Bridesmaid motivation and PomPoms

This past weekend one of my best friends and bridesmaids came up for the weekend to kick me into gear.  We caught up on the Friday night and made a plan for Saturday to get some wedding stuff done.  We went to the party rental shop in Markdale early on in the day.  There we got to pick out what chairs that I wanted.  I ended up choosing almost the cheapest one and still all together with delivery they are almost the same price as the venue itself!


Anyways Michelle also found some white paper lanterns that may work for her sister in law's wedding.  oooohhh and I saw that they had the same stuff that I am using for my centerpieces but I got more of mine for a much better price.  We are going to go back in March for their bridal open house to hopefully buy some things during their 15% off sale.


As for the pom pom's stated in the title of this entry Michelle and I are DIY decorating goddesses.  Through my research for cheap DIY decorating ideas on the internet I found something not too hard to make that look beautiful.  They are pom poms made of tissue paper of various sizes and colours.  We found out through trial and error that it seems like the white tissue paper is much stronger, and that we needed much better scissors if we were going to make all of these for the wedding.  So with bits of tissue everywhere Michelle and I found a great solution for my decorating needs.

Thanks to Michelle for your help this weekend.

The Veggie Plan

Ok so those who know me well know that I have struggled with my weight my entire life.  Since University I have been on the steady incline.  You'd think that with the wedding plans on the way that would curb my urge to splurge/binge on the tasty foods I love.  But so far my good intentioned plans have fallen by the way side.  So I am going back to what worked for me in highschool. 

In the Henry/Dodd household it is officially veggie February.  I had complained in the past that if I could just make myself eat more veggies, and be hyper aware of what I am eating, that I could better control my eating habits and weight gain.  So it worked for me in highschool, now to apply it to the present day. 

I have found that the past couple days that I am more aware of what I am putting into my body. This may be because I have to physically plan what I am going to make and eat, because cooking veggie seems to make me have to think longer of what I can eat and make within my current diet restrictions.  I have also discovered something online called my fitness pal.  It is an online data base of foods and their nutritional values.  Thus I am logging everything that I eat for the month of February.  It also gives quotes on "if you ate like this everyday.... in 5 weeks you should weigh_________".  I find that fact a driving force to get to that mark.  It also lets you log your weekly exercise etc.

I do realize that there are things that I need to do to supplement the protein that I am lacking.  I have stocked up on my legumes, weird looking fake meat products, soy milk, and my daily morning protein shake powder.  I am hoping that this will help keep my body functioning properly, and keep my belly full. 

However, today I made the mistake of not eating enough at lunch time.  When I walked in the door at night I exclaimed that the bad class at the end of the day was lucky that it was close to home time or I would have cranked up the BBQ and had myself a feast.

This plan is not forever but I am hoping to keep some of the principles of what I have tried to put into my everyday diet.  I hope that this is the kickstart that I needed to get my ass in gear to fit into my wedding dress.  So here is the deal with that.  In order for my hips and upper back to fit into my gown we need to do some alterations.  For the hips we need to make the corset back in my dress go a bit lower to give a bit more room.  For the back the panel in the back for the corset back needs to be extended about 3 inches... so that part of the dress will be more open than I would like.  So I am trying through diet to make it so that I wont have to do those alterations.  That way I will look better and save my money by not having to alter it so much.

Wish me luck everyone.  Hope it all goes well. 
"Blaire put down the fork and step away from the hamburger!"

The Story of Us

Michael had me write the story of our meeting and things about us this week for a secret project of his.  I am not sure what it is for but I thought that I would share with you all the story of how we met.  This is the shortened version for your reading pleasure (as the long one would take forever to write) Enjoy.

The story of us:

• met on the largefriends internet dating site
• Michael messaged me in december and I didn't reply until mid february
• I had a few bad experiences talking to guys from dating sites, found that most were pervy old men looking for some action. So I was aprehensive about talking to anyone else
• Talked for the first time online on feb 14 2007. I was still at school in north bay to become a teacher and michael was in his first year at niagara for broadcasting.
• The first time we talked he was upset because he had asked a girl that he liked to go on a date with him for valentines day and she said no. So I consoled him and we talked for hours.
• Michael was the first guy that I talked on the phone with that I had met online.
• My roomates and I would sit in the livingroom with our laptops and do our homework all in the same room but they didn't know that I was talking to anyone online and they knew nothing about michael. I didn't want to make a big deal of anything unless it turned into a big deal.
• We talked for a month before I was able to meet him

first meeting

• we arranged for me to come and meet him at his dorm in niagara.
• I called when I got to the dorm and michael, and his two friends Craig and Leslie met us outside. All I saw was this big guy with red hair walking towards me laughing with his buddies.
• I had to pee soooooo bad so they all walked me to michael's dorm and I went into the washroom right away. All I could hear was his friend Craig saying SCHWING!!! like from wayne's world and I could hear every word that they said.
• Leslie, craig, michael and I decided to go to the casino. I won 50 bucks on slots and craig won 150 which he gave to michael for him to get a tattoo the next day. Before we got into the casino craig (who has irritable bowel syndrome and the hairiest ass I have ever seen) let a whopper of a fart rip in my car and then locked it in while we were in the casino without us knowing. When we got back to the car and got in we all nearly puked and ran out of the car. Still to this day people say that my car smells like dirty farts.
• Michael got a tattoo that weekend. I was being playful and threw a balled up piece of paper across the room and it hit his newly tatted arm. He screamed like a baby.
• I was only supposed to stay 3-4 days I stayed for my whole reading week.

The Dress

Ok so my facebook friends have seen the dress and know all about what it looks like but I thought that I would write a little about the process of getting the perfect dress when you are a plus sized woman.

First comes the anxiety and apprehension about even looking for a dress for fear you will just end up having to wear a paper bag or a burlap sack.  I started my search online looking for shops in the GTA area that specialized in plus sized dresses.  I went to good old google and stared my journey.  First of all I found a website that was posted many times within the same thread.  It was for Best for Bride and I really liked what they had to offer.  So my  next step is that I googled if there were any reviews of the establishment to give me an idea of the reputation of the place and others experiences that they have had.  I was impressed with how many reviews there were of wedding shops in Toronto.

The only other place I found online that seemed to cater to the pleasantly plump was Windsor Bridal.  So I went to do my review search and was appalled at how many bad reviews there were about this shop, how it is run, and the general rudeness to customers (especially those of larger girth).  But I thought to myself they at least need to be given the benefit of a phone call to check things out.  First of all they will not tell you if the have a certain dress in stock, to get to a real person you have to go through about 3 minutes of prompts, and lastly the final nail in the coffin was that their sample sizes only went to a 20-22.  If you are a bride to be you know that when trying on a dress expect to try on two sizes up, so obviously there was no use in going to this shop because all I would be able to do would be to hold up the dress in front of me.

So decision was made.  Best for Bride Etobicoke it is (Dundas st.).  Stress levels still high the appointment was made and arrangements were made to meet my sister and my best friend Michelle at the shop and my mom and I would go together.  Upon arriving at the shop we were greeted by a very friendly worker (I will call her Nat).  Nat pointed us to the racks of plus sized dresses and had us put the ones we wanted me to try on at the front of the rack.  Since I was so worried that I would end up wearing a paper bag I really didn't know what style would look best so we picked out a lot.  I was very impressed with their selection of sample sizes all the way up to 30, and about 5 in my specific size. This is pretty good for a specialty selection.

Now here is where the hilarity started.  I had purchased a set of spanx that went from short all the way to my boobs, in fact I am pretty sure I could pull it over my boobs.  And that day for some reason I had chosen a lime green bra.... wooooo.  I think that the saleslady Nat was a little weirded out that I was not embarrassed to walk around in it, but hey no one knows me and I don't care what they think.  But she helped me into every dress, pulled the crinolins down so they would look proper, and pulled the corsets till I almost turned blue.  Man did I have a good shape though.  I tried on a few dresses that would just not go over my boobs or my tush so I decided that they were not worthy to be worn on my body.  Finally I decided on the second dress that I had tried on.  It is one that I had previously discarded because it had too much BOOBY BLING, but hey when something looks that good, you gotta throw the rules out, and the paper bag dress design you had in mind just in case.


http://www.morilee.com/bridals/julietta/3078


Here is the pic of my dress in case you haven't seen it yet.

The Procrastinating Bride

Ok I am guilty to the utmost highest power.  I have been engaged for a year and three months and I have done very little planning towards my wedding.  I looked at my computer today and I have 6 months left until my wedding day!!!!  Ok BREATHE!!!!  Maybe this will get my ass in gear????

Ok here is what I do have done.  I realize it is all of the fun stuff to do and none of the practical stuff that really needs to be done, but hey its getting done... really it is.

1. Center pieces designed (all items have been bought and stored)
2. Hall is booked and deposit is paid
3. Guest List is getting made (about 1/2 of addresses inputted into data base)
4. Dress is ordered and half paid for
5. Wedding party chosen

I am sure there are many more things that I have done but those are the main ones.  My mom and my sister were a great help in getting my ass in gear to get those things done.  With them and my friend Michelle I got to pick out the most beautiful dress.

Ok here is the crux of the matter.  I am great at making lists and stating what I want.  BUT I seem to be terrible at actually executing the things that need to get done to get the things that I want.  My mom even got me to make myself a list of things that I need to get done before they get home from Florida in March.  So I guess I better get on it cause time is ticking and some things take time.

Throughout the days I will be posting to things that I like, things that I am going to do, things that I need to do, pictures of things that I have done, and general venting about how the process is going.  The one thing that I hope is that just because I have always been a procrastinator doesn't mean that I will leave everything until the end this time.  I CAN'T do that I WILL NOT do that to myself.  That is my mantra now let's see if I stick to it.