"Going to the chapel and we're...

...gonna get maaaaaaaaaarrrrried!"

Sorry for the brief hiatus from both here and on Twitter! Things have been a bit hectic this past week for my family.

Last Wednesday night my little sister got engaged. While it was a bit sooner than we had anticipated (last we all knew he was planning on doing it a week or so before he left for Basic in April, as he's going into the Navy), it wasn't really a shock - he had talked to my parents about it awhile ago and my mom knew he had purchased a ring, etc.

What was surprising is that the wedding was set for March 30th. Of this year!

Yes, 6 weeks.

And no, she's not pregnant (we've been assured that there will be no baby from them within the next 9 months!).

The J-man modeling his suit jacket

The reason being is that he's leaving for Basic on April 10th and I guess his mom was looking on some Navy

friends and family support site she's on (as 2 of her 3 sons are going in April) and learned that he could deployed as soon as 8 hours after graduation and that as far as getting a leave to come back for his wedding ceremony (they were originally planning on having it in November), there's been a lot of Navy brides who got screwed over and lost deposits as their beloved wasn't granted the expected leave or it had been revoked/canceled at the last minute. There was also the issue of them getting married military benefits and housing, as until they were married if she wanted to follow him to whatever base he was stationed everything involving her would be out of pocket until they were married and I guess getting married before he goes off just makes that whole process easier and less of a hassle.

So yeah.

Well... Thursday they went to book a chapel and reception hall... and they couldn't get the 30th.

So instead the wedding was bumped up a week, giving us 5 weeks to plan it!

So needless to say, it's been a bit crazy around here this past week!

They did get more done in 2 days than I know some have done in 2 months! They immediately got the chapel and reception hall book, secured a photographer, a DJ, my cake lady, got their wedding rings, tuxes picked out and bridesmaid dresses ordered, as well as invitations picked out.

This past weekend we got the guest list sorted out and invitations printed and put together. I got started on their programs as I'm designing that and I also planned the bachelorette party as well as secured a venue for her bridal shower that I'm throwing as I'm her Matron of Honor (which I also go into quite a fight with my aunt over, as she didn't even give me a chance to ask her if she wanted to help and when I did talk to her about it I specifically asked her to take charge of the food and instead she starts planning everything else when I asked her to wait... needless to say, I'm now planning the shower on my own as she decided to "bow out"). I also started putting together a "bridesmaid survival" kit with a bunch of random stuff to bring with the day of just in case someone needs or forgot something. I've gotten Jay's attire settled too as he's obviously the ring bearer. Today I mailed out the shower and bachelorette party invites as well.

Oh and our bridesmaid dresses already here (in which I'll be posting a David's Bridal rant in my next post!)

So yeah, as you can imagine - things have been a bit crazy around here!

As I mentioned, on top of Matron of Honor duties, I'm also doing quite a bit of design work for them too, including the programs, invitation inserts, eventually the place cards and they asked me to put together a photo slideshow for them to play at the reception as well.

I'm up for suggestions too as far as Bridal Shower games and favor ideas if you have any!

Fortunately I have 10 days off work as we're closing after Saturday for a nice, snazzy complete store remodel! I have to work Sunday and Monday as we're packing everything up that's out on the floor, then we come back 10 days later to unpack it all! But we get nice, new, shiny fixtures and hardware, new flooring, pre-assembled mannequins (one of the things I'm most excited about as I suck at building them the right heights!). So exciting!

Oh and let's not even talk about Valentine's Day... it was a pretty crappy one for me and yeah... I'd rather pretend the day never happened.