I am a pretty, pretty princess and I dare anyone to say otherwise

So....Let's see. I basically had a panic attack about the whole dress thing. I mean, come on, let's face it, I'm not going to be making the cover of Brides magazine. Now, don't go and send me an email and tell me I'm going to be a beautiful bride...I know you all love me or you wouldn't read this boring dribble. (or at least you are extremely bored) So after I hyperventilated and told Doug we should go to Vegas, my mom (God bless her) talked me out of the bell tower and into a calm, leisurely day of "looking around." You know, she used that voice that you use when you talk to crazy people...you talk really slowly and softly and move your head a lot....you know what I'm talking about. So we decided to just go look at stuff and maybe that would assuage my fears. There was one brand of dress that I really liked. I had spend most of the year looking at pictures of dresses and this brand was way less skanky than the others. The closest place that had that brand was Jacksonville. So I figured I could look at dresses and be patriotic at the same time. So we made a day of it. The lady at the dress shop didn't shriek in horror when I asked to try on dresses...so things were starting off well. We picked about 10 dresses to try so I took a deep breath and dove in. (and those of you who have tried on those dresses know that I really do mean "dive" in....the girl holds the dress out and you dive into a pool of white taffeta, the whole time hoping that at some point you will see daylight again) So , the first two dresses were pretty, I was starting to feel better. Then the dress girl said she had the dress she knew I would love. I smiled that fake "yeah, I'm sure you're right..." smile. Well, she was right. It was the dress that I had found online, oddly enough. It was perfect. I immediately became "that" girl. I got all teary eyed and she fluffed out the train and it was love at first sight. So perfect. Mama agreed that it was the right one. I tried on some other ones just for kicks and giggles but it was too late. It's so true too, you really know the dress when you put it on. I loved it. Another funny thing was it was exactly the opposite of what I told her I wanted. I said, no sparkles, no train.....uh, yeah....it has sparkles and a semi-cathedral train. Man, there is just something about that train. All of of sudden, you're like Princess Diana going down the aisle. (hopefully with a much different outcome) So we have the dress. Now we turn our attention to my bridesmaids, who lucky me, come in all different body types. But fear not! We will figure this out. I don't really care anymore. I'm just going to wear my dress and smile at my subjects from my pumpkin carriage.

U-Haul Derby..followed with a yummy grass kabob

So, we moved to a cute little house in Southport. I just love it. I wander around, pretending that I know diddly-squat about being a house wife and Doug humors me. It's a work in progress. The moving process was not so fluid. I'm waiting at Tammy's house for Daddy and Marshall to get there with the moving truck and I get a phone call from Marshall. He says that Daddy wrecked the U-Haul. My brain takes a few seconds to process this, naturally. The best news-no one was hurt. The bad news-both the U-Haul and the other car were totalled. So I felt like total crap because here I am,once again, moving... continuing my everlasting quest to break the Guinness book of records for most moves in a 5 year space of time. Well, needless to say, everyone was quite shaken up so we called off the move for that day. Daddy had just gotten his magic legs so we didn't want him to overdo it.Thank god he is okay. As I told him, trucks and furniture can be replaced... a great daddy can't.
Thanks to the awesome combined efforts of mine and Doug's amazing families...we finally got everything done on Sunday. Eric is some kind of moving machine. I think at one point, he picked up a couch and threw it in the house. And he wonders where his kids get their ungodly strength and energy...I'm telling you, if you want a moving job done at the speed of light, ask Eric. I think he officially relinquished all further moving rights to Doug though, which I understand. What would I do without my family?
Tammy and Mama helped me set up and decorate the house. They temper my taste...with their help, we have a respectable grown up house instead of looking like a 12 year old girls bedroom full of blow up furniture and dripping in purple.
Little Doug's room is the cutest. If you can apply the term "cute" to camo. His grandma got his awesome furniture and mama got him a comforter set and curtains. It's very "GI Joe." It'll be a nice place for him to live when he gets back from his next tour in Iraq.
We have a cute backyard with a privacy fence. I happily wave at the boys outside as I sit in the A/C inside. I can enjoy the view just fine from the nice and cool living room.
Doug is a grilling machine. He's teaching LD to grill and they have a good time, although LD did tell me he made and grilled a leaf and twig kabob and last night he was grilling corn chips and crackers. Hey-to each their own but I think I'll let the boys eat that one....

stop asking me about the wedding dress

No, I don't have one yet. What's the big deal??? I mean, seriously, can't we just run out and get one when I feel like it. See, here's my take on this whole dress thing. I tried on a few dresses with Heather and I felt like I was drowning in a sea of taffeta. Not good. And boo to me for choosing such gorgeous bridesmaids. What was I thinking??? I should have picked some lepers or circus freaks or something that would have made me look better. And I have 7 of them too. Good move genius.
I guess I'll go look at them soon. Do Spanx come in head to toe coverage??

polar bears are not a sign of love

So I know that all of you have been waiting on pins and needles for an update. Finally, I feel like I have a little time. It's that time of the year for teachers...you know, finals, grades, pay cuts, etc. It's been busy. I know that Doug keeps meaning to get on here and write something. (that's a joke, by the way) I might be able to trick him into writing something on here if I told him that A-Rod read our blog.....

So wedding crap...

Well, we picked the save the dates. So darn cute. Funny story about mama going to mail them. (please don't kill me for posting this mama, it's just too funny)

I get this voicemail the other day from mama. It's sort of a ranting voicemail about mailing save the dates. So she tells me that she went to the post office and when she got the desk, the guy told her that they only had polar bear stamps. She did not take this well. She (in her extreme southern accent that comes on her when she gets fired up) told him that this was for her daughters wedding and she was not putting polar bears on them..she needed something cute. He replied "uh...some people think that polar bears are cute." to which she snarkily replied. "well they're not." and stormed out of the post office, save the dates in hand. She was determined to go online and find cute stamps but to her utter dismay, the redneck post office guy was right....they only have polar bears. So not only will our save the dates be cute and purple but reflect our deep love of arctic animals.

MY GIRLS!!! Me and some of my bridesmaids at Easter at mama's house. (Lori, Dory, Heather and me) Aren't they adorable? I'm probably the only bride encouraging her bridesmaids to look worse in November! What was I thinking...surrounding myself with such gorgeous bridesmaids!! =)

So, mama and I ordered the save the date cards. I'm not really sure why we send those out now. I guess people just need a lot of time to prepare for weddings. I wonder who came up with the idea of "save the dates." I sometimes wonder if maybe people just come up with ideas and see how many people will start doing the same thing. I mean, because, seriously, don't we already send out invitations with the date? But what can I say, I'm a slave to trends. So I ordered these super cute postcard save the dates. Cheap, cute and effective, just the way we Dixons like it. (or soon to be Pratts) I also found out that Julie is going to fly down to try on dresses which is absolutely thrilling. That's going to be an awesome weekend.
Doug's dream has come true-we can register for our stuff online. He doesn't have to endure the utter agony of going into a store. We're pretty ying and yang on that-which works out. He thinks shopping is sort of plague, whereas I border on addiction. So we meet in the middle, which is great. Of course, when I say "we" are going to register....I'm pretty sure that I'll pick out most of it and let him click the mouse once or twice so he feels involved. Another thing I love about Doug, he doesn't really care what I pick out as far as wedding and registry stuff goes. What a good man.

More useless wedding updates...

Okay, so mixed reactions on the blog. Heather made some snarky comment but she's just jealous that she doesn't have a blog. (just kidding...you know I love ya) I do love the other comments though. This could be fun.
So I told Doug I would put wedding stuff on this, so here's the update.
We're tying on the ole ball and chain in Southport on Nov. 21 at the Community Center. This place has an awesome view and thanks to my sparkling personality,we managed to get the Nov slot. It shouldn't be too cool but even if it is....people can just wear a jacket, I mean, come on, it's the beach, right??
The dress....well, does the term "scary-polar bear-like-ice-princess" mean anything??.. because that's sort of the nightmare I keep having. So, basically, I haven't tried any on. However, I have had the pleasure of making my bm's try on dresses. It was awesome. We can't decide if we're going for more of a "skanky barmaid" or "matronly pilgrim" look. Maybe we could find a nice combination of the two. However, the colors are going to be purple and brown. or lavender and mocha. or lilac and espresso. We don't like the use the pedantic terms "purple and brown." So, choose whatever crayola names you like.
My mom is thoroughly enjoying this whole process. We suggested that we have barbecue at the reception and I think she needed oxygen. She manages to quell my extreme tackiness that tends to sneak out every once and while. (who wouldn't want an entire set of inflatable furniture?)

How it all started...It's all Alecia's fault..

So, barely over a year ago, I was pretty sure that I would be single forever and I was okay with that. (sometimes) but in February, Alecia called me out of the blue. She wanted to set me up on a blind date with someone that Ed knew. I normally would think of some way to get out of this but for some reason, I said okay. So we met on a Friday night for dinner at Japanese steakhouse in Shallotte. (no, that is not a oxymoron) and then bowling. He was so nice and sweet right from the start. He (who is half asleep on the couch right now, as I grill him) said he thought I was "beautiful." (bear in mind, he's half asleep =) I remember how good he smelled...and we all know that personal hygiene is important. Anyways, I let him win at bowling and flirted some but that was it. We dropped him back off at his jeep and he gave me his business card and I told him that I was going to give him my business card, which looks remarkably like a JCPenney receipt. That made him laugh, I think I had him then. He emailed me the next Monday and we kept on dating...and here we are over a year later. WARNING: Cheesy Portion..........He's everything that I didn't think existed...funny, kind, compassionate, loving and he tries to do kind things everyday. I couldn't ask for more. My family loves him, which is SO important to me and I ADORE his family. It's amazing how life will totally surprise you. I never thought that was true but I know it is now. (feel free to insert barfing noise here)

Here I am crying after I opened the ring box. It was unexpected. He actually managed to surprise me...although I had been on my toes for days. Not the most elegant pose, but pretty true to the moment.

The ring

Here's a picture of my ring. It's hard to get a good angle with the camera but this is the best one that I have. Isn't it pretty??

Getting started...

Okay. So, I thought this might be a fun way to keep track of wedding planning. I don't know if anyone would find this interesting but I would be lying if I said I said I didn't enjoy reading these things. I can't guarantee that anyone (other than my family) might actually look at this but we'll give it a shot. I haven't done a blog before so we'll see how it goes.

I uploaded a picture of us from Marshall and Dory's weddding. It was in October of 08 at Oak Island. This was pre-engagement.

We got engaged on Friday, March 20th. Here's the story: My mom and dad had finished closing their loan with Doug that day and we were eating dinner with his parents that night. Doug was coaching machine pitch and got there a bit later than the rest of us. Mrs. Pratt, Mama and I had already had a few margarita's and were having a good time. We had a delicious dinner of sea bass (way to go, soon to be mil) and we had left over St. Paddy's day green cake for dessert. (it was awesome, btw...vanilla with vanilla frosting..yum) and while we were eating, Doug tried to feed me a piece of cake and only managed to smear it on my face. (on purpose, as he told me later-he says it was a "diabolical plot") and when I went to pick up a napkin, the ring box was underneath. So, immediately, his mom starts crying and his dad's taking shots like the paparazzi...my parents are in shock. (I learned later that he had flashed the ring box to the my parents right before I came in) so, I, in true girly fashion, began crying. I looked at the ring and then closed the box....why, you ask. Because I'm stupid. So I continued crying and finally opened the box. Doug didn't say anything. He says "he just gave me the look and I melted." He's helping me write this. So the ring was PERFECT!!!!!!!! It was exactly what Heather and I had looked at online. It has Nanny's diamond in the middle and Grandma Dixon's diamond on one side and a matching diamond on the other side. PERFECTION!!!!! It's also huge, which, I love. I mean, let's face it, every girl dreams of a big engagement ring! I barely slept that night. I kept waking up to make sure it was still there. it's so pretty. I still find myself staring at it, and probably will for the rest of my life.