158 Days

When I think about how lucky I am to be marrying my best friend, October 1 seems like a lifetime away.  However, when I'm thinking about everything that still needs to be planned/created/measured/altered or otherwise finished before this date, I realize how short a time 158 days really is.  We have planned so much in the last 6 weeks and we have a lot more to go.

We have our rehearsal dinner venue selected and we're working on the menu right now.  Can anyone say pasta bar???  I'm really hoping that they'll work with us on this one, because for some (admittedly very odd reason), I am stuck on a pasta bar.  We have a great one in our building downstairs that Kat and I frequently do not bestow the willpower to resist.  We have lunch there a few times a month and I would love to do it there, but that poses 2 problems: first, they are only open until 2PM, and second, it's downtown (aka there isn't a good place to park).  Our selected location will be...drum roll please...the Painted Hills clubhouse!

Now, some of you are probably wondering where this clubhouse is, but most of our families live in Morgan county and know exactly what I'm talking about.  I have a special place in my heart for the clubhouse, because most of youth was spent there. Rhys and I used to hang out there together when we dated as teenagers, so there's some sentimental value for us.

Next on the agenda, we now have our whole wedding party selected!  We ordered shirts for everyone (pictures to follow), but here is everyone...Androidified!

Introductions to everyone will follow; stay tuned to the blog.  In the meantime, Charlene and I are going to attempt to finish the coasters that we started a few weeks ago.  Tomorrow is going to be dedicated to hair.  Thanks, Cara!

Cake Creations

When we started looking at venues, we came across a well-known cake designer, Mike Terry, who designs for Valle Vista brides.  He was on Ultimate Cake Off in seasons 1 and 2, featured in Slice and American Cake decorating magazine, teaches classes, and has 20 years of experience.  We hit the jackpot!  They have several cakes that are displayed when you tour to give you a better idea of what type of cake you might want.  Then of course, you get do the tasting and decide what it will taste like.  Here are some of the cakes:

I was a fan of the 5-tier black and white cake in the second the best, with the smaller 3-tier black and white in the fourth picture being my second favorite.  I bet you thought that if you read to the bottom of this post, we'd announce our cake.  Sorry, everyone!  You'll have to wait until the reception to see what we picked!

Honeymoon Registry

When we first got engaged, I found a list of things to do on The Knot's website.  There were a million (and on) things to do and as soon as I entered our wedding date, 30% of the list highlighted and a little clock appeared telling me that I was LATE!  We've been playing catch up to get where we are supposed to be and we are almost there, but the registry is one area that we hadn't given much thought to.  We figured that we'd get around to it eventually, but what was the rush?  You don't send out your registry right away anyway, so we were taking our time.  Well, we've heard everyone asking about where we're registering and we weren't sure what to do until my MOH (maid of honor) had a solution.What do you register for after you've combined families and have all the household basics?  A honeymoon!

What is a honeymoon registry?  I had never heard of this before, but when I started researching, I found that they are becoming popular due to the number of blended families these days.  A honeymoon registry is basically the same as registering online for household items, except the items are parts of your honeymoon.  We've decided to go on a cruise through the Western Caribbean and to Central America.  Our honeymoon registry lists our flight, our cruise, shore excursions, etc..  The costs of each are broken down into smaller gifts, so that our guests can gift parts of our honeymoon.  We may not need household items, but we definitely need a honeymoon!

To Updo or To Do Down?

Today's question is the topic of hair.  I agree that it's extremely important to have great hair on your wedding day, but who says it has to be up?  It seems that everyone I know assumed that I'd be doing my hair in some sort of fancy up-do, but I'm thinking about leaving it down.

(Courtesy of Hairstyles for Long Hair)

(Curly Hairstyles Magazine.com)

The only problem with that is that it will get in my face as the afternoon goes on and I'll get irritated as crap pushing it out of my eyes.  So then I came across some half-up-do's that might work.

(Courtesy of HairstylesUp.com)

(Courtesy of Best Celebrity Hairstyles)

(Courtesy of TheKnot.com)

(Courtesy of TheKnot.com)

So I'm not decided yet which style I like best, but maybe I'll play with a few of them.  If I'm lucky, I can get the hair guru (my SIL, Cara) to come up and play with me. (hint, hint)

The Alterations Estimate Has Been Altered

So you know that we originally looked online and found a beautiful dress by Maggie Sottero on WeddingBee, then I found a halter dress that I thought was great, and then we went dress shopping at a brick and mortar store.  I'm a little top heavy for the dress, so they suggested that we have a corset put in when we brought it in to get hemmed since it's a little long for all 5 foot of me.  They quoted us $175 for the alterations, but the price tag on the dress was a little crazy in my opinion, so I went in search of the same dress online.  As you know, I found it online for a few hundred dollars less than the sale price.

Good news!  The dress came on Monday!  I put it on and it's still as beautiful as I remember it.  I went to a store since I was home and the seamstress informed me that it couldn't be done.  When I told her that I already had another estimate and I knew it was possible, she said that it would be easier to just get a different dress.  How rude is that?!  My awesome MOH jokingly offered to burn the shop down.  I declined and instead posted an honest review in response to her extremely rude behavior and inappropriateness.

Today, I called a couple places for a alteration consultation and one shop ballparked me at $400-$500 to put a corset in, hem it, and put a bustle in!  You can imagine my surprise!  I thought this was crazy!  So I went back to David's Bridal, thinking that they were ONLY $175 (previously I had thought this high, but what do I know?)  She informed me that $175 would cover the corset, and then an additional $120 to hem it, then another $35 to put the bustle in.  Grand total: $330.  For alterations.  I never would have know that it would cost that much on top of the dress.  I'm now glad that I didn't purchase the dress for the full price.

I was really ticked off until I thought about paying full price for the dress and then the alterations on top of that.  As it is, I'm still mildly irritated, but my dress after alterations will still be a couple hundred less than the original cost, so I guess I can't complain too much.

Courtesy of My Brother

Gotta love this!  Thanks Ryan!

I am so excited!!! We finally made a decision on the bridesmaid dresses! I will let Vanessa post more about them later, but they are going to be gorgeous and absolutely match the Android theme! Now my mission is going to be to get an Android t-shirt and tote bag so I can have them for anything wedding related that we do, cuz I need to make sure I am always keeping with the theme! :) Stay tuned for pics of the dresses...they will be amazing!

Coasters Galore

We wanted to do something different for favors, but we weren't sure what.  We looked at chocolates, mints, candles, and I even found personalized wine corks.  None of these fit and, of course, I wanted to Androidify them, and that gave me an idea.  I had seen someone who had decoupaged coasters and they looked really neat.  I haven't decoupaged before, but I'm a creative person, so I figured it wouldn't be too hard.  I called my SIL, Sarah, to ask for some advice and she told me what we needed to get.

Mom came over after work and had dinner with me and the kids and then we headed over to look at some fabric we found on Craigslist.  We ended up getting the fabric we needed for the card box, the ring pillow, and the escort card boards.  And all for $20!  What a deal on fabric!

Kat and Charlene came over when we got home and we started the coasters.  Sarah had said that we needed to use a large bottle of Mod Podge and also an acrylic sealer.  The Mod Podge is like a runnier kind of glue.  I had tested the thickness of the paper last weekend with cardstock and we didn't like that at all.  It may have been ok by the time that we put several coats on there, but it was raised a little too much for my taste, so we printed our graphic on regular glossy copy paper.

We started with foam brushes and found that a lot of Mod Podge doesn't work, though the tutorial says apply a thick coat.  We then found that coating the tile, placing the paper on, and then immediately coating over the top doesn't work well, either.  What did work: we put a super thin coat of Mod Podge, centered the graphic, and let it dry.  Then paint the second coat on and the paper doesn't bubble.  Charlene says it's time for a pic and she's right!

So on Tuesday night we made HUGE headway on the wedding favors! They are so cute! Hopefully we will have a picture up soon! It was, BY FAR, the craftiest I have been since I was like 6 years old! LOL! But, despite the fact that I am not very creative and crafty, it was a lot of fun, and a great time with the girls!

I am cracking myself up these days though....I have been telling people about the wedding and of course the staff at the venue knows about it, so now this is "The Droid Wedding" to many people. Now, go figure, it is me, the girl who had no idea that Google did anything except a search engine and email, who is putting my hands on my hips and giving people a dirty look and telling them "It's ANdroid!" hahahaha!

Rehearsal Dinner: Where To Dine

So I'll admit that I'm a bit of a planner...all right, maybe I plan everything...and like to be a teensy bit in control of things in my life.  Fine!  I can be a control freak occasionally, especially when I'm planning one of the biggest events of my life...or even a small family get together.  We are trying to decide on a rehearsal dinner "after party" location.  The bridal party will head over to our venue to do the rehearsal and then when we're done, we want to go out to eat with our immediate families and maybe even have a few drinks.  The problem is that our immediate families combined equate to about 30 people so we need to make a reservation somewhere.  Apparently, chain restaurants don't take reservations anymore and most don't even provide call ahead seating.  His family LOVES the Olive Garden (no wonder we all get along so well!) and so we all head there for lunch/dinner as often as we can.  We love to get the private room, but the wait can be an hour and a half to get back there.  Still, just his family fills that room up.

This morning, Kat made a great suggestion: the pasta bar in the building we work in.  It's like Subway only for pasta and possibly the greatest invention ever for us Italian food lovers!  Brian, the fabulous chef, starts you off with your meats (chicken or shrimp) and then you add all the goodies like green pepper, tomato, olive, mushroom, etc.  Lastly, pasta (tortellini or bowtie) and seasonings (garlic, oregano, etc).  They have a salad bar as well usually with hot and cold pasta dishes and a soup.  I've been here more than 4 years and I never tire of that place.

Most people don't know what a pasta bar is. I stared in confusion the first time the girls asked me to go when I started working here.  It's definitely something different, but they close at 2:00 in the afternoon.  I'm checking to see if they'd open for us, but what other places are out there that can provide reservations?  I'd like to gather a few options for us to decide.

LOL - I showed Andy & Emily a picture of THE dress. After oohing & aweing, they are already envisioning what they will wear and practicing what they will do!

Designer Wedding Gown

SPOILER ALERT: If you want to be surprised or if you are my fiance, stop reading here.

I mean it, Rhys! :)  I love you, but step away from your browser!






We had so much fun dress shopping at David's Bridal!  I brought a "posse" including Diane (my mom), Linda (his mom), Stacy (future sis-in-law), Kat (bridesmaid) and Charlene (maid of honor) came straight from work.  Thanks to everyone for coming! We checked in, got our consultant (Sarah), and started looking at dresses.  I am a little top heavy, so I was looking for something with straps, possibly a halter.  I figured strapless would be hard to keep up, based on my past experience.  Sarah pulled out one with tulle and I immediately said no tulle.  We looked at sleeves and I decided definitely not.  We looked at cream-colored dresses, and I quickly became a huge fan of white. I had 2 dresses in mind when we went in, one that they carried and one that I had a picture of and was hoping they had something similar.  They had the first dress and they had something similar to the second one, with red embroidery instead of black.  Yes, I said black...on a wedding gown.  Relax!  It was just some embroidery and it was soooo pretty!  We pulled out several dresses and started trying them on.  Here are a few:

A beautiful strapless white gown with red flowers embroidered on the bodice that I really wish they would have had in black,

A strapless gown with pickups and a REALLY long train,

A cap sleeve lacy gown that made me say no sleeves at all,

and a halter that I didn't even take a picture of because I walked out of the dressing room, took one look, and said "Uh uh."  Cricket, cricket.  Everyone was completely silent. We all knew that wasn't the one.  When I came in, I said probably not strapless and definitely no tulle.  Several dresses and a couple hours later, it turns out that THE dress is an Oleg Cassini designer gown that is strapless and is an organza ball gown, meaning that it has lots of tulle.

In my defense, the tulle has lots of embroidery on it and I sort of feel like Cinderella in it. :-)  Of course, designer gowns have designer price tags and it has to be altered as well.  The dress was on sale, but by the time alterations were added in, we'd be right back up there.  I decided to look around online to see if I could find the gown for a better price since I want an awesome wedding dress, but since I AM only wearing it for 5 hours...well, you know what I mean.

I found someone in Georgia selling the exact same dress, new with tags, because her wedding was called off. I almost did a dance when I saw this!  Not that her wedding was called off, but that I had found the dress for a few hundred dollars less than the regular price.  Then I emailed her and negotiated a little and got the dress a couple hundred more!  I paid her yesterday and she's shipping it as soon as PayPal deposits the money.  I'll breathe again when I have it in hand.