Sungela's PJ & TR Merged! Finally an Update! Faux Disneymoon Time

[Starr W.]

One of my friends from school wore big heels during the ceremony(she's 5ft and her DH is 6'4") as soon as the picture were done, she put on a pair of white keds that were decorated with sequins and had lacey laces. You couldn't see them under her dress. And she had fun and was in comfort at her reception.

Shoes would be a good thing to go bridezilla over, I'm one that I can't enjoy myself with sore feet.


I'm so glad to hear how supportive your family is. One of my best friends from college fell in love with my roomate. Her family were the liberal hippie types even lived in a commune during the late 60's. My roomate conservative midwesterner. Guess who's family were not happy campers? My best friends, it was like everything they believed in was okay for everone else but their daughter.

 

[curiouser]

I haven't picked out shoes, yet, either, although it's not that easy to find attractive vegetarian shoes. (Shoe dilemma: I'm eight inches shorter than Angela, but I can't walk in heels. Oy vey! But since my dress is huge, how bad would it be if I just wore sneakers? I am sorely tempted...)

I would wear flats... but personally I think height differences are too cute in photos! I've been told that Dyeables are vegetarian friendly and they have a wide variety of flat/heel height ranges.

 

[sungela]

Thanks to all of you, I had a very productive day...

Based on the suggestion of people in the threads, I contacted Misty Miotto, and she said she's free... I can't believe that you get the number of hours plus the CD for $1000 cheaper than Disney. I might spend a lot of working hours lurking around, but it paid off!

I bought a really cute pair of Cinderella looking shoes for $6 at DSW(!!!!), which I think I'm going to wear to the ceremony and pictures, and then switch into Keds or comfy shoes. My soon-to-be MIL is an artist (she designed our wedding invitations--more on that later), and I think she can decorate shoes to look a little prettier in case they peek out from under my dress. And since, miracle of miracles, I learned how to use our digital camera, I can even post pics of the shoes:

Flowers: I love all of your suggestions, although slight bone of contention. Angela actually wants a big bouquet. Sigh. She really wants a string trio too, so I'm trying to negotiate with her to stay on budget so she can get what she really cares about. With her dress, though, I think a few flowers (one or two lillies, perhaps?) would be lovely. Sunsh1ne, what are rose wands? We were going mostly with tropical flowers (orchids) because our colors our very bright (lime green, aqua/turquoise, bright orange, sunshine yellow, hot pink), but I think orange and yellow roses are gorgeous.

Caryndisneydiva, I LOVE the idea of mini bottles of wine. Where did you get them?

Other big task of the last 24 hours: wedding invitations. We never found ones we liked (everything cutesy is boy/girl, and the same-sex invitations that do exist are a little too cheesy), so we asked Angela's mom to design a picture for us. She normally does pastel beach scenes which are very pretty, but not quite us. So we sent her names of our favorite artists, all really funky (cubism meets pop art), and here's what she created:

Our invitation:

Our RSVP card (which is going to be a postcard to save postage):

Our thank you note:

The colors are a little more vibrant in real life, but you get the idea. And we finally decided on the wording last night. Let me know what you think:

From every human being there rises a light that reaches straight to heaven. And when two souls that are destined to be together find each other, their streams of light flow together, and a single brighter light goes forth from their united being.

—Baal Shem Tov

Sonia & Angela
Invite you to laugh, dance, and celebrate with us
As we unite under the chuppah on
Sunday, June 22, 2008
19 Sivan, 5768
Ten o’clock in the morning

Disney World Wedding Pavilion
Lake Buena Vista, Florida

The magic continues…

Please join us for food and fun at the
Grand Floridian Resort & Spa following the ceremony

RSVP Card:
Please RSVP by May 1, 2008.

Name(s): __________________________

__ accepts with pleasure

__ declines with regret

__ accepts with regret

__ declines with pleasure

I'm generally known as a punster, and I thought it would be fun to do something a little off-beat for the RSVP. Surprisingly, my mom approved. And even though my parents are paying, we really wanted the invitation to come from us. It also needed to be very Jewishy (oddly enough, I have relatives who would come to a lesbian wedding, but not to an interfaith one, and for some reason, Angela Marie doesn't come off as Jewish.) We do go to a temple around here, in Hillsborough, and we're flying down the Rabbi to do the ceremony. (He's helping Angela convert, and this will be his first same-sex wedding). Next step: going to Kinko's.

 

[mla1977]

Those invites are so nice! Very unique too. I love the colors.

 

[sungela]

So here's the problem: Kinko's scanned in the paintings, and they came out horribly--too much red and not enough of the fine details. The picture I took on my crappy digital camera came out better! We went to a Papery, and they said it costs $80 PER COLOR to have the painting laser scanned. I have no desire to pay $800 just to have one painting scanned, let alone the printing, stamps, etc.

Have any of you ever tried to scan a painting/piece of artwork? Where would you go? The colors are fairly bright, but they are watercolors...

 

[Gillian]

I will ask around, but the photo thing got me thinking - can you actually do something with a photograph? You can certainly get photo postcards made online. With a matte finish it might work for the response cards.

If you could get prints of the invite painting and use them somehow, it might look very nice. It won't look like a painting, but could still be pretty. Maybe as a cover to the pocket style invitation a few people have done? Get the photos printed the right size, layer it with some paper in your colors, attach to the front of the folder?

Which Disney bride did the castle on the shimmery paper?

 

[sungela]

Thanks for that idea! Taking a picture of the painting was also my FMIL's suggestion. We called around today, and there's a place near our house that does digital photos and high-quality scans, so we're going to try that. We're also tempted to use the giclee process to really keep color integrity, but that might be too expensive.

 

[caryndisneydiva]

i could have sworn that i posted in here the other day...

i got my wine bottles from murielle winery in clearwater florida. they have a wedding special. i can't find any pics of them right now though...i'll locate one tomorrow and post in here...

here are a picture of rose wands that were put in my pj by someone a few months ago.

 

[lurkyloo]

Love the invite artwork! I was going to recommend you find a place that does digital photos and high-quality scans - let us know how it turns out!

 

[WithDisneySpirit]

What a gorgeous couple you are! Can't wait to read more of your plans and hope you will write a trip report with pics at the end! Your plans sound great

 

[pink_tink8i8]

love the invitations. I'm also a fan of cubism and pop art. Excellent choice. It's so nice too that you had them made by a family member. It's extra special

 

[sungela]

What a gorgeous couple you are! Can't wait to read more of your plans and hope you will write a trip report with pics at the end! Your plans sound great

Thank you! I think my DF is super-cute, but I might be biased...

Several updates, given that I've done nothing but wedding stuff over the past few days. (Btw, has any one ever been fired from work for constantly trolling old DIS posts? What happened to my work ethic in the past few weeks? I blame all of you.)

1. Photos: amazingly enough, both Randy and Misty Miotto were available--we really lucked out with a Sunday wedding. Ultimately, though, I went with Misty. I was torn until I saw a picture from Emily and Ben, where all their bridesmaids were holding candy lollipops. Everything was black and white except for the candy. That's exactly the kind of picture I love. So we're booked and ready to go!

2. Flowers: I *think* my new plan is to have the bridesmaids hold orange rosewands, and we'll hold modified versions of the bridesmaids' previous bouquets (Petite handtied bouquet of orange roses and yellow mini calla lilies, with green cymbidium orchids.) I can't make any final decisions until Laura gets back from her extended vacation, but I also think I'm going to keep the chair covers and instead use white napkins tied with cool ribbons.

3. Food: thanks to lurkyloo, I'm moving some of my reception food and nixing the pre-reception food. I'm thinking that fruit and pastries is a good switch, because we're talking hungry people at 11 AM.

4. Cosmetology: we booked Ana from Beaute Speciale, and she is supposed to come at 4:30 AM. I don't exactly understand why we have to be awake this early, or how I am going to function at this time. Angela and I are going back and forth about who is better suited to take the early shift (sample argument: S: you wake up at 5:30 AM everyday anyway; A: you're not going to sleep before the night before the wedding anyway; S: my mom is paying; A: your mom can sleep standing up in the middle of a rock concert, so she'll just take a nap later on; etc.). Eventually, we will decide, as we often do, based on the most fair method possible: rock, paper, scissors.

Given that we've mostly figured out the invitation drama (I go to the scanner today!), we're back to our most pressing problem: bridesmaids' dresses. We have two blonde/blue-eyed/busty girls, one thin/flat/black-haired Asian, and two 14 year old tan/brown hair and -eyed junior bridesmaids, spread across five states. Since our colors are bright, we were thinking we'd go with turquoise/aqua or possibly apple green, and I would love it if we could find something that some of them would wear again. (I also don't want to make them wear something that my children will someday laugh at, a la my mother's 1980s poof dresses). But I don't like anything remotely reasonably priced... the Ann Taylor dresses are pretty, but not the right color, and the J. Crew dresses that we did like are too expensive for what you get. We've gone shopping for off-the-rack dresses, but a) we haven't found anything and b) it would be hard to find one dress that would look good on everybody. I'm not that impressed with David's Bridal (bc it screams: "Hide me in the back of the closet when this is all over!"). And of course, there's the formality issue: my dress is ultra-formal, Angela's is casual chic, and our wedding time invites business casual.

Jersey/NYC brides, where did you do your bridesmaids' dress shopping? Everyone else, are there cheaper brands I'm overlooking? Good places to search online that don't require me to sift through thousands of similar dresses? Don't get me started on the Knot website--half of their pictured dresses don't identify the designer, and many of them feature dresses that are no longer being made (like last season's absolutely perfect J. Crew apple green tea length dresses).

 

[keenercam]

Believe it or not, my friend found super-cute skirt & top separates on the Target website -- I think they were taffeta. Would you consider checking there? They are only available on-line and would have to be shipped back if they don't work, but she said the quality was very good and the prices ultra-reasonable. Good luck in your quest!

 

[thatdisneygirl]

I love the wording for your RSVPs and I'm totally stealing it! (I love the blossom ring too, but I'd better hold off from stealing that...)


Hooray for being obsessed with Disney wedding planning!

 

[pink_tink8i8]

check out the "separates" collection from impressions. We were 5 girls in my SIL/brother's wedding with different hair color/eye color, height etc. not easy to find dresses. We all chose different separates that worked for each girl and each body type but they were all from the same collection and the same color AND you can definitely reuse them since they are separates. The tops can be worn with jeans or the bottom with a different top. http://www.impressionbridal.com/index.php
warning: the website doesn't do the separates justice.

 

[hope1826]

YAY!!! Another Misty bride!

I had a similar bridesmaid dress problem. One fair skinned/blond hair/blue eyed cousin in TN, one dark skinned/dark hair and eyed cousin at the tip of Long Island, one latte skinned/dark hair and eyed niece in the Bronx and a fair skinned Black hair/brown eyed MOH in NJ.

I know this is exactly what you don't want to hear, but David's Bridal ended up being the most convenient for all, they got a short strapless (with optional straps) dress in crinkle chiffon that they all say they would love to wear again mainly because of the color TRUFFLE. I gave them a choice of a cloudy blue, bright blue, midnight blue or chocolate brown and they all chose the chocolate. And since they only paid $115 for it they all agree that even if they didn't wear it again, it wouldn't be a big deal for the price.

I tried several other Central Jersey shops before going to David's Bridal. I was very disappointed with the bridal shops. Kathy's Bridal in Highland Park, one in Princeton that I can't remember the name of, and two in Matawan, Cinderella Bridal and True Love, were the worst. I was very pleasantly surprised by the service I got at David's Bridal in East Brunswick.

To be honest, i hated David's Bridal's bridesmaid dresses until I went with one of my bridesmaids and had her try several on. The dresses look AWFUL on the David's Bridal models and even worse on the racks, but in person, on my BM they actually looked really elegant and very post wedding wearable.

Would you be open to getting swatches of the color you want, giving it to your Bridesmaids and telling them to find their own lovely gowns that they love in the color you want? I've seen pics of wedding parties where the brides did that and it can be done beautifully.

Good luck with whatever you end up choosing! I can't wait to see it!

 

[sungela]

I love the wording for your RSVPs and I'm totally stealing it! (I love the blossom ring too, but I'd better hold off from stealing that...)

Feel free to steal away! I lifted it from an Indie Brides forum. I'm hoping that I get a few "accepts with regrets." And I wish Tiffany love unto everyone... but you will have to get your own.

I did look at Target, but they don't have the right color *yet.* I'm torn because I want to get the dresses now to set my mind at ease, but Spring fashion hasn't hit the shelves yet. I like Impressions, but I was hoping to avoid traditional bridesmaids' dresses; guess that's not going to happen. And David's is always my last resort. I figure if I don't find anything I like by April 15 (tax day!), then I'll bite the bullet and go with their pool color.

This is actually going to sound really weird, but the dresses I like best so far are from Victoria's Secret. I think it would be hilariously, ironically us if I wore a couture gown and our bridesmaids had on $38 sundresses. Even if we don't use them, this is definitely the right color:

Now tell me that they wouldn't wear those dresses again!

I'm off to compete in the American Crossword Puzzle Tournament, my yearly nerd-fest. Hopefully, I'll be able to post a pic of me with Will Shortz (the god of puzzling) when I get back!

 

[lurkyloo]

Dude, I buy almost ALL my dresses from Vickie's And it's the only place I can get jeans that are long enough, too. And - great sales!

P.S. Love the color!

 

[lpizzuro123]

We are going with Alfred Angelo separates collection. I am having three bridesmaids - all different body types. I am letting them pick out their own dress or separates as long as it is in the claret color.

I remember you are in the Princeton area - I am in South Brunswick - Kendall Park - about 9 miles north of you. I found the AA dresses in a bridal shop in Linden - about 30 minutes north of me. There is also a bridal shop that I went to in Trenton that had a very large selection. My dress is also Alfred Angelo and I am purchasing it at the shop in Linden. There is also a very little bridal shop in East Brunswick on Rt 18 right next to Davids Bridal. They carry the AA bridesmaids dresses and gowns.

As far a photographers go, we are also going with Misty. I agree that Emily and Ben's photos made me chose her also. I love the dress with the lollypops but my favorite is the one of her and her husband on the surry bikes on the Boardwalk. Our reception is at ADH so I am definately asking for that picture along with the one outside the photobooth.

Not sure if you have gone to any Bridal Showcases but my DF and I went to one last weekend at Foresgate Country Club. Of course we will not be using any vendor from the show but it gave us some really good ideas of what we are interested in. There is another Showcase this coming Sunday up at the Raritan Convention Center that we are going to. They are great places to check out photo styles and album styles and video styles. They have fashion shows and syles of invitation (even though you are making your own) it is really interesting and eye opening to see all that is out there.

Let us know your plans as you go along.

Linda

 

[caryndisneydiva]

i buy the majority of my dresses from vickies...LOVE THEM! i have the two that you show there, though i can't seem to find them at the moment...one thing to know though, those two particular dresses are cotton and look it. they're super comfy though!