Friday, June 24, 2011

Shoes!

Remember how I was sad about all the crap I had to do for my wedding that I literally did not care about, at all? Well I went to work and then I came home and determined that I would mark something else off the list (read: participate in retail therapy, another coping mechanism I perfected in college) and I decided to cross off:

Wedding shoes. I have to have the shoes that I'm wearing with my dress before my dress comes in because the dress has to be altered/hemmed to deal with the shoes. AND, guys, what if I don't like the shoes I buy? I need to be able to have time to return them. And get new ones. And my dress is supposed to come in by mid August at the latest. This is clearly a time crunch situation.

So I ventured onto Zappos - I love Zappos, with one year to make returns or exchanges and free shipping both ways, it is by far the ideal way to shop for those of us out in East Jesus Nowhere - and I bought some shoes. Some beautiful, previously believed to be way out of my price range, shoes. Here they are:


Why yes, readers, you may realize that these are Badgley Mischkas; or Momma and Daddy, you probably have no idea what that means, but they are super expensive and super designer and stuff. Think Sex and the City, Momdre. I know you've seen the censored version on TNT - BUT, if you know me you probably know that unless I were in the middle of a serious emotional meltdown (wedding planning is close, but not quite at that level ... yet) that I would never spend that much money on shoes. God knows certainly not after having purchased a dress that was super out of my budget. 

But, like my loverly loverly mother, Zappos came to my rescue and knocked the price of these beauties way down by about 50%. And I got the last pair in my size. 

In conclusion: I love shopping. And shoes. And retail therapy. And sales. And I got to cross something off my miles long to do list. All of these things combine to make me a very content, my-damn-wedding-planning, bride to be on this particular evening. 

Weddings require a lot of work. And that is lame.

Sorry I've been totally MIA, loyal readers (all 5 - 10 of you). I fell down the black hole known as work. I successfully ran the FOH (front of house for you non-industry peeps) by myself for a full week! Yay! And in my free time I've been studying for my sommelier exam - which takes place in like six weeks ... oh and having minor meltdowns about the fact that I suddenly have to actually start planning my wedding.

You may be thinking: Oh, Mare - honey, you've been planning your wedding for the last eight months! But you would be wrong. I killed time for like, ohhhhh three months at least post engagement. Then I made like seven big decisions and signed some contracts in the span of about six weeks. And then I did nothing again - for like, three to four more months. This is not ideal. As it turns out the big stuff is easy and the little things make me feel barfy and yuck.

Most brides are like "YAY I can focus on the little things! Centerpieces! Pew flowers! Escort cards! Limos! Rehearsal Dinner! Gifts! YAY!" That same train of thought for me leads into a fairly devastating spiral of self doubt followed by cranky self pity that then turns into a lovely shade of procrastination. Seriously - I do not want to do these things. Also when I started to tell Fiance about all the thousand and seventeen things we have to do he was all like "Noooo, everything's done!" So that led me to have to write out an actual "To-do" list because I really love being right. In this case though my happy warm fuzzies of rightness feelings were quickly turned to sweaty, booze craving panic when the list turned out to be about four single spaced typed pages long. FOUR PAGES LONG. SINGLE SPACED. And after printing it I realized that there were like seventeen trillion more things I forgot.

So I employed a tactic I used often in college: Organization as Procrastination. That's an exact and very technical term.  So I re-organized our wedding binder - which, btw, had to graduate from a 1.5 inch three-ringer to a 2.5 inch three-ringer. And most of that is contracts and church crap and all that other technical, non-inspiration-board-y stuff. Then I put up a bulletin board. With a calendar and a clipboard with the afore-mentioned billion (fine, four) page long to-do list among some other things. Also a wipe board with the most important and pressing to-dos. I took a picture for y'all. You're welcome.

Organization as Procrastination at it's best.

Also, what you can't see is that in the month of August, Fiance and I will only be in town at the same time FOR ONE WEEKEND. ONE. And then in September we are in town at the same time for TWO WEEKENDS; we are also completely out of town for like four days a month before our wedding for another wedding in St. Louis. And also my bridal shower. Here's the thing - August - October are also the most busy months where I work. I am having a hard time conceiving of crossing off things on that damn four page list when I barely have time off as it is!

Anyway, I can happily report that I have already done a few of the things on the list - I mean, I may have included them on the list knowing I was about to actually do them because it would make me feel better, but that doesn't take away from the fact that I accomplished stuff. I ordered the stamps for our invitations and RSVPs. I also got all the new addresses for our wedding party (of our eleven party members five have moved since we sent out Save-the-Dates). We also paid the deacon at our church for our pre-marital counseling. And I bought some thank you notes ... Yeah. That's all. 

And here's a Dukan update for ya, in case you were interested: I've lost 14 lbs and god knows how many inches. I think I've replaced some of the fat with muscle since I started exercising because my clothing sizes went waaaay down while my weight hasn't necessarily. Anyway, I put on some jeans I haven't worn since college. That was cool. Now I just have to maintain - or at least maintain whatever weight I'm at when my dress comes in ... Crap. Add that to the to - do list.