Today is November 11, 2011. It is Veteran’s Day in the U.S. (and Remembrance day in Canada) which is a day where we remember those who fought for our freedom. It is also 11/11/11.

According to Brides magazine, it is the luckiest day to get married.

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I was rummaging around in our downstairs storage room this weekend and happened upon an ivory-colored box. It is the box that the dry-cleaner put my wedding dress in once it was put through the cleaning process. I affectionately refer to it as my wedding dress’s “coffin.”

I am the same size/weight I was when I got married (don’t hate me) and I’ve often thought that it would be fun to round up a group of girlfriends, have us don our wedding dresses and go out for dinner. Possibly on the beach. Just think of the photo ops!

My kids aren’t all done having babies/losing their baby weight but one day, we will make it happen. How could we not? In the meantime, my dress will remain in its coffin and pray for a day where it can shine again.

What did you do with your wedding dress?

My husband and I didn’t have a unity candle at our wedding ceremony because, well, I had never heard of one at that point in time and nobody had told us about them or that we could include one. For those of you who have never heard of them either, it’s to symbolize the bride and groom becoming one. Their mothers walk up with a candle, say something if they are led, and then they each light a candle. At the end of the ceremony, the bride and groom each take the candle their mother lit, light a larger middle candle, and blow out the ones they are holding.

The first time I saw this in action was when my husband’s sister got married. The lighting part by the mothers went fine, the ceremony was beautiful, and then the bride and groom approached the table where the candles were. They lit the middle candle and then…he blew out ALL THREE, including the “unity” candle. There was a lot of laughter.

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Unless you’ve spent the past few weeks living under a rock or on a media diet, you probably know that Prince William and Kate Middleton got married today.

(Side note: Have you seen this royal wedding spoof commercial? I love it.)

I live on the West Coast, and have to work all day Friday, so staying up all night simply isn’t an option. Besides - we now live in the land of the DVR. I set it to record in the middle of the night and will plop myself (and my Princess-loving daughter) in front of the TV after dinner tonight and take it in. Probably not all of it but the ceremony, for sure.

How about you guys? Did you (or will you) watch the royal wedding? Or could you care less?

As I mentioned in my last post, my husband has planned an “early Christmas present” for me, happening this weekend. Well, not the whole weekend as the kids have activities on Saturday and we have church on Sunday (my husband is on staff). I do know that I’ve been excused from a work course on Monday morning but am not sure if that involves an overnight trip somewhere? Maybe? But it would be a quick trip, what with our Sunday and Monday committments.

I really have no idea.

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I spent the last two days sitting in a hotel conference room an hour from home, taking a professional development course on personal income tax updates. It was as sleep-inducing riveting as you might imagine.

While sitting at a lunch table with a group of other people who knew each other, the topic of bachelor parties came up. One woman’s husband had left for LA with a bunch of his friends in order to have a weekend-long bachelor party for one of their buddies. The wife in question was being teased about all of the trouble her husband would likely get into and then the men at the table shared stories of their own bachelor parties.

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I still remember the day I went shopping for my wedding dress. My roommate and my Step Mom accompanied me to the wedding shop where said roommate had tried on wedding dresses only a few weeks before (She was engaged months before I was and married a mere three weeks after my wedding day). I tried on the dress she had chosen just for kicks, because we all know I would never buy it. It was pretty, yes, but totally not me. On her, it was sheer perfection. We had a good laugh at seeing me in what she would be wearing on her wedding day.

I stepped back into the change room, exchanged that dress for another, and turned to look at myself in the mirror. I stared at my reflection and could not believe what I was seeing. The second dress I tried on was THE dress.

“Mom? I’m going to come out now, but you have to promise not to cry.”

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Back when I was a single lass in the metropolis of Vancouver, two of my closest friends were a couple with whom I had gone to college with. They dated for a few years and it got to the point where it was commonplace for our larger group of friends to harass tease the boyfriend and ask him when he was going to propose already. His girlfriend fully supported said harassing.

And then, one day when we all least expected it, they announced that they were, in fact, engaged. I was so excited for them that I screamed. Loudly. We’d all been waiting for it to happen and it finally did.

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My husband and I will be celebrating our tenth (!) wedding anniversary in May. Our kids are old enough to understand the calendar (Well, the oldest is - his brother lives in a constant state of “I don’t know” and his sister is only three) which means that the topic of our wedding has been brought up as of late. This past weekend we hauled out our wedding albums, much to the delight of our little monsters monkeys.

Looking through the photos got me thinking about that whole day and how once it was over and we were on our honeymoon, my husband and I both agreed that if we were to go back in time and do it again, we would have eloped.

It’s not that the day was bad or anything. It was fine and good and I ended up married to the love of my life when all was said and done. It just wasn’t amazing.

We paid for our own wedding and refused to go into debt to do so, which meant that we put a lot of hours into preparing things ourselves and cut corners where we could. We made centerpieces but there were no decorations. We had our reception in the gymnasium at our (large) church which did not make for a magical atmosphere…nor did it allow for wine and/or dancing. We had dinner, made the rounds to say hi to everyone and then the party was over. Well, another party was about to begin but I’ll spare you the details.

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I came across an article over at MSN.com that I thought would be a fun one to share on a Friday: “Weirdest Wedding Gifts Ever.”

Most of the items listed are pretty funny, in my humble opinion.

“Fake vomit.” Really?

“24 double rolls of toilet paper.” Um, thanks?

“A bronze bust of myself.” Ha!

“Autographed picture of Bret Michaels.” AWESOME.

We (sadly) didn’t get any weird wedding gifts, just a few that weren’t quite us and were exchanged.

How about you? Did you get any weird wedding gifts?