But we'll be fine.

The trip itself has a few fun bells and whistles--we're being picked up by a stretch limousine (had to have extra seats, so that the dress has somewhere to be laid out!) and taken to the airport, where we'll then take our seats in the First Class section of the plane (thank you, Frequent Flyer Miles). Then we'll wave at my parents as they walk past us and take their seats back in Coach (hee hee).

Once we touch down, time will begin to compress as we go through meetings with the caterer, late-night rendezvous with our early arriving guests, tuxedo pick-ups, the rehearsal, a happy hour meet-and-greet with the guests, the rehearsal dinner, a luncheon for the bridesmaids.... And, oh yeah, a wedding ceremony followed by a reception and sit-down dinner. It will all go by too, too fast. I can't wait for it all, but I hope I can somehow manage to slow down time just a little. After all, this will no doubt be the only time in our lives that we'll have 115 of our closest friends and family congregated in Las Vegas, of all places, and who wouldn't want to make such an event last as long as possible?

I guess this is the second-to-last entry in my Journal of a Tomboy Geek Slacker Bride, and the last one as a bride-to-be. So tune back in some time in mid-April to see how it all turns out.

So imagine our surprise when we looked at the calendar last fall and realized that the NCAA College Basketball "Final Four" semifinal games would be played on, ahem, April 1. But while we felt a little red-faced about that, we didn't think it would have much of an impact on our festivities other than making hotel rooms harder to get and having the city be even more overrun than usual.

But then along came the Gators.

The University of Florida, alma mater of the bride, the father of the bride, the brother of the bride, and about seven other attendees, has made a Cinderella-like run through the tournament, knocking off perennial powerhouse and #1 seed Duke along the way. And with their win against Oklahoma State today, they've, uh, made the Final Four. For only the second time in the school's history. And their game against North Carolina will be played, ahem, right during the ceremony and the first part of the reception.

All of which ensures that the brother of the bride will never let the bride forget this. So if you see someone standing up at the altar looking like a Secret Service agent, complete with earpiece, you'll know that a certain Gator fan couldn't hack the suspense.

But am I stressed? No! Nonsense!

Well....

No, really, things are in pretty good shape. The final fitting of the dress has come and gone {check}. Invitations have gone out for the rehearsal dinner and bridesmaids luncheon {check}. Programs have been designed and are ready to print {check}. Seating cards have been printed {check}. Table favors have arrived {check}. Music has been chosen {check}. Packing checklists have been created {check}. Still have to do the seating chart, but that can be kind of hard to do if everyone hasn't sent in their reply card yet! (this means you!) (ahem)

So, for the most part, I'm feeling okay about it all. My subconscious hasn't been terrorizing me at night, although both the matron of honor and my grandmother are reporting having nightmares about not being ready for the wedding on time. But I'm sure that the jitters will be kicking in any minute now. Like when I have to start packing (which, knowing me, will probably be started about a week ahead of our departure date).

I awoke drenched in sweat and panting for air. What a nightmare! I looked at the clock, and it was 1:15 . . . on the day of our wedding. Oh my goodness, if I don't get going, I'm going to be late. But where's my dress? Where are my gloves? Where are my stockings? Geez, I'm here at the house (!) and I seem to have forgotten everything. If I can just get the Maid of Honor on the phone, maybe she can bring it all to me, but she's not supposed to be coming here, and why isn't anyone else getting ready and jeez, we're not going to make it....!

This time I awake for real, doubly drenched in sweat and panting for air. Two nightmares for the price of one! How exquisite! And I'm guessing I'm not out of the woods yet.

The Man went into stuffing and addressing overdrive, leaving BTB to act as proofreader and cleanup gal. On Monday, The Man carried the pile over to the post office, and put 'em in the mail. Whew!

Plus we seem to be able to dance to it better than any of the other songs we're galumphing through on Saturday mornings. Best to go with our strengths.

It's still a bit tight in the ribs and tummy, but the seamstress told me that we have another five weeks or so before we really have to worry about altering the dress, so I've taken that as yet another challenge: I want the dang thing to be taken in when my next fitting arrives at the end of February!

Back many many moons ago, The Man and I ventured to Las Vegas and chose the locations for the wedding and the reception. We chose the Ultra Swank Location (USL) we did for the ceremony itself because it was the least tacky of all wedding chapels we visited, and we chose the reception location because it was the Casino Next Door to the USL, since we figured that actually having the reception at the USL would require some sort of stopgap spending bill passed by both houses of Congress. MOTB visited a few months later and gave her seal of approval to each venue, and we were on our way.

However, leave it to MOTB to never stop wishing on a star. After three days of meeting with caterers, florists, and sales managers at the Casino Next Door, getting all of the necessary arrangements planned down to the last detail, she decided to summon her strength and pay a visit to the catering folks at the Ultra Swank Location. In my role as Prophet of Doom, I warned her to not get her hopes up. Three hours later, my phone rings and on the other end is a giddy-as-a-schoolgirl MOTB, who found out that the Ultra Swank Location in fact had a room available the evening of the wedding, that it was absolutely breathtaking, and that she had gone ahead and reserved it.

Wahoo!

After going over all the potential reasons not to change venues (what can I say, I'm the Prophet of Doom, it's my job), I came to this rather startling conclusion: there was no reason not to change reception locations (other than the small matter of reprinting the invites). And so it goes. The reception will now be right around the corner from the wedding chapel, at a fabulous location, with all worries about logistics now flown away.

Immediately, we all started worrying about whether the event could ever possibly live up to the location. (We're obsessive that way.)

And I found out that my true life's calling may be as a blackjack dealer. Who'd 'a thunk it? I spent an hour as a dealer, applying all of that studying I've done during hours and hours and hours and hours of "research" at the tables in Las Vegas, and found that I enjoyed it immensely (once I got the hang of getting the !$@*&!*@*!$ cards out of the shoe). My calling out "Change One Hundred!!!" or "Shuffle!" unsettled the players, but made The Man particularly proud of his bride-to-be....

Of course, it would be terribly terribly tacky to announce right here what stores we're registered at. You'd have to sit me down on a Crate or have me over a Barrel to tell you that information. You couldn't even get it out of me while watching the Macy's Thanksgiving Day parade. Nope. Uh-uh.

Let the Marriage Begin
With a little less than six months to go, we officially kicked off the Wedding Festivities with a trip to the Clark County Courthouse, in a chauffeur-driven limousine courtesy of the hotel where we're having the ceremony. After standing in line for about 40 minutes with a whole bunch of other couples (who certainly ran the socioeconomic and cultural gamut of this great land of ours), we handed over $35 and became the proud owners of a marriage license. Now we just have to try to not misplace it, or forget to bring it with us when we come back for The Main Event.

Ceremony Stuff
We had our first meeting with Ruby, our wedding coordinator. We came armed with a ton of questions (the most pressing one being the issue of how the chapel will handle an overflow crowd, because there is a slight possibility that more people are going to come to the ceremony than the chapel can actually hold). We chatted about logistics, flowers (LOTS of talk about flowers), music, the ceremony, etc. etc. Came away feeling very confident that the ceremony portion of the weekend is the one area we won't have to worry too much about. The Chapel is a well-oiled machine, that is for sure. We had been trying to come up with a more personalized ceremony text, but Ruby made it clear that that's kind of out of hands (it's up to the officiant, although they do at least respect your basic religious wishes). We were briefly miffed, but then chalked it up to one less thing to worry about.

Rehersal Dinner Stuff
We spent one whole day traipsing from casino restaurant to casino restaurant trying to nail down a location for the rehersal dinner, and were surprised by how arduous a task this ended up being. We really loved Mon Ami Gabi at Paris (a steak frites place with more character than you could imagine), but they were pretty pricey and their best space was for only 16 people. We did manage to snag a ride up to the Eiffel Tower Restaurant, though. We wandered through the MGM Grand, New York New York, Monte Carlo, Bellagio, and Caesar's, but nothing was absolutely perfect. Two days later, we went and visited the restaurant that back in January we had thought we'd want to have the dinner at but had for whatever reason started to look at other options--well, if we'd gone with our initial instinct we would have saved a lot of wear and tear on our feet, because while pretty pricey, it ended up being the place that had its act together moreso than any of the others. And they were willing to take a reservation immediately. SOLD!

Reception Location Stuff
Another full-circle event. Originally we had thought we'd have the reception at the Casino Next Door to the casino where the ceremony's being held, but then once Paris opened we kinda got it in our heads that it would be really cool to have the reception there. Mom talked a few times with the events/catering people there (who are also the events/catering people for Bally's), but we wanted to talk to them in person and also see the ballrooms. We didn't get any sort of warm fuzzies from the manager when we spoke to her on the phone to set up the appointment, and then when we sat down with her in her office she looked at her calendar and said, "Oh, nothing's available. It's all booked. Big convention." So, instead of being disappointed that Paris was out, I think we ended up being relieved because we wouldn't have to deal with that woman anymore. And ballroom space had already been offered to us at the Casino Next Door (since we had reserved a large block of rooms there), so we had Mom get on the phone and tell them that yes, we'd like to have the reception there. (Post-Trip Near Disaster: When Mom called the CND to reserve the ballroom, they initially said that all of their ballrooms were booked. Cough, choke, sputter! But after leaving Mom on hold for a few moments and giving her about five heart attacks, they came back and said that one ballroom was available, and that it's ours. Oh heavens.)

It was a one-day blitz: three stores (well, two new ones, plus one I had been to two months ago), about 15 dresses, and one raging headache later I made my choice. Which one? Well, I'm not going to reveal too much, except to say that it ended up being the very first dress I tried on, back when I did Shopping Trip #1 in July. I suppose I could have gone to a few more places, but having spent lots of time surfing the Net looking at hundreds of wedding dress photos, I had a good feel for what is (and isn't) available out there. And I really like this dress. And it wasn't a fortune. So the hunt is now finished. We also bought the veil. So that should take care of the dress until December, when the alterations begin....

First we went to David's Bridal, one of those new warehouse-type bridal shops where they have dresses in all sizes and they're all on the rack. While it was comforting to see gowns in my size, I wasn't terribly impressed with the selection or the quality (who'd a thought I'd turn out to be highbrow?). But they left me alone, so I was able to acclimate without anyone hovering.

From there we went to Springfield Mall and David's Village Shops (the same company I had bought my prom dress from in 1983! What karma!). Being a "real" bridal salon, they had mainly size-10 samples of dresses (great. thanks.), but they did have a few, uh, larger samples and even had one in the style I'm looking for, which met with approval from my mother. The young sales assistant made me feel very much at ease, so I was able to emerge from the experience relatively unscarred.

And Mom and I didn't kill each other, which was another bonus.

Having now tested the waters, though, I'm going to retreat for a few more weeks, and begin again in September. We have a plan of attack for the other stores we want to visit, and I am pretty well settled on the style of dress I want. Given the sizing issue, though, I'll be lucky if I get to actually try on the dress I want before ordering it, but maybe the David's Village Shop experience will be repeated.

Now we wait. Well, we have to register. And send out Save the Date cards. And I have to find a dress. And we have to finalize the guest list. And send out the invitations. And act as vacation consultants for attendees. And....

This is where I start to hyperventilate.

And Mom says she's made her Vegas list, as well as a list for who should be invited to the at-a-later-date reception back here in DC (I haven't even gotten around to thinking about that, yet). Hopefully we won't need an arbitrator to come to a consensus....

The Man also has another ring-related dream to report:

So we go to get the ring tightened at a jewelry store that I don't recognize (just a jewelry store), and we have to sit and wait for quite awhile before anybody helps us. The ring never leaves our sight, but at some point I look at and the diamond has been replaced by a kind of light-green-colored rock. Even the band is kind of different, which is really strange. So we throw a fit, and the jeweler, who is [a co-worker at The Man's job], he acts as though this happens all the time, and is not concerned in the least. So I throw more of a fit, and he gets more sympathetic, so he takes me in the back and makes a photocopy of the certification. I ask him why he said this happens all the time and he said he gets several of these a day. He asks me about some local Washington restaurant, what the address of the place is, and I tell him approximately where I think it is, because I'd never been there. Then [JD's brother]'s friend Donna happens by, because she works some place nearby or something. She says something nice to me, and my response is, "Yeah, I do a good job at a lot of things, but it doesn't matter because people are fucking crooks. I'll explain later." So I'm walking out and by now we're talking in a friendly manner with the shop owner, and I ask how it could be how several of these things could happen a day--don't you think that means something is wrong? Or do just bad people gravitate to...". And he finishes my sentence: "...where the money is?"

The shop owner is kind of in the back and we're alone in front, so there's ample opportunity to steal other stuff, but we don't (but we make a note of how easy it would have been), but we're kind of looking around at other rings. In the vestibule there's a ring on display very similar to the "real" ring but the stones are really cheap looking-obviously plastic, like a model. We're crossing the street to go back to my car, and there's a car with a very suspicious-looking couple doing something very suspicious. And the chick yells a grammar question to me. Then somehow we're on motorcross bikes doing the stunt riding things (up a cement ramp, flying in the air), and I say, "Who was that chick back there?"

I'm at my parents' palatial compound and we're waiting for the results of some sort of approval my mom sought from the Catholic Church for my wedding. There's some talk of how it might have had a better chance in a different jurisdiction (as in the O.J. Simpson trial), but we agree that it's so cut-and-dried it shouldn't be a problem.

Then the news comes. The Catholics won't let me get married because they don't think my mom was justified in divorcing my dad back in the early '70s. We get all upset, as the invitations have already gone out, but then it suddenly dawns on me that we could have a civil service. I mention this to my mom and ask her, "You're not really into all this Catholic stuff, are you?" I don't remember whether the dream lasted long enough for her to respond, but I think it was generally a happy ending.

A pretty tame one; I'm sure they'll escalate as the months wear on.

I promptly made a fool of myself by creating a Web page devoted to The Ring and then spamming my friends with tales of my good fortune.

More likely I'll end up trying on 7,000 dresses.

As I click through page after page of gowns, my mind drifts toward a most pleasing daydream, one that leaves me all a-tingle: "Man, I could build one heck of a Cold Fusion search application for these dresses!" (Unfortunately I then found Wedding Channel's Advanced Search Page, which allows you to search their database by neckline, sleeve length, silhouette, etc. etc. So much for that new way to make money....)

Two nights later, while Bill was at work, Molly and Gary called to say congratulations and to welcome me into the family. It was a wonderful call, completely unexpected, and quite touching.

We also found out that Bill's sister Jennifer is also getting married, quite possibly just a few months before us. It's a nuptial bonanza!

In a few days, Mom did get over her state of flummoxed-ness and began going full-tilt with wedding ideas. (C'mon, you didn't expect her to hold off for long, didja?)

"They wanted to avoid a potentially court-imposed binding arbitration situation, so in the end they were able to come to an understanding without getting the lawyers involved," a source close to the negotiations said.

The exact date of the merger ceremonies has not been announced, but insiders familiar with the situation expect it to occur sometime in April, 2000, in Las Vegas.

[The Man] could not be reached for comment, but [JD] released this restrained statement: "I'm relieved that we've finally closed this deal, and I look forward to getting to work on the tasks necessary to formalize it."

Industry analysts, while applauding the announcement, do note that little will actually change in terms of day-to-day operations. Another source with ties to both parties who wished not to be identified commented, "Let's face it, for all intents and purposes, this happened back in 1995 when they consolidated their home offices. But some people just don't believe a merger is complete until the deal is legally binding."