Lois with the blue dress on!

My mom is always so giving, and never does much for herself. Whenever we go shopping it's never for her, even when I try to get her to try things on. She never "needs anything" or she doesn't "have a reason to wear it". Well now with the wedding coming up she needs a nice dress and definitely has a reason to wear it. We went shopping today at Moms, Maids and More in Bellevue and they were really good about squeezing us in even though we didn't have an appointment. We ended up finding the perfect dress for my little mom. She looks classy and elegant and I'm excited to see how pretty she looks on the big day. Here is a link to her dress! It will be in the blue that is the second option called Bluestone.

Lois' Dress


Also, we checked out a new cupcake place called New York Cupcake in Bellevue. It's a cute, smaller place that Gina told me about after seeing an article about how they just won Best Chocolate Cupcake by Seattle Metropolitan Magazine. The cupcakes were delicious and the pricing is awesome, so they very easily may be who we go with.

DJ, Parents Weekend, and Officiant... Check, check and check

I've really realized that going into this, I had no idea how much a wedding costs. I knew that the dress could be pricey and the flowers and location, etc. However, I had no idea how many little things there are that all add up, such as chair covers... Anyways! When I started looking at DJs I was shocked at how much some guy in a tux wanted us to pay him to play songs. I know that the DJ also is responsible to keep up the flow of events and all that, but I had a problems with a price tag that was more than a monthly mortgage payment.

Lucky for me, my cousin and bridesmaid Gina has a friend who is a DJ that happens to have all of the qualities we were looking for. He can play music, he isn't cheesy, he can keep the events moving, and he doesn't require me to sell a kidney on the black market to make a down payment. Also, thanks to Gina, the DJ and his friend who will be doing our wedding gave us a really great deal. It was a huge relief to be able to mark that off the check list. It was also a huge relief that they agreed with my choice of excluding songs such as the YMCA, Electric Slide, Macarana and the Chicken Dance. I could really live without synchronized dancing at the wedding.

Once we had the DJ figured out, we had to worry about our parents meeting for the first time. Jake's mom and dad, Lori and Phil, got here on Friday afternoon and stayed until Monday. Luckily, all went well and the parents all got along! Everything went really well. Lori, my mom and I went and saw the wedding venue all set up which was exciting. All in all, it went really smoothly. And to think that I was so worried about Jake's parents coming to see our place for the first time I found myself dusting the molding just so that our place would be spotless... And I always said that I would never become my mom...

The next task was to find somebody to officiate our wedding. Jake and I both decided that we would be much happier with somebody that we both knew and felt comfortable with. We joked around with a few friends, but then I realized that I had the perfect candidate! My aunt Eileene is my mom's sister and where my middle name came from. She's going to get ordained online, which I love. I think that she'll be able to keep things light and fun, but still keep it serious enough that everyone knows that it's still a wedding. I'm obviously really excited to have someone we know marrying us, but I'm THRILLED that it's going to be my aunt!

So there are the most recent updates! Also, I added more pictures to the wedding website.