Wedding Plans & Karaoke

Chris and I both have new projects, which is kind of fun.

I'm planning a wedding. I've honestly never planned or even helped someone else plan a wedding in my life. I sort of had a brainstorming session with my, now, sister in law, Sheryl when she was going to marry Brian but I didn't like have to find a venue to accommodate a large number of guests for a ceremony that merges my family with Chris's family as well as a big party complete with food, music, cake, nor have I planned so far in advance what I might wear to such an occasion. At first I felt really overwhelmed with all the decisions that I needed to make. However, I've had a couple of weeks now to adjust and get a few things decided at least.

Our plans are slightly flexible but we definitely want to get married on the beach - barefoot in the sand at sunset. I also want a very "green" wedding. I have this book called The Green Bride Guide by Kate L. Harrison which is really truly helpful. We are not only trying to conserve in our budget but we are making earth-friendly responsible decisions about what resources we use.

We've set the date - September 26th, 2009. Now we just need to find a place along the beach that will accommodate a party of about 60 guests, mostly family members, two of whom cannot climb stairs or walk even short distances, and a reception location for a party. That is seeming to be the difficult part.
We're working on a website.
We've designed our "save the date" cards.
Penny has generously offered to do our mailings and invitations. Thank you, Penny!
Rob will officiate. Thank you, Rob!
I already know what I want to wear.
We've got our wedding party picked out - Chelsea for Maid of Honor & Colin for Best Man.
Carmen & Kevin will perform a guided meditation. Thank you, Carmen & Kevin!
We've decided on a menu.
Chris is building a playlist on his big iPod rather than having a DJ or a band. Chris is awesome.

So, Chris's project is building the greatest, most diverse, most eclectic library of karaoke songs in the world and making it available to his friends and family by bringing a CD of personally picked songs for his Karaoke Jam Birthday Party this weekend. I'm poking fun but this has been an interesting and fun project that he's got going on.

Not only have I recently read the words to scores of songs I never knew the words to but we get to sort of practice and pick the best songs for Saturday. A few weeks ago Chris found this venue called Third Coast Comedy that has a family karaoke night once a month. The four of us went and had an absolute blast. So we're going back for Chris's birthday. We're planning to go as rockers from the '70's / '80's or whatever. I have no idea what I'm going to wear or how I'm going to do my hair.

This past Saturday was our engagement party and it was a lot of good fun. Chris's parents gave us a lovely set of summer glasses with a tray for carrying them outdoors. They are all fun colors - bright blue and lime green and orange. My parents couldn't make it because my dad's isn't doing very well lately. But several of our friends and siblings made it and it turned into a karaoke jam well into the night with the little karaoke machine and all these new songs Chris has now.

I'll get an up to the minute count on songs. One sec...
As of this moment Chris has over 2,000 karaoke songs - it wasn't an exact count after all - but a good rough estimation. He bought a huge package of CDs but he's also scouring the net for others.

Anyway, so yeah, he's obsessed at this point. I still haven't thought about what I might sing on Saturday. I'm more concerned with catching it all on video. Last time we went, Colin stole the show with his dance moves. And I learned that Chelsea can sing just about anything. She's great at karaoke! I told Rhonda that Chris would have just about any song she would want and she named two Melissa Ethridge songs that he did not have.

He's been going through this whole library of songs playing each song so the lyrics are scrolling across his screen and he sings each one for anywhere from a few lines or just the refrain to the whole song. It has been the best fun watching Chris running through these songs.

Then I guess we have a "together" project of cleaning out the empty house so we can get it on the market as soon as possible. We got approved for a home loan and want to move forward but need more of a down payment. We have access to about half of what we truly need. But selling Chris's house would be the best solution to everything. The thing is that we have a couple of things pressuring us - our lease expires at the end of next month and we found two houses that are on the market right now that are gorgeous and perfect for us. I want to grab the one before someone else takes it. The other one is the back up house which is actually on the same street so the location is still incredible, and it actually has a nicer yard (front & back) and a bigger kitchen. But the upstairs lay out won't suit our needs well. So we are buying a house and getting married all in the same year. We need money! Thus our project is fund raising. We're planning a garage sale. We've got several items for e-bay. We are unloading everything of value that we can. We are also interested in any fund raising ideas you might have. Thank you!

much LOVE