Wedding Belle

So I guess the adage is true about wedding dresses as much as about the groom.  When you know, you know.  I knew after the first weekend I came to visit the Mister that I was going to marry him.  And I knew from the minute I stepped into my dress that it was the one.

Now, I'm sure you're wondering why there isn't a ginormous photo of the dress splashed all over this entry.  Well, the Mister doesn't want to see my dress until the moment I start walking down the aisle.  So, I have to be a leeeetle bit sneaky because I want to show EVERYONE ELSE.  I've created a password-protected album and I'll post the password down in the comments.  So!  If you want to see my dress ( and really, I know you do!), you can see it here!  As for the Mister, he just needs to keep his nose out of the comments!

I don't want to talk too much about my particular dress because the Mister reads this and I do want him to be surprised.  But I do want to talk a bit about the whole experience of dress shopping.  I really wasn't sure what to expect, which is kind of ridiculous.  When I was in high school, I worked at a bridal store for two years.  So if anyone should know what to expect from dress shopping, it was me.  But while the process was familiar, I wasn't sure how I would feel.  I've never been a girl who dreams about her wedding.  And despite spending a LOT of time flipping through bridal magazines and pulling out photos, I really couldn't picture myself in any of the dresses.  I knew what kinds of dresses I was attracted to, but I had no idea what style or fabric would look best on my body.  Again, without going into too much detail & ruining the surprise for the Mister, I chose a dress that was almost completely opposite what I thought I wanted.

I found my dress at the last appointment of the day, in the cutest little boutique bridal store called Bel Fiore.  I thought I had found my dress at another shop, but there were a few things about that dress that I would have changed to make it perfect.  But then, when I walked out of the dressing room at Bel Fiore in the first dress I tried on there, I knew I had found my dress.  It blew the other dress right out of the water.  My dress made me feel glamorous and sexy, but still classy and elegant.  Basically, all of the things I wanted to feel.

Now that I have my dress picked out, I'm starting to get a better idea of what I want the bridesmaid dresses to look like.  Slowly but surely, I've been mulling over details and thoughts and I'm starting to put together what I want the rest of the wedding to look like.  Once the Mister hears about his next orders, we'll pick a venue and really get the ball rolling.  Wedding planning!

Vegas Baby

If only I had had more than 11 hours in Vegas and if only I wasn't working the red-eye back to Minneapolis. I might have actually left the hotel. The plus side to not doing anything is that I had PLENTY of time to make my hair look good. I ran almost 9 miles by the lake in Milwaukee the other day & I can already see where my hair is getting lighter. It's shaping up to be a blonde-streaked summer.

GUESS what!

This is what I'm wearing Right This Second.  Usually there is a bit of a delay between when I take photos of my outfits and when I actually post them, but I overestimated how long it would take me to get ready, so I've been having a solo dance party in the living room.  And then I realized, Oh hey, I could, you know, update my blog!

I'm a little dressy because there is a function for the Mister's ship tonight, and since now I'm his fiancee, which is a little more official than girlfriend, I'm supposed to make a good impression.  Or something.  I don't know.  I just look at it as an excuse to wear my cute new shoes.  

Did you see my shoes?  Want to hear something awesome?  I had a coupon for DSW for $20 off any shoes $49 or more.  And I had my eyes on a DIFFERENT pair of GUESS black sandal wedges at the DSW in Minneapolis, but I didn't get a chance to go buy them when I was up there.  Well, the coupon was expiring yesterday and I couldn't just let a deal like that go to waste.  So, I asked the Mister to take me to DSW.  And you know what?  He totally did.  And he waited patiently while I tried on the OTHER shoes and then when I found THESE shoes and then had to walk all over the damn store to decide which ones to get.  And when I had to just browse through the clearance section.  And then he even took me over to the mall so I could check out Macy's & Dillard's to see if I could find a formal gown for ANOTHER function next month.  But that function is way fancier.  Hence the search for the gown.

Do you know how hard it is to find a formal gown that is not ridiculously expensive?  I'll tell you.  It's hard.  The problem is that most of the gowns are either too prom-y or too mother-of-the-bride-y.  And I don't want to look like a ho, because, good impressions, but I don't want to look like someone's mom.  I think that maybe what I will eventually do is get someone to take me to David's Bridal and I'll buy a basic black bridesmaid dress or something and fancy it up with some cute shoes & accessories.  If only I could wear these shoes.  They are so freaking cute and awesomely comfortable.  That's the best part of wedges.  Maybe I'll wear wedges for my wedding.

Purple sleeveless blouse - Banana Republic Outlet

Jeans - Rock & Republic via Nordstrom Rack

Black strappy wedges - GUESS via DSW

'Ello 'Ello!

So!  Big news!  I finally bought a new camera.  Woot was offering a Kodak camera that seemed like a decent halfway point between a point & shoot and a DSLR.  I'm excited b/c I have some manual settings, I have a 26x zoom AND the attached lens is wide angle.  I've only played around with it a little bit and I don't have a tripod yet, but I'm happy to be able to do outfit photos again.

I've been developing some lady friend relationships here in Norfolk for a while and I went to dinner with a group of awesome girls the other night.  I got to gush about my engagement and talk about my job and hear about being a corporate tax auditor and being a nuclear engineer in the Navy (two separate ladies), all while eating delicious wood-fired pizza and drinking some yummy wine.  A good time indeed.

Also, I love that I got BIG compliments on this shirt because I got to say, "Aw, thanks!  Found it for $4 at Goodwill!"  Because it totally looks like something one might buy at Anthropologie or Banana Republic or one of those other stores where I browse, but never buy.  The close-up photo is awful, but I wanted you to be able to see the interesting lines on the blouse.  It makes it really interesting and also really flattering!  In hindsight, I think I should have left the cardigan off, but I wore it in the restaurant b/c it was chilly chilly!


Teal cardigan - Target
White blouse - Goodwill
Skinny jeans - Target
Pink ballet flats - 6pm.com

Drinking Coffee in My Hotel Room - Miami

Hello from my tragically short Miami layover! I'm smack-dab in the middle of a hellish 5-day trip and yesterday was a series of Things Going Wrong. With any luck, today will be better! (And yes...that IS a gratuitous Instagram of my ring...what can I say? It's the prettiest thing I own!)

Over the Moon

So.  Where to start?  I keep disappearing for so long and then when it comes time to write another post, I'm so overwhelmed that I don't even start.  But!  I have VERY exciting news.  I think a photo would be appropriate here...

The Mister proposed!  Oh my gosh, it happened last Wednesday and I'm still wrapping my brain around it.  It doesn't help that I had to drop my ring off at the jewelers on Thursday to have it resized and I'm not going to be able to pick it up until sometime this afternoon.  I want my ring back already!

While I have known since our very first date that the Mister is the man I want to spend the rest of my life with, and while I also knew that he felt the same, this still came as a total surprise to me.  I really didn't think he would propose until after our second anniversary in November but, come to find out, he has had the center stone since last October!  He picked out the ring entirely on his own and he did an amazing job!  The whole first day I had it, I couldn't stop looking at it.  It is exactly what I had hinted at -- something classic but interesting.

But how did it all happen?  I'm glad you asked!  The Mister decided to do it while my parents were here visiting, so we were able to capture the whole thing in photos!  He's rather clever, that Mister.

Last Tuesday, we had all woken up in the wee hours of the morning to take a bus tour of Washington DC, so we decided to sleep in a bit on Wednesday morning before going to Colonial Williamsburg.  It was a gorgeous morning and we were all sitting out on the deck of the condo my parents rented for the week, sipping our coffee and chatting.  Finally, we decided we should probably get ready.  Since there were four people who needed to get ready, I announced I was going to take a shower, but that I wasn't going to wash my hair.  And the Mister immediately asked, "But babe, don't you want your hair to look pretty?"  I immediately scoffed and replied that if I washed my hair, it would take me at least an extra half an hour to get ready, but everyone told me that was fine, so I sighed and washed my hair.  Then as everyone was getting dressed, my mom walked into my room wearing a sundress and asked if I thought she was overdressed.  I told her no, I'm sure there would be other people at Williamsburg in dresses.  And then I threw a tiny hissy fit.

Why did I throw a hissy fit?  It's been something I've been doing a lot lately.  I'm frustrated with my wardrobe.  Before the fire, I had a very carefully cultivated closet.  Tops could be worn with multiple bottoms.  But right now I still have a hodge-podge of items and I find myself wearing the same few tops over and over because other tops I have don't go with any bottoms I have.  So, I threw a bit of a hissy fit because I had only brought tshirts and cardigans and I looked all schlubby while my mom looked very nice and Sean was wearing my favorite shirt and my step-dad was wearing a nice shirt too!  Then my mom offered to iron the only nicer top I'd brought, which should have been some kind of clue, because my mom NEVER irons.  But I just accepted that she felt bad for me and went back to putting on my make-up.

So we finally got on the road to Colonial Williamsburg and we decided to tour the Governor's Palace first.  It was a lovely tour through an amazing house and at the end, you are let out into the garden, which was also amazing.  The day was so beautiful and the garden was so pretty that we decided to wander around for a while.  There were these awesome natural arbors along the sides of the garden and after we walked down one, the Mister asked if I thought the other one would be a nice place for a photo.  I said I thought it would and we went to go pose while my parents snapped away.  We'd been posing for a while and they hadn't lowered their cameras yet and I, of course, got impatient and said, "Uh, guys?  Did you get the photo yet?"  And then I turned back to the Mister, and, well:

The Mister was down on one knee, asking me if I would marry him.  Oh my gosh, y'all.  I totally left him hanging for a good thirty seconds.  I kept looking at him, at the ring (it was so sparkly!), at my parents!  I couldn't say ANYTHING!  And finally I told him,. "Yes, yes, of course yes!  Get up get up get up!"

Like I said before, I knew this would happen someday, and I would tease the Mister all the time about when would he just propose already.  And little did I know that he'd been sitting on this proposal for quite some time already, totally just playing it cool when I would bug him.  And when I would declare that I was going to stop bringing it up.  And all that time!  All that time, he was just waiting for the right opportunity!

Right now, things are still a little up in the air (ha!) about when and where we'll get married.  We should have a better idea in June about what the Mister's next orders are.  If he stays in the states, then we want to do it next year, in late Spring or early Summer (I want peonies in season!).  But if he gets an overseas assignment, we're going to try to do it before the end of the year, so I can go with him.  There are so many decisions to make, so many things to think about!  My sister is my maid of honor and she's already made FOUR appointments for dress shopping in Atlanta!

I have very little idea of what I want my dress to look like.  Sort of like with my ring, I want something classic but interesting.  The Mister is going to be looking very dapper in his uniform, so I want to complement that, not clash with it.  I've bought a few bridal magazines and I've paged through to look at the dresses, but I just can't picture myself wearing any of them.  I've never really shopped for formal gowns before, so I have no clue what kind of shape I want or what material I want or any of that.  Also, the Mister doesn't want to see my gown until I start walking up the aisle, so even after I DO choose a gown, I won't be able to share it with y'all, which makes me kind of sad!

Also, I promise I won't turn this into a Bridal Blog.  I am still trying to make a decision about what kind of camera I want, but once I get that sorted, I'll be back to regular posting.  I think blogging about it will help me sort through my wardrobe and work toward getting back a semblance of what I used to have.  I can't guarantee there won't be a few wedding updates along the way, but this will remain primarily my style blog.

But holy cow, y'all.  I'm getting married!

Well, it's been almost a month since the fire.  I realized this the other day because I was supposed to do my annual re-qualification training for work on the day of the fire last month.  I've been rescheduled for my training on the 9th of April, exactly a month later.  I would prefer to put it off for longer, and especially for NOT on the one-month anniversary of the fire, but I will have to call my manager about that.  We'll see.

I am completely moved to Virginia (I only had about 200 pounds to move anyway) and I've been added to the Mister's lease, so we are official.  I don't have a dresser yet though, so I am living out of suitcases and we don't have enough shelf space for me to put up the decorative things I salvaged from my apartment.  We're working on it, but it's slow-going because the Mister works during the day all week and last weekend we went to Tennessee to participate in a HUGE surprise party for my mom's birthday.  Talk about a success!  She had no idea and the look on her face when she walked in the room and we all shouted "Surprise!" was incredible.  My sister did most of the planning, so big props to her for putting it all together!  Lots of people took photos, so once I get my hands on those, I will post them here.  The theme was "Casino Night" and I found a gold lame' pleated tank top at H&M and a white blazer from Forever21 that I wore with a pair of dark denim jeans and some platform sandals.  Very Vegas, if I may say so myself!

And on that note, I still don't have a camera.  Part of me thinks I should just go with another point-and-shoot and then a part of me really really wants to get a DSLR.  I did a lot more with SLRs in college and I LOVED playing around with all the settings and having control over everything, but DSLRs are expensive and I am weird about spending money sometimes.  I'm not going to become a professional by any means, but it would be nice to be able to take really great photos.  I went with a point-and-shoot before because, besides being cheaper, it was also more portable.  I'm not so worried about that now because the camera on my phone is adequate for any out-and-about photos I may want to take.  Do any of you have fancy cameras?  Any suggestions?

I am working on writing up my experience of the fire, but it's hard.  I've told the story to people countless times, but sometimes it is difficult to write something the way I tell it.  But I'll have it up soon.