I’m trying to decide how I feel about this veil that I picked up recently. I’ve had a hankering for a bird cage veil for a long time and I was super excited the first time I tried one on in David’s. The second time, I wasn’t as thrilled. When I saw this one, I figured the price was so good that I should just do it and try it with my dress when it gets here.
Whatchoo all think? (photos behind the cut, for those so inclined to remain in the dark *ahem*)
Since we’re getting married in a Catholic church, NEPA Groom and I had to complete a pre-Cana class in order to move forward with our preparations. And since the King’s College Chapel isn’t like a regular, full parish, they don’t offer one of their own. NEPA Groom and I looked at all of our options and decided to do the one day seminar style class. Thankfully, the Diocese of Scranton offers a lot of options and is pretty thorough with the information they provide on their website. We registered and attended our pre-Cana class in February, well in advance of the big day.
Now, neither of us really knew what to expect, and I was particularly nervous because I’m not Catholic. All the research I did online really didn’t help because in situations like this, it seems like it can vary from Parish to Parish. So, if you’re doing pre-Cana in the Northeast PA area, my review will probably be more accurate. Either way, I hope you find it useful!
The class was scheduled from 8 am to 4 pm at a church about 20 minutes away from us, so it was an early and long day. We got there and got signed in, and they had some breakfast waiting for everyone. The room was set up with round tables, with two couples per table. There were a lot of good things that we got from the day, and some *interesting* things.
The Good
The class was run by a married couple, and was fairly relaxed. Having gone through this themselves, they tried to keep things light hearted where they could to break the ice. This particular couple was also time conscious, and covered everything thoroughly and still got us out 2 hours early. Sweet!
I think the whole day opened up a lot of good conversations for us – we really heard more about the magnitude of the commitment we were making, and it really started to hit home for us both. We also took the FOCCUS test, and have been having a good time going over those answers with our priest and talking about our expectations of marriage and what we want to see happen.
Finally, the class was very accepting of non Catholics. In fact, the couple made a point to thank any of us who weren’t Catholic for coming and for being open to at least listening to what they had to say. They made a point of not trying to force anything on any of us. They asked that we’d have an open mind and said it was up to us to decide
The *Interesting*
And then… then, well, I guess there’s no nice way to say this. But then there were the other couples in the room. I’m sure some of them were nice. I’m sure some of them were genuine and in love and headed towards healthy marriages. I just didn’t get to sit next to any of them.
We took the FOCCUS test first, and to keep things truthful, the boys from one side took their tests across the room and the girls from over there joined the ladies on the other side. I kid you not, during the test, the 3 other women at my table cheated on the test with each other. They asked each other for answers like it was a middle school math exam, not an inventory designed to identify points for conversation with the person you plan on marrying. They literally took the whole test together, identifying the answers that would cause the least waves, rather than what might be the truth.
After that, the couple that was at our table with us spent most of the six hours we were there texting other people on their cell phones, and showing each other the texts they were getting. At each break opportunity, they jumped up to go talk to someone else. It was a little discouraging to see, but I did my best to focus back on NEPA Groom and why WE were there. I hope maybe something managed to stick with them and will help them down the road!
Has anyone else taken their pre-cana class in the Northeast PA region? How did your experience compare? Did you get anything good out of it?
I got some long awaited and very exciting news from Florida last weekend. It looked something like this:
That’s MOH M and her fiancee moments after getting engaged in front of the Cinderella Castle at Walt Disney World!!
I’m so excited for her – we went out to dinner last night to celebrate and it’s fun to see one of my very best friends start on the crazy journey that I’m now in the home stretch of. Have any of you ever become a bridesmaid in addition to being the bride? I’m trying to think of all the most useful advice I can give her without overwhelming her, haha. She’s already been gifted a pile of bridal magazines. 
Congratulations dearie!
I was working on a tissue paper pomander (pictures to come) – just kind of messing around with the first one. It was pretty ok, but I had some problems cutting the paper the right size the first go around, so I had to trim some spots. Either way, I was checking it over in a back room of the house when my dad walked by. He stopped and took a look and I told him what it was and that we might use it for the ceremony or even reception decor. Now, if I had showed it to the females in the family I’m sure it would have been “oh that’s nice BUT change the ribbon/make it bigger/make it smaller/it should be real flowers/WHATEVER isn’t quite right.”
My dad’s response?
“Hey! That’s pretty good! I like it!”
And that’s it. Yep, dad’s my go-to guy for feedback now.
I took today off to run errands and we got a lot accomplished. Our menu is chosen, and we met our florist and pretty much decided on all of the flowers! I don’t necessarily think I need an inspiration board now, my vision for our wedding is getting pretty clear as NEPA Groom and I visit a lot of vendors, but I was cleaning out my wedding folder today and found some old copies of my inspiration photos. What’s nice is that now we have a bridesmiad dress, and a wedding dress, so I tweaked my board over at Polyvore with these updates. Check it out:
(Once again my dear, this has dress photos. No clicky)
