Texas Fight - On Our Wedding Night!

Well. You can't say we weren't warned. We knew this was a possibility from the moment we secured the date and booked the venue. These things just naturally come with the territory of having a fall wedding, on a Saturday night, right square in the middle of football season.

And as of yesterday, it's now official.

10.30.2010. Baylor versus Texas football. Home game. 6pm Start.

Not to mention, it's the game where Colt McCoy's jersey will be retired in a pre-game ceremony.

And with our 5:30pm event, that means that as our wedding ceremony begins, Colt will be on the field having his No. 12 honored, and then right around the time we say "I Do", Texas will be kicking off to another Big 12 Victory!

Perhaps now would be a good time to reveal my wedding dress selection? Longhorn bride: classy and sassy.

Funny. Clay and I have both agonized and anguished over when this game time start would be. (Ok, maybe just me.) And now that it's announced and we find out it conflicts with our wedding... well... I really don't care! We're still getting married. Plus, I've already alerted our guests that, not to worry, there will be plenty of game updates during the reception. So that's taken care of.

It's kind of fitting, actually. We met at UT, fell in love at UT, and now the Longhorns are playing a football game at UT the night of our wedding, in honor of the two of us (or so the narcissistic bride in me likes to think.)

Besides, what better way to celebrate our marriage than to have the UT Tower lit up on 10.30.2010? (Knock on wood... now come on, Horns, give us a win for the newlywed Fains!)

No, I Did Not Get Abducted by Aliens

Or kidnapped by the wedding gods. Or become a Bridezilla during the better part of September.

No, contrary to popular belief, I am still alive, engaged to be married, and planning my own wedding in full force and with renewed vigor. [Though judging by the date of my last blog post (has it really been almost 3 weeks?), I can see why you'd think otherwise.]

Quite simply, I've been busy. Insane, more like it. If you see a chicken running around with her head cut off... well, that's not me. But if you see a woman hand-coloring her wedding envelopes, planning her wedding with her fiancee while on an 8-mile jog, or responding to work emails while singing the Texas Fight Song at the top of her lungs... you might have just spotted Miss B!

Perhaps one or more of the following could further explain my temporary absence from the blogging world...

For the past 3 weeks I've been:

• Enjoying my Bachelorette Party Weekend (Wine and limos and breakfast, oh my!)
  
• Attending both my Lingerie Shower and my Ladies Shower (Where I was showered with gifts - and thank-you notes, too!)
  
• Quitting my old job (Scary, but exciting)
  
• Starting my new job (Also scary, but also exciting)
  
• Training for the Austin Marathon (All by myself)
• Watching my brother kick butt under the Friday night lights (Go Crusaders!)
  
• Tailgating for UT Football (Important)
• Trying to hold it all together (While still remembering to tell Clay on a daily basis how much he's loved)

Oh hiii, my name is Meredith - Meredith "Nutso" B. - I'm so pleased to meet you! I swear, if I make it through October and don't end up in the loony bin, I'll be doing pretty good.

All kidding aside, my life looks and feels totally insane right now (because it is!), but in all honesty, I've actually managed to really focus and get a lot of things done. And that accomplished, tired-at-the-end-of-the-day feeling just feels really... good. And right. And like something I haven't felt in a long time.

I'm also proud of this new-found confidence and self-respect that are (somehow) by-products of all the recent craziness. Every day, I feel like I'm really living for that day. If I can make it through, then it feels like there's not much else I can't do. (And some days I end up feeling like Super Woman!)

Stay tuned for an insane amount of wedding updates in the next few days. Just because I stop blogging doesn't mean the wedding stops barreling along, full-speed ahead. 31 days to go and counting until the final Farewell to Miss B!

50 More Days

50. 49. 48. 47. 46. 45. 44. 43. 42. 41.
40. 39. 38. 37. 36. 35. 34. 33. 32. 31.
30. 29. 28. 27. 26. 25. 24. 23. 22. 21.
20. 19. 18. 17. 16. 15. 14. 13. 12. 11.
10. 9. 8. 7. 6. 5. 4. 3. 2. 1.
Married!

Am I Missing the Shoe Gene?

(Considering my apathy regarding lack of wedding shoes... It's quite possible.)

One of the tardier items on my planning checklist that I have yet to cross off is the inevitable purchase of the perfect wedding shoe. I mean, let's face it, shoes are like the most important part, right? These babies will actually get me down the aisle and married off to a good man. No trippy shoes or wobbly shoes allowed. Fashionability and functionality required. Yeah, that's right. It's kind of a big deal.

But according to my planning checklist, I should have accomplished this task a few months ago. By June at the latest. Uh, what? Isn't it almost September? I think my stomach just tied itself in a million knots. Deep breaths, Mere, BREATHE. You'll pull through, hon, just hang in there!

Clearly I don't know how to handle missing on my deliverables. It just doesn't happen. So why has this shoe thing been so hard on me? The so-called "Achilles heel" of my wedding plans? (Bam! Pun so intended.)

Perhaps it's time I 'fess up and come out of the closet on my feelings regarding shoes. I'm sorry to tell you like this, in a shabby wedding blog on the internet, but there's really no way around it. The truth of the matter is... gulp... I honestly hate (gasp!) shoe shopping. I loathe it. Despise the process. Execrate the very idea of a shoe-induced outing.

Omg, can't believe I just admitted that on the world wide web. I can see it now: women everywhere shaking their heads at me in scornful disdain. And rightfully so! I mean, how could I? Put "hate" and "shoe" in the same sentence? That's just not... female.

And while I can't fully explain this unnatural aversion to all things stiletto, I might be able to offer up some possible root causes. Such as:

(a) I have unnaturally large feet for my 5'7" frame. At a whopping size 10 shoe (so not fair), it's hard not to feel like the ugly stepsister with unladylike clunkers every time I sit down for a shoe fitting.

(b) I live in Austin, TX, a culture that scoffs at anything hinting anti-casual. (And with a closet full of flip flops and running shoes, clearly I've acclimated well to my hometown lifestyle.)

(c) I'm painfully frugal. Target and Payless are my homegirls. Amen. 'Nuff said.

Evidently I'm not cut out for the wedding shoe purchasing experience. Big feet, tightwad: it might not be possible with my DNA. And so how do I get myself out of this shoe rut? You can't just change genetics overnight.

I totally need a shoe consultant or something; someone to whom I can show my dress and explain my vision, who would then hopefully lead the way to my wedding shoe sanctuary. I feel like I know people out there who would fit the bill. You know who you are. Interested in helping a bride in need? (All qualified applicants should submit a photo or description of their favorite pair of fancy shoes. Payment commensurate with experience. Bonuses and perks include glasses of wine, squeals of delight, and spontaneous hugs and kisses from the delirious bride-to-be.)

In the meantime, here are the results of some personal web research on shoe candidates. From fancy to casual to fun to traditional: what "wedding shoe" personality am I?

That I can't really say, genetically-speaking.

[via Style Me Pretty and Once Wed]

[via My Glass Slipper and Peter Fox]

[via Once Wed and Green Wedding Shoes]

Marital Division of Labor: What am I Getting Myself Into?

[Aside from the title and where indicated in the text, this blog post was taken in its entirety from the 2009 book, When Everything Changed: The Amazing Journey of American Women from 1960 to the Present by Gail Collins, former New York Times op-ed columnist.]

In 2008 Lisa Belkin, a columnist for the New York Times on work issues, wrote a magazine article about husbands and wives who shared housework equally. The most interesting thing about them, she wrote, "is that they are so very interesting." Couples who really split chores were rare, even in homes where both adults worked full-time. [Ok, here we go. Whatever this chick's got to say, all I know is Clay and I are different. We've lived together for a few years, we respect each other, we don't have the same issues as a lot of other couples. But go ahead, lady, I'll listen just for fun.]

Social scientists had begun studying who did the housework, and "any way you measure it, they say, women do about twice as much around the house as men," Belkin wrote.... "Working class, middle class, upper class, it stays at two to one," said Sampson Lee Blair, who had been studying the issue at the University at Buffalo. [Wait a minute. This just got serious.] When child care was added to the mix, things became even more lopsided. In families where both parents worked, she said, women spent an average of eleven hours a week on child care, and men three. [!?!?]

Belkin introduced her readers to a few couples who were seriously trying to divide chores evenly, and it seemed like a tortuous process - full of lists and negotiations and struggles on the part of the woman to jettison her higher standards for cleanliness, social niceties such as thank-you notes, and the way children looked when they were dressed for school. [For the record, ahem, thank-you notes are uncompromisable.] The only households that seemed to arrive at equitable division of labor more naturally, Belkin wrote, were lesbian couples....

The problem, it seemed, was buried deep in the issue of gender. Husbands who did more around the house than their fathers had done felt they were contributing a great deal, even if it amounted to less than half the times their wives were putting in. [C'mon, Mr. F, tell me you did a lot of chores / child care when Clay was growing up.] Couples struggling to change seemed to do best if they lived in neighborhoods where sharing the housework was more common. [We live in Hyde Park - does that mean we're on the right track? Please tell me it means we're on the right track.] As one expert explained, the most important factor in predicting how much a husband would do was how equal a couple's friends' relationships were.

[Confession: Sometimes matrimony totally scares me.]

Photo credits: thedailydoo.com and sundaymercury.net

Best Gift for a Groom. Ever.

Ladies. Gentlemen. Small children, if you're listening. If you know any guys out there that are engaged, contemplating engagement, or recently married, then be a pal. Buy this book. Wrap it up, take it to the wedding shower, and don't look back. You can thank me later, it's cool.


For real, y'all. This is the first book Clay has finished since Harry Potter. And if all men enjoy it half as much as Clay, it's a total victory. What's that, sweetheart? You want to talk about dividing up the household chores? Best. Gift. Ever.

100 Days 'Til the Wedding!

Things That Are Making Me Smile Today

Crate & Barrel's new line of cats
[Now available in gray, black, and calico!]

Shiner, sunsets, & sweethearts
[Taken the day after our engagement]

Very first suppers from our brand new dinnerware
[It matches. It's unchipped. We're such grown-ups!]

Really loooong ferret- like kitty cats
[Lucy's really stretchable]

A Thousand Ways to Please a Husband

My awesome online-rare-bookstore find. A copy of this delivered to my office the other day, causing several ho-ho-ho's and abruptly rosy cheeks. You know where I'm going with this...

So before you go to that place, too (shame on you), let me caveat the book title with this: written in 1917, with the edition shown here published in 1932. Another tidbit: the subtitle printed on the inside title page reads "The Romance of Cookery and Housekeeping."

That's right! Instead of illustrations from the Kama Sutra, it contains recipes for caramel and tips for making sutures.

Like I said, sweet find. And with four months to go, I guess I'd better start reading. (And simultaneously search for A Thousand Ways to Please a Wife. Good wedding gift for any groom.)

My "Father of the Bride" Moment

Austin wedding cake vendors... actually, take that back.... wedding vendors in general... are completely out of their minds! Totally nuts! I can't believe it took me 6 months to figure that out. Gah!

So Clay and I went cake testing yesterday. Um, $1000? For cake? I agree with George Banks and Clay's mom: it's flour and water! How does that equate to almost $7 per piece?

[Scene from Father of the Bride. Skip to 3:00 for the cake scene below.]

George: A cake, Franck, is made of flour and water. My first car didn't cost $1200.

Franck: Well... welcome to the 90's, Mr. Banks!

The 90's indeed. How about the 10's? Back to the drawing board on this one. Guess I'll just have to try out more vendors. Taste test their cakes, too. My life is so rough.

I'm Thinking. Please Stand By.

... In case you thought I'd forgotten about this blog. Or were worried I'd run out of things to say (fat chance). Or thought I'd given up on the wedding altogether (an even fatter chance). I'm still here. Please stand by.

Artwork by Keri Smith.

Wedding Dress: Check!

Like whoa.*

*Note: I considered leaving this post at that, but then I decided to give you a few more details to chew on (though not too many!) - I mean, it is the wedding dress. A checklist item this big merits at least some explanation. For the record, though, this initial statement pretty much sums it up, and so you may stop now if you wish; no further reading necessary.

A few weeks ago, as mentioned in this blog post, I bought a dress in New York City. Bought. That's not the same as finding the dress I'm going to wear on October 30 (although, it might be). Any dress I buy or heavily consider is subject to a rigorous obstacle course of tests paneled by only the harshest and most scrutinizing of judges (i.e. Lauren, Sarah, Melissa, & Courtney).

Here are the 10 stages of wedding dress selection, according to, well, me:

1. Earmark catalogs, magazines, or books, and/or capture screen shots from online galleries and stores.

2. Select promising gowns off the rack. (If satisfied, skip to step #4; if still panicking, go to step #3.)

3. Enlist your friend, sister, mother, or sales associate to select a gown off the rack for you.

4. Try on selected dress. (Eek!).

5. Take pictures of selected dress and/or dress feature while you are wearing said dress. Important for when you get home and realize you've completely blacked out most of the dress-shopping experience.

6. Bring home information about the preferred dress (stock number, price, size, etc), and "sleep on it." This step may be skipped altogether if you get either, a) overly excited and credit-card-happy, or b) overly nervous and credit-card-happy.

7. Purchase the dress. (Omg!).

8. Invite trustworthy friends and family over for mimosas. Get them tipsy. Try on the purchased dress in front of them, and make them tell you the truth.

9. Conduct the Mom Test. Try on the purchased dress in front of Mom, and cross your fingers she doesn't think it's too tight, low, sexy, modern, or any other common motherly clothing worry.

10. Do your happy dance on top of your living room couch while no one is looking. Voila! You have yourself a wedding dress!

Pre-New York, the furthest I'd gotten with any dress was step #6, with a few gowns not getting past #1, and several gowns dying after #4. Looking back, I was far from close. But I knew I'd find my perfect fit in due time.

Brutal, yes. Overboard, maybe. But do I feel amazing and confident and ecstatic with my purchase? Like whoa I do.

Just think, I haven't even picked out jewelry, shoes, hairstyle, makeup...

Ode to 10.30.10 (My version of Joy)

Sung to the tune of that Sound of Music diddy.

Mini white pumpkins, antique purple roses,
Barbecue, cupcakes, and champagne-filled noses.
Dancing past midnight, Red Bull gives you wings,
These are the fruits of my wedding planning.


[Pumpkins via Lockette on Flickr. Roses via Jessica Joy Photography, also on Flickr.]

If my whole "take over the world" idea doesn't quite pan out, there's always the possibility of a songwriting career.

I won't quit my day job.

All Quiet on the Wedding Front

Due to the sudden onslaught of unexpected wedding planning side effects such as overload, burnout, and the possible early stages of bridal insanity, I have decided to forgo my Miss B blog posts for one liberating week.

No more guest lists, fabric swatches, color palettes, or wedding websites. For the next seven days, I'm trading in my wedding high heels for SXSW flip flops: a week of music, sunshine, and relaxation. Nothing nuptial in sight.

I'm pretty sure I've earned a little break. Which is why I dub this week "Spring Wedding Break 2010."

Don't worry, I'll be back soon enough, with more ridiculous anxiety attacks and girlish nonsense to keep us all mildly concerned. See you in a week.