It's official...

I'm the worst blogger ever!

I had things to update, I really did! But then a certain someone absconded with my camera so I have no pictorial illustrations of anything I wanted to share. And let's face it, I'm a visual person, I like pretty pictures!

Things are slowly...very slowly...taking shape. The wedding is almost here and no, I'm not nervous or anxious or anything about it. The wedding will be fine, I'm certain it will even be more than fine it will be splendiforous!

But no, I'm not worried about the wedding, I'm worried about finishing the move, getting things done, finding a job, and buying a new car.

WHERE THE HELL DID REAL LIFE COME FROM?!

WW: Favors

The to do list is slowly but surely getting done. There's still a LOT to accomplish, but I've been checking things off in the midst of packing.

Bouquets still need a lot of work. I've been making beaded flower petals like a mad woman and I'm going to start constructing the flowers and looking to see how I can make the arrangements.

I DID however get a heck of a lot done on our favor front. We decided to get tote bags. More like plastic bags are the bane of my existence and I wanted to give a useful favor. I originally planned on ordering tote bags and screen printing them myself with my handy dandy Yudu, but 4-Imprint was running a promotion and they screen printed them for free!

Hooray!
They arrived last week and I've been folding, tying, and tagging them for the past few nights.


So every guest at the wedding will walk away with a cute little magazine tote. Perfect size for carrying a book, a bottle of water and some sunscreen to the beach!

WW: Awesome 80s Prom!

I love my friends.

No really.

My friends are flipp'n fantastic and I'll tell you why.

When I said I wanted to do the Awesome 80s Prom for my bachelorette party my friend's didn't look at me like I was crazy. No! They didn't think, wtf is wrong with you, why would you want to relive the 80s? No! They didn't scoff at me and tell me it was stupid to get dressed up and hit the town like we did the time warp again.

Instead they rose to the occasion, and boy, did they EVER turn it out for this party!

My fabulous cousin Jaclyn planned everything to a T, organized the girls, and got e-invites out to everyone, all while she was preggers. She couldn't join us day of (nursing a baby is kind of killer on your social life) but she was a very integral part of this fabulous event. Day of, Casey took the lead and hosted 8 girls in her house (we actually were expecting more than 12 originally but some NH ladies stayed in the City instead) and if ever there were an event for Casey to be on point, this was it.

She went all out. I showed up at her house and this is what I was met with:

Slowly but surely the girls started showing up and
we started teasing and spraying like crazy.
I think this is why all photos from the 80s are mad blurry,
because of the hair spray in the air!

When everyone was dressed we walked to the LIRR station a few blocks away.
But not before snapping some fantastic photos.

Chrissy & me, she had the most fabulous dress!

The sister, the soon to be sister, Meg, and me.

Is it just me, or does Julianne look FIERCE in this photo.
Totally loved the Joan Jett look she was going for.

Chrissy killing it.

Singing along to Madonna on the train.

We made new friends, they took our photo.

She loves rock and roll.
Subway to the prom!

I love the lurker in this photo, and his expression to Casey trying to lick my face.

The ladies of the Shire!
Chelsea, Meg, Kerri, Hana, and Jenn look'n fab.

Although I'll be Jason's wife after July 3rd, Veebs has been my Wifey since college.

Rock'n out. I just realized Mel went for the Sloane Peterson look, LOVE IT.


Laura and Casey take a breather.

Smashley got a second chance to wear her Gem dress!

I like this one mostly because you get a good look at the fanny pack Casey wore.
It was epic.

And here she is with her killer dance moves.
And yes, she wore a thong leotard.
And yes, people were coming up to her all night long telling her:
"Damn, you've got balls."

And like classy bitches we bough more beer in Penn Station.
And drank it from brown paper bags on the ride home.

So I had the sweetest little conversation with Amanda no the train ride home. She was basically just super excited that she'd finally have a sister, which I thought was so incredibly sweet of her to say. She grew up with two older brothers and no in-house female cohort.

Julibean and I pretty much told her we're a package deal, and that she's getting two sisters for the price of one. Amanda seemed okay with the deal :P


In review:

1. Top night!
2. I have the greatest friends EVER
3. If you decide to go to Prom, make sure you buy a package with drinks included. Trust me it's worth it! Amanda bought a round of shots and it was like $50+ ...for 4 shots. We assumed they'd be crazy NYC drink prices, but $18 for a shot is a little overpriced and the drinks in the packages are only like $5-7 each.
   

To Whom it May Concern

Today is my birthday.

If you loved me, you'd buy this for me.

It's beautiful, shiny, and historically significant in it's own small way. I mean, why else would the Smithsonian be selling it?

Plus it has a hint of Art Deco, which I always love.

It would look nice 'round my wrist on my wedding day, don't you think?

Love you forever!
-Me

WW: Slowly but Surely

On Saturday I had my first dress fitting. I'm not going to post a photo since Jason glances at my blog now and then but it fit like a glove. As of right now I need absolutely no alterations.

How awesome is that?

I have my final fitting the first week of June so we'll see if I can manage to lose a few pounds this month, but I'm happy with the way the dress looks and everyone at the salon adored my shoes...and that's really the most important part, right?

I was very worried that there would be SOMETHING wrong with the dress, but really, it's perfect. The added fabric to the top is just high enough on my chest that I'm not in danger of falling out, but the girls still look glorious...and that's really the most important part, right Jason?

When I started dress shopping Jason's only criteria was that I find a "sturdy" dress. At Jaclyn's wedding my boobs popped open the seam on the front of the dress and I was pretty much just hanging out the whole afternoon. At Laura's wedding I had the seamstress reinforce the seam that popped at Jaclyn's wedding, but instead a strap popped.

As for my wedding dress, there are no wrap-like seams, and there are no straps. So the likely hood of me breaking a seam or a strap is nil. Did I mention it fits like a dream?

All of the invitations are in the mail now. It is taking USPS FOREVER to get the invitations to people and to get the RSVPs back to me. I have it on good authority that a friend of mine in Jersey sent her RSVP in over a week and a half ago. Usually it takes two days tops for mail to reach me from NJ...what's up with that? Just adding stress I don't need.

Since we have about 90% of the guest list responded next week we're going to start trying to work on the seating chart. I'm hoping for the most non-traditional seating arrangement we can figure out. A lot of our friends are friendly with each other. My brother is friends with people that Jason's brother is friends with, so we're not separating any of our friends by "side"...meanwhile I'd really like to have all the younger people on one side of the room and have all the family and family friends on the other side. Mix everyone in, you know? So instead of his and hers it's more a generational gap.

I was very happy to get one RSVP from a friend of mine who is very elusive and I was worried wouldn't come. But hooray! He is! There are a few friends we're waiting on but then we're done! YAY!

I still have oh...idk...a dozen beaded flowers to make for the bridesmaids bouquets and the mother/grandmother corsages, ~160 pinwheel escort cards to make once I order the wooden dowels, OOT bags for people staying at the Hilton, favors, and of course I have to stay on top of my two bridesmaids who are making all the chair ties.

But wait, there's more...I'm moving first week of June! So add into that a packing frenzy and you've got yourself one stressed bride.

I just want to give up now.

This weekend we're settling the cake, the rehearsal dinner location, the ceremony details, and I have my hair trial. Now THAT I'll post a photo of, I don't have my veil yet unfortunately so it won't be the entire look, but it'll give me a good idea of what to expect.

Meanwhile I have awesome friends and a fantastic bridal party that's trying to do as much as possible to keep my stress level down.

My Awesome 80s Prom Bachelorette Extravaganza is next weekend, SO excited, SO can't wait to see all the girls, and SO can't wait for the EPIC photos that will ensue.

*sigh* are we there yet?

WW: Invitationapalooza

Tonight I print out all the invitations, inserts, and finish addressing the last few invitation envelopes. Then tomorrow all that stuff gets cut down by the wonderful Chris and on Friday I'm headed down to MD to enslave enlist Julibean and her Sasquatch for help assembling. We'll also stop back at Curvaceous Couture to check out the veil I'm totally in love with, so that's another thing I can scratch off my list.

Meanwhile I've ordered snazzy cufflinks for Jason, socks for the groomsmen, and some additional items for the bridesmaids gifts.

m'Dad bought a tuxedo and we're still debating whether or not we'll just tell the fathers to wear black ties or we'll get them blue ties or something special. m'Mama bought a dress but that doesn't mean we're going to stop looking. She's not 100% sold on it and I'm meeting her at a dress shop in our town that's going out of business to try on a few things and possibly catch something on clearance.

I've set a date with the amazing Ashley and creative Courtney to have a paper flower making pow-wow and get the centerpieces done. I cannot even put into words how at ease I'll be once THOSE are done.

Once in the invitations are all set and in the mail I can breathe and work on other things, like, oh, idk making all the bouquets and organizing the rest of my life. Oh yeah, and pack maybe a little? Because even if we don't know where we're moving we're still going to be moving come May.

On a complete tangent:
I've decided to make completely anal RSVPs. I've heard that sometimes when you leave the RSVPs open so the guests write their names in themselves they forget and you have to like, brand the back of the RSVP with a number and correspond that number to a version of your guest list so you know that, Oh it was just Crazy Uncle Jerry who forgot to write his name in, but he's having the Veal.

Or you get people assuming that they can bring dates. No, I will not pay an arm and a leg for your random flavor of the week other who I have never met. And no, you can't just slip that person's name on there and think I won't notice because your name is effing printed in my special scripty font and all official like.

I'm not dealing with any of that bullshit. Each RSVP has the names of the people who are invited. A few have a line to write in a guest's name, but there are less than 6 people who we're extending that option to. We just don't have the room to invite people we don't know. Period.

I've already had some friends ask if they can bring a date. In some cases yes, I know their significant other, and no, I wouldn't mind it if that person tagged along. But I'm not going to sacrifice someone Jason or I actually want at the wedding who got shafted onto the B-List just so you can have a date. Husbands and wives are a different story, I'm not that snide. But unless you're engaged or living with your significant other, I'm sorry, you'll have to wait and see if there's room at the inn.

So hear this friends. I love you all. I love all of your significant others (even if I have yet to meet them, I'm sure they're wonderful people if you've chosen to have them in your life) and I have them on a tertiary list. But please don't get upset if you don't see their name on the RSVP, this whole political undercurrent to wedding invitations is trying enough, I don't want you mad at me too :(

WW: Another Dress Adventure

I'm not going to post any photos on the off chance Chris reads my blog, but Julianne found her wedding dress!

Huzzah!

We started off Saturday morning at Curvaceous Couture. Julianne, Casey, Cynthia and I had been there previously and there were one or two dresses that she really liked and wanted our mother to see.

What's interesting about Curvaceous Couture is it feels like an upscale bridal salon and they treat you like you're the most important person in the store, but they still have that homey family run business feel. Yukia Walker, the owner (who's pregnant - congrats!), is pretty much the illest bridal attendant ever.

She freaked Julianne out a little bit though. Apparently Julibean had mentioned something about her first experience at Curvaceous Couture on her blog and Yukia had not only read it, but taken action. Originally Julianne really wanted to try on a bunch of mermaid style gowns (girl has a nice butt, we like to flaunt it), but CC didn't really have many on hand. So after reading that, she ordered some mermaid style dresses.

I thought it was great that Yukia was so interested in pleasing her customers and catering to whatever need they had. Julianne thought it was weird. This is what the internet is for people! No doubt she's found this post and is reading this right now. (Hey lady!)

Julianne left CC with a few styles written down. I left with a style written down for an incredible veil. But I think I got the wrong style number or designer since I cannot find it ANYWHERE online. It was beyond perfect, white beaded flower (I was planning on making beaded flower bouquets for my bridesmaids so that's an epic awesomeness in coordination right there), with a feather or two, and it was the perfect angled birdcage. My note says it's a Kristina Eaton design but something makes me think it's actually a Sara Gabriel. It just seems more her style.

So if you are reading this Yukia, and you haven't already heard from me by phone, you know the veil I'm talking about? Can we find out what it's called and exactly which designer it is? kthanks.

After that we drove down to Virginia, met up with Becky and Andy, sent Chris off to hit the driving range with Andy, and nabbed Becky to stop in at Curvy Girls Bridal. They're new. Their website isn't fully up yet. But they're pretty fabulous.

The salon is a little bit more over the top than CC is, but they are also family run. They have a bunch of different designers than CC had so there was a little more variety. But they also freaked Julianne out a little. At the time of our appointment there wasn't anyone else in the store, so when Julianne came out of the dressing room for the first time there were like 20 people standing around because they wanted to be a part of it.

The CGB ladies are extremely nice and professional, the place was not as homey as CC but they did in fact have a "man cave" with the TV set to ESPN so any men who got dragged along could have a moment's silence away from all the estrogen. They do need to invest in slightly more stronger clippies. They were using plain plastic oversized clothespins to hold the dresses tighter to get the feel for how it would be in your size. The plastic guys weren't getting it done. They need the industrial metal clips, so that would be my only complaint.

Long story short Julianne found a fabulous La Sposa gown that was the right amount of mermaid and the right amount of ruffles. The price was perfect (hell it's about the same price as my dress and mine has half the fabric), and VA taxes are a far cry cheaper than NY taxes.

One less thing to worry about now that Julianne has found her dress. We'll start looking for bridesmaids dresses within the next month or so.

Overall the ladies at Curvy Girl Bridal were wonderful, but they definitely were not as hilarious as Yukia and the staff at Curvaceous Couture. If you're a plus size or just slightly curvy lady in the Baltimore/DC/N.VA area, I highly recommend going to either place (or both!) to find your wedding dress. They really understand brides who aren't a perfect size six.

...my fingers are kind of itching to try that veil on again...I might have to go back to CC to buy it!

WW: A Week in Review

So Jason came to stay with me Presidents' Week. It was nice. It gave us a little sneak peek as to what it would be like living together. Sort of at least.

Last Friday night Laura swung down and we hung out with Casey and strategized our plan of attack for everything we needed to get done that weekend. Saturday morning Julianne and Chris showed up and while we got our hair cut Chris dropped the 'rents off at the airport for their annual trip down to Florida.

We had a very productive day. Julianne ordered her bridesmaid dress and wound up finding a very cute dress at David's for her wedding that is currently in contention. We searched and searched for silver shoes for Laura for the wedding but could not find any.

Then when Jason got into town we tried a new restaurant for dinner. Julianne and Chris are still looking for a local place to have their rehearsal dinner. The Chophouse was pretty delicious, not gonna lie. We think it's a place that Chris' parents would like and as long as the dinner is timed correctly they won't have to rent out the entire place.

When we got home we popped open a few bottles of wine and got to work. Laura, tape maven, wielded the new tape gun I bought like a champ and got all of the pockets tacked down on the pocketfolds. If anyone is interested, the tape gun is Laura's new best friend. When we did her pocketfolds we literally had to hand cut and tape each one individually. Tedious is a good word for that one.

Julianne folded all of the belly bands and I spent some time gluing down the layers to the monogram piece for the belly bands. Then we got incredibly distracted and wound up watching multiple episodes of Jersey Shore. I'm not proud.

Sunday we all woke up and munched on some delicious banana bread compliments of Queen Bang herself, Julibean. Laura had to leave us because her slave-driver of a company doesn't give her off for President's Day and she has appointments with Jim back at home to look at houses. (Scary that friends are popping out babies and doing things like house hunting!) We glued down all of the belly bands and glued on all of the seals as we watched episodes of Sherlock. BTW if you for some reason get the BBC watch it! It is utterly fabulous on so many different levels. We all LOVE this show now.

Anyway...Then the real fun began.

We took a trip to Mens Wearhouse to register for tuxedos for the groomsmen and Jason. We're flipping through the book together while they're fitting a group ahead of us and Jason drops a bombshell.

He points to the following photo and says,

I was thinking something like this!

For a moment I think he's joking. I look at my sister standing next to me, then back at Jason pointing to the man in the white tuxedo, then back at my sister standing next to me, then back at Jason pointing to the man in the white tuxedo.

It's then that I realize he isn't joking and did in fact truly want to wear a white tuxedo to our wedding.

Now let me add that Jason had mentioned wanted to wear white before. It was always after me explaining that the groomsmen would all be in silver vests but would be wearing different blue ties that match their respective bridesmaid. So I guess since his comment always came after talking about vests and ties that I assumed he meant he wanted to wear a white vest and tie, which was my intent all along.

Jason is a man of few words. I know this. I love him even though he doesn't always communicate the way I'd prefer him to. I'm over it though. Obviously I'm the vociferous one of the pair. We're both pretty comfortable with this most the time. However, when he doesn't communicate properly something like wanting to wear a white tuxedo to our wedding I get a little flabbergasted.

We sat down with the guy, I really can't remember his name but he was fantastic. Really funny and personable, kind of sarcastic in our dry way. Thought us nonchalantly going back and forth about the white tux was really funny. We wound up registering Jason for the same tuxedo as the groomsmen but with the white vest and tie instead of the silver but we have up until two weeks before the wedding to change it if we want.

I am definitely against the white tuxedo. So is my sister, so is my mother, so is my grandma-like friend Marlene over at Priscilla of Boston who we called to find out what color (white or ivory) I ordered my dress in because I'm a very forgetful bride and can't remember.

The only concession I'm willing to make here is a white dinner jacket a la Indiana Jones & the Temple of Doom. I'd be all over that. It's sexy, it's eye catching, and it's a compromise that I don't think would look horrible in wedding photos.

My only rule is that whatever color the white dinner jacket is, we have to make sure it matches (close enough) to my dress. I won't be able to get a swatch of my wedding dress until it comes in in April, but we'll see what happens or if Jason winds up in a plain tux.

After tuxedos we went to CozyMel's for lunch (delicious!) which is my new favorite Mexican Restaurant close to home. And then said goodbye to Chris and Julianne so they could head home.

During the week Jason and I printed, punched and stuck all the monograms onto the belly bands. They are now completely done. I'm still conversing with my mother over invitation layouts but I'm hoping to have them printed and cut down by the end of next week. Invitations are almost done! Huzzah!


(Photos borrowed from Mens Wearhouse & The Gentleman.)

WW: Pockets-a-folding

Basically today was really super nasty out. Long Island was one big skating rink. Lulu is still in the shop (we're waiting on her new rim) and my father basically told me, "I don't want you driving my car in that mess" so I called out of work.

I did a nice bit of organizing and cleaning and managed to get all of the pocket folds 90% done. Now they all have the invite backing glued into place. Next step is taping down the pocket and then the pocketfolds are DONE!

I got our custom return address stamp and our monogram stamp made up from rubberstamp.net so I also stamped all of the invitation envelopes with the return address. We're waiting on the RSVP envelopes for now because we're not sure if Jason and I will be living somewhere else before the invites go out, only time will tell. But for now we're using my parent's address as the return address for the invitations themselves, and the stamp will be theirs to keep once this is all over.

The monogram stamp is just slightly too big for the size circles I wanted to use on the bellybands. Instead I think I'll leave the embossing for the invite itself and just print out the monogram on plain paper for the belly bands. Which will make my life dramatically easier. Plus it'll give a little sparkle to the inside of the invitation and keep the outside a little less distracting.

On Saturday when I was up state with Laura we went to David's so she could try on the bridesmaid dress and we could finalize the colors. Originally it was going to be Marine, Horizon, Cornflower, Pool and Capri. When we got to the store we realized a few things. Firstly Marine looked waaaay too dark with the other colors, and secondly, David's just came out with a new color Malibu that worked into the palate nicely.

So now the bridesmaids will be in Horizon, Cornflower, Malibu, Pool and Capri. Here's a slightly hilarious representation of the girls via David's "dress your wedding" website:

I say slightly hilarious because they facial features and hairstyles are no where near at all what my ladies look like. They'll all be in silver shoes and I've bought pretty silver wraps for them and hopefully it'll look as pretty on the day of the wedding as it does in my mind and at the store when we lined up the colors.

Slowly but surely I'm chipping away at my massive to do list for the wedding. There is still a lot to be done, but I'm confident we'll get through it all soon. Tomorrow marks 150 days till our wedding.

Holy crap.

STDs, the fun colorful kind

When it came to Jason and my Save the Dates (STDs) for our wedding I knew I wanted to do something so over the top quirky and us that people would open them up and be like, well damn, that is SO them!

I can't remember where I first saw it but I came across a couple's wedding invitation that were printed on long skinny posters and basically it was the story of their seven year relationship and how much of a whirlwind it was over the years. Not only was it funny and a little silly, but it was also a brilliant piece of typography. When I saw them I knew THAT was what I wanted to do, so I set out to make a fun little story of us.

This is what I came up with:

Originally I was going to get some shiny mid-weight paper to print them on but after the great paper search of July I wound up with 400 11x17 sheets of the Astrobright Glisten and figured I might as well use what I had on hand instead of buying more.

Here they are, in all their majesty!

They were mailed in 5.5"x5.5" Astrobright envelopes.
I designed and printed mailing labels on adhesive paper.
Our return address is on the back.

An STD cost analysis:

• Paper - As I mentioned before, it was difficult to track this paper down. I really really wanted the Astrobright Glisten paper that matched the blue dotted washi paper I had my heart set on using for details. Because the paper was discontinued I had to buy a whole case of it which was 400 sheets. Each sheet came out to about $0.50 and I made two STDs on each sheet. I believe I made 84 STDs, so I used 42 sheets. Grand Total = $21.
• Envelopes - I purchased these envelopes from envelopemall.com. I have always found envelopemall to be easy to work with and I go to them to purchase samples often. These envelopes specifically came to about $0.11 a piece (when you add in shipping and taxes). I used 82. Grand Total = $9.02.
• Labels - I purchased Astrobrights Print & Stick Adhesive paper. It came in a pack of 30 for $10.85 from amazon.com which comes to about $0.36 per sheet. I used 14 sheets for the labels. Grand Total = $5.06.
• Postage - Since they were square and slightly heavy, postage was $0.64. I guess what I saved on not buying any additional paper I paid for in postage. Grand Total = $52.48.
• Printing & Cutting - Was free. I was able to print the STDs at work and a family friend who works at Kinkos cut them down to size for me because he's awesome. Grand Total = $0.

STD Grand Total
Including postage: $87.56
Individual price: $1.07 ...Not bad!

Not including postage: $35.08 ...man, if only I could have hand delivered all of them! They would have only cost $0.43 a piece!

I've already gotten a few phone calls from family members and txt messages from friends saying how much they loved our STDs. I can't tell you how satisfying it is to hear that when I worked so hard on making them special.

Now we get down and dirty and start making invitations!

WW: FINALLY!

I'm not going to attach a photo because I want there to be some small amount of surprise for Jason on our wedding day...

But I did it!

I FINALLY bought my wedding dress on Saturday!!!

The only thing I'm going to say about it is it is from Priscilla of Boston and that I love it to death.

My dress follows specific criteria:
-Sweetheart neckline to make the girls look killer
-Feels lightweight (ideal for July)
-Non-itchy crinoline
-Was comfortably in my price range including any alteration charges
-Doesn't make me want to die on the inside while I wear it!

Hooray!

I'm going back this week to speak with the seamstress about the alterations that will be made in the factory before it comes to the store but YAY.

WW: e-session!

Back in the beginning of November Jason and I met up with our parents in Troy and had our tastings and spent some time together. Somewhere crammed within the weekend of festivities and eating delicious foods Jason and I snuck off for our engagement session with our photographer Heather.

This post is going to be pretty photo heavy but I just wanted to preface it with the fact that Heather is simply amazing and she's really friendly and fun and very calm. I'm not sure if Jason or I could have handled an in your face photographer so during the whole shoot it was nice to have a little quiet. We were anxious enough!

So without further ado...

The first few were taken in the Quad a stone's throw from Jason's old room

These next few were taken on Sage right outside the Quad



The Approach!





Somewhere on 8th Street


Back at the Approach, this time from the top



Downtown, an alley somewhere behind Franklin Plaza



This is one of my favorites from the whole day:



Back on campus, outside the DCC


Saying hi to Erik Jonsson, founder of Texas Instruments


A little bit of EMPAC



EMPAC SMASH!