Coming down to the wire

I don't know where the time went. The wedding is just over two weeks away now. Between the boxes of weddings gifts and other wedding-related stuff, our condo is closing in on us. There are many things still to be done, including a lot of picking up of things (my dress from the tailor, our wedding bands, etc., and while we're at it, should probably get that pile of clothes from the dry cleaners too), appointments of various kinds (facial, haircut- just a trim!) and more planning. Then there's the matter of work, our full-time jobs that are allowing us to pay for this wonderful celebration, which are inconveniently getting busier and busier for both of us as the wedding approaches. Despite all the craziness, I feel fairly calm and just keep thinking:

Please Be Still

Chocolatey good deal

We aren't doing a candy buffet, even though it would make total sense since I'm such a candy freak. We will be putting candy into our out-of-towner bags, however, so while I was checking online last night for any good candy deals, I discovered that Hershey's Gifts is closing. Boo...sad. But the good news is everything is now 25% off until July 31 including these:

Wedding day

Not the wedding day, but earlier this week the fiance and I took a day off from work and accomplished the following:

1.)  Obtained our marriage license from the Chicago City Clerk.  All things considered, this was much less painful than we imagined.  I've spent hours in that same City Clerk's office before trying to get a copy of a birth certificate or passport or something, so I was expecting a long wait, a lot of form-filling and general unpleasantness.  But I think we were out of there in 10 minutes, and the woman helping us was nice.

2.)  Picked our wedding cake.  Our Blackstone Hotel reception includes a cake from Take the Cake, which I'm even now more excited about since we met with Mary Winslow.  I'll save the details for the post-wedding vendor reviews, but will just say if I had to grade Take the Cake now it would be an A+!  

3.)  Purchased our wedding bands.  We went back to the jeweler that the fiance worked with (secretly) to custom design my engagement ring.  Again, will save the details for review time, but really nice people to work with and produce some beautiful jewelry.  

4.)  Food tasting at the Blackstone.  We asked two friends to accompany us to our tasting, one for her food allergy knowledge and tendency to voice her opinions (and I mean that in the most loving way :) and the other chosen by the fiance for another guy's perspective.  It took us about three hours, but we settled on five passed hors d'oeuvres and the four entrees from which our guests will choose.  

It was a long day, and at the end of it I was completely full and didn't think I'd be able to eat again for a few days (of course I was able to eat two pieces of pizza for lunch the next day just fine, thank you!).  Totally well worth it, and now I can't believe how fast the real wedding day is approaching.