Marisa and Dan’s Wedding Blog

This morning we met with Pastor Ray Ormand at Church of Our Saviour Lutheran to discuss the results of our “couple inventory” (NOT test, as Pastor Ray kept reminding me!), which Dan and I each took online last month. The long and the short of it: we’re a fantastic couple.

All egotistical kidding aside, the vast majority of our answers matched perfectly, and the test (er, inventory)  categorized us as a “Vitalized Couple,” which is the highest possible rating we could have achieved. Pastor Ray said over and over again that he thinks we’re wonderfully matched and that we’re going to enjoy a long and happy marriage. Not that we had any doubt, but it’s nice to hear it from an outside party!

In other news, last weekend we booked our limos at Royalty Limousines in Franklin Square, which is our venue’s recommended transportion company. Dan and I will be taking a classic 12-14 person limo to the church and the reception along with our bridesmaids and groomsmen. We decided against the “newlyweds only” Rolls Royce because it’s just not our style, and we wanted the opportunity to spend a bit of time with our closest friends. Personally, I’m looking forward to the complimentary champagne…

We promised pictures, so here they are. Pics of our [pending] house!

Today Dan and I spent five hours in Bed Bath & Beyond, traversing every inch of the store with our amazingly patient and knowledgeable store adviser, Todd. The end result? We have a registry! We’ve got everything from “casual china” and crystal wine glasses to bedsheets for our yet-to-be-purchased king-size bed, a beer dispenser, and a mango cutter (yes, you read that correctly). Despite some sore legs now, we had a lot of fun!

So, if you’re visiting our website in the hopes of finding our registry, look no further. Just click here (or on the “Registry” link above). And thanks in advance for helping to furnish our new house!

Last weekend my mother and I hit the town in search of the ever-elusive Perfect Wedding Undergarments and Perfect Wedding Shoes. I’d be trying for weeks to track down these items so that I could head back to Macy’s for my follow-up dress fitting, and I was taken aback by how difficult it proved to find either one. Most of the corsets I tried on simply weren’t designed to fit the human body, and they don’t make too many attractive, not-too-high-heeled shoes for size 9.5-10 feet.

My lingering lingerie woes were at last put to rest after arriving at Blum’s in Patchogue village. I had to wait on a ridiculously long line to even get into the fitting room, but the wait was worth it — within two minutes the saleswoman sized me up (quite literally) and brought me exactly what I needed. Now I can feel confident that I will be appropriately pushed up and sucked in on my wedding day.

Next we headed to Craft Shoes in Commack (no website, sorry). Talk about a great selection. We were out the door in 15 minutes, my dream shoes in hand — and at quite a reasonable price. Not that anyone is going to be able to see my shoes anyway, but at least I’ll know they look good. And the heel is reasonable enough that I may actually be able to dance in them!

What with all the planning/shopping/house hunting going on, it becomes very easy to gloss over things and assume that everyone is aware of everything going on, even though we have a website that we update for pretty much every step of the process. It becomes daunting to look back and realize that just a little over a month and a half ago, this domain name wasn’t even registered, I had never even heard of the Royalton, Marisa had no idea what was in store for her at the tree trimming party, and we were only browsing MLSLI.com for houses and pretending we were ready to start actively looking.

Well, with about a year of obsessively browsing house listings and narrowing down the type of house we wanted that we could actually afford, all it took was a couple of weeks with my Aunt Chrissie as our realtor to find the exact house we wanted. While keeping in the mindset of “not jinxing it,” I will refrain from posting pics or any other specific details of the new digs until the ground below us is a bit more stable. However, I did want to publicly thank Chrissie for helping us find the perfect house. While it’s not set entirely in stone yet, it’s pretty close and I think it’s worth it to mention that if anyone is looking for a house on Long Island, you should definitely call Chrissie Roach for all of your house hunting needs.

Continuing in the grand tradition of our lives moving very quickly, Dan and I made an offer on our “dream house” in Commack (where I grew up) this morning, and after a bit of haggling it was accepted a few hours later! We’re going to be homeowners!

We have tons of pictures that I’m aching to put online, but Dan and I are both more superstitious than we like to admit, and I’m afraid to share the photos or even say too much about the house until we go to contract. For now, suffice to say it’s an immaculate split-level in a beautiful neighborhood, with three bedrooms, two full bathrooms, a big-for-Long Island yard (.25 acres) complete with deck, and plenty of room to spread out and enjoy ourselves.

It’s funny — when I graduated from high school, I vowed I would never even come back to Long Island. Now, a bit short of nine years later, I’m not only back on Long Island to stay — I’m buying a house in the very town where I spent most of my childhood!

Regardless, we’re so very, very excited, and we can’t wait to be able to tell you more.