The wedding took place yesterday at 4:30 pm at the St. Joseph’s Church Museum. We followed the wedding ceremony with dinner and dancing at the Tremont House. It was an absolutely fabulous day. We were truly grateful to be surrounded by family and friends that loved us, and we missed those of you that couldn’t be there with us.

Photo taken by Rannie. (Posted live from our wedding reception. A perfect touch.) Additional photos are at Kathy’s site.

Yes, I’m still up. Yes, I need to get some sleep. But Kymberlie had to leave the rehearsal dinner early tonight because her back hurt so bad that she thought she was going to be sick. She said she was going back to the hotel so she could lay down. I told her to call me and let me know how she was doing. About an hour or so later, I head back to the hotel room to change out of my heels and in to comfy shoes - only to discover that she had been throwing up the whole time since she had left. She looked so sad, like she felt so horrible. I realized that she probably hadn’t called me because she didn’t want to upset me - but I wasn’t upset at all. I was just worried about her.

I stayed with her for a little bit to get a sense for how she felt - and then I got out her insurance card and called in to the company to find out where she should go for emergency treatment. (I didn’t want to just take her anywhere and have her end up with a $5000 medical bill.) I had to lie, of course, to the insurance company and say that I was her to get the answers I needed. The nursing care hotline said that “my” symptoms sounded like possible kidney stones or a kidney infection, and either way, I should go to an ER.

Reason #647 to love and adore Mike? I called him - he was in the lobby visiting with the groomsmen - and told him what was going on. He knew I was tired and had had many late nights recently - so he took her to the hospital. (I don’t have my car down here on the island, so I had to figure out a way to get her there - and I can’t drive her Miata.)

I am worried about Kymberlie, but I know she is in good hands. I think I’ll check in for one more update and see how things are going and then try to get some sleep.

So it’s late, and I’m punchy, but I did get a chance to visit with my future brother-in-law (less that 14 hours to go!) about geektopia subjects like RSS, XML, and my open letter last year to Dave Winer.

Like I said earlier, things happen. Such is life. There will be a wedding in a few hours, and if she can’t make it out of bed to be there, that’s ok. I just want her to feel a lot better then she did when they left. If it is even possible, I love Mike even more for helping me take care of her. And I truly appreciate all of his friends for volunteering to help, to take her to the hospital, to do whatever we needed - even though they had just met me and Kymberlie tonight.

So say a little prayer or send Kymberlie some positive thoughts. She could really use them right now. Don’t worry about me - other than being concerned about her, I’m doing just fine. I have a wonderful family and terrific friends, and I’m marrying the man that I honestly didn’t even believe existed a few years ago, with all of those people at my side. A girl couldn’t ask for more…

Kymberlie, my Mom, Jason & I headed down to Galveston last night. It was nice to have a night away from all the hustle and bustle of wedding planning and just get settled in to the hotel for the weekend. Ahhhhhh…

Today we have the bridal luncheon at 1:00, nails at 3:00, rehearsal at 7:00 and the rehearsal dinner at Luigi’s at 8:00. Then tomorrow is the big day…

Now that I’m here, I’m no longer worried about all the little details. Whatever happens, happens. The most important thing? There will be a wedding at 4:30. Guests will be there to celebrate with us and we will have a good time. That’s what matters most!

Back at the beginning of the wedding planning, Mike & I discussed creating a CD for wedding favors. It was a logical choice, considering he sings bass for the Lager Rhythms. However, then we moved. And there were a lot of other things to plan and do. Plus I’m Chelsey’s Maid of Honor for her September wedding. I decided to prioritize things based on the essentials versus the fun items that would be nice to have.

The CD was pushed to the back burner, but I knew I really wanted them. I didn’t want a favor that people would just toss. I think people are a lot more likely to listen to a CD and hold on to it. But there just wasn’t time to do it all.

Then Kymberlie came to my rescue. She’s a ROCKSTAR! She’s a diva! She is sooooo wonderful. I love and adore her. Why? Because the CD master, the queen of Burn It, offered to make the CDs for us.

YES! We will have CDs at the wedding to give to our guests!

It took me a couple of days to get the play list perfect. It includes the four songs that the DJ “must” play at the wedding: our first dance, the father/daughter (and mother/son) dance, a song we are dedicating to our guests, and the last dance song. It includes songs about love and happiness together. It includes songs special to both of us that we have loved since childhood. It includes Barry Manilow and Kermit the Frog. It simply ROCKS!

She helped us find the perfect photo, and with some going back and forth we got the text on there and it looks gorgeous. I can’t wait to get my hands on one of them tomorrow when we go to Galveston!

And I wouldn’t have them without Kymberlie. I can’t even begin to tell you how much Mike & I appreciate her help - it’s like the finishing touch on what will be a fabulous day!

Reading about this fantastic teacher makes me wish that all teachers could be so good. That would be a parent’s dream come true. It’s also refreshing to see someone go through such a tragic accident and turn their life around in to so much good that has touched so many others. Funny to think that sometimes the biggest blessings are all around you, even in the dark and lonely places, waiting for you to find them. [Via Sarah]

After a long day, it was just a little much needed reminder…

Eep! I’m gathering things together for the wedding, and I need a copy of “For Once in My Life” from the Frank Sinatra Duets II CD. Anyone have it? The rest of the album is available through Rhapsody, but that track isn’t - and it’s the one I need!

Today’s projects include getting Jason’s hair cut, getting him fitted for a tux, and working on items for the wedding:

- Wedding Programs
- More on Wedding Programs
- CDs for favors
- Finding cards for the “Wish Bowl” for guests to sign.
- Changing the reception time with the Tremont House and with the carriage company.
- Picking up the Unity Candle.

Whew! There is a lot to do - time to get off the computer and get busy!

For the record, cottage cheese is one of the most vile and disgusting foods ever made. Nasty!

Our wedding is next week, May 29th at 4:30 in the afternoon. Originally, we had planned on leaving the reception at 9:30 and the reception would end at 10:00. Then we realized that we have a lot of family coming in from out of town, so we considered extending the wedding to 11:00, and we would leave at 10:30. However… we also have a lot of friends from here in Houston, and Galveston is about an hour to an hour and a half drive home for them. Asking them to stay until 10:30 might be a bit late. Or would it?

That’s where you come in. If you were going to a 4:30 wedding and the bride & groom didn’t leave the reception until 10:30 and you still had to drive an hour and a half home, would that be too late? (Those of you attending the wedding are definitely free to chime in!) I just want to make sure we have people there for the bubble-filled departure! (I love bubbles!)

Help!

I’m a dork. I wrote this great post yesterday about how today is the deadline for the “Win a Blog! contest. Then I didn’t publish it. So now I’m here to tell you that you have less than 2 hours to write some fabulous work and submit them. If you can pull it off, you can win a blog, hosting, a new design and a lot of other cool stuff.

Two hours. You can do it! You can do it!

Today, I have a 1:30 appointment at the passport office. Tomorrow, 10:00 with the wedding photographer, followed by picking up the unity candle from the Candle Lady. (We went to visit the Cake Lady last week and settled on the White Almond wedding cake, as originally planned. Go with the instinct.) Working out plans for a bridal luncheon next Friday. Have a ton of little details to get through in the next few days.

It’s almost here. I need a break. I feel scattered. I’m pulling it together today though. I will say that the honeymoon is looking better and better every day! I can’t wait! Have passport, will travel!

As I am sure you have noticed, I’ve been offline for the past few days. Wedding errands - including getting our marriage license, a swim meet, the Lager Rhythms CD Release Party, a lot of yardwork with my parent’s AMAZING help, and a shower thrown for me by the people that I used to work with all added up to being a lot to do with very little down time, and no computer time. Such is life.

It was nice to come back online and read about MT’s clarification on several points. If you haven’t read it yet, you should. Their response to the feedback (flack?) they received over the new license is very helpful. It clears up all of my issues - I use 4 blogs to power this one site - and that counts as far as the license terms as one blog. Yeah!

Also, they have removed the confusing clause about the CPU issue. If you host with Blogomania, this is no longer a concern. “The single CPU usage statement was not intended to be in the license. It has been struck from the license, and everyone who has downloaded Movable Type 3.0 thus far can officially consider this change retroactive.”

I do still have one very minor problem that I can’t find addressed anywhere. All the posts I read tonight emphasize that it is a Developer’s Release, and that if you are sailing along using MT 2.661 happily, don’t upgrade. This release is not meant for you - it’s meant for the techno gurus of the world that want to build plugins for it and so forth. That’s all fine and dandy - but why did they pull the download page on the MT site that allowed you to download the 2.661 version? What if a newbie came along and wanted a stable consumer release instead of a beta Developer’s Release version of the software? They are stuck. It’s beta or nothing at all. It’s trivial, but it’s still bugging me.

However, I probably won’t move my blog. Heck, I still haven’t upgraded to 2.661. I know, I’m bad. I have ties to WordPress obviously, thanks to PhotoMatt. However, I just don’t have the time to devote to a migration right now. After writing my previous post, the more I thought about it, time truly is money. I would miss out on a lot of other things (which would ultimately cost me money) if I took the time to upgrade. That makes the $35 or so for the license fee look a whole lot better. (I can now use the minimum license with 5 active blogs and 5 authors, current intro price of $69.95, and I’ve purchased 2 keys in the past, so I got $45 off the price.)

It just hit me by surprise (just like everyone else), and when you’re in the midst of planning a wedding, every nickel counts. You have sticker shock about just about everything around you, so the logic of “it’s good software and worth paying for” isn’t the first thing you think about.

My apologies to Ben and Mena for the knee-jerk reaction, and my thanks to them for all of the clarification. I’ve purchased my MT 3.0 license. I’ll install it sometime after the wedding; hopefully a less beta release will be out by then.

This letter from a Bridezilla takes the cake. I’m not that bad, I promise!

I love, love, LOVE my TiVo! They have given those of us with a Series 2 Tivo a 1 month free trial of the Home Media Option! We had talked about buying it after the wedding, so now we can take it for a test spin before we buy! How fabulous is that?

We already had WiFi set up for the TiVo, so now I just need to download the desktop software. One question though … our TiVo only “checks in” once a day. If I am using the remote scheduling, I want it to check for updates at least once an hour, if not more. I know it can be done because it has been mentioned in the PVR Blog, but I have no idea how to do it. Anyone know how? Care to walk me through it?