Now, To Knit The Invitations.

Thank you all so much for the kind words - I'm very excited myself!

There were a lot of kind comments on the ring - this ring is the most special thing in the world to me. (Well, the most special inanimate object, anyway.) It was my great-aunt's ring. My mom's own mother passed away when my mom was only two, and her stepmother was nice enough, but a bit of a ... um, crazy person. So her aunt and uncle (who were also her godparents) became almost like parents to her. She and Aunt Trudy especially had a very warm and close relationship. My Aunt Trudy bought herself that ring in an antique shop decades ago, and it was her most prized possession. She passed it along to my mom about seven or eight years ago. I've coveted it ever since - not just because it's a huge herkin' diamond, but because of what it represents. And in October, she offered it to me, which was a complete shock, since we had always joked I'd have to literally pry it off her cold dead hand. So I offered it to Travis, whenever he chose to use it. And he chose to use it on Christmas morning.

Now, incredibly enough, we're getting married on June 2 of this coming year. I figured I'd have not a chance in hell of securing a location or anything and we'd end up having to go with next June.

Oh, that's the rest of the story - I'm not dying to be a June bride, but it HAS TO BE June 2. That same aunt and uncle? They married on June 2. My mother and stepfather married on June 2, 1993. And so it's extremely important to me that I marry on June 2. I'll also have Aunt Trudy's lily-of-the-valley carving knife for the cake. And when I graduated college, my parents gave me a bottle of Dom Perignon from 1993, the year we became a family. I opted to save it for my own wedding toast. (Yes, I will probably spend the entire day crying, with all this sentimentality going on.) Aunt Trudy passed away earlier this year, but I know she'd be so thrilled to know that she and her marriage are playing such a large part of my own wedding and marriage.

My first choice for a location, the one that is beautiful and intimate, a lakefront garden setting that's booked 18-24 months in advance and could not possibly be available for the first Saturday in June a mere five months away? Available. (Even the onsite wedding coordinator was stunned.) And they handle EVERYTHING - food, decor, cake, DJ...I show up with my dress, my party, and the photographer.

Speaking of - my first choice photographer, a tremendously popular and widely-published photojournalist, who was the ONLY photographer I saw whose style matched what I had in mind? Yep....available.

(I don't get it, but I'm not looking a gift horse in the mouth. I like to picture Ghostie Aunt Trudy sneaking around and erasing other peoples' info out of the books. It's the only possible explanation.)

So it's all set. Now all we have to do is narrow our 175-strong guest list down to no more than capacity, which is 80. (Which would be only about half of his family alone - so this should be heaps of fun.) But one of the reasons I wanted a small venue is so we are forced to keep it tight and not go crazy overboard.

As for here? No worries - I'll not bore everyone with wedding plans for the next five months. It's a knitting blog. I'll bore you with knitting. Starting.....now:

So. Five months. Who wants to knit me a wedding shawl? (I'm not deluding myself, I will NOT get that done.)