Pre-Wedded Bliss

Disclaimer: If you are a boy, I'll warn you right now, this post is going to either put you to sleep, or convince you that you NEVER want to be around when the woman you love is planning a wedding (Andrew definitely had the right idea with this whole deployment thing)! But you really can't complain all that much, because I write about sports, too! It's not all girly and flowers and rainbows and pink around here all the time.

This was the wedding weekend extravaganza that I have been looking forward to for months! I planned everything around the Hershey Bridal Expo at the ACAA (Antique Car Museum) and things kind of unraveled from there! Friday night, Mom Dolan and I kept it low key and went for manicures and pedicures and out to dinner- where we had one of our famous hours-long conversations and nearly shut the restaurant down! It was the best!

On Saturday morning, my mom flew into BWI from Manchester, where my brother's girlfriend, Emily (future-Olsen, as I introduced her as this weekend), picked her up. Emily lives just outside of DC so she picked up my mom at the airport and they drove up to little-old Etown together. They met me, Mom, Lisa, Shannon, Lillia and Alisia at the Bridal Emporium on Market Street. I'll admit, it wasn't overly thrilled with their service or selection of gowns. Last weekend we went there and it was a totally different experience, but something was off this week. 

After a quick lunch at Subway, we drove down to Lancaster to go to a new Bridal shop, In White. I was expecting the quality and price of their gowns to be higher than other shops I had visited because of what I had seen online and from driving by, but decided to give it a shot anyways! I can't even explain how happy I am that we went there; everything was top-tier... except the prices!! What more could I ask for? They didn't even have the gowns in cheapo plastic bags to protect them, but they just let them hang there so you could really get an idea of what each one was like! Of all the gowns I've tried on (probably 30-35 at this point; I'm not very good at decision making) none of them even compared to the 5 I tried on at In White! AND to top off my perfect experience there, they had the exact color (Infantry Blue) I was looking for for bridesmaid dresses! We even brought a blue cord with us to see if we could find a perfect match! Overall, Day 1 of the weekend extravaganza was a raging success!

Today (Day 2) started out great as well! My mom and Emily stayed here at the Dolan's house for the night (in the midst of a kitchen remodel!) We woke up and Dad Dolan made us all Mickey Mouse waffles (I got Magic Mickey for the first time ever!) and then went to church were I introduced them to fifteen Dolans in about 30 seconds before mass started! After mass, we were off to Hershey for the expo!

It wasn't like anything I could have ever imagined! The best part was that when we bought our tickets, we said we have 2 brides in our party and they gave Emily all the bridal stuff I was getting too! (My brother would have my head if he found out about this, love ya Marko!) It was so much fun to see all the vendors and get ideas of things I had never even considered yet! I definitely got to a point where I was just done and exhausted so we went to get lunch in Hershey. We finished up around 4, came back to E-town and my mom and Emily hit the road so that my mom could catch her flight back home. 

For dinner we went over to Sean and Lisa's for pizza. I finally gave the kids books that Andrew and I have had for them since before Christmas. The books were little age-appropriate stories about being a flower girl or ringbearer or junior bridesmaid (in Alisia's case). For Jared we decided to go the cool-route and get him a book all about soldiers from different eras and wars and branches of military; also they really don't make any sort of wedding book that would be appealing for his demographic. Inside each book we wrote a note officially asking the kids to be a part of our wedding! The girls were overjoyed, Jared was instantly enthralled in his soldier book, Quinn was jumping up and down, Austin was more concerned with the Real-tree camo wrapping paper we used, and Gavin unwrapped and then headed right back to his game of mousetrap--- that he was playing against himself! I explained that Uncle AJ and I have very important jobs for them to do in our wedding, and if they would like to, we would be thrilled if they would like be a part of such a special day for us! It was an overwhelming YES from the whole crowd! Lots and lots of hugs and kisses and "thank you, Aunt Tina"'s going around! It was such a fun moment, but totally bittersweet because I didn't get to share it with Andrew. I meant to have someone video tape it so that we could send it over to our favorite solider, but in the excitement of the moment, I completely forgot (really sorry, babe!). Sean did manage to snap this one picture (after Gavin left the party on the couch) which I absolutely LOVE! I can't wait to officially be these kiddos' Aunt! 

In other news, my better half, over in Afghanistan is doing great. Well, he is really, really cold! They've been getting lots of snow in his province, and a buddy of his who is only about 70 miles away is complaining about the seventy five degree weather! It's crazy! We are still talking online every night and every morning which I will always count as a blessing!