Let the countdown begin!

One year from this very date, I am hoping with all my heart that I'll be waking from a wonderful night's sleep to go get my hair done, get a pedicure, spend some time with my best girlfriends and count down the hours until the biggest moment of my life.

If K doesn't get deployed in November, then a year from this date will be our wedding date. A year from today, all the stress over choosing a venue, a florist, a DJ and a photographer; a dress; what type of bar we have; and every other single tiny detail that we'll have to plan won't matter. What will be most important is the fact that K and I will (finally) be husband and wife.

That makes the frustration from my last post easier to handle. And so did all the comments and advice people left. I really appreciated that.

I'm still torn on what to do about the whole thing. I mean, yeah, it is just one day, and $15,000 is a lot to spend for something that lasts only a few hours.

At the same time, it's a big few hours. Most of us girls wonder from a very early age what that day will be like. The venues and vendors know that, and that's exactly where they get you. I talked to K about this last night, and he had a great point: "We don't have to impress our friends and families. They're not coming for the wedding. They're coming to see us." So true.

Those one-foot blue bands will look lovely around the tops of our white tables, but they're not really going to matter to the 150 to 200 people who come to our wedding.

I've decided I'm going to email the lady back at our venue and ask her to remove the extras she added to our contract, which is what brought on the increase (She added the blue bands at $3 a table; some flowers for the centerpieces, which I said nothing about adding; and some yellow napkins for the bargain price of $400. I think I'll just tell all of our guests to wear long sleeves. Okay, not really.). We're going to start with the basics and go from there.

So here's what we've planned so far:

• Date: May 24, 2008


• Colors: royal blue and light yellow


• Location: Dallas (I would love to have our wedding in Norman, since it's one of my favorite places in the world. People could see where we got engaged, the OU campus and even the OKC bombing memorial, which means a lot to me as an Oklahoman. Unfortunately, it just doesn't make sense to get married there. It's already a five-hour drive for K to get to Dallas, so we'd have to drive three more to get to Norman. Since I live in Dallas, it makes sense to have it here. And with all the people who will be traveling to the wedding, Dallas is a great location because it's got a huge airport and has a lot to do.)


• Wedding party: We're going to have 10 groomsmen and five bridesmaids. K is in the Army. He's been stationed in Korea for a year, Iraq for six months, Afghanistan for four months, Oklahoma for three years and now Louisiana for three. That's a lot of people. Plus, he has his childhood friends and his college friends. We could easily have 30 groomsmen. We have 10 because K has a brother and eight close guy friends. I wanted my brother to be a groomsmen, so we added two more, which is perfect because it means I can have one more bridesmaid. On that end, I have a total of six good girlfriends. These are the girls I can tell anything to and talk to most often. The first four already know they're going to be bridesmaids. They'd be confused if I didn't ask them. The fifth is Rebecca. I think I'll talk to her about it when I see her this weekend in Austin. I think she'll be flattered that I'm asking her and won't be expecting it. The sixth good friend I'll ask to help with the guest book and things like that. I'll ask my cousin (the one who lived in Hawaii) to do that as well. That gets everyone I want included.


• Bridesmaids dresses:
  
  
  
  (imagine it with a light yellow sash instead of green)

• Flowers: yellow roses and blue hydrangeas
• Dinner: buffet. We're trying to choose between Italian and BBQ. Italian is obviously a big part of K's life (since he's half-Italian). BBQ is a big part of mine, with my dad and all. Before every dance, recital or big event in my life, I had to stop off at my dad's store so he could see me and take pictures. My grandparents could see me that way also, and so could the employees of the store, who were like family since we all worked together like that. I used to complain that I always had to smell like BBQ at everything because of the store. It would just be fitting to have BBQ at my wedding! The wedding planner guy said we could do both -- have BBQ and potato salad served for the meal, and have Italian hors d'oeuvres like Italian wedding soup and something else Italian at the end of the meal. They totally don't go together, but that's kind of the fun part. I think probably what we'll do, though, is just have BBQ for the rehearsal dinner and Italian for the wedding buffet. I don't want my dad, his girlfriend and my grandparents to have to eat BBQ at my wedding when they're around it every day. Plus, since it's not my dad's, it won't be that great anyway. :)

That's pretty much everything we have planned right now. I'm excited about all those things.

For all you married people, though -- especially those of you in Dallas! -- if you have any advice, feel free to leave a comment. Feel free to leave a really long comment. And if you have so much advice you can't even get it all in one comment, feel free to email me: soonerbride@hotmail.com