Silent Sundays, Crazy Wedding Style

I have spent an incredible amount of time this week researching anything and everything wedding: readings, flowers, music, shoes, decorations, invitations, cakes.... you get the idea. I've seen enough ruffles and lace to last me for at least the next 10 years. Some of the pictures I have run across, though, were just too ridiculous not to share:

Yep, ladies and gentlemen: that's all train. A mile's worth. Think about this for a second: when this bride was standing at the altar, the end of her train was a few blocks down the street!

I really hope it's just the light that makes this dress look pink. It's bad enough without being the color of cotton candy. This poor girl looks like she's in danger of drowning though.

I get that every bride should feel like a fairy tale princess on their big day. Dressing like one? Not so much.

The blue cowgirl-esque dresses, the flowers, the headpieces, the half naked woman in the background... there is just so much wrong with this picture!

I really have no words for this. Just... ick.

What happens when you tell the cake designer that you'd like "a little of everything?" This disaster.

Of all the awful wedding pictures, though, this one really just takes the cake (I know, I just couldn't pass that one up). This lovely and oh-so-modest bridezilla had a cake made of herself... complete with sunflowers adorning her busom. What wedding guest would be willing to eat this?!

   Love,

    Meg

Friday Favorites... The Abridged Version

Only room for (and time enough to write about) one Friday Favorite this week... the guy who sent me these:

I'm so lucky to be marrying him! Hope all of you get a little spoiled this weekend too!

   Love,

    

    Meg

Thoughts on a Thursday

Sorry it's been so quiet around these parts lately, life has gotten incredibly hectic as the wedding creeps closer and my blood pressure silently goes through the roof. Who knew that planning a "small" wedding could be so stressful? Every time I feel like I've gotten something major finished and I remind myself to keep breathing, someone reminds me about three more things that need to be done rightthissecond. My to-do list for the next few days looks a little something like this:

...and I started adding to the back of it this morning. As excited as I am about this wedding (and as sure as I am that it will all be worth it in the end), just looking at this list makes me want to crawl back into bed and ask Toby to breathe his awful cat breath in the face of anyone who comes close. Unfortunately, though, these things aren't going to cross themselves off... and as my father reminded me this morning, the excuse that the wedding "isn't until next month" only works for another 8 hours or so.

Thankfully, I'm not in this completely alone: my mother and best friend have been so wonderfully helpful, and I've had at least 15 other friends offer to help out with all kinds of things. Dan has been doing absolutely everything he can to help, despite the fact that he spends most of the week out of town and has a pretty serious day job with which to contend. Everyone else I've worked with so far -- the caterer, the people who are in charge of our "venue," the ladies who made and printed our invitations -- has been incredibly sweet and attentive. I am so grateful for all of this help and I know that without it, I probably would have already cracked under the pressure. At this point, though, most of the things left to do are not so easily delegated, meaning that the entire list up there is filled with things that I alone need to take care of... pronto.

As if this weren't enough to think about, I'm also in the midst of the "my wedding is in less than a month and I have to look fabulous in this dress or I'll never be able to live with myself" freakout. Add that to the "my soon-to-be-husband is leaving for a war zone in approximately two months and I have a tendency to eat my feelings" syndrome, and we have some major issues. I've been pushing myself really hard lately to eat right and work out as much as possible in an effort to combat both stress and pudge. I've never before understood how people could claim that running calmed them down (nothing about sweating profusely and struggling to breathe really says 'calm' to me), but now I'm starting to find that 45 minutes on the treadmill each day acts like mental housekeeping, sweeping up the mess left by the billion thoughts zinging around my brain. I leave the gym refreshed, relaxed, and simply too tired to think about anything important. There are other reasons (for another post) for the fact that I am pushing myself harder than ever before to get in these miles, but one of the biggest is that provides a much needed reboot to my weary head. That and because the more I work out, the more I can eat, even though we're rapidly approaching Def-Con 2 for wedding weight loss and toning.

Luckily, there is a big bright light at the end of this tunnel: I have an amazing best friend who has booked us massages and pedicures for this weekend. I am so incredibly excited to relax a little bit, spend time with her, and get cute toes out of the bargain!

   Love,

    

    Meg

Warm Fuzzies

I am buried in wedding craziness tonight, but I had to pause to share this furry adorableness:

This little face just melts my heart.... and the huge snores make me chuckle!

    Love,

    

    Meg

A Lovely Weekend

I am very much in denial about the fact that it is Monday again. It's just not possible. Unfortunately, this technique doesn't seem to be working so far: the alarm still went off, I still guilted myself into a morning run, and here I am at work. Looks like a Monday, smells like a Monday. Damn.
We had a pretty fabulous (if cold) weekend around here. I kicked it off with a Dunkin Donuts run after work Friday, since in my experience, it's impossible for a weekend that starts with iced coffee to be anything less than wonderful. I drove over to my in-law's house to see how the painting was going, and Dan's mom and I talked about the next stage of the project. It's going to look so great when we get done! Dan made it back into town and we headed out to pick up some electrical tape and also found a couple pretty, low maintenance, non-toxic-to-cats plants. I've been wanting a little one to brighten up our bathroom, and Toby has provided his seal of approval -- he's already gnawed off one of the leaves. Crazy cat. The other one looks great in our living room, and now we're just on the lookout for that spray that makes plants taste slightly less delicious. Speaking of things that taste yummy, Dan made my very favorite pasta for dinner, and shortly thereafter I slipped into a food coma while watching Say Yes to the Dress. I'd say that's a pretty good night.
Saturday I left my boys in bed while I went to the gym (it was freezing outside) for a really long run. More on that sometime later when I can write about it without my legs cringing in pain. After that, Dan and I drove a few hours to see my best friend and her boyfriend. The four of us went out for a great lunch and then the guys headed back to the apartment while we did some shopping. We all met up at this great little mexican restaurant for dinner, where we ended up waiting almost an hour for a table. I finished my second margarita from the bar just as we sat down to eat... and Dan convinced me to order my third. We spent the night on my best friends' couch: again, a pretty good night.
Yesterday was lazy -- I rehydrated and showered, we drove back to our hometown with another iced coffee in hand (it's a weakness), and took a nice long afternoon nap cuddled up with poor Toby, who acted like we'd been gone for weeks. Last night we went out for a high-carb italian dinner (the best kind) to celebrate Dan's dad's birthday. I ate one of these:

when we got home. That's right, another pretty good night.
Hope that everyone else enjoyed their weekend and got to take it easy and eat lots of good food. And maybe drank a margarita... or three. This week is going to be full of wedding prep, work craziness, gym time, and hopefully a little bit of fun, so I'm hoping it's going to fly by!

    Love,

    Meg

Friday Favorites

It's that time again, girls and boys! And thank goodness, because there were several moments this week that I thought the weekend might not ever get here. Here we are, though, and I am ever so grateful! These are just a few things that I am celebrating this week...

Nerd alert: I am completely addicted to NPR. It is usually on in my car (much to Dan's chagrin) and I also listen to NPR podcasts pretty often while I run. It's my favorite way to keep up with the news and I learn something new literally everyday. I can't count how many conversations in a week I contribute to by saying "Well I heard on NPR the other day...." I especially love Car Talk, even though I have no interest in cars whatsoever -- those guys keep me laughing through a whole hour of running and I'm sure that the people around me think I'm crazy. Also, don't tell my co-workers, but I cry almost every Friday morning on my way to work: I'm always in the car when they play the weekly StoryCorps and I swear I tear up at practically every little interview.

I love me some cashews, so when we were at Target recently and I saw honey roasted cashews on sale, I knew I had to try them. Oh goodness, these things are addictive. How did I not discover them before? I have the container on my desk at work and it takes an incredible amount of willpower not to eat them by the handful.

I picked up this cute little bowl at Pier 1 this week (full disclosure: I was actually shopping for birthday presents for my mother and best friend. It was on sale though!) Apparently I have a thing for bowls, and when I got home and tried to find a home for this one, I realized that I have amassed quite a collection of cute bowls of varying shapes and sizes. Do they stage interventions for that kind of thing?

Ok, so I googled "drinks with friends" and, amidst the pictures of sloshed 20-somethings waving their Solo cups, found this gem. I couldn't pass it up! Technically, this favorite is left over from last week, when I met up with an old friend of Dan's (and mine, since I've known her) for drinks and dinner. She is such a sweetheart and since most of my college friends live in other towns or states, it was so great to spend some time just catching up and talking with her. The cat is cute, but sometimes human interaction is just necessary, you know?

Can you hear the celebrating from where you are? As of this morning's run, I have officially made it 100 miles this year. To the seasoned runner, 100 miles sounds more like 2-3 weeks, but as a beginner who is trying doggedly to convince myself to like running and stick with it, this is a pretty huge milestone. Especially considering the knee pain that kept me from running for several weeks in January/February. At the rate I've been running recently (4 times a week-ish), though, my next "century" should go faster and, I hope, easier. By this summer, I hope to be ready for a few road races that have been on my radar but I've been too nervous to sign up for yet. This weekend, however, I know one thing for sure -- I'm celebrating my first 100 with ice cream!

I hope that you all have wonderful, exciting weekends lined up. Dan and I are heading to see my bestie and her boyfriend tomorrow, and I can't wait! It's been several weeks and I'm really excited to catch up with her. Then Sunday I'm hoping to get a few wedding-related items checked off of my to-do list!

Happy weekend, everyone!

    Love,

    Meg

Rhymes with Wednesday

This week has been beyond ridiculous... and even that's really an understatement. I've been super productive, but my to do list continues to grow at an alarming rate. We have less than a month until the little wedding, so I am scrambling to get all the details figured out, which could be a full-time job in itself. Add to that my actual full time job, plus family obligations, gym time, and taking care of the little furball, and we're running out of hours to sleep here. Anyone in my family can tell you that a tired me = a cranky me, so I'm working extra hard to suppress the crazy and embrace the phrase "I'll sleep when I'm dead."

Monday Dan picked me up from work a little early and we headed out to meet with our caterer. She was really sweet and so flexible, and we got to share two of the yummiest cupcakes I've ever devoured eaten. We're keeping it simple and going with hors d'oeurves (there will be smoked salmon, and that's all that really matters to me) and, of course, the cupcakes. My stomach is counting the days. After that, we headed to FedEx to work on our invitations (yes, it's a little late, but these are too adorable to pass up) and then grabbed dinner at Chipotle before grocery shopping. When we finally made it home, I spent about two hours cleaning and reorganizing the kitchen before collapsing into bed.

Dan had to leave really early yesterday morning, and I also got up over an hour early so that I had time to run, shower, stop by to check the invitation proof, get gas, and grab coffee before making it to work (early, no less). My department has been swamped lately, and yesterday my whole day revolved around three massive spreadsheets, so by the time I walked out my eyes had kind of glazed over. I then headed over to Dan's parents to help his mom paint her living room and ended up staying there most of the evening. It was exhausting but we got a lot done. I'm heading back over today after work to keep going -- I can't wait to see the finished product! I finally picked up the finished invitations on the way home and made it back to the apartment just after 10:30, at which point I parked myself in bed, ate a cupcake, and was asleep by 11:15. 

This morning I got up early again to fit in some time at the gym before work. I never thought I'd say it, but I've actually started to enjoy these early morning workouts -- the gym is always quiet and I sort of like watching the sun rise from the treadmill. The only problem is that if I do it too many mornings in a row, it starts to make me sleepy at work. Case in point: today. I need a nap.

The rest of the week looks like more of the same: more painting, more runs, more crazy days at work, more whirlwind wedding planning, more coffee. Tomorrow night my family is going out to celebrate my mom's birthday, at some point I need to find time to shop for wedding shoes. Oh how I wish I could afford a pair of these beauties:

{kate spade} and {louboutin via here}

Hope everyone else's week is going splendidly!

    Love,

    Meg