My Manic 'To Do List' Update:
Travel - Flying on a nonstop flight is like winning the lottery. Of all the times I've flown with layovers..all the rushing and new gates, new seats, re-boarding, waiting.. I definitely didn't take our nonstop flight for granted. It was glorious. I know my poor hubby (and his busted toe) probably even appreciated it more than I did.
My Dress - Yet, once again, I witnessed a miracle. After all I put myself through, the dress was a success. I was able to pick up the dress 2 days earlier than Madam Germany estimated. The alterations were not cheap (same cost as the dress), but at that point I was safe and that's all that mattered. Oh, guess what? 2 days after the wedding, I received a voicemail from JCPenny. It said, "We have the dress you asked about.. We will ship it in 7-10 days, once you call and give your payment information". W H A T ?! No, JC! I'm not calling you. You suck. Forever and ever.
Injuries - Since the Broken Toe Incident, Justin and I have been to the doc four times. He was instructed to stay out of work for 2 weeks (which was convenient, since we were out of town), and had an appointment to be re-evaluated the day after we returned from MN. We arrived for our appointment on time (2:30pm) and The Wait began. I became buddies with this older lady who was also waiting in the waiting-room with her husband.. She told me that last time they had an appointment, it was over 3 hours until they actually saw anyone. Whaaat?! I thought 45 minutes was pretty ridiculous. I went up to the lady sitting behind the window and asked her how long the wait was - and that our appointment was scheduled for 45 minutes ago. She hummed for a minute before saying it would be atleast another hour. WHAT?! How can a doctor's office justify making patients wait that long? 30 minutes.. 45 minutes.. sucks. But hours?! No. I work in a clinic myself. I know clients/patients can easily get backed up, but you don't make them sit out in the waiting area for hours and hours without attempting to reschedule them. So unprofesh. I told the Window Lady that we will leave and return after 1 hour (since we only live 5 minutes away). There was no way I was sitting a whole extra hour in that uncomfortable stuffy waiting room. They said that would be fine, so we left. We called the clinic before returning, and they said "Come back! They are ready for you!" We made it back to the clinic, to sit there for literally another hour and a half. Are you flippin' kidding me, people?! I had so many clients to catch up with, and I'm sitting there boiling with frustration. Finally, we get sent back to a room where we waited another 45 minutes. At that point, we were about to lose it. I opened our door, in case they forgot about us, in which our doctor's snobby nurse came and shut. I opened it again and asked different nurse what was going on, that we couln't reschedule, and that we were getting upset. She was really understanding and seemed to want to make things move quicker for us. Finally our doctor came in, evaluated Justin and told him he needed to stay out of work another 2.5 weeks. All for that. We will NEVER go back to that place once this toe thing is over. The doctor was actually a pretty good guy, but the clinic was as great as stabbing myself in the eye with my mascara wand.
Wedding Prep - Of course, everything was finished and it turned out fabulous. The programs would've taken me days longer without the help of my friend's Erin & Tiffany.
The only other wedding programs I have ever made, were my own. As I said before, my sister and my "wedding themes" were practically opposite (I was beachy/casual, she was vintage/shabby chic). I had a lot of fun creating these.. Although, if I could do it again? I don't know if I would have chosen to make fans. I love the look of program fans, as well as the purpose they serve on a hot wedding day, but I'm not sure what I was thinking. The fan blades I designed were curved (instead of squared off), making the project 100x more time-consuming. 140 programs were more than enough for the ceremony, so 140 x 5 blades per program? You do the math. Each had to be carefully cut out and punched at the bottom. Vanessa gave me some great off-white paper to work with, but of course doing a 5-bladed fan, required 2 sheets of paper per person. Real smart, Alanna. Typically, I ran out of paper. When I went to get more, I found some in almost the same shade, but I failed to think my numbers through and still came up short. I headed back out to get the rest of what I needed on a Sunday (literally 20 sheets was all I needed), which resulted in the original store being closed and I was forced to go to Office Depot, only to find another off-white (a slightly different shade, of course) and only in a ream of 500 sheets. I was so sick of hunting for paper, so I grabbed it and laughed my way to the check-out line.
I printed everything on my home printer. I used a printer for my wedding invites and programs, but wanted to save time and convenience and print them from home. They turned out pretty good!
After days of cramped wrists, strained eyes and lots of patience, every fan blade was cut out. I immitated Vanessa's invite with the same lace (in brown, instead of cream) and used the same stamps and ink. Are you surprised that I ran out of lace too? I can thank my mom for running all over the Twin Cities to track some down after it conveniently went on clearance a few weeks after my sister bought it. SO typical.
I attached the blades at the bottom with the lace and a muted grey brad. The front blades were swiped with the ink pad, to give them more of a weathered/shabby chic feel.
She was pretty happy how they turned out.. Therefore, I'm happy too!
Speech - All I can say, is I'm glad it's over. I tried so hard not to even think about the speech until literally after the ceremony. Thinking about it was only making it worse. Maybe not thinking about it would mean I'd magically pull something from nowhere and wow-the-socks off everyone. I guess you could say, it didn't quite work. The reception began, and I began to get butterflies.. trying to psych myself out, that it "was no biggie". With minimal notice, I heard Jon's brother, Chris (best man), get on the mic and say we were going to do our speeches. I almost barfed. Nothing was coming to my mind. Blank. Panic. Panic. Uhhmm.. All that was jammed in my brain was a random convo my mom and I had a while ago, including lots of laughs with how much my sisters and I were total Barbie-aholics. While Chris was finishing up his speech, I bribed Lanae to let me go first so I could get it over with. Finally, microphone in my hand, guests quieting down from the last speech/toast, it was my turn. I have only spoken into a mic in front of a group of people a few times. I have spent years trying to erase each experience, because it's terrifying to me. Just hearing myself echoing with a 1-second lag, and all of the people staring at me, waiting for me to make sense and relying on me for some entertainment. Oh my gosh. My speech began. I guess it was a regular "blackout moment" for me.. One of the many times that I practically blank out and feel like I'm hovering above the situation, watching and waiting for me to make a fool of myself. I started off by saying who I was, and that I didn't have "much to say, but.." I told my sister how I was happy for her and proud of her. I then, moved into saying, "Growing up, my sisters and I had every Barbie in the world. We were totally obsessed.." Then, I told her, "I'm so happy you finally have your own lifesize Barbie..uhh..ehh..I mean Ken Doll...hehh.." If there was a miniature dark cave next to me at that moment, I would have crawled inside of it. BARBIES!? Everyone laughed for a good 30 seconds, which could be a good thing OR a bad thing. And thanks to my Mum, the whole thing was recorded on video. Either way.. My speech was about Barbies. Augh, thank goodness it's over!
Wedding trip blogpost to come..
xo
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