I'm Back!

Phew! I had a wonderful vacation with my family, but I'm so glad to finally be out of the car! I hope you guys have had a restful middle of the summer as well.

My fiance was with us for the first time... it was a little strange to have him along for a family thing, but he fit right in. I'm really thankful it wasn't awkward. He was just breezy about the whole thing. Love him to death :)

I did have a few thoughts on the way (and some now that I've come back). Hopefully I'll have some good in-depth postings later, but for now, a word about signing up for stuff on the Internet:

If you don't have to, DON'T! I had about 200 emails waiting for me when I got back home, at least half of those "junk" mail from various wedding-related things! I signed up for some of those because I wanted to get some good tips for you guys, but they just keep coming. It's fun to sign up for sweepstakes, but try to use a junk account for it. Otherwise you'll be completely inundated with stuff you don't care about. For now I just manage it and try to farm them for tips to pass on ;) Not really that useful, though. Most of it you can search for on wedding-related sites. After awhile, it all looks the same, unfortunately.

Especially avoid David's Bridal. I'm sure they can be a great place to find a bargain dress, but they sell your email address to companies that aren't even wedding-related. Not cool. If you want "updates" on their products, check out their website every once in awhile. They don't send coupons through emails either; all their discounts are for everyone (which is actually great). They cycle those sales through, so if you miss one, wait for the next. Just don't sign up to win a free dress or to get information! It's not worth it!

There, now I've gotten that out of the way :) I hope you've had a great and productive 3 weeks while I've been gone!