E's Blog

So calm

2008-07-31T03:17:00Z

My wedding is in 3 days, I'm not sure why I'm so calm. Perhaps, as I told my co-workers today, "I got this". I feel fairly confident in what I've done so far and feel my tasks between today and Saturday are manageable... yeah, so there's still no ceremony, but uh, we started it... we're running into conflict in styles, I see it as a laid back day in which camp songs have an appropriate place, he thinks that sounds like a circus. "Um, honey, we're dressing like a pirate and a princess, we've asked our guests to dress like pirates and princesses and singing in the ceremony is going to make it seem like a circus?"

I'm feeling slightly ill, not sure if it's something i ate or nerves... I'm hoping it'll go away.

Our small 1 bedroom is slowly filling to the gills with wedding presents... I can barely move around any more...

I'm spending my evening scanning in photos from M's parents for a slide show at the rehearsal dinner. It'll be so cute :-) I got some great ones from my mom and friends, and the ones from his mom are awesome. Heck, his mom even had some of the two of us I've never seen.

Wedding guests are beginning to arrive via plane, both families made trips to the airport this evening. (Not M and I though.)

It's still going to be HOT, the temp looks about 89 with 50% humidity, but that's why we're aiming to have it all over by 3... so people can go where it's air conditioned.

I was thinking today, the whole deal could be over in 3 or 4 hours... man, months of planning for hours? I should have thought about that before... that's ok, I don't think I went too overboard... I even managed to stay under my $6000 budget (well, so far... those incidentals will rack up in the next couple of days).

Wow... tomorrow is my last day at work until August 18th and when I get back, I start a new job... so tomorrow is my last day with my last name and my old job... I have a ton to do tomorrow, but you know what? I got this.

My wedding day is going to be the hottest day of the summer

2008-07-29T16:32:00Z

Yeah, it's official, on August 2nd the heat index may rise to 95-99 at my outdoor wedding. Man, I was prepared for rain, but heat? And, we are still a few days out for the forecast to be 100% accurate, but I believe it is prudent at this point to prepare for an uber hot day.

1. I have already purchased bottled water and ordered tubs of ice for them to be placed in.

2. I've decided the wedding programs are going to be fans

What else can I do? If my dress is too hot, I have a white sun dress I'm wearing to the rehearsal dinner that I could replace my dress with.

We planned the ceremony for 11am, lunch will run from 12:30 to 2pm I think, I can hope the hottest part of the day will be as we're wrapping up.

We have a tent for some shade.

Any other thoughts, suggestions, ideas?

Only 9 days left.

2008-07-24T19:00:00Z

The wedding is in 9 days. We are going to leave on our roadtrip honeymoon within a few days of that... time for a packing list? Time for packing? And, uh, there's still no ceremony... it'll happen, but when... all I can say is "before August 2".

Our spa appointments for rehearsal dinner day are set, that's cool. I've never gotten a pedicure before, plus I'll be there with my sisters and all my friends, so that'll be awesome too.

My bachelorette party is tomorrow, so is M's bachelor party... he's going camping with some friends (yeah, we went to count how many last night and came up with 4 including M)... I'm going to some bars with my friends then spending the night at my MOH's place. My youngest sister is 18, so we're not sure how many bars they'll let us in, but if they won't let us in, we'll just go to the MOHs place. My friend that is doing my hair and helping me into my dress just e-mailed asking if I wanted to go dancing and that she would find a place if I did, which is nice/considerate of her, but I'm not really the dancing type (which is why we aren't planning on going dancing already), which is what I told her... weird...

M picked up the rings a couple days ago, the final closing page of the ring saga. The white gold band is exactly what I wanted and it looks perfect with my engagement ring... although now the engagement ring is getting it's own story, as the diamond chipped a while ago and for whatever reason I just decided to file the insurance claim right in the middle of all this craziness. So either the jeweler that we bought the wedding rings from is going to replace the diamond or the insurance company is... it depends on if the jeweler can offer us the same quality diamond as the insurance company can, we gave them until the end of the day today. Ugh, everyone wants to have it done by the wedding, I think I'm ready to say, "uh, can we wait until after the wedding?" It's not a huge deal, you can't tell it's chipped unless you stare at it...

I've got a ton of stuff to do at work before I'm done a week from today, but it's all dependant on other people and no one is getting back to me, so I'm just sitting around wishing I could do something. I think I've got as far as I want to on the ceremony without M and I don't think there's anything left for me to do while at work (wedding wise). Is it time to go home yet?

Sorry Vera's, I'm not a satisfied customer

2008-07-23T13:52:00Z

Last night was my final fitting. The dress has now been altered... to alter the capped sleeves, they simply cut them off at the front where they connect wiht the dress and sewed them back on again shorter. To someone standing 3ft or more away from me, it looks fine. To me, from my perspective, it looks like someone took a scissors to my expensive ass dress and then did a shoddy sewing job to stick them back on. I guess that's how they alter dresses...

The girl that gave us instructions was very nice to us, she told showed my attendant how to bustle the dress, and was supposed to go over how to walk and sit and kneel in the dress, but the dress is pretty simple so she didn't really have to show me much of anything. I did notice though that there was WAY too much room left in the chest area, which I metioned to the helper girl who went to get the alteration lady.

The alteration lady either hates weddings/wedding dresses or had something up her bum. She stormed into the room and first started berating me for not having the helper girl and my attendant put the dress on tighter. She kept saying, do you like it with a wide opening in the back like this or a smaller one (as she yanks the dress tighter).

A) I don't really think it makes that big of a difference. That's one thing I've learned in the wedding process, I don't really have that many stong opinions, and this woman seemed pissed off that I had allowed them to tie the dress loosely.

B) It didn't affect the looseness in the chest, which was the reason she came in in the first place. She kept pulling and prodding but no matter what, the oversize in the bust area was obvious, she needs to fix the damn thing.

As the alteration lady went to leave she said, "when is your wedding" "August 2nd" and she got this look like that may be a problem. Now, I have full confidence that my dress will be ready for pick up on Wednesday the 31st at 6pm, but seriously, that woman was either having a bad day and taking it out on me, or was genuinly pissed that the dress wasn't tied tighter and my boobs weren't bigger.

In the end, looking over the entire wedding dress process, I do not think I will reccommend them to anyone who asks me. 1) The store didn't actually have what I wanted in a wedding dress (short) 2) The bridal consultant who helped me pick my dress was nice, but she showed me a shawl type thing with it that she told me came with the dress but didn't actually come (not a huge concern for me) 3) When I e-mailed the bridal shop to ask they remove the shawl from the sample dress so that it didn't happen to anyone else THE OWNER REPLIED TO ME IN ALL CAPS AND ALSO DIDN'T UNDERSTAND WHAT I WAS SAYING. 4) The alterations look like someone hacked the dress apart and last, but not least, 5)Their head seemstress is not a nice/friendly person (or at least wasn't either time I saw her)

Final fitting tonight

2008-07-22T21:27:00Z

My final fitting is tonight, but I don't get to pick up the dress until next Wednesday, perhaps next Wednesday it will strike me as being exciting as today it just seems like another thing on the to do list. I wish that I had not gone the traditional route dress-wise as I purchased the damn thing in December and I can't even bring it to my house until 3 days before the wedding in AUGUST. It's barely even my dress, more like a fancy dress I get to try on a few times, including a hot, summer day in the woods. (Except for the part where I paid an obscene amount of money for it.)

My work shower was today, it was lovely. I work at an all female office and man, they really went all out for me. Because of the princess theme in the wedding, we had finger sandwiches and salad and ice cream. Everyone seemed to put effort into their food items, it's hit or miss with this crowd... one co-worker whispered to me that it must mean people like me... I think she's right, but I feel honored they all did so much for me.

At the shower we shared wedding horror stories, at my request believe it or not. I'm feeling like if I hear other people's awful things, whatever happens at my wedding won't seem that bad. Like the co-worker whose friend had her rehearsal dinner location and limo company go out of business the same week-the week of the wedding... (and if that wasn't enough, the flower girl got a black eye the same week as well).

My co-workers gave me a whole bundle of stuff, a frisbee and four games, plus a wedding wishes book they filled out at the shower. That's so sweet of them. Everything was stuff we registered for except a dominos game which has a set of instructions for a game called "Chickenfoot" on, which the co-workers that had played it before were raving about.

I seem to be averaging a gift a day now... either someone gives me something or something comes in the mail... Yesterday we got a substantial check from friends of M's parents, as I've only met them once (at M's grandfather's funeral in May) it's weird to be receiving sums of money from them, but uh, I guess that happens with weddings.

I'm not certain about opening gifts that come in the mail before the wedding. I think we will be opening them (only one came so far and we thought it was a shower gift), but it makes sense to open them when they come I think. And I can keep up with the Thank Yous, I've already sent them for the (non-work) shower (and every gift I received since). I hope I don't scare people with my promptness... I've never done Christmas cards before, but I'm thinking my wedding invite list is going to become my Christmas card list from now on. I'm so honored that so many people are sending us gifts.

My bachelorette party is Friday, I'm definitely looking forward to it. I don't think there will be a ton of people, but the people that will be there will all be people I love to spend time with and that's all that matters.

Under two weeks remain-the sky has not fallen

2008-07-21T18:54:00Z

This Saturday was the two week mark, and I'm moving into crunch mode. I guess all the major items are taken care of, it's just the little details that now need to be recalled and planned. The wedding week plan-of-action, if you will.

I ran into an odd problem, not one I ever expected to have... but apparently my aunt has bought M and I a very high end GPS as a wedding gift. This is not the problem. The problem is I had added a low end one to the registry that shows up as fulfilled; my aunt, who is probably more involved in family gossip than myself commented that we might receive 3. 3 GPS systems? Wow. Hopefully whoever purchased the lesser, registry GPS will not feel slighted. (That's part of why the gift opening is just going to be M and I taking our sweet time.)

I need programs, but first I guess I need a ceremony... oh yeah, that's right, I haven't actually planned the wedding ceremony yet.

We gave the caterer the final head count and check yesterday. In the brief meeting M once again managed to show how little involved he is as he began to describe to the caterer the alcohol that we aren't ordering from them and almost started to tell about the bottled water we also aren't ordering from them, but I cut him off. He felt it was just casual conversation, I think that if you aren't purchasing the service from the caterer (who offers both bottled water and beer) we shouldn't be detailing where we are getting them from and what types they are... M also freaked me out last night about the budget, I told him we had X amount left and he honestly had no idea what that number meant. Do we still have to pay for things? *E silently freaks out and is also disapointed in herself for not involving M more*

M's parents are still weird about the rehearsal dinner, his dad e-mailed me last night and asked if we should order food for 80 rather than 60 (the guest list is at 59)... he also asked if a half barrel would be enough beer... I told him that I didn't think the wedding party would be getting tanked as they would be driving to the small town near the state park when the rehearsal dinner was over and that my dad's family doesn't drink (odd, but true). I sent him my entire guest list with numbers breakdown (as well as relationship notes: my mother's sister, etc.) and suggested that we do a couple rounds of champange toast, rather than a keg (we're getting two half barrels for the wedding). I'm pretty sure the rehearsal dinner is going to be better decorated than the wedding, I'm not sure if that's a good thing or a bad thing. I'm comfortable with the wedding decor, but will his mom and aunt who are decorating the rehearsal dinner be disapointed? "Uh, this is all you did, E?" Is it normal for the rehearsal dinner to be more decorated? I don't think so, but I've only been to one rehearsal dinner before.

M kept forgetting to contact his groomsmen re: the bachelor party (this Friday) and the rehearsal dinner (next Friday), he was supposed to do it last week but ran out of time... I finally did it for him today... It's like he wants more involvement, but then can't find/make the time. I don't mind doing stuff, but I do mind him having no clue as to what's going on, but when I try to explain it to him he either doesn't pay attention or doesn't listen... sigh... don't get me wrong, we have a really good relationship... he's just not that into planning weddings I guess.

Spa story or nothing can go smoothly, can it?

2008-07-18T14:02:00Z

So, yesterday... I guess it started a little while back. I told M I wanted a manicure/pedicure on the rehearsal dinner day (since I have the day off work) and he suggested I ask his sister what spa she recommended (she's the girly girl type.) His sister said her mom wanted a mani/pedi that day too and they had a spa all picked out, I could come along... cool, cool. She'll make the appointment.

On Wednesday night we went out to dinner with M's sister and she asked what should have been an innocuous question, but ended up paving the course of the next 24 hours, she asked me how many people were coming. Up to that point I figured it'd just be the 3 of us, but since she asked, I figured I'd ask my bridesmaids and another good friend (the one that's doing my hair). Guess what? Everyone wants to come. So suddenly there were 9 people (instead of 3). M's sister (a bridesmaid too) calls the spa, but they tell her they can't handle that many people and have everyone done by the rehearsal dinner start time of 4pm. So she calls me and doesn't seem to know how to proceed, I tell her I guess I'll figure something out.

I e-mail my friends that I'd been in contact re:mani/pedi all morning and tell them we've hit this snag but that I can't fix it. My friend who is not a bridesmaid says she has the time and immediately begins calling area spas. She found one with enough time and chairs to help us all at once, they said the would even set up a table for "refreshments" for us in the mani/pedi room that is almost a private room. Sweet! My friend is even setting up the appointment today after I rounded up what type of pedicure everyone wanted.

BUT, and of course there must be a BUT... M's sister and mom have already made an appointment at the other spa. Which means all my bridesmaids will be there except M's sister, for which I feel awful... plus, I had kinda agreed to go with them and now I've ditched them (for 6 of my closest friends). You can't please everyone, right? I just hope it doesn't set off some kind of family riff the day before the wedding.

An awfully bad week

2008-07-16T23:11:00Z

It's getting to be crunch time and I'm succumbing to stress (among other things). My grandpa is in emergency heart surgery right now, that is enough to bring me down pretty far...

But that can never be it... I contacted my insurance regarding my engagement ring (the diamond is chipped) and the agent told me that if the chip was due to an abraded diamond (as the jeweler told me she thought it was) the policy won't cover it... but the insurance company is going to contact the jeweler and we'll move forward from there (or possibly not...)

My work seems to be piling up, and I have to have it all done by the time I leave for the wedding/honeymoon (my last day at work is July 31).

My fiance is having a hard time figuring out why I am stressed and is confused as to why I can't sleep. He keeps telling me to just fall asleep. If only it was that easy. I wish he was a little more empathetic right now.

I also wish I had a moment to myself. I wish the dishes were done. I wish I had time to take a bath with the de-stressing salts my bridesmaid gave me. I wish I could take a sick day and not get behind in my work. I am praying for my grandpa. And the florist just called this second to see if we could meet 30 minutes later.