Tick tock, Tick tock

Similarly to the fear that Captain Hook had of the sound of the passing of time, I watch the hands go round the clock and the days fly by in the calendar and am scared for my life. Not my life, but for the orderly and pleasant planning of the wedding.

Source

I haven't had much to blog about recently because I've been in a fight with the clock and so far the score is like 16-0.

1. Save the Dates: Order complete, still at the UPS shipping center in Oregon
2. Venue: Application complete, waiting for the official contract
3. Photographer: Initial search and interviews complete, waiting for negotiated prices before official booking
4. Caterer: Gathered recommended list, waiting for venue confirmation
5. Veil: Bought the Tulle, have a plan, but need to figure out a good time and have a friend help

I have accomplished one thing recently though - Unity Candles. I'll post pics and how-to after my move and the our house closing. Clock wins again.

Gettin' yo 'maid mojo on! (Key Word Coordinating Part 2)

Remember this post? With all the cute wrapping paper? That cute wrapping paper was a piece of swag from the fanciest bat mitzvah I've ever laid eyes on. I helped my cousin's design firm on the night by directing the guests (read: 13-year-olds) to the custom Converse sneaker spray painters. I also helped hand out the swag bags (read: party favors) that included sweatshirts, pins, t-shirts, and ball caps. I got this cool, heavy, and oh so customized wrapping paper. And if one of my maids got the design that says, "Life with Lex" - hahahaha, yeah, that's the 13-year-old who got her bat mitzvah at the Ritz Carleton in DC.

Anyways, by now, my 'maids curiousity is satisfied, but you dear readers are still in the dark. Be enlightened! Read on!

Remember when I posted about coordinating bridesmaid dresses?

Remember when I kept starting every paragraph with "Remember?"?

The point is, that inside the "Life with Lex" wrapping paper, there was a little something that related to coordinating bridesmaid dresses. I made a booklet with rules and guidelines.

Now before you go saying, "Excuse me? Didn't you say you wanted to let them pick their own dresses? You really are a bridezilla!", just consider that some of my 'maids asked me for more structure. What you are about to witness is a book that gives both structure and freedom. Prepare to be awed.












If you let your 'maids choose their own dresses, how much structure and freedom did you give? Did you choose a few styles and then let them choose? Or did you just let them any dress they felt like (regardless of color, cut, etc.)?

Key word: Coordinating (Part 1)

Early in the planning process, I knew that I wanted to let my bridesmaids choose their own dresses. I've never been a bridesmaid myself, so I can't personally attest to the 27 Dress Phenomena (aka, Brides making you buy overpriced, ugly dresses to have lots of pictures taken in).


Source

Then I started to read wedding blogs. Turns out my idea is not new, earth shattering, or even that uncommon.

The Offbeat Bride
A Practical Wedding
The Inspired Bride
And most recently Miss Bear Cub over at Wedding Bee

Many moons ago, I ripped out this image from a bridal magazine. I didn't know who the heck Melissa Sweet was, but I thought the name was fitting, because I loved how these sweet dresses fit together.


Even with some evidence, the "coordinating" b'maid dresses can be a tough sell to certain crowds. I went to the mat for this one though and I look forward to showing you the outcome (in some 200 and odd days). Part 2 of this post will show you how I'm still slightly controlling the outcome and what was wrapped so lovingly for my maids.

PS - I'm racking my brain thinking of a good nickname for the b'maids . . . bridesmaids is too long to type out, b'maids makes me sing old school Fresh Prince (hangin' with my b'maids outside of the school, when a couple of guys who were up to no good . . . ), and just plain maids . . . well that sounds positively feudal. The Pals? The Dromes? Hahahaha - AJLSE? can anyone make a good word from the letters of their first names?

Fancy shoes for cheap

Cheap is my favorite adjective for a price. For any of you soon to be brides, or for anyone who going to attend any sort of party, or for anyone who wants to have a killer pair of shoes for a party they may get invited to, pay attention. I'm going to tell you how I landed my pretty shoes.

Step 1: Buy a lovely, but plain pair of shoes for cheap. You can scout ebay (where I found mine), etsy, discount stores, etc. Here are some finds that I dug up in about 30 seconds:

Source


Source


Source

Step 2: Scout for a pair of shoe clips or clip on earrings at etsy (where I found mine), ebay, estate sales, thrift stores, etc. These are some darling ones I've favorited on Etsy:


Source


Source


Source

Step 3: Clip the clips on your shoes. Seriously. It was THAT easy.

My shoes went from "eh . . ." to "whoa momma!" in 3.2 seconds. One of my favorite parts about going this route is that I can keep my shoe clips and add on the sparklies to any of my other shoes, just as often as I fancy. Vintage shoe clips, they're a good thing.

Doh!

So I thought I was all clever and had figured out a way to make images that I post in my blog hyperlink to their source. I didn't really test it though and figured my logic was secure. Alas, it is not. So I apologize and will be adding sources over the weekend. Forgive me?

Honeymoon Dreaming

If you've been bitten by the travel bug, then I recommend scratching that itch by subscribing to Travel Zoo's Top 20 weekly emails. There are some kicking deals to be had out there!

If I were planning my honeymoon this week, I would investigate these listings!

$699 -- Ireland: 6 Nights at a Ritz-Carlton incl. Car & Air
http://www.travelzoo.com/top20/25809904-601423/
Source: Sceptre Tours


$119 -- Elegant Chicago Hotel on Magnificent Mile
http://www.travelzoo.com/top20/25809904-600428/
Source: The InterContinental Chicago


$149 -- Villa at California Winery Resort incl. Tastings
http://www.travelzoo.com/top20/25809904-601383/
Source: South Coast Winery Resort & Spa


$1199 -- India Package w/Tours, Hotel & Air; Prime Season
http://www.travelzoo.com/top20/25809904-603017/
Source: Gate 1 Travel


Picking out honeymoon destinations is a fun game to play on Wednesday afternoons when you're really full from Olive Garden's Soup, Salad, and Breadsticks lunch special. Not that I've ever stuffed myself too full at Olive Garden or anything . . .

Where would you go out of the options above?

Snail Mail

My bridesmaids should all be on the lookout for some snail mail!

Next week, I'll let you in on the secret packages, but for now, here's a hint:

China

The title may be ironic as the China that I have chosen is not actually manufactured in China but instead in Indonesia or the very vague Near East (according to Wikipedia). Is it ironic? Is Alanis Morissette ironic? Should I be looking things up on Wikipedia and taking them as truth? Is it ethical to buy China that is manufactured in Indonesia? Is caning in Indonesia ethical? Discuss. JK, please do not bring my blog down with real world problems. This is a tulle filled wedding people!

Anychina, in our dating relationship, Jason and I had discussed fond memories of large family gatherings that revolved around food. And that food was served on China. My mom has a set of Christmas china and it gives me the warm and fuzzies when it becomes time to dust it off and serve heaps of turkey and cranberry dressing on it.

I have done an admittedly halfhearted job at searching for China patterns that I like. I was pretty sure I wanted some, but in all my "crazy girl" wedding phases, I never actually picked out a pattern before. Basically, I clicked through each of the patterns that Macy's carries and sent the future Mr. Palindrome an email with my top three.


The lovely Martha Stewart "Garden Moss" for Wedgewood


The classic Noritake "Crestwood Cobalt Platinum"


or the ever proper Royal Doulton "Countess"

(All china and images from www.macys.com)

The future Mr. Palindrome preferred the last two choices . . . I think there's a weird connection to him being a boy and preferring the blue choices . . .

I preferred two of them myself. Which ones do you think I liked best? Which ones do you think I've decided to register for?

Icing on the cake

Another term, similar to icing on the cake, is "that's just gravy." I never associated the two until this past Memorial Day when my Grandma asked for her dessert to be placed in the pool of gravy that had collected after she finished her mashed potatoes.

Whether it's icing, or gravy, this post is really about our potential cake topper. There are two that I've been keeping my eye on whenever I scan through my favorites on Etsy. Today is an interactive post. I only wish I knew how to do "Polls," but I think it'll work just fine to count up the comments.

There's only two requirements I had in mind for the cake topper:
1. Vintage
2. Cheap

That's kindof my mantra most of the wedding details . . . Vintage cheap, vintagcheep, cheep cheep :)

Tell me which one sings to you!

Source


(The item has since expired - sorry no link available for the source!)

And if neither appeals, include a link to your favorite in your comment.

Pearls

One of my first thoughts about wedding colors was to incorporate pearl and silver. While not colors per se, I wanted these finishes/metallics to round out the feel.

So far, pearls have been incorporated:
1. On my dress - after swearing I didn't want lots of beading, the outer layer of my dress sports little clumps of crystals and pearls.
2. In the bouts - I found little pearl picks, pearlized flowers, and pearlesque buttons (see post below and click for larger image).
3. On the bridesmaid pomanders - I've been attaching the fabric flowers with pearl tipped pins and adding pearlized buttons.

The list will increase as I find other little places to tuck them in.

The most obvious place I'm not incorporating pearls is on my neck.


Source

You'll see when I unveil my dress story why that is. It does not mean that I'm going to abandon pearl necklaces all together though. I just bought my first real pearl necklace and earrings set with a portion of my raise. I got an amazing deal on them at Macy's. We decided to set up our registry and to do that, we had to open a Macy's card for the cash back option (more on that later). The day we set up the registry, also happened to be the day of the Macy's one day sale.

I'm so proud of my savings, I'll give you the breakdown:
70% off all Pearl jewelry
+ an extra 10% off for the 1 day sale
+ an extra 20% off for buying with our new Macy's card
= I paid a little over $100 for over $600 worth of pearls

Oh yeah! It was such a good deal that I almost felt bad about it. But people, it just goes to show that there are some amazing deals in this economy.

I had no idea how to care for my new lovelies. So I turned to my resident preppy homemaker goddess, Christine. Check out her awesome pearl care tips for me here.

All that to say, that I def. want to wear my pearls, but they'll probably be making their appearances at the rehearsal dinner or shower or whatnot.

Did you wear pearls on your wedding day? Did you get a deal on yours, or were they heirlooms?

Stalled

Read this first.

Now you know what I'm talking about. It's all about the context people!

I am in between Phase 5 and 6 on my handmade fabric bridesmaid pomanders and bouts. I was so psyched when I was buying the materials. I committed and began to tie them together, cut the fabric and test swatches on my machine. Then they weren't going as quickly as I thought and I ran out of the little flower that I liked.

With graduations and family vacation, I just flat out stalled on the project. I had no motivation. The wedding is so far away. I don't even have a venue. Why bother????

However, since I made about twice as many flowers for the pomander, and finished 5 bouts, I am starting to believe in the project again!




In the next month or so, I hope to have bought a house, made two moves, and finished working at a client site that is tripling my current commute. That's my discalimer sentence so that when I promise that I'll have DIY posts up soon on how to create the fabric flowers and the bouts, that you'll forgive my inevitable tardiness.

This makes me want to

sell the clothes off my back and hire a kickin' videographer.

Clicky

ONBB

I work in a field of never ending acronymns. The government unceasingly confers long monikers onto agencies, processes, and people, then proceeds to refer to them by some sort of shortened version that inevitably is more of a hassle than some simple naming convention that could have been used in the first place. President becomes POTUS. Naval Network Warfare Command does not become NNWC, but rather NAVNETWARCOM. In the previous two examples, the acronym is pronounced as a word - po-tus and net-war-com, whereas other times it merely is a combination of letters such as the EPA - e.p.a. . . .

The bridal world is full of them as well. The first startling one when starting to read the blogs is STD. Did you just double take as well? I first thought that maybe I really was a fuddy duddy and then I thought, "what's the matter with kids these days?" (Bye, Bye Birdie anyone?). Turns out, a few sentences more and the whole thing is cleared up - Save-The-Date . . . STD . . .

ONBB is not, as far as I can tell, an accepted acronym for Something Old, Something New, Something Borrowed, Something Blue - but it seems to fit to me and all the extra S's that I would have incurred seemed superfluous. So hang with me on the ONBB.

My parents first gift to me upon hearing of my engagement was the ONBB. It came all in one box.


They had bought this one box upon a visit to a jewelry store when they visited me during my semester abroad in Bath, England. Their trip had special significance as they were celebrating their 25th wedding anniversary.


Here's your twofer today, the story of my parent's wedding bands. My dad lost his wedding ring in the ocean. On their honeymoon. They couldn't find it anywhere and for the next 25 years, they couldn't justify the expense of replacing it during hard economic times and raising two children. On the occasion of their 25th anniversary, and since it's uber cool to buy momentos in a foreign country, they settled on a band from a British jewelry store. For the next 4 years my parents wore their wedding bands together once more. Then my mom fell and sprained her wrist and hand badly. They cut her rings off in the emergency room. So now just my dad has a wedding band that he can wear. Isn't that something????? For almost 30 years of marriage, they've only ever worn their rings at the same time for about 4 years, give or take a few days.

Back to ONBB, on their trip to the Bath jewelry store, they saw these gorgeous boxed sets and decided to set it away for me.



I was so touched by their thoughtfulness. They bought this gift for me before I was dating Jason. Before they knew who my husband would be, they were preparing for it. And that's one reason that I love them.

I'mmmmmmmm Baaaaaack

I'm terrible at names of movies, names of bands, names of songs, etc. I'm pretty sure this is a creepy movie quote . . . Jack Nicholson? Is his name Johnny in the movie? Ok, that's all I got. Help a girl out and fill in the blanks for me.

I took an unintentional vacation. The vacation to the Outer Banks in NC was intentional, but my absence from the blogging scene was not. I thought that I could read 3 books, hang out with friends and family, reach a beautiful shade of bronze, househunt, cook meals, AND blog. Well, 2 out of the three ain't bad. I am tan and I did a lot of hanging out - the worst for my physical health and the best for my emotional health :)

In the coming week, I have a lot to do, which includes catching up here with my blogging. Some items you have to look forward to in the coming days:

1. Venue resolution
2. The story of the dress
3. Reception shoes
4. Bout making
5. Pearl care

Hang with me folks! It's going to be a fast and furious summer of planning!