Fiance Friday!

Hello blog-o-sphere!

I hope that you all had a great couple of weeks! As you, I'm sure have read, things have been buzzing in terms of wedding planning. Of course, now you all are more in-the-know about my own wedding than I am, seeing that I am not even allowed to read the blog that I contribute too! For those wondering, I promise that I have not looked at the two blog posts that I believe are below this one. All of this leads up to the topic of my post today: Bridal Shows.

Now stay with me here, folks. You may be expecting me to completely bash this bridal tradition. Now before I get in to my issues with it, there is something I do have to say about them. This is wedding efficiency at its finest!! You can get a dress, AND get all of your vendors taken care of in one-stop shopping! I LOVE this idea! Essentially, you could go to a bridal show for a couple of hours, and come back with EVERYTHING planned! Why WOULDN'T anyone go to one??

Now, allow me to answer my own question. What I just mentioned above happens in a fantasy, grooms of the world! Grooms, listen to me. Bridal shows are just a cover-up! Your beautiful fiancee is going to come back from one with all of these new ideas, and quite possibly may be completely re-thinking everything you once thought was set in stone when it came to wedding plans. Now, let me be clear. I don't know this from personal experience. this is just a little speculation, so I suppose you can take this with a grain of salt this week. See, my beautiful fiancee gets many of her ideas from other wedding blogs. These ideas in-turn lead to craft nights and redecorating our kitchen table. More on that next week. :)

Before straying too far off-topic, I just want to answer the one question I know all of you are thinking right now. If there are all of these bridal shows, why aren't there "groom shows"?? The answer to this is simple. If there were such a thing as "groom shows," they would be very in 15 minutes! Do you know why? I believe they would look a lot like I described in paragraph two! They would be the ACTUAL one-stop shopping adventure that they are supposed to be! So grooms, next time your fiancee heads off to a bridal show, know that it's only the beginning, and not the one-stop shopping experience you hope for!

Until next week,

Kevin

PS - Martha, I still have not heard from you. Perhaps my letter got lost again. I'll re-send it. Hugs and high-fives!

Fiancé Tuesday!

Hello Blog-o-sphere!

Ok, you don't even have to say it. It's about time. Living the bachelor life for the summer has been really busy! I don't think I ever realized how much people really looked forward to reading the postings on the blog! Of course, when you move in with two faithful readers (Hi Mom and Dad!), of course you are going to hear about how much they have missed reading the blog! I figured I would spend some time tonight updating everyone on the last couple of months of life!

After a 6-month search for a job, several on-campus interviews, many hours spent in airports and hotels, all roads led back to The University of Arizona! I ended up having the opportunity to come back and work with Hall Operations and student staff selection! Not to mention, of course, I get to hang out with my super-awesome Fiancée all year! :) So, after traveling the country post-graduation, and then moving back to Kansas City, I packed up and headed BACK to the desert! Thanks to Ma Cleary, Meghan, and Julie for all of the help moving and unloading!

In wedding-related news, I went to my friend Katie's wedding (see her blog here) in June in Jamestown, ND! A couple of friends and I road-tripped 13-hours each way from Kansas City. Needless to say, it was a fun-packed weekend, getting to see lots of old college friends, as well as seeing Katie and Levi declare their love and commitment to each other. :) While at their wedding, I got to experience my first Garter Auction. Now, growing up in the city, I have never experienced this at a wedding reception. It's hard to explain, so I thought I would just link to a YouTube video of one. Thanks to all for the great time in Jamestown!

In terms of our wedding, we have a little sad news to share. We are currently in the market to find another priest to witness our marriage (the priest doesn't marry us, we marry each other :) ). The Jesuit we had asked has a family wedding on the same day, so once Holl gets back to the states (SUNDAY!!) we will decide on another priest. Stay tuned. :) In some good news, however, he will still be doing all of our marriage prep, so that's very exciting for us! :)

Before I sign off here, I wanted to give a shout out to our friends at both A Baltimore Bridal Blog and Remember That Time We Got Engaged?. Fun folks doing some great blogging about their wedding-planning adventures!

That's about it from me for now! Expect some regular updating once again, now that life has slowed back down to a normal pace and I'm not in four different cities in three days anymore. :)

Peace, Love, and Wedding Planning,

Kevin

Fiancé Friday #6, 7, and 8!

HELLO WORLD!

You don't even have to begin to tell me how late this post is! I know, I've been a terrible blogger as of late, and I have not been keeping up with my weekly duties! I thought I could start this week by giving a quick recap of the past few weeks in my life.

On May 14th, I received my Master of Arts degree in Higher Education from The University of Arizona. Of course, one of my grades is STILL not posted, so I suppose I have not "officially" graduated. Perhaps next week it will get posted? Of course, who am I to complain about something getting posted late, as I'm the one who has not blogged since the beginning of May. :) The end of the academic year, of course, meant that move-out of our residence halls was happening, meaning that I was in charge of closing my building (Closing time....You don't have to go home, but you can't...stay....here....).

After graduation, I had two more on-campus interviews for Residence Life positions, which meant that I spent the night in four different cities in four days. Traveling can be exhausting, especially when your return flight home sits on the tarmac for over an hour and a half and makes you miss your connection, forcing you to spend an extra night in a totally different city. I'm pretty sure, though, that I'm not allowed to complain, since Frontier put me up in a nice hotel AND gave me a $200 travel voucher!

This week, I thought I would focus on wedding blogs. You might be saying to yourself, "Kevin, your blog IS a wedding blog." Now, I'm not talking about this kind of wedding blog. I'm talking about wedding blogs that give new ideas EVERY day to the future brides of the world. Of course, maybe we do a little bit of that here, but not NEARLY to the extent that it is happening elsewhere on the big WWW. In fact, there is rarely a day that goes by that this conversation does not happen...

Holl: "So, I found this cute idea today."
Me: "Oh? Where at?"
Holl: "Oh, you know, just a wedding blog I was reading."

There must be BILLIONS of these wedding blogs out there! I'm pretty sure I've never seen my beautiful fiancée read the same wedding blog more than once, unless it is, of course, 2000dollarwedding.com. There is also the wide array of bridal magazines laying around both of our apartments as well. I won't mention the disappointed look on Holl's face today when she realized that the Summer issue of Martha Stewart Weddings was not out yet.... It's really quite interesting all of the blogs, books, and magazines for future brides about planning and decorating for this one day in your life. Grooms of the world, you may be sitting around asking yourself, "Where are my blogs, books, and magazines??" That, my friends, is exactly why I am here. I am here for all of you.

Anyhow, that's about it from me this week! Happy Friday everyone and have a safe Memorial Day Weekend! In case many of you are wondering about those engagement pictures we took over a month ago, we are still waiting on them. Hopefully we should have them by next week and we can share them. :)

Peace, love, and grooms,

Kevin