Here Comes the Wedding!
|
|
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
July 23, 2008
The Dress
Wow—now I feel like such a slacker since Lori has been doing all the updating of late. But I’m sure all you brides know—when the planning becomes crazy, even a fun blog starts to move down the list of priorities. The good news is, I’m so full of updates that you’ll be hearing from me a lot between now and September 20th.
First, I got the dress!
Though we shopped around to a few lovely boutiques, it was actually eBay that provided my perfect gown. You’re shocked, right? I was shocked too! I’d just been checking out the listings, seeing if anyone had an actual new or gently used dress for sale in my size and wham, I found one. It was beautiful, simple, had delicate beading—and best of all, it had sleeves! Lovely three-quarter length sleeves made from a jeweled net material. I thought it was meant to be.
I looked at the measurements and then measured myself about 5 times just to be sure. According to the numbers, it would fit, so I bit the bullet and bid. Unfortunately, another girl was bidding against me. The price kept inching up, though it was still well below boutique prices. I had my heart set on it though so I continued to bid while it was still a good deal.
At midnight, bidding closed and I was declared the winner. A wedding dress of my very own was sent right to my door just 3 days later. No waiting, no drama. And best of all—it fit!! Now, being only 5’4, I do need to have it shortened and have a bustle added to it, but overall it fits.
So yeah, I really am an online bride…
Posted by Nichole at 10:55 a.m. | Comments (0)
tags:
July 18, 2008
Wine Country & Tea
Last week while I was on vacation back home in California (yes, I will always be a California girl at heart) I took my mom wine tasting for her birthday in SoCal’s version of wine country—Temecula Valley.
Here’s a pic of my mom posing by the Zinfandel grapes. Isn’t she cute? |
We ate lunch at the Ponte Family Estate Winery, which was very yummy. As we were sitting there sipping on our sangrias (so goooood) and enjoying the scenery, I noticed groups of women going in and out of the huge tent nearby. Then I saw another group of women wearing black shirts that said, “(Name of bride)’s Bridal Entourage” in hot pink writing. It seemed that even on my much-needed vacation I couldn’t get away from bridal showers. But then, it had me thinking how nice this place would have been for the bridal shower bash. I know my friend would have liked it. The scenery was beautiful and the atmosphere was low-key. You can check out all their pretty pics here.
If I ever have to plan a shower (or a wedding…hey, a girl can dream) in California, I’ll be sure to keep this place in mind.
While I was home, I also went to one of my favorite places to have tea, The Huntington in San Marino. It’s home to a library and numerous botanical gardens and art collections. I usually make it a point to go there whenever I’m back home with two of my favorite gals, Nichole and Devlin. This is also a fabulous place to have a bridal shower. Whenever I go, I seem to always see a bridal group. The tearoom is cute and has the best buffet of finger sandwiches, cheese, fruit, salads and desserts. The chicken sandwich and mini fruit tart are my favorites. I also love the chocolate chip scones and rose tea. If you’re lucky enough to go there around Christmas time, they have a Christmas tea that is amazing! I’m getting hungry just thinking about all the food. If I ever have a bridal shower in SoCal, I’d want it to be here. And if it were to be here in NYC? My pick would be the Milk & Cookies Bakery. They have the best ice cream cookie sandwiches ever! I'm such a kid.
Posted by Lori at 10:12 a.m. | Comments (0)
tags:
July 16, 2008
Party of One
I came across an article on cnn.com about the “angst of being single in wedding season.” Naturally, being a single woman with two weddings to attend this fall, I had to read the article.
It points out a lot of things I’ve already experienced and offers ideas on how to keep the attention off your single self, as well as advice for brides to make their single friends more comfortable. For example, one of the suggestions for the bride is to put all the singles together. I guess this makes sense—misery loves company, or maybe, two of those singles guests could make a love connection. I suppose anything’s possible.
I’ve never gone to a wedding with a date, so I have a lot of experience with navigating the wedding waters as a singleton. I was always the one being dragged to the front during the bouquet toss and asked endlessly when it was going to be my turn. I can’t tell you how many times my friends have tried to toss the bouquet in my direction only to have it end up in the arms of some other girl. I suppose that’s a sign.
The worst weddings by far are the family ones, because most of the people there are well aware of who you are and what your status is. Plus, they have no problem being nosy and asking all the hard-to-answer questions. By now, I’ve come up with stock answers that include not having the time, concentrating on my career right now, and basically just telling them how much single life rocks—answers that all happen to be true.
Most of the time it really doesn’t bother me if I don’t have a date. (And yes, this is an honest declaration.) Although, there was this one time when I felt like the biggest loser in the room. About two years ago I was a bridesmaid at my friend’s wedding. She was absolutely beautiful in a gown that seemed to be made especially for her. The wedding was equally beautiful with some amazing food and a really fun after-party following the reception. Anyway, during the last dance of the reception, I was hovering around the dance floor talking to one of the other bridesmaids. The best man approached her and asked if she wanted to dance, so she turned to me and asked me to hold her drink while she was whisked away. So there I was, standing by a dance floor with two drinks in my hand watching all the couples (which seemed like everyone in the room) happily dancing together. It was like a scene out of some romantic comedy.
Posted by Lori at 3:17 p.m. | Comments (0)
tags:
July 10, 2008
Coming Along
Now that I've secured a location for this shower (my place, yay!), it's time for me to get started with the party planning. I should be sending out the invites soon since the party is a little more than a month away. I've been looking at some, but nothing's really grabbed me yet. With time running out, I'm thinking I need to just grab the best-looking ones and send them out. What do you think? Should I put a little more effort into finding the right ones, or just get them out the door?
Posted by Lori at 9:19 p.m. | Comments (0)
tags:
June 25, 2008
Ray of Sunshine
OK, I know my last entry was a bit of a downer, but now I’m starting to feel a little better about this whole shower situation. Surprisingly, the groom’s mother had a lot to do with this change.
Over the weekend, I took a bus and train into Queens to look at some potential venues. Let me just say that doing anything in New York in any of the boroughs involves a good chunk of money. One of the bridesmaids found an Italian restaurant willing to cut us a deal that included unlimited alcohol for $1,000. Now, if the women at this thing were big drinkers and prone to dancing on tables like Paris Hilton, then this would probably be a great deal, but something tells me that’s not the case.
It seemed every place I was looking at had similar price tags. I even tried the diner where the bride once worked and where they actually met (yes, their story is like something out of a movie), thinking that would be kind of cute. But their “deal” was $1,200! Huh?! And yes, I did mention she worked there, but that didn’t seem to make a difference.
So, completely defeated and exhausted I went back to my side of the river and tried to come up with a new game plan. This time I would look for a hall and just bring in my own food. After looking at a few places online, I began feeling depressed again. The least expensive rental fee I could find was $500. What?! For an empty space? Now, if I’d won the lottery, I wouldn’t care so much about the cost of everything, but the reality is I have bills to pay, one bridesmaid just had a baby, another is in med school, one is out of state and the other is looking for a job. A budget is necessary.
But then last night I encountered a turning point when the groom’s mother called me. I explained to her what was going on and after we both complained about the high prices of everything, I brought up my original idea of having it at my place. She wholeheartedly agreed with me and thought it was a great idea. I asked her if transportation to my place would be a problem for her or the others on her side of the family, and she said she didn’t think it would be. Fabulous!
Posted by Lori at 4:17 p.m. | Comments (1)
tags:
June 23, 2008
Photo Finish
The day is beautiful. It’s bright and airy, the bridal fashions are lovely, everyone is eating, drinking and having a wonderful time. I look over to my mom and she’s so happy. Then I realize that no one is taking pictures of our wedding. I start complaining to my mom that the photographer is late—why didn’t the photographer show up yet? He is missing the amazing pictures of this once-in-a-lifetime party.
Then, I realize that I forgot to hire a photographer.
Then I feel stupid.
Then I wake up.
Wow, these bridal anxiety dreams are killing me. It’s like as soon as one thing is settled, the very next thing I’m working on freaks me out in my dreams. I did love, however, that the actual wedding part went off without a hitch in the dream. That made me feel better.
Posted by Nichole at 9:11 a.m. | Comments (0)
tags:
June 20, 2008
Bridesmaid Blues
As you all know, I'm in charge of throwing the bridal shower. I was really excited about the ideas I was putting together in my head and couldn't wait to get started. Here was my plan:
The Goal: To throw a shower that the bride would love by incorporating all her favorite things.
The Theme: A Lingerie Bridal Shower. Since she's not registered, I thought this would solve the gift issue.
The Location: My place. I figured if I'm hosting this, I might as well make it easy on myself.
The Vibe: I wanted it to be laid-back and informal because that's the kind of girl she is. She prefers small, intimate gatherings to large, grand ones.
Posted by Lori at 10:54 a.m. | Comments (0)
tags:
June 17, 2008
Un-dressed
Okay, since my first foray into dress shopping went so well, I naively thought that the rest of my shopping experiences would be equally painless. Wow—could not have been more wrong. The second time I went dress shopping, my mom came along for moral support. Indeed, I needed her.
I did everything I was supposed to do. I made an appointment, I arrived on time—everything. I walk in and meet our consultant. Unfortunately, the very first thing I notice about her was her absolute dragon breath. Yes, from across the counter, this woman was putting out a not-very-pleasant aroma every time she spoke.
Oh my God…I had no idea what to do! It seemed rude to offer her a breath mint or to cancel the appointment. So I went through with it. I let her bring me dresses to try on and help me into them in the tiny dressing room—all the while, trying to hold my breath.
But that wasn’t the worst part. The fact that she had absolutely no idea what she was doing was the worst part. Being a plus-sized bride, I wanted a bit more coverage in the arms and shoulders, so I asked for a dress with sleeves. She then informs me that they don’t make any dresses with sleeves (A total lie, since I saw a few on the company web site). She didn’t even bother to offer me one of the lace bolero jackets I saw hanging up in the accessories aisle—I had to specifically ask for it. It’s like she had no idea that a coat would be of interest to a bride who didn’t want to show her arms. And she had no idea how to upsell—I mean, duh—she’d be making a commission on any accessories she sold me. Why wouldn’t she show me a jacket?
I also asked if they had any dresses with net or lace overlay. She had no idea what I was talking about. Overlay may as well have been a word in a complete foreign language. It was awful. My little sister who’d helped me on my previous shopping trip could’ve smoked this woman in a head to head wedding dress challenge, and this is what she does for a living.
Posted by Nichole at 3:33 p.m. | Comments (0)
tags:
June 11, 2008
From the Heart
Since I'm so close to my wedding couple…and they’re not registered…and I’m part of the wedding party, I want to give them a meaningful present. After spending some time scouring the net, the answer came to me when I was hanging out with a friend the other night. For years she's created these works of art that can best be described as framed journals. Each one is customized and incorporates her designs with your own words. She made one for me years ago as a birthday present and has turned her talent into a thriving business she loves—Zenkei Journals.
A beautiful & meaningful wedding gift |
You could easily give this as a wedding gift, anniversary present or as a thank you to your bridesmaids or parents. It fits every person and every occasion.
Since paper is the traditional first-anniversary gift, this would make the perfect present. |
Although some work is required on your end—providing the words that will go into the work of art—the result is nothing less than spectacular. Of course, I may be a little biased, but go check it out for yourself at zenkeijournals.com.
Posted by Lori at 6:25 p.m. | Comments (0)
tags:
June 9, 2008
Breaking the Bank
Today I ran across this article on CNN.com: Too broke to be your maid of honor.
Here are a few snippets I found interesting:
“It can easily cost a woman $1,000 or more for the honor of standing beside the bride on her big day...”
Oddly enough, I spent more money being a bridesmaid than a maid of honor. I was the maid of honor for the last wedding I was in and barely had to do anything. Since I was out of state, I was excused from throwing her a bridal shower. She was also a very low-maintenance bride and wasn’t into all the extra roles and responsibilities. I basically had to get a dress, plane ticket and wedding gift then show up. No big deal. Although, this upcoming wedding coming up may be a whole different story since I’m within driving distance.
“…contrary to popular belief, the bridal shower isn't the maid of honor's obligation. Traditionally, a close friend would throw a bridal shower for the bride, and sometimes that person is also the maid of honor.”
Posted by Lori at 3:36 p.m. | Comments (0)
tags:
