Words of Wisdom

And leave it to my friend Deb to put things in perspective for me.

"Now listen. You will go through many "moments" of being overwhelmed while you are planning your wedding. Print yourself up a card that says, "I am marrying Dave because I love him and I want to be his wife and everything will fall into place as it should because of that." And read it when you start feeling overwhelmed and things aren't going your way, or so you think. Forget fairy tales - they're only for books and movies. The big things have been handled - you love each other and want
to be married. The little things will all come into place. And if little things don't come into place - remember - they are just little
things. You will be married surrounded by people who you love and love you, you will be a beautiful bride and June 26th will be a wonderful day. That's all you really have to remember when you get right down to it.

'nuff said! Thanks Deb.

Face Day

I have scheduled a "Face Day" on March 25th at The Senator Inn & Spa here in Augusta. I'm going to get an Anti-Aging Facial then a makeover. AND, it just happens to be Dave's birthday that day, so maybe we'll go out since I'll look so good! Well...we'll see that part! LOL

With my $50 gift card in-hand, I'll get:

An Herbal Organic Anti-Aging Facial @ 1:00
To treat and nourish sun-damaged and mature skin with Jurlique's natural organic anti-oxidants; excellent for sensitive and allergic skin conditions. Your skin will see results from this therapeutic facial with special attention to the delicate eye area for wrinkles, fine lines, dark circles, pigmentation, puffiness and redness.

A Jane Iredale Makeover @ 2:15
Using the benefits and ease of mineral makeup using Jane Iredale, the skin care makeup.
50 Minutes, for $50, and go home with $50 in products used during your session.

The main reason I'm doing the makeover is because I've always wanted to learn how to do my makeup better and also use products better suited for my skin, especially as I'm aging. And since my wedding will be my most photographed moment of my life, I want to look as good as I can without getting facial surgery! So learning how to do my own makeup better and the right tools, will be very helpful and useful for the wedding.

Almost Four Months to Go!

This Friday it will be four months to the day that we'll be getting married. We have a LOT to do yet and I'm starting to feel disorganized and a little lost...and I do hate that. Having never done this before, I feel out of my element and confused. The things I DID have control over, are doing okay so far.

I'm glad we're having an informal, small wedding without the big frills, but at the same time, with staying at the chalet, having the wedding there, the reception there and three guests staying with us, I think I'm going to feel like I have to be in charge of everything and make sure everything runs smoothly and everyone is happy and taken care of...meaning we all have meals! LOL

The wedding invitations and everything that goes with them are now in the works. I just found this link that shows all of the "parts" that can be included with an invitation. Although I need to find out why saying "no gifts" on the invitation is such a no-no in this woman's book. http://www.mypersonalartist.com/wedding_stationery_pieces.html

Dave is ordering his kilt this week. We haven't pinned down the caterer yet and the florist hasn't gotten back to me. Part of the problem with that is that I hate the phone. Always have, always will. I prefer email. But I suppose I need to break down, suck it up and call. It doesn't help that I'm reading Nora Robert's latest edition to her 'Bridal Quartet' series about the bridal business and basically having a team of four people handling everything for the bride. LOL

Decisions on food, flowers, decor and finding an officiant are all major decisions that need to be made. I'm having that age-old struggle with keeping things simple, but still making them look elegant and classy. I don't want to go the redneck route. Cheap doesn't have to mean tacky...right? RIGHT?? LOL

And now I'm struggling with what to do with my hair and makeup. I want to do my own makeup, but I'm going to go to The Senator Inn & Spa for a makeover and GOOD makeup so I can do it right and have someone help me figure out what's the best color for my skin tone, hair color and time of the year I'm getting married. I don't want the photographer taking pictures of me putting on my makeup! YUCK! LOL Just the thought of having photos of me without makeup is keeping me up at night. And I'll no doubt be doing my own hair, so no need for something to do that for me, but if it doesn't go well....I'll become Bridezilla I'm sure.

I may,or may not wear a veil. I bought one when I bought the dress, but my hair is so fine, I'll have to do some major beehiving to get it to stay put.

In late June in western NY, there's always a chance it could be very warm...or very cool. If it's horribly hot and sunny, making everyone sit outside on the deck to eat their meal isn't very appealing. So many decisions...........

And I still have to buy shoes and a bra for my dress. I have time right? LOL RIGHT?

Purchased Wedding Dress!!

We went to David's Bridal in Portland today and I found the exact same dress in the store that I liked online, it fit perfectly and I brought it home! I was shocked. I'll need to take it back to get it "bustled" in the back and add a lavender ribbon in May, but other than that, it's good to go! They professionally press it after the alterations in May so all I need to do it hang it up and remember to bring it to NY with me in June!

Here is the description online of the dress: All over lace A-Line halter with beaded embroidery. Features empire waist and split front. Sweep train. It also got some very good reviews online from brides.

I wish my Mom could have been there with me, but it was ALMOST like she was there helping me because the sales woman was probably in her 70's. LOL She was very sweet and did a LOT of running around for me. I must have tried on about 8 dresses (maybe more?) and she kept running to get veils and other head pieces, ribbons, even jewelry. The actual dressing rooms were VERY tiny. She'd help me put on all my attire, then we'd leave the room and go out to stand on the "pedestal" to look at myself in all of the mirrors. The store is pretty huge and they had a lot of dresses, so I can see how a very picky bride could make their appointment run over trying on oodles of dresses.

I walked in, they needed some info from me, then they took me to get undergarments and shoes. I already had on my Spanx and pantyhose, but had brought my own shoes. I was happy to put on some pretty "loaners" from the store though. Then she brought me a bustier bra that fit ALMOST perfectly and a long Fit & Flare Slip that gave the dresses some "poof".

I love the first dress I tried on. I loved it. Thought it was very pretty, but wanted to try on others. Helen initially brought in 4 dresses. There was hardly room for ME and the dresses in the dressing room and with Helen helping me get in and out, it was quite an adventure. I actually hit my head on the wall at one point. My hair looked like crap after about the 2nd dress because they were all put on over the head. So much for my hair spray.

The next dresses were okay, but nothing hit me as "THE" one. I kept comparing them to the first one. I ALMOST bought one other dress. It was a beautiful dress and would have looked much better in a more formal setting like a church. Just too formal for the deck of a ski chalet. Then after I tried on all of the dresses she kept bring me, I said I needed to try on that first one again. THIS time, when I tried it one, I loved it even more, got a lump in my throat and saw a "medieval" look about it. I hadn't noticed that the first time I tried it on. I had told Helen that Dave would be wearing a kilt and it turned out she was Scottish as well. So, she was all over this one bringing me ribbons to add to the dress to match the colors in the tartan and our color scheme.

So....I left with the dress, the fit & flare slip AND the plain-jane veil. I'm still up-in-the-air about the veil, but this one could be adored with some small flowers and be very pretty because it's so simple and short. The dress itself has beautiful lace and beads on it with some sparkle, which you couldn't really tell from the photo online. A lot more bling that I would have expected to pick out for myself, but it really was beautiful AND it fit AND I thought I looked good in it. I couldn't NOT get it. It was in my price range so all is good.

Once I met back up with Dave, we put the dress in the car and went to have lunch. I was just in such a jolly mood. LOL Then we went to look at wedding bands at three different stores around Portland. It's so outrageous how much money simple bands with a minute part of a diamond are. We did find a couple of rings we're very interested in at Cross Jeweler's in Portland. The woman was great. She even took a photo of my ring with the one band I liked to keep for comparison. I thought that was a nice touch. Then she asked if we had parked on the street at a meter. We had. She left for a moment, then brought back a really neat "matchbook" of quarters and gave that to Dave and a small box of Godiva chocolates for me. Now THAT is customers service! LOL

So, that's a BIG check mark off my list of things to do. I was dreading the day and looking forward to it at the same time. I was really, really pleased with the selection and the service and how the dresses fit. I was afraid they'd have to make major alterations to anything I found. Thankfully not. I've had two glasses of wine and may have a partial 3rd to celebrate. LOL

Even though it would have been fun to have family and some girlfriends with me there, it was fun, even if I didn't have anyone to talk to when Helen ran around the store getting items for me. It gave ME time to ponder the dresses and find something I really like that I could afford. Now I need shoes and a better fitting bra.....and to not gain anymore weight!! LOL

Is it Fate?

Okay, this is VERY interesting. Dave has been working on the genealogy of his family for several months now, then he switched gears and has been working on my genealogy the last few days and he discovered something fascinating this morning. It appears a relative of his and a relative of mine, both came over on the SAME ship a couple of years after the Mayflower.

Dave discovered he's 13 generations removed from William Brewster who came over on the Mayflower. William's daughters, Fear and Patience came over on the ship "ANNE" from England in the summer of 1623. Also on the ship "ANNE" was Stephen Tracy, his wife Tryphosa and their daughter Sarah. Stephen Tracy is back 11 generations on our Ethridge side of my family. It goes to the maternal side of two generations, but HOW COOL IS THAT??

He actually found a lot of history off the Ethridge line as far back as the 1400's in Wales england. When Dave went to England and Scotland 20+ years ago, he had a kind of "out-of-body" experience in a castle in England. It was in ruins and he was standing quite high up on the ruins and looking down over the great hall. He said he actually kind of zoned out for almost 30 minutes and he could actually hear people rustling, eating and talking and the hustle and bustle that would have taken place in the great hall of a castle back in the day. He said the fireplace was the biggest he had ever seen.

In looking at our heritage, my family actually had a relative who was born in that exact same castle or that town!! Again....how cool is that!! LOL Maybe we were supposed to be together. Pretty neat.

A Taste of Maine?

I had thought about giving guests at our wedding something from Maine and discovered this company.

Blair House of Maine Shortbreads

A strong possibility to use at favors. And with a Scottish twist. We'll see.