Wedding Updates

It's been a busy few weeks around the Sileo/Stewart household. I've had two bridal showers - one in Austin and one in DC - and celebrated my 36th birthday. Yikes!  I also took a few days off of work to both relax and get some wedding stuff done. Sadly I'm not sure that I've done much of either - yet. I had some car issues to deal with (yep, the bad luck continues...) and found out that my wedding coordinator can no longer work with me for the weekend of my wedding. I also had my second dress fitting yesterday and almost fainted b/c I couldn't breathe. I'd like to believe it has nothing to do with the dress being too tight but she's making some adjustments and I'll try, again, in a few weeks.  Sigh.

But it will all work out, right? I'm going to make lemonade out of lemons - or whatever they say (incidentally I just had some delicious lemonade at lunch - boy, I miss sugar sometimes). 

So regardless of these hiccups, I will persevere.  I'm already working on finding a new wedding coordinator (with just 8 weeks to go...). My car is in the shop for round 1 of 2 repairs (round 1 is mechanical, round 2 is cosmetic) and I'm off to San Antonio tomorrow for the weekend with Carl. Where I believe the real relaxing will begin.  We are going the swanky JW Marriot hotel and spa for 3 days where I plan to do lots of lounging by the pool, get a massage and just overall be waited on.  Additionally, Carl is practically done with the deck we'll get married on (picture below) and I had some amazing bridal showers. I don't have many pictures yet but wanted to pass along this one below from my DC shower.

My mom and Aunt Kate threw me a lovely shower in DC and I got to see many of my high school and college friends - some that I hadn't seen in years.  It was like a mini reunion for many of us and the gifts, wine and amazing carrot cake were a bonus.  Pictured below are two of my best friends from high school (Shannon, who I met in 7th grade and Stephanie who I met in 1st grade) and one of my best friends (and later post-grad school roommate in DC) from college, Kristy.  We all went to college together and hadn't all seen each other maybe since graduation which was in (gulp) 1998.

I stayed the night after the shower with Pam in Arlington and Leslie came in from Massachusetts to help celebrate.  Pam, Leslie, Kim and I went out to dinner, which turned into drinks, which turned into more drinks, which turned into dancing, which turned into late night pizza, which turned into 3am.  I felt so old the next day but a little proud that I could still do it. That being said, I'm happy to have my lame, early to bed life back and after a lovely birthday dinner last night we went to sleep by 10pm.  I love my life.

I'll post more pictures soon of my Austin shower and all the splendor that was Anthropologie!

One Lucky Girl....

I feel incredibly lucky for so many reasons. This past weekend my Austin girlfriends threw me a bridal shower.  I'll post more on that once I have some pictures to share.  All you need to know for now is that it was at Anthropologie.  Awesome, huh?

In other lucky girl news, I came home from work on Monday to find the house full of Topo Chico bottles with single stemmed daisies.  This was Carl's sweet gesture after he heard my idea to collect empty Topo Chico bottles for the next few months to use as decoration at our rehearsal dinner.  He thought it would be sweet to see how it looked and there are 6 different bottles with flowers in them around the house.  Not only do I love how it looks (and it confirms to me that I want to do it) I love that Carl thought to do that.

So if I haven't already asked you, please send me any empty Topo Chico bottles in preparation for the wedding weekend.

Gracias!

Bachelorette Mellie

There are very few blog posts that I feel anxious about writing.  If there is something in my life that I don't want to share, I just don't write about it.  But the things in my life that I do want to share; the things that are so special and important, I don't know that I can adequately write about how much they mean to me.  One of those experiences (and I envision several others happening in the near future) is my bachelorette party.

My anxiety is not rooted in nervousness. It's more that I just don't know that I can give the full experience the words it deserves. 

Two weekends ago Haley, Devon, Jen, Jess, Nicole, Sue and Jen H. went to Marble Falls and stayed at Nicole's parent's house on the lake to celebrate me.  Weird to even write that.  This whole wedding experience has felt a bit surreal and having a bachelorette party added to that surrealness.  I've planned for and been to countless bachelorette parties for my friends.  And now it was my turn.  Wow.

In summary (don't worry, I'll go into some details) the weekend was all I could have hoped for. And more.  I'm so lucky to have such great girlfriends who know me so well and could anticipate all my needs and wants. 

The day started with a walk and tacos with Jess. She and I then picked up Jen Long and headed to our rendezvous point at Haley's new house.  Sue met us there and the 5 of us were off toward Marble Falls with a stop along the way for manis, pedis and bubbles.  It was the first of many drinks on the trip and the first of many times I was waited on.

When we arrived in Marble Falls, Nicole and Devon were already there and had been doing lots of prep work.  Snacks and more bubbles (French 75s this time) were ready for the sharing.  After a tour of the magnificent home we'd stay in for the next few days, the lounging began.  Some of us put our bathing suits on and headed down to the lake for some lounging with noodles.

The night continued with a tasty dinner out at a local Mexican restaurant where we got awkward back rubs from the owner. But that didn't ruin our time or impact the massive amount of food we ate.  We proceeded home to watch the Olympics, drink more and get to bed at a reasonable hour (this is exactly what I wanted).

The morning started with, you guessed it, more lounging.  This time it was on the back porch with coffee (yep, I was allowed to have it on this trip), fruit, frittata (thank you, again, Devon and Nicole) and magazine reading.  Once the bathing suit went on, the drinks began again.  Starting with delicious bloody marys.  The day was spent doing whatever you wanted around the house. I spent most of my time in the lake, sipping cocktails and laughing with my friends. 

The lunch was a spread of grazing type foods (my faves!) and more drinks and an afternoon movie break to watch The Hangover.  Then it was time to get ready for the night!  This time there were gifts to be opened (details will be kept private for this portion of the evening) and a long distance video toast from many of my friends who couldn't make it for the weekend.  Once I changed into my evening outfit (there were many wardrobe changes) a dance party began until our dinner was ready.  Dinner turned into games and games turned into more drinks and the Olympics.  Again, I was in bed at a decent time and up early the next morning (with only a minor headache). 

While some ladies had to leave early on Sunday, I hung around for a few hours - spent some more time in the lake and lounging.

It's hard to imagine how the weekend could have been better. I think the only thing missing was Kelsey (and, of course, my friends from afar) who had a change of plans at the last minute. And, of course, I could have stayed longer. 

I am so lucky to have such good friends and will remember this weekend for the rest of my life.

Girls Night Out

Every so often (note: a few times a year) I go out with my girlfriends for a night 'on the town' (even typing that makes me feel old).  I'm a pretty social person and have dinners out with friends, go to movies and am constantly making plans. But most things have me home by 9pm, which I'm just fine with.

But a few times a year we'll go out past midnight. The key to this is going to a late dinner (I like to think this is prepping me for our honeymoon to Spain where eating dinner at 9 or 10pm is commonplace), not eating too much and pacing myself.  Yep, I'm old. 

The other night, Devon invited us out to Fader Uncapped hosted by Fader magazine, which her cousin is in charge of.  It was a Tuesday. But we did it. We went out. Granted, we were home by 11:15 but it was a Tuesday!  The band ended up being DJ A-Track, who I have never heard of but he recently played at Lollapalooza so that seems like a big deal.  We danced a little bit, people watched and all in all had a good time.  I'm always happy when I go out and do something different from my normal routine but certainly have no idea how people do it all the time.  How even I used to do it all the time.  As my 36th birthday approaches I am reminded why you go to college when you are young.

Until next time....

Wedding Platform

Upon getting engaged, Carl and I quickly divided up duties and tasks. I am much more suited for things like organizing, check lists, spreadsheets and overall planning. Carl is much more suited for things like lighting, beer selecting and building.  We both agree that neither of us would be very good at the other's skill sets. That being said, there are times when we have to enlist each other for help. Carl graciously listens to me explain options and choices and reviews pictures of things.  I'm not always as gracious helping him with his projects, though. Mostly because I'm not very good at manual labor (at least not since my Americorps days) and it's hot out and all of his work occurs outside.  The last time I did anything land prep related was way back when in the spring (I am wearing a jacket in the picture I took that day) and I helped chip cedar trees.  So this past weekend I decided to help Carl with his biggest project of all - the deck we'll get married on.

From the beginning, Carl envisioned the platform we'd get married on - centered around the beautiful view over the ridge.  He enlisted several of his contractor friends and has planned every detail and already spent a lot of time working on building it.  This weekend his brothers and dad are coming into town to help him to put the roof and floor on and to run wire for the lighting.   Again, things I'm not very good at. But I do know how to paint and that's just what I helped him with this past weekend.  I didn't get a picture of it after we painted (we painted the steel beams a slate silver) but the other pictures show the progression of his construction.

Carl continues to impress me as he has put so much time and energy into this deck.  While he may not be good with checklists and planning, I know that his language of love is sometimes through construction.  In just a few short months we'll get married on this platform and all this time and energy will be worth it.