what I did on my spring vacation

Bridesmaid Chloe came to visit this weekend, in my newly painted and curtained guest room. I had Maid of Honor Katie move in too, even though she lives just a suburb or two away. It seemed easier that way, with all the accessories and hair products that needed sharing.

We got manicures and pedicures.

We went shopping. This is my great find - an ABS Allen Scwartz dress for $40, originally $228. Love you, Nordstrom's Rack. Belt from Target, recently purchased for $4.97. Can't beat that.

We also went to a club which ended up being unexpectedly eurotrashy and surreal. At least for me, but I was both a tad allergy-ill and the designated driver. So maybe my experience was atypical.

It was fun. The next time I see C. it will be September and she'll have a birthday and DJ and I will have a wedding. That will be fun too.

I never plan my outfits this far in advance

I had a post all ready, but just before publish I realized that Bridesmaid Chloe is visiting this weekend (so excited!), and I might not have time to write Sunday's EAD post between now and then. So I cut and pasted and moved it over into the Sunday queue, and I suppose this is what happens with cheating. At first you think you can maintain both your relationships, then eventually you slip and give earrings to the wrong blog.

But then I realized that I do have something. In two weekends DJ and I are driving into Indiana to meet Kim. For DJ, this is his first time actually meeting Kim. She's going to take pictures of us, and I am going to try not to make stupid faces. A few days ago we were e-mailing back and forth about outfit ideas, and this was the winner in the Flirty Dress category. Casualwear is still to be determined, and I have no idea what DJ will wear.

We decided on the khaki wedges, by the way. And this cardigan in navy, for closeups and chilly weather and preppiness.

primp & preen

The natural look is not all that natural. Everyone except DJ can check out my horrifying list of helpers at EAD today. DJ, I just look like this! It's amazing, right? Also, I have a bridge in Brooklyn...

oh, THAT color? really?

Today DJ had a work thing, and I was invited. But I didn't really want to go, so instead I stayed home and shampooed our carpets. I practice avoidance/procrastination in odd ways.

I need to call my mom and ask her if this is her fault somehow.

The carpets really needed to be cleaned, though. I don't know if I should feel good (about cleaning them) or bad (about them needing it so badly.)

dresses and taxes

On Tuesday I wrote a draft post for EAD about bridesmaids' dresses, to be published today. Last night I did my taxes. I have my priorities. You don't want to read my tax return (snore) but you might want to read the part about Bridesmaid C.'s rack.

tall and taller

These are my brothers. Both younger, both taller. And that is saying a lot. We are a tall family.

They are going to walk me down the aisle. One on each side, like a hustle maneuver. I am counting on the broad comedy to keep me from sobbing my face off.

The left (younger) one lived with DJ and me for a while. He's a good kid, and although he lives practically across the street now I often miss him.

The right (older) one is graduating from college in a few weeks. He was home from school a few weeks ago and my mom found this teeny tiny bowtie he used to wear when he was a baby, which he obligingly modeled. Things are taller now.

I'm lucky to have them. I don't have much of a dad, and although I'm willing to walk myself I like it better this way.

float my boat

I would like a dress with a matching canoe. I would wear my very puffy veil with it/them.

Macys does not have this sort of thing available on their registry page. I checked.

(via With This Nest)

bright like sunshine

Today I am meeting my mom and great aunt for lunch, wearing the really bright green dress. It goes perfectly with my gold flats and vintage spring jacket, don't you think?
I'm sorry, did you say something? I can't hear you over my outfit.

more of me to love

Starting today I'll be posting regularly at Elizabeth Anne Designs, twice a week! I won't be crossposting, so hop on over there too!

not to scale

This is admirably clever.
It's twee, but aren't bridal showers meant to be twee? I like this much better than the toilet paper wedding dresses, for kind of the same effect.

dress up

After work today I went to Banana Republic to try on this gray dress. Bridesmaid Chloe is rethinking the bridesmaid skirts for her wedding, and revisiting a controlled party dress free-for-all. Here's the dress on the model - cute, and potentially flattering to my particular waist to hip ratio.Here it is on me. Still cute from the front and the back. BUT. The side view was really terrible. I'd show you, but my mirror shot came out grainy. The pleating was poorly arranged and probably not good on anyone with hips over a size 2. Also, the fabric was kind of cheap feeling. So I didn't buy it.

I did buy this fun thing. It has pockets and was stupidly on sale. It totally does not go with my leopard print and patent ballet flats.

It really is that bright. Like a highlighter. Or a really vicious margarita. My favorite kind.

at least it's white

This is my wedding binder. I understand that as a bride, I am obligated to have one. But I don't really use it. The contracts are stuffed in a folder over my desk, and most of my saved pictures are digital. I had to dust it off to take these pictures.
It's from Staples, and not even new. It used to go to Chem class with me in a previous life.

Now it holds ripped up bits of magazines and internet, leftover gold doilies (from luminaria) and stick on mustaches (being held for DJ.) It is, as Stephanie would say, shambly. I bet Meg would approve.

wedding data collection

It is worth noting that actual empty, clean baby food jars cost practically nothing. Pennies, each. However, the shipping...

I'm in an abstract phase of projects and planning right now. For one, it's mostly projects. For another, the projects are sublime: Buy baby food jars. Paint a perfectly good mailbox "pewter." (Is that even a color?) Hem seven yards of muslin so it can be called a tablecloth, for the exclusive-to-weddings "head table."

Eventually I will photograph all of these things, and at some point they may even make sense outside of my head. But in month -5 it's all abstract.

and they all lived happily ever after

There isn’t going to be a denouement to the dress story, LPC. I can’t show you the dress, at least not for about six months. Part of the deal is that I’m to be more traditional about The Dress than I had been previously, and DJ reads this blog now and then.

(via Peonies and Polaroids)

But I can show you this awesome photo of a veil, which really has no relationship to my dress whatsoever. I would like to wear a veil that big, but maybe not for the eventual wedding. Maybe just around the house and to the grocery store.

the girl who turned down Vera Wang, part 3

The thing is, of course we found a dress or two at Vera Wang. I knew walking in that we would, because they are incredible. I also knew that a Vera Wang dress could buy a starter car for my college brother, a few months of rent when he gets started working, or a nice vacation. Or, you know, a dress for a day. I am too practical sometimes.


I’d feel differently if I knew the dress decision wouldn’t affect any of those possibilities; but it would, eventually. I really loved feeling like my mom thought I was worth a dress like that. But the more I thought about it, I didn't need the dress to go with the feeling. So I turned it down. Point: I turned down Vera Wang. I still can't believe I did that. Even so, I have to admit I wasn’t totally shut of the idea at that point. It lingered.


I woke up Sunday morning thinking about one of the dresses - the lace one. My mom and I had one more shop to visit, but the appointment wasn’t for ten days. After the Vera Wang window closed on Tuesday. I called my mom and told her I was still thinking, and maybe we could try to edge our way into the last shop before the window closed? To see if more options would help me decide?

Done, she said, I’m getting in the car. We called the shop, and they’d just had a cancellation. On the way, my mom showed me a sewing pattern and some sources for lace and fabric, with the idea that we could try to copy one of the Vera dresses if I was so set against buying one. We’re both pretty snappy seamstresses, but you can’t miss that part of that title is stress.

At the shop, we found armfuls of gowns to try.
This one made me feel very film noir-ish, but in a can't-sit-down way.
It did nice things for the parts of me that couldn't be seated, though.

But then-

But then - Somehow the perfect blend of what we liked about the two Veras, plus a little bit of fit-me-perfectly. My mom cried, and (usually these things don’t follow) everyone was happy.

the girl who turned down Vera Wang, part 2

Even at 4:30, the Vera Wang girls put us right in a fitting room. Suite, they called it. Our consultant helped me in and out of dress after dress, and we did fall in love. Once, and then again. Finally we had two dresses left in the room. Similar shapes, but so different. (No photos at Vera, of course.)
One Alencon lace that hugged every curve in the most comfortable way. (Honestly? It looked better on me. The curves were helpful.)One filmy organza with a showstopping ruffled train. They put a veil on my head and my mom teared up, then went into the ugly cry. Standing in the mirror after a full day of lounging around in my skivvies between fabulous gowns, I had a soul quake. I had no idea this experience would affect my mom so much, or I would have done a few things differently from the start.

But I still hadn’t decided between the two dresses.

Our consultant was a sweetheart; after staying late and putting up with my dithering, she offered a trunk show discount, but only if we ordered by Tuesday – and we’d need to order by Tuesday to have it in time for the Eventual Wedding. So my mom and I went out to dinner – with my brother, if you want accuracy, but my brother wanted nothing to do with the dress decision.

At that point it was less a question of whether than which. But you already know from the title of the post how that ended.