Marry Me. Now Smile for the Camera!

Chere Amie blogged a few weeks ago about a true surprise engagement session/proposal.

The groom hired Allebach Photography to capture the action.

He got down on one knee.

Perfectly timed in terms of location.

After she said yes they were able to get in a little mini-engagement session. I don't know that I would ever look as adorable as this bride does without a little warning beforehand!

Read parts 1, 2 and the finale here!

Prioritizing

This is where I work. I love the location!
Source

I'm going to ask my work to give me less hours. It kind of scares me to do it, because I have a loyalty to this place and I want to help them out when they really need it, but I can't plan my wedding and work this much. I was just going to suffer through it, but That Groom has actually started encouraging me to be a little more direct in my request for less hours.

I wanted to work as much as possible and attempt to pay off my car before the wedding, but at this point I haven't even made my invitations so there might not BE a wedding to go to.

This might seem a little spoiled to some of you who are working full careers and would give an arm and a leg for some extra time. I'm only home for 2 months and waitressing right now, and there are definitely days when they could survive without me.

I'm just....nervous. What do I do if they say no?

Where does the wedding fall in your list of what is important? What have you done to prioritize?

My Greatest Fear

I have a fear. It's not of bugs, heights, or death. It's of missing teeth.

When I was in 4th grade, Cody knocked his hard head into my mouth and knocked my front tooth out. My dental assistant mother knew enough to soak it in milk until they could get me to the doctor to have it glued back on the next day. Then I was playing tag round my house with a little boy who just came up to my nose, when he decided to switch directions as we were running and ran straight into me knocking it out again (more glue please!). The next time it happened I was playing with one of those kickboards that float, and I was having fun pulling it under the water as far as I could and watching it shoot back out again. I leaned over a little too far and watched it come up and knock me in the mouth. If you can believe it, we found the little trooper tooth again and glued it on once more.

Fast forward 5 or 6 years to a snowboarding trip my senior year of high school. I couldn't get my glove off my frozen fingers, so I bit down hard and pulled, and felt a weird sensation in my mouth. I rescued the little tooth once again, but the dentist decided it was time for a crown. I had a root canal, and spent about 2 months with a loose tooth cover that popped off to reveal this:

I thought I was set for life with the shiny new crown mom and dad bought for me, but a year ago I bit down on a Subway sandwhich and proceeded to cry when I realized it was off again. I've since gone in to the dentist 4 more times to have it glued back on.

I can't afford a new crown right now, and so I am struck with fear every time I bite into a taco or toasted sandwhich. Eating with me can be an interesting experience as I sometimes spit my half chewed foot out because I am positive it has come off again, and I am scared to death that I will swallow it.

As far as the wedding day goes, I am not sure what to do. It's a time where you are smiling constantly, and the toothless smile above is not what I want to be flashing all day. I guess one of the brideslaves will be packing around superglue in case of any tooth related emergencies.

Dress Loves

As I am going in for my first dress fitting next week, I am lately obsessed with others peoples gorgeous dresses. Not because I am jealous, or because I want something new, but because I want to see other ladies who love their dresses as much as I do. So I seek out, and I drool over the dresses, and I really feel happy for these women. There is something so beautiful about each woman finding a dress that makes her feel radiant.

P.S.-If you haven't emailed Ms. 122 to get a peek at her wedding dress, what are you waiting for?

Source 1, 2, and 3

Under the Big Top

A tented reception the week after the wedding. Doesn't sound hard does it? Just get a tent, throw some chairs, tables and food inside and it's a party. At least, that is what I thought. And then I realized that I live in the middle of nowhere.

That cute little crown marks the approximate spot where I live. A tiny little town of 3,000, if you count every single person (and possibly a few pigs and cows) living in a 25 mile radius. It's a 3 hour drive one way into Seattle, and the closest mall is 1.5 hours one way to Tri-Cities.

Some google searching led me to a rental company that should be able to provide everything we need, and for a great price IF we want to drive 2 1/2 hours one way to pick it up, and set everything up ourselves. The driving would be worth it though, as it would cost an additional $500 to have the company transport everything, set it up, take it down, and come pick it up again. Poor farmers like my father like to save every penny they can and so we plan to go with the self help option.

We are anticipating having approximately 150 peole show up to an open house type reception in the middle of October where no formal dinner will be served. The average temperature in my town for that time of year, for that time of day, (according to my handy wedding planner on weather.com) is 62 degrees. Chilly.

All of the little details that are popping up all over the place (heating, tables, chairs, lighting, food, drinks, tent, tent panels, parking, linens, just to name a few) are making my head spin. The guy on the phone says I can rent a 30'X40' tent and fit everyone in just fine. My dad feels like a 30'X75' would be better (although I think he would prefer something even larger!).

An example of a 30'X60' tent according to this site.

So I turn to all of you married ladies for help (and all of the brides planning tented receptions). How many people (a few tables and chairs included) can a tent really hold? Is there a fantastic tented reception planning resource out there that I have not yet heard about?

The Grandma Quilt

This weekend I received my first wedding gift. In our family, Great-Grandma N makes every grandchild (and now great-grandchild) a quilt when they get married. My sister sleeps with one quilt that my mom received from this grandma, and I sleep with another. Now I'll be able to take one of these quilts with me no matter where I live.

I'm already completely redesigning the dream master bedroom I had in my head to best frame this gorgeous work of art. This will be the first thing packed in my suitcase when we move to Poland someday.

I don't know anything about sewing or quilting, but I know what a work of love something like this is, and I appreciate the effort grandma makes for each and every one of us. I called her immediately to thank her for the beautiful gift with such a "gorgeous swirly pattern".

What kinds of treasures have you received from friends and family members?

Her Ivory Dress + His White Shirt = ?

I'll be picking my dress up in 2 weeks, and so I think it is probably time to start thinking about what my groom will be wearing underneath that hot suit of his.

Here is a reminder of what my dress looks like:

If I pair up a white shirt under all of the suits with my pretty pretty dress am I going to be suffering from the dreaded "dirty dress" phenomenon? You know, the one that all mother's seem to believe in that dictates that ivory dresses will look scrungey next to a crisp white mens shirt.

Almost all of our groomsmen are church attenders that wear white shirts to church every week and so I know they already have a favorite white shirt hanging in their closet (hopefully right next to the black suit they will be wearing). Putting everyone in white shirts under their black suits would be free, and save me a lot of time (and money!) tracking down ivory shirts for everyone. Not to mention the fact that That Groom is insanely picky about dress shirts.

White shirt or Ivory shirt? What have you seen in the past?

The Marilyn Dress

I love Marilyn Monroe. I collect calendars, clothes, watches, and even perfume branded with her name and image. I love her confidence, her curves, and her clothes. My mom's mom is also named Marilyn, and has apparently been hiding away her 1950's wedding dress in the back of one of her closets all of these years. She pulled it out and I fell in love. It looks exactly like the Marilyn Monroe style that I have always swooned over, and I was thrilled to have the chance to put it on this weekend (and that it zipped up!).

We asked Grandma what was up with the pointy breast style that her dress is sporting. It's some serious pre-Madonna conage action happening. She couldn't remember why all the girls thought that was so attractive back in the day.

I cannot believe that I never picked up the phone to call and ask if any relatives still had their wedding dresses, and if they might be open to the idea of me wearing it for my wedding dress. I still love my dress (and can't wait to go pick it up in 2 weeks), but their is so much significance behind wearing a dress passed down through the generations. For a dress not cleaned or preserved in any way, it's in rather good condition. Grandma even thinks she let us grandkids play dress-up in it when we were younger. I cringe at the thought of how careless I probably was with such a treasure.

Grandpa, Grandma, and myself.

The 50's style dresses are so fun to swish and spin around in. This shot highlights the two problems with the dress. See the ripped netting swinging around behind me, and my cone shaped breasts :)

My grandma and grandpa own and live on a diary, and while we were outside taking pictures on the lawn, my sister MOH runs out in a full length cow pantsuit. The resulting photos are marvelous.

She is going to hate me for posting these. Let's all let her know how hot she looks as a bovine.

What Aunt Flo?

The Weddingbee post"Letter to Aunt Flo" inspired me to write a post that I have been sitting on for awhile now. I (happily) could not identify with anything she was saying because I haven't had a visit from my Auntie darling for almost 10 months now.

Source

It's techincally called Period Suppression and it all started when I read this article in the September 2007 issue of Glamour magazine. The article had two different doctors facing off against each other, one arguing for suppression, and one arguing against.

First let's cover the argument against the idea. Christine Hitchcock, Ph.D., research associate, Centre for Menstrual Cycle and Ovulation Research, University of British Columbia in Vancouver makes three distinct points. 1st that periods are normal and ordinary and that we shouldn't be ashamed of what our body can do. 2nd is that the newest no-bleeding pill (at the time), Lybrel, didn't completely suppress bleeding in all women. 3rd is that the long-term effects of taking period suppression pills still hasn't been studied enough.

I won't address the 1st and 2nd parts of her argument (because I think they are kind of ridiculous), but as far as the 3rd part, the the period suppression supporter in the article, Leslie Miller, points out on her website NoPeriod.com that the original birth control dosages contained about 10,000 mcg of progestin and 150 mcg of estrogen, compared to the 100 to 1000 mcg of progestin and 20 mcg of estrogen that daily continuous use pills have now. So 40 years ago women were taking much much higher doses than we are today, and I haven't heard of any horrendous side effects yet, have you?

In her piece arguing for period suppression, Leslie Miller, M.D., clinical associate professor of obstetrics and gynecology, University of Washington, Seattle, Washington states that she hasn't had her period in almost 12 years. Doesn't that sound glorious? Her argument succintly states that there is no medical reason any woman needs to have a period, unless she's trying to get pregnant. The last week of pills in the traditional 28-day pack are just sugar pills to help the user keep track of which pills they have taken, and when you skip those on a regular basis, your uterine lining will not build up, so you will have nothing to bleed out.

What originally got me was her argument that period suppression not only cleans up the messy side of things, but it can help with menstrual migrains, mood swings, reduce the risk of anemia and vaginal infections, and of course, eliminate those horrendous cramps I was enduring. It doesn't have to be expensive because all you have to do is ask your gynecologist for any low-dose oral contraceptive (and make sure and explain what you are planning to do). The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists has said it is safe, and so far no published papers in scholarly journals have indicated that there is any danger.

Before I went in to see my gynecologist, I tried to arm myself with a little more information (from the internet of course). The only other arguments I could find against the idea stated that it could be dangerous because a woman could be pregnant and not know it (because she isn't having a period at all, and most women figure out they are pregnant because of a missed period) and then spend her time smoking and drinking and potentially harm her baby before she even knew she had one developing inside of her. This does not apply to me, as I do not ever smoke or drink, and I am not sexually active, so not only is there no chance of me harming my baby, there is no way to get impregenated in the first place.

Yes, it is more expensive over time because I have to buy more packs of pills, but That Groom is more than willing to pay for it. He LOVES That Bride with no period, and I know he has tried to convince several of his guy friends to get their girlfriends to suppress theirs as well. I don't get really really tired for a week before like I used to, I don't have those weird mood swings where nothing can be done right, and I don't have those horrible horrible cramps that sometimes had me moaning in pain.

Anyone else a period suppression advocate? If you are going to argue against the idea, please go ahead and point me towards any scholarly criticism that can help change my ways. Those of you that say I am denying the very essence of my womanhood, you should know that I never felt very excited about being a woman when Aunt Flo was hanging around. I plan on having many many children to surround myself with in Poland someday, I want to enjoy a few years without the monthly visit while I still can.

I Take Thee, Crackberry

I've already told That Groom I would not be amused if he read his his words to me from his crackberry like the groom below:

Photo by Perspective Eye Photography

Are you reading, memorizing, or doing something slightly quirky for your vows?