the DRESS!

Remember the time I said I was getting married in Disney World?

Well, I found the perfect dress for a fairy tale wedding.



I feel like Cinderella in the dress. It sparkles, but not too much. It's poofy, but not too much. It's comfortable, not too heavy, not too hot ... it's perfect! It's hard to see in photos, but the skirt part has a bunch of crystals that sparkle every time I move. The veil I got has the same crystals and they go together so well.

My latest venture has been trying to convince John to book a Magic Kingdom photo shoot. It would be a couple days after our wedding and it would be very early in the morning (6am-ish!)because it has to be done before the park opens. BUT, it would mean we'd have wedding photos in front of the castle, on the teacup ride, on Cinderella's Carousel, Main St USA...aka totally awesome photos!. Go to Google and search "Magic Kingdom Bridal Portrait" - you will see how incredible the photos are.

I also found a potential bridesmaid dress!



I'm still debating colors...I love the pale yellow and I was thinking of blue hydrangea bouquets to incorporate my Swedish colors. One of my bridesmaids doesn't want a yellow dress so I'm having a hard time picking the color...I really want yellow but I don't want to deal with her complaining about it. I'm not sure if that style of dress goes well with my wedding dress, I keep thinking it is too informal.


Are those flowers gorgeous or what!?

and dance forever

I've been MIA lately.

I got sick of wordpress because I am not computer savvy and couldn't figure out how to make my blog look pretty. If it's not pretty, why bother posting, right? So, I decided to move. Again.

It took me a few days to make my new blog (really, I'm just moving BACK to my original blog - but I obviously had to pretty it up first). Then I got side tracked with the Surprise Party of 2010. Then John's dad got very sick. And life just sort of got a little crazy, so the blog had to wait.

But now! The party is over and I am anxious to start blogging about the wedding so the blog HAD to be finished. The laundry that has been piling up for two weeks? That could wait. So I finished everything this morning. Voila! Welcome to my new blog.

something new

Today was my appointment at The Wedding Dress. I was not looking forward to it - I have not lost a significant amount of weight yet and I had no idea what I was looking for! Thank goodness for fat-suckers...they make you look so skinny! Plus, I think many wedding dresses are very forgiving.

Things I learned:
-I do not like shiny material.
-I do not like a ton of lace or a ton of beading.
-I DO like some sparkle - see Dress #2 if you look through the dress pictures.
-There are a lot of styles I love - which makes it even harder to narrow down the list!
-A big, poofy, princess dress does look good on me!
-Having hips does not mean wedding dresses won't look good on me - even I was surprised at how nice I looked in some of them!
-I wanted to cry when I put on dress #3 - which my gut tells me is "the" dress.
-I am so lucky to have family and friends that can go with me on these appointments.

I put pictures of the dresses on photobucket - can't post them on Facebook or on here in case John peeks. If you want the link to see the pictures let me know and I'll send it to you - I definitely want feedback because I am having such a hard time deciding between all of them. We have an appointment to go back on April 10th and I think I'll try to hit up a couple more stores between now and then to see if I find anything else I like. I don't want to look back and regret not trying on more dresses, even though I really think dress #3 is the one for me.

When it rains...

...it certainly pours. Family drama is exhausting, especially when it is not your own. I hope this storm passes soon.

There was a fire at our sister complex today. 20 units burned. It really makes me want to move when our lease is up - preferably to a landlord apartment rather than a complex apartment. I love our apartment here but I hate relying on other people to not be stupid and cause fires. This is the third one for our complex in the last few years. We'll see where things are at the end of the summer...because the family drama also makes me want to move far, far away. I am really terrified of fires though. I was so scared that there would be one while we were in Florida last month that I cried when I had to leave my kitties. I don't care about material posessions but the thought of a fire happening when I'm not home to save my babies is enough to send me into a major anxiety attack that comes complete with tears and heavy breathing. That just makes me a devoted and loving cat-mom, right? My brother thinks it makes me crazy.

The weekend is almost here and I am so glad...it is incredibly slow at work right now and the day just draaaaags. I will probably have to take some time off next week because John's grandma died and the wake is Monday and the funeral is Tuesday. I feel incredibly guilty for being excited about getting an afternoon off considering the circumstances but like I said...family drama. There haven't been any tears shed in our house over this. John has (or had, I guess) no emotional attachments to his grandmother and is not broken up over this in the least. But apparently having that sort of reaction when your grandmother dies brings lots of "how could you not feel sad?!" types of questions.

You know what I say? Better to be honest and feel what you really feel than to fake feeling sad to please someone else. Honesty is the best policy, right?

dreams do come true

Disney's Wedding Pavilion

Remember the time I said I was getting married in Disney World?

I am so excited about it. We won't officially know the date until September because Disney has difficult policies. We can't book our ceremony until 12 months out and we can't book the reception until 8 months out. Since we know where we want to have the ceremony and the reception, and we are (I am) very adamant that both of them get booked, we are going to be flexible with our date. So, I'll still book our ceremony at 12 months and cross my fingers that the reception venue will still be available at 8 months. We're hoping to get May 24, 2011 as our date. At the very earliest, I could officially have my date on September 25 of this year and THEN all the real planning can begin.

We want to have the ceremony at the Wedding Pavilion, which is right in between the Grand Floridian Resort & Spa and the Polynesian Resort. We're hoping for a 12:00 or 2:00 ceremony. The reception would follow at the Whitehall Room at the Grand Floridian. It's an adorable octagon room that opens into a gorgeous outdoor patio. The patio would be exclusively ours for the day, which will be perfect for John's nephews to run around in. The reception would start at either 2:00 or 4:00, depending on our ceremony time, but a pre-reception would go on directly after the ceremony while we are having pictures taken.

Following the reception we are going to have a private dessert party on Sago Cay, an area of the resort that is right on the lagoon, to watch the Wishes fireworks show at the Magic Kingdom. (The Grand Floridian Resort is right on the lagoon that overlooks the Magic Kingdom). They will rope off the area so that only our wedding guests attend, and they'll have dessert tables set up for guests to choose from. The soundtrack to Wishes will also be piped in to Sago Cay.

Aside from that, there's really not much to report. I will get my wedding planning kit once we book the date and send in our deposit. Next weekend we are going to try on wedding dresses...so that will be fun! I'm not sure what I'm even looking for. We are doing a fairly casual beach theme, and John and the guys will wear Khacki's with nice (read: non flashy) Hawaiian shirts and sandals. I am almost positive the girls will be wearing tea-length pale yellow dresses, just not sure of the style yet. So, I can't go too crazy with my dress - which is fine because I do not like super elaborate dresses anyway.

Oh, and I think I want calla lilies for my bouquet. Other than that, I'm still looking at things. I have a while before the big day, and it's hard to plan anything without having a date! Send me suggestions! (Especially for dresses!)

wishing for warmer days...

I am officially sick and tired of winter.

The below-freezing temperatures and constant gray skies are incredibly depressing. I get home from work, make dinner, clean up dinner, look out the window at the dark, cold skies and completely lose any gym-motivation that I mustered up during the day. Bundle up to walk the 50 yards to get to the gym - or - curl up in my fuzzy pink robe on the couch for American Idol? Do you see how this could impede on my efforts to get to the gym?

I so miss the long endless days of summer when the sun doesn't go down until 9:00pm, when it's so warm that I look for reasons to get out of the house. Winter zaps all of my energy and motivation - all that is appealing right now is wrapping myself up in my old quilt and cuddling on the couch with the boys.

Tomorrow is the first day of February, which technically means there are only about 7 weeks left of winter. In these parts, though, it stays cold until the end of April. We will be lucky to have temperatures in the 50s during April, but I will take that over the 13 degrees that we have right now. Hopefully, if there is a weather-god out there, we will not have any snow after March 1st.

Seriously...I am going to make a concrete effort to drag my cold butt to the gym three times this week. And do my pilates dvd three times too. I've lost 3.5 lbs in two weeks so I am off to a good start!

feel the burn!

Last night I did 30 mintues of Pilates for the first time in... oh, a year.

Tonight I went to the gym for the first time in over six months.

I have learned that it is a lot easier to do pilates when my butt is not screaming in pain. The difference my surgery has made is incredible! Even though the recovery was excruciatingly painful, I am really glad I did it. It is even easier to work out on the treadmill and elliptical now. I must admit, I am very out of shape - I guess being nearly 100% sedentary for five months will do that to you. It felt so good to get my heart rate pumping, and although my legs were screaming at my by the end of my 35 minutes, I enjoyed moving again.

It's so nice not having to pay for a gym membership. Our apartment complex has a small gym (3 treadmills, 3 ellipticals, 1 stationary bike, a couple weight machines) but it's got everything I would use at a real gym anyway. My goal is to do some cardio at the gym 3x a week, pilates 3x a week, and a long walk on the weekends. My job is so sedentary - the most activity I get is getting up from my desk and walking 10 feet to the copier and back. I really need to make time for exercise - I always feel better when I do.

Off to snuggle with my boys before bed...Marley is still getting over his scary visit to the vet to lose his manhood. He adores Milo, he follows him around everywhere and loves to snuggle up with him when they nap. My little man is growing up so fast!

 

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