I Do, Part 2: Pictures

I obviously don't have the professionals yet, but here are some that friends have posted on facebook or passed along to me so far.


Me with my bridesmaids.

Right before I walked down the aisle.

The groomsmen.

The kiss.




















We're married (again)!





















Entering the saber arch.














Right before our friend WHACKED me on the butt with his sword!

Our sign-in table. Check out the awesome ceramic boot that held the sparklers for our exit!










Our cake with the awesome, specially made topper! We went with French vanilla with strawberry filling. Mmm!

K's groom's cake. It was red velvet, and it was delicious! I learned that groom's cakes are a Southern tradition. K's Yankee friends hadn't heard of them before.

Cutting the cake. K was pretty nice. He only got it on part of my face. I was going to be nice, but he gave me the go-ahead. I smashed some in as nicely a way as I could, but evidently it still went up his nose.















Showing the Yankees how we Southerners do it!

Heather, me & Elle.

Our fake exit at 10:00 p.m. Our photographer got to go home, we got pretty pictures ... and we got to go back in and party some more!

What the hell were we thinking?

Who plans a wedding when they're already married?!

I'll tell you who: CELEBRITIES.

They plan a second ceremony because they're rich and have nothing better to do with their time. And they love attention. And they have someone else to plan the wedding.

Never mind that we had perfectly legitimate reasons for planning this "I Do, Part 2" ceremony. Never mind that we based every decision for the Florida wedding off the fact we'd have this ceremony.

We are stupid, stupid people. We should be commited.

If the fact we're having a second wedding doesn't make us crazy enough for such drastic intervention, I assure you this week has gotten me to that point.

Stupid, stupid, stupid.

Communicating with clients! Imagine that!

The new hair & makeup lady texted me this afternoon to confirm our trial appointment tomorrow.

I'm likin' this lady already!

I just fired my hair/makeup person

I had three vendors I was trying to get in touch with yesterday. I got ahold of two of them. The third, my hair & makeup person, was still MIA.

I hadn't heard from her since last Tuesday (5/5). And that email had taken multiple emails on my part. She had asked if I'd be available for a trial on Thursday, May 14 (which is now tomorrow). I immediately emailed her back saying that should work, but asking for a specific time. I didn't hear from her.

I tried her again on Friday, when I sent her an email telling her I'd heard from all of my bridesmaids, and they would be doing their own hair and makeup. Still no answer.

I gave her the weekend, and Monday I was too swamped and forgot to email her. So I emailed her yesterday morning. Still no answer.

I called her late yesterday afternoon. You guessed it: No answer.

I texted AJ: "She better give you commission for my business, because if you hadn't recommended her, I'd have given up on her 2 wks ago."

AJ couldn't believe I still hadn't heard from her. She told me she had a great backup, and she gave me her information. I called the new hair & makeup lady, but I got her voicemail. I left her a message. She returned my call 30 minutes later!!! [cue angels singing]

I finally got an email from the first girl at 11:15 last night. By that point, it was too late. I had to email her this morning to fire her. I did it politely and very nicely (and no, I did not use the word "fired").

I've never had to fire anyone before, so it sucked that I had to do it. But I have enough to worry about without adding the fear that my hair & makeup girl won't show up on the day of the ceremony.

When did I become a babysitter?

Dear Cake Lady,

You told me on May 4 that you'd be calling me the next day to discuss our wedding cake and groom's cake. I still haven't heard from you.

Considering that my wedding is 11 days away, I thought maybe it would be a good idea if we could get this shit planned already.

Sincerely,
Girl Who Would Find a New Baker If She Had More Than 11 Days to Go

_______________________

Dear Hair & Makeup Lady,

After several attempts to get in touch with you the previous couple of weeks, I finally heard from you late last week. You never told me for sure that you'd be available to do my hair and makeup for the ceremony, but since you said you wanted to do a trial this Thursday, I'm taking that as an all-clear.

And since Thursday is two days away, if you could answer my third email attempt to find out a specific time for said trial appointment, I'd appreciate it. I'd also really like it if you'd answer me about where your office is.

Thanks for sucking at communication,
Girl Who Would Totally Use Someone Else If AJ Hadn't Spoken So Highly of You

_______________________

Dear Hotel Coordinator Lady,

Thank you for your offer to do two shuttle runs from the hotel to our reception site for our guests. I really appreciate it, and if you're still able to do it, that'll save us a little bit of money since we'll just have to pay for a shuttle at the end of the night.

However, I'd really appreciate it if you would answer me on whether that offer still stands and if we can work it out for just the beginning of the night. I understand I can't be too upset with you since I'm not paying you for this service, but at the same time, yours is our primary hotel, so we've brought you a good amount of business for next week -- and you did offer this service to us.

Please answer my dang email so I can book the shuttle for the end of the night.

Thanks,
Frustrated Chick Who Is SO Never Getting Married Again! (twice is plenty, thank you)

What a creep!

Today is a warm, muggy day, and it's the first day we haven't had rain in the forecast in weeks. I wanted to wear something cute and girly to celebrate, and I had a new, short-sleeved knit shrug that made me feel confident I could wear a summery dress to work without freezing to death. I paired it with some brown Old Navy flip-flops and was good to go.

Until my right flip-flop decided to break late this morning. For some reason, the bottom of the toe strap just popped off, so I had to get extra creative with my fix. When shoving a pushpin into the end of the strap didn't hold, I bent up a paper clip, which I was able to work farther into the strap. It seemed to hold better. I was determined to not have to go home because of a flip-flop malfunction. I'm not wasting this cute outfit, dang it!

Around lunch, it was time to take Piper outside (I can take her to work, remember?). It's a pretty decent haul down several flights of stairs and through a couple hallways to take her out, but I tried my best to walk gently to avoid messing up my quick fix.

I guess I wasn't gentle enough, because my flip-flop was definitely looser. I lifted my foot and could see that the paper clip was starting to follow the strap through the bottom of my shoe and out the top of the flip-flop. I hobbled over to a curb and sat down to fix it. I pointed myself at the parking garage, rather than toward the outside parking lot or the road. I figured it was the best direction to go to avoid flashing anyone (just in case). Besides, there was a huge white truck parked in the spot closest to me. It would block the rest of the garage from seeing anything so I could focus on fixing my flip-flop.

After doing the best I could to fix my shoe, I put it back on and stood up. Then, I heard the truck start in the garage.

"Awesome."

I hadn't been sprawled all over the curb, but if I'd known I had a possible audience, I'd have stretched my legs out in front of me more. I had been sitting low to the ground, so my knees were high in front of me. My dress is about knee-length, so no one could have seen down it, but they could have seen underneath it, since I hadn't tucked the back/bottom of my skirt between my knees. (I thought the truck was guarding me!)

Still, I wasn't sure the driver had seen anything. I headed to the grass and leaned over to pick up after Piper. When I stood up, the light caught something shiny and silver from within the cab of the truck.

It was either a digital camera or a mini-video camera. And it was pointed right at me.

My jaw dropped to the ground. I'd seen this truck in the garage for weeks! He was always in the same spot. As a matter of fact, I'd parked right by him this morning. But I had no idea who the driver was. I couldn't see him clearly enough to tell if I even recognized him, but I could tell it was a man.

I made sure that the rest of the time I was out there, I was glaring at him, just in case he looked at me again (I still couldn't really see him).

I'm not sure if he videotaped me or took a picture. And I'm not sure if he did the same while I was sitting on the curb. I'm not sure if the angle he got was down the front of my dress, or if I had turned my back to him and he'd managed to pick up the outline of my no-panty-lines-please underwear that only shows when you stretch the dress to try to test the panty lines (meaning the underwear outline also may show if I do bend over). Either way, I'm not cool with the fact this guy was recording ANY of this.

I'm seriously contemplating leaving a bitchy note on his windshield.

How are we supposed to play this game if we don't know the rules?!

As if wedding planning wasn't doing a fabulous job of filling my spare time (and downtime at work -- shh!), now that we know when and where we're going next, I've found a new hobby: house hunting.

I found two homes that I absolutely love. K loves them too. I got excited about the possibility of living in one of them (or a house like them) in less than three months.

And then I read that you shouldn't buy a house if you're going to live in it less than three years. Shit.

K is assigned to this base for only two years. After that, he'll be sent halfway across the country for a training course.

But ...

The housing market is crap right now. It's a great time to buy. And since things are looking like they're headed up, it seems logical that the housing market will improve over the next couple of years as well.

Plus, this home (whether we rent or buy) will be in the Virginia Beach area. There are several military bases there, and evidently the area is a pretty nice tourist destination (according to the Internet, anyway -- K and I have ever been).

I spent some time yesterday looking through rental houses in Virginia Beach. I found a few I liked, and K liked them too. The ones we loved were in the neighborhood of $2,000 a month.
That seems like a lot of money to just be giving away to someone each month. And multiplying that sum for the course of 24 months?! Wow ...

Now, we're stuck on what to do. Does the situation and location make it OK to throw the three years rule out the window?

19

We just have 19 days to go until I Do, Part 2. Nineteen days to keep trying to get ahold of our baker and my hair person (they suck at communicating).

Nineteen days to design & print programs and table numbers. And thank you cards. (Worst decision ever. I've told everyone I know who's planning a wedding that it's totally worth it to have someone else do them for you.)

Nineteen days left of stressing: What if no one else comes? What if the ceremony is just us and dates of the people in the wedding party? Why have so many people not RSVP'd yet? Is this all going to be worth it?

Nineteen days until I can get my life back. Oh, please let it be worth it!