A Quickie!

The timing is so awesome.

I have been avoiding Style Me Pretty for quite some time now for several reasons:

1. Bridal remorse....coulda/shoulda/woulda.
2. No more DIY ideas need to be floating around in my head.
3. Irritations at the repetitive "teasers" and then hella long, parts I, II and III wedding recaps. Enough already.

However, they are still in my Google Reader, so I can't avoid them unless I oust them all together and I'm not quite ready for that kind of separation anxiety.

Look at what they posted! There's my new bolero! What's funny, is my dress is similar to hers. Hoping my brown one will look just as groovy.

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"I Wish" Wednesday

Really, at this point I don't have a whole lot to wish for. Maybe world peace? A cleaner planet? Like 99.9% of the Wedding Crap is done. Done! We go today to get our marriage license. Weird. I'm actually a little nervous about that. I wonder why? Other than the little pissy details, I am good to go. We are ready for lift off. It's time to do this gettin' married thing!

So what I really am wishing for right now is that my nails would stop peeling. I have really thin, weak nails and I normally keep them short. I wanted them to look a little more fem and girlie for the wedding so I've been growing them out for the past month. I've been getting manicures and keeping them polished to try to aid their growth. My thumbs, ring fingers and pinkies look great. My index and middle fingers look like crap! They keep peeling and splitting! I've been avoiding using my nails as any sort of tool. I have not been picking at them or biting them. I am so annoyed. I absolutely detest fake nails, so that's not an option. I just wish that miraculously, I could have long gorgeous Barbara Streisand nails. You know what I'm talking about.

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I mean, just look at those nails. "Like butta......"

Hell to the Yeah!

OK, I'm about to have a fashion-gasm.

I have failed to update you on my shrug-obsession. I think I have found my fix on Etsy. Oh, please. Oh, please. Oh, please write me back Etsy-Seller!

Here's the latest.....

I looked at any and all shrugs/boleros on my two weekend-long shopping extravaganzas and found nothing. I even went to Forever 21 and looked at the shrugs I had seen on-line. My reaction was simply this: ew. So cheap looking and lame. I mean, they are OK for just knockin' around, but not for my wedding.

I kept checking back on Etsy and wasn't finding anything. Last night, I quietly opened the attic while The Candyman was engrossed in the Cowboys/Panthers game (we're Panthers people, whether I care or not) and got into my stash of old patterns to see if I had a shrug pattern somewhere I could modify. I dug through some old fabric too (have I mentioned that I interned for a private designer and she gave me thousands of dollars worth of supplies - just because I was a student?) . I found a nice little ivory, Swiss dot tulle that I had enough of to make a shrug, but couldn't find a decent pattern. I grabbed my pattern templates thinking I might actually make my own...... I brought it all downstairs and stashed in some drawers, afraid The Candyman might see a new project and get pissed.

It was still brewing in the back of my mind today and I thought I'd give Etsy one more stalk and see if I could find something new. Oh yes, I did. The store is called MaryandAngelika and they have EXACTLY what I am looking for. Exactly. Check it out:

I've convo'd the Etsy seller. I just hope she writes me back tout de suite. Aren't these just lovely? What color do y'all like? The brown would go with my color scheme and would look just dandy. The red is total pop though and I kinda love it. The only little tiny thing is that the smallest flower looks like it will end up in my arm pit, so I've asked the seller how it's affixed. If it falls wrong, I can just re-attach it up higher if won't damage the jacket to remove it. I just love that these are actually little jackets versus the tie-back shrug version. This has every element I have been searching for: ruffled collar, fabric flowers and gathered cap sleeves. I love it. LOVE IT! Please keep your fingers crossed that I can get this in time. Nothing like pushing things to the last minute.

Update - Etsy seller wrote me back! She's In Israel! I have to pay an extra $19 for shipping, but I don't care. Decided on the brown as the red with my blue shoes might make look like a flag.

Our bad-ass ride.

First, I called Reggie today, our day-of driver-extraordinaire. We had originally planned for a 6:15pm pick up, but we needed to move it up to 6pm. I love talking to Reggie. I can't wait to meet him. How weird is that? Every time we get on the phone, I'm like chatting with the guy for an hour. He told me that he drove Holly Williams (grand-daughter to legendary Hank Williams) and her new husband this past weekend. They got married at historic Cedarwood. Amazing. I hope someone posts some pictures soon. Apparently, Kid Rock sang some tunes at the wedding. Pretty bad-ass, I'd say!

Things at Casa de Candyman and The Thirty-Something Bride are a little on the stressful side, but only because we're getting down to the wire and have a bunch of bullshit we have to deal with like insurance adjusters, car rental people, car dealerships and all that goes with one getting their car stolen. Happily, all we need to do now is wait for our reimbursement check and we are all set. Whew! Done! Who else has that crap on their to-do list?

Remember how I said I wasn't going to do the match boxes? I lied. I've been working on them sporadically and I finished them this weekend. They are cute as hell. I'll bet no one even notices them! I love them though and it was a good mindless-in-front-of-the-TV-activity.


On Saturday I delivered all the floral crap to my florist. I cannot tell you how happy I am to have all those bud vases OUT of my house. I sold a portion of them to her for the same price I bought them for (actually a smidge more as we just took off her delivery and set-up fee off the cost of our bill). Nice. After the wedding, I'll be selling 85 more, so get ready.

I also put together the centerpiece for the kid's table. I wanted to do something sort of fun for them. I really wasn't sure what, but I knew it would have something to do with candy. Last week I headed over to Party City, just to get ideas. I got one. I bought these crazy lollipops with really long plastic stick-things that were $.33 each. I also bought this gigantic bag of candy for $9.99.

Mmmmm, SweeTTarts and Smarties. I can make myself sick off those things!

I poured most of the candy into one of those glass hurricanes I was contemplating using as a centerpiece oh, so many months ago. Then I used the long "stemmed" lollipops like "flowers." I also went to the dollar store and bought a big bag of Pixie Sticks to use as "filler." My florist would be so proud of me.....

I'm going to take the extra candy and just scatter it all over the table too. Instead of the formal boxed favors, I'm going to put out boxes of Cracker Jacks I got for $.50 at Wal-Mart. Fun! These kids are going to be so jacked up on candy that by the time they get to the dance floor, they'll be going nuts! It's going to be awesome. I'm sure their parents will be so pleased....

I also got the drink menus printed out to put at the bar. It took me forever, but I FINALLY decided on the red wines. I bought a case of Puerto Viejo Reserve Pinot Noir (it will pair well with our chicken dish), two cases of Jean Bousquet Malbec (it's a favorite that I got ON SALE!) and a case of Dancing Bull Zinfandel because it was kick-ass cheap and actually, pretty darn tasty.


The Candyman and I also went to a party where I got a little sauced and I connected with a groovy chick who might get me involved in an area (business related) that I've been contemplating for a while now. We also went out for sushi. Our sushi guy made us this:

It was a really busy weekend, but it was a good weekend. The sun FINALLY came out on Sunday and it remains shining today. I wonder if it'll hold another 13 days??? Keep those fingers crossed people! Hope everyone had as good a weekend as I did. I'm tired, but in a good way.

God, I Hate Suze Oreman

Seriously, I do. Hate her. I hate her with the white hot passion of a thousand suns. However, she's offering a freebie and while I might detest her, I'm not stupid.

Go clicky clicky here and read about how you can get some great free documents all couples need to start their new lives together. I posted about it on Weddzilla.

No, it's not romantic, but it is necessary and something we all need.

I was trying to find the most hideous photo of Suze Orman I could find online to post with this, and this photo came up in my search. I shit you not. Page 13 of my Google image search. I swear.

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Addendum: My friend sent me this bit of information from her BF who knows all about this sort of thing:

"You may want to let her know that online will and trust kits which are almost always thrown out in court. They must be backed by legal representation otherwise they are of zero value. Even the ones that you pay $150.00 for are worthless. Most attorneys will make you go through probate because they will not stand behind the work of something you downloaded for free and they did not draft themselves. In the end, you still end up paying full price for legal representation in order for those documents to mean anything. It is kind of like taking a bottle of wine to a restaurant, they are still going to charge you a corking fee to drink your own wine at their restaurant."

Good to know.

Make it Stop!

I think I need a DIY intervention. Now.

Today, the office folks are taking me out to a celebratory wedding lunch! Nice! I thought it would be a great time to casually invite the group to our Pre-Wedding/Rehearsal Gathering. Casually.

That is until I woke up this morning at 4:30 am, unable to sleep. Again. Please note that I took a Benadryl AND a Tylenol PM last night. Ha! I laugh in the face of these so-called sleep inducing drugs.

So, I'm laying there, snuggling up to The Candyman and starting to toss and turn and I know I've got to be disturbing him. No sense in both of us not sleeping, so I got up. I contemplated the gym for about a half a second, then realized that I couldn't quite breath through my nose yet and quickly dismissed that crazy thought.

I'm never really quite ready for Mafia Wars or Scramble on Facebook that early, so I sat at the computer, contemplating what used to be my sewing table, which is now covered in PWC (Piles of Wedding Crap). I was staring aimlessly at the remaining card stock and cute little ivory flowers I have left over and......it happened. Another project. But it was a really small one, I swear! Here, see for yourselves.

I just whipped up a little invite for those folks not invited to the wedding. I only needed a few of them (our office is small).

I just used a pretty little font, similar to what I've used throughout my other wedding stuff, but this one is more swoopy. Swoopy - look it up.
I stuck a little flower on it with my left over flowers and glue dots.
I printed two per sheet and used my paper-cutter I bought at JoAnn's (on sale, thank you) to cut in half.
I used my Martha Stewart bone folder (Michael's, on sale) to fold in half.

I used my heart hole punch (Michael's, with coupons) and the left-over ribbon (Michael's, with coupons) to close them up the same way I did my fun registration booklets.

I had purchased the "All You Need Is Love" stamp out of the $.99 bin at Michael's, but never used it. Until this morning around 5am.

It's not too bad, right? Or do I need the aforementioned intervention?

The Rehearsal Gathering Ensemble

I am sitting here swigging Acai berry juice, after a teaspoon of local honey with a bag of Riccola at the ready. Two weeks before the wedding and I have lost my voice. Excellent. It's because of all the damn rain we've had. It's growing mold spores all over the trees and I'm really allergic to that crap. The Mucinex pumping through my veins is keeping my sinuses from exploding through my face, but nothing is helping the throat. I'm trying to convince myself that freakish berry juices sighting nutrients and antioxidants will help whatever free radicals are assaulting my face. At any rate, the wedding must go on and I'm bucking up to get the last bits and pieces done.

I have decided upon the Rehearsal Gathering Ensemble. I went shopping with the ladies 2 weekends ago and bought the RGE, but just wasn't quite sure. I went out last weekend on a total power shopping extravaganza and came up empty handed.

Just one more time I am going to bitch about my body. Everyone says that manufacturers make clothes for tall, thin people. Bullshit is what I have to say to that. I'm tall (5'10") and relatively thin. I wear a street size 6 or 4. My thighs are kinda gross and I blame my mother for that. She'll take the heat though, because she knows my pain. At any rate, since I am Thirty-Something, I don't particularly care to show my knees. I just don't think it should be done and I don't like my knees anyway, so there you go. I challenge you to find a dress that covers the knees that isn't an empire waist maxi-dress or baby-doll style. It also needs to be long enough to fit my freakishly long waisted-ness. I probably tried on 100 dresses last weekend. Seriously. I didn't even care how much they were. I tried on a $3000 Alexander McQueen dress, just to see how couture would fit me. Ha. It fit just as poorly as the cheap stuff from Old Navy, but with way better fabric. So, that being said and done, I stuck with the original RGE. Why was I looking for something else if I already had an ensemble? I just really wanted to wear something other than black.

I got this little Karen Kane number at Belks. The back definitely is representative of the outfit, but the front is not at all. It looks WAY different on me than this picture. This looks like a tank top style, but it's not. It's more like a cowl front, so it's drape-y up top and at the waist. My shoulders are way more broad and I have way less boob and I'm way taller than this model so it looks way different. Like, way.

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Much to The Thirty-Something Bride's chagrin, the jumpsuit was not on ANY kind of sale. Massive bummer, but hey, I'm getting married. And I will wear this again. Besides, I got massive deals on all the accessories! I got these Gianni Bini sandals on sale at Dillard's for less than $25 - with tax!

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And then I got these cute little matching gun-metal colored accessories at Forever Love, the accessories-only store of Forever 21, so you know it was freakin' CHEAP!

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I also had to invest in some new Spanx because jersey knit and my butt are not a match made in heaven. No one needs to see that kind of jiggle. Overall, I think it's going to be cute. I just was really hoping for something super cute and not black. Oh well. C'est la vivre. I also bought a cute dip-dyed maxi dress at Off 5th. Maybe I'll post about that tomorrow. I need to gets some pics up!

17 days - just so you know.

Bubbies

OK, so after the ladies and I finished the OOT bags, we headed out shopping. I needed a rehearsal ensemble and just a girl's day out at The Mall. Y'know what I mean? Some days, a girl just has to shop. And shop we did. I did find a rehearsal ensemble and I'll get into that later, but what I'm going to share now is really important. Really.

CLEAVAGE

Now, I think I might have mentioned a time or two before that I just don't have a large set of twins on my body. God is fair. He made me tall and somewhat lean. I have a bit of a booty. He doesn't give it all to everyone unless He wreaks havoc on the rest of your life (Britney Spears, for example). I'm happy with what I've got and with the fact that I have had very little wrath rained down upon me. Thankfully, I can buy lots of things to help matters in the cleavage department when I need to.

At my first official dress fitting, it was clear that additions were to be made. We had to take the sides in, the front in and add C-cup pads to get the dress to even remotely fit in the boobs. Please note Exhibit A below. I cut off my head because the picture is horrrrrrrrid, but you can clearly see the boob issues. To emphasize what isn't emphasized in my dress, in this photo I am wearing TWO (yes, TWO) B-cup pads. The sides had been pinned and nothing was done to the front.


Please note the gaping holes in the dress where boob should be. We thought that adding the C-cup pads (since I was wearing 2 B's in this shot) would be plenty. Nope. That is simply not the case. At my last fitting, the seamstress had pulled the front cross-over portion in to tighten the gap. It fit better, but there was still, um...space. She went and got one of those small pad insert things and I put those in. The twins popped right up into place and it looked like I had massive, amazing cleavage. Sweet.

So I knew I'd have to buy some of those pad thingies. I looked around on-line, but really wasn't happy with what I saw, nor did I really understand what I saw. I knew it was going to have to be a touchie-feelie sort of thing. So, while we were out shopping, we popped into some random lingerie shops. I hate over-paying for anything at Victoria's Secret, so we hit Aerie, the lingerie store from America Eagle. Jackpot! I found exactly what I was looking for: chicken cutlets!

Yes, chicken cutlets. That's what they totally look like. I mean, look at them! One might be tempted to bread those suckers up and fry them in some oil.

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The top cutlets are the smaller inserts called "Show Off A Little." The larger ones are called "Show Off A Lot." I bought both since I'm not sure which one will look best. They said I could return the one I didn't need, so that's cool. The smaller cutlets were $14.50 and the larger cutlets were $29.50. We'll see which one works breast. I mean, best. Oh, I crack myself up.

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Just as a quickie update: we only have one outstanding RSVP now (Oh Hags, please just call me back for goodness sake!). Well, technically four including the last minute invitations that went out today to my mom's cousin, her husband (both of whom I've met once) and my great aunt (who actually rocks). I think perhaps I will discuss this last minute invite topic at a later date.

The cops found The Candyman's truck in a parking lot less than 5 miles from our house. Nothing seems to be wrong with it, so that's good.

I had a gigantic WPM night before last, but I think The Candyman did too. I think it was more of just a meltdown in general. I cannot wait to be married on our honeymoon! 18 more days!!!!!!!

"I Wish" Wednesday

I hate waiting lists for on-line fashionista web-sites. It annoys me to no end. Looking to get on gilt? Do you wish you didn't have to wait? Consider your wish granted.

www.gilt.com/housebeautiful

No waiting. Instant gratification. And you can get the coveted Kenneth Lane Pear Pendant for $30. No lie.

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Viva La 80's!

OK, now I feel really famous! My old high school friend Mike Albo is a writer in New York. He's written a few books and often writes for different magazines and newspapers. He's also a performance artist. I had a MAD crush on the guy when I was a freshman and he was a sophomore. We were in the same geometry class. Nothing ever came of the mad crush, but I always enjoyed his company. We found each other on the Internet a few years back when I stumbled across a copy of his book in a local bookstore ("Hey, look at this book! The author is Mike Albo! I wonder if it's the same Mike I went to high school with?" Yes, indeed.) and read it cover to cover in a day. It was somewhat autobiographical, so I could identify with lots of parts of the story. I tried to figure out who was who, exactly. Good times. Anyway, he writes lots of reviews and here's one he wrote recently. SO LOVE that I got a freakin' call out in The New York Times!!! Check it out!

New Wave's Next Generation

Viva La 80's!

The Thirty-Something Bride circa 1985, loved the single dangle earring. I believe the ensemble was from the ever-hip Foxmoor.

Circa 1986, rockin' the Robert Smith 'do. Note the little frizz of hair on my shoulder? Yup, killer long tail is what that is. You're jealous, you know you are. Sweater by Krizia, a staple designer at The Limited, back in the day.

Circa 1987, sporting a more angst-ridden Ally Sheedy-style. I do miss that watch. The shirt was my first-ever purchase from Urban Outfitters (do not ask me how I remember this) and the pants were from The Limited. I worked there for two years. I had a bad-ass wardrobe.

Back to Our Regularly Scheduled Programming...

Before I was so rudely interrupted by hideous, mindless thievery, I was talking about my fabulous girl's weekend I had last week! Now, where was I?

I mentioned eating our way through the sushi menu at Peter's. I mentioned getting our first wedding present (so cool) and I think that's where we had truckus-takeus-interruptus.

Saturday morning I headed over to my friend Jan's house where Kathy was staying for the weekend to help us with OOT bags (The Candyman's aunt asked him not too long ago, "What's an oot bag? Not O.O.T, but saying oot. That's what we call them now, our "oot bags."). I was greeted with mimosas. Not a bad way to start the day, I must say.

Just a few updates on the details:
Natural covered tote bags from CheapTotes.com, $.79 each.
Iron-on transfers from Micheal's using my trusty coupons, about $.80 each.
A plethora a goodies I collected from Costco over a few months:

• RiceKkrispie Treats
• Blow Pops
• Bottle Water
• Fruit Snacks
• Lance Cheese & Crackers
• Chips
• Pretzels
• Double Mint Gum
• Mini Candy Bars
• A Map of Tennessee (free from AAA!)
• Welcome Letter
  

I added the welcome letter at the last minute because we've had SO many questions about the weekend activities that I figured I've save us some phone calls once people start arriving. It includes events, times and directions. Hopefully, it will help - if people read them. I threw those together at the last minute using my pile of left-over card stock and little confetti flowers from my invitations. I love those little things.

The total cost of the Costco goodies was about $70, but I spread that out over a good bit of time, just buying random things here and there during my regularly scheduled Costco trips. Each bag cost approximately $3.34. It ended up being a little bit more than I had planned (I was aiming for $2.75), but since we only did 40 of them it wasn't a huge cost hit. I think if we were doing large quantities, I might have forgone some of the goodies. We had PLENTY!

Once we'd had a little a.m. mimosa, we plugged in the iPod, our irons and got to work. I will say this: the iron-on directions that come with the transfers are a bunch of BULLSHIT. We messed up a few before we realized this. It says you should NOT run the iron across the transfer as if you were ironing it, but just place the iron, pick it up and place again. Wrong. Wrong. Wrong. Happily, the font and style of the bags leans towards an antique type of feel, so the ones we messed up really don't look that bad. Besides, anyone looking close enough has way too much time on their hands.

Jan ironed all the bags flat (I had washed them because that's what the direction said to do. Now, I'm thinking I could have skipped it) and Kathy and I ironed the transfers on.

Jan, ironing.

Kathy and The Thirty-Something Bride ironing on the transfers.

Ta-da! This one actually has a place where it's messed up (can you find it?).

Jan helped me fold and seal all the letters and then we stuffed.

The Loot!

Done!
Thankfully, Jan is letting me keep these at her house until we take them to the hotels. Whew!

We started the whole process around 10:30 am and finished before 1pm. Many hands, make light work. That would have taken me ALL DAY to finish that project. We had enough time to go shopping....

More on that later!

A Quick Update

OK, just to keep everyone up-to-date......

It took the police FIVE HOURS AND FORTY MINUTES to show up at our house yesterday. We called them after two and a half hours to "remind" them that we were still waiting. At three and a half hours a policeman called us to tell us that he was busy, but coming. Why was he busy? It was raining in Nashville. That is what he said, I kid you not. Um, what?

So he finally shows up and spent all of 12 minutes in our house taking a report. He asked us for the license plate number and it's the one thing we didn't have! I don't know mine, The Candyman doesn't know his and that info is nowhere else but on the registration. The cop asks us to show him the registration. Uh, hi. It's IN THE TRUCK. That was stolen. From in front of our home. You know, THE FELONY that occurred that has taken you FIVE HOURS AND FORTY MINUTES TO RESPOND TO? He looked at us like we were freakin' nuts. We gave him the VIN and he said he could get the plate number from that. He then called us from his patrol car (in which he sat for about an hour after leaving the house) and said he couldn't find it. Again, um - WHAT? Aren't you guys like, the cops?

Our insurance covers a rental (thank you GOD!) and the poor Candyman had to wait until after 3pm to get his rental because they were all out of cars. Again, um - WHAT? You rent cars. You have no cars. What sort of "enterprise" is that? I'm just sayin'.

Things we have learned:
1. We have excellent insurance and the premium is worth every damn penny.
2. Make copies of your car registrations TODAY and file them with your other car stuff. You'll thank me if your car is stolen, destroyed, misplaced.
3. Not all insurance companies keep your plate numbers on file. Make a note of #2.
4. I am one cool cucumber in the face of a crisis. Who knew?
5. The Candyman paces like a caged lion when he's deep in thought/agitated/worried/sleepy. I need to put up road blocks to deter this for future potential crises. He paced himself into severe back and calf cramps yesterday. I'm surprised there isn't a path worn through the carpet from the kitchen, through the dining room and into the living room, from the kitchen, through the dining room and into the living room, from the kitchen, through the dining room and into the living room.....you get the point.

Thankfully, all the crap got taken care of yesterday so The Candyman can get the hell out of Dodge for the weekend. He's off to Asheville, NC, for his bachelor party! After this week, that man needs a little R&R. I don't even care if the guys take him to look at boobies. I know what melts that man's butter and big, fake, spray-tanned boobies ain't it. Grind away ladies, that man's comin' home to ME. :)

I swear, actual bridal stuff is upcoming. I have been slightly distracted.

We Interrupt Your Regularly Scheduled Program....

......for a bunch of bullshit.

I was in the bathroom this morning, getting ready for work. The Candyman gives me a smooch good-bye and I hear him leave. About 3 minutes later I hear him come back in. He walks up to the bathroom and says, "Honey, I think my truck was stolen."

Um, WHAT????

Sure enough. We go outside and there, in front of our house is a big empty spot where his truck used to be. On the ground is his lunch cooler and some Clorox wipes that used to be sitting in his passenger seat.

Excellent. Seriously? SERIOUSLY????

It's been two hours and twenty minutes and we are still waiting for the cops. Hooray Davidson County! I know it's not an emergency, but OVER TWO HOURS? Please.

Stay tuned for happy last-weekend updates once we get this huge mess sorted out. THANK GOD I have excellent insurance and decided to put The Candyman on it last year. If we are lucky (clearly, we are not) all we will be out is a $300 deductible. Please keep your fingers crossed that this doesn't impact our finances beyond that!

The good part is that no one was hurt. However, there are some thieves out there I want to hurt real bad right now. REAL BAD.

Super Sticky

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Read my new post on Weddzilla regarding some sticky stuff!

"I Wish" Wednesday!

I so wish I'd had this for Save the Dates! How much fun is this? Almost as fun as opening wedding presents. Almost.

The folks over at Robbins Brothers (you know, the engagement ring store) contacted me about this so cute widget! You can use it for Save the Dates, Engagement Announcements or just a super cute video for your wedding web site! I'm totally going to upload to ours!

A Virtual Love Note

Featuring Louise and The Candyman

Create your own at Robbins Brothers, The Engagement Ring Store

Head over to their site and make one for yourself! It's totally easy and kinda fun, I have to admit!

The Weekend, Part Dos

OK, so I have to back up just a wee tad. On Friday morning, I come downstairs to head out to work. The Candyman had already left the casa, but there was a big Crate and Barrel box sitting in the middle of the living room floor. I thought, "Waaaaaait a minute, that wasn't there last night!" I quickly devised that it was delivered at the front door and The Candyman simply walked past it when he came in from work the day before (I come and go via the back door). How he could have missed it is beyond me. It was HUGE! So I started dancing a jig in the living room because it was OUR FIRST WEDDING PRESENT!

I'll admit, I had every desire a Thirty-Something Bride could have to go tearing into that box! But no, I did not. I exercised great restraint and left the box untouched. I had to rush home that evening in order to meet the girls for dinner and expected The Candyman to be home. He was not. But guess what was? ANOTHER HUGE BOX FROM CRATE AND BARREL WAS AT THE FRONT DOOR! Too much! It was too much! The Candyman called and he was stuck in traffic and I had to leave. What sort of sick twist was fate serving me? I mean, TWO boxes and I'm not allowed to open them?? WTF?

So I did what every smart bride would do. I checked the registry list! Booya! Score! We got ALL of our wine glass and half our champagne glasses! Yeehaw!


When we were finally able to open up and unpack everything - wow! I went to the cupboards and packed up all my old, mis-matched wine glasses and replaced them with the new. Am I supposed to wait to do that until after the wedding? Oops. Anyway, they look so beautiful! Even though I am a Thirty-Something Bride and I don't need a whole lot of stuff, I have to admit, the purging of the old and mis-matched seems appropriate since I have found my match. I felt a little weird about registering but it's so OK to get new stuff. It's funny, suddenly it's not about getting the stuff, but getting ready for our new life - together. How wonderful.

Thirty-Something Bride sans make-up and The Candyman, sporting The People's Eyebrow.

THANK YOU, LORI!

Oh, Hello!

Lookie what I found on shopstyle.com!

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Found on Forever 21 website for $19.80.

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Also on Forever 21 website for $24.80!

I kinda like the silver look because I think it would be an interesting accent to the champagne color of my dress. Also, the clasps and metal accents on my jewelry are silver.

I guess I could order them both and see what they look like. I can always return. That's my thing with Etsy, I might not be able to return something if it isn't right or doesn't fit. Does anyone know the return policies of Etsy? Does it depend on the shop?

The Weekend, Part Uno

How much stuff could happen in ONE WEEKEND?? All wonderfully fun, lovely stuff! I know I can't get it all in one post. I'm going to post a little at a time, just so I don't inundate my poor readers with my manic typing of all things weekend related.

First, in regards to the bolero/shrug thing: I don't think I'm going to make one at this point. The sewing table is covered with wedding crap. I couldn't find any awesome patterns, which means I'd either have to make my own (blech) or revise the hell out of an existing pattern which can be as bad as starting from scratch.

I was out and about this weekend (more on that later) and I swear, I checked a gazillion stores and no one had any cool shrugs/boleros. I went to:
Macy's
Dillard's
Belk
BCBG Maximara
Cache
Bebe
Betsey Johnson
Express
The Limited
J.Crew (I did find cute wedding flip-flops for $9.99 and a t-shirt for $4.99 though!)
Ann Taylor
Arden B.
White House/Black Market

I even went into Chico's and The Gap for goodness sake and nada! I'm going to check out ShopStyle.com, just in case.

These are the little flip flops I got at J.Crew for $9.99!

Source

What I don't understand about these is that they are $14.50 on-line and $9.99 in the stores. Eh?

But back to the weekend recap! I 'll start with Friday, when my friend Kathy came in from east Tennessee for the weekend. Now, don't hold anything against her just because she's from east Tennessee. She's not your typical east Tennessean, thank GOD. She stayed with my other friend Jan and we all met up at her house to get the weekend started! After a much needed Pinot Grigio, we opted for sushi for dinner. Since Kathy is from a small town in east Tennessee (have I mentioned that yet?) she doesn't have access to sushi. She has tried it once or twice, but nothing really memorable. We went to a tasty place called Peter's Sushi-Thai and ordered what seemed like the entire menu! Kudos to Kathy! She struggled through her use of the chopsticks, but never gave up! In retrospect, I think Jan and I totally out-ate her, simply based on chopsticks-skill!

After dinner, we called it a night - we had a big day ahead of us! More recaps to come! Who else had a FABULOUS weekend??

To Shrug or Not to Shrug? Or Should I Just Bolero?

Gawd, I've been so disgustingly busy at work, it's sick. Sick! Don't these people know I'm getting married ONE MONTH FROM TODAY!?!?! HO-LY CRAPTASTIC! As The Candyman keeps lovingly reminding me, "This thing's happening, Lula!" Lula is is what The Candyman calls The Thirty-Something Bride when he's feeling particularly sweet and amorous. It's true. ;)

Anyway, these incredibly lame work people keep piling stuff on my desk, like I might actually get it done on top of all the other stuff I have to do - like my day-job of product development. I do not have time for your silly meetings, unproductive conference calls or mass emails. No, I do not.

What I want to make time for is shrug shopping. I have suddenly fallen in love with the idea of a shrug. Etsy is chock full of them. I entered a contest for one, but alas, I did not win this cute little capelet from refectionbyds.

Pretty, no?

Totally loving this one from Bonzie! The only thing I'm not totally loving is the fact that it ties in the back. I don't think that would look good with the back of my dress - better for a strapless gown, I think. But totally swoon-worthy. right?

But what about this one from The English Dept?

Here's the thing though - these things are a snap to make. Seriously. I could probably make my own pattern if I had more time. Oh, who am I kidding? I hate making patterns. I bet I could find a cute pattern though and whip something out, right? I have a few problems though:

1. The Candyman said no more projects.
   
2. The sewing table is covered with wedding crap (by the way, totally disappointed in the lack of participation in my little PWC contest!).
3. I think people are actually starting to get mad at me and my projects.
4. Where in God's name am I going to find the time?
5. This weekend is dedicated to OOT bags with the girls. Lots of iron on transfers and wine please!
   

I need to think this through. If I did, by chance, just happen to find a cute pattern, that is if just by coincidence, if I ran to JoAnn's at lunch tomorrow and just maybe, happened upon something cute. What then? Wouldn't I OWE it to myself to at least think about it? Right?

A little help here ladies. I'll have to do some fancy dancing with The Candyman!

The Unabridged Bride!

Hurry! Hurry! It's not too late to sign up for the Unabridged Bride 3-part workshop! You can win some really super-cool prizes! Like what? Well, let me tell you:

• A FREE night at Aloft Hotel (yes, that's FREE)!
• A FREE manicure and pedicure at The Woodhouse Spa (um, yes please.)
• A $50 gift certificate towards any project at 12-Point Signworks (hello, wallscape!)

Run over to Liza's Unabridged Bride web page and sign up. I went to her first mini-workshop and had a really incredible time. I had only wished that I had been to it earlier in my engagement! I think this is the new wave for brides, or at least it should be.

"I Wish" Wednesday!

Today's wish is simple. I wish that people would send in their RSVP cards. Now. I also wish they would book their hotel rooms in the blocks provided for them at the lovely discounted rate. I have to keep extending the cut-off date because people just aren't doing it. I didn't tell everyone there was a cut-off date. I probably should have. I have now updated that on our wedding website, but people aren't looking at that either.

Every single bit of information that one could possibly need, plus more that they don't is included on that damn website. Y'all know how freakin' compulsive detail-oriented I am, right? All people have to do is go to the website and voila, questions answered! But apparently that too, is difficult. I sent out a reminder email regarding the wedding and website to our guests when the invites went out. In that email, there was the link to our website. I had a friend reply to that email requesting the link. Eh? Really? It's right there. Now, I know that I've been super scatter-brained over the last few weeks, but wow. Again, really? Me no get.

Before I set myself off into another RSVP tirade, I've already written one here on Weddzilla. What's funny is that barring the current RSVP irritation, I'm surprisingly calm. Sweet!

Aaaaaaaaaaaah..................

Long weekends are so hard-core-crazy-rock-n-roll. I love them, LOVE THEM! It was such a wonderful weekend on so many levels.

On Saturday, The Candyman and I went to our reception venue, Mere Bulles, and met with Carlin regarding a lot of little details for the reception. Since I'm bringing in a ton of stuff, I wanted to make sure it gets put where I want it all to go!

I took a few things into Mere Bulles with me and had asked Carlin to have our linens set up for me to play with. I did and it just looks so super-fab, I can't even tell you. I took in my chargers, my bud vases and a mock-up of my favor box. We even swung by the Harris Teeter and picked up some ivory flowers to put in the bud vases, just to get a good visual! I'd share pics, but you know what? I want to keep this one secret! You're just going to have to wait until I do recaps to see it all! ;) I will show you this picture of the flowers though. I put them all in an arrangement when we got home. They looked so pretty in the morning sunshine, I snapped a quick picture!

Saturday night The Candyman and I had a date night out at PM on Belmont. It's a happy medium for us - I can get sushi and he can get a burger! Yum! It was great because we had one of those kinds of really meaningful discussions that make you a better, stronger couple. You know what I mean?

Sunday we did nothing. And I mean nothing. I think the most productive part of our day was the nap we took all snuggled up on the couch. Well, I guess that's not totally true. We did wander out for sustenance and I did put all the favor boxes together. Let me tell you how much I hated doing this. Why? Because it involves tying bows. I hate tying bows. Hate. I just can't get bows to look right - ever. I have a feeling it might have something to do with the fact that I'm left-handed and learned to tie my shoes from another left-handed person who was taught by a right-handed person. My bows always look like crap. So, I spent way too long tying and retying the stupid bows.

Here are all the boxes I put together a long time ago- back around Easter. They have been sitting in the attic, waiting....

Remember all the thank you tags I printed and punched out? No? You can read about it here. I took all of those and punched a hole in them to thread the ribbon through.

Then I set to tying, retying, tying, retying all the damn bows. Why? Because I am a freaky, OCD perfectionist, that's why! Don't judge. So, you might be wondering to yourself, "Why is The Thirty-Something Bride tying all these bows around boxes with nothing in them?" Well, I'll tell you why. Because when it comes time to pack these suckers, all we'll have to do is slide the ribbon off, stuff the boxes and slide the ribbon back on. I think that would be much easier then trying to tie a bazillion bows the way I want them the day before the wedding, no? That way we can get a nice assembly line going of moms and cousins and aunts and stuff a bunch of boxes and be done!! I really do not want to stress about stuff like bows two days before the wedding. That would be mega-lame of me.

It's a sea of boxes!

It's a sea of bows!

I can't believe that The Big Show is only 33 days away! I've got most of the tasks and projects done, I just need to finish things up - like place cards (can't do it until all the RSVP's come in) and table numbers (again, RSVP's for the final numbers). I feel like I'm just humming along. Stress is at a minimum right now. Although, I did dream I was fired last night. Maybe that was the sign for me NOT to buy the expensive dress from RueLaLa. Hmmm.....

P.S. As I was finishing this post up on my lunch break, the office manager came in and asked me if I was available to go to Minnesota the week of October 5th. Um, hello? Getting married that weekend folks, no can do. Keep your fingers crossed that the sadistic powers that be don't actually make me do this.