Dude, I'm getting married tomorrow!

Mama TM told MamaCount off at the rehearsal last night. Yeahhh, funny stuff. MamaCount called TheCount whining afterward then he talked some sense into her and then she called my mom and apologized. She basically made fun of a song that my mom chose to walk down to. Then MamaTM got kind of buck and was like, "yeah that would be fine if your daughter was getting married, but clearly she's not." Hahahahaha, she won't tell me what else she said.

The lady that I chose to do my makeup did it last night before rehearsal. I hated it. I cried. So my mom was like I'll call her and tell her we can't afford it and get my cousin to do it. Sounds like a plan, now I can use the colors I told her to use in the first place!

My sister comes in a few hours!!!!!!!!!!!!Whooohooooo, she's coming to pick me up from the hair salon then we are going to see our friend that just had a baby then we are going to mac so I can get some foundation. I went looking yesterday but the girl was soooo rude that I walked away. My friend was like, "oh she must not know that's not how you talk to the bride!" So I'll get my rude sistah up there and I will get some service!

I had a few bridezilla moments last night because I was so frustrated about the makeup. I told my cousin to shut up and go sit in the back room and do what I told her to do and I told my dad to shut up or I will slap him. I felt bad, I need to apologize. At the rehearsal dinner one of the groomsmen tried to get loud with him. Shoooottttt, the neck rolling and "you wanna try me?" question made him jump, literally. Nobody expected that out of me. I laughed it off so people would think I was joking because I didn't expect it to come out that mean. Oh well, I've been pretty good I'll say. Off to bed now I have a 9:30 relaxer, rinse, weave appointment.

Wedding Wednesday: I've made my decision...take a look

This is the purple color on my nails. It does come out rather dark, perhaps I should go a shade lighter. I'm praying none of my nails break in the next 2 weeks. You should see how careful I am. I rub my cuticle oil on every night. I refuse to wash dishes or do anything dangerous, lol.



The industrial bar piercing. I am going to keep it in. Oh, perhaps I should have taken the picture with my bridal jewelry on so you could get the full effect. Oh well, I'm not taking another picture.


This is me after I left the salon when my mom got the tiara tangled in my hair. I have more angles but it wouldn't give you the full effect because I don't have the middle weave in. I'm going to wear a veil but not a blusher.

Piercings and weaves

I got my hair done last night and I love it! I really love it. For the wedding I'm getting some tracks sown in the middle to make it more full but I didn't do that tonight :) These are looking up folks! Hair is no longer a big cry fest of drama! This is what it will look like:


I'm getting my hair like Tamara (left) my sister is getting her hair like Tia (right). Then we are going to take this exact picture, lol. I also got my hair dyed last. It is a very dark brown because TheCount wanted black but MamaTM shut that down with the quickness. It really does look black though, but I like it.

Question. Do you think it would be tacky if I painted my nails dark purple instead of the traditional french manicure or light colored polish? My wedding colors are dark purple and silver. Be honest! It's a dark dark dark purple. The shade I have now is "The Deepest of Violets" by Sally Hansen. It really does look good against my skin. Also, my dress isn't white, it's diamond white, kind of like champagne. I'm not sure if that has any effect on your decision.

So, whatchu think? Can I wear dark purple nail polish on my hands at my wedding?

Oh, one more question. I have this piercing:


Do you think I should take it out for the wedding? I have a vote for yes and a vote for no already. Whatchu think?

15 days until the wedding! Yikes :)

Why is TheCount on my bedroom floor snoring? Hmmmm, why isn't somebody sleeping at that apartment we pay rent at? Hmmmm???? Oh well, off to dream of my baby as he provides the soundtrack, lol.

Wedding Wednesday: The Breakdown

At 2a.m. I was walking around the house in a bonnet, cami, boxer briefs, and rain boots asking my mom if I could put my new magic serum on her face. What brought this randomosity about? I had a freaking breakdown a few hours earlier. I am having major hairdresser drama and can't seem to find somebody I'm willing to let do anything chemical to my hair (one lady told me to buy the dye and then come to her. Ummmm ma'am, it's your job to mix the color, if I was going to buy it myself I would do it myself) and it is stressing me out. I was at the apartment with the count and I don't know what came over me but I was sobbing and repeating, "I'm just so tired of all this, I don't care anymore, whatever will be, will be." He was holding me and trying to calm me down but I just kept on sobbing. When I got home my mom tried to talk to me about something wedding related and I spazzed out again "I don't care, it doesn't matter, do what you want." Hey, the wedding is 24 days away so I'm glad that I made it this far without really freaking out.

Oh well, the apartment is coming along nicely. I finally got my orchid plant I've wanted for years. I got it on Monday but I had to take it back home with me because TheCount told me he would kill it, lol. Then last night I came in the house with a bunch of lilies. My mom looked at me like, "ummm are you trying to start a greenhouse?" She was just hating because my baby bought me some flowers. I'm going to fix my breakfast now, the tummy is growling. I think I'm going to try and cut back on bread and potatoes from now until the wedding. I would cut out meat too but the last time I did that I lost toooo much weight because you guys wouldn't believe how much bread, potatoes, and meat I eat. So yeah, sounds like a plan. Matter of fact no fast food except for once per week. Good plan :)

30 days?

If you are not a fan of weddings, love, God, or happy people you may want to avoid my spot for the next month! You've been warned :)

I'm getting married in a month. 30 days. 4 weeks. What the heck???? Where did the time go? People keep asking if I'm nervous. Not just about pledging the rest of my life to the Count but about the wedding in general. I always reply no. They look perplexed and ask me if I know it's crunch time and do I have everything together. I still tell them no and then they wonder why I'm not panicking. This is why: I am far too lazy to panic. If I stress about it that means I have to do something about it. Which I have no intention of doing. I assign myself a task a day and if it doesn't get done, oh well there's tomorrow; and hey, I always know my bridesmaids are up for a week of all nighters getting the job done. I thrive under pressure. Every single semester of college I spent the final week getting no sleep. The Count and I became mad men studying, researching, and writing. My last semester I stayed at home and my mom was in awe. She would come down at 4 a.m. and see me asleep at the computer desk and tell me to get in my bed so I can be rested. I pop up, proclaim "that was a power nap" and get back to work. Read an entire semester's worth of books. Researched and wrote 15 page papers on topics I never even thought about. And studied for tests for classes I hadn't attended since the midterm. And I rocked every single assignment. Want to know the secret?

God loves me a lot! Hahaha, he knows I am crazy as can be and He always has my back. Seriously there is no way I should have passed college. I brought C's and D's up to A's with my finals. This next month I will definitely be focused on God's love because I am certainly going to need him to calm me down and give me strength. He's hasn't let me down yet, and I don't think He'll start now, He's awesome like that, ya know?

Today's tasks: Writing thank you cards for the bridal shower, ordering unity sand and floating candles, making my hair appointment for Tuesday, and getting my eyebrows threaded this evening. No more, no less. It will all get done.

Pictures of the shower!!!

These are the pictures from my Together for Eterni-Tea Surprise Bridal Shower:

I had just gotten downstairs and was greeting my sister. I was probably squeezing the life out of her, I was so excited!

MamaCount and MamaTM had to get up and "shake what their mama's gave them." It was sooo funny!

The spread at the beginning of the shower.

This was after everybody had eaten (notice the empty stands, lol). In the orange is SisterTm and in the Burgundy is SisterCount

This is the tea bar. There was ginger ale tea, mango tea, strawberry tea, regular tea and my cousin brought orange spice tea later.

I laugh at myself way too much

Remember this post? Well hear ye, hear ye: WE GOT IT ALL BABAAAAYYYY! On September 13 The Count will be moving in to our apartment, the rent was cheaper than I expected and the apartment was bigger than I expected. It makes me smile :) We have assigned my mom with the task of sitting at the apartment to wait for all cable guys and furniture people, thankfully she agreed. Shoot, I didn't live in my last apartment long enough for the comcast man to come out! I won't be moving in until after the wedding, so that gives The Count a full month to make sure the apartment will be TM approved :)

***
Since all these people that weren't invited to our wedding are RSVP'ing do I have the right to expect huge loads of cash or great gifts from them, lol? No, seriously! Yesterday this lady RSVP'd 5. We saw her at church and the count asked who the other people were, you know to keep an accurate count.
Lady: Oh, me, my 2 sisters, my son and his wife.

We know her son and his wife so that was expected. However, I have never met these alleged sisters and I'm sure their names weren't on the invitation.
***
The Counts aunt offered an interesting solution to our problem with too many people at the reception and uninvited guests showing up. She suggested we have the pastor make the following announcement:
Pastor: Guests, there is an invitation only reception following the ceremony. If you did not receive an invitation, there are plenty of eating establishments up and down this street. Please patronize one of them. Thank you!
Am I the only one that found that funny? I was cracking up.

***
Last night at church we were passing out invitations.We looked so silly. We were being all secretive because we really can't handle any more people asking to come. We went to give this man one, and I was like "this is top secret." Why did he unbutton his shirt and slide the invitation down there. He was all "your secret is safe with me!" For this girl we went to high school with I walked over and slid her purse off her arm because she was talking to a group of people. And the count stuck the invite in. Then we backed away slowly whispering "this never happened." She was like y'all are funny, and then we disappeared into the night.

***
I'm done with the wedding talk now until next Wednesday. Ohhh why did I find out this other dude got fired when bosslady did. How I found out was hilarious. I was in a meeting with the new boss and the team that dude used to work for. NewBoss was asking about what type of reports I work on. I was explaining a report trying to see if that's what she was asking about and this happens:

FiredDude'sBoss: "Well if you used to get the report from FiredDude, you won't be getting that anymore!" Then he laughs so loud and hard! I sat there looking perplexed like, what was that all about? This man was seriously cracking up, I thought he would fall out of his chair.

After the meeting I went and asked my workhomeboy (I'm getting out of control with all these nicknames, lol) and he was like yep. He got fired too, same day as Bosslady. I'm going to need a roster of everybody that is gone because I can't keep having all these surprises!

***
I'm working on a list for tomorrow's post. Since Top Model just started (didn't watch it yet though) I wanted to pay homage to Furonda from a few seasons ago. Remember when she moved in the house and handed the girls a list on how to live with Furonda? I'm making one for The Count. Stay tuned!

***
Oh and last night, I got up to go to the bathroom around 4. While in there a heard a bang. As always I was convinced somebody was breaking into my house so I froze there on the toilet. After a few minutes I realized how embarrassing it would be if I had to run from the burglar without even wiping myself so I did and then got up. I didn't have my contacts in or glasses on so I couldn't see anything. I was creeping around the corner and then got scared and ran back into the bathroom. It took me like 15 minutes to get to my room. I checked my windows then locked my room door once I was sure the burglar didn't enter that way. Then I found my glasses and did a search of my room. It was then I realized I never washed my hands but I was too scared to go back out. I laid in bed for an hour praying that nobody was in my house. This morning I asked my parents if they heard it, which they didn't. I'm going to be mad if I imagined that darn sound and messed up my night of good sleep!

Wedding Wednesday- Wow! I'm getting married next month!

Ummm, I just don't really care anymore, lol. People make suggestions and I just agree. As long as my brain doesn't have to process it, go ahead and do it! We met with the decorator this weekend and she kept asking me stuff and I was like if I don't like it I'll say so, otherwise just keep talking I'll probably agree. The basic stuff that I wanted will be there and all the other stuff is just extras.

Guys, the count is a mean son of a gun! People keep asking/demanding to be invited to the reception and he is just like ummm no! People were calling his mom asking why they weren't invited and he was like man forget their feelings. If they get offended they didn't really love us anyway. His mom is much nicer and explained it's mostly family and that really we couldn't afford to have more than 250 ppl there. It's kind of funny because nobody is RSVPing no. Everybody says they are coming and bringing more people than we intended. I told my mom to set up some tables outside too. Anybody that brings kids must eat outside!

I finally started the hair trials. I think I'll do a separate post on that, but it's cute! I'm going to get my friend to come over this week and try it.

I have come to the conclusion that I will have to make my own socks to wear during the reception. I'm going to be sewing (as in piecing together socks, not from scratch) and embroidering them because the online selection sucks.

Furniture count for the apartment: Bed, Dining room table, leather love seat, and a desk. So far we've only spent $300 because the bed and love seat were given to us. And it all matches! Yayyyy us. We haven't gotten the official ok on the apartment yet but we should today or tomorrow.

We haven't decided on a song for the recessional (walking out of the church) or a song to walk into the reception to. I'm open to suggestions but keep in mind we are church folk and I'm a prude so I don't want any crazy suggestions!!!!!!

Wedding Wednesday: Friday Edition

Mama TM and Mama Count went out on Tuesday to shop for their dresses for the wedding. Mama Count didn't find anything but my mom came back in with 2 dresses. I went into her room to watch her try them on and I had my sister on the webcam so she could see too. The first one was very pretty but needed a few alterations, it was a nice light gold color. The second dress was a little bit more silver and when my mom stood in front of the computer to show my sister my sister screamed out "If you don't take that aluminum foil off of your body and take that mess back to the store!" We were screaming laughing. It was so unexpected, I didn't think the dress was that bad, but it's going back tomorrow. Mama TM also made Mama Count cut down her list of guests. MamaC was trippin with all those people she wanted to invite, yet she isn't putting in any money. She was cool about it and trimmed down the list so now some people I actually know will get to attend the wedding.

My dad owns a catering business with his cousin. On Sunday this woman comes up to cousin while my mom was talking to him and asks if they can cater her daughters wedding in October. This is how the convo played out:

MamaTM: Oh what day in October?
Lady: the 11th
MamaTM: Oh! That's when my daughter is getting married, what made you guys pick that date?
Lady: well she picked it
Cousin: Well we're doing Thera's wedding that day
Lady: we wouldn't need yall to do much just.....
MamaTM: Sorry they are booked
Lady: well, you know my daughters in the hospital. We almost lost her, we didn't know if she was going to make it for a while there
MamaTM: maybe you should postpone the wedding then....
Cousin: (cutting my mama off cuz he saw where this was going) Well maybe you could use "my mom's best friend that is also a caterer"
MamaTM: oops! sorry, we booked her too

When my mom told us this story on Sunday we couldn't figure out why the lady felt the need to bring up the fact that her daughter almost died. Andddd???? I mean I'm sorry but does that now make her wedding more important? I wish my daddy would be cooking for somebody else when I'm having a reception for 250ppl. Attention over here: TM has that church on lock lady, you need to change her date, all resources and people have been committed to me!

Wedding Wednesday

I went to a vow renewal ceremony on Saturday. It was beautiful! 20 years of marriage, it made my heart happy. That Sunday they had a cookout at their house. He sang Some Enchanted Evening to his wife. Toward the end of the song he approached her and held her and danced as he sang. My chin was shaking, lips quivering, eyes full of tears, but I did not make the ugly cry face! My mom was so proud :) It was a very touching moment, tears were flowing all around!

At the reception Saturday I got in a debate with one of my mom's friends. She has been around me since I was little so I don't know why she thought she could reason with me:

Lady: Remember baby, this is your day, do what you want
Me: I know! That's why I'm wearing slipper socks at the reception
Lady: Umm, no you're not. What about changing into low heels?
Me: What about slipper socks?
Lady: You are not doing that. I will buy you some low heels. You'll be mad when the photographer gets a picture of those socks.
Me: Mad? I'm posing in pictures sticking my feet out! They'll be the wedding colors.
OtherLady: What about ballet flats?
Lady: Yes, some pretty satin ones.
Me: You must not be able to hear me, just for that, now they will now be mismatch slipper socks.
Mom: You know this will only get worse if you guys keep on. Shut up before she just shows up in her panties!

I was cracking up, why do people continue to tell me what I have to do? I'm actually known for my mismatch socks. The Count and my mom went out and bought me 4 packs of identical black socks because they thought it was ridiculous for somebody in their 20's to still be wearing the socks I had on. When I leave for work my mom will sneak in my room and match my socks up, because if she doesn't there is a good chance I'll have on a pink sock with stars and a pink sock with monkeys. They are both pink, so at least it's a common theme. The Count's nieces and nephews used to come up to me, tap me, and whisper "umm your socks don't match." Hahaha it only made me do it more!

This weekend some of the bridal party is coming over to do the invitations. When I told them my plans they looked at me like I was stupid, stamps, embossing, ribbons, cutting, gluing. I told them my mom and I are trying to take over Martha Stewart's empire! I'll post some pictures of our creations next week. If anybody has some cool ideas that I could try let me know! The wedding is 58 days away and I'm still chilling like it's not crunch time. I won't even tell you that I haven't had one hair consultation........

Wedding Wednesday

Last week I asked if you would be offended if you got invited to the ceremony but not the reception. This is why I asked: people keep inviting themselves to my wedding! They are people that I interact with so they naturally assume that they are coming to the wedding and reception and that's the problem. I searched high and low for a venue to hold at least 250ppl for a reception that wasn't crazy expensive (I am not about to break the bank for a few hours of food). When people hear 250ppl they assume that I'm having it that big so I can invite everybody I know....wrong! The Count and I have huge families. With just family (great aunts and uncles, grandparents, aunts, uncles, and cousins) it's about 150-175 people. These people are blood related and whether we like them all or not, they will be at our wedding and traveling from Virginia, North Carolina, Georgia, Arkansas, California, Jamaica, and New York so obviously I want to have a decent reception as a small thanks for travelling to see me get married. After family we can invite 75-100 more people and that space was taken up quickly by our parents friends that have known and been apart of our lives since we were born and then lastly our friends. Honestly we had to fight to get enough spaces for our friends! So why do people that I used to work with keep giving my sister their address so I can mail their invitation. Why are casual acquaintances from church coming up to us talking about where is the reception. How come every time we go to a cookout this summer with old friends/acquaintances they talk about how they are going to cut up at our reception. News flash guys: YOU AREN'T GOING TO BE THERE! I don't say it to mean, I say it to let you know so you don't have to clear you schedule. My mom prepared a script for me to say:
"We both have large families so the reception will be family members and out of town guests."

I hate hurting peoples feelings but seriously I cannot afford nor do I have the desire to entertain everybody that ever knew me! You wanna know what really irritates me? To me, the most important part is the ceremony. You know the part where we make a covenant with God. The part where we pledge to be faithful to each other forever no matter what. I honestly enjoy ceremony's more than receptions because I love seeing people commit to each other, I'm honored that I can witness that (my ugly crying face is proof of that). If we are close and I neglect to invite you to the reception, by all means be upset with me, that is fine. Don't buy me a gift, don't come to the shower, but if you really loved me, you wouldn't miss seeing me get married, it's only happening once.

You want to know something else that is bothering me about this wedding planning stuff? When people tell me what I have to do. The quickest way to make sure I don't do something is to tell me I have to, I won't do it just to prove you wrong. Our reception is a reflection of us, so guess what we're going to do, whatever the heck we want! If you don't like it, don't come! We'll invite somebody else. We don't have to do a first dance, we've only danced together once in our lives and it was the last dance at prom. If you would shut up for one second I would explain that we are going to dance our way out of the reception off to our hotel to the same song. We don't have to have drinking and dancing at our reception. Why? Because we don't drink or dance, again, don't like it, don't come. We are going to have a laid back jazz lounge type of feeling. Sit down, eat your food, and talk to the people at your table. You want to drink and dance, go out after you leave OUR party. I don't tell you what to do at your events don't tell me what to do at mine. And I don't eat cake, yes we will have one, no I will not put it in my mouth for the picture. It is disgusting, it makes my stomach churn. If you let me spit it out in your hand, then I will consider putting it in my mouth.

I really am enjoying this experience, I guess I needed to vent. Feel free to disagree, I like to hear varying points of view. If you think I sound like an idiot or a selfish bride PLEASE tell me (The Count and my mom have threatened to call Bridezilla on me, they were joking, I think).

Countdown!

Guys the wedding is in 90 days. 3 months! If I listed the things we needed to still do I'd probably start crying, soooooooo we'll just leave it at this: The Count is on an interview right now as I type. I've been doing some serious praying and I also decided to put it out there that I'm believing God that he will get this job (alright God, everybody read that I said it, do your thing!). So of course I will post an update on that.

Why am I here researching a location for a friend's friend's bridal shower (that is in 3 weeks)? I don't even know where mine is going to be and I'm scrambling to find her a place for $800 for 80 people including food. Any suggestions? It seems like everybody's wedding problems are coming my way so I'm learning a lot of what not to do!

I have a question and I realllyyyyyy need to know your honest opinions. Do you think it's rude to be invited to the ceremony and not the reception? I don't want to give my point of view yet because I want honest feedback.

There must be a better way

Our servers have been down all morning which means what? 3 hours and we couldn't do anything. No phones, emails, faxes....nothing. Not that I'm objecting, I didn't have anything to do anyway! There was one lady walking around telling us to use this opportunity to clean our desks and read some papers she was preparing to give us. Everybody just looked away like they didn't hear her! I guess she got over herself because after 2 hours she was sitting around talking like everybody else. Our phones are still down and my boss decided for the fourth time in 5 days that she didn't have to come to work, so I've decided for the fifth time in 5 days that I don't have to do any work!
Since I didn't have anything better to do, I started going through every single song on my ipod putting together a playlist for my wedding reception. There really is no point to hire a DJ because we don't plan on dancing {Insert the 85million opinions that I've heard so far about what I HAVE to include at MY wedding}. Partying is not really our scene so why would we make our reception something that doesn't reflect us? We want romantic jazzy type music, a real chill atmosphere. I have this beautiful image in my head of the candles gathered on all 27 tables, dim lights, silver and dark purple accents throughout the room, and the highlight of the reception (to me) my cookie bar!
While going through my whole ipod has been fun, I see this getting old real quick! I guess I could google different playlists to get some better ideas and ask some of my friends to burn me a cd of their favorite songs that fit the occasion. Those will probably get me some better song choices than what I have now (currently listening to songs from the Dreamgirls soundtrack).

What are some of your favorite love songs?