Wedding Wednesday: Cake, Paper, & the Best Thing

Less than five months away from the wedding, it finally feels real.  When you first get engaged, there's this feeling of "Is this really happening? Am I really getting married?"  Ben knows because he was on his knee for probably what felt like a year while I screamed "are you serious?!! Am I in the Matrix?!"  during his thoughtful, random, surprise proposal. Sorry Ben. 

Even in the first stages of the planning process, it's all so new that you think, this can't be real.  Then you see the costs of things and it's all so expensive that you pray, please, don't let this be real!  You get the venue and you may even get the dress, but depending on how long your engagement is, it just doesn't quite feel like you're getting any traction in your planning yet.  And then people keep telling you to enjoy your engagement.  What does that even mean?  I'm serious!  What does it mean?  It's not that we're not having fun. There are days where we're planning the wedding and we're so excited that we're jumping on our living room couches throwing the cat in the air.  Then there are other days when someone's calling someone else's idea stupid.  I would love to meet someone who tells me that the process of planning their wedding was fun and not stressful the entire time.  Then I would tell that person I don't believe them and that it doesn't matter how many lies they tell, they will not get their own Oprah's Next Chapter special (yes, that's a Lance Armstrong is a lying doper reference). 

One thing we did get accomplished last week:  we finally signed a contract for our cake.

I'm also proud to announce that we have bridesmaid dresses.  Finding a baker to do our sweet things was one of my favorite parts of the process. But I have to see, ensuring all the maids got their dresses was my least favorite.  Things I didn't like about picking the bridesmaid dresses: 

• Having to remind people to order their dresses.
• Having to remind people to order their dresses.
• Ummm, having to remind people to order their dresses.
• Not being able to promise my maids that their dresses would be cheap.
• Not being able to promise my maids that their dresses would be something that they'll wear again and again and again.
• Coming to the conclusion that it is impossible to find every maid a dress that she will be able to wear again. 
• Having to remind people to order their dresses. 

But, I think the worst is over! And I am beyond grateful to my girls for agreeing to participate in this wedding.  I've never been a bridesmaid/  But after being a bride, I feel like I am more than prepared to be a maid in someone else's wedding.  Just tell me what to buy, when to buy it, where to show up.  To the future brides selecting me as one of their maids: you won't hear one bit of sass comin' from this ol' mouth! 

Another project that was super fun: hiring our super awesome invitation designer Tina Tabibi.  Tina is who I would want to grow up to be if I was ever to become an invitation designer.  Ben and I met with Tina back in November, I believe, and just gave her us, who we are as a couple.  We gave her our personalities, what we wanted our wedding to be like, , and what makes us happy. And Tina took the big bucket of random that we gave her and she has turned it into a product that we'll be mailing out in about a month.

I can't wait to get married. Seriously.  I like being engaged, but I just can't wait to be married.  Especially, since having the wedding essentially means that the kidney transplant will be over and done with and hopefully successful!  And it also means VACATION.  

I have to say, in times like these, trials and tribulations, it's nice to have something to look forward to.  And it's nice to be reminded of the things that really matter. 

I'm having a great time planning my wedding, and every once in a while it's fun and cool to make myself stressed out over DIY table numbers. But other times, I'm grateful for my health situation, as bad as it is, because it reminds me that nobody is going to care about those table numbers or those expensive flowers that will die in a few hours.  What's important is that hopefully i'll be healthy, and I'll be there with Ben.  One of best things about planning a wedding while you have something even bigger happening around you being able to flippantly say "You know what, I know I should give a crap what kind of shoes you wear.  But I don't. I just really don't! I've gotta go, I have a doctor's appointment. Kidneys failing as we speak.  Just wear flip flops!"  Yeah...silver linings. Gotta love 'em.