A visit from Sherry!

So this weekend Sherry, my best friend and matron of honor, came to visit! It was so great to see her and we had a lot of fun. She flew in on Thursday night, which began our late bedtime schedule pattern, which lasted through the weekend. We didn't get to sleep until probably 2. We talk all the time and email back and forth at work, but it's different when we actually get to spend time together. Needless to say, we didn't feel like waking up super early on Friday so we ended up getting a much later start than we would have liked. 

Our plans for Friday were:

• Get to the first dress store by 10 a.m. and find a matron of honor dress.
• Show her my dress and veil, since she hadn't seen it yet.
• Get a makeup trial.
• Have a yummy lunch.
• Research day spas for the week of the wedding.

Here's what actually happened:

• We found out most dress shops didn't open until at least 11. We got a late start anyways so we arrived at dress shop #1 around noon. Sherry tried on about 8 dresses and we found one we loved, but it was the wrong size. We asked the sales woman if they had the size she needed. She looked it up, said yes, and proceeded to search for it. At some point, we lost sight of her and she completely vanished. We still don't know what happened to her. Perhaps the highlighter yellow monstrosity of a dress ate her. Haha, just kidding. The store had warned us that the dress could take 3 or 4 months to arrive. Seeing as the wedding is just over 3 months away, this could be a bit of a problem. 

Our solution was to search for it online and see if someone had the right color and size in stock. No such luck, but Sherry did place the order online, with a rush and express delivery. Cross your fingers! We still need to get alterations done on it.

• Sherry did get to see my rather wrinkled dress, though the girl who helped get me into the dress decided she didn't want me to breathe as she cinched it up. Sherry promised me I would be able to breathe on Brady and my wedding day, which I think would be helpful. They didn't bring my veil with my gown downstairs and the fitting room helper also went MIA and we were running out of time so we decided to skip it for that day at least. I was kind of bummed because it looks so much different and more complete with it, but oh well. 
• The makeup trial wound up being in BUCKEYE. What is buckeye anyways? We drove so far, I was practically able to drop Sherry off at home in San Diego. Okay, so maybe not thaaat far, but it was a ways out there. Adrienne turned out to be really great and I was really happy with how the trial turned out. She wanted to be sure I was happy with it, especially because I'm not one to wear much makeup at all. I wanted a natural look that didn't look too overdone. We had to tweak a few things, but the final result was what I was looking for. She jotted everything down so it should be smooth sailing for the wedding day. I really like the fact that she's coming to me for the wedding and is staying through the ceremony so if I need touchups (after happy tears and of course THE kiss, etc), she's there. 

Sherry and me after the makeup trial...

• Because the trial took about an hour and a half, by the time we left it was 3:30. By the time we got back within Scottsdale city limits, it was 4-something. We decided to do an early dinner...early enough to qualify for the "early bird" specials, in fact, but which we didn't take advantage of...at Sherry's favorite Arizona restaurant, Julio G's. 

Outside Julio G's...yes, I am a GIANT!

I had so much fun with Sherry and having our girl time. Because we're both constantly busy, it was so great on Saturday to have a totally mellow day. We slept in and then we picked up a yummy lunch from DJ's and coffee drinks from Mountain View Coffee (which, by the way, puts the Starbucks establishments in Fountain Hills to shame). After that, we brought Annie and Gracie over to Brady's parents' house to hang out with Harley, Ryan and Marissa's lab mix, we went swimming, we played cards, we went and got pedicures, and came back to have Brady make burgers on the grill for us and his mom. I went completely photo happy with the dogs so check out the next blog! To end the day, we hung out and played more cards and watched Shutter, which was a horrible movie, which echoed the tone of The Grudge and The Ring, but starred Sherry's boyfriend, Joshua Jackson ;) While horrible, we were still rather disturbed by the lack of information given so we had to analyze and draw conclusions. I'm happy to report that unlike the time we watched the Ring *somewhat of a movie spoiler alert* when Sherry ran out of the room when the scary girl with the Cousin It hair crawled out of the television, we stuck it out together and were equally freaked out...together :) 

We also got an Arizona monsoon late last night--lots of rain and lightning. A treat, just for Sherry!

Sadly, Sherry flew back home today, but she'll be back in probably a month and a half for more pre-wedding festivities :) I can't wait!