The Blonde Diaries

Goodbye 77057!!

Moving weekend part 1 is finally here. Mike and I are packing his apartment up and the movers are coming tomorrow between 1pm and 3pm to move him into my apartment until our new apartment is ready November 7th. It will be a tight squeeze for two weeks but luckily it is third quarter reporting time for both of us so we won’t really be at the apartment too much in the next two weeks. We are both finally happy to say goodbye to zipcode 77057 as that is where Mike’s apartment resides. There is nothing wrong with that zipcode but it just means we are moving forward and will not have to make the 30 minute drive each weekend to check his mail. LOL.

OMG I bought “The” Dress

I still can’t believe it. I bought my wedding dress last night! It is finally starting to sink in that I am really getting married and having a wedding next year. For some reason, nothing was really feeling real in this whole process until I bought the dress. Even when I was trying them on two weeks ago, I felt like I was playing dress up and didn’t “belong” in the shop looking at dresses. It is so odd to me how the feeling just over came me all of the sudden and by doing something that was so anti climatic. I had this whole plan two weeks ago of narrowing down my selection to a top three dress list and then retrying everything on last night during their special and picking. Instead, my friend got stuck at work and I had my mind made up so I just drove to the shop and placed my order. No trying on. No hard decisions. But yet, it still hit me.

So hopefully I will not start stressing and nitpicking tiny details. I just need to stay upbeat and on the right road in my diet (I’m down another pound since Monday!). If anyone is interested I am going with Alfred Angelo’s #1609. (I don’t want to post for fear Mike should find my blog before the wedding). It is absolutely fabulous and will look so when it arrives in the white and gold combo!

We had our first marriage prep class tonight

Mike and I attended our first marriage prep class tonight at church. It was suppose to be an Introduction to Marriage (ie here are the rules for getting married here) but it turned quickly into marriage prep. Discussion started out really well - make sure you want to spend the next 50 years married to the person next to you because divorce is much easier and cheaper before the ceremony than after. Followed up with a disclosure that our leader had recommendations for marriage counselors in case any of us were unsure about our impending marriage and wanted to talk. Not exactly the way I wanted to start my Introduction to Marriage let me tell you.

Luckily, we quickly moved onto the rules and regulations. I have to admit I am a tad nervous about a few things. The most troublesome is that Mike and I both have to request baptismal certificates from the church we were baptized in no earlier than 6 months before the date of our ceremony and it must include other sacraments that we have received. Well that is nice when you do everything in one church but when you move around like Mike did or you get baptized in a church out of state that has since closed, it is a tad nerve wracking! Guess it is time to call my Grandma and get her involved in helping the two of us out.

To end things, we were given a 156 questionnaire to answer via scantron. Had we been interfaith, divorced, or co-habitating, it would have been much longer. We are to expect a call in the next week or two to make an appointment to discuss our results and if there were any red flags or major differences between Mike and I’s answers. Luckily I think we both agree that:

• We do not fear that the other one does watch too much tv
• We don’t have any homosexual feelings that may hinder our marriage
• Neither one of us have a drug, alcohol, or gambling addiction that might hinder our marriage
• We do not fear bodily harm from our future spouse
• We aren’t being forced into marriage
• and our families do not hate our choice in mates

It was hard not to laugh at some of the questions but I can see the seriousness and why they ask in case someone does need to disclose something.  It was just that the questionnaire covered so many broad topics and were worded in such a way that it was hard not to chuckle a bit.  Hopefully we passed and we won’t have to discuss anything too personal.

Now that I have all of the big checks, it’s time for the small details!

I developed my film yesterday from Saturday’s wedding dress shopping and I think I officially have picked a dress. I am really starting to like it so I hope when I try it on for the last time before buying it next week I feel the same way. It is very exciting to have such a big check off of my list and it is practically the last big check. Now I can start focusing on the small details to help make my wedding day perfect.

First small detail I want to start thinking about is my wedding day beauty primping. I have been reading magazines and message boards looking for tips, tricks, and advice and it can be very overwhelming. Luckily, I found the perfect blog to help me out: Wedding Beauty! How could I go wrong there? I have found many awesome tips covering a variety of topics that I was interested in but just didn’t know enough about such as do I need to get a facial (Yes! It relaxes your skin and helps achieve a glowing look), why would I want a facial (they exfoliate your skin and leaves you glowing), and when is the best time to have one before your big day (no later than 48 hours before the wedding).

Then there is the tricky part about tanning and waxing, if you aren’t careful you could be orange or break out! On the Bridal Beauty Tips page, there is an entire section dedicated to helping you avoid tanning blunders such as go to a professional for application and make sure to exfoliate before and after your tanning experience. I didn’t know about exfoliating after so that will be helpful. Cosmetic companies have also realized that tanning mistakes do happen and have created tanning correctors so I will be on the lookout for that since I didn’t know it existed either. With choosing a white dress and being very fair complected I think I will need to do a little tanning before the big day.

Now waxing is a tricky thing for me. I tend to break out after getting my eyebrows waxed and I really would like to avoid this for my wedding day. Luckily, the blog suggests doing all of your waxing about a week before the big day - eyes/face, legs, under arms, and bikini to help avoid breakouts and ingrown hairs. Actually, their preferred and recommended way for hair removal was by wax vs. shaving for those reasons. I get horrible ingrown hairs in a few of those areas so I think I might actually try putting down the razor and trying the waxing route. Of course, thanks to the warning I will try it all out a few months before the wedding not the week of the wedding.

If you are a confused bride like I am and are trying to decide what you need to do to look your best for your wedding day, I would recommend stopping by the Wedding Beauty blog. There are so many tips, tricks, and words of advice over there that will help you find the best ways to achieve the look you desire. I am so glad I found them!

Wedding Dress Shopping: Did I find “the one”??

Boy oh Boy! Wedding dress shopping was not what I was expecting it to be. My mother and I got a late start out of the apartment and were late meeting my Maid of Honor at Fadi’s which is a Mediterranean restaurant right near the bridal shop that both of us like. My mother had never been and likes having something to tell her friends back home about so I thought this would be a good restaurant to bring her to and would allow her to tell her friends something “different” she did while in Houston. Fadi’s was quick and yet again did not disappoint. But thanks to traffic and how busy the restaurant was we were 30 minutes late to the bridal shop across the street. Eek!

The consultant was really cool though and didn’t care at all and started working on my style number list as soon as I gave it to her. I went ahead and researched the type of dress I liked on their website and pulled about 12 different dresses out that I wanted to try on. She was able to find 10 in the store so off I went. I have to admit for some reason I felt nervous when trying on these dresses and almost like I didn’t belong in that shop nor trying on those dresses. It was totally weird because everything was fine. I guess I wasn’t feeling very grown up nor bridal. It was sort of odd you know?

I had a pretty hard time deciding on a dress. In fact I haven’t picked the final one nor have I really settled on one. I have a top 3 dresses that I liked but that feeling never came over me that one of these dresses was “The One” and I have to say I don’t think I’ll ever have that feeling whether I tried on 10 dresses or 1000 dresses. I just don’t think I have that personality in me. If you are waiting to read about a bride crying when she knows it is her dress unfortunately you will not find that here. lol! I am happy with the final three and will think about them for the next week and then retry them on and pick one.

The bridesmaids dresses were much easier to decide on. My MOH tried on five of them and we settled on a really pretty one that works well on any body style because she is a stick and I am very curvy and it worked on both of us. I actually liked it so much I am thinking about ordering it in black to be my new “little black dress” for special occasions. Which is a tip I’ll leave in closing: If you are looking for a cocktail dress don’t discount bridal shops and bridesmaids dresses. So many are perfect for any occasion and are at a reasonable price.