Gooooo-ing to the Chapel and we're gonna get maaa-aaaaa-rried!

It's 7:25 on the morning of my wedding! Wheeeee! I've been up since 6:00, had my coffee and breakfast and am now ready to get this show on the road! Mr. Perfet just left to go drop off the dogs for their week-long retreat at the doggy spa. I just said goodbye to him and next time I see him it will be at the ceremony! I can't believe the day is finally here!

I think I need an update!

I've been kinda busy lately and haven't updated in a very long time. It's not that I haven't thought about posting... I even started writing a post a while ago. It started out saying "we're getting married in 42 days...". However, I never got around to finishing it and now we are gettign married in 5 DAYS! EEEK!

So here is a mish mash of updates on a few different subjects:

Changa the Bride... this is a revised post from the 42days to go post which never got posted... I'm so busy I'm just going to use it and update. Hah!
Like I mentioned a few posts ago, the invitations are out (so are the corrections) and the RSVPs are starting to roll in. We’re getting married in 25 days and panic is starting to settle in. Don’t get me wrong, there is absolutely no panicking about the actual wedding or the whole till death do us part stuff, it’s the freakin’ organising that gets me panicking. Right now, we’re down to the nitty gritty stuff... the easily forgotten stuff. Ugh. On the menu this week I have a whole slew of possible projects to tackle: meeting with officiant, meeting with photographer, pew markers, vows, program, schedules, linens and hair accessories... which ones shall I work on this week. *sigh*. Thankfully, the bridal shower is over and done with. Ah yes, the bridal shower... the one thing my Mom stressed over as been stressing over for weeks. I didn’t really want a shower, but my Mom insisted. She drove me a bit batty with the whole ordeal because there was “so much to do” (according to her). After all was said and done, it was a nice afternoon and we got spoiled rotten!

Changa the Bride - the update
As I mentioned earlier in the post, we have 5 days until the wedding! Wheeeee! Right now it's all the last minute running around, but I'm sure it's all going to get done. The family has started to arrive and I feel like things are actually moving along. I can't believe I'll be Mrs. Perfect in 5 days!

Changa the Honeymooner
I was finally able to switch up so shifts to get time off for a honeymoon. Wahoo!! We’ve booked a vacation to VEGAS, baby! I can’t wait! We might even get remarried by Elvis. :-P Ok, maybe not, but we could! We leave the day after the wedding and get back home the next Saturday morning.

Changa the Pup Owner
The dogs are also going away on vacation while we head to Vegas. They’ll be heading out to a pretty cool doggy resort. Well, the equivalent of a resort with lots of room to run around and muddle puddles to play in. Speaking of puddles, we have discovered that Bentley loves them... much to our dismay. Here’s a few pics of his adventure to the dog park:

Changa the Graduate



Last Saturday I received the official paper stating I have my Bachelor of Nursing. Yay! I wore the robe, I walked accross the stage, I paused for a photo op and I went home. It was a long boring ceremony, but I wanted to experience it. Now I can officially say I AM DONE! When I walked off stage, Mr. Perfect was standing there with roses (awwwww). Don't swoon just yet, though. My first reaction was, "who got me flowers... those aren't from you?" he quickly admitted they were from my Mom. Hah! I know him too well. :-)

I guess that's it for now - next time I post I will be Mrs Perfect and will hopefully have pictures.

PS: I'm sorry if there are typos... I got gel nails (a concept completely foreign to me) for the wedding and it's hard to type. Hah!

Ummmm.... oops?

The invitations have been sent out and they look fabulous! We also sent out about 25 invitations to the reception which were simpler and was only one sheet of paper. Well, apparently I abandoned all my proof-reading skills when I left the advertising world for a job as a nurse cause I forgot to include the WEDDING DATE in the reception only invitations!!! The freakin' wedding date! Can you believe it? Looks like I'll be sending out an extra little note.

I forgot to mention... I’m a Nurse!

I just realised I never posted about my RN exam and my wonderful passing grade! Although, I seriously doubt anyone who follows my blog is unaware of this fact since I’ve been shouting it from the rooftops for weeks now. :-)

In other news, our wedding is 8 weeks away and I am so happy we decided to move our reception from our backyard to an indoor venue. Given the stat of our backyard currently, it was a very wise decision, as evidence by the pictures below:






These days, it’s all wedding talk, all the time. Things are really falling into place, though and we seem to be crossing things off the massive to do list every day. If you know me at all, you won’t be surprised by the fact that we have a website... check it out at pierre-danielle.com.

Work is also going really well and I love what I do every day. Sure, I still come home exhausted and complaining on some days, but I think that’s just part of any career.

I guess that’s it for me, these days. Just thought a quick update was in need.

Bride Knows Best

Mr Perfect headed out with his Best Man to do some shopping this week to find the perfect tux for the wedding. He quickly found out that not all grooms have the luxury of an opinion. While describing to the saleswoman what he wanted in a tux, she casually mentioned he would need to check with me regarding colours. Mr Perfect reiterated that the decision was all his. The saleswoman laughed at this notion; “your groomsmen need to match with the bridesmaids”, she added. Mr Perfect was adamant: “no matching.” Even his Best Man wasn’t on his side: “I really think you should check with Changa on this one, he insisted”. Mr Perfect came home, thinking he might have dreamt that I was such a forgiving and liberal bride. Well, Mr Perfect was indeed right! No matching with the bridesmaids and yes, he does have the final say on what he wears to his own wedding. Gasp! Can you imagine? A groom actually deciding what he wears to his wedding? Bridezillas around the world are having a collective conniption at the thought!

Of course, it does help that he didn’t have any wild notions of wearing a camo tux or a 1970’s inspired baby blue suit!



As well, I already knew what he wanted was pretty much what I wanted... but that’s beside the point. :-P

Oh the irony

Since we’ve decided not to have our wedding reception in our backyard, I’ve had to shift my “theme” to fit the venue. When I was working on the backyard idea, my general theme was paper lanterns and fireflies. Well, I’m not sure that really works in the new setting, so I’ve decided to change things up a big. The new theme is peacocks... yeah, I know, it’s a bit weird. It was the only way I knew to tie in the colours I wanted to use: green, blue and brown. The irony is, I hate birds! I mean I HATE them and they scare the bejesus out of me! Oh well, as long as I don’t have any live peacocks at the wedding I should survive!

The other ironic thing is, the reception is now being held at the Local Press Club. The only thing I hate almost as much as birds is the media and now my reception is taking place at their “home”. Hah! Actually, I don’t think journalists really hang out there anymore, so we should be safe.

Updates All Around

There are lots of updates these days do I figured the best way to tackle them was with a Méli-Mélo post.

Changa and the RN Exam
I wrote my exam on Wednesday. It was brutal and exhausting, but at least it’s done for now. Now I have 6 weeks to wait and wonder. Actually, I’m not stressing about it at all. There is nothing I can do for 6 weeks so I might as well not stress about it until I get the results. If I fail, I’ll cross that bridge when I get to it. Besides, I’m fairly certain I scored somewhere between a 40% and an 85%. :-P

Changa and the meds
If you’ve been a regular reader, you’ll know I was diagnosed with depression (dysthemia) 15 years ago. I’ve been on my current meds for 7 years. Wow! That’s a long time. Anyway, my doctor has decided to switch my medication since there is no evidence that the ones I currently take wouldn’t have an effect on a baby should I become pregnant in the future. *Sigh* It is quite scary to think I’m going to be switching my medication at a time when I’m experiencing a high level of stress. It’ll take months to complete the switch since I have to taper two different meds, one at a time and then slowly integrate the new med. I could put off the switch until my job is more stable, but why delay the inevitable. I’m also going to do acupuncture in the hopes that it will balance out the bad effects of the transfer. Wish me luck cause I know I’ll need it!

Changa and the new job
I’ve completed my two weeks of orientation and Monday I start working on the unit. It’s scary and exciting! I still can’t believe it’s actually here. I think it’s going to take some time getting used to the idea that I’m a nurse. Wow.

Changa and the Wedding
We’ve decided to forgo the beautiful backyard reception I had dreamt about for a more practical option. I was quite disappointed in the beginning, but I’m starting to warm up to the idea and the wheel of creativity is churning! The backyard reception would have been wonderful, but the logistics of organising said reception plus a backup reception was getting to be too much. I would be essentially planning too receptions with the guarantee that one of them would not happen. We had tough of renting a tent, but if it rains the entire month of May, no tent will help with the marshland that our backyard will become! So, I think we’ve settled on the local press club. It doesn’t have the wedding-y feel I was hoping to avoid and is different enough from your typical hall or hotel ballroom to make me happy. It also means trimming the guest list will not be as stressful. We’re also meeting our potential officiant next week and we have a general direction for the bridesmaid dresses. Yay!

I think that’s it for now. :-)

I said “Yes to the Dress” and other updates

I bought my wedding dress yesterday! Just like when I met Mr. Perfect, I knew instantly it was the one. Awww, how corny am I? It’s a second-hand find which makes it even more “me”. Hah! Now it feels like it’s all very real. :-) Unfortunately, you won’t get a sneak peak at the dress since my husband-to-be happens to be an avid reader. I guess you’ll just have to wait another 9 months.

5 shifts to go – the countdown begins.
I’m almost done my LAST clinical rotation. I can’t believe the end is almost here! Once September hits, I’ll only have 5 classes left, plus my preceptorship and then I’ll be a real nurse. Crazy how time flies, huh? My current rotation is in critical care. For the most part it’s like any other rotation with the exception of a killer exam and a few shifts in the ER and in ICU. My teacher is the evil nurse who made me cry my first semester in nursing. So far though, I seem to have gained her respect and haven’t been yelled at. I’m keeping my fingers crossed! I also hate to admit it, but I'm actually learning a lot from her.

Save the date... or maybe not

We had chosen a date, a ceremony location and a reception venue... but that seems to have gone out the window. A few days ago we had chosen August 20, 2011 with the ceremony at the Free Meeting House (local historic house) and a reception at home. I was all set to reserve the ceremony venue.... but then we started thinking. Damn brain. August is awfully far away and we have plans for a family ASAP, so we began evaluating the possibility of a May wedding. We had chosen August because the odds of nice weather seem to be better. However, after checking the weather for a variety of dates for the last 10 years, even August isn’t a safe bet. In fact, it has rained as many times on August 20th over the years as it has on many dates in May. When it comes to weather, there’s just no planning! So as of this morning, we have chosen May 28, 2011 as our new wedding date. We would have liked May 21st, but I forgot there’s the little matter of my graduation ceremony. OOPS.