my favorite season.... and dress drama.

There is just something about the calendar changing over to October 1st that always makes me so happy.  It's the month that kicks off my favorite three months of the year, and it never grows old-- I still get excited when I start to see Halloween decorations at Target and front porches decorated with pumpkins.  And, I can't forget to mention, that I look way better in fall/winter clothes than I do spring/summer.  My pale skin was made for jewel tones, not sundresses, and my hair thrives in the cool, autumn air (I kid you not, it's like I have a new head of hair these last few days).  

The change of seasons in New England certainly played a large part in my motivation to move here from Texas, and I try to soak up every little bit.  The cool weather, changing colors of the leaves, that crisp bite in the air... I love it.

This October is undoubtedly going to fly by because... I'm getting married in 37 days.  THIRTY-SEVEN DAYS!!  I don't know how on earth that happened, how I'm already in the thirties for my countdown, but it's happening.  I posted an obnoxious list several months ago and I've honestly been too busy checking things off to keep anyone updated on its progress.  I can safely say that all of the big things are done, and I'm checking off the little minutiae that are left, like table assignments that can't be completed until we get our RSVPs in, ordering our favors, etc.

There was an enormous snafu with my wedding dress that I feel like I should share.  My dear friend Caitlin and I made the hour-long drive to the bridal salon the first Saturday in September.  I had my shoes, my jewelry... everything they had told me to bring for my first fitting.  We were taken back to a fitting room and I was told to go in, get into the dress, and the seamstress would start her thing.  WELL.  I pulled the dress on, had a flouncy moment with myself (and may have twirled a bit), and then I went to hold the back together to try to zip.  Um... there was no zipping.  There was no zipping because the left side of the zipper was by one shoulder blade and the right side was by the other shoulder blade, a good six inches in between.  I started to panic a bit (ok, a lot) and opened the curtain for Caitlin to come in and assess the situation.  When we ordered my dress I ordered one size down from my measurements and had lost enough weight and toned up enough to easily fit into the size that I ordered, so when I couldn't zip the dress my first thought was of course "Oh my God, I'm too fat to fit into my dress!"... which is exactly what every bride wants to think when she puts on her dress for the first time.

SO, the seamstress comes in, starts trying to pull the sides together as I tell her  that my ribs are there and there is no way the dress will close.  I knew things were bad when she sprinted out of the room to find the owner, who came in super calm (honestly, a little too calm for my panicked state) and said "Well, let's see here."  She looked at the tag on my hanger (which was correct), the tag on the dress (which was the size I had ordered), and then got out her measuring tape.  She measured the waist of the dress, and hurried out of the room "to make a quick phone call."

Apparently, the manufacturer of my dress had stitched the right tag... onto the wrong dress.  The dress was half the size that I had ordered for myself.  PERFECT, right?  The owner said that there was nothing to worry about, all would be fine, blah blah, but all that I could think was "My wedding is two months away.  You told me coming in early September would be plenty of time.  I now basically don't have a dress."  Over the next few days, and a lot of rage from both me and my mom, the owner determined that they could either offer me the sample dress from the salon at a discount (no thanks) or a dress in a color that I didn't want (again, no thanks).  If I opted out of both of those options, then they would have to order a new dress and wait a month to have it shipped to me.  So that's where I am today.  My dress is on its way to the salon, and I have to fit multiple 2-hour roundtrip drives in this month for fittings.  At this point, I just want my dress.  They offered to cover my alterations, which I'm going to take them up on, but it just put a bad taste in my mouth overall.  What really gets me is my dress came in to them in APRIL.  It sat in their salon for 5 months and they never noticed that the size didn't match the actual dress.  Shouldn't that be someone's job, to check those things?

So in the next few days I'm off to Southborough for Fitting 1, Take 2.  Aside from that, things are just peachy, thank the Lord.  I just want everything done so we can relax and enjoy this last month of being engaged, because I have a feeling it's going to fly by.

Ladies, for anyone out there who's been through the wedding dress fittings, how many alterations were required?  They initially told me I'd need four appointments, plus the pick-up date, and with the 2-hour round trip, that's too much for me this last month before the big day.  I know it differs based on the dress, but having an idea of what you girls have experienced would be so helpful!