Bad News

Classes have started back, so I've been rather busy, and not really in the mood for posting on here. Not to mention, because of budget cuts here at UGA, I've sort of lost my job. I have to cut back on hours (which means bringing home $200 less A MONTH) until November, at which time my position will be permanently eliminated. How absolutely thrilling. As if everything else in my life hasn't been falling apart too.

I guess that's a little over-dramatic, but things have really felt awful lately. I'm gaining weight instead of losing, I'm swamped with work for my classes and research, I lost the best job I've ever had, Jordan and I have been fighting a lot more, I'm usually too busy to hang out with my friends, I'm way more irritable than usual, and I don't even really feel like doing any more wedding planning. That's how I know it's gotten bad...the only thing I really want to do is stay in my bed all day, sleeping and maybe coloring. I don't feel like eating, I dread the thought of having to go anywhere, and I especially don't want to go to work or classes anymore.

Ugh. This has gotten bad enough. I'm just hoping that some sunshine will come back into my life pretty soon (sans the heat and sunburn parts). I don't know how much longer I can handle feeling so gloomy and miserable.

Wait, what?! A rehearsal dinner?!

I guess it just slipped my mind, but I had completely forgotten about that whole rehearsal dinner thing until my mom mentioned it a few weeks ago. How else is everyone going to know what the heck they need to be doing on the morning of our wedding?

Well, damn.

So I decided not to stress about it. The wedding is going to be formal and fancy and traditional enough. For the rehearsal dinner, we're just going to have fun!

Jordan has let me make the majority (okay, pretty much all) the decisions concerning the wedding. The pink flowers? My idea. The bride and groom theme? He could care less. He's even letting me pick out most of his outfit. The wedding as it is coming along really reflects more of my personality than his. Most people would agree that that is pretty common and a well-established tradition, but I'd still like to let his personality shine through in some way. That's where The Pirate's House Restaurant comes in!

The Saturday evening before our Big Day, we are going to have the wedding party and the closest members of our family join us at The Pirate's House in Savannah for our rehearsal dinner. This is what their website says:

"Situated a scant block from the Savannah River, The Pirate's House first opened as an inn for seafarers, and fast became a rendezvous for blood-thirsty pirates and sailors from the Seven Seas. Here seamen drank their grog and discoursed, sailor fashion, on their exotic high seas adventures from Singapore to Bombay and from London to Port Said.... At the Pirate's House, our most precious treasure is our food, acclaimed for over three decades.... We operate 15 separate dining rooms each with a distinct charm all its own."

Jordan loves pirates; or rather, he loves the concept of pirates (and I'll be honest, so do I!). I think we'll all have a grand time...and the food is said to be freakin delicious. :D Oh yeah, and it's supposed to be haunted... ;)

Okay, cool. Location? Confirmed. Now what's that about invitations? Well, I guess that's necessary, too. Since we're only inviting a handful of people, we can afford get a little more creative with the invitations. Here's something I found that fits Jordan perfectly:

I have to admit that I also have a bit of a soft spot for the Wii as well (especially Paper Mario and Cooking Mama), so this is a fabulous idea. I'm a pretty awesome Mii maker too, so I look forward to perfecting our Miis that will be used on the invitation!

We are going to use the rehearsal dinner to relax with our close friends and family before the Big Day, and also to hand out gifts to these same people, who will have tolerated my wedding talk for over two years by the time next September rolls around. Plus, since the wedding is so early in the morning on Sunday, they'll all have to be in Savannah Saturday evening anyway; us providing dinner will help them feel welcome and loved.

In other news, I created yet another wedding website, haha! I was on Shutterfly and noticed the "free share sites" link; so I created a wedding planning website that focuses mainly on pictures, but it also has a calendar, a discussion forum, polls, etc. Check it out!

http://samanthaandjordan.shutterfly.com/

JEWELRY!!

Just wanted to share some quick news before launching into Wedding Planning City: Jordan and I are now officially moved into our AWESOME new apartment! It's just across town from our old apartment, but it feels like the two places are worlds apart! We have working AC, better neighbors, more space, and a washer, dryer, and dishwasher, yay!

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Okay, so besides being a ridiculously difficult word to type correctly, jewelry is one of my favorite things in the world. Fortunately for Jordan's wallet, I'm usually attached to inexpensive, plastic, funky colored jewelry rather than diamonds and gemstones, though I do have my weaknesses.

Being that I love jewelry so much, you would think that deciding on my bridal jewelry would be a piece of cake, but I've discovered that narrowing down my choices is harder than the hardest diamond on earth. *le sigh*

I have come to a few general decisions: 1) I want my bridesmaids to wear turquoise to match their dresses and possibly pearls to match their bouquet purses. 2) I want to wear some combination of pearls, diamonds, and turquoise. 3) I will have one piece of jewelry that reflects my personality and typical jewelry tastes. And 4) None of these materials have to be real, except for the metals. That is, I don't mind substituting glass beads for real turquoise, fake pearls for freshwater pearls, and cubic zirconia for diamonds, but I have to have either sterling silver or white gold. Oh yeah, and I might as well throw in 5) I don't want to spend a ton of money on my jewelry.

I can't say it hasn't been fun surfing the internet for ideas, and here are the results of two days worth of searching:

First of all, I love simple bridal tiaras, with just pearls and diamonds:

Because of the neckline of my dress, as well as the halter straps, I want my necklace to be fairly simple, so as to not to detract from the many details of the top of my dress. Also, because my hairstyle will also be pretty fancy, I want my earrings to match the simplicity of the necklace. Alas, this is where I am most indecisive about what exactly I want. Some ideas:

Earrings to the left, necklace to the right:

Two different sets I like:

Next up is my bracelet. Not a necessary part of bridal jewelry, but this is the piece I am going to use to show off my personality. I know I want it to be made up of pearls and/or turquoise, and I want it to be chunky and bold. But there are so many options!

For the bridesmaids, I have found these pieces that I love:





















Also, this is a set at David's Bridal that I love. It comes in the color Pool, which would match their dresses exactly:

And let's not forget the rings! This is the easiest part of all my jewelry decisions. I know exactly what I want, and Jordan mostly knows what he wants. Mine will be white gold with inset diamonds, and he wants titanium with very little fancy stuff on it. Our wedding bands will be pretty much exactly like these:

As a little sidenote, we are going to get our wedding bands engraved as well. We are thinking about having the phrase "Less Than Three" engraved because when we first started dating, we were in a long-distance relationship for several months and we chatted a lot on AIM. We started using <3 a lot and it just kinda stuck!

So that's where I stand on jewelry for the big day. Rather indecisive and in need of a lot of suggestions/ideas/advice. Feel free to offer it! :)