Yes, I am a Bride to-be!

Yesterday was SO much fun! I had a FANTASTIC day with my girls at the Washington Bridal Showcase! I was sad Tiffany couldn't make it, but I promised her I'd be going to many more bridal shows in the coming year! Gotta keep trying to win free stuff!

The day started early and I must say, I was very nervous to ride the metro alone. It was my first time and although I knew i needed to catch the Yellow line, I wasn't really confident on much else. I did end up asking a man if I was doing it right and while he was nice enough to reassure me, he ended up wanting to talk my head off for the next 45 mins until I reached my destination. (grrrr). I made it safely to the DC convention center and was 3rd in line at 10:30am. Beverly & Laura showed up around 10:30am too and I registered. In hind sight, they should have registered too and increased my chances of winning! We began our 5 hour walk-through of the bridal show and quickly filled up the bag I brought (I read online to bring a sturdy bag for all of the stuff you'll receive). Boy, am I glad I did that! I ended up getting 3 more bags while I was there and one was a canvas bag from The Knot! very cool. We stuffed our faces with too much cake and ate a lot of food throughout the day. We did not even need to buy lunch we were so full of cake, chocolate covered strawberries and shrimp. It was delightful :) We finally finished our first round through the vendors and found a seat at the fashion show. The fashion show was fun and entertaining. We then went back through the vendors to see if I won anything.....and Laura saw that I had won a mystery box! It was some fake pearls and a manicure kit. Nothing I needed, but considering there were over 1,000 brides there, I'm lucky to have won anything! I tried to win a free wedding cake from this one vendor whose cake was the best thing I'd ever tasted. I put in about 25 tags in their box, but still did not win :( I also tried to win a DJ at Black Tie DJ's by putting about 50 tags in their box, but didn't win there either. I do think that I have found my DJ at Black Tie DJ's. I talked to them for about 1/2 hr and really liked their personalities and options. They even offered me suggestions for places that are affordable and fit what i am looking for in terms of reception sites.

On a different note, Beverly Picked me up two swatches from DB, Lapis and Wisteria. The lapis is really dark purple. Almost like an indigo. It is much darker than Eric and I anticipated. He did not like the wisteria much. I dont know that they have any other purples that arent pastel. we'll see I guess.

I made it home safely yesterday with 3 bags of literature and other crap. I have managed to through about 50% of it away, but have many things to look through. Probably 90% of it will also get tossed, but it is nice to have some hands-on literature, instead of it being online.

All in all, I'm going to try to hit up some smaller bridal shows to increase my chances of winning stuff. I'd like to get to a local bridal show that has Fredericksburg vendors/ Central VA vendors. I hear that there is one at the F'burg Expo center on Feb 11th. I dont know if it will be worth the money....so if I can get some free tickets, I may hit that one up too.

For now, back to the books as that is my priority until May. Come Graduation, I can indulge as much as I want in wedding planning and not have to worry about wasting precious time that I need to be studying for school. Thank you Laura and Beverly for joining me yesterday and especially to Beverly who made up labels (genius!) for me. I appreciate you both and I cant wait to do it again!!! Love you!!!