So I haven’t posted in my blog for a year and a half. We are back in an odd year, totally skipped an even year for blogging. Chris and I have been married almost two years. We lived in an apartment for a year and four months. As much as I like not having to do much maintenance I really wanted a house. I mean REALLY wanted a house. Our neighbors at the apartment were loud and redneck-y. They had the cops called on them multiple times for loud fights. They were the only ones who had a dog-supposedly a service dog-not sure on that one! Our apartment managers kept saying, ‘yeah one more time and they’re gone’. One more time, two more times, three more times, you get the picture, came and went and they did not. Finally the last straw was –get this- they made their dog poop on the deck. After everything that was the last straw. Who cares about the neighbors having to hear yelling and cursing at 2 am. But by golly better not let the dog deficate on their property… So we started looking at the end of January 2012 at possibly buying a house. And that was a seven month project where we looked at over 60 houses. I fell in love with one, Chris fell in love with one, we both had to agree. Finally shazam! We found not the perfect house (there are no perfect houses) but the best house and we knew we wanted it. Or at least I knew. I turned to Chris and said, ‘puh-leeease can we bid on this? I promise you don’t have to buy me a Christmas gift!’ ( I did end up getting a Christmas gift btw.) It took some juggling but we finally bid just before the fourth of July. We ended our bid with $42. The real estate agents for the seller thought that was funny. No one knew why we ended it that way! They countered we countered again and again. Finally we got the house for a bit over what we wanted to pay. Our wonderful house that we love (and found things wonky done to it.) Well this ends part 1 of catching up a bit. I will chat with you all later!

March. The one month with an identity crisis.

Honestly March, are you winter or are you spring? Can’t you make up your mind?

And this March has been a doozie. At least for me. Went into the doctor Feb 25th and had a sinus infection. Got a major cold (or was it more sinus infection?) Stayed home 2.5 days from work the first week in March. Last week in March, went back and found out from my dr that I never got over the heinous sinus infection. And in between were three weeks of making invitations.

March. I dislike you. I broke my leg in March and a long time ago had a breakup in March. But Chris was born during this month. So I guess, March, that makes up for you.

So yes, you heard me right before. The invitations took 3 weeks to create. There are several pieces to our invite. Most of which we created ourselves, even the envelope. Pocketfold shell, belly band with vellum cut out castle, rsvp card, wallet photo, map and the gold card with the wording on it. Ouch that’s a helluva lot of work. They are pretty cool if I say so myself. On the day of my worst sinus pressure/headache/torture we sent them off. And two days later I got this text: Hey Beautiful, What you send me in the mail? Your cute envelope was sadly opened on 3 sides w/ nothing inside. In my head all I could hear was screeching and wailing and maybe Wash the Pilot saying “Oh God Oh God we’re all gonna die” Then the bawling started. And I did and did. I’m guessing it probably helped my pressure filled sinuses in some fashion too. But it didn’t make me feel any better. I imagined all the envelopes I made falling apart in the mail. I thought about reinforcing the edges. I did. I really really did.

So I emailed people, Chris called friends and some got theirs. So far about 3 have gotten either only an envelope, an invite and envelope separated from eachother or invites with faulty envelope edges. A lot of others thankfully got whole intact wonderful impactful invites begging to be RSVP-ed upon.

Well anyway in more news I quit Fashion Bug in March. I needed the time to move, work on wedding stuff and I’ll be working longer hours at Coke for half the month (or more). Irene is going on vacation to visit her son (yay for her!) but that means I get to dispatch. And for two glorious hours a day I get to do my job. Um yay? Just the parts I can’t do back at her desk. Which is a lot. As for leaving Fashion Bug it was needed. It was time. I just need more of that, time. Funny how it speeds up doesn’t it? Although now it is April, two months til Chris and I say “I do”. Only two months. That’s it. Um, good luck to me, I think I’ll need it.

Now its early April, I've been dispatching all week and going nuts. Its not hard its just tedious and I get bored. I can do some of my job at her desk but not all. I get away to my desk thankfully for a couple of hours each day. And I've finally started feeling good enough to walk in the mornings for ten minutes. I've been craving red meat so I'm sure my body is missing iron. I rarely have red meat, its mostly chicken or turkey. So I've had red meat two days in a row with leftovers for two lunches. I hope thats enough to get me back in the game! :-D
Well, other than that we are working on the slideshow, signs, various little projects. Just waiting for the timely stuff in May. Alot of things are time sensitive and now is not the time. The time now is packing and moving. Oh boy. Fun!

Pick a place, pick a life, pick your potion.

A post about apartments.
Maybe in that order. Or maybe not.

In the last weeks my mind was reeling with pros and cons and amenities and price points, OH MY! Yes we were apartment shopping. Trying to get a leg up on finding a great apartment. We thought that it is usually a 60 day notice. However now we understand only about half require 60 day notices, others are 30 days. So at that point do we wait to see what comes up 30 days before we want to sign a lease or go with a 60 day notice now? Oh decisions decisions.

Some background on my psycho mind. Every once in a while my mind goes bonkers and shuts down. The smallest tiniest decisions elude me. They turn into huge turn of events that will forever change my life. I usually figure out it’s going on when I break down and cry over what to have for supper or what candy bar I want at the store. No, I’m completely serious. There are warning signs I’m sure but this is the one that clues me in.

But in apartment hunting I really didn’t have problems with making decisions on ones I didn’t like. It kind of boiled down to: do I feel safe here. Cuz bubba I’ma gonna be livin’ here all alone for a whole whopping month! Yes, yes, I said that with a straight face. I’m 32 and hate being alone at nite. Afraid of the dark, claustrophobic and kinda neurotic doesn’t mix well. Oh and I have a vivid imagination.

Back to the safety issue. I fell in love (on paper) with an apartment complex near where I live now, Anchor Pointe. The three stories have three different price points. We viewed the third floor and I loved it. What I didn’t love was that we couldn’t look at a 1st floor. That was the one we wanted at $525. The others had decks that we just didn’t care about and were more money. Also this way a 1st floor is more energy efficient in the summer being partly in the ground. I liked it but didn’t feel overly safe.

We took a look at Timberland but for the price it didn’t have enough amenities. My friend Mel lives there and really likes it but it didn’t jump out at us. Veto by both of us. Next was Village Green. It had the amenities but when we walked in the room with the intercom it was tiny and half under the stairs. Each floor had a closed door. And being claustrophobic I hated that. Being neurotic I thought strangers were lurking behind every door. (Waiting to take my pizza, cat food and shampoo from Target I’d be hauling up. Oh and maybe my purse but as there’s no money in there, the joke’s on the robber.) Veto by me.

I called Country Acres where I used to live with Amy and Mindy in Sartell. No openings that she knew of. Keep calling, maybe something will open up she said. Then I called the first apartment, Anchor Pointe. Nothing was coming open for April. Then she said the words that would turn me off from these apartments: ‘But we have evictions coming up and there are always lease jumpers.’ Oh hi, yes sign me up for those, they sound awesome! Yikes. I happen to know that no one is perfect and no apartment complex is either. My mom happens to make a living as a property manager. So without knowing names or direct details (in some cases I’m very glad of that) because my mom is a professional and doesn’t tattle or gossip, I happen to know these things happen. But for the apartment manager to come out and tell me that wasn’t too appealing. Veto by me.

Back to square one. The cheap places aren’t cutting it. Plus they don’t have the amenities we want. Fine, Village Green had an in unit washer and dryer for 600 (cheap for that) but it also took up half the second bedroom’s closet housing a compact washer and dryer. Not much closet space when you come down to it.
Then came Pointe West and West Stonehill. Saturday morning while Chris was working I got a call from a girl at Pointe West saying she talked to Chris and he pointed her in my direction. (He was working at Game stop and couldn’t talk.) So I set up a time for the following Tuesday nite. I had been looking at so many apartments online, in books and calling around that I had about 20 pages of notes for all of them. Not exaggerating. So I didn’t remember much about them. And since we were looking at those I set up a time to look at two other apartments in the same price range, Park Meadows and West Stonehill.

Park Meadows was up for Monday nite. We got there at different times and I liked their waiting area. Big comfy couches and a tv. But what’s with the small kitchen in the hallway? Weird. When Chris got there the girl was making strange faces at the people who came in while he filled out paperwork. She had a slightly haughty air about her. We left the office and I found out it wasn’t a waiting area but a community room. Kinda small compared to others. Their pool and gym was a completely separate building. Granted it was in the middle of all the buildings but they were pretty far apart. The apartment was nice, but nothing overly special. Then we found out about laundry. It was 1.50 to wash and a 1.50 to dry. 25 cents more than most places. AND the biggest turn off. It was a card system. You have to buy cards with cash at the office to use the washer and dryer. Ick. Veto by both of us.

I’ll come back to Pointe West, the apartment we toured on Tuesday but on to Wednesday's tour, West Stonehill. The office building was way back behind the residential buildings and we both had a hard time finding it. That building also had the community room (this time a nice large sized room) and the fitness area. I honestly can’t remember if it had a pool or not. I believe so. We drove to the buildings to look because they were farther back. The first had a nice quarter bath next to the walk in closet. Ah, very nice. I fell in love with their light fixture in the dining area, their flooring and cabinets. Oh so slick and nice looking. Not standard apartment colors either. Their laundry was a stacking w/d combo and they had a nice little linen closet. Also for a minimum of 2 nights for $40 a nite guests can rent a suite with internet and everything. Sophisticated! However once again the fitness center and community room were far away. Also they charged pet rent and we don’t like that. Pet deposits are great and needed but unless my cat gets a job there should b e no need for pet rent. They aren’t human.

I want to take a moment to point something out. If you do a search on the internet or open up the phone book under apartments you’ll see something. A lot of apartments are named the same. You could generate an apartment name from two or more words in this list: point, garden, view, north, park, south, pine, hill, hillside, hillcrest, country, grand, place, ridge, oak, west, river and wood. In the St Cloud area there are 6 apartments that start with Oak, 6 that start with North, 6 that start with Pine, 7 that start with West and so on. Oak Garden, Park Garden, Garden Square, Pine Pointe, Pointe West, West Stonehill, Hillside, Hillcrest, Hillcrest on the River, Windsong, Windsor, Birchwood, Woodhaven, and the two that makes me laugh: Edgewood Court and Edjwood Estates. Huh?

Anyway back to Pointe West. It really is on par with West Stonehill in amenities and space. However where W.S. had a compact washer and dryer this one had a room with full sized w/d with shelving. This also had two bathrooms. Yay the cat gets his own bathroom! Oh wait, fine we then have a guest bathroom. Um, another bathroom to clean? I don’t like cleaning one. (ask Amy) Still it is more for the same money. No pet rent and less pet deposit. Just a few feet from our apartment is a trash chute, so no more going outside to get rid of trash! And unlike the other places the community room and fitness center are all in the same building as the apartment.

Well you can tell we picked Pointe West. They are letting us move in April 24th and signing the lease for May 1st. All without charging us extra for moving in sooner. Oh this will be nice. Only thing is we have to give out more deposit. Oh well it’s like a savings right? So now all we have to decide is first floor or third floor? 1st floor is actually more like the second because of the “underground” parking. (it’s on a hill so our side has the hill) But we could jump around all we want because the floor is the garage ceiling. However if we went with the 3rd floor we could jerry-rig a satellite dish to face the south. According to Chris it is much cheaper and his hatred of Charter is mind-blowing. Though I love the idea of the 1st floor apartment because I believe in the summer It will be much cooler. I guess this is something we’ll have to do some research for and some converstaions about.
In the meantime I’m just excited we chose and got an apartment. Now all we have to do is go through our stuff, pack it all, move it over and unpack it all. Oh yeah piece of cake, right?!

Update on all the wedding weirdness

OH hi everyone. It’s been a very busy month for Chris and I. We figured once January hit we’d be swamped with ideas and things to do. So here are some random weird things we’ve been up to.

St Cloud Wedding Expo. (wasn’t worth it.) Honestly what we needed from there was A. travel agents, B. hotel accommodations for guests, C. jewelers for Chris’ ring, D. hair and beauty stuff for moi and entourage. (speaking like Miss Piggy makes me feel goofy and classy at the same time) Luckily I got our tickets from the newspaper at half off. So I spent 12 bucks getting us in. Which now that I think of it I forgot to take out of the savings for. Oooops oh well. Overall there were two hotels actually talking about accommodations, two jewelers (one of which we’ve been to), one hair salon and one travel agent. Pretty underwhelming. But Chris is a trooper and came with me. Awwww…

Invitations. Ugh. One of the two banes of my existence right now. I keep changing my mind about how I want them to look. Chris is awesome and at each turn says something like “whatever you want, you know my tastes.” Because in reality he does give a hoot. And that’s why I love him. Pocketfold? Belly band? All in one? Yes, yes, yes and no, no, no. Make up your mind woman! And then when I do and I get out my silhouette and it just doesn’t work or can’t do what I want it to. I can’t just draw and have that drawing transfer to the program. Irritating.

Apartments. Double ugh. The other of the two banes of my current existence. I wonder just how many there are in the st cloud area. I’m guessing a few hundred. No kidding. At least 200 and that’s not counting every building, that’s counting one name per complex. In a perfect world I’d just love to stay where we’re at. It feels like home and not much moving required. However I emailed someone about how much it would be and they haven’t gotten back to me. Needless to say we are paying 100-150 more than we would like if we stayed there. So far I’m loving Anchor Pointe down the road a bit but we must look at a first floor before anything else. (We looked at a vacant 3rd floor) We’ve been looking at so many online and three so far as of today in person. Saturday will be number 4 and Monday number 5. I got spoiled by only looking at one the last time Amy and I moved in together.
Little to no hours at my part time job. So instead I’ve been cleaning, going thru my stuff and donating what I can. Although now the hours are starting to pick up. So I’ll be right back at that extra hundred to two hundred bucks in the wedding fund per month. It’s better than nothing and I’m glad for it. 

Bridesmaid dresses are now bought and on their way (from some place in China where underpaid workers put them together). The girls got them at David’s Bridal which I kept saying was like the walmart of wedding stores. I’ve been changing my mind since a lot of the bridal salons do not carry anything over a 16 (which fits like a 10 or 12). I think this is a bit unrealistic and a pain in the arse. Also they had a fairly good selection of different dresses. I want each girl to wear a different dress to fit their personality. It was only my fault for picking a true purple that was limited in selection. So David’s Bridal unless you screw something up big time I’m happy we got the dresses with you. (Oh and now my friend Shanda works at one in Iowa so I’m happy for her.)

And that in a nutshell is the big things going on right now. I’m overly stressed about this apartment hunting only because of all the decision making. As you can tell I’m terrible at making up my mind. And adding to that is all the specials going on out there. Most apartments have some sort of special going on. Only a couple I’ve talked to don’t. And they aren’t used to having vacancies so I can see why. Two particular specials are: One month free and 199 moves you in. The first is many times implemented as money off per month so the monthly rent looks small. This can be a bit deceiving if they word it wrong. Also the 199 moves you in seems to be your 1st month’s rent, deposit and sometimes application fee. This is nice and I can see why they did this. Generally they must give you interest with your deposit back. However if they state that the deposit is non-refundable OR the deposit is free instead of the first month’s rent being free they aren’t responsible for giving you back your deposit and any interest. Sneaky, huh? I’ve gotten pretty good at asking the right questions to get to the bottom of it. And it helps my mom has been a property manager for a while and taught me some of the things she knows.

I'm a girl and I can change my mind if I want to. AKA how I messed up the budget.

I’m a girl, I can change my mind if I want to. AKA how I messed up the budget.



We’re at the seven month mark. Seven months to go and we have a lot done. What we don’t have done is saving a bunch of money. We’re both to blame so no finger pointing, it won’t help anyway. I am going to ask for more hours at my part time job and Chris, well, he has plans of his own. It is incredibly hard saving money when you don’t make much or what you do make goes to bills.

We have been gifted 60% of the wedding budget already. So we haven’t far to go to reach our five grand budget for the wedding. However we both have concluded we need $1,000 for the new apartment and another $2,000 for the honeymoon. Obviously in order of importance the apartment comes before the honeymoon. We were over by five hundred dollars on the wedding budget but we buttoned down and got it just at the original budget level. That’s even with added expenses, gifts for family, extra board games for *ahem something and a couple of small things.

That being said now we get to the real meat of my story. Wherein I screw up the budget with emotions and a change of my mind. (because I’m a girl and I can.)

Remember my post “Another Cinderella’s Ball”? If you do then you know that it was a post full of emotional uncertainty. I was trying to figure out if I wanted to use the dress I had from my previously life: B.C., Before Chris. Once upon a time I did love that dress. I tried it on again and I think two things happened and I settled for the dress. I saw the dress as being “beautiful enough for me” and secondly I didn’t want to needlessly spend money on another dress when I have a perfectly good one already in my possession. I do that a lot. I try to use what I’ve got then get frustrated when it doesn’t work and I end up trying to find the cheapest version of what I need instead of what is best.

In this regard I got both so let me explain.

When I first started having doubts I would look through bridal magazines and compare the dresses. Nothing stuck out at me except a lace tea length dress. Too casual and too expensive. I would compare the dress I had to the ones in the magazines and found the one I had was always winning. Still I would look at the pictures of the dress and feel a bit sad. A little longing that wouldn’t go away. It was pretty to be sure. But was it still me? If I was having doubts I should address them.

In the meantime since July I had been going to a store and seeing a gorgeous dress. It was simply beautiful, stunning, a favorite designer of mine, Mori Lee, and in the size I needed (with a corset back, a must have for me). And ‘it was so not me’ I told myself. Not my style. Too girly, too frou frou and too poofy. Anyway why was I looking when I had a perfectly good dress at home? But I kept coming back and looking to see if it was still there. Early August I went and looked and it was gone. Just when they had a really big sale. And it was GONE. Okay see, God was giving me a sign, its not meant to be. Just be happy with what you’ve got. One week later I went back and there it was again! Only two sizes too big this time. Oh. Well, another sign.

I kept going back and kept going back, I’d shop then go over to see if it was still there. That should have told me something. Finally one Friday nite in late October I gave in. I called Chris and asked “How much do you love me?” Through the conversation I explained I had a dress that I was about to try on. He knew that I was experiencing problems reconciling the old dress to the new wedding and the new me. But financially we couldn’t afford it. He was supportive and told me that whatever I decided we’d find a way to make it happen.

So I waited and waited and waited for the large fitting rooms to open up. (I’ll bet you’re wondering just where the heck I am at this point…..) I talked to a girl who worked there off and on while I waited. She finally banged on the door and asked the person (who happened to be an employee) if she was done because someone needed the room. After waiting and over analyzing what I was doing for fifteen minutes the girl finally came out. I had asked Chris to come over and help me with the dress but the girl, Leah, who worked there said she’d help so he didn’t see the dress. I am glad she was there because the dress was too big and she ended up clipping the back for me to see the finished product. It was so pretty I almost cried. It is nothing like I wanted before but everything that I do want now. I look at it and I see Belle’s gown in Beauty and the Beast. Except for a few minor things like it’s not yellow, doesn’t have sleeves and it has pick-ups instead of ruffles on the bottom. Oh just a few differences! But if you’d like to see it check out Morilee.com style number 6106.

So I decided to buy the dress. I had a 20% off coupon so it came to be $180.00. Yes just a bit under two hundred dollars. When others spend a lot more I was worried about that small amount. Silly I know but budget wise we have no room. At that point 180 bucks is more than we can spare.

And the biggest shocker is actually where I found it. Tags on it still, brand new and in pristine condition. I found it at a thrift store called Savers. Amazing, huh? I can only think that since they had two (or more) of the same dress that it was a bridal store that went out of business. They give a tax write off for items donated. The only thing is I was kinda sad that I had my weepy dress moment in the family fitting room at Savers alone except for a nice stranger who works there. But whatever works, now that I have the dress I absolutely love.

Tattoo I do or Tattoo I don't

Tattoo I do? Or Tattoo I Don’t?



When I turned 19 I wanted a tattoo. I wanted it enough to wrangle my friends into giving me money for my birthday so I could go out and get one. What I wanted was a rose and since my favorite color is, was and always will be purple, I wanted it that color. But being 19, excited and shy I just went to the first tattoo place I found. I picked the 'best' looking rose and went with it.

I wanted it in a place that would be easily hidden if I didn’t want it to be seen, but seen if I wanted it to. So I chose a few inches down from my shoulder on the left part of my chest. Straight over from my armpit. I still remember being so embarrassed because I had to wear a tank top to get it done. GASP! A tank top! In public! Oh NOoooooOOoooOooooo! I can laugh now at how I lacked self esteem to wear a tank top out, yet wanted a rose tattoo on my chest. Go figure.

When I went into the back to get the tattoo done I had to sit back in a chair much like a dentist chair. Another guy was there and suddenly had his head hovering over my chest. Ah, excuse you?! The tattoo artist said he was an assistant just learning and wanted to know if it was okay for him to watch. What was I to say? No, get your head outta my boob-area? I was 19, about to get a tattoo and ultra shy wearing a worn out old tank top. So I said yes.

Then he started and the PAIN of it jolted like electricity through me. OWEE OW OW!! See normal women have things called breasts. They are mostly flabby tissue. Like pillows of fat. Sorry women, but it’s true, if it’s not milk, its fat. (Or silicone if you fake it.) Anyway as I said before the tattoo is farther up my chest making it even further from anything soft. So when I was laying back in the chair suddenly the tattoo was no longer on anything soft and void of nerve endings. What it was on was hard chest, rib cage - my torso full of pain as he tattooed onto my skin. OW!!

Oh and I’ll take this opportunity to explain something. I’m scared of needles. Yes. Scared of needles. Another head scratcher I know. How did I end up getting tattoo? Shear nerves. I know I wasn’t drunk, they don’t tattoo inebriated people. Plus I was 19 and this was my rebellion! Don’t back down! Do it to prove something! Getting a tattoo was my ultimate angst fueled battle against….. um…. I don’t remember. . ..

So after all that pain I had my tattoo. It hurt like a son of a gun. I’d say something harsher but I’ve lost all angst in that one battle. After the required time limit I took the bloody bandage off and saw my new tattoo. About 2” long by 1.25” wide it isn’t overly big and sort of looked like an on-the-verge-of-wilting flower. The petals look spiky and overall it really didn’t age too well. (My fault for not taking care of it.) Kind of small and pitiful looking, but its mine and I’ve got it for the rest of my life.

So in general it doesn’t cause a problem. I’m not ashamed of it anymore than the other parts of my past. I’ve had wrongs but they usually didn’t leave such a visible lasting mark. But sometimes it sneaks out from my clothes without me knowing. People are surprised and usually say, oh you’ve got a tattoo (because generally I don’t walk around wearing a tube top.) Though it is more visible now because I have better self esteem and wear tank tops a lot more. (out in public no less!)

But after saying I’m not ashamed of it I sound like a hypocrite when I say this: I’m not sure I want it to be seen during our wedding.

Yeah that’s really hypocritical of me to say but let me explain. I wore a strapless gown for Mindy’s wedding. And it seemed fine and all. I don’t cringe when looking at her pictures. You can see almost all of it and it looks okay. But I have a picture of me in my wedding dress when I tried it on. And the annoying thing is my tattoo shows about the top part of the rose and that’s it. For me it’s all or none! I don’t want a little peeking out, it’s distracting.

So what to do? I could photoshop every_single_picture of our wedding. But man, who would want to do that?! A tattoo removal is painful and just NOT in the wedding budget. Plus I’m fine with it for every other day of my life. I’m looking at tattoo cover up kits. But since it is right up against my dress I’d hate to stain it. ACK! What else is a girl to do?

I need advice!

By the way, probably not the best time to say this but I'm thinking of getting another tattoo. This one on my back of my favorite saying: We must be the change we wish to see in the world.
Um yeah. Perhaps AFTER the wedding....

Check check check

Check check check…..

Seven Months, three weeks…..
Or 236 days…

I get daily emails reminding me with daily tips that the days are counting down. I started the countdown on my calendar about a hundred days ago. Now daily I get emails to tell me what I should be doing. Some are really useful. Some are really useful …. for someone else. And a select few are fairly frou-frou. (That’s the word I use for girly and unnecessary.) Like: Arrange a printer or hire a calligrapher for table cards (7 months). (Pretty flowing handwritten names not high on our list of priorities) Discuss attendant’s duties with your maid of honor and bridesmaids (8-9 months) I really can’t see having this discussion with my girls unless they’ve never been in a wedding. Would you have this talk with groomsmen? I think not. But afterall Etiquette doesn’t sleep. And neither should the bride….. That I think is the sole purpose of a wedding checklist timeline. Dun dun da dunnnnnn!

And then there’s the real reason I wrote this blog post. Stretching out weddings for every penny they are worth. Many times if you are waiting more than a year for a wedding it is because of money concerns. I believe the wedding industry takes advantage of this by exploiting bride and groom’s desire to “do something” early on in the planning stages. Because so much happens in the last 6 months and before that there isn’t much to do but save money, plan and dream. So now the wedding checklists you find in magazines and books drive the timelines out of whack for all but the wealthiest of brides.

Determine your design, wording, font and paper stock for your wedding invitations, stationary, table cards and thank you notes, finalize order (7months) Yes, pick out the style and color but to finalize at 7 months? Whoaaaa…. We don’t even know the time the ceremony will start yet! Choose and order bridesmaid dresses and accessories-8 months. For Mindy’s wedding we ordered the dresses five months in advance. And they came three months in advance of the wedding. I’m asking my girls to look with me six months before, in January. A lot can happen to a woman’s body in eight months. Ask my friends who have had kids. *giggle*

And the final one that got me started ranting about the whacked out timeline:
Register for gifts (9-10 months, some checklists say sooner)
A little background about me. I love a good sale. By sale I mean clearance sale. As in, this is going buh-bye and we want it gone, here is our rock bottom price. “Normal” ad type sales are for things that will stick around, for generating interest in items the store wants you to buy now when it’s on sale or better yet, come back next week and get it at full price. Oh yeah I get my kicks on the back of the racks. The red and orange stickers haphazardly smashed into the front of the box, the side of the bin or stuck to the barcode. That’s where I get my deals. Sometimes it back fires if it is something I wish I had more of. Like shampoo that gets discontinued or snack flavors they stop making. Often it is seasonal items and you get one shot at it. The week-after-Halloween bat t-shirt marked 75% (off or better yet, 90% off). The day after Christmas 50% is pretty cool but the New Years Day 75% off xmas merchandise sale is even better… SCORE! And right now all the college dorm stuff sales make me happy. Dishes, bowls, bath rugs, even notebooks. Time to get more of those awesome bowl/plate combos. It’s a plate, it’s a bowl, its perfect for pastahhhhh! I could infomercianalize those but I won’t.

So where am I going with this? Other than off on a tangent. Pastabowl plates!

Registering early has its perks and pitfalls. While you may get to check off one more thing from the to-do list there are downsides to doing it too early. Many times I’ve gone looking through at a list for a wedding at stores only to find they’ve been marked down to clearance. Ahhh, but that’s great you say, save the people who love us money, right? WRONG. Good luck finding said clearance object. Try it but once. Grab an employee and ask them where it is. They’ll look at the list, go to the spot where it was, tap on the tag a bit, mumble, go to the aisle endcap with the clearance, stare at the list and say it should be there, it says we have three left. Then they mumble something like, sorry and walk away. Leaving you all alone to contemplate the rest of the stuff left on the list.

So unless you are registering for a car (which only gets booted out of the ‘store’ once a year) you’re better off going to register max of 6 months in advance. Or the middle of the season just before your wedding. Because even if you don’t set foot in any aisle with seasonal stuff you know there is a huge chance they won’t have your dishes, dish towels, bedding or super fantabulous as-seen-on-t.v. gadgetry. The dining sets get changed out at least three times a year, new colors come in for bath and bedding. Out with the old, in with the new!

This is all just advice for brides who aren’t going to be heading to downtown Minneapolis to register for fine china or crystal stemware. (That is the stuff they keep in stock for years. You’re safe registering for that.) If you are that kind of bride or you just want to mark something off that grand Wedding Planning Checklist then go right ahead. It’s a big world and diversity makes it wonderful. So go grab your calligrapher, call up your printer, wrangle your fiancée and head to the nearest store to beep your way through the aisles. In the meantime I’ll keep working on my save the dates and watching the shows I’ve dvr-ed. I’ve got a lot of Glee to catch up on afterall.