Written by “Yanno, I never saw the third Star Wars movie.”
“Return of the Jedi?”
“No, the Sith one.”
“Oh. That crap.”
“I know he got burned by lava fighting with Obi Wan. But why was he so angry?”
“He was trapped in a bad movie.”
Bullet Dodge
Written by When you’re planning a wedding, it’s so easy to get neurotic over details. Paranoid, even. Can we afford it all? Is everything going to be ready on time? Can we completely rely on everyone involved? Are we going to be able to pull this off?
We’ve done our fair share of neurosing, but for the most part things have gone smoothly for us in getting our July wedding off the ground. There have been a few snags, such as the arbor taking forever to get shipped from rural Illinois. We also had a bit of a challenge with the wedding dress. At first they told us it’d be ready in 6-8 weeks; then it was 8-12 weeks. Finally it was a heartfelt promise to have the dress done, ready and out by the time of the wedding. After several months of worried phone calls and pushing, the dress arrived last month. I’m told (of course, I haven’t seen it) that it’s beautiful and perfect.
Turns out, we were worried for nothing. Or were we? Turns out..
A steady stream of brides, bridesmaids, grooms and groomsmen stopped by Special Days Bridal and Tuxedo Store in Modesto on Thursday, staring in disbelief at the taped-over windows.
A sign on the door read, “Special Days will be closed until further notice.”
“Me and both my guys are out $130. I have no idea what I’m going to do,” said Joshua Nunn of Oakdale, who is planning an August wedding. His fiancée, Manda Peterson, is out more than $1,000 for her wedding dress, Nunn said.
Jennifer Grivette has a June 21 wedding and went to the store with the best man for a fitting. All the gowns and tuxedoes for the wedding are coming from Special Days on Dale Road, she said, and it has all been paid for.
This is the very same place that sold Kristi her dress. And our wedding is actually later than the one mentioned in the story. They just up and taped over the windows and told everyone that they were SOL for wedding dresses and tuxedoes that were already completely paid for. Imagine getting that just a week before your wedding.
Needless to say, we’re in a bit of shock this morning. And feeling very fortunate (or blessed, lucky, take your pick). And very, very, very glad that we chose a national chain for the tuxes.
God, those poor people.
RSVPs
I really think that one of the best things about getting married is that it gives your friends and family an unambiguous opportunity to let you know where they stand in your life. If there are buried conflicts, they won’t stay buried long into the engagement. Jealousies, rivalries, bitternesses – at some point between rings, they’ll all bubble to the surface. Likewise, the love and generosity and caring and sincere good wishes also come to the forefront. By the time you actually walk down the aisle, you will know – without the slightest doubt – how (or if) each person in your life wishes to play a role in your new one. In a way, it lets you start things off with a clean slate.
We’ve received about 120 of almost 200 RSVPs. That’s mostly Kristi’s friends and family; we knew early on that the Florida wedding contingent would be pretty small, just my brother and a few close friends. Most of the ones we received arrived shortly after we sent out the invitations – the ones still outstanding now are either close calls or folks we didn’t really expect to be able to come. We’re already very happy with the return, though we’ll be a bit happier at 150.
I think the ones we’re most looking forward to are the ones coming from far away. We know that many of our long distance friends and relatives can’t make it due to scheduling or cost issues. But when we hear that someone from England or Florida will be here, it’s nothing but wide goofy grins around here. Just the other day we learned that Kristi’s friends Anne and Jamie are coming from London. My friends Em and Jason, as well as my brother Chris, are coming from Florida. We’ve both been kind of walking around here idly chatting about really missing old friends and really looking forward to seeing them again.
It’s about four weeks now. In less than a month, we’ll be married. Ready, ready, ready.
Special News: Our good friend Jenny had her first child – a little girl – a few days ago! Both mother and child are in good health, and we’re told that the whole family is happy and doing great. Congratulations Jen and Matias!
Holy Frijole!
We are getting married in a month. ONE. MONTH. Breathe. Breathe. Breathe. A lot of the errands have been completed but we still have things to do. The list is never ending. I cross something off and think of 3 others to add. I had my first dress fitting last week and again, I had one of those “I AM THE BRIDE” moments. I still have those from time to time but the panic subsides pretty quickly. But today Rob said, “Babe, we’re getting married one month from tomorrow” and all of the sudden it was like WHOA. Married. Aren’t I too young for this, to be someone’s wife, to be MRS. WARREN??
Momentary Freak Out.
And now back to our regularly scheduled programming.
We spent today working in the backyard and lounging around. It was the first day since the end of school that I didn’t go anywhere. Didn’t even leave the yard. I made a nice big dinner for us and we’ve been relaxing together this evening. Yesterday, I ran errands for the wedding. Met with the cake lady (3 tiers of German Chocolate cake with chocolate mousse filling, buttercream frosting) and got all of those plans situated. I paid for the sound system for the ceremony, settled the final music plans with the string quartet, bought fabric for the tablecloths for the rehearsal dinner and worked on the wedding favors. So yeah, I needed a day to do nothing wedding related, even though I worked on favors for a while tonight. It will get busier but I hope I’ve planned things well enough that the week of the wedding can be busy but not overly stressful.