Finding “The One” September 21, 2009

It’s something most girls spend their entire lives thinking about… Will The One know how to hug me just right?  Will The One make me feel beautiful and special?  Will our love be timeless, or will I look back in 10 years and wonder What was I thinking?

These were the questions I was faced with when I went with my mom to try on wedding dresses this weekend.  What?  Did you think I was talking about a guy?

After visiting three bridal salons (including Belles and Beaus, and The New Image, both of Thomasville), I think I’ve finally found The One.  Well, the other “The One,” but I’ve had Arron for a while now.  It was a very…unique experience.  The first store we went to on our way to Thomasville, Belles and Beaus, had a beautiful store with a boutique atmosphere and gave me the royal treatment.  Although I didn’t find my dress there, I recommend them highly.

My next stop was at a shop I won’t name.  When we walked into the shop, we were shepherded to the back where the wedding dresses were…all 8 of them.  After being shuffled to a HOT dressing room (I’m cold natured and I was sweating!), the sales lady brought in three dresses.  No mention of what kind of dress I was going for, just “Here are the three dresses you get to try on!”  Needless to say, we were out of there quickly, and hoping to be more successful at the next shop after lunch.

After grabbing a delicious fried grouper sandwich at Jonah’s Fish & Grits, we ventured into The New Image bridal salon.  We were given a warm greeting and a quick tour of the store (which was huge!), and we were handed a basket with at least 25 colored clothespins to clip onto any dresses that I wanted to try on.  I was like a kid in a candy store!  My mom was my partner in crime, clipping clothespins on dresses ranging from a demure vintage lace style, to a dress suitable for an antebellum plantation wedding, to Barbie’s dream dress; I tried it all.  After all, how often do you get to try on wedding dresses?

After making our selections, I headed back to the dressing room where dresses were already waiting for me…along with my own personal shopping assistant to help me in and out of the dresses.  As she removes the dress from the garment bag, I’m standing there waiting in just my bra and underwear, like it’s perfectly normal to stand around half-naked in front of a perfect stranger.  So glad I shaved my legs that morning.  Oh, and you’d better not be self-conscious about your body, because you’re back there with two to three other brides to be!

When I walked out each time to stand on the platform in front of the giant mirrors, the other women in the shop (brides and their mothers) all asked, “How do you pick one?  They all look so beautiful.”  As I walked out in a dress that was a deviation from most of the others I’d tried on, nearly every woman in the room drew a breath and said that I looked gorgeous.  That’s how you know you’ve found the right dress.

Of course, being me, you knew there had to be something that went wrong (or at least embarrassed the stew out of me) that day, and you’d be right.  After our lunch, I made sure to pop in a piece of gum, as I didn’t want to inflict my fish and herbed veggie breath on a poor, unsuspecting salesperson.  (Note to self: invest in some Listerine breath strips…they go away on their own)   I was wearing the Barbie bridal dream dress, which consisted of roughly 60 pounds of tulle, organza, silk, lace, sequins and pearls.  My mom was adjusting the front of the dress while the sales girl was adjusting the train and attempting to put the veil in, and I was putting my hair up in a claw clip.  I stuck the teeth of the clip in my mouth, twisted up my hair, then grabbed the clip again to secure my hair.  Once my hair was clipped, I realized my gum was no longer in my mouth.  Uh-oh.  I just lost a wad of gum in 300 yards of fabric.  Before panic can truly set in, the sales girl says, “Hmm, what’s that on the floor?” and before I can stop her, she picks up my runaway gum!  She didn’t even flinch…just walked over to the trash can and threw it away.  Bless you Jada.  You rock.  I apologized profusely, but no amount of regret can make up for that.

By the end of the day, I figure I tried on about 30 dresses, and I was tired!  Who knew playing dress up could be so exhausting!  I’ll add pictures (hopefully tonight) of the dresses that did not make the cut.  You’ll just have to wait until the wedding to see the one I chose!

Edit:

The Barbie Dream Wedding Dress

Maybe tonight, I’ve got a question for you… July 29, 2009

Well, well…such big news for such a new blog!  I got engaged over the weekend!

But I’m getting ahead of myself…let’s start at the beginning.  Friday was my 22nd birthday, and my now-fiance Arron said he wanted to take me out for a nice dinner date for my birthday.  He asked me to dress up so we could go on a “proper” date, and  I happily obliged.  Arron dressed similarly to the way he did on our first real date, and we got some pictures before we left the house.  We both looked pretty snazzy if I do say so myself.

At my parents'

Of course, being us, we like to goof around.

Even on our way to the restaurant, Arron wouldn’t tell me where we were going.  We pulled into the Carrabba’s parking lot, which is where we had our first date.  It’s a good thing I’m completely oblivious, because I still hadn’t put two and two together at this point.  Or maybe I was just hungry and had Chicken Parmesan on the brain.  We had a very pleasant dinner, and then we were on to our next stop of the night, Lake Ella.

We like to say that we “found” each other at Lake Ella.  It’s where we went one night at the beginning of our relationship and we just sat, talked, and cuddled.  We walked about halfway around the lake looking for a semi-private spot to open my birthday gifts (which I loved!), and then we finished walking around the lake.

We have a tree that we’ve designated as ours; it was a good place to go to escape from roommates when we both lived in town, and Arron wanted to go sit at our tree before we went home.  I was tired, and there was a kid climbing on “our spot,” so I told Arron it was fine if we just went home.  He was adamant that we sit at our tree, so he told me to get the kid off the tree while he went to put my gifts back in the car.  Unsure of how to accomplish my task, I decided standing next to the tree while staring at the kid would be my best bet.  After Arron came up to the tree, the kid decided he’d had enough climbing and left…my genius plan worked.

Arron lifted me up onto the branch, we cuddled, smooched a little and talked.  Well, he talked…I’d like to say I was hanging on his every word, but I was exhausted, and his shoulder was so comfy.  What I do remember was him telling me that he wore that particular outfit, took me to the restaurant where we had our first date, and took me to our spot at Lake Ella for a reason.  He said he loved me and wanted to spend the rest of his life with me.  I just nodded along, until I realized that he was pulling away from me and reaching into his pocket.  He got on one knee and asked me to marry him while opening up a little black box.  It took a few seconds for the moment to register in my brain, and then I screamed, hopped down off the branch, hugged him and said “YES!”  The fun part was trying to get the ring I normally wear on my left hand ring finger off; gotta love the heat of July.  I was finally able to pull it off and he put the ring on my finger.  Some teenagers that were around the other side of the tree started clapping…it was wonderful.

Then I had a moment of panic.  Earlier in the evening, he’d been talking about how stressful it would be to talk to my dad to ask his permission, and he wasn’t looking forward to that meeting.  I asked him if he talked to my dad, and that’s when he laughed and said they’d had a very long lunch that day.  He told me he was eating lunch with his cousin, that sneaky dog.  That’s when the barrage of questions started while I tried to figure out how he pulled a fast one on me.  Oh, he was good.

We asked one of the teenagers to take a picture of us, and then we went home to tell my parents (like they didn’t already know), make the phone calls, send out the texts, and change our statuses on our social networking sites.

Look at that beaming trickster.

First picture of us as an engaged couple!

I’ll take this time to apologize to Arron; I’m so sorry honey, that the only words that left my mouth during those first two days were “Eeeeee!  WE’RE ENGAGED!”

I’ll keep you posted about upcoming wedding plans (two weddings in the same family within three months of each other…this should be an interesting year!) and more in the year to come!

Read Arron’s take on that night here: Arron’s Blog

Listen to the song that inspired the title of this post here: Question – The Old 97’s

A birthday of sorts… July 24, 2009

Apparently one’s 22nd birthday is a good day to start a blog, no?

As someone who once considered pursuing a career as a writer, I knew the bug to write would bite me again.  What I didn’t know was that I’d succumb so easily…all it took was hearing, “You should start a blog” before I was off and registered.  One semester away from graduation and I finally have the time (and desire!) to write for myself…and anyone else who happens upon this blog.  I hope you’ll stop by from time to time and enjoy whatever ramblings I actually commit to paper (or screen).