bye bye

obviously, for those of you who still check back. I haven't posted in a really long time. I'm super busy with my research and honestly don't really feel the need to relive the wedding on the blog. It was amazing. The pictures are amazing. I would recommend all of my vendors. but not to leave you completely without some love - a few pics from the wedding.

My beautiful dress by Marisa purchased at Jacqueline's Bridal

The boys in their ties (Nautica from Macy's) and socks (Banana Republic)

My fabulous bouquet by Arenas (note the green strawberries and the succulents - love it!)

The tables - arrangements in my antique bottles by Arenas

*All images by the wonderful Tammy Swales (whom I just love)

so for now, good bye.

maybe one day I will have another blog or continue writing here.

kind of stoked

today 3 packages are on their way to me, all should be arriving by friday (i hope)

1. veil i custom ordered from etsy seller Simple Beauty Veils
2. shoes from Gilt.com
3. two tour books of Israel from B&N - the Fodor's Guide and the 2010 update of Lonely Planet (very excited to plan our trip - just over a month away!)

invites printed and picked up by thursday

mom and sis arriving friday

saturday schedule:

• tailor shop for alterations to sis's BM dress
• drop by bakery to assess apple strudel as a possible alternative to wedding cake
• bridal shower
• change clothes (hehe - there may, possibly, probably be a sequin skirt involved)
• bachelorette party...

sunday:

• bye to sis :(
• crafting invites with mom, beau and others unknown
• if time stopping by another bakery
• bye to mom :(
• (lab to get data... not fun but necessary)

1st bridesmaid dress picked

My sister picked out the following Alfred Sung dress in organdy. I love how the layering on this dress is a simpler version of the layering on my wedding dress. I think they will look awesome together.

*Image from Dessy - style number D330

Its been a good wedding day

After weeks of bad wedding feelings with lots of stress and unhappiness today was a good day. I awoke with clarity on the bridesmaid dress issue, did not confer with anyone and sent an email to the girls (for those who care, I decided on black dresses from Dessy). I called my mom, told her the issue was over and she said good.

I've been having issues with florist. The first one, I didn't like. The second one, I really liked but has a "minimum" which is a couple hundred above my flower budget. The third, my favorite at the time (after an email from me wondering where the proposal is) informed me that my date is no longer available. Ugh! So I kind of freaked, and made an appointment and a florist I've driven past for 8 years, have never entered before but yet somehow decided years ago that they would do my wedding flowers. I did not initially call them because I heard (and assumed) they would be the most expensive. I met with them after lunch and I really enjoyed talking to the older gentleman (Edward) who does their wedding designs. Edward seemed to genuinely like my flower visions and embraced them. He also gave me a quote on the spot - which was amazing (since I'm still waiting for a quote from place #2, which I met with on Nov 6th - they claim I'll have it soon). Also, they are not as expensive as I thought. Their quote fell $200 bellow the top of my budget and $400 bellow the "minimum" at place #2. So, I'm pretty sure I've found a florist!

Finally, I was avoiding studying for an exam tomorrow by browsing Guilt and found these lovelies. After several rounds of texting with one of my style gurus, C, I bought them.

Ben-Amun pewter chandelier earrings with Swarovski crystal; 3 inches long, 1.25 inches wide

Retail: $205, Guilt price: $85! Holla!

Yay, for good wedding days.

Yay, for less wedding stress.

Yay (kind of), for procrastinating studying dev bio...

pretty dress

Sometimes I wish I had fancy parties to go to (and money to buy fancy dresses to wear to said parties). If I did I would wear this.

*Leila "Butterfly" dress on sale at Bloomingdales for $373.50

don't trust online pictures, or why i hate bridesmaid dresses

yeah, so those beautiful Dessy dresses - not so beautiful in person. In fact, not even remotely the same colors in person. An example.

"Smashing" in Matte Satin from the Dessy website - medium toned, purple/grey, classy:

"Smashing" in Matte Satin in person - dark! purple/red, 80s prom:

(bad iPhone pic, but still, the color is pretty close to the actual color)

Now, don't tell me those are the same color, or even variation due to the colors displayed by a computer monitor. Those are just different colors. Period.

dress for dancing?

I love the wedding dress I picked out, but yesterday as I was dancing around my room testing out some dance songs for the wedding playlist I really wanted a short dress. After a quick search, I'm totally lusting after this BCBGMAXAZRIA I found on the Nordstrom website.

But at about $400, its totally not happening. Maybe it will go on sale. Maybe I can pretend to justify it because my mom won't let me wear the wedding dress to the Israeli reception and she thinks I should get a short white dress to wear... hmm... must stalk the Nordstrom website and attempt to try on the dress while in Jersey for Thanksgiving.

PS - save the dates arrive Monday; labels designed and completed; postage for US bound letters procured; one more thing to (almost) check of my list - amazing!

"smashing" or "aubergine" or both?

Hopefully, going to see some dresses in person Thanksgiving weekend.

*images from Dessy

bridesmaid dresses

As with all things relating to my wedding, I am completely indecisive. My poor, sweet bridesmaids have been waiting for almost a year for me to decide what color dress I would like them to wear. I keep coming back to the idea of having them wear non-matching black dresses - mostly because its easy, and everyone either has a black dress in their closet or should have a black dress in their closet. My mother is very opposed to this idea. She thinks its spring and black dresses are inappropriate, and that we should have some color. Even though I keep telling her that 90% of the female guests will be in black, and I always wear black to weddings regardless of the season. So black is kind of out. Then I was thinking green, but I couldn't find any green that I liked, so I went back to black. Oh yeah, my mom really doesn't want black. Then I went to purple, and couldn't really find a purple that made me excited. So I moved on, and for the last couple of weeks I've been envisioning bridesmaids in grey with purple heels and purple bouquets. Apparently, my mom is not a fan of grey either. So while scouring Style Me Pretty for pictures of lovely SPRING weddings with grey bridesmaid dress, I found this picture.

(*source)

This is the color purple I want. Though, I think it could easily be argued that while its a color, its clearly not a spring color. I guess I just don't like "spring" colors. Anyone out their know where these dresses came from?

The Dessy Group has a color "smashing" thats close, but not quite. Maybe I need to go see it in person. I also like their deeper purple "aubergine". Perhaps maids in "smashing" and "aubergine" (and maybe one in "charcoal" - How about you Mrs/DrW?).

pretty pretty things

Can the 1950s please come back. I desperately want dresses like these filling my closet. Have I mentioned that I love swirly, poofy skirts.

And if it wasn't trendy to have vintage weddings, I would definitely wear a dress like this to my NON-vintage wedding.

*images from Timeless Vixen Vintage Shop on Etsy

PS - My new computer already had "Pro" versions of some of the fonts I was missing installed, and I was able to re-find most of the others (thank you iDIY!); however, the "Pro" version of Bickham script slightly different from the free version I used to have and I like the other one better, but I'm trying to get over it. le sigh.

So cool!

Alyson Hannigan wearing Vera at the 2009 Emmys

Does the dress look familiar?  It should, its a navy (looks black to me, but its supposedly navy) version of the Callalily dress from the Vera Wang Luxe Wedding Collection.  Its the dress my dress was based on!

PS - I'm a huge Buffy fan, and Willow is wearing my wedding dress (kind of) - so freakin' awesome!

weekend with mommy

my mom came to visit this weekend and we got a bunch of wedding stuff done.  

1st - we finally bought my official wedding dress.  yay!  so happy to have that done with.

2nd - we did a tasting of the appetizers and one of the entrees for the wedding.  all the food was superb.  we also went over some of the logistics and figured out how many tables we would need so that I would know when I talk with florists.

3rd - we confronted at the people at Peggy's Bridal about how they over charged me for the first dress I bought.  they were very stand-off-ish and completely unwilling to compromise.  so i now have the first dress in my closet and it makes me angry whenever I see it - i'll have to find a new place to put it until I can list it online and hope to get some of my money back.

4th - we looked through lots of pictures of flowers and table settings and discussed the floral arrangements for quite a while.  my mom isn't feeling the antique bottles, but Beau and I love them, and so we are doing it.  also, the owner of the venue said we could definitely use her mason jars and any other glass-ware she has.  after i pick a florist i'll definitely go over there and rummage through it all.  

and she kept me company at the lab for 4 hours on Saturday and 2.5 hours on Sunday - what a great mom!

wedding dress: check

(almost)

Picked a dress, just haven't bought it yet because my mommy wants to be there.  I ended choosing the Marissa.  I love how elegant, soft and flowing it is; and how its unique without being ostentatious.

I'm especially loving it with the veil!

For the Rochester area brides, I am most likely purchasing from Jacqueline's.  So far the sales person I've been working with has been very nice and helpful and did not seem to be annoyed with my indecision.  Also, they immediately agreed to match the price offered to me in Jersey, and I have it in writing.

*Pics by my dear friend CS

i'm an idiot

so apparently, i shouldn't search dress website in the middle of the night.  the "phantom" dress totally exists in the 2009 Collection, and I feel like an moron.  anyways, it doesn't matter because it cost $4700!

the phantom dress

i found this picture on the Birnbaum & Bullock website, under the "veils and accessories" tab.  i love the dress, i want the dress.  i can't find it anywhere else on their site - figures.  

anyways, i sent them an email to see if the dress exists and how much is costs.  i'm going to be in the city in a couple of weeks for a wedding shower so hopefully i can find a couple hours to trek to mid-town to try it on.  assuming it exists.  and i can afford it.  

the decision maker

So far in our wedding planning, Beau has been the decision maker.  I research all the options, narrow down to the few I like the most, share with him and then freak out about actually choosing.  Beau rationally looks at all the choices, decides which one he likes best, which one he thinks I like best (often the same) and picks for us.  This worked out really well with the venue and the photographer and choosing to not have a DJ, but now I need to pick a dress.  Its really getting ridiculous.  Every week I find more dresses that I would like to try on  (a lot of which require a trip to NYC, which isn't going to happen) and I become more and more indecisive.  Its gotten to the point where I am seriously considering taking Beau with me to try on dresses - he is after-all, the decision maker.  I'm not too concerned with him seeing me in the dress ahead of time because I know that he will promptly forget and by the day of the wedding will be completely surprised with how I look.  What do you think?

yet another dress...

So, I tried on the Marisa again this morning (the store in ROC had it!) and I still like it, a lot.  According to the woman helping me, its a knockoff of a Vera.  After going through the Vera website I've decided its a knockoff of the Vera Wang Luxe Callalily.

 

The Marisa dress is strapless (ie - no big poofy flower thing on the shoulder) and its a-line.  It does have the same neckline and same asymmetrically draped layers - which I love.  They are very soft and flowing.

Not actually on a planning vacation...

Remember when I thought I was done with planning till September - yeah, not so much.  Totally didn't register that I still need to buy a dress and that if I wait until September it will be cutting it close.  I was definitely blocking it out.  It all came crashing down when on a whim I made an appointment at a bridal store in Jersey so that I could go dress shopping just once with my BFF D before she moves to Turkey...  I actually found two dresses that I liked, so I now have a number of different options ranging in price from $900-3400; and ranging in style from empire goddess to princess ball gown to simple a-line to mermaid.  No idea how I'm going to pick.  Still can't get a clear mental image of what I want to look like the day of.  They all seem to mesh with different aspects of my personality.  Right now I'm leaning towards a Marisa that I saw this past weekend (sorry, the Marisa website totally sucks and I can't find a picture).  Its a flow-y a-line, very simple, but with some whimsy.  It would need a killer necklace, but I know just the place in Israel.  I'm going to attempt to try it on again here in the ROC, and then I might pull the trigger.

Nicole Miller Sale

Totally had to get this at the Blue Fly Nicole Miller sale.  ($128 marked down from $320!)

If it fits, I guess I'll wear it for engagement pics or the rehearsal dinner.

Just wish they still had this in my size... ($718 marked down from $1800!)

Other wedding attire...

(Still haven't officially picked a photog - we've narrowed down to two and are waiting to get some more information back from one of them - have I ever mentioned that I'm super indecisive.)

BUT onto other fabulous things, tonight Doctor Whimsy introduced me to Lulu's and aren't these dresses amazing!  

I want it them for engagement photos or the rehearsal dinner (especially the first and last ones).