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Almost daily while I am in the office I at some point say, "No thanks, that's not good for my wedding diet."

We have fantastic cooks here at the Morris Daily Herald and they all like to share. If it's not someone bringing in homemade cookies, someone in the building is going on a "shake run."

The temptation is there regularly. The thought of my wedding dress is starting to become not enough to convince myself to resist.

So when sports editor T.G. Smith was telling me about the delicious, homemade strawberry cheesecake he made this week (with strawberries he grew in his own garden mind you), I knew I was in trouble.

The first time he offered to bring me a piece I was strong and resisted. But my co-worker, photographer Lisa Pesavento accepted and "ooh and ahhed" with every bite. So when T.G. offered again, I gave in and said, "It's not good for my wedding diet, but I can't pass it up."

Yesterday T.G. came to me with apologies as he forgot my "giant piece of cheesecake." You would think I would take this as a sign and behave myself. I should have told him thanks anyway and to keep it, but I simply said, "That's OK, I'll be here tomorrow."

Today when he arrived in the newsroom, he marched right over to me with a special container full of cheesecake just for me . . . it was the most scrumptious, tasty, Two-And-A-Half Inch piece of heaven I've ever had.

That's right, I said two-and-a-half inches. It was the perfect size for my wedding diet! Smaller than the mini apple my co-worker Jessica Cohea brought in her lunch (pictured is a comparison for your visual). She did so kindly offer me her apple, but I chose the mini cheese cake instead.

It's all about portion control, right? At least that is what I am telling myself. Come on, how bad could a two-bite size piece of cheesecake be?

But, just in case, I will still be keeping this out of my wedding diet calorie watch roster.

To quote one of my favorite movies: "Oh, God, the pressure of a name. . . "

(For those of you who don't know, and shame on you if you don't, that's from Kit in "Pretty Woman.")

I have been debating for months on whether I should change my name, hyphen it or be the modern day bride and keep my maiden name.

My potential new last name is Van Yperen. I can predict what all of you are thinking, "How is that pronounced?" The "Y" is an "I" so it's Van I-peren.

Quite a change from Chapman, right? No one ever asks me how to pronounce Chapman. I never realized how easy I had it until all the wedding vendors started asking me how to spell and say my soon-to-be last name. Now I just spell it and say it without them even asking for help.

So I'll start with the cons.

First of all, I'm a writer and locally my last name is recognized. There is nothing better than when I meet someone for the first time and they say "Christina Chapman, I read your articles all the time!" I really love that.

It's just not going to be as much fun when that changes to "Van, what? How do you say that?"

Second, Christina Chapman has such a nice ring, like Lois Lane, Marilyn Monroe, Doris Day or Chubby Checker! Christina Van Yperen, not so much.

And lastly, I love being a Chapman. My father does not have any sons, and although we have male cousins to carry on the name, I am the last of his kids to have it. It'll be so sad for it to end. To me, there is not much that I am prouder of than being Rick Chapman's daughter, and although that doesn't change with my last name, I'll lose the immediate recognition.

I only have two pros to my three cons.

My fiance's name is Paul Van Yperen, he is regularly called PVY. It's so common in fact that I'm pretty sure he has friends who don't really know what PVY stands for. His sister and myself even call him that. So it'll be fun to have a fun nickname - CVY has an OK ring too, I guess.

PVY of course is pushing for the name change, not because he's so anxious to make me a Van Yperen, but because he believes if I put his name in print people will learn how to say it.

But for me, the leading reason is that I've been dreaming about becoming Mrs. Van Yperen since I was 16. The daydreaming of being CVY started in Spanish class my junior year. Spanish followed my lunch, which was when I got to spend almost an hour with Paul. So I'd sit in class scribbling "Christina Van Yperen" all over my notebook and dotting my "i" with little hearts.

Don't get me wrong, I still dream of becoming PVY's wife, but now I practicing signing Christina Chapman-Van Yperen and Christina Van Yperen to see which I like better. And I leave off the hearts. 

I'm afraid this debate will be ongoing until after my wedding day, so I'm open to opinions. But until then I'm going to continue to try and convince my fiance to change his name to Paul Chapman, now that has a nice ring!

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This past weekend I was humbled by the amount of love shown to Paul and I at our wedding shower.

The shower was hosted by my mom Mary Pye and sister Denise Wengielnik, along with help from all of my bridemaids and flower girls. (Special thanks to flower girl Jacey for being the present runner!).

I knew all of the girls were working hard on it. For weeks there's been signs of their efforts, such as questions on which items on my wedding registry I wanted most or declining my invites to hang out in order to work on shower stuff. I can't be mad they are turning me down to work on my wedding, right?

Even though I knew how hard they were working, I could have never imagined the beauty and detail of it all until I walked into the room.

We walked into the Public Landing in Lockport and Paul and I were immediately greeted by my sister with turquoise corsages matching my wedding colors, and Mimosas! From there my eyes were immediately drawn to the custom cake which featured our initials, C&P, in "sand" surrounded by two beach chairs and a white fence. The cake itself was surrounded by decorative beach items and a beach framed picture of Paul and I from when we got engaged. The cake was the touch of my "friend soul mate" Amy.

And the table centerpieces - little lanterns decorated in my wedding colors atop a beautiful fabric and surrounded by turquoise petals. My gift table displayed a beautiful balloon bouquet with a giant "Mr. & Mrs." balloon that I truly have always wanted. No joke, I have a obsession with balloons. (Don't judge me.) But only my oldest friend Rachel, who has always loved me and respected me no matter how weird I am, could fulfill such an obsession.

If you recall my last blog on my fascination on customized items . . . well my mother and sister must have read my mind because my favors were heart candy dishes filled with candy and personalized sunscreen and lip balm stating "Paul and Christina sealed with a kiss." (Click on bottom left photo). I love them! I will never throw them out!

My most creative BFFs Trish and Angie (also soon to be sister-in-law) came up with the best games. Now I know shower games can be boring, but not the ones these girls did. As a matter of fact, I think my mom and Aunt Toni had the most fun competing to win the Bath and Bodyworks prizes Angie so graciously purchased. They did a quiz on who knew Paul and I best, with such questions as who kissed who first, where was our first vacation, where did we meet, etc. And believe it or not, the person I have know the shortest amount of time (like 10 months to be exact) won - my co-worker Jessica Cohea. I think she's just a good guesser because that quiz was written by Trish and Angie who are the two people in our lives that know us best. In actuality, I talk a lot and Jessica is a really good listener, hence why she is a good reporter.

Even the little things had me choking back tears. My cousin Krystal made us a memory box covered in pictures of us in moments that only a loved one like her could capture -  a secret kiss in the corner of a party, and even a close up of us from when we were 16 next to almost the same exact shot 12 years later. It now holds the notes my shower guests wrote for me on "what love is..."

And the traditional bow bouquet, for those that don't know you put all of the bows from your gifts on a paper plate to serve as your rehearsal bouquet, well my cousin Wendy did it for me and it's so amazing. Seriously, it's good enough to be my bouquet for my wedding day. (Picture to come later!) Wendy has always been crafty, but seriously, I've done probably six of those in my years as a bridesmaid and it made mine look pathetic.

But the most heart-warming memory I will take from this event was the turnout. When we started planning for this I had a list of like 52 and was worried my mom and sister might kill me. They said 'don't worry only about 35 will come."

47 people came.

Please note, showers are boring. Besides the bride, most people don't care for them. And of all the wedding festivities, it's normally the one people skip. So the fact that so many people came from our families and friends, it was breathtaking.

Paul and I don't do well as the center of attention, especially Paul, so it's overwhelming enough to have so many people looking at you. But then when you think of all those people coming because they love you and want the best for you, well it brings me to tears, as it is right now.

I wish I could spend a half an hour with each one of my family members, friends and bridesmaids thanking them for their gestures of love, but that would be hard to do so my thank you cards will just have to be darn good.

But since I'm still working on those, please take this for now...

“We tend to forget that happiness doesn't come as a result of getting something we don't have, but rather of recognizing and appreciating what we do have.” - Frederick Keonig

I'm so glad I have all of you.

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My Save the Dates for my second reception went out a couple of weeks ago and I have to tell you for the 45 cents I spent on them, totally worth it!

When you are planning your wedding, it's very easy to get caught up in all of the neat, personalized things you can do.

There are aisle runners with significant dates in your relationship printed on them, dance floor decals with your names and wedding date, colored napkins with your initials -- you can even get a puzzle made featuring your engagement photo. The amount of items that are customizable for your wedding is amazing, and I want every single one.

But I cannot afford everything. So, I got creative. Well, in the case of my Save the Dates, my bridesmaid Trish Hedberg got creative.

When people received them in the mail I wanted them to know what it was right away and to be excited, but I didn't want to spend a fortune getting fancy labels or decorative envelopes.

My Trish came to the rescue and printed me "Soon to be Van Yperen" labels and suggested I get a "Mr. & Mrs." stamp, which she then customized by adding some of my wedding color with a crayon. In addition, she was the one who told me to look at Walmart.com for Save the Date cards.

She's so crafty, and boy does she make me look good! (See bottom left photo for an up-close picture of the envelopes).

As far as physically looking good, my dashing fiance of course looks handsome, and apparently I don't look half bad since I've been getting compliments from unusual people -- you know people other than my mom and dad who have to tell me I look beautiful.

I'd like to say I'm just naturally good looking, but those gorgeous pictures took the work of several people: my bridesmaid Amy Stevens, who came over bright and early to do my hair and makeup giving me those dramatic eyes; and my bridesmaid Rachel Russell, who is my fashion stylist, chose my awesome dress.

And of course my photographer and friend Sarah Peterson, owner of Dutch Girl Photography, deserves the bulk of the credit. Our engagement photo session was fun and relaxing, and the photos came out amazing. She captured moments we didn't even realize she was photographing and the pictures really show the love that we share.

When we got our pictures they took our breath away. Her talent is amazing.

Plus, she photoshopped out the bruise I had on my engagement ring hand. She's fantastic!

With just a few months left til our big day, I look forward to what other great ideas "Team Christina" helps me come up with. Because I tell you what, my wedding would be pretty plain without them!