Day 20

What a wonderful day!

I spent the whole day with my wonderful dad today!! 

He and I used to have days like this all the time. I was his faithful errand companion growing up. I just loved and took every opportunity I could to spend time with him. I can remember running errands with him or being on little daddy/daughter dates with him, when I was younger, and getting this knot in my stomach. A good knot. A knot of excitement, love, acceptance, value. I can remember it welling up inside of me until I couldn't hold it in any longer and it would erupt in a little fit of giggles. Today was one of those days. 

We started at 11 this morning. I had to finish up some church work, so he met me at Solid Rock. Then we ran over to Walgreens to refill a couple of prescriptions, before heading downtown in search of my veil. We stopped in a little bridal boutique and had some luck. I found one that would do, but it wasn't exactly what I had been envisioning. But there was another bridal boutique just one block down, so we headed there next.

I was really impressed by this boutique! They were so eager to help me and dressed me up in veil after veil! I eventually found two veils. I liked part of one and part of the other. My perfect veil, the one of my dreams, was going to be a combination of these two veils.

 [side note: I've been praying through this whole wedding planning process that God would go before me and be putting things into place. I also prayed that when I realized that I had dropped the ball and had forgotten to do something, that God would have already been working it out, so it would all just fall into place once I realized. I'm so glad and humbled that the God who created the universe cares about my wedding and me and has been answering that prayer over and over again.]

As it turns out, the designer of the two veils that I loved and wanted to combine, was in that day. I was told that she never meets face to face with customers, but for some reason she agreed to meet and talk with me. She said that it was no problem at all to do what I wanted and she would have something for me to try on this coming week!! 

Praise God from Whom all blessings flow! 

My dad was so sweet and patient through the whole veil process. He even held mirrors up for me so I could see the back of my head. I had kind of assumed that he would have liked me to wear more of a traditional, long veil, but he loved me in the birdcage veil and was very supportive. He even helped me pick out a little flower hair clip! It has little lace petals in it that will match my dress splendidly!

After all that hard work we needed some lunch! We stopped by some food carts and enjoyed some delicious Portland food. 

Me: Thai (of course!) Him: Big steak burrito.

Next stop was Urban Outfitters. It turns out that Urban is one of the few places with yellow high heels these days! I would have never imagined that it could be so hard to find some cute yellow heels! Last week, as I left the cafeteria, I saw a girl wearing yellow, suede heels. I chased her down and asked when and where she had gotten her shoes. She gave me all the details and I thanked her for being the one to find my wedding shoes (there have been several girls trying to find yellow shoes for me)! 

Urban was out of the shoe, but they ordered me some from the website with almost free shipping (would have been completely free, but I needed two day shipping). We ended up ordering me two sizes, just to make sure my bases were covered if one was too big or too small. 

Then we went to Shane Company to get Peter's wedding ring. Peter and I went in and picked out a ring a couple weeks ago, but I wanted to buy it and everything by myself. It felt really good to get that all taken care of. It's kind of silly, but I'm really excited for Peter to have a ring too. I just LOVE my ring! I know he won't feel quite the same way about his ring, as I do about mine. How could he? His doesn't have any diamonds! (Which is a good thing. He is a man and doesn't know to care about those. They would really have been wasted on him.) But, I hope he will like it or at least like what it means, as much as I like mine. 

At 6 o'clock, my dad and I headed to the Jackson Bottom Wetlands Preserve for the annual Tweet of Dreams auction. My dad is one of the JBWP board members and was emceeing the auction. I had so much fun being his date! They were able to raise a ton of money to update some of the exhibits in the nature center. The night was a great success! 

If you've never been to Jackson Bottom Wetlands, you should definitely plan a trip out there! It is so fun and so beautiful! I always thought I would get married on the big observation deck overlooking the pond and a gorgeous sunset backdrop. Unfortunately, the deck only holds about 100 people. That was never going to work!

You may have been wondering where my mom was during this wedding-y day... My lucky mom was down in Corvallis visiting my brother for OSU's Moms' Weekend. One of the gals at the bridal boutique asked why my mom wasn't there to help me find my veil. I happily told her that she was visiting my brother! I am so glad that they got to spend the weekend together! 

  And it was really fun to have that special day with my daddy. I know we won't always be able to do that. 

Oh! I almost forgot! At one point this afternoon, my dad and I went into First Baptist, where Peter and I are getting married. I needed to drop of the craft for tonight's gathering. The church was quiet and empty. My dad told me to follow him. I followed him up the side of the sanctuary and through a row of pews, until we found ourselves at the end of the aisle that we will walk down together in just twenty short days. "Let's practice!" He said. 

So we did. It was such a special experience to try it out and get the feel for it together. Just the two of us. 

20 days until the wedding

love,

m.