Happy Birthday Marine Corps! We went to the birthday ball this weekend (more on that later) and if you follow me on Twitter, you may have briefly seen my tweets to Rent the Runway (RTR) in regards to my ball gown, less than 24 HOURS before my ball. Here’s the background, in October RTR sent me a coupon to use for my birthday which I then used to pick myself a ball gown. If you haven’t heard of Renttherunway.com, check it out and thank me later. 

This year I wanted to really focus on looking like an adult since these days there are some wives at the ball that are SIX years younger than me. Since I am far from acting like an adult, I figured if I looked like one maybe they wouldn’t kick me out? Anyways, I wanted to make sure that my dress didn’t resemble a prom dress in any shape or form. So, I found my simple and classy ball gown and *CLICK* it was rented, worry free… or so I thought.

Fast forward to last week.

Monday I got an email confirming the dress had been shipped. YIPPEE, now I could focus on how I was going to somehow make my hair look like I didn’t just walk out of an explosion in a mattress factory (I have no idea what that means but my dad used to say it when girls had messy hair so just roll with it). Then came Wednesday, just for shits and giggles I decided to check my tracking when I got home from work (about 4pm here). Tracking said that my dress was currently in New Jersey…. HM? WUT? Still, I didn’t panic because I’ve used this company many times and they’ve never done me wrong.  Just to cover my bases I decided to call RTR, who was of course closed because they’re on the east coast. Fantastic.

Thursday morning (34 Hours until the ball & the original delivery date)

I woke up to an email that said “THANKS FOR RETURNING YOUR DRESS! PLEASE LEAVE A REVIEW” And I was like oh, lovely, great, that’s a good sign. HA. Still not panicking, I called RTR and spoke to a nice girl who let me know that a random UPS had sent back the dress to them, and that she would overnight it to Hawaii to me for free. LOL. HI, NICE TO MEET YOU. I'M ON THE MIDDLE OF AN ISLAND HERE. Let's be real, you can’t even overnight PEOPLE from the east coast to Hawaii in one day. She also said that the earliest she could guarantee it was 8pm on Friday night. Wellp. 

Whereas some girls would’ve called in the Calgary, quit their jobs and cried all day, I decided to go to work and still not panic. All of my coworkers gave me a resounding “It’ll never get here in time” which was super comforting. YET, I still had faith in RTR because hey, sometimes miracles happen, right? I know that it would’ve been easy to be pissed off at RTR or pissed off at UPS but I chose to not waste my energy on that, and to be hopeful instead.  I even tweeted out at RTR at 8am and said “Go @RentTheRunway!! Everyone cheer for them so they can accomplish the impossible and send my dress to Hawaii overnight!”

Everyone told me at work that I needed to go shopping and find a backup, so after work I decided I would make ONE stop at Ross and see if there was anything worthy of the USMC ball. Talk about luck, it turned out there was a black gown in my exact size and it was only $20. It wasn’t the cutest dress by any means, but it definitely could get the job done. I bought it and went home. When I got home I watched my dress tracking all night, and right before I went to bed it STILL hadn’t left the RTR facility. This is where a little voice in my head was saying "you can go ahead and panic now Marissa." But I decided to ignore it. 

Friday morning (10 hours before the ball) I checked shipping and it said it had left Kentucky at 4am EST. Not great news, but still an update. That morning, with one dress on backup duty, I went to my friend Kait’s house where she had two AMAZING dresses to offer me. Both dresses were gorgeous and at the end of the morning I decided to take the longer one home as a SECOND backup. And, another shout out to Kait because she stuffed me with Lemon Blossoms, did the prettiest up-do and makeup for me and let me borrow a clutch. You da bomb!

While I was at Kait’s I got the best notification EVER, my dress from Rent the Runway was delivered at my house! BOOM. Talk about a sigh of relief. That dress literally must’ve taken a direct flight from Kentucky to my doorstep. Now with about 17 dresses to choose from, I stuck with my original rental because the fit was perfect. The dress was perfect for the night and even though there was a little (large huge scary) bump in the road, I’m glad that I stayed optimistic.

WHO NEEDS EXTRA STRESS AM I RIGHT?

This year we were celebrating the 241^st birthday of the USMC. Now, I’m fully aware that a lot of the Marine Corps traditions leave me irritated, but this is not one of them. Yes, we have to pay for tickets. Yes, we have to pay for drinks. But the experience is so much more than that. A lot of wives I know see this night as a hassle, but in reality I think it’s kind of an honor. The birthday ball ceremony may seem a little outdated or corny to some, but to the Marines it’s a tradition that has been going on for hundreds of years. How many of us can say that you’re a part of a tradition that old? Not very many. The ball makes my husband proud to be a Marine, and makes me proud to be his wife. Happy Belated to all the Marines out there. I know I'm totally biased, but the Marine Corps is obviously the best branch in the world, don't @ me...