trips and getting little details done. My mother has been a busy bee. Since she's off from teaching for the summer she's free to do whatever. So far she's made over 48 quarts of jam for the welcome baskets, 150 chair back covers (only a hundred more) and will be making at lest 30 red table runners. I told her she doesn't need to do all that, but she likes it and she's enjoying herself, so more power too her.
People keep asking me if Adam is getting nervous. And don't take this the wrong way, but I think it's the other way around. I'm nervous about all the changes that will happen overnight. I'm nervous about everyone having a good time at the wedding. I nervous about having to write a different name when i sign. A name that is so common, so black and white, so not me. But it will be and i will be proud to be Adam's wife, I really can't wait. He's a good man and will be a wonderful husband and someday, father. But it's just all this change, all at the same time, that will knock a little air out I think. Hopefully I'll stay standing and smiling...and i will make it down that aisle without running my mascara.
This week I'm going to finish up the little details and hopefully get my dress to alterations people. I'm hoping it won't take longer than they said and won't be more $ then they thought....but we'll see.
So for now, that's my update...not much of an update, but it's where i am :)

And I love her

Adam and I are big Beatles fans. The night before he proposed we went to see "1964 The Tribute"; which is a Beatles cover band. Anyway we were sitting there listening to the "Beatles" and they were playing "and i love her" and Adam sang every word to me. It was so sweet, I almost cried. We got our engagement pictures taken a week or so ago when we where in Michigan and received the proofs this weel. My mom was looking at them and said, "he just adores you Stephanie. Look at the way he looks at you." When I did I could SEE how much he really does love, adore and want me. Adam isn't one to express his feeling very often; I will get random text's saying "I love you", which i find so endearing. And I do know he cares as deeply for me as I do for him, but to actually see the way he looks at me the way others so often tell me he does was just such eye opener. So as I really looked at our photos that were taken with my parents in tow at the beach or in my parents yard I realize how very lucky I am that I have a man who wants to spend the rest of his life with ME. A man that is kind and funny, smart and responsible, goofy and adventuress, sweet and gentle, tall dark and handsome. He really is my knight in shining armor, the faceless man from my dreams and the answers to my oh so many prayers. I hope that 50 years from now someone will take our picture again and say; "Look at the way he looks at you, he's so in love with you". Being loved is a great feeling, I hope that I do as good of a job loving him as he does me.

Coming togeather

So the planning is still all coming together. I picked up the first two bridesmaids dresses last week; they're a lovely bright Red (Adam's Favorite). Also received the envelopes that will be stuffed and addressed very soon :) And I've found my shoes! Believe it or not after all the hunting and pecking i found them at Target...and for a steal of course. I just can't wait until i can have all of the pieces together and see it as a whole. My dress won't be in until late June and i ordered it a size bigger to guarantee it would fit how i wanted, so that means ALTERATIONS, but then again how many brides actually get a dress off the wrack that fits perfect? Not many.

Adam and I actually have a free weekend coming up so it will be nice to hang around home (prob his) and not have to entertain guests or go away. Don't get me wrong; I love seeing everyone who's been down and enjoy traveling, but every other month it's nice to have a free weekend ;). I'm also getting ready for the dance recital my studio is putting on. It's one month away and my dancers are no where near ready. But I've done the best i can do, now it's their turn to step it up. It will be nice to have some free time in the summer after it's over and not have to teach until late.
We're planning on three trips back up north- 1 wedding 2 showers and of course wedding coordination. I have a feeling the summer will fly by and all this talk of me being bored will fade into the gulf! :) I guess i could just practice my writing my new name...
Stephanie M. Young...weird!

Life Changes

Well, a whole lot has changed in my life since I last wrote. Specially 24 hours after i last wrote came the big news. Adam surprised me and proposed. It was valentines day and he had cooked a lovely dinner; bleu cheese stuffed fillets wrapped in bacon, baked potatoes, salad and really good red wine. We had plans later in the evening to meet up with friends at a salsa bar down town st. Pete and were going to watch a movie first. for the life of me i can't recall the movie...which we didn't watch that night. But anyway i was sitting on his couch and he had cleaned up and was walking back towards me. he had reached into his pocket as he was walking and said "oh there's something else i wanted to ask you" and with that he dropped to his knees opened a white box which held a beautiful diamond ring with a light shining on it. And he said "will you marry me?" Completely stunned beyond belife i looked at him and said "Are you serious??? Holy shit!" Poor guy looked scared for a second and he slowly sat on the couch. i said "yes of course" of course ;) So thus began my whirlwind life that now encompass me. I'm planning a wedding for 300+ people from 1400 miles away. My parents were on the ball and had set up a band and caterer by Monday. Monday afternoon the date was set; after being changed once before. We are getting married September 19th. It was 7 months away, which to me seemed like plenty of time, but everyone i spoke with was like wow that's quick. It has now been a little over 2 months and it feels like 6. We have most of all the major decisions made, dresses ordered, hotels reserved, even napkins monogrammed. So I find myself quite frequently saying...what should i do now. I am so bored, everything that i can do is done and the things i could do I'm afraid I'll change my mind seeing as i have 5 more months to think about it (the invite wording..etc). I seriously don't know how we got so much stuff done in such little time, but we did. Heck my mom is already planning the menu for the brunch the day after the wedding! So for now I'm researching roses and flowers to order (in 5 months) for the bouquets we'll make. I'm on the quest the perfect wedding shoes that will last me 12 hours on my feet. Yes this wedding will be a good 10-12 hours. Us Pleva's really know how to throw down a good party. My family is over the moon. 1. they LOVE Adam 2. They love weddings 3. they've been waiting for me to get married for 10 years!! Our wedding will be fun, that's what i want the most out of all this. I don't care that the reception is in a church hall or that our guests will sit on folding chairs. Want I want most out of this day is for all of my friends and family to have a great time and help Adam and I celebrate the beginning of our married lives together. We are both so ready and so happy.

Time Flies!

Well it has been a WHILE since my last blog post!! I've been busy, living, laughing, crying, working, breathing, sleeping, eating...you know, Life.
I survived my 30th birthday and the trip to Mexico. It was a nice time, could have had better weather, but we made the best of it. I have great friends and I've never felt more lucky.
Christmas soon followed and that means FAMILY! My whole family came for an island Christmas. I was also fortunate to have Adam share it with me. My parents rented a great condo on Marco Island overlooking the gulf and my Aunt and Uncle had a full house.
We had a great week of lounging around, pool splashing, night Frisbee, boccie and of course meals fit for a king. Zakaria was a hoot, being almost 3, it made Christmas morning all that more enchanting.

It was great seeing my brothers, they're really growing up.
Joseph is in Houston now, so it won't be as easy for us to all get together anymore...it's going to take $ and planning.
The new year came and went, i was sick again, but I was a trooper and brought in the new year the best that I could. Hopefully this new year will bring about a fresh approach. We have a new president, I still have a job, and I keep falling more in love with Adam. My resolution this year was to get back into attending church every Sunday. So far, I've done pretty good, not perfect, but I'm trying. Adam has been a good sport and I don't think he'll ever understand how much I appreciate his support. The goal now is to find a church that he likes. I'm not picky, I've been attending Mass for 30 years; I know what I like: tradition, a to-the-point homily and a pretty building! Adam is not as easy...he likes bells and whistles, pyrotechnics and excitement....not always easy to find in a Catholic Church ;) So the search will continue.
So to 2009...may we stay healthy, happy, true to our selves and our beliefs. May we continue to be gainfully employed and satisfied with in our means.