A little bit of everything.

It's been nearly a month since my last post... So for anyone who actually reads this, I apologize! Once I came back to Memphis from the whir-wind wedding week/spring break in Ohio, I was forced to focus on work. Not exactly what I wanted to be doing.... but I will admit that it probably kept me sane. I definitely needed to detox from so much planning in so little time. But here I am, a month later... with a gigantic "to-do" list. Really all that is left at this point (besides invitations) are the little things. Little things that I'm totally stressing over. Little things that will - of course - cost much more than I could ever imagine. Little things that I can DIY and and go totally OCD with. The next 108 days are going to be interesting.

p.s. The ballet school semester is officially over in a little over 2 weeks. Once May 3rd passes, I can be much more wedding focused - which is probably hazardous to my health.

Here is a run-through of what we have accomplised since the last post: (don't get too excited... it's not a lot.)

I got my shoes (aka - they dyables) and they were stinking huge. And wide. And I have the feet of a platypus. Lucky for me, Nordstroms had the shoes (in gold) that I originally wanted in my size! I ordered them and they are perfect.

I ordered earrings from Tejani! I love the pair I ordered... but they are a little large and ridiculously heavy. So heavy, in fact, that I had them on for about 15 minutes and my earlobe started bleeding. I've been obsessing over the website trying to see what I could exchange them for... The designer/owner, Urvi, has been so amazing. She asked to see pictures of the dress and of me wearing the earrings and has been making suggestions as to what we could change about the current pair/new options to try. Here is a picture of the pair I have now:


I really love the shape of the earrings in the center... it is really the dangles at the bottom that give them too much width and a wee bit too much length. I'm thinking about taking them to our jewler to see if he can alter them and nix the dangles? But then again, here are pics of the pairs I might exchange them for:

The pair above would be made with the topaz stones, not CZs, similar to this possible option below:

So what do you think? Either way, there's no chance I'll be able to wear the pair I have now because they are waaaaaay too heavy. I'd love some opinions!!

Moving on - WE ORDERED GLASSWARE FOR THE CANDLES!!!! Hallelujah, we found the deal of a lifetime. Kind of. But who cares - its DONE! There are 36 cases of glassware in 6", 8", an 10" sitting in my parent's garage. HJK Imports was a goldmine (glassmine?) and I'm so excited. The tables are going to be covered in pillar candles! Whoohoo!

And the best thing we have to check off the "to-do" list? THE HONEYMOON! It's official, we're going to be in the Dominican Republic for 7 nights and I couldn't be happier. I found the resort months ago and figured it was way out of our range... turns out, it's really not! I scoured the internet for the best deal and it was nearly $700 less to fly out of the Canton/Akron airport rather than the Cleveland. (Clearly, that's the choice we made.) We read countless amazing reviews from people who have stayed there and every loved this place. The best part? Adults only! No kids!! YES! Don't get me wrong, I love kids. We just don't want children frolicking with us in the pool. Or screaming at dinner. Or throwing sand on me while I fry in the Caribbean sun. You get the idea. So here is our much anticipated honeymoon spot! We can't wait!

I have plenty more that I could write but it's too late to even touch on the rest of the "to-do's"... it's going to be a busy weekend with my family in town and a the Junior Company performance. Let's hope I survive.

Brain dead.

Wednesday was remarkably successful for the Schneider-Wenzel wedding. We were able to cross a ton of things off of our Pending column, which feels so great! I called around to a few bridal salons to see if any of them had a sample of my dress - I had yet to purchase a veil and definitely needed to have the dress on to do so. Matina's in Beachwood ($$$$$$$$) had the sample, so off we went. Matina's is uber-expensive and they carry all of the dresses that I've oogled over for the pst 24 years (including my own). I was so excited to see my dress on again, and we purchased a veil! (Which is super long - about 6 inches past my train, but is very simple.) After we handled the veil I had to look around at the gowns... just for fun. Amsale. Vera Wang. Monique Lhuillier. It was pretty exhilarating to browse $6000 white dresses.

Naturally we started obsessing over a MOB dress. Have any of you noticed that all MOB gowns are totally hideous? Beaded moomoos. Beaded jackets to match the beaded moomoos. Although, our online favorite was this amazing find:

I did tell my mom that she is only allowed to buy this smashing ensemble if she posed like the model while lighting the unity candle. Anyway, keeping the peacock/leopard monstrosity as a back up, MOB tried on nearly everything in the store that wasn't white. Because Matina's was pretty pricey, we were reluctant to make a purchase. Until one of the sales ladies (who had her wedding last August at the Ritz. She made sure to tell us...) brought out a sample MOB gown that was on clearance. (Translation: still really expensive at 50% off.) It was the most beautiful gown she tried on! This sample Amsale was a size 10 and Mom is a size 2 on a fat day, so we will have it altered big time. Seriously, this dress is amazing - non-matronly, the most flattering lines, and a fabulous color. I'm so excited about her dress, hopefully she is too!

We had 2 very yummy cake tastings with Flour Girl and West Side Bakery - WSB knocked it out of the park. Their cakes were amazingly yummy and incredibly beautiful. And there wasn't a single fountian or nasty bridge connecting cakes. Flour Girl's cakes were great too but we felt really comfortable with WSB and their very professional set up. So, here's the cake that Fiance and I will not be shoving in each others face:I love it! I actually found this cake in an InStyle weddings from 2001... and I've been saving it for my wedding day! Anyway, I've loved this cake for so long and the bakery has this exact cake in their repertoire which was amazing. They are also going to take care of Fiance's Texas Longhorn grooms cake - wahoo! I'll admit that I was tempted to have them create the following masterpiece:

It's a little on the phallic side, but how can you go wrong a castle, 2 fountains and that AMAZING veil? It doesn't get much better.

Dyeables.

My flight into the Cleveland airport landed at 2:37 on Monday.

At approximately 2:48 my bags were in the MOBs car and we launched ourselves into wedding-ness.

So let's recap:
We began by searching every floral warehouse, dollar store and craft palace (p.s. avoid the flower factory at all costs) for cylinder glassware for the pillar candles. Mission not accomplished.

The obsessing continued late through the night with mom and I next to each other on the couch, each of us with our own laptops burning a hole in our thighs.

Today we met with our florist and probably left his shop more confused than when we entered. We basically went over everything from our first meeting and tweaked a few things... and realized that the centerpieces I wanted would be quite *ok, VERY* pricey. He also let us know that the prices we found for glassware for the pillars online were super crazy cheap - good to know from someone in the business. We spent about 2 hours with him... 2 hours!

MOB and I left the flower shop, got pretty stinking lost, and with a dying GPS system somehow managed to make it to our linen designer. And no one was there for our appointment - the place was empty. Lucky for us, the laundry lady was in the back and heard me pounding on the door in a near-bridezilla moment. Not long after Laundry Lady let us in and the owner showed up.

Let me back track for a minute: I'm picky, but not unreasonable. I know what I like. But I really know what I do not like. Examples of things in the Really Do Not Like category are:

Floating candles. HATE them and really couldn't tell you why.
Twinkle lights covered with tulle.
Chair covers.
Head tables. Especially when covered with tulle and twinkle lights.
"Bridal shoes"

Now I am very obsessed with chivari chairs. Toally in love. But sadly in my budget, there isn't much wiggle room for an extra $9.00 chair (per person!) for a butt to sit in. Leaving the chairs at the reception location bare is totally unacceptable. You should see these things! Keep in mind the place is still nearly brand new - it's only a year old. One would think that a new venue such as this every expensive country club would invest in some better looking chairs... but no. They are dark, flowered/pasiley and vinyl. VINYL. It makes my skin crawl just thinking about it. I want my guests to have fun at our wedding, not spend time peeling their asses off of vinyl seating.

I've come to the realization that my reception was going to have, by default, chair covers (barf.) I've seen some really nasty looks, like the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles chairs below:

The ties totally look like the TMNT bandanna things. You can't deny. You know the theme song is playing in your head as you look at "sashes." I was completely dreading going to look at linens because what I really want (damn chivaris) I can't have. Unless I want to return my dress. Ha. So we played around with some different options... and finally had ivory table linens and ivory chair covers with a satin champagne sash around the chair, and a satin champagne napkin. And it looked super pretty! Then Linen Lady totally stepped it up a notch by adding in a brushed silver charger plate - and it was perfect. So use your vivid imagination and picture the table dressed and set, and a gazillion pillar candles (ok, about 11) on every table. Ivory, champagne, a hint of muted silver, and candlelight. Yes?? Yes.

I hate to admit it, but I'm very excited about my chair covers. Never thought I would say that.

Moving along to the issue of shoes... I've been crushing on these from Nordstroms for way too long:I went to Nordy's today to make the purchase and they only had black and bright red... sadly, no gold. Of course I came home and scoured the internet for my Nina Culver's with the 2 1/4" heel (perfect! ugh.) and no one has them! My perfect gold shoe... gone from my life forever. Until (you are all going to die) I found them on shoebuy.com... and they are Dyeables.

I kid you not. I just purchased a pair of DYEABLES. I can't believe it either. But they are the exact shoe I wanted, they just happen to be color-less. Now I suppose the sky is the limit... I could easily rock out with some royal blue wedding shoes via Payless 1989... although I'm thinking about going with more of a blush pink/champagne.

On the agenda tomorrow: 2 cake tastings. We are meeting with West Side Bakery and Flour Girl and I am soooo excited. I can't wait to plan Aaron's groom's cake - I'm almost more excited about it than the wedding cake. I'll be back with a full report. Wish us luck.

Candles. Ugh.

For the past 5 months I have been obsessing over how to make this happen (and afford the chivari chairs...):


Initially, the thought was that using candles instead of flowers on the tables would save us a bundle - and I've never been more wrong. But now I have the vision forever stamped in my brain... The problem is not the candles, it's the glassware. My delightful banquet manager (with some serious blue eyeliner) has stated - on several occasions - that the flame of any candle must be enclosed in glass. Multiply the cost of 10 vases out over all of our tables = YIPES. I've even tossed around the idea of finding drinking glasses, which I recently saw on ikea hacker. The result is beautiful but there also isn't an Ikea anywhere near my part of the world.

Now I'm a pretty crafty lady, but I'm stumped as to how to pull this off without spending an arm and a leg. Any suggestions?

p.s. I will forever covet those damn chivari chairs.

Colors, flowers, and more flowers.

The goods...

Get excited! And yes, I am aware that I have only 142 days to get rid of my thass. Eating has officially stopped.


Here is the detail of my dress - the flower (on top of the bow) will not be there...

Disclaimer.

I am starting this blog as a source of sanity for myself - somewhere to organize (ha) my thoughts, visualize my totally geeky idea boards and actually see my wedding come together...

I am starting this blog so that in 25 years I can remember how stupid it was to freak out over choosing garden roses or peonies.

I am starting this blog for the sanity of the MOB - so that we can spend less time on the phone doing the usual "Are you sure you're on the right web page??" "I don't see that anywhere!" Because my lovely, gracious and beautiful MOB is so involved in helping her out-of-town daughter put this shin-dig together, I thought it would be best to stop sending gigantic files through Gmail that she isn't able to open anyway.

I am starting this blog so that somewhere down the road I can show my kids just how freaking crazy their mother was when she was planning her wedding.

I am starting this blog so that my adorable fiance can (post-wedding) read this and see how the process went down. And (post wedding) he will most likely realize that he's married a complete geek.

I am starting this blog so that my amazing bridesmaids and best friends can help me turn down the crazy during the planning. Not only are they the best girls around, but they have incredible taste and know me quite well - their opinions will be like gold!

I am starting this blog so that maybe, just maybe, another bride out there can benefit from this very expensive learning process.

Sometimes I'm crazy. I'm often obsessed. Theknot.com is almost always open on my computer. If I take one more screen shot of a bouquet or centerpiece, I'm pretty sure my Mac is going to slap me in the face.

So, there you have it. You've been warned. Now - Enjoy!