(not a) fashionista

As if putting together the wedding day ensemble wasn’t difficult enough, we brides have to have two (sometimes three or four) well designed, classy outfits.

I am kinda lazy when it comes to fashion.  I wear jeans and tennis shoes most days.  T-shirts and cardigans.  I’m just not that motivated to get up on my days up and get dressed up.  Hey, at least I wear makeup and fix my hair on a regular basis!

So, aside from coordinating my wedding day ensemble, I am trying to put together a super cute rehearsal outfit.

I had originally decided to make my rehearsal dress.  I simply had my heart set on the perfect design and didn’t want to stray.  I even bought the fabric.  But here we are, 6 months out and I haven’t made my muslin mock-up.  And I have way too many other project to work on to toil with making my own dress.  So, I re-purposed that gorgeous dupioni silk (more on that later) and went back to the drawing room.

But then I was back at square one.  I don’t really care that much about looking “bridal.”  I do want to be able to wear the dress again, and I know I won’t if it’s white/ivory.  I’m not particularly interested in matching the color scheme. I have an image of what I would dress Mr. Crab Cake in if it were up to me (and I might pick out his clothes for him, but again, more on that later).  And since we were going with the vintage theme, I thought it would be fun to wear a vintage dress.

This isn’t the first time I’ve shopped for vintage dresses, so I had a good idea of where to look first.  I went straight to TrashyDiva.  They have some really amazing vintage looks.  Their prices leave a bit to be desired, but I can splurge this one time.

Some of my favorites:

(Alexa in Heavy Weight Silk Crepe de Chine)

(Carrie in Silk Georgette)

This one makes me think of Mrs. Avocado, I believe she would look fantastic in it and I think it matches LDS modesty standards.

(Dottie in Toile, Cotton Voile)

I really love this dress, but I think my Aunt is going to be wearing it to the wedding, so I should probably pick something else.

I think I’ve narrow it down to these two dresses.

(Ava in Black and White Dots, Cotton Voile)

I really love this style, but it’s white.

(Avian in Navy Embroidered Eyelet Cotton Voile)

I am really in love with this dress, just not it’s price.

And while I’m not adverse to buying new shoes, I have these really cute vintage style flats that I’d love to wear.

(Selena Flats from Target)

So what do you girls think?  Which dress should I wear?  Should I wear the yellow flats, or look for something else?

The dress that almost wasn’t

There’s so much to share with y’all, I really don’t know where to begin.  We’ve been planning this thing for 7 months already, and we still have 7 to go.

I suppose I can start where I started, with the dress.  I’ve always loved wedding dresses.  Yes, I’m that girl who has been looking at wedding dresses since she was 12.  In all fairness, I was engaged once before (to Mini Crab Cake’s dad) and tried on a few dresses then.  I never found the one and would not have worn it to wed Mr. Crab Cake anyway.  But I knew what I liked then, so I figured I’d like the same style’s now.

I was so wrong.

I started looking at pictures online almost immediately. I didn’t look at anything with beads or lace and really didn’t want a train.  Minamalistic and simplistic was what I was looking for.  I also wanted ivory.

And I wanted to put off actually trying on dresses as long as possible.

About 3 weeks later, I gave in.  I had about 45 minutes to waste in town (we live about 30 minutes out) before I met Mr. Crab Cake for lunch and decided to go browse wedding dresses.

The first dress I tried on was a Casablanca.

Style #1831

Y’all, that dress fit me like a glove.  It hugged every one of my curves and supported my D’s with grace and elegance.  I might honestly have given up right then and there and bought the first dress I tried on if it hadn’t been for my consultant.

She took one look at me and ran off.  When she returned, she had three or four dresses with her.  I will go ahead and apologize now, I don’t know which ones they were, and I don’t have any pictures. I hadn’t told her what I thought I wanted.  But she knew what I wanted.  And it was this dress.

Alfred Angelo, Style 1136

It is everything I didn’t think I wanted.  It’s beaded, corset back, semi-cathedral train.  So completely not me. The only thing it did have going for it was that it is gold.

I loved it from the moment I put it on.

I couldn’t just buy the dress right there.  I was alone.  I had no one’s opinion but mine and the consultants.

I left, and drug Mum Crab Cake back about a week later.  This time, we got pictures!

author’s personal collection

Mini Crab Cake insisted on trying on dresses with me.  Although that dress matches mine nicely, it didn’t entertain me that much.  She actually wanted this dress with a bubble hem made out of tulle with silk petals loose in the bubble.  It was hideous.

Anyway, Mum didn’t cry, but that’s not how we Crab Cake women are.  She approved and the dress was purchased.

It arrived in August and I went to pick it up.  Thank God I decided to try it on before I left with it, because it had a huge stain on it.  Yeah, you read that right.  I stayed calm and my consultant freaked out.  Alfred Angelo agreed to take back the stained dress and send me another.  It took forever.

But it all worked out in the end, and the dress is safe in my house.  I have it stored in a canvas dress bag and hidden in my daughter’s closet.  Mr. Crab Cake is pretty adament about not seeing the dress or even pictures of the dress until the ceremony, so I don’t have to worry about him snooping.

Here it is hanging in the door to our office/craft room the day I brought it home.

Did anyone else pick out a dress that was not what they had originally thought they would like?

Registery Schenanigans

So what is the first thing we do when Mini Me goes away?

Shop, of course!

Well, first we went to dinner.  And then we truely did hunt for something better to do than shop, but alas, the movie choice was pathetic, and they’ve cancelled trivia until after the holidays, so shop it was.

Surprisingly, shopping was Matt’s idea.  Ok, not shopping per-se, but registering.  And where did we head?  Target (ok, it was 9 pm on Tuesday, our only other choice was Wal-Mart…).

When we bought our house, we registered at Target for our housewarming party, so we were familiar with the process.  What I wasn’t expecting was the little file folder of goodies we received.

It came with these little cards, I guess you are supposed to put them in your invitations?  How do y’all feel about that?  Seems a little tacky to me…

Anyway, we spent about an hour and a half wandering around Target scanning random objects.  It’s so hard to register when we already have a home and stuff.

We did register for some small kitchen appliances I’ve been wanting and a flat screen tv for our room.  But I think we had the best time once we’d decided we were done registering.

We found this horrendous display of nutcrackers… Scary…

Check out that great Fedora I found in the men’s section….

And then there were these awesome winter hats…Yeah, sexay!!!

But the sexiest thing ever was this lovely pair of pajamas.

I think I was exclaiming that if those fabulous pjs had a butt flap, I totally would buy them!!

I did buy one reasonable item, some fantastic shoes for Matt’s Grandmother’s 80th Birthday Party

Available here

How hot are those?  I wish my wedding were black, white, and yellow so I could wear them!!

Bridal Lingerie?

In our house, I’m known for casually steal Matt’s shirts and turning them into sleepwear.  They are so much more comfortable than my (usually too tight for sleep) t-shirts.

I think he finds it uber sexy.

I wonder how he would feel about this?

The His is Hers shirt, available at Claridge + King

It’s not your typical men’s dress shirt!  Collars and cuffs are liningless to minimize discomfort and it comes in blue and white.  Bonus points for cute feminine mother of pearl buttons and 5 different monogram styles!

I heart these pjs!

Dancing in the rain-Part II

If it is going to rain on our wedding day, I would love to wear wellies under my dress.

Here are some lovely choices.  Not all of them are ones I would choose for my wedding, but they are definitely fun.

These, however, are a definitely maybe.  Not exactly vintage, but I guess the roses mixed with the paisley will have to suffice.  The colors are definitely right.  Available here.

I really love these, something blue anyone? Available here.

Another something blue, available here.

Bird themed, Available here.

High-heeled, crazy expensive, available here.

Apples, anyone? Available here.

BTW, Target has the best selection, at least as far as I’m concerned.  More prints and colors than anyone else.  Yay Target!!!

We fired our caterer

OMG, yeah, I know.  Here we are less than 7 months away from our big day, and we have no caterer.  It’s ok, really.

I was on the phone with my step-mom one night.  She expressed some remorse at not being closer and not being able to help with the food.

Matt and I were still struggling with and worrying about how exactly we were going to be able to afford 4K for hors d’heuvers.

Enter our solution.  Mom has volunteered her kitchen (with double ovens) to my step-mom who will head up the foodies.  Step-mom has volunteered her love of party throwing mixed with her excellent foodie-ness and her sister (who is hostess extraordinare).  Our friend Susie Hamlett, who is the socialite here in Columbus, has also volunteered to do some prep work.  There is a catering kitchen in the museum that we are going to be able to use at least the day of, but hopefully most of the week as well (what a great work place for the floral project too).

So, all that being said, we had to figure out what we were going to do.  What shall we serve.  Matt and I thought about it for a couple of days, and decided that we should definitely go with a Southern theme.  Since so many of our guests are coming from out of state, we just thought serving traditional southern yummies was perfect.

We don’t have an official menu yet, but here’s a visual representation of what I’m leaning towards.

Wow, it looks so yummy all together like that.  If you click on the picture of the snack, it will carry you to the recipe.  Yummy, huh?

Now I just need to figure out what we are going to do about a bar.

Dancing in the rain

While June is probably not the rainiest month in Columbus, it definitely rains.  Daily.  Anytime between 2 and 6.  For about an hour-ish.  Sometimes it’s just one big torrential downpour, lasting about 12 minutes on average (and yes, that is a very accurate statisitic, right out of my head, based on years of living in the south, and therefore years of research).   Othertimes, we actually get a decent rain.  The problem is, you never know.  A rain cloud can pop up out of no where and all of the sudden you are stuck in the rain.

So, I am seriously concerned about the fact that our brief window before the ceremony for photo-ops may be ate up with rain.  And the only thing that makes me feel better about this, is fantastically cute bride with umbrella photos.

(1, 2, 3)

How sweet are these umbrellas from SignatureBella?

While this is completely out of my price range (at a whooping $96.00 each!!), I love love love the shape of that umbrella.  It’s so vintage!

BellaUmbrella has a rental option, with way more reasonable prices. I love this umbrella, it has that same vintage shape, which is apparently referred to as Pagoda style.

Here’s a feathered option for those modern brides

Got to love the polka dots

Umbrellas.net has this lovely lace umbrella

PareUmbrellas has this great floral motif umbrella

And for the classic umbrella image, here’s a clear umbrella

From Umbrellasandbeyond

I really love the idea of renting those gorgeous pagoda umbrellas from BellaUmbrella.  I don’t think I would rent one for each of my girls (there’s 6 remember?) but maybe 3?  What do you think?

All the pretty pictures

It’s a good day!  I officially have a photographer!  And she’s awesome!

All photos property of Kristian Ogden Photography.

I can’t wait for my bridals in February!

Bouquet Charms

I’ve been thinking about ways to remember our family who won’t be there to celebrate our nuptials with us.  We’ve both had a grandparent pass away in the last couple of months, and I’m afraid another of mine isn’t far behind.

Our families are very important to us, and we want to be able to have them with us regardless.  But, we don’t want anything overly-depressing.

Matt liked the idea of having a memorial table.  I’d love to put up our grandparents wedding photos, but Matt didn’t like that plan because his grandparents are divorced.  So then we thought we’d just just photos of them and try not to make it about the weddings.  But the more I thought about it, the less happy I was about this plan.  It seems so depressing to have their photos out and about.  I’m afraid certain people will just cry over them, and I don’t want anyone to be sad.

I’ve also heard of people placing flowers on the seats where the loved ones would sit.  I think this is a nice touch, but I’m just not crazy about it.  I guess it just isn’t for me.

I did run across a post on OffBeatBride that mentioned using picture frame charms tied to the bouquet.  I really liked this idea.  It seemed to elegant.  A good way to have our loved ones with us, without depressing anyone.

Photo courtesy HyStudio, via OffBeatBride.

That is a gorgeous picture.

So, with this photo as inspiration, I set off to find my bouquet charms.  I started with the links provided by OffBeatBride, one to Etsy and one to PhotoJewelryMaking.com.

From Etsy seller DesignsbyTami

Vintage Frame from PhotoMakingJewelry.com

But none of those were really entertaining me too terrible much.  They were kinda expensive, and with several (like 5) grandparents to memorialize, it adds up fast.

There are these from ExclusivelyWeddings.

Which were even more expensive.

And these from JeanM.

And these from NobleJewelry

Which were by far the most expensive of all.

I really didn’t want to spend $50 on memorial charms.

Then I remembered that I had a seller saved in my Etsy favorites who made custom scrabble tiles.

Scrabble Tile pendant from AnnieHowes

But what I was really looking for was the DIY kit, which comes with 6 tiles.

And while I was looking for that, I found this.

The square glass pendant kit for $12.00.

$12.00!!!  That’s more my style.  Wait you say, $12.00 is still expensive.  Nope, this kit comes with everything you need to make 6 tiles!  Yay!!  Perfect.  And, the best part is, Matt likes them too!

Just a little quilt update

My day got mucked up today.  I took my grandfather to church this morning and had intended on running my few little errands after dropping him back off at his “digs.”  But by the time church let out, he’d missed lunch.  So we went and had lunch.  And then he says, “So, what kind of house do you live in?”  Understand that I’ve never lived in the same town as my grandfather and he just moved to Columbus from Hattiesburg.  So he’s never been to my house.  Anyway, he didn’t want to go back to the assisted living place and wanted to come home with me.  I couldn’t tell him no, but I can’t drag him around on my errands either.  So, I brought him here and spent the day cleaning the house while he and Kinsley horsed around on my couch.  Then, about 4:30, I carried him home so that he wouldn’t miss dinner.  And then I ran my errands.  I could probably still get a square done tonight, but since Matt should be home in about 10 minutes from his reenactment in ATL, it would require me to hide out in the craft room all night, and I’d much rather vegetate on the couch with my intended.

But, I did get 2 squares traced before I had to put everything away.  And let me tell you that I truly love freezer paper.  Plain white butcher paper on one side, so it’s much easier to draw on than the wax paper was.  And I can erase too.  The other side is plastic coated.  I’m still waiting to see if it works as well as people say it does.  I’ll let you know tomorrow.