I’ve wrapped up three events; Atlanta CFO of the Year awards with my GVP presenting an award and speaking; Houston Energy Capital Week Senior Financial Officer Forum where Oracle was the exclusive sponsor; and last but not least, the REALLY big fun one - the inaugural event of Cowboy Stadium with headliner George Strait, who was joined by Reba McEntire, Blake Shelton and “Dancing with the Stars” champion Julianne Hough. Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to attend just because there were SOOO many other things to get accomplished this weekend.
Now, in-between all of that and preparing for June and July events…I got a lot of wedding stuff done too.
I have found and ordered a very beautiful, beachie type wedding dress at Terry Costa about 2 weeks ago. It came in on Friday and I was able to pick it up on Saturday afternoon. Unfortunately, it didn’t fit as well as the one I tried on in the store but no worries; they had a tailor onsite. This cute little black lady, Claudette, helped me and she was great. I had to order my dress because we thought the one in the store wasn’t cut right so I asked her to see if we could get it in ivory vs. white. Good news, it did come in ivory but no beads on the neckband. Claudette said she would add the beads at no cost and she held true to her word. I pick up my tailored dress with beads next Saturday afternoon.
This is what my wedding dress looks like
We already have Ed’s wedding clothes. If fact, we found them in his closet and they’ve never been worn. He will wear a lightweight white cotton long sleeve shirt (untucked) with khaki colored linen pants. He even had the shoes. I might add…he looks pretty darn cute too! Perfect - he's done!
What else do you need besides wedding clothes? You need someone who can marry you!
My next project was to find an Officiant.
Thank GOD for Google!!!
I searched for Officiants on-line only to find several Sister wa-lu-lay-ees (not really a word...just some crazy name for someone who will do anything) who will marry you any way you want: Buda style, Christian style, Hawaiian style…any style you can imagine. Well, that wasn’t going work for me so begin to search for a non-denominational church. Certainly I can find someone who is of the same faith that could marry Ed and I. Of course, God has good churches everywhere…even in Maui. I found a church called Calvary Maui who had a mission statement on-line that met my criteria; I called to see if this was a wedding they could perform. I spoke to this really nice lady, Valerie, who said they could, but she had a few questions to ask first: 1st question “Are you born again?” and 2nd question, “Have you had pre-marital counseling?” I was thrilled when she asked these questions and of course, the answers were 'yes' to both. At this point, we were able to confirm that Pastor Dom (short for Dominick) would be able to perform our ceremony with a traditional Christian style wedding while incorporating the Hawaiian tradition of exchanging leis. The only requirement was a donation of $150. No problem - done!
Moving right along – the photographer
Quality is a must here! I learned there are many, many photographers in Maui since this is one of the top destination-wedding locations. I've also learned you can certainly tell the difference in their quality and style by the home page on their website.
Again…thank goodness for Google!
My girlfriend Shelly Williams, who was recently married in Maui, passed along some good info. She recommended her photographer, Scott Hughes. Gosh…his pictures are great and boy, does he charge a ton $$$ for them. I know…you get what you pay for, so I’m trying to be really cautious here. I called Scott, who's a very nice guy (originally from St. Louis) and he helped me a lot but in the end, he was too expensive: $2000 for 2 hours of shooting with full rights to all the photos on a CD, or 3 hours of shooting and a wedding book for $3500. I must say his wedding book was magnificent…the best I’ve seen yet.
Anyhow, I called another girlfriend, April Williams, who recently became a photographer herself (Photography by April.Williams). She said she would help me create a wedding book near her cost since she had all the software. This was great news, as it would allow me to move onto my 2nd choice.
You know how you usually end up going back to the first thing you find when you’re looking for something? Well, that’s exactly what happened here. Originally, I really liked the photographs at Paradise Dream Wedding and their price wasn’t too bad either. They only charged $995 for 1 hour of shooting, which meant 120 shots with full printing rights. 30 of them would be retouched and on a DVD as a slideshow with music. I could handle this! I called and was able to confirm their photographer Ian Shepard. Ed and I both reviewed his photo gallery and really liked his style. We were thrilled - another task accomplished!
One thing that I've been kicking around is, "what is our bedroom furniture going to look like – my bedroom furniture, mixed-matched with Ed’s?" I know, don’t sweat the small stuff, but I can’t stand a room full of unmatched furniture!!!
One second here while I take you down a bunny trail...
Ed has had this swing set in his backyard for 9 years, that's still in fairly good shape. We have tried to give that thing away, for free, several times and so far have had no takers. So…me being me…I’m going to find a loving home one way or another. I placed an ad in the free section of Craig’s list, along with a picture, and boy, did that take off…I had about 7 calls within the first 5 minutes of it being posted! “Oh my gosh…let me hurry and take that posting down because my phone is ringing off the hook!” The first call I received was from a sweet lady in Oak Cliff, named Flora, who said she would pick it up Saturday. As promised, her and her husband, of 32 years, showed up around 5:00 pm, took it apart, packed it in their old, very long van and hauled it away. The backyard is now swingset-less. Wow…this is great – anther thing done!!!
The swingset that has a new loving home in Oak Cliff
While on Craig's list, I was perusing through the furniture section and found two matching BEAUTIFUL Duncan Phyfe-type chests, both with a wood-framed mirror, for $200 each. “Hmmm…these might be exactly what I need to complete our bedroom furniture. This would ensure that both Ed and I had enough drawer space and most importantly - they matched”. Long story short, I ended up purchasing them at an estate sale on Friday. Mitch helped me pick them up on Saturday and we drove them over to Ed’s house and parked them in the garage. These were a great find AND a great buy for only $375. And yet – another thing done.
Oh yea…I would be TOTALLY remiss if I did not mention what Ed has been doing!!!
My poor honey…who can multi-task really well at work but at home…oh my gosh…he struggles. He's been multi-tasking like a crazy man this week and getting TONS of stuff done.
The job that's taken most of his time is getting the house painted. I found a great painter (who I would highly recommend and his price is right too) to paint the inside of the house and replace some siding. The last few days have been hectic to say the least!!! Some of the outside siding has been replaced and painted; the kitchen, master bath, 2nd bathroom and dining room all had the wallpaper stripped textured and painted; the living room paneled wall and the dining room built-in’s were all primed and painted; all the ceilings, doors and molding were painted; and the front door will be power washed and revarnished on Monday. This has been one huge project, and stinky too but Ed has handled it well.
Last Thursday, all in one day, Ed managed the painters (house now in shambles), Salvation Army coming to the house and picking up some old furniture, the window-washer washing all the windows, inside and out; Jason measuring the fence to give us a quote on replacing it, since it's practically falling over, ALL along with Ed trying to work and take his calls throughout the day. Oh yea, let me not forget to tell you that the painters were spraying the paint in the house for most of the day - they had on gas masks while Ed suffered through this ordeal without anything. He was literally a little goofy that night. Way, way, way too much activity going on at 4223 Arbor Creek Drive in Carrollton for one day. I won’t do that again!
I'm not done yet, because there was one other big event that took place last week - I turned '45' years old last Tuesday! It was a day full of lots of 'warm and fuzzies'. All my family and many of my friends called and emailed with ‘Happy Birthday's’ and warm wishes. It was very, very nice. No birthday party, though, because I was in Houston for one of my events. I spent the night in a Sheraton all by myself. On the positive side...this stay entitled me to one free weekend night stay at a Starwood property that Ed and I can use at a later time! The following night, Gwen Milligan took me and my friend Damarys Quintana (Damarys and I celebrate our birthday's together since hers is on May 30th) to a wine-tasting in downtown Dallas. We had a nice time and celebrated with great wines! I'll celebrate with my family tonight, at my sister Laura's house, along with my dad because today is his 66th birthday.
Wow...I really had no idea HOW much stuff did get done last week until I wrote this out. Whew...I’m exhausted just thinking about it all.
p.s. Ed is still sleeping and it's 9:41 am. He rarely sleeps this late. Normally we're up and heading off to church by now but I think I'll let him sleep until he wakes up today. He must be one tired boy!!!
Ciao
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