Only a month away

I’m marrying my beautiful bride-to-be, Mary, a month from today. We got engaged at the end of November and had planned to get married in August, as I was supposed to go on leave then while I was in transit to my next command. We figured that gave us enough time to both plan and save money for the wedding.

But, of course, the Navy decided to transfer me early, which I was 100% OK with, which derailed those plans. Just to get it done before, in order to be married before I deployed later this year, we decided to get married on the only week we could pull the girls out of school for an extended period of time for-Spring Break, which also happened to be Easter weekend.

She really wanted to get married at the Olivet Congregational Church. Having a church wedding on a religious holiday weekend became difficult to plan. So, we planned a Wednesday wedding, to avoid the holidays. And, it just so happened that it was also April Fool’s Day, which I found humorous. (It also happens to be my mom and her husbands anniversary.)

Let me tell you-wedding planning is not easy, particularly when you’re doing it in a short amount of time (2 months) and from 2200 miles away. There are so many things you have to figure out and plan. Throw a modest budget on top of that and it’s more difficult. Add a lifelong procrastinator on top of it and it’s even worse.

The worst part about this is that, now, my sister Shayna’s absence will be greatly felt at the wedding. After she started to get sicker, her last major milestone that she was trying to make it to was my wedding day. She fell 35 days short of making it there. 35 days later, I’m sure the pain will still be felt by all.

One of the things that mom said to me that spurred my decision to try to make it out before Shayna was gone was that she was so happy I’d finally found someone, and she’d hoped to meet her. I wanted them to meet as well, as they are two of the 3 grown women who mean the world to me (mom being the other).

The benefit to being here before the wedding, with several days to spare, is that we’re able to take care of some wedding planning in person

So, today, we finally visited the VFW, where the reception will be held. It was pretty spacious, and we were glad to see where it would be held. We hope to see the church this week as well.

We had planned to buy some of the items in San Diego (table decorations, candles, etc.) and send out here in the mail. We also needed to help my best man get his tux, and buy dresses for DeLainey and Selena, which we figure would be a good distraction this weekend.