Oh dear readers, I have a problem. A problem with wedding dress shopping.
I don’t like it.
There, I said it. I have loathed the idea of going to try on wedding dresses for months. I got engaged in May and have been able to put off dress shopping until January. DO. NOT. WANT.
And that’s not to say that I don’t like wedding dresses. There’s so much fluffy pretty out there! It’s fun to look at, but only on other people. See, the thing is, I’m not exactly “sample size” material. What’s a plus size girl to do? Go and try on dresses that are close to what you want, and then hold up your dream dress in front of you and try to imagine the magic? Wear a dress that’s pretty much the equivalent of a burlap sack?
And then there’s the public humiliation bit – how undressed will you be in front of the consultant? Will they ask “how much weight do you plan to loose before the wedding?” Will people stare? And what kind of weird, inappropriate comments will sneak out from those that you’ve brought in to support you (you’d be surprised!).
I didn’t want to shop for wedding dresses because of the pressure and the shame that’s put on plus size girls. I didn’t want to be disappointed when I got there and my options were limited. I also didn’t want to be put into some kind of bridal stereotype that I didn’t fit. I have wonderfully supportive bridesmaids, but my dress shopping trip would be one of the first for all of us. So I was scared of wedding dresses.
Maybe it’s not just a plus size bride issue. Maybe this is something that plagues all brides. You want to find a bangin’ dress that makes you feel AWESOME on your wedding day, and you’re bombarded with TULLE! and BEADS! and OPINIONS!!!! and you can’t hear your own voice any more. It’s hard, but I think I’ve found my voice.
So what does that mean? That means it’s time for the story of finding my dress. Up next, my first inspiration pictures, and gathering up the courage to make a phone call…
We all have our guilty pleasures. I probably have more than most when it comes to wedding planning. My Google Reader is bursting with RSS wedding goodies, and I have a basket in my room filled with wedding magazines. I’ve been trying to wean myself off the magazines because after the early stages of planning, I think they get less helpful and more confusing. You see a new happy pretty and start to doubt the vision you and your groom have already agreed on. To avoid the stress, I’ve stopped buying them. I even threw a couple out last weekend. I was doing good, until I saw this:
Sigh. SIGH. Oh Martha, how you tempt me. The crafts and pictures in her magazine are just so PRETTY. This is one vice I’m not ready to give up yet. I wonder if I can get away with buying Martha Stewart Weddings after I get married? For the pictures….
I got the nicest email today from Erin at WeddingSalon.com that I just had to share it with all of you! They’re hosting a “Wedding Bootcamp” next Wednesday night in NYC and have offered free passes to any of my readers who would like to attend. I know New York is a little bit of a drive for most of us, but if you have the time, or you’re planning a NEPA wedding from the city, it sounds like it will be a lot of fun. Just check out the invitation below – there’s a code you can use to register for free!
You can see all the details for the Wedding Bootcamp here, there’s even a complimentary dance lesson! Then clicky on the picture below to get your coupon and sign up.
Ugh. It’s been a long weekend friends. It’s days like these that I’m thankful to have NEPA Groom by my side. He lets me cry and act crazy and tell him I need space then get mad at him for sitting so far away all in the same breath. This song is for him.
I also have realized that I’ve gone through just about every song that I feel is special to both of us or would be something I’d really really want played at my reception already. It certainly didn’t make it the whole year until our wedding, did it? This was a fun series for me to do, but I think if I take it much further, I’ll really be stretching it and picking songs that I don’t really love, soooooo I’m closing this chapter of the blog and moving on to bigger, an infinitely more complex things - my issues with wedding dresses, finding an apartment, and not tweaking out completely as the The Knot reminds me we are now at t-minus 9 months and counting. Eeeep!
If you saw our engagement pictures, then you probably figured out that NEPA Groom and I are pretty big fans of the Philadelphia Eagles. If you’ve spent time with us in person, then you already knew it, and are constantly reminded of it!
The pain of last Sunday’s loss is still fresh in my mind I HATE YOU TONY ROMO, but I’m going to try and move past that to share a story from December with you. It’s the story of our very first Eagles game!
I was able to score tickets to see the Eagles play the San Francisco 49ers on December 20th. We planned a nice weekend trip – we would drive down to Philly on Saturday and stay the night. This way we wouldn’t have a long drive come Sunday morning.
Suuuure.
As it turns out, our weekend trip fell on the same weekend as a snow storm that ABC referred to as “The Snowstorm Of The Decade”. Thanks guys! As a result of all the commotion, we left early on Saturday to try and beat the storm to Philly.
While I have plenty of wedding related goodies to share with you, I wanted to stop for a moment as there are a lot of people right now that are in need. We’re here picking colors and drooling over shoes while the people of Haiti are desperate for basic care items. If you can, I encourage anyone who can to donate some time or money to help. There are many, many ways to do so. I’m partial to the following, but as long as you care and you get the word out and do your part, I’ll be grateful. Thanks all :-*
I got a great coupon the other day from the website I’m going to order my invitations from. In fact, it was “order 100 invites, get 50 response cards free” good. That’s freaking GOOD.
NEPA Groom and I were ready to go for it. We trimmed the guest list since we knew it was too big. We made some quick decisions on the food so we could figure out how to word the response card. I was still nervous because I figured someone, somewhere in the family would be pissed because we chose the wrong food/worded the invitations wrong/didn’t ask THEM first. But too bad, I was ready!!
The coupon expires tonight, so I sat down to do a trial run before NEPA groom and I bit the bullet. Then it hit me as I counted up the final guest list again.
You don’t need an invitation for every person on the guest list. If you’re inviting 100 people, you probably need 50 to 60, max. Think about it: married couple = 1 invitation, person with 3 children = one invitation, friend who gets a +1 (even if you don’t know who they’ll be dating by then) = 1 invitation.
Ha. Ha ha ha ha.
Because of this, the coupon didn’t make sense for us any more. We’d be ordering a pile of extra invitations in order to get those free response cards. Neither of us realized this until tonight. It seems so obvious, but everyone I’ve asked was just as confused!
Did you ever almost over-order on wedding supplies? It seems really easy to get confused by this stuff!
This is another really great song that I like, but it doesn’t quite fit in with our musical style. I’ve heard of a lot of brides using this Alicia Keys song as a recessional. That’s really perfect because of how passionate it is. We’ll be using more classic selections during the ceremony, probably, but maybe this will inspire someone else!
I don’t know if it’s just us, or if this is a common occurrence for engaged couples, but I find that more and more people, mostly family, are buying us gifts for our new home, either for holidays, or just because they saw something they thought we should have while they were out. They’re gifts I would have never gotten when I was single, or just dating NEPA Groom, even if I had my own place.
Case in point, FMIL was out a few months ago and she found this cute little measuring spoon set:
She picked up four of them. One for us, one for her kitchen, one for FSIL, and then one for FBIL and his wife. So we’d all have one in our homes. She did the same thing on Christmas – picking up matching sets of snowmen ornaments for all of us to hang on our trees. It’s all been really cute stuff and I appreciate it a lot, but I do worry about people getting out of hand.
Case in point, my mom got us the following as Christmas presents:
And we got an Eagles clock from FMIL as well. We’ll be living in the Eagles Nest, for reals.
I love all the gifts they’ve gotten us but it does make me feel bad, because I know when the wedding gets closer there will be more gifts, and they’re both helping to contribute to the wedding. But I also know I can’t really stop them if they want to buy gifts, so I keep saying thank you and being grateful, and being excited for when we get our own place so I can put this stuff to good use!
After you got engaged did you find yourself getting a lot of gifts for your new home, or “married people gifts”?
A couple of days ago, NEPA mom dug up a little something for me to use on my wedding day. It’s absolutely going to be my “something old” on the day of. So what did we find?
