Wedding Journal: 26 days to go!

We have been quite busy the last couple of days and Whozat is a total, as Shrike would put it, "Fret-Ball!'

We went shopping Saturday and came up empty handed on clothes, but we kicked ass at the Party Store. We got cups, plates, napkins, champagne glasses, forks and spoons (didn't see a need for knives), tablecloths, decorations (heart confetti and garland for the tables), thank you notes and a pen (It's kind of "cheesy" but it has hearts on it, so we liked it. It's a regular pen, not a "wedding" one, because we think the big feathers are stupid.)

We also went to Target and registered for a bunch more stuff and bought film. At the mall we found a little basket for cards and a silver-look heart-shaped bud vase - we're doing a thing in the ceremony where we exchange roses, we'll put them in the bud vase afterwards, probably on the table with the certificate.

We found the bud vase at J.C. Penney, but had some other things to look for, so we just took it with us to the other departments. We didn't find anything else we were looking for, so we gave up and left the mall. On the way to the car, Whozat was holding Shrike's arm, and asking her if that was ok, did it make her uncomfortable (walking through the mall parking lot in our little hick town), did she want her to stop, etc. There were some people standing by a truck as we passed by, and a car alarm was going off somewhere.

Suddenly, we heard a loud "clink" on the ground right behind us. Shrike thought Whozat had kicked a bottle or something, but Whozat's first thought was that someone had thrown a bottle at us.

We both turned around, and saw the bud vase lying on the ground. Shrike said, "Oh, your vase just fell out of the box."

Then we both yelled, "OH MY GOD!" as we realized that the reason the vase wasn't tucked safely inside a bag was that we hadn't paid for it!

We'd carried it all over the store, and then walked right out with it!

Needless to say we hurried back in and paid - and we did not mention any of this to the clerk who checked us out! Although, maybe we should have - we couldn't have been in trouble; it was obviously an accident, since we went back, but maybe they should know how easy it was for us to do.

On Sunday we went to Walmart (where we didn't steal anything) and finally found candy dishes for the tables. Whozat had envisioned heart-shaped glass dishes, but we ended up with red plastic. At this point, they are hearts, so they will do!

Our original plan was to put Valentine's Day M&Ms in the dishes and scatter Hershey's Kisses on the tables, but now we are leaning toward blowing off the M&Ms (thinking that might be chocolate overkill), putting the Kisses (and maybe some Huggs - in Valentine's Day wrappers, of course) in the dishes, and getting small boxes of conversation hearts to put at each place, along with the bubbles.

Whozat thinks it would be a shame to have all this Valentine's stuff and miss out on the conversation hearts - they don't taste very good, but they are fun. We've eyed the wedding conversation hearts that are for sale at several of the wedding websites we've visited, but they have a lot that say things like "Bride and Groom" or "Mr. and Mrs." and Whozat doesn't want to go to the trouble of digging all those out before serving them.

She would do it, too.

When we were "dating" (as we refer to the time period when our relationship was primarily online, before Shrike moved to Texas), she sent Shrike a big bag of them, but first she went through and removed all the ones like "My Guy" and all the ones that were at all negative, like "Slow Down" or "No Way."

She put the leftovers in the fridge, and a few days later her niece spent the night, and found them. She was reading them all before she ate them, and Whozat was so worried that she'd ask why they were all so negative!

But I digress. . . .

We also went to the Hallmark Store on Sunday and bought an album/guestbook. We went with a "do-it-yourself" one, so we wouldn't have to deal with all those "blanks" that we don't need. We got the album itself, which is basically a three-ring binder with an "Our Wedding" design on the front, some photo-pocket pages that came with it and a couple of packages of blank scrapbook paper. We'll wait on buying more photo-pockets until we have the pictures developed and know what we need.

Whozat is working on making up the pages for it on the computer, we'll go ahead and print out most of the information, since it will be a lot more legible than either of us writing it in! We'll even print out a couple of pages with little blanks for guests to "sign in" at the wedding and at the party that some friends are throwing for us after we get back.

Sunday evening we finished putting labels (with our names and the date) and ribbons on the bubbles and packed up most of the things we'd bought to ship to Whozat's parents in Texas, so we don't have to take it all down when we go. We'll send that off as soon as we find a bigger box, or a second box, since we filled the one we have and then found a couple of bags of cups that we'd missed.

The biggest crisis at the moment, at least for Whozat, is what the hell to wear. We thought we both had pantsuits that we could wear "if we don't find something."

But after not finding anything Saturday, Whozat figured she'd better try hers on (since it's the same size as the ones she was trying on - and not buying - at the stores). Alas, it seems that the jacket that was just fine in September, when she wore it last, is a bit on the snug side now. It might be looser in a month, but given the wedding stress that's going on, we're doubting that!

She found one online that she likes the look of and has ordered it in two different sizes. We're hoping they will arrive some time this week (They'd better, for the almost $30 we paid for "Premium" shipping!)

If one of those works out, we'll just send the other one back. She'll need to have the pants taken up a couple of sizes because they won't let you mix and match, you have to get the whole set in all one size, even if you aren't, so we have to find somebody to do that.If that doesn't work, then we'll probably be doing some more shopping next weekend.

Shrike seems to have decided to wear the suit that she already has, but maybe she's just keeping quiet about her own clothing crisis until Whozat has resolved hers?

There are still tons of things to be taken care of, but we made a whole lot of progress this weekend and checked several things off our lists of "Things To Do" and "Things To Buy," so we're feeling like it's a little more under control.

Of course, Whozat is still totally stressing....