Expo Expert

The Washington Bridal Expo was this past Sunday at the Dulles/Chantilly Expo Center, so I called up mom, and our newest bride-to-be, Marissa, and we all headed to the expo. This being my second bridal expo, I felt much more confident, and much less overwhelmed by what to expect. But I think I made Marissa a little nervous as I described to her the hundreds of booths filled with hungry-to-pounce coordinators, hotels, dj's, florists, and (yes, the occassional) sex-toy-party sales ladies. (Which I might add, Marissa handled much more like a pro than I did when the "naughty parties" lady asked me if we could book a tentative date. Awkward much? There's like 16 DJ dudes standing in the next booth over wearing their dweeby bow-ties, foaming at the mouth at the thought of chicks passing around lingerie and...well...naughty things.)

Anyway...Marissa and I looked adorable in our "Bride to be" pins (photos to be posted as soon as mom sends them to me), and navigated the bridal waters with a fair amount of ease and grace. We tasted (one too many) cakes and a few luke-warm mass produced cuisines from various bakery's and caterers. (all without one single drop of water. I felt like a polar bear in the dessert...seriously, can I get a drink?!) We filled our bags with a million brochures, flyers, catalogs, and booklets on "the perfect Bermuda honeymoon!" and "have your wedding here! our grass is like no where else in the world!!" We had a few different floral bouquets shoved in our faces for smelling purposes, and we passed on the $1 per shot wine tasting extravaganza [which I must give the expo coordinators credit for setting up at the very end of the display floor, which kept a bunch of boozy brides from stumbling through the rest of the booths and making unwarrented committments to things like "Davis deejays!" (sorry anyone who used them -- I have some ill-will towards them...for a later post)].

Anyway, all-in-all I think Marissa, mom AND I all got some good ideas out of the expo. I have officially decided that no matter the cost (hilarious, that WILL matter) I want to have stephanotis flowers in my bridal bouquet:

And that I'm seriously (much to the chagrin of my fiance...whom I actually haven't mentioned this to yet...) considering using both bright green and yellow as accent colors for the wedding. NOW, before you say "EWWWW", let me explain. I'm not talking bright green as in the bridesmaids will wear their blue dresses and have lime green wraps and shoes. I'm talking the main colors will be the deep blue (almost midnight) and white, with a few small accents of green and yellow...think greenery on flowers...green stems...yellow centers on white flowers...possibly lemons and limes incorporated in centerpieces. I just feel the greenery and yellow will give a more summery feel to the otherwise wintery blues and whites we are currently working with.

(side note, I have made a florist appointment for February 28th, so I'm hoping with the keen eye of a trained professional that they can make my weird visions turn out to be beautiful).

Also at the expo, we tasted two cakes that mom and I had previously tasted at the last expo. At the last expo I liked one cake much more than the other, but this time around I liked the other cake better (still with me?). So now I want to make cake appointments with both places to do tastings and pricing and see who wins.

The whole day was great. We were at the expo for about 4 hours. By the end we were stuffed, dying of thirst, and my feet hurt so bad I didn't think I'd be able to walk to the car. Not to mention I thought my shoulder was going to separate from the load of handouts I was carrying around. Regardless of the pain, I had a great time with my mom and Marissa and can't wait to do more wedding planning things with both of them...and soon enough, call Marissa my sister!

We ended the day with a Super Bowl party at Mom & Dad Henson's house, which was a ton of fun. Mom also took pics of all of us kids (including Whinnie) wearing our 3D glasses during the end of the second quarter commercials, which I will post as soon as mom sends them along.

In other news, our house hunting continues. I found out today that my lease was actually 13 months, not 12...so on the one hand that's sad news because we were so excited to find a place to live together. But on the other hand that's good news because now we have a bit more time and don't have to rush as much. I'm just ready to move already. I can't wait to live with Todd :)

Finally, I have made a wedding "pen-pal". My mom teaches with a young girl who is getting married exactly 21 days before Todd and I. Yesterday she gave me some tips for hair and make-up people, so I'm starting to feel a little bit better about that...there IS hope that there are people out there who will be able to do my hair and make-up on my wedding day! Anyway, she's adorable and I'm looking forward to emailing her more about wedding details. It's nice to get some outside (and some inside! hello, florist!) info. on places to go and work with. So thank you new email pen-pal! You're going to be a gorgeous bride!!

More soon when I have some pics to post...