Resolution

It's a beautiful day in the neighborhood! The sun is shining, the birds are chirping, flowers are growing, and more importantly I have parking passes. Not only do I have them, but I was able to pick them up directly from the Parking Ramp. No middle man (Katrina) was involved in the transaction! It doesn't get any better than that! Patti (the parking supervisor) was a tremendous help. After the meeting about parking, 2 things were addressed that I want you to know.

1. You need the parking pass to get into the structure for free. So please don't lose yours as I don't have extras. I believe you just place them in your window when you park. There will be people working there when you arrive so feel free to ask them any questions you may have.

2. In order to be able to use that pass, you need to enter the structure by 7 p.m. If you come after that you will be charged $5 to park (assuming there are spaces left as ours are guaranteed until that time).

With that said, I'm off to enjoy the rest of my weekend. As someone special always used to say: Enjoy the day God has given you!

Lipstick & Navy

Lipstick...this is the color of Staci's dress which we happened to go pick up last night. I think we were both slightly nervous because the one she tried on before we ordered it was waaaaaaayyyy too big and not the color we wanted. We ended up choosing the color based on a tiny little square swatch. Despite the dress being a little too big and going almost to the floor (its supposed to be tea length) we were quite happy. Thank goodness for alterations!!! Then when we finished we went for dinner and then to the mall. We bought each other our Christmas presents (we never give gifts on the actual day....with our way we get gifts all year!), and then went to find shoes to go with her dress. We decided to try to find some navy shoes to match the belt thingy on her dress. We found a really cute pair that were on clearance...HA...the clearance price was still a lot!! However, they were very cute...and deadly! The heel on these suckers is 3.5"....God bless her for even thinking about wearing them all day! As cute as they were, we decided we may look around a bit...gives us an excuse to go shoe shoppping yet again...haha. Happy Friday!

Zzzzzzz

Do you know where you will be sleeping? If you live in the area, consider yourself lucky!! I can't block off any hotels for that weekend due to Harley Fest. Harley has blocked off all rooms that weren't already booked in all the hotels. With that said, you may want to start investigating a couple other options. Option 1: Call your nearest (or favorite) friend or family member to see if they have any floor space left for you to claim. Option 2: Try to book a hotel directly thru Harley Davidson. When I checked the other morning I was still able to get a room. If you want to go this route here is the site.

www.harley-davidson.com/105th/

Go to Accommodations (on the left hand side). Under Reserved Hotel Rooms, click Book Lodging.

Hope this helps!!!!

Detective Nicole is on the Case

For those of you who don't know this about me, I used to LOVE Nancy Drew. In fact, one of my childhood friends and I attempted to write our own Nancy Drew story. I know I know....DORK! I guess some part of me still hasn't let go of my inner Nancy Drew. So, as the parking issues surfaced again I decided to play detective (I'm thinking a career change may be in order).

Let me recap for you. Harley Fest will be in Waukesha and as a result many of the downtown streets will be closed. There will also be (supposedly) a lot of people downtown which will limit parking for wedding guests. We decided to make it easy on everyone and get parking in the parking structure right across the street. Not as easy as I thought it would be. This is where things get kinda hairy. Once the Harley organizers gave me the ok to get the parking, the City wouldn't give The Rotunda parking passes. I then was told on May 13 that the owner of The Rotunda had signed a contract with the City which guaranteed us spots at a certain price. I was told they needed to be prepaid and as soon as I got them that information we would be set and the tokens would be in the mail to me the following week. This is directly out of my email from her "Lets get this taken care of this week so we have everything set on our end." Obviously I called her immediately and gave her the credit card information to pay for the spots. I then was assured everything was taken care of and I would have the tokens shortly.

At the beginning of last week I emailed her asking about the tokens because I still hadn't received them and was putting the invites together and wanted to include them. She told me that if I didn't have them by the end of the week that they would be in the mail. Then on Friday I got a copy of a letter from the City regarding parking for the wedding sent to The Rotunda.

"Therefore, we are requesting information from you about your immediate need for parking within these facilities so that we will be able to determine the usage and pricing accordingly. Please advise the number of spaces need, length of time, and specific date(s) in your request. Due to the upcoming events in August, we ask that you submit your request in writing, no later than June 13, 2008 to the above address."

This is where Nancy Drew kicked in. I called the Director of Public Works who proceeded to tell me that no one has contacted them regarding parking which is why they sent the letter. SO giving Katrina (the lady at the Rotunda) the benefit of the doubt, I call the Parking Supervisor on Monday just to make sure Katrina hadn't contacted them on Friday after getting the letter. She too tells me she has not heard from Katrina. I said well how is that possible since I already paid them for parking passes. She told me to talk to Katrina and see what happened and to get a request in ASAP. So I call Katrina. Her voicemail says she is on vacation this week. So I left a message, but then also called her bosses office to talk with him. They directed me to some other lady. She didn't know what was going on because they haven't gotten a letter yet and asked me to fax this letter to her. After I fax the letter she says they haven't been checking Katrina's mail which is why they probably hadn't seen the letter. She also started writing up the request to give to the City. In the meantime Katrina calls and leaves a message telling me tokens are ready and I can stop and pick them up. She also says "there is no need to keep calling everyone at the City, its all taken care of." After I fax the letter to this other lady she says that they haven't been checking Katrina's mail which is why they hadn't seen the letter.

Hmmmm....good thing I check my mail and started calling around or they would have had no clue. I had decided last week that I was being lied to. SO since Katrina said the tokens would be available for me to pick up (even though she originally said they would have been mailed already), I decided to call her bluff and pick them up. Lo and behold, there is nothing for me to pick up. I was told now that they had put in the written request, I have to wait for them to get the tokens. Interesting how that works. We will see how the next few days of the investigation unfold. I will keep you posted with any new developments in the case.

Sweat Shop Closed!

For the last few weeks I felt like I was operating my own little sweat shop. Not to fear, I didn't employ any children. Mainly just Bill, Staci, and myself. Bill and I spent the first few weekends printing the invites and enclosures. Then last week (while waiting for my lovely landlord to show up) I started to assemble them. I managed to get enough done so it would be smooth going the next time I got to it. On Saturday, Bill and I went to the Post Office which is an ordeal in itself. If you have ever been to Waukesha's Post Office you know what I mean. You stand in line for an hour before you ever get to the counter. Despite the heat and humidity inside the building, we stood patiently (I know hard to believe that both Bill and I were both patient...and even at the same time HA) waiting our turn. After we finished there, I set up shop at Staci's house where we finished assembling the invites as best we could. The parking passes still need to be inserted, but that is a minor job....once I get them. So, Nicole's Sweat Shop is officially closed. In celebration, the 3 of us are going to Ricardo's for dinner tonight with Bill's friend Justin (I'm secretly hoping Staci and Justin will hit it off). ;)

Mmmmm Tasty!

Throughout the years it seems like weddings have one thing in common....people complain about the food. HOPEFULLY, we won't fall in that category. We have decided to go with Chef Jacks. The food at the tasting was amazing so I'm expecting it to be the same at the wedding. Hmmm...here's a thought, I should stand outside with some plates to sell the Harley people for a much higher price. They are bound to get hungry and will probably need some food to soak up some of the beer they will be drinking all day. Enough about my new business venture. To get your tastebuds watering here is some of the stuff on our menu...of course I won't tell you everything that is on there, where is the surprise in that!

The meal starts with Signature Salad, Fresh Fruit Salad, Italian Pasta Salad, Asparagus, Oven Roasted Potatoes, Penne Pasta with Red Sauce, and Assorted Rolls. You will have to wait until dinner to find out what else is up our (well actually Chef Jack's) sleeve.

Location Location Location

Everyone always says the most important thing (not necessarily for a wedding though) is the location. We chose The Rotunda in downtown Waukesha. It apparently used to be a bank, and I think a post office too. Anyway, there are some neat features inside the dome....marble pillars and stained glass at the top of the dome. We thought it was neat, and its close to home so you can't beat that.

Welcome to My World!

Good Morning!! My dear friend Jen and I email back and forth all day and this morning she had asked if I had a wedding website. I said no, and she mentioned it may be a good place to put information in case people lose their invites (which I'm sure won't happen!). So I decided to follow in the footsteps of a couple other family members and create my own blog. Hopefully everyone will enjoy the ride. My plan is that the next couple of posts will have the general wedding info on it (i.e. location, time, and parking). Hopefully I'll figure out how to create my own template too....that may be a little ambitious for today though we will see.