Wedding orders vs. Swedish residency

Before the big move to Sweden, I’ve been surprised by how many things I’ve confronted in the U.S., a country where people get upset when their Internet connection isn’t lightning fast or the food drive-thru takes longer than 5 minutes, which require more than a month to complete.
The first was when I started searching for my wedding dress. I began the hunt in January, more than four months before the wedding. I called some stores to inquire about their dresses, and when they found out my date, they had shock and horror in their voice, saying it would be really difficult to get a dress in by that time. And then, when we went shopping for bridesmaid dresses, two-and-a-half months in advance, most stores had the same surprise in their voice, saying that we’d need an expedited order, which also means extra $.
Correct me if I’m wrong, but any business in the U.S. that takes more than three months to ship an order doesn’t need my money. Perhaps it’s just the “wedding” label attached that makes everything extended and twice the cost. Thankfully, though, I found alternative bridal shops that were happy to work within my timeframe and budget.
Alice (the cat) must go to a U.S. vet and get an approved antibody count to make sure she can fight rabies before entering Sweden. This, according to my vet, must be sent to Kansas State University to get processed, and the results will be sent back in four or more weeks. Why KSU is the only place that can do this, I have no idea. The forms filled out by my vet need to be shipped to the USDA in Austin for an official stamp, and this also could take a month.
I’ll admit I became a little annoyed with the Swedish Embassy in D.C. for telling me the wrong documents to fill out for my residency permit. HOWEVER, I received my case number today, and they plan to ship my documents to Sweden next week. This is after two weeks.
If it takes around a month to approve my residency permit – going from D.C. to Sweden and back to Texas – and more than four months to order a wedding dress, then there’s clearly something wrong with the world.