Less than 6 months

Yesterday, was exactly six months from when Kevin and I will be married.  Hard to believe.  What amazes me though is how my wedding planning has turned out nothing like planned, but in many ways has been BETTER.  At first, I was going to modify my sister's wedding dress which my mom had made. Things didn't work out as planned, which was disappointing, and instead I ended up finding a GREAT deal at David's Bridal. I won't lie or even pretend I got it for full price but I got a dress on sale for $99 and it was marked down from $450. Can't beat that. Now while I didn't pray specifically for a dress, I did pray for my wedding planning and after the idea to modify my mom's dress didn't quite work out, I did kinda ask God not expecting anything really for a dress, whether borrowed or rented or bought. Love the dress though. Simple, different, and right for me.

In many other parts of my planning, things have worked out the same. Just better than I could expect. 

Winter Reading

So in effort to keep perspective on why I'm planning a wedding, my goal while I am on my winter break is to read marriage books.  I used to think of marriage books as something for old Christian women and men and honestly, I had no desire to touch them, but my aunt and uncle from Toronto gave me this marriage book and the font was right size and the book was new so I decided I'd start reading that one.

I've read up to page 50 so far it seems that this book is alot less about marriage than I thought.  It's more about how to follow God and little inserts about marriage are added in.  I used to think I shouldn't read a book about marriage until I actually get married, but now that I'm reading, I'm thinking that my goal to learn about marriage BEFORE marriage is actually a really good decision. Thinking back, I read a number of dating books even though I didn't have a boyfriend and never had had one before and I tend to think that doing so, helped me be more cautious and wise when it came time to date. So I'm hoping and I think it's true that if I read about marriage before it actually happens, I'll be much more prepared, a better wife (did I just say that?), and just more aware of what is ahead. 

What is ahead? Well, from what I've been reading and through my reflection, I'm thinking, just thinking and realizing that when people say marriage is hard, it really is very very very hard. Now, I feel like playing hockey in college was one of the toughest things for me emotionally and physically, and caring for my grandparents has been pretty tough as well, and training for a marathon wasn't that hard, but I'm starting to see that I'm going to be crying, yelling, fighting, hurting because marriage really will be that hard.  At the same time, I've been really comforted and excited because I'm seeing that marriage, if it is approached at from God's angle it can be REALLY REALY satisfying and can add so much to your life.  

So we'll see what happens after page 50, but I've shocked myself because I haven't read this faithfully in a while!

What do you know? Over a DRESS!!

So one thing that I've been realizing all today and yesterday is that my vision seems to have gotten a lot worse. At work and even now as I type, I feel like my eyes aren't able to see the words too clearly. I hope and pray that I keep my eyesight.  WIth contacts most people think I'm 20/20, but actually I'm legally blind without corrective vision. I always wondered why God would give me bad eyesight...after all, I got my first pair of glasses when I was 3, but I guess we'll have to wait and see God's plan. Inside I'm learning that if I go blind, then I go blind and I won't cause a ruckus over it. There must be some purpose for it. 

Well, since this is a blog dedicated to my engagement, today I went to Kinkos after work. I didn't plan on it but went on a whim because I just felt like going there to check out the prices. I think I'm a "on the whim" type of person, no matter how disciplined I may be at times.  Yesterday as I was looking at the invitations I had bought, I realized that it would be pretty hard to print my own invitations even though a whole kit was provided.  Using the invitations i've already bought, I'd have to manually feed like 200 invitations into our printer plus manually feed RSVP cards and the such. Not much fun. So I went to Kinkos to look into printing my own.

After a quick trip to Kinkos, I snuck over to David's Bridal although I didn't have my bridal party members, my sister, or anyone with me and decided I was going to try on a couple of dresses. I think I tend to buy better when I'm alone. There was noone to give strong opnions or any opinion at all or anyone to take many pictures for me. In fact, the lady who helped me out took pictures on my cell phone for me because I hadn't planned on coming.  While I hate to obsess over petty things like a dress which I'll only wear for ONE DAY, I have been stressing over this. First, it was over my bridesmaid dresses and this time it was over a wedding dress. For the past few weeks I've been searching online and thinking about where I was going to find my bridesmaid dress and then my wedding dress. Last week, I confirmed my bridesmaid dress and it had been killing me that I didn't know what I was going to wear yet.  I think i just like to get things done quickly. 

So I can't forget to mention that in my stress I did halfhearted ask God to help me.  That's all, I asked him just to help me because I couldn't believe I was letting a dress stress me out, but when I tried on the two dresses, which let me say were  $99, they both ended being pretty beautiful. I liked them at least. And so I called my sister who willingly bussed her two kids with her to David's Bridal, and then I called Kevin who was just about to eat and put down his fork to come take a look, and then I called my mom, who was on the road and without hesitation, turned the car around and said she would be at David's Bridal in minutes... I called them to get their input and literally in less than 2-3 hours, I literally found a dress that fit my strict criteria...something inexpensive and beautiful.  Can't get much better than that!