the girl who turned down Vera Wang

A handful of unexpected circumstances led to a second round of dress shopping. I still love the original Big Ivory Dress, but there was a big case against wearing it that I couldn’t ignore. So my mom, always the opportunist, took me dress shopping.

At the first store I tried on a gorgeous Amsale ballgown. I felt like a princess in it, and it had pockets. She became the first contender – at least until I looked at the pictures. Too much skirt, too much ribcage. I think DJ is going to buy the cow whether or not I... er... show him the milk for free.

Next we went to Jenny Yoo, home of the very simple silk dress. My mom went along with it because the fabrics are nice, but she was not that impressed. The line between very simple and not-bridal is thin. We both liked this one, but the ruching left me cold. That was the end of the day’s appointments, but we still had time to kill. Oh, my mom said, I always pass this adorable bridal shop. Let’s just walk by and see. Off we trotted to Oak Street under darkening skies. As we rounded the corner I recognized the gown in the second-floor window.

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Mom, I said in horror, that is Vera Wang. She kept walking, throwing over her shoulder “Is that good?” Mom! This is like going to look at a litter of puppies. You’d have to be dead not to find a dress at Vera Wang!

But the skies were darkening and I hadn't found a dress, so up we went.

pintucked silk

This dress makes me want daisychain crowns and Icarus sandals, with a spritz of some heady grandma perfume for drama.

The $248 price tag makes me think Garnet Hill is delusional.

shop girl

Anyone need a sweet vintage-esque clutch with a little pink in it?

Currently on sale for $19.99, can't beat it.

flower power

A few days ago I did a little math to see how many flowers I might need to fill all the silvers and make bouquets and whatnot.

Ho-leeeey cats, as my spin instructor says. Does 500-ish* sound like a lot to you? It does to me. I've budgeted 14 hours for flower arranging. That sounded excessive a while ago, but maybe not?

Better question: what kind of shape will my hands be in after trimming and arranging? I think I need to add garden gloves to my list of supplies.

*This from a girl who once professed not to care a bit about flowers. Ha.

sentimental fool

Not Quite a Bride and I were chatting a few days ago about lace bouquet wraps. While sorting through my files I found these, saved from an Elizabeth Anne Designs post. That satin ribbon is positively delicious.

I'm thinking of using some Alencon lace this way, inherited from my grandma's stash. I've already used the tiny bits for the non-floral buttonholes, and I really don't want to cut into what's left. Which I suppose is how it came to be vintage in the first place.

six

DJ and I both have calendar counters on our iGoogle pages. Mine says "0 years 6 months 0 days." His says "183 days: 9 hours: 16 minutes: 35 seconds."

We like a slightly different level of detail.

light a little light

I'm a little bit afraid that my candle-lighting helpers are going to off me after the wedding. In addition to the many (many) votives for the barn beams and tables, I'd like to light the bannisters to the balcony. (Hay loft?)

(Source: Byron Colby Barn)

Here's one level of the bannister. There's another where the photographer is standing. I like the light aspect of the Christmas lights, but I'm not a big fan of Christmas lights at any time but Christmas. And no, you cannot convince me that they're "fairy lights." Those are different.

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So, more candles? I really like this, with the different jars and lipped votive holders.

And these, which might be baby food jars. Did you know that you can buy clean, empty baby food jars on eBay? Seriously, someone will sell you anything there. Incredible.

I'm not sure how to attach them to the bannister, though. Giant twist-ties? Ribbon? Pipe cleaners? (Of course you remember pipe cleaners.) I am less concerned with the aesthetics of attachment than I am with my bridesmaids not killing me before the honeymoon, so I'd have to choose ease over beauty if there's a choice to be made.

generous gifts

Not all handmade, off-registry gifts are bad. Most are very, very good! (I think of the registry as a tool of convenience, especially for people who don't know us well.) A good friend of mine is working on one right now. She is a very talented artist and calligrapher - back when I was in college I watched her gesso and gold leaf a ketubah, and didn't THAT make me wish I were Jewish. Her work is really amazing.

Anyway, she offered to calligraph addresses on all the invitations. So a few weeks ago I sent off the envelopes and guest list. When they come back they'll be ready to go, and much prettier than my chicken scratch. She also offered to match the ink to the green invitation print, and she'd have stuffed the envelopes too if I weren't such a lousy little control freak.

DJ and I didn't register for calligraphy, but isn't that a fantastic present?

gold/ivory/champagne dress no. 1

On a more positive note, Maid of Honor Katie bought her dress last week! She took the dress shopping very seriously, which made me feel a little guilty when we stood in the dressing room discussing whether this particular shade of ivory was ivory enough. But it looks amazing on her, and it's really a great dress.
This picture is snagged from the Adrianna Papell website, since I still can't seem to find it for sale anywhere online. It's a really cool jacquard texture, with champagne pearl beading around the neckline and a great pleated skirt.

She hasn't started looking for shoes yet. Any suggestions to help her get started?

go ahead and stone me

Today I found out that someone is making a quilt for us. I don't know this person well (at all), they've never been to my house, and didn't ask anyone what my/our taste might be. For the record, this is my taste:

(Pam Zsori's house from Housemartin)

What we're getting is likely to be more like this:

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Here's the thing. If someone who knows us well wants to make us a quilt? Awesome. I will probably love it, because it will have been made with us in mind. But this person is merely showing off, and to be honest I would rather have no gift at all than one I dislike but have to store because it was handmade as an ego-feeder.

Yeah, this makes me ungrateful. But seriously, we're not having a wedding to furnish our house.

everyone wants a rose

Sometimes I ask DJ if he has an opinion just in case. Sometimes I ask because I need a fresh perspective, and sometimes I want to know what a guy thinks about rose varieties because it amuses me.

Artfool did this arrangement, which I'm not planning on copying literally (couldn't even if I wanted), just borrowing inspiration for what looks good with vintage silver.

I love love love garden roses. They're enormous, fragrant, and heavy on the nostalgia. You can hardly find them anywhere, unless you have old plants in your garden. This one is a "Jeanne Moreau."

I'd like a little something else in there, and I'm not a big fan of greenery. (Is that a mistake?) So I asked DJ which pale pink rose he liked better of these two. Oh yes I did.

"Livia"

"Trust"

DJ voted for Livia. I didn't offer the option of filler because I'm not sure I'm artistic enough to do it well, but I suppose that could change if I found something that made sense to me.

gossamer wings

I had a big search a while ago for a lace or tulle shrug / jacket / bolero thing, and didn't ever find exactly what I wanted. Today I found these, from the Kittychen 2009 collection.

Lovely, yeah?

paperstorm

I've been holding out on you. While stewing over my broken sewing machine and the incomplete chair covers, I fidgeted my way through some paper.Yep. Those are book cover seating cards, a circular hole punch, and a pile of paper scrap.

From punching these, which make me delightfully happy. Since this photo was taken they've been made into stickers. The *smooch* *mwah* *kisskiss* ones are for the outside of the cookie favors, and the Grandma Julia ones will go inside the boxes. Because I know I would be suspicious of a cookie whose genus and species was not immediately apparent.
Place/escort card with the envelope, which looks brown here but is actually more of a dark gold. There's a difference between place and escord cards I know, but I'm too lazy to look it up so I don't know which I have here. Everyone will be offended by their table assignment if they look for hidden meaning, but really the books we chose are our joint favorites. No subtext. (Although we did rule out David Sedaris' Naked because of the grannies.)

The books we used are not necessarily the ones pictured, but the titles are the same: One Hundred Years of Solitude, The Catcher in the Rye, Cathedral, A Confederacy of Dunces, The Corrections, Dress Your Family in Corduroy and Denim, The Great Gatsby, Not the End of the World, and Where the Wild Things Are. The head table, which is headslappingly obvious (but took me until last week to a-ha) will be The Princess Bride.

at long last

The chair covers are finished! Done! All of them!

Idiot project: CHECK.

Sorry, no picture. Just joy!

because she's a BRIDE, see?

I've started shopping for the necessary infrastructure for my Big White Ivory Dress, and I have a complaint.
Why the veil? It looks silly and a little bit porny. Not really what I had in mind. (I found this particular bra here. Amazon has a better size and color selection than other places I saw it.)

check us out

I'm going to sneak back in here like nothing happened and I didn't fall off the face of the internet for two weeks. So! What you see up there is a guestbook. Ideally the album will be different, but in a pinch that blue-green Kolo album will do. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that DJ will get to meet our photographer this spring, and along the way I'll get to make a book of "engagement" pictures. A year and a half post-engagement, but I haven't aged a bit! Really!

Anyway, this fits the very loose book theme. I printed Creature Comforts' library card templates, then cut them out while watching some really trashy television. There's a corresponding pocket template which was very tempting, but for once I decided to go with something premade and ordered pockets from Amazon. I'd check this project off the list - but it never made it to the list at all.

(Chair covers? What chair covers? The ones that broke my sewing machine? We're not talking about those right now.)