Disaster Averted

Taking a break from wedding jazz to update the blog. Life is hectic, but as I seem to thrive on stress, I'm doing OK.

First, let me say: HAPPY BIRTHDAY, DAD!!!! He's the big 47 today. Yeah. That's right, my mom married a younger man! Only three years younger, but back in the eighties (before Demi Moore set the new standard), I'm sure that was like cradle robbing....

Oh, and for all the other Jim Butcher fans out there: White Night is in stores today! Run out and get your copy! (And yeah, I realize the title lends itself to visions of the KKK, but I promise it couldn't be farther from it. It's book 9 in the amazing urban fantasy series The Dresden Files. And yes, I realize there is a somewhat stinky SciFi show loosely based on the books, but believe me, the show has only captured may one half of a percentage point of the gripping storytelling and awesome characters, namely wizard Harry Dresden, that Jim Butcher created. Don't believe me? Read the first novel. You'll be hooked.)

I had my first huge wedding disaster on Friday. Wouldn't you know it concerned my dress? Sigh. So my parents are paying for my dress b/c that's what parents do. When I couldn't find a dress near my hometown, Dad handed me a wad of cash and told me to go crazy in Houston until I found THE DRESS. As I've chronicled below, it tooks days of searching, but eventually, I found THE DRESS at David's Bridal in Spring. I pay the deposit, put the dress on layaway, and ask my bridal consultant, G., about the store policies. Specifically, I asked about the due date of payments, payment methods, alterations, and housing my dress in-store until close to my wedding date. I was told, and I quote, "The balance is due March 30, 2007. You can pay in store or over the phone with a credit card. Yes, we do alterations in-store, and of course, you can leave your dress here until it's closer to your wedding."

Brilliant, I think happily. I go home, email Mom the info on the dress, and she says that she'll take care of it. So I'm going blithely along, dealing with flowers, stationery, napkins, catering, etc. March 30th rolls around, and I log onto my laptop, ready to get some writing done. I open the calendar and get a message alerting me to the deadline of paying off the dress. Hmmm, I think, I wonder if Mom got around to doing that. Sure that it had been taken care of, I call my house, and no answer. OK. No biggie. Mom's a busy person. I call her cell. No answer. I call Dad's office. No answer. I call Dad's cell. No answer. Now, I'm panicking. I mean, full on hyperventilating. It doesn't help that I get a weather alert telling me that my hometown is being pummeled by vicious storms. Of course, this explains the phone issue. Living in the west Texas boonies storms equal no power or phone for extended periods of time.

I do the only thing I can do. On the verge of tears, I call Dave who is in the middle of a 24 hour shift. He answers, and I can tell that he's in the ambulance because there are radios blaring in the background. Since I don't hear sirens, I'm cleared to babble for a few minutes. He listens, and in his usual calm, collected manner, says, "Let me get a pen. Give me the phone number and layaway number, and I'll call over there, make the payment over the phone, and you won't lose your dress or deposit."

Five minutes later, Dave calls back. I've been pacing and chewing my nails during all of this. He tells me the manager at David's Bridal says they no longer accept over-the-phone payments and we'll have to come pay in person or lose the dress and deposit. Fuck beans! Now I'm really panicking. But realizing there is no alternative, I decide to accept the inevitable. I'm going to lose my dress and deposit. Not wanting to make Dave feel bad about a situation over which he has no control, I hang up, crawl into the bathtub, and start crying. (It's the only place that I allow myself to cry. I know. It's weird, but it's one of my quirks.)

Half an hour later, the phone rings. It's Dave. He tells me that his supervisor understood completely and let he and his partner hop on over to Spring (from The Woodlands) to visit David's Bridal. The dress is paid for. It's mine. It's OK! Well. Almost.

Dave tells me that the manager no longer allows sold merchandise to be housed in the store so even though my dress needs alterations and pressing, I have to bring it home, then take it back to have all the work done. Oh, and did I mention that he wanted Dave to take the dress with him. In the ambulance? Yeah. Not going to happen. So Dave talked the manager into keeping the dress an extra day, then he stayed in Spring the next morning until the store opened, picked up the dress, and brought it home. As he's driving home with my dress on the front seat, he calls me. I hear him munching and ask what he's eating. A breakfast burrito, he says. Because he's gone out of his way to fix the wedding dress snafu, I squash the urge to snap at him about infusing my gorgeous wedding dress with bacon grease and eau de egg.

My mother calls me the next morning, crying because she's just realized that she totally forgot about my dress. She jotted it down on her calendar and someone (Dad, Joey, Marcos, Tricia--take your pick) piled crap on top of the calendar. She's so swamped with Tricia's Quinceanera (countdown: 18 days) that it slipped her mind. I accepted her apology, told her not to worry about it, and to concentrate on Tricia's Quince.

But somehow, I don't know. It sort of hurt. I know. I'm a big girl. I understand how conflicting priorities sometimes get in the way, but--well--it's hard to explain. I guess in a very childish way, I'm jealous of my younger sister. Yeah. Pathetic, I know, but still, there it is. I also feel sort of abandoned in this whole wedding thing. Besides Dave and Ash, no one else has made much of an effort to pitch in or lend an ear to my gripes, concerns, desires, dreams. Obviously, I realize that my grad school buddies are up to their eyes in coursework so I'm not realling talking about them. It's--well--never mind. It's not a big deal. It's just life, I guess.

To recap: Dress situation is solved and dress is hanging in our closet. Napkins have been ordered. Invites are just waiting to be addressed, stamped, and dropped in mail. Photog contract is out of the way, but we still need to sit down and fill out the schedule and pick inspiration photos. Once invites are in mail, we enter a holding pattern for a few weeks which means that I'll finally, FINALLY, have time to write.

Tomorrow an update on friends! Especially the good news from Alison's camp!