uh, yeah, she's gonna be the queen.

Ah, Chelsea Lately, you and your round table are my favorite. If i could register for tickets to see Chelsea Handler and friends and their standups, I would. And you'd buy them for us.

Speaking of registering, Dave told me that I registered for dumb crap. I told him that I gave hm the option of going to the store with me and zapping crap with a gun, and he said no.To which he replied, well, we're going to have to fix things, and get rid of your inane shit....or something along the line that. Then I told him that this is another example of times when he says i can do things, and then after its "done," he swoops in and does it his way.

Except this time, it was my way all along, doing it together.Point for the missus!
I think it was the slap chop that got him. Or the panini maker. I hope it wasnt the bake and take cookware, because he can obviously suck it if he thinks that piece of gold is coming off.

Also, this morning at work, I had to be there at 10am for a meeting, and then back at 12 for my bar volume (til 8...), the meeting was only a half an hour, so i went back home in between, at which time we consolidated the lists we both wrote into one list, and I called my dad to pester him to write his.

SO I AM APOLOGIZING IN ADVANCE: if we can't invite you,we're truly sorry. Our budget and space is limited, and we may not be able to invite everyone we had originally hoped. It doesn't mean we don't still care about you, it just means BASICALLY that becausemydadispayingwehavetoinvitemorefamilywenevertalktoinsteadofpeopleilikespendingtimewit h.
It's that old Italian thing: you only see each other on weddings,christenings,annnnnnnd funerals.

Is there any other news?Not exactly. We're getting down to the friggen wire, and we are going to need to hire a DJ, sign a contract with Phoenix Studios for photos, (PS AWESOME idea for where we are going to take at least 3 photos),we need to select a florist and what flowers are doing, OH might hire a band for 5 minutes....
we cant afford a lot, but we are going to work with what we have to do what we want, and to make it as "US" as possible.

Loveeeeee you.

absolutely not.Except we are gettign down to the wire

But I was Hoping You'd Write My List...

Nope. haha!

So lots of productive things happening this week! Still on a super-high from purchasing my dress the other day, and last night at Pathmark there were lots of halloween things on sale, like 35 black silk roses with black stems and black leaves, ans fuschia glitter on the petal tips.I think that spending less than 7 dollars on 35 roses is not an impulse buy. I have no idea what i'm going to so with these, but i dont care. I'll totally find something.

On Friday AM, Dave suggested to me that we start writing our guest list (which is LIMITED). I told him that I wrote mine...like...months ago. He told me he was kinda hoping I'd write his list.

Saturday I come home, and his D&D crew were over, so i pretty much just went to bed. Then Sunday morning while I was cleaning up some papers before work, i saw a piece of lined paper on top of the TV...He wrote his list! Hooray! We spent some time talking about it, and now all we have to do is get my dad and cathy and his parents to write their lists, and then dave and I can start to narrow things down and get addresses and send stuff out.


HOORAY!

Speaking of which....I need to email the pastor again. <3

November 14,

E L E V E N
M O N T H S.


shuthefckupppppppppppp.


<3

after a few fights and some sitdown discussions....

Dave went to Jacques yesterday to speak with Steve, the owner, and explain that we may not end up getting married there cuz we don't have as much to work with as we'd like.Not that my dad wasnt generous, things are a little tight on our end.

Steve worked with Dave on some things, and let us use a package that isn't usually available this time of year.

AWESOME.

Dave said that going there reaffirms that he really wants to have the reception there, not just blame it on me.

So yay! We might be able to swing a honeymoon now(YAYYYY!!!!!!), AND we can invite people that we want to invite- it was starting to be a very "intimate" guestlist...We've started working on the guestlist (aka: I wrote mine,and Dave suggested we start writing it, and he assumed I wrote his LOL!!!!)


I'm going later today for my first fitting (YAY!!!!) and I'm going to try not to cry.

So without getting too much accomplished, we are at a GREAT place in planning right now! Our awesome Save the Dates, which our friend LeeAnn is helping us design, will be printed up soon. Bridesmaids dresses are right around the corner as well, and Isabella (my beautiful niece and flowergirl,) let me know that she wants a hotpink dress (done, lil monster!!!)

and also, this is going to be the most badass amazing wedding ever.


Just over 11 months to go!!!!!!

so i got my dress today, no big whoop.

OMFG if you believe that, than you dont know me at all.

After 3 trips to 3 different boutiques...I found my dress. =) I was having a tough time deciding between a few, and Laura @ ultimate fashions had me go through books. She was already calling Mary's Bridal to place an order for another bride, who is getting married at the end of the month...and getting her dress TODAY. Last minute much? Anyway....So she had me give her numbers of dresses I liked, so she could get me prices.

Again with the knowing me: IF you know me at all, you know i am NOT an extravagant person I don't like to try things on. It's an annoying waste of time. I usually have an idea of what i like/want, find the one most similar/most on sale...and go with that.

But you can't do that with bridal gowns. And now, all of a sudden...the girl that HATEEEESSSSS spending money is getting dirty looks when she tells people she'd like a dress UNDER $900. REALLY?!?!?! DO YOU KNOW WHAT I CAN DO WITH $900?!?!?! i could redo my wardrobe, pay some bills, etc... But it is what it is. So, Laura is on the phone with the lady at Mary's and she writes down a number, all of a sudden, she puts her hand over the receiver...and tells me that one particular dress overstocked...so it's being discounted. When she told me how much it was discounted...I flipped out. THREE HUNDRED DOLLARS OFF!!!!!!! FTW!!!!

I'm so pumped. I couldn't even handle it. I called my dad to see if he could donate to my downpayment. And he DID. AND I LOVE HIM. And it will be in on Tuesday. And I will be going to my first fitting next week. =)....I was so excited. Laura asked me if i was about to jump out of my skin. I was trying to figure out if I was going to....I was getting super stoked by the minute. I changed out of the dress I was in, and i flipped out. I suggested that any girls there under 18 cover their ears-it was about to get REAL EXPLETIVE-Y. ...

I believe my words were somewhere along the lines of...."HOLY CRAAAAAAAAP I JUST FOUND MY DRESS! I got my fucking dress...holy shittttttttttt that's fucking awesomeeee!!!! SO FUCKING PUMPEDDDDDDD!!!!!!" I jumped up and down. repeatedly. and air punched. 'Cuz I was pumped.

Everytime I close my eyes, I see it. I envision if I'm going to get a short satin skirt to add it it so I can party my fanny off later in the evening, but still have my"dress".

I feel like a weight has been lifted. Now that the dress is coming,it is starting to feel very real. I have Jacques, sure...but now I have a DRESS. I know about centerpieces, I know about music,(mostly)...everythnig will be MUCHHHHH easier. For real.

I can't even tell you how much more PsYcHeD I am right now.


<3
YAYAYAYAYAYAYAYAYAYAYAAYYYYY!!!!!!

hallowwwwwwwwwwweeeeeeen

If you don't know, thats me singing "halloween" by the misfits.

Ao its what Dave calls "our Christmas." and it makes sense: we're flatass broke but we are still going to party tomorrow. =)

Anywhos, I'm spending my time trying to find stuff for the wedding...instead of getting ready for tomorrow. I like the idea of pomanders for pew decorations....oh, speaking of pews, we made an appointment to go talk to Steve at Jacques- about how we will have about 75 less people than originally projected. And you knwo what? I was going to wait, but i think i'll email the church now and see if we can get married there.

OH AND ...went to another bridal show. semi eventful, met a very nice lady from, Ultimate Fashions in Woodbridge Mall, im gonig to narrow down some dresses that i like, and email the styles to her- hopefully they will have them in stock, or accessible. Im starting to finally figure out what I like.

I'm still considering finding what i like, and then seeing if i can get it at an Ebay offshore store...because then i can spend money on other stuff, and not something im probably just gonig to end up staining anyway.


xoxo
<3

good news!

I was just informed that it doesnt matter what i want to do for the wedding, as long as it isnt too ridiculous, I can do it.

I don't have to ask, I can just do it.

Except if it is so ridiculous that I think I have to ask, then the answer is probably no, and i shouldn't go with it.

Hooray! I take over!

<3
Linda

upDaTeZ on stuff you DGAS about

...hahaha, don't give a shit translates to "DGAS." Oh world, you are hysterical.

Anyways, started registering, and we are registered at Target & JCPenny. Target, because its easypeasy, and JCPenny because I am attempting to be semi-classy and get table linens and bigtime grownup things like that.

Also, I am starting to narrow down the lists of DJ companies, and it's pretty much boiling down to not spending the price of 5 kidneys on a DJ is the deciding factor. Oh, and I booked Shear Glamour for the bombshells and I, for hair, makeup, and lashes. Yeah, classy.

AND....blue shoes or hot pink shoes are harder to find than you'd think...
add to that that I have clown feet, and it makes it even harder.

I'm Right on Top of That, Rose!

Good news! I'm watching "Don't tell Mom The Babysitter's Dead"....because Dave put it on for me, because i "love nostalgia."

SoI'm watching Drag Queens hotwire a hot rod, and checking out bouquets.


Goodtimes.

OH MAN OH MAN....

So, what a few months it has been! We got into a major fight, the wedding was almost off, then it was almost in a backyard with the reception at a VFW, and then now my dad is stepping in.

Which kinda sucks because i was all about doing it on my own, and now that i see that that is no longer feasible, I'm all about being daddy's little girl for a while. because that has never happened.

Also... we are renting a HOUSE. A 3 bedroom, 1 1/2 bath, washer and dryer, dishwasher, and fenced in yard-havin' house. We are renting it from my dad's girlfriend and her family. It is the house her family has lived in for nearly 40 years. So i kind of am the most excited!

So there's that, there is Jack turning 2....its been a busy few months. But now that things are settling down, it is right in time for the ONE YEAR UNTIL THE WEDDING MARK!

That's right, today is exactly one year until the big day. So far the past 3 years, it has seemed like an eternity until our special day, but this is when shit gets REAL. there are MONTHS, NOT years and months...MONTHS.

I have been trying on dresses...a few of which from David's Bridal that I loved. And i also went to Cinderella Bridal in Matawan, where Cathy's ex MIL is a seamstress...and let me just tell you how bitchy and unneccesary the woman who helped me was...i told her that i was looking for something in a dropped waist gown, I'm not all that into pickups or rouching, and i wanted to spend under 900. She took forever, i maybe tried on 5 dresses, and her attitude wasnt very positive. the woman from david's was awesome- she was polite, positive,and even picked out a bunch of dresses that werent neccessarily on my list, but she thought that i should try them anyway. and honestly, they were the ones i am having the hardest time choosing between.

So trying on dresses blows. but whatever.

I'll be putting up pics of the dresses i want my bombshells to wear soon.

"it will sound just like the world cup..."

...did i mention that kazoos were out?

I'm discovering more and more about dave during this whole wedding process....like that he is way more practival and also traditional than i thought.

he said that it would be noisy, and ruin any type of video anyone might be taking. Good Point.

He thinks flowers are a much more suitable idea for centerpieces than anything...even though something quirky and fun might be more up our alley and also budget...

its funny, the things you find out about a person when planning a wedding....


onward!


OH ALSO! One of my best friends from elementary school and beyond, Francine, has also recently become engaged to her boyfriend, Kevin. She is one of the original hosts of the fictious franson and looloo show, and a good freaking time. I think i have had more inside jokes with her than anyone else ever, combined.Congratulations! Summer of love V.2 is on its way!

shameless begging.....

give me money because im pretty sure we arent going to be able to afford to get married next year. or at least we can downgrade from jacques to peanut butter and jelly sandwhiches in tre keelen's parking lot.

awesome idea....

Obviously I'm dreaming more than doing.So one of my dreams came today while i was watching a community re-run. (on a side note if you have never seen this show on NBC, starring joel mchale, ken jeong, and chevy chase...you are MISSING OUT!) The intro to the show, is one of those fortune teller/cootie catcher thingy jobs with everyone's name and doodles and stuff...

and it dawns on me that in school, when you folded one of those properly, you could also then fold it in half...and possibly "tent" it, to resemble a folded escort card!

I figured if there were averaged 10 people to a table, we could come up with 10 different sets of questions, so everyone at each table would have a different cootie catcher set. but im not coming up with 200 different ones...eff that!

I was thinking we could do fun questions, things about dave and i, and random other crap.

AND THE BEST PART IS! i asked dave if he like that idea,and if he thought it was half-moronic,and he laughed and said something about it not being completely moronic. but that he didn't. and as we know, in the land of
Dave, and I, and our silly lil wedding, that is just as good as a "yes."

BAM!


SO! Random person, at random table, you will be playing with random questions!!! YAY! FUN!

THESE ARE OUR SPECTACULAR INVITES!

yeah. i designed this invite using zazzle.supercheap and also way more awesome than anything i found in catalogues o on the rest of the interweb. i also created stamps, because personalized stamps are a badass touch. the other side of this invite is white and features a lil' logo that i'm putting on the stamps as well as some other stuff. Also on zazzle, i created the response cards out of a postcard template, so that eliminates the need for an envelope. awesome. oh, and any invites or cards you design on zazzle will come with envelopes.

oh, and if you notice....the font with our names is WICKED. its scripty and scribbly and the i's are dotted with x's. which is really tough.

While browsing the site, i also started to think that i might make coordinating escort cards or whatever for the seating at the reception. hooray!
and WHO KNOWS WHAT ELSE! I LOVE SAVING MONEY!...as previously indicated.


"ted, have you been reading my blog?"barney, how i met your mother.

decisions, decisions,...

I really never knew that finding a dress was going to be this difficult, but then you have to factor in 4 important things about my style and personality:

1.I wear A LOT of black,....which is cool like, any other day...but i think there are some traditions i don't want to mess with. I don't want to be showing my grandkids our wedding album, and regretting not sticking with something more traditional.

2. I.HATE.SPENDING.MONEY....i mean i don't HATE IT hate it...but i hate spending money i don't have. and i DO NOT have much money.and gowns are like......expensive.

3. I am extraordinarily clumsy. if i grab something too poofy, I'll probably spill something on it. If i get one with a long train, ill probably trip on it...

4. I'm super indecisive....so trying to factor in all of these things about myself...petty redonculous....


So, I don't want to spend an asston of money on something I'm most likely going to rip, spill something on, or that I'm not completely sure that I LOVE. there are dresses that I have found that i adore, but I don't know if they are appropriate for a wedding. And seriously, when the hell am I gonna get the chance to wear something super fluffy and girly again? Let's be serious!

However,I think I'm going to go ahead and make a purchase. I am in the process of researching some custom-made dealy-jobs across the interwebs and e-bay, and
I really think I found something that is traditional, classy, modern and kinda super awesome at the same time.

So, within the next month I intend to go ahead and purchase my gown. Shortly after, I will be designing and purchasing save the dates. Before the summer is over, you know, once I have a van, I will be setting up appointments for my girls to try on and pick out their bridesmaid dresses!!! Holy shit! this ball is ROLLING!!!!


dude, I'm thrilled.

i want to get chocolate wasted!

FIRST OF ALL...congratulations to one of my main bitches, Lorraine and her new fiance Mike on their engagement! THey are getting married about a month and a half before us and i couldnt be happier. Lorraine is awesome, one of my co-bridesmaids, and Mike is totally a rad dude.We get to do squealy girly wedding things!!!

I was thinking, about my own wedding, that i should try top be awesome and save money at the same time, because being awesome and saving money are 2 of my favorite things.And a way to incorporate centerpieces and favors, seem like a fun way to do that, be awesome and save money.

So how does everyone feel if i get crazy-awesome Halloween candy bowls,like this one, or this one, or that one.....hahaha!!! Wait, whatttttttttt? anyway.... I wanted a candy bar anyway which is kind of unnecessary. I was wracking my braaaaaaaain trying to still do it, stay awesome,and maybe thrown in some halloween...

anyway what I'm getting at is, if i get a bunch of pillowcases (inspired by trick or treating), and personalize them (D+L, the date and some other sentiment on it, dye them, blah) people can take the candy from the bowl, and BAM! centerpiece favors. I'm also going to have different candies at different tables, and i'm hoping this will encourage people to mingle and (fingers crossed) say TRICK OR TREAT!!! when they go to the tables.

...don't worry, I'm probably going to throw in fanncy shotglasses, or souvenir CDs or something.Let's not forget, it will be all aspects of fun...and i like to dance around while I'm doing shots and chasing them with milky ways.

<3
whatcha think?

There will Be Doves and flowers ALL OVER THIS BITCH!

Ok. So i like to troll around awesome blogs, and read awesome books and google awesome things when it come to this wedding. (for example, my own personal mecca, offbeat bride. look into it.) And i also liek to think, that Dave and I are a little more entertaining and unique than your average couple getting married. I mean, on a day that started out with me having a revenge margarita and buying mouthwash on the way to the Family Values tour, it ended with us buying metal rings at a 2 for $25 jewelry booth and Dave in no other words telling me we were getting married.

We are badass, dammit! And i think we are better and more creative than freaking doves, and eternity symbols that are actually hearts, or precious moments figurines... thats just not us. So i have been wracking my brain trying to come up with creative, cheap (and not chintzy) things that scream "DAVE AND LINDA! LOVE! AWESOMENESS! MARRIAGE! FAMILY! BABIES! HOOORAYYYY!!!!".

Which brings me to where I am at right now. Right now, I am googling pictures o vintage wrestling posters. You know, the one advertising the matches when the local shows were the big thing....with the pictures, the wrestler names and nicknames and exciting words and fun yayness. So I was showing Dave the pictures and he was like,"cool." "whatever." ...I will give him points for tearing himself away from his droid for 5 seconds, so that means he cared enough to do that. which was cool.

I asked him what he might want his wrestler nickname to be, because that is also cool, along the lines of "classy" freddie blassie, "the mach man" randy savage, "big sexy" kevin nash...and he seems to be the most uninterested person ever. man seriously?

i threatened precious moments and doves, and he said the words "fuck no." so, i'm counting that as input and thats the end of that.


I'm doing it myself and making up our own nicknames.

any ideas? MILF for me, and DIRTY for dave, are out.

Welcome toooo....WEDDDIINNGGGMANIAAAA!!!

SO, I had an epiphany while cutting lemons at work.

I knew that I wanted to have certain elements of the wedding plucked from different things that Dave and I enjoy. One of those things, for example, is I think having a "signature cocktail" would be a fun idea, considering he both bartend, and met in the bar he works in. Another, is the punk rock buttons idea, because we are both very into music, and we got engaged at a concert.

Another fun thing we have in common, is we both thoroughly enjoy professional wrestling. I enjoy it so much, that i used to be an indy worker (re: a wrestling personality on the independant/local scene. yeah, i know). So i thought it would be fun to incorporate wrestling in some way. One way i hav always thought would be fun would be to announce the wedding party as a wrestling card. I think this would be awesome. The epiphany that I had, while cuting lemons, was that our programs look like wrestling programs, the save the dates look like posters that you'd see in store windows, and we could make t-shirts for the family that have a weddingmania logo!

i fucking rule, and i think this is the cheesiest thing evarrrrrrrrr and you are jealous.

ps- dave is a lot less fun than i thought

getting your spousetobe to think of stuff...aka lame trickery

Today's phrase of the day is "lame trickery". Lame trickery is what you use to convince your otherwise nonhelp-y nondetail-y fiance to get the fire under his ass lit.

All you have to do is make a bunch of really lame suggestions, sprinkle in the ones you think are actually decent, and BAAAAAAAAAAAAAAM you have made a joint decision.

Sneaky? Yes. Underhanded? Maybe. Lame? Obviously....does it get the job done? Absolutely.

Dave and I have been engaged since August 2007, and we are getting hitched on October 14, 2011...so that in numbers means a longass time. And in the timeline where longass is the end point, right now is on the closer than the further away side. So it's time to start making decisions as to what shit's gonna look like. What kinda crap we need to spend our monies on.

So...1" punk rock buttons are in, kazoos and waterguns as favors are out (LAME, but I'll take it.!)

so i'm watching dancing with the stars...

and i cant find a dress i like, like...anywhere. Hopefully, alfred angelo is secretly still manufacturing the dress that i fell in love with that is no longer on their site. And in watching espn erin whats her name dance, is it wrong that i just want to say "screw ittttttttttt!!!!!!!!!!!!!"...and get a dress entirely made of fringe?

The Countdown Is On!

Hello everyone! Welcome to the world of all that is Dave and Linda getting married!!!If you want, you can follow all of the planning, saving, mishaps,meltdowns....and whatahaveyous....I'll have pictures, bios, and what my favorite wedding website refers to as "wedding porn" like gorgeous shoes, gorgeous flowers, hotel updates, and whatever my lil bridezilla heart desires...but at least it relieves the rest of the facebook and myspace world of my wedding blahhhhhh.


Thanks for coming along for the ride!