making a list, checking it twice.

"On with the dance! let joy be unconfined; / No sleep till morn, when Youth and Pleasure meet/ To chase the glowing hours with flying feet." -- Lord Byron

On Sunday afternoon Alphonse and I sat down for dinner with our parents. Several hours later our bellies were full and our guestlist was nearly complete. When we were trying to decide who to invite we started naming family and close friends that were absolute musts-- people who were involved in our lives since before we could remember and others who showed up much later but played an important role in one way or another. And then there were friends: classmates from elementary school through college, and even current colleagues. Half way through, the task of narrowing our list down to 200 people or less seemed somewhat daunting. At the end of it, there were, of course, countless more people we wanted to invite, but we realized we couldn't-- weddings are expensive! Still, we want to share this whole experience (from the engagement through the marriage) with as many people as possible. To do so, we were initially planning to just invite everyone to the engagement parties, however, some sources say that doing so is poor etiquette. So instead, we'll hold a few casual get-togethers for everyone to meet both of our families and still take part in this adventure of ours, even though we wish we could invite everyone to the actual wedding!

"May God give you of heaven's dew and of earth's richness— an abundance of grain and new wine." -- Genesis 27:28

you've got mail!

"To write a good love letter, you ought to begin without knowing what you mean to say, and finish without knowing what you have written" -- Jean-Jacques Rousseau

When we first started planning our wedding, we didn't know quite where to start. After perusing bridal magazines, wedding websites, and blogs of other brides-to-be, we confirmed what we pretty much already knew-- there's a lot that goes in to planning our big day! To figure out how to proceed I asked my cousin Rachael for any advice she had considering she's been planning a wedding of her own for the past year, and will be getting married in a few weeks! One of the things she recommended was to start collecting addresses of family and friends as soon as possible. To that end, if you could email your mailing address to alphonse.katrina@gmail.com, it would be greatly appreciated.

And speaking of things sent and received in the mail, Al and I would like to belatedly thank everyone for their cards or messages of congratulations.

In other news, tomorrow Al and I are going with our families to check out a reception venue for the wedding. Expect a post-visit update!

"You yourselves are our letter, written on our hearts, known and read by everybody. You show that you are a letter from Christ, the result of our ministry, written not with ink but with the Spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone but on tablets of human hearts." -- 2 Corinthians 3:2-3