Life in the left lane

Does anyone else ever feel that having to work on Fridays is pointless?  Especially during the summer?  I know my productivity goes waaaay down when it’s beautiful outside, and I am ready to relax for the weekend.  The other thing I’ve noticed is that in a lot of industries, a bunch of people get to leave early on Fridays.  Why doesn’t this work for everyone (like me)?  Isn’t it fairly pointless to be busting ass to work when you can’t get a hold of anyone else since they aren’t working?  Oh, America.  Why can’t you be less work and money making oriented and be more low key like many European countries?   Sigh…wishful thinking.

Today has been super boring.  I have literally done nothing.  NOTHING.  Ok, well maybe I’m lying a little.  I’ve done a few things.  But most of them have been in the last few minutes.  And I’ve only done them because I feel bad for being such a slackass.  I’ve spent a large chunk of my day reading blogs and gossip sites, picking out wedding hairstyles, and chatting with my co-workers.  Boss, please give me that raise since I am such a hard worker! <—Normally I am, just not on Fridays!

Another reason working on Friday sucks is because you are tired from the week.  You’ve been working hard (hanging out too late with friends) and need a break.  Today.  I am exhausted.  T decided he was going to get up at 6 to go to the gym this morning.  Of course I woke up when the alarm went off, then again after the snooze cycle.  Then I had to pee.  Then he couldn’t find his workout clothes in the dark.  So he turned on the light for a second.  The whole ordeal took about 15 minutes.  As soon as I dozed back off, our fried Jay came in to take his shower (the working shower is in our room and he was staying with us because he had a meeting in Atlanta this morning and lives far away).  After Jay’s shower ended, then my sister came in for hers.  So yeah, this morning sucked.  I was practically up and dozing in and out of sleep till I got up at 7:45.  Then my head was hurting and my neck was sore from sleeping weird, so this morning was awesome.

To top it off, I was in a super funk for no reason that I can think of.  I’m just pissy.  Probably because I’m tired and bored to death at work.  Sorry for being a Ranty McRanterson.  Yuck.  Ok, well I’m heading out.  Happy weekend!

I’m sure you are all feeling the pinch in your wallets and bank accounts like I am.  Everything keeps getting more and more expensive, but salaries are staying the same.  Something is wrong with this picture.  Gas is over $4, groceries are sky rocketing, and even make up keeps costing a little more each time I buy it. The economy needs to fix itself, like yesterday.

Anyway, in early April I had my official one year anniversary at my PR job that I love.  To get here, I made a lateral move from McHell.com.  This means my sort of crappy salary came with me.  At that time, I was so ready to get out of there that I didn’t care.  I was even able to talk my new boss up $4,000 from what she initially offered to match my McHell money.

Last year, the amount of money I was making was fine.  Life hadn’t gotten so expensive.  Gas was still under $3.  (Remember how we used to complain about that?  If only we could go back to the glory days!)  I wasn’t planning a wedding that requires expensive purchases of gifts, jewelery and trips.

Well, now the times have changed.  Things are getting tighter.  I’m going out less and shopping less, but I’m still struggling to save money.  I’m trying to be frugal but it’s not working because the economy isn’t playing along.  So it is highly crucial for me to get a raise.  I’m a big girl now, and I should get paid like one.

I’ve been out of college since 2005 and working, yet I am still pretty close to entry level wages (in my opinion).  I know people that have just graduated that are making almost as much as me or more.  Take Little S for example.  She has been working for about a month.  But she makes $8,000 more than I do, and she gets “an adjusting to your new life” stipend of like $6,000, a company credit card, car, laptop, cell phone and commissions once she actually starts selling things.  I know she is in a completely different field than I am, but it’s still a slap in the face to have my sister, who is 22 and right out of college, making a hell of a lot more money than I am.

When my one year anniversary rolled around, I was banking on the boss calling me in for a review (hooking me up with a raise).  But April came and went, as well as May and June, and nothing.  She has been traveling a lot for work and summer vacation, so I haven’t really had a time to pull her aside to talk since she hasn’t been here.

Yesterday, I finally worked up the balls to say something to her towards the end of the day, and she ended up on a really long phone call.  I thought I could catch her when she was off, but I heard her wrap up the convo  by saying she had to be somewhere by 6.  Plot foiled.  She busted out of the office in a whirlwind and was gone.  And I never had a chance to say anything.  Instead of waiting till today, I just decided it may be easier to write her an e-mail asking to set up a time for a review.  I was hoping it would happen today since she is leaving again tomorrow.

All morning I was a my desk, twitching a little in anticipation, and nothing happened.  NOTHING!  I was thinking she hadn’t read it or didn’t want to talk.  Finally around 3 she told me that she felt bad for not doing my review yet because she has been meaning to and that we can talk next week.  YAY!!!  Finally.

Now here is my dilemma.  Out of everyone in the office, I feel I have the most responsibility.  I am one of the younger employees, but I work on 3 clients practically all by myself.  I do get a little help from our interns and my co-worker Mel, but they are mine.  I’m the one that arranges media visits, handles problems, reminds them that we need to work on things.  I am planning on asking for a $5,000 raise (I want to ask for $8,000, but I know that’s waaaay too much).  I know it’s a lot and times are tight, but I feel that for the amount of work I do, I should get compensated a lot more.  I have a lot of responsibility and want my salary to reflect my hard work.  We are a small company (which makes me feel guilty for asking for so much) but I need to be able to live my life without feeling like I am going to end up broke on the street somewhere.  And I really don’t want to find a second job on the corner. 

I feel like in the grand scheme of things, I am a pretty rational person. I am trusting and forgiving, and don’t usually freak out about stuff. I always kid T that I am the best fiance he could have asked for. I have no problem going out with the guys. I can handle crude jokes and laugh at them. I can check out chicks with the best of them. As long as I’m not wanting to have a date night or I’m not feeling well, I don’t care if T wants to go out with the boys. Hell, he can even crash with friends if he can’t drive. I am that low-key. Until now…

Last night as I was about to go to bed, the realization that T’s bachelor party is in 2 weeks hit me. And it hit me hard. If you don’t know, he is going to Vegas with a group of his guy friends. And as the trip gets closer and closer, I am less than thrilled. All of the guys that are going on the trip are single. So they can do whatever the hell they want and don’t have to answer to anyone back home. I am friends with all of the guys going as well, and I know that they wouldn’t let anything bad happen, but still. T is a very attractive guy. I know this, he knows this,and other people know this.

I know that there will be gambling, drinking and partying. As well as strip clubs. Normally I don’t give 2 shits about T going to a strip club. Hell, I’ve gone with him before. It’s the fact that it’s his bachelor party that skeeves me out. I’m sure the stripper will give him something “special” since it’s his last crazy adventure before getting married. And that bugs me. I don’t want some nasty skank all over my fiance, rubbing her lady lumps all over him. I’m sure the guys will get him a lap dance or something, but I don’t want it to happen. Why can’t the single guys stuff dollar bills down g-strings and leave T out of it. Why can’t they just go to the beach like the girls? Why do boys always have to blow it out?

It’s not that I don’t trust T and our guy friends, I don’t trust other people, who may take things a little too far. Plus I don’t want him to spend tons of money less than a month before our wedding. Sigh…

Am I being completely irrational?  How would you feel if you were me?

With the wedding only 40 days away (where did the time go?!?!), all I can focus on is planning, planning and more planning.  Today I have tried to be focused on my work, which is what I am supposed to be doing when I’m at the office, but have been unsuccessful.

I’ve spent a big chunk of the day following up with my vendors to find out payment dates and set up additional meetings.  I booked the hotel for our wedding night (yay).  It is a one bedroom suite that comes with chocolate covered strawberries and champagne.  The price tag is a little steep, but what the hell.  You only get married once!  I wanted to have all of the bridesmaids stay at the same hotel the night before the wedding so we could all get our hair and make up done there before heading to the venue.  But it’s $359/night.  Yeah, I don’t want to pay that much for a room.  So I guess we’ll just stay in one of the hotels that the other guests are staying in.

I’m really struggling on what to do with my favors.  I keep waffling.  At first it was koozies, but now I’m thinking something edible will be liked more.  My first thought was to get chocolates from a local chocolatier and package them up in cute little boxes.  Sounds cute, but like it might be a lot of work.  Plus chocolate in August in Atlanta = sticky, melty mess.  Maybe candy would be a safer bet.  Does anyone know where I can get cute little boxes to put them in?

Another thought was little mints in a personalized tin or some kind of candy wrapped in personalized paper.  They’re fairly inexpensive.  And who doesn’t love free edibles?  I was also thinking we could create a CD of some of our favorite songs/music from the wedding that we could pass out.  All of the other things I’ve come across so far seem really cheesy and stupid.  No one is going to use the random trinkets with our wedding date on them.  They’ll just get chucked into a drawer somewhere, never to be seen again.   So answer me, which item would you prefer?

In guestbook news, I am seriously leaning towards doing a photo one.  When all the planning first got underway, my dad and I thought it’d be really neat to have all of the guests take pictures on a digital camera and print them out so we can have guests slide them into the book and sign.  This is way cooler than just a book of signatures.  The only problem would be finding someone to help wrangle the guests up for their photo op.  Maybe I can see if someone would want to serve as the photographer?

I’m also still trying to figure out what to do for a bridal luncheon/dinner.  I was leaning towards a dinner on the Thursday night before the wedding where we could all unwind before the wedding, and I could give my bridesmaids their gifts.  I just hope CoLo will be here by then (she’s in NYC).  The other option would be a brunch on Saturday.  But I wouldn’t want it to be too early since I am not a morning person, and I’m sure we’ll all be going out on Friday night to introduce the NY friends and family to the GA friends and family.  One more time, which would you like more.  A dinner or a brunch?

This weekend I am going to my salon for my trial hair and make up run.  This is going to be one hell of an appointment.  First I’m going for the regular color and trim, then the wedding trial and make up.  I’m going to be there forever!!  :)  I’m still not 100 percent sure what I want to do with it, but I have found some really pretty up dos that I like.  I’ll keep looking around to see what I can find in the half up/half down department.

In other exciting news, my bachelorette party is next weekend.  Me and a bunch of my girls are heading to Panama City Beach for some sun and fun.  We leave next Thursday, and I can’t wait.  I need some time off and a tan!

Thanks for all of your help!

Saturday afternoon I had my second bridal shower.  It was hosted by one of my mom’s close friends, in our old neighborhood.  It was really sweet for her to organize the whole thing for me.  It was great to get old neighborhood friends together with new ones and reminisce about the good old days.

My shower started at 2, but I ended up being 30 minutes late.  Yeah, I’m not very timely…ever.  I was having some major wardrobe malfunctions that started the downward spiral of delays.  I’d washed my dress Friday night, and let it air dry over night, then thrown it in the dryer in the morning.  Well, when I went to put it on, it was still damp.  So I threw it back into the dryer and finished getting ready.  About 20 minutes later, I put it on again.  That shit was still damp.  Then I spent another 5 minutes blowing drying the chest area.  Finally, I had to go so I put it on damp.  Stupid dress with the bunchy fabric that doesn’t dry.

After I picked up JD, we were going to get CMc, then hit the road.  Of course they were doing some crazy construction on the road that leads to the highway, so we got stuck there for about 15 minutes.  Then on the way to CMc’s, we hit every damn red light.  It blew.  Then of course my gas light came on, and we had to stop again.

We finally arrived at the shower destination, and hurried in.  I opened the front door and walked in.  I noticed that everyone was eating some snacks and chatting, and no one looked annoyed that the bride-to-be can not be on time.  I apologized as I walked in the door and stopped in my tracks.  Sitting in my family friend’s living room was T’s mom, all the way from NY!  I couldn’t believe it!  She’d booked a flight on Friday night to come down for the shower.  It was so sweet.  She’d gotten in early Saturday morning and hung out with my parents, then came to the shower.

Of course this meant that Saturday night plans changed, and I (and JD) stayed at my parents house to hang out with her.  The poor thing had barely slept the night before since her flight was super early on Saturday, but it was still cool to hang out for a bit.  Poor T was in crunch mode and couldn’t get away from studying to come and see her.  I know he’s really bummed about it, and she was too.  But she said the real reason she came was just to see me.  She’s so funny!  I’m just so glad that I get along with his parents, he gets along with mine, and both sets like each other.  It makes life so much easier and more enjoyable!

I watched a decent amount of movies this weekend just because.  Friday JD and I watched The Sweetest Thing.  Man, I forgot how funny that movie was! We were cracking up the entire time.  We also started Waiting, but I passed out about 20 minutes in because I’m just that cool.  Sunday it rained like a maniac so we watched 27 Dresses and Just Friends.  I love random lazy movie Sundays!

It’s dark.  My heart’s beating in my chest.  My nerves are on edge.  There’s a tightness in my throat, and my eyes are welling up.  All of a sudden I’m thrown into chaos.  My bridesmaids are rushing around me.  Everyone else slowly comes into focus.  Faces of my family and friends float around me.  It’s my wedding day.

I’m in a room.  It’s mine, but doesn’t look anything like it.  I can’t find my dress.  I feel the panic rising in my chest.  I’m frantic.  Searching, searching, searching.  Finally!   Tucked into the back corner of the closet.  A white garment bag with my dress in it.  Slowly I unzip the bag, filled with anticipation.  I pull the dress out and admire it for a moment and smile.

I walk into the kitchen to find my mother.  Dressed in a beautiful purple shirt.  She looks lovely.  Until she steps out from behind the center island.  She is wearing jeans shorts…for the wedding.  I am angry, frustrated.  Harsh words fly from my mouth like daggers.  She looks stunned.  I am pissed and storm out of the kitchen.

Once again I’m surrounded by my bridesmaids.  We are scattered around a room.  Girls are walking by with hair half done.  Partial curls frame faces.  Rollers create pinkish crowns above their heads.  “Where is my hair and make up team?”  I don’t see them anywhere.  From across the room, “They aren’t coming.  We told you to book earlier.”  I’m confused.  I see light coming from the closet and peer in.  Little S  is sitting on the floor getting her hair curled by CoLo.  JD is complaining that her hair isn’t holding curls.  I don’t see CMc and ASP  anywhere.

I walk onto a stair landing of a rustic looking building.  Nothing is ready for the ceremony or reception.  I start hammering pieces of wood that look like tree bark onto the railing to make it look nicer.  Then I realize that I am not ready.  My hair’s not done, I have no make up on, and I haven’t tried on my dress yet.  I rush into my room and slide the dress out of its bag.  I step into it and slide it up my body.  It looks beautiful, and I feel like a queen.  Someone zips it for me, and I turn and look into the mirror.  It’s too big!

I switch into panic mode, fighting back tears.  Can anyone pin it for me?  Is it too late for anyone to take it in a little?  My aunt steps up and says she can try, as long as she can find her sewing kit.  For a second I feel relief as I watch her turn…

Errrrr, errrrrr, errrrr, errrrr

I’m ripped from sleep by the sound of my alarm blaring in my ear.  I’m confused and realize that I am in bed, with T next to me, and that I should have gotten up 15 minutes earlier.  Damn snooze button that I don’t even realize that I’m hitting.  Damn wedding nightmares giving me a freaky start to my Friday.

Poor T is in super CPA hell at the moment. He’s taking part 3 of the test this Monday, followed by the last part on July 25. He has been super busy and studying so hard that he barely has time to do anything else but work and study. Poor guy.

Yesterday, he sends me a g-chat saying that he was bringing home some dessert that he picked up while he was a lunch. It was this HUGE slice (this seriously was no slice, it was like half a cake) of black and white cake. It was a 3-layer chocolate cake with whipped cream and chocolate mousse filling, wrapped with a semi-sweet chocolate shell. And oh my God, was it to die for. I was in chocolate heaven when I ate it last night. The “slice” is so big that I cut it in half heightwise, then again length wise. The box it was in probably weighed 5 pounds when it had the whole slice in it. Seriously. But it was so cute when he told me about it. He’d been thinking about me at lunch and knew that I would heart it, so he bought it for me. What a sweetheart!

When he got home last night, he walked in with the monster cake and some flowers. He bought me flowers just because. I know I’ve been doing a lot of the stuff around the house since he’s been studying, but it was really nice of him to do that for me to show his appreciation. It’s the little things that make me happy!

I made my yummy fish tacos last night, which T and Little S loved! Poor T had to lock himself upstairs in our guest bedroom (aka Little S’s room for now) to eat and study. But when he came down he complimented me on how great the tacos were, especially the seasoning I used on the fish. That also really made my night. It’s such a high when you cook something from scratch (I used a recipe to get the ingredients, but don’t follow it at all) and the people that you love really enjoy eating it.

What makes you really happy or makes your day?

The 3-day holiday weekend was amazing.  I think we need to petition, especially since gas prices have gotten so expensive, for a 4-day work week.  How awesome would that be?  I’m dreaming of all the wonderful things I could do with an extra day off…

My holiday weekend started on Thursday night with a trip to the Braves game.  We were playing the Phillies (CMc’s team), and of course we lost again.  I’ve been to 2 games against the Phillies this year, and we always suck it up.  Oh well, we still had fun.  Little S went again on the 4th, and they won.  Plus they had an amazing fireworks show after the game.  Just my luck!

On the actual 4th, T, JD, CMc, and I went to our friend Adam’s house.  His family always throws these awesome holiday parties where everyone eats and drinks way too much yummy stuff, but we all have a super time.  His parents are so cool and so much fun to hang out with.   They seriously bought 19 pounds of chicken (19!!!) and grilled it up.  And you know what?  It all got eaten.  Every last piece.  And they were worried they’d have chicken left over for weeks.

Saturday was pretty chill for the most part.  JD, T and I got some Mexican to help out our hangovers from the 4th of July party (it always does the trick!).  Afterwards we went back to the house and watched 40-Year Old Virgin.  Man, I forgot how funny that movie was.  At parts I was laughing so hard that I could barely breathe.  I thought I might die of laughter, literally because I couldn’t breathe.

While we were digging around our video cabinet, we came across some videos from a couple of high school parties we’d thrown.  They were from senior year, and we looked so young!  That was the phase of my life where I was blonde, super duper blonde.  And I was so skinny! And I hadn’t learned about the wonders of waxing my eyebrows (eek!).  And T had a little baby face.  Little S was at a couple of the parties, and she looked like a baby with her ponytail and braces.  It was too funny.  In one of the videos, I sound like such a New Yorker.  Which is hilarious to me since I only lived there for 2 years.  I guess I pick up accents easily.  Auwwesome!

Sunday, T and I slept in until 2 because it was so dark, gloomy and stormy outside.  I woke up a few times, and it felt like is was really early in the morning.  Plus it was thundering and lightning like crazy, which didn’t make us want to get up.  Once we finally got up, I decided to work on the invitations so I could get them out.  Especially because the torrential downpour kept me from the pool.  I worked on them for about 6 hours.  I seriously thought my hand was going to fall off by the time I stopped for the night!  I made it through about 65, and finished the rest up on Monday.  I mailed the last of them off today (I actually chased the mail truck through the office yard to give them to the mail lady - I’m sure I looked like an idiot).

Speaking of the invites, I had a little drama with them.  Thank God I trusted my gut instinct and weighed them before sending them out, even though we’d already stamped them.  They ended up fluctuating between 1 ounce ($.42) and 1.1 ounces ($.59).  Don’t ask me how.  After a discussion with the mail guy, we decided I should add the extra $.17 to them just to be safe.  So now they have cute little heart stamps and blue ram stamps on them.  That totally screams wedding!  :)  Not so much…

But seriously, who really pays attention to the stamps anyway?

In a few more hours I will be out of work for a glorious 3-day weekend (Happy birthday America), and let me tell you.  My productivity = practically non-existent.  I’ve spent all day reading blogs and barely doing anything.  After this post, I swear I will get something accomplished.

Since the 4th is tomorrow, it got me thinking about the different activities I used to take part in to celebrate our nation’s independence.  As a kid, my neighborhood would throw these massive pool parties where everyone would come to the pool, grill out and spend all day swimming.  Sometimes they would get a little rowdy with parents being in the sun all day drinking, dealing with crazy sunburned children who refused to leave the water.  We’d always float the watermelons in the water to keep them cooled off so they’d be refreshing when we sunk our little pearly whites into them.  My dad and some of the other neighborhood dads would join us kiddies in games of volleyball, pool baseball, or sharks and minnows.

I remember during one 4th of July party, I got into my first fist-fight.  With a boy.   I was like 8 or 9 years old.  A bunch of us had been playing on floats, stealing the water basketball away from the boys in a ghetto game of keep away.  Little S (who was about 5 or 6)  was hanging onto a float in the deep end, along with me and another girl, Megan.  Megan was a tomboy and was really rough, so she ended up turning our little game into a semi-brawl.  At one point she had the ball and decided it would be funny to slam it on a boy’s (Aaron) head when he came up out of the water.  After the ball bounced off of his head, it floated over near Little S, and she picked it up.  When Aaron came out of the water he was pissed and was looking around to see who had hit him.  That’s when he saw Little S with the ball.  Being a mature little kid, he shoved her off of the float into the deep water (it was only 5 feet deep but that’s scary for a 5-6 year old who can’t reach). Being the heroic sister I was, I scooped her out of the water and put her on the float.  Then went to beat some ass.  I was still on the float, so I was at the perfect level to do some damage to his boy bits.  And that’s what I did.  I kicked, scratched and wailed on him for trying to “kill” my little sister.  All was in my favor until he popped out of the water and landed a fist on my bottom lip, splitting it a little.  It didn’t hurt too bad, but I was shocked that he’d actually swung at me and connected.

Well, that’s when the shit hit the fan.  His dad, a former Marine, had seen him punch me, a girl.  And that was the end of that.  His dad dove into the pool and yanked him out of the water, grounding him on the spot for hitting a girl. That meant no fireworks that night and no more pool for the rest of the summer.  I felt bad for him, but not that bad.  He’d roughed up my sister and me, so it was only fair that he got punished. The entire time this was going down, Megan, who had started it all, had left the pool and was eating a snack on the edge.  Figures.

Another childhood memory involved my family and neighborhood friends going to watch fireworks at the Atlanta racetrack.  We would all grab blankets and snacks and camp out on the grassy areas outside of the speedway.  It was always a lot of fun because it would be so dark until the fireworks exploded, shooting rainbows into the sky.  This caused all of kids to squeal with delight.  I used to be so happy sitting there with my family and friends, watching the night sky transform into a colorful picture.  Then one year we went back, and there were no longer any fireworks there.  It was a sad realization for us all.

A more recent 4th experience was when I lived in my apartment in Buckhead (one of the former party areas in Atlanta).  I was on the top floor with sweet French-doors that opened onto a patio (you could maybe fit 4 people out there but it was still awesome).  We’d spent the afternoon at the pool and decided to go up to the parking garage to watch the fireworks.   We were high up enough so we would be able to see at least 4-5 different area shows.  I was super excited because I heart fireworks.   A bunch of us grabbed some blankets and parked ourselves on the concrete of the deck and waited for the light show to begin.  Unfortunately it started to thunderstorm and lightening, meaning we had to haul ass back to the apartment to avoid electrocution.  The fireworks were put on hold indefinitely until the weather cleared up.  It stormed for a while, so we just decided to watch the various big city shows on TV.  All of a sudden we realized they were showing Atlanta, so we high-tailed it up to the deck and were able to catch the end of some of the shows.  It was pretty cool.  Afterwards we gathered in my apartment to play some drinking games, when the power went out.  So we sat in the candle-lit living room, talking and listening to the craziness coming from the apartment below us. Eventually we ran out of beer and they out of cigarettes so we traded some ciggies for their beer.  Around 1:30 we called it a night, unfortunately for us we had to work the next day since it was Wednesday.  Oh, the good ole days!

Last year we went to Hilton Head for a week-long vacation with a bunch of friends, and we were supposed to go see the amazing firework show at the dock.  Of course since it was day 3 of our vacation, and we’d been eating poorly and drinking like fiends, my stomach was beyond jacked up.  All day at the beach, I’d felt like crap.  So I hadn’t drank anything and was super careful about what I ate, but it just wasn’t getting any better.  After the beach, we all got ready to go out for dinner, and I couldn’t leave the bathroom.  I was miserable.  In the end, T stayed in with me while I moaned and groaned about feeling bad, and he pouted about missing the fireworks.  I finally managed to feel a bit better, so we met up with the group at a bar.  They told us that the docks were so crowded you couldn’t really stand anywhere, and they’d gotten a table right as the show started, so most of them just stayed in the restaurant and didn’t even really watch.  I guess we didn’t miss too much after all.

Well, that’s all for me today.  Hope everyone enjoys their long weekend and has an amazing time.  Happy 4th of July!

Wow, in less than 2 months I will be a married woman. How bizarre! How exciting! Since time is flying by at warped speed (does anyone feel like it was just January, and all of a sudden it’s July?) I figured it was time to update all of my lovely readers on my wonderful wedding activities. I know you’re excited!

Things I need to get done, like NOW:

• Schedule a time to go in and have my dress altered/fitted. I need to have the bottom let out (just a little), the back tightened up, and some of the beading removed from the sides of the dress. Underneath my arm is sensitive and will get irritated by the beads. Can’t have that on my wedding day. I’m also a little hesitant to change too much in regards to the size of the dress in case I lose any weight. I wish I could have it altered a few weeks before the big day, instead of 7 weeks before.
• Send out the invitations. <—Bad I know. But everyone’s already gotten a Save the Date, so they know when the festivities are going down.
• Pick out my wedding day undergarments. I think I’ll definitely invest in some super cute and girly undies, but I may skip a bra. My dress has boning in it, so I can totally get away without a bra. Plus the back dips down a little and the bra may show.
• I need to decide on my something old, something new, something borrowed, something blue (maybe the undies?)
• I have no idea what kind of jewelery I want to wear on the big day. The top of my dress is very ornate, so I’m having a hard time deciding if I should skip a necklace or not. Also what type of jewelry: pearls, something diamondy, or something more plain? Here’s a picture of the top of the dress. Any input is greatly appreciated!

• Get with T and start deciding on the songs that we want to use for the ceremony, reception, etc.
• Plan out our ceremony so we can get programs made.
• Find somewhere to make the programs.
• Decide on a groom’s cake for T and where we should get it from.
• Meet with our florist to go to the flower market to pick out the types of flowers we want to use for the bouquets, centerpieces and boutonnières.
• Decide on signature drinks for our cocktail hour. We can bring our own liquor, so we thought it’d be fun to have 2 special drinks that represent T and me. Anyone have any cool ideas?
• Make final decisions on our rings and buy them. We also need to decide if we want to get anything engraved on them.
• Decide on the favors. Do we do a food item like yummy truffles? Or koozies?
• Pay for the rest of our honeymoon. It’s due on the 12th.
• Book our wedding night hotel.
• Book a hotel for the bridesmaids and me to stay in the night before the wedding.
• Decide on shoes for the bridesmaids. CMc found some at Target that she says are really comfortable and super cute. I like them a lot, I just want everyone to try them on and make sure they like them too.
• I think these shoes are cute too, and they have a lower heel.
• Decide how I want to wear my hair. At first I was all about the half up, half down look with some curls. But now I’m also considering pulling it all up. I’m so fickle sometimes.
• Decide on my make up. I meet with my salon team in 2 weeks to do the trial hair and make up run, so I guess I need to make a decision before then.
• Start getting ideas for my rehearsal dinner dress. Any suggestions for cute stores to try are appreciated too! I’m trying to branch out.
• Buy a new dress for my second shower next weekend.
• Get a marriage license.
• Find out everything that I need to do to change my name.

And, I think that’s all I can think of for now. I feel pretty laid back about this whole process. So far, I haven’t been really stressed and everything is going fairly smoothly (knock on wood). I don’t need the day to be perfect. To me it’s more important to be surrounded by our family and friends and share in the joy of T and I uniting as a family.

But who knows, once it gets a little closer, maybe I will freak out a little. But I will seriously try to keep Bridezilla in check!