Wedding Nightmares

4 months til the BIG DAY!

Update on the fiance visa: things are still sloowwww as molases. However, I did get a letter from the National Visa Center about 2 weeks ago saying that Kieran should be hearing from the Embassy very soon about the interview and medical screening process. Woot! Not so exciting for him, as he has to get poked and prodded for a hefty price. Brits aren't used to shelling out big bucks for medical check-ups! Hope he's all up-to-date on his shots :-)

I can't wait til the big day! However, the planning process of this whole thing has been quite an ordeal. Seriously contemplated eloping many times. The anxiety involved with planning such an event has seeped into my dreams! Over the past few months I have had bizzare recurring dreams related to weddings. Here's a few descriptions of my favorites:





"I CAN'T GET MARRIED, MY HAIR ISN'T DONE!":
I go to the hair dresser and my hair looks perfect. Then 10 minutes before the ceremony my hair has completely fallen flat and come undone due to heat, rain, snow, or wind (I've dreamt about all 4 scenarios) So I put the brakes on the ceremony til I can find someone to fix my hair. In the end I have to accept the help of hair amateurs (bridesmaids, wedding guests, my mother, whoever I can find) and I walk down the aisle with horrendous-looking hair


LATE TO MY OWN WEDDING:
I'm 1, 2, or even 6 hours late to my own wedding. Car broke down, wedding dress got dirty, hair is messed up, or I forgot. I call my maid of honor to see if Kieran's still there and I ask, "is he crying?? Tell him I'm sorry and I'll be there soon"


FORGOT TO HIRE THE OFFICIANT:
The wedding march is playing and I start walking down the aisle, only to discover there is no officiant waiting for me at the front of the room. I run back down the aisle embarassed and frantically try to find someone else to fill in.


Then last night, I had a new one that entertained me. In this dream I was actually a bridesmaid at a wedding for an old friend from middle school with whom I've lost contact. Another bridesmaid in the wedding party is a girl I used to work with in high school and I've lost touch with her over the years, too. Our hair was exquisite BUT our dresses were paper hospital gowns like the ones at the doctor's office. We walked around in hospital gowns and flip flops, with our asses hanging out for all to see.

I want my brain back!!!


In more positive news, I'm going to England in 2 WEEKS to visit for Christmas and New Years. Can't wait! I'll post pics and an update when I return :)

Sweet dreams! Haha

First comes love, then comes the wedding venue

I'M IN LOVE! With a wedding venue, that is!

On Friday, my bridesmaid Rachel and I went to see Milton Ridge, the last of the wedding venues. Part of me was really hoping I would be apathetic so I would have an easy decision to make. But I loved it! So now the booking is prolonged for a week cause I have to take my parents to see it next weekend. I hope they love it as much as I do.





I miss my Kieran so much! I really wish he was here to help with the planning stuff. It's hard for us both to have to share info via emails and pictures. Not quite the same. But I'm excited to be visiting him in England in about a month. Nan and Grandad London are having their 50th wedding anniversary celebrations so I am coming for about a week at the end of August to visit Kieran and the family. It will be a blasty! Meanwhile, there is talk of a BBQ/Engagement Party in the works which is sure to be awesome.

Alright so I have to share a recent phenomenon that is blowing my mind. Ever since we got engaged, I have encountered so many English connections and British-American couples in random situations. It's like fate trying to tell me that I'm right on track. The guy who sold me my engagement ring lived in England most of his life. The manager of a venue I visited was married to a Brit. I happened to meet a British dude on a bike trail in the area a few weeks ago. More recently, I was selling a desk on Craigslist and the dude who came over to my house to get it was saying that his wife is English and they are moving back to England in the winter. (sidenote: why they wanted a uge desk hdesk when they are moving in 6 months, I do not know). Then my mom just called me saying she met a photographer at work who is English and his wife is American. And it turns out his family lives in the same town as Kieran.
What the heck is going on? If this isn't my guardian angels trying to tell me "yay! everything is going to be awesome!" then I don't know what it is. But it's entertaining me.

In other news, I am bored out of my skull and can't wait to start my new job next Monday! I have enjoyed some relaxation time, but too much of a good thing can lead to excessive sleeping and laziness. True story.

Take care, folks!

Love,
Amanda

If it's too big for a suitcase, it's outta here

So over the next 9 months, I am slow but surely (but mostly slowly) purging my crap from my parents' house. It's sad and horrifying how much stuff a person can accumulate from college onward! Going through my old, dusty, forgotten stuff is like walking back through memories of the past 6 years--one paper, book, and tacky area rug at a time.

I am no stranger to moving. I moved my stuff twice a year over my 4 years at college in PA...and always on the hottest day of the fall/spring, I might add! Every car ride back home to Maryland got more and more cramped with all the accumulated furniture and memories. Then last year Kieran and I made a big move to Baltimore for a year while we both studied in the city and collected even more stuff--I fell in love with cooking and needed kitchen toys!

Now, in addition to my random knick-knacks and furniture from college--my two bedroom apartment worth of furniture and appliances is now crammed into the basement.

Needless to say, I can't take this stuff with me. International flights generally let you take 2 checked bags on board and I still haven't decided if I'm going to ship boxes of stuff to England. Honestly, I am kind of in love with the idea of a fresh start with bare essentials...packing my life into 2-3 bags and building a new life from scratch. It's weird cause I'm generally pretty anal and attached to my stuff, but I'm pretty swept up in the adventure of it all!

Anyways, so Craigslist has been my BFF in my efforts to downsize and put a few bucks in my pocket. Not to mention charities like AmVets and Purple Heart who are more than happy to take boxes of my neglected things and flip it into meaningful profit--more power to them! Meanwhile, it's been payment enough just to see my mom's happiness at the prospect of actually having her basement back. But something tells me she'll miss those fugly college area rugs when they're gone.

Holy crap, did I just say 9 months?! My account at TheKnot.com is giving me daily panic attacks, as they continue to email me to remind me that I have 12,234,501,744 wedding planning things that I have yet to accomplish. Stop rushing me, TheKnot.com! Goshhhh!

Ciao,
Amanda

Love, marriage, and immigration (in no particular order)

These are my favorite pages from my newly-completed "Petition for an Alien Fiance" application portfolio thingie for US Citizenship and Immigration Service (USCIS). I'm pretty sure USCIS won't necessarily "ooo" and "awww" at my cutesy stickers and style, but it made me smile to make it!

Kieran and I met 4 years ago, both working as camp counselors at a residential summer camp in New York. We were both 20 and in the middle of undergraduate school in our respective countries. I certainly wasn't expecting to find my soul mate. Further, I wasn't expecting my soul mate to be from another country. Before I met Kieran, I didn't know anything about England or the UK. I didn't even know that England had a different flag from the traditional UK "Union Jack." Meeting Kieran and other British people recruited through Camp America really opened up my world. Within 3 weeks of meeting each other, Kieran and I were inseparable.

I didn't know a darn thing about immigration and its obstacles back then. I am glad I didn't cause I was always naively optimistic. By the time I figured out the immigration barriers ahead of us, I was already deeply in love and not willing to give up. The refusal to give up on the special connection we had because of laws and citizenship was the thing that kept us both going strong all these years. We went back and forth on temporary visas--student visas, visa waiver visits, etc. None of it was a permanent solution but we were happy just to have more time together. When we didn't have a legal way to be together, we tried to be content with brief visits 4 times a year, daily phone calls, and romantic snail mail packages and letters.

Now that Kieran and I were finally out of school (for now, anyways!) and starting our first jobs, we realized that the immigration walls were closing in. We were running out of temporary options. Not to mention that we were both growing weary and impatient with the long-distance arrangement. So on a trip last month to Cancun for a much-needed vacation, Kieran popped the big question and thus our next chapter began!

Unfortunately we are still apart right now, because legally we can only work in our respective countries, but I am so happy that we are only 10 or 11 months away from putting this long-distance crap behind us, once and for all!! But holy crap, trying to plan a Maryland wedding when the groom and the groom's whole family are across the pond--it is hard! Plus, I feel sad going on reception/ceremony site tours without Kieran. I know it's going to be a beautiful and lovely wedding, but I wish he was here to share in the planning!

I just have to hope and pray that USCIS processes the fiance visa in time. Average processing time is about 5 months, but I worked for the federal government long enough to know that "average processing times" don't always work out that way. Trying not to stress, putting faith in the fact that the application is complete and flawless and hope it speaks for itself!!

Well tomorrow I am off to another wedding venue tour. Right now I'm between 2-3 venues so I'm trying to narrow it down in the next month. So crazy! I'm so glad my parents are here to keep me sane for the time being, even though my mom is clearly sad about my impending move. Just trying to keep the parents excited about the wedding and the planning and distracting them from what happens after that. It seems to be working right now, so we'll see how it goes :-D

Okay mom is beckoning me to watch "Say Yes to the Dress" with her! Gotta Go!

<3 Amanda