cute wedding photos of the day

workin' on my fitness

you go, olivia

fitness and i have never been friends. the summer before my senior year of high school, i saw the inside of a gym for the first time. it was fun for roughly 2 minutes. so, to say that i'm not a natural athlete is an understatement. i can run for about 3 minutes before i'm wheezing like a middle aged emphysema patient and i find myself slowly curling into the fetal position on the sidewalk.  

over the years--and despite my physical ineptitude-- i've dabbled in the pursuit of a more athletic me. a prime example of these failed attempts came during my sophomore year. i'd recently infromed then-boyfriend, now-fiance that i'd like to start going to the gym with him. he, being far more physically active than i, was happy to help me set up a plan to make my workouts effective but bearable. 

shortly thereafter, and having no concept of what women look for in workouts, he enthusiastically exclaimed to my roommate, "amie's gonna get huge!" thinking, more muscles = bigger = what amie wants = compliment = yay! my roommate looked at him as if he were an emotionally abusive sociopath hell-bent on shanking my self-esteem.

 dramatic representation of roommate 

after clearing up the confusion, boyfriend was wonderful and supportive assistant to my gym-bound self. but, in spite of his every effort to make me interested, the gym once again lost its sparkle. 

so, despite my long history of failure in athletic pursuits, i embark on the next chapter of my fitness saga. in preparation for my upcoming nuptials, i once again enter the world of the gym. i hope to improve my health and maybe increase my athleticism along the way. i'm a perfectly healthy weight--i'm not skinny, and i'll always be pear-shaped, but getting smaller isn't on my to-do list. 

despite my healthy outlook on the whole fitness thing, i can't help but feel like i'm being one of "those girls"--starving away their vanity pounds so they can wear the same size they've had since middle school. i have this endless loop of regina george running through my head telling me that i must have body-image issues. 

 

"i really want to lose 3 pounds"

if you're a woman, and you're concerned about your fitness, it's not necessarily because you feel bad about yourself or the way you look. i know that. so, i just have to drive that image away and remind myself that i'm doing this for the right reasons--my health and well-being. 

and so i can finally run longer than an overweight basset hound. but that will take some serious work. we'll see how this goes.  

pretty things.

fiance and i had the pleasure of attending our first wedding extravaganza last weekend. when describing it to him, i made sure to call it 'wedding expo' since its actual title was

needless to say, i was afraid this would deter him, so i went with a considerably less feminine title and casually mentioned the abundance of cake that would be there. if fiance weren't hooked already, upon our arrival at weddingpalooza 2011 we were greeted by a beautiful 1958 bentley.

fiance looked upon this car as if it were a shiny metal puppy desperately in search of a new home. we were handed the rental brochure, and our previously non-existent transportation budget was out the window.


once we entered the pearly gates of bridal heaven, my eyes glossed over and all i could do was stare at all the lovely things that were waiting for me. we sampled $10 per bite hors d'oeuvres, ogled bridal gowns with conveniently misplaced price tags, and were courted by photographers who threw in a free 8x10 photo if you just purchased their $4,000 package.

i couldn't stop. i talked to bakers who would create a custom cake for $7 a slice. I spoke for 5 minutes to a woman from the local hilton who could help me make the perfect reception menu for $80 a plate.

fiance regained consciousness well before i did, and promptly pulled me to the side after i received my third sandals resort brochure and had been thoroughly briefed on how i could save 10% on my flight to aruba if i purchased 3 months worth of scuba diving lessons (no joke).

fiance reminded me that these nice people weren't necessarily here to help me. they were here to sell me things. things i couldn't afford. i knew that, but i'd been blinded by the excitement of my first real outing as a bride-to-be. i had an "i'm the bride" sticker and a hot pink rhinestone encrusted pen and there was no stopping me.

i regained composure post reality-check, and we decided to take a well planned route through the rest of the booths and pass up the things we didn't need. like porcelain veneers and cake insurance.

yes, there is such a thing as cake insurance.

 

the path we took, thanks to meticulous engineer fiance

 

path i would have taken if left to my own devices

(note the conspicuous lingering around the free food)

here's some fun pictures of pretty dresses we saw!

and pictures of me getting a free updo!

overall, fiance and i had a wonderful time. even though less than 15% of the vendors we saw were actually in our price range, it was a blast. 

so here's to the next 602 days.

so you want to start a wedding blog...

i have approximately 603 days til my wedding. i have no dress, no venue, no caterer. no photographer. no dj. nothing. that means it's the perfect time to start a blog! 

i have, however, been planning the entire affair since around age 6.

 this is suzie. she's the source of my unrealistic expectations. 

this will be fun.