Kevin & Megan
Well here's the post I'm sure most of you have been waiting for, and no I will not be posting pictures of myself in the dress (Kevin I know you're reading this). I went in total to 6 bridal salons and tried on plenty of dresses. Now, anyone who knows me will know that I am not a particularly sentimental person when it comes to things like clothing, but in fact only when it comes to stuffed hippopotamuses. After my first 3 salons in California I decided I needed to lower my emotional expectations as not one dress had given me that feeling they talk about on Say Yes to the Dress. Nor was there a fantastically dressed gay man who swooped in at the last second and saved the day by not only finding the perfect dress, but finding it miraculously on sale for $4.99. After dragging my unsuspecting bridesmaids to 2 more salons, this time in Washington, I had just about given up hope. I had found one I thought was cool and the seamstress had all of these creative (and by that I mean expensive) ways to "fix" all the things I didn't like about the dress. She tried to convince me not to go see one more salon and gave me her number as I would be "calling her in the morning to order the dress". Now I am not going to lie and say that when I walked into the last bridal salon a happy group of woodland critters pulled back a thick velvet curtain and reveled the gown of my dreams. In fact, I only found it because I whined to my poor saleswoman about how nothing came close to what I wanted but that last dress at the other salon was the best. I described the dress and she said she thought she had something similar. She brought it out and I liked it, I put it on and I loved it, I saw myself in it and I cried. Me! in a white wedding dress, surrounded by bridesmaids crying because I loved it. Now it may have been sheer exhaustion from overhead lifting 45 pounds of lace for 3 separate 1 hour sessions but I wasn't about to question what I deemed was the closest thing to an emotional response I could muster. I bought it on the spot. I finally got to go pick it up a few weeks ago and lets just say I cannot wait to wear it for real!
0 Comments
Well everyone! The infernal battle of Megan vs Save the Dates has finally ended. Who would have thought that after all my meticulous planning and insanely organized wedding binders, my save the dates would be a month and a half late. I mean I had them in November but the process of hand addressing them (Yeah, I know, WAY too ambitious) put me off completely. So after a minor mental break, and some solid advice from mom, in January I enlisted the help of a printer and got some labels made. So now all I had to do was put the labels and postage stamps on, again considerably more work than I have time for (Ya know first year teaching, finishing my masters program, planning a wedding, moving). So, I enlisted the help of my high school TA under the pretense that if she could address and stamp the save the dates it would free up more time for me to work on teaching. (That sounds legit right?) Okay so now the have labels and postage stamps done and I quickly realize we had no return addresses. So do I even think about hand writing them? HELL NO. I had learned my lesson. So off to Amazon I went to buy a custom address stamp. (Throwing money at a problem makes it go away right?!) So three days later my stamp arrives and I am confronted with yet another problem. The space my TA has left for a return address is too small for the stamp. So what do I do? LAYER. Thats something my mom used to tell me to do right? So what, a little bit of the postage stamp got some ink on it? No problem. Well... yes problem. Apparently ink doesn't dry on stamps and likes to smear all over the place. So now what? SEND THEM. Soo... sometime in the next week you will enjoy the beautiful fruit of my (and my TA's) labors. Can't wait! 6.2.18
Well it has been a whirlwind already! Over Memorial Day weekend Kevin and I decided to go look at our top 5 wedding venues in the Portland area. Narrowing it down to 5 on paper was hard enough how on earth were we going to decide between our top 5 after seeing them in person?! Well just as they say there is a moment of clarity when you put on THE dress, there were certainly some venues that felt right and some that didn't. It was interesting to hear what we had to say after leaving each venue and what amenities ended up being truly important. After a lackluster first two tours we started losing hope. However, the next two knocked our socks off! So much so, that we skipped our last venue tour! The two we narrowed it down to were very different. One, The Evergreen Chapel at The Falls Event Center, was a gorgeous empty room in a unique setting, and the other East Fork Country Estates, was a cozy fun estate home with a lovely view of Mt. Hood. The Estate House at East Fork Look at that view! The Evergreen Chapel So many cool things to see! We decided to put some facts and figures on paper before making our ultimate decision, but as it often does, fate stepped in and helped us make our choice. It wasn't until I was describing both venues to Dawn, Kevin's mom, that I realized how much more I liked one over the other. The Evergreen Chapel provided me with an elegant blank slate to create my own dream wedding whereas East Fork Country Estates provided a more laid out, casual, and specific look. However, our minds still weren't 100% made because of the ease the more inclusive estate venue would bring. But when The Falls Event Center called and said another couple was coming to tour the venue for our date we knew we would be crushed if we couldn't get married there. So we put down our deposit, set our date, and popped the champagne! Let the countdown to June 2nd 2018 begin! See you all in McMinnville Oregon!
Well... finally. Kevin and I are engaged! I knew it would happen over Spring Break and lets just say packing for a trip you're pretty sure you're getting engaged on was stressful, looking cute and photo ready every day was exhausting, and I wouldn't trade it for anything :) Kevin had many fun, beautiful, romantic places to propose like when we were in Napa, or when we were walking along LOVERS POINT!? I mean come on what girl wouldn't raise an eyebrow at that?! In fact I wore very inappropriate shoes on that walk because I thought it may be the place. It wasn't, and in true McGrath fashion a "quick walk down to the beach" turned into a "3 mile trek, uphill both ways, in the rain". But, I digress. Kevin donned a collared shirt the day we went to the aquarium, so I knew it was time. There were approximately 3.2 million children running around the aquarium while we were there who, combined, were only half as excited as me, so after I drug Kevin around with my nose just inches from the glass tanks proclaiming my undying love for all things aquatic, we decided to take a break outside. I suggested a picture by the water, gave a stranger my phone and posed. Here is that picture Lets look at Kevin's face. Think he's consitpated? Staring into the sun? has a crab clamped onto his buttcheek? No, he's deciding if this is the moment he had been waiting for. And with a simple question to the photographer "Could you take one more?" he got down on one knee I, in true fashion panicked. Kevin's voice cracked as he said my full name and later confessed he had had a line (way too cheesy to share) that he was planning on saying but couldn't get it out (thank you Jesus). I said of course I would marry him plucked the ring from the box and confidently put it on my finger, even though on later review we were VERY close to the edge of that dock. After a quick make-out session and some awkward applause from the crowd that had gathered I retreived my phone and we went into a documentary on great white sharks that I literally don't remember a single thing about because I couldn't stop staring at my sparkly new accessory. So that was the proposal! Stay tuned for more adventures!
|
|