Sooo...Almost A Month Later!

Okay, so first things first....I totally STINK at blogging!  :)  I thought I would be good at it...maybe even enjoy it a little bit...and thought it would be a great way to keep those interested in the loop!  Problem is.... 

1.)  Making time for it in my whirlwind schedule these days!  And…

2.)  I find this website very user-unfriendly!!!  (Just being honest!)

Now, back to the point of this so-called-blog-of-mine...  WEDDING TALK! 

-  My pretty pretty dress has been bought!

-  I found my highly anticipated shoes online this week!

-  I found my garters online as well while searching for something totally unrelated! 

-  Bridesmaids/Flower Girl/Groomsmen/Attendants have been asked!

-  Bridesmaid dresses & Flower Girl dress have been ordered!

-  Wedding rings have been purchased!

-  Videographer has been chosen!

-  My dad and I know what song we will dance to!

-  I'm 99.9% sure that Girard and I also know what song we'll dance to!

-  DJ has been hired!

-  Invitations were ordered, arrived, and the last mailing label was stuck on them last night!

-  Several wedding day necessities have been purchased! 

That is all that comes to my mind at the moment!  Lots marked off the list....but still much to do! 

So...about MY DRESS!!!  I worked half a day one Friday (August 26th) and then headed to Lynchburg with my mom and sisters.  I had two places in mind to visit while on the hunt for "THE" dress!  First stop....Celebration (located in downtown on Main Street!)  It is a bridal heaven!  Beautiful boutique, inviting atmosphere, friendly staff, organized and orderly!  I had an appointment and with it being a Friday afternoon managed to luck up and be the only bride-to-be in the store!  I couldn't have asked for better customer service than I received!  I picked out a slew of dresses (14 to be exact!!)...many different styles...and to the dressing room we went!  I had NO idea wedding dresses could be so heavy and HOT!!!!!!!  Wow!  I'm glad I picked December to get married because wearing a wedding dress is like wearing a toaster oven!  :)  Getting into and out of all those dresses was work!  ….Back to dress #1....  The dress consultant had barely secured the dress properly and my mom was already in tears!!!!!!!!!  Such a softy!  :)  I still believe that dress was her favorite even though she said she was simply moved to tears just because of the whole experience!  I'm glad my sisters were present!  They served as my personal fashion critics!  They agreed that the dress wasn't "a Judith dress" and that was all it took for me to say NEXT!  Sometime around dress #7 or 8 I started to feel overwhelmed.  Almost panicky.  I remember asking the two girls working "How doooo you know?!" ....  Every dress was beautiful in its own way...I'd love the top...or I'd love the back...but I just wasn't getting that feeling of sheer excitement over them.  …Back to the dress room!  I was standing in the last dress I had picked and still feeling mediocre...when one of the consultants said to me that she had another dress in mind that she thought would be perfect for me.  She had been listening to my comments and expressions here and there and explained that even though this dress wasn't one I had picked....to just trust her and try it on anyway!  Of course I agreed!  I stepped into the dress and as it was temporarily being made to fit my body, I became speechless.  I walked out of the dressing room, still not saying a word…and once again went to my spot in front of the three-way mirror and just stood there staring at myself.   Then it happened…..  I started to cry!!!!!!!  Not like boo-hoo cry….but tears just started streaming!  I don’t remember saying it….but according to my witnesses I said that “I felt like a bride!”  I do however remember not wanting to take it off!!!  Now, for obvious reasons I can’t say anything else about THE DRESS……but in my opinion it is one of the prettiest dresses EVER!!!!!!!!!!!!   I tried on three more dresses but none of them compared!  Even though I had “a moment” at Celebration…I still wanted to check out Church Street Bridal, also located downtown on Church Street (hence the name of the store!)  CSB is inside the YMCA building…and the cool thing about it is all the dresses are designer gowns that have been donated.  It’s a mixture of dresses from previous seasons, dresses that didn’t sale, etc.  All the gowns are for sale for just a couple of hundred dollars and the proceeds go towards the YMCA and associated programs.  The only con is that it’s definitely a hit or miss kind of place because what they have….is what they have.  How cool would it be though to find a several thousand dollar designer gown and only pay like $200 bucks for it!??!!   I had my fingers crossed for good luck…but it wound up being a BIG miss for me!  I hurriedly tried on five dresses…well six if you count the one that I stepped into and then immediately back out of because someone with smelly armpits had tried it on before me!  [[GAG!]]   

Getting myself put back together in my clothes I realized that I’d left my earrings at Celebration.  I’d taken them off when the consultants were playing bride makeover on me with some of the bling-bling that they sale!  We rushed back to Celebration for me to scoop up my earrings…and while I was there I decided to try THE DRESS on just one more time!  ...SOLD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  :) 

Soooo….if you read my previous post you may or may not remember the word…the ugly UGLY word that I so greatly didn’t want to be called!!!!  Well…..I am ashamed to say…[[deep sigh…]]...it happened…  The “Bridezilla” showed her terrible horrible self…  Shoot!!!!!!!  I tried so hard too!!!!!!!!  I’m just going to keep it real for everyone…..  Anyone who says they enjoyed every aspect of planning their wedding IS LYING!!!  Not possible…nope…negative…no way in H-E-double hockey sticks!!!!  So I’ve been told that EVERY bride has “her thing”…..and what that “thing” could be differs for everybody…some brides have just one while others seem cursed with many!  What I’m talking about is the “thing” or “things” that make a bride lose it…make her break crazy…make her turn into somebody that her poor unexpecting husband-to-be has never met before…  Ladies and gentlemen….my “thing” was the curse word, curse word, curse word…GUEST LIST/INVITATIONS!  OMG!  Not fun…not fun at all…  Now, I never put an exact number on it…but for the longest time I’ve known that I didn’t want a huge-invite-everyone-I’ve-ever-met-wedding.  I wanted close family and mine and Girard’s closest friends…you know…try and keep things small and intimate…  I’m working on a budget people!!!  I’ll be honest….I didn’t want to shell out most of my money on food, especially for people that Girard and I barely know.  Getting a guest list together is hard…trying to decide where to draw the line is extremely difficult…and of course it sucks to know that someone may get their feelings hurt.  But in my opinion…the fact of the matter is…it’s a wedding…not a parade!  I don’t want to look back at my wedding pictures or watch my wedding video and wonder “who in the world is that?”….  While the guest list is still much bigger than I’d like…I’ve come to terms with it (for the most part!) and I’m trying to forget about it all together…or at least for the time being!  I also mentally punched that Bridezilla bitch in the face and told her where she wasn’t welcome ever again!!!!