Progress in the Fat Department Sort Of...

I wont lie, I wasn't really doing anything to ward off fat for most of the winter or spring except for the occasional soccer game, but even that didn't last long when I hurt my leg a couple games in to Summer League. I decided I wouldn't try my dress on until my bridal shower on the august long weekend partly because I was dreading it because I didn't want to know if I didn't fit into it and because I wanted to wait until my jewelry and shoes were purchased. Luckily I fit into the dress, so much so that I dont need alterations, however, poor jenny had to literally stuff my butt cheeks into that sucker similar to stuffing a sausage into its casing. It was mixed emotions at that point, I fit, but it could be more comfortable. Then I got on the scale three weeks ago and realized I was the heaviest I have ever been in my life, I had a minor breakdown, and then I headed straight out for a run. The rest is history I guess. Ever since I've been running and doing a weight program 5 days a week.

When I say I am non-runner it is the biggest understatement of the century. I haven't ran more than a sprint on the soccer field since Sue Smith used to chase us up the hill with the mini bus in junior high cross country practices. I dont run. That is until my soccer coach taught me how to start running again. He put me on a slow running program which is exactly what it sounds, you run slow. The point is that you never walk, so your slow run pace may take you the exact same amount of time as walking the distance would but your working harder by doing the running motion. When you start to feel gassed you slow down essentially. As much as I love it, it will drive you insane at times that you are so god damn slow because people will look at you funny. With that said, I only was slow running for about a week when I noticed that my endurance was improving dramatically and I was able to keep a much faster pace without getting tired.

My weight training comes from a girl I work with, I'm doing mostly legs and abs. I had a major fuck up my first time doing the legs. You start with three sets of weighted squats with each set the weight increases and the reps decrease. When it said three sets I assumed this meant three sets of each weight level so I did nine sets total and about 100 weighted squats that day. Needless to say, I was wrong and the next day I felt as though someone had ripped every muscular thread in my ass. Seriously it hurt so bad.

The sort of in the title comes into play here. Although I've been killing myself at the gym lately. The scale says the same thing. I'm praying its broken but I'm pretty sure that I just develop muscle easily and muscle weighs more than fat so its just balancing out in some evil way. I feel better and look better and thats all that matters.

One Week Left To RSVP

Things start to feel very real when you realize that your rsvp's are all due back in a week. Holy mother of god this thing is 2 months away! We're still getting more and more responses every day and I think that right now we are hovering at around the 135 range for a head count. I expect we will be up to 150 by the time the deadline comes around which I think is a good number. Its seems to be the people who are our age who dilly dally with invitations and I have to say that I have developed a new pet peeve when it comes to wedding planning and I have to admit I was guilty of this once in my life as well, but in planning a wedding I have realized how frustrating it is for the bride and groom. So here it is: Even if you aren't coming (which really doesn't hurt mine or Josh's feelings in the littlest) you still have to rsvp not attending because in one week if we have no response from people we will start harassing you for an answer. This isn't because we are dying to know, but our hall has given us a date by which we need a confirmed number and that date is rapidly approaching. When you're planning a party for 150 people, it is a major pain in the ass to have to call and harass people about whether or not they are coming especially when its as simple as clicking a button on a website. So I speak for all brides when I say to just respond, we really dont care and wont be hurt if your not coming, we will be ticked off if we have to hunt you down.

My Shock at their Shock

Over the course of planning the wedding I've had a lot of people who were genuinely surprised by certain things about the wedding that I really didn't twice about, dare I say some were even appalled. Is it wrong that it makes me happy on the inside when people dont like something about they way I'm planning my wedding. Here are some of the things that have surprised me that surprised or annoyed other people. 

1. You're not getting married in Bridgewater? Apparently unbeknownst to me your "supposed" to get married in the Brides hometown and I'm supposed to get ready at my parent's house. Obviously the decision was between Cape Breton and Bridgewater, but in the end Cape Breton is prettier in the fall so we decided on there. I have really not had that many regrets since choosing to do it in Cape Breton. The hall has given me a couple of headaches along the way but nothing crazy. The only reason why I would have wanted to get married in Bridgewater  would be to get a photo at the golf course in Lunenburg overlooking the harbour. 

2. You're having your reception at a fire hall? My initial internal reaction to this question is you live in Nova Scotia, no one in NS is wealthy enough to have a prejudice against a fire hall, especially no one that I associate with. With that said, if I was getting married in Bridgewater a firehall wouldn't have been my first choice, because none of them are overly nice or big. However, I also hate the idea of a reception at a hotel, i've been at too many where when the dance starts 90% of the guests are up in rooms drinking and I'm the type of crazy biotch who would hunt them down and yell at them. For the record my hall doesn't even really look like a hall which apparently allows them to charge me 2 dollars more a plate than every other fire hall on that island but I will deal.

3. You're getting married in the fall? Contrary to popular belief, not everyone gets married in the summer and for good reason. For one you're competing with like a million different weddings every weekend and for two I have no idea how any woman wears a wedding dress in this kind of heat. I was sweating half to death just trying on my dress for maybe ten minutes two weeks ago at my shower!

4. You're not walking down the aisle to the bridal march? Yes, that god awful song has a name and no i'm not walking down the aisle to it. I'm walking down the aisle to the beatles. It will be simplistic and romantic and I cant wait. 

Believe what the people tell you!

This has rang true when it comes to invites for me. We sent out 230 invites and were hoping for between 190-210 guests. Every wedding website you see tells you that one third of the people you invite will not come and for some reason we just could not fathom that this would ever be a possibility. Apparently we think we're more popular than we actually are, who knew! Right now we're expecting our number to be in the 150-165 range, which is great because it saves us money but if we really wanted that big wedding that we were planning for, we could have invited WAY more people. That being said, I've made a habit out of inviting people to our wedding when I'm drunk, so who knows there may be 200 yet!

What am I most looking forward to

Here is the grand list:


1. This may seem sad, but Josh and I have both been quoted saying that we cant wait for it to be over. This is not us wishing away our wedding at all, I'm beyond excited for the big day, however, I can't wait to feel the weight lifted off of my shoulders the morning after. The wedding is going to be fun but I think that if you are most looking forward to wedding as opposed to the marriage then you may be getting married for the wrong reason. I'm excited to have a hubby and I'm excited to move on with our lives after the wedding day.

2. I'm excited to see Josh's reaction when I walk down the aisle. Dont get too excited here, it would be far fetched to think he will shed a tear (he's not that type of dude). However, most of the days of my life I think I look like a troll; I dont have good style, my hair is almost never brushed, much less done in any nice way, I never wear jewelry and yet that guy still tells me I'm beautiful every day. When I try on that wedding dress, I feel gorgeous like I cant even describe. It doesn't matter if I have no makeup on and unshowered hair in a bun on the top of my head, I feel awesome in that dress. It hugs all the right places, it sparkles and the fabric is just to die for. So I'm excited to see Josh's reaction to me all dolled up and feeling like a queen.

3. Words cannot even begin to describe how excited I am to dance with my dad. I've been looking forward to marrying Josh since we basically started dating, but I've been looking forward to dancing with my dad at my wedding since I was a little girl. I'm the biggest daddy's girl in the entire world, we are the same person, which is probably why most people either love or hate both of us equally. I truly feel that this will be the most special moment of the wedding and I can't wait.

4. I'm so excited to get drunk after those first waltzes and just enjoy my night with everyone. There is a reason we invited 230 people to this wedding and its because we wanted a huge party so you guys better live up to our expectations.

5. I'm excited to change my name on facebook. Yup there I said it.

The End Is Near (What Would I Have Done Differently In Retrospect)

With the wedding a mere 3 months away and things starting to ramp up, I find i'm often looking back at the last fifteen months of wedding planning and thinking about what I would have done differently.

1. My absolute biggest regret of my wedding is not hiring a videographer, I am heartbroken that I dont have one. That being said, its not that it was a detail that was overlooked in the littlest, they are just so expensive. I'm not trying to devalue their work at all, I think that having those moments captured on film in a professional way is invaluable if anything but being on a tight budget means that you unfortunately have to make those sacrifices here and there. This really is the only thing that eats away at me because of our low budget. Everything else I am very satisfied with.

2. I should have numbered the response card envelopes and recorded the number with who it was sent to somewhere in my records. It is really inconvenient to get a response card back and have absolutely no idea who sent it lol.

3. I should have put stamps on the return envelopes although I really can't say I regret not doing it because what is 60 or whatever cents for a guest would have been 200 bucks for me to do all of them. I've been really shocked by the amount of people who have sent back response cards when it clearly says you can rsvp on the website and that's way more convenient (at least I would have thought).

4. And we both agree on this one, but looking back if we had known what this process was REALLY going to be like and not what pinterest told me it was going to be like, we probably would have saved our money, flown to a gorgeous island and eloped. Planning a wedding and I mean planning it, not hiring someone to plan it for you is probably the most frustrating task in the entire world. Part of the reason is money, part is the numerous opinions that you get that you really dont care about, the guest list, the food, it all just wears you out after a while. If I didn't see the value in a wedding planner before, I certainly do now.


With all this being said, the big day is three months away. Its going to be a beautiful wedding, I can promise that but there were certainly some things I would change looking back!

Great News

The thought of September had me panicking until very recently. As a substitute, September is basically a write off because most teachers dont take sick days during the first month of school. I didn't have very high hopes of getting a position next year since the HRSB is so competitive but I managed to land a pretty awesome job for the whole year. Panic is now gone, but now I get to add lesson planning to my lovely to-do list :)