Showered with Love (and mixing bowls.)

All right, so Facebook has stopped being a skunkbag. Time for the wedding shower recap!

When we last left our intrepid couple (re: me and P), I was completely stressed out and P was trying to help with damage control. You see, our shower was being hosted by a very sweet lady who grabbed the "let's-throw-the-poor-as-church-mice-couple-a-party!" idea and kind of...well, ran with it. And when I say "ran with it," I mean it in the "someone-just-hijacked-this-bus" sense of the phrase. I don't want to go into details, because she meant extremely well, but things went downhill to the point that she was talking about canceling the shower because her plans had gone so incredibly astray. Luckily, my mother stepped in and asked that she not cancel, since this was going to be our only shower, and some other lovely ladies from the small group helped dig the shower plans out of the ground. And so things progressed!

I made a dress to wear to the shower a few weeks ago, but then realized I hated it. Ah, such is life. So I dug through my projects bags and dug up a dress that I had started this past summer (Simplicity 2951 in a white floral knit), then stayed up till 1am on Sunday to finish it. It turned out decently, although I still want to alter it a bit.

That whole day was fun. After church I went out to Panera with P, his mom, and his sister. Also, if you have not tried Panera's white cheddar macaroni and cheese, YOU HAVE NOT LIVED, MY FRIEND. You have not lived. It was fun, but I was antsy with excitement. I had received notifications about presents that had been purchased off our registry, and I was totally excited about it.

(But I didn't know what had been purchased. I'm sneaky like that. With the Target registry, they tell you the numbers at the top of the page. For the Bed Bath and Beyond registry, I put a magazine over the left half of my screen and scrolled down.)

(Please don't judge.)

Anyways, we arrived at the annex of the church and were immediately welcomed. And this is where it dawned on me that I was about to spend the next two hours with EVERYONE STARING AT ME while I opened presents that came from well-wishers that I may or may not know personally. And you might not know this, but while I'm not shy, I am easily intimidated and get anxious pretty quickly. So my excitement quickly dwindled into panic! mode.

Luckily, I was greeted by friends. And that made it easier. I was so excited that Heather came all the way from Union! And I was excited because they were excited. They bustled around the annex, showing off the decorations they put up and the food they helped put together and in general just oozed pride over my bridal status. That was awesome.

Also, we had a lot of pictures taken. Let me demonstrate:

First, we have the couple looking sweet. I look rather demure, don't I?
And then we have me and my ENTOURAGE. Just kidding. These are some of my super awesome friends. And Mrs. Dallas is photobombing by the cake table in the back.

(Rose, Kat, Rebecca, Sioda-Heather, and Crissy-Heather. The short girl with the rosebush on her shoulder would be me.)

And now P gets stuck in the pool of estrogen, and is apparently being seduced, threatened, and ogled by turns. Except by Emma, who leaped into the picture without knowing that we were all making faces and instead flashed a lovely smile towards the camera.

(Also, I love his face. He is total awesome sauce to obligingly pose with a collection of girls in dresses who make odd faces at him.)

Anyways, after the initial photo session, we were propelled to the seats of honor, where we were instructed to open gifts. We were happy to acquiesce to this request.

We got into a pretty good system. Rose handed us a gift, we took turns opening (one would hold and the other would unwrap/lift cautiously out of the bag), and Kat wrote down who gave what. Also, we opened the cards and read them together prior to ripping off the paper. My mama raised me right.

I know I showed this picture yesterday, but I just love it to little bits and pieces. We were given a glass cake plate and dome (which actually wasn't on our registry!) and I exclaimed that it needed cake. on. that. plate. now. So Emma booked it over, tossed us a cupcake, and the darling little baked good lived cheerfully in its glass habitat for the rest of the party.


(It ended up at Death of a Salesman rehearsal, where it was happily devoured by Stephen Moss.)

Also, there shall be pizza. (P was checking the tag that came with the bag.)


And OH LOOK MOAR CAKE. P was amused by my rapacious joy.


This is a little ridiculous, but I love how my nose looks in this picture.

Also, I would like to point out that Rose's torso and legs are lurking in the backgrounds of all these pictures. Girlfriend is tall. Her hips are the same height as my waist, thereabouts. I am short.

Our shower turned out to be a lot of fun. The hostesses did an excellent job, and were very, very, VERY generous to us. We had lovely vanilla cake, and my one request- CUPCAKES! The decorations were yellow and blue, to match the wedding colors, and I appreciated the detail. I also deeply appreciated the fact that life didn't stop so that everyone could stare at us opening gifts. Usually people dropped off the gift, greeted us, enjoyed some cake while chatting with their friends, and stopped to say goodbye and congrats before they left. It was very calm, very chill, and very fun.

We had a lot more people show up than we expected. I've been told that Woodmont showers are usually pretty quiet, but we had about 40ish, maybe 50ish people stop by, including one of my favorite people, P's grandmother Baba.

It was so much fun. And we were incredibly blessed by all of our generous friends and well-wishers! We were pretty astounded by the overflowing gift table!

At the end of the party, P and I opened up our cars and we all teamed up to get the gifts. By the time we were done, both his Hyundai and my PT Cruiser were completely full! We drove back to my parents' house, and he unloaded the cars while I sorted everything onto the wedding table in the rec room. And I changed out of my dress, because even though I'm a freaking ridiculous girly-girl, I need my shorts and tank tops.

(Lora, you better be still holding your girl card. No need to turn it in. :P)

We finished our super fun day of reveling in our bride-and-groom-ness in a decidedly low key manner- eating a Big Mac (him) and fries (me) in front of the TV while tidying up our registry and discussing where the crap we're going to live. (Answer: we're apartment-hunting on Thursday.)

We're still just completely stunned by how generous people have been. We were a little worried for while, because neither of us have lived completely on our own (he lived in an on-campus apartment and I went back and forth between a dorm room and Disney housing) and we don't have much in the way of practical stuff. I'm not quite as worried anymore. The only necessities we need are the bedding stuff and our everyday dishes. But everything else is just icing on the cake!

(Although that yellow KitchenAid mixer will be the queen of icing. It's the vanilla bean buttercream of our registry...)

But yeah. I am one happy bride/almost newlywed!

cupcakes is srs buzness

Of course, now that I finished my blog entry, Facebook decides to work. And now I am too tired to do anything. So I shall just leave you with this.

yes, that is a cupcake on a full-sized cake plate.

no, I see nothing wrong with it.

for yea and verily, we all shall rejoice.

a bride...for real

Three weeks from today I will be married.

How WEIRD is that?

I never thought we would actually reach this point. I thought we were going to be stuck in engagement purgatory forever, planning the wedding and dreaming about married life and never actually getting there.

(Word of advice: unless it's absolutely necessary, do yourself a favor and don't plan on a long engagement. Because three years can feel like a decade. No lie.)

People used to tease me about planning the wedding so early. Well, now I have less than a month and people are teasing me about not having enough done! Oh, well.

This wedding is really happening, and do you know how I know that? TOMORROW IS MY SHOWER!

I'm so excited. I was really anxious about it earlier (seven messages in one day about an event you're not supposed to be involved with is a bit stressful), but things seemed to have been smoothed over. I am sad that the hostess chose the date without checking first- my mother is out of town and I would have liked to have her there. But my mom was very gracious about it, and I have a pretty dress for the occasion.

(On a side note, I have a compulsive addiction when it comes to dresses. If I'm going anywhere, I need a new dress for the occasion. A party, going out to dinner, going to see a show, vacation- heck, anything could merit a new dress!)

But to get back on topic...this is one of the big events where you get to be officially acknowledged as a bride. And that...that's pretty fun. I'm excited.

Let the spoiling begin! For yea and verily, I shall not stop it.

(Especially since there are hopefully going to be cupcakes at the shower. Oh mah gah. I hope to high heavens that there shall be cupcakes. I shall stuff my bride-y face with them. Mmmmm...)

So much to talk about!

This has been a crazy wonderful weekend! So much has happened...and I haven't had any time to blog! And because there's been so much, I'm going to do several entries today. Just because I can.

The last time I blogged was Friday night, right? Right before the second-to-last show? All right, picking up where I left off.

The Friday night show was AMAZING. We were completely sold out, and the audience loved us. There's four points in the show where I have what I call my "ego laughs": when I enter, when I say "oh" after Bob's story about the Gentile children, my overexaggerated eye roll during the "Monday night, we're watching Conan" bit, and my pause during the "who's your aunt?" "Sylvia Klein" bit. Typically the audience would laugh at a couple of them. On Friday, they laughed at all of them. I was exhilarated. (To use a quote: "my aura has never been pinker!")

On Saturday morning I had to get up early for my 9am dance class. Although it's exhausting, I really enjoy it. I was put in the advanced class, which I originally thought must be some kind of mistake, but Emily, the teacher (who has the world's most delightful British accent) said I belonged in the class, and after Saturday, I think I believe her. We do the greatest routines in the class too- this one was to "Old Time Rock and Roll"; the class before was to "Footloose."

Afterwards P picked me up and we zoomed back to the house so I could get everything ready for the cast party. He set up Rock Band while I made dill dip, lemon pound cake...and lukshen kugel.

I spent a lot of the show discussing how "for a special occasion, I make my special lukshen kugel." I decided to make some myself, just to see what it's like. Well, it's DISGUSTING. One pound of egg noodles, two pounds of cottage cheese, four tablespoons of butter, half a cup of sugar, eight eggs, and a dash of cinnamon. And it's gross. I couldn't even swallow it. I have never been more grateful for lemon cake in my life.

After several hours of eating, Rock Band-ing, and DDR-ing, we headed back to the theater to prepare for the final performance. And that's when something absolutely amazing happened, but it's so amazing that it deserves its own blog entry. And so it shall.

The final show of Beau Jest was fantastic. We finished at 9:30...set strike began at 9:50. By midnight the set was completely disassembled and the theater was spotless! It was really sad to see the "living room" we'd been playing in for the past month completely vanish, but it's necessary.

Needless to say, after such a long weekend (and with a sore throat coming on...), I slept in super late on Sunday. P picked me up afterwards and we had Super Wedding Field Trip Day.

Our big goal was to find a new set of invitations. We started at the Michaels in 100 Oaks, because I was hoping to find those pretty eyelet invitations that I found on the Michaels website. Unfortunately, they were nowhere to be found. We did find a couple of other options, though, so we took pictures with my camera phone to mentally file away.

We also looked at silk flowers. I found some possibilities, but P was decidedly unimpressed. He pointed out that because of recent advances in our budget (which shall be explained in the next blog entry), we might be able to afford real flowers for my bouquet and the boutonnieres. I'm still a little skeptical (you know, that whole allergies thing...), but I have to say that I was rather disappointed in the selection at Michaels.

After Michaels we checked Walmart, just to see if, by some remote chance, they had the eyelet invitations. They did not. I was sad.

(also, their flower selection was even more dismal than the 100 Oaks Michaels.)

Our final stop was JoAnn's, one of my favoritest places in the whole wide world. We looked at the wedding aisle first, where we were once again nonplussed with their invitation selection. We quickly moved on to familiar territory, where I purchased a length of old-gold rose print velvet for my colonial gown for History of Costume class, a cut of white knit with a pretty green floral print, and Vogue 8360. (The pattern's going to be used to make my dress for my lingerie shower.)

(Isn't it pretty?)

After our Super Wedding Field Trip, P and I discussed wedding things on our way to small group. We decided on a pretty blue invitation kit that we saw at Michaels, but we're going to wait until we get a coupon. But not wait too long...we learned our lesson. We're also still discussing the flower situation. No resolve on that yet...but at least we have invitations!

So that's basically how the final weekend of Beau Jest went down. But I have to tell the SUPER AMAZING STORY that deserves its very own post, just because of its sheer epicness. So...stay tuned.

The theater life

As I write this, I am sitting on the floor in front of my dressing room, sipping a Juice RockStar and reading MLIA (and blogging, obviously). Why, do you ask? My dressing room is locked. I need to curl my hair, but it's locked. Sadness.

It's the second-to-last show of Beau Jest, and I'm terribly bummed. It's been such a great show that I hate to say goodbye to it and all the people I got to hang out with for the last two months. I almost wish we would add more shows just so I could keep going. But alas, we cannot.

Kat (my bestie/roomie/MOH) is coming to see me tonight!! I am thrilled beyond words. I was so afraid that none of my close friends were going to see me. But she's coming! I have to sneak her in because the show is SOLD OUT for tonight, but it shall be a successful mission. Mostly because my director okayed it. (Not nearly as cool as a devious ninja mission, but still, I'm happy.)

Tomorrow is the cast party at my house. There shall be Rock Band, Dance Dance Revolution, and lukshen kugel, which looks like it's going to be disgusting. But I spend the whole show talking about how I make amazing lukshen kugel, and I figured I'd better make it at some point. What better time than the cast party?

P is spending the day with me tomorrow (cast party, final show, and all!), and then on Sunday afternoon we are Weddinging It Up. This means several things:

-sorting through wedding files

-purchasing our invitations

-perusing artificial flowers

-and monitoring my fabric purchases

All right, so the fabric is actually going to be for my colonial gown project for History of Costume, my Regency-era protoype, and most likely some of the supplies for my Giselle dress, but I'm also going to get what I need for the dress I'm going to wear at my lingerie shower. It's Vogue 8360, and it's typically used for a prom or wedding dress, apparently, but I'm going to make it out a super soft pale blue knit, trim it with lace, and wear it for day #2 of the party.

But it's time to go get ready. Time for the second-to-last show!

D-day! (dress day)

That's right! Today is the first day of dress searching!

To be honest, I'm a little nervous. I mean, this is a BIG DEAL. It has to be "the one"...and it has to be the right price. Plus, I always get anxious about trying on clothes. So this could potentially be really interesting...

Last night was a ton o' fun. P and I headed over to hang with Lora and Anthony for St. Patrick's Day. She made shepherd's pie, and I brought Irish soda bread and vanilla chocolate chip cake (I was on a baking frenzy), and there was green beverages (with awesome cups and straws!) to be had. Then we watched Baby Mama and some Will Ferrell goodness while we played hand and foot (which Lora and I DOMINATED at. Seriously. It was spectacular).

And do you know what else is spectacular? The adorable pink gingham dress I got at Target for $21.99.

Seriously, how cute? It's the first dress I've purchased, rather than made, in probably a year. But on the downside, I did not find a single pair of shoes that I just loved. How sad is that? Oh, well. Maybe I'll have better luck tomorrow.

OH AND BY THE WAY...

P has his own blog. It's so nerdy and awesome. ^_^

OMG! I'm saucy!

I'm so excited!! I have a Saucy blog!! This just made my day. I opened my email and it was like "OMG YOU HAVE EIGHTEEN COMMENTS!" Seriously. Thank you to everyone who commented (and everyone who will comment. :)). I feel so special.

P and I had a marvelous time this weekend. We went over to Flattestan and had a big shindig for Kat's 21st birthday. The Rock Band was freaking fabulous. I love singing "I'm So Sick" by Flyleaf because I get to do the screamo parts. And really, nothing is funnier than a 4' 11 3/4" tall girl screaming "I will BREEEEEAAAAAAK" in a growly voice.

New beverages I totally enjoy:
-Creamsicle: ginger ale and vanilla vodka
-Dr. Coco: Dr. Pepper and coconut rum
-B-kicker: pineapple juice, a little bit of rum, and enough frozen apple cherry juice concentrate to turn it pink.

And I tasted little bits of everything. When I turned 21, I had no idea of what beverages were good or not, but thanks to Flattestan, I've discovered I like a lot of stuff. Mm, good times.

P and I also got a chance to have a nice talk. Of course, we left in the middle of church to talk, but still. We were back before the sermon was over. ^_^ It was a good talk, though. Everything's much better, and we spent all yesterday afternoon together. And took a nap. A very long nap. It was a good time.

You'd think during exam week I'd get to sleep in. Oh, no. Not me. I am in the lobby of my dorm every morning at seven, sitting at the front desk. Thrilling times. I would much rather sleep in, but no. Sad day. At least I'll be home by Wednesday night and I can sleep in until, oh, 8:30. It'll be awesome.

P and I got our first wedding present yesterday!! We love hanging out with people, and the ABSOLUTE best game for hanging out has got to be Apples to Apples. And that's what we got! Technically it's a Christmas present for me from his mom, but yeah. Isn't it fabulous? I just have to mark it on the registry. Which I should probably do now...

I don't think I've ever shown off how incredibly handsome and adorable my fiance is. I think I will do that now:
Okay, so maybe it's not the most flattering picture, but I love it. This is from the night we got engaged. We went to Ruby Tuesday's with our families and got free cake, and everyone kept telling us to to feed it to each other so they could take pictures. I was holding the fork, he wasn't ready, so I ate it myself.

And there's a reason my hair is so wonderfully craptastic. He proposed right after the last performance of Into the Woods, where I played one of the stepsisters. Those braids were tucked up under a huge Marie Antoinette-style wig. Not exactly the hairdo of one's dreams when you're being proposed to, but P is just so wonderful and I was so happy that I didn't even care.

Although our children are going to make fun of the pictures...

And I just entered this fabulous giveaway at Ravings of a Mad Housewife. Who else wants Fiesta dishes?! Ooh me!!

First rehearsal of Enchanted Attic last night. What did I learn?

-I am not good at rehearsal schedules.

-The people we cast as the kids are FABULOUS together.

-Gender-bending galore.

-It will be a cold day in hell before a minor character gets a personal choreographer hired for them.

-Costumes are going to be SO PRETTY.

-Ash will eat me if I'm late again.

But yeah. The readthrough went really well last night. I think this cast is going to work really well together.

I'm on such a major sewing kick right now. It's awesome. I'm planning out about three or four months worth of sewing. Beautiful, beautiful stuff. I'm so excited. Christmas break will be AMAZING in the sewing department.

I was thinking about having a Dead Day party. But since Dead Day is tomorrow, I don't think that's happening. Sadness. Oh, well. I'll eventually have a Christmas party. It'll be awesome.

I just discovered a new clothing website that I LOVE called Modcloth.com. Their stuff is so awesome! They have a fabulous clock that I desperately want:

Is that not completely and utterly amazing! Thanks to Courtney for finding the site for me. ^_^

I have to memorize my lines. I MUST memorize my lines. I have the Down the Road scene down just about perfectly, but I really need to learn the scene from My Cup Ranneth Over. Like really.