Vegas was fun and relaxing and hilarious.

Today I'm back to the grind and trying to catch up by getting through my 300+ work emails, so I'll have to save trip details for later.

I'm hoping to get some Vegas photos up later this week... 

I’d stressed about the bustle on and off for the past two weeks. I looked online to see if I could find examples of the two options I was shown, and I actually found a photo of the two options side by side.

Warning: this picture is NOT my dress. It’s some random photo from the intertubes. But these are the two kinds of bustles:

So the pressure was on. I needed to pick the bustle, and I needed to pick it now.

I mentally processed the fact that I couldn’t see behind me anyway, and this decision would also affect the bridesmaid who would have to bustle the dress. I remembered the time I had to bustle Julie’s wedding dress, which required diagrams, multiple witnesses and participants, plus pencil marks on the dress so you would know that Ribbon A goes through Loop B and so forth.

So I made the snap decision. Ass tack. They could simply tack my train to my ass. “Let’s go with up,” I said. Even as I said it, I wasn’t sure I meant it. I didn’t have time to dwell.

Next the tailor pinned in the top of the dress at the waist and the boobs. The dress shop lady pointed out a pair of beige boob cups lying on the floor. “I got you the bust cups,” she pointed. The tailor shrugged. I tried to gauge the thickness of the cups and wondered if it would matter that she pinned the dress without the cups inside.

“She’s the expert,” I reminded myself. “She’s probably done this a thousand times. She probably pinned the dress and left enough room for the cups.”

Next, I was instructed to stand still so the tailor could pin up the inner-layer hem of my skirt.

“Don’t talk and don’t move,” the dress shop lady said. “She’s going to cut the overlay.”

Have you ever seen the Sex and the City episode where Carrie and one of the girls jokingly try on wedding dresses, and then Carrie breaks out in hives and hyperventilates and starts screaming, “Get this thing off me?”

Well, try standing still in your wedding dress while someone takes a scissors to it. I didn’t move, but holy crap was my brain running wild. The hyperventilating? Almost. Because the “don’t move” caused me to take shallow breaths. Then as the bottom became uneven and she cut more on one side to even it out, I started thinking about the time in college I went to Super Cuts for a trim and came out with my hair a full 6 inches shorter because of the cutting on one side then cutting on the other side to even it out, but cutting too much, and then cutting the other side …

But the tailor is a pro, and she didn’t cut too much, and it will be great. I just didn’t take pleasure in having to wear the dress while she cut it. But being the pro, I can imagine she knows that if she cut the dress on the table instead of with me in it, then it could possibly come out uneven in case I stand funny or have one leg longer then the other or whatever it would be that would make a dress come out more uneven than if say, I sneezed or yawned or hiccupped or [insert involuntary movement like hyperventilating here] while she was cutting it.

And then it was over. I took off the dress and went home. On the ride home, I realized that I was in and out in about 20 minutes. Not bad.

But then the real doubt set in over the bustle.

To Be Continued…

Friday morning, we got up early and headed out of town for the wedding hairdo trial, followed by the tasting.

Here is the result of the hair trial. Behold, the back of my head: 

Damsel Underdressed made a good point that the down portion of the hair program is likely to get seriously messed up over the course of the evening, what with the hugging and whatnot.

In other news...

The tasting was cool, although we didn’t get to taste any appetizers and those are the best part. I’d been looking forward to the crazy fruity brie all day.

What we did taste was the salad (we’re going with the spinach salad with candied walnuts and blue cheese crumbles), the main course (we picked either the filet mignon or the tenderloin carved tableside plus the crabcake and whatever veggie is seasonal and fresh.)

After choosing a flaming baked Alaska as our interim entertainment dessert (who doesn't need one of those?) then we kind of stalled out on the actual wedding cake-cake. I think we were full at that point. We tasted a few, but nothing really grabbed us. We need to nail that one down. I’m thinking probably chocolate chip pound cake with chocolate ganache filling and a buttercream icing, with a light blue fondant, some white scrolly work and those silver ball thingies.

As for the fitting – god. That’s still bugging me. Storytime will resume manana.

Let’s take a break from storytelling today, so I can give you: THE TASTING. Today Steve and I will travel up to Delaware … well, first we have to go to Pennsylvania where I’m having my hair trial. (Up or down? Ha ha.)

And THEN we go to Delaware, to our glorious old hotel where we’re having the wedding so we can taste and choose our wedding food. This place has this crazy baked brie with fruity jams, and I don’t even need to taste that, because, hey! Crazy baked brie! But I will taste it anyway.

I’m not someone who’s crazy about cake the way most people like cake. I don’t have much of a sweet tooth. But today? CAAAAAAKE.