OMG! Four months left!

I'm actually in New York City right now, typing this in my closet-sized (but well-amenitized, with flat-screen TV and stylish furnishings) hotel room. I just checked this blog for the first time in several weeks and realized from my countdown widget that there are only four-plus months left 'til my wedding! Crazy! I feel like I should be doing more, but then I look at our timeline and we're pretty on track with all our tasks. To make myself feel better, let me list some of our big checked-off to-do's here:

-We sent save the date postcards out to folks back in January, and I finished writing our invitation text (with directions, gift registry info, etc). Henry's designing the invitations and we'll be sending them out in late May/early June.
-Ordered and paid for (well, my mom paid for) my wedding dress. A BIG accomplishment for me, since I had been looking at dresses for a good six months already.
-Ordered my potential reception dress--which should be waiting for me back home when I return. It's th Amanda dress from Trashy Diva, a clothing line whose dresses are simple, sexy, elegant and beautiful.
-Booked the reception and ceremony venues
-Scoped out the ceremony space a few times for decoration and ceremony ideas
-Booked our photographer
-Pulled our wedding party together, which is taking the lead on the decorations at our wedding, and helping with lots of other things
-Chose and have been working with the officiant for our wedding (our friend Shash Yazhi, who has been great)
-Signed up for our gift registry (we're asking folks to donate to our fund for a house)
-Pretty much decided on our menu, and now just need to find servers and folks to set up and clean up (we're not pressing our friends and family into service in that way, except for helping to clean up the decorations at the ceremony site)
-Confirmed two of our good friends as singers at our ceremony, where they will sing a duet version of Danny's Song by Kenny Loggins.
-Have a lineup of free DJ's (it helps that H. is a DJ and has lots of really good DJ friends) for the reception.

I guess that's a lot of work, but I still feel like I should be doing more! It's the Type-A person in me, she gets kinda antsy. But we are having a far less formal wedding than the wedding magazines encourage you to have, and don't care so much about things like cake-toppers and personalized, engraved wedding cake serving sets, etc. And H. is handling all of the materials production and music (invitations, web site, DJs )So that cuts out a lot of work. I know I just need to breathe and relax, like H. says, and everything will be all right.

Bought it!

This past Monday, I bought/ordered my wedding ceremony dress, which I'm not showing to Henry because he's being old-fashioned and doesn't want to see it before the big day. It was a bit nerve-wracking--my mom was buying it for me and said I could get the more expensive, tissue taffeta silk fabric one instead of the shantung silk version, and I changed the color of the dress right after we left the store because I got freaked out about having a too white color for the wedding. I'm still a little anxious that the color may clash a bit with the autumn gold accent fabric we've chosen, although I know that the main color for our wedding, a dark teal color for the bridesmaids' dresses and other decorations, goes well with the ivory color of my dress. Who knew that buying one dress would ever consume so much of my energy? But for now, it's just a waiting game, as my dress won't be ready for my fitting for another three months.

It's been an interesting journey, the girly-side of the wedding planning. I never thought of myself as a super-girly woman, although I do like wearing dresses (although not high heels particularly) and I wear makeup fairly regularly these days (powder, lipstick and blush usually). But there's something about trying on these gorgeous, expensive, well-made fashion creations that brings out even the least girly-girl's ultra-feminine side. My mom even got in on the action on the day we bought my dress, cooing at herself in the mirror when she tried on this stunner, which she ended up buying. It was very cute, especially since my mom's selection of "eveningwear" mostly consists of conservative jewel-toned sweaters and black polyester slacks (not that I'm knocking on mom's wardrobe, but it was really nice to see her in something glamorous and totally fashionable).

I can't wait to have my dress in my hot little hands in a few months! Since I never went to my proms and have only been a bridesmaid in one wedding, I have to say it's fun playing princess for the first time in my life.