Checking Back In....28 Days to Go!!!

I have been a delinquent blogger and I have so many updates to provide. To start, I can't believe we're just 28 days away from tying the knot. I'm not nervous but I would say that we're kind of at that point where we just want to get it over with. And I'm not complaining at all but we're ready to see all of our planning come together. So let's dive right in to the details...

RSVP Numbers
When we sent out our invites we definitely weren't expecting the response that we received. People were very excited to come and celebrate with us. But there have also been some hiccups as well but the good outweighs the bad. In the beginning we decided that we would have a kid friendly wedding, we have both friends and family with children and didn't want them to feel like they had to make a choice between their children and our wedding if they really wanted to attend. So in our final guest count I've broken it down by Adults, Kids under 5 and Kids 6-12, because I wanted to know how many kids needed some additional activities so they won't get restless and throw a tantrum vs. those who are old enough to hold their own. Without further ado, our guest count:

• Sent out 74 invitations
• Invited a total of 152 people (adults and children combined)
• Y - 116 (76%)
• 101 Adults
• 6 Kids 5 & Under
• 9 Kids 6-12
• N - 36 (24%)
• 29 Out-of-Towners
• 7 Local (mostly children being left behind or adults with health issues)

Throughout our time planning this wedding, I quoted all my vendors at 80 guests with a maximum of 90. I can't lie, I almost crapped my pants as the number continued to rise closer and closer to the 100 mark. And everytime another RSVP card came in I secretly crossed my fingers hoping it was a "No". As I updated my excel spreadsheet and refreshed my pivot tables (I sound really nerdy right now, but it works!) I just saw the catering costs increase with each new "yes" we received. I was seriously stressed out for a while because we had far exceeded what we had intended on from the beginning. But now about 3 weeks after receiving the bulk of our responses (there are still stragglers and people we have yet to hear from) I'm not worrying about it anymore. We're blessed to have so many people that want to come to our wedding to support us and celebrate with us. There will be no other time like this in our lives to openly celebrate the commitment we are making to one another, and I'm happy that people want to come and witness it.

DIY Hell
I have a confession...I'm a serial procrastinator. And this wedding is no exception. I created a list of a bunch of projects that I wanted to tackle early on in this process and bookmarked them to come back to. I purchased supplies on my many trips to Michael's but I never really got the energy to start any of them. So here I am literally 1 month away and I'm basically doing parts of projects everynight after work. And trying to carve out time on the weekends to wrap these things up, in between hair and makeup trials, marriage counseling and venue walk throughs. Of course because of the time crunch I've had to get rid of some projects, but they were mostly things that I was on the fence about in the first place. So I think I have a solid list of the things I need to get done, ASAP!

• Finish my cupcake tower which is in progress
• Create tissue paper poms to decorate the dessert bar area
• Design signs for the ceremony and reception space
• Design guestbook cards
• Create our ring bowl
• Kids activity buckets
• Cardbox
• Thank you cards
• Decorate the mason jars that will be used for the floral arrangements
• Memorial candles
• Flower girl wands
• Alot of other paper products (ceremony programs, favor tags, menus, etc)

Where has all the time gone. Thankfully alot of the things above I at least have a design for, I just need to print them out and assemble them. But I'm going to be steadily crossing things off this list and I will probably go down to the wire to get everything done.

How was your final month of planning before the wedding?

Dress Drama Averted

Last week I touched upon the fact that I wasn't sure about my dress. Well, I'm here to tell you that the feelings that I was having last week are now gone. I went to my final fitting on Friday (I know it's super early to be having a final fitting) and I took my mother with me this time. She's been absent from a couple of them due to scheduling and hadn't been able to see the progress of the dress as it was taking shape.

I was very apprehensive about the final product because we had discussed a couple of final tweaks that I wanted to make and I wasn't sure if it would be done to my liking but I wouldn't have any other chances to fix it because again, it was my final fitting. But nevertheless, we arrived and I was antsy and slipped into the gown, walked out and stood in front of the mirror. For the first time, I really liked what I saw. I was truly happy about the dress I was wearing and all the suggestions and little tweaks here and there resulted in something I was excited about.

I think the icing on the cake was the fact that my mother teared up for the first time. I think I was secretly waiting for that reaction the entire time and that was a great confirmation.

I'm going to hold off on pics for now as I get my wedding day look put together. But for reference here's my dress, not in it's final state, but pretty darn close.

I'm Afraid...

Quick Update: Sorry for being MIA for the past month. I've been extremely busy trying to get everything straight for the invitation suite and doing some faux calligraphy on our envelopes, which I will share in a later post. We're this close to sending them out to all of our guests and I can't wait to see how the guestlist shapes up. So stay posted...

In other news, I'm nervous about my dress. I'm afraid that I'm not in love with it...or is it just wedding jitters as we're getting closer and closer to the big day. To recap my dress journey or lack there of...I found the dress at Filene's Basement Running of the Brides, I didn't try on any dresses previous to that adventure but I did look at massive amounts of gowns in magazines. I bought the dress knowing that I wanted to make tweaks to it and I found my ultimate inspiration to help guide the work of my seamstress.

And now that I'm at the point of my final fitting with my seamstress (coming up thursday or friday) I'm not sure that I'm in love. Maybe it's not that I dislike the dress because it does have all the aspects that I was looking for, but maybe it's that I'm more disappointed that I didn't explore all my options through bridal salons to get a better feel for what I wanted. I was very intimidated by the entire idea of the bridal salons but I think I might have made a mistake with just getting the first bargain that came my way.

I'm torn as to what I should do because we're only 73 days away from the wedding. Do I start looking at sample dresses and start over to either confirm my love with my dress or find a new one. Either way I need to decide quickly as time is ticking. I know there are other brides who have found a dress in less time, but is it just nervous jitters or real regret...

Did you have any conflicting feelings over your dress purchase after it was all said and done?

Seriously...Super Padded

This past friday I was able to meet with Mrs. F for my second fitting. The whole 40 minute drive I was a little nervous because when we last left the dress it was all pinned up and I wasn't sure if my inspiration photos and my random but somewhat focused murmurs of details during our first meeting would translate into a dress that I would be actually like. At this point it's too late to find a new one so this is the final frontier. I'm happy to say that the shape of the dress which is the most important thing and the thing that I was most nervous about was just about perfect....But there was one major problem that I'm going to go ahead and rant about, the top of the dress.

Ok. Let me explain, because I don't hate it. I love the sweetheart shape (that was another must have all along) and I actually like the ruched detail...but how can I say this...there is too much space in the top, it's rather airy and I'm not exactly filling it out plus looking down it looks a little Madonna ish with the cone bra and all. I could be exaggerating a bit but my mom is on the same page, so we're both not bonkers here. I mean I don't necessarily have any body image issues but sheesh that sucked a little. Plus, Mrs. F's suggestion was to go and get a "super padded bra" to fill out the top and eliminate the awkward airiness...great. But I'm not sure that's the best solution because I was wearing what I thought was my wedding day strapless bra from Victoria's Secret but obviously it wasn't enough...so I went off and purchased another that promised to take me up 2 cup sizes...and it's definitely "super padded." We'll see how that works at the next fitting... But I finally have pictures of my dress...still a work in progress, take a peek!

Wedding Day Hair Possibilities

Since I've found my shoes, woo hoo! And highly contemplating my veil or hair flower options, one of the other major considerations is...my hair! Getting these thoughts together will really help toward finalizing my complete wedding day look. I've been conjuring up images in my mind of what I want my hair to look like and then of course I did a massive google image search and came up with these:

 

I like the elegant look of a sleek low bun. But I'm also drawn to those which are slightly messy, still in an elegant way, like Jessica Alba above. Particularly for me, since I have some hair challenges in the summer, i.e. slight sweat can bring on frizziness and sometimes extreme puffiness. That could've been slightly dramatic. But I know that with an August wedding and my hair texture and behavior that a combination like that is not suitable to wearing my hair down in any shape or fashion. And besides if I did an all down or half up half down type of style I'd be fiddling with it all day out of nervousness and I would be constantly checking it to make sure that it still looked the right way. So that very brief idea was quickly nixed.

Once I find someone who can do these looks within a reasonable price range (or experiment and test it out myself) I'll be able to determine if my inspiration actually translates into reality.

What kind of look are you going for on your wedding day?

I'm Obsessed with Tessa Kim

After tackling the major last minute to-do of the bridesmaid dress decision, today we're gonna talk veils. Not just any veils Tessa Kim veils. They're beautiful, soft and just great. I put off the thought of having a veil for a while because I just didn't want to put in the time to think about my wedding day look. But as I've started to think more about my hair, figured out my shoes, and purchased some jewelry, there's one obvious thing missing...a veil.

I see many birdcage veils that I think look really cool and beautiful like these:

Sara Gabriel "Wendy"

Sara Gabriel "Marilyn"

But for some reason I can't really envision myself in any of them. I don't think I'd be able to pull off anything like that. Then one day while browsing weddingbee, I saw a lovely veil, this one to be exact.

Tessa Kim - Mini Tulle Birdcage Veil

Then I dug a little deeper and found this one...

Tessa Kim - 18 inch tulle veil

But I still don't think those are quite right for me. The first one has what I like to describe as an elegant edginess. And I did like the second one, but the more I looked at it, it keeps reminding me of a tulle helmet.

I kept browsing through her site and I kept stumbling upon one lovely creation after another. And I must add that they are all very affordable, most under $100. That's another reason I love her and her designs.But then I started thinking, do I want to buy a veil and only wear it once and probably for a maximum of 2 hours the entire day. Or maybe find a pretty hair flower that I can wear all day. Decisions. Decisions. Decisions.

I'm still thinking about what I'll do. But here are my top two veil contenders from Tessa Kim:

Tessa Kim - 11 in tulle birdcage veil

Tessa Kim - Elbow length tulle veil

There's an obvious commonality between them all....tulle. I love it because it provides the softness that I think I'm looking for. And it doesn't have a bunch of sparkle which I like and they're simple.

Like many other things, I have a choice to make. And now I'm on the hunt for hair flowers....first stop Tessa Kim!

It's Final. Combo #1 it is

I'm so grateful to everyone who voted and gave me their unbiased opinions either here on the blog or on the weddingbee boards. Yes, I posted the question there too just because you can't be too sure. Right?? But everyone confirmed my initial thought to have every one of my girls wear a different dress. And it was an overwhelming YES! to the Ultra Mix and Match. So it's final we're going with combo #1.

The official results were:

• 70% Combo 1 - Ultra Mix and Match
• 17% Combo 2 - Semi Traditional 
• 9% Combo 3 -Modern Semi-Matchy
• 4% Combo 4 - Traditional Semi-Matchy

This is such a relief and now we're into the final stretch to get them all ordered and in our hands in time for alterations. Why did I do this to myself and my girls. This could've easily ended up being a major wedding FAIL! Crisis averted...I think. Or will soon find out. I'll keep you posted.

Again, thank you all so much.

Poll: Bridesmaid Dresses...Help Please!

I posted a while back about my bridesmaid dress options and the choices have stayed somewhat the same. It's getting extremely close to the date when my girls need to place their orders for their dresses and I'm clearly the holdup here. Last week I ordered fabric swatches for the colors and fabrics that I'm considering and there was a clear winner, so I can check that important task off my list. But now I need to choose the dresses so that each person can order them.....and here's the problem, I love the look of every girl wearing a different dress, but I also like the look of the classic bridal party wearing the same dress. And I'm torn...

Here are the four dress combinations that I'm considering ranging from the ultra mix-and-match to the semi-matchy-matchy. Tell me your favorite combination in the poll below.

Combo #1 - Ultra Mix and Match

Alfred Sung, Color - Italian Plum (Style No. from L to R): D470, D439, D438, D462

Combo #2 - Semi Traditional

 Combo #3 - Modern Semi-Matchy

Combo #4 - Traditional Semi-Matchy  

Hopefully this all hasn't become a blur for you like it has for me. Thanks for the help and I'm looking forward to seeing the results.

And the Winner Is...

I posted recently about my shoe situation but I'm happy to announce that I have finally picked a shoe. Here were my original 4 options:

Clockwise from top left - Enzo Angiolini Cristle, Merryann, Sully, Mezzo

Then I went to the mall with my mom and we found all but one, Mezzo. But I wasn't dissappointed because it wasn't one of my super faves anyway. I did end up trying on all three pairs and Sully was the odd shoe out. Even though I thought I wanted a platform, I definitely didn't feel too stable in these babies. They looked lovely on but I almost tripped a couple times just prancing through Nordstrom. So those were a definite no go. I've had a long standing shopping rule which is to never buy something from the first store I stop in (don't ask me why or how I came up with this but I think it has to do with the fact that I'm always holding out for a better deal) so I put the shoes on hold while we continued our search.

And I'm so happy we continued. We ventured to Macy's where we became super excited because the glittery Enzo Merryann that you see in the right above with the gold heel, well we found a pair that had a silver heel (sorry I don't have a pic)...I didn't know these existed! My eyeballs almost popped out of my head when I saw those, it was one of those hallelujah moments. Nevertheless, I bought two pairs of shoes and now I had a choice to make between these two:

Enzo Angiolini Cristle and Merryann

So I proceeded to try them on with my dress and stare blankly at a mirror for a couple minutes in each pair, then with one on each foot. But I still couldn't make a decision. Finally, it was the day of my fitting and I needed to take the pair of shoes with me that I'd be wearing so she could hem the dress properly. So it was down to the wire. I tried on the dress one more time and let my mom be the judge. She chose this pair:

Enzo Angiolini Cristle

Since both pairs are the same height I could've taken either pair and ended up alright, in terms of alterations. But I ended taking the pair that my mom selected and when I showed Mrs. F the shoes her reaction said it all. I had found my shoes...finally! 

Now I just need to take the other pair back before I change my mind again.

Flower Power

I'm heading out to a flower market this coming Saturday to check out some flowers and determine if my measly budget will even allow for a stem or two. Anyway, in the early days of planning I thought I would DIY my wedding flowers, like. every. last. one...bouquets, centerpieces, corsages, the whole shebang. But I don't have much of  a green thumb, I just had a pot of tulips that Mr. B bought me that are now dead and rotting. So I'm rethinking that idea. But that doesn't mean that I can't search for the beautiful flowers that I would like to have....and here they are...

I'm a bad blogger and forgot where I got most of these pics from and some of the names of the flowers too...sorry.


Top: Garden  Roses, Peonies, looks like more garden roses, Carnations
Middle: Dahlias, Baby's Breath, Hydrangea + Dahlias, Could it be more garden roses
Bottom: Unknown, Hydrangea, Ranunculus, Unknown mix, No clue

If you know the names of any of the unknown flowers please let me know.

The Road to My Dream Dress Starts Here

Source

I have my official first dress fitting tomorrow with my alterations lady . Let's call her Mrs. F. For now let's recap... back in mid February I had my first meeting with Mrs. F. During this meeting I tried on my dress gave her these pictures and we discussed how she works, her experience and what the general cost would be. She's a wonderful woman from London, I think, and she's super nice and open to all my ideas and she was also very realistic. She explained to me the different changes that I was interested in making to the dress in terms of how labor intensive those specific changes could be. Of course, more labor = more $$$. I wasn't expecting the estimate of the cost of the alterations to be as high as it was, but I don't want just anyone touching my dress and I have faith in Mrs. B, even though my mom was giving her the side-eye for a majority of the meeting.

But right after the dress meeting I realized that I wasn't in the physical condition that I wanted to be in for my next fitting let alone my wedding day. I'm going to attribute this situation to massive amounts of pizza eating while in the office. I'm talking it was pizza every week and sometimes twice a week. We were hooked. But I have to take some kind of accountability so I started to workout and we've since quit our random pizza binges. And for the past 4 weeks I've been going pretty hard in the workout department and I've lost about 2 lbs. I know I've probably lost more inches vs. actual weight and I'm fine with that because I'm feeling a little sleeker and I'm liking the results of my efforts.

At this time, I'm feeling pretty good about my appointment tomorrow. I know I still have work to do, but I don't feel like I'll be going there tomorrow in pitiful shape and in 2 months when I go to see Mrs. F again she'll have to take the dress in a lot more because I've done a major body overhaul.

I'll be back Monday to let everyone know how this went.

Did anything unexpected happen at your first dress fitting?

They're Done!

On Saturday I went to the post office with my mom to mail out our save the dates. I didn't do anything too fancy with the packaging the actual photocard, I didn't feel the need to spend any extra money on this aspect. I'll definitely be putting more effort into the invitations though.

As you saw in my semi-reveal, we decided to go with a photo save the date. And I really liked the way they turned out. We also received plain white envelopes but I felt like I needed a little something to dress them up a bit. Plus I don't think my handwriting is that great to be able to address all the envelopes in a legible manner. So we went with wrap around labels. Our planners created the design and I added the addresses to each using powepoint. I printed them out on full sheet labels and then proceeded to spend about 30 minutes cutting each one out. Suffice it to say that I could have really benefited from a paper cutter (my next wedding related purchase). Here they are before being cut out:

And here's the finished product. I didn't think I would care that much about the look of postage, but for some reason as soon as I stepped in line to buy the stamps I was hopeful that they had something that would coordinate well with the wrap around labels. And that woman at the post office made my day when she pulled out the perfect stamp, it even has the word love on it. I never thought I would care about this small detail but sometimes bride brain takes over and this was one of those moments.

The stack ready to be mailed out

Front

Back

The cost breakdown:

• 100 Photo postcards from Vistaprint - $12 (I only paid for shipping and didn't use all the postcards)
• Avery Full Sheet Labels - $12
• Postage - $22

The final cost for my save the dates are $46.00. I think that was pretty good for my first semi-diy project.

Save the Dates - The Semi-Reveal

I've taken waaayyy too long getting these things together and out of my house. As of right now, they're still sitting in the box they came in waiting to be stuffed in an envelope sealed and mailed out. But for all of you out there in bloggerland, here is the semi-reveal of our save the date design.

 

I know the image and text is a little small just click to enlarge.

I finally bought a new printer and finally got that all setup and installed so my top priority this week is to get these things out of my house and mailed to guests.

Shoes...Take Two

Ever since I had to give up my perfect Badgley Mischka Hyde's I haven't been able to find a shoe that I think is worthy. But the show must go on and so must my hunt for the perfect wedding day shoe. Enter my current contenders:

Clockwise from top left: All Enzo Angiolini Cristle, Merryann, Mezzo, Sully

I want the shoe to be somewhat comfortable (I mean as comfortable as a pair of heels can be, right?!?). I definitely want them to look elegant but with some kind of wow factor.

And they can't be over 4 inches high (I feel slightly unstable in anything that high) the last thing I need is to take a tumble down the aisle. I would actually prefer if they were around the 3.5-3.75 inch mark. I would like a peep toe and a platform as well.

All of the shoes above pretty much meet all the criteria except for the fit and comfort factor as I have yet to get them in my possession. We'll see if any of these shoes prove to be fit for the day. I plan on finding them in stores and trying them on. I just might have to buy a couple pairs and see which ones work the best with my dress if I find myself in a real shoe selection dilemma.

And yes, I realize they're all Enzo's. I saw one pair and just kept browsing for more of their selection and they were many great options. Plus they're affordable and lovely.

So we shall see what happens...

Finalizing Our Wedsite

After complaining about how I didn't want to tackle this area of the wedding process, I've finally given in and made some good progress.

In terms of the website, here are the different sections we've decided to include. It's rather basic but I hope to provide the information that people will be looking for leading up to the big day.

• Our Story - How we met, blah blah blah
• Meet the Wedding Party - to introduce the girls and guys that will be accompanying us and include a short bio and pic
• Registry Info - self explanatory
• Map and Directions - I get lost all the time and in the DMV there is a lot of construction going on and this will help them navigate the area and find our ceremony and reception sites
• Hotel Accommodations - We've secured a reasonably priced room block in Old Town Alexandria, VA so we'll provide that information along with a couple other convenient hotels in the area that we'll be blocking off
• Things to Do - Fun things to do while they're here in town if they so choose to venture out and about
• FAQs - Some general answers to questions that I think guests will be constantly asking us
• RSVP Information - If they want to RSVP online I think I'll provide that option as well as our general reply by date
• Contact Information - emails and phone numbers for both of us

Are there any sections or pages that I'm forgetting?

Long Distance No More

Hello All! Posting hasn't been very regular for like the past month or so. But I have a good reason. But first the details.

I don't think I explained that for the past 6-7 months that Mr. B and I have been living in separate states, doing the long distance romance thing. It's been a drain but we've obviously made it work. Back in June 2010, I was living in Philly and finalizing my plans to begin a new career in DC. Once I made all my arrangements, I moved back to the DMV and started my new job in August 2010. However, Mr. B didn't have the foresight to request a transfer early enough so he was stuck in Philly for a while. About 3 months passed, it's now November, and he was finally informed that they received his transfer and that it would "potentially" be approved. Long story short, he eventually received an official approval for his transfer in late February '11. And fast forward to this past weekend, we finally moved him and the rest of our stuff from our old Philly apartment back to the DMV.

So that's the reason, things have been slow around here. I've been busy figuring out what will happen with our apartment lease, scheduling moving trucks and just trying to make sure that everything goes smoothly. We're still in the process of unpacking some stuff and getting all of his things organized, but he's back, we're happy and we're moving forward.

Great things are on the horizon.

Save the Dates: A Prelude

I'm so excited to announce that our save the dates are designed and printed. We initially wanted to go with magnets but quickly realized that we didn't want to pay for them. Plus as a couple of my bridesmaids so wisely stated...people can use their own magnets to stick it to the fridge if they wanna.

So instead, we ordered postcards from Vistaprint, despite my apprehension in terms of overall quality. And luckily they turned out great. Plus, there was a major perk...they were absolutely free and all I had to do was pay for shipping. And to top it off they came with simple white envelopes all for free that we'll use to mail them out. I don't think we could've gotten a better deal than that.

I've written about my penny-pinching drama with wondering why I hired a planner but each day they are proving their overall value more and more. They created the design for the postcard and designed some wonderful wrap-around labels to spice up the plain white envelope. I couldn't be happier. Here's the pic we decided to go with...

I will reveal the final design and cost breakdown next week. But I'm so happy with how they turned out and we're on schedule with sending them out to everyone. Now I just have to track down a couple addresses...

What kind of save the date did you decide to send your guests.

Wedding Rambles - Why Have a Wedding?

Throughout our relationship Mr. B and I have been asked and at times a little pressured to just go to the courthouse and get married. For many couples that's exactly what they want to do and they don't even think twice about having a marriage ceremony and reception. But for me, that was never an option. And no, I wasn't one of those girls who has had dreams about her wedding day since she was 6 but I did know that I wanted to have a ceremony and reception.

I've only been to 1 wedding in my lifetime but for that one I really felt the love and commitment between the two individuals and for that short time, I really felt a part of their love celebration. And that was one of the main reasons why I decided that there was no other way. I would love to save money and just elope because I can be somewhat of a penny-pincher at times, but after these 7 long years together I think we deserve a day to celebrate our love on a grand scale with our closest family and friends.

Another reason I wanted a wedding was because my parents never had a wedding. Although they are divorced now, I always wonder what my parents wedding would've looked like. And for my children I want them to be able to experience our wedding day and see the love that we have for one another.

I'm not going to lie, as we start to shell out more deposits and think about the money we've committed to vendors, eloping is a great and frugal way to go. But I have to continue to remind myself that the wedding isn't just about our love story but its about the all the wonderful individuals that we'll be celebrating with as well and sharing the beginning of our lives together as husband and wife.

Why did you decide to have a wedding celebration vs. just eloping?

Sailing Away

It was sort of a no brainer when we started talking about our honeymoon destination. We pretty much knew that we would be taking a cruise on one of Royal Caribbean's new line of ships from the Oasis Class, either the Oasis or the Allure. These ships are basically small cities roaming the seas, complete with a neighborhoods like Central Park and the Boardwalk just to name a few.

Mr. B and I had the wonderful opportunity of going with my side of the family on a 7 day cruise over the Thanksgiving holiday in 2009. We were with my rather large family of about 20+ aunts, uncles, cousins and my grandparents of course. And we had a blast! When the trip was over we knew we definitely wanted to go again in the future. And there is no better time to take our second cruise together than as husband and wife.

I've been on about 4 cruises, all of them Royal Caribbean and we never considered any other cruiseline. I get some major perks from being a past cruiser and I've loved my experience with their company. We're going to take an Eastern Caribbean itinerary which makes the following port stops:

• Fort Lauderdale, Florida
• Nassau, Bahamas
• Charlotte Amalie, St. Thomas
• Philipsburg, St. Maarten

We haven't picked an actual sail date but we hope to go within 3 weeks of our actual wedding date, of course the sooner the better.

Was picking your honeymoon destination a no brainer?

Dresses for the Ladies

I've put it off for a while now and without my fantastic MOH there still wouldn't be any new news regarding dress shopping or selection. It just hasn't been one of my priorities thus far. However, throughout the process I knew a couple of things:

1. I would select the color of the dress
2. I would select a range of dress designs that I liked within a specific line (i.e. Dessy, David's, Lela Rose)
3. The girls would have free reign within those two restrictions to select the gown that they wanna rock on my big day

Based on #1 here's the color that we're gong for:

Pantone Merlot

From #2 here are some of the dress options that we're considering:

Top Row: All Alfred Angelo via Dessy.com; Bottom Row: Lela Rose and Cynthia Rowley via Dessy.com

Before I got deep into wedding planning bliss, I received some advice from a wedding planner friend...whatever you do, do NOT take all your bridesmaids with you dress shopping, you will only leave with a headache and possibly be very annoyed with your ladies. With this advice, me and a 2 of my girls, one being the MOH, went dress shopping on Saturday in Old Town Alexandria to a Le Star Bridal to scope out some of our faves. Did I mention that this was the first time I stepped foot into a bridal salon (besides David's) and I didn't even tempt myself into looking for anything for myself...it took a little will power because there were some lovely dresses on display as we walked in, but i digress...

I think overall it was a successful trip despite a couple things that annoyed me about the shop (but that's another story). We used this shopping trip to narrow down our options and we left knowing that we had found all of our dress options. Shopping success!

I'll reveal the finalists in a later post.

How was your experience dress shopping with your bridesmaids?

We've Hit the 6 Month Mark!

Let me start by saying...wow, where does the time go! I feel like it was just yesterday when we settled on a wedding date. But we've been planning this wedding full-on since August 2010, which has given us a lot of time to get things booked and scheduled. And now that most of the big ticket vendors have been locked in, it's time to get to the small stuff...the details.

But before I start in on the next chapter of our wedding planning frenzy, here's a peek into what we've accomplished most recently:

• Booked our caterer, mmm!
• Ordered our Save the Dates
• Booked our DJ
• Officially booked our photog (we had locked him in, informally, but now we've have our contract in and signed)
• Picked our honeymoon destination
• Set a date for our wedding shower
• Scheduled our first bridesmaid dress fitting

I love writing this stuff out because the small (and big) accomplishments really seem to get lost in the shuffle sometimes. But every now and again, this reminds me that we're definitely making progress.

The Road to My Dream Dress

As some of you already know I found my dress at the Running of the Brides event here in DC last summer, if you didn't you can read about here. I like my dress but when I bought it I knew there were some things that I would like to change about it, namely the neckline and tweak the shape a bit. To me they're minor things but I have an alterations appointment tonight and I guess she'll let me know what's minor and what's major including costs.

I'm sure you want to see what my dress currently looks like, well...

Feeling a Little Guilty

Source

I've been going back and forth on whether to post this or not but here it goes...

I know there's someone out there who has felt guilty about a wedding related purchase. Well for me, I'm feeling guilty about hiring a full-service wedding planning team. I started out planning the wedding solo (with Mr.B in tow of course), gathering vendor options, inspiration galore and creating my gameplan and timeline. Then we met with a wedding planning duo for the purposes of just DOC services. They sounded too good to be true and we ended hiring them full-time, we couldn't pass up this deal and great opportunity, plus it would help ease some of my planning related stress.

And in the couple months since, I've had great design discussions and they have gotten us great vendors to choose from. Not to mention they've helped us bring to life some of the wonderful details I've dreamed of early on. Yet, from time to time I find myself feeling a little bad for choosing to go with a planner. I guess I'm feeling sort of like a DIY wedding failure. Browsing various blogs and seeing how other women have courageously planned and put together fabulous weddings on similarly tight budgets without the help of a planner and sometimes not even a DOC makes me think that I took the easy way out. At the beginning going at it alone, I felt a sense a pride in that I was doing everything myself. But now not so much. And especially with such a tight budget sometimes I feel like other brides at times in that I could have definitely used that money towards something else.

And don't get me wrong, I feel like our planning team has done a fabulous job and they have been worth their investment thus far. I guess there's just some internal struggles going on here that I'll have o work on reconciling.

Have you felt guilty about a major wedding related purchase?

E-pics are Here...Go Terps!

If you weren't aware, UMD plays Duke tonight, hence the title of this post. But back to the real reason you're here...the e-pics! I received the cd with all our photo selections last Friday from my cousin who did an awesome job. And here are our top choices for your viewing pleasure!

 *Some lovey dovey photos ahead :)

If you missed any of the posts leading up to the big reveal check 'em out here:

• Brr! It's Cold Outside
• How to Survive a Winter E-Pic Session

Let's Eat...Success!

Leading up to my tasting I have been so nervous and even had a crazy nightmare. Well, I'm here to report the tasting was uber successful!

Ok...one part of the dream was slightly correct, the caterer's office was located in some random industrial park type location, but other than that, everything else about the dream was totally fictional and looking back on it just plain crazy! I was a little disappointed when we scheduled the tasting appointment because I knew that Mr. B wouldn't be able to attend as he is still away in Philly. But thankfully I had some wonderful people there with me to discuss the food and provide additional suggestions and opinions. I brought along my father, my youngest bridesmaid and my FMIL. I'm so grateful for their attendance. Afterward we had a good idea of some of the tweaks and substitutions that we could make to ensure that the menu is well received by a majority of the guests.

Without further ado, here's the food:
*Sorry guys, I was too busy eating and enjoying the food thus the picture quality suffered a bit.

Hor D'ouevres (clockwise from top left) - Beef Empanadas, Shrimp and Grits, Bourbon BBQ Chicken Skewers

Entree Choice #1 - Buttermilk Fried Chicken w/ White Gravy and Garlic Mashed Potatoes and Steamed Veggies in a Tarragon Butter

Entree Choice #2 - Pan Seared Salmon with Lemon Butter Sauce w/Garlic Mashed Potatoes

Quick Review:

• Hor D'ouevres - LOVED 'EM ALL! I wouldn't change a thing...ok maybe a little more cheese in the grits but who doesn't like a little more cheese. Otherwise, they were all so tasty and right on point, finger lickin good, lol.
  
  
• Entree #1 - This was also fantastic, I think the only thing we will change will be the vegetable selection. I like the veggie choice that we selected, but after speaking with my other fellow tasters, we concluded that the majority of guests probably wouldn't eat that particular veggie selection. So we have identified one possible substitution.
  
  
• Entree #2 - The salmon was cooked perfectly and had the best crispy crust on the top. And the lemon butter sauce was a perfect complement. We just need to find another option for a second starch so that people won't be stuck with just mashed potatoes.

My First Wedding Dream...I Mean Nightmare

It's actually not the first but it's the most realistic and tangible one yet. As I've mentioned before, I have my first tasting today with our number one catering choice. I've been so nervous lately about how this is going to turn out. And last night just reinforced those nervous feelings.

The dream starts out as I'm driving to the caterers office and once I get there I realize were in some really crappy strip mall type of place with the cheesy fluorescent 7-eleven style light-up words. I gasp and wonder OMG what have I gotten myself into. I bring the rest of my tasting team in and we get started. The setting was horrific, were sitting in a cafeteria style room with the tables and benches from 3rd grade. And when they finally bring the food out, it's lukewarm and it looks and tastes like cafeteria food...bland, no type of presentation whatsoever and just plain nasty! I leave really pissed off because it was huge waste of time and now were back to square one in the search for a caterer.

I'm confident that my experience today will be nothing like the one from my dream but I can't help but think of how my thoughts have manifested into this grand dreamland scenario.

Tasting update coming tomorrow!

Let's Eat!

Some fancy salmon and caviar hor'deurves

We have our first tasting coming up on Monday and I'm a little nervous. Did we pick the right menu items? Did we play it too safe with the entree options? Is it going to suck? And the questions go on and on.

I think we decided on a great area caterer to move forward with to have an initial tasting. Our budget really helped to dictate our choice as well. We wanted to make sure to get a good bang for our buck in the catering department and we both love to go out to eat so we wanted our guests to have a fantastic food experience at our wedding. I've termed our wedding food choices as upscale comfort food when discussing ideas with our planners. Our families both have southern roots, his family has ties to North Carolina and my family has ties to New Orleans. So we knew that we didn't want any food that our guests couldn't identify with because they wouldn't be open to trying it and it would go to waste. Plus people just wouldn't have a good time. And we don't like any food that's too complicated so were trying to stick with items that are familiar but with a twist.

And I think that's where the anxious feelings stem from. Since we are sticking to familiar items, will they be memorable or will someone compare it to something back home. I'll just have to wait and see what happens at the tasting. It won't be our last chance to make tweaks to the menu and taste their food, so that puts me at ease a little bit.

There will be lot's of food pics coming and hopefully good news after this appointment. What were your experiences with your caterer?

Gettin Fit for Life: January Update

At the start of the new year I wrote about trying to get in shape not just for the wedding but for life. Can I say that I'm off to a great start, yeah... not so much. So here's what's happened thus far:

I was on a roll going into the holidays as I had created a routine for myself where I would work out at least 3 times a week. I prefer TV workouts available through On Demand so that's what I was using. It allows me access to a variety of workouts so that I don't get bored. And I was able to keep this up throughout the holidays.

But then sometime between my travels back and forth to Philly during the start of the new year, to visit Mr.B I lost my motivation to continue what I had started. I think I had even lost a lb or two. And then last week, I'm pretty sure I injured my knee (I heard a loud pop) while doing a workout. So after that incident I rested it for a couple days and it's been hard to get back into the groove again.

I started my workouts again last night. I did my best but I noticed I was a little apprehensive about anything that works the lower body, so I think it'll be a little while longer before I'm 100% again. However, despite this setback, I've decided to set a goal for myself to work out at least 3 times a week (between cardio and strength exercises). I'm hoping to stay consistent with this for a month, track my progress and continue along.

I want to credit the "Bridal Fitness" posts over at Lovely Little Details for giving me that weekly dose of fitness guidance that I need to stay on track and continue educating myself in the realm of overall fitness and nutrition. So take a look for yourselves!

Do you have any fitness goals either specifically for the wedding in general that you're working towards?

How to Survive a Winter E-Pic Session

We had a busy saturday planned and we made the most of it. In the DC area, this past saturday was coined as the coldest day thus far for winter and boy it felt like it. I just kept wondering why does the coldest day of the year (so far) have to be the day when I'll be spending a good amount of time outside...oh well, we just decided to roll with the weather punches and keep it moving.

We ventured out to our alma mater, the University of Maryland College Park. There are so many great buildings and open spaces to utilize as the backdrop for our session. Just driving onto campus brought back so many great memories. You don't realize how fast 4 years really flies by. After getting onto campus we met up with my cousin who was our wonderful photog. We mapped out a quick course of action and hit the campus.

At the beginning of the session we were both very nervous and took a little time to warm up to being in front of the camera. But after about 10 minutes we loosened up, laughed a lot and eventually had a great time.

So here are my tips for any couples out there who are considering or are planning a winter e-pic session.

• Make sure to choose a coat that is warm yet sleek, i.e. close-fitting to the body (please no large puffy coats!!)
• Are you willing to go coat-less for a couple shots? If so, then make sure you consider what you both are wearing under the coat and try to coordinate somewhat but forgo the matchy-matchy
• LAUGH! Laugh alot! It gets the blood flowing which in turns warms you up a bit and laughter is the best way to get a more natural smile

Those are some of things I'm glad we did and they really did help us get through the session. I can't wait to share some of our favorites with you in an upcoming post so stay tuned!

Why Can't Our Names Be Kate & Drew

Etsy Seller: Lilafrance

 Same source as above

Well they aren't and they're too long to have customized into these cute photoworthy hangers. I'm pretty I want one I just need to figure out what I want it to say...I'm off to brainstorm a hanger catch phrase.

Brides, It's Ok...

This may eventually turn into a weekly or monthly feature of thoughts, actions, etc that others may think are crazy but we know as brides it's ok to think, feel, do, etc, etc, etc. This is an adaptation of the Glamour magazine feature "Hey, it's ok!" which I love to read every month and I can definitely relate to many of them each time.

So here it goes.

Brides, It's Ok...

1. To want your FI to be involved in decisions but make it easier by giving him only 3 options which you selected to choose from
2. To make a weekly trip to Michaels, you can't let those coupons go to waste!
3. To change your color palette 3, maybe 4 times...ok...it's more like 6 but who's counting

Brr! It's Cold Outside

We are fast approaching our deadline for sending out our save the dates and we would both like to have a photo std card to send out, something like these. The only problem is, we have ZERO photos that we both like which are actually usable. But thankfully, my cousin is coming to our rescue and doing an impromptu e-session. She is our go to family event photog, and well, she's just great. I'm just nervous about the weather. I'm the type of person who wears a scarf in the summer in the office because the AC is on too high, so obviously I don't do very well in the winter. And to top it off, in the past month or so we've gotten hit with snow, freezing rain and blustery winds that have made me shed a tear (I can't make this stuff up). So I'm crossing my fingers that none of the crazy weather will make an appearance and I'm hoping that it will just get above 35 degrees.

I'm gonna suck it up, bundle up (in something cute of course) and hopefully produce some beautiful, natural looking e-pics.

Were So Lucky!

* FYI from here on out I'll be referring to my FI as Mr. B, more aliases to come :)

I received a call from my aunt a couple weeks ago. She wanted to know if she could organize and throw the bridal shower. She has out done herself at previous family events time and time again so how could I say no. I was so excited because I know it we will have a great time. But during our quick chat she asked me something I hadn't even thought of...do you want to include Mr. B and his family in the shower as well? I told her I would think about it and talk to him about it as well. I called my mom to ask her opinion and she had already spoken to my aunt and they were on the same page. I ran it past Mr. B and he didn't oppose it, so with that, we'll be having a co-ed wedding shower!

I'm so excited. Even though it's many months away I'm just happy for the possibilities. It will be one of the first times that both of our immediate families get together and meet up. We will be able to celebrate us as a couple along with all of our loved ones and enjoy the day together and eat great food.

I had never thought about having a "wedding shower" instead of traditional bridal shower but it's a great option for us and I can't wait to see the great family pics that will come out of this event.

Inspiration Files: Save the Dates

Were coming up on the 7 month mark and we would really like to get our stds out to our guests. My FI really wants magnet style stds because he wants something that will be little keepsake leading up to our wedding. So I think that's what we'll be going with. But in terms of the look of the design here are some of the examples that we're swooning over right now.

*All photos from weddingpaperdivas.com

Stay posted, were taking some engagement pics next weekend and then it's time to start designing!