Chapter 64: Small Steps Make A Big Difference

Over the past few days, my mom and I have been working to prepare some of the details for the wedding before I head back to Vegas with Joe on Tuesday. We have contacted vendors, purchased wedding accessories and have started to plan the ceremony. Other small details have also been addressed. Although small, getting these items out of the way makes us feel good about accomplishing and moving forward with the wedding plans.

Tomorrow, I am headed to Joe's house and together we will go visit our house one last time before we head out of town. We are hoping to see the walls painted and the start of the flooring being installed. This will be the last time we will see it before our home-to-be before it should be completely finished on (or around) July 10th.

Chapter 63: Engagement Session Photos!

Our engagement session photographs have been posted online! Joe and I were very excited to see our photos. Sean and John did a great job. They posted some of our pictures on their blog and also this slide show with accompanying music. Check them out and let us know what you think!

Chapter 62: Here we go again!

Yesterday morning, Joe and I left his house and headed to Lendable Linens to meet my mom. There had been an issue that one of the linens we had previously chosen was not going to fit on one of the tables. We were going to need to pick out a totally different table cloth. However, when we got there, the sales representative told us that he could make a new table cloth because he had extra material that matched the other linens. Although we felt that it had been a little pointless to drive that far for such a short meeting, we were happy to have the linen issue solved so easily!

Since that meeting went so quickly, we had time to stop at our house again in order to show my mom the progress. We were happy to see some people there working. My mom hadn't seen the house in a long time and said it was really taking shape!

Next, we went to Phipps to walk through the ceremony area and to meet Andy, who does lighting for special events. Andy has worked at Phipps before (the walls in the reception hall are completely white and could use some color) and he was able to give us descriptions of what he has done in the past. We are setting up a meeting with him to give us a small light demonstration at Phipps in July. We then spoke with Shannon (Phipps Rep) about the ceremony set up and timeline. Since our last visit, flowers have been planted and the back patio is looking beautiful! We were happy to see things in full bloom!

Chapter 61: Back to Business

Joe and I flew back into Pittsburgh on Friday night. We had a nice dinner with his parents on our way home from the airport. Today, we tried to adjust back to this time zone as we got up early to start a big day...

We started by checking out our house for the latest progress. It was nice to go away and come back to some noticeable changes. It was good to see the base cabinets in place and the tiling for the master bath complete (and looking excellent). Boxes were stacked in the "living room" for the wall cabinets and the spiral staircase. Painting will begin and hopefully end this week so that the flooring can be put down. Even though we had been hoping for an earlier completion date, we are still very excited to see our decisions come to fruition!

Also, I had my haircut and styled at Sognatore, which is the salon where I intend to have my hair done on our wedding day! It worked out well that my hair was done for our engagement photography session. We met Sean and John from The Brand Studio for a quick beverage before our shoot. We walked around Mt. Washington for about an hour and a half taking different photos. Joe and I both believe this will be the jump start we needed for our modeling careers! Sean and John did a great job making us feel comfortable and we are excited to see the results! We will make sure to post some pics.

P.S. Check out their website. The dog photographs are great!

Chapter 60: Entertainment!

Besides Joe playing poker and me watching him play poker, we have also been enjoying all that Vegas has to offer! We went to "LOVE" which is the cirque du soleil that celebrate the musical legacy of The Beatles. It was a very good show but we liked the cirque du soleil "O" show (which we saw last year) better.

Tonight, we have tickets for Danny Gans. He was voted "Entertainer of the Year" and is a singer-impressionist-comedian-actor. We have heard that his impersonations are very funny and we're looking forward to it! We are leaving Vegas for the PA on Friday.

Chapter 59: Vegas Update!

Joe and I have been relaxing in Vegas! My friend, Suzi, came to visit us for the past few days. She and I have enjoyed watching Joe play poker. Joe did well in a heads up tournament yesterday! Heads up is where you play one other player, not a table of 9 or 10. Joe won 2 heads up matches before he was beat. However, he made the money and was very happy to do so! He still has quite a few more tournaments he is going to play and hopefully he'll do well in another one soon!

Otherwise, I have been talking with my mom and we have been continuing with the wedding progress. We have received the final proofs and are going to put in the order for the invitations tomorrow!

Progress on the house has continued but we are not expecting it to done by the time we come home on the 20th. It will probably be finished at the very beginning of July.

Chapter 58: Vegas, baby!

So Joe and I are in Vegas with his family. Joe has been playing in the World Series of Poker at the Rio. He did well in a tournament on Saturday but unfortunately busted out of the tournament on Sunday. He was very close to making the money in that tournament. Otherwise, we have been enjoying the overly hot weather, good food and relaxing atmosphere. Hopefully we'll have another update with news of Joe winning!

Chapter 57: House, Invitations, Vegas!

We received some photos of the progress on the house. The first photo is where they have framed the wall for the corner fireplace. The second photo is of the master bathroom, which they are getting ready to tile sometime in the upcoming week.

Also, last night we received the proof for the invitations! My mom and I were very excited to see them! They looked good but we did have a few minor changes that we wanted to make. Hopefully we will be able to have them printed soon.

Lastly, I have a flight at 8:30 this evening to join Joe in Las Vegas. We look forward to being reunited!

Chapter 56: Invitation Hang Up

We were expecting to receive the proof of our invitations late last week but have not received them yet. We spoke with the invitation representative and she was hoping they would be in by tomorrow but she intends to call and check on the status of them tomorrow morning.

Otherwise, my mom and I made some progress today on the wedding plans. We made some phone calls and organized some of our wedding notes while we enjoyed the hot and sunny day outside! We will try to get as much as we can done before I go to Las Vegas on Thursday.