Marriage Counseling Session One

Lori’s Wedding band has arrived and we picked it up this evening. My band is not due until Feb 2nd so we will pick it up then

Today was our first meeting with Pastor Roger Farney who has agreed to preside over the wedding ceremony providing Lori and I attend a series of counseling session (13-15) with him. Our first session started with a bit of get to know you and tell me who is in the wedding party and what do you have planned.

After reviewing the wedding party and the plans we have so far Pastor Roger introduced us to a series of sessions titled “AN OUNCE OF PREVENTION: SAFEGUARDING YOUR MARRIAGE” by Gary Richmond.

We reviewed Session 1 - Biblical Model for Relating to Your Mate. During this session we reviewed a few of the ways that animals in nature relate to their mates. Lori and I both fell our relationship is modeled after wolves, bonded for life with both partners caring about family. We also discussed how the God would like couples to build their marriage using the model God has built between him and the church.

Helen agrees to cook rehearsal dinner

Lori’s Sister-in-law Helen is from the Philippines. In the Philippines it is customary for the family to cook the wedding dinner and Helen offered to head up this task for our wedding. However Lori and I would rather Helen joined the party to celebrate our nuptials and we struggled with the task of declining Helen’s offer without offending her. As Lori and I discussed this we came up with the idea of Helen cooking our rehearsal dinner. Lori spoke to Helen tonight she agreed to cook our rehearsal dinner on the 23rd and party with us on the 24th.

This has me really psyched as I absolutely LOVE Helen’s cooking (what fat guy doesn't love bacon wrapped shrimp) and can’t imagine any of our friends not enjoying it as well. So now we begin our hunt for a location big enough for 40-50 people and will allow us to use their kitchen. No worries where there is a will there is a way and I am strong willed about this.

Another good side affect to this is it should save us some money on the rehearsal dinner that we might be able to apply to another part of the wedding.

Wedding Bands Purchased

Today we went shopping for our wedding bands. We had Santa dollars for Kay Jewelers that came in real handy and we were able to get Lori the band that matched her engagement ring. I tend to be a rather plan person and so my wedding band is plain. It will be interesting to see if I can get used to wearing a wedding band as I hate wearing jewelry and had to go a couple sizes bigger than I would normally need because I broke the knuckle on my ring finger playing football in high school. Good news for me is that Lori has agreed that if I can not stand to wear it on my finger I can wear it on a chain around my neck.

After we got our bands we picked up the gifts for the bridesmaids and they looked better than we imagined. We can’t wait for the day we can give them to our family and friends.

Gifts for Bridesmaids purchased

Today Lori found the gifts she was looking to buy for her Bridesmaids. I can't let the cat out of the bag as to what we bought just that we did buy them and they are awesome. It is amazing to me that Lori not only figured out what she wanted but we found them on sale as well. What was real nice is not only were the items on sale but we (I) negotiated another 20% off. I think one trait Lori likes in me (although she may never admit it) is I am not afraid to negotiate.

We pick the gifts up in a week to 10 days.

I have started looking for gift ideas for the groomsman but in the end I will probably be out shopping Oct 22nd for them (not if Lori has anything to say about it though).

We selected a date

Today we selected a date and put a deposit down on a reception hall for our wedding.

We selected Oct 24th for the wedding date.

The reception will be at: McKinley's Banquet and Conference Center .
http://www.mckinleysinn.com/

We love the facility, are excited to be working with the wedding coordinator Gabrielle and her staff and are left to pray that the Buffalo Bills do not have a home game that weekend as the Banquet hall is about a mile or so from the stadium and the room rates go up if there is a home game.