"They're our newlyweds!"

I'm finally, officially...Mrs. Murphy! :D

'K, now that that's outta the way, we've been in Ireland since the 8th September. Our tour officially ended this morning, and we're spending the next two days in Dublin on our own, exploring.

The tour was absolutely amazing! I was surprised at tons of things, but mostly by the number of counties we visited: Meath, Cork, Kilkenny, Dublin, and several more. We were the youngest ones on the Irish Fling tour, AND the only honeymooners, so we were something of a novelty. (Seriously, at least three older couples wanted pictures of US--not the landscape, us!) On our first night the tour group took part in a medieval feast in Bunratty, and Will and I were crowned the Earl and Lady or Thomond :) That's just a taste of everything we've experienced so far ;)

I'll post more details with the pics that'll be on Facebook, but we loved the tour experience, and Dublin's just as awesome! We'll be home in two days--pics and video posted on Facebook and youtube then :)

~Mrs. Murphy

2 days left!

Will's parents got in last night, so we took them to Fiddler's Green (a seriously authentic Irish pub in Winter Park) for dinner. Seemed like they really enjoyed it, and we hadn't been there in a while, so....hooray! Perfect thing to get us in the Ireland-mindset anyway :)

Tonight's my bach-ette party at the apartment, and then I'm spending the night w/Will (in Kissimmee--at the house his fam is renting--since we're kicking him out for the party). Friday = rehearsal & dinner, and then his bachelor party.

Then comes.....*dun dun DUNNNNNN* Saturday!!!! Right now the weather looks *okay*. Not excellent, but only scattered rain so far. We have a backup plan, though...so I'm not worried.

Can't believe there's only 2 days to go! Yay :)

Wondering...

...how many of my friends (and blog followers?) are in online relationships, or have had them? Since there's less than 2 weeks before I marry my online sweetie, I've been thinking a lot about online matchups. I was very lucky to find the geek-of-my-dreams online, and since then I've found lots and lots of others who have found their other halves online.

So how 'bout the rest of you Central Floridians in Blogland? Do you have experience with this? Want to tell me your story? Click below to read things I've written about love via the "intarwebz" (as a LOLcat would say).

Waiting game

Two weeks from today I'll officially be a Mrs.! Two. little. weeks. Yay!!

But, we're still waiting on one RSVP from a good friend (Sensei). Long story short, I've known him since 2005, he's an awesome guy, and he taught both Will and me aikido. I tracked him down and talked to him almost two weeks ago, and he said he'd be there. It's almost time to give final numbers to the caterer. He called me yesterday afternoon to tell me....since we last talked, he joined the USAF reserves. So he may not be able to make it after all :(


I'm crossing my fingers he can attend, because it would be seriously awesome. We'll know Sunday.

*crosses fingers*

30 days!

Today there's officially one month until the wedding. YAY!! Makes me think of all the time it took planning this shindig, and it's almost here :)

It's funny to look back now; for quite a loooooong time, I was pretty sure I'd never get married. When I DID think about it, I always wondered how I'd meet my hubby. I sure didn't think it would be online! It was a totally different experience for me, especially since we were 300+ miles apart when we finally got serious.

The long-distance part of our relationship was the hardest, because I knew Will was "there"...but it felt like no one else did! Every time I mentioned the littlest thing, it seemed like my friends were skeptical because they hadn't met Will. (A roommate's boyfriend even told me Will didn't exist, because he'd never seen him!) Once Will decided to move here, things got a little harder.

One or two friends who were skeptical before started showing their true feelings ("I'm surprised you're moving in together so quickly! Aren't you too young? Won't that ruin the relationship?") That rattled me for a while, because I kept feeling like I had to explain myself.

Sometimes I never thought we'd get through it, but we survived, naysayers or not :) HE was the one who chose to move early, and we viewed it as a good choice. Living together BEFORE marriage is giving us a chance to see each other day in, day out...and realize what the other's really like.

Life's just becoming more exciting now, and I can't wait for the rest of it...together :)

DIY = my new addiction

So far these past few days have been great for wedding-related stuff :)

I have my dress, slip and shoes back in Oviedo for my first fitting in mid-July--yay! I went DIY crazy :) I started a cute idea for our programs, and finished another project (our card box).

The original one I bought was just a small, dark blue basket with wooden handles. Kinda bland. When I saw a wooden file box and some chipboard letters at Michaels last week, I couldn't resist. (I already had the spraypaint for the inside & outside).

Here's the *new* finished product--



So...one more DIY project down, and only 2 more to finish! Can't work on the programs or finishing the placecards 'til August, but I'm really happy with the box! :)

Reality stinks sometimes

Will and I watched the most recent episode of Jon & Kate Plus Eight tonight. We used to watch it all the time, but we'd always point out the times when one of them seemed to dominate the other. Then it got weird, so we quit watching. And THEN all the divorce rumors started flying after the tabloid pics surfaced.

I wasn't surprised at tonight's ending, with that little outcome card on it. I WAS surprised it actually turned into a train wreck of sorts, since some but neither Will nor I think the show can go on much longer, though. Is it gonna be like "Jon Minus Kate (Plus Eight)" when he has 'em, and vice versa?

We're not planning to watch next week. I feel sorry for the kids, because it's hard for anyone to say how this will really affect them. Sometimes reality shows about families are cute, but I'm starting to think they're mostly strange.

Our rings! Yay!

I posted pics in my bio already...but I'm so darn excited about them I have to share again :)

We went to Kay Jewelers in Seminole Towne Center (a friend of mine asked her brother to help us out, since he works there). I'll post details with vendor reviews after the wedding. In the meantime, here are the pics!

My "set":

Wedding band:


Revamped e-ring:


The e-ring looks different, and there's a story behind it. I brought my original ring to be cleaned when we first visited Kay's to look around. I fell in love with the wedding band in the photo, but my e-ring didn't match. I never said anything to Will, but I kept thinking it took an awfully long time for my e-ring to come back from cleaning (over a week).

Little did I know, he had the setting changed, and the original diamond from my e-ring was recut to become multiple ones. He even added smaller diamonds on both sides, so my rings match :)

I've always said he spoils me, and sometimes I'm a embarrassed by it. This time I'm just blown away that he would do that! He chose a simple, brushed titanium ring for himself:



It just seems to fit him (no pun intended) and it's classy, in an understated way. We had a pretty great experience, and I'm really pleased with our choices :)

They're squooshed

I'm halfway done with my reception menus. I hope to finish them this week, but the cosmos (or at least the Postal Service!) doesn't seem to be on my side. I bought a pack of CD labels to work on the records at Mom's last weekend, but I didn't have time, and then forgot to bring them back with me.

No problem, right? Mom found the package and mailed it to me. (Yay!!) Got it today, though, and the whole mailing envelope was folded in half and stuffed in my mailbox. Not so yay.

Hopefully I can salvage the labels. They weren't completely folded in half, so a night under some heavy books should straighten them out. Word to the wise, though. When you're mailing something remotely pliable, even in a padded envelope, slide something hard in there too. And then write DO NOT BEND in large letters on the mailing envelope. Polack that I am, I gotta remember that for next time!

Marme

Feels like I'm being blog-prolific tonight, but I had to share this bit 'o..something. When I first met Will's mom two years ago, I wasn't sure what to call her. I'm pretty sure I just called her Mrs. B., but I don't really remember.

As I went to more family stuff and Will and I got more serious, I started thinking of nicknames. First one was Mama Anne. I think that one was because Will calls her Mama sometimes...and it's cute. I called her "Will's mom" or "Anne" when I spoke about her to my parents. It stayed that way for a long time, actually. But recently I started noticing that Jessica calls her Marme. I figured it was a mother-daughter thing, so backed off from that, because I thought it would sound weird coming from me.

Then my bridal shower came along last weekend, and hers was the first gift I opened. My mom kind of announced it to the group that the first gift I was opening was from my mother-in-law. So then Will's mom got up and said, "No, it's not from her mother-in-law...it's from her Marme!"

She made this whole little speech, saying that she wants to be called Marme because it's more familiar. And she actually explained that, yes, it's just like Marmee in Little Women. She spells it differently (only one 'e') but it's the same idea. (Will's not a reader, so he has no idea about Little Women or any of the characters.)

That little explanation made me feel like I really AM part of the family. Sappy, yes, but it cleared up some things too. I know how to refer to her, and I won't take the "Mom" title from my mother. So everybody's happy.

Yay!