The dress.

Finding a wedding dress was actually way easier than I had anticipated. I had a few simple requirements:
1) Preferred material = cotton
2) Must fit in small suitcase
3) Must not hug my butt in an unflattering way
4) Must not require me to buy restricting undergarments or spanx
5) Must not have spangles, sequins, beads, wire, or pulleys to hold the top up
6) Must weigh less than ten pounds

Let me tell you, if you go to any wedding dress emporium in the good old U.S.A. with these requirements, most bridal consultants will not only not be able to find you a dress, they will most likely escort you to the door and come up with a moderately polite way to explain to you that you are wasting their time.  A lovely friend took me to Nordstrom and helped me try on a variety of dresses I never would have tried otherwise, and it was a totally fun day. They had plenty of options that met my requirements, and the sales associate was very attentive and patient. I'm really happy we did that. I also went to a bridal store in Johnstown with my mom and niece, and we had a hearty laugh over a couple of satiny confections. It was a comical experience, and I'm so glad we had that day of generational bonding.

Last July, I found my dream dress doing a simple search on etsy.com for "eyelet wedding dress." A kind woman in the Seattle area makes pretty dresses, and the one I chose met all six requirements. I'll save the final reveal for the professional photographer, but I'm really happy with how it all turned out. For now, here's a rough approximation of how we might look that day. (I still have to finish painting them, but you'll get the idea.)

The plan.

Many of you have asked when our big day is. Some of you may be wondering if there's a "save the date" coming your way. For many people, a wedding is a wonderful way to blend the families in one big event, with aisles, flowers, a band, liquor, food, cake, and general merriment. I love those weddings. Big festive weddings are glorious, wonderful events...for other people. It's just not for us. 

We have our reasons for going about our plan the way we are, and none of them are meant to exclude our friends and family or make anybody sad. We thought early on about trying to have an intimate family and closest of close friends wedding. It was impossible to draw the line. For those of you married folks reading this, hats off to you. I can't imagine how rough it is to draw up a guest list. For me, it would involve guilt, fear, a half dozen kolaches, tears, and a fifth of whiskey. (Or the components to a good country song!)

Then I thought about the day itself. I'm a planner by trade. I'm not in operations. I support writing plans, but very, very rarely do I get out in the field to implement them. I think I could plan a pretty nice wedding...for someone else. Also, a stressed Mel isn't a good Mel. If you've ever seen me before a big meeting at work, you know that there is an evil, type A, zilla-bitch that lurks within. If she shows up, she wouldn't make a very nice bride. We didn't even make it to the point of discussion where you talk about wedding logistics. Those first two points made it clear that elopement was our best path.

So we decided on a private, convenient ceremony (not technically an elopement since we're telling people). We'll work out some family visits after the event. I know this sort of thing isn't for everybody, but it's our day. Oh, and we're going to buy a bigger boat, so visit us, and we'll take you fishing.

The proposal story.

Really the story starts around Memorial Day 2011. Clay and I went to his dad's place in Mississippi for the weekend to celebrate his cousin's high school graduation. As any good southern Mississippi family does, they had a solid crawfish boil, replete with beer and festivities. Clay and I got a bit buzzy, and started talking wedding hypotheticals. Like, "what we should do is just elope and then have a big crawfish boil like this." (That was Clay, not me for once.)
 

Then out of nowhere, he asked what I was doing that Wednesday evening. And I was all like, "Uh, probably working late, making a quick dinner, and watching the Daily Show like most Wednesdays?" I didn't think anything of it until we got back to Houston. Then Clay said, "remember when I asked you what you were doing on Wednesday...well, we should go look at rings." And I was like, "really??" And he was like, "yeah."

So I had to work late on Wednesday and no shopping occurred. The following Saturday (June 4) was the Hurricane Preparedness Expo at the George R. Brown, and I escaped a bit early so we could shop. I tried on about three sapphire rings, but number 2 was incredible. (I like blue rocks.) It fit perfectly, and it was shiny and everything. He said, you should sleep on it to make sure it's really what you want. And I did.

By the following Thursday (June 9), my finger was getting itchy, and I told him so. When I got home from work, I said something to the effect of, "Uh, I really don't want to be pushy about this, but you can't take a girl ring shopping and expect her finger not to get itchy." (I fully realize this makes me an asshole, but this is the authentic story.) At this point, Clay was playing with his 4-wheeler in our front yard, and messing with his fishing gear. He said, "well, I had work late all this week, and I need to get this stuff ready for the weekend." So I went inside and pouted, and looked at some dresses on modcloth. Clay rolls in to the office, and I didn't really look at him. He asked what I was shopping for, and I said, "work clothes." And he said, "well, you should wear this." And he was kneeling beside my office chair, holding ring number 2. And I was like, "whoa. really? you went?" And he said, "yeah, I was just messing with you earlier." And then it went on my finger. And then we exchanged mushy pleasantries.

Totally us, right?
 

Hey. I'm gonna blog now.

Hey, y'all. Welcome to my ramblings. Our recent visit to PA made me realize how out of touch I am with my family and friends, and instead of just being morose, I'm going to do something about it. Facebook is nice for catching up on snippets of life, but I feel weird about posting all our life events on there. So here's my site. Welcome to it.

As you probably know, we decided to do some paperwork, get some nice clothes, and some new jewelry soon. I'm going to post about that particular event and other bits about our life in Houston and our travels. There will likely be colorful language (warning for the kids and those with opposition to filth). You'll probably see pictures of the bitches (collective title for Miss Claire and Nina), our garden, the boat and fishes we catch, rugby, crafty shit I make, and an occasional recipe. If that bores or offends you, that's cool. I'm not making you click on that link. But if you just want to catch up with us and don't feel like calling, this is for you.