Quicky...

Not much going on. The dress doesn't fit (surprise, surprise...), so I must lose 10 pounds. My trainer and I met today and we are all over it, so I should be good to go there. I'll keep you updated.

Otherwise, the only thing I'm dealing with are unreturned emails from my caterer and my planner. We're having an issue with chair covers at the reception. I hate the chairs they have at the location, and would like to cover them or rent a bunch of other chairs and cover them. For some reason, I get the feeling I'm being looked at as being unreasonable for this request. I don't care, though. The chairs they have at the Brewery are big, black, boxy chairs that look comfy, but don't fit at all with the decor scheme we have going for the wedding. Black chairs. Everything else will be in chocolate or champagne colors. Not gonna work with the big black chairs!

I also wanted to look into renting furniture for the deck for people to lounge on while they're hanging out outside, should the weather allow them to do so comfortably. This is proving to be a very difficult task in the Kansas City area, and I think that if nothing else, I've discovered a business niche that I might want to attempt to explore in the near future. It's ridiculous that we can't find a place that rents furniture for special occassions like a wedding, such as the ones they have in New York or California. But, if it's going to be this difficult, then I suppose it's not worth the hassle, really. Frustrating as it is...

That's it for now. Possibly some invitation inquiries coming up soon...I really need to get on that, actually. So that's probably the next step. (And according to the timeline on The Knot, I'm behind on that task, too. Oh well...a girl can only do so much in her down time!)

Does this even need a title?

My dress came in!

I get to try it on on the 21st, and have invited a trusted friend (who happens to be one of my bridesmaids as well) to come with to give me moral support as I try on my wedding gown for the very first time!

I mean, it was pretty neat when I found the one I wanted, and all. But this one is mine.

The one I will take home with me eventually.

The one I will wear as I walk down to aisle to marry my lovely Jesse.

The one that will make it oh so difficult to pee all day on my wedding day. (Seriously...how will I do it? Above all things, I worry about this the most. How sad is that?)

I really cannot wait. I'll be looking for shoes this weekend to take along with me to my first fitting (my FIRST FITTING!), and just got notice today that the Spanx slip I ordered is on it's way (those things are AWESOME...they smooth everything out, and suck everything in, and this will all be very important to me in the near future as I want to look as lumpless as possible at all events leading up to and including the wedding itself...), so that's set. My veil and headpiece should be ready for me to try on with the dress sometime in June (I hope I hope I hope...), so that will be my NEXT exciting fitting, I think.

This is all so surreal at times, it just boggles my mind.

On other fronts, I have hired a day-of coordinator. I'm working with a highly praised local company called "You're Invited" and after meeting with the coordinator that will be helping us out in particular (Leslie) this past weekend, I can honestly say that I don't think we'll have anything to worry about the day of (or the week leading up to the day of, either!) the wedding. I'm so happy she was available to help on our day! All of the vendors that I've met with recently (the caterer, the flower vendor, and now Leslie from You're Invited) have seemed genuinely excited about our wedding, and all the decor and style decisions we've already made for it.

Well, that's not entirely true, actually. The caterer was a little less than happy when I explained to her that we wouldn't just have 2 different types of cake at our reception. (She thought the groom's cake was one type and the main cake was another type...) Once I figured out that she had that idea in her head, I stopped and showed her the specifics on the cake order sheet. We have three different flavors in our main cake, and then the one flavor in the groom's cake. So that's 4 different types of cake we'll be serving at the reception as dessert for our dinner. Oops! (She then said that I was the kind of bride that caterers have nightmares about. She should talk to Jesse a bit more...I bet those nightmares could be MUCH worse if she only knew the whole truth about what a pain in the ass I am!) But oh well...sounds like I'm not the first to be such trouble like that.

But, anyway, the flower lady loves my ideas unequivocally. (Probably because she doesn't have anything to do with the cake...) She's giving us a discount on our centerpieces because she wants to use the pictures of them for her portfolio she's working on building back up again. (Horrible computer crashing incident occurred prior to us meeting...she lost everything, including most of her portfolio from the last 10 years. Backing up files and hard drives is a very important thing to do, sometimes...) She's been lovely to deal with so far.

I'm just hoping I'm not too demanding of a bride when it comes to what I'm requesting from my vendors. I've been checking every so often to make sure about that when I meet with them, and aside from the cake issue (not much I can do about that, really), seems like I've been relatively easy for folks to deal with. Maybe a bit more chatty than they'd like, but it could be worse, I'm sure.

At least they don't have to live with me. (Say prayers for Jesse. It's not pretty for him right now...)

Good to know...

The ring doesn't fit. We'll be having it sized down a 1/4 when we get the chance...probably when we decide what to have it engraved with. (Right now, we're volleying the options "Love you forever...along with tacos" & "Always yours...dammit.")

On a totally unrelated and unneccessary note, I'm exhausted, and can't wait for the week to end. And there's still one more day to goooooo! I don't know how I'm going to do it. But I'll try.

Meeting with a coordinator on Saturday this weekend, so we can discuss the "day of coordinating" package that they offer at her company. Unfortunately, the location we're meeting at doesn't appear to exist, so I'm gonna have to call her tomorrow to figure out what she's thinking of. I would call her today, but I left my wedding binder (a.k.a. the Wedding Bible) at home, for some crazy, messed up, random reason. *sigh* I'll blame the exhaustion, though. Because it just makes good sense.

If I have a sallow complexion and sunken eyes by the time this wedding arrives, it will be no big shock to me. (But hell if my arms won't look toned, and my hair just perfect! Hair is easy. Skin...not so much.)

Ok, I get to leave in about 6 minutes. I'm going to get things straightened up around my desk before hitting the road. Not that anyone needed any of that extraneous info, but again, did I mention how tired I am? Just gimme a break when it comes to my rambling...

It's almost a done deal, at this point!

We went last night and bought Jesse's wedding band at Tiffany's. Now, the salesperson was one of those hard-to-read types, and while she seemed to "get" my sense of humor at certain points, she definitely failed to "get" it at others. When I asked her about engraving the rings, and showed her mine, asking her if something as thin as it could be engraved, she said they don't engrave items unless they're purchased at Tiffany's. First of all, that's not true according to a salesperson I spoke to about 8 months ago at that same store, so they should get their stories straight. Secondly, what about the movie? Which I asked her about in particular..."So the rule has changed since the movie, huh?" She looked at me with a dead look on her face and didn't answer right away. Then she said, "I'm sorry, what movie?"

Bitch says what? (I'm sorry...sometimes, I use vulgar language, and this woman deserved it if anyone did.)

I kind of laughed and said, "Breakfast as Tiffany's...you know, when they go in and have the ring they found in the Cracker Jack box engraved?" She didn't have a clue. "It's been so long since I've seen that film..." Yeah. I don't think she's ever seen it, seriously. It should be a prerequisite to working at ANY Tiffany's location, dammit! I told my twin today on the phone that I should have said, "The Quick and the Dead," when she asked me what movie I was referring to. She wouldn't have known the difference, I'm sure.

Aaaanyway, I bought him his ring! Picture of the one we got for him is floating below. He's wearing it today for a bit, as we're trying to decide whether it needs to be sized down a 1/4 size (it only came in whole or half sizes, and the 10 was too small, and so we got the 10 1/2), and how it feels to wear it and all. At one point, he asked me to put it on his finger for him, and I was all, "Nuh-uh!! That's gotta be bad luck!" So we're probably gonna be having fun with that game for the next 7 months now. *sigh!*

It looks better in person, obviously. It's platinum (only the best material in the world, right?), and has some really nice detailing around the edge. We love it! And now he's just that much closer to becoming attached to me forevah....mwahahahahahahaha!!!

Wanna see?

I sent some pics of the newest furniture over to Valerie (my FMIL) last week, and thought that it might be about time for me to post them here as well, so here we go!

Ok, this was a very messy day in the house, but I wanted to take a photo of the new couch, and also happened to catch a view of the new lamp in the background as well, so there's that. It's a super-comfy couch, and I'm so glad we were able to get it! Even though Jesse, being a boy as he is, is seeming to already find ways to break it down and make it look as though we've owned it for years and years...and we've only had it since January, I think. I'm trying to stay on top of that, though, and am rotating the back cushions as often as they seem to need it. I don't know if it's how he sits on it, or if it's because the dog looks out the window while sitting on that side of the couch, but it's obnoxious. And it must stop...

And so then we were finally able to decide on a new shelf for the living room as well. Took another month after we had gotten the couch, but we ordered this one, and we've had it for about 2 weeks now, I think:

We love it! We actually fell in love with it as a 3-tiered shelf (that's only 2 tiers in the picture), but after measuring, and sitting in the room staring at the wall where I wanted to put it (which is how I "sketch" when I decorate...I use my imagination, mostly because I can't draw), I realized that 3 tiers would be WAY too huge for the room. It would dwarf everything else, and make the room look smaller. We looked for other shelf options, but really, really loved this one most of all, and then...THEN we discovered that we could buy it in 1-tier or 2-tier form, and did NOT have to buy it in it's full 3-tier mode. Not only was it cheaper this way, but it fits the room perfectly! I spend a little time each weekend updating it's contents and sifting through all the books and things I have to put in it. It is awesome and makes me very happy, indeed.

See, I've been using fake shelves for the past several years as I move from place to place. They've gotten considerably nicer over the years, that's for sure, but they were still all "fake" in that they aren't real wood, and I had to put them together myself after getting them inside of the place I lived. I gave myself a lifelong injury when I tripped over one of the fake shelves after leaving it in a partially-put together mode soon after I moved into my current house, as I was simply too exhausted to finish it, and the following morning I wandered out into the dark living room where I'd left it smack in the middle of my regular path to the light switch on the wall. I managed to fall over it and plant my left shin on the one shelf I had installed on it before I gave up putting it together the night before. I was lucky that I didn't hurt myself more, really, and I also felt pretty damned lucky that I no longer shared walls with any neighbors, because I don't think I've EVER screamed that loud before in my life. It hurt. It hurt bad. (And it's left a small dent and discoloration on my left shin after all this time. Somehow, I managed not to break anything, but yeah...dent in the shin. Awesome.)

So, the plan is to have a garage sale, at which I will sell two of our old "fake" shelves, our current kitchen table, our big ol' t.v., and several other small items not important enough to note here. We are looking to replace the current t.v. we have with an LCD HD-ready version, and we'd also like to purchase this:Yet another Crate & Barrel obsession for us! We don't like how our current table seems to take up a bunch of room in the kitchen. We want something that acts more "island-like" that also provides storage AND a place to eat, should we have company over. This table has the whole drop-down top going on, so it can become even smaller than it already is if necessary. It has wine storage, and little shelves, and oh yeah...I put a picture in, so you can see all of that already! Anyway, it's a taller table as well, at what they call "gathering height" which is not only better for me and my prep of food (sooo, so tired of bending over the sink!), but also just a good place to gather, should we have a gathering of any sort. It's the perfect size for our kitchen, is the important thing. When we put the house on the market next year, we want to show it at it's maximum capacity, if we can. The kitchen is really rather large...there's no reason a table can't sit right in the middle of it. But it just has to be the right sized table, is the thing...

Anyway, that's how things are lookin' right now. Not sure if we're going to be having the garage sale this week or next...depends on how much I'm able to do this week with regards to the shelves I want to sell. (Lots of moving of stuff is required, and I don't know if I'll have time to move stuff this week. We'll see...) But I'll be sure to update on it when we do have it! I've never had one, personally (I'm not much of a pack rat, really, so it was hard to think of what needed to be sold in the first place!), and I'm kinda nervous about it. But it's going to be a one-day sale, so hopefully, it'll go well! Did I mention the whole LCD HD-ready t.v. thing? Yeah, why do boys need toys like that anyway? We don't even HAVE HD in our house, for heaven's sake! Something tells me that we're going to need to get it, though. *sigh!*