photographer #1 and wedding relief

Then on Sunday we had a super busy day, not only did we have to drive home that night, but we also had two separate meetings set up. First we finally got to meet with the day of coordinator, and she seemed really knowledgeable and I know I will feel so much better on the wedding day with her there to decorate and make everything run smoothly. She was really nice, and she had alot of ideas about things and is going to meet with us again in August and actually come to the reception and ceremony locations to see them and help us with ideas for setup, which I thought was really nice of her. She seems to get what we want from the ceremony setup and everything, and I'm pretty confident that everything will run smoothly with her. At first I was debating on having a coordinator, but doing weddings for a living really has made me appreciate them and since I want my poor mom to actually ENJOY the wedding and be there when we are getting ready instead of putting flower petals in the aisle and setting up chairs, this was probably one of the best decisions we made. And Adam is excited to have her too, which is always good.

After that meeting we headed out to the opposite end of Springfield to meet with our first photographer of the day. She's new to the wedding scene but has shot portraits for a while and has a really unique eye and editing style. I could tell she was a bit nervous about the whole thing, but I'm confident that she'll do a great job and she had some neat ideas about everything and hopefully since we only have her for the first part of the day she wont get too overwhelmed. Also, since she is new, I wont feel so bad when I hand her the, well, book I am pretty much putting together of the different pictures I want. Hahahahaha. Yeah, I'm going to be hated by the other photographers, but I dont think this girl will mind. :)

Next time we come up will be even busier, since the time after that will be the actual wedding. We have to meet with the coordinator again, meet with the caterer and pick our menu, meet with the videographer, have my hair trial, have my bridal pictures (if there is time), get my dress altered, go to the rental company and pick out the linens and whatnot, and do any other detail that I'm forgetting. Ahhhh!! I'm getting stressed just thinking about it. It's super hard when we only have a Saturday and Sunday to accomplish all of this, since we cant take off work, which is really what needs to happen. Hmm...depending how stressed I get closer to the time, perhaps I will take off that Friday and go down Thursday after work...that adds an extra day and a half, which may make a world of difference...

Anywho, that was an insane weekend. From here on out I can just sense that it is going to go by insanely fast and be really hectic. Hopefully it all turns out in the end, but I just wish I had more time to devote to simply planning! It's hard having to work on other people's weddings and push my own aside, when I want to go all out and spend hours on it...

cake!

First up this past weekend was the cake. We've had this meeting set up for months now and got really lucky with who we ended up finding. Sammantha was a complete accident- I honestly am not even really sure how I ended up finding her. But I really liked the look of her cakes and she seemed to add a little something to them that all of the others I had looked at lacked. Plus, her prices were pretty amazing too.

Because it's our family, we show up to our meeting 15 minutes late, but we were rewarded with amazingggg cake flavors of goodness. We tried 5 different flavors of cake and a variety of fillings (all of which were quite delicious) and Adam started right in on his groom's cake.

I swear, this is the most excited that I have seen this boy about any aspect of the wedding- and it was cake!! He is modeling his groom cake off of his car, and for those of you who dont know, he's got one of those spiffy Mustangs that he likes to work on and add things to. Anywho, him and Sammantha came up with a bunch of different elements to the car cake and I can't believe how detailed it is to make a cake!! They talked about airbrushing colors and sculpting the sides and hand painting details and hand creating detailed wheels from molding chocolate- it was sounding like they were building a real car and not a 12 inch long cake! In any case, they talked about that for probably an hour (not even kidding) while my mom and I ate random combinations of cake and fillings before we finally got to the actual wedding cake.

I'm very undecisive, and Adam didnt really care, so I figured we were in for a load of trouble designing this cake, but luckily it was relatively painless. Sammantha luckily seemed to know what she was doing, and came up with some fun ideas and after another couple hours we had come up with a cake design that was really unlike anything I figured going into it. But I love it- and she is sketching a colored and pretty picture for me and scanning it in sometime soon, so I will have to post that to give a better idea, but it's fun and fall and different, so it really matches us- HA!

As for flavors, we ended up with a 4 tiered cake, also something I hadnt expected, but it just looked really nice in the picture and this way we were able to have all of our favorite flavor combinations! The top tier, which we will save, is strawberry with a strawberry filling, Adam and I's favorite. But because we wanted everyone ELSE to get to taste the strawberry as well, Adam did the groom's cake in strawberry too.

Then the next tier is for the chocolate lovers- after much debate we decided on a chocolate cake with two layers of chocolate mouse filling seperated by a filling of Oreo cookie cheesecake flavoring. Mmmm. So 3 layers of chocolatey goodness!

Next up is my personal fave- a lemon cake with a strawberry filling. It sounds like a strange combination, but it was absolutely DELICIOUS! It combined that sweet flavor of the strawberry with the lemon flavor and mmmmm. I'm very excited for that flavor.

Then the largest layer on the bottom we went pretty safe, picking the rich butter flavor but we paired it with a raspberry filling. It's super yummy and will probably make the most people happy (unless, of course, they arent raspberry fans!).

Then we are also having her make some of her cream cheese mints for the dessert bar, and these I am really excited for. She is going to make them shaped like mini-leaves and have them colored in our wedding and fall colors. I think that will look so neat up there on the table, and she claims they are a huge hit, so I am excited there!

So I am excited. It turned out to be a bit more than what I wanted to spend, but I know it will be beautiful and yumy and since it's bigger than we anticipated, we know we will have leftovers, which means we will get to eat all of the flavors after getting back from the honeymoon! Plus, Sammantha seems like a really nice person who actually likes what she does. We are one of her last weddings she is doing, she is taking a break to head back to school but still doing birthday cakes and whatnot on the side, so we did get insanely lucky with her.

Yay for cake goodness!!

wedding weekend

The drive to Springfield is like this the entire way. Pretty boring.

Weddings weddings weddings!

So this was a super filled wedding weekend. I left for Springfield Friday after getting off work since Annabelle had a grooming appointment at 3. Adam came up later that night, and all weekend long it was wedding this and wedding that- I think it's really starting to dawn on everyone that it is coming up REALLY fast, and since we are only going to be back there one more time before the wedding, we crammed alot of things into two days.

She was REALLY excited after picking her up. This was the best I could do. You cant see her bow, but it's still adorable!

I'll break up these posts, since we did ALOT over the weekend and I dont want to cram people with too long of one solid post. :) See how nice I am?

it's back!!!

Yay! So my crinny came back from it's trip to North Carolina to be dyed and it is PERFECT!! I love love love it and am way to overly excited.

Adam doesnt really share in my excitement, he is just happy you cant see it with my dress. But I think it is quite amazing and am very excited for the pictures.

success!

YAYY!!!

The bridesmaid dress came in the mail today and the color is PERFECT! I was super worried, since the gold version of this dress didnt dazzle me, but the color of this dress actually makes the style super cute, and with my wonderful idea of a dark brown crinny underneath I think they are going to be the ones! I'm going to have Kelsey try it on this weekend, so hopefully it will work and I can have the girls order them this next week. I will be very relieved when this part is done and they all have their dresses...

I am very irritated. I cant find my memory card reader for my camera, so the pictures I took of the dress I cant get onto my computer. So this is the only picture I have and it sucks because it was taken on my phone. Blah. I took a bunch of exciting pictures to show the color and whatnot, and my camera is sitting right next to me, but because Kodak fails and needs a special cable to upload from the camera and I lost my regular memory card reader, I'm stuck. Grrr.

and then they ran (posted July 11, 2008)

This was probably the best thing that will ever occur during my wedding planning.

So after a horrendously long bus ride to Baltimore (that was almost 3 hours later than it should have been) and an even more stressful train ride to the airport to get our car, we arrived at the infamos Filene’s Basement at a little before 11:30pm. Luckily for us, the store was under an awning on the second story of a strip mall. It was in the back so it wasn’t facing the main road, and it was reletively quiet. There was already quite a handful of people there, probably around 30-40 or so already in front of us. We picked our spot at the end of the line and decided to take turns heading to what we thought was a 24-hour WalMart next door. Turns out the WalMart closed at 11, so Amelia headed to a little grocery store type thing to see what they had while I held down our spot.

Aparently we were out of the loop when it comes to camping out at night in front of a store. People in front of us had tents and sleeping bags and chairs and the people who arrived after us had inflatable air mattresses. We, well, we had nothing. At all. I guess that tends to happen when we come from Omaha and everyone else is local.

I guess we (or me, I should say, since Amelia was still gone) looked kind of pathetic, because the nice family in front of us decided to give us a quilt to lay on so we didn’t have to sleep on the concrete. Combine that with the beach towel Amelia bought us at the grocery store and we were quite the site.

We got a couple somewhat decent hours of sleep…well, as decent as can be sleeping on the concrete. Early in the wee (cold, freezing, freezing cold) hours of the morning the tv station reporters started showing up to do their live reports for their morning news. Everyone finally got moving around and the line magically shortened (who knew tends and air mattresses took up so much room?), but we had to stand. By this time various wedding vendors from the area decided to capitalize on the fact that they had so many potential brides in one place and started handing out various flyers, most of which ended up in the trash cans. Who wanted to carry random pieces of paper around when the doors opened and it was a free for all for the dress?

By this time we were getting excited and the dresses were in site. Rivalries were starting to be formed, and you could see all the potential brides eyeing each other for dress size similarities.

Or maybe that was the Rock Star energy drink making me see things a little crazy.

Either way the hours were counting down, and the strategies were being formed.

And then, the Gods looked down, and smiled.

And aside from the possibility of finding a dress, bestowed on me the greatest gift of all.

So you see those people on the right in the light blue shirts? Well they were from the outstanding WeddingWire website. Aside from giving out awesome WeddingWire shirts to all the brides, they were also giving out 4 gift certificates for a free dress! All you had to do was pick the correct number between 1-1000. Well, my favorite number is 3, so my options were going to be 3 or 33, but when they actually asked for my guess, I realized that I could pick 333, three 3’s, I was excited! So my vote was cast and I forgot about the whole issue.

I headed to WalMart to get some signs to make our “Want” and “Need” signs.

*Side Note* The WalMart there has TWO stories. With an escalator. And a specialty designed cart escalator. Yes, that was very, very impressive to me for some reason. Again I’m blaming the Rock Star drink.

Anywho I walked back and when I got up and through the MASSIVE amount of people that had gathered (all down the side of the building and then down the stairs!) there were a bunch of WeddingWire people standing near our spot. I climbed back through the people and found Amelia, and the WeddingWire people announced that they had a winner in that section. So they went back through and had us repeat our numbers. After they had asked a couple people behind me, they went “Yes, we have a winner!”

And, well, since I’m typing about it you can obviously guess what happened next…but just in case you didn’t…

Pardon my crappy appearance. Remember I had slept outside all night.

Anywho, I won a free dress! ME! I’ve never won anything! But apparently 3 IS a lucky number.

After this the time went by rather quickly. We formed an “aliance” with the amazing people in front of us who gave us the blanket, so there were a total of 5 people who could grab dresses and a mom to stake out a spot. She had brought her mom and brother and one of the few fiance’s there. They had all driven up from Virginia (or was it North Carolina? I can’t remember.) But since she was a different size from me, we figured that an aliance would be beneficial for the both of us since we could grab even more dresses.

Anyway the crowd was getting ansy and the employees were getting ready. It reminded me of a scarier version of Black Friday shopping. By scarier I mean picture over 500 scary, insane BRIDES (yes, 500 BRIDES. Not to mention how many people they brought with them, which was an average of about 4 people per bride. We were SEVERELY outnumbered with our 2 people, total.) who are all trying to save thousands of dollars on their dream wedding dress.

Yes. That is the dresses hanging in all of their glory. Notice how far back they go!

Again, pardon how ridiculous we look. I promise we don’t usually look like that. But we were tired. And the upcoming pictures of dresses make me look equally as ridiculous. But just ignore the makeupless face and messy, messy hair.

At this time the crowd was getting a bit…ansy. After all, there were over 500 brides in line at this time, not to mention the hundreds of groupies for said brides. Amelia and I were pretty much outnumbered, most groups had at least 5 or 6 people.

The employees inside were taking the tape off the racks now, and the line was steadily moving closer to the still-closed door (can we say, ow?) The poor workers inside looked terrified and held onto the racks for dear life. Which they very well should have, considering what happened next.

And the countdown began.

And the brides started running.

Imagine those scary scenes from the Day After Thanksgiving sales that you see at the big stores offering incredible deals, like back when places were selling the XBox. Or Furbies. Or some other hot item of the year. You see those old ladies being trampled into the ground and people screaming and running n every direction, and you sat at home watching this on your TV and said to yourself, “Morons.”

Yeah, I was that moron. Only imagine that scene, with a rampage of violent, obsessed brides and their mothers who are hoping to save a few thousand dollars to get their dream dress.

It was violent. It was ugly. It was painful.

Before the doors opened we were shoved off to the side next to the main doors. We were so packed that we had moved up about 3x closer than we had been all night, and the doors were still closed. When the doors finally opened, people screamed, the line moved slowly because people couldn’t fit through the door, and we got showed into the wall. I hadn’t even taken a step.

Somehow I managed to get through the door and by this time I had lost Amelia. But I was in the store, there were the dresses, and all hell had broke loose.

I ran. And I grabbed. And I grabbed some more. I couldn’t see, the dresses were heavy, and there were employees yelling for people to go this way and not that way and it was utter chaos. Somehow I found our group and I threw down my stash on our pile and turned to go for more, and the thousands of dresses were gone.

This was less than 30 seconds since the doors opened.

Then the fun began. We shifted through the dresses, we had grabbed about 50 I would say between the 5 of us, and passed between me and the other girl to shift out possibles. Her fiance was involved in bargaining (yes, there was intense bargaining), her brother and Amelia were shifting. I was stripping.

Dresses were flying, somehow we stole a dress rack to put our trades on. People were hovering, trying to steal from our pile. Unkind words were said.

Pretty quickly I found a potential dress. I really liked it and it did fit, although it was small. I wanted to lose weight anyway. Ha. So that dress went into safe keeping, away from the hoarding, grabbing arms of brides who came too late and mothers who didn’t expect this big of a crowd.

There was Contender #1:

I liked it. But then I found this.

Contender #2:

This one was my favorite. And the one I would have bought. This would have been the one I wore to the wedding. I didn’t have The Dress moment, but it was beautiful.

This was also a strong contender because it was so different. It wasn’t really me but it was gorgeous.

Contender #3:

By this time I had sifted through the large pile of dresses and had my small stack of these 3. I was sending picture after picture to my mom and she was on the phone. People around the store would cheer, signaling they had found their dream dress. The dresses were slowly making their way back onto the rack.

I had narrowed it down to Contenders 2 and 3. I liked the first one, but I was drawn to the elegance of the 3rd and the coloring and detailing of the 2nd.

After a while a girl near us tried on a really different looking dress, she ended up not liking it and passing it off to us. This was Amelia’s favorite, but it wasn’t screaming The Dress to me.

It was definitely pretty. And it had a really unique cut and a pretty back. But it didn’t have the cathedral train that I wanted, and the boob area just wasn’t setting well with me.

After much deliberation and discussion with my mom, I decided to get both Contenders 2 and 3. I had my free dress certificate to use for one, and then I would just pay the $249 for the second. I really wanted my mom’s opinion and to see it in person. And then I wasn’t really out anything since I had one free.

So while Amelia started putting all the dresses back into a more uniform pile and back on the hangers, I went out to take a last look on the racks to see if anyone had put anything decent back up. I found a couple, but neither were great. But I had to try on at least one out there dress that I most definitely would not wear.

****Note from the present: I'll share this picture. Just because it is pretty hilarious. And doesnt really count as a wedding dress. LOL!!****

Yes, it had been a long night/day/whatever. And yes those were feathers. And solid beading on the top. That sucker was HEAVY. And probably almost 10 grand in a normal store. But not so much me. But it was fun.

So I had decided on the two, and figured in my head that I would be wearing Contender #2 for the wedding. The only drawback to that one was it was a bit snug. Not so much that I wouldn’t have worn it, but enough that I might not eat the week of the wedding. Ha. I still wasn’t 100% sold, but I was wearing thin and getting hungry. It was almost 11 in the morning now and the store had opened 3 hours before.

So Amelia, the wonderful bridesmaid that she is, told me to go take one last look around, just to ease my mind, and she would clear up the area. So I walked around and didn’t really find anything that stood out. On my way back to our section, I saw a girl trying on this dress that was so unique and different, that I was immediately drawn to it. I had no idea the size, and it was definitely unlike anything I would have tried on back home. But I was drawn to it, and so I followed the girl and asked her if she liked it. She said she wasn’t sure, and asked it I wanted to try it on. I said sure, and she gave it to me. It was close to my normal size, but I was still struck by the unique style. It sort of threw me with it all actually, and when I took it back to Amelia she looked at it and went “I dunno…”.

But I didn’t have anything to loose, so I put it on. I wasn’t by a mirror, but I put it on and something inside just…clicked. I can’t describe it. I looked down at everything about it and how different it was and its incredible train and just knew. Amelia was like “Wow.” And I got that feeling that they talk about.

I found a mirror and started crying. Yes, I never thought I would cry when finding my dress, but it happened. Uncontrollably, but it happened. I wasn’t balling or anything, and it could have been the RockStar wearing off, but there were tears and people walked by that I had never met and told me that that was The Dress.

I sent my mom a picture and called her. She sent me a text saying that was the one. No questions. She said it made her cry. She told me on the phone it was no contest. The other contenders just slipped out of my mind. This was The Dress. And it was completely unlike any other dress I had seen, and if not for this sale I would never have tried it on!

We did the cheer, and said goodbye to the Contenders. I never even looked back at them.

With my wonderful free giftcard, the dress came to a wonderful $14. I paid tax. It was incredible.

Later I found out it was a Justin Alexander designer dress. Priced around $3,000. How incredible was this?!

So the trip has been well worth it. I got the dress. The entire trip was less than the dress I was going to get back home. Now I just have to figure out how to get it home.

Luckily the rental car will do for the rest of the day.

So that was the big adventure. If there is any way to experience this for yourself, do it. I will never forget that experience and I only wish my mom was able to be there. I never did learn the name (well, I forgot it actually, oops) of the girl we made the alliance with, but she did eventually find a dress. Long before I found my definite one. And it was gorgeous too.

Here are a few more pictures from the day, taken after my dress was safely tucked into the truck on our rental car.

And that's the story of the dress. Ahh. It makes me want to go put it on and just stare at it.

Kleinfield's (posted June 26 & July 10, 2008)

****Post Before Our New York Trip****

So my wonderful bridesmaid and I have decided to take a trip to New York City and brave the chaos that is the Running of the Brides. Google it. You’ll see we are insane.

Before we embark on this life altering event, we are going to the upscale and posh Kleinfeld Bridal, where the dream dress is located. The dream dress has no price on the website, only the dreaded dollar signs of doom, and the $$$ next to its picture signify that it is priced anywhere from $5,001 on up. So the dream dress will not happen, but a picture of me in the dream dress will. And we will come up with a nice elaborate story about why we are not purchasing it and dress like we look like we should be allowed into the store. It will be marvelous.

They do not allow pictures at Kleinfeld, but we will somehow manage one in the dress. It is THE dress, after all. Granted, it will not be on my body on my wedding day and I will not have the amazing pictures I have dreamt about of me in it, but it is THE dress.

And then we will have mounds and mounds of unforgettable fun and bruises from the Running of the Brides, and I will hopefully walk away conscious, breathing, with useable video footage and holding the second dress of my dreams. That will only cost me a mere $249, $499 or $699. Granted we will be brain dead after surviving in the back of an SUV in a parking lot in Baltimore all night long (no hotel for us!) with various random foods and Red Bulls from the 24 hour Wal-Mart. But I shall emerge with a dress. And hopefully a still conscious and intact bridesmaid.

This is the dress. See how wonderful and jaw-droppingly amazing it is? Think of the pictures that can emerge from wearing this dress. The dress alone will take away from any flaws that my overly flawed body has. It is everything I have ever dreamed or imaged in a wedding dress. If only it wasn’t hand made in Israel. And sold exclusively at a small store in New York City. And didn’t have a price tag of $5,001 and up. Sigh.

*****The Post About Our Actual Trip to Klienfield's*****

Kleinfeld’s. What can I say?

First off we had a bit of a trying morning actually getting to the place. Me, in my generosity to buy gifts for my family, didn’t exactly have room in my bag to carry everything I had bought people from New York. I had also bought my mo delicious popcorn and I wanted her to have it BEFORE it went bad, and I wasn’t coming home for another week. So I decided to mail everything back to them. Well, apparently that can be a very hectic thing to do in NYC, and the box was too big for the self-send machine, and apparently the tape is wrong for the box. In the end, it took too long so we carried the large two boxes to Kleinfeld’s. Our looking like we can afford things was pretty much out the window at that point, since we arrived 15 minutes late, sweating, and carrying two large boxes being shipped back to Omaha. It was quite amusing I’m sure as we run in the door and try to look like we belong in this upscale and designer store. After we stowed our boxes behind the receptionist and tried to look like we belonged, we were taken back by a girl who pretty much fit the description of the girls you see on the TV show. She had the demeanor about her that told me she loved weddings at one time. She was one of those girls who was in love with the idea of helping that eager bride find that gown of her dreams, but she had since been hardened by bridezillas and mothers demanding the best and being so picky and turning their wedding into the hottest event of the year instead of merely a celebration of love. Basically, she was nice. But she was also a bit fake, and had the expression that she did this a thousand times a day and told all brides they looked beautiful even when they didn’t.

In any case, we were shuffled through the maze of beautiful dresses into an astonishingly small dressing room. For all of the glamour and hype this place brings, I fully expected their dressing rooms to be bigger and more grandeur than those in Omaha. Or those in the local JC Penny, in any case. But we went in, and she asked us why we came to Kleinfeld’s, which is the question that I knew, from reading various online posts about it, was the deciding question on whether or not you would have this salesperson’s undivided attention. We casually diverted the question, saying that we came to NYC specifically to shop for a wedding gown, since the selection in Omaha was to small. We said we had been to Chicago (lie number 1) and found nothing and came here, to the wonderful big Apple, after seeing the dress in a bridal magazine. We told her we were there for this ONE specific dress, and we made it sound like we saw the dress, knew it was the one, and booked our flights for New York. Simple as that, because, obviously, we had money.

She then went on to tell us about how that designer was magnificent, and how her dresses take a full year to create, because they are custom, and she personally takes 26 different measurements of your body in order to ensure the perfect fit. Other designers apparently take only 3, and this is what makes her dresses to unique and amazing. She hand creates each one, and the lady proceeded to tell me how if I had one of her gowns, I would knock the pants off of everyone in Omaha, because no one there will ever have come close to seeing a dress of such beauty.

Then she told us this designer’s price range.

Before I get to the price of this dress, I have to state that before coming in here I knew the dress was going to be alot. I knew it was going to be way out of my league and there would be no way I could afford it. Coming to that gallery was merely for fun and to see how the rich and famous shop for their wedding gown. But I have to tell you also that I am shocked I was able to keep a straight face when I learned of the price. On the outside, my expression was calm, collected, a “That’s all? Of course that’s in my price range” expression. But on the inside, I did a double take, and laughed. The website said this dress was in the $5,000 + range. Keep that in mind.

“So you are familiar with this designer’s pricing, I imagine?”

“Oh yes, somewhat”

“So you do know that *she smiles, kind of whispers in that “it’s alot but obviously not for you” type voice* her dresses go up to around $20,000″

*um, come again?* “Yes”

“So that isn’t an issue then for you?”

“Nope, not at all *big smile*“

If you aren’t catching the lie that is forming here, you have to know by now that there is no way on this insane earth that I would ever be able to afford a $20,000 dollar dress. Heck, I can’t even afford a $1,000 dress. But it was fun to lie.

We went out into the store to find said dress, and we got to this designer’s area and I loved many of them. I wanted to get the full use out of my hour and 30 min time slot, so I picked out a few. Then I saw it. On the end of the rack, hanging there in all of it’s glory. Time stopped, the earth stood still, and the dress was actually in my possession.

Let me start off by saying that it was HUGE. It had a series of hoops underneath it, causing anyone who wanted to stand near me to have to me at least 5 feet to either side. Amelia and I determined later that Adam would have to not be near me on the alter if I was in that dress, and we would be unable to have a first dance, because we would be unable to touch.

In any case, we got the dress back to the room, and the sales girl is determined not to leave it alone with us. we had our camera phone at the ready, poised for that instant when we would be able to send a picture to my awaiting mother back home. It didn’t seem that time would come, until she asked if I needed a bra. I jumped at this, said yes (even though I was already in a strapless). She walked out of the room, and in a matter of seconds, we had snapped a quick picture of the dress hanging on the rack. It was less than a split second after the camera snapped its picture that the lady returned. But we were victorious. Granted, it wasn’t on my body yet, but it’s still the dress.

To show you just how crazy they are about no pictures, I was forced to strip in front of the sales lady. It was a tad uncomfortable, and I would have preferred to be with Amelia and not some unknown stranger who I know was establishing my every flaw, including my American Eagle polka dot underwear. But then I stepped into the dress, and although I had steered myself so I would not get that “Holy crap that is the dress” feeling and start to cry, I did do a double take on just how gorgeous it really was. The detailing was incredible. It was a perfect dress.

And the final price? A mere $24,500.

Yes, you read that right.

The lady proceeded to corset me into the dress, I don’t think I have ever been pulled into a dress that tightly in my life. Since the designer is Israeli, apparently they have to put the modesty piece in the back behind the corset, so your back is not seen. Well, we almost had our chance to get a picture here, because as she was riffling through her drawer to find one, she mentioned she might have to go and get one. I eyed Amelia in the mirror, and we glanced at my phone sitting on the chair. We were ready. But alas, she found a piece in the bottom of her drawer, and our one chance was foiled.

We then went out to the mirror. I couldn’t fit through the door, you actually have to pick up the hoop, turn it sideways, and still walk sideways in order to squish yourself through the door, that is how large this dress is. We went out into the main gallery, and apparently because I have a $24,500 dress on my body I command some sort of attention from the other employees, because within seconds I had multiple people telling me how astonishing this dress looks, and how wonderful it fits, and how great it is. The manager of the store (yes, the one on the TV series herself) even came up and gushed about how gorgeous it is. They brought me the custom, hand designed veil to match, and it did look amazing. And guess what, the veil was only a mere $6,200.

Yeah. A see through sheer piece of veil was $6,200.

I admired the dress, we told everyone how it was the one, how it was exactly what I had imagined (truth here). She asked if it was the one I’d take home that day, we talked about how it was my mom’s dream to get to see the dress, and how I was sent out to pick it out, and then the two of us would return at the end of the month to place the order. The lady faltered, then recouped, and told us about their webcam service, which is what parents who are unable to be there use to see their daughter in the dress so they can make the purchase that day by phone.

A snag in our plan.

Luckily, Amelia to the rescue, saying how she is at work, and how she doesn’t have access to a webcam at the moment. Being in the military and all (no, my mom is not in the military. Not even close.).

The sales lady returned to smiling then, apparently the military is a valid excuse, and because she was getting vacation in only a couple weeks, things were again great with the world. She asked us multiple times if we were sure she would be able to come back, and if we were 100% positive that she would come in to order the dress in a couple weeks. Yes, of course. It was the dress after all.

She wrote down the style and the dates that the designer herself would be in the store. Apparently she would be there the exact time we would be coming back, and I could get measured by the designer herself. Wow, how wonderful, we exclaimed. All was well with the world, and I was getting a $24,500 dress and $6,200 veil. And, gasp, because I’m from out of state they might be able to work with me on the price.

Right. Ok.

We grabbed our packages with the promise of a phone call when my mom got done with her work, and left the store.

The doors closed behind us, and we started laughing.

And pretty much crying.

And wondering why in God’s good name were we in that store.

And laughing about our ridiculous story that we had concocted.

And me slightly upset that only 30 min of my time slot had passed and I only tried on 2 dresses (the other was a no, which is why it didn’t get mentioned).

My mom was throughally entertained by the story. And said when she got her military leave at the end of the month and came up to buy me my $24,500 dress that I might need to buy a second for pictures. And maybe another style for the reception, seeing as this one is so huge and all.

I love my mom.

dress memories

For those of you who do not know, I bought my wedding dress almost exactly one year ago while on a trip to New York City. I attended the world famous "Running of the Brides" at Filene's Basement in Towson, right outside of Balitmore with Amelia, one of my amazing bridesmaids. We went through the entire experience of sleeping outside in line, almost getting killed when the doors opened, and snatching weddings dresses in heaps off of racks and floors before stripping in the aisle of the luggage section to try them on. It was an absolute blast and since I didnt have this blog back then, I didnt get a chance to share that experience with all of you.

Well, since we are getting closer to the big day and I have been looking around and reading various other wedding blogs on the wide vast of the internet and noticed that they all have a post referring to their dress I have been toying with the idea of posting my entry from an old blog of mine that talks about the day I got the dress. I also thought I might post the blog about my trip to the infamous Kleinfield Bridal Salon in NYC (yes, the same one that is on "Say Yes to the Dress") because it was just so amusing.

I've been toying with the idea, though I will have to look and take out the pictures that are in it of me in the other dresses that I almost bought from the sale. Yes, it shouldnt really matter because they arent even CLOSE to the dress I got, but I just dont know if I want Adam to see me in any sort of wedding dress, even if it is a camera phone picture taken of me in no makeup after sleeping outside in Baltimore. Ha.

In any case, I may find these two fun memories and share them, so you all can understand the experience I had getting my dress last year. It's beautiful. Absolutely, positively, amazing and I want to be able to share the equally amazing story of getting it along with one of my really great friends. It was an experience I'll never forget...and definitely so much better than simply placing an order in a bridal salon. So tune in tomorrow and I'll copy in my little "blast from the past" post... :)

more pretties!!!

Yay! More amazing and beautiful arrangements from my wonderful mommy. I was showing these to Adam tonight and he is especially fond of the burgundy and green one. I am partial to the cream and brown (it's my favorite so far!!!!). He was saying how everyone is going to be so impressed at the reception, because the flowers are so good. He said they are all going to think we went all out and spent so much money on everything. :) I can't wait to see everything all set up at the actual reception. If they look this good sitting in my mom's dining room, think of how amazing they will be actually set up and decorated!!

My favorite!!! Isn't it so beautiful! I love, love LOVE the feathers! And the colors
are just perfect.

This one is Adam's favorite. He says it looks really elegant and rich. :)

I love how this one is so bright. They are all so uniquely different- I love it! Definitely not
something that we could have gotten anywhere else. YAY!

I cant wait to see more. She's starting on the smaller, table arrangements now and I cant wait. Apparently there is a smaller vase that matches the vase in my favorite arrangement. I am excited for that one...

gift for the groom

Now that we are 3 months away from the big day and counting, I figured I should probably get started on Adam's wedding present. I've known for quite a while now what I was going to get him, but the task of actually accomplishing this feat was quite challenging. I was trying every means that I know of, and so far have hit frustrating dead ends, so I took a slight break. I just started up again and by accident, actually found a lead on something (see how coy I must be since he does read this every once in a blue moon) which was VERY exciting. So now, with new hope, I'm encouraged and I am so excited! Now I just need to find money...and Adam if you do see this, no. I'm not telling you. :)

sigh.

I am a bit bummed. Tonight we were supposed to go and see my wedding band, but when Adam called to make sure it was all ready, it turns out it wasn't. I was a little irritated that they didnt bother to call us earlier to inform us that it wouldnt be ready, since they had told us it would actually be ready yesterday. So now I have to wait until Tuesday or Wednesday for it to be done, which is quite depressing, since I had been looking forward to it all week.

Oh well. I suppose it could be worse. It is being custom made, so it very well could have taken weeks upon weeks for it to be finished.

Sigh. I will try to be patient.

sand ceremony!!

AHHHH!!! Yay!!!!

So I pulled up to the house after work yesterday and there was a random, semi-large box on our front porch. I was confused, I hadnt remembered ordering anything. I thought it might have been my crinny, but the box was a bit too small and also, wayy to heavy. It was addressed to me, so I got excited and brought it inside.

And it was fragile!

So I couldn't find a pair of scissors, but I grabbed my keys.

Apparently Minnie was just as curious as I was.

I finally got the darn thing opened, and was SO EXCITED!!!! It was our sand ceremony set!!!!!!!





I was so thrilled it was a bit insane. It took the company quite a while to actually ship it, but it is totally even better in person. I love it!!! It's perfect! And it will be so much better than a unity candle since we can actually display this later. The two side vases can hold flowers after the wedding. Now we just need to get the sand and get it engraved!

Isn't it great!?

Now the dilemma of which color sand...

This is what it will look like all set up!

more centerpieces!

More centerpieces!! And they just keep on getting better! I'm so excited to see them all in person in a week. My mommy is just so talented!









So excited! And I'm LOVING the feathers! I can't wait for the branches she's going to start using!!

hello!

Now that people have actually received their Save the Dates this blog will, (hopefully) have an audience! So now that it has gone public, I wanted to say "HI" to all of you people who have came here, either because you were curious, bored, or who didn't know who we were when you got your Save the Date ;).

In any case, I hope you all enjoy the planning process through here. Leave comments, they make me happy :). We will also be updating our site frequently as well, though the most current things will probably wind up here first, so if you want to be all in the loop a day or so sooner, check here!

The site has some fun features, including a music request for the reception. Fill it out!!!! We want to play what will make people happy and will make them get up and shake it. Or wiggle. Or however it is you dance. So do it!

We just passed the 4 month mark two days ago, so we are officially in the 3 month category! Woo!

flowers!

As many of you probably already know, my wonderful mom is in charge of the flowers for the wedding. I never thought twice about it, she is so incredibly talented and her stuff is so beautiful that I wasnt worried at all about how they would turn out. We went out last fall and picked out the flowers and some of the vases and I was so excited! She's in charge of making all of the centerpieces for the reception and whatnot.

Well, I was sitting at work this morning and she sends me the pictures of the first arrangement! It's the biggest one, and it is absolutely STUNNING!

Isn't it just AWESOME?!?

The back view!

I can't wait to see the rest of them!!!

just another note of GREATNESS!!!

Oh. My. God. So I totally just realized that our limo bus, totally has a POLE inside!!!!!!

Ahhh!!! Oh Amelia, how I hope you somehow get a chance to read this! YAY!!!!!!! And we thought we wouldnt have a pole at the wedding!

boys oh boys!

It took over a year of convincing, but I FINALLY convinced Adam to wear a chocolate brown tux for the wedding. Ok, so it wasn't actually ME who convinced him, it was getting to see an actual wedding where the guys wore them and how amazing it looked that convinced him.

Still, in any case, he is going brown, and I am thrilled!! I dont care if he woke up one day and thought it was his idea to wear brown, as long as the boy shows up in a brown tux, I will be happy. :)

We spent Sunday afternoon looking at tuxes, and came to the sad realization that the only places that actually have tuxes to try on in person are closed on Sundays. But we did get some price quotes from the few that were open and though they werent ones that let you try them on, we did find the tux that he wants. We also looked at different vest options as well, and this week we are going to go in to a try on place and finally book it all! I am so excited.

This is the tux he liked the best. It's going to look soooo sexy on him!
I LOVE earth tones on him!

The vest he will wear will actually be about the same as the picture, a chanpagne/gold color. Then the boys will wear the same tux, with brown vests, and dusty rose colored ties to match the girl's dresses. Then Adam's dad and his grandpa and my grandpa will wear the same tux, but with probably a latte or brown colored vest and matching tie. I am so excited! It is going to look awesome. I was so worried about the brown colors of the wedding clashing with the black tuxes! Yay!

pink and perfect!

YAY! So last night I was playing around and looking for stuff on Etsy (goodness I'm addicted) and all of a sudden I got a message from 2BirdStone, who is dying my crinoline. She said my crinny was done, and to top it off, SENT PICTURES! I am so incredibly excited. It turned out amazing. It's on it's way back to me now and I can't wait to see it in person, but the pictures make me just oh so happy with joy.







Ahhh! I am in love.

on their way!

So after begging people for their addresses OVER and OVER again, we finally got the majority of the list, so we spent the evening touching up our Save the Dates and stuffing envelopes and I am happy to say, they are totally IN THE MAIL! So be looking for them in the next couple days! It was such a relief to get them out!

Again he wouldnt let me use the cutter!

So I got to stuff the envelopes!

Stamps!

All stamped and ready to go!

They are sent!!!

Now we just need to design the actual invites...Hmmm....