Things are coming together

Trying to keep this on the short side, as it's been a while since I've posted and this could easily turn into a minute-by-minute recap of the past few weeks. I will not let this post get out of hand. Pinky swear.

Life update: I had a birthday (sigh...I mean, it's great that I keep having them; I just haven't gotten used to the fact that the darn number keeps getting higher). Our Brady Bunch of cats continues to not like each other very much, but blood has yet to be shed. Work continues as always, but I'm working on a sizeable project and solidifying some long-term goals. Christmas knitting has begun a bit later than it really should have, but I think I'm in good shape to have all projects completed by their respective gift-giving opportunities. (Whether they will be wrapped is another question.) I have an awesome new phone that doesn't make me want to throw it at the wall every time I interact with it. It has apps and everything!

Wedding update: We took engagement photos with our awesome (and awesomely-priced) photographer, and they came out really well. I had my third bridal store expedition last weekend and came away with two dress finalists, and after ruminating for a few days I think I've settled on one. It's one of the store's most popular dresses, but it's beautiful and it makes me look skinny and as long as I don't see it in a wedding between now and next July I think I'll be fine. I'm not even concerned about the copycat-ness of wearing the same dress as a friend; I'm more worried that the friend will come down the aisle and I'll turn to The Boy and say "hey, that's my dress!" before I can stop myself, and then the wedding day surprise will be spoiled. Let's hope it doesn't come to that.

Next up:

Time to figure out the bridesmaid dresses. I'm having what could be described as an existential crisis about dress colors (do they wear the very bright color that I like on paper but find a little overpowering in person, or do they wear a less-vibrant but still coordinating color and possibly make for unexciting photos?), but I'm heading back to the bridal store this weekend to spend some quality time with the color options. I hope to come away with either a single color (everyone picks their favorite style) or a collection of shades, so everyone can start making appointments to try things on a their local stores and lock things down in the next few weeks. There's technically plenty of time--it could probably wait until January--but the sooner I can stop worrying about this task, the better.

This post isn't too long, but it's threatening to get there and I can tell how boring it is, so let's run through the other open questions quickly: finalizing a design for the Save the Dates and getting them out the door before Christmas, staying sane/rested during choir concert season (which kicks off tomorrow), looking for flight deals for our Christmas/New Year's travel expedition (two weeks, three states, very few vacation days), wishing my right shoulder would just unknot itself already.

There. That should cover it. If you've made it this far, I'll reward you with a photo that may or may not show up in a later wedding-related communication:

Edited to add: Blogger.com and IE 9 beta do not play together well. I've tried to fix what I can, but apologies for formatting weirdness.

Where does the time go?

Not much new progress to report on the wedding planning, but we have a meeting with the wedding coordinator this afternoon so I expect her to get us thinking more seriously about the little details that I've been avoiding. And, well, I guess by "not much new progress" I mean we haven't chosen (or seriously considered) any new vendors since picking our photographer a couple of weeks ago, but I suppose we've talked some about colors. I like cobalt blue and a nice heather/charcoal gray, and The Boy recommends adding a brighter third color so maybe yellow? We need to go to a hardware store and hash this out in the paint chip aisle, but at least we've started talking about it.

I'm also trying to nail down times to try on dresses--I keep forgetting to call J. Crew for an appointment in late October (the first time the local bridesmaids and I will be in the same city and not otherwise occupied), and I'll probably try to squeeze in a David's Bridal appointment for the same day. I may visit another DB the prior weekend when I'll be in southern California (it'd be nice to try on at least one dress in front of my mom), and I'm taking advantage of a small designer's try-on program to test out a couple of dresses next week. (Short version: the designer doesn't have showrooms in Seattle, but I love one of his [inexpensive!] dresses and for $15 they'll send you the dress to try on at home.) This is probably both my most and least favorite part of planning so far--the dresses are pretty and they're built to make me look good so I'm not anticipating body-image issues, but I already hate making decisions and this seems to be the biggest, most impactful decision I'll make for a while. I've got my mom telling me that the simple, clean dresses I'm drawn to aren't "special" or "stunning" enough for my wedding day (it seems the guests spend money coming to the wedding for a show, and if I don't look extra-special then it'll be a letdown), and all of the websites and catalogs and magazines are pushing sparkly dresses that don't speak to me at all but seem to be the standard for weddings. I realize that this is our party and I'm paying for this dress so the final decision is mine, but I don't want to choose something disappointing, and I'm terrified that the dress I love now will look boring in our photos. But anyway, all of this is to say that I think I have a good idea of what I want, but if there's a chance that I'll fall in love with something sparkly then I will go try on some damn sequins.

That was an unexpected rant. Quickly finding something good to report: work is...work, I got to hold a baby (still not interested in having any just yet, but boy do I like holding them), lots of traveling and fun times have been had these past couple of weeks, and this morning I made a lot of arrangements for the next couple of trips. And then I'll have a birthday and then Thanksgiving (more travel) and Christmas/New Year's (*two* desinations for that one! I apparently *heart* the airline industry) and then it'll be 2011 and the wedding will be just around the corner! Yikes!

A sea of pink

Things are kind of slowly starting to come together! All of the grown-up attendants have been confirmed, the parents of one flower girl have signed off (and I'll work on the second when I have some time at night to send her mom an overdue email), and my stack of bridal/wedding magazines continues to grow. We're getting married!

I've been too preoccupied by moving out of my apartment to focus on wedding planning the past couple of weeks, but now that the vast majority of my stuff is in the new house (if not unpacked) I'm getting back into planning mode. We spent about an hour at a wedding expo on Sunday (this was apparently the mini-expo--the "real" one in January takes over the entire Convention Center and I hope to be mostly done with planning by then or else my head will explode from all of the choices) and came away with a stack of brochures, postcards, and even more magazines. Our primary goal was to pull together a list of potential vendors and then spend the next few weeks researching our options, but when we compared notes that night we realized that we'd found our photographer!

His was one of the first tables we visited, which normally would be a reason not to book him immediately, but none of the other photographers we met there matched his enthusiasm and he just seemed like a really great person to work with. (The advice we got from the venue coordinator is to choose someone who clicks with you, and this guy definitely did.) His portfolio is solid, his online reviews are stellar (best of The Knot 2010), and it didn't hurt that a hefty "you visited my booth" discount brought his price way under anything else we've seen online or in person. He does the standard formal photos (bride's hands holding flowers, couple smiling at each other, flower girls looking cute, etc.), but what sold me were the party photos. He finds people at their happiest and makes them look good (as opposed to red/sweaty/drunk, all of which they probably are), and those are the memories I want.

Anyway, we've tentatively booked him over email (contract to be mailed and signed in the next week or so), and it feels really good to have one big item checked off the list. The next big hurdle is going to be the dress, and I have a couple of dates penciled in (David's Bridal and J. Crew with local bridesmaids, possibly an LA-based studio with my mom when I'm there in October) but I'm still trying to psych myself up for this search. I already don't like making decisions, and according to our venue coordinator the dress style will set the tone for pretty much everything. Pressure, much?