Like the Sands Through the Hourglass...

Hi, my name is Miss Julya and I have an hourglass figure. You would think I'd be excited but considering I just read an article titled "The End of the Hourglass Figure," I'm a little deflated. It says, in a nut shell, that the classic 1950's silhouette is uncommon for today's female figure and that clothing makers need to follow suit. Here are the statistics for today's female figure:

Growing up I was between a rectangle and a spoon, where it appears most women are nowadays. I looked around me at my family of big busted women and felt defeated. Then in college, shortly after my grandmother passed away (the biggest bust of us all), they quite literally just appeared. I remember it very clearly, I was in my dorm room trying on bathing suits. Art was on his spring break and my college was going on break the following week. I put on my triangle bikini top that fit comfortably the previous summer and what is this? I'm falling out of it? I ran down the hall to my friends room (she consequently has a very large bust and feels no pity for me) and before I could say anything she said, "what are those and where did you get them?" I proudly declared, "My inheritance!"

So here I am at 38-28-38 and I'm reading this article about my figure being odd. What effect will this have on my wedding dress shopping? I guess I will find out on Sunday when I go to Kleinfeld for the first time. My goal is to be a perfect sample size 10 but I cannot find the measurements for that anywhere on the internet! What I did find is that I'm close to the measurements of Miss Sophia Loren. I wouldn't mind looking like this on my wedding day:

Yes, I'm a big Days of Our Lives Fan. I couldn't resist the title!

Help Me Help You

If there is anyone out there in Blog land that needs wedding shoes please listen to me! J.Crew is having a ridiculous sale -- 30% off their already reduced prices on all final sale items. Use code JAN08 to get free shipping. Look at the cute shoes you can get!!


$69.99


$69.99


$69.99


$49.99

If you want shoes in other colors they have them too! Why are you still reading this? GO!

Holy Dress Sale Batman

Reem Acra ... Kenneth Pool... Amsale... I'm in HEAVEN! I've got an appointment on Sunday to scout the place out. Wish me luck!

My Not So Bargain Rehearsal Dress

I found my rehearsal dress while reading WeddingBee yesterday. The only problem was that the bee only provided a picture and not a link. I scoured Nordstrom looking for it to no avail. I looked under the sale dress, the regular dresses, the wedding dresses, the suits, and the entire site under white and off-white -- nothing! So this morning in a last ditch effort I looked one more time in the wedding shop except this time I looked at the Mother of the Bride dresses and there it was!! The reason it didn't show up under white and off-white is because it has gold accents so it's considered metallic. Just don't tell Art how much it was.

RE:

We just got the coolest gift box at work and I have to share. Our promotional items company sends a new year gift instead of a holiday gift. Last year it was a make your own snowman kit, which I loved. This year the theme was "re:".

I opened the box to find this:

Inside was this guy:

Which was full of this stuff:

We've got --

re:fill - a water bottle that says Mr. Re wants you to take the refill not landfill pledge. 8 out of 10 plastic water bottles used in the United States become garbage or end up in a landfill. Making these bottles requires more than 1.5 million barrels of oil annually. That's enough to fuel 100,000 cars!

re:connect - a stapler replacement that says Mr. Re says if each of the approximate 3 million office workers in New York City used one less staple per day for a year, over 40 tons of steel would be saved. That's nearly the amount used in the Empire State Building!

re:use - a 100% organic cotton bag that says Mr. Re says B.Y.O.B. (bring your own bag.) Over 380 million plastic bags are consumed in the U.S. every year. Many end up as litter and can damage the environment and endanger wildlife.

re:juvenate - an energy drink that says Recycle this Can! on the side.

re:charge - a battery operated universal cell phone charger kit.

re:action - a journal book that is printed on recycled paper. Some of the pages have environmental facts on them.

re:cuperate - a roll of? tums? I'm not sure. I will try to figure it out.

I can't help but think about how some of these ideas can be used in an Out of Town Bag. The DIY gears are turning...

More Adventures In Bargain Hunting

I recently booked my hair and make up people and the best part is that they are coming to us. We don't have to leave the hotel and we can chill in our PJ's all morning. Looking around at some knottie bios I came across one from Mrs.JuliaGoolia (loving the name!) and she bought robes on sale for her ladies so they would match.

Being the bargain hunter that I am, I set out to find some robes on sale. Our colors are black and white but I thought black robes would be depressing and pink is not my thing. After some research I ended up at JC Penny and found some comfy robes in light navy blue.

Not our color but you can see it on a model.

The bottom one is our color.

They are on sale right now for $12.99! I went on retailmenot and got a coupon code for 15% off then I went through ebates to get 4% cash back. After shipping and all discounts they will be $12.69 each. Now I just need to find myself a comfy white robe and I'll be all set.

Cheaters Never Prosper

Warning: Non Wedding Related Material Ahead

Since the Superbowl is next weekend and the Giants literally play in my back yard I feel I must share this from a woot.com contest. If you don't know what Woot is you obviously aren't cool. See the whole contest results here.

Going to the Chapel

This past weekend was a very productive wedding weekend for us. Among other things, we finally got to see the interior of the church we will be married in. We are both First Reformed and lucky for us there is a beautiful First Reformed Church .9 miles from Glen Sanders Mansion. Most Dutch churches I have seen have no center aisle so I was a little nervous that this church would follow suit. Not only does it have a center aisle, but it is beautiful and has slate floors. We are very excited!

Inspire Me!

It seems that every where I look, brides have an inspiration board! I'm in serious need of some decor inspiration so this is what I came up with today:






(all photos courtesy of The Knot)

Table Numbers

I've been looking for alternatives to traditional table numbers. This isn't to say that I'm opposed to them, I just wonder if there are more interesting ways to go about it. I've seen tables named after places the couple have visited, but we aren't big on travel. Tables named after important land marks in the town or city the wedding is taking place, but we have no special attachment to Schenectady or Albany. I've seen tables named after significant years like 1987 (the year we entered Kindergarten) then putting pictures of the couple from that year on the table sign, but that seems a little busy to me. All are nice options but not our cup of tea.

Today while surfing the knot for decor ideas I came upon this idea:

Katie and Ryan's table numbers, which were designed to look like Mondrian replicas, were uniquely personal. Instead of sequential digits, each table number had special meaning: One table was labeled 26.2 to represent the Columbus Marathon the couple had run together; and another table was 107,501, the official capacity of the University of Michigan stadium.

Maybe we could have Table 138 -- Miles between our childhood homes. Table 50 -- Percentage of weddings that we've attended that were Sage - RPI couples.

Albany Messes Up My TV Debut!

My mom called me to let me know that our Martha show did not air in Albany today. It was a re-run instead. She was particularly confused since right before the show came on there was a teaser that said "Don't miss this Friday's show about weddings!"

Here is a clip from Martha's website. Can you see us? I circled our faces in pink.

9 Months and Counting

When I tell people I can't wait to cut my hair in 9 months they look at me oddly as if I were trying to tell them I'm pregnant. No people! My wedding is in 9 months. From today actually :) I put up an away message in Google chat stating just that about 5 minutes ago and this is the message I get from one of my bridesmaids:

Andrea: Get pregnant!
me: NO
Andrea: You're no fun

Thanks for the support people.

In other news, how pretty is this dress? Can you imagine it in white??

Free Stuff and Martha Stewart

We went to the Martha Stewart Show on Tuesday. It was a special show for engaged couples and we had a blast! It’s airing Tomorrow, January 18th, so set your DVR! We got a lot of awesome stuff too, I’ll blog about that later. Pictures are below.

Waiting outside

The crowd is seated

We got great seats, 3rd row middle

Darcy from Martha Stewart Weddings

Pretty cakes

Us after the show

They announced we had to give back our ticket to get our free stuff so I took a picture of it!

Playing Dress Up

Growing up I had an idea of a wedding dress that I would like to wear. It would be, in one word, poofy. Something perhaps like:


Once I actually started the process of looking for a dress I found nothing that did “it” for me. It seems that I have a problem -- I don’t want to look like a princess. I don’t want people to say, “aw, she looks pretty, sweet, nice, beautiful, etc…"I want jaws to drop. I want to look hot. I want to be stunning.

I want a lower back.

Minus the lace.

Minus the ugly bow, of course.

I actually like this one. I don't want beading though.

These dresses don’t necessarily do it for me either but they are getting warmer.
I’ve looked at endless magazines and websites and I’m coming to the conclusion that I’m going to need to get my dress made.

Adventures in Bridesmaid Dress Shopping Part II

I did end up buying one thing at the store, an Ann Cares Card. We bought the dresses in October which is Breast Cancer Awareness Month. Ann Taylor sells the Ann Cares Card for $25 and $20 goes towards breast cancer research. The benefit of the card is that it gave us free shipping on orders over $125 and an additional 15% everything including sale items -- double score! We drove home and called the one remaining bridesmaid I hadn’t asked yet (she lives far away and I wanted to do it in person but cheap dresses won me over.) After the excitement and tears she told me her dress size and I was off to order. My one last challenge was deciding if I should order 5 dresses or 6. I have one maid of honor, my mother, and 5 bridesmaids. My mother hadn’t decided if she wanted to wear a mother of the bride dress or a dress like the other girls. In the end I ordered a dress for her just in case since it was a cheap insurance policy in my opinion.

The one thing I do before buying anything on-line is check to see if the vendor is listed with Ebates. Ebates is a site the shares the commission they get from directing your business to another businesses site. They give 3% cash back at Ann Taylor, Banana Republic, Bluefly, Brooks Brothers and tons more. Some sites offer more, as much as 25%, but the standard I’ve seen is between 2-6%. When you’re buying $400 worth of bridesmaid dresses it really pays off.

So as a re-cap:

Dress - $198
On Sale - $99.44
25% off Sale - $74.58
15% off Ann Cares Card - $63.39
3% cash back with Ebates - $61.49
Add the cost of the sash - $68
Shipping - Free with Ann Cares Card
Total Cost of Dress with Sash (shipped) = $68


The day the dresses arrived!:

Adventures in Bridesmaid Dress Shopping Part I

I will go out on a limb and say that I had the world’s easiest Bridesmaid dress shopping experience of any bride to come before me. My only requirements for the dress were black with an ivory sash and floor length. While reading Weddingbee one day I came upon a sale notification at Ann Taylor. They were having 25% off their already reduced Celebrations line. Never one to pass up a sale I took a gander and found a strapless floor length black dress on sale from $198 to $99.44. The additional 25% made it $74.58. I took a poll of the ladies and we agreed to meet at an Ann Taylor in the city so the dresses could be tried on. My only worry was that Ann Taylor only offers sizes up to 18 and one of my bridesmaids has a 46 inch bust -- the largest measurement on their size chart is 45.5 inches.

The dress

The dress in brown but with the sash

Three Bridesmaids made the trek to Ann Taylor on Madison Avenue in the pouring rain. The people in the store must have thought they hit a gold mine with all the trying on we were doing but I already decided we would be ordering on-line. 46 inch bust Bridesmaid got the 18 to zip past her waist but not her bust. She decided from past experience that it could be altered and for the price it was worth it. Below are pictures of the other girls.

Future Sister-In-Law

Friend

How Sweet It Is

My latest obsession has become our candy buffet. Getting married on Sweetest Day has made me oddly preoccupied with all things sweet and specifically white candy. I’ve found some awesome photos to use as inspiration but I’m having a hard time figuring out exactly what candy they used. I hate white chocolate so I’m trying to look for yogurt covered things or candy that is white-ish like dried pineapple.

So far I’ve come up with:
Rock Candy
Dried Pineapple
M&M’s
Jelly Belly
Hershey Kisses
Jordan Almonds
Life Savers
Yogurt covered pretzels
Flavored Licorice
Yogurt covered gummy bears
White candy tarts
Salt Water Taffy

I think that I’m off to a good start but I want at least 15-20 different kinds. I’m also in the process of looking for containers and scoops.

$9.99 at Bed Bath & Beyond

$14.99 at Bed Bath & Beyond

$20 for 12

If The Shoe Fits

Hello Blog! I took the holiday’s off and I’m back! It’s officially 2008 and that means I’m getting married this year! So much has happened in the last 6 weeks so I’ll get started with my wedding shoes. I am 5 foot 11 and Art is 6 foot even. Given this, I can’t exactly buy the first pair of heels I fall in love with. Back in September I posted about a pair of $165 J.Crew ballet flats that I wanted but could not justify spending that much money on. They are made in Italy with Italian viscose/silk and I prayed to the discount gods that they would go on sale. I waited patiently, checking the website every 2 days, until they went on sale for $98. I still couldn’t justify $98! What was a girl to do? I asked Art what he thought and he vetoed the $98 shoes. Crap! So I prayed to the discount gods for a 20% off final sale. Apparently there were a lot of other ladies waiting for the shoes to go on sale because sizes 8.5 - 9.5 vanished from the website in a matter of days. I was devastated to say the least but continued to check the site with some regularity out of desperation. Desperation paid off when a single pair of size 9’s appeared during my lunch break one day. After conferring with a bridesmaid, I learned my lesson to not ask Art, I decided to go for it. No sooner did the box arrive in the mail and the suckers go on sale for $89.99 with a 20% off sale! NOT FAIR! Only sizes 6-7 are available now so I don’t feel too bad about my $98 shoes. Maybe I should concentrate on finding a dress to go with the shoes…