WW: Invitationapalooza

Tonight I print out all the invitations, inserts, and finish addressing the last few invitation envelopes. Then tomorrow all that stuff gets cut down by the wonderful Chris and on Friday I'm headed down to MD to enslave enlist Julibean and her Sasquatch for help assembling. We'll also stop back at Curvaceous Couture to check out the veil I'm totally in love with, so that's another thing I can scratch off my list.

Meanwhile I've ordered snazzy cufflinks for Jason, socks for the groomsmen, and some additional items for the bridesmaids gifts.

m'Dad bought a tuxedo and we're still debating whether or not we'll just tell the fathers to wear black ties or we'll get them blue ties or something special. m'Mama bought a dress but that doesn't mean we're going to stop looking. She's not 100% sold on it and I'm meeting her at a dress shop in our town that's going out of business to try on a few things and possibly catch something on clearance.

I've set a date with the amazing Ashley and creative Courtney to have a paper flower making pow-wow and get the centerpieces done. I cannot even put into words how at ease I'll be once THOSE are done.

Once in the invitations are all set and in the mail I can breathe and work on other things, like, oh, idk making all the bouquets and organizing the rest of my life. Oh yeah, and pack maybe a little? Because even if we don't know where we're moving we're still going to be moving come May.

On a complete tangent:
I've decided to make completely anal RSVPs. I've heard that sometimes when you leave the RSVPs open so the guests write their names in themselves they forget and you have to like, brand the back of the RSVP with a number and correspond that number to a version of your guest list so you know that, Oh it was just Crazy Uncle Jerry who forgot to write his name in, but he's having the Veal.

Or you get people assuming that they can bring dates. No, I will not pay an arm and a leg for your random flavor of the week other who I have never met. And no, you can't just slip that person's name on there and think I won't notice because your name is effing printed in my special scripty font and all official like.

I'm not dealing with any of that bullshit. Each RSVP has the names of the people who are invited. A few have a line to write in a guest's name, but there are less than 6 people who we're extending that option to. We just don't have the room to invite people we don't know. Period.

I've already had some friends ask if they can bring a date. In some cases yes, I know their significant other, and no, I wouldn't mind it if that person tagged along. But I'm not going to sacrifice someone Jason or I actually want at the wedding who got shafted onto the B-List just so you can have a date. Husbands and wives are a different story, I'm not that snide. But unless you're engaged or living with your significant other, I'm sorry, you'll have to wait and see if there's room at the inn.

So hear this friends. I love you all. I love all of your significant others (even if I have yet to meet them, I'm sure they're wonderful people if you've chosen to have them in your life) and I have them on a tertiary list. But please don't get upset if you don't see their name on the RSVP, this whole political undercurrent to wedding invitations is trying enough, I don't want you mad at me too :(

Countdown

Today is T-minus 100 Days until our wedding.

100 Days is a funny thing. We had a 100 Days 'till Graduation party in college. It was epic:

Laura and I with our Pool Boy Ron.

Some of the boys I lived with Freshman year. Chris, Glenn & Jar.
And btw Puppy, you look so funny clean shaven!

Me with my gbf Seth, my favorite shortie Jen, and our friend Aida.

Scary that starting next year I'll have known some of these people for a decade. BAH! We're OLD!

That is all.

It's happening

Dear Julibean,

When we open our bakery we will be making and selling these:


We could do it to support No Shave November or find some legit reason, but it's happening.

That is all.

March Madness

This whole not being home on the weekends...every weekend..?

It's rough.

I'm exhausted. The weekend was wonderful. Although I was too tired to go to dinner Friday night for our anniversary. I felt so horrible, but I couldn't even move. My body felt like lead, it was awful.

The NH Shower was amazing. Like really. My girls are just incredible and Amanda and MamaKoala are party-throwing-machines!

I'm just so tired. I've been too exhausted to do anything. At least I unpacked the car load of presents and organized them and stored them in the basement. At least I wrote out all the thank yous already and all but two are in the mail. At least I unpacked my bag and repacked it for this coming weekend.

Still doesn't mean I don't have three loads of clean laundry to put away when I get home, or a million errands to run this week including getting my taxes done.

Ugh. I want to cry I'm so tired.

No Dancing

Today, dancing would be inappropriate.

Today, pretty much any sort of rejoicing would be inappropriate.

I didn't sleep well last night. I had a horrible nightmare and woke up at 1:30 and couldn't get back to sleep. So I was awake at 3:33 when Jason txted me.

News, Japan, when you get up.

I have a one track mind right now, so my first initial reaction was OMG HE GOT A JOB OFFER IN JAPAN WTF ARE WE GOING TO DO WITH OURSELVES?! But then I realized I was crazy and sleep deprived and I should probably just ask what he was talking about.

Once he relayed that it wasn't anything to do with him and everything to do with a devastating earthquake and tsunami in Japan I felt relieved and stressed at the same time.

Up until a few months ago we had multiple military friends stationed in Japan. Fortunately those friends are back in the states and as safe as any military personnel stationed here can be.


My heart goes out to all of Japan, and anyone who has family or friends there. It's going to take a long time for them to get back on their feet after this.

For now I'm mostly concerned with flooding on the West Coast of the US, Dan does live near water.

(Image borrowed from CNN)

Half a Decade

They say a picture is worth a thousand words. I think this one says a whole lot more than that:

Happy 5 year Anniversary!
Sharpie hearts Silly

WW: Another Dress Adventure

I'm not going to post any photos on the off chance Chris reads my blog, but Julianne found her wedding dress!

Huzzah!

We started off Saturday morning at Curvaceous Couture. Julianne, Casey, Cynthia and I had been there previously and there were one or two dresses that she really liked and wanted our mother to see.

What's interesting about Curvaceous Couture is it feels like an upscale bridal salon and they treat you like you're the most important person in the store, but they still have that homey family run business feel. Yukia Walker, the owner (who's pregnant - congrats!), is pretty much the illest bridal attendant ever.

She freaked Julianne out a little bit though. Apparently Julibean had mentioned something about her first experience at Curvaceous Couture on her blog and Yukia had not only read it, but taken action. Originally Julianne really wanted to try on a bunch of mermaid style gowns (girl has a nice butt, we like to flaunt it), but CC didn't really have many on hand. So after reading that, she ordered some mermaid style dresses.

I thought it was great that Yukia was so interested in pleasing her customers and catering to whatever need they had. Julianne thought it was weird. This is what the internet is for people! No doubt she's found this post and is reading this right now. (Hey lady!)

Julianne left CC with a few styles written down. I left with a style written down for an incredible veil. But I think I got the wrong style number or designer since I cannot find it ANYWHERE online. It was beyond perfect, white beaded flower (I was planning on making beaded flower bouquets for my bridesmaids so that's an epic awesomeness in coordination right there), with a feather or two, and it was the perfect angled birdcage. My note says it's a Kristina Eaton design but something makes me think it's actually a Sara Gabriel. It just seems more her style.

So if you are reading this Yukia, and you haven't already heard from me by phone, you know the veil I'm talking about? Can we find out what it's called and exactly which designer it is? kthanks.

After that we drove down to Virginia, met up with Becky and Andy, sent Chris off to hit the driving range with Andy, and nabbed Becky to stop in at Curvy Girls Bridal. They're new. Their website isn't fully up yet. But they're pretty fabulous.

The salon is a little bit more over the top than CC is, but they are also family run. They have a bunch of different designers than CC had so there was a little more variety. But they also freaked Julianne out a little. At the time of our appointment there wasn't anyone else in the store, so when Julianne came out of the dressing room for the first time there were like 20 people standing around because they wanted to be a part of it.

The CGB ladies are extremely nice and professional, the place was not as homey as CC but they did in fact have a "man cave" with the TV set to ESPN so any men who got dragged along could have a moment's silence away from all the estrogen. They do need to invest in slightly more stronger clippies. They were using plain plastic oversized clothespins to hold the dresses tighter to get the feel for how it would be in your size. The plastic guys weren't getting it done. They need the industrial metal clips, so that would be my only complaint.

Long story short Julianne found a fabulous La Sposa gown that was the right amount of mermaid and the right amount of ruffles. The price was perfect (hell it's about the same price as my dress and mine has half the fabric), and VA taxes are a far cry cheaper than NY taxes.

One less thing to worry about now that Julianne has found her dress. We'll start looking for bridesmaids dresses within the next month or so.

Overall the ladies at Curvy Girl Bridal were wonderful, but they definitely were not as hilarious as Yukia and the staff at Curvaceous Couture. If you're a plus size or just slightly curvy lady in the Baltimore/DC/N.VA area, I highly recommend going to either place (or both!) to find your wedding dress. They really understand brides who aren't a perfect size six.

...my fingers are kind of itching to try that veil on again...I might have to go back to CC to buy it!