Bride-to-be Blogger Kathleen: Tasting, Registry, Bridesmaids’ Dresses … Check, Check, Check.

What Kathleen's 'maids will be wearing on her Big Day; jcrew.com.

So, last week was a blur.

First we had our tasting, which would have been better if I wasn’t 45 minutes late (complements of everyone who drives like their foreheads are stapled to the steering wheel when it’s raining). Thank goodness the people at J. Scott are so amazingly awesome and were willing to wait for my arrival. They even put up a personalized parking sign, which made my crazy road-rage-bad-day-at-work madness levels decline by at least 50 points. It is quite amazing what a difference those small details make during the wedding-planning process. It kind of reminds you that you aren’t the only person thinking about making everything perfect.

Anyway, during the tasting, we were able to sample all of our appetizers (yum-o, as Rachael Ray likes to say), our salad course, two of the entree selections, and of course, the many, many options for the cake. Everything was excellent, but we especially loved the chicken and beef dishes we had selected. One word of advice though when attending a tasting: Come hungry! We had so much to try and I was stuffed, but trust me, we’re not ones to leave any steak left behind. I don’t think we left a single crumb on our plates. Well, maybe some cake crumbs, but if it had been just the two of us, I would have licked the plate clean.

The other thing I was able to finish last week: All of the lovely bridesmaids have their dress! And I think it may have been the easiest bridesmaid-dress shopping event ever. I saw a dress that came in the dark pewter color I was looking for (on sale!) on J.Crew’s website, pasted the picture in an email to all of the ladies, and everyone loved it. After a few weeks of not being able to get everyone together to visit the store, I went with my very supportive and loving fiancé to see the dress in person. I don’t always trust my own judgments with clothing, so I was very happy when Christian said he would come along to offer a dude’s point of view. They didn’t have the dress in the color we were going for, but I was still able to physically see the material and cut of the dress in person. It was exactly what I had in mind: a simple summer dress that each girl can wear again with no problems … and did I mention it was on sale? All of the girls have received their dress and apparently they all love it. Good enough for me! Done and done.

We also spent a ton of time putting together our registry last week—some of which was good, some of which was bad. More on that later.

Isn’t it great having a productive wedding-planning week? I get to take a break for a minute now, right?

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