Category Archives: Weddings

Lauren and Elliot’s Wedding

My friends Lauren and Elliot got married on Saturday in Boston.  They ceremony was in Belmont, Massachusetts and the reception was at the Seaport Hotel in Boston.  It was one of the most fun weddings I’d been to in a long time!

Things to know about attending weddings as a newlywed:  You will want to talk to everybody around you about how this wedding compares to your wedding.  Pro tip:  no one cares…EXCEPT other newlyweds, who will never tire of said talking.  Oh, and one of the reasons I had such a great time at the wedding was because it reminded me of my own wedding and how fun it was.  Rather than weddings in the past that were ruined by people asking when I was getting married or what was wrong with me that I wasn’t engaged yet.

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(I love her invitations—so classy and simple.  And I love black tie optional.  I thought I had a picture with the reply card and ribbon from way back when, but I couldn’t find it.)

I arrived in Boston on Friday evening.  I had been invited to the rehearsal dinner but wasn’t sure if I’d make it—I did!  The dinner was on a harbor cruise (on the Seaport Elite) and was a great way to relax, meet some new people, and get to see Boston from the water.  And I got to talk to Lauren more at the rehearsal dinner than I did at my own wedding, so I was really glad she invited me!

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Adda and I—Adda was one of the bridesmaids and an old friend of mine from when I played with ProMusica in Columbus.  I hadn’t seen her in YEARS.

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Elliot (the groom), Rick, Frances, and Lauren (the bride)—and yeah, I’m sorry this is a bad picture, but honestly, the rest I had to choose from are even worse.  I think I was too tired, plus, unless I’m instagramming, I need to not use the iPhone for blog pictures. 

We went out into the harbor, hung out, ate dinner, heard some speeches and toasts, and then the boat returned to the dock.  It was still early at that point, so we continued the party at the hotel.  I got to bed pretty late.

The next morning I had had grand plans of sightseeing, but I slept in instead and ended up just wandering around a bit and doing a little jogging.  It was a GORGEOUS day, 75 and sunny, and compared to St Louis (who were getting the remnants of Hurricane Isaac) I could not have picked a better wedding to get away.  I walked about five miles, and took absolutely no pictures.  Blogger fail, but it was a nice day.

We had to meet the bus for transportation to the wedding ceremony at 3 pm so I got all dolled up and went outside.  I ran into Katie, a woman I’d met the night before who was also attending the wedding as a single married lady (as in, our husbands were unable to attend so we were date-less) and we decided to be each others dates.  Added bonus:  could compare this wedding to our own weddings with no judgment from each other.

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The church was really cute!

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Me in front of the church.  Please ignore my ridiculous tan lines—they were more obvious in photos than reality, I think.

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The music was wonderful!  Since both Lauren and Elliot are musicians, they asked some of their friends to play.  They sounded great and I loved the arrangements.  They used organ, trumpet, and strings, sometimes separately and sometimes all together.

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She had four bridesmaids and a maid of honor.

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All in all, the ceremony was very nice.  I especially liked that they did a unity candle ceremony BUT the minister made a point of saying that their individual candles would remain lit.  I hate the idea of people getting married and completely losing their self and only being party of a couple (this is something Chris and I struggle with—staying true to ourselves while giving our best to each other and to our relationship.)

We re-boarded the bus and headed back to the hotel for the reception.  We had a little time to kill before the cocktail hour started so Katie and I did a little pre-party at the hotel bar.

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Sparkling wine seemed most appropriate!

Oh, and I have no decent pictures of Katie.  Note to everyone:  just because your iPhone is super convenient does not mean it is going to take great pictures.  I should have used my regular camera, and I MUST do so in Paris.  Some were okay but showed up upside down on my blog and I couldn’t seem to fix that properly.  And weren’t really good enough to put forth the effort of editing them in a different program.  But I digress, and I’ll stop making excuses for something that was entirely under my control.

We headed up to the cocktail hour which was in a lobby area that opened up to the outside.  It was wonderful!  There was cheese, crackers, veggies, and an amazing spinach and artichoke dip.  There were also a nice variety of passed appetizers, including tiny crab cakes, lobster salad in little ice cream cones, egg rolls, and a few other things. Plus open bar, always a winner.  We mingled and chatted with people for an hour or so and then it was dinner and dancing time.

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View of the reception hall.  Oh, and that’s Katie on the left at the bar 🙂

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The wedding cake.

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The view out the window from the reception hall.  This was also basically the view from my hotel room at the same hotel, on the 11th floor.  Gorgeous!

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My table—lucky table 13.

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The menu.  Guess what I chose for entree…

The dinner started with toasts, and there was a live band and dancing in between each course.  I opted to wait to dance until after dessert—I was happy to sit down for awhile and just chat and enjoy the delicious food.

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(Yes, of course I chose the LOBSTAH, as they say it in Boston.)

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Lemon cake—there was also chocolate and carrot cake.

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Me and the beautiful bride Lauren.  She and Elliot did a wonderful job mingling.

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Adda and I.  I could have posed better.  The bridesmaid dresses were really lovely!

After dinner, we danced for what seemed like HOURS.  I believe the band played until close to midnight, though I could be wrong.  My feet and my entire body were exhausted, but people wanted to continue celebrating—I made it for about 30 more minutes before I had to say my goodbyes.

All in all it was a wonderful weekend!  So great to see Lauren and Adda, to meet Elliot and Katie and tons of other people as well, and to visit Boston and the Seaport Hotel (who did a wonderful job), and to wear my purple dress that I bought months ago with these shoes.

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Huge Congratulations to Lauren and Elliot, on their marriage and on a wonderful wedding! 

Six months already?

I reminded Chris that today is our six month wedding anniversary.  (Okay, technically I shouldn’t use the word anniversary to describe it, but whatever.)  He said, "is that something people celebrate?"  I told him we didn’t need to do anything special, but that I planned to use it as an excuse to post more wedding pictures on this here ye olde blogge.  He thought that seemed just fine.

Warning:  many pictures ahead.  Enjoy!  (Photos by the wonderful Sarah Crowder, of course!)

Edited to add:  For some reason my blog theme distorts the horizontal photos.  If you click on them they load just right though.  Not sure of the problem.

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(I just love this picture of us!)

I know it’s a cliché, but where has the time gone?  I feel like we just got married.  My dress is still in the bag I put it in the night of the wedding (yeah, I really need to do something with that.) Many of our gifts are still in their original packaging!  (We are planning to use them in our new house where we have tons more space.) 

This just came to mind:

"It’s been 84 years, and I can still smell the fresh paint. The china had never been used. The sheets had never been slept in. Titanic was called the Ship of Dreams, and it was. It really was."

But I digress.  As usual.

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Isn’t he handsome?  Just as handsome as the day I married him!

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Our first look.  I’m being critical and I see that the back of the dress still wasn’t right yet (we got it better a little later), but I love our expressions!

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Admiring Chris’s picture at Powell Hall.  He hates the picture, but I think it’s adorable 🙂

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Another mantel picture.  LOVE IT.

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We’re falling…!

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This picture makes me giggle a bit. 

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Ugh.  I love my dress so much. (The ugh is because I don’t get to wear it again.  Unless…no.  I don’t get to wear it again.  My sister’s wedding is not an option.)

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With all the attendants!  John, Sarah, Leslie, Dave, Chris, Me, Norbert, Carrie. (left to right)

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Yada, yada, you may kiss the bride!  Then it was time to party. 

So much planning, and it was over just like that!  But the memories will last forever.  What a wonderful day :)  I got to marry my Chris, and we got to celebrate with our friends and family.  AND there was bacon wrapped shrimp.

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And CAKE—the top layer of which is still safely in our freezer and we will move to our NEW freezer soon.

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And dancing…

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Want to see more?  Just visit my wedding planning tab.  It’s all there!

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Next:

Only 111 days until I’m a matron of honor at Leslie’s wedding 😉 (I checked her wedding website.  I did not count.)

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(Some of their engagement photos—Leslie, who was your photographer? Or is it a secret?)

(Edited to add, pictures by Jacquie from StAnnePhotography.com)

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I guess I’d better start on my toast!

Day in the life of

Saturday was a pretty busy day for me.  I had three weddings that day.  If you aren’t a wedding musician, you probably wonder how that all worked. (If you are, I’d scroll down for the cat pictures and then for the wine.)

Here’s a day in life of Hannah.

Saturday morning:  Woke up around 8 am.  Had my overnight oatmeal.

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(stock photo)

Around 9:15 I left the house to head to pick up my friend Laura on the way to Lafayette Park United Methodist Church.  We started prelude at 9:40 for a 10:00 ceremony.  I was playing with a string quartet.  We did the usual stuff:  Jesu, Joy of Man’s Desiring, Pachelbel’s Canon, Wedding March, etc. 

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The organ was BEAUTIFUL.

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I liked the color scheme of this wedding a lot.  We were up close and personal with the party.  I was thinking to myself, I wonder what time they had to get up to get their hair and makeup done?  I got married at 5:30 pm and still had to wake up around 8 am…

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The back of the church.  It was definitely an old church, very cool.

We finished around 10:45 or 10:50.  I went back home and did a few things around the house and ate a quick lunch.  Then I was off to Belleville, Illinois, for the next wedding.  This one was with organ (and trumpet and singers, which I didn’t know until I got there.)

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St Mary’s Catholic Church.  I was up in the organ loft for this one, which meant I had time to kill in between songs.  I may have done a little texting during it.

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Another cool organ, though not quite as awesome as the first one.

The mass started at 2 pm.  I played a few prelude pieces, but wasn’t in all of them.  Then I was also playing some of the processional and various parts of the mass.

Like I said, I had some time to kill.  I tried a few self portraits:

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I should mention I woke up with my eyelid swollen like that.  I don’t know why.  It didn’t hurt, but it was puffy.  I’m guessing either lack of sleep or allergies, or perhaps some combination.

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Self Instagram Portrait.  I like it, but it’s mirror image and totally weird! 

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Then I noticed I was playing a piece written for the Pope’s visit to St Louis.  I sent this picture to Sarah because she loves everything about the Pope.

In return she sent me these (well, she sent them and then I instagrammed them for her.)

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The mass ended around 3 pm, and after a bit of chatting I got on my way. 

As I drove away from the church the guests were releasing balloons into the air. 

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So then I made an slight error in judgment.  I knew there was some traffic back into the city, but I just didn’t want to take the southern route:  it takes about 50 minutes, versus 30 the regular way.  I just didn’t think the traffic would be that bad, but it was.  One of the interstates was closed and everybody had to merge from 4 lanes to two and it added about 40 minutes to my drive.  I was totally annoyed, but luckily I wasn’t cutting it too close on time, and I was chatting on the phone with a friend so it wasn’t all bad.  I got home around 4:15, and had a snack.  Laura was picking me up at 5:15 for our last gig of the day.

Lesson learned:  if there is any doubt about traffic, just take the southern route. 

My last wedding was another quartet gig (both quartet gigs were with a group I play with often called Serenade Strings), this one at Oliva on the Hill, a venue I hadn’t played at before.  I didn’t know what to expect, and I was surprised by a) the fact that it was outdoors, though a courtyard rather than completely open and b) how cute it was!

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We played some more "contemporary" music for this wedding, like Clocks by Coldplay and Love Story by Taylor Swift.  It was short and sweet:  prelude at 5:45, ceremony at 6, on our way home by 6:30. 

(Side bar:  Leslie’s intended, Peter, sent me this picture of Leslie on top of the "Royal Arch."  I assume that’s in Colorado somewhere. 

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Side bar ends)

I got home by 6:45.  Chris had an opera performance that night, and I had dinner plans with Laura, Jon and Benny (the baby).  Chris was meeting us after his performance.

I got this in the mail from Leslie:

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I haven’t read it yet, but I’m guessing it will convince me to take my cat with us to Paris in September…

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Also got this in the mail.  St Louis Magazine, I think I should get free tickets to the party since you know I’ll blog about it!  Plus, I’m totally hip and fashionable…okay, maybe not, but I am an interesting character and would add a certain something to the party. 

Okay, so around 7:30 pm I headed over to Jon and Laura’s for pizza, wine, and baby.

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I brought a bottle from a local winery, Montelle Winery.  Chris played a concert there a few weeks ago and then stayed for a several course food and wine dinner.  He was pleasantly surprised by the quality of the wines, so he bought a few bottles.

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We had pizza and salad with our wine, and then tried some ice cream Laura had made in their new ice cream maker.  It wasn’t quite right—I think ice cream making must have a bit of a learning curve.  I have no doubt she will figure out how to make it amazing soon enough, and frankly, did I really need much ice cream?  No.

Then we headed outside to relax.

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Chris showed up after the opera, plus this little fellow finally woke up.

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Don’t you just want to tickle those feet?  I’m going to assume YES.  Sadly, he doesn’t seem to be ticklish yet.

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So after we finished off the wine, it was late and I was exhausted.  So we headed home and went to bed.

The end!

Tired just thinking about it

It is hilarious to me that I tend to get up earlier on the weekends than during the week.  And for things like races and brunch.

Today’s blog will be a series of instagram pictures summing up my weekend so far…

Friday night:

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Benny was super fussy all evening.  We all tried everything we could think of but nothing seemed to work for more than two or three minutes at a time.

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More detailed race recap to come.  "Remembering the 80’s 5K" and yes, that is a pretzel around my neck.

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Then rehearsal with the Symphony. 

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A wedding at St. Cecilia’s Church.  It was fun being all the way up in the organ loft.

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And dinner at Yemanja Brasil with my friend Sarah.  This was a special appetizer, ceviche, and it was delicious.  I love seafood so much.

Now it’s time to walk a friend’s dog (well, with Chris), brunch with friends, a student performance at the Sheldon Concert Hall, and a photo shoot in Forest Park for a group I’m joining.  It’s been a wonderful and busy weekend, and honestly I’m ready to just be done and spend the evening relaxing.  When all is said and done we are planning to make burgers on the grill and rent a movie.  Whew!  (Tomorrow’s not Monday already, is it?)

Sometimes it’s really hard to think of a title—in a nutshell, I was really sweaty, watched Downton Abbey, and Men are Different, as I always say.

It must be July already or something, because this weather is out of control.  We’re talking about 90 degrees, at the beginning of May!  Yesterday we played an outdoor wedding at the Botanical Gardens.  I wore my summer wedding black dress (had to dig that out of storage) and I believe within five minutes I had completely sweated through it.  It was like working out but without the working out part, just the sweating part.  Or like Bikram Yoga without the poses, and instead of yoga then you had to play the violin.

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Actually this is a really good picture of Chris.  Maybe I should make him stop smiling for photos and just make that smoldering look at the camera instead.

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Upon closer inspection, it might just be a look of disgust towards me taking a picture.  Oh and apparently some of the guys are growing out beards for the Indy 500 on Memorial Day.  Every time I think I start to understand men I hear something like that…and just think:  Men are different. (original post here)

This morning I went to a spin class with Vanessa.  This was HUGE because I haven’t worked out since getting sick, and honestly, before that with the shoulder problems…let’s just say it’s been awhile.  I thought a spin class would be perfect since if I were getting overwhelmed or having shoulder issues it would be easy enough to sand bag.  It was AWESOME.  I made Vanessa take a picture of me afterwards, but that didn’t work so well.  This is actually the best one.

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My eyes may be shut but I think you can appreciate how tired and sweaty I look, right?  You might ask, why would you post this picture?  Well, it’s the best I’ve got, and if I don’t post a picture of myself in workout clothes, how will you know I worked out? 

Anyway, the class was great.  I am halfway tempted to push my luck and go for a run as well today…but I’ll probably just finish up this blog post and watch Downton Abbey instead.  (Oh yes, I started on Thursday, watched all of Season 1 and two episodes of Season 2…and then a bunch more last night, and now I’m ready to finish Season 2.  SO GOOD WHY DID I RESIST WATCHING THIS BEFORE????)

I recently started using Instagram on my phone.  I presume it is just to put up pictures of my cat?  Does anybody think it’s weird when you have a friend and then after being friends for awhile you learn they have a pet…and you didn’t know.  What I’m asking is:  What is truly the purpose of social media and camera phones if NOT to take and post pictures of your pets online at all times?  Or what I’m really asking: Do I talk about the fatness too much?

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That’s the fatness, instagrammed.  Doesn’t she look more old-timey and authentic now?

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She is on my legs as I’m stretched out on the couch watching Downton Abbey…love it.  Also I think my legs went numb.

If you think I talk about my cat or post too many pictures of her, please don’t tell me.  I won’t change my behavior, and then I’ll just be awkward around you.

And I’m being a good blogger today.  A variety of pictures, one from Instagram, check!  Self-portrait to prove I worked out, check!  References to popular culture, check!  And links to old blog posts, check!

Self fist bump for the win!

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(If you don’t follow me on twitter, you should.  If you don’t have a twitter, you really should!)

Happy Anniversary Will and Kate

A friend reminded me that today is Will and Kate’s wedding anniversary.  Happy Anniversary to them!  I only mention this as an excuse to post these pictures again…

First, Kate.

Now…

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In the second picture, we did not want to deal with buttoning the back up all the way.  Plus the replica dress itched—perhaps the material was not quite as nice as that which Kate’s was made of?

Since I’m looking in my wedding dress album on my computer, let’s stroll down memory lane, shall we?  (I am not waiting for you to agree.) I have especially fond memories of my ridiculous tan lines (this was July) which I worked so hard to get rid of…and have already somewhat returned after running outside just a few times.  I tan too easily.  But I never showed you the pictures of me trying MY dress on in the store!

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Here’s me trying it on for the first time.  I remember I was looking in the mirror thinking, hmm…this could be it.  I’m not generally an over the top, bursting into tears sort of person.  But I remember I was, perhaps for the first time, picturing Chris seeing me walking down the aisle, and I felt my cold black heart starting to melt…

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We tried it with the veil just to see.  Until that point I hadn’t even THOUGHT about a veil—

Anyway, then we tried on some other dresses.  And then we came back to it, but thought, oh let’s put my hair up.

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And with the hair flower that comes with the dress.  That smile is me kind of loving it.

I wanted to buy the dress right away (When I see something I want, I don’t like to wait—I wanted to buy it and be DONE shopping) but we had an appointment at another salon so we figured we’d try on more dresses, then I could decide.  I tried on some nice dresses but nothing I loved—I got home, called Clarice’s, ordered the dress, and never looked back.  I’m kind of an impulse shopper who doesn’t have regrets in that sense—when I decide what I want, I want it right away, and I rarely regret my decision. 

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I think I made the right choice!

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(Because my wedding wasn’t JUST about me and my dress.  Oh, and I ate the rest of the wedding cake last night.  I realized all that was left was icing.  I didn’t feel very good after that, because it really needed cake to balance it out, but I was in a dessert mood and dammit, that was our cake!)