So after the excitement of the wedding fair, Nicol and I decided that we had to start looking for wedding dresses right away. Nicol called me on Monday and let me know that we should go to the Wedding Shoppe on Wednesday. Usually on Wednesdays, I go over to her house after work so we can watch the repeat of last week’s “Lost” episode (in an effort to try to understand what happened the previous week) and then watch the new episode at 8:00. This particular week there was only going to be one episode at 8:00, so since we had so much extra time, wedding dress shopping seemed like the perfect time killer! I called and made a six o’clock appointment at the Wedding Shoppe, which is conveniently located a couple blocks from Nicol’s apartment.
We were both a little nervous about the Wedding Shoppe because we thought that it might be a little hoity toity and snotty. Boy, were we wrong!!! A woman named Cathy helped us and we pretty much loved her from point one! She brought us upstairs and asked what kind of dress I was thinking as well as what my general style preference was. I told her that I wanted something that was classic, not really “weddingy” or princessy,” that I didn’t want it to be to poofy, and that it had to look good with the necklace that I had already had made for the wedding. She decided that the side of the shop that we were in was not going to do and brought us to the other side. She explained how the dresses were arranged and told Nicol and I to choose about five that we liked and to bring them into the dressing room. We looked through over 100 dresses, some of them pretty, some of them SICK!!! We found about five or six that I liked and wanted to try on. Cathy did the same thing and I think she came back with about three. We met in the dressing room and Cathy looked through the dresses that Nicol and I picked out and asked me to try on one of the dresses that she brought first. She has been doing this for 10 years, so I trusted the dresses that she chose more than the ones that we chose. The dress that she wanted me to try on first was pretty on the hanger, but it was not one of the dresses that I would have picked out myself. However, I put it on and it looked AMAZING!!! Nicol and I both kind of fell in love with it!
Cathy came in to the dressing room and pinned the straps that were way too big and told me to go out into the main room so that I could see how I looked in the big mirror. There was a mom and a mother-in-law sitting and waiting for their daughter to come out of the dressing room, and they told me that they thought the dress looked amazing. Cathy asked what my thoughts were on a veil. I told her that I wasn’t necessarily thinking I would wear a veil, especially on the top of my head and covering my face, but I was open to trying one on. She grabbed one and put it beneath my makeshift updo and I couldn’t believe how much it added to the dress…I looked like a bride! Nicol got a little teary!
We went back into the dressing room and Nicol snuck a couple pictures of me in the dress so that we could look at it later and analyze. I then proceeded to try on about 15 more dresses. Some were very pretty, some were not pretty at all. Right after Jason and I got engaged, I saw a particular dress in a magazine and fell in love with it right away. The Wedding Shoppe didn’t have the exact dress, but they had a similar style. I tried it on and it was SICK! It looked absolutely awful! I thought it was kind of funny that I had this picture in my mind for almost a year and it got wiped out in a mere second.
Ultimately, I found one other dress that I liked. I didn’t love it the way that I loved the first dress, but it is closer to the idea of what I thought I would really like. Nicol took pictures of that one too for later analysis. Because it was our first time looking, and the dress that I loved was the first dress I tried on, I feel like I am supposed to continue to look. Although now anytime I picture the wedding, I see that dress. I have even started to think about the décor of the reception in relation to the dress. I also feel like I need my mom to see the dress in person. Not really for approval because I know that she will like whatever I choose, but more for the fact that shopping for a wedding dress as mother and daughter is sort of one of those milestones that Hallmark makes cards for.
I have heard from many of my friends that they also ended up buying the first dress they tried on, so maybe I am just supposed stop thinking about it and just buy it. I think that while there is an extremely good chance that will be the ultimate outcome, chances are good that I will spend a good chunk of time agonizing over it!
Tuesday, March 24, 2009
Sunday, March 15, 2009
Don't Miss the Wedding Fair...
So my mom thought it would be fun for me, her, my sister, and my aunt to go to the Wedding Fair that is constantly advertised on TV. At first, I thought that it may not be that much fun considering that I am not that into cheesy wedding stuff...but I figured it could be a fun way to spend some time with my family and maybe get some ideas on things for the wedding. My sister was absolutely dreading going...not her idea of how she would want to spend her Sunday. But...we sucked it up and everyone met over at my house this morning.
Turns out...it was actually kind of fun! There were definitely some unnecessary aspects to it as we have already chosen our venue, caterer, band, jeweler, and photographer but there were plenty of other things to check out. We got some ideas for decorations/centerpieces for the reception, talked to some travel agents about honeymoons, saw some dresses in one of the fashion shows, and talked to some people at different bridal boutiques to get an idea of when I need to start looking at dresses (the answer was next weekend by the way...)
One of the things that Jason and I decided right away was that we wanted to have a photobooth at the reception. I did some research and there are lots of different types that are available to rent. The one that I like the most is the traditional old school photobooth where the pictures turn out like this:
While I think the pictures turn out the best with these, they are not the most practical because the pictures take FOREVER to print.
I found this other photobooth that the pictures turn out very similar, but they are digital so they come out a lot faster. The other cool thing is that it prints out two photostrips so one of them goes with the people who took the picture and the other one is placed in our guest book where you can write a personal message next to your picture. Cool, right?!?!? I have never understood the traditional guestbook where the guest writes down their name and address...you were invited to the wedding, we obviously already have your name and address!
So the photobooth that Jason and I ended up choosing is called the Traveling Photobooth. Here is what their photostrips look like:
When we had originally booked the photobooth for our wedding, we were told that we had to decide upfront if the photos would be back & white or color. However, at the Wedding Fair I found out that they just added a new feature that gives you a little bit more choice. So Jason and I will still have to decide up front if we want black & white or color, but the people taking the photo will get to decide which they want as well. So even if Jason and I decide we want black & white (you want it to be uniform in the guest book) you can still get yours in color. It will just print out like this:
I am super excited for the photobooth!!!
So anyway...the Wedding Fair actually turned out to be totally worth it (Nicol even had a good time!) and I am glad that we didn't "miss the wedding fair" (hopefully you have seen the commercial and know that I am making fun of their jingle, otherwise that is not funny at all!)
Turns out...it was actually kind of fun! There were definitely some unnecessary aspects to it as we have already chosen our venue, caterer, band, jeweler, and photographer but there were plenty of other things to check out. We got some ideas for decorations/centerpieces for the reception, talked to some travel agents about honeymoons, saw some dresses in one of the fashion shows, and talked to some people at different bridal boutiques to get an idea of when I need to start looking at dresses (the answer was next weekend by the way...)
One of the things that Jason and I decided right away was that we wanted to have a photobooth at the reception. I did some research and there are lots of different types that are available to rent. The one that I like the most is the traditional old school photobooth where the pictures turn out like this:
While I think the pictures turn out the best with these, they are not the most practical because the pictures take FOREVER to print.
I found this other photobooth that the pictures turn out very similar, but they are digital so they come out a lot faster. The other cool thing is that it prints out two photostrips so one of them goes with the people who took the picture and the other one is placed in our guest book where you can write a personal message next to your picture. Cool, right?!?!? I have never understood the traditional guestbook where the guest writes down their name and address...you were invited to the wedding, we obviously already have your name and address!
So the photobooth that Jason and I ended up choosing is called the Traveling Photobooth. Here is what their photostrips look like:
When we had originally booked the photobooth for our wedding, we were told that we had to decide upfront if the photos would be back & white or color. However, at the Wedding Fair I found out that they just added a new feature that gives you a little bit more choice. So Jason and I will still have to decide up front if we want black & white or color, but the people taking the photo will get to decide which they want as well. So even if Jason and I decide we want black & white (you want it to be uniform in the guest book) you can still get yours in color. It will just print out like this:
I am super excited for the photobooth!!!
So anyway...the Wedding Fair actually turned out to be totally worth it (Nicol even had a good time!) and I am glad that we didn't "miss the wedding fair" (hopefully you have seen the commercial and know that I am making fun of their jingle, otherwise that is not funny at all!)
Friday, March 6, 2009
"Fine, we can get married..." (part 2)
Previously on “Fine, we can get married…” Jason and Kellee found out that Kirsten and Mike were going to have a baby. This caused Kellee to subtly tell Jason that after being together for 6 years, she would maybe like to get married. The statement of what few would consider a proposal from Jason was found to be unacceptable to Kellee. Jason was left to come up with a way to ask Kellee to marry him nicely. Kellee made the mistake of suggesting an option to Jason and ultimately ruined the plan that Jason actually did have. When we last left off, the story was being shared with Jason and Kellee’s families who were shocked and amazed that Kellee would say no to Jason’s proposal, no matter how it came…
After explaining to our families that “Fine, we can get married” is not really my idea of a marriage proposal, Jason then asked me again if I would marry him. I know that you are probably thinking that this proposal may have been a good one being that both of our families were together and sometimes it is nice to have your family share in the big moments in your life. If this is what you are thinking, you would be wrong. There was not really anything nice or sweet about the proposal, Jason and I weren’t even sitting anywhere near each other. If you had not been listening closely, you may have thought that Jason was just asking me to pass the salt. I don’t think that I need to clarify, but just in case you haven’t been paying attention up until this point, I said no.
The following weekend, Jason and I were discussing how hilarious he thinks that his two proposals were. I explained to him that I don’t need for the proposal to be some elaborate production, I would just like for him to maybe say something nice to me like that he loves me or that he would like to spend his life with me or even just a simple will you marry me. Jason responded by saying, “I love you, I want to spend the rest of my life with you, will you marry me?” Oh, I forgot to say that he said it in a robot voice while moving his arms and head in a robot motion. Again, no.
I am not sure that I have always dreamed of what my engagement story would be, but I guess for me it always included some nice words being said and a ring. Maybe I am materialistic, but an engagement ring is something that I have always envisioned having on my left ring finger to be able to show people after announcing that we are now engaged. So in the time that Jason was inventing new, funny, and unacceptable proposals I was looking at jewelry websites trying to find the perfect ring. Yes, I would make sure that Jason knew I was doing this and no, I was not subtle about it. Toward the beginning of April some of my family decided to meet for dinner at Chili’s. At this dinner, Jason’s hilarious proposals were again discussed. Because Madison, Sydney, and Devin were with us, there were crayons at the table. As most of you know, Jason is an artist so it is not abnormal for him to start doodling at the dinner table if there is a pen, marker, or a crayon available to him. When I noticed him doodling at the table, I thought nothing of it. Then all of a sudden he was handing something to Sydney and whispering something in her ear. Sydney then came over, gave me what Jason had given her, and told me that Jason wanted me to have it.
Jason had drawn a diamond on one of those napkin holder piece of paper thingies they wrap around silverware. This one was actually kind of sweet, but it didn’t seem serious. There was never really any question asked, so I didn’t say no to this one. (Don’t worry though, this isn’t the end of the story yet…)
The memory of the timeline of when these “proposals” were happening is a little off, so I am not exactly sure how much time passed before the next proposal. As most of you know, Jason works for Target Corporation. What you may not know is that any time Target holds a large meeting, typically all of the employees are sent home with some sort of Target-branded SWAG. The next proposal involves said SWAG…I will let you guess at the end regarding what my answer to this proposal was! So Jason comes home from work one day and walks in with his hands behind his back. He says hello to me and starts professing his undying love and desire to spend the rest of his life with me. It was beautiful, and honestly exactly what I had been looking for in all of the previous proposals. After his very romantic and sweet profession of his love for me, he tells me that he has gotten me a symbol of his love, which I assume is what he is holding behind his back. Just before he hands over this “symbol of his love” he says, “Will you marry me?” Here is what he handed to me:
Thinking that the Target Dog proposal was hysterical, Jason was laughing uncontrollably. I just rolled my eyes and walked away…mainly because I didn’t want him to see how hard I was laughing at this one…it was actually pretty funny! Please feel free to guess at this point what my answer was.
This story has now brought us to the weekend of the 2008 Spring Art Crawl. I met up with Jason at the studio on Saturday night after spending the day with my sister and my mom. We hung out with some friends that evening and of course, the previously mentioned hilarious proposals were discussed. Somebody said that they couldn’t wait to hear the story of the proposal that sticks because it is bound to be really funny. As it turns out, the actual proposal was a perfect moment and not really all that funny.
On the morning of Sunday, April 27th we woke up, laid in bed and talked for hours. We talked about everything, Jason told me that he wants to make sure that he is always there for me and he told me that he always would be. We both talked about how happy we are to have each other and that we would not want to be anywhere else in the world than where we were at that exact moment. Jason then told me that because he had been so busy preparing for the Art Crawl, he hadn’t had time to get me a ring. He wanted to know if it was okay to ask me to marry him without a ring. I told him that of course it was okay. I was assuming that he was asking because our New York trip was coming up and although I had already “ruined it,” I thought he was still planning to propose while we were there. I was wrong, and he asked me to marry him at that moment while we were lying in bed. It was perfect!
After explaining to our families that “Fine, we can get married” is not really my idea of a marriage proposal, Jason then asked me again if I would marry him. I know that you are probably thinking that this proposal may have been a good one being that both of our families were together and sometimes it is nice to have your family share in the big moments in your life. If this is what you are thinking, you would be wrong. There was not really anything nice or sweet about the proposal, Jason and I weren’t even sitting anywhere near each other. If you had not been listening closely, you may have thought that Jason was just asking me to pass the salt. I don’t think that I need to clarify, but just in case you haven’t been paying attention up until this point, I said no.
The following weekend, Jason and I were discussing how hilarious he thinks that his two proposals were. I explained to him that I don’t need for the proposal to be some elaborate production, I would just like for him to maybe say something nice to me like that he loves me or that he would like to spend his life with me or even just a simple will you marry me. Jason responded by saying, “I love you, I want to spend the rest of my life with you, will you marry me?” Oh, I forgot to say that he said it in a robot voice while moving his arms and head in a robot motion. Again, no.
I am not sure that I have always dreamed of what my engagement story would be, but I guess for me it always included some nice words being said and a ring. Maybe I am materialistic, but an engagement ring is something that I have always envisioned having on my left ring finger to be able to show people after announcing that we are now engaged. So in the time that Jason was inventing new, funny, and unacceptable proposals I was looking at jewelry websites trying to find the perfect ring. Yes, I would make sure that Jason knew I was doing this and no, I was not subtle about it. Toward the beginning of April some of my family decided to meet for dinner at Chili’s. At this dinner, Jason’s hilarious proposals were again discussed. Because Madison, Sydney, and Devin were with us, there were crayons at the table. As most of you know, Jason is an artist so it is not abnormal for him to start doodling at the dinner table if there is a pen, marker, or a crayon available to him. When I noticed him doodling at the table, I thought nothing of it. Then all of a sudden he was handing something to Sydney and whispering something in her ear. Sydney then came over, gave me what Jason had given her, and told me that Jason wanted me to have it.
Jason had drawn a diamond on one of those napkin holder piece of paper thingies they wrap around silverware. This one was actually kind of sweet, but it didn’t seem serious. There was never really any question asked, so I didn’t say no to this one. (Don’t worry though, this isn’t the end of the story yet…)
The memory of the timeline of when these “proposals” were happening is a little off, so I am not exactly sure how much time passed before the next proposal. As most of you know, Jason works for Target Corporation. What you may not know is that any time Target holds a large meeting, typically all of the employees are sent home with some sort of Target-branded SWAG. The next proposal involves said SWAG…I will let you guess at the end regarding what my answer to this proposal was! So Jason comes home from work one day and walks in with his hands behind his back. He says hello to me and starts professing his undying love and desire to spend the rest of his life with me. It was beautiful, and honestly exactly what I had been looking for in all of the previous proposals. After his very romantic and sweet profession of his love for me, he tells me that he has gotten me a symbol of his love, which I assume is what he is holding behind his back. Just before he hands over this “symbol of his love” he says, “Will you marry me?” Here is what he handed to me:
Thinking that the Target Dog proposal was hysterical, Jason was laughing uncontrollably. I just rolled my eyes and walked away…mainly because I didn’t want him to see how hard I was laughing at this one…it was actually pretty funny! Please feel free to guess at this point what my answer was.
This story has now brought us to the weekend of the 2008 Spring Art Crawl. I met up with Jason at the studio on Saturday night after spending the day with my sister and my mom. We hung out with some friends that evening and of course, the previously mentioned hilarious proposals were discussed. Somebody said that they couldn’t wait to hear the story of the proposal that sticks because it is bound to be really funny. As it turns out, the actual proposal was a perfect moment and not really all that funny.
On the morning of Sunday, April 27th we woke up, laid in bed and talked for hours. We talked about everything, Jason told me that he wants to make sure that he is always there for me and he told me that he always would be. We both talked about how happy we are to have each other and that we would not want to be anywhere else in the world than where we were at that exact moment. Jason then told me that because he had been so busy preparing for the Art Crawl, he hadn’t had time to get me a ring. He wanted to know if it was okay to ask me to marry him without a ring. I told him that of course it was okay. I was assuming that he was asking because our New York trip was coming up and although I had already “ruined it,” I thought he was still planning to propose while we were there. I was wrong, and he asked me to marry him at that moment while we were lying in bed. It was perfect!
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