June Dress Fitting

June 3rd I get a call that my dress has finally arrived at the store. I don't know if I could have been more excited! I was ready to see the dress tailored to my size with a different back than what most people generally put on the particular design. I immediately called or texted every one of my bridesmaids, the maid of honor, my future mother in law, and most importantly my Mom. I can assume we were there as soon as the store opened! As they unlocked I noticed the dress was all ready waiting in one of the fitting rooms for me! No worries.. pictures were taken and will be posted after the wedding :)

I was so excited and one of the ladies took me ahead to start getting ready while everyone settled into the couches in front of the mirror. I was so excited. She unzipped the bag with the dress and it was as perfect as I remembered it with the beading and the back was so elegant with the ribbon. (these two elements are found in almost any dress thus I can disclose the information!).

I was nervous, excited, and sort of in a state of shock it was here and I didn't know how to react. As she finished tightening the dress, I turned to face the shop. She pulled back the curtain and I sort of held my breath unsure of the responses from the dozen or so women who would be staring at me. I walked to the mirror not saying a word but holding my head up sort of saying 'I got this.' Some people (not to be mentioned) took pictures and it was like paparazzi like on Say Yes to the Dress. I couldn't help to smile. I looked at mom asking if the back looked ok. Then I looked to everyone else's faces. They were all in the same state of shock and happiness as my mom had been the first time she saw me in the dress in January.

I can just remember the "you look Beautiful" and thinking wow.

Once the paparazzi stopped and I changed back to normal clothes I sat down next to Mrs. Shearon and Jessie. I turned to her and asked her what she thought. She could only say it was beautiful. I thought I noticed her getting a little teary eyed, and I could only smile. I was happy to be able to share this moment with her.

I also remember the attendant asking me to try and refrain from putting on the dress and the only thing I could think about is how absurd it was to try and put it on (other than the fitting) before the wedding. Knowing myself I would do something to stain it or I don't know but I wasn't going to risk even breathing on it the wrong way.

I gave the last payment for the dress and walked out a very happy and even more excited bride.

A Cake of Many Flavors

One of my major projects this summer was also to decide what to do with the cake as far as the design goes.
Scott and I had to look at easily over a thousand different cake images on various wedding websites. We looked at every color, shape, and overall feel. We narrowed down to a few cute nature themed cakes but couldn't agree on what we liked best. We then talked about what elements we liked from each cake whether it was the circle or square shape, the fondant or icing, pearl balls, ribbon, designs, lettering, etc. We sort of took the best elements and I drew out a cake.

Now to back track on an earlier post... We had in fact gone to a cake tasting that was fantastic, however the price ended up being way too much.

The design took elements from all over the wedding. We would have a ribbon around every tier in navy blue from our colors, pearl balls around the ribbon as decoration, and a fondant plaque on the second top tier with our logo on it. now for the other elements.. the wedding cake topper is the Beauty and the Beast figurine. We are using the sashes on her dress and draping gold sahes around the top of each tier on the cake. The cake itself will sit on a tree slab and have flowers from the rest of the decoration on it sort of to incorporate the rustic/green theme.

I will attach a picture shortly so you can see how much the design changes from the drawing to the actual cake!

Linens & Things

It is a pain in the butt to have to worry about linens.. keep that in mind when you yourself have to plan a wedding. If the venue does not have linens you have two options... either you can rent them from a party rental facility, or you can purchase them. Here is the catch.. the size of the table is very important, also taking into consideration if you want the linens to touch the ground or not. The lengths makes a world of difference in the elegance of the venue. Well if you rent them, the specific table size I need costs roughly $15 per table! It is ridiculous!! Especially because it's $15 per and I need 30 clothes! On the other hand you have the option to buy the specific size at roughly $11 per. Now it does not make much of a difference other than trying to figure out where to store 30 linens and the preparation in getting them ready..

On the other hand, you have 30 table clothes you bought at $11 and you can easily sell them on Craigslist for $13 bucks each easily :)
you make the call...

Flowers & Centerpieces

It's hard to imagine how stressful these things really are... You set aside a certain amount of money for flowers and realize the actual cost could be up to 3x as much! I want the wedding to be simple and elegant. I imagined simple wildflowers in 1 jar at the center of each table for a simple yet rustic feel. It suddenly becomes so much more complicated...

I visited a florist near Norcross, a name given to me by the venue in fact. The florist was known for providing fresh, lively flowers. The store was elegant as well, however I knew nothing about flowers. What was in season, what was cost effective, or even the general names of some flowers would have been very helpful. She was kind enough to show me examples of various flowers but I did feel like she was taking advantage of me. She would bring out some beautiful blooms and I had no idea how much the flowers cost. Generally the florists gather an idea of what you want then out together a quote for you based on the flowers and how hard it is to put the arrangements together. I was surprised I did not faint on the spot with the cost!

I decided to try a different florist. The second time around I took mrs. Shearon with me. Working in landscape, I knew she would be knowledgeable of the plants the florist was showing me. We started from scratch and I told the florist from the start I was on a lower budget. The florist was very responsive and only showed me things that would be more cost effective. We had decided to go with a garden bouquet, with a variety of flowers rather than only two or three varieties. The colors consisting of white, pale blue, and green. We got a much lower quote however the quote was still a few hundred over the original budgeted amount.

I went home disheartened about what to do. I talked to my mom and my aunt (who had flown in for a couple days to help with some of the wedding planning) about the situation and they came up with some great ideas that would lessen the cost and would still be in the same boat as what I imagined. The flowers were not only to be used for the bouquets and boutonnieres, they would be used for decoration on the cake and for centerpieces. Without giving too much away... we're sticking to a smaller variety of flowers, continuing with the simple but elegant look. Imagine this... you enter the room and see tables in navy blue linens, the lights turned down, light classical guitar playing, candles gleaming in the corner of your site, jars with flowers, and jars with (oops I can't tell you, that part it's a surprise!). Anyway the point is we came up with a game plan! It was 3 days of intense frustration and lack of willingness to work things out but we were finally able to come up with a plan. :)