Not much time to post, as I have to head out to my friend Kate's bachelorette party, but I had to get in a quickie update. I tried on the dress today and proceeded to hug the seamstress. She worked a miracle and the dress fits, and looks just as if it were made that way. I can hardly believe it! The relief is overwhelming. She also is going to make the bustle for the skirt exactly the way I wanted it - very smooth and not poufy. This woman is amazing!

OK, off to go have fun. At least I can drink happily, rather than drowning my sorrows!

Jeez, it's Friday morning and all I can think about is how nervous I am for my dress fitting tomorrow. I just can't shake the feeling that it will be a second disaster and I am going to be the Brooklyn Botanic Garden's very first nude bride.

Well, that would be a wedding to remember, wouldn't it? Good way to show off the workout results.

Quickie update - I have an appointment at 4pm on Saturday to try my dress on post-alteration. We'll see. I spoke with some sort of district manager today who said try it on Saturday, and if I am not happy, they will explore "alternative options." We'll see what happens, and cross your fingies in the meantime!

Also, it turns out the gift was NOT stolen. The Fedex guy delivered it, then returned a bit later because he decided it wasn't safe to have left it. Then he came back today. Wacky. You'll be pleased to know that I called Red Envelope back and had them re-charge my account. Maybe the good karma from that will balance out the dress nightmare.

I am so pissed off right now. My Mom's Mother's Day gift was stolen! The building we live in has eight apartments, and a locked lobby, but packages have been stolen before. I ordered something really cute from redenvelope.com, and the Fedex tracking says it was delivered, left without signature, yesterday afternoon. When we got home, there were three UPS packages, but no Fedex. I called redenvelope this morning and they credited my account, but they are out of the gift I ordered, so they can't get me a new one.

I am SO annoyed! I was so happy to have found just the right thing, without hauling my ass all around town. And now it's pretty much too late to order anything online without paying ridiculous overnight shipping costs, so I am going to have to haul the aforementioned ass ANYWAY.

GRRRRRRRRR!

The rest of yesterday went better than that, at least. I went with Diana, my maid of honor, to pick up her bridesmaid skirt. It was painless, and when we took it outside and looked at the color of the skirt with the color of the bridesmaid tank, it looked great! I had been sweating that a bit, since we had such a small swatch to go on, but at least that worked out well.

I also went and picked up my veil on the way back from lunch. I think if I were to work in the bridal industry, selling veils would be the best job. No one ever puts on a veil, says "eeeeeew, it makes me look so fat!" and bursts into tears. Generally, they put it on, look in the mirror, and say "wow, I look like a bride!" And that's exactly what I did.

No new news in the saga of my bridal gown. I'm trying not to think about it today. Not possible, but there's not much I can do. I spoke with the manager again and she told me she inquired about getting a new dress and it isn't possible. The big problem, I think, is that the style is not in their regular collection, and it is made in Spain. She's still trying to get it altered for Saturday, but I don't know if that's really going to happen. Wednesday was the original date (next Wednesday). I'm feeling better about it for the moment, just because I can't let myself feel that bad for that long. One way or another, we'll work it out. If they absolutely can't alter it and I have to get another dress, I'll live. I really don't want to do that (get another dress, I mean) but if I have to, I will.

My wedding band is still not quite right. I went yesterday and it's still .1mm thicker than my engagement ring. Yes, that's one-tenth of a millimeter. I don't know whether they are going to kill me or offer me a job there! But at least they gave me my engagement ring back this time, and I'm happy about that. It's all clean and sparkly, and they polished the band for me, too. I feel better at least, having it back.

I think I'm going to go with Diana today to pick up her bridesmaid skirt. I brought one of the completed tops with me, so we can be sure the color is OK. Please cross your fingers for that!

That photo of Alexander seems to not be happy on Ofoto, so I linked to a new one. It was so wonderful to talk to Lisa yesterday and hear the joy in her voice. I haven't heard that sound in so long. She's totally overwhelmed, but happy as could be.

I spoke with the manager at the bridal salon yesterday. She told me she was trying to find out what happened to my dress, and in the meantime was going to push the seamstress to have the alterations done by this Saturday, so I could try it on then and see how it is. I'm anxious about how the alterations will compromise the shape of the gown - particularly the boning, as a few commenters pointed out. Since I can't really do anything about it until the weekend anyway, I'm going to sit tight for the moment. As long as she has it Saturday, at least I can make an informed decision, rather than jump to a conclusion.

I think I'm going to write a letter to the president of the company that made the gown. I'm very frustrated with all the setbacks that have occurred with the gown, and I just feel like being a squeaky wheel. Considering how far in advance I ordered this gown, there should have been tons of time to deal with this crap, and now it's getting down to the wire, which was what I wanted to avoid in the first place.

In good news, I started bridesmaid top number four, and am about 6 inches into it. It's a size smaller than the others, so it's going a bit faster. I got the good news that the skirts came in 2 weeks earlier than they were expected to, and Lisa, at least, already has hers! I'm going to go with Diana sometime this week to pick up hers and see how the top works with it. Fingers will be crossed.

There's a lot of whine coming up here in a few moments. But first I will share some joyful news, since it is ultimately far more important than the whine. My best friend Lisa and her husband are on their way right now to pick up their new son! They have been trying to conceive and trying to adopt for nearly two years, and finally their efforts are being rewarded. Alexander Peter (last name omitted) was born late last week, and they got to meet him on Friday. He stayed with a foster family for the weekend and right now they are probably bundling him into a car seat.

I am so ecstatic over this news! I can hardly describe my joy at knowing that their deepest wish has been fulfilled. They are both such wonderful people and will be fantastic parents. I wish I could start knitting him a present right now, but that'll have to wait until post-wedding, I think. Anyway, little Alex is a very lucky boy and I can't wait to meet him! In the meantime, I can content myself with pictures such as this one.



If you want to linger on that happy feeling, go away now. The rest of this post is pure whine.

All along this planning route, there have been some minor setbacks, but nothing's really gotten me down. The rabbi canceling (we got a new one who we love), the guest list hassles (all finally sorted), the seeming impossibility of the jeweler to make my wedding band the right way...all within the realm of "it sucks but it'll get worked out." But this finally got to me.
 
Here's a refresher course on the dress: Found it in August, at a trunk show. The sample was my size, fit me perfectly - hem it, adjust the straps, and I could've gotten married that Tuesday. Loved it, ordered it, and they said it'd be in by January. January comes and goes, and they now tell me they order it to be in a reasonable number of weeks before the wedding, rather than a time period after you order it. So fine, it'll be in end of March. End of March comes, they tell me it's in. I come to visit it, and it turns out the computer said it's in, but it wasn't actually physically in the store. Urgh. Two hours (there and back) wasted in traffic. Turns out there was some dirt or something on the dress the factory was going to send, so they had to get or make a new one.
 
End of April, the dress is in. They tell me come for a fitting in mid-May but I decide that's too late so I make an appointment for Saturday. I go there, excited to see it after 9 months. I'm thinking it might need to be taken in a touch, since I've been working out and noticing some of my clothes are a bit looser these days. She puts it over my head and reaches for the closure at the waist, and ::ouch:: that's tight! She barely closes it and I feel like I am going to suffocate.
 
Then we try the bodice. There's about 3 inches of Betsy at the top that is just never going to fit in there - no WAY is that thing closing. And no WAY is it the same size as the sample I tried on. I keep my cool, they get the seamstress, she opens the lining and pronounces that there is enough seam allowance to let it out. Great. But why the fuck is my dress at least two sizes smaller than I ordered? The sample was a 6 - this would have to stretch to be a 2!
 
So, now, even though I KNOW it's the dress, and totally their fault, I feel like a giant cow. Which is ludicrous, I know - I am nowhere near it, but I feel it now. I am no longer excited about my dress, which I have adored from afar for an entire human gestational period. I feel like the alterations are going to be a compromise, and the dress will never look the way the sample did. I feel like why even fucking bother? At this point, 6 weeks away, I don't have a wearable dress OR a wearable wedding band (in case you missed that story, they made one that didn't match the band of my engagement ring because the diamonds were the wrong size, then they made a second in which the diamonds are OK but the band is thicker than my engagement ring, which they have had for 2 weeks in order to model the wedding band off of it. Argh).
 
I never expected to be one of those brides who cracks up and loses it 6 weeks before the wedding. I've been really calm, and really good up to now. Even with the pressure I've put on myself by knitting the bridesmaids tops (three down, one to go - and I saved the smallest size for last - it'll feel even faster!) Many of my friends and family have made comments to that effect. So in addition to being miserable, I am ashamed of my own feelings.  Great.

I will be calling the bridal salon manager later today to find out how the fuck they are going to explain the dress faux pas, and to make sure I am not paying for the alterations other than the hem, since that's all it was supposed to need. Then I'll carry on, but I don't know if I will be able to regain the excitement I once had. And that really sucks.

See? I told you there was a lot of whine here.