If you give a girl an engagement ring, she'll want a glass of wine

It is so nice to be able to say we are done with planning the wedding.  I don't know what it was: the fact I was also in school, my perfectionist tendencies, or the other pressures I had going on around me last semester, but I can't say I really loved wedding planning.  It started out great.  We knocked so much out the first couple of months I figured I would be able to cruise into January.  Nope.  Mostly, that just gave me a false sense of security and when I realized how much more I needed to get finished with each vendor it about overwhelmed me.
 I think it was sometime in late September or early October when I sat down and filled out my planner with all the appointments I had coming up and potential dates for ones I still needed to make.  Every weekend was full.  Then I had the pleasure of going back in and adding in my school deadlines.  I had a bit of a break down.  One of the many reasons I believe God chose Jason for me is his ability to get me through these break downs.  He never gets angry or annoyed, but is always ready to sit and listen to me and then help me refocus on the important things.
  I also had a little bit of odd luck with vendors.  I think I received at least one email from each of them about some kind of position change or crisis.  By the end of it I was no longer shocked to receive these.  It became a given: "Oh yes of course your store is shutting down.  No big deal."  As you'll find out in a later blog, it all ended up being beautiful and more lovely than I could have imagined.  I'm not saying I didn't like my vendors, they were all excellent at their craft when it came to the big day; I simply wasn't prepared for the number of hiccups we had.
  Then there was the guest list.  Oooo the guest list.  This has to be the most stressful part of wedding planning.  There are so many people you want to invite, but there are also so many people your fiance wants to invite, and your parents want to invite.  And then of course there are those who you have to invite whether or not you want to.  It's the epitome of family politics.  When you start getting replies you start to think horrible things like "oh good you broke up with that guy, so he won't be coming anymore then?...Quick dear send out that other invite we have on hold."  Then there's the not knowing about the group of replies you never get back.  And last minute changes that leave little time to invite someone else on your "gosh I wish I could invite you" list.  Of course there are also the decline RSVPs from people you had really wished would have been able to go.   You always understand why, I mean living in a different state is a pretty good reason to not be able to make it.  But it's hard to let that vision of your wedding surrounded by you oldest and best friends and family go.  But like I said before, in the end, it all works out and all that stressing seems silly at this point.
  Okay enough of that.  Now do you understand the glass of wine reference?  I'm pretty sure my mom and sister could use a bottle of wine at this point as they read this and re-experience all my phone calls.  Speaking of these two...I love them.  I am so very lucky to have such a great support system.  I could easily write a whole post about my sister and how great she was at being a MOH.  I mean really, it made me want to go back and re-do being her MOH just so I could live up to her.  Hindsight is 20/20.  I think wedding preparation is a pay it forward kind of business.  Once you've been there you know what it's like and you're well equipped to help the next person in your life who is having a wedding with anything they need.  You know what they are secretly hoping for but not saying and understand any emotional or difficult moments they may have.  There were times I felt like no one really cared that Jason and I were getting married.  I mean people might ask how things were going, but they didn't seem to want to be invested.  But the second I would start to feel this way Kimberly would send me an email or do something to remind me I have her.  So thank you Kimberly for being my person.  You are excellent.
   Here's a list of wedding happenings with some pictures to go along since the last time I posted:


Jason and I had our engagement session and the lovely Stephanie Burrows came along!  Oh man, it's such a good thing Stephanie came along.  First, she watched Boots for us, but mostly she kept things light and happy and continuously reminded us to just focus on "us" being engaged and how great that is.  For the sake of brevity (hah brevity this post is going to last forever) I will just say we had an interesting experience this day.  It was a total of a three hours and we got some really beautiful pictures.  Also some really cute pictures of our little puppy :)  Here's a few of the unedited images.  Courtesy of Susan Gilbert Photography.

I love dancing with my man 

We practiced dipping the night before.  No joke. 

Had to throw in a little school spirit

This is one of my favorites.  Boots did such a good job turning around at the perfect moment

Omygosh our dog is cute!

My mother in law threw me a shower in Houston and it was so much fun.  She planned a really awesome trivia game and had Jason record his answers so it could be interactive.  Unfortunately, they may have underestimated how competitive I am (insert picture of giant swollen ankle) and how much of a perfectionist I am.  Jason apparently went back through the questions and amped up their difficulty levels; not a nice move.  This resulted in a lot of missed answers.  I felt pretty crappy afterwards actually.  I had this horrible feeling of "wow I don't know you at all apparently."  But to be fair he mostly asked me minute details about his childhood that I was in no way apart of.  For example:  What was the make, model, and color of Jason's first car and who was the last owner of this car?  This is a reasonable question if any of the following were true (hint none of the following are true): A) I knew Jason at any point during which he drove this car  B) I knew the people who last owned the car and they were still in possession of it  C) It was some ridiculously nice car that he definitely would have told me about because it was that awesome  D) He was super into cars and therefore would have told me about this car because it's his favorite thing to talk about  E) Some really important event in his life happened in this car and therefore he certainly told me this story and the car played a integral role.   I got this question wrong.  There were others like this.  Apparently I'm still holding onto this, quick let's move on!
My favorite part of this shower was when Jason's mom gave us a scrapbook she had started making.  It was made to help us document where we started, the engagement, and various wedding events throughout.  She left extra pages in the back for us to add more invitations and keepsakes.  It was so thoughtful!

Said scrapbook which is now on our coffee table

Next on the agenda:  Bachelorette/Lingerie shower.  SO. MUCH. FUN.  I'll let the pictures speak for this one.

Cupcake bra and lingerie! 

Cereal lingerie courtesy of J Wag

And then we went to Vertical Fitness.  Kim had heard me mention in passing one time how much fun it looked and then surprised me by taking me here for the B Party.  Awesome!

We're a pretty talented group of friends 

The oh so graceful and lovely crew

Woot!  It's time to Party!

I had a rather interesting list of to do's that night:  The first one marked off the list?  Rub a bald guys head.

Have someone buy you a shot/meet a guy on his bachelor party 

Get a guy to give you an article of clothing 

Have someone buy the whole group a shot

Oh then I went on stage at Pete's and here's what happened

"Rebecca's party needs to get her another drink.  She's doing too well."  No sir.  I'm just competitive. 

Would I have dove on the floor at one point if I didn't have enough to drink?  I hope not.

I know my alphabet 

Might be my fave 

My Aggie girls! 

Other items marked off list: Get a kiss on cheek.  Rub finger through hair.  Hug a stranger.  And as an extra we also got a free magic show

 Alright.  Next up:  Bridals.  I woke up early that morning and Ms. Stephanie Burrows came over to do my hair.  She did such a great job.  I am forever thankful to her for doing my hair for this and the wedding day.  Having talented friends is so convenient!  A few notes about the pictures: 1) these are unedited  2) This was before my last two dress fittings, so my dress wasn't fitting quite right.    Photos courtesy of Susan Gilbert Photography.

This one is edited.  It was used as my bridal portrait

Next:  Dallas shower given by my Aunt Carol and and Confirmation Sponsor, Mrs. Larson.  It was the loveliest shower I could have imagined.  Mrs. Larson lives in the most quaint house in all of Dallas as far as I'm concerned.  This was the shower the day before the half marathon.  This worked out nice because Mrs. Larson is a nutritionist so she had me set with all the foods I needed to do my best.  I also decided that I should have used Mrs. Larson's garden as the site for my bridals.  It's so beautiful and organic.  If Jason and I ever do our second day shoot, I think this is where we'll go.


Next:  Couple's Shower in Dallas given by my siblings!  So much fun.  I think everyone should have at least one shower where both guys and girls attend and is devoted to the "younger" crowd.  It was date night themed and we received lots of really fun date ideas.  For example:  We have two gift certificates for us to go rock climbing together.  Yes please!  Also, one of my favorites, Ellie gave us "Guesstures" which was the game Jason and I played together the first night we met.  Oh nostalgia :)


Next: Final dress fittings.  I was having trouble getting my dress to fit the way I wanted it to.  Thanks to my now well-known "Soup Diet" it was a little roomy.  Because it's backless and didn't have any kind of corset or lace up top this caused some problems.  I went to my final fittings right before Christmas hoping for a solution.  Mii did a little tugging and a lot of pinning and for the first time when I looked in the mirror I felt like I was actually wearing my dress.  Even with all the pins, it looked better than I had seen it before.  When I got to put it on again after Christmas I was so happy.  I don't think she made it quite as tight as she had pinned it, but it's okay...I guess it allowed me to sit, which is a good thing, especially if you're having a Catholic wedding (sit, stand, sit, kneel, stand, etc).


From here it was just a whirlwind of last minute items and payments.  The two weeks leading up to the wedding went by so fast and yet so slow all at the same time.  I look back now and have some regrets, but that mostly has to do with my attitude toward things.  I've got to learn to relax.  Luck for me I now have a husband I get to live with who is an expert at helping me calm down.


Next up:  Spirituality blog.  This is one of the ones I've been most looking forward to.  Don't worry, it will be considerably shorter  :)


The Fries