the first wave

Slightly older friends and coworkers had always told me that I will have two wedding seasons. A whole bunch of my friends would get married in our mid 20’s and a whole bunch more around 30. I wasn’t sure, based on the state of my friends' relationships were at the time, if I would have too many during my mid twenties. With all the save the date cards that have been coming in the mail, I now see the error in my thinking. 26 will be my first real cycle and Jake is in the middle of his second- the two cycles are currently crashing together. I was adding all these weddings to my Google calendar last night and- when you throw in traveling, rehearsal dinners, bridal showers and bachelorette parties- I got a little overwhelmed.

My bestest friend (and regular WB reader) Erin is getting married in June to her high school sweetheart. Here they are in one of their gorgeous engagement photos:

photo from Thorsen Photography

We got engaged about a month apart from each other and have had fun being able to support each other with all the planning craziness. We send each other links to dresses, paper products (we are both a little obsessed with paper), make-up artists and flowers. We crab about being engaged for way too long. We gossip about the knot boards. We are sharing a few vendors and the negotiation tactics have been helpful. We drive our friends crazy by talking weddings whenever we are together. Ahhh... what would I do without her? Erin's wedding will kick-off the official summer o'weddings- aka, the wedding season.

Between June and October, we will attend five weddings. Two of these weddings are on the same night. One is a very close friend from growing up and the other is my cousin- there is no way I can miss either of them. We will have to pull off some Three's Company style tricks. Oh, and we will need to squeeze our wedding in at some point, too. The key issue at hand is what to wear. I can probably wear the bridesmaid's dress from Erin's wedding to my cousin's wedding (thank you, Erin, for picking out something I can wear again), but after that I am going to see the same people over and over again. I feel the need to spice it up, with my "no fun stuff due to upcoming wedding" budget in mind.

My normal shopping schedule usually includes:

1. Walk into Anthropologie
2. Contemplate knocking off a bank and buying everything in the store
3. Give up on previous idea and look for places to hide so that I can live there instead
4. Give up that idea while I clear the wracks of everything in my size and walk to the dressing room
   
5. Talk myself out of everything but the one thing I really need
6. Grab a headband on the way to the counter
7. Buy my stuff, pretending not to be shocked at my total

This was before the wedding crunch began. Surprisingly enough (to me), Forever 21 and H&M have become my saving grace. Forever 21 makes me a little nauseous because I am an old lady and I get overwhelmed at the mess, the crazy loud music and the crabby teens that work the counters. Crabby because they have to clean that mess up? Perhaps. I did, however, find this.

Yup, beading.

The best part (other than my excellent foresight in buying this dress months in advance)?

If my luck keeps up, I might be able to make it through this summer without resorting to my bath robe.