Rhody Love

Thanksgiving week was spent in Rhode Island with the fiance and my lovely family. We had so much fun doing a bunch of wedding related stuff, and it started immediately upon landing! We called a (free) Radisson shuttle from the airport and were taken directly to the hotel within 20 minutes of being in RI. It was great! The Radisson is actually right across the street from TF Green Airport so it will be suuuper convenient for our guests flying in from outta town.

We arrived at the Radisson and Linda (the wedding coordinator) welcomed us almost instantly. She showed us the cocktail room where guests will get delicious beverages and snack foods during a reception hour (... btw, we're renaming it "happy hour"). Then we saw the ballroom. It's perfect! It'll be a great space for one heckuva party. We then saw the courtyard which Linda said will probably have decorated trees - with strands of lights. I love this! It'll give such a magical feel to the courtyard.

After the tour, we sat down and chatted with Linda for a while about vendors, decoration ideas, and just life in general. She seems like a great chicka who's going to be a lot of help during this whole process.

My parents and sis (with Lindsey) joined us around 4:30pm at the Radisson for a sample tasting of our dinner choices for the wedding. It was so great to see my mom, my dad, my sis, and my niece after having been away from RI since June. And we all got to enjoy an amazing meal together. We tried so many delicious foods! Pesto pasta, tossed salads, steak, chicken, potatoes, veggies, and tons of desserts. By the end of the meal, were stuffed, but we pretty much knew exactly what we were going to pick for our 4-course wedding menu upon putting down the utensils. All I can say is, it's a meal to look forward to. Especially the dessert. Especially if you're a chocoholic.

The next morning, John and I headed to Christ the King Parish to meet with Fr. Matt for our pre-nuptual inventory. We attended noon mass first, then shared delicious greek food from International Pockets during our meeting/chat. Though he probably won't be saying our wedding mass, it was great to meet with Fr. Matt to get this first Catholic detail checked off our wedding prep list. Fr. Matt is such an awesome guy, so of course we had a great time. And John and I were smiling ear-to-ear as we answered the pre-nuptial questions. We're just so excited about marrying each other! And Fr. Matt totally picked up on the happiness.

Since the parish is basically on the URI campus, we picked up Jeff (little bro) and brought him back to the house with us for his Thanksgiving break... but not without stopping for some bubble tea first. Mmmm so yummy! We then headed home and had a wonderful night with my sis (Lauren) and her boyf (Dave) at The Remmington House for dinner and The Crowe Bar for drinks. And I got to see one of my bridesmaids at The Crowe Bar! Justine was there with her hubby, so we had a grand ol' time catching up and chatting about the schwedd. I hadn't seen her since her wedding over 2 years ago (since she lives in Maine), so it was so loverly to spend some QT with her.

The next day was Thanksgiving, which we spent with aunts and uncles on Mom's side of the fam. We spent time bonding with the relatives and John fit in perfectly. The evening was spent chatting, football watching, fooding, and playing hilarious games (e.g. Toss the Cookies).

The last day of our short vaca in RI was spent wedding dress shopping with Mom, Lauren, sister-in-law Meg, cousin and hairdresser Sarah, and bridesmaid Kate. I must have tried on 30 gowns. I'll give a more detailed gown-shopping account in my next post as it'll be all about the whoooole gown search.

After the unsuccessful gown shopping trip, my mom hosted a party at the house for all relatives and close family friends to meet John. No joke: John was the belle of the ball! He worked the crowd like you wouldn't believe. He was only by my side about 25% of the night. The rest of the time he spent getting to know my aunts and uncles and high school/college friends by chatting them up. He thought they were all quality people, and I think they felt the same? Can't wait for him to meet my dad's side of the fam!

Well, Rhody, I miss you already. Hopefully the next trip home (Christmas) will be just as fun! And hopefully there will be more wedding planning to do. I'm really liking this stuff!