More big news!

Just when you thought we couldn’t cram more excitement into our lives…

The FI was offered a position as a firefighter in the town where we grew up!

This might seem a little random for most of you, so I’ll explain. About 3 years ago, shortly after he graduated from college, the FI realized he was missing something. Most of his friends commissioned as officers into various military branches and shipped off to start their training, protecting the United States and doing their civic duties. Though he thought about the decision a long, long time, I think there was a part of him that wishes he did the same. He still felt that he had a lot to give back.

After more discussion, he decided to take the civil service test to become a firefighter here in Massachusetts. After taking the written test and the physical test, he (we) started the waiting game. If you’re not familiar with the process, it breaks down like this: the state analyzes everyone’s test scores and ranks candidates on lists by town. Preference (and thus ranking) on that list is given to females, minorities, veterans, family members of firefighters (especially those injured in the line of duty), and residents of the town.

I’ll just take a quick minute to point out that the FI is a white guy who has no active military service and moved away from his hometown (but still counted as a resident since we moved less than 3 months before the tests). No family on the force, nothing outstanding. To the state, at least.

We thought he might have had a position back in January, when he was ranked 5th or so on the list, but everyone above him was a vet, and the town hired according to the list. Fair enough, but then we got nervous. We also found out that he missed the cutoff for registering for the next test (the lists expire every so often), so once this list expired, that was it.We had gotten our hopes up the last time around, so we decided that we’d wait and hope and pray (lots of praying by lots of people) that he’d get another postcard.

And he did. And this time he was hired.

I can’t even begin to tell you all how proud of him I am and how much he deserves this. I know he’ll be the best firefighter this town has. We’re working together to keep his business running, which has been a really interesting experience (in a good way!).

The only downside (and I’m really not even convinced it’s a downside) is that he might be attending the academy, a 12-week program, starting in October. Of course. He told the chief about the wedding, so he’ll be able to have that day off, but we’ll have to postpone the honeymoon if he’s chosen to go to the October class. More time to plan and save, if you ask me! I’m just so happy he’s finally gotten the job that I don’t care when we go on the honeymoon!

And now for a happy, smiling picture of us at MOH K and M’s wedding:

Wedding update

I had my life update yesterday, so here’s a look at where we’re at wedding-wise.

HOLY CRAP WE’RE UNDER 6 MONTHS TO GO.

Thanks for that brief interruption of my normal thought process.

Flowers

Thanks to Shelley (and many others!) for the suggestion to check out Whole Foods. The one closest to me does wedding flowers, so the FI and I went in to check it out. The woman who’ll be doing ours is so sweet and accommodating– she totally understands that we’re budget-first-flower-types-second at this stage of the game. We both love the look of dahlias, but they’ll be out of season, so we’re thinking up other alternatives. We also are big into the textures of the flowers and the bouquets, so that’s a cool place to be.

You’ll all be happy to know I handed off the reins to a professional for all the flowers. Go ahead and say “I told you so” in the comments!

Hotel blocks

I’ve been in contact with a few hotels near the party site, and we just have to make the final call for the blocks. There’s one hotel that’s a lot closer to the site (about 10-15 minutes away) but more expensive, as opposed to one a little further away (10-15 minutes beyond the first) that’s less expensive.

We’re thinking of doing blocks at both, but as a guest, which would you rather?

Engagement photos

We had our engagement pictures taken last weekend! We decided to (sort of) reenact our first date by heading to the same place we went mini-golfing and got ice cream. After convincing the nice old man at the window that we weren’t actually going to play golf and that we just wanted the clubs and balls for the picture, we took a few fun “it’s all in the hips” Happy Gilmore pictures. Come to think of it, I think most of the pictures will have me with my mouth wide open, laughing. I don’t do serious photos.

After the pretend golf session, we waited around and peeked in windows until the ice cream place opened, when I proceeded to eat Rocky Road ice cream at 9 am. Breakfast of champions, I tell you!

After that, we headed to Lake Quannapowitt, also known as The Wakefield Lake because everyone’s too lazy for the “Quannapowitt,” and did some pictures there.  It was really nice, since it’s a nod to where we both grew up, and it’s also where we’ll be doing photos after the ceremony. Yay!

Rehearsal dinner

I said to the FI’s moms: “Go for it.” We picked the place and are letting them run with the rest of the details. One less thing for us to worry about, and I know they’ll do a great job. As far as I know, they’ve booked the venue and put down the deposit, which is all fine with me.

Ceremony

We asked our surviving grandparents to bring up the gifts during our Mass and our godfathers to do the readings. Everyone’s been so excited to be asked, and it really means a lot to us that they’re involved.

Still TBD:

• Transportation: after K&M’s wedding, we decided we liked the idea of having a shuttle between the hotel and the party– that way, we cut down on the number of cars at the party site, and we seriously cut down on the likelihood of anyone taking too much advantage of the open bar.
• Tuxes: got some info for the FI, so he gets to start making decisions on this one. Should be interesting
• Crafting: finish the last pomander for the FGs, make the pew decorations (half-pomanders with tissue paper instead of flowers), spray the lanterns for the party tables, figure out the invitation situation
• Dress fittings: kind of dropped the ball on this one, but I just need my bustle and boobs done. No hem, no taking in, nada. Fingers crossed.
• Honeymoon: ::grumble, grumble:: we can’t decide where we want to go because we have no idea how much money we have to spend. At this point, it’s in the zero-ish range, which is making things difficult. Current ideas: Switzerland/Germany/Austria (still); Portland, OR/Seattle/Vancouver; Calgary/Banff/Lake Louise (Alberta, Canada). Anyone have any input on these?

I’m really starting to get excited now!!

Complicated honeymoon plans

I mentioned before that our honeymoon won’t likely be your standard tropical getaway. Since when do we do anything standard here?

In a bout of inability to focus, I took a stab at working around the big tour companies to create a sweet trip for us. Remember that we want to take at least two weeks, so that was my basis. And I did include some sun (most likely) just to mix it up a bit.

Royal Caribbean 7-night Mediterranean cruise

Here’s the link to the overview. We’ll fly into Barcelona, then hop on the ship a few hours later. Here are the ports of call:

• Barcelona, Spain
• Naples, Capri, Italy
• Civitavecchia (Rome), Italy
• Livorno (Florence/Pisa), Italy
• Villefranche (Nice), France
• Provence (Toulon), Franc
• Barcelona, Spain

And the prices really aren’t bad, either. We’d probably opt for the interior room, since we won’t spend much time in there anyway.

Rent a car in Barcelona

Once we get back from the cruise, I thought it would be fun to rent a car in Barcelona and start driving to Munich. The car rental would probably be a bit expensive, but the driving time between all the destinations in between only ranges from 1.5 hours to 5.5 hours, totally doable. Plus, since we’re driving ourselves, we can make other stops along the way, other than the overnights in:

• Montpellier, France (because we love Montpelier, VT so much!)
• Bern and Zurich, Switzerland
• Innsbruck, Austria
• Berchtesgaden, Germany
• Munich, Germany

We’d probably stay a couple nights in Munich to take in all the sights and drink gallons of beer. I figure we would probably take 5-7 days to do all the driving, depending on how we feel. PS- I love Google Maps and the ability to save the trips you’ve created. Genius!

Then we’d fly back home from Munich.

So in our whirlwind tour of Western and Central Europe, we’d have two one-way flights, a cruise, a rental car, and some hotels. I still have to look in to international driving laws and how much time we’d be spending at border crossings.

Does anyone still work with travel agents? Can you recommend one? I have a feeling this might be tough to plan myself, especially since I’ve never traveled internationally before.

So where are you going on your honeymoon?

That’s right, kids. We’ve been engaged for all of 19 days, and people are already asking about the honeymoon. Is that normal? I really have no idea. Maybe I shouldn’t judge, though, since it’s gotten us thinking about where to go.

Here’s the deal: neither the FI nor I are ocean-beach people. We’re big fans of lakes, don’t get us wrong, but the ocean just doesn’t do it for us. And though we started dating during the summer, it’s not our favorite season– we’re much bigger fans of fall and winter.

Here’s the cue for the “against the grain” motion. Take one hand in front of you, palm up. Take your other hand and rub it against the first perpendicularly. Like your fingers are the grain, and you’re going against it, get it?

At least we’re together on this one. When we first started talking about the honeymoon (who am I kidding, it was the morning after we got engaged when we were washing the dishes from our pancakes at the water pump near the campsite), the FI declared that we should take the “moon” part seriously. As in, take a month-long trip. I was totally there with him. And we agreed on the not-beach destination.

Hey, I can see the eyeball-rolling and head-shaking through the screen. A month is a long (expensive) trip to take. We get it. But we’re seriously considering a two-week trip. To the Alps.

If we could time-travel shortly after the wedding, we’d reverse time a little bit and go to Oktoberfest in Munich. Alas, we’re about 3 weeks late to the party. But we still want to go to Munich. And other parts of Germany. And Austria. And Switzerland. And maybe Northern Italy. And anywhere else in that region that has mountains.

Ok, now I can hear you saying “Who the hell goes to Germany for their honeymoon?! If you’re going to Europe, you go to Paris or various parts of (more central-to-southern) Italy. Duhhhhhhh.”

And I hear you. But we’re against-the-grain like that. So right now we’re looking at options like this one (Jewels of Alpine Europe) and this one (Best of Central Europe: Germany, Switzerland, and Austria).

The price tags are a little steep on these ah-maaaaaaaazing trips, but we think they’re probably worth it after all the hustle and bustle of wedding planning.

We’re also considering a tour of the British Isles, including Great Britain, Ireland, and Scotland. A friend of ours’s mom lives in the Cambridge/Oxford area and loves to have company, so we might take him up on his mother’s hospitality. The same company with the awesome Alps-centric trips has British Isles trips, too.

Anyone want to weigh in and tell us we’re crazy for our honeymoon ideas? Or have any suggestions for places that might be comparable but less expensive? Or have a secret source for cheap vacations? I want to hear ‘em!