Wedding Bands and Changes

I got our wedding bands in the mail last night!!! They are LOVELY - everything that I had hoped for them to be. There is only one, itsy, bitsy, littttlllllleee problem! My e-ring won't set flush agains the band. and - since I have short fingers the 5.5mm band of my e-ring and the 4mm band of my wedding band is just a WEE bit too wide. Of course I tried it on! What woman WOULDN'T try it on?? I'm leaving htem with Corey when I go down just so that I won't freaking PLAY with them all the time. :)

Soooo....I'm on the hunt for a new setting. :) I think I've found the one I want. Since I can't have what I have now - I want something SUPER simple. This is the ring that I want to have.




See?? That's about as simple as you can get...but if it's super high (I'm dangerous with my nails the last thing I need is a deadly weapon on my hand!!) I might try to get this one


or this one

Crowning Glory

*grins*

So - I told my mother that I found my dress - and she volunterred to get the tiara for me. I'm just scared that it's a one-off kind of thing, so I'm calling them today to find out 1) If it's the last one they have 2)If not, what's the online link to it and 3) Is there any way a woman in PA can buy it?

What else? I placed the order for the paper for the stationary, and I got the new magnets in the mail last night. I like these A LOT better, as they are much thinkcer and are just more durable in general. The sticky stuff is reallly sticky - currently it's holding onto a paper CD holder with CD inside - and supporting both on my refrigerator door. So - I should have the paper by next week, and I can have fun over Christmas putting those together.

:) things are going just SWIMMINGLY!!


Jasmyn

The Bold and the Beautiful

So - I woke up this morning with the conscious thought that I was not going to go and try any dresses on this weekend. :) Yeah, I was going to wimp out AGAIN.
I got dressed, went to the post office to mail off the signed contract to the Flamingo (YAAAAAAYYYYYY!!!!!!!!)
and then to Value City so I could get some bathroom rugs for my transmation into a domestic goddess. There happens to be a David's Bridal right next to the Value City, and I was going to go in just to get a closer look at the flutter sleeve dress they had in the window - mainly because of the mint green color. I wanted to see if it was a gown or if it was a bridesmaid dress.

20 minutes later I somehow ended up decked out in a gown, tiara and necklace. The dress was actually one of the ones I picked out from their website that I wanted to try on - and it fit perfectly. If I planned on staying the same size between now and the wedding, the only alterations I would have had to get done to it were to bustle it - even the LENGTH was right!!

I had picked up four to try on at first glance - a poufy ballgown skirted one:



A flutter sleeve one (the same one that drew me into the store - and I never found out if the green one was a gown or a bridesmaid's dress):



a strapless one with flower accents (the very FIRST Davids dress I fell in love with):


and a strapless wrap waisted one:



Okay - the ballgown one just plain didn't look right on me. I think the skirt was WAYYYYY to full for my hips. I looked plain old odd in it. I most likely spent about 5 minutes in it.

The flutter sleeve one I liked - I felt like Guinevere in it - VERY medival. :) So, it was pretty - but not really the vibe I wanted.

The flowered one was sooo pretty - feminie, flowery, but - eh.

The wrap waisted one though - it was PERFECT. In every way shape and form, this IS the Dress. It fit PERFECTLY for one thing (if I planned on staying the same size, the only alteration I would have to get would be to have it bustled - even the LENGTH was perfect) and when I put it on - I glowed. :) I kept saying that I felt like a Pretty Pretty Princess in it - but that's not quite accurate - I felt like ROYALTY. THe image that I have of it is in white, but the dress I tried on was ivory - and after I put it on, I had no doubts about getting a 'bridal' gown rather than a less formal gown. The only downside? The price! When I picked out the gowns, before I even tried them on - something TOLD me I would fall in love with the most expensive one. True to form, I did. It's ONLY 550.00 - but to me that's still and outrageous price to pay for a dress I'm only going to wear ONCE. So... as soon as I got home I went hunting to see if I could find a dress LIKE it - for less. That style seems to be popular as ALL get out :) (I think a certain M.S. has something to do with that - and I ain't talking bout Marta Stewart either) and so I found one on bridesave for 200 dollars LESS. :)

So let's do the side by side comparison



The Davids picture doesn't show A LOT of detail - but the main differences that I see between the two are that the davids one has a opening in the front, and the opening is beaded (which would account for the price jump) and I think the wrap bit on the davids dress was a little bit lower than the one on the Ginnis dress.

So - choices, choices. I'm wondering if I can talk my mother into buying my dress as my wedding gift - if she is willing - I can almost guarantee that I'm going to go with the David's dress. I also LOVED a tiara they had there that went PERFECTLY with the dress (and happened to be 150.00 - a perfect example of me and my selection of the most expensive thing I can!) I can't find a picture of it on the website, but it was made from natural colored and pale pink seed pearls, with little crystals and beads on it. The beads are the EXACT same color and style as the ones on my dress. (Notice how I'm calling it MY dress now??)


So - that's my adventure in Bridalhood for the day. :) I'm thrilled and excited all at once. And ya know what? Honestly - even if my mother DOESN't get the dress - I STILL will buy it for myself. *grins* Esp. since if I lose enough weight to get out of the womens sizes, the price DROPS by a hundred bucks. I'm not gonna comment on that at all... I've slowly come to just plain ACCEPT it.

I've found my dress. I've found it found it found it!!!!!

*bouncy* jasmyn

Rings & Things

*grins* He approved of the rings, I ordered the rings, and trust me there will be much excitement when we get them. *grins*
He saw the email I sent him with the ring picture in it -and I think it really hit him - to quote "This means we are REALLLY getting married!!" he-he. He's having his own 'oh shit' moments as the Knot so lovingly calls them.

In other news - we've named our firstborns of each sex already. The boy is going to be a Jr. (We'll call him CJ) and the girl will be Anjali Rylah HisLastName. Her middle name is a combo of our moms first names.
*grins* Something tells me it's going to be an adventure for us to actually wait the two years to have kids. Heh.

Oh yeah - I've decided to take his last name and still keep my own. So I'm going to have a nice long 4 name name, but I don't know how often (if at all) I will use my maiden name.

What else? I think I might go and try on dresses this weekend. I got on the scale last night and was bowled over. I'm in the single DIGITS!! Soon I'll be totally out of the 200's and that is when I wanted to start trying dresses on. Also - I think I may have actually screwed up enough courage to go trolling in the Bridal Salon (Davids - as they are the only place that I trust to have dresses I can truly fit into) on my own.

I'm going to play about this weekend with the invitation paper, and most likely place the order for that on Monday.

I realized one very cool thing about using the credit card to pay for the wedding. Our actual budget is going to be MORE than 7200.00 - since we are going to be paying stuff off as we get it. We are still masking an effort to save, and every month whatever is in the savings account goes to the credit card. So - I suddenly grasp the beausty of revolving credit. :)

jasmyn

The Concept of Conception

Continuing on my family kick -

 
Some point not too long ago (and it's REALLY sad that I can't remember exactly when) we were talking about his 21 yo brother - who currently has two little ones. Then we started talking about when we wanted to start trying to have kids. *gulp* I have an IUD - one of the five year ones. I got it in 2000, and so it's scheduled to come out June of 2005. I suggested that we ust wait until it's time for it come out, and then start having kids.

It was a most interesting conversation. I love him (and he loves me) for the fact that even when we don't necessarily agree with each other, we have so many of the same erratic lines of thinking, that with a few tweaks we can come to some agreement that thrills us both.

I've always been eagerly looking forward to the point when I was actually ready to start having kids. Funnily enough, having a husband wasn't high on my list of things I wanted to accomplish before the little ones arrived, but it's absolutely wonderful that I will have one - and he wants kids almost as much as I do.

Mentally - we know that we are both ready. We've stared the wonder, joy, and pain of having kids in the face, looked at it from every angle - and have accepted that while it's a scary and overwhelming thing beng a parent - we feel comfortable that we will do the best job we can...and we feel that job will be a pretty darn good one.

Emotionally - We're ready. I know that I have done a amazing amount of growing in the past two or three years, and so has he. *grins*  Us being together has helped in that a lot - my only child tendencies (selfish, loner, don't like to share... :) ) have been tamed  A LOT - I mean how can I NOT want to be with and share everything with the man I'm going to marry? So I found out that it's not as hard as I thought, and that when love is there - it makes it almost second nature.
He's grown a lot too - he's matured and is working, living, thinking about his future - our future - and isn't obsessed living fabulously today and worrying about tommorow when it gets here. We balance each other out so well it's sickening. :)

Financially - Eh. this is the main reason why we want to wait a few years. We know that children (at least for the first couple of years) are as expensive as you make them - for instance, why do parents buy their 1 month old clothing that costs more than 15-20 bucks? They are going to wear it once or twice and then grow out of it...*shakes head* what sense does that make? Esp. if they are seasonal specific clothing. And a 700 dollar CRIB?? That does not convert into a toddler bed or anything else...just a crib. *shakes head* 
So...we agreed that while children aren't THAT expensive - if I'm not working, we will like to have a nice little nest egg and have Corey working in a stable position...which he is creeping closer and closer too, but at this point we still have a couple of years to go.

So. It's interesting. Most days - I don't really think about the wedding itself much. I think more of what it means - what it symbolizes - what's going to shift into something solid to the rest of the world. It's so solid, and real and concrete to us - but that dang ceremony will make it real to the rst of the world - and oddly enough (considering that we usually could give a fat fig about what the rest of the world thinks) that matters.

jasmyn

The Grinch Woman's Family

I'm a Grinch. I fully admit to, and have no shame about the fact. Generally, I just plain don't LIKE Christmas. I suppose I could blame it on the fact that I never had Christmases as I was growing up, so instead of catching the feeling of the 'Magic' of the Season, instead I simply observed the materialism, artifical joy, and artifical trees.

This year though - it's been worse. I remember the odd agony of going back to school after Christmas break, and having no exciting news (or gifts) to talk about and prattle over. No visits from family, no big dinner - Christmas was just a chance to not go to school. And suddenly, I'm aware of the fact that - oh my god! I'm starting a FAMILY - me and Corey are about to join together and be a family - including kids...and I don't want those children to have to experience the outsiderness that I felt after Christmas. But at the same time - I just can't get into it. I want to start a tradition - something that we do as a family and that will be carried on to our children - and I just can't think of anything that doesn't feel either patently false or that doesn't feed into the American Xmass excess.

Kwanzaa - I simply can't get into. It's more of a made-up holiday than Christmas is, and heaven knows that if I felt false doing Christmas stuff, I would feel even MORE of an artifical person doing Kwanza stuff.

Solstice - That I can do - could do, with ease. It's roughly the same time of year (which is no accident), it's ancient, and it's all about honoring and being grateful for something OUTSIDE of yourself. It's almost anti-materialistic, and it can incorporate many of the more common aspects of Christmas (once again, no accident). The interesting part might be getting Corey to come along - he understands that I'm more pagan than anything else, but would he be willing to roll with me and to incorporate such a distinctly pagan holiday into our family tradition?? :) And then I feel rather guilty doing it - because heaven knows that I am, at best, an erratic pagan. :) But I feel that if there is any tradition I could accept (in both spirit and action) it would be Solstice.

I've been tossing around the thought since Thanksgiving with his family...because I realized that there was no way that we would be spending many holidays of any sort with them. Thankfully, Corey is NOTHING like the rest of his family - and we have agreed that we want our childrens exposure to them limited and strictly supervised. It's a matter of the young being so innocent and open - and us not wanting them to soak up any of the poison that floats about that house.

We talked about it - in a rather general and vague manner on our way back that night. And ever since I've been thinking about it - I mean it's not like you can AVOID thinking about Christmas from Halloween until the middle of January (when the 'post' Christmas sales finally die down). I've been debating wheter or not to buy a tree...to put up my lights...to burn some candles. And I haven't yet come to a real state of serenity about any of it.

Our conversation about Christmas then morphed into a conversation about religion. I've experienced two of the Big Three (Islam and Christianity) and I have absolutely no intention of indoctrinating my children into either one (and plan on attempting to limit their exposure as well) until they are old enough to truly understand. Corey - who grew up as a nominal Baptist - agress with me. Church will have little to no place in our home, nor will Jesus. But at the same time, I want to expose our children to religion - explain it - without expecting them to follow it...or to believe.

It's interesting how many little things I've started to notice that are missing from what I do today, and what I want to do (and have always planned on doing) once I have a family. As the wedding creeps closer (270 days!) I'm slowly becoming more and more aware that I'm part of my own Family now. That's almost as scary as realizing that I plan on binding myself to one man for the rest of my life. Actually - it's a little scarier, because I'm starting to feel ALL grown up. And I'm still too young for that. :)

jasmyn

Sparkly Warklies....

Is there any time limit before which you shouldn't buy the wedding rings? There's no jinxy type superstition stuff, is there?? I found the rings (680 for the pair!!!) that we want - and they are on sale...and I really want to get them...but should you order the rings like way early? *shrugs* This is going to be our ring






And the only difference between his and mine is that his will be bigger. They are 4mm wide, so it won't look too girly. :) The only thing I'm concerned about is the fact that the band of my engagement ring is already close to 5mm at the widest point, and that's a LOT of metal on my finger. I'm debating switching the e-ring to my right hand, or just getting another thinner setting for the stone. Also, because of the design of my ring, only a custom made band will sit flush with it, so even if I DID wear them on the same finger, it would 'tilt' because the prongs push out from under the stone. Choices, choices.

---

Other Random Stuff:

We got the contract from the Flamingo in the mail this weekend, and I really need to sign it and send it back - like tonight.

We're debating if we want a DJ at the reception. It's going to be a brunch, and if I had my druthers (and a wee bit more money) I would prefer just a band - background music on demand. We don't need a master of ceremonies as there won't be a garter throw, or a bouquet toss, and the cake cutting we can announce ourselves, and our first dance song would be lovely with just instrumentals. Choices, choices.

I'm still dragging my feet about going out to look for a dress. I STILL don't know what kind of dress I want. I waver between a white or ivory 'Maggie' like dress (with the side wrap - not the corsety kind) and a simple flowing gold or reddish dress like the one I posted a while ago. I would look fabulous (and feel bridal) in either one - it's just ARGH. Do I want to be traditional? Or do I want to be all unique and stuff? I think me wearing a white bridal dress would actually suprise more folx than me wearing a non-bridal dress would.

I have 50 magnetic business cards for anyone who wants them. :) I realized that as all the printers I have access to are LASER printers, and you can't run the magnet sheets through a laser printer. *sigh* So, I'm going to have to buy the peel off and stick kind instead. I'll print the image on glossy photo paper, then stick them on. Hopefully, it will look about the same. The only 'fun' part is going to be doing the cutting. I swear - the things I DO to myself. :)

jasmyn