To Get Made Up- or not

I've been having some serious debates with myself. I have been doing my own hair and make-up for years. In fact, several of my friends have had me do their hair for important events such as: dances, banquets, prom, christmas parties, ect..

Although I had fixed my hair for years and knew I could do a good enough job on Wedding day, it was an easy decision for me to farm it out. I am not going to want the stress of doing my own hair on wedding day. And as it so happened, a very close friend of The Man's family is a hairdresser and has OFFERED me her hair services for the big day! Of course I graciously accepted.

The debate occurs over make-up. I think I do fairly well with applying my own make up. I have evolved over the years to go along with the times. Although I do a good enough job with my make-up, I couldn't decide if, well, it would be good enough for wedding day. I started looking into prices for bridal make-up and was shocked at some of the prices being charged for this sort of thing. I'm not going to lie, I had a hard time thinking spending 100+ was okay for a makeup application which i'm going to wash away at the end of the night. I decided maybe I should just do my own.



But sometimes I tend to have a heavy hand with the blush and I didn't want to end up looking like this:

Although I think Paris is beautiful, this is not the look I'm going for. I want something more natural looking- like a "blushing bride" with neautral light colors.

I have been practicing at achieving the look I so desire, but not with much luck. I'm also worried about spending tons-o-money on a look that I don't like. I don't want to look made up and I don't want heavy eyeliner. Eyeliner loks great on some people, but I have tried and I mean Tried to use eyeliner on many occasions, and I just don't like the way it looks on me. I look off, and to be honest, it just doesn't do it for me.

These are women who have given me make-up inspiration for wedding day:

Since I couldn't decide on just one look, I made a mosiac using masiac maker at http://bighugelabs.com/flickr/mosaic.php and I have to say, I didn't do too bad for my first creation.

The mosiac maker is really easy to use. You decide on how big you want it to be (how many rows, columns, layout) and you upload pictures to it from your computer or any url address and as long as the sites your uploading from haven't "opted out" of the service, mosiac maker will create the mosiac you so desire!

I could play on this thing for hours.

Right now, I'm leaning towards Elisha Cuthart's breathtaking look (the middle pic) but I'd need a little more color on my cheeks. I think Charlize Theron's look is a little toooo eyeliner-y for me and is a little more dramatic than the rest, but I liked the it- minus the eyeliner. I'm having a hard time deciding between all the pictures which ones I'll be using/trying out. Which look do you think I should go with?

I have found a makeup artist willing to travel to my hotel and she just so happens to be very affordable. I've decided I'm going to have a consultation (free) with her in March and we will see how it goes from there. So as of now, I'm undecided. Anyone else toying with the idea of doing their own make-up?

Get Your Craft On: The Cardbox

Some of you may have seen my sorry attempt at making a cardbox a few posts ago. I wasn't completely happy with the way it turned out and then as it turned out, cards wouldn't fit in it as it wasn't deep enough. Oh well, I'll chalk it up to a learning experience! Measure first, attempt later. It gave me a reason to make another card box though, and I was hoping that it would come out way better than the first attempt.

Materials Needed:

3 Boxes big enough for cards to fit in- varying sizes

1 can of Kiltz spray paint

1 can of Rustoleum Aqua Spray Paint

3 spools White Ribbon (1 with wire in it)

Hot Glue Gun and hot glue sticks

Box cutter

Glue Dots (already had these)

Floral wire

Cost= Less than $20

Step one- Find boxes that are large enough to hold cards
I looked ALL over for boxes in the right size that wouldn't break the budget. I finally scored when Cooper and I went to the Christmas Tree Shop where there were several boxes there that we found that would work quite nicely. While not quite as square as I wanted them to be, the sizes were exactly what I was picturing. And since I couldn't find ANY boxes anywhere that were what I was envisioning, and because they were so cheap, I decided to roll with them. Cooper, being the best MOH ever, used her extreme height to help me (short here) reach some of the ones on the very top shelf... the Untouched ones. Cooper is spectacular at inspecting things for flaws, so of course I left there with the best boxes ever. Thanks Cooper! It cost about $12 for all 3 boxes.

Step Two- Find a design
I found a cool idea I wanted to do online for sale for $60+ shipping. No way was I going to spend $60 on a card box!

Step Three- Construct
1. My boxes had a beautiful design on them.. they weren't plain, but I figured that wouldn't be a problem for me and my Kiltz. If the design would have went with my wedding theme, i would have kept it, but alas, it did not... so I brought my boxes outside and Kiltzed them. Kiltz is like a primer that covers everything up and makes it really easy to paint over anything. We had some good Kiltz experiences when we were fixing up the house. Of course it decided to become extremely windy in the middle of my kiltzing and I ended up having to go get some more as it was blowing all over and not getting the boxes like it should have been. I think I had an old can of it or something too, because it really sucked. So I went down to the hardware store down the road covered in kiltz white paint. I looked super hot. Luckily, I wasn't looking to pick anyone up and I really didn't care. The second can of Kiltz worked super well. So good, in fact, it made me think the first can was flawed somehow. The Kiltzing went smoothly after that... except for when the wind picked up and blew my box lids all over the place (yep, I had to chase them through the yard) Lucky for me, no damage was done.

2. After the kiltz dried, I sprayed them with my aqua paint. They looked nice. I sprayed 2 coats, let them dry and brought them in. I saw some places I needed some touch ups because of the dumb wind.

3. Next cut out the slot with the box cutter. Yep, totally should have done this BEFORE painting. Duh. I totally needed to do touch ups after this step was completed. I seemed to like making more work for myself. I also cut a hole in the lid of the bottom box to let the cards fall into that one as well. It was annoying and took forever, but came out really nicely.

4. Touch ups. brought them all back outside and sprayed them all again. Perfection was reached.

5. Glue boxes together using glue gun. Admire work.

6. Attach ribbon to the box with Glue dots (really cool stuff). It totally needed something more, so I was off to AC Moore again for more ribbon.

7. I bought some white ribbon with wire so I could make a big bow for the top. I found a cool tutorial on youtube showing me how to create a bow:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EVdRsNmnkW4

I wanted to make my bow fuller than she does in the video, so I just kept making more and more loops.

8. Use floral wire to tie the middle of bow off. Puff out loops. Attach to box using glue dots or glue gun.

9. Find somewhere to store it for (7) months!

A Rookie Mistake: A DIY Disaster

Early on into the engagement I took a trip to JoAnn Fabrics and found the most beautiful turquoise sparkly fabric. I quickly decided that I could use this to create my card box. So I quickly bought 1 yard. She told me that if I needed more of that same fabric, all I would have to do is bring my receipt in (the one they pin onto the fabric) because it has the skew # or some number on it that they use to identify the fabric. This was great news because I wasn't sure how much I would need. Save your receipts girls!

I had scouted the internet for Ideas weeks before and had decided that instead of paying that much for a card box, I could create one that was personalized to our wedding and that cost less.

I bought 1 picture box and 1 CD box which was taller than the picture box while I was there, thinking I would stack them, and some white and hot pink ribbon. I was all set with my supplies and couldn't wait to get started.

I went downstairs to my craft bin (yep, I have a whole bin-one of the plastic ones they sell at walmart- and it's pink, to keep my crafting supplies in) and I got out my trusty Glue gun and some glue, and my exacto knife.

I promptly drew on the cd box a rectangular hole that I planned on cutting out with my exacto knife. It took forever, but I cut it out and it was perfectly ready to be crafted into my cardbox!

I wrapped it like I would wrap a Christmas present-I wrapped the top of the cd box separate from the bottom and i wrapped the whole picture box as one. Then I cut a slit into the fabric where the slot was on the CD box cover (this did not work out as I had imagined). The fabric started shredding because of my great idea, and although I just planned on wrapping it into the slot and gluing it underneath, it was running (it looked like a run in a stocking). So I tried to hide my mistakes by gluing on some ribbon all around the slot. The box then looked silly with that being the only spot for ribbon, so I went a little ribbon crazy after that.

After I finished wrapping the two boxes, and many many burnt fingers, I positioned the boxes with one on top of the other, and I wasn't loving it. So I decided to be a little more artsy and placed one on top of the other resting on an angle.

I liked that better, but it needed a little something else. I scrounged around the house and found two jewelry boxes that were small enough to be used, and I wrapped those with the fabric scraps I had left.

I made a trip to AC Moore and bought some wooden letters and painted them a hot pink (the man wasn't happy his initial was pink) and then crafted them to my box too. I glued all the boxes together to make sure they didn't shift and then places my letters in front.

It didn't come out horrible, but I didn't come out like I envisioned it either. I wasn't completely happy with the results. Here is my finished product:

Photo by Me!

I wasn't thrilled with the ribbon placement, but I needed it around the slot, as I had a lot of trouble with the fabric there and it was hiding my mistakes. I showed it to Partner in Crime and she loved it so I figured it couldn't be THAT bad. I guess I had just put such high hopes into it that I was expecting better.

I set it on the table to admire it and to hopefully fall in love with it.

The next day we got a card in the mail. I decided to try out my card box and went to put the card into it. It slid in but there was a problem. Part of it was sticking out, about an inch of it was sticking out actually. It was a standard sized card and if that didn't fit in there then none of the cards would fit in there.

So there you have it. My biggest mistake. Not measuring the height of the box to see if the cards would fit in there. Since I glued the boxes together, I couldn't take it apart and change the positioning because you'd see the hot glue on the fabric. Brilliant me. Measure, measure, measure girls!

I have to admit, I wasn't heartbroken that it was too small. I did waste a lot of time, and some money, but like I said- I wasn't in love with it... and now I had the chance to make a new one, a better one.

Have any of you had any big DIY disasters?

All the Pretty Things: The Girls Attire

While shopping at Davids bridal I looked at the Bridesmaid dresses with Cooper. She tried on several styles to narrow down the options. Cooper, along with several of my Bridesmaids have the same body shape. The other bridesmaids are all pretty tiny and shaped about the same as mini-me. I knew if we could find a dress that looked fabulous on Cooper and Mini-me, that it would look fabulous on all my girls and since I didn't have the luxury of bringing them all along, having Cooper and mini-me try the dress on gave an accurate view of what my bridal party would look like in the dress.

I know a lot of brides are moving away from dressing their bridal party in the same dresses and now letting them pick their own, but I really like the uniformity the same dress offers and I love how it looks. Plus I thought finding different dress styles in the same turquoise color would be near impossible. So my girls will all be wearing the same dress, and they really don't mind. Since 3 of my girls don't live around here, I knew I would have to bring my girls that were here with me and then get everyone's opinion.

I had e-mail several styles I liked to my girls beforehand (not from Davids) to get their oppinions and compare to when Cooper tried on the Davids dresses.

I took pictures of all the dresses Cooper tried on while we were shopping together and sent them to the girls. They all seemed to REALLY like the same one that Cooper and I both really liked. And so, it was decided. The bridemaid dress would be Davids Bridal Style No. F13128 or better seen here on MOH Cooper*:

*Not the color of our dresses

I brought Mini-me down to try it on as well, but *doh* forgot my camera that day.

...........Or here on Bridesmaid Partner In Crime(also not the color of our dresses):

The style is perfect for an August wedding by the Lake. Since our wedding is going to be outdoors, I wanted something light and airy for the girls. This short Chiffon number does the trick perfectly. And it comes with straps that you can hook on if you're not comfortable with a strapless. The only thing I wasn't in LOVE with was the color. The closest they had to turquoise was Pool, which is more of an aqua than a turquoise. Davids didn't have a turquoise and so any dress I picked I would have to go with this color.

I wanted to hold off on ordering right away as I still had plenty of time and wanted to make sure it was what we all really wanted. MOH Cooper liked the dress so much she wanted to order it right away!

And while I'm patiently waiting for them to get sized the most amazing thing happened---Davids came out with new colors for spring. And while Cooper was stalking her dress online, wanting to possibly buy one in a different color for New Years, she noticed the new colors. She called me promptly and left a message about a color she knew I would like. It is called Mermaid and it is almost a perfect turquoise! How excited was I, you ask? Very. I called Davids and switched the color on my order right away. Don't panic--I DID go down and view it in person too.

The Mermaid IS a little more on the green side in the satin dresses..... but in the chiffon, it is perfection! They actually HAD it in my BM dress, but it was in a really large size so the girls who were with me couldn't try it on. It photographs somewhat darker than it is in person....BUT they loved the new color, and so did I....

Photo by Me

The girls are going to wear their own choice of silver shoes with the dress. Turquoise and silver look fabulous together and who doesn't want a nice pair of silver shoes?

on another note.......

How perfect would these Michael Kors shoes be to give them each as a BM gift (for the reception if their shoes hurt)? It's a shame that they are $200/pair or they would be on the gifting list for sure!

How did you go about choosing a Bridesmaid attire if all your girls weren't in the same area?

Houston, We Have a Problem.

Remember when I said I'd show you which dress I picked when it came in? Well, I wasn't telling the whole story. I did pick one of the dresses from Davids Bridal and we did place the order in October and then my dress came in-- in November. I wasn't expecting it to come in so quickly because they had told me it wouldn't be in until February, and then here it was about 4 weeks later, ready to be picked up and stored for the next 8 months. I decided to order it early because my consultant had told me it was being discontinued when the new season's dresses came out... and so I knew what I wanted and placed the order right then and there, ensuring that I would get my lovely.

I was really excited about it being in and even more excited that I had ordered my shoes and could try them on with my dress and look fabulous. I told MOH Cooper it was in and she wanted to go with me to pick it up. Since Davids is about an hour away from my house, we decided to make a WHOLE day of shopping out of it and to pick my dress up at the end of the day-- so that no one would steal it out of the car(a little crazy I know).

After Cooper and I had shopped until we dropped, we headed straight over to Davids for my dress. My consultant grabbed it for me and set it up in the room and then was back to her old ways of ignoring me. I was fine with it, I had Cooper with me to help.

So, I put my dress on and, I'm not gonna lie, it felt a little different to me... like it was shorter or something. Then I saw it in the mirror, and it looked shorter to me too. It was the perfect length for someone who wanted to wear flats or who wasn't wearing shoes. I forgot to put my shoes on while in the dressing room, so I had Cooper go and grab them.... and she even helped me put them on.

After putting on my dress with my shoes, I looked in the mirror to see the ensemble in all its beauty... and I noticed my shoes first. MY SHOES were sticking out the bottom of my fabulous dress. a lot. Hot hot hot Pink-ness everywhere. That's all I saw.

I decided it was too short to wear ANY kind of heel with it. Let me just say, I did not order the petite, and the sample dress I had tried on in the store had looked fine with the heels I brought of the same height.. in fact it was like THE PERFECT LENGTH with heels. BUT, Not my dress, MY dress showed my whole foot with heels. I walked toward the mirror and realized how hilarious I looked, it looked like I was wearing a high water dress. I only WISH I hadn't forgotten my camera because it was seriously the funniest thing I have ever expereinced on myself.

The owner had saw me in my dress and came over to see how I liked it right when I was expressing my shoe problem to Cooper. I really didn't want to get flats to wear for the wedding because The man is a lot taller than me, and I wanted to be somewhat close to his height for the ceremony and the pictures. I was totally bummed about this whole situation and wondered how my dress could clearly be so much shorter than the sample dress!

The owner of Davids was standing there listening to my dilemma the whole time... and then she told me the most amazing news ever. The dresses can have extra length added to it, up to 4". They come in xtra -long but you have to order them that way. I told her I didn't even know that was an option, and being 5'3", never in my wildest dreams did I think I would need extra length! She was really sweet and told me since I wasn't happy with my dress what we could do was, sell my dress to the store.. and then they would re-order my dress with the extra length. Of course the extra-length was extra money. Since my mom had paid for my dress I really didn't mind paying the extra $50 for the extra length. So it was decided. I wondered if the sample dress had been in the xtra-long and my sucky consultant hadn't told me. I forgot to check.

I went up to the register with Cooper and the owner and without my dress, and we made the switch. While we were in the process or making the switch, the owner said it had, in fact, been discontinued and they would only be making it for so much longer. She told me I was really lucky I came in when I did and tried it on because of this and because I still had time to re-order it. I thanked my lucky stars that I HAD ordered the first dress when I did, because if I had waited it probably would have been too late to re-order it in the new length! Then she told me since it had "officially" been discontinued it was on sale for more than it HAD been on sale when I first ordered it and soooooooooooo with the extra length charge and the sale, THEY owed me $30, instead of me owing them $50! So I doubly lucked out!

So that is what went down with my dress. And now I sit here and wait and wait and wait for the new one to come in. The new one is taking a LONG time compared to how long it took to produce the first one. I'm getting a little impatient... and I bet you are too...

I know I said I'd show you my dress and even my top 3 choices... but much like every other decision I have been making, I'm having second thoughts on that:

a. Because I don't want The Man to see it before the wedding; and
b. Because I know he'll go snooping around on my blog looking for it

So for now, I can't show you the dress. I may change my mind later on. We'll see.

Have you had any dress "issues" when going to pick up your dress?

Hello Lover: The Shoe Debate

Once I had found my dress and had my colors, I began the search for the perfect shoe. My confession---I'm not normally a high heels gal. Although I drool over them a lot, my foot does not like these lovelies.

I love being taller since I'm a short 5'3"! So for my wedding, I have decided I will endure the pain and get some killer shoes (hopefully they won't really kill) . And I have jumped on the colored shoe bandwagon.

Before I even knew it was a trend I had thought about getting some hot pink shoes. It'll match my flowers perfectly, and since I love PINK, how could I go with all white?

Finding a hot pink shoe has proven to NOT be an easy task. I needed it to be the right color or pink, and I needed it to be sexy, and a little airy since my wedding is in August.

I found these shoes and I am currently in Lust with:

Christian Louboutin- oh how I love thee.... but i do not love thee price-tag.


And then there are my shoes. I found these, for a great price. They are slingbacks with a peep and a fabulous color.. and they were on sale for $15! So I splurged and bought them for myself. And I like them. They aren't Christian Louboutin, that's for sure...but they aren't horrid. I haven't decided if they are going to work or not yet, which could be a real problem (more on that later). But for $15 I think I can handle it if I decide on something else.
I have been searching for other hot pink shoes and came across some other lovelies which I am currently drooling over:

Hello Lover! Oh Stuart Weitzman, I like these a lot. Why must you tease me with your beauty and then torture me with your price?

RSVP- Kathryn, Sold at Zappos is a def. Affordable option. I'm liking this one alot too.
These are cute, and resemble the Christian Louboutins, but they do not come in hot pink, they come in light pink.

One of these shoes, just isn't like the others. Can you spot the pair that doesn't belong?

All the shoe's i'm lusting after have something that, currently, my shoes do not have. And to be honest, I never thought it would be something I desired, but it seems to draw my attention to them.......

After looking at more shoes I feel like I jumped the gun in buying mine. And I'm thinking of buying some different ones but also trying to justify spending $$ on more shoes.

How easy was your shoe decision? How did you justify the purchase if they were expensive?

Colors, Colors, Colors!

Can you guess what my blog is going to be about today? yeah, I know, I'm super creative this morning! Anyway in case you didn't guess, I'm going to tell you our colors.

I LOVE love love love PINK. LOVE. I am a true girly girl and pink is my favorite color, always has been, and always will be, so naturally I wanted my wedding to be PINK.... The man HATES my favorite color with a passion and does not want the wedding to be pink. But pink is me so how can I have a wedding that isn't reflective of me?

The man really didn't care what colors we used. To be honest he told me I could use whatever I wanted (which has since been his moto instead of making decisions). The man's only request was that I didn't have pink dresses because he didn't want to wear/match the pink with the boys (which we wouldn't HAVE to do anyway). I really didn't mind not having pink dresses. Pink doesn't look good on everyone and I really have never seen a pink bridesmaid dress that I thought was fabulous.

I also had another favorite color. Turquoise. How can you not love it? It's so perfect for our wedding by the lake! It would go so nicely against the water! I loved the idea of the turquoise and The man thought it would be nice too. So there you have it, we made a decision! Turquoise would be our main color and we would have accents of black, white, and you guessed it, Hot Pink




Oh they look so good together I could just die!

Finding turquoise has proven to be hard hard hard! Especially the BM dresses. There are so many different shades of the turquoise that people call "turquoise" when really it's not, it's blue, or Aqua, which is a different color because it's not as bold as the turquoise I'm picturing. But, it's coming along quite nicely now. I would think it would be more popular.

Did you have trouble finding items in your colors after you had picked you colors?

Princess Me: Finding the Dress Part 4

I had found a lot of great dresses, but was my search over? Had I found the one?

Before I decided, I wanted to bring mama back to Davids Bridal with me to see the top 3 there. Mini me came too. We headed down in the morning on a Saturday. For David's, early is better on Saturday or late in the afternoon-- after 4. It gets pretty busy in there.

I got the same consultant I had previously had. I was not to thrilled about that, but surprisingly, she was a lot better this time even though she had more brides there than previously.

My mom wanted to see some "different" styles on me and she especially wanted to see an A-line. Blah, those do not look the best on me, but I decided to humor her. She liked it and wondered why I didn't. So then I went and pulled my top pick and tried that on for her and then she SAW why the A-line was not a good choice.

Okay, I admit it, I like the ballgowns. I didn't think I would go with that style. I was looking for something silky and beautiful, but once I tried on the ballgown styles, I fell in love. And once I tried on my top pick for my mama and mini me-- I knew it was def. the one... and they knew it too. I love my dress!

Usually Davids makes you buy the sample size from the store, but I lucked out and they did not have the size I needed in my dress in store (yay). When trying it on, I had squeezed into the size smaller than what I needed - I couldn't breathe but I looked fabulous. So what happens when they don't have your size? They order you a BRAND NEW dress to be made and no one has tried on.

We had decided on my dress and my mama and I chose a pretty veil from there along with the crinoline that makes it ultra full and the bustier. We brought it up to the counter and mama was feeling generous and decided to buy it all for me! I lucked out. Found my dress and my mom paid for it and all the undergarments and the veil.

While we were there, they DID try to sell me all the accessories I'd need..... tiara, shoes, jewelry.... but the be honest, I wasn't having any of it. I wasn't impressed with their selection there and I wanted to look around. My consultant was quite pushy, but I just pushed right back with a firm "no."

Mini me tried on the Bridesmaid dress I had found while shopping there with Cooper and she loved it too (more on the BM dresses inthe future). Mama began looking for her MOB dress and she found a dress she liked that was Pink and Fabulous. Perfect, it'll go with my colors so nicely. She bought that too.

Our experience at David's that day was a pleasant one, but I have to wonder why it was so different than the first time I was there. Was it because I had come back and the consultant saw a sale coming? Was it because we actually bought a lot of stuff? or did the consultant just have a change of heart? Was she having a bad day the last time I was there? I guess I didn't care what the reason was, I was just happy to have found "the one."

Did you have varying experiences at the bridal salons you went to? Were they helpful one day and not so much the next?

Princess Me Finding the Dress Part 3

So my mom was so upset that she failed at her job of photographer that she wanted to go back to Danielles Bridal the next day and take some pictures for real. So I asked MOH Cooper if she wanted to join us, and she said yes... and Cooper took all the photos this time, to ensure that they were taken. I tried on only the dresses we had liked.

This was the one my mama liked-that I wasn't enthralled with... I just look a lot bigger in it and felt as if it didn't hide my flaws as well as the other dresses did... plus it didn't have enough bling.

And here she is.... My LOVE- Maggie Sottero (disgard the color as they didn't have white for me to try on). Oh the Satin.... how I love thee... Cooper and mama weren't too impressed with the dress.

(there is Cooper in the mirror background in the red shirt)

The consultant that was there that night kept telling me how she loved it on me. It was the more expensive of the two, and really I had no intentions of getting the one mama liked, I just tried it on and let her take a picture of it because she loved it. Oh yeah, and the consultant that was there that night changed the name on my sheet from the first girl that helped me tons the day before, to be her name as my consultant(because she thought I was going to get the Maggie)..... which I didn't think was completely fair.

I think In my previous post I talked about one more dress.... Private Lable by G that we found, but I was wrong when I posted that. While we were there, MOH Cooper took a peek at some other dresses and managed to find this one. This one wasn't actually found until the 2nd trip.



Check out that amazing train! And I loved the Detailing on the dress and how sparkly and fun it was... but check out the chest and how far out it is extending (HUGE) and disregard how this fits me because it's 2 sizes too small! Oh how I loved the beadwork. It was extravagant. This was a High contendor.


Did I find my dress here? What do you think?

Princess Me: Finding the Dress Part Two

Did you guess which three dresses were in my top pick at Davids? I will reveal them, but you're going to have to wait....

I tried on so many dresses, and to be honest, we didn't take pictures of them all, we did get pics of my faves though. Dress shopping was a lot MORE fun than I thought it would be. I found out certain things I liked about dresses such as: I like strapless dresses (even though i hate my arms), and I like sweetheart necklines, and I love the sparkle.

I didn't purchase a dress at Davids. My consultant was horrible, she didn't help at all, and then dissapeared after she tried to pressure me to buy a dress and I firmly said no. I know they make commission, but seriously, I just went to try on and get an idea of what I wanted and i TOLD her that right off the bat that I was not purchasing "today." I wanted to bring my mama shopping with me.

I ventured out with my mama and mini me to a small little boutique in Saratoga Springs called "Danielles" in search of my love (no, I had not forgotten Brielle). We got to the boutique and it was similar to davids with the searching through dresses to find what you like, but that's when the similarities ended... the staff was REALLY friendly and it was small inside, they had like one crinoline for me to use when trying on dresses and the zipper was broken, so that was interesting. My consultant was really nice, she was new there too.

My mama and I searched through the dresses for ones to try on. She kept pulling lacy ones that I was not interested in (remember I told you she has different tastes than me?), yeah, so I had to keep telling her that I wasn't into the lace, I was into the sparkle.. she finally got it. We picked out quite a few, and I was getting annoyed looking for brielle because I couldn't seem to find her anywhere.... and then... there she was, in all her glory..... and seriously, she was hanging there in the SIZE I NEEDED. It was love, and then it was FATE. I snatched her up and went to try her on. Brielle wasn't in white, she was in the oyster color and she was beautiful (although I would pick white or Diamond white for the day).

We grabbed a bunch of dresses and went to try them on. My mama was helping me to get dresses which was an interesting process since she didn't know what to do... and it seemed every dress we picked had one of those corsett backs and she wanted to kill me by the end of the day when her hands hurt from lacing me up!

Mama was in charge of pictures (which they told me I could take). I tried on Brielle and she was beautiful. I was still in love, and in the wedding dress haze where you think everything looks fabulous. Mama was not in love, mini me didn't love it either. I did. And that's all that matters right? I pranced around the salon in brielle and I really liked her a lot, but once I had her on, I don't know if I loved her anymore. She looked pretty good, but made me look thicker in the middle, and although I LOVED the beautiful satin she was made out of (serisouly, Maggies uses some high quality fabrics) she was about 15-20lbs.... and I had to wonder if I'd be able to handle that in August. I had mama take some pictures.

I tried on a few more dresses that were horrible and def. No's... and then I tried on one my mama loved, but I didn't love. It was very simple and plain. It was pretty, but it didn't make me look great and it was too simple, that isn't me. But I let her take some pictures of it anyway.

And then there was the high contendor from the day, which was an unexpected find. It was Private Lable by G and sooooooooooooooooooooo pretty. I really liked, loved, this dress.... except it didn't fit (it was not my size eventhough it was the same size as all the other wedding dresses I had tried on and fit me) and I had a HARD time imagining what it would look like. The consulant said I would need about two sizes bigger! I didn't have a problem with that, I am not about the size on the lable, I just want my dress to fit... but you should know that the chest area was huge on me. Oh, and I am pretty well endowed, so for the top to be THAT big on me in that size, I had a problem imagining what it would be like 2 sizes bigger. We would need some SERIOUS alterations..... oh, but I liked her.... so we took some pictures.

Where are these so called pictures you ask? Well, mama was in charge of pictures.... oh, I didn't tell you.. She's a little bit ellectronically challenged (like me!) and although she THOUGHT she was taking pictures, she wasn't pressing and holding the button long enough for it to register. So we went away thinking we had a ton of pics to go through, and there were none! It kinda sucked.

I really had wanted to see how those dresses photographed..... have you had an "ellectronically challenged" issue when taking pictures of your dresses?

up next, some pictures, I promise!

Princess Me: Finding The Dress

MOH Cooper decided she wanted to take me dress shopping. She was super excited about my wedding and wanted to be a part of picking out the dress. I knew my mom and mini-me wanted to go shopping with me as well. BUT my mom and I have very different tastes, and she can be pushy (although I don't let her get away with it) and I knew I'd have a great time with Cooper, so I decided that going shopping with Cooper would help me narrow down what I liked and then I'd go with mom and mini-me and we'd have a starting place... so that is how it went down.

I had wanted to wait a few months before dress shopping and had decided I wouldn't begin looking until November... but i was so excited and Cooper wanted to take me so badly, that we ended up going in September!

I had a lot of vacation time so I took a Friday off from work to go dress shopping with Cooper and she had made me an appointment at Davids Bridal. I wasn't too thrilled about going to Davids as I had heard tons of horror stories from brides that shopped there, and I wanted to try on the Maggie Sottero I was in LOVE with, but decided it would still be fun. I, of course, had no intention of buying a dress on my first day shopping and I had no idea how much fun I was going to have.

Once we arrived at Davids, I was assigned a consultant to help me. I was thrilled to see that Davids wasn't busy and thought that the consultant would be a big help to me since there was like one other person in the store......... but, I was wrong. She was not very helpful during the process. She was good at describing to me what the different tags on the dresses ment and where to find the sizes I needed and then she was gone.

Cooper and I dug through the racks like it was a clearance sale at Christmas time and we were kids looking for the perfect one. We pulled tons of dresses for me to try on in all different shapes and poofynesses. Cooper was a BIG help during the trip since my consultant dissapeared, it was all on Cooper to dress me and take pictures. Here are some of the dresses from the day:

This is the first dress I tried on (I just Loved the pick up look)

All the mirrors were really unflattering! really... so we found a different spot to take pictires in after that....

The queen of all poofy dresses. It was about 3 sizes too small, but I wanted to try it on anyway!

I look so silly with those white hanger straps hanging out! I didn't know what to do with them yet.

This was something non-poofy I had wanted to try on (notice the pick ups again?) yeah, I had a thing for them. I didn't love it. I liked it... and I especially liked how it made me look from the side:

The side view made me look super thin and I liked that

but I just didn't feel very "bridal" in it.

Cooper found HER wedding dress and made me try it on. I was hesitant because I did not want to buy/get the same dress that my Bestest friend had two years ago, but she was persistant and so I tried it on.. to appease her:

And I REALLY liked it. A lot.



One of their "Designer" dresses, Oleg Cassini:

The Back

The Front again

There were some which I Obviously did not like (can you see my left hand saying no and the horible 3 chinned face I'm making?) HOTNESS!

There was also the horrible one I tried on that was a Mermaid style (which I KNEW would look horrible, it was just grabbed by accident) that made me look like a sausage stuffed in it's casing. We didn't take a picture of that one though.. Sorry, no laughs for you!

Last one for the day:


The Back(so pretty):

Cooper and I spent a lot of time at Davids trying on dresses. Litterally I was there all day. And of course I was having a blast with Cooper and so the time went by super quick. My consultant, no where to be found during MOST of the process. I did, however, have to say that while I was there for the 6hrs I was there for, they let me prance around in the gowns and take as many pictures as I wanted.. they even put my hair up (with bobby pins) so I could see (kinda) what it would look like (which I thought was cool). I ended up meeting the Store Owner while I was there (who I LOVED, she was super helpful and so nice) and the District Manager (who happened to be there for the day), who I ALSO loved and was great. Did I mention I was like the only one in the store?

Seriously I had a LOT of fun dress shopping (which i didn't think i would since I have SUCH a hard time finding clothes I like) and I couldn't wait to go with my mom and mini-me.

With the help of Cooper , the district manager, and the store owner... I narrowed down which dresses I liked. There were three faves from the day. Can you guess which ones they were?

It must be love, love love: Finding a Style

I began looking in Brides magazines right away to get ideas. I found the magazines to be addictive and helpful at the same time. Addictive because I wanted to keep buying more of them, and helpful because it helped me narrow down things I liked.

I of course wanted the perfect dress, but had NO idea what I liked in terms of wedding dresses. I found a ton of dresses I liked in the Magazines and noticed that I tended to fall for the Maggie Sotterro Dresses. Could I really be a Maggie bride? I never thought I would spend thousands on a dress for one day, but how could I not, when I was in LOVE.

Of course the magazines don't tell you how much the dresses are, so I had to hunt the ones down that I liked on the Maggie website (which ALSO didn't say how much they were, but it did have a cool feature for locating the styles you liked in bridal salons that I used). I wanted to know how much my love was going to cost, so i hunted the Maggie's down until I found a site (www.bestbridalprices.com) that actually LISTED the price. The Maggie's I liked all seemed to be between $1,000-$1,500, and I almost had a heat attack when I saw that... but the bestbridalprices.com did have the dresses at slightly discount prices, free shipping, and the Maggie's came with free shoes and veil... so I was seriously considering ordering my dress from them, BUT I wanted to try them on first.

Here are some Maggie's that I liked:
































They are all pretty much this style: strapless, satin, lots of pick ups, ballgown style, dramatic, no lace. Yep, that was totally what I wanted.

From the beginning, I decided I wasn't going to even TRY on any dresses for months. I was going to keep my cool and (hopefully) drop a few pounds before the dress shopping began. I wanted to collect styles I liked and the ones I liked all had similarities being that they were all Maggie Sotterro (I couldn't help it, she does good work). However, I thought I had found the "one." I was in LOVE- big time. All I did was think about her and imagine how she would look on me.... and it was so hard just imagining.

Here she is, in all her glory, the Maggie Sottero dress that took my breath away..................

Brielle



Isn't she beautiful? Look at that satin... oh how I love.

Up next..... dress shopping, with pictures!

Do you fall in love with a dress before going out shopping? Did you end up sticking with the one you originally thought you wanted, or did you chose something else?

Thank-You: A Note to The Girls

I wanted a way to say thanks to my bridesmaids for agreeing to be in my wedding. At the same time, I needed to share some personal information with each of them because they don't all know each other and I figured they would need to discuss some things eventually. I also was dying to use my Gocco again. I decided to make the girls some cards to thank them and to introduce them to each other. I found some pretty paper at Michaels (they have quite the nice selection of paper and envelopes). I designed my cards at work (yep, at work- remember, I don't have a printer), printed out the design and was all set to go. I busted out my Gocco and began Goccoing!

The front of the card had a message to all of my bridesmaids- a thank you, and then the two inside panels were to inform the maids who else I had picked with a little blurb about each person and their contact e-mail address(I figured e-mail was easier for people who don't know each other that well). I found some images on istockphoto.com and used those as well. I was thinking my cards would come out really nicely.... but I had a little boo boo and I didn't know what it was at first......




My image came out SUPER splotchy and grainy.... see? I thought maybe it was the color of ink I had chosen and continued goccoing the insides of the cards.

The inside of the cards did not come out nicely either..... I had the SAME problem.



Splotchy image, very light, and I didn't know what I had done wrong! Don't get me wrong, it wasn't HORRIBLE, and the words (which are covered up) came out nicely... it was the images that I had problems with! I joined the flickr gocco group and posted my pics- asking for help deciding what went wrong... and the consensus was that... the screen didn't burn all the way through. I have since bought new bulbs and used those by accident instead of using up my "old" bulbs (that came with my gocco/that I'm not sure how old they are) and the new bulbs worked FANTASTICLY... so I have decided that the old bulbs are not up to par....

I had decided I wanted a different "type" of card, and I just cut out three cardstocks of the same size and then tied them together with a ribbon at the top. I also lined the cards by taking a small piece of cardboard I had and cutting it out to the pattern on the inside of the card (leaving enough room for the sticky part at the top). I cut out my pattern and traced it onto my fancy paper, cut it out, glued it in, and Viola! Cards and envelopes complete!

I decided they still came out pretty well(even with the not so perfect images), and decided to give them to the maids anyway, even though they were not perfect in my mind.


Did you complete a project and decide to keep it even though you felt it wasn't quite up to making the "cut"?