Just a Little Update

Trevor got a job! And we now have an apartment and only have a bit more stuff to move in. We get married in 4 days! Things are kind of crazy here. It kind of stinks that there are a lot of things that you can't get ready for a wedding until just a couple days before. And unluckily for us, it rained for several days last week and we couldn't work on the yard or house at all (we are having the open house outside). But at least it took care of watering the lawn I guess. Things are getting a little more stressful, but we're getting there! I can't wait to make it all happen. I will post pictures. I made some cool serving plates and such that I am quite proud of. Trevor is coming up tomorrow, so it will be nice to have his help to get things done. And we are doing our wedding pictures on Wednesday night. I am excited for that. I normally don't love doing pictures, but engagements were really enjoyable! Anyways, that's about it for the update. We have done a lot, and there's still a lot to do. Trevor got a good job, and we have a place to live. It feels really nice to have that all set up and to not have to worry about it. :)

All The Changes

So many things are going on! It's almost hard to keep up! Trevor has spent more than 2 months going from interview to interview looking for a job (he just graduated with a mechanical engineering degree). Finally about 2 weeks ago he had the opportunity to have a couple of second interviews. We were excited about that. I went with him to one of the places he interviewed. They guy he interviewed with took us out to lunch afterwards. The job paid good, but the it had some big downfalls. Such as, Trevor would be on call and could be called out at any time. Also, it would be long hours and he would spend a lot of time away. And during training, he would spend 3 months in another state, and I would not go with him. How terrible would that be? One of the things I'm looking forward to most when we get married is being able to spend time with him. Well, he got an offer with that company, and then the next day he got another offer from a different company. We were really surprised about this one! This was one of Trevor's first interviews, but he never heard back from them. He would email them occasionally to see if they had made a decision (they were waiting to hear what their budget would be so they knew how many people to hire). It had been probably over 2 months and Trevor finally emailed them and told them he had gotten a couple of offers, but would like to work for them (he hadn't really gotten offers) and just asked what was going on. They told him they had a couple more interviews and that they would get back to him by the end of the week. And on Friday he got an offer! We were excited about this because originally we had really wanted this job, and it was the best town in between our families. So now Trevor is looking for a place for us to live. Pretty exciting! It was kind of stressful not knowing what we were going to do after we got married, and not even knowing what town we would live in. It is so nice to have that figured out now.

Also, now that it is two weeks before the wedding, my mom and I decided to change what we were having for refreshments and what we were doing for decorations. Instead of doing a lattice background, we are doing an arch with some candle things to the sides (looks better than I described it) and we are using some mason jar lanterns around the yard and to kind of lead people in to the line. And for refreshments instead of doing an assortment of sweet desserts (cupcakes, cream cheese mints, truffles, cream puffs, mini cheese cakes, brownies, and cookies) we are doing a nacho bar. There will be re-fried beans, cheese, onions, olives, maybe green peppers, sour cream, and a few different salsa's and a Frito dip (best thing ever). We'll have lemonade and still do cream cheese mints, cupcakes, and brownies for a dessert. Oh and we'll also have strawberries. I think that's what we'll do. It should be yummy!

Another thing we changed, is who is doing our flowers. The person I was originally going to ask is now out of the flower business, so now I get to do them myself. I practiced making a boutineer and a bouquet. The boutineer turned out great, but it was a good thing I practiced on the bouquet. That didn't turn out. But I talked to some people and they gave me some really good suggestions and I think it'll end up ok in the end. I'll be sure to take lots of pictures of things and post some. I think it will turn out to be a nice reception. Even if it is a little more casual than normal. :)

Order Online? - Yeah, I did that.

Just a bit of advice on buying a dress! I bought my dresses online. I say dresses because I actually bought 2 wedding dresses. It was hard to decide which dress I wanted and I was a little nervous about not being able to try the dress on before buying it. I had a few concerns about the way my more favorite dress would fit, so I also got my second favorite dress. No worries though because both dresses together were still cheaper than any one of the lowest priced dresses I would have bought in a store. It was good that I did buy two because as it turns out, I didn't even like the dress I originally wanted once I tried it on. It didn't fit me quite right, and had a lot more beading than I thought, which made the top of the dress too stiff for my liking. So now I will just sell that dress and wear the other one (and then probably sell that one too).

There are lots of places online that you can buy wedding dresses for super cheap. Most of them are from China, and quite a few of them don't make the dress until you order it. You can get a really good deal, but you have to be careful and on top of things. You should probably follow these simple rules when ordering online.

1. Before you just go ordering a dress, you will want to research the site you are going through. Make sure they have a good, safe policy, and definitely check for reviews on the site, the manufacturer, and the product. Also, make sure you read each different manufacturer's policies. From returning, shipping, methods of payment, and so forth. Make sure it sounds legitimate. It also helps to know someone who has ordered online successfully and possibly use the same site (that's what I did).
2. If you are having the dress custom made, make sure that you do the measurements right! Each manufacturer has a different way of measuring, and they should have directions on how to measure somewhere on the page you order from. 
3. Make sure they are following through with the shipment! Your package will be assigned a tracking number, and you want to keep checking it, just to make sure it's going where it needs to. However, don't just check the tracking number on the site you bought your dress/whatever from. Check it on an actual tracking site. I found that one of my dresses had made it to the USA by tracking it on an actual EMS tracking site. It wasn't being updated on the site I bought the dress from and it had been a while and I was sort of freaking out. So I plugged the tracking number into a different tracking site and found out everything was fine and my dress was going to arrive in a couple of days. 
4. Make note of what form of shipment they are using and research how long it should take to ship. I didn't do this at first. One dress was shipped a few days before the second, but the second arrived only 3-5 days after shipping. Then another week went by and I started freaking out thinking my dress was lost. Until I realized that the first dress to arrive was express mail and the other might not be. So I looked it up. Turns out, the form of shipment for this dress took about two weeks to arrive in the USA from China. So I stopped worrying so much. It had only been a little over a week. 
5. Don't be afraid to send a message to your manufacturer. If you have a worry, let them know about it. If you like the dress you ordered, let them know about it. Write a review for them even. They could be very helpful if you're package accidentally got lost. Or they could be a little more lenient if they know your concerns and what might have gone wrong with your package. Communication is key. Just as in any relationship you could ever be in. 
6. This last one isn't so much a tip as it is a heads up. Both of the dresses I ordered were custom made, so they didn't even start making them until I had ordered and the payment went through. For one dress, it took about 3 and a half weeks from the time I ordered to when it arrived. That was express mail. The second dress took probably about 5 weeks. So plan ahead! Be prepared to have a back up plan if your dress doesn't fit right, or you absolutely hate it, or it gets lost. 

It's a little more risky to order online, but I would say that it is definitely worth it. I am very happy with my dress and can't wait to wear it!

Decisions!

Just a little update on the wedding stuff. I have decided on the dress I am going to wear, and I am pretty sure I've decided on a hairstyle and what type of hair accessory I am going to have. Probably just a flower on a clip. I'll clip it on the side of my head, and I'll have wavy hair. Not too fancy, but fancy enough, and definitely looks like me. I've also decided to have my reception (now being referred to as an open house) in my yard. Lots of yard work to be done! But a lot less worrying about decorations. Whoo! And today I designed my announcements with my photographer. Our engagements were taken about a week and a half ago. Here are a few of my favorites. :) Some are bigger so you can actually see our faces.

Ignore the wire/pole in the background, that would normally be edited out. 

Ok, so maybe a few was a little bit of an exaggeration. I like a lot of the pictures though so it's hard to choose! 

It feels good to be getting things done. I feel like I might actually get married now that we're sending announcements out. :) As of today I only have one month left. It is probably going to be the longest and shortest, busiest and most boring, stressful and even more stressful, happiest and angriest month of my whole life! I hope my family is ready for their roller coaster ride. ;)

We Meet Again

It wasn't until a month or so into the fall semester that I saw Trevor again. And of course, it happened to be at Country Swing Dancing. I had been having a rough beginning to the semester. School was fine (although my motivation was pretty low), but I was kind of feeling friendless. I went from spending most of every day of the summer with a few of my best friends and meeting lots of new people at soccer and frisbee games, to pretty much hanging out with nobody. Kind of ridiculous on a college campus right? That's what I thought. It is the loneliest feeling when you are surrounded by hundreds of people in every class and on every part of campus, but have no one to talk to. I would notice that almost everyone walking to class had someone to talk to or hold hands with, but I never had that. I didn't talk to my classmates because that was when I was supposed to be listening to the lectures. How were people making all these friends?! I still have no idea. Maybe I'm just not good at it, but I tried making friends and still had no luck. I attended every night of Country Swing Dancing, every church activity, every free school activity, and every pick up sport there was going on, but I was still feeling friendless. Every other semester started out with me averaging about 3 dates a week until the middle of the semester (when people either decided you weren't their type or they just gave up the hope that they were your type). Not this semester though. There was nothing. Not until about two weeks before I saw Trevor again. I had a guy asking me out about once or twice a week (only for like 2 weeks though). So, there I was, moping around in my month of aloneness.

Now this is where my story gets better, I promise. I went Country Dancing as I always do, and even though I was having fun dancing and meeting people, I still had that lonely, empty feeling. You may know the feeling. It never leaves you no matter what fun thing you're doing or how hard you try to be happy (you just can't be happy without friends it turns out). I was semi-happily standing around waiting for someone to ask me to dance, and that is when I turn and see him. About three steps away from me, walking in my direction. He had this smile on his face that he gets every once in a while. The only way I can describe it, is that if he had the choice, he would choose to not smile (so people wouldn't know how he really feels). But he can't hide it, so the smile just shows through. And of course, I smile as I see him, and almost before I can even say hi, he closes the gap, wraps his arms around me, and holds me close during a good, solid hug. The first time I've felt like I had a friend the entire semester! Yay! I will admit that I almost teared up. It honestly felt so comfortable and good. My lonely, empty feeling was gone from that point on. People just need a little bit of love every once in a while, you know? After the hug I managed to stumble out some words to ask about his summer (I sometimes try really hard to act normal, but it doesn't always work out - I was so happy to have a friend, but didn't want to overwhelm him - so much inside conflict). After a little bit of chit chat Trevor asked me for my number again (this was the third, and luckily final, time). I eagerly gave it to him and he danced with me once before he left for the night.

This is where it gets a little bit fuzzy, but I am pretty sure that this was the same night that Trevor asked me on the Canoe Date. He says that that was the only reason he went dancing that night. He hoped he'd see me so that he could get my number and ask me on a date. I was very happy he asked me, but I was also nervous because the guy who had also been asking me on dates was also at Country Dancing and I was afraid he would ask me on a date for the same day and I'd have to turn him down (you never want to close an option before you have to even if it is unintentional). Luckily he asked for Saturday though and things worked out. I excitedly went on my Canoe Date, and not quite as excitedly went on my other date. Trevor was extremely good at making me not so excited about my dates with other people even though he didn't know about them. I didn't really mind though. :)