69 Days

Behold: the wedding to-do list. Nearly everything on it is due now, if not overdue, and plenty has been added since this picture.

69 days 'til the wedding.

What has really struck me as weird/interesting/maddening/cool about it all is that when you're meeting one vendor, or planning one aspect, it seems so important. When you're picking the music (and don't even get me started on the music...), it seems like the music is such a huge part of the wedding. It's always playing! While I'm walking up the aisle. While the wedding party does. While I walk back down the aisle. While we cut the cake. When we're introduced as man and wife. The father/daughter dance. The mother/son dance. The anniversary dance. The kids' dance. It's all about the music.

And then we meet with the bakery, and there's so much to be decided. What flavors? What fillings? What sort of frosting? What design? What cake base? Who's going to return the cake base after? What cake topper? Oh my god, what cake topper? Do we want a basic, man and woman, regular one? Do we want a quirky, unusual one, like a lion and lioness because we like lions? Do we want to forgo a couple and just do letters? What about birds? I love birds? Or oh-em-gee how about a custom topper with both of us and the dogs? Truly, it is a world unto itself.

Then, the officiant. That guy is pretty important. So many important questions to be addressed there. Do we want to write our own vows? Use the traditional ones? Is anyone doing a reading? Who? What reading? Do we want him to do a blessing? These things seem to encompass like 90% of the wedding.

Well then it's time to deal with the dress. Oh, hell, the dress. If you play fill-in-the-blanks, and you say "Wedding _____," you will fill it with "dress." It's that important. What do I remember most about most of the weddings I've gone to? Specific song choices? Cake color? The catering? No. The dress. So there's that. Can I wear the heirloom dress that was my stepmother's mother's? Can it be altered drastically enough? If no, what the hell dress do I buy when I like them all? Truly, going into this I expected fully to go try on dresses and hate them all, have none fit right, none wow me, feel weird and out of place in them all...oh, no. I loved them all. I wanted to buy every single dress and have 20 outfit changes during the wedding. Do I want the beautiful mermaid style vintage-looking dress? The classic princess ballgown? Something drapey and flowing? Truth: I want every single one. Once a dress is chosen, God, then I need to coordinate shoes, jewelry, a headpiece, a veil, a clutch, makeup, hair...

I see, I completely see, why wedding planners exist. Any one single element is completely consuming, and there are dozens. How some people manage to pull this off in just a few months is beyond me.

Recently Checked Off:

• Pick reception songs
• Pick ceremony music
• Buy cake topper
• E-mail accessories coordinator with questions
• Buy a guestbook
• Figure out vows
• Pay off venue
• Buy wedding dress
• Buy clutch
• Buy bubbles
• Trial run eyebrow threading
• Start registries
• Buy wedding shoes
• Buy veil

To Be Checked Off In the Next Day or Two

• Order invitations
• Figure out how to word directions to venue
• Schedule tux fittings
• Make programs
• Pay remaining vendors
• Buy unity candles

And the list goes on.

My nephews while my sister tried on maid of honor dresses. We were worried about keeping them entertained, but it turned out the mirrors were all they needed.

To the left there is my grandmother, looking amazing in her bridesmaid dress.

And don't worry...none of the dresses shown turned out to be "the dress," so the mystery remains.

General Updates + Manny the Mantis

School started today! I kicked off the week with anthropology and psychology. So far I really like both of my professors, and all of my classes this semester are social science classes, which are fairly easy. I went light on myself. I'm getting married in two and a half months, and I'm not missing even a day of classes to do it, so it seemed like I should set myself up for success, yknow? So the semester is looking good so far.

I got my wedding band today! It is just beautiful. It looks perfect with my engagement ring. I'll be going shortly to pay off the ceremony and reception venue and catering. My sister's maid of honor dress has been ordered, and it is perfect for her. Now, I have to make a final choice on my own dress. I'm significantly behind on this (and getting more so by the day), but I'm still on the fence.

My throat hurts, and I've been around someone with strep. Next week may be a bad one.

Without further ado, I bring you...the praying mantis that made himself at home on my mailbox. He was creepy. Intensely creepy. I had to get right up close to him to get the shots, and I was sure he was going to jump onto my hands and...take me back to his home planet, or something. He didn't, but wow.

A Sorry-For-Being-A-Bad-Blogger Post In Pictures

The reason I've barely been on Blogger this week.

My grandmother watching my mom help me into the 1956 wedding dress that my stepmother so, so, so sweetly offered to let me wear, which she and her mother both wore.

Part of the dress that I love and may or may not be able to wear. When my stepmother wore it in the 80's, she had it altered from a smaller size to fit her - and she weighed 130lbs or less. I'm doing some pretty heavy work in the diet and exercise department but let's be real here, I don't weigh 130lb and probably won't in the next year. It can probably be further altered, but the lace sleeves are also shorter than my arms (in this picture they're not all the way up onto my shoulders) and the bodice is also shorter than my torso - I have long, lanky arms, and I just don't know if it can be altered all that much.

We'll see.

School starts tomorrow, and in preparation for my first math class I've done 200 algebra problems in the last two days. It's only just beginning.

So, I apologize if I'm a bad blogger in the coming weeks, but I won't be altogether absent, just frequently tardy.