Pre-Wedding Festivities! And the wedding week begins! A few days early...

Well hello there Mrs. Dean. Oh wait, am I talking to myself here? Welp, yes- by the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, Courtney and I are officially husband and wife! As I kept saying all day Saturday while getting ready, "This is crazy!" so call me maybe? Ha! Man am I corny?! I can't wait to tell you all details all about the big day. But I figured I'd prefer to break it down for you starting from the very beginning....

Once upon a time there was a girl and a boy who had no idea each other existed.... *fast forward 3.5 years* and "I now pronounce you husband and wife!". We originally thought the wedding week would begin with my momma coming up on the train on 7/1 but we were more than delighted to find out that Courtney's father and step-mother had arrived to town on 6/31. They were staying at a nearby RV park at Hanscom Family campground. So we immediately headed up after work that day to go visit. We enjoyed a nice BBQ and caught up over good food and company. It was so good to see them as it had been about a year since we last connected in person. We talked about the week, plans, and laid out more of a timeline for getting things done. They had arrived early to spend time with us before the Circus of a week that we knew would be upon us. It was so nice to spend some quality one on one time with them.


The next day- I luckily got out of work about 2:00 p.m. thanks to "FlipKey Fridays". I linked up with Courtney's dad and step mom in downtown Boston for a trolley tour. It was really nice to spend some time with them and to see more of Boston that I never even knew about! It was incredibly hot too, so right after the tour we decided to take the train back to Arlington, where we got started on BBQing at our wreck of a place! I had been saving up the mess because help was coming on Monday to clean up. But they still dealt the the heat, the mess and got to see where we spend our everyday lives. It meant so much to us!

Then, Saturday rolled around. And it was the big lighting set-up day! We had the help of Gary, Jean, John, Jamie and Courtney. My vision was Young House Love themed meets John and Jamie's wedding. And thanks to friends and family- we nailed it! We wrapped up and again enjoyed a meal with family... ending the day right!

Sunday came so quick- and Courtney was off with his father deep sea fishing for some father son time. I spent the day with Jean (his mother-in-law) who helped me run errands- including Trader Joe's errands, taking her to FlipKey to pick-up a cooler. Jean got to see my cubicle and office. Then we walked around Chinatown and soon headed to the North End for some famous Mike's pastries. We picked up some cannolis for everyone. I should be shot because I never ended up eating mine. I crave sweets but when it comes to actually eating them- can't find the appetite. A storm started rolling in and we headed to the train station just in time to stay dry. Or so we thought! The storm never even hit even though it looked pretty "crazy".

My mom's train ran late, so we grabbed some Auntie Anne's and took a seat. Finally, my mom's train arrived, and we waited on the platform for her. I remember her walking down in her blue and white shirt with those cute white capris on. I was so incredibly moved to see her. I ran up and hugged her, fighting back the tears. She had traveled all this way, alone to help me for my big day. And that meant the world to me... And I will leave it at that for part 1 of the pre-wedding festivities. How many parts are there? You will have find out!