Our First Confirmation

In the world of academia, I should really be doing something constructive right now. Preparing for the conference presentation I have tomorrow comes to mind. But then so does reading the pile of midterm portfolios on my desk or scheduling student conferences for next week. Finishing research for the papers I have due in a few weeks is in that list too. But, I can't seem to focus on anything right now except the email sitting on my desk. So what's the big deal?

Well, yesterday, I emailed the two state parks we're interested in having the wedding at. I explained the entire wedding weekend and asked if this was possible coupled with keeping a few cabins for family at Christmas (and through the 28th). Basically, I told them that we would want to, basically, rent the park out from the 18th through the 28th. A few minutes ago, I got this response from one of the sites:

We would be able to accommodate this event. I checked our books and all of the cabins and motels are available at this time. The lodge where we have weddings all the time is also available at this time. If you would give us a call for more details

Yeah! And I know from talking to my mom that the other one we're looking at does weddings and seems enthused about the prospect of us being there for the week. I just don't have an email confirmation yet. We'll just have to see how it goes. I'm calling the parks next week (hopefully) to get answers to the million questions I have. I'm hoping that we'll be able to have not only a date but a location here in the next month. Then, come the first of January, I hope we're putting down a deposit! Yeah us!

Flower Girls, Fishing and Formal Wear

One of my favorite pictures of one of my flower girls involves her standing on the patio of her grandparents' lake house in a princess dress with her hands extended as she smiles for the camera. The reason this is one of my favorite pictures is not that she looks like the perfect little princess all dressed up for the ball. In fact, this is my favorite picture because she has dirt and worm guts all over her hands. Her cousin and partner in flower girl land is much the same way. These two precious girls are my flower girls because they remind me much of myself at the same age. I didn't care what I was wearing; if there was a tree to climb or a worm bin to play with, I was all over it.

So, in the past few days, I've been procrastinating my paper research to look for the perfect dresses for these little angels. I've seen many adorable dresses that would work well with the wedding theme and look precious on the girls. But I refuse to buy any of these dresses. Why not? Well, I have reality staring me in the face. My bridesmaids gowns are costing about $180 each. I can fully justify spending this money on these great women because the attire is a two piece and both pieces can (and I hypothesize will be) worn at later dates. Flower girl dresses. Well, that's another story. These precious little girls will likely wear the dresses again--and I hope they will until they outgrow them. And I know that my girls will wear the dresses to climb trees in, to fish in, or to splash around in a mud puddle if there's one nearby. And there is nothing wrong with that. However, paying between $150 and $300 for a cute dress that will end up wit mud, tree branches, and worm guts on it is completely out of the question.

The sad thing is that I know exactly what I want in a flower girl dress. It's the one in this post. But with some sleeves. The dress is adorable without sleeves, but little frozen flower girls are not on the wedding agenda. What I like best about this dress is that it is, really, a simple A-line dress that isn't overly sophisticated for such young girls. But, I'm refusing to buy it. Why? It runs about $175 at the cheap sites online. That's ludicrous! So, next spring, I'm going shopping for my girls. I want something similar to this dress, but with sleeves. I figure something similar cannot be too hard to find. A simple white dress with sleeves. Then, what I can do is get a sash that matches the color of my bridesmaids' gowns, or one in the oft forgotten color of my wedding (crimson) and add that to the dress. If I'm feeling creative (and my friends who are not as sewingly challenged as I am offer help), it would not be a problem to attach the sashes either around the waist or, like in this dress, around the upper hem of the dress. I figure that buying the gowns just around Easter and then purchasing the sash and attaching it, I'm still coming out with a more reasonable price than they charge for any "official" flower girl dress.

First Wedding Mini-Crisis Averted

For some reason, probably paper procrastination, I felt compelled to take another gander at my gown today. I can't explain it, but I had to. So, I hopped on the website, pulled up the dress from my favorites and ogled for a minute before I realized that there were now comments on the dress. Ooooh! I love knowing what other people think about things like this. So, I started with the oldest comment and, about three comments into the page, I read this one:

I love it! I searched everywhere for it, like the other woman said- if you love it get it NOW!! It is being retired. I cant wait, i try it on like every day.

Now, I don't panic over comments like this. Okay, so the dress is being retired. It's not the end of the world, I thought as I perused the rest of the comments. All of them said the same thing.

"I'll just find another gown." I thought as I browsed through the new additions to the website.

But, as I continued searching the pages, nothing was jumping off the page begging me to look more. The longer I looked, the more I began to realize that this was my dress. There is not another dress for me. I'm too attached to this dress and have been since I tried it on this summer. So, this let me with several ways of approaching the problem.

1. Sell $700 worth of plasma and run spastically through the bridal stores in the Dallas area until I found one in a size near my own. I can hope that the size is close enough to alter when the time comes.
2. Apply for immediate credit card and dash to bridal store this weekend. Buy whatever is in stock, regardless of size.
3. Wait patiently until mom shows up in several months, explain situation and buy then. Okay, so I have to still hope that the dress is in the appropriate size when it comes time to have the alterations done.
4. Curl up in cozy chair, set tea on coffee table, and Google with fingers crossed.

Well, I chose the last option. It sounded like the best idea for my current situation. The reason for this is that I really don't want to buy the gown this early. I'm hoping to be a size smaller (at least) when I start alterations. So, if I can wait, I would rather. Now, in addition to this, I want my mothers (yes, both of them) the chance to see the gown before I buy it. Sure, if the store doesn't have it at the time, I understand. But I want the option.

Guess what I found on Google. A different designer makes the same gown. Yeah! But that's not all. This designer makes the same gown and I can add an extra foot to the train (an idea I like), rush the delivery, pay for overnight shipping, and still save close to $200. And, if I don't want to do it this way, there are four stores in the area that carry the designer, so I can check with them and see if they can order it. So, crisis averted. Now, it's time to sit back enjoy my tea and see if they have flower girl dresses that I like.