Dress Details and Pictures

While I totally have said I got a dress and such I wanted to elaborate. I was planning on getting something fluid, soft, forgiving. Empire waist embellishment and chiffon. I tried on so many of those types of dresses, as well as a few oddly geometric designs. When I first put on the dress I ended up loving, I was like... hm... it's really pretty. No train, and it's not too heavy. Eh. Then while I was waiting for sales lady Kristine to get more dresses for me to try on I went... Oh wow, this dress is fantastic! I tried on a few more, but I kept thinking of how perfect the dress was, and how even more fabulous with a pink bow in the back. It was not at all what I thought I would end up liking... but I absolutely love it! Kristine asked if I wanted to try on more, and I said sure so she went to go scavenge through the store to find something else.

When she left, I put back on the satin, pick-up goodness and started to wander around. I played with some clips and some things. Then my aunt Chris put a necklace on me and I was... "wow!" It fit so gracefully with the dress and really added an extra bling I thought was absolutely great. Normally, I'd be turned off by something so large, but it really worked. We kept messing around with veils and things and then it was ... "aaw!" So fantastic. Embellished with beads that picked up and played in the light and matched the softness of the dress and the sparkle of the necklace.

I told Kristine that I didn't need any more dress options - this was it! So she squeed and messed around with hair pieces and things, but we went back to the original "aaw" veil and stayed.

I suppose I am indeed female after all. Pictures below because I'm too lazy to work with everything at the moment.

Fairy Godmothers and the like

After realizing we were never going to be able to come up with all the money needed to dress ourselves, let alone the $50 a person it's going to cost to throw the wedding, I was quite downhearted.

I talked to my grandma and she assured me that we'd make it work. We tried to get loans, but ... credit's not so great on the homeward front.

So now we have my grandma's credit card that will allow us to pay back the wedding expenses over time, instead of all up front. It's pretty fantastic!

We have the envelopes all stuffed and stamped and ready to go, we just need to drop them off at a USPS drop box because they're too big to put in the outgoing mail spot of our apartment.

I got my dress. I know, I know I already bought a dress. Then the boob thing happened, so ...yeah. As bad as it sounds I'm claiming bankruptcy so the credit card I used the dress for is *poof*. I went... a little crazy, I'll admit. I got the dress, and a pink sash for it, a veil, and a necklace. Then a slip to wear under the dress. Yeah, I spent a little too much... especially on the veil... but when it was all put together it was just so... perfect. I felt completely wonderful, and yes, a bit like a princess.

Today I get to go pick out my wedding band. Yay!

The only other things we need to do now-ish are to reserve our night of the wedding hotel, and our honeymoon once we figure out what we're doing. We also need to reserve the site if we need a permit, and figure out if John needs to change his name before the wedding or if he can do it on the wedding license.

Of course, we still need to get all the ceremony stuff squared away, and figure out just what we're doing for flowers and favors.

Thankfully, we have enough to do what we'd like... I mean, within reason of course.

It's such a wonderful feeling to not have to be pulling out my hair figuring out how on earth we're going to be able to pull off something even remotely nice.

If you're a boy renting a suit, or know of a boy who needs to rent a suit, let me know. If everyone goes in together John gets a free one out of the deal which would be super fantastically awesome. Yeah.

I feel so blessed to be able to borrow this money; while I know that I'm totally responsible for it in the eventual, right now it makes me feel like the sky is the limit.

John's Ring

Saturday we went by Powell's to get a book for John. On our way out I saw a stand advertising a ring at Harry Ritchie's. I mentioned how I didn't like it, and John said he did so we dipped inside to take a closer look. A little while later we had each picked out our favorite bands. John ended up loving the design on the poster thing, and so we'll go get that today. We don't have enough extra funds to get my ring too, but that's okay - I'm going dress shopping this weekend! I'm not sure which one he ended up getting, but it's one of these two:


I hope he's as excited as I would be. He's got his groomsmen situation together, and his wedding band. He's just about done with his necessity in the wedding situation. He just needs to decide what to make the groomsmen wear, and what he's wearing. Then he's just in charge of the reception flowers. Come to think of it, there's not much either one of us has to do at this point. Make a couple calls to get chairs and things, figure out what flowers we're using across the board, and that's it. Other than make ourselves pretty of course. Hopefully someone will buy the dress I got a few months ago to help with funds.

Or I'll get a Johnathan that's willing to go to the bank and take out a loan...

Tradition

I received an e-mail with a 'hey visit our site and check this forum out' theme from one of the wedding sites I frequent. It was on the topic of what traditional things you're leaving out. I realized that as traditional as I feel... we're really leaving out quite a bit of the 'wedding' feel of things. Honestly though, I don't think it's a super bad thing.

We're not planning a tens of thousands of dollars extravaganza. The three thousand and some change is more than we can afford.

No one is giving me away. Last time I checked I was the master of my own destiny, yes?

No father figure walking me down the aisle. This seems to be tied to arranged marriages or something... I'm not sure and don't care to research. I'm getting married to John and it seems silly to have anyone else walk me down the aisle. --EDIT: Grandma's walking me down the aisle, although...she's not much of a 'father' figure now is she?--

No veil. This tradition seems to be fading pretty fast anyway across the board. --EDIT: Yeah.. I did end up getting a veil. I can't help it, sometimes I'm just a girl! --

No aisle runner, no ring bearer, no ushers, no 'his side' vs. 'her side.' Seriously... we don't have large enough family coming to count and John doesn't really have any... so it seems pointless. The whole processional bit is so overdone. Although we will have a flower girl, because every girl wants to be a flower girl so I decided to make that wish come true.

Not walking down the aisle to 'here comes the bride' or other 'classical' piece of music. I'm not telling you what I'm walking to though - you'll know it when you hear it.

Traditional vows. My grandpa is officiating the ceremony, and we're writing our own vows... should be fun!

No garter toss / bouquet toss. Because, really - we hardly have any totally single friends, it's awkward if you're in a relationship and catch one because then it's like ha ha you're next, and I'm not going to throw a bouquet to two people, lol. -- EDIT: We were told we just 'had' to do these. So... apparently we are... --

No cake cutting. I don't know if this will be totally cut out, but I'm kind of thinking it should. Dessert comes with the meals we're ordering anyway and I don't like all that... attention. Saves $ too. -- EDIT: We are doing the cake cutting on a cake just for John and I --

No photographer. Well, there will be a photographer, maybe even two. Plus I expect everyone that comes to bring their camera so we can get a diversified look at things and print the ones we like to put in an album.

No gift registry. Nope. We want and need money. If everyone we expect to come gives us $60 it should be enough to mostly off set cost... mostly, I think. But that includes children and the unemployed so... yeah, not happening.

No save the dates, no boring ol' paper invitations. No unity candle, or anything of the sort. No stuffy formal attire. --EDIT: Kind of stuffy formal attire... John decided he wanted a 3 piece suit, and my dress is all kinds of formal --

Honestly we just want the people that come to have fun. We're only inviting those we love, not blanket inviting everyone. I want it to have the feel of any of the parties we have. Although with better food, and hopefully a lot less drunken drama. It seems silly that people spend on average 24 thousand dollars to create a day that no one will remember. Spending thousands on a dress to wear once. Getting things you'll never use again.