Three Peach Taffeta Dresses with Puffy Sleeves

Just kidding about the puffy peach dresses! :) I am thrilled that three of my oldest bestest friends have agreed to be in the wedding.

Dawn and I have been friends since high school. We were in speech together and preformed several duets. We never won, but we sure had a lot of fun!!! I was delighted to be Maid of Honor in her wedding in 1999.

Robyn and I met in college, but really became good friends in our first years of teaching. Here she is in college in her cow Halloween costume. I hope she will still be in the wedding after I post this picture!

Christina and I have known each other longer than I can remember. Her family moved to Monett in 1980 and we became inseperable. We were often mistaken for sisters, especially when wearing our "Love Me - I'm Left-Handed" t-shirts.

Here we are with our bad high school hair and BIG glasses!

St. Patrick's Day Parade

The St. Patrick's Day Parade was lots of fun! It was a little chilly, but it didn't seem to affect the festive atmosphere.

Here's Dawn with Sam and Colby. Colby and I shared a bag of green cotton candy. I'm sure Dawn thanked me for that all afternoon! :)

The Bride and Groom dressed in our greens for the occasion.

We were missing a few revelers by this point in the day. The hardy souls remaining from left to right: Kevin, David, Erin, Chuck, Kelly, and Todd.

THE Dress!

That's right! MOTB and I found it! The dress of all dresses. I love it. Didn't want to take it off. Ever.

Here's how it happened...on a rainy Saturday near the end of February, MOTB and I went to McDaniel Bridal. You'd recognize the old building on North Glenstone by the giant polar bear in the window, surrounded by manequins in fur coats. It's been there forever, so I expected blue haired ladies to dust off a few ancient dresses for us to see. Not so - our new friend Jenna was young and enthusiastic. And no dusting of dresses was required! She pointed us in the right direction for browsing and went off in search of other dresses that fit the description I gave. I don't remember much about the first dress. While I was wrestling into Dress 1, MOTB had selected the dress she wanted to see next. I liked it immediately, even on the hanger. And, despite the fact that it wouldn't zip all the way, I liked it even better when I put it on. Jenna matched it up with a veil and a tiara, and I was hooked. I tried on others, but none came close. We looked through a few MOTB dress catalogs and headed on to the grand opening of Wedding Collections where we sampled a "few" more of the heavenly bacon wrapped yummies that we'd enjoyed at the wedding show. All afternoon I thought about the dress way too much - just ask David! On the following Tuesday, Kelly and I returned to visit the dress again. I loved it just as much as Saturday, so it was ordered in a size that will zip all the way - well, I hope! We even took some pictures, so that will have to do until the dress arrives in August. I'd include one of them in the blog, but then the groom would see. We can't have that, so just use your imagination. :)

Speaking of the groom, he'd like you to believe he's just been napping. But it's not entirely so... On Sunday, he spent most of the afternoon working on our yard. What once appeared "woodsy" was looking overgrown and uncared for. With his hard work, it's beginning to look much much better!

This past Saturday, I enjoyed some time with Dawn, Colby, and Sam. Dawn has agreed to be the official Matron of Honor. She's awfully excited at the prospect of a bachelorette party. I've tried reminding her how I saved her from planned events at her party, but she seems to have forgotten. I think I should be concerned. ;)

Where's the Groom?

To any and all who have taken a peek at this over the course of the past few weeks; you may note an absence of updates from me – the gaudy groom…

Yep, we have the Blushing Bride and Gaudy Groom.

On the surface it may appear that Erin has done all the work and is going it alone when it comes to the leg work to put this shindig together.

I want to totally confirm your observations and say that I have really done very little - verging on nothing. Oh sure, I have gallivanted around the countryside peering into church windows – hmmm… the Gallivanting Gaudy Groom – I LIKE THAT. I have also done some looking around for a nice suit or tuxedo to wear on the big day.

Really that is about it.

Mostly I have taken short – OK, not so short naps, watched TV, and played on the internet.

But wait, just wait…

I’m saving up my energy for the more masculine tasks.
You know… operating of the chainsaw, the towing of heavy trailers, the killing of small rodents, any wrench turning that may need to happen, and finally the cake tasting – there must be lots and lots of cake tasting.

So until something needs to be hauled, chopped or set to specific torque specs – I’ll be looking for wedding cakes to sample.

Over and out - dd

Planning Progress

We recently celebrated the birthdays of two of my grandparents - my Grandma Ellis turned 90 last week and my Grandmother turned 80 on Washington's Birthday. It was great to celebrate with each of them.

According to the Ultimate Wedding Planning Guide - I'm not making that up. It's the actual title of the book - the site for the ceremony and reception must be decided and reserved by March 8. AND I should have ordered a dress and such by then as well. Hmmm...let's see...I think we can still make that date. We've narrowed our church choices to two - to be announced later - and our reception sites to two - also to be announced later. We do have a minister now, so that is progress. The ceremony will be performed by Rev. Frederick Zahn. We have known the Zahn family since I was about four, and Christina Zahn and I were inseparable growing up.

Last weekend, Robyn and I dress shopped a bit. We had to make an appointment to try on anything, so we just hung around the store until it was time. We become so enthralled with the brides modeling all the fancy dresses that we almost missed our appointment.

This weekend, MOTB and I are going to the grand opening of The Wedding Collection - a group of wedding-related businesses working together.

Goin' to the Chapel

Finding the perfect location for a wedding ceremony has been more difficult than we expected. We both attended Drury College (now University), so Stone Chapel on the Drury campus seemed a logical choice. It's a beautiful building - the oldest stone building in Greene County. David has sweat through several weddings in the un-airconditioned building in summer, but we felt safe since we're planning a December wedding. So I called only to find out that Stone Chapel is undergoing major renovations beginning this summer. They do not anticipate its reopening until Spring 2008.

Several years ago, Drury purchased the church building that was home to Drury's oldest African-American church, Washington Avenue Baptist. In 2001, Drury moved the church 200 feet to make room for its new science center.

Presently, the church serves as Drury's Diversity Center. It's much smaller than Stone Chapel, but it is charming and warm. You can read more about the diversity center as well as see a virtual tour here. You can also read more about the history of Washington Avenue Baptist Church here.

Saturday night, David looked up churches that are on the Greene County Historic Register. We both like old buildings and are interested in local history, so this seemed a fitting way to find a church. We drove to three of them yesterday: Mt. Pisgah Methodist Church, Cave Springs Community Church, and Hood Methodist Church. After peaking in the windows at Cave Springs Community Church, David walked over to talk to the nearest neighbor who was picking up sticks in her yard. She was very helpful with information about the chuch, even suggesting that we go knock on the door of the pastor 2 blocks away. We opted not to interrupt his afternoon, but did note his name so that I can call today. More information about these three churches and other Greene County Registered Historical sites is available here.

For now the search continues, but it's been interesting to find and see these neat old buildings. -ee

Ruffles, Sequins, and Bows

Dress designers are sadists. That's the only logical explanation for the apparent fact that one requires 2 sizes larger for a wedding dress than a pair of jeans. MOTB and I embarked on our first dress finding mission today. It was a lot of fun, and a lot of laughs, but I stick by my dress designer as sadist theory. Our destination today was Norma's Inline Fashions in Aurora. We pawed through fluffy sequined white dress after dress. With some help from Norma, we found one to try on. While putting the dress in the dressing room, Norma said, "Hold on. I'll get you a bra." A what? I'm wearing one, thank you. Oh! Apparently a strapless bra is imperative for trying on strapless dresses. As it turns out, the designers were expecting a much taller, thinner, bustier person to wear their dresses. The first three were comically tight and loose in all the wrong places. MOTB managed to wrangle into submission each 20 pound dress and get it over my head. At one point I thought I might be suffering a near death experience. I saw nothing but fluffy white clouds. Turns out it was just yards and yards of white netting under the dress. At Norma's insistence, we sat down to look through a book of more dresses. That's when we found it - a definite maybe. Norma had one in a different color, so it was back to the dressing room for round 4. Finally! One that fit! In my actual size! I don't think that the rules allow you to choose a dress after just one store so we'll keep looking, but it's good to know that there is a dress out there! -ee