Twinkle Toes

Learning the Fox Trot

Last night Shea and I twirled gracefully around the dance floor (or maybe what I should say is there were no broken toes) at our very first dance lesson for the wedding.  I had a blast.  Shea did too even though he has perfected his look of long suffering.

Pre-Reception Gathering

On the wedding front, we rented tents, chairs and tables for the Pre-Reception Gathering (that period between the ceremony and reception dinner at the Hyatt.  We’ll be rigging the tent so that its air conditioned.  Mom and I even came up with the tentative menu (which may change based on feedback) but which sounds delicious right now since I haven’t eaten lunch: Hot Hors D’Oeuvres which will include Sweet & Sour Meatballs (Aunt Jana’s recipe), Chicken Ramaki, (Julie’s recipe) and Hanky Pankies (Great Aunt Juliet’s recipe).  Cold Hors D’Oeuvres which will include Chips/Dips, Veggie Tray, Fruit Tray, Cheese and Crackers Tray.  Sweets such as cookies and possibly a chocolate fountain and drinks such as lemonade, iced tea, coffee, cokes, beer and box wine.

St. Joseph’s

We also met this morning at St. Joseph’s to go over the ceremony, flowers, church photography and candle options and are pretty much set on those items.  St. Joseph’s handles most everything.  We just need to contact the music coordinator and we’re set! 

Wedding Invitations

I received and opened our wedding invitations…am looking forward to several nights of addressing envelopes! 

Programs

I’ve started on the programs and have been tweaking them for the last week or so to include as much info as I can.  The lady at St. Joseph’s was super helpful and gave us samples of prior couple’s programs to use.

To Do

Find shoes, choose ceremony music, address envelopes…yep that’s what I should be doing this weekend…instead, I’m going to play hooky.  Rose and I are going on a day trip to Mount Vernon, Texas, while Shea bonds with the couch and TV.

All is good!

Smellin the Roses!

What a sense of acomplishment!  We ordered our wedding invitations, signed the contract for the florist and paid the deposit on the wedding cake.  How sweet is that!  Everything is sounding so wonderful and pretty.  I can't wait to see it all together!

Shea and I will be looking at tents this Monday and we're going to meet with the church to go over the accomadations.

Next up...music...

January Football and more Wedding Plans

In between watching football and moving my stuff over to Shea's, we've continued to check off wedding stuff.  On Saturday, we actually picked out the tuxes and bought the groomsmen's wedding gifts all in one full swoop.  Then we went to Fuller's and Shea picked out his wedding ring.  That too was a breeze because the one in the showroom fit him so all we had to do was pay for it and then they polished it.  I think we were there a total of 15 minutes.

We've now in the process of cake tasting, yum and I've talked Mom, Rose and Lita into going to a bridal show on the 29th. 

Christmas and New Years - Taking a Break

Its been a busy couple of weeks.  Four weekends in a row were just busy busy busy (Cookie baking at Shea's, Hodges/Davis early Christmas at Sean and Janet's in Kansas and then Christmas and New Years with Shea's family in Cincinnati). 

 

Wedding News. We put the marriage planning on hold for Christmas.  Still we finalized and signed a contract with our MC/DJ and we just received news that Bishop Doug will be officiating our wedding.  Great news!  

 

Early Christmas at my brother Sean's was fun.  My first conversation with my brother was him asking me if there was something I wanted to ask him.  Seems he had already looked at the website and was wondering if we were actually going to ask him to be one of Shea's groomsmen since he was already listed as such.  We officially asked him and he officially agreed to be a groomsman.  Got to hold my new niece, Megan; she is such a good baby and too adorable.  Lil Don is still dealing with having a new sister.  The best part was that because he was jealous, he actually posed for some pics.  The funniest part of the trip was when Mom and Don got locked in the back seat of their rental SUV after Dim Sum.  Since they had let us out in the front, we didn't know where they parked and couldn't see them through the tinted glass.  Don had to call Shea to let us know where they were.  After driving back to Sean's, Sean, Shea and I all pretended to walk away from the SUV but by then they had figured out the latching mechanism and were getting out.  All's well that ends well.

 

Christmas and New Years with the Flynns was a blast.  Lots of family, kiddos and dogs. Also, I'm not the only baker in the family, Shawn makes some of the best chocolate chip cookies I've ever tasted.  I sampled Barb's cookies and loved her peanut butter cookies and I got to try Stacy's buckeye cookies, yum.  Among other things, Shea received a towel that says "Beer Helping white men dance since 1862" from his groomsman, Mark and Jaunda; he's been instructed to bring it to the wedding.  I received several fun things.  The first notable was my hat "Walnut in Waiting 10 1/2"  The Flynns were known in the area as the Walnuts based on a similarly named TV show.  Shea is the 10th walnut and I will be 10.5 on July 23rd.  I also received Skyline chili so I can make my own three ways (eg greek chili, spaghetti and cheddar cheese; five ways add onions and beans; tried one of those this time but prefer the 3 way) and starbucks gift certificates with a sippy cup from Shea's Dad and Mike. Why the sippy cup, it was because by the time we made it to Kansas, I had spilled my coffee twice.  In the truck, it was bad; I had just asked Shea to travel 4 miles out of his way for Starbucks coffee and then I proceeded to spill it all over the interior of his truck...what a mess.  I'd only had a sip or two. Bummer.

 

We also visited with Shea's friends, best man, John, neighbors and his Aunt Betty and Uncle Ray.  When we were at his Aunt and Uncle's, I actually shot a 50 caliber muzzle loader.  There's a great picture where it looks like I blew off Shea's head cause the powder drifted right over him.  Had a great time visiting; super nice people (and talented too!).

 

To ring in the New Year, we also went to Darren and Barb's for a birthday party/New Year's party.  Tied for the win playing spoons and got to see Shea's brother Darren and nephew Colin blow up lots of fireworks.  Lots of fun!

Focus at the Church, Found Bridesmaid Dresses and Lost a Priest

Well its been kinda crazy the last week or so with wedding projects and Christmas projects taking up most of our time. 

Lost Priest.  So earlier, we received an email from the church that said the priest we picked would be elsewhere on our wedding date, did we have a family friend who could officiate, if not Mary could ask the others at the church if they were available.  I guess you could say I blanked out at bit.  We had just signed contracts with the reception venue and photographer and sent many of our "save the date" cards.  Eak, what if there was no priest.  I sweated for all of an hour until Mary at the church got back to us and promised that no matter what there would be someone at the church to marry us on July 23rd.  But at this time, we have not been assigned another officiant.

Found Bridesmaid Dresses.  As for the bridesmaid dresses, put 4 alpha females in the same room with totally different views on what they want to wear and ask them to all agree on a dress...well lets just say it was interesting.  Several hours later, a bit of giggling, a bit of "you're kidding right, I'm not trying on that dress, its ugly ugly ugly" and the dress style was chosen.  Have to say, we were really thinking that purple dress, white socks and green shoes may really work since we got to see Rose strut her stuff in a green dress with white socks and purple high heeled shoes.  I've got pictures!

Focus.  Last but not least, Shea and I attended our one and only Focus meeting with the church counselor.  Earlier, we had to complete a list of 162 questions, a bunch of questions that Shea said were flawed...flawed...flawed.  Personally, I got a crack out of several of them, including the one that said something like, Will you have a problem seeing your future spouse NAKED. hahaha.  Anyway, this Saturday's meeting was to go through our answers.  It went well and we were able to finish everything in one meeting.  I guess the thing that surprised all of us was that Shea and I had similar scores on our spirituality/religion views.  I believe I said..."cool."  Anyway now we have to attend 2 all day Saturday Pairs counseling sessions and tada, we've been counseled! ha.

The Reception Venue has been locked down

Shea and I found our wedding reception venue, Sweet!  Its the Hyatt Place Dallas/Garland.  We signed the contract earlier this week.  Its a relief to cross this one off the list.

If you want to stay at the hotel, Hyatt is offering a special rate of $79 per night if you mention that you are attending the Flynn & Davis Wedding.  Please let us know if you have any problems obtaining that special room rate.

Hyatt Place Dallas/Garland

5101 North President George Bush Highway  (Tollroad Hwy. 190) 

Garland, TX 75040, USA

Phone: 972 414 3500 Fax: 972 414 3550

http://dallasgarland.place.hyatt.com/hyatt/hotels/place/index.jsp

 

Hyatt Guest Services & Amenities  

§   complimentary hotel-wide Wi-Fi Internet access

§   complimentary continental breakfast buffet

§   24-hour made-to-order menu items and pre-packaged snacks

§   specialty espresso coffee drinks

§   self-service check-in/check-out kiosks

§   complimentary newspaper

§   complimentary parking

§   complimentary 24-hour Stay Fit; fitness center with Life Fitness; cardio equipment

§   complimentary shuttle service within 5 mile radius (e.g., Hawaiian Falls Waterpark and the Firewheel mall, which includes the AMC Firewheel 18 (air conditioned movies).

§   outdoor pool

If you don’t want to stay at the Hyatt, following are different hotel options :.

Directly across the freeway from Hyatt Place is the Holiday Inn Hotel Garland

5110 North George Bush Freeway

Garland, TX 75040

(972) 495-1144

http://www.holidayinn.com/hotels/us/en/garland/dalgl/hoteldetail

About three exits North of Hyatt Place on George Bush Freeway near Jupiter are more hotels (e.g., less then five miles away using the north bound service rd.):

Homewood Suites Plano Richardson

www.homewoodsuites.com

2601 East George Bush Turnpike

Plano, Texas

(972) 881-3339

Candlewood Suites Hotel Plano

www.candlewoodsuites.com

2401 E. George Bush Turnpike

Plano, Texas

(214) 474-2770

Comfort Suites

www.comfortsuites.com

2301 East Pres George Bush Highway

Plano, Texas

(469) 429-0700

There are also more hotels at Campbell and Highway 75, if you prefer to be on that side of town.  Please let us know if you need more information about those hotels.

We just hired our wedding photographers

Its been a pretty productive day, Shea and I hired our wedding photographers, a husband and wife team named George Troup Photography.  They live really close to St. Joseph's and have photographed several weddings there.  If you do a search on their website you can see pics of the church.  Anyway, both Shea and I really liked them and their pictures.  http://www.georgetroupphotography.com/

On a sidenote, just finished watching my new favorite comedy...Raising Hope...to funny.