I heart Excel.  I’ve typed up everyone that I think needs and invite, I’ve checked it with Moms list and it matches.  I need Jeff’s moms list and then I’m ready to starts culling it.  I have everyone on my list classified into one of three catagories.  A = People who MUST get an invite.  No if’’s, and’s, or but’s they get an invite.  This is family only.  B= Friends that I really want to be there but if I simply have to cut some out they go before the A’s.  C= people I feel a mild obligation to send an invite too.  Mostly these are cousins that I’m not particularly close too.  Basically they are the red shirts of my guest list.  When the shooting starts they go down first.

… Man I should have started thinking of my guest list in terms of Star Trek earlier.  It amuses me so.

But back to the C’s.  Its not that I don’t like them, I do, quiet a bit, but like I said in the post before this, I can have 60 people max and I would rather have friends there that really care, rather than family who, while they love me as family, never quiet got me.  I wish I could invite everyone and their brother to my wedding so I wouldn’t have to leave anyone out and could share with everyone, but that is just not economically feasible.  Besides, I think they are all grown-up enough to understand.

I also worked on the decorating ideas for the ceremony and reception.  My inspiration is the idea of a Blustery Day.  I’m going to take galoshes and fill them with soil and flowers, and I think I might do the same with an umbrella.  I think that would look really cool.  An open umbrella sitting on the ground filled with  flowers.  Of course that is a very springy type theme, while March 15th is technically still winter.  But then its not 100% that I’ll get married on March 15th.  Mom thinks I should wait until April when it will be a little warmer.  She has a point but… the ides of march!  Carrie and Laura where over yesterday and we were joking about wedding favors that I could hand out.  I could write mine and Jeff’s name and the date on those little plastic knives that when you stab someone the blade slides into the hilt.  I think that would be kind of cool.  I haven’t said that to Mom yet but I am pretty sure she’ll say No.  I know she’s just trying to be the voice of reason, trying to keep me from doing things that 10 years from now I’ll regret, and ask why no one stopped me, but sometimes you just want to dream and reason gets in the way.

Well Jeff and I haved decided to get married in the spring, so the wedding plans are on.  Unfortantly I really have no idea what I’m doing.  The easy thing would be to get a wedding package, chapel, officiant, music, photgrapher (all I would supply is the guests, the dress, and the groom).  Except I’m silly and want more control.  Currently the thought is getting married at the house.  We would plant my flowers in the backyard and get married there and then have the reception in the garage.  Mom had the idea for the reception in the garage.  We would rent a storage space and move everything the garage into it a couple months before the wedding.  Then we would clean, scrub and apply fresh paint to make it nicer.  We could open the garage doors and hang scrim (white mosquito netting type thing) to allow guests to pass in and out.  In case of rain we could hold the ceremony in the garage and just ask the guests to help us rearrange for the reception.  Of course this gives us a severe problem, the guest list can be 60 people MAX, that is all we really have room for and that is a pretty severe limitation.  I could invite 60 people in family alone but I really want at least a few of my friends to be there.  So now I face the prospect of explaining the lack of invites to various people. 

I have also fallen in love with the idea of getting married on March 15.  I know its suppopsed to be bad luck (Et Tu, Brutus?) but I would love to say that the Ides of March is my anniversary.  I know I’m weird, I’ve already let my mother talk me out of a Star wars wedding, and/or walking down the aisle to vadars march, and other people are allowed to go all out and crazy, aren’t I allowed to have one foible?  There are two problems with March 15.  One- Its a Sunday, which makes it harder for out of town guests to attend, and all of my extended family are out of town guests.  Two- March is unpredictable.  The weather could be nice and lukewarm (low seventies), or rainy and bitterly cold (50’s), which makes it hard to plan.  Also March 16th is my future sister-in-laws birthday, would holding my wedding the day before her birthday be awkward and rude?

I welcome all suggestions and comments.  We bought the super super handy Wedding Planning for Dummies.  Its very handy and makes me fill so much more confident about the whole getting married thing.  When it was just me, the phonebook, and the internet, I was ready to elope.  The wedding buisness is ridiculously expensive and the expectations are WAY pricey.  I’m fairly certain that the whole wedding industry is practicing price gauging because they know people will pay.  Bridal magazine make it seem like you have to be a millionaire to get married.  The For Dummies book makes the whole idea of a wedding more approachable.

Still… sigh.

So I’m packing up my stuff in the apartment to go home for the summer.  (I’m taking a break as I was very industrius earlier.)  I’m having a problem deciding how much to pack.  When I lived in the dorm, it was easy.  Everything had to be packed because I couldn’t leave anything in the room.  Simple.  Now I’m not sure what to pack.  I need to take my clothes, obviously.  I guess I could continue picking and choosing my books and movies.  What to take and what to leave?  Bah.

One of my best friends just got engaged!  Congratulations to Laura and John!

So I’ve been peering at Graduate programs.  If I stay in state I can go to

Auburn University

-American History to 1865 - I like Colonial History so I might do this one

- European History from 1500 to 1789- Ooh, Europe.  Not as far back as I’d like but I’ll take it where I can get it.

-Archival Studies - Sarah is going to West Georgia for this because they gave her a very nice scholarship.

University of Alabama- Tuscaloosa

-Criminal Justice (I am intrigued)

-History - General

-Law School

-Library Science

University of Alabama- Birmingham

-History

-Criminal Justice

University of Montevallo (Where I am now)

- Teaching Certificate

Vanderbilt University- the history program looks really interesting but it is purely doctorate work no masters program.  University of Georgia offers a masters in History.  Ohio State, where at least two of my history professors graduated from, offers a Masters in Folklore.  I would love to do that!

Most of the history majors would mean that I became a teacher.

Everything but history would mean I could get jobs outside of teaching.

Then we have to consider Jeff.  There is a small, miniscule, teeny tiny chance that he could be promoted to salaried manager.  If that happens, it wouldn’t be fair for him to have to move, so I would be more likely to got to UAB since it is close by.  I really like the sound of the Criminal Justice.  Law school could be fun.  The folklore thing sounds really freakin cool!  I just don’t know what I would do with that.

I need to take the GRE in August and start applying.  Sigh.