Psssst... (whispers)... it's here!

Chrissy O's called me on Thursday to tell me they were shipping my dress out that day. They told me it was coming via USPS, and that it shouldn't take any more than 5 days. Since Chrissy's is only in NJ, I couldn't imagine it taking a full 5 days to arrive, so I had a sneaking suspicion yesterday before I left work that it was here. I asked my boss to leave work a few minutes early. The dress can't be left on the doorstep (it requires a signature), so I knew that if it was here, I would find a note on my door from USPS saying that I needed to go pick it up at the post office. Since the post office closes at 5:00 p.m., I knew I had to get home quickly if I was going to pick up the note/form and get over to the post office in time.

I pulled up to our house and didn't bother to pull into the garage, thinking that I'd be going back out again. I walked up to our door and pulled open the storm door. To my surprise (and disappointment), there wasn't a note on the door. Booooo... I assumed my dress didn't arrive after all. I walked over to the mailbox to get our mail, and when I pulled it open, I immediately became excited again. On top of our mail was the little note/slip/form informing me that my dress was waiting for me at the post office!

I ran inside, took Tessa out to pee, gave her food, and grabbed a bunch of stuff--camera, wedding day shoes, necklace, garment bag--and headed out the door to the post office. Once there, I signed for it and they handed it over.

I had a hard time believing it fit into this box. It seemed too small and not nearly heavy enough. But anyway, I took the box, threw it into my car, and drove immediately to my mom's.

Once there, we opened up the box to find the dress, neatly folded and wrapped in plastic, as well as the Maggie Sottero certificate of authenticity. The dress itself was actually inside out.

My mom and I laid a clean sheet down on her bedroom floor, unwrapped the dress, pulled it right-side out, and managed to get it on me.

I ordered a petite length dress because the sample was so long. At the time, the saleswoman suspected that I might not have to have a hem if I got the petite length. The entire four months I was waiting for my dress, I was paranoid it was going to come in and be too short. Well, the good news is--it's definitely not too short. The bad news? It's still too long. It's soooo close to being perfect, but it is dragging, which it's not supposed to do. I'm going to give a hoop skirt or a crinoline a try and see if it picks it up a little bit. If not, oh well, I'll just have to get the hem done. At least now they'll only have to chop off an inch or less... not FOUR inches like they would have had to do had I ordered the regular length.

Other than that little hiccup... I LOVE my dress! And there it is, nestled safely for storage in my mom's closet. It's a good thing I'm not storing it at my house. I'd be way too tempted to go unzip it all of the time, just to look at it!

And that's all she wrote, folks. No other photos allowed here, because Michael reads this blog. :)

Only 6.5 months to go!