Ok, I am WAY overdue in making a PJ entry, so here goes
Mom came from NJ this week for 2 days. My goal was to have the planning almost completely done by the time I put her on a plane home, and I totally accomplished that goal
Dress- I was really worried about this becoming a big ordeal
I wasnt falling in love with any of the pictures I saw, nor anything I saw the first time I went to try dresses on myself
Im really tall (59) and dont feel comfortable in a lot of lace/frou-frou, I think it looks too busy on me. So anyway, we went to Davids Bridal in the Houston Galleria area on San Felipe, we got there when we opened and Kimberley helped us. I have to stop here and completely rave about Kimberley, she is 20 years old and the most professional person I have ever met. She wasnt scared to tell me something looked bad on me, or to take my moms side on the veil issue (more on that later
). I just LOVED her. My DF is a DJ on XM Satellite radio (channel 81 bpm-dj mark d) and he also owns the biggest nightclub in Houston (Richs Houston-www.richshouston.com) and she knew him and all about the club, so that made it even better/easier for me! Marrying a local celebrity is a good thing sometimes
anyway, back to the dress
the Davids Bridal website is fantastic. I walked in with about 8 style #s that I wanted to try on
DF really likes pick up skirts, so I was trying to stick with that. I fell in love with 2 of them, one of them was $1000, which is not a lot compared to what some bridal gowns cost, but I PROMISED my father that I would stay under that since its totally possible
the gown was gorgeous and was designed by Oleg Cassini who personally designed my mothers bridal gown back in the 70s. I thought that was so special, but the top didnt look so great on me. Im not well endowed in the chest area and can use all the help I can get there
so, I tried on another dress in white, but I REALLY didnt want to wear white, Im Italian and have a very dark complexion, so stark white looks HORRIBLE on me
they had that same dress in light gold and it was being discontinued, they only had 1 left in the store and it was in my size and fit perfectly (or so I thought at the time
)!!! It was $400 (score one for you dad) and by the time we bought the veil, bra, slip and shawl the grand total was $806!!! I was really proud of myself, usually I spend waaaay too much on clothes etc
The day after I bought the dress, my FMIL came over to have dinner with my mom, so I decided to try the dress on and show her and boy I am SO glad that I did
the dress was slightly tight when I tried it on in the morning when I hadnt eaten anything yet
well, after a whole day of 2+meals
my mom could barely get it fastened
the wedding diet has begun. 10 pounds by 1/24/08..i can do it. I know I can
On to the
Veil issue- now, I know a lot of brides wont agree with me on this one, but I cant stand veils. The whole premise behind a veil is a bit odd, back in the old days, women who had arranged marriages wore veils on their wedding day so that their husbands couldnt back out if they were ugly! PLEASE! How horrifying is that?!? So needless to say, for my whole life Ive despised the idea of a veil. Now, how do we break this to the Italian mother/grandmother? One of my cousins is getting married in April and felt the same way about a veil and her grandmother CRIED over the issue and she finally broke down and bought one. Not wanting to deal with tears on either end, I found one that actual looks quite fetching, its gold lace with bead detail. Im going to wear it for my ceremony and take it off immediately afterwards
DF wasnt happy about the veil, but when I told him it wouldnt be covering my face he was ok with it. It will be on for a total of 30 minutes.
Other planning news:
My sisters are going to wear Truffle colored gowns from Davids. I want them to wear long gowns, which sister/maid #2 (Megan) isnt too thrilled about. Sister/maid #1 is going to get a pick up skirt, which I adore!!! I bought them Cinderella magic wands from the
Disney store to carry instead of bouquets
and I told my father that he was under no uncertain terms to even hint about the purpose of said wands, well, he walked around the house skipping and dancing and singing bibbity bobbity boo. Thanks dad. So now sister/maid #1 (Lindsay) wont do it. So Im just going to have them carry the wands around when they wear their team bride gear. I still dont know what Im going to do with bouquets for those girls yet
more to come on that.
We fed-exed off the agreement to Joe (wedding planner-total doll. I love him). So at least thats done.
I have a steaming appointment scheduled with Carolyn Allens for the day before the wedding at noon. I think Im going to ship them my dress and have them deliver it for me. It only costs $15 for them to store it, plus the cost of shipping, which should be cheaper/easier than trying to transport it myself
Ive been playing phone tag with Randy for the last 4 days, Ill be calling him back shortly to discuss picture package options. I need something in between the 3 and 7 hour packages
We ordered invitations and part of the favors for the welcome bags
All in all mom and I got a lot done
Theres just one more thing (theres ALWAYS one more thing w/me
)
So last night, the future in laws came over to our home for dinner with my mom
FFIL breaks the news that he wants to host a rehearsal dinner for EVERYONE who is coming from out of town. Its a DESTINATION WEDDING. EVERYONE IS FROM OUT OF TOWN!!! Now, back up a little bit
this wedding has to be as low key as possible, we DO NOT want a big wedding/ordeal at all
so when the idea of basically having another reception creeped up, I almost went into convulsions. DF didnt even know what a rehearsal dinner was so he didnt know why I was getting so upset when his father was proposing this idea
so DF and I decided that were just not going to have one at all. Our wedding is at 10am, we want our guests rested for our big day, not recovering from the rehearsal dinner. We have to break that news today
I think Ill let him do it.
One more thing (see, I told you
)
I was raised catholic as was my DF
we are in no way religious at all. FMIL converted to Judaism a few years ago and is very active in her temple. She asked her Rabbi (before asking us mind you) if he would marry us in Disney in a non-denominational service. Ill cut out all the drama that ensued upon me telling my parents that news-needless to say its taking a while to get used to the idea. DF is totally into it because Rabbi Jimmy is a very nice man who is very welcoming of gentiles. He hasnt asked me for a thing in this wedding, so I said yes. More to come on that. I might have to start a new blog for that issue
Thanks for reading! More to come soon! I still need flower ideas, to finish favors, hair/make up people, shoes, deciding where to stay!!!
. My younger sister and I went with our mother bridesmaid dress shopping today. We are probably going with Bill Levkoff style 451. (I can't figure out how to post it right now) In black and whatever color sash Caryn picks.
