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!*

By the way...

Anybody else pissed about this whole change in the postal rate thing? Thank GOD they are finally creating a stamp that supercedes it for future changes. I have about 30 $.39 stamps at home left over from the "save the dates" that I sent out, and I can no longer use them on the return envelopes as I had planned to do when I send out invitations. No biggy, really...I'll get some $.02 stamps to use them up on other stuff in the future, and then I'll be picking up some of the "first class FOREVER" stamps when they start selling them, so the invites won't have an issue. (Not that I'd expect them to raise the price again within a 6 month period, but it's the USPS...I wouldn't put it past 'em, really.)

The night got away from me...

Ok, so I didn't send out the hotel website link last night from home, as I had planned to do. I'll try to get to it tonight.

Last night, I got busy with some other things I needed to get done before we slammed down a yummy lasagna dinner that Jesse had made so we could run out the door to get our registering at Bed, Bath & Beyond taken care of. Which we did. So now we're done with it all! (Except for some updating online now and then, of course...)

So, here is the link to the registry at BB&B. Please pass it along to those who need it, and thank you for your help with that! We will not be noting our registry information in any of the invitations (as it has been clearly indicated by any and all columns regarding proper etiquette that it is really not ok to do that...), so we're relying on word of mouth to spread the info to those who want to look over our registry in case they want to buy us a gift for our wedding.

Last week was my week off...

Let's see...last week was the week I planned to take "off" from planning. And I was rather successful. (Except for the registering on Monday night thing. And then following up with the florist via e-mail on Tuesday and Wednesday. Oh, and starting to try to search for ceremony musicians in spare time on Thursday. I wrote a note to the cake lady, too, and I never heard back from her...I'd better give her a call.)

Anywho, seems there's no rest for the semi-weary when it comes to this stuff, so I'd best forget about trying to take any time off from planning from now on, I suppose! I like it, really. I just keep wondering if I'm forgetting anything. Crummy feeling, not knowing if I'm hitting all the marks I need to hit. Again, checklists help, but there's just that lingering feeling that I'm not doing everything I should be doing, you know?

And I'm dizzy on and off again these past two weeks. Stupid vertigo. I thought I'd kicked whatever was causing it, and I had for about a month, I think. But it's back. Even while I'm sitting typing this, it's making me spin. (Usually it saves itself for less dangerous places, like staircases.) I will attempt to eradicate this bout by taking the dose of Advil Cold & Sinus I have in my purse for emergencies. I feel a bit stuffy in my ears suddenly, so it would make sense that it's a sinus issue.

And apparently it causes me to share totally unrelated material when it comes to posts. Sorry!

Ok, the REAL point to this post is to say that I finally got the website link from the Sheraton, which is where we've reserved a block of rooms for the wedding weekend for those coming in from out of town. I've asked Jesse to please take care of setting up the block of rooms at the Embassy Suites (and I'm not sure he's taken care of that yet, actually...), and I'm not sure if we'll do a 3rd hotel. (Maybe the Marriott...I don't see a huge point in doing that, though. Unless people have certain rewards plans they're a part of and all...) I'll update if necessary.

I'll send the link to the website out later tonight from my e-mail at home. Must get back to dealing with the head spinning thing now. Bleh...

Happy now? :P

For those who were worried about whether we would ever get around to this task, Jesse and I were finally able to get out to one of the stores we plan on registering at to take care of business yesterday.

We are officially registered at Crate & Barrel now.

Please, don't mock any of the choices we have on the list, if you can avoid it. Between the employees that randomly handed out unsolicited suggestions (like matching up our stemware properly, so our table doesn't look silly or strange when we throw dinner parties...you know, one of the many things Jesse and I have all the time in the WORLD to do every week! I don't think this particular salesperson realized that it wasn't 1962 anymore, and people like Jesse and I could give a flying fig if our stemware matches...especially since we're both partial to the stemLESS glassware, thankyouverymuch.), and the feet and legs hurting from all the standing and staring at things as we attempted to make decisions, and the fact that it took a little over 2 hours in the middle of a rather exahusting day to get it all done? We're lucky we didn't wind up picking out full sets of furniture, including patio and/or dining tables we don't even have the space for, just to get those salespeople to lay off already!

Don't get me wrong...they're all very nice at the Crate & Barrel store. Really helpful. Very friendly. But once we've told someone that, no, we don't need to see the catalog for spring in order to make more registry choices (she was the 4th person to suggest that we "go ahead" and put the big furniture items on there, because "people like to go in on gifts sometimes..." Yeah, like we hadn't heard that already from 3 people on the first floor of the store, dammit!), and we already have a catalog at home, and dear LORD we're almost done here, woman, so back off a bit, please!! You would think she might stop chasing us around the furniture section with said catalog in hand, pointing out that we "can look at the actual pictures of items to see if we want them." (Becaaauuuse seeing them in person right there in the store isn't better than looking at pictures of them? I really didn't understand her logic. Not at all.)

But it's done. We've registered. I was very excited to go and register before we did it, and I was very happy to go and have a beer with Jesse after we registered and before we had some dinner with friends to celebrate a birthday.

Next week, we will visit Bed, Bath & Beyond to register for more everyday items, as well as some of the things that Crate & Barrel doesn't have, or of which they don't have a big enough selection for us to choose from. It should be a much shorter registery, though, I'm thinking. We'll see...but our plan is to hit that store on Tuesday night, I think, so we should have a registry to view there by Wednesday morning.

Anyway, please pass the word along to those that have been asking and wondering where we were going to register. It's done! YAAAAAAAYYYYY!!!!

Ooh! THIS is where the stress comes from!

AAAAAAUUUUUGGGGGGHHHHHH!!!

I need a beer.

And a good cry. TGIF.

So, as previously mentioned, Jesse and I have decided to honeymoon in a lovely place that looks tranquil, beautiful, and luxurious, called Virgin Gordo in the British Virgin Islands. We will be staying at Little Dix Bay Resort for 7 days, and are looking very forward to the trip, even now with 7 months to go before we leave! Since Jesse’s work is kind of stinky about how time off is taken, we will be having our wedding, and then heading back to work the Monday after, not taking off for our honeymoon until the Monday after that (i.e. Nov. 5th). This actually works out pretty well, I think. This way, we can celebrate Halloween here in town (which is always fun for me and him…we like passing out candy to kids, and I like dressing up for work and everything. Ooh! He gets to dress up for work this year, too, if he wants! Last year, Halloween fell on a day off for him, so there wasn’t any point. Um, don’t ask me where this Halloween tangent came from. My mind is still trying to adjust to that damned daylight savings crap we had happen this past weekend…), and rest a bit after the wedding, and the dog doesn’t have to be in boarding for such a long amount of time successively. She really misses us when she gets boarded. (And we really miss her too, we’ve found!)

As you can see in the post prior to this, I’ve shared the news that the bridesmaid dresses have been found, and all bridesmaids are making their efforts to get measurements and sizes to the matron of honor (who is currently searching for a new title, since she hates the way “matron” sounds…I told her it’s her own darned fault for getting married before me, but whatever! Any suggestions on new title for the “matron of honor” are being accepted in the comments section of this post…), so we can get them all ordered and on their way to us ASAP! All girls seem very happy with the choice, which makes me happy as well! It’s a very pretty dress…

Since we’ve found the dress, we have a very solid idea of what we will be doing for tuxes. They’ll be black, and then the groomsmen and the ushers will wear a “truffle” colored vest and tie, while Jesse will wear a “champagne” colored vest and tie. We’re planning on checking out tuxes in April or so, which is pretty well on track with the checklist from The Knot. Is it bad that I use that thing as a wedding bible these days? Thank goodness for little helps like that checklist!

Last night, Jesse and I met with a florist to discuss the ideas we have for decoration, bouquets, boutonnieres, and all that good stuff. After an initial issue with time management (we had agreed to meet at 6 p.m., and she thought we had said 6:30), we sat down and got to work, and I really wound up liking her a lot! She was very happy with the design I’m drawn to for our centerpieces, and said that since she’d like to have something like that in her own portfolio to show to future clients, she’d be willing to give us a discount on them, even…which will be nice, but since I don’t have any frame of reference, she could just SAY she’s giving us a discount when really she’s charging a normal price for them, so whatever. I don’t care. We’ve chosen roses for our flower, and will not be varying from that except in my bouquet and the bridesmaids’ bouquets, so that should keep costs down to a certain point. Since my Twin has given me a certain spectrum of costs for things, we’ll have to see if this chick we met with can stick anywhere near the idea I have. I didn’t mention any numbers last night, but I’m expecting the proposal to come in a day or two, and then we’ll have something to work from.

I’m not going to mention any of the design ideas out here, though, so I’m sorry! I want some things to remain a surprise for most of the guests, so it won’t take away from their experience of seeing it all for the first time when they see me walking down the aisle/when they walk into the reception/etc…

As on track as things may seem, I’m feeling more and more like it might be time to call a coordinator for some help on things. I certainly want to make sure we get the best help we can for that day, so setting that in stone right now wouldn’t hurt at all, I’d think. And then if I need help with stuff like finding the right kid-sitter for the reception (and possibly for the Thursday and Friday night before the wedding, too), and getting that section of the party set up perfectly, I can rely on someone who has more expertise than I do with finding that sort of “vendor” here in town. But I want to wait until after we meet with the caterers to discuss options they have for bringing in rental furniture, and seeing about having a buffet of kid-type food for the kids available in their little area, and all. Hopefully, we’ll be meeting with them in a couple of weeks. I need to take next week OFF from wedding meetings!

More to come in updates this week…Jesse and I went to our Catholic Engaged Encounter weekend this past week, and I would love to chat about the experience out here. Probably tomorrow or Friday…we’ll see what the work schedule does.

Happy Wednesday!

YAY!!

We've found the bridesmaid dresses!

It shouldn't be as much of a relief as it is, but maybe it feels so good because we all agreed on it on the same day that I confirmed booking for our honeymoon in Virgin Gordo. I dunno.

Very exciting!!

Conundrum. Sort of...

I’m having a problem processing something, so I thought I might sound it out here on the ol’ wedding blogaroo…

Jesse and I went downtown on Friday night to see a friend’s art show that had opened that day, and then to grab a bite of dinner and some drinks at the bar/restaurant in the Hotel Phillips called “12 Baltimore.” I’d been looking forward to checking things out there for a while, and it seemed like the perfect night for it. (Since our wedding reception will be ending at what I consider to be the kinda early hour of 11 p.m., we’ve been planning on gathering those troops that are still raring to drink, dance, and be merry and head on in to 12 Baltimore before retiring to the suite we will be staying in that night, which is one of the 2 suites they have at the Hotel Phillips.) So we had some yummy dinner and some very good beer, and split the tab at the end of it all, and then headed home for some well-deserved rest.

Last night, Jesse had planned on making us some chicken gyros for dinner. Before hitting the grocery store, he checked his account online to make sure everything was in order, and thank goodness he did! He called me and told me that his checking account was in the negative because he had several charges from the Chophouse, one charge from the Hotel Phillips, and then one charge from a Days Inn that were being deducted from his account as the bank processed the info from the merchants. All totaled, they had deducted over $170 more than the $32.55 they should have from his account. I checked my account, and they had done the same thing to me, however since I used my credit card to pay for my half of the bill, it wasn’t as detrimental to my account info. I told him I would call the hotel, and then let him know what was going on.

After about an hour had passed, the hotel controller called me to discuss what had occurred. Apparently when 12 Baltimore went to close out their tabs on Friday night, they thought that the charges weren’t being processed due to some error they were seeing on their credit card machine. So the hotel closed out the tabs as though we were guests, which made everything seem right in their books. On Monday, when they realized what had happened, they cancelled the charges to our accounts for all the transactions that reflected the Chophouse as the merchant, and charged us instead through the Hotel Phillips. For some reason, the hotel charge that occurred on Friday night shows as being processed through Days Inn Kansas City as the merchant. However, the controller for the hotel said that he can’t help us with that issue, as they are in no way affiliated or related to the Days Inn.

Wow. Ok, so both Jesse and I have several charges in the same amount over and over again to our separate accounts, and this Days Inn charge just HAPPENS to be in the same exact amount as the ones from the Chophouse and the Hotel Phillips, and on the same date as all the ones that came across from the Chophouse, but this guy is telling me that he can’t help me with that one?

Can we say “pissed?”

As this gentleman explained to me, we have to take care of it through our bank. (And I know what the bank will say when I try to tell them what he said, which is that we need to clear it up with the merchant! AUGH!) For now, the charges show as “pending” in my account, and I would assume they are reflecting the same way in Jesse’s account as well. 3 of the Chophouse charges have been refunded to me in my account, but one still remains as “pending” as well as the one from the Hotel Phillips, and of course the one from the Days Inn.

The problem is that I had just sent in the paperwork to reserve a block of rooms at the hotel for the wedding weekend. I was all excited to stay there the Thursday and Friday before the wedding, and then the night of the wedding after we were through hanging out in their bar at 12 Baltimore. And now? Now I don’t want to deal with them ever again.

I’m so very disappointed.

But then again, I’m sure glad I found out about this before something happened to 10 or more guests at our wedding!

For a 4 star hotel (which they were recently appointed by AAA’s travel department), they aren’t acting too 4 starish, in my opinion…

Only in my dreams...

I had my first wedding nightmare this morning. And as mundane as it may sound to be, it wasn’t. It was truly terrifying.

Which says what about me? I dunno. How about if I describe the dream for y’all and we’ll see what you think…

I can’t remember much of it, of course. But I do remember that I was getting ready for the ceremony. It was about noon (ceremony is at 1:30), and I suddenly realized that I didn’t have my hair or makeup done, and I got very confused about how that had happened. I started to freak out a bit (i.e. whine and bitch and moan), and my bridesmaids wanted me to stop it, I’m sure, so they all told me that it would be fine, and one or two of them offered to help with my hair while another one helped with makeup. (Don’t ask me why I couldn’t just do it myself in a situation like that…apparently in my dream, I was the retarded bride from hell.)

So the one friend, my best friend from forever ago named Mandi, asks me what I was planning on doing with my hair. I told her about what I had thought we could do, and showed her sort of what I meant, and then she went to work. Her little sister Liz was there to help, too, for some reason. I think that had to do with the fact that she did Mandi’s hair for her wedding a couple of years back, but I can’t be sure.

All of a sudden, everyone was done, and someone handed me a mirror. I was still feeling beyond anxious without having seen a reflection of myself, but afterward, I REALLY freaked out! My makeup was HORRIBLE. I looked like I’d been aged about 20 years, like they can do in movies sometimes, except my skin seriously looked wrinkled and dried out and nasty. My eyes stood out the most makeup-wise though. Whoever had done the makeup had decided that purple metallic eye shadow was most appropriate for the day, and it caked my eyelids to the point that it wouldn’t rub off at all. (Of course, she had wanted my makeup to be tear-proof! AUGH!) My cheeks had a freaky amount of rouge on them, and my lips were…well, that was the one thing she did right, whoever she was. My lips didn’t stand out at all, now that I think about it. So she had stuck to the golden rule of makeup and had only emphasized my eyes, and not both my eyes AND my lips. Good for her.

But my hair - holy crap! My friend hadn’t done ANYTHING that I’d suggested, and instead had straightened out the curliness of it, and then put a bunch of product in it that made it greasy and dirty looking. And it was blond, for some reason. It looked gross.

It was about then that my alarm went off, and I woke up feeling truly horrified. Jesse came in the room a few minutes later, which surprised me because I didn’t know he wasn’t in bed with me all that time. I asked him if he was ok, and he said he hadn’t been able to sleep, but he was fine. I asked him if I had been making any noise that woke him up…I was worried that I was screaming in my sleep! He said no. So that’s nice…at least I’m able to keep my insane dreams inside my head while I’m having them.

How crappy of a human being am I that I consider a dream about my hair and makeup not being done and then being done improperly to be a frightening nightmare? I told my physical trainer about it this morning when we were working out…I said, “I had my first wedding nightmare this morning.” He said, “Oh yeah? What was it about?” I replied, “Hair and makeup…it was TERRIBLE!” He couldn’t stop laughing for about a minute and a half.

Anyway, I hear that this is how it happens. Brides have nightmares about the actual day of the wedding, and grooms tend to have nightmares about the bride leaving them sometime before the wedding happens.

I don’t want any more dreams like this though. No thank you.

Good news...

I know now what is going on with the dress and the dress shop, and am much happier over all because of it, which is sort of sad, but that's ok. I'm surprised at what stresses me out these days, is the thing. Anyway...

The store is currently being run out of a conference room of some sort at the Marriott on the Plaza, and it sounds like they're looking for a permanent place to reside while they're there. When the dress comes in (hopefully in the first week of May, since it's being shipped from the designer on April 24th), they'll call me to set up a fitting, and all that good stuff. Maybe by then, they will have found their new shop location. I hope it's as cool as the last one was!

So, all is well on the dress front again. I'm sincerely hoping that we don't have any other drama like this (or any other sort, really) throughout the rest of the planning. I suppose I'll just have to keep taking it one day at a time...

Just a boring ol' update...

Still unsure about what’s going to be happening with the dress, I’m attempting to shift my focus elsewhere until later this week when it might be a good time to try to contact the Gown Gallery again to see what’s going on.

So many other details require my attention right now that it’s easy to change gears, I think. Tonight, we have a meeting with our priest to go over the compatibility test that we did together (sort of…) around 2 weeks ago. We’re both interested in seeing the results, and know for sure that even if the test says we’re not compatible, we’re still sure we are. (We’re kidding around when we discuss that, though. We don’t think the test showed any great differences between us that we need to attend to before we should even consider getting married. I think that the questions about children and money are going to be the ones that will call for the most discussion. But, to be fair, the questions about children don’t really allow for the idea that some of the couples that are taking the “test” might have decided against having children, or are considering the possibility of adopting in the future. So that made it harder to answer those questions, really. The money questions? Well, money is a hard thing to deal with. Some deal with it better than others, some never learn how to deal with it at all, etc, etc…Jesse and I have discussions about money when required, which isn’t often. We’re pretty confident in our ability to communicate well throughout our marriage about money and whatever issues regarding it may arise. So that’s that.) This should be the last thing we have to do in terms of prepping for the ceremony, besides the Engaged Encounter weekend thingy we’ll need to attend a few months before the wedding itself. There are other things I’m doing to prepare for it, of course, but they involve musicians, and not so much anything having to do with preparation as a couple.

I’ve contacted a musician about singing at our wedding, actually, and was looking forward to heading down to her parish where she’s the music director on Friday night, as she was going to be singing for a wedding there. Unfortunately, we had a freak snow storm thing move through the area at rush hour that evening, so I had to cancel those plans. Not such a huge deal, as I will have a chance to hear her again on March 3rd at the church where Jesse and I are getting married. However, this past wedding would have given me the opportunity to hear her along with a string quartet, as that was the accompaniment at this particular wedding, and which I’m interested in having for our wedding. After the wedding on the 3rd, there won’t be any until Lent is over, so I’ll have to wait until mid-April to have the chance to see her sing with a quartet. Not a big deal, I guess. Just a little disappointing that I couldn’t get it taken care of like I’d planned.

This weekend, we’ll be having our first meeting with a baker about the possibility of her handling our cakes. I hope to set up meetings with at least two more bakers, but the other one I was particularly interested in meeting with is unavailable for our wedding date. Thankfully, plenty of bakers have info on The Knot for me to review, so I can look at pictures of their work online, and all that good stuff. It’s really helping me in figuring out what style of cake we might want to do. It’s a detail that seems silly to pay too much attention to, though. Maybe after visiting the baker, I’ll feel differently about it. (I don’t get it, is the thing. Why pay thousands of dollars for an ornately designed cake, when all you’re gonna do is chop it up and eat it? I mean, make it look pretty, yeah. But don’t go overboard. It’s the inside that counts to me, dammit…)

It appears that this is just a boring ol’ update for today. No funny stories to tell…no interesting facts to share. Just plain info about what’s being done. But I suppose that’s what some visit this blog for, anyway. So yeah…there’s that. (I’m kinda grateful I don’t have more scary/interesting stories to tell, to be quite honest! That means that things are going smoothly, and not much is happening to cause us any true worry. Even the dress thing will work itself out, I’m sure. I’ve got a few months before I really need to worry about it, anyway!)

Hope everyone has a great Monday!

The first battle has begun...

The store where I ordered* my dress and veil from burned to the ground this morning.

After a lunch of homemade chili and a small caesar salad, I'm feeling a bit better than I did when I first heard the news. I need to get to work now, and forget about it for a while. I won't be able to find out details of what to do next until a little while has passed, and the store has gotten its bearings. I'm going to try calling them next week. (They have a prom dress store across the street from the bridal salon location. I'm hoping their computer systems were connected to each other, and that all records of bridal orders weren't lost in the fire...)

My prayers are with the firefighters that got hurt while trying to battle the blaze. And also with the girls who have weddings in the immediate future, and who's dresses were being stored at the shop, possibly still being altered, and/or having just arrived without even being tried on for the first time at all. Jesse's general manager at the Moose has a sister who falls into my prayers...her dress had already arrived, and was waiting for her to use it in her June wedding. Now it's gone, and the poor girl is going to have to try to find a new dress very quickly. Thankfully, she's a petite girl, so hopefully that will aid her in her abbreviated search for a new perfect gown.

UPDATE: Just read this story in the KC Star. All is not as lost as I thought. But some is...apparently, they lost all records in the fire, as they had recently consolidated their two stores into one, and they no longer have the second location across the street I was hoping they would be able to rely on for back-up record keeping. They're currently trying to remember all bride names that they were dealing with. Holy crap. Holy, holy, holy...go and read the story for more info.


*My dress wasn't there...it's not due to arrive until late April, thank goodness. But I do wonder what will happen to all the records of our transactions, as well as the design notes for the veil and tiara I ordered last week. I'm sincerely hoping that the designer took the design info home with him, since he doesn't actually work on his designs there in the store, but rather just uses it as a place to meet with brides and to partner with the company in order to sell his designs.

When my dress is due to come in, I don't know what we'll do. They were supposed to store it for me (part of the purchase price of the dress is a $75 "storage fee"), and they would alter it if it needed any altering, and all that good stuff.

Lots of questions and no place to get answers from. Very frustrating. And very, very sad...

When does 9 months not feel like 9 months?

Wow. Things are really starting to wind up over here. I feel like 9 months is a good amount of time to plan for something like our wedding, but at the same time, I feel like I'm forgetting things. Even though I'm not. So what gives?

I feel bad for people who had to plan their weddings without the help of a handy-dandy online tool like The Knot.com. If it weren't for their checklist of things to do that I can constantly refer to, I might not remember to call and find a musician for the ceremony, or to get the registering done within the next couple of months. The only thing it isn't helping on is the planning of my shower here in Kansas, which is going less than smoothly, but that's because I seem to have "planner's block" for some reason. I can't think of a place to have it. I wanted to have it at a hotel downtown, but after checking out their prices, and seeing how many people I'll likely have at the shower, it simply isn't worth it. I'm sure it'd be lovely if we had it there, but not for that kind of money! I'm going to be checking with a few other hotels today, and hopefully I'll find an option that works for me soon.

For those of you who are wondering, yes, I am throwing my own shower here in Kansas. My sister and best friend are throwing the one in California, but with the fact of needing two showers to be thrown due to the living situation I'm in, I have to plan the one for myself here. I'm not going to ask my other bridesmaids to take care of it, as they have college to pay for and a baby on the way, respectively, and none of us really have a great big space that can pretty well accomodate 20 - 25 people, unfortunately. I don't know anyone here that has a large living room that we can "borrow." And I'd throw it at our house, really I would. But as it's in June, and weather can be spotty that time of year, I'd be in trouble if the back deck wasn't available for people to escape to when the crowd inside got too close! Plus, the idea of having it at a hotel, where set-up and clean-up are done for me, just seems so awesome. So cross your fingers for me that I find (and can even think of!) a place to have it at pretty soon here. I gotta get cracking on this thing, really.

Ok, work has beckoned, so I must run now. More later this week, I'm sure!

Weddings, weddings everywhere!

I've got two coworkers who are going through the wedding excitement along with me here at work, although one of them will be over it by Monday next week since her son's wedding is this weekend. The other one has a daughter getting married in April, and she's been fun to talk to about plans and dresses and how many are invited, etc, etc...as well. Since they're both in the position of being mothers involved in the wedding, it's been great to have their perspective on everything for these past few weeks. The one who's son is getting married this weekend has been very involved in the planning of the wedding, it seems, helping with everything from arranging for music at the reception to finding a cake at almost the last minute. (Apparently, her son and daughter-in-law-to-be had originally been planning a May wedding, but they pushed it up for some reason...she doesn't know why.) She only just found the outfit she'll be wearing to the wedding last week, and I'm glad because she'd been a little stressed over it. (She would prefer to wear pants, but she didn't think it would be appropriate, and neither did her husband, so she had to find a skirt, but she didn't want a long skirt, even though it's what she wound up getting anyway...I don't understand what all the hoopla was about. If she wanted to wear pants, she should have worn pants. I can't see why anyone would have cared, as long as she doesn't wear jeans, or something!) I didn't really understand why she was doing so much regarding the planning, but then she told me that her son is my age, and his fiance is only 25, and that sort of made it all come together for me. Perhaps his fiance doesn't have family near by...I dunno. I really can't figure out why it was left to my coworker to help find the cake. I'm sure she offered, but I just didn't understand how that worked out, is all.

Anyway, most days can go by without any one of us having a chance to talk about wedding stuff. But then around twice a week, we're at it like hens in a hen house, chit chatting about everything that's going on. Just now, I had a conversation with the mother of the bride coworker about how her daughter just got the engagement pictures back from the photographer, and she thinks they suck and she'd like new ones taken, but she doesn't want to be mean about it. This coworker and I agree that there's nothing mean about asking for quality work to be done. Apparently, several of the pictures that she got back were distance shots of her and her fiance sitting on a bench in a park (taken on a very cold day in January, mind you!), and the shot was taken from so far away that they aren't even identifyable in the photo! I don't understand how a photographer can be so stupid about something like that. I mean, there's art, and then there's the fact that you're helping to capture memories for a couple and their family, dammit. A little perspective should be in order there.

But it just helps solidify the need I have to collect photos of things that I do like, and things I don't like. Even our photographer told me to get some together, so she can review them before we do anything. It's so very important to illustrate these things, since it can be awfully hard to communicate it through words sometimes, I think. Kind of like my hair do that I think I'd like to do for the wedding day...I probably wouldn't be able to describe it very well to the hairdresser, so I'll be printing off photos (one of the hair I'd like to do, and another of an up do that can be done with the original style already in place...I'm still not sure if I want to wear it up or down!) to take with me, so I can show him what it is that I'm thinking would be fun to do. The last time I tried to describe how I wanted an up do done, I wound up paying $100 for something that made me look like an alien ghost from the year 3045. It was really scary. And it was HUUUUGE! So, yeah...not doing that again!

Anyway, it seems like weddings are all around me lately. The girls at the gym that are all getting married, the coworkers here at work that have kids getting married, my trainer at the gym that's getting married a week before I do, the friend at the Moose that felt lucky to be able to attend both our wedding as well as one for one of her oldest friends who is also getting married in October...lots and lots of weddings. And I'm making things more fun by having not one, not two, but three parties in celebration of me being a bride as well as Jesse and I finally becoming husband and wife! It'll all be fun, though. Parties are parties...I've thrown many before in honor of work occassions, and had a good time putting them together, so putting together a shower for myself should be a relative snap, especially since I've decided upon doing it at a hotel somewhere here in town now. Hotels are so easy like that...plus, they set up, and clean up, and provide yummy food (usually). It's a win/win! Now I just need to decide which hotel to set it up at...

Ok, I'm just rambling now. I need to get some more training done here at work before I go to lunch. Hope everyone is having a faboolous week!

Don't get used to this...

I have time to post, and I also have stuff to post about, so I just figured it’d make sense to go ahead and do it. Next week will probably be a totally dead week compared to this one…

Last night, Jesse and I went and met for the 2nd time with the priest that will be performing our ceremony. We talked about football a bit, and how things are going for us right now, and then got down to business. We needed to complete a little “compatibility test” for Father, so he could review it and see how close we are to being on the same page regarding issues that have to do with money, child rearing, communication, past family issues and how they have effected us, etc, etc…It was kinda fun, since Father left us alone to complete the questions (of which there were about 150 that we were required to answer…), and we were able to discuss the ones that didn’t immediately make sense to one or both of us, and on some of the ones that stumped us for answers (which usually had to do with the child rearing issues…) we were able to quickly discuss our same-pageness. We didn’t “cheat” really…there were a couple where he or I said, “Well, I agree/disagree with this…don’t know about you.” But we tried to answer honestly from our own viewpoints, mostly so that we would know what we need to discuss before we actually get married. The questions about our sex life were the ones that made us giggle the most, of course, since we’re apparently both only 12. But ones such as the questions about whether our future spouse had moodiness that was difficult to deal with made me cringe. What can I say, though? I’m a girl, after all. We weren’t built without moodiness issues, so Jesse can take that up with evolution or God or whomever he wants to blame for that problem.

Regardless, it was a fun activity that I appreciated over all. On the way home, we discussed some of the things that we could remember from the test that we had marked the “uncertain” circle for. I don’t know that he opens up to me as much as I do to him, sometimes, and it worries me. He thinks that we solve problems we have with each other well, and while he still has concerns about my perceptions on how he handles money, he thinks it’s getting better all the time. It was a productive evening, to say the least, and I hope that we can always communicate like this. I have some things I want to improve on in myself, but it still works pretty well over all.

Jesse hasn’t seen the church we’re getting married at yet, and I need to figure out how we can find a time to visit it when it’s open so he can check it out and see how beautiful it really is. I don’t know that he cares much, but it’s important to me that he sees how amazing the architecture is, and how beautiful our ceremony is going to be. Hopefully, I’ll have a holiday coming up relatively soon (does Memorial Day come between now and the 4th of July, maybe?) where we can take some time in the middle of the day and go check it out. (Ooh…I just checked the calendar and saw that St. Patty’s Day is on a Saturday this year. That’s gonna be one messed up day, I think. Not that this is relevant at all to what I’m talking about, but it was just something I happened to notice…)

So that’s what’s going on this week. I think we’ve pretty well decided on the DJ we’re going to use, so I need to get on that. I’m going today to look at a bridesmaid dress that I like, so I can check out the material and see if it will work on all the girls that are in the party. I wish I could try it on, but they only have it in a size 10 or 12, and that doesn’t work with my body unfortunately! We’ll see, though. Hopefully, it’s available in the stores that my maid/matron of honors are checking out pretty soon, so they can try it on. I hope. I love it, so I really want it to work!

I can’t believe that February is already here…this is going to be a crazy year, me thinks.