It has definitely not sunk in yet that we are only 1 week away.  After 18 months of planning, September is finally here!  My mother and grandmother are arriving in town today, my dad and William are arriving in town tomorrow and William’s parents on Wednesday, so I am sure it will start to sink in a little more as family and friends arrive in town.  Everything seems to be falling in place very nicely, so hopefully this week I can just relax and prepare for a day William and I will never forget.  There is a hurricane in the  Atlantic, but it is far far south, so it shouldn’t affect us here in the States.  For those of you traveling in for the celebration, I pray you have a safe trip and look forward to seeing you next weekend!

William pointed out to me that I had not talked about the honeymoon on the blog and suggested I share where we are going, especially since some people have never even heard of this destination. Bright and early on the Monday after the wedding, William and I will be flying to the Turks and Caicos Islands for a week, which are a group of islands in the Caribbean southeast of the Bahamas and north of the Dominican Republic (map). We researched several locations (mostly in the Caribbean), but I really wanted to go somewhere neither of us had been to before and we could really relax on the beach and enjoy the first week of being married. It is not as well known as many of the other islands, but has become a popular destination for several celebs, such as Eva Longoria and Tony Parker who honeymooned there last month.

We will be staying in the island of Providenciales (Provo) at the Regent Palms in a 1,500 square foot 1 bedroom suite complete with living room, dining room, full kitchen and 1 ½ baths, so we will truly be spoiled!!

We really have nothing planned at this moment besides a couples massage and a snorkeling excursion. We plan to just enjoy being with each other and truly relax since the past few weeks of work have been really busy for both of us and so will the next couple of weeks.  So… we are praying the the hurricanes stay away for the next few weeks so our plans do not get interrupted although it seems hurricanes like to follow William and I, so hopefully this will be the exception!  We will definitely share pictures with everyone!!

Today I had a bridal shower hosted by my sister, Kim, and a good friend/sorority sister/colleague of mine, Dana. They blew me away with the decor and the overall beauty of the shower. I received lots of good stuff for the house and enjoyed the company of friends, some who I had not seen in a long time! You can find pictures on my Flickr account and my sister’s Fickr account.

***WARNING: GIRLY POST***

After several requests for wedding details (girly stuff), I have decided to give an update. I think I hesitated before because I was a but stressed, but I have gotten a lot accomplished the past few days (or at least it feels like a lot). The planning process is going well despite my freak-outs every once in a while about certain details. William is always there to quickly remind me that as long as the two of us and our parents are there, nothing else really matters. I went for my first dress fitting this past Wednesday and the dress fit perfectly (as the seamstress suggested). I feel I could lose a few more pounds, but I should be fine either way. I have another fitting in 2 1/2 weeks, so we will see. William still doesn’t understand why he can’t see the dress. He is not one for surprises, but this one he will just have to wait for. Other than that, I have been meeting with some of the vendors to finalize the details and things seem to be falling into place. I have been working this weekend to finalize the program and am almost done. The to-do list is still long, but I think I have all of the major stuff out of the way. I will admit that I frequently go to the knot.com message boards (although I have not posted a message before) to see what other brides are doing and stressing about. It seems to keep me sane when I see other people going through same excitement and sometimes stress of the process as I am.

We have already started to receive wedding gifts, which is very exciting. I have opened the first few we have received, but I think I will hold off on opening more until William can share in the experience of opening the gifts with me. A few people have asked about the registry and you can find this and other details on our wedding website, www.williamandkyllan.com. Oh, and if you had problems reserving a hotel room at the Hilton, let me know. We had to add more rooms to the block, so we should be ok now, but we need to make sure your reservation is in our wedding block.

Ok… so that sums it up, but if there was something else I was supposed to talk about, let me know.

*IMPORTANT: Don’t forget to RSVP by THIS SATURDAY (yes…even if you already told me whether or not you are coming). It is much less stressful when you have accurate head counts, so help me out!