Take a Seat

So we called and got prices on chiavari chairs today. Can someone please tell me why you would pay $7 to put an ugly cover on an ugly chair when you can pay $7.50 and get a pretty chiavari chair with a pretty accent cushion? How does that make sense?

New Dress

I did it! I bought a new dress today. I can't post details about it here because Arthur reads my blog but I do have photos of it so if you want to see them email me!!! I got a veil too, I didn't think I was a veil person until she put it on and I almost started to cry. I said, "That's good, it's sold, take it off."

Mom drove 3 hours down in heavy traffic to give her final seal of approval. She was about 20 minutes late to our appointment but they didn't seem to care. When she got there she sheepishly asked where the bathroom was and I had to tell the dress lady that she had been in the car for 3 hours. You should have seen her face.

Now I have to plan our huge wedding weekend in July. Hair trial, menu tasting, meeting the minister, and talking to rental companies. Everything is coming together and getting more expensive by the day. We've decided to do our own flowers so there is money saved. **phew**

Selling The Dress!

I'm selling my Amsale!!

Vintage Bloomers

In fear of not looking hot for my boudoir session in October I finally signed up for the gym last night. Which has gotten me to thinking about cute things to wear to my boudoir shoot. I really like the vintage look as pictured below.





So I bought this yesterday in a size a little smaller than me -



It shipped today!

Mommy and Me

I have a single mom and she's my maid of honor. Looking through my blogs today I spotted this photo by Annie Leibovitz and I really want a photo of my mother and I like this. It's really sweet.

200

This is not an April Fools joke, the wedding is in 200 days. For a long time our count down number has started with a non-threatening 3 or 2. After today I can no longer hide behind my comfortable mantra "we have time to figure that out."

If the Dress Fits

We have friends visiting this weekend so I'm busy cleaning (and blogging). I have had my wedding dress in a bag on my dining room table since I bought it at the Running of the Brides sale a few weeks ago. It's there for a reason, we have a small apartment with NO storage. However, it can't very well camp out on our dining room table when we have company staying for the weekend. That, and I have big plans for that table on Sunday. Can we say Save the Date assembly line?

The way I see it, I had only one option. Space Saver Bag!


Wedding dress in a bag, on a table...




Wedding dress on its way into another bag, on the floor...




Wedding dress in the bag ready for it's destiny...




Vaccummmmmmmmmmmmm...




Wedding dress goes flat just like that...




Oh, wedding dress, you are looking mighty thin!


(sorry, I'm feeling punchy!)

Bad Music

I listen to Internet radio at work. Pandora to be specific. What is cool about Pandora is that if it plays a song you don't like you can tell it. Any song you give a negative rating too will never be played again. Sweet.

Today it decided to play Sweet Home Alabama. I came running to the computer... NOOOO, EWWW!! Most people in my generation love this song much in part due to the very popular movie Legally Blonde. Me? Not so much. You see, to me and my friends it actually causes us to remember something painful, the state a friend died in. While maybe I'm being a little sensitive, it got me to thinking. While I want to remember Nancy on my wedding day I certainly don't want that song playing at the reception. This negative rating system on Pandora could help me cultivate my do not play list for the DJ! I love how it's easy to turn every day mundane things into wedding planning tools. Right now it's playing Fleetwood Mac. Ah, that's better.

I'm Back!

I disappeared for an entire month, I'm sorry. At least it was the shortest month of the year right? It didn't feel like the shortest but that's a story for another time. What matters is that I'm back and I ended my month on a good note:



This is the Filene's Basement "Running of the Brides" sale at 12 noon on Friday.




What's this? Oh, that's just my wedding dress sitting next to me on the train home.

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.

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??