Category Archives: Wedding

the dress, and shoe shopping (part two)

Posted on by

I had my first dress fitting yesterday. It needs a hem and it’s a little too big in the shoulders, but other than that, it’s perfect. And those are pretty minor alterations, really. Plus, it makes me look like I have boobs, so yay for the magic dress. The first time I tried it on, I stared at myself in the mirror until the saleslady came to check on me. So I think it’s safe to say that I love-love-love it.

However, one sad note about my $20 shoes that I was so excited about: they totally don’t work with the dress. The straps are too chunky, I need something a bit more delicate-looking. And they’re also way too white for an ivory dress. Sigh. The jewelry I bought doesn’t work either, but I kept all the tags on that because I figured that I’d end up returning it, and I was right. Anyway, I’ve been looking for shoes online all morning, and I can’t find anything I like that (a) comes in ivory and (b) looks delicate. Or rather, the few things that I can find are those pointy-toed shoes, and I am just not a pointy-toed kind of girl. Damn, damn, damn. I guess that means I’ll be back to shoe-shopping over the weekend. Which is fine, I’m just not a huge fan of the mall. And I really don’t want to end up with those satin dyed shoes, because those things are absolute murder on the feet. Ugh.

Ok, happy news:
* The septic tank is all fixed! And it didn’t cost $10K like we were afraid it might! Now we should be able to proceed with the home equity loan! And now I can freely flush and not wonder about where it’s going! Hooray!
* The lumber for our deck is being delivered this afternoon.
* We hired a photographer for our wedding. Special shout-out to Angie for giving me a list of tips and things to ask when hiring a photographer, which I otherwise would’ve been totally clueless about.
* Dave and I are going to apply for our marriage license this afternoon. Should be fun. In much the same way that a trip to the Department of Motor Vehicles is fun. I think I might bring a book. And maybe my iPod.

shoe shopping detour

Posted on by

Yesterday, as I left work, I was on a mission to find shoes to go with my wedding dress. I’m meeting the alterations lady tomorrow, and it’s important to know what kind of shoes I’ll be wearing, so she knows where the hem of the dress should be. Ok. So I leave my little parking garage, go to make a right turn onto a side street, but the street is blocked off by police cars, and the policemen are directing all oncoming traffic to make a U-turn and go back. I tried a detour a few blocks later, but that street was also blocked off by police cars. Since this was around 5:00 p.m. on a weeknight (and in a neighborhood that contains a LOT of offices), traffic was insane. While I was sitting in gridlock, I noticed that the news helicopters for all 3 local network news stations were circling in the air overhead. I called Dave and told him to check online and see what was up. He didn’t find anything. I looked it up this morning, and it turns out there was a failed attempt at a bank robbery right near where I work. (It was actually closer to Dave’s office than mine, but he only works about 1/2 a mile from me.) You have to register on that site to be able to read the story, so I’ll just copy & paste my favorite part:

“He was reaching to put money into the fanny pack which he had in front of him with his right hand, the gun went off towards his left hip,” said Ray Lauer, F.B.I. special agent.

Authorities said the robber barely missed himself, but he may have shot a hole in his sweater. Surveillance video also shows money being blown into small pieces.

As a trail of cash spilled out all over the bank floor in front of the counters, the suspect made his getaway.

A fanny pack. Oh good god. I know it wouldn’t be funny if anyone had gotten hurt, but that story cracks me up – it makes me think of the bank heist from “Raising Arizona” where the guys bring in the baby (still in his car seat) because they don’t want to leave him in the car. Then they set him on the roof and drive off. With this story, the amazing part is that the dude got away. The police and FBI are looking all over for him, and he just up & vanished. Which I suppose is fine, since all he succeeded in doing was blow a lot of cash into teeny-tiny bits.

But seriously, y’all. A fanny pack. I’m just sayin’.

And now, back to me: Because of the insane traffic, I ended up on a very extended detour, and lo & behold, I passed a Payless ShoeSource! I know the Manolo would be horrified with me for purchasing cheap footwear, but you know, I looked all over for nice shoes, and I couldn’t find any that I liked. Plus, I’m only going to wear these shoes once, and no one is going to even see them because the dress is floor-length. And after the fortune I’ve spent on the dress, I have a hard time justifying another fortune being spent on shoes. So I went with the cheapies. But they’re cute! (I don’t know why I can’t link directly to the shoe, but on the 6th row down, it’s the “Sparkle Strappy Sling.”) And they’re relatively comfortable for $20 shoes. So I’m happy. Yay!

The Bachelorette Weekend

Posted on by

To sum up my weekend in Memphis: Yes, I did indeed score a load of trashy underpants. And some not-so-trashy. In fact, I got some really nice stuff that I might actually wear on a day-to-day basis, which is great. For those of you hoping for pictures of my new lingerie, keep dreaming. However, we did take a few pictures at the bachelorette party, which I’ve posted. There isn’t anything too incriminating in there, thank god.

As for the rest of the weekend, it was both good and bad. I love my friends, and it’s always good to get a chance to see them. And unlike when I was there at New Year’s, I felt like I really got to spend a lot of time with everyone. Kris now has two puppies (well, one belongs to her roommate, my friend Carrie), and they were adorable. Plus I got to meet Kris’s new 7-month-old nephew, which was fun. However, I have some not-so-happy memories associated with Memphis, so there are definitely some mixed feelings there. When we went out to the same places that we went to in college, and I ran into the same people that I used to run into when I was in college, it’s sort of depressing. Like the guy who was the bartender that one of my friends used to have a crush on, and he’s still a bartender in the exact same bar that he’s worked at since 1998. Or the roommate of a guy I used to date, who still hangs out at the same places, 6 years later. Hmm, yeah. The main thing I learned is to watch out for those nostalgic trips down memory lane, you might stumble into a pothole or two.

So I came home yesterday, slept for something like 11 hours, and now I’m at work today. And my car is allegedly fixed, for the bargain price of only $600. Whee! Hmph.

One other thing: everyone send encouraging words/thoughts to Dave, who is now approaching the 48-hour mark without a cigarette. Yay!! I’m so proud of him. Stay strong, babe. 🙂

There will be no male strippers, thank you

Posted on by

The week thus far:
* My car wouldn’t start yesterday morning. I’ve had it for nearly 4 years, and it has never, ever not started before. Dave finally managed to get it running, but it was making some weird rattling noise, unlike anything it has ever done. I wigged out. We took it to the dealership, and I’m waiting to find out how much this is going to cost to fix. My poor car. My poor little car that always runs perfectly, so I never take it in for tune-ups. I’m such an irresponsible car-owner. Cry!

* I can’t stop sniffling. I think I stirred up too much dust when I was trying to clean 2 nights ago. I took a decongestant, so now I’m sniffling slightly less, and I feel full-on stoned instead. I’m not sure which option is better, honestly.

* I forgot to mention last week that I sliced through the fingernail of my left index finger when I was chopping up turkey bacon to put in my omelet. It still hurts, and I’m basically waiting for the top half of my fingernail to fall off. Fun! It’s so gross, I wear a band-aid on it so no one (particularly me) has to see it. I have a feeling that I’m going to need one single acrylic fingernail for my wedding, and this pisses me off immensely.

* We had our cake-tasting last night. Hoo lordy, that was fun. Bring on the cake samples! Whee!

* The deck-building (courtesy of future brother-in-law Steve) is in full swing, and I have resigned myself to the fact that there is going to be dirt, as well as little muddy cat paw prints, all over the downstairs of our house. Every time I see the dirt, I give a little sigh of resignation instead of reaching for the broom, and every time, I die a tiny death. It’s killing me to leave the dirt there, but there’s no point in trying to clean it yet, when I know full well that more dirt is right behind it. In a couple of weeks, the deck will be built, so humans and felines alike will have a place to wipe their grubby little footsies before they enter our abode. Whee again!

* Tomorrow, I’m flying to Memphis for my bridal shower/bachelorette party. My girlfriends from college are throwing it for me, it should be a lot of fun. And since I couldn’t decide on a gift registry until recently (we just combined 2 households, we have too many dishes as it is, do I really have to go pick out a china pattern??), they’re making it a lingerie-themed shower. Translation: I’m going to Memphis congested & grumpy (see above), and I’ll come back hung over with a suitcase full of trashy underpants. Whee times three!!

Hope everyone has a happy Easter.

reading request

Posted on by

Warning: More wedding stuff ahead. I feel bad about the fact that my brother is the only sibling of either Dave or I who isn’t involved in our wedding. My sister is my maid-of-honor, Dave’s brother is his best man, and my brother doesn’t have a “job” at all. There aren’t going to be enough people to require an usher, and I tend to think that most people are intelligent enough to figure out for themselves how to sign a guestbook. So, my sister suggested that perhaps I could have my brother do a reading.

Here’s the problem: I have no idea what on earth he could read. I thought of the love verse from 1st Corinthians in the Bible, but I think that’s totally overdone. Plus, I’m trying to keep the Bible/God/Jesus references to a minimum. I thought about maybe a poem, but my knowledge of poetry is limited at best, and honestly, every poem I can think of is so cheesy that it makes me cringe. So I’m putting out a request here: Any ideas? I’m guessing this is really going to be Sally’s forte, but I know a couple of you other girls who read this might have some suggestions. I need something that seems wedding-y (or at least has love-related overtones), but that won’t make me want to throw up and die. Translation: no Emily Dickinson. Help?

The Loud Catholics From South Louisiana & Their Progeny

Posted on by

The wedding planning has started getting interesting. (Hmm, how many words with -ing suffixes can you fit in one sentence? I’m sure there’s a better way to say that, somehow.) First of all, it looks like a whole bunch of my relatives are planning to come – which is great, it just took me by surprise that so many of them would make an effort to fly across the country to be at my wedding. I guess I didn’t know how important I am. 🙂 A good number of them are in Texas, Georgia, Louisiana & North Carolina, so it’s not exactly a short trip. So that’s cool, although I had a temporary moment of panic when I realized that we may not have enough room for people to sit during the ceremony. But you know, the ceremony is 15 minutes long, so people can stand if they have to, and then there will be plenty of seating for the reception. No big deal. Take a deep breath, everything is fine.

Anyway, these relatives are all from my mom’s side of the family – my mom is one of 7 kids and my dad is an only child, so I have lots of aunts, uncles, & cousins (hi, Alphagal & SNG!) on my mom’s side, and none on my dad’s. So that works out fine, everyone already knows each other and it’s a really fun group. When I told my mom about everyone that was going to be at the wedding, all she said was, “poor Dave.” Later, when I got home from work and told Dave about everyone who was coming, he was really excited about it for the first few minutes. Then the reality started to sink in. He said, “Our wedding is going to be so loud, isn’t it?” Yes, sweetie, it will be. Sorry. It’s one of those things about growing up as one of 7 kids – if you want to be heard, you have to yell. Growing up as the offspring of one of these yellers, you have to be even louder. So I imagine that with everyone in one place, we’ll probably approach sonic boom level.

In other news, Dave’s dad is apparently coming over for our wedding, which came as a total surprise. He hasn’t ever been to the U.S. before, even though Dave has lived here for over 6 years, so we weren’t quite expecting him to show up now. It’s good news, I just worry that most Brits already think of Americans as generally being loud & obnoxious, and I fear that my family will at least fulfill the volume end of that stereotype. Oh well, hopefully we’ll all be loud and nice, or loud and fun, so at least the obnoxious part will be proven incorrect. Here’s hoping. And if all else fails, at least there’ll be an open bar.

the busy bee

Posted on by

So, let’s see. This week I found a dress, which has been ordered in my size, and since I paid a rush fee, it should be here in plenty of time before the wedding (also allowing time for any last-minute alterations that might need to be done). For the record, I have pictures of the dress so I could show it to my mom, Mags, my sister & a couple of friends, but I’m not posting them here. You’ll just have to wait until you see the wedding photos. I must say, though, that I am really annoyed with most of the women who work in bridal shops, who stare at me incredulously, and almost all of them say things like, “You’re getting married in less than 3 months and you’re just now getting around to looking for a dress??” I’ve been engaged for 4 days, lady, back off. Then they point me toward the maternity dress section. No thanks, it’s not that type of wedding. I promise.

Also, on Monday, I had a job interview at a very large software company that everyone in the world knows the name of, but which I shall refrain from writing here just in case they end up being my future employer. (Here’s hoping.) I was supposed to have a 2nd interview with them this morning, but the person I was supposed to meet with got stuck on the east coast and couldn’t get a flight back in time to meet with me. So that’s been postponed, probably until early next week. Keep your fingers crossed.

Today, I am frantically cleaning so we can take off this afternoon for the mountains in eastern Washington. I know I don’t have to leave the house spotless for the cat-sitter, but it makes me feel better if it’s at least somewhat presentable. Anyway, this is the romantic Valentine’s weekend trip that we were supposed to take last week, but then Dave got sick and it didn’t work out. I’m really excited to be going this week, I think some quiet time in the mountains will be wonderful. But before we leave town, we have a meeting with the event coordinator at the place where we want to have our wedding. This less-than-3-months thing is gonna be fun. Whee!

One last side note: Project Runway last night was FABULOUS!! It was “beat up on Wendy” night, which was awesome to watch. The one thing that disappointed me was that I thought I really liked Vanessa, but she was such a sour-grapes bitch that I’ve pretty much decided that I don’t like her anymore. But the outtakes were great – my favorite was during the credits, Austin flitting around in front while Jay was doing some kind of kung fu samurai thing with an empty roll of fabric as his sword/light saber in the background. Awesome.