Wedding updates and a rant.

This past weekend we got a lot of big stuff done, wedding-wise!

My shower invites went out in the mail last week and I finally got mine Saturday! My aunts and grandma are hosting it on September 8th. I'm nervous. More on that below, but when it comes to party planning I have serious anxiety. Gah. Also, if anyone has ANY recommendations for hostess gifts for 4 older ladies (50-60, and gma is "young" for her age at 88) that'd be swell, because I'm coming up empty.

M and I also got stamps to finalize our invites, and decided instead of arbitrarily hanging onto them until we had said we wanted to send them out (August 15-17th ish) we'd just do it now, so.... that's right.. we mailed the invites (CUE SCREAMING.) I had a panicked moment as I dropped them in the mailbox.. not because I don't want to marry M but because my first thought was "OMG what if we did something wrong on the invite, like, left off the date or something."

I needed to buy a few more stamps on Tuesday so we could also mail out our rehearsal dinner invitations! I ordered the design on etsy and them printed them on pre-cut 5x7 white cardstock I had from my table numbers.

They turned out SO amazing..so much so I'm regretting not having someone design our invitations similarly, and then just printing them on plain cardstock. I did the invites myself and bought invite "kits" from Michael's, but waffled with respect to the leafy design on them a few weeks ago. I finally just said F it and they're not tacky or trashy so nobody else will care, and just sent them out.

I'm probably more wired to start receiving RSVP cards (wedding) and emails (rehearsal dinner) than I should be. Which brings me to the last wedding related thing that happened this weekend/last night which is giving me ALL THE ANXIETY: the couples shower.

My aunt (whose son's third birthday we celebrated this weekend) and uncle offered to throw us a couples shower for our friends. They are SO generous and I KNOW it'll be to the nines (i.e. catered, and maybe even bartended by an outside vendor). I was super excited at the idea of having our friends to their beautiful house for a fun night of celebration. She had said a Saturday would work best so for whatever reasons I had at the time, I told her August 31st.

YESTERDAY it hit me: that's labor day. Cue panic. M and I were debating the other night being totally psycho and emailing her to ask if they would mind bumping it back just one weekend (which would be the 7th, and the day before my other shower, but would be okay since separate people were attending and hosting) when we literally received the evite in our inbox as we were talking.

I'm sure you're wondering what the big deal is, and I'll tell you: in Minnesota "labor day" is not only the last long weekend of the summer before school starts, it's the last "Great Migration" to people's cabins up north. People take their cabins VERY. SERIOUSLY here. To the point that nothing short of a wedding or a funeral would hold them back from their cabin. Therefore, I fear we won't have as great a turn out (and if I'm being totally neurotically honest, I fear NOBODY will come, and so far this morning (Tuesday morning, they went out Monday night) we have 3 definite no's, 2 maybes, and ONE yes besides us  and it is seriously putting me over the edge. (edited to add: Tuesday night 2 more people RSVP'd no and I burst into tears. I'm a hot mess.)

This is totally irrational and I know people may have prior commitments but it makes me feel like a loser. Like, we're not enough for people to want to try to go above and beyond to make it, but that if it was a different couple within our group of friends, people may try to make more of an effort. (Hi, serious childhood baggage of fear of being left out of things, not being cool enough, peeking through).

I'll admit it: I dislike when people plan events on long weekends and "ruin" the chance for people to go out of town even though we are NEVER the people that "go out of town." Mostly this is true of weddings that fall on memorial day, or the 4th. Now that I am 100% accidentally that person, it also makes me irrationally sad that people may not come because they'd rather go spend an ordinary average weekend at their cabin. (...and as I write this 2 more RSVP'd no and I honestly want to burst into tears, OMG WHAT IS MY PROBLEM). okay. so that's my baggage and I need to stop talking about it lest I freak out more.

so there's your awkward wedding update. you're welcome.