Phairy Dee

Posting from the Holiday Inn; just got back from the rehearsal dinner about half an hour ago.

I realized during the rehearsal -- I forgot the marriage license! It's currently sitting in our apartment, about 30 miles away. I actually said "Holy s*t," right in the middle of the church, when the minister asked for it. My brother, and his girlfriend (aka the Best Man and Director of Vegetarian Affairs) are on their way to Brooklyn to pick it up, along with Kevin's checkbook (need to pay the photog and the organist!). Then there was the argument over where people would meet, what time they'd get to the church, and how.

Oh, and my mother thought that since the wedding's at 11, I should walk down the aisle at 11:15. WTF? The minister and I had to shut that down pretty quickly. The invitations said 11:00, and that's when I plan on starting my walk down the aisle. I know in some cultures, an 11:00 wedding means the ceremony starts at 11:15, or even noon, but that's not my culture.

Other than that, I'm not stressing out too much. Even though one of my (fake) thumbnails just broke. I just put some white nail polish on the tip, and I'm hoping I'm the only one who notices.

*Sigh* Xanax is my friend tonight.

This site has over 1300 pictures of hairstyles. Even with my super-high-speed cable connection, it took a few minutes for all of the pictures to load.

This was a prank gone wrong that ended up on "Good Morning America"

*Bridesmaid’s Contract*
Hello my beautiful bridesmaids! Let me just say again how happy I am that you are going to be a part of my special day! Below are just a few guidelines for the wedding that I’d like you to review, please initial by each point, sign at the end and send back to me. Just want to make sure they’re aren’t any surprises! The planning bride is a happy bride!
Thanks a bunch! Love ya!

______ My hair will remain at the length it is now or longer.

______ I will not change my hair color without first consulting Katie and providing a sample photo or hair swatch for consideration.

______ I will use Sally Hansen’s “Maximum Growth-Daily Nail Growth program” every day for the 4 months before the wedding day.

______ I will not gain more than 4lbs from the weight I was when I was asked to be a bridesmaid.

______ I swear to attend all showers, (lingerie, bridal & bachelorette) to arrive in a timely manner and do everything in my power to support and “be there” for the bride.

______ I will purchase the David’s Bridal style # 81123 dress below in Latte/Champagne within 3 weeks of today.



______ I will NOT knowingly get pregnant without notifying Katie at least 4 months prior to the wedding so a suitable alternate can be found. I will also give my purchased bridesmaid dress to said alternate.

I do hereby swear that I will adhere to all of the above & other understood bridesmaid duties for the wedding on September 21, 2007
X_________________________
(sign, print and date)

Lavender ribbon at the bottom of each tier, with some scattered roses/petals.

This one is really nice too, but a bit too complex for me to ask my mom and her friend to decorate.

Ooh! I wonder if this is too busy, with the butterflies and all.

Ooooh! More pretty cake!

My Director of Vegetarian Affairs decided to guilt the FSILs into picking out their dresses by letting them all know what they're getting. It turns out that the FSILs have already decided on their dresses, and FMIL will be ordering them from a local shop.

MOH:


Bridesmaid:


Junior Bridesmaid and Director of Vegetarian Affairs' dresses:

With the snowstorm and all that, I didn't get out my 5-month post yesterday.
( picture-heavy post )

My mother and I met with the officiant yesterday (Kevin had to go to work). He seems really excited to be helping out with our wedding! (I don't think he gets to do many weddings, because there aren't many young'uns in his congregation.) He gave me a lot of handouts, including his general outline for weddings, which is pretty short and sweet. He doesn't do a sermon, and we basically have to pick out 2-3 scriptures from a list, and figure out who's going to read them. I'm still kinda hoping Kevin's grandma will want to do one, as she's a minister herself, but he doubts she'd want to, since she's retired.

Here are the scriptures we have to choose from:

• Genesis 2:18-24
  
• Ecclesiastes 4:9-12
  
• Mark 10:6-9
  
• John 2:1-11
  
• Romans 12:1-3 and 9-13
  
• I Corinthians 13
  
• Ephesians 5:21-33
  
• Colossians 3:12-17
  
• I John 4:7-12
  

One thing that was kinda strange was that Tom (the pastor) kept pushing the Unity Candle, which he calls the "marriage candle." In fact, even he noticed he was pushing it, and said he didn't know why. He did bring up a valid point, though; since the ceremony's so short already, it would seem really short without a unity candle lighting. I had initially nixed it in the name of the budget; the candle and the holders are just more things to spend money on.

We also have to figure out whether we want soloists, and what they should perform. My mom and Zen (MOH's mom) keep pushing MOH's sister, Christine, who is going to college for flute. I'm also thinking of Kevin's sister Tamara, who's a pretty good singer.

EDIT: Leaning toward Ecclesiastes and I John

I'm leaning toward jewelry like this set from weddingaccents.com in lavender:

I finally decided to be just a little dictatorial about the bridesmaid dresses. I decided that they can go with Alfred Angelo, lavender, pink or tea rose. The styles are still completely up to them ("whatever looks good on you"), so they can use 2 colors if the style has trim.

MOH's going with this dress in lavender,



but she wants to try it on before ordering it. I'll talk to FSILs over Christmas, since I'll be at their house for a week. I have a feeling they'll go with lavender also, since it's the older FSIL's favorite color. The younger FSIL (aka the junior bridesmaid)'s favorite color is red, so she's SOL. She could still do a pink if she really wanted to. As I said before, they can have 3 totally different dresses and colors, since one's the MOH, one's a bridesmaid, and one's a junior bridesmaid. :)

• Just for kicks, here's an excerpt from a letter my 11-year-old FSIL wrote to FH:
  "I can't wait until the wedding comes!!! I want to be the second center of attention!! =)^* Tell Dee that I can't wait for the wedding...."
  ^*she made a smiley out of the exclamation marks, but since I can't do that on a computer...)
  
• In other news, I ordered the AA 1797 from Netbride, who quoted me a good $80 less than the cheapest price I found online. I'm hoping everything goes well with that.
  
• My mom talked to one of her co-workers, who renewed her vows last year. My mom insists that her tiara must be made of fancy crystal, since it sparkled all day (I haven't seen it, but I'll take her word for it). She ended up getting said co-worker to offer to lend me the tiara. Score!
  
• I also sent out the deposit for the photographer yesterday; I'm starting to get things done!
  
• I also had a strange wedding-related dream the night before. Our reception venue (the church hall) has tables and chairs for 80 people. For now, we're going under the assumption that anything more than 80 will be too crowded, especially if people want to dance. However, I dreamt that my mother went and rented tables and chairs for 160, and I couldn't get her to see why this would be a problem. She started referring to having two receptions or something.
  

Because I got a surprise windfall last month, I've been using it to get some wedding stuff. Here's what I got so far:

• Deposit on flowers, like these but with white as well, from Proflowers.com
  
  
• Cake Topper, from eBay
  
  
• Bridesmaid purses to stuff lots of gifts in:
  
  
• Compacts - to stick in the bridesmaids' bags. They were only $2.
  
• Cake Serving Set - $12 including engraving - I hope it doesn't fall apart!
  
• My mother's stockpiled these napkins, which were $1 per pack of 20 at Christmas Tree Shop
  
  
• Invitations - I got a pack of 50 print-them-yourself invitations at Michael's for $39.99. But, since my mother managed to score $40 worth of gift cards, all I had to pay was sales tax.
  
  
• Bubbles, 96 bottles of
  
• Bells, 96
  
• 100 yards of lavender ribbon, with "Dee and Kevin July 14, 2007" printed in purple ink.
  

Being the geeks that we are, FH and I thought it would be cute if we got a couple of Tuxes (the Linux mascot) to go on top of the wedding cake. We could put a veil (and maybe even a dress) on the "bride," and the groom's already in a "tux." The problem is finding Tux dolls that are the right size (and aren't stuffed/plushy). That brought me to that geek mecca known as ThinkGeek. I didn't find the right Tux, but I did find an idea for the guys' attire.

That's right, a tie that says, "Ties Suck." I have a feeling the groomsmen would be all for it too, at least my brother will be. Now if I could find one in Plain English, it would be a great gift for FFIL.

On Jeopardy! today, they had the following category:

Jane Eyre's Wedding Registry

I went to National Wholesale Liquidators to check out the floating candle holders I mentioned before. My mom had mentioned that MOH's mom got them for $10. I was pleasantly surprised when I got there, because while these were $10, the ones I mentioned before were $3.99. I bought 12 of them (we have 10 tables, with enough guests to fill 8, but I got a couple extra just in case). You should have seen me, with three huge plastic bags full of the things, hopping on a bus, then a train, then another bus to get home with them all. Now, it's just a matter of where to put them for 9 months >_<.

I'm still contemplating whether to further decorate the tables with little votives that can double as favors, or with flower petals. If petals, then real or fake? If no votives, then what will I do for favors? I'm leaning toward these bookmarks. People should definitely have use for bookmarks! If not, then please pretend you do, if only to avoid a rant on the state of education...

For the cake table, food tables, etc. I might have live floral centerpieces. I'm thinking of going with these guys for personal flowers, but if I get one of their packages, I'll have extra bridesmaid bouquets/centerpieces.

At least I finally feel as if I'm making some sort of progress with the planning. It didn't feel like I was truly planning a wedding until I actually got some wedding stuff. It kinda felt as if I was pretending to plan a wedding. Even though we've set a date, we didn't have to place a deposit on the venue, so there's no piece of paper proving that we have actual plans.

It's been a couple of weeks since the last post (and that one was a blurb). Here's some of what's happened on the wedding front:

( gown pic and much, much more! )

As I mentioned in a previous post, trying on bridal gowns was an eye-opening experience, especially when I got to see my back through the mirrors! I've known for some time that my abs need a litt lot of work, but I wasn't prepared for how my back would look in a strapless gown! I decided to do a bit of research on bride-specific workouts, and picked up Buff Brides by Sue Fleming. It has a bunch of clearly explained and pictured exercises, divided by which part of the body they sculpt (abs, back, arms, etc.). It also emphasizes getting at least 60 minutes of cardio each week. There's two programs in the book: the 6-month, and the 3-month. Considering the fact that I have 10 months, I should be able to improve things somewhat. I don't expect to end up with a supermodel body (I'd be very happy to be merely overweight instead of obese by the time I walk down the aisle), but I'd like less flab on my arms and back. Just a little less.

Expect to see more about my progress on this front.

I had made a nice little table so you could clearly see the advantages and disadvantages of each gown, but Blogger has issues with it. :(



Halter-top gown from David's Bridal. As you may already know from a previous post, I tried this one on when I went there with my mom.

Plus:

• Halter-top gives a bit more support to the chest area than a strapless (can wear a convertible bra with halter straps)
• I like the neckline
• I actually got to try it on

Minus:

• Price: $599, + sales tax (unless I go to New Jersey)
• If I remember correctly, the train's too long for my liking

( 4 more gowns, behind the cut! )

Onlinewholesaleflowers.com has a history of sending out rotten flowers (by "rotten," I mean moldy. ::shudder::) ... then giving you "store credit" when you complain.

Read this bride's account of her experience with them on LiveJournal. She also has links to the Nevada BBB.


Edit: I don't mean to bash online florists. I'm sure there are reputable ones. This place just isn't one of them.

One of the reasons I've turned to the 'net for practically everything involving my wedding is that I don't have that much of a community to belong to. My mother lives 50 miles away, but I have issues with my father (and he has issues, period.) so it's pretty hard to actually schedule time to spend with her. I may have mentioned before that we're hiding the wedding planning from my father. Believe me when I say it's for a good reason; I won't delve into details. My best friend (other than my fiancé), is my MoH, but an uber-busy grad student. We may live in the same city, but we only hang out every few months or so. My other friends are out of town, and I really haven't seen them in a while. Because of a lack of available people to sound off ideas on, I turn to the 'net. Supposedly, over 2 million women in the U.S. get married every year. That's a lot of people, a lot of experiences, a lot of ideas. I've found a couple of places on LiveJournal where some of those 2 million brides discuss various bridal issues:

• WeddingPlans: Self-explanatory.
  
• Plussizebride: Specializing in the wedding trials and tribulations of plus-sized women (not just brides, either).
• Wedding101: kinda like WeddingPlans, really, but not quite as active.

There are plenty of other wedding communities on LiveJournal, such as antibride, and there are even time-sensitive communities, like 2007weddings, or even april07weddings, if you want to get more specific.

On Thursday, my mother and I went to David's Bridal for a preliminary checking-out of the dresses. We didn't have an appointment, but they were so dead, it wasn't much of an issue.

I had come prepared; I had a printout of five dresses I wanted to try on.

Two of them I didn't get to try on. The first dress the clerk/fitter/whatever they call their employees brought out, she claimed only came in red trim. I had thought it came in various colors, but since I didn't want red, I didn't bother to try it. (When I got home, I checked the website, which said it came in 11 different colors.)

I tried on four other gowns. One of them, my mother and I just found. Dress #1. It's simple, relatively cheap in price, and I didn't take it seriously on the website because the jacket was in the way. I tried it on, and it seemed to fit okay (as far as I could tell while wearing a bra that was too tight and a crinoline that was too full).

Next, I tried on Dress #2 . As I mentioned in a previous post, it's my favorite so far, but it's also the most expensive. It fit ok, given the circumstances. That brings me to another issue:

( cut, for your pleasure! )