Hooray!

Each of my friends seems to have a chance to save the day one way or another.  Sarah has been exemplary in her naval reconnaissance efforts; Meredith and her family have graciously agreed to let me stay with them after the wedding rather than be abandoned indefinitely on the wrong coast; and now Sheila has managed to rescue our Pre-Cana scheduling debacle by pointing out the nifty online class.

The good news is that the priest is willing to accept it and intends to use us as guinea pigs for the rest of the diocese.   That by itself is a huge relief.

Contact Info

I'll be away from home for the next five weeks, but not deprived of the Internet.  If anyone needs to contact me, feel free to use my email or my new cell phone number.  Ordinarily my phone isn't even on since we still live in the dead zone, but next month it should be very useful.

The Official Dress

We tried to choose something conservative that would please all parties involved, and what we ended up with is known as 8567 at David's Bridal. The official color is Marine Blue, which you can find by clicking on the color swatch at the side of the page.

To go with it, Bev picked out a black chiffon shrug, known as 81094, which apparently isn't represented on the website. The shrug isn't set in stone; if you already have a black one, by all means feel free to save some money.

Shoes need not be uniform. Heels, flats, whatever makes you comfortable, so long as they're black. It's supposed to be a floor-length gown, so they shouldn't be very conspicuous anyway.

We're still working the problem of the veils/hats. I'd like not to have to stick each of you with a $60 hat if I don't have to.

If there is a David's Bridal outlet near you, you're in luck. Just go to them with the style number

and they'll know what you're talking about. If you give them my name and the fact that this all originated at the Richmond location, you should be able to get $20 off with my coupon.

*Please bear in mind that it's going to take about three months to deliver if you have to special order it.*

If you simply must get new shoes, online or in-store, I also have a 15% off coupon for those if you like. Contact me for the promotional code if you need it.

If by chance you don't live near a David's Bridal, you can give me your dress size and I can order it for you.

Jewelry will be provided. :)

Never Mind

Maybe that was a bit of an overstatement.  Anyhow, it looked very grim yesterday.  There's still some chance that the whole thing will fall apart, but I'll die young if I keep worrying about it.

Foiled Again

Ladies, I don't know what to tell you.  We picked out a dress today, but I'm not sure why, because the whole thing is a shambles once more.  It may not happen at all, but we won't know until the last minute.  It could be this year, it may be next year, it may be in six years.  I don't know.

I've never been so close to abject despair in all my life.

Bridesmaids

You know who you are.  Bev and I are going to investigate the selection of dresses we have to choose from this Thursday, and we will keep you informed about color, style, price, how and where to get your own.  Unfortunately it seems that the vast majority are strapless, but we'll work the problem as best we can.  Stand by for further instructions.  ;)

And if anyone has suggestions for head gear, do share.  We're having the old Mass, but there must be something that complements a formal gown better than a chapel veil.

Useful Information

The whole purpose of this site is to provide a forum for useful information about the wedding for those who would like it, and as a means to help friends and family keep track of us as the Navy moves us around afterward.  I tried one of those wedding sites, but it was just too complicated, hard to use, cluttered with stuff we didn't need, and a black hole for our personal information.  I'll probably be getting spam from photographers, caterers and florists for years.  Besides, this seemed like it could be easily adapted to serve our purposes long after the ceremony and reception are things of the past.

Unfortunately, it's very difficult to promulgate useful information if you have none yourself.  As soon as we have any to share, the selection of wedding links will be expanded accordingly.  Take the virtual tour of the church if you haven't yet.  In the meantime we might have a chance to be in the same room long enough to get officially engaged.  That step seems to have been so much taken for granted that it was lost in the confusion.

The Current Plan

The idea of having a current plan is actually quite laughable. Any plans we've made never seem to have time to set, like Jell-o that hasn't been in the fridge long enough before someone takes a big scoop out of it. I don't mind being adaptable myself, but I hate to keep changing our itinerary when it affects dozens of other people.

If the current plan doesn't change, please God, I'll be leaving home in a week to visit with David's family until mid-July. During that time we'll do what planning we can for a prospective wedding in January 2010. He'll suffer boot camp from July to September, hopefully make it to Monterey without any significant delays, and then be back home in mid-December so we can pull it all together before he leaves again. That's "the plan." But as usual, we're all at the mercy of the unpredictable realities of the situation.

The one variable in this equation remains the unconfirmed date upon which he would be shipped out.  The original one we've all been working around was set when he was supposed to be going to Pensacola.  Ideally it won't change, but the recruiter has not been able to say one way or the other because he's been inconveniently out of town.
Again, many thanks to Sarah for sharing the necessary insider information to make all this possible on such short notice.