They're Heeeeere

Look - Bon Jovi's tour bus is at our house....errr actually it's my in-laws to-be. But everyone in the neighborhood thought "Renegade 1" was something famous. And we think so too. Packed up in the trailer were all of my boxes and my car which were all safely delivered as promised. And right on time. We had a great weekend riding motorcycles, smoking chickens and laughing about almost everything inbetween. I'm so luck to be joining the Andreotta clan. They are really good people.

Moving Day

I am anxiously awaiting the arrival of Will's parents who have driven across the country in their RV with all of my belongings in the back of the trailer. Will is still at work so his parents and I will start unloading everything as soon as they get here. They are my personal moving company. What a dream come true. In preparation for their stay with us, we had to get the guest room in order. The Italian bed fit perfectly but we had to go on the hunt for nightstands, new bedding and a theme. We settled on solid colors and a sports theme...currently exemplified only by Will's golf ball collection. More to come, but in the mean time we hope it will be acceptable to our first guests!

The Handy Man hard at work

Ta-da! Job well done

Ready for our guests to arrive!

It seems I have a pre-programmed time limit for living in the same place. No more than four years. Four years in college, three years in Denver, four years in Charlottesville and now off to Phoenix for no more than three years. Becoming a military wife with frequent hops to new cities should fit me pretty well.

This is my last week in Charlottesville. Although I'm pretty sure I won't miss being woken up at 2am every night or sharing my home with 24 roommates as a sorority house mom, there are things that I will think of fondly when remembering this place like:

Catered meals
Not paying rent
Arch's frozen yogurt
Always knowing what's in style because all the girls are wearing it
Walking to work

These last few days in this bustling city of undergrads will be nostalgic. Everything will be the "last." I just made my last drive down route 29. Today will be my last GNO with Sarah and Courtney (Girls night out, not get naked outside like Mike says), it's my last day on call at UVA (and I got called in), I'll get my last pedicure with Suzi at CK nails this week and take care of my last labor patient on Friday. You've been good to me Cville. Maybe we'll see you at someone's graduation some day, because God knows we are not coming down for Foxfields!

The All Important Photographer

Forget the iphone, wedding photography is single handedly taking over the universe. Everyone with a digital camera who knows where to find the zoom button thinks they can photograph your wedding. The thing is, anyone with a shutter button could probably do a decent job but they all think they can charge you more than college tuition to capture the big day. I know pictures will be a part of our wedding day that will last forever but several thousand dollars for a few hours work? Homie don't play that game (I can hear Frank from Father of the Bride saying "welcome to the nineties Mr. Banks). I'm frugal. Sometimes even downright cheap. But when there are thousands of "professional wedding photographers" on craigslist, I'll take the chipper chicken. When the search for a wedding photographer began, I came across a friend's engagement photos on a public website. I thought if she liked this girl, I'll give her a shot. Big mistake. I called said photographer and was immediately bombarded with what I thought were irrelevant questions. One after the next without coming up for air. I've never endured water torture but I imagine it is something like this.

Photographer: What's the most important thing about your wedding day?

Me: That the groom and I show up at the same place, at the same time and end up married.

Photographer: Oh. Well what's the most important thing about your photographer?

Me. That they show up at the right place, at the right time and don't cut anyone's head off in the pictures.

Photographer: Oh. Have you ever been in weddings before?

Me: Yes.

Photographer: And what did you like or not about the way they did their pictures?

Me: I don't really remember.

Photographer. Oh. Well let me tell you about why I'm the best photographer to shoot your wedding. I think a wedding is all about telling a story and not just taking pictures. Instead of posing for a shot, I would have you stand on some stairs and have Will stand a few feet away and have you walk towards each other and then when you get to each other you kiss and he dips you. Do you see how photographing that story is so much better than just taking pictures. Squeak. I'm the best! Oh and you can expect to pay $3,000-$4,000 for a really good story. More if you want photo books for your parents...which are essential to living happily ever after. Squeak. So, where would you like to meet in person so that I can physically coerce you into signing a contract?

I should have hung up right then and there, but I felt compelled to schedule a meeting with her. Maybe I'm really a good Catholic after all and have instinctual guilt. But it was a short lived appointment. I finally called her back and told her that her prices were really far beyond my budget and I didn't want to waste her time, or mine. After a five minute lecture on the importance of story telling, she let me hang up.

And so the search continued. I ended up meeting these amazingly talented people who do photography and videography from Va Beach. They travel for free and charge a fraction of the price of Washington D.C. area wedding vendors. They are providing two photographers for twice the amount of time as that pushy woman for far less money and hassle. Check one more thing off the list.

Registration

Wouldn't it be amazing if weddings were like college orientation weekend where you step up to the registration table, sign in, receive your room key and you're done? Maybe play a few "get to know you games" like trainwreck or never have I ever or Quarters with unfamiliar relatives? Our next wedding might just be a bonfire on the beach. But in the mean time, we submit to the wedding gods, er, moms and plan the most fabulous affair they can imagine.

There is one part Will and I have total control over though...Registration. I mean, the registries. Whatever. You know, you get the scanner gun and go traipsing through the store aiming at everything your little heart has ever desired. Real, non-generic zip lock bags - scan. Charmin toilet paper - scan. Yankee candle - scan. Will finally reigned me in when I hit the cleaning aisle and went straight for the swiffer. "Hon, I was thinking we should register for things that we wouldn't normally buy for ourselves and I fully intend on buying a swiffer before the wedding in October." So I gave him complete control over the scanner. It worked out much better that way.

Will strategically mapped out our path through each store so we wouldn't miss an aisle and I just pointed at things I thought maybe we could use over the next, you know, lifetime. Somehow we still ended up with a few questionable items. Like the grill press. Will was mesmerized by this grill press at Williams-Sonoma. I asked what it was for and he said, "you put it on your steak while it's on the grill so it holds it down." My mistake, I thought that's what gravity was for, but I must have misunderstood. Whatever, it's for the grill, which I am completely aware is none of my business. On with the grill press. Plus Will says our registries are like a dream wish list so why hold back? Kinda makes me wish I put that swiffer on there....

Engagement Pictures Updated!

Starting to Laugh About It

Wedding planning is starting to become funny -  now that I look back on it. It's definitely filled with all the stress that everyone talks about and for a girl who hasn't had her wedding planned since she was six, I feel like I'm starting from scratch. But we've got some details nailed down and the way they are falling into place is making me laugh. The next few months may be devoted to wedding blogging since that occupies most of my free time outside of the hospital - plus, maybe someone with a talent will read it and laugh - or feel pity and offer to give us something for free, like photography, flowers, invitations or music. And preferably in that order.


Dress Shopping
I hated it. What bride says that? Wait, that was weird. I just called myself a bride. That will take some getting used to. But I am a bride and a bride without a plan. I've never dreamed about my wedding dress. I haven't had it picked out since I was a little girl. I don't even wear that much white for fear it will make my arms look like marshmallows. So walking into a bridal salon - wait - first making an appointment to try on gowns - was odd. I never have to make an appointment at Ross Dress for Less and they gladly let me try on as much crap as I want.


I went by myself the first time. I know. Sacrilege. Not going with my own mother. But I was flooded with uncertainty and didn't want to bring her along to influence an opinion I hadn't even formed yet. There were so many things to consider - shape, neckline, fabric - apparently all of which must appropriately match the time and location of your wedding, which was yet to be determined. Everyone wants to know what you want to look like on your wedding day which is another loaded question that I always answered much more sarcastically in my head. Something like a bride maybe? I don't know...maybe something in the white family? I think I've seen some brides wear white before. What kind of question is that? Do people actually answer that question with anything less pathetic than "like a princess?" Blah. This isn't Halloween and I won't be carrying a wand or wearing wings. If only Disney had a line for girls who want to look like a normal bride on their wedding day. So I was stumped.


Unlike the Kleinfeld consultants on Say Yes to the Dress who pick dresses for you, all my consultants made me wade through piles of satin to select things I thought I would like. At first this idea appealed to me. I will be wearing it, and I pick out all the rest of my clothes like a big girl, so why shouldn't I pick out my own wedding dress? Clearly no one knew how dangerous I could be. I became a spitfire of criticism right off the bat. I knew what I did not want, but had no idea what I did want. Rouching and satin were out from the beginning. Whoever convinced an entire species of women that gathering up extra fabric and bunching it around your waist would make you look skinnier was a genius. Turns out I'm on to you. I know your trick and I raise you. Rouching makes everyone look thicker and wider. But the rouching seamstresses have saturated the market and are in cahoots with the satin fairies so asking for something that is NOT satin and that does NOT have rouching is like asking for ice water in hell. People look at you like you are a lost puppy who needs to find her way back to the yellow brick road that leads to rouching and satin. Listen - it's not that I hate satin of everyone. I just hate it on me. It stems from a traumatic experience during college when I was large and in charge in a purple satin dress for some sorority formal. No one had the nerve to tell me that fruit of the loom was not invited to the party and when I look back at those pictures (in my memory - the actuals have been destroyed) I get sick to my stomach. Satin and I have never made amends and I doubt we ever will.


I finally manged to find some gowns in reasonable fabrics that I liked. I just liked them though. There were no tears, no skips around the room, no squeals. I was starting to get the idea. Pick a few dresses. "Dive" into them. Sort in order of preference. Repeat. I narrowed the shape down to two and selected an ideal neck line. I was ready to bring my mom along. The other thing that everyone wants to know as soon as you walk in the door is your budget. You're never supposed to try on dresses outside of your budget because if you fall in love and can't afford it, the heartbreak is unbearable....supposedly. I made up an arbitrary budget based on what I have seen on Say Yes to the Dress and told the saleslady. It was a modest budget compared to the show, but definitely reasonable to find a dress to wear on my wedding day. I also mentioned that there was a dress in a magazine that I loved and wished to try on. She promptly informed me that it was about a thousand dollars beyond my budget and I quickly responded "Oh, okay I don't need to try it on then." But my mom said "oh try it on! If it is the dress of your dreams price is no object!" I said Lady, I love you a lot but you are really bad at this. You have to stick to the budget or the bride sharks will eat you alive. TRUST ME. I watch way too much reality tv.

I was starting to become discouraged as if I would never have that "ah-ha this is my dress" moment. Until we walked into Jeanette's in Manassas. We were met by this rickety English woman who looked a little perturbed to be missing her Sunday afternoon knitting club. No, she was nice. At first. We found a few dresses on the rack and when I tried them on, one really stood out. I loved it more than any of the other dresses I had tried on previously. My mom said "oh that's it! I love it." Which was immediately followed by "but put the one from the magazine on just to compare." The dress outside of my budget. Why keep looking when you've found the one? I didn't do that to Will. I wasn't like 'yes I'll marry you, but I'd like to keep dating around for awhile just to make sure." That's kind of rude I think. But we've never done this before so I kept trying on dresses. Ultimately we returned to Jeanettes to purchase the dress from Old Mother Hubbard. She did a good job after all.

Whew. It's over. I'll never have to sift through hundreds of ugly..I mean really ugly dresses trying to find something suitable to wear in front of 200 people ever again. Now watch me turn into that mother of the bride who begs her daughter to wear her wedding dress 30 years from now!