A few people have asked me about dresses, and while I keep telling people “one thing at a time”, I’ve been looking around a bit and tossing around a few ideas. I love the look of strapless wedding dresses paired with a cute little ruffly shrug. Particularly being a plus size bride, I’m not all about showing off tons of skin. Unfortunately, the wedding industry doesn’t seem to understand that. Dresses either show lots of skin, or end up looking old and frumpy. But just imagine a dress paired with this little bit of happy I found on Etsy:
There are tons of sites out there where you can buy a strapless dress. I was checking out dimitradesigns.com over the weekend and saw a bunch of designers I love, like Alfred Angelo. Wouldn’t this strapless dress look great with the shrug?
I’d be totally game for a dress like this with a shrug. So many of the cutest styles I love are strapless, so this may be the route I eventually go. How do you feel about strapless gowns? Are they no big deal or should larger brides have more options? If you know of any other good sources for shrugs, please comment!
Our next stop was at Alden Manor in Nanticoke. This is definitely a more budget option for NEPA brides who are watching costs. The staff there is very helpful and was open to any of our suggestions or questions. They were also really confident about the quality of their food, which is a good thing. They suggested we come out some night for dinner and just see how we liked the food. I have no doubt we would enjoy it.
The only real negative I have about the site is that it is a little dated. It’s a common thing to see in Northeast PA. This is what I’d probably call ‘vintage NEPA’. I snapped a few pics while we were there:
This is the be all and end all of “us” songs. FH and I had our first kiss during Free Bird (awwwww, barf, right?). And you don’t have to remind me what a sad song it is. We know, and it pisses us off that it wouldn’t be a good first dance song. Cause who’s willing to sit through a 10 minute first dance? I’m not willing to DO a 10 minute dance. And really, this isn’t the theme we’re shooting for on our wedding day:
Sweet Jesus. *shudders*
However, I think we hit on a good solution – we’ll make it the final song of the night, then go rocking off into the sunset. Yeah.
FH and I started visiting potential NEPA wedding venues last week, so I’ve got a lot to dish about. Our first trip was to the Apple Tree Terrace, at the Newberry Estates in Dallas. Apple Tree doesn’t have it’s own website, but they are run by the same company as the Highlands at the Newberry Estate.
I’d say they are at the higher end of our price range, but not completely out of reach. As I expected, the room and the surrounding areas are very lovely:
All right, this has been all over all the wedding blogs today. If you’re reading those, you’ve already seen it. But I just watched this video and words fail me. So cool.
I’m extremely proud of myself for this find, if I do say so myself. I decided I’d like to do a candy buffet for our favors pretty soon after I started looking at wedding blogs & magazines. It’s waaaay too soon to start buying candy (would you like some MOLD with your jelly beans?)
I met my friend, Bridesmaid L, at St. Nick’s bazaar on Friday, and we hit the jackpot in the flea market. I picked up these 4 glass jars for a grand total of $3.50. Yessssss. L helped me carry them, in the rain, across the parking lot and then over the guard rail and across Pennsylvania Blvd. back to my car. I gave them a good scrubbing and have tucked them away for safe keeping.
I also officially asked L to be a bridesmaid after our trek in the rain. I had planned to all along, but I couldn’t think of a better (or funnier) moment. She’s very excited and already planning the bachelorette party. I mailed my card for Bridesmaid E a couple of weeks ago since she lives in New York, so I’ve got 3 confirmed girls! I’m just waiting for the right moment to ask FH’s sister to join the party.
Did you ever find wedding decor in surprising places? Or has any of your wedding party gone above and beyond for you? I feel really lucky to have these ladies by my side!
You people love themes right? Themed weddings, themed entries, whatever. How about we try this one on for size: every Sunday I post a new sap happy song that I’m mulling over for the wedding playlist. There are 64 Sundays between now and our wedding. I think I can come up with 64 love songs. Easy. Peasy.
I’m going to start with what’s possibly the best song to describe how I feel about FH – “Everything” by Alanis Morissette. It’s a bit scattered and it’s dark at parts, but then you step back and see how amazing and beautiful it is. Yeah.
So I have a general time frame I want to be married in (October 2010) and I probably have a church (deep breaths, it’s only been a day since they came back from vacation). The next logical step is to book a reception venue. And that’s where I totally flip shit.
When I first started thinking about my Northeast PA wedding, I didn’t see a lot of reception venue options out there. There were the standard hotels everyone goes to, and a handful of country clubs. Most of them weren’t for me, though if I can get a good deal at one or two country clubs I would be happy to entertain the idea… But the point is, I was wrong! There are more wedding venues in NEPA than you can swing a dead cat at (I am nothing if not classy).
We’ve narrowed down our list of places to visit based on a few major factors:
Price. The boy and I are on a budget. Our parents will help us as much as they can, but we’ve gotta be economical. We’re looking at more affordable options, as well as those that throw in things like the wedding cake and some basic centerpieces.
Location – again, since we’re looking to keep our spending under control, I’m not expecting to be hiring a limo or any sort of driver the day of. This means that our families will be driving themselves around the day of. I don’t want to make them drive to Berwick or anything crazy like that.
Party minimums – since our wedding is going to probably be around 100 people (please God, no more than that), we need to make sure our location can 1. fit that many, and 2. doesn’t require a minimum higher than that.
We have 2 visits scheduled for next week. I’ll report on them after we’re done, so wish me luck! If anyone has advice on good questions we should be asking while we’re there, I would be much appreciative. I can pay you in cookies and smooches.
Well, we had our first meeting at the King’s College chapel tonight, and I think it went pretty well! The priest in charge of the chapel remembers me from my time at the school, so it was nice to catch up a bit. We used the time to get to know each other a little bit, since he didn’t know FH that well, and he also let us know what we had to do next. It looks kinda (meaning SUPER DUPER) overwhelming in list form, but here we go:
FH needs to get a letter from his parish priest saying we can marry at the college chapel
We need to find a pre-cana course we can attend and knock that out of the park
We both need a copy of our baptism certificates from our churches, dated within the last 6 months
4 letters (2 each) from people close to us who can verify we’ve never been married before
The priest will have to fill out a request for a dispensation as I am not Catholic
It sounds like a lot. It feels like a lot, but Fr. Hockman assured us it’s a lot of paperwork but nothing that will be a problem. He’s never had a wedding denied, so that makes me feel better. He was also really open to how we want to put our ceremony together. I’ve been reading about other brides’ experiences getting married in the Catholic church, and it seems to vary a lot. Some priests are so strict with their rules! I think we’ve found a good fit and we’ll have the flexibility to have a meaningful ceremony for all parties.
So now, it’s up to FH to get things sorted with his church while I research this marriage preparation business. Has anyone else gone through this? If you know of a good course to take in NEPA, I am all ears.
Ok, ok, I know – I said “tweeple”. But that’s what you call them on Twitter. I swear!
Twitter has been a great source of wedding info for me over the past couple of weeks – when it’s not being all fail whale
People tweet about contests and giveaways and I’m finding there’s a LOT more out there than I thought. I might have missed a lot of them if it wasn’t for their tweets. So without further ado, here are some of my favorite wedding peeps over on Twitter:
@wedshare – offers some good advice and links to some interesting articles. Stuff outside of the ‘how to make your own paper flower pomanders’ variety.
@MarthaStewart – mmm Martha. All things crafty and wonderful. You already know the deal.
@WeddingWire – they tweet a lot about special sales and promos when they hear about them. Important stuff for brides on a budget.
@WeddingPaprDiva – they make glorious invitations that will one day be mine. Yes, yes they will.
@themanregistry – cause you know we gotsta have a little sumthin for the boyz. Ye-eah.
@weddingbee – my obsession. I can’t deny the bee love. A lot of the current bee bloggers also have twitter accounts. Take a look at who Mrs. Penguin is following here and you’ll figure it out!
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