Many moons ago, I had dreams of a pink wedding dress. As you all know, the pink, fluffy confection didn’t work out, and the Universe handed me a different dream – one that was a definitive soft ivory color. Bossyboots is the nosy sort, so I haven’t been able to tell my dress story until now!
So, after giving up visions of pink, I visited several bridal boutiques around the Chicago area. I even visited a shop on the infamous Oak St (they’re known for taking your entire bank account and STILL having to use a credit card for the final payment!). I really tried all kinds of places. Finally, all on my own, I went to a tiny place out in the ’burbs. I walked in at 10:55a for my 11a appointment… and I walked out twenty minutes later with my dress.
You see, by the time I bought my dress, there were two lil’ numbers that I had fallen in love with… one was double my budget, the other quadruple. Um yeah. I didn’t buy either of them. Wanna know which ones?
MONIQUE LHULLIER – MAGICAL
Two weeks ago, this happened—and while we were off in Galena meeting my spirit animal, Vanessa McKellar Productions was hard at work on our wedding video!
Heather & Tom’s Wedding Highlights from Vanessa McKellar Productions on Vimeo.
Throughout the wedding planning process, I had harbored secret hopes of contracting a videographer for our wedding, but I wasn’t sure if Bossyboots would go for it. We were so conscious of spending our hard-earned dollazzzzz on only the important stuff…food, booze, fancy shoes—you know what I mean. It’s so easy for your budget to get away from you.
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So, after this happened, Bossyboots and I wanted to get the heck out of dodge. We won’t be taking our official honeymoon for another six weeks—SPOILER ALERT: we’re going to a place where you get leis—which left us feeling sad and depressed after our wedding. (Not really, but extending the partytimes sounded like a great idea.)
Bossyboots and I love to go to Galena, IL for little weekend trips. Mostly because we are 86 years old on the inside… but also because we got engaged there. It’s a tiny little resort town located about three hours away from Chicago.
You know we had to start our road trip off right!
We also needed snacks and reading material.
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So for my birthday this year, Bossyboots gave me an item I’ve been wanting for several years… a Clarisonic!
If you’re new to the Clarisonic game, this thingamabob is a turbo cleaner for your face. I realize this may seem like a strange gift, but I’ve been wanting one of these babies for a few years, but I could never bring myself to buy it. It seemed like such a luxury.
That being said, I am 33. Not elderly by any means, but my skin has definitely aged since college, when I was made of teflon. I have wrinkles, lines, reptilian scales—you know, all the normal markers for aging. 
Not about Bossyboots! I am dramatic, but not that dramatic.
My fiance and I have been wedding planning for about a year now. In Wedding World, there is a major emphasis on making choices based on how your photos will look. “If you do XX, it’ll look great in photos.” “Choose XX color, it’ll look great in photos.” “That just won’t photograph well; don’t do it.”
Mmmmm, ok? 
Bossyboots works in lighting, I work in media—we care about what things look like. We have educated opinions. However… making choices about an incredibly important day based on what looks good in photos feels no bueno to me. Many of our wedding choices WILL look great in photos, but I don’t want to make a wedding choice purely because it’ll photograph well. For example, I already tried a makeup look that was geared towards photos, and it made me feel like a cakeface. This look suits me much better.
For a long time, I definitely was in the “do-things-for-photos” camp. Well, (Bossyboots, cover your ears) I was wrong. This is our wedding. We love each other—that’s what this is about.
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A while back, I decided I would do my own wedding day makeup. I am not a difficult person, but I do have a lot of OPINIONS, especially when it comes to not looking like a fool. I’ve had my makeup professionally styled a handful of times over my life…and I always hate it. Hate it.
Sooooo…I guess I really am a difficult makeup client, but I digress.
Anyway, Wrigley-T (a Snapdragon bridesmaid) also plans to do her own wedding day makeup, so we joined forces and stormed our local Southport Ave. Benefit store. Wrigley-T and I are both perfectly competent at doing our own makeup, but we needed Fancy Makeup. We made a girlytimes date of it (sans pillow fight).
I know we’re supposed to post some ugly-looking, dire, starving photo of ourselves as a before post, but Wrigley-T and I never look bad. I mean, I looked all through our photos and couldn’t find one. 
So that’s what we look like when left to our own devices getting ready for a night out!
Might as well get right to the point!
This weekend, Bossyboots and I had our Pre Cana, which is one of the requirements the Catholic Church places on people who are planning to wed. Our day started off in the usual way (of course!).
All right, now that Bossyboots’ and my wedding invitations are in our guests’ hot little hands, it’s time do some revealing around here!
Creating these invitations was a heckuvalotta work, but I’m happy with them. Of course, there are endless ways I see that I could have designed them in different ways, but at a certain point, you have to step back and send those dang files to the printer!
Let’s get to it… you may recognize a few elements that have evolved out of my original wedding invitation design. I’ve learned how to use Illustrator since 2009, and I have to say designing in Adobe is much easier than MacGyvering in Word!
The entire suite was bundled in a belly band… this is what our guests saw when they pulled the invitation out of the envelope:
So, my wedding dress needed a belt – a very sparkly belt. Really, it would be impossible for the belt I wore to be too sparkly. Rhinestones… crystals… beading… I’ll take it all! The downside of course, is that sparkly bridal belts retail for between $100-$300 and up. Mmmmm no. I felt certain that I could do this myself and save quite a lot of cash.
So I Googled “sequin appliques” and gathered my materials…
Firstly, I laid out all my sparkly appliques upon my satiny sash to figure out how many I needed (measure your waist first and leave room for the bow or fastener!):
Bossyboots and I are not shoppers, at least when it comes to leaving our house (unless it’s a Target adventure!). We online shop as much as humanly possible. What’s to love about brick and mortar shopping? Crowds, parking lots, pushy salespeople, squeaky carts, squeaky kids, squeaky people. No thanks.
So when it came to our wedding registry, you know we did it at 8PM on a Tuesday night, in our jammies, with frosty beverages. I call it Shopping a la Couch. We did make a trip to Crate and Barrel, just to pick out our china in person, but other than that… no real-life shopping excursions! Just thinking about that scanner gives me hives.
Since Bossyboots and I are in our thirties—we really don’t need a ton of things. There are certain areas where we are sorely lacking, and so we only registered for the things we really need. Here are our superstars:
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Bossyboots and I have been invited to ten weddings in twelve months, including our own. That’s right—ten in twelve months. Here’s the proof!
First things first…
If you read this post, Bossyboots, I will take back your wedding present!!!
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So, one downside to planning from afar… I don’t really get to have “wedding adventures” with my family. I send them these awful emails like… “We went bridesmaid dress shopping!” or “I picked out my wedding dress!” or “Hey, I just had a great idea for my invitations!” They don’t get to participate due to distance, and so everybody has a sad.
Not so for tux fittings! Bossyboots set his man-attire look just before Christmas, so while I was down with my family, my dad and I thought it be funny if we made an event out of the Pops Snapdragon tux fitting. I had to be his wing-woman and tag along!
Now to remind you – there are 21 kids in my immediate family. Imagine what that means for Christmas… that’s right, stress and more stress. We have NO TIME to do anything but shop for hams and wrap presents. My dad’s tux fitting needed to happen in 15 minutes or less.
Game on.
First, load yourself up with Starbucks. Do not pass Go. And definitely do not pass your local Starbucks.
Greetings from the Snapdragon Sweat Shop! Many moons ago, I stated that the only DIY coming out of my house would be invitations. Well, turns out that invitations are more than enough to thoroughly overwhelm my to-do list. I know many of you share my pain.
From the get-go, Bossyboots and I had wanted a folk art, painted style to our invitations. We loved the look of gouache, as beautifully showcased by Anna Bond over at Rifle Paper. We briefly investigated going the Rifle route, but in the end, I decided I want to paint our invitations myself for a few reasons:
After 100,000 hours of painting, many cups of tea (and Shiner, let’s be honest), and more than one moment of utter defeat, I finally sent my invitation files off to a professional printer. After all the hard work I put into creating these invites, there was no way in hell I was going to fight with my at-home Dell printer, to boot. I am a tough cookie, but that would have just been too much!
We’ll be mailing our invitations this week, and I’ll post a full run-down once they’re on their way—until then, here’s a sneak peek!
Mrs. Snapdragon, Chicago/Dallas Age and Occupation: 32,Associate Producer Fiance's Age and Occupation: 33, Lighting Designer Blogging Since: November 14, 2008 Engagement Date: January 1, 2011 Wedding Date: March 2012 Venue: Marie Gabrielle About Me: Voracious reader of short stories, Russian literature, National Geographic and Cosmo. I'm a GENIUS at spicing up Weight Watchers recipes and a pathological cheater at board games. I run a slow marathon, but my feet are learning to move faster. Mornings aren't my thing, but I can night owl with the best of them. Don't tempt me with your Cherry Cokes---I'm trying to quit. Tomorrow. Or never.
