Sometimes you just know...

Before I talk about my David's Bridal experience, I must say two things: (1) I have the most wonderful GSCNC friends. Seriously, I work with the most amazing girls in the entire world.  They are so incredible, so beautiful and so generous.  They never cease to amaze me with their kindness and compassion. I have said it before and I will say it again, I am the luckiest girl in the world.  (2) My Maid-of-Honor is the best Maid-of-Honor in the history of weddings.  She is a little crazy and a little eccentric, but absolutely wonderful and I would be absolutely lost without her.  

 -Hadley and me-

Now that I have had a weird and obscenely emotional, estrogen charged girly moment and gushed about my wonderful friends, I will share about my DB experience.  I promise not to have too many more of those in the future -- however, you'll be surprised to know, I am human, and those moments happen to the best of us.

Sunday when the party had really ended and all of our friends had gone home, I had less than an hour to get showered and get to David's Bridal to meet Hadley by 2:15.  FYI: I succeeded.  It's true, I am amazing.  It's ok, you can say it, I even amaze myself sometimes...  It only took me like 9 minutes to get to David's Bridal, not too shabby.  In fact, I got there before Hadley got there.  So I went inside and I started to fill out the paperwork.  You know the who are you, who are you marrying, when is the wedding, what are you looking for in a dress paperwork.  It was at this point where I got butterflies and thought I was going to ralph... or maybe that was because I was a little bit hungover... Either way, I was so excited to be there and so excited to try dresses on.  Hadley got there and gave me a card from our friends at work, Lisa and her.  The waterworks started -- it was WAY to early for that but I was just so touched by how wonderful my friends are.

Linda, my bridal consultant, came over and introduced herself to Hadley (since she and I had already met) and the three of us went over to tackle the wedding dresses.  We pulled dresses that I thought I liked and dresses Hadley thought she liked and dresses I had thought I liked 8 months ago.  Yes, I know that was before I was engaged... whatever -- don't judge me, it's not like I didn't know Brandon and I were going to get married - let's be serious.  And, can I just point out that the night I tried on wedding dresses for the first time was the night that Brandon bought his truck?  Let's all keep that in mind. Remember the story, no money for my ring, but he could afford a truck.  I mean, obviously I love the ring I have now more than the one I wanted at the time, but that is not the point.  The point is, I am not crazy. I digress.  We took the dresses and we went back to the dressing rooms.  The first dress I put on was perfect.  I loved the way it fit, I loved the way it looked, I loved it.  This was the dress. I tried on a veil and I hated it.  I loved the dress, but a veil looked stupid with it.  Whatever, it's not like I had my heart set on having a veil.  Veils aren't really my thing anyways... I moved on to the next dress. Eh, didn't love it so much.  It fit, but wasn't comfortable... oh it's a size too small, no wonder I felt like I am going to suffocate. However, what an ego boost that I can fit into a dress a size smaller than I wear (yea, it was a little tight, but it fit).  I tried on a few more dresses and nothing seemed to be as wonderful as the first one.

I had one more dress to try on and it happened.  I'm sure you've heard about this moment.  I've seen in on tv a hundred times (ok we both know that I have probably seen it more than a hundred times with the number of wedding shows I watch, but I am trying to save face). Here's the moment: After an exhausting (or in my case, not so exhausting) search, the girl finds a wedding dress. She puts the dress on and everyone just knows that is the dress.  I got the last dress of the day on and something just clicked.  The dress felt like it was literally made just for me (which you can bet is what I am going to tell people on the day of the wedding -- ugh, again with the judging, it's my day and I'll do what I want).  I came out of the dressing room and I looked at Hadley. I started to cry and then she started to cry.  We were crying and my consultant started to tear up and had to go get tissues.  This was the dress.  Hadley handed me the veil.  It was perfect. The whole thing was perfect.  I know I just said I hated veils, but I think I lied. I love love loved the way the veil looked with the dress. Weird.  I had become that girl, you know the one that I constantly like to make fun of, the one who cries in public about wedding related things.  Yep, I was that girl.

Obviously I got the dress.  Funny story -- it was the same dress I had picked out 8 months ago and said was the dress.  Nice little fact: it was on sale :) which is obviously another clear indication that this was the dress.  (Yea, yea all the dresses in the entire store were on sale, but please I'm trying to convey a point here.)  If you're wondering what this did to my budget, I will tell you... ABSOLUTELY NOTHING!  I could have gotten three and a half of my dress with what theknot.com told me to budget. Oh you want to see it?  Well, you'll have to wait just a short 498 days... :)

Engagement Party Round 1

I might be the luckiest girl in the world. If I am not, when that girl dies, I am moving right into that number one spot.  I have a wonderful family (and future in-laws), the most amazing friends in the world and I am marrying the man of my dreams -- jealous? You should be.

Last weekend, Brandon and I had friends over to celebrate our engagement in an un-family friendly way... with lots of beer and jello shots and laughing.  I am not saying that those things are not family friendly; however, what I am saying is that in the capacity that they were used last Saturday, they were not family friendly... at all.  Ryan and Marissa came down from PA, Sean and Natasha came down from Lycoming, Chipp came down from Grad School to be with us, Emily and Kerri came down from Jersey and our local friends made their way to the house.  We should have had an award for longest trip, but we didn't.  Katie made something like 80 jello shots -- they didn't last long at all.  Throughout the day, Nikki took black and white pictures.  Somehow she managed to get everyone outside on the deck for a group picture.  I am very excited to see how they turn out.  

 Hadley.Carrie.Tori.Lisa.

 ...because everyone should slow dance in the middle of the bedroom...

*Kerri.Tori.Emily* 

Hadley, being the over-the-top MOH she is, made Brandon and I wear pins that said "Bride to be" and "Groom to be".  I am not talking about little half-inch pins either, I am talking about like 6-inch pins.  They were huge.  Everyone ate, drank and was merry.  Brandon made 8 pounds of pulled-pork and it was amazingggg.  It was nice to have everyone together.  At some point in the night, Hadley made a wonderful toast to the two of us (that made me cry).  I am not looking forward to her toast at the wedding -- talk about cry baby city.

 *Brandon and I with our large pins*

The next morning everyone who spent the night was up around 8 in the morning, so Brandon made everyone a wonderful breakfast (of hamburgers) and we all sat around and laughed more about life and love and things that we missed about Lycoming. After the little ones (Sean and Natasha) went back to Lycoming and Kerri and Emily headed back to New Jersey, we took a driving tour of DC... because that's what most normal people do when they are hungover.  Chipp wanted to see the White House, so we showed him the White House, the Washington Monument (which Chipp pointed out -- looks nothing like Washington), Fords Theater, the Capitol Building and a few other points of interest.  People finally left the house around 1:20 and I had less than one hour to get showered and get to David's Bridal to meet Hadley by 2:15.  FYI: I succeeded.  It's true, I am amazing.  It's ok, you can say it, I even amaze myself sometimes...

So hungover my eyebrows hurt

Rolling Rock is the most wonderful day of the entire year (besides my birthday).  The bar opens at 8:00 in the morning for kegs & eggs, the special is $15 cases of Rolling Rock ponies from 12-2, and the bar remains open until... well, I don't know when the bar closes.  I've never made it to closing time.  Generally (with the exception of my sophomore year of college and this year) the weather is absolutely perfect.  People who you haven't seen since graduation (and who you hoped you would never see again) attend... and for some unknown reason (aka the obscene amount of beer you have consumed), you are so excited to see them at Rolling Rock.  Rolling Rock, it brings people together... and tears my liver apart.  The Cell Block should really look into using that as their slogan next year.  Anyways, like I said, the most wonderful day of the year.

This year Rolling Rock weekend was a success.  Friday night we got to see our friends and we got to rekindle our love with one another. Sean and Natasha were obnoxiously adorable (shocker), Pinto said stupid things (I guess no one should really be too surprised by this one), Meg took two hours to get ready (surprise, surprise - love you, Meg), Fat Pat said things that no one could possibly pretend to understand (some things never change) and Daley and Hannah got drunk and then got engaged... wait, what?!? (Note: they are not really engaged at this point in time but we all had a good laugh at Daley's expense.) God, I miss college.  Saturday morning we woke up in a hotel with Becker, Marissa, Ronnie and Meg and we laughed about all the stupid things that happened the night before (easily my favorite part of college).  

Rolling Rock itself was wonderful...  Obviously, we had to look past the fact that it was so cold, the sun did not shine and the wind was blowing. But the beer was flowing and so was the love.  Brandon was surprised by his old roommates.  My college roommates were there (and looking wonderful as always). We stayed at the bar far longer than we should have (about 8 hours longer than we should have).  Brandon bought enough hot dogs and hamburgers to feed a small army... or all of our friends and us.  We laughed. We drank. We danced. We sang. We tried to pay the guy playing guitar to stay at the bar longer... What? He was good.  And we sang and danced some more. 

 --Chipp. Brandon. Alex--

--Victoria. Danielle. Dee--

 The Boys :) 

.Jay. Brandon. Ron. Bradley. Pinto. Ryan. Fat Pat.

Friends :)

Bradley. Chris. Brandon. Marissa. Me. Spooner. Seese. Becker. Marino. Sean.

It was so good to see everyone; however, it was not-so-good for my liver that I drank so much.  Sunday was easily one of the worst days of my life. Our room was a disaster. My life was a disaster. Thank God Brandon drove home. I would have found a hotel halfway home and called it even.  It was absolutely brutal. Brandon got a Wegman's sub though, so he was happy -- hurting, but happy.  While driving home Brandon said to me "I am so hungover my eyebrows hurt" - I couldn't help but agree.  

We got home around 4 in the afternoon and crawled into bed.  Yes, that's right.  We were in bed at 4 in the afternoon.  I will no longer feel pathetic when I crawl into bed at 9:30... ok fine, 9:00.  We could not do anything else with our lives. You know that commercial that says "It's 10:00, do you know where your children are?"  For my mother, the answer to that question on Sunday night was "yes I do, she is in her bed dying of a hangover".  If my father had been home (and thank God he wasn't) he would have said something to the affect of "suck it up Victoria, self inflicted illness doesn't count" and my mother would not have taken such pity on me and the state of my life.

Monday morning (after laying in bed and praying for the jello leg feeling to be gone) I got up feeling like a million bucks -- sweet, it only took me like 36 hours to recover.  Not too shabby.  I was much better off than Brandon.  He was still hungover on Monday morning.  Thank God Rolling Rock only comes around but once a year :)

Completely Neglected

So I feel as though I have completely neglected the blog lately, mostly because I have.  Life has been so crazy busy lately that I haven't had time to write.  I really technically don't have time to write now because I am on a deadline at work (we have to get all of the registrations we received before March into the database before Early Bird begins on May 1 -- not that anyone besides my friends at work will really understand what that means), but here I am, writing, because I feel bad.

Recap of life after Easter:

I worked a lot.  Having two jobs may prove to be the death of me; however, I refuse to die until after I get married.  Brandon can't win that easily!  I have come too far with this whole wedding planning thing to let two jobs be the thing that kills me.

Last weekend was a busy one.  I was supposed to work on Saturday, but Katie stepped in and was a wonderful friend and covered my shift so that I could go look at tractors... Yep, I chose tractors over money.  I must really love Brandon.  Instead of getting paid to sell adorable children's clothing to adorable little children, I walked around at the Friends of Agricultural History Farm Park's Gas and Steam Engine Show.  Like I said, love is in the air.  It wasn't all bad, I got an a-freaking-mazing funnel cake out of the deal.  The weather was wonderful, a little windy, but it was a nice day and it was nice to get to spend some time with Brandon.  Last week was crazy with work that we didn't really get to see much of each other.  Saturday night was the Knights of Columbus Shrimp Feast.  They had 250 pounds of shrimp.  I did not succeed in eating it all; however, I ate more than my fair share and I drank more than two people's fair share of beer.  It just tastes so good when it's cold and free.  Sunday morning we got up early and went downtown to cheer Hadley on in the Cherry Blossom 10-miler.  I went crazy cheering for her when I saw her and completely embarrassed Brandon -- mission accomplished.  We went home and I was there long enough to eat before I had to go to work.  Blah.

This week was pretty eventful too though.  I confirmed the venue location :) and I made plans to meet with the coordinator of the venue three weeks from tomorrow.  I am pumped.  Don't worry -- I plan to take pictures of the church and of the venue then so that I can post them on here.  Brandon has his interview meeting to become a member of the Knights of Columbus on Tuesday.  He sent me a text from the meeting to the effect of "the lounge over here is awesome. it's like the he-man-woman-haters club." He was accepted as a member and has his official induction next week. (Woohoo -- hello massive discount on our reception venue!)  That night as we were laying in bed he said "The beer there is so cheap.  It's $1.50 for a Budweiser draft beer. If they sold sandwiches over there, I would never come home."  Bye Brandon, bye.  I am so happy for him though.  He needed something like this.  He can go drink some beers and make friends and play some softball all while saving a ton of money.  AND! They have BINGO every Wednesday which is something the granny in me is very excited about... like embarrassingly excited about.

Moving right along... tomorrow is career day at Holy Child and I am very excited to attend.  It's the first year that I have had a job that I really love and I am really proud of (even though I am putting it off right now to update the world on my life).  I am excited to go back and tell the youth about how rewarding it is to work at a non-profit.  I will proudly tell them that "I will never have money, but I will have the satisfaction of knowing that I have made a different in the lives of children."  What a crock... Just kiddingggg. Anyways, Brandon is taking a half day at work tomorrow and we will be on the road by 1 -- heading to Lycoming for the weekend.  It's the most wonderful weekend of the whole year (and surprisingly I am not talking about my birthday, which I maintain should be a national holiday), it's Rolling Rock.  What better way to spend a Saturday than reunited with the ones we love, the family we made for ourselves at a special little place called Lyco, drinking into oblivion.  Thank God Brandon is driving because I have a feeling I will be so hungover on Sunday that even my hair will hurt.  On the upside, we will get some good eats on the way home.  Thanks Mrs. W. -- that Cracker Barrel gift card just might save my life on ride home Sunday :)

a lovely long easter weekend :)

I would like to start by saying that Brandon and I have got to be the most spoiled individuals... seriously, we are spoiled rotten.  This weekend we went to Jersey to celebrate Easter with his family and it was the most wonderful time.  Thursday night we got in around dinner time and we ordered Chinese food -- something I had been craving for days -- it was so good, perfect really.  The man at China Moon hit on Evan (or asked if we were dating, we are still not 100% sure what he was saying), the scary ribs were delightful and my sesame chicken was everything I had been craving and more.

Friday it was absolutely beautiful outside.  Brandon and I went into the city to exchange our rainout tickets from last June.  We were able to get better seats than we had for the first game :) and Brandon will get to see Ken Griffey Jr play.  While we were in the Bronx, we decided to take a tour of the stadium.  Brandon was like a little kid in a candy store.  He was that embarassing know-it-all who literally knew every answer to the tour guides questions and the questions that other people were asking the tour guide.  We went through the New York Yankees Museum, Monument Park, the Stadium and then got to go onto the field and into the Dugout.  You could literally see the goosebumps on Brandon's arms when he stepped onto the field.

6 out of 27 World Series trophies

Brandon and I in front of the autograph wall

Brandon standing on the field

Brandon and I in the Yankees Dugout :)

On Saturday I went to Madison to see one of my college roommates, Danielle.  Danielle recently opened up the most adorable little boutique in Madison, NJ called D Torr.  If you are ever in Madison -- I highly recommend stopping by.  I found the most adorable top to wear to Rolling Rock :) and I am pretty confident no one else will have the same one on.  Danielle and I spent Saturday morning drinking mimosas and making fun of people -- some things never change.  It was absolutely wonderful getting to see her.  It's always after seeing someone you haven't seen in awhile that you realize just how much you missed them in the first place.  Saturday afternoon Brandon's grandfather, Pop, came for dinner.  He brought me some beautiful flowers -- again with the whole being spoiled thing. :)

Danielle's boutique D Torr

Easter Sunday was awesome.  My parents stopped doing Easter Baskets when Michelle got to high school -- so when I was like 10.  Brandon's mom never stopped doing Easter baskets which means after a 13 year lull, I am back in business.  In case you are wondering -- the answer is yes, Brandon's mom does make the BEST Easter baskets.  When we left Jersey on Sunday, the car was packed full of stuff.  We had leftovers, we had candy, we had snacks, we had drinks, we had a handmade beautiful wood corner shelft that Brandon's brother Evan made for us, we had everything imaginable in the back of my Equinox. 

Our Easter Basket :)

All in all it was a wonderfully spoiled holiday weekend, which in my opinion is the best kind of weekend to begin with :)