Bridal Dress Review

I like this picture because the skirt of my dress looks pretty.

Since I was talking about bridesmaids and dresses the other day, I thought I would review the place where I got my dress and bridesmaid dresses for my future bride frogs.

I was never one of those little girls that dreamed about her wedding. I didn't think marriage was in the cards for me until I met my hubby. Even after we had been dating for awhile I didn't know if he would ever propose. Took him 5 years! What dress I would wear or pick out for my bridesmaids was something I had not thought about.

The girl in the red satin dress was a bridesmaid. Didn't ask anyone if I could post their picture. Best pic of the dress. Most of the pictures they are holding their bouquets and you can't see the black band around the waist.

There have been other pictures on here of my dress if you want to see better pics. Anyways, on with the buying of the dresses experience:

When talk of marriage was going on my parents asked that we get married close to where they live. It is the best location for the majority of both families. I agreed but told my mom that she would need to help out a lot. I also chose my cousin that lives nearby my mom as my matron of honor so she could be there to help when needed. My mom and I emailed back and forth a lot about dresses for everyone in the bridal party. The bridesmaids that lived in the area and one that was visiting all went shopping one day and sent me pictures. WARNING TO ALL FUTURE BRIDES: the colors of bridesmaid dresses online are not the actual color. ANOTHER WARNING: Alfred Angelo never had the dress we liked in their store for my bridesmaids to try on. I didn't realize there was black tubing at the top of the dress. I ordered the wine colored straps for the dresses because they came with black and I thought it would look weird. It probably would have been fine with black. My mom and bridesmaids said they liked the color when they saw it in person. Then I saw the color in person and since everyone liked it I went with it and told three of my bridesmaids to order the dress in that color. It was a little more red than the dress we ended up with. I couldn't sleep all night because I didn't like the color. The next day I changed the color. Alfred Angelo where we ordered the dresses made me feel like a psycho for changing the color and told me they never change the color. Our opinion was that it was the day after the dresses were ordered, the dresses hadn't been made yet, don't make me feel like a bridezilla.

I always said I wouldn't get a wedding dress at Davids Bridal. Once I started looking I thought some of their dresses might be ok, so we went there first for the dress search. I swear this was not some sub conscious thing. I tried on probably 20 dresses and a few of them were ok, but none of them were the dress. All of them had something weird about them. Now I know lots of girls that have gotten perfectly fine dresses there. The girls (two because I was there for so long) that helped me were wonderful. I wish they hadn't sold my name and phone number to a bunch of companies that called me telling me I had won stuff.

The next day we went to Alfred Angelo. I probably tried on 10 dresses. This time they were all beautiful. I tried many different styles and the decision was difficult. My aunt and cousin and the women in the store liked one of the dresses but my mom cried when I tried on a different one. If you watch say yes to the dress (amazing show) you have seen girls who loved a dress but their mom didn't love it so they left with nothing. I wanted my mom to love my dress. So I put the one myself and everybody else liked on and my aunt started crying and then me and my cousin started crying and we knew it was the dress. It is the dress in all the pictures. I love my dress.

The dresses were affordable. Comment with your email if you want to know how affordable. The alterations were way over priced! I also had to pay $30 for the dress to be 3 inches longer because I am 5'10. I almost had another bridezilla moment over the alterations lady that messed stuff up. The straps I have on the dress were supposed to be removable. The bustle was supposed to be just one hook. I only paid for one hook but she put five. That was kind of lucky. Even though the bustle kept falling down every time I sat. All brides I have talked to had bustles that wouldn't stay unless they were sewn. If you decide to buy a dress at the Alfred Angleo in Roseville, CA I will give you the name of the lady that messed stuff up. She also pricked herself and got blood on my dress but she was able to get it out. The dress was pressed for free twice. It was so big it was hard to have in a closet without getting wrinkled. I wish the bodice had been smoother.

Hope all this helps!

Fear

This post is kind of inspired by the writers workshop prompts on Mama's Losin It http://www.mamakatslosinit.com/. Her prompts were inspired by a husband that lost his wife 27 hours after giving birth to their daughter and a woman who suffered a stroke and is now fighting to stay with her husband and family. I also follow a widow blogger at Keep Believing http://aboneill.blogspot.com/. I am terrified that something horrible like any of these stories could happen to my husband or I. As a child growing up I was never able to imagine myself grown up and I thought that meant I would die young. I don't know if it is normal for people to second guess their happiness like I do. Does anyone else worry their story won't get a happy ending?







It is a big scary world out there. I have friends who are dealing with their children having health issues. I have always thought about what I would do if we had trouble getting pregnant or keeping a pregnancy, but I have never thought about what if the child has health problems.







I have faith in God that keeps my anxiety about all of these things lower than it could be. So far he hasn't given me anything I couldn't handle and everything that was tough made me stronger. When you look at your blessings and the pretty easy road you have taken and compare it to others' tough roads, it is hard not to wonder when the other shoe will drop.





Working on some happier posts for the rest of this week.

Dresses!

Here is a picture of the dress we will actually be wearing to my friend's wedding in June. Its $40 at Target and going pretty quick, but I think it could be cute for a holiday dress.

I thought I would share a funny story from when we were shopping for bridesmaid dresses for my wedding. My mother-in-law and sister-in-law were in town for brother-in-law's baseball game. So we decided to go to the bridal store where I wanted to get their dresses to try some things on and look at colors. One of my bridesmaids that lives in town met us there.

After we were done in the store my bridesmaid was talking to my mil. I walked up and heard this conversation:

Bridesmaid: "Where do you live?"

Mil: "We live in (small town in Northern California)"

Bridesmaid: "So will you be driving or flying?"

Mil: "Did we drive or fly here?"

Bridesmaid: "No, for the wedding."

My mil held it together nicely and told her that they would be driving. After we got in the car I said, "So will you be driving or flying?" We all started cracking up. Our wedding was about a two hour drive from her house. There aren't even large airports in the town if she wanted to fly. She would have to drive to Sacramento and the plane wouldn't even go anywhere casue she would be there!

The worst part of the story is my bridesmaid grew up in Nor Cal with me. We still make fun of her for this comment, behind her back, because no one has the heart to explain to her how stupid her question was.

Pics from Hubby's Bday

His card and presents.

His favorite present.

His birthday meal. Fondue! I did most of it. He cut up the shrimp because I don't know how to do it. He also cut the bread.




We had a wonderful evening celebrating his birthday. He was able to make a wish when we went out to dinner with friends to Outback this weekend. I returned two of the presents because he is very particular about his boxers!

Sick!

*Picture represents how I feel. Not an actual pic of me although I love her butterfly top.

Well, Hubby got me sick! I thought I had gotten him sick cause I was feeling a little icky the week before he got sick, but judging by the trash can sitting next to my desk, I was wrong. It is full of kleenex! Thank God I brought a box from home. People I work with are thieves!

I realized last night when I was reading the medicine box and I had all the symptoms that I was SICK! But I am here at work because I tell myself that all I do is sit around at work anyways. Plus I didn't have a fever and I feel like I have to have a fever or have someone tell me to stay home before I will call in sick. So I am here spreading my germs around for all to enjoy. At least we know no fever means no swine flu!

I am drinking A LOT of liquids! I am prone to sinus infections and I REALLY don't want to get another one. Which means going to the bathroom at ton! Don't want to have to pay to get to the doctor and pay for antibiotics and take antibiotics! My mind is also totally foggy so sorry if I commented on your blog and it made zero sense. Or if this blog isn't making sense because I have had to edit it about 7 times! I'm sure once I feel better I will go through the files here at work and wonder what crackhead put 1978 before 1329.

I will try to upload my pics from Hubby's bday and do a post about it soon.

The Birthday of the Man of my Dreams

I know, I know! Go ahead and swoon ladies! Go ahead and tell me how lucky I am! Don't tell me his is hot though. I feel like that has a certain undertone I don't appreciate. I am the only one that gets to call him that.

Twenty-seven years ago on this day my soul mate was born.

I am so grateful to his parents for raising him to be the man that I fell in love with. The man that asked me to be his forever.

It is the first birthday as husband and wife and I am so excited to buy him a husband birthday card! My parents got him a son-in-law birthday card! It just cemented for me how much my parents love him. Hey, I may have friend problems but you haven't seen a bad thought about in laws! We are so lucky! I was just telling my cousin that my in laws invited my parents to thanksgiving even though we wouldn't be there. Can you believe that? Anyways, back to my hunky hubby!

I met him before his 21st birthday and we started dating a few months after. So I have celebrated 6 birthdays with him so far and am so excited to celebrate the rest with him!

Today we will go out to lunch and use his free lunch coupon. After work I will be making a salad, bread, and fondue! He will open his present that you all helped me pick out. This weekend we have plans to go out to dinner with friends. Oh update, they wouldn't give up on benihanas, we wouldn't give up on outback so we are going to outback without them!

I want to share a funny story from yesterday. I had lean cuisine macaroni and cheese for lunch. Barf! Didn't finish it cause of the weird after taste. I think I am giving up my microwave meals. Anyways, so still hungry I went to get chex mix from the vending machine. It totally didn't push the bag all the way out! So I asked hubby what to do, no help. Then I went back out and stuck my arm in the thing and pulled my chex mix out. I came back and instant messaged hubby. He said, "Good job babe. Way to be resourceful." I said, "I'm scrappy". He said, "That is why I love you." Aw he is so cute!!

Baby, I hope you have an amazing 27th birthday! Love you more and more every day! xoxo, Wifey

Combo

I was debating what to blog about and decided the topics are kind of related to hang on while I try to do a combination blog.

The first topic up for discussion is anonymousness. Several of my frogs have had their blogs read by people they didn't want to, or became so worried about it that they changed their blog to a more protected site.

I often consider who could possibly be reading my blog while I type away. There are a few things I would do differently if it was completely anonymous. And just in general there are a few things I would change about my blog if I could have a redo. Anyways, is it something you all think about? Have you found a blog someone you knew wrote in which you were discussed?

I think it is human to be annoyed with whatever someone is saying about you, unless it is all wonderful. I am pretty sure if they hubby ever got bored enough to read this he would not approve of a few of the posts that discussed him.

With all that in mind, I need to rant about some stuff. If you read this and find I am discussing you, call me if you want to discuss it, don't automatically get pissed off. This is coming from a place of frustration, when people are frustrated they say things a little meaner than normal.

As you know, the hubby's bday is tomorrow! Feeling guilty since no bday paraphernalia at all has been purchased. Target here I come!

We have good friends (they were in our wedding and saved our butts and the bunny when we had to be evacuated because of a fire) that live in the area and one of them has a birthday on Thursday. In the past we have thrown the boys a joint surprise birthday party and done dinners together. We have been planning on doing this again this year. But we have a dilemma. Hubby wants to go to outback. Its delicious, we have a coupon, and its affordable. Friend wants to go to benihanas. We have nine people coming. The tables don't fit nine. Anyone else agree with hubby that benihanas is double the price of outback? There has been an accusation that hubby picked red lobster last year. I don't think he was the one who picked it. He may have suggested we try it cause the commercials make it seem good. The friends who have been there before were totally down. We were disgusted and will never return. This is stupid! I'm sure you are all agreeing. I am just annoyed that there has been texting back and forth between friend's wife and I and its not our bdays! I want the boys to handle it!

I also had a terrible Thanksgiving. It was held at these friends' house. I have not discussed with them why it was terrible, so don't feel right discussing it on here. Also tired of being Debbie Downer. They don't even know I had a terrible day. Ok, sunshines and rainbos tomorrow as we celebrate the birthday of the love of my life!