Tomorrow

This is it, folks.  The dress is waiting patiently in my sister's closet.  The something old, something new, something borrowed, and something blue, along with the wedding rings, are in their case in my overnight bag, waiting for their moment in the spotlight.  All of the decorations, signs, supplies, and crafts I've worked on for months are packed tightly into my dad's truck, ready to be transported to the venue and put to their final use.  The past 11 months' preparations, ideas, inspirations, and projects have all culminated in this state of waiting, and soon it will be time to release all of this pent-up energy and planning into the world.

Tomorrow I will stand up in front of all of my family and friends, in front of all of Jeff's family and friends, and promise the rest of my life to him.  I will vow to love, honor, and cherish him.  I will stand in the center of all that love and support from our people and announce my love for and commitment to the sweetest, most caring, most fun man I have ever known.

This is the last post until the honeymoon is over and I can come back with lots of pictures of (hopefully) beautiful details, with happy memories, and maybe with a funny story or two.  I can't wait for tomorrow.  I can't wait to marry the love of my life.  I know it will go by far too quickly, but these memories we're making with all of our loved ones will be the happy stuff our marriage is founded upon.  This will be the story we will tell our great-grandchildren about the day our family began.

One Last Fling

No, I'm not cheating on Jeff.  This is an entirely DIFFERENT kind of fling.  Not sure what I mean?  Just keep reading...

Where we last left off, I had my wedding shoes in hand and was blissfully happy with them.  They fit all my style requirements, they were budget-friendly, and they were comfortable.  Done and done.  Right?  Well, not so fast...

The week after I found THE shoes, I (foolishly) took one more look at the DSW website, just to "check in", if you will.  And I found these:

Hello, beautiful.  Where have you been all my life?

They.Were.Perfect.  Everything I had ever wanted in a wedding shoe.  They also came in these amazing colors, all of which would work for the wedding (at least in my opinion):

  

Perfection.  The only problem?  They were $80 online.  Not astronomically priced, but I just wasn't sure.

On my next excursion to Macy's, however, they greeted me again.  Without my even having to look, they just popped up in the front row of the shoe department.  Gorgeous, but in the wrong color!  They only had pink and orange (I asked).  And, also, they were $120 in the store, which put them firmly out of my price range.  I continued my shopping and tried to put them out of mind.

However, over the next few months, I continued to check in on them at the usual shoe websites.  The price didn't go down, and I refused to try them on at Macy's and risk falling in love with something I couldn't have.  I toyed with the idea of ordering them from Zappos or somewhere else with free shipping, but I couldn't bring myself to pull the trigger.  They were $40 more than the shoes I got at DSW.  Part of my brain was nagging me that $40 really isn't that much in the big picture of wedding planning, but my mantra about this whole budget thing is "Everything adds up."  An extra $40 for shoes, $100 for a cake delivery fee, $30 for prettier stamps for invitations, and before you know it you're thousands of dollars over budget.  So I reined myself in and tried to convince myself that I was over the Anne Klein Kaleis.

Then, a month ago, I was in Macy's again.  Just for fun, I perused the clearance rack (as I so often do).  And, what did I see?  The Anne Klein Kalei, in black and yellow, in my size.(!)

I was giddy, I tell you.  Positively light-headed.  They were on sale for $46 (almost the same price as my original wedding shoes!).  I'm embarrassed now to admit that I ripped it off the shelf WHILE another woman was looking at it.  Not glancing over it, but like .5 seconds away from grabbing it herself.  Yes, I poached the shoe.  Not my proudest moment.

I stole around the corner to try it on.  As I stood up and walked over to the mirror, I smelled trouble.  The shoe slipped and slid around on my foot.  I'm usually pretty true to size, so I was more than a little disappointed.  I asked the salesman if they had the same color a half-size smaller and after the longest shoe search EVER he informed me they did not.  I searched the racks and found a 9 1/2 hidden amongst the size 7s (clearance sale, people: do not just look in your size's section.  Clearance items tend to stray).  Unfortunately, the 9 1/2 was hot pink.  It just would not do.  I tried it on anyway, just to make sure.  I reasoned that I could always order them online once I knew how they fit, since it was clearly past their season and they were likely to be on sale.  But the 9 1/2 didn't quite do it, either.  The back rubbed my ankle to the point that I knew a blister would form in less than an hour of wear.  The toe pinched, and not because they were too small.  The rose was somewhat more...blah...in person than I had seen it online.

I put the shoe back on the rack and walked away, bidding a silent goodbye to my loves.  They had let me down, and I could never go back to them.  I was deeply saddened by the loss of my dream shoe.  But, there was a silver lining: I had found the "dream" shoe, I had had my fling with it, and learned that my first love was indeed my true love.  When I got home, I took my neglected Liz Claibornes from their box and smiled.  They were there all along, just waiting for me to come around.  And now I can happily get married, in *my* wedding shoes.

The Shoe Saga Continues

After returning the ill-fated (and ill-fitting) shoes to Piperlime, I continued searching for pretty, cheap, not-too-high-heeled silver shoes.  My search eventually led me to Amazon, which I love but had avoided because I didn't want to pay for shipping.  I couldn't resist, though, when I saw these beauties:

They had everything I was looking for: peep toe, sling back, cute bow accent.  I could even get over the fact that they were white, since they had so much else going for them, and they were reasonably-priced enough that I wouldn't feel too bad about only wearing them once.

However, when they arrived I was somewhat underwhelmed.

Trigger was suspicious.  He has very discerning taste.

Um, majorly smushed bow and weirdly rough fabric?  No thanks.

I was so disappointed, but really I just couldn't get over the cheap fabric.  Not only that, but they were obviously cheaply-made and I could already tell my feet would be killing me by the end of the ceremony.  So back they went!  It truly pained me to have to pay the return shipping (although $5 really wasn't TOO bad), but it had to be done.

Shoe Shopping Lesson #2: Always order from sites with free shipping to AND from.

After this failed attempt, I knew it was time to take my search out of the online world and into the real one.  I trekked to my local DSW (about a half hour away) and finally perused the shelves in person.  And lo and behold, look what I found:

Sorry for the poor picture quality, it was hard to find a pic online in silver.  And I'm too lazy to go photograph the ones sitting on my shelf right now. 

Seriously though, how perfect are these?  Silver, classic and understated, with a mid-height heel.  And let me tell you, these suckers are seriously comfortable.  Like, unnaturally comfortable.  I'm so excited to wear them to the wedding!  Finally, the shoe saga could come to a close.

Shoe Shopping Lesson #3:  Sometimes it really is better to just suck it up and drive to the store.

This is Our Month

This morning, my alarm clock went off at 8:15 as it does every morning.  I hit the snooze button 4 times as I do every morning.  I rushed around like a madwoman to get to work on time, as I do every morning.  Once at work, I flipped the page on the calender to the current date, as I do every morning.

And UNLIKE every other morning, THIS morning, the date on the calender said "July 2010".

July 2010.  As in, "Kayci and Jeff request the pleasure of your company at their wedding on July __ 2010".  As in, we're getting married *this* month!

I cannot understand how time has passed so quickly to get us here.  Our wedding is just around the corner.  I have had my last Thanksgiving as a single woman, my last Christmas as a single woman, my last birthday as a single woman.  There are no more "lasts".  Now there are only firsts.  First dance as a married couple, first vacation as a married couple, first holidays as a married couple.  And, someday, first dog, first house, first child.

When Jeff proposed 11 months ago, everyone warned me how quickly the time until the wedding would pass.  I would smile, laugh, and tell them it couldn't come fast enough, as far as I was concerned.  And now it's almost here, and I truly understand what they mean.  I still haven't gotten used to the ring on my left hand (I catch myself staring at it on a regular basis, interrupting my typing, cooking, and driving).  I still can't think of Jeff as my "fiance" without wanting to giggle at how formal and grown-up it sounds.  But in just a couple of weeks--later THIS MONTH--he will be my husband.  I could not be happier, and I cannot wait for the day to come.  But the realization that it's just a couple of lines away on the calender also makes me want to slow down and appreciate it all.  While I've been dashing from vendor to vendor and complaining about my stress levels everyone's been telling me that this is the happiest time of my life, and I should enjoy it.  And I thought they were crazy. But, in some small way, I'm beginning to see what they mean.  As much as it felt like it back when we were setting dates and picking colors, this time really won't last forever.  We have such a short amount of time left as "Miss and Mr.", and, God willing, such a long time ahead of us as "Mr. and Mrs."  And that's something to slow down and enjoy.