My Favorite and My Best

I know, I know. I've been slacking on blog posts when I said I was going to do them. Sometimes you just don't feel like it and I'm not sure there's much I can do about that. Anyway, let's meet Canada! Just like California, Canada was one of Ms. Washington's roommates at Infinitus. As her name says, yes, she lives in Canada. I've never gotten off my duff to go visit her there, but I really should. I do have a passport. But that's probably why I have fewer pictures with her than with California. Also because I'm bad at remembering to take pictures. 4/5 waiting to visit the Wizarding World of Harry Potter. Yeah, I used to have a lot of hair. In the past few years especially, Canada has become a bit of a style badass. I really admire the way she tries new styles and experiments with color. I'm definitely not as much of a risk-taker. If I had to categorize her, Canada is like your cool cousin who you only see once in a while but wh

So, the trip to the dress shop this last weekend turned out to be a fruitful one. Ahead are going to be some pictures of me in wedding dresses, including the one I put money on, so if you want to keep that a surprise to yourself, abandon ship now.

Last weekend, Wolfman and I went to our first real planning event, the Illinois Bridal and Wedding Expo at the Donald E. Stephens Convention Center in Rosemont. We got there a little before 11 and Wolfman ended up running back out to the parking garage to ditch our coats so we wouldn't have to carry them around. It was a typical cold Illinois day in the single digits Fahrenheit. Going to an expo was a pretty overwhelming experience. I wished I was wearing a shirt that said, "We're getting married April 2019," so people would stop asking me. They kept trying to get us to sign up for something or commit to something up front. I'm not good at not making eye contact with people in these sorts of situations, but there was definitely stuff we didn't need, like real estate information. We're just not there at the moment. Wolfman is much better than me at escaping and moving forward. I'm not a good blogger, so I didn't really take pictures. At

Multiple of my out-of-town bridesmaids have the same first initial, so their monikers will come from where they live. Let's talk California. This is the beautiful California. This is a photo from her own courthouse wedding at San Francisco City hall. You know, the city hall route doesn't work for everyone, but I have to say that this is a really lovely building. Source: IQ Photo I mean, that is gorgeous. Probably prettier than a lot of "traditional" venues. Anyway, let's talk about California. I met her where I met all of my out-of-town girls, at Infinitus 2010 in Orlando. Actually, at the time I only knew BMaid Washington (who I'll get to as well), and the other three were her roommates at the hotel. But by the next year's conference I had made them mine too. I didn't mind sleeping on the floor in a room that held so many cool people. I'd seen her more since then, but the time I really got to know California well was when I visit

I have been playing around with colors on an online bridal shop called Colors Bridesmaid . I had ordered some swatches from them ($2 each) to try to figure out what I want. I put together a guide of the swatches I got. These are their names for the colors. A couple of them are kind of wide contenders, but I wanted to see them anyway. Satin vs. chiffon? Gah, I'll probably have the bridesmaids vote on it or something. The price doesn't seem significantly different. I just made the Valkyries a Facebook Group. I need to come back and make a post for each of the out-of-town BMaids, because I asked all of them within a 24 hour period. Ultimately I don't know if it was a waste of time/money because we're not totally sure we're doing purple yet anyway.

After a lot of hemming and hawing and vague waves at plans, the two sets of parents came together over a table. Specifically, the table in our small apartment. We had never put the leaf in the table since it was moved into the dining nook (can't properly call it a room). Also, the night before one of our chairs broke right underneath a visitor while we were playing a board game. Luckily, the Wolves brought over a few chairs my Mr. had left in their basement when he moved out, so now we have a full six chairs for the first time ever. I think my Wolfman was far more nervous than I was. My parents can be nutty at times, but they're pretty predictable people. I guess his aren't as much. The night was like this, only with fewer white people and less awkwardness. ( x ) A couple of interesting stories came out that night. Dadatee does family tree stuff (extensively) and was asking Papa Wolf about his family. Apparently, his grandmother played tuba in a band that frequently