Holy crap! I'm getting married in 9 DAYS!!!!!!!

We put an offer on a house last night so everybody keep your fingers crossed that the sellers accept the bid!

I have been so busy lately that I don't even know where to begin. My other bit of good news: My job is sending me to Cancun for three days!! I'll be in Cancun on October 1, 2 & 3, coming home on the 4th. I can't wait! I'll need a vacation after all the wedding and home buying stress!

Yes, this is a rant.
I had a HORRIBLE EXPERIENCE at House of Brides the other day. My sister and I met at the HoB in Orland Park, IL to pick out her bridesmaid dress. I figured that while I was there, I would try on my dress too. I asked the Sales Lady to get my dress and she heads to the back room to get it. A few minutes later she comes out with a snotty look and a piece of paper.

"I'm sorry miss but you opted out of your dress." she tells me. Then begins vigorously pointing at a piece of paper that she's holding. "See, right here (point, point). You returned it and we don't have it anymore."

djsakljfskfhduiw;hgure....."WHAT?!???!?!

!!!" I shriek. "I DID NOT OPT OUT OF MY DRESS. IT WAS PAID IN FULL LAST TIME I WAS HERE! IT HAD BETTER BE HERE!!!"  panic panic panic panic....

Sales Lady then scrambles off to the back room mumbling something about checking again. In the meantime I am fuming and my sister keeps trying to calm me down. NO ONE in the store is trying to help me, no one apologizes or acknowledges my existence.

Sales Lady finally emerges from the back room and lets me know that they do have my dress. She then informs me that it was listed under a different store location and therefore not in their system. Still no apology. I reminded her that that little mistake was their fault. You see, when I ordered the dress it was sent to the wrong store and had to be driven over to the Orland Park location. Sales Lady kind of sighs and rolls her eyes at this. I very calmly ask her again if I can please try on my dress. Big sigh this time and she scuttles off to the back room to get my dress. I AM NOT leaving the store without my dress this time.

While I'm waiting I decide to confirm my alterations appointment. My dress thankfully does not need too many alterations. I actually just need a bustle. I ask the Counter Girl if she can check my alteration day. She gets out her appointment book and flips through it and lo and behold, there is no appointment. I know my mother made the appointment for July 11th. Counter Girl, basically calling me a liar, tells me that they don't do alterations on the weekends. At this point I am ready to punch someone in the face. I whip out my cell phone and call my mom. She confirms that she did make the appointment and the girl she spoke with had a heavy accent. I tell this to Counter Girl and She says, "Oh that was Foreign Girl, she doesn’t work here anymore."
Oooooooooooh okay.......that makes it all better?
Still no apology.

Counter Girl then hands me a ticket with alteration pricing on it. Now remember, all I'm going to need is a bustle. For those of you that don't know, its just a few little hooks that hold your train up so its not dragging all over the place during the reception. Simple right? Not at House of Brides! According to this ticket, that bustle is going to cost me somewhere in the neighborhood of $475.00!! I say this can't be right. Counter Girl tells me that it is right. I say nope, no thanks. I'll get my bustle put on somewhere else. Besides, at this point I DO NOT want to leave my dress there. I really don't want to get my bridesmaid dress there either. Which brings me to that portion of the HORRIBLE EXPERIENCE!

Sales Lady hands me my dress and I snatch it and hug it to my chest in a death grip. The Jaws of Life couldn’t cut it away from me at this point. I ask Sales Lady about bridesmaid dresses. I let her know that I am looking for dresses that come in chocolate brown and tea length. She says, in a constipated tone, “That’s not how we do it here. You try on the dresses and then we let you know if it comes in your color.”

Oooookay…that sounds ass-backwards to me but I’ll play your little game House of Brides. My sister picks out some dresses and she tries them on. We are not particularly thrilled with any of them but settle on two (secretly we have decided that we are going down the street to David’s Bridal to try on some more dresses) and bring them to Counter Girl. My sister asks her to put these two dresses on my “wish list” and we are going to think about it and come back. Counter Girl informs us that any bridesmaid dress that we order is going to be a rush order and cost $60 to $70 dollars more. Now, let me let you all know that I had called earlier in the week and I was told I had plenty of time to order the bridesmaid dress. All of a sudden it was a rush order? Then Sales Lady asks me how many girls I have in my wedding party. I tell her, “Your looking at her.” My sister is my matron of honor and that’s it. She sniffs and makes a face. “That’s going to be extra. We add $25 if there is only one person in your bridal party.”

Whaaaaat the hell??? You are going to charge me for only having one person in my bridal party? I have NEVER heard of this. Still no apology. This particular House of Brides is very good at making you feel like you are scum and have no business being there. It was a really bad experience. I will not be going back there for any reason and I will not recommend them to anyone.
We leave and go to David’s Bridal. David’s Bridal in Orland Park is wonderful! They made me feel like a princess and treated my sister and I as if we were the only people in the store. We found a bridesmaid dress (not a rush order) and also got information on tuxes. Thank you David’s Bridal!

x-posted to weddingplans 

Okay, Its not really a Greek tragedy but I wanted a catchy title...ya know?  Maybe writing about it will relieve some of it. 

1.  I am stressed because I am trying to plan a wedding.  It sucks and I hate it and my fiance doesn't help at all.  He never asks if I need help and if I give him a tiny little thing to do (like getting the address so I can send out invitations...or installing the printer on one of our computers so I can print shit out) he ignores it.  I am NOT a bridezilla...I do not ask anything unreasonable of him.  I am trying to make this as painless as possible.  I can't even get his opinion on a first dance song.  Or whenever I say "lets practice dancing", he begins humping my leg like a dog. EVERY SINGLE TIME.  He thinks this is funny.  No court of law would convict me for killing him, I'm sure of this.  At least I won't feel so bad making him pay for stuff now.  But it will be sad that none of his friends or family are at the wedding because he didn't give me any of their addresses, therefore they don't get any invitations.  Mark my words, on Monday March 2nd, my save the date postcards are being sent out....with or without his.  I am NOT doing any more extra work.  If our wedding was half as important as World Of Warcraft, this would be the event of the year.

2.  I am trying to get a mortgage loan and look for a house.  This is stressful.  I hate my apartment.  We have to get a bunch of paperwork together to send to the mortgage company.  I have all of my paperwork together.  My fiance was off all day yesterday and did not get one shred of his paperwork together.  Not one thing.  Not even a copy of his drivers license...and he has a scanner/copier sitting RIGHT NEXT TO HIS COMPUTER!!!!!!!!!  It would have taken what,  all of ten minutes to go to the bank (which is within walking distance to our apartment) and get 30 days worth of bank statements?  I can feel my blood pressure rising as I write this...

3.  My job.  Where do I start.  I am a social worker in a nursing home.  They have me in meetings from 9:30am until about 1:30pm every day.  I don't EVER get a lunch or a break.  EVER.  After my meetings I have to frantically catch up on RAPs, MDS's, care plans, progress notes (I have a shit-ton of paperwork).  I only work until 4:30 and I don't get paid for overtime.  On top of all of this, they want me to run psychosocial groups.  This is about 10 groups of 6 -8 people every week, PLUS about 21 people on 1 to 1 visits.  They refuse to give me a full time assistant.  Exactly WHEN am I supposed to do all of this???  Please tell me because I just can't figure it out.

4.  My hair is falling out.  Literally.  In chunks.

5.  I have a really bad tooth ache and I am too scared to go to the dentist.  I don't want them to pull my tooth.  I'm British, I have the gene for bad teeth.

6.  Back to the wedding:  Everything costs money.  Really, why is everything so expensive?  Food, drinks, plates, cups, silverware, coffee, cake, flowers, photographer, favors, dresses, rings, table cloths, music, hair, make-up...I really HATE every minute of this.  My mom is taking care of some of this and my dad gave us a little money but the rest is on us.  It sucks.  If anyone is even thinking of having a wedding....don't.  Go to city hall, Vegas or Mexico.  This wedding shit blows. 

There's more but I have to go start my meetings now...