The Dress Reveal

I showed you all the reject dresses from this weekend's shopping excursion.

I present you now with THE dress...

Justin Alexander 8349

You didn't think I would show you myself in the dress, did you? Ha! I don't think so. A) Ryan reads this blog, and I'm determined to keep it hidden from him as long as possible, and B) It's a bigger surprise for all of you when I finally reveal it on the big day (or... a couple days later...).

I didn't have one of those big giant "aha" moments where I cried or just knew it was THE dress. It was a careful process of elimination and deciding what I like. That said, I learned I'm a very decisive person about what I don't like. So that helped.

I think my mom, 3 aunts, and 2 cousins all agreed that it was the right dress for me. I couldn't be more thrilled with my purchase. It has the strapless drop-waist style I was looking for, and it fits like it was made for me. Plus, as an added surprise perk, we found it was way under budget. Score!

Plus! When I was trying on veils with the dress, I found one I really liked. The woman casually mentioned, "that veil is $99." What?! I've been reading horror stories from other blogs about $300 and $500 veils, and this gorgeous, silky, cathedral-length veil is only $99?! SOLD!

So thus ends my wedding dress shopping extravaganza. Now just 8 more months until I see the dress again (go faster, 8 months!).

Dress Shopping

This is the most exciting part of wedding planning, right?

I had dreams about dress shopping 3 days in a row last week. I went to 2 boutiques (2 of the only boutiques open during this holiday weekend!), and brought along my mom, 3 aunts, and 2 cousins.

So I'll cut right to the chase and present you with a ton of photos of rejected dresses...

Meh...

Everyone loved this dress, but I insisted it made me look wide in all the wrong places. (The sales lady gave my cousin a tiara, which started a downward spiral into I-can't-wait-to-be-a-flower-girl-dom. It was adorable.)

(Kitty Chen)

See?

This was our favorite from the first shop. I was seriously considering it when we left for our second appointment...

(Demetrios 3149)

The sales lady insisted I try on something that wasn't strapless. My family "Oooed" and "Ahhed", but I wasn't impressed...

This is just bad (you can tell by my face)...

The shape of this one looked really good on me, but it was just a little too average-looking...

This was a finalist (and my older cousin's absolute favorite). It was extremely elegant, and would have flattered anyone, but it was a little too plain...

And lastly, a close contender to the dress...

So did I find the dress? Yes! But more to come on that later...

They Said Yes!

I proposed to my bridesmaids via snail mail, so they all received their packages at different times.


Bridesmaid J got hers the morning of my birthday party, so when I saw her that night, she said yes. She followed it up with a "but I don't know what I'm doing" disclaimer. I told her no problem... I don't know what I'm doing either!

Maid of Honor C got hers a few days ago (she's been off jetsetting, so I had to mail it to her parents' house). I received a voicemail, "KELLLLYY! I got your package! Of course I'll be your Maid of..." "End of message. To repeat message, press 4." I laughed hard. She called me back the next morning and told me how she had teared up a little when she read the card. Awesome. Just the response I wanted!

Bridesmaid M hasn't gotten hers yet (that I know of). After her and her boyfriend broke up, I held off on sending the proposal package. It should have arrived a few days ago, but she doesn't have a mailing address... just a P.O. Box, so she may not have checked it yet. So now I just have to wait for that phone call.

I'm super excited to have 3 of my best friends there to celebrate this big day with me. I only wish that they were friends with eachother! Hopefully by the end of this process, they'll get to know one another better and they'll see what I love about each of them!


(Aren't these dresses super cute? Three bridesmaids in short, gray, non-matching dresses... this is totally the look I'll be going for!)

Edit: Only a couple hours after posting this, bridesmaid M left me an adorable voicemail telling me how much she loved me and of course she would be my bridesmaid. In case you're keeping count, that's 3 yeses.

Let the fun begin!

Gocco, My Love

I am dangerously close to purchasing a Riso Print Gocco PG-10 on Ebay.

Did I lose you?

For those that don't know, this is a Gocco...


It is a magical little machine that makes beautiful prints like these...




It has become really popular in the past 10 years for DIY brides who want to save money on invitations.

It essentially works like screen printing. You can use any design you want, then the image gets burned into a screen, which you then ink and press onto your paper (yeah... that's the way condensed version).


Why do I want one? A) Because I don't like Kinkos. They are expensive, it's not as pretty, and I don't trust them. B) Because I've convinced myself that DIYing my invitations will save money.

Will it really? I have no idea. Which is why I'm stuck hovering my mouse over the "Buy Now" button on Ebay.

Let's break it down... The Gocco costs $145 used. Then I have to buy paper or cardstock to print save-the-dates, invitations, maps, information, menus, rsvp cards, etc etc etc.

If I knew how much all that paper would cost, and if I knew how much it costs to print at Kinkos, then I could do a lovely comparison right about now. But, alas.

I have a feeling the DIY, Gocco-loving, money-saving bride inside me will win this battle.

The Meaning of Color

Red
Ryan's favorite color. He told me as a child, his (older) sister always said to him "your favorite color is red" just so she could have the blue piece when playing board games. I guess over time, he just started to believe her. But I don't want to use red in our wedding because it screams fall/winter. I want something a little more spring/summer and cheery.

Purple
I can sympathize with Ryan's color situation because my soon-to-be Maid of Honor, C, forced purple on me as my favorite color because she, too, wanted blue all to herself. To this very day, I hate the color purple. This color will not be a part of our wedding.

Green
My favorite color. But it's a tricky one because it comes in so many shades! It can range from pastel-y to puke-y.

Pink
The older I've grown, the more I like pink. But I fear that using pink in our wedding will scream, "Kelly did all the work herself and Ryan had absolutely no say." Which, contrary to his wishes, just isn't true.

Orange
Oh gag. No.

I showed Ryan some inspiration boards with different color palettes. My top 3 favorites were Pink and Gray, Yellow and Gray, and Yellow and Navy.

Ryan suggested Yellow, Gray, and Navy.

Wow. I knew I was marrying him for a reason.


So it's not totally official yet, but what do you think?

Like a Kid in a Candy Store

I got a voicemail yesterday from one of the bridal boutiques I had made an appointment with. I won't name which one because I'm a nice person.

"Hi Kelly, this is so-and-so from Bridal Boutique. I'm calling in regards to your appointment on July 3rd. I'm so so so so sorry, but the girl who made your appointment didn't know we would be closed that day for the holiday weekend, etc etc etc..."


Now, I'm totally sympathetic that mistakes happen. Perhaps the girl was busy and didn't realize the day I was making my appointment for was a holiday. Perhaps.... except that the very first thing I said to her on the phone was, "Hello, are you guys open on July 3rd?". She paused (I assume looking up the answer), then replied with a cheerful, "Yes! Would you like to make an appointment?". Gurrr.

So I was left with the annoying situation of having to find another bridal boutique that's open that day and available for me and my entourage of 6 to visit.

After some internet searching, I came across Rue Belle. I was slightly relieved that they were a bit more in my price range than the store that dumped me, so I gave them a call.

The owner informs me she will be out of town on July 3rd and the store will be closed.

BUT! She graciously offers to have someone unlock the store for us so we can try on dresses.


That's right... we will have the entire store to ourselves. Is that a bride's dream or what? I'm focusing on the positive (no pressure from sales people) instead of the negative (no sales people to pull pretty dresses for me). Since it's the first stop of the day, I figure it will be a good chance to try on a bunch of different styles and find out what I like.

Woo! Dress party!

Breaking All the Rules

I love the show Say Yes to the Dress. I spend a good chunk of my Thursday and Friday afternoons getting sucked into pretty white dresses and red hot family dramas.


But this show is more than entertainment. It is a true teaching tool. (Stick with me here.) The following are the things I've learned from SYTTD... and how I plan on breaking each and every one of them:

1) Always go into your appointment with an idea of what type of dress you want, or bare minimum, what type of bride you want to be. A clueless bride can spend the entire appointment just narrowing down her style.

Well, as I explained last week, I have no idea what type of dress I want. And what type of bride? Oh boy. Who knows. Am I a spunky bride? Elegant bride? Princess bride? Fun bride? Sexy bride? Quirky bride? Hmm... your guess is as good as mine.


2) Don't get your dress too early. You can end up second-guessing your dress choice or wondering "what if" to every dress you come across in a magazine.

My wedding is 1 year and 8 days away. Woops. But I'm impatient! And restless! And bored! Hmm... I wonder if those would qualify as my "bridal type"?


3) Don't bring a huge entourage to the appointment. The last thing you need are unwanted opinions when you're trying to make such a huge decision.

Haha. It started out as just my mom and I, but has escalated to my mom, 3 aunts, 2 cousins, and I. Despite SYTTD's incessant warnings, I will be a happy bride-to-be with my large entourage. I hold absolutely no fears that they will be unruly or out-of-line like some of the families on the show.

Overall, I'm extremely excited. I wonder if I'll be a cryer (I doubt it). A better question is if my family will cry.