Heeding.

"Enjoy this time!", everyone keeps telling me. "Just savour it! Take in every single moment!"

After a couple of fairly stressful months with everything suddenly needing to get organized at once, I think that I am finally starting to heed everyone's advice.

Three weeks from tomorrow, I become a Mrs.

I will start having to tick the "Married" box on forms and fill out that extra space asking me for "Name of Spouse". I never had to worry about that little line before. I've always ticked the "Single" box. Even through the engagement, it's been the "Single" box. There isn't an option for "Engaged". Or even "In a Relationship", for that matter. Facebook has the monopoly on that one.

No, from now on, I am ticking the "Married" box. I get to do that on our flight to the Barbados for the honeymoon, which is an incredibly exciting thought.

All thoughts I've had lately are exciting. Like, really, bone-tickling exciting. We had the tasting for the reception dinner the other night, and every bite was perfection, exactly what Nat and I had hoped for. We got to select the wine and went over the seating chart, which wasn't as difficult as I had thought it would be.

Throughout the evening I felt that warmth of giddiness growing in my belly. You couldn't wipe the smile off my face if you tried, and I would randomly burst into little fits of 'Oh, this is SO MUCH FUN!". A far cry from two weeks ago, when the amount of stress bubbling beneath the surface caused a breakout of epic proportions on my forehead. So not what I needed at that time, but has since calmed and cleared, making way for a lovely pre-wedded glow.

I have battled one cold and been stricken with another as of yesterday, hopefully being the last fight I'll have to wage before people start arriving for the festivities.

The lovely Heather arrives all the way from Adelaide, Australia in less than two weeks from now. 13 days to be exact. In two weeks, she will no doubt be sleeping off her jet lag, waiting for me to finish my last day of work before I get a glorious three weeks off! I am spending the entire week before the wedding with her, and hopefully some time with Graeme and Patricia.

I imagine it will be a relatively calm week, since the last thing I want is to be exhausted and worn out before I have to be glamorous and presentable for everyone and their cameras. A little bit of rambunctiousness is always welcome, especially when you get the four of us together. Ah, memories of London.

As well as Heather, Alicia is arriving from Amsterdam. Just in time for the hen do on the 9th. Oh, Lordy, I'm praying for a drama and vomit-free evening. At 31, though I'm a little less prone to causing riotous havoc when out on the town. But you never know with a hen do. You just never know...so I'm expecting nothing and hoping to make it out alive.

I picked up my dress and my "headgear" last weekend, so that part is all done. Nat is getting a gorgeous bespoke suit made for the wedding and has his second-last fitting tonight. He has his shoes and his belt, so once the suit is finished we're all ready to go, wardrobe wise.

The girls have their dresses. The flowers have been picked. The hair and makeup team is assembled. The hotels are booked. The rehearsal is set. The limos arranged. The photographer is at the ready.

There truly isn't anything else to stress about. No more excuses, no more anxiety, no more restless sleeps.

I am officially relaxed and ready to enjoy this time.

And what a time it will be.

Showered in Wine.

To satiate those who love a good pictorial post, here are some pictures from our Wine Shower.

Months ago, a very close friend of my mother, Laurie Wallace, offered to host a wine shower for Nat and me. Very kind, considering it had been literally years since I had seen her. Still, it was a lovely gesture and we scored plenty of fine bottles on wine to start a nice little collection.

I had had my wedding day make-up trial earlier that day, so I was feeling particularly pretty with my very fluttery false eyelashes. My mother was in disbelief, "THOSE are FAKE?!"


She had to take a picture to get a better look.

As there are at all showers, there were a few funny games played. When people entered the house they had a sticker stuck on their back with a name of a famous person, dead or alive. Without peeking at the name you had to ask people questions and try to guess who you are. You then had to find the person who was stickered with the name of your person's partner/lover. Of course, in these types of games, hilarity ensued. Anneliese was "Albert". I, not knowing she was supposed to be Prince Albert, assumed she was Bill Cosby's famous cartoon character, Fat Albert. So all of my answers to her questions made no sense in the end.

Laurie also cut holes into an old sheet and hung it from a doorway. A group of women including myself had to position themselves so their noses poked through the holes. Nat would be on the other side and had to guess just by looking which nose belonged to me. Since I have a rather bulbous nose, he knew instantly which one was me.

Me and my gorgeous sister

Ladies lining up to happily shove their noses through the holes.

Bulbous.

Then it was the men's turn to stick their feet out from beneath the sheet, and I had to guess which one belonged to Nat. And what can I say, I know Nat's hairy feet better than I'd like to admit.

(His is the one on the far right)

Below are more pictures from the evening.

We were very touched and lucky to have friends and family there to celebrate with us.

A hilariously bad bottle of wine given as a joke gift.
Had to be there.

Cousin Emily and the gorgeous baby Eloise.

Practicing the cutting of the cake.
I hope Nat has that same face when we cut the actual wedding cake.

Time Keeps on Slippin', Slippin'....

When talking about the wedding with a married girlfriend of mine waaaaa-AAAY back in the summer, she exclaimed to me, "oh my God! Time is just going to FLY by. You're not going to even BELIEVE how fast time is going to go by! Seriously...it's crazy."

Still being over 8 months away at that point, time definitely was NOT flying. Time was doing just the opposite. Time seemed to be going backwards. It was trickling along like hardened sap down a tree. Like a snail taking a leisurely, squishy slither across a lawn. Like dust collecting in the corner, the wedding was so far out of my mind at that point I thought to myself, "when? When is time going to start flying?" With nothing to do, purchase or organize for months and months, I wondered WHEN I was going to start feeling the ticking of the clock as my friend so adamantly proclaimed would happen.

The answer? Right. Now.

Right now, time is flying by me with frightening speed. Not even lightning speed...like, even faster, if that's at all possible. I blink, and another milestone in the lead-up to the Big Day has come and gone.

The dreaded Canadian Winter is nearly over, hanging on by a pathetic thread still soaking us in slushy, snow storms every other day. All of the events I had listed in my mind as having to "get through" before the wedding are nearly done, with my Bridal Shower - thrown by my beautiful, wonderful sister Meredith - the latest, and one of the last, under my belt as of this evening (scoring quite a nice, kitchenly haul, I might add). Nat goes on his Stag to Austin, Texas this coming weekend, followed by a shower held by his family the weekend after. Then we have a glorious "free" weekend mostly likely to be filled with meetings and/or tastings, then the International Party Crew comes to town (Heather, Alicia, Kez & Julia). Then that Saturday is my Stagette, and then the weekend after that: The Wedding.

I haven't updated this blog because there was nothing really that exciting to update. I got my dress, it fits just perfectly. I have all the necessary accessories and a FABULOUS pair of new sparkly Jimmy Choo's. The girls have their dresses, the flowers have been picked. All the RSVP's are in and the seating lists are going to be finished next weekend, along with the homemade favours made by our Mums.

Okay, maybe those are exciting things. But considering that all of those things have happened within the last month and a bit, I haven't found the time to sit down and go over them all. Weekdays are for work and the gym. Saturdays and Sundays have been for wedding stuff. There has been no real "Buffy" time to sit, and breathe, and type. After the shower today though, I realized that I owe it to myself and all of you to update and let you know that I am still here, things are still happening, and it's all happening very fast.

"Are you excited?!??!", people ask me. Yes, of course I am. When I stop and realize that all of this work and all of these events are quickly leading up to my wedding day, that I am in less that 5-weeks going to be married to the greatest man I have ever known, my best friend and confidant, yes. I am beyond excited.

But because THIS is the time where the weeks turn into days, it hasn't really sunk in yet, because I haven't found the time to let it!

I guess my next question is, "when? WHEN is it going to sink in that I'm getting married???"

Will it be when everything is over? When we're on the plane, heading to the Barbados, am I going to turn and look at this beautiful man next to me and say, "you're my husband!". Is that the moment??

Everyone has an answer to that, everyone is different. Only I will know when that moment happens, just like I had to wait and see when time would start flying.

It's pretty amazing, when there's such an exciting, momentous thing you're waiting for to happen. And suddenly, it happens.

Wow....5 weeks.

Breathe.......