 Stephanie and her friend Emily on her first dress-shopping trip. A squeal of pure, abounding glee. I think that’s how I’d best describe it. I don’t think I’ve ever squealed before, but when La Bella Moda called to tell me my wedding dress—which I haven’t seen in six months—had finally come in, I simply couldn’t contain my excitement. Yet I was at work, so it turned into a more muted, high-pitched, squeaky “Really?! That’s great!”—with a lot of emphasis on the great.
When I put down the phone, I peaked behind my monitor and said to my coworker Amanda sitting across the way, “Guess what?!”—with a giant smile spreading across my face.
The incredible thing about Amanda is that she cannot only match my excitement level but take it to an entirely new echelon of elation. She was completely thrilled for me. She suggested that I go that very night to try it on—which I was dying to do—but I knew my mom would want to be there with me, and she wasn’t available.
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 Steph, Pat, and one of their flower girls, Aubrey. I feel exceptionally lucky to have three perfect little girls in my life: my four-year-old cousin Bella, my two-year-old goddaughter Juliana, and my one and a half-year-old soon-to-be niece Aubrey.
While still very young and perhaps too shy or indifferent to walk down the aisle, we’re going to give it a try, as, like my bridesmaids, these girls mean the world to me—spending time with them makes me supremely happy. And I know having them be a part of the happiest day of my life as flower girls will take happy one notch further.
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 Pat, trying on tuxes at Bloomies. This past weekend, I got to shift focus: Enough worrying about my dress and me. Time to home in on what Pat’s wearing on our wedding day.
We weren’t originally necessarily thinking tuxedo. But in all honesty (while perhaps embarrassing), we got a little inspiration from the latest Bond movie, Skyfall. When Daniel Craig sails up to the floating Macau casino look utterly handsome in a perfectly fitted, classic, black tuxedo, Pat and I looked at each other and said, “We might have to re-think the tuxedo option.”
Also, similar to how I wanted my bridesmaids in long dresses—which typically signify a special occasion—so, too, does a tuxedo. Moreover, Pat wears suits every day to work, so it’s a nice change of pace. So we embarked on our first tuxedo quest this past weekend.
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Stephanie and her friend Emily on her first dress-shopping trip. I’m anxiously awaiting the arrival of my dress. When I purchased it, La Bella Moda ballpark-ed February as an arrival date, so the countdown begins!
It seems like such a strange concept to me to order a dress and not see it again for six months. And I believe it’s this withdrawal period that’s producing the anxiety.
I never had the chance to take a picture of myself in the dress. The salon where I originally tried it on did not allow photos, so I’m always trying to recall the image of me standing before the mirror from my rather poor memory.
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 iStockphoto So I met with my florist Rhoads Garden for the first time on Saturday. Three hours later, I walked out of our meeting totally spent. I completely underestimated what picking out wedding flowers would entail.
We began by discussing color palette through the photos I had cut out from magazines and Pinterest, which we proceeded to spread in a wild arrangement across the table—fully canvassing the surface. Also thrown into the mix was the swatch of fabric from my bridesmaid dresses.
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 iStockphoto “Hi Stephanie, I’m just calling to let you know your bridesmaid dresses have come in, and you can pick them up whenever you’re ready.”
This was the message I received on Wednesday afternoon, and it brought a huge smile to my face. I never expected them to be in so early. What a truly pleasant surprise.
One Stop Wedding Shoppe had called me nearly a month ago to let me know that the dress fabric swatch had arrived, but I rather pathetically couldn’t seem to find a time to pick it up. Working until at least 7:30 every night, I could never make it before closing, and I’ve been traveling back and forth so much to DC on the weekends. I had planned on going to pick up the swatch that night, and now, I could pick up the dresses as well—totally unexpected efficiency!
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 iStockphoto I’ve tried to stay ahead of the game in all of this wedding-planning business, but there is one area where I’ve fallen behind—well, purposely neglected. The guest list. I was somewhat dreading it, so I kept delaying.
When asked how many save-the-dates we would need, that’s when it became official that I couldn’t avoid it any longer. I’m happy to report that it wasn’t quite as dreadful a process as I anticipated, but we’ve held off on some important decisions—like whether or not guests will be invited with a date—until invitation time, so that’s when it could get brutal.
The Four Seasons ballroom comfortably sits around 250. So as not to be packed to the gills, our hope is to keep the number closer to 225—also in an effort to keep the wedding as intimate as possible.
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 iStockphoto “Absence makes the heart grow fonder” is an expression devoid of feeling and reality that I’d be happy to never hear again.
I chose this week’s blog to reflect on just how much long-distance relationships suck. The objective is not to be overly pessimistic, but rather, my hope is to write an honest depiction of a crappy situation that so many of us find ourselves in.
While in many ways, the day I got engaged made the idea of my and Pat’s long-distance relationship a much more feasible endeavor, as an end in sight had finally emerged. But ultimately, I’d say it’s made it much harder, and it’s something I’m really struggling with.
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 iStockphoto Pat and I have had the incredible fortune of getting to travel the world quite a bit. Through our study abroad program Semester at Sea, we traveled to 13 different countries on four different continents. It was the best experience of my life, and has very much shaped the person I am today. I loved exploring different terrain, climates, cultures, religions and governments. And for the most part, the more different they were from what I’m accustomed to, the more I enjoyed my time in that country.
Pat and I are hoping to take off as much time as we can/that our jobs will allow for our honeymoon, and why not use that time to go somewhere really unique across the globe and continue exploring? While we could likely take a weekend trip to Mexico in the future, a quick excursion to Bali will likely prove far more difficult.
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iStockphoto When we turned into the parking lot, we assumed we had made a mistake. “Could this be the bridal shop?” we thought as we gazed at the quaint two-story home. But my sister, Vicki, and I had come all this way, so we had to at least give it a try. We spotted the One Stop Wedding Shop sign on the lawn as we approached the front door.
When we walked in, we were greeted by Sue, who asked how she could help us. Taking a quick inventory of the shop and seeing no dresses, I was worried she wouldn’t be able to. But when we told her we were looking for bridesmaid dresses, she grabbed a huge binder from behind the desk and told us to write down the style numbers of any dresses we liked marked as samples, and she would pull the ones we liked best to try on. It’s a different set-up than most bridal shops—but what I think might be a more efficient system than sifting through overloaded racks.
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PHILLY
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