three weeks and counting

The countdown is on. In 3 weeks from tomorrow, Rick and I will be on a plane heading down to the sunny Mexican Riviera. I keep getting asked if I have "wedding head." Truthfully not. I guess I have to say that by doing this destination wedding thing, it's been really liberating.

I met up with Janya today for lunch and she is sharing her precious veil and wedding jewelry with me. They're absolutely beautiful. I haven't even spent much time on my accessories look for the wedding since I've nailed down the dress and shoes (which are nothing more than some flip flops). It is a sandy beach after all.

The guest list for Mexico is nearly finalized, though wouldn't you know that three weeks out there are still some fence-sitters. Me thinks they're a no, but since they're on Rick's invite list, I can't really write them off until the actual ceremony. For all I know they may just show up and just never confirm with us that they got airline tickets. All in all, our count is now up to 11 people with the potential for 4-5 more. Either way, it's a good group size and a fun group of people -- despite that most of them are Rick's buddies from Minnesota. I have a feeling that the first few days in Mexico will turn into his bachelor party. Works for me since I'll have some wedding details to finalize any way with the rehearsal dinner location, and so on...

I've also made some progress on the non-Mexico wedding celebrations. Family dinner is set during my family reunion in Colorado in early June, and in Minnesota we decided to do an informal picnic at the park for when we go back for his annual hometown golf tournament in mid-June. Rick got it all set up, so that makes me happy that it's one less thing I have to coordinate. And for our Seattle-based friends, mark your calendars for July 18. We've got a lakefront park reservation for a late afternoon BBQ.

Sticking with the economical approach, I've been making the various, custom invitations for each of the events. Pretty impressive considering I'm so-NOT artsy fartsy. The Mexico and Colorado invites have been mailed. I've made the ones for Minnesota and need to address envelopes and stick stamps of those this weekend. For the Seattle shindig, I'm going the cyber route and making an E-vite for that one. It's one thing to hand make 20 invites, it's a whole other endeavor to make 50+ invites.

So what's left?

• I've started throwing things aside to pack, so that's at least underway.
  
• I need to focus on our actual ceremony. My dear friend Peter isn't able to make it to Mexico after all to officiate (long story, visa issues in Europe) and so we're relegated to having an unknown Mexican minister perform the ceremony. I've been told it's a woman, so that should be a nice touch. At least it will balance out the 4:1 guy to girl ratio. I've made a request to the hotel to get a copy of the ceremony script she plans to use. Not sure if that will happen, so we may be winging it once we get there. I've jotted down some thoughts for my own vows, but again, I may want to just let the moment dictate my words. We'll see.
  
• Most of the vacation clothes are purchased, but am waiting for some sandals from Zappos to show up on my doorstep. Hoping they're cute, but practical enough, to go with my rehearsal dinner dress.
  
• Make up -- to buy or not to buy. The girlfriend of one of Rick's buddies coming down to the wedding happens to be a make up artist. She gave me some advice of the kind of make up to wear for the wedding. So now I'm struggling with do I get a make up consultation and buy the make up I want to take down, or do I just rely on the Mexican make up artist to use her own stuff. In some ways, I do need to update my make up palate, but considering how much new make up costs, part of me contemplates just not bothering and let the artist use her arsenal.
  
• Scuba or snorkel? I haven't been diving in over three years and if I want to dive in Cozumel, then I need to take a refresher course. Rick's not certified, so I'm still on the fence on if I should just scrap diving and just enjoy some stress-free snorkeling there. Either way, I want to swim with the dolphins!