The first time

The first time.

There are things you'll never forget. 

Your first date.

Your first kiss.

The first time you go wedding dress shopping.

Which is exactly why I haven't gone. 

There is something completely and entirely magical about trying on a wedding dress-- something completely and entirely different than the hours you spent in the prop room during play practice in high school, fighting over who got to wear the one wedding dress on the entire costume rack for the evening.

And that one was ugly anyway. With that big old bow and scary puffy sleeves.

Which is why I'm saving myself. Even though the five-year-old in me is whining with a little, "But I want to go wedding dress shopping nowwwwww...."

No no no. I want to go with my mom. Which complicates the process since she is about 300 miles away on most days. I want to go with my maid of honor. But she's pretty much in the same locale, give or take 50 miles. And I know that as horrific as it may be for my very best friend, I need to go with him, cause he'll be brutally honest.

Like, "Amy. What are you trying to do? Attract pigeons with all those shiny sequins?"

Alfred Angelo's 81 Bridesmaid Flavors

Shrimp. Espresso. Mocha. Tangelo. Pistachio. Grape. Pink sorbet.

I thought I was picking out wedding colors. Not my menu.

In my head it's simple. I want brown bridesmaids dresses. I want my accent to colors to be a light pink and a light orange.

On paper-- not so much. Do I mean pink sorbet? Coral? Tea rose? Shrimp? And what's this light orange business-- is it burnt orange? Tangelo? Spice? Peach fizz?

Even white isn't just white anymore. There's white. Diamond white.

I'm sure if I looked hard enough I could probably find New Fallen Snow White or Creamy Vanilla too.

Make no mistake about it. I'm girly. Almost two months since we got engaged and I can still waste a pretty decent chunk of time staring at my engagement ring.

But really? Tangelo or Peach Fizz? Couldn't I be spending my time solving world hunger or creating world peace or something?!

Sunday morning wedding planning

475 days to go.

Thank you theknot.com. I'm sure that ticking time bomb every time I log in will feel just wonderful when it's something like 26 days to go and 1,527 things left to do.

I am completely and entirely befuddled at my current indifference to wedding planning. I'm aware of the likely cause, but still surprised that instead of logging on to The Knot when life throws me too many curve balls, instead I hit up my $2.99 Easy Sudoku book from Target.

I haven't touched my Martha Stewart planning kit in at least three weeks. Haven't given second thought to how I'm going to weave my wedding colors-- brown, pink and tangelo-- into our summer themed wedding. When discussing my hair stylist's baby shower with her on Friday, for the very first time it occurred to me-- oh yeah, I get a bridal shower.  Huh. And one of those bachelorette thingers too.

The only thing wedding-esque discussions Seth and I have had lately pertain to failing items in our apartment. Cheese grater coming apart? We'll register for a new one. Missing a mixing spoon? We'll register for a new one. All our forks seem to be jumping ship when they hit the dishwasher? We'll register for some new ones.

Comforter has a few holes in it? We'll register for a new one.

I'm just kinda interested to see what kind of shape that poor thing is  going to be in 475 days from now. 

Back from the dead

Thanks to my lovely fiancee, here I am -- back from a much needed blog hiatus. I believe his direct quote was, "You don't have to blog about the wedding. Blog about the snow! And how much it sucks!"

Sitting on our comfy couch with some toaster streudel in hand and no plans to go outside today... well the new fallen snow doesn't suck so much. It's actually kind of pretty.

The wedding planning is going along smoothly, although be it at a turtle's pace-- our date isn't until June 12, 2010, and given the fact that we have both the church and reception hall secured, I'm in no big rush to hop on the planning bandwagon until about June. The fairy tale wedding I've always dreamed of as a little girl has morphed into something entirely different than the 7-year-old Amy would have ever expected. And when I figure out exactly what that vision is, I'll let you know-- for now I'm trying to figure it out myself.

It's amazing what adulthood, a horrendous economy and a diagnosis of cancer in your family can do to put things in perspective.