The Real World

I can't believe the wedding is over. In the past. No longer looming in front of me, x days away. In fact, it was 12 days ago. How did that happen?? I'm back at work now, and want to write up some updates on how things went. So that's in the works.

In the meantime, here are some of the amazing portraits Mary Beth took of me during the week before the wedding. We took these on July 4, at the spot where Mark proposed in McKinney. I had had a pretty rough morning, as my mom was in her The-Wedding-Is-One-Week-Away-So-Let's-Freak-Out mode, but we sucked it up, put on some make-up and went trekking around the golf course and surrounding areas. I think the came out perfectly.

Bridal Boot Camp - The Results!

Cue the dramatic music.

Last weekend I went to my last class of boot camp for our final workout and.... the results. Yikes.

We started the (freezing) Saturday morning with six laps around the track. In forty-five degree weather. I live in Texas. I am a wimp in the cold. Then we ran suicides down the football field. Did more pushups than I could remember. And several other painful things. But I stuck it out. Finally, the hour ended and we gathered round to get our results.

I was nervous, for sure. I knew I didn't eat well for most of the five weeks, and I was afraid that was going to completely negate all the working out and physical activity I was doing in the class. When my name was called, I went to get my slip of paper with my before and after stats and debated waiting until I was in the car to check them. But everyone else was comparing their results, so I bit the bullet and took a peek.

I lost.... 1.3 pounds!! Woo! I'll take it. Better than nothing. MUCH better than gaining. I also lost a total of 3.5 inches total (from waist and hips) and gained a half inch in my biceps (which I am preeeetty sure is due to the fact that I was wearing a fleece pullover on the day they took the last measurements, but shh, don't tell). I also lost just over .5% body fat, so again, much better than nothing.

I left the class feeling very motivated. Hey, I can do this stuff! And just imagine how much better it could have turned out if I actually hadn't eaten Thanksgiving dinner four times?! So I'm ready to sign up again for the class in January, only this time - with the wedding looming only six months ahead - I am going to stick to it FOR REAL.

You've got my word. Wedding dress, here I come!!

Find the perfect dress? Oh yeah, we did it!

This past Saturday, I gathered my posse and set out on a mission: buy a dress. No matter what, I was coming home with a dress ordered! I'd looked high and low and probably tried on fifty dresses already.. I knew what I wanted, I knew what my budget was, and we were going to find us a winner! It was game time.

I'm happy to report we was successful - THE dress has been ordered!

My mom, my little sister/MOH, my aunt and Mark's mom met at my apartment bright and early Saturday morning. I had warned them before: Go to bed early on Friday! Eat a big breakfast! Pack snacks! Bring drinks! We had three back-to-back appointments scheduled and there was no time for breaks. I meant business.

I'm thrilled with the dress I got, excited to have spent the day with these four awesome ladies and so very relieved to check this (rather large) wedding task off the list!


My aunt, me and my mom outside the shop where we found out winner!


Me and FMIL, with the official dress receipt!

My Best Girls

I like to think of myself as a somewhat professional bridesmaid.



No, I don’t have 27 dresses stashed away, but I’ve been in four weddings so far, will be in two more before my own, and I do have a dedicated corner in the back of my closet just for bridesmaid dresses. I know that being a bridesmaid can be tough work. Planning theme showers and bachelorette weekends within groups of other girls usually involves some drama. Attending numerous parties and purchasing the various wardrobes required for b-maids is often financially straining. Getting up-do’s, traveling out of town, paying for hotel rooms, purchasing silver shoes, gold shoes, brown shoes, white shoes, getting lingerie for the bride, pots and pans for the couple, a round of drinks at a party - weddings have pretty much been a line item in my personal budget for the past five years, long before I ever got engaged!

Bridesmaid Hall of Fame, Starring Yours Truly:




On the flip side, I know how fantastic it is to be so closely involved in the weddings of your closest friends and family members. It’s so exciting to shop for wedding dresses with your best friends. I love being included in every shower, party or event honoring the couple leading up to their marriage. Some of my best weekends ever were at my girlfriends’ bachelorette parties in New York City, Dallas, Vegas, Austin and holed up in a cozy lakehouse. And don’t even get me started on how much fun the rehearsal dinners are, with their Ode to Couple slideshows and hours of open mic time! Plus, no matter how costly the dresses, shoes and accessories add up to be, there’s nothing better than being with your BFF on the morning of her wedding, sipping champagne while everyone gets their hair and makeup done together, anxiously awaiting the time to put on the dresses and head to the church.

Ever since I started to know that Mark was The One, I’ve been mentally constructing my own wedding party list. There have been days in the past couple years where I pulled out the post-it notes at work and started listing out the names of all my best girls, trying to figure out who I would include. The problem? I have waaay too many friends. Best friends. LLYAS friends (that’s Love Ya Like A Sister, for all those who didn’t speak in AIM code all through high school). I usually just pushed the list back into my mind thinking “I’ll figure that out when the time comes.” Well, fast forward to May and the time was here.

My initial thought was to narrow it down to six ‘maids. That would include my two sisters, two friends from high school, and two girls from college. Seemed simple enough and certainly nice and fair, right? But it wasn’t. I don’t have two BEST friends from high school or college, I have tons. And how could I take my circle of BFF’s and cut out 3-4 of them, when we all love each other and share in our lives together equally? I agonized about this for the first several weeks of our engagement, truly not knowing that to do. I considered doing only high school friends or only college friends, but that would eliminate a big chunk of my very best friends, and I couldn’t imagine my wedding without them there by my side, as I had been for some many of their big days.

So I did the only thing that made sense. I included them all! All twelve of them. My two beautiful sisters, my five high school girls who have stuck by me for the past 12+ years (through countless loser boyfriends and bad hairdo’s), and my five college besties, who’ve been by my side through frat parties, football games and countless late night Taco C runs. Sure, I get some odd looks when people ask how many bridesmaids I’m having, but I wouldn’t have it any other way. And really, is it ever a problem to have too many best friends?

Always There When You Don't Need It, Never Around When You Do

Ladies, I know you know all about this phenomenon/curse. It applies to all kinds of things - shoes, jewelry, books, jeans, bras, anything. For me, it is always the same thing. Dresses. If I am just strolling around the mall, perhaps looking for a gift or a new strapless bra or even tagging along with Mark while he shops for new work shirts, I will without a doubt find tons of cute dresses - sundresses, cocktail dresses, maxi dresses, formal dresses - and they will most likely be on sale for a decent price. Whenever I don't need them, have zero events planned that require a new dress or just plain can't justify spending the money, I am surrounded by many adorable little dresses. I'm not even seeking them out, I just find them. Sometimes I even try them on and ponder wistfully if I should buy them. There's always going to be something that comes up that needs a new dress, right? But, more often than not, if I don't have a reason or event or purpose for the dress, I just leave it and mentally remind myself to check that store the next time I need a new cute dress.

Well those days inevitably always come up, usually a lot quicker than you think they will. Weddings are the obvious events. I can always wear a dress in my closet to the many, many weddings I attend each year, but it's fun to get a new one every once in a while. Whenever I'm a bridesmaid (4 times so far, with 2 more on the calendar), I love to get a new dress for the rehearsal dinner, since it's my one chance during the weekend to wear my own sassy little number. Weddings are great excuses to buy yourself something new. So now that I'm the bride, I'm practically giddy with the idea of all the little splurges I get to make on myself this year.

Next month, my aunt and uncle are hosting an Engagement Party for Mark and me. We've invited everyone in our wedding party, as well as our closest friends and family. For the past couple weeks, once the invitations went out, I've been looking forward to shopping for a new dress to wear to the party. I've even been delaying it to an extent, because I didn't want to buy something too far before the party and then have the novelty of the new dress wear off before my big debut as the Bride to Be. But this past weekend, I could wait no longer. On the way home from the bridal show on Sunday, I stopped at the Galleria to hit up all my favorite spots: Nordstrom, JCrew, Zara, Banana, Macy's and any other stores that drew my attention. Well, I spent over two hours at the mall, going to EVERY SINGLE STORE and could find nothing. It's that weird time of year where, even though it's the middle of July and 105 degrees outside, all the stores are bringing in their fall sweaters. All the cute summer dresses were put on the clearance racks weeks ago with only slim pickings left. I grew more and more distraught as I left store after store without even a remote possibility of a winner.

That night I started to panic. What if there aren't any summer dresses out there anymore? I could wear one that's in my closet already, but that's no fun. And as the guest of honor (well, co-guest of honor) I wanted something really special. The party is a casual, backyard BBQ kind-of event (although we're serving Mexican and not BBQ) and we aren't expecting people to dress up (plus it will be August in Texas, still super hot!). I wanted a cute sundress or something short and summer-y. What if I couldn't find one?! I plotted to hit up all the little boutiques in town after work each afternoon, determined to leave no stone unturned.

Well fear not my friends. I did not only find the perfect dress, I found THREE perfect dresses. And I bought all three of them. Stay tuned.