Oh, what a night!

Turns out Murphy's gives the person who pays for a wedding the grand total with an itemized list of what was eaten (all food we ordered from the catering menu), assorted fees and each drink ordered.

B is promising a few charts (perhaps a bar chart of my favorite pies and a pie chart of my favorite bars?!?) about these drinks, but I'm here to tell you some awesome news: Chicago beer was heavily favored at our wedding!

Goose Island Green Line and Half Acre Gossamer were two of the top-ordered beers - and deservedly so. Both are perfect summer beers and pair delightfully with things like BBQ chicken sliders and a potato skins bar. Green Line is only available by keg - it's that green! No waste for that beer. Gossamer comes from a brewery right next to our grocery store.

We'll continue to post a few wedding lessons and highlights from our big day, but let me just boast like a bride and share a few excellent things:

• Murphy's Irish Bistro was amazing. The space was perfect for our wedding and reception - we had a few vases of flowers and the whole bistro just shined. We were excited to share one of our favorite places with so many friends and to share so much delicious food too. The Irish Bistro's potato skins bar was a complete hit -- my sister-in-law is already discussing what next event we can hold there so that we can again enjoy a potato skins bar.
• Getting my hair and makeup done at Lather was lovely - I'm glad I was calm about it, and glad I shelled out for the 'do and makeup. I felt beautiful and ready to go, though I do think that there's something to be said for doing this yourself. My wedding party and I, however, were much better off away from the madness of my apartment and in the air-conditioning of Lather.
• I'm glad we didn't invite more people - it was so hard to talk to everyone. I'm sad I didn't get to sit in on every conversation all night. If some sort of time machine could facilitate that, I'd be down with that. We did have a completely spectacular crowd - nary a rowdy wreck in the bunch!

Ok, better post this. I promise much more - with photos - as we debrief from the biggest party we'll ever have.

Down to the wire

OK, so most couples would probably be relaxing and getting ready for the insanity to come. But I'm a Christmas-Eve shopper to the bone, and I've unfortunately dragged Amanda into my insanity. Certainly the Knot thinks we should be making only superficial preparations at this point; several of the items left on our checklist are from last month’s list. Whoops.

So here are some things we still have to get done, about 32 hours before the wedding.

Music
We’ve got three playlists, one for downstairs (dancing and high-energy), upstairs (more chilled out, classic rock, jazz and motown) and a third that will be played during the cocktail hour following the reception. I’m about 90 percent done with these; the songs are all selected and categorized, I just need to put them in the right order.

Program
This is mostly written, but needs some design flourishes. And to be printed. Amanda and Julie will be finishing it this morning.

Guestbook
OK, this one’s really up in the air. We’ve had some good ideas involving a photo album or creative scrapbooks, but haven’t really put anything together. As much as we want to have something cool and different, the guestbook might just get sacrificed on the alter of convenience. Anyone know where I can buy one?

Vows
Mine are done; Amanda is still putting on some finishing touches.

Wedding day scheduling and assignments
We’ve got a pretty good idea of who needs to be where when, but we should probably write this down so everyone is on the same schedule. Amanda and her wedding party will be getting ready at Murphy’s, the boys at my apartment. Which might necessitate the aforementioned window unit (see previous post). We also need to make a final decision on what everyone’s jobs are (who takes care of the presents, does the tipping, grabs the guestbook at the end of the night, etc.) Again, we’ve got a pretty good idea on this, but should really formalize it and write it down.

Looking good
Amanda and Co. have mani/pedi appointments today, and I’m getting a haircut this afternoon. The girls are going in for their big hair appointment tomorrow afternoon, of course, and I also have an appointment to drop in and get styled. What, you think I’m doing my own hair on my wedding day?

Rehearsal
This is one thing we’re right on schedule with. I mean, that’s what the rehearsal dinner is for, right?

I guess that’s not so bad. Hopefully there’s nothing large and glaring I’ve forgotten. I mean, what are the odds of that?

Come rain or shine

Unbelievably, we're now close enough to the wedding to look at weather reports. Like much of the country, Chicago is in the middle of a ridiculous heat wave. It's been in the 90's with high humidity for what feels like the last month, with little sign of letting up.

The Tribune is predicting Friday will be the hottest day of the year, peaking at 97. Which will no doubt feel like 105 in our non-air-conditioned apartment, especially when it’s packed with houseguests. Nothing like waking up the morning of your wedding covered with sweat. Or maybe not. There has been talk of a hotel.

Luckily, the day of the wedding is supposed to be cooler, with lower humidity. Most of the day will be spent in air-conditioned locales, of course, but no one likes to travel in heat while wearing a suit. It’s also supposed to be sunny, which is good. The Elizabeth Room on the second floor, where we'll be getting married, looks really great with sunlight streaming in from the west.

Finally, Sunday is supposed to be a lot cooler and generally lovely summer day. Sounds like a good occasion for some relaxation!

Into every wedding some Lyme must fall

For those of you who don't know, I have the best "why I haven't been blogging excuse" ever: Lyme disease.

Apparently, this all started at George’s bachelor party camping trip to Sugar River near Rockford. I do remember pulling a tick off my leg, but I don't remember having one on me for the 24+ hours it supposedly takes to spread Lyme, nor did I get the distinctive bulls eye rash that often accompanies it.

I spent the next four weeks being sick and generally dragging ass. Rather tackling our long-list of wedding tasks (including this blog), instead I was coming home from work and taking naps. I got what seemed to be pneumonia, followed by headaches and neck/shoulder/arm pain. All this culminated on the Friday I woke up with a stiff jaw that evolved into a paralyzed face. By the next morning, I was in the hospital. Four days, one spinal tap and a whole lot of vicodin later, I was home with bilateral Bell's palsy (paralyzed face) and a diagnosis of Lyme disease. Less than three weeks before my wedding.

First and most importantly, I'm fine. I have to take IV antibiotics through a catheter in my arm for four weeks, at which point I should be completely Lyme-free. Amanda's administers the antibiotics, which only takes about 10 minutes. In the meantime, I can't get the catheter wet or overextend my arm. I don't really have any symptoms, and generally feel pretty great.

Except…did I mention the part about my face being paralyzed two weeks before the wedding?

This has really been the hardest part. I'm usually pretty optimistic, but this time I've been trying to be brutally honest, preparing myself for not being able to laugh at my wedding, or really taste the food, or give a speech and have people understand me. For not being able to smile at Amanda when she walks down the aisle towards me, something I've been looking forward to a long time. Considering this is the only serious health problem I've ever had, I've tried to keep the self pity to a minimum. But it's hard not to curse the timing.

Except...last Tuesday, I was suddenly able to waggle my eyebrows. And by Wednesday, turn the corners of my mouth up in a smile. And today to flare my nostrils, successfully drink from a can and give a full-fledged (if mysterious-looking) smile to my niece. Two weeks is an extraordinarily fast recovery time for Bell's palsy, so this is beyond my wildest hopes.

Short version: pardon my lack of blogging, and don't mind my half-smile at the wedding; it could be worse.

Ding-Ding, I got a ring!

We waited around much of the day today for my ring to arrive. It came all the way from Florida, where my best friend Julie grew up. She inherieted a bracelet from her mother which she dis-assembled. The bracelet featured many, many diamonds and she wanted to give a few to me for my wedding ring.

I don't have an engagement ring so I wanted something special for my wedding band. dI looked in shops, on websites and on the hands of most anyone I passed. I found something I liked and Jeffrey B, a jeweler, translated it into something he could make.

It's a combination of a few different things - simple but not basic, pretty, something to wear on its own, maybe a little vintage, sparkly.

I definitely felt nervous - deciding on a ring to wear all the time based off drawing and photos is an act of trust, right? But I love it. And it fits.

Let's eat cake

For everyone who was considering skipping our wedding if we didn't have cake - fear not.

We have ordered and paid for our wedding cake. We (exactly 14 days before the wedding day) scooted over to Dinkel's Bakery to taste cake - it was a dream (at least for Brian)! The moist cakes, the buttercream icing, the filling we could taste with spoons...

We love Dinkel's - it's an old-school bakery with lots of pastries, cookies, breads, etc... It's been operating since 1922 and it's was the place to get your Wedding Ham Baked Into Rye Bread (I've decided that this title should be capitalized) when Brian's utterly amazing Grandma Fergie was married in 1926. Joan, the cake coordinator, confirmed that Dinkel's did make Wedding Hams Baked Into Rye Bread - as recent as two Easters ago. She also confirmed that Wedding Ham Baked Into Rye Bread is delicious. (Can you imagine? Sweet, salty, hamminess flavoring delicious fresh bread?!?)

We tasted our samples, discussed the flavor of each choice as if we were at a vineyard. The Butter Kuchen was too rich for our event (which already is a bit heavy food-wise with Irish pub food on the menu) and the Wedding White was missing some of the flavor of the winning flavor - Yellow Summer Sponge Cake.

We gushed over the icings as well, settling on only delicious varieties that would compliment the cakes. Nothing too fancy, nothing at all original (it's cake, you know?) and nothing but delicious.

We chose to do a small, two-tier cake - called the "presentation cake" - as well as a sheet cake - called by me "the bigger, unfancy cake." We can promise that both are amazing and will make attending our wedding worthwhile.