An Engagement Party That's Anything But...

Tomorrow there is an engagement party, that's not an engagement party, being thrown for us.  It will also celebrate Douglas and Louis (FBIL#1) getting their masters degrees.  So why is this not really an engagement party?

Supposedly, at some point, someone overheard Douglas utter the words "we don't want an engagement party" and thus, the idea of having a non-engagement party was born.  The party was penciled in for this weekend because a ton of folks were going to already be in town for a wedding today.

How is this a non-engagement party, again?
This is as much as I know at the moment:

• Pink cake (Sharon needed to use up the rest of her pink fondant)
• Pink utensils
• Pink napkins
• No veil
• No bridey or groomy or wedding-y stuff

Now, I can already hear some of you going "why pink?  I thought Crystal hated pink."  Welcome to the "non" part...as in non-Crystal.  Since this party is all being done in a very light-hearted and fun manner, I decided to play into it and go non-Crystal.  With all of my travels lately, I didn't make much time to actually go shopping for my party outfit.  That left me an hour or so today to run out and shop.

Since most folks who will be at the party tomorrow are A) at a wedding tonight or B) probably won't read this until later in the week, I feel I can share with you my dress trials at Marshalls.

First, this little dandy I came across in Goodwill earlier today.  It was a size 2.  Uh....no.  (btw, it's a skirt.  Douglas thought it was a leg of pants)

Ok, dress time.  Dress #1 - a light pink summery number.

Did not like.

Dress #2 was a long hot pink number that was pretty much just a curtain.

It looked nice on the hanger.  Rule #1: never judge an outfit on how it looks on the hanger.  Ok, dress #3 with a little accessory the girls found for me (the girls being Monika and her friend Carla who I ran into while they were on a separate shopping expedition).

Now, the top is slightly too big so I am going to end up pulling my dress up all day.  That's what I get for waiting until the last minute and not giving myself time to turn it into a halter top or add simple straps.  So now there is one question left...how will I do my hair?!

UPDATE: after getting home after a fun night and retrying stuff on, I've decided to go with the backup skirt (not shown) and either my pink Coheed shirt or another cool top (it's gonna be a hot one tomorrow).  So, pictures to come in the next few days.

I Love CakeWrecks

This post seemed fitting to share on this blog.  I love CakeWrecks.com and read it every day.  Today's post was about wedding wrecks.  As you will read, these are real cakes, done by real professionals, that real brides really paid for to have served at their weddings (really).

Who You Callin' 'Pro'?

And if that wasn't enough:

When Brides Have No Budget (Or Taste)

Enjoy!

Mother of the Bride (a.k.a. Wonder Woman)

This past week has been a long one.  We're all very glad it's over.

My mother, the MOB as Jane refers to her, had surgery to remove 7 carcinoid tumors from her intestines.  A week later she's healed faster than any of the nurses had seen and she beat out her uncle, who had similar surgery 6 months ago, with every benchmark.  Now cancer-free, pending one biopsy result that we're still waiting on, she's healing quickly and should be ready to go home at the end of the week.

UPDATE: still nothing on the biopsy, but we finally had enough functioning braincells to remember to ask if the surgeon removed the mass during surgery - she did.  Hoping to just get the results tomorrow and then Mom's out on Thursday!

Congrats, Mom, on joining the ranks of cancer survivors!

While We Wait...

(insert muzak)

We are still looking for a fitting photo of one of our wedding party members.  Once we have that, we can reveal the wedding party!

So it's been a while since you've had a real post to read.  A lot has been going on.  We finalized our date, booked our officiant, chose our city, figured out our wedding party, and rescued a puppy.  We have had our hands full.  Yet, we have a while to go before we get to kick back a little bit.

Friday I am headed off to PA to finally see my family.  I haven't seen them since before the engagement, so it's really exciting to be going home.  I'll get to see my grandmother, uncle, and great uncle while I'm up north, too.  I'm really excited to see my grandmother.  She's ecstatic about the engagement.

Once I'm back from PA, Douglas and I get to start road tripping to our city of choice on a regular basis to find a venue.  We would really like to have a place booked before this October.  So many folks have been great about offering up ideas and things we should be thinking about, but honestly, a lot of it we feel we can't really discuss until we know what space we're working with.

The exciting thing is that once we do some narrowing down, we should be able to start pumping out our STDs.  Of course that means realizing that I don't know anyone's address and starting to harass people for that kind of information.

The blog may be quiet over the next week as I deal with what I need to, but hopefully we'll have plenty to post about in the weeks after.

Wedsite

I have finally started working on the wedding site!  Yay!  A little graphic tease to wet your whistle...

What you can look forward to when we launch the site: photos, bios, engagement story (which you've already read), and the unveiling of the wedding party!