Man, we have some great parents!

Yesterday was a day to be thankful for our parents.  Not that there aren't other days, but yesterday was one of them.  Crissy's family spent the day doing Spoon River Drive, which means loads of garage sales and flea market like activities.  We didn't go along, but instead put her mom on a hunt for aqua mason jars.  Clearly I need to put her on more such "hunts" because check out what she managed to get for us for only $10:

While Crissy's family was Spoon River Driving it all day, we went and visited my parents - just to catch up since it had been a while and also to take some pictures, check out where we might want things set up, etc... My parents were pretty great and discussed the amount they'll be donating to the wedding (which wasn't entirely expected, so it's pretty spectacular that they're helping out) and also took us to dinner.  Plus, we shared a few ideas with them - and they (well, technically, Linda) were pretty excited about some of our plans.  Linda is in love with the hairstyle I want for the wedding (yet to be divulged to the blog world) and told me I have to do it!  We also decided on where in the yard we'll have the wedding, which is pretty exciting.  Before you take about 3 steps down into the yard, you'll see this:

And, this is the lovely little spot we've selected for the ceremony location.  It's pretty much straight in front of you once you walk down the few steps - but we love the two trees and will stand between them.

We tentatively also discussed where we'll be placing tables for the reception - and I think it will mean that some people are spread out, but everyone will still be in pretty close proximity to one another.  Having a pool in the middle of all of this will be beautiful - but also means we can't seat people TOO close to the pool....I'd hate to have someone scoot back their chair to get up and inadvertently fall in.  Ooops.  Here's a pic of one of the areas where tables will be set up.  The pool is to the right - just on the other side of the shrubbery - and the wedding will be to the left, on the other side of the fence.

Yesterday was big for other reasons, too.  We decided to change the date of the wedding - thankfully before we printed the save the date cards.  We're moving it to Labor Day weekend - for a few reasons.  The primary reason being that we just don't want it to be too cold.  While yesterday was a week after when our wedding would be, it was freezing out at my parents even in late afternoon - which means people would be freezing all kinds of things off come 5:00 when we'd planned on the ceremony starting.  So, Labor Day makes more sense for the weather being a smidge warmer.  Beyond that, it's a long weekend - it means we'd always get extra time for an anniversary weekend - but more than that, we figure it means people might be able to celebrate with us a little longer and I might be able to do the fun Sunday picnic idea that I posted before.  To top of the reasoning for Labor Day, my mom and dad were married over Labor Day weekend about 33 some odd years ago.  While their marriage didn't work out so well to one another, not having my mom physically be able to be there makes me feel like maybe she'd be more connected to the wedding if it's the same weekend as their wedding.  It might not really make any sense to others - or really be the case, but it's how it feels to me.....so lots of reasons for Labor Day - hooray!  

We also decided to nix the margaritas from the drink list.  Okay, so you all don't know what the original drink list was - but after much discussion with my parents yesterday and then discussion on the drive home, endless margaritas, cranberry & vodka, and beer might just do us in financially with the friends and family we have.  :)  So, we're going to substitute wine for the margartias - which I know will make at least a few people who love wine very happy.

Happy Sunday!!!