Musings
an Online Journal of Sorts

By Alyce Wilson

All week long, I've been working on wedding related tasks, trying to accomplish something each day.

On Monday, I took care of a number of things. I went to the dry cleaner's and dropped off a pair of curtains we're going to have hung as banners at the ceremony. I had to have them steamed, since they'd been folded in bags and had a lot of creases in them. I picked them up Thursday, and they're now hanging in my closet.

I should mention that on Sunday, I had hemmed up the curtains just enough to place a second curtain rod at the bottom, so they will hang straight. This was actually the first time using the wonderful sewing machine my Mom got me for a present a couple Christmases ago!

Next I drove to David's Bridal to take care of a couple things. First of all, I wanted to get my veil and my wrap steamed. They do that for free with any item you buy at David's Bridal.

While I was there, I had to have a ribbon attached to my gown. It's a champagne colored gown, which is more dramatic than the ivory one that came with it. When my sister and I had been figuring out how much to cut off the ribbon (which was very long), we had noticed that it slid around on the dress, even after it was tied. The original ribbon had been sewn down with a couple stitches, and that's what I wanted to do.

I arrived just as the store was opening, and they didn't have a full staff yet in the alterations department, but the person at the front desk told me to wait for the seamstress, who had just stepped out.

After several minutes, somebody came in carrying some bags and her purse and looking like he mind was elsewhere. I told her what I wanted, as she put stuff down at her sewing machine. She said she wasn't supposed to be in until noon and wasn't supposed to do any work until she was clocked in.

She asked if I'd talked to the other seamstress, and I said that she'd stepped out. So she took a look at the dress and, after realizing the job would be simple, she pinned the ribbon where she thought it should go. She told me to try it on, just to be sure it was hitting in the right place, which I did.

The seamstress told me the gown was lovely on me. I was happy to hear that, and just for my own benefit, asked her what she thought about the fit. She said the fit was perfect and explained that it has to be tight because it's strapless.

Of course, it also helps that I managed to follow through on my plan to lose five pounds and get back to where I'd been when I went in for my first fitting. I'm currently 1.5 pounds less than that number, because I wanted to give myself a little leeway.

It only took her a short while to sewn on the ribbon, and then she wrote out a bill for me for $5. I went up front and paid it. The person at the counter, at my request, hit my wedding gown with a little steam, just to smooth it out.

Once the veil had been steamed, I could sew on an embellishment. This came from a suggestion from my hair stylist. I had bought a hair clip with two interlocking circles on it, encrusted in rhinestones.

Try as we might, we couldn't find any way to work it into the hair style. She suggested that I sew it to the top of the comb of the veil. It will actually be a bit hidden, not obvious. But we both liked that idea. It will be subtle but will add a little something.

I sat down and did that with some white thread. I'm going to take it to the hair salon today to show her, when I'm there to have my eyebrows waxed.

I've accomplished some other things, like picking up gifts for my Mom and Dad and for some other people who are helping out; picking up gift cards for all the gifts; buying some silver curly bows for said gifts. And while it's not wedding related, both my brother and my niece have birthdays that week, so The Gryphon and I bought a present for my brother this weekend, and I picked one up for my niece yesterday.

Then I wrapped most of the gifts and wrote out the gift cards. Yesterday I picked up more paper so we can finish up.

Meanwhile, The Gryphon finalized our order for favors. He stopped by the proofread the boxes and place the final order.

A few things have arrived in the mail. The LED tea lights have arrived, and they're pretty cool. Now that we have them, we can take them to IKEA this weekend and find tea light holders.

The bell wands we ordered should have arrived, except there was an error in the ZIP code, so it went to Wilmington, Delaware, instead. We didn't know this, because I had received a note on the door from UPS that they'd tried to deliver a package and no one was home (I think he simply didn't ring the bell; you can't hear it on our door when someone knocks). I thought that would be the wands, but it was delivered yesterday and it was a wedding gift.

So The Gryphon checked online for the package, using the tracking number, and discovered the problem. He called them, and they said they'd deliver it to our home, hopefully today.

The Gryphon faxed our final floor plan to the hotel where we're holding the event, and our event coordinator there called me yesterday to hammer out some details. I'll be meeting them on Wednesday of next week to hand over any items they'll need to use for set up and to discuss final details.

I've also been in touch with our DJ, who assures us that everything is swell. I'll be sending him some more information, such as a final rundown of events for the reception, including the names of the wedding party for announcing their entrance.

I'm down to just a few items that must still be accomplished. I'm to the point of doing organizational things, like working out what to take to the hotel when, and putting the binder of information together for my mom, who's acting as our point person that day.

It's getting close!

More on Alyce's wedding planning:

Musings on Alyce's Wedding

Copyright 2006 by Alyce Wilson

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