Ending the Reprieve (368 Days to Go)

It feels like it's been forever since I've blogged.  Oh, wait, it kind of has been.

Essentially I more or less had to completely remove myself from anything and everything wedding related for a little while or else I was going to turn Bride-zilla and never come back from the edge.

We finally found our venue, so I'm pretty ecstatic about that.  We're going to be having an outdoor ceremony lakeside at Penn Scenic View and then moving the reception indoors.  It even has a large balcony area overlooking the lake for cocktail hour.  Going to see the venue had been an experience all on it's own.  But that's what happens when you have three additional opinions and inane questions being asked.  Add to that major sleep deprivation and you have a cocktail so sour no one wants to take a sip.

To add to the hectic vibe of the day, I got a phone call two days earlier that my wedding dress had arrived more than four months earlier than expected.  I made arrangements to get to the shop just before closing the same day that we were looking at our wedding venue in order to try and save on gas.  Remember, three weeks ago, gas was at it's highest price ever.

Now since my fiance was going along to see the venue, we had to drive separately so that he could leave at that point of the day to go teach his class that also happened to be nearby.  But that still left me with two mothers and an 11-year-old niece in tow.  The moment we walked in the door, our niece started to whine about wanting to try on her bridesmaid dress.  When I explained that it hadn't been chosen yet, she insisted that she would choose.  I told her no.  Of course the two mothers insisted we might as well check some out.  Insert enormous eye roll here for getting unwanted opinions on something that doesn't directly pertain to these people.

I then listened to both mothers lecture on how bridesmaids have to be matchy-matchy and that it wouldn't be appropriate for half of my bridesmaids to wear their dresses with straps and the rest not to.  It didn't seem to matter to them that the bridesmaids (who like me) can't wear straps because of sloped shoulders would be a distraction every five minutes by adjusting their straps.  Or better yet, the busty ones forced to forego straps would be popping out mid ceremony.  I pretty much lost my cool and told them they both needed to shut up because it wasn't their decision and that bridesmaids dresses had moved on since either of them had last been married.  See the bride-zilla wanting to come out and snap?

Finally, my consultant was free to bring out my dress.  It was a perfect fit.  And I mean perfect.  My grandmother will only have to hem it by one inch and bustle it.  Talk about easy-peasy.  However, by the time I got my dress, my niece had been whining sufficiently long enough to convince my mother to go pick out some dresses for her.  Now keep in mind, she's eleven and just starting to wear juniors clothes and is approximately a size 5.  I am a size 10 and had to order a size 16 which turned out to be a perfect fit.

She tries on one dress and it doesn't quite zip up and she starts bawling about how fat she is.  And I mean bawling.  This kid has officially stolen the title of bride-zilla and she's only the junior bridesmaid.  I am now standing in my wedding dress and fielding glares from every other customer in the store.  And nothing can get her to stop crying!  She literally has a psychological problem in which she's convinced herself that she is so overweight to the point where she works out more than Richard Simmons.

When she finally does stop crying, she has adamantly decided that there is a dress she wants to wear for my wedding because it is literally a hot pink short skirted version of mine.  I glare at my mother for even pulling the dress off the rack and put my foot down.  Absolutely not.  First off because it's nearly three hundred dollars and I will not ask that of my bridesmaids.  Secondly, I am not going to have my bridesmaids look like me on my day.  Call me selfish, but I want to be a little unique aside from the fact that I'm the only one wearing white.  I certainly don't want my dress to be less awe inspiring just because the guests have already seen seven different colored versions of it walk down the aisle before me.  This puts her into another burst of tears.  And for once, I can't wait to get out of my wedding gown and out of the store.  I'm tired of getting glares that accuse me of being an evil wench just because my niece is psychotic and spoiled.

That day, Jeff and I also clarified with our mothers how the guest list would be split.  My mother was perfectly okay with the split.  His parents were very much not okay.  They felt as if we were shorting them.  Que extended pain and suffering due to guest list limitations for quite a while longer.  Eventually I learned that this stemmed from her feeling as though we'd be shorting ourselves on the available guest list for the bridal shower.  Insert large eyeroll here for a bunch of useless kitchen gadgets that would be triplicated with a bridal shower.  Jeff and I already have too many rolling pins and wooden spoons, thank you very much.

I spent the next week on the phone with everyone.  The venue manager (in order to obtain contracts for every cabin/lodge on the property), the caterer to finalize the date and location, the event planner, etc.  I signed away nearly every penny to my name in order to put down deposits and spread the joyful news to my bridesmaids and groomsmen that their lodging for the weekend would be all expenses paid.  I then put away everything wedding related and vowed to not give it a second thought for at least a few weeks.

Memorial Day weekend reopened a few of the wounds however.  Mostly due to the 11-year-old niece who spent a great deal of time again whining about her weight.  Combine that with the fact that she's missed her period for a couple of months and you have me greatly agitated that she won't listen when you tell her that she's working out too much and is now getting to be too thin.  Pretty soon, I'll be kidnapping her to put her in the hospital for eating disorder treatment.  But she was also complaining about how I'm not going to be including her in going to choose the bridesmaids dresses in a few months (in about August probably).  I explained as nicely as I could that I needed the time to be for big girls and that I could not be baby-sitting her.  I needed the freedom to be able to go out for dinner with my girlfriends who would be coming in from out of town and not feel like I have to say no because she can't go barhopping afterwards.  Also, she has too expensive of taste.  Top that off with eventually if she doesn't become anorexic, she'll outgrow her dress whereas the other girls will have their dressing hanging in their closets for a few years to come.  She doesn't seem to quite grasp that dresses cost money that the rest of us work hard for.  She merely sees it as grandma will be paying for it, so who cares about what those little numbers are following that weird "S" shaped symbol.

Once I finally got the wedding to be off topic for the weekend while we were camping, I still had to deal with her obsessive behavior on her weight.  And the multiple attempts on her 2-year-old sister's life due to stupidity.  And every time that you yell at the older girl to stop doing something, she turns it into, "Why do you hate me?!" and goes running off.  Personally, I don't think it's smart for a girl who can't tread water to be standing on the slick steps to a 30-foot quarry with her baby sister.  To complete that mental image, my fiance who uses those stairs almost as much as he does the ones we have at home, fell on them twice and neither girl had on a life jacket.  I about died when I saw them down there by themselves.  And when she ran off all upset that I hated her, she then tried to lie to her grandfather about why her baby sister was soaked up to her waist.  Adorable 2-year-old of course is telling her pappy all about standing in the water with the fishies.

I officially no longer want children.  For gosh sakes, they don't even wait to be teenagers anymore before they become pathological liars with eating disorders.  What the heck?!

Now you can understand why I haven't been writing for a while.  There's nothing like spending your time ranting on a kid.  I feel bad, but I don't know how to get through to her and it does nothing but stress me out to be around her all the time.  Jeff is actually the one who's dubbed her bride-zilla.  And when I really need some time away to get my head together and collected and calm, it really doesn't help when this girl insists on attaching herself to me all the time.  I appreciate that she wants to spend time with me, but I can't be her mother, especially when her mom wants to be her mom.  And I definitely cannot keep sacrificing time with my fiance in order to play happy family with her, especially if she's going to have more mood swings than I can manage in a month in the course of one evening.

The Royal Wedding Fashion (407 Days to Go)

Because let's face it--this is all that really matters today when it comes to the topic of weddings.  

Already 2 billion people have watched footage.  Yes, 1/3 of the world population.

Kate's dress was of course amazing.  I've been hearing the word "understated" tossed around quite a bit but I'd like to think that the Duchess is merely sensible, classy, and my favorite: timeless.  The simplicity will never cause no one to ever look back and think "What was she thinking?!"  Because if we're all honest with ourselves, that's what we'd say about Princess Diana's poofy shoulders.  But that's something we'd never say of Princess Grace Kelly.  I feel like after half a century we'll have a truely classy princess once again.

As customary, she had a long train, but not so long that it required a troop of girl scouts to carry it--only her sister Pippa.  And of course Pippa looked absolutely lovely too in her thematically matching Alexander McQueen dress. 

I loved the lace bodice that Kate wore in order to meet the Abbey's requirements.  It was subtle and beautiful. Sigh.  And can we talk about the hair?  Half-up, half-down in an effort to exhibit her own style as well as appease her new royal fam.  I don't envy her the sacrifices she has to make for the sake of appearances and tradition.  But she is certainly doing a fantastic job of making the best of it.

Wedding Jewelry (427 Days to Go)

Starry

So as I mentioned once upon a time, my fiance is a scuba diving instructor and he and his father run a scuba diving merchandising business.  Well, back around Christmas they brought in a line of jewelry from Big Blue Jewelry that included some pieces with dive flags but also many pieces that were just sea life themed.  I know you're probably all thinking this is relatively corny, but some of the pieces were actually quite elegant looking.  I particularly liked the starfish and turtle designs.  So, it was early on during the engagement period and of course I thought this is exactly what I want for my bridal jewelry.  I'm no longer

Ocean Traveler

quite as certain four months later.  I have a feeling that I might still wear one of the pendants for a necklace but that I won't be cheesing it up by wearing matching earrings or anything else from the collection.  The solitary pendants really are quite beautiful and my FMIL has been wearing the turtle almost non-stop and it looks good with anything and everything.  Luckily, I'll be able to borrow the piece from the store for when I go to try on my dress when it gets delivered.  Oh, it makes me a tiny bit sad to think it won't be in until early fall.

Of course the long wait until when I have my dress will not keep me from browsing and looking at different pieces that catch my eye.  I have ADD; shiny jewelry is like my kryptonite. 

Clarissa Boutique

So early on in the week, I got an e-mail from Clarissa Boutique over in South Side about a trunk show that they were having for the Haute Bride jewelry line.  I have been absolutely dying to go over to Clarissa's and look around.  Unfortunately, it's not often I can find time on Saturday to run down to Southside and it's even rarer that I can get away from work early enough to go then.  Unfortunately, once again, that's exactly how my week played out.  So, I'm missing the trunk show.  But, if you have time, you can still catch it.  Today's the last day and they're open from 10am to 4pm.

So, since I couldn't view the trunk show in person, I'm doing the next best thing, I'm looking at the pieces on-line.  At least now I know that I can keep an eye open for a future trunk show or request an item to be ordered when it finally is time for me to look for real in the fall.

Haute Bride's Home Page

So it's usually a really good thing when you look at the home page and immediately find something you fall in love with.  Unfortunately, I can't seem to find the hand band modeled on the left in their catalog in order to get a catalog number.  I had seen bridal head bands before but they were usually a little clunky looking on wide ribbons.  That however, is much more dainty and elegant looking.  I love it.  And it would look so cute with the veil style that I've been considering.  However, I also really like the flower on the right as well.  Thank goodness I have so much time to make up my mind about what kind of accessories I want to have.  Granted this is making me all the sadder that I'll be spending my day hanging out at JoAnn's instead of going to the trunk show and being able to see the accessories up close and personal and possibly even on my head.

Haute Bride B621

Digging deeper, I found this really beautiful bracelet.  The centerpiece of the bracelet really makes me think of the jeweling on the wedding gown I've got on order.

Haute Bride SB107

So if you follow the link to their "Cocktail Collection", they have all kinds of beautiful jewelry, but also bling for the shoes!  What a cool way to customize your wedding shoes.  Now you can buy any pair of shoes to wear for the wedding and with the money you save, bling it up with one of these and you can use it on any pair of shoes afterwards!

Okay, so please don't be like me and end your weekend with trunk show regret.  Check out Clarissa Boutique and oggle up these pretties before they leave town.

~*~

So, before I sign off for the day, I just have to give myself a tiny little pat on the back.  I've been getting a few articles published on Yahoo, and right now if you Yahoo search "2011 graduation songs" my article is #1.  Google search and I'm #8.  So I'm a tiny bit hopeful that it might make slightly more than a few pennies.  Like maybe a quarter?  Here's hoping that all of this writing stuff will eventually help put some quarters and dimes into the wedding budget.

Veil Making Class (432 Days to Go)

So while at the Cavanaugh's Bride Show in downtown back in February, my co-MOH, Kansas stumbled onto a booth for a place called the Fabric Place in Mt. Lebanon.  They gave us information about a veil making and headpiece making class that they offered.  The card even offered a free gift for dropping by the store.  Well, a month went by and the bag of fliers and information from the show remained sitting in a corner of our living room completely untouched.  I had more or less hit wedding planning overload during the month of February and was also busy trying to figure out what I was doing about my wedding dress.  So when Kansas called me and asked when the class was, I hadn't the foggiest clue.

The veil I tried on
at MB Bride

A week later she texted and reminded me to nudge that bag in the corner of my living room to find the answer.  I took the reminder and peeked inside the bag looking for the violet piece of paper with the ribbon tied to the top and a little bejeweling.  Luckily they had totally decked out their flier or else I might have given up after ten seconds.  I called the store and inquired about the class and got back to Kansas letting her know that I'd gotten us each a slot.  We then started to pick up the conversation she and I had started back at the bridal show: what I envisioned my veil to look like.  

Now when I tried on dresses I had been shown a couple of traditional style veils.  The one that I liked best had a little bit of rhinestones to match the dress around the edge and fell to the elbow in length.  That was option number one in my mind.

Option number two was something I hadn't seen in stores at all and would definitely have to be made, not bought.  It was the veil worn by Elizabeth Swan at the beginning of Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest.

My thanks to The Rum's Gone for taking such great screen shots!

I wish that in the film it was pouring down rain so I could envision whether or not the veil was a little fuller at the bottom or if it stayed as then looking as it does in the top picture.  But what I really love is how the veil appears at the neck and the base of the head where it is attached at two separate points in order to create the looped effect.  I have a feeling it will be difficult to imagine how the veil will look with my dress without making it first and trying them together.  A shame, I tell you, a damn crying shame.  Note: sarcasm.  I think I'd have too much fun playing dress up to care about a few hours of wasted time and a few yards of material if it ended up coming to naught. 

Strangely enough Keira Knightley wore this type of veil once before in King Arthur.

Thanks to Long Ago Captures for these screen caps!

This one has not been drenched and appears fuller, but alas, no good shots from the back in order to give me a better idea of how it might look for me and my wedding.  However, I do not like how this one is attached to the crown by wrapping around it.  I figure when I attempt it, I will attach the ends to small combs which will tuck in either behind my ears or into the side of a bun or something.  I just can't picture myself in a tiara especially since I'm not planning to keep the veil on through the reception.

Courtesy of David's Bridal

So, for the class, Kansas and I went in armed with our screen caps of the POTC veil and learned that making a veil is fantastically easier than it would seem.  The only thing that can make it really hard is what you attach to the edge because some of them you would have to hand sew on, for instance bead work or rhinestones.   We also learned how to avoid making a 90s or 80s style veil.

Cue in bubble veil.  Oh gah! I forgot how bad that looked.  Her head looks so tiny compared to the veil!

But for the POTC style (as I shall forever dub it for simplicity sake), it would be as simple as cutting it, doing a small zig zag stitch along the edge to prevent fraying, and hand sewing it onto the combs.  The instructor suggested that we use chiffon in order to best replicate the appearance of the above styles.

Courtesy of Tiara Garden

We also learned how to make headpieces.  Apparently beading onto a comb requires more in the inspiration department than it does in the skills department.  I shall later stress about lack of inspiration since I want to make some fantastic headpieces for my two MOHs in order to establish their awesomeness and slight step up over the rest of the maids.  And making something funky and fantastic like the image to the left is even easier.  Bring on the hot glue gun, some feathers, and a silk flower.

All in all, the class was a ton of fun.  I'd totally recommend checking it out because even if you only have the tiniest ounce of crafty in your bones, you should be able to totally master veil making.  And as the instructor and the other employees will be more than happy to do for you, they'll break down the cost of what you're getting yourself into and how much a similar store bought veil would set you back.  So head out to the bridal salon, snag a photo of that veil you love and then check out the Fabric Place and make it yourself.  With the money you'll save maybe you can afford to splurge a little on the bridal jewelry you've been eyeing up.

So disturbed that I found this on LaLaLingerie and actually like it.

Wedding Dresses (435 Days to Go)

I'm fairly certain I mentioned before that I have already ordered my dress, so I won't be giving it away on here.  Prying eyes of a certain fiance may find their way onto this blog and I don't want to ruin a surprise.  

Now there's a way to start your morning off right.

Dress hunting started off more or less with a facebook post about a dress sale at MB Bride that found it's way onto my homepage because I was a fan of Cavanaugh's Bride Show.  Now at that moment, I was on anything but good terms with my mother, wondering if I could even fit into a sample dress size, and if I was totally crazy for wanting to go buy a wedding dress after being engaged for less than three months.  I did what any good facebooker would do: I changed my status and queried my friends as to whether or not wedding dress sales only happened in the beginning of the year or if there would be any that happened over the summer.  Almost immediately I got back a response from a recent Ms. to Mrs. that I should jump now because sales would not be available during the summer.  At least not sales like this.

Because MB Bride is halfway between me and where I grew up, I felt like it couldn't get much more convenient.  Plus, I knew I was going to ask my grandmother to do the alterations so I wanted her to see my dress before I put any money down on it.  So I called my mother to find out whether or not she was going to be in a supportive mood.  I found that to not really be the case as we almost immediately picked back up on a fight we'd had the week before after going to the bride show in which my MOHs attended.  My mother is apparently very much set against me having two MOHs and one of them in particular.  So this did not lead me to want to see her face to face anytime soon and possibly have to listen to her be incredibly critical not only of one of my co-MOHs but possibly a dress that I fell in love with.

Luckily my FMIL had a trip across the state the second Thursday of the sale and said she didn't mind going with me if I could wait until then.  I agreed that I could wait but a new worry came over me.  What if I got to the bridal salon and saw some other girls with their mom and started to cry?  I didn't want to get all weepy because I regretted having my mom there.  It was a Catch 22 of wedding dress shopping.  So I decided to mentally prepare myself by going to another bridal salon all by myself.  I had a knitting class in Robinson the Saturday before my FMIL and I had planned our appointment at MB Bride and so I called and scheduled an appointment with David's Bridal for right afterward.

My student was yet another of what I like to call a "back on the bicycle" and thus the class ended a little early because we didn't have any hiccups.  So I got to the bridal salon early and waited just to sign in.  Never go to David's Bridal on the weekend.  Never!  Some other lady and I stood at the back of some pack of ten bridesmaids and a bride-to-be who hadn't bothered to schedule an appointment and therefore had to fill out a ton of paperwork and overwhelmed the check-in desk.  Finally, I pushed forward, grabbed two clipboards for myself and her and we stood at the back rolling our eyes and wondering what had possessed us to bother with appointments.  We chatted and finally the posse moved to the back of the store.  We were told by the staff to go catch up to our friends in order to make room for new customers coming in.  Again, some eye-rolling as we handed in our completed forms and informed that that we were not with the large group and that we were two separate customers.  Don't get me wrong, it was chaotic and there was a huge clump of brides-to-be starting to form all waiting to check-in so I can appreciate their confusion.  I also didn't want to be stuck waiting another half hour while a bunch of people jumped line in front of me and my appointment.

Finally I was ushered to the back with my consultant and I handed over my bookmarked copy of their catalog that I'd had plenty of time to peruse.  I swear to this day I didn't see or try on a single dress I marked.  Perhaps they were not in stock in my size?  Granted, I don't feel as though they had anything in my size because not even their undergarments fit me.  I cannot fault them there either since I am one of those miraculous unheard of 38As.  Yes, I'll admit it...on a good day and the right bra I might make it to a B.  And I definitely can't fault them since I found out that Victoria's little Secret is that they don't actually make a bra in my size.  They claim to do so.  They don't.

They actually looked a little like them too.
Image Source

So I tried on probably a dozen dresses while I was there.  I told the consultant that I was planning an outdoor summer wedding and didn't want any tooling or fluff but that I did want a full length gown.  I instead was ushered a bunch of tea length frothy dresses.  This didn't make me very happy but I stayed in good spirits because I had the two guys from the balcony on the Muppets Show nearby doing a running commentary of my dresses and the dresses their wives were trying on for a Shriner's Ball.  By round two we got the message across and some full length dresses made it on over my head.  However, once I started to show a little interest in a dress, my consultant became very stubborn about bringing me anything else to try on claiming she didn't want me to get confused.  I wasn't confused.  We were just barely starting in the right direction as to what I had in mind.

It took me multiple tries to find one with the fine print stating
that the dress shown was going to cost a lot more than $99.
Image Source

I was in sticker shock though.  For a store that is constantly advertising $99 dress sales and they were currently in that said sale, I was wearing dresses that would cost me over $700.  Now as I mentioned before, I wanted my grandmother to do the alterations, she's an expert sewer and I've picked up a lot about quality work over the years.  I was severely disappointed in the quality of the dresses for $700+.  The zippers were completely exposed, there wasn't a dress I tried on that didn't have beading hanging off, (I know they get a little beat up but it was a little ridiculous) and the cuts were far too simple to be that expensive.  I got out of the store after making some loose alibi about wanting to come back with my FMIL in order to get her opinion claiming to be hung up between two styles.  I wasn't entirely thrilled about my experience but I had gone in on a weekend so I guess it was partially my fault too.

The next week, I went to MB Bride with my FMIL and we ransacked what was left of the sample dresses.  There wasn't a whole lot left to choose from but we made do and our consultant, Kate, was very helpful.  She was extraordinarily apologetic for not being able to find me an undergarment and made a note on my account to make sure that the bodice would be available on any return trip (and it really was).  Apparently every two days they run through all the undergarments and get them washed, they only get worn once before they're tossed into the laundry and I happened to be there right before laundry time.  We quickly went through all of the sample dresses because only one of the would zip up.  Thus my fear that I wouldn't fit into sample dresses was confirmed and I was glad I had gotten the urge to sample dress shop out of my system so I wouldn't have buyers regret next winter.  The one that did fit was ivory and I wasn't thrilled with the color or style.  I'm a teensy bit old fashioned and feel as though ivory is meant for second weddings.  Considering I'm the daughter of a woman who's been married four times, that makes sense, right?

So, Kate asked me what my budget was and how I pictured my wedding.  I told her my budget was $700 dollars because if that was going to be the best price I could get at David's Bridal, I was going to at least attempt to get a designer label gown (and a better quality gown) for the same price first.  I also told her about my summer, outdoor wedding and she immediately ushered me through the swinging doors of my little suite and to the "outdoor/destination wedding dress" section.  They had a separate room not organized by designer  but rather by style for all the dresses here were lighter weight and meant for outdoors.  It was a dream come true.  We all started in different corners and worked our way around pulling every dress under $700 we could find.  And Kate stuck to it too.  I was really impressed.  In fact I was the only one to break the rule and I'm glad I did because the dress I ordered was originally over budget by $50.

By the time we were done that night, I walked out with a business card in hand with three dress ID #s, their price, and our made up names for them on the back.  I had narrowed it down to "Vintage" which was lace, "Cinderella" which I call the typically princess gown with beading, and "The One" as Kate insisted on calling it.  I had absolutely no idea that night which dress I liked better and was completely torn.  I hadn't really had the "it's the one!" moment I'd hoped for because I loved each one for entirely different reasons.

But the next day at work, I was telling my coworkers about my dress shopping experience and was trying to find images of the dresses on the designer's websites because my camera took okay pictures but didn't quite show off the details of the dress like seeing it in person might.  I was only able to find one of the dresses online, "The One" as Kate had so aptly dubbed it.  And within a few hours of work, I was completely stressed out with my supervisor and wanting to be anywhere but work.  When I sat back down at my computer, the Alfred Angelo website was still up on one of the Mozilla tabs and I instinctively made the image my computer background.  The rest of the day whenever I got upset, I closed all the windows and looked at that dress and smiled.  It was by two in the afternoon that I realized Kate was right and that it was "The One."

After about two weeks, I got an e-mail from Alfred Angelo (because I'd signed up on their website to save a gallery of dresses to show my bridesmaids) saying that they were extending their Valentine's Day sale through the end of the month and that I could get $100 off my dress.  I'd originally been planning to go back to MB Bride at the beginning of March to take advantage of the Alfred Angelo trunk show in order to get 10% off but I decided to go back sooner during the time frame of the Alfred Angelo sale.  I'd been under the impression that it was a sale offered by the designer through all bridal salons and not just through Alfred Angelo salons.  Oops.  But when I got to the salon with my my mother (who was back on somewhat eh speaking terms with me), my grandmother, my FMIL, and my fiance's two-year-old neice and our flower girl, I explained the sale notice I'd received and was informed that Kate would have to check with management.  I was shown back to the changing room, the dress of my dreams was brought back for me to try on again for my family to see and my two-year-old niece-to-be was provided a flower girl dress of similar style to prance around in while we waited for management's decision.  The dress was priced at $750, so as I mentioned I'd have gotten 10% or $75 off if I waited another week, but they must have decided to make me really happy and give me the extra $25 by honoring Alfred Angelo's sale price.  My now 82-year-old grandmother was in shock that I'd picked a dress that would be so easy to alter and it took at least fifteen minutes for my mom to stop crying.  My little flower girl just wanted to spend the entire time dancing with her "Aunt Lissa" while we pretended to be princesses.  It was a wonderful day in the long run and the sale price got my dress in under budget even after the luxury sales tax was applied.  I was ecstatic that I managed to wheel and deal a little on at least one aspect of my wedding.

Now I just have to anxiously await the arrival of my dress sometime in early fall.  Already I'm anxious to try it on again and feel like a princess for just another hour.  It would certainly help with the stress, right?

Photo Update

Jeff's actual cat scan that we viewed this morning.

My new eyeglasses from Camille Bizien.  My something "Blue" for the wedding.

And so let the cat chewing on the eye glasses begin.
She actually dragged them down off the table when I had my back turned.  Brat.

Jeff's Broken Wrist (437 Days to Go)

That's similar to what Jeff did, except
he knocked both knobs off the radius.
Image Source

So this morning I'm taking Jeff for his second consultation with a second orthopedic surgeon.  Actually today should have been his surgery, but the surgeon's secretary, PA, nurse or whomever who did the scheduling really screwed up.  He broke his wrist last Saturday (the 19th), we took him to the emergency room for x-rays on Sunday when the swelling didn't go down (and because he didn't want to go in the middle of our vacation to Seven Springs), and saw the first orthopedic surgeon Monday.  That first surgeon gave us a recommendation to the second surgeon because he's a hand/wrist specialist and told us we needed to go get cat scans right away so we could get in for a consultation later in the week and get the surgery scheduled for either next Tuesday (yesterday) or Wednesday (today).  So, his secretary called the other surgeon's office and left a message telling them to book an OR and to schedule a consultation to see the cat scans.  Well, all they did was schedule a consultation and they booked it for today rather than a week ago.  So now, Jeff has been wearing a temporary cast on his arm for over a week and it's no longer the right size because the swelling has gone down significantly which is actually now causing it to rub his wrist raw--the broken wrist!  To say the least, I'm annoyed with the health care system.  So hopefully the surgeon will come to the same conclusion we have already for over a week, that he needs surgery asap, and schedule it for in the next few days.  The sooner the boy gets into a regular cast the happier I'll be.

But in the meantime, I'm sitting here waiting.  The upside to all of this is that after we get out of here, I'm dragging him to Sam's Club so we can pick up my new eyeglasses.  I'm not planning on wearing these new frames all the time because I got them specifically for our wedding.  They're rimless, silver, and pale blue.  My current frames are a relatively bold black pair and don't always photograph well, especially since I didn't get glare free lenses.  Essentially, I'm scared that if I start wearing them everyday now, I'll walk into a wall and break them before the wedding.  Don't laugh, I've done some serious bending to my current frames that way.  I really can't ever seem to remember door frames, especially the one around our pantry.  And the pair before these, my cat chewed off the end of one of the ear pieces.  Relatively impressive work actually.  It's not so noticeable to the observer but a real pain for me because they scratch the side of my head like crazy.  So, unless it's a special occasion, those frames will most likely spend a good deal of time hanging out in my top dresser drawer away from my clumsy self and from my kitten's gnawing habit.

Image Source

The other upside is that I have my Nook.  I'm completely addicted to The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo and just itching to get to the bottom of the mystery.  It's been a while since a book has managed to keep me in suspense for three hundred  plus pages.  However, if I was good, I'd actually be knitting on my cousin's baby's blanket instead.  The silly blanket was supposed to be incredibly easy, but it has so many stitches on it that every time I transport it somewhere, I spend at least a half hour picking stitches back up because nearly the entire thing has fallen off the needles.  Thus, why I'm reading instead.  A girl can only take so much frustration before even her knitting no longer feels like zen.  But I do need to find my zen again soon.  I have to teach knitting at Jo-Ann's on Saturday so it'd probably be best if the teacher wasn't stressed while trying to preach the calming effects of knitting.  Then again, I've always had the attitude of "do as I say, not as I do."