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My wedding dreams started recently. They’ve been a lot of the usual, thankfully without any catastrophic fights or reconsidering the exes. I’ve been thinking about this wedding for eight months now (dear god! eight months!), and it still strikes me as strange that the dreams didn’t start right away. I have dreams about all kinds of unsexy things like work and deadlines, so it was almost a nice change of pace.
Dream 1:
This was a basic, uh-oh-I-forgot-to-do-something-huge dream. In real life, I bought a sample dress at a sample sale, from which I came out with Perfect Dress and zero black eyes. However, the dress does need to be taken in quite a bit, it being a sample and all.
In the dream, I forgot to get it altered. Straight-up forgot. But I put it on, with the help of my bridesmaids (I couldn’t see anyone clearly, so I figured it was them). And they clipped it up as best they could. The telling, nice part was that I didn’t entirely freak out. I looked at it in a mirror and, while it was a little off, Dream Me still felt like it was the prettiest, most perfect dress in the world.
The verdict:
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OK, so maybe I just said my official farewell last week, but I’m so excited to pop back in and share some dress yumminess!
Mrs. Powder Puff shared her favorites from the Chicago Bridal Market this past Sunday… from the sheer amount of dresses that we drooled over, it was fun seeing what dresses she picked out as favorites compared to what I wanted to share! There literally was a dress there to fit every style, from blingy and modern to lacey and romantic. Thank you, Kate and Catherine from Project Wedding for letting us spend the day with you!
So, let’s get going. We’ll start with the pretty and end with the OMG WOW.
This gorgeous dress was probably one of the standouts from the Watters & Watters show. It’s simple yet detailed with small tiers coming down the dress at an angle. I love seeing dresses that have no beading or lace, but still give you some wonderful detail.
Okay, before you all gasp in fright, let me reveal the reason why I wish we lived with my parents: they’re both psychologists. Psychologists who specialize in couples and, even, love. For the four years of the Cowboy Boots’ relationship, my parents have indirectly and directly guided us through some of our tougher times.
While growing up under the scrutiny of the ever-analyzing eye means getting away with, well, nothing (consequences involved passive aggressive guilt trips), it also has its perks. You learn how to be emotive (if not overly so), how to vocalize those emotions, you encompass a particular compassion for other people, you develop an ability to listen at exhaustive lengths, and, unfortunately, you are often unable to put a filter on raw emotion. In your world, in your little psychologist household, raw emotion is accepted, even celebrated.
So, when Mr. CB and I fight (Scorpio vs. Sagittarius—two fire signs—for you astrological types), it’s stubborn. We’re both strong-willed, we think we’re right, and when you look up our compatibility on astrological websites, it says: “An affair without a future.” I like to think they’re wrong, that we’re simply human and can work through anything—if we can work as a team.
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Aight, so here’s the dilemma. See, I have these recipe cards that I’m going to attach to our favors—sugar cookies made out of an old family recipe all frosted like a globe (yes, we’ve seen my miserable attempts at this before. I am still searching for the right way to decorate them). They look something like this on the front:
I am tying them into our travel theme and thus have stamped the back:
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Featured on Weddingbee
All-Inclusion Invitation Suites
“Make an elegant invitation statement without the fuss. Stylish invitation sets with matching envelopes, reception and response cards included.”
I don’t know if you bees remember, but down here on the farm us Veggies were having a bit of a venue crisis. After much crying, and begging, and more crying, and supportive words from Mr. Veggie, it became clear that we were not going to get our date at our venue.
I tested out a mantra: “I am calm. I am at peace. All is well.”
We were left with two options, find a new venue or switch dates. I was a mess.
Should we stick with the same venue and move our wedding to September, even though this would be extremely inconvenient for our friends and family who work at prep schools? Or should we backtrack and try to find another venue even though I felt as though I’d contacted every camp on this side of the Mississippi?
At this point I was repeating that mantra like a full-fledged Buddhist monk.
Funny enough my biggest concern through all of this was our STDs. In the back of my mind I was pretty sure we would find another venue or that somehow the date would work out, but I was absolutely distraught at the idea of re-sending out STDs. I’m not really a crier. But I cried—we’re talking a full-on tantrum here.
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Tmill is selling a silver David’s Bridal cast-metal scroll tiara with rhinestones and pearls. No longer available in stores, this tiara (style # 0595-0464) has been worn only briefly and is in perfect condition. She’s asking $40.
Have a wedding item for sale? Post it with pictures in the Weddingbee classifieds and you might see it featured on the blog!
Other great items for sale:
Create the honeymoon of your dreams.
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Since I’ve had my ring, I’ve been using the bottle of jewelry cleaner that came with it. Recently I started running a little low on the magic liquid in a pump, and I started getting nervous about what to use once I squeeze every last drop out of the bottle. My mom has always been a fan of straight ammonia in a glass. I remember walking past her ring soaking on the kitchen counter and the fumes would go straight up my nose. When I worked for a dermatologist, we’d all put our jewelry in the ultrasonic cleaner that was meant to clean the instruments before sterilizing them, which was kinda gross now that I think about it. A few weekends ago when we met with Mr. N’s Aunt for house hunting, she offered up her secret…
Around the time we hit the six-months-before-the-wedding mark, I hit a total stumbling block with wedding planning. Wedding related tasks turned from a joy to a burden, from a happy distraction to a tiresome chore. All of the items on my to-do list suddenly seemed totally trivial, unnecessary, and even selfish. Whenever I started working on wedding stuff, I found myself thinking about all of the people in the world who don’t have food to eat or a roof over their heads, all of the people in my own town who have recently lost their jobs and are struggling to make ends meet. And then I would look at my to-do list and see things like: “Choose chairs and linen colors. Find cute shoes. Look for veil/hairpiece. Book bakery. etc., etc., etc.” These things just seemed so frivolous to me all of a sudden. I felt terribly guilty for not spending all of the hours I was devoting to wedding planning focusing my energy on things that are, I don’t know, more real.
We’ve been engaged for a long time, so that could have been part of it. But I finally realized that most of my hesitations, guilt, fears, and general burn-out related to planning this wedding were related to the desire that I have to be unique and original. One of my biggest pet peeves has always been copying.
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This RSVP thing has been wonderful and terrible all at the same time. I’ve opened quite a few that I thought were going to be definite nos (and marked appropriately in my spreadsheet), only to find out that these people I assumed would not be joining us to celebrate, are coming after all. Woo hoo! But then, the reverse has been true as well. People I automatically assumed would come; the people I couldn’t imagine not making it to the wedding, are not coming. What?
While others are still using that RSVP as a coaster (I assume) because I haven’t heard one way or another from them.
So, how do I deal with the people that RSVP no that I thought would be there to celebrate with us?
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Since I put all my emotions on the line in my last post, I thought that maybe we could move on to something a little bit lighter.
Bollywood.
You know, the Hindi-language movie industry based in Mumbai, India? (And not to be confused with Tollywood or Kollywood.)
Okay, so maybe that’s not what you expected me to say, but I’m a big fan of Bollywood movies. There’s something completely escapist about them that sucks me in. Um, yes, I think I did just admit to having my head in the clouds. Clearly my dad has been right about me all these years…
But seriously—lavish sets and outfits, lots of drama, and a whole host of song and dance routines. What’s not to like?
Plus, a lot of Bollywood movies have a wedding or two in them.
Ah, now I have your attention.
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Check out some of the pretty bridesmaid dress trends Mrs. Emerald and I found at the Chicago Bridal Market. Many of these trends complement the bridal gown trends. We saw a lot of the traditional styles in interesting new colors.
Recently, I learned first-hand how adding the word “wedding” to any service increases its price dramatically. I called my local hair salon, where I have been getting my hair cut since I started law school, and asked them how much special event updos cost. They quoted me at $50-75, depending on the intricacy of the hairstyle. I knew I wanted a simple chignon for my city hall wedding, so I was happy with this price. I wanted to see some of the stylist’s work before I booked, though. I didn’t want a full out trial; I can do that for our big wedding in September. Rather, I wanted to simply see a few photos of the type of work she had done to assure me that I was in good hands. When I asked her about this, she said, “What type of event is this for?” That’s where I should have made something up. I should have said anything but the “w” word. But, being naïve and trusting, I admitted to the stylist that this would be for my city hall ceremony. “Oooh,” she responded. “So it’s for your Wedding.” Here is how the rest of the conversation went:
Me: Well, yeah, we’re making it legal in city hall, but the real wedding is later on this year.
Her: But you are taking pictures, yes?
Me: Yeah…
Her: Well, so we have a Wedding Protocol for bridal hairstyles. You have to get a trial beforehand for $50 and the hairstyle itself starts at $100.
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Smurfin and her hubby-to-be kiss in the fields.
Keep on loading your inspirational wedding pics to the gallery to see them featured here on the blog! Remember, your images must be under 1MB in size, or they won’t load.
I always loved wedding shows, even years before I was with Mr. Taco and years before engagement to anyone was even an option. Though he tries in vain to avoid wedding Sunday on WE TV, I’ve actually converted him over to a few choice programs. He’s a relatively active participant in the wedding-planning process, so it’s definitely nice to bond over our own personal choices and how, again and again, we’ll still think our party is better (for us) than the ones on TV. As it should be for every bride, methinks.
Whose Wedding Is It Anyway? was my favorite, though I don’t catch it very often these days. It’s fun to see the behind-the-scenes planning involved, especially when they have to put proverbial fires out. My friend S, a May 2009 bride whose wedding I’ll be bridesmaiding, was my co-conspirator, and I still marvel at how we managed to have real weddings so close to each other.
Now, My Fair Wedding with David Tutera is my favorite, as he’s essentially a bible on how to not be tacky. I don’t even love love all of his end designs (most of them aren’t me anyway), but I appreciate the inspiration and direction. And how funny is it when he has near-heart-attacks when he sees fake flowers?
Yay David!
For those of you with deep pockets, his planning fees start at $50K, according to Forbes.com.
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I love shopping. For myself especially (ha!), but for others even more so. Why? Because then I don’t have “the guilt”. There’s nothing quite like absolving yourself of shopping sins by playing the gift card:
Sales Associate: Wow, you uh… really cleaned up the shelves, huh?
Hamster: Oh, no no no. You see, these are gifts.
Associate: Ahh, OK then.
The wonderful thing about shopping for my bridesmaids was that it was actually true.
I first looked at the old bridesmaid gift standby - monogrammed totes and personalized flip-flops. My honest reaction? Not too enthused.
Eh.
Totes and flops are practical - you can always use more totes and flops! The thing is, my bridesmaids already have their bags of choice and their comfy Havaianas.
Unlike the Mister, my bridesmaids actually *do* read my posts - so consider this fair warning to scram, ladies! (Or you don’t have to. Up to you, no pressure!).
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