So I may have vanished 4 days before the wedding not to be heard from again… But rest assured that we are married and honeymooned and nearly moved, and the wedding photos are on their way! For now, I just had to note that we were mentioned on Portland Style Unveiled last week! I didn’t know until our florist pointed it out to me today… Exciting! Thanks, Heather!

Anyone who visited Oregon last weekend knows that it has been unbelievably gorgeous here. Low 70s, a little breezy, and so clear that Mt. Hood looks like it’s right on the other side of northeast Portland. Of course, we’re now back to dreary, rainy low 50s, and I don’t have very high hopes of the 73-degree sunny days returning before the 18th. What does it all mean? That I need a pretty umbrella, obviously.

There are ultra-feminine rental umbrellas…

And there are pretty blue umbrellas…

There are giant umbrellas (big enough that my petite matron of honor could LIE DOWN under them)…

And there are delightful patterned umbrellas on websites with broken order forms and non-existent customer service…

But, none of them hold a candle to the perfect umbrella…

Apparently Oregon passed a law this year that you can only have one middle name. Seriously? Who gets paid to sit around and come up with this stuff?

We went to the courthouse, went through the elaborate airport-like security, and are still marriage license-less because I couldn’t figure out what to do with my name. I either have to give up my middle name or maiden last name and thought I was going to get to keep all of it.

I can’t run off and elope in California to keep my names, can I?

Well, we’re entering the home stretch — the wedding is one month from today! And, unsurprisingly, we have officially entered the everything-is-going-awry phase.

Catering is over budget. The restaurant where I made our rehearsal dinner reservation months ago has no idea what I’m talking about. We’re barely past 50% RSVPed. My wedding band and engagement ring (that were purchased as a set) were a quarter size different and didn’t fit together properly. (Fortunately, this was fixed on Monday… Phew.) The cake stand I’m renting for the cutting cake is, oh, only about twice the size we need. We have to purchase extra hours at our venue because, somehow, nine hours just doesn’t cut it. I had to move the welcome bags up to Mr. R’s in Portland just to schlep them all back to Salem in less than a month.

And… it looks like no peonies in April this year. Snow has definitely lost its magic for me, people.

But on the bright side, I am looking forward to being married more every day. Mr. R has been especially kind and giving and thoughtful and sensitive lately. We had two amazing showers over the weekend… Seriously, I am so totally overwhelmed by the generosity of others and how they continually bless my life. My maid of honor and my mom came down for the occasion, and I get to see my MOH again for her birthday in less than two weeks. My matron of honor is coming to see me this weekend (!). The dresses — mine and my maids’ — are so gorgeous it’s ridiculous. Mr. R has started spraypainting the easel for me. And I’m giving myself permission to drop not one but two! of my DIY projects. (For me, that’s huge.)

Let the final countdown begin!

We’re at the airport now, headed to LA for not one but two wedding showers this weekend! Saturday is my bridal shower in Pasadena, and Sunday is a family couples shower in Placentia.

Everyone warned me that the weeks leading up to the wedding would be hectic, and despite my best attempts to allay it, the crazy-busyness has definitely hit. But there’s so much to look forward to in these next few weeks that I really can’t complain.

I love wrapping gifts almost as much as I love giving them, and the shower hostess gifts are no exception… Now I just have to get them to California in one piece.

Green botanical bags and shimmer tissue paper, Target; dupioni and satin ribbon and millenary flowers, Oblation.

Today, we are exactly two months away from our wedding — and let me tell you, it’s a flurry of activity around here! DIY projects, freelance design projects, correspondence here, there and everywhere, the regular errand-running and to-do list making… And it finally dawned on me a couple of weeks ago that Tax Day is three days before the wedding. Just. three. days. So, in case I didn’t have enough to do, taxes have been added to the agenda.

In honor of the two-month mark, I proudly present…

The top five reasons not to have a long engagement

1. People move. So your save-the-date card was delivered (or at least forwarded), but your Christmas card was returned to sender, and now you’re on a quest for updated addresses. Or people have spontaneously moved at some other time between then and now. I’m hardly one to talk, but people need to stay put, for crying out loud.

2. There’s a strange, awkward in-between period where you can’t do much other than anticipate everything there will be to do. The vendors are booked, you have your attendants, you’ve selected your palette and theme… Now what? This was exacerbated by my living situation; there was simply no way I could have a million completed DIY projects sitting around in my 600 square-foot house for eight months before the wedding. It was bad enough to have the supplies for those projects in giant Rubbermaids in my dining room. I think this directly leads to…

3. Too much time to debate your choices. Unless you cease perusing the internet, issue a wedding blog embargo, avoid the magazine rack at the grocery store, and stop talking to anyone who has gotten (or is planning to get) married in your geographical area, you will undoubtedly question your selections in vendors, attire, theme — pretty much every decision you made. My palette was solid, and I still love love love my dress, but little else was safe. Vendor selection has been the most difficult, by far. The fact of the matter is that there probably are half a dozen vendors who could provide the exact same service with similar results at similar cost, but there is a reason you booked the person you booked, and you have to remind yourself of that. Often.

4. Things on your registry get discontinued. Seriously. I’ve now picked out three different sets of cookware.

5. If you’re anything like me, you start to get ahead of yourself. You spend too much time thinking about all that comes after the wedding — the packing, the moving, the reorganizing, the decorating, the blending your life with someone different from yourself — even though you can’t do any of those things yet. And then you freak out. But in the end, that’s a good sign, right? Excitement to start your new life probably shouldn’t be on the list of reasons against long engagements.