An Update

Things are happening around here :) Ben's dad is moving to an independent apartment of his own in a senior living complex in Westminster on Friday - very good news! I know he's going to be so much happier there, and I'm hoping that will lead to more consistently pleasant visits with his kids. It's been trying for everyone, and he's been a little more edgy and irritable for the past few weeks, which has made it even harder on Ben and his sisters. He's an extremely independent man forced into a situation where he relies on other people for EVERYTHING, and he was just bound to reach his breaking point somewhere along the line. I give him lots of credit for remaining relatively calm for so long and for most of the time, but lately it seems like he and the kids have been at odds more frequently, so this move is definitely coming right on time! He'll be close to Amberly so she can still be checking on him, and not too far from the other kids, at least for weekend visits and for helping him out with errands and stuff like that on the weekends. His physical and occupational therapists are very confident in his ability to be independent again, and he seems confident too, so we're all very optimistic. He has been forced to make a lot of life changes that should positively affect his health, so from here on out we're hoping for relatively smooth sailing, with a few adjustments and bumps along the way I'm sure :) But please keep him and the kids in your prayers! This will be yet another change to adjust to, and they'll still be needing lots of patience and perseverance in the weeks and months and years to come.

As for Ben and I, we recently decided to book a wedding photographer. Before you gasp and fall out of your chair thinking we weren't having a photographer... my maid of honor's mom is a professional sports photographer, and she had offered to do it for us. We were going to buy some prints from her and get a CD of everything to do our own printing also (my Dad has a nice photo printer and is also a photography nut). She had informed us that she didn't have what most people would consider a "full set" of wedding photography equipment, including a large flash for indoor work, but that everything should be fine as long as she didn't have to take large group photos or any other long-distance shots inside. Seemed ok to us - the reception is the only indoor part, and we'll be finished with the big group shots by then. But recently, she brought up another important point... that if it rains, EVERYTHING will have to be shot inside. I was just imagining myself in this scenario, already hysterical because it's raining on my wedding day and forcing us inside, and then having to worry that none of my photos would turn out quite right. Oh my. I felt incredibly guilty (and still do) turning down Janelle's parents' generous offer. They're such sweet, wonderful people and I know that they would've done their absolute best and poured their hearts into our wedding photos. But in the end, I decided that it was best for everyone involved if they didn't have to be subjected to that kind of pressure. I know how horrible they'd feel if the photos didn't turn out well, and of course how upset we'd be (not upset with them, but upset about the situation).

So, I started hunting around for a new photographer. My aunt's friend is a wedding photographer, but she works alone and Ben was really adamant about wanting two people shooting to make sure that we got everything. She would've given us a decent deal, but we found another photographer who was also willing to give us a GREAT deal, who works with an assistant. His name is Jamie Roberts, and he recently started his own company but has been doing weddings for 12 years. His work is just beautiful - he has a great eye and does really nice photojournalistic stuff. His shots of the details just blew me away, and his black and white work is just lovely. He was extremely flexible with us, and was willing to give us just the bare minimum of what we needed without asking us to buy extra prints or albums or anything. He's just covering the entire day for us (without a strict time constraint or anything) and giving us a DVD of everything with the rights to print. He said in a full day he usually takes 2 or 3 thousand photos, many of which will be duplicates or shots that were slightly out of focus or whatever, and that we'll probably have about 1200 shots, give or take, on our DVD after he edits out the junk. SWEET! We told him that we and our families would definitely buy some prints from him and that we'd like to get an album eventually, but that we just couldn't afford to build those things into our package at this point. We're only spending a few hundred dollars more that we would have been, but we're very relieved and it's totally worth it. And my Dad is gonig to help us pick up the slack in that regard, so we'll be ok. It just feels wonderful to not be worried about it at all! So, despite the fact that it's a little late in the game, we got lucky and it all worked out :)

Coming up this month, I'm meeting with the florist again to re-think my options without the crazy-expensive calla lilies (at least without so many of them), having a tasting at Turf Valley to decide on our menu, booking the rehearsal dinner, and hopefully meeting with our Pastor to go over our ceremony details. I knew February would be busy, but it doesn't seem like it's going to be too bad at this point. I'm starting to work on my vows, as well as thinking about the day-of itinerary and what needs to be taken care of and what duties need to be assigned. That's actually a big part of things that I hadn't put much emphasis on until now. Thank God for the knot checklist - I'd be lost without it! We've also started discussing dates for the shower and bachelorette party, which is VERY exciting! I can't wait!!!

Tomorrow is my mom's brithday, so we'll be going out to dinner with her after Ben spends the day starting to pack up his dad's old apartment for the move next week. I think we're going to the Cheesecake Factory... yummmm :) Anyway, Ben is at his house taking a shower and shaving his mountain-man face, and I'm supposed to be doing likewise (minus the face-shaving part!), and he's probably going to kill me when he gets here and I'm just getting into the shower because I was BLOGGING. So I'll let you all go.