Not an unhappy moment since

Reader, I married him.

The wedding was fantastic, start to finish -- every detail was perfect. The ceremony was moving and beautiful and flawless (and the homily included a Restricted View shout-out!); the reception was a total blast. We didn't fall over in a heap while executing our first-dance finale (seen above, captured with dramatic blurriness by my sister's cell phone). The band sounded great, the food was delicious, the decor was beautiful, the weather was very cooperative -- even the cake got raves, and you know we didn't spend long fussing over the cake! We had a great rehearsal dinner/pre-wedding pub night, and a fun Sunday-morning breakfast, and seeing all our friends and family together was every bit as wonderful as I imagined it would be. In the end, we felt like all our work paid off richly. All our time was well spent, and we didn't find ourselves wishing we'd worried more about any particular detail. You can't ask for more than that.

There's much to be told about the whole thing, and I promise you'll hear about it soon, but for now I just wanted to check in (and claim my Jane Eyre moment) before I get back to the post-honeymoon scramble. The honeymoon was fabulous, by the way -- expect to hear about that in future posts. But now we have to move the rest of my stuff from my old apartment to our new home, and then figure out where to put everything. We have to get started writing thank-yous to all our very generous guests (and terrific vendors!). I need to pull together some pictures and distribute them to all who are impatiently waiting. And I have to see about changing my address and name, where applicable. That means you probably have a "my trip to the DMV" post to look forward to -- yippee!

I'll leave you with one more bit of good news: I had my latest checkup yesterday (with a CT scan at 8 a.m. the day after we got back from our honeymoon). 15 months after finishing treatment, I am still cancer-free! As if I needed more reasons to celebrate.

They're finally getting ma-a-a-ried now!

You've been hearing about it for months -- it's made me a dull blogger and, lately, a stressed-out and cranky companion. But it's finally here! The wedding weekend is upon us! All our planning is done. Travel plans are made, hotel rooms are booked, the weather's looking perfect; there's nothing left to do but celebrate. Hooray!

When I was little, this was my idea of a great wedding.


Whenever my grandmother babysat for me and my sister, my mom would usually let us rent a movie, and at least a third of the time we chose The Muppets Take Manhattan (with dialogue in English, unlike the clip above). The movie shaped me in many ways -- it colors my experience of Manhattan to this day, and I always got a little teary during this climactic scene, where Kermit and Miss Piggy get married (but not really...or do they?). This is a wedding I'd like to attend. I thrill to the "Somebody's Getting Married" prelude. I love that Miss Piggy wears her signature elbow-length purple gloves with her wedding gown. I dig the way the bride and groom enter together -- talk about a modern couple! I really enjoy the sweet Jeff Moss song, and the sudden sincerity of their affection -- has Miss Piggy ever had a more vulnerable moment? But what I really, really love, what really moves me about this scene, is the cast-of-thousands congregation, Muppets everywhere you look, filling the pews and sniffling as the bride and groom enter. Characters from The Muppet Show. Beloved friends from Sesame Street. Characters created just for this movie, like Kermit's advertising agency coworkers. Muppets from all stages of my life and Kermit's, gathered in one place, voicing their support for the new couple. When the music swells for the final chorus, and the camera pulls back to take in the whole "church," and you can see Big Bird swaying in the back row? It kills me, every time.

In a way, this is still my idea of a great wedding. This is what I'm most looking forward to this weekend -- what all this planning and stressing and waiting has been for. Standing next to my own Kermit and looking out at the church, the parish where I grew up, filled with people who are important to us, who've known us for years, at all the different stages of our lives, and who are there to support us as we begin this new adventure. I don't expect Big Bird to show up, but I still think the view from the altar will be pretty awesome. And then? We'll party.

To those of you attending: We'll see you in Scranton! To the rest of you: Send happy vibes my way this Saturday, and I'll see you here when we return from our Caribbean honeymoon!

What she said

Really good advice, from another Scranton bride-to-be.

Let's hope it's a good one

Happy New Year! I didn't expect to make my first 2008 post so late, but you can probably imagine what I've been doing with my time. The bad news is, blogging will be slow for a while yet. The good news is, the day when I actually will shut up about my wedding -- or at least refer to it less often -- is drawing nigh! One week left!

Most of these last days of single life have been taken up with wedding-related tasks and errands. Last week was all about making sure the appropriate parties received their final instructions. Now I'm focusing on details. I just finished making our escort cards (which are different from place cards, in that...Oh, never mind, it's boring anyway, be glad you don't know). And this morning I dropped off our wedding program design at the printer. I managed to put together our invitations and inserts using nothing more sophisticated than Microsoft Word, but it was so much trouble I might as well have learned a whole new program. So for the rest of our wedding-day stationery I decided to step it up. I downloaded an open-source design program called Scribus as a Christmas gift to myself, and we've had our little struggles, but I think my patience paid off. People often remark that wedding planning is frustrating because just when you get good at it, you never have to do it again. (I think this is how professional wedding planners are born.) So it's nice to know I've picked up at least one skill that may serve me well going forward (the same goes for the ability to fox-trot, however tentatively).

No matter how well everything falls into place, I still seem to end each day at a very high stress level, and this is where quality television programming comes in handy. The writers' strike is inconvenient, but Supernanny and Wife Swap returned this week, hurrah! I've also renewed my addiction to the Style Network program Clean House, and could discuss its strengths and weaknesses at great length if I had the time. Instead I will just say that I find even the weakest episode of Clean House more entertaining than the Lincoln Center production of Sarah Ruhl's play The Clean House. (Lincoln Center did not have Niecy Nash, for one thing.) And by the way, the weakest episode of Clean House is definitely the one that was on at 9 this morning -- the one where they clean the "Alpha Epsilon Phi Fraternity House." Oh, boo hoo, the frat brothers have a messy frat house! How can college students live that way? Someone save them from themselves!

Anyway. The candid-reality genre is good for keeping me company when I'm working on a project, but for helping me unwind and forget all my worries, nothing beats a really good comedy. I miss The Office, but the fiance and I have recently discovered Extras, and I am well and truly obsessed. My one complaint is that we tuned in to the series, and set our DVR to catch all airings, just before the finale aired, and now HBO shows the finale constantly on all of its many cable outlets. So we spend our days deleting multiple recordings of the movie-length finale from our cache. Still, it's worth it to catch every episode, and that last one was pretty terrific.

The fiance and I are also very taken with the HBO series Flight of the Conchords, and we're both excited that it's back up on HBO On Demand. Last time around we got through only the first four episodes before they took it away. If you are also in withdrawal from your favorite network comedy fix, I direct your attention to these fine programs, knowing I am probably far from the first person to do so. It can take me a while to catch on, especially if something is on HBO, because we never had it when I was growing up, and I can't get used to having it now. I still hear "HBO" and think "channel we don't get." Perhaps this is why I spend so much time watching Clean House.

It's time for me to get back to my to-do list -- lots left to cross off there. I promise to post at least once more before the big day! In the meantime, consider attending one of the upcoming (free!) performances of Mother Load, if you haven't yet had the pleasure. And while I'm recommending things everyone else linked to months ago: have you seen Geoffrey Chaucer's blog? It's guaranteed to make you giggle like mad, if you can finish this couplet: The hooly blisful martir for to seke / That hem hath holpen... Visit now to read Chaucer's pitch ideas for network television! I would totally watch Sectes in the Borough. Wouldn't you?