It's almost a year!!!

Seriously! Almost a year! Everybody clap your hands!

When Steve convinced me that a longer engagement was more sensible, I never thought it would be this difficult. We had a plethora of reasons: two of my cousins had already set dates within a month of eachother, my mother's divorce proceedings with my stepfather, our ever wise friend Amanda telling Steve if she could do it all over again she would have had more time (thanks, Amanda. Jk, I love you!), and a few other things that seemed to be stacked high on our plates. I also have to say that in our area (NY/CT/NJ) it makes sense to have a longer engagement just so you can take your time with vendor selection. If I had waited on a few of our vendors, I would have lost them - like my beautiful venue The Wadsworth and had I not gotten penned into Brian's calander a less happy bride I would be. Regardless! All of that is in the past right now because, OH MY GOD YOU GUYS, IT'S ALMOST A YEAR AWAY!

Squee!! Now, the reason why I am getting all jabberwoky on you is because now: it's beginning. Steve and I have selected a restaurant to have our "engagement dinner" (I hate calling it an engagement dinner because we've been engaged for so long that we're not announcing anything new here). Yummy mexican food at Mesa Coyocan - walking distance from our house. Homeboy has to start working on invitations because they have to be sent!  This dinner is where we're going to formally ask our nearest and dearest to take a stand next to us on the big day. Bestie Elise is flying in from LA, and we're going to have some amazing out of town guests to host. I am not usually one for ceremony when it comes to these matters (really, a phone call will suffice) but who doesn't love a party? I am excited to be able to do something nice for these wonderful people in our lives. Especially since so many will be coming from out of town if they can make it, the potential for fun is unending.

So now comes the real deal: we're working on invitations to be sent out the first week in July to give everyone a heads up. Once we're all on board, Steve and I get to really start honing in on details without looking like insane people. 

I also have to start mapping out our honeymoon. My mom has been kind enough to bank two weeks of her timeshares for our picks in Hawaii. I need to look over all of our options to figure out where we want to stay, if we want to stay on one island for two weeks or change it up. Has anyone ever been to Hawaii? Any suggestions?