The title explains it all. Dan and I are officially 99 days away from the wedding. Can you believe it? We started at over 300 days when we got engaged. Now we have reached a huge milestone. It of course makes me nervous at all the stuff left but I'm feeling confident in Dan and my abilities to work hard. Though a few of you out there may be getting asked to chip in some help. Only time will tell what happens next. According to other brides (I read a open community forum geared for brides) and this is the time that seems the busiest no matter how well you prepared. So while I am excited to be getting closer I am also scared that all the to do's won't get checked off. I also hope these last 99 days will be as fun as the first 200+.
It's been a crazy ride and it's almost coming to the finish. Nov 6th is my ultimate goal. Then I can relax. :)
BTW the title is from a hilarious internet video in which a man gets overly excited about a double rainbow. Dan and I have fun with the "double part" using it in everyday conversation. My favorite is Double A batteries, Oh My Gah!!!!!!
Here is the video if you are intersted.
Watch Video Here!
Friday, July 30, 2010
Wednesday, July 28, 2010
New Look and some added features + decor update
Welcome to the new and improved site. Everything should still be here and more is here as well. You will see that the tabs above the posts have had some additions. Also the RSVP is over there on the right. Now don't RSVP too fast, invitations will go out in the beginning of August so you have some time to do that part. Hopefully the blog is better organized and looks nicer. We are new to blogging so we are learning what works and what doesn't.
The decor update is here. Dan and I sat down the other night and determined how to display the pomanders that we posted about (with pics) below. We now have a focus to making pomanders and I have to say its a lot. I think it is somewhere in the 25-30 range. We have a good start and now we can be more focused with making them. I'm also happy with how we are displaying them. I think the decor will be very neat and creative. Perhaps not the most simple centerpieces but not everything has to be simple.
We are in the process of moving apartments and living at Dan's parents (thanks a ton to them) and so we are trying to keep up with the wedding planning. Its a challenge but I'm still glad to be ahead of the game.
The decor update is here. Dan and I sat down the other night and determined how to display the pomanders that we posted about (with pics) below. We now have a focus to making pomanders and I have to say its a lot. I think it is somewhere in the 25-30 range. We have a good start and now we can be more focused with making them. I'm also happy with how we are displaying them. I think the decor will be very neat and creative. Perhaps not the most simple centerpieces but not everything has to be simple.
We are in the process of moving apartments and living at Dan's parents (thanks a ton to them) and so we are trying to keep up with the wedding planning. Its a challenge but I'm still glad to be ahead of the game.
Thursday, July 22, 2010
Once in a Blue (Honey)Moon, Part 1.
I post just about once every blue moon, but Jeni has finally nudged me enough times for me to make a post on the honeymoon. So we have finally booked most of our Honeymoon to New Zealand! However, it wasn't all smooth sailing. We had a few issues along the way.
So we are booking the trip with a travel agent, Lori, who has been great throughout this experience. We began planning with her by telling her a few things about ourselves and about what we want to do in New Zealand. She produced a few sample itineraries, which we then grabbed the best of these samples to form the basis for our own trip. This all went very smoothly. Then we got to part where we have to make it official...
This step required signing a contract and paying some money. That is all fine and good, but it was a surprise to us that the contract wasn't with Lori, but with a third party booking company, Travel2. This tossed us through a loop because we had no contact with this company prior to this contract. The contract was also filled with lots of fine print gobbledygook which all seemed very scary and like they could mess up our vacation and get away with it. We read the contract very carefully and all the fine print, and expressed some of our concerns with Lori.
Now you see, we thought that Lori would be booking all of the honeymoon personally (probably because we are naive), so we were a bit shaken and apprehensive by this sudden introduction. She is actually booking a large amount of the trip through this booking company, Travel2. We went from feeling super comfortable with our personal contact of Lori, to feeling very abandoned and uncomfortable with this phantom company we had never dealt with. This almost got us to cancel all the plans we had made and start from scratch, but after a few phone conferences with Lori, we decided to take a bit of a leap of faith. It turns out that the booking company can allow us to have a package deal with some discounts, and also we can have a local contact in New Zealand once we are there. I would still probably rather have her hand pick the honeymoon and arrange everything individually, but that is probably too much to ask.
We decided to allow ourselves to trust the process a bit and go ahead with it. It really does seem like Lori has our backs, even if she didn't quite prepare us that well for the introduction of this third party touring company.
This is getting kind of long and there is more drama to follow, so instead of hitting you with a super huge wall of text I'll save the drama for another post (it'll be soon this time I promise).
To be continued...
So we are booking the trip with a travel agent, Lori, who has been great throughout this experience. We began planning with her by telling her a few things about ourselves and about what we want to do in New Zealand. She produced a few sample itineraries, which we then grabbed the best of these samples to form the basis for our own trip. This all went very smoothly. Then we got to part where we have to make it official...
This step required signing a contract and paying some money. That is all fine and good, but it was a surprise to us that the contract wasn't with Lori, but with a third party booking company, Travel2. This tossed us through a loop because we had no contact with this company prior to this contract. The contract was also filled with lots of fine print gobbledygook which all seemed very scary and like they could mess up our vacation and get away with it. We read the contract very carefully and all the fine print, and expressed some of our concerns with Lori.
Now you see, we thought that Lori would be booking all of the honeymoon personally (probably because we are naive), so we were a bit shaken and apprehensive by this sudden introduction. She is actually booking a large amount of the trip through this booking company, Travel2. We went from feeling super comfortable with our personal contact of Lori, to feeling very abandoned and uncomfortable with this phantom company we had never dealt with. This almost got us to cancel all the plans we had made and start from scratch, but after a few phone conferences with Lori, we decided to take a bit of a leap of faith. It turns out that the booking company can allow us to have a package deal with some discounts, and also we can have a local contact in New Zealand once we are there. I would still probably rather have her hand pick the honeymoon and arrange everything individually, but that is probably too much to ask.
We decided to allow ourselves to trust the process a bit and go ahead with it. It really does seem like Lori has our backs, even if she didn't quite prepare us that well for the introduction of this third party touring company.
This is getting kind of long and there is more drama to follow, so instead of hitting you with a super huge wall of text I'll save the drama for another post (it'll be soon this time I promise).
To be continued...
Postal Mayhem
Generally mail is addressed and sent without much thought. So I was under the impression that the invitations would be no big deal. I was very wrong. I think back in elementary school we learned how to properly address envelopes. Perhaps this makes me dumber than a 5th grader because it is really hard.
I spent a good while researching this topic and came up with a very good explanation. It was about 6 pages long and detailed nearly everything you could think to come up. So then it was back to the address I was supplied by a lot of people. After the first couple I noticed something difficult. When you use one envelope you need to address it to all the guests. Well my Uncle Mike is married and has 5 kids. Can you imagine that addressee line, way too long. Also there are some guests invited that are coming with a relative but do not live with that relative. So the postal carrier may be confused. I really wanted all my addresses to be standardized so that the post office will deliver every invite without problems. My solution get an outer envelope.
The outer envelope is the mailing envelope and can contain general information to get it delivered. Then the inner envelope can contain all those invited by name and can make the whole invitation much cleaner. So Dan and I headed out to Office Depot in search of the outer envelope. This was not as easy as it sounds. Did you know that envelopes are standard for a reason. Yeah and we have a standard size inner envelope. That means the outer envelope would need to be bigger. Well no luck at Office Depot and so we trekked over to a party card supplier. We found envelopes here but they contained invitations and were quite expensive. We decided to give on last look at Staples and see what we could find.
Woohoo is all I have to say. They had a specialty envelope that was just large enough to fit our invitation into it but not overwhelming large that the invitation looks out of place. Thank goodness because I was getting nervous that we wouldn't be able to find it.
So the next step was the address. I went and put all the address into google maps to make sure they all returned a valid address. Then I proceeded to type up a mock address label. This way when I wrote them by hand (yes by hand) I wouldn't have to determine the format on the envelope. This has worked perfectly and I have a large chunk already addressed. Only two envelopes wasted. Hopefully the rest goes that smoothly.
All in all I would hate to be a postal carrier. It must be really difficult to deliver the mail and decipher people's handwriting and the way they happen to write the address. Whew I'm glad I looked it up cuz 5th grade was a long time ago.
Look for them in early August, I should be right on target now to get them out by the 6th.
I spent a good while researching this topic and came up with a very good explanation. It was about 6 pages long and detailed nearly everything you could think to come up. So then it was back to the address I was supplied by a lot of people. After the first couple I noticed something difficult. When you use one envelope you need to address it to all the guests. Well my Uncle Mike is married and has 5 kids. Can you imagine that addressee line, way too long. Also there are some guests invited that are coming with a relative but do not live with that relative. So the postal carrier may be confused. I really wanted all my addresses to be standardized so that the post office will deliver every invite without problems. My solution get an outer envelope.
The outer envelope is the mailing envelope and can contain general information to get it delivered. Then the inner envelope can contain all those invited by name and can make the whole invitation much cleaner. So Dan and I headed out to Office Depot in search of the outer envelope. This was not as easy as it sounds. Did you know that envelopes are standard for a reason. Yeah and we have a standard size inner envelope. That means the outer envelope would need to be bigger. Well no luck at Office Depot and so we trekked over to a party card supplier. We found envelopes here but they contained invitations and were quite expensive. We decided to give on last look at Staples and see what we could find.
Woohoo is all I have to say. They had a specialty envelope that was just large enough to fit our invitation into it but not overwhelming large that the invitation looks out of place. Thank goodness because I was getting nervous that we wouldn't be able to find it.
So the next step was the address. I went and put all the address into google maps to make sure they all returned a valid address. Then I proceeded to type up a mock address label. This way when I wrote them by hand (yes by hand) I wouldn't have to determine the format on the envelope. This has worked perfectly and I have a large chunk already addressed. Only two envelopes wasted. Hopefully the rest goes that smoothly.
All in all I would hate to be a postal carrier. It must be really difficult to deliver the mail and decipher people's handwriting and the way they happen to write the address. Whew I'm glad I looked it up cuz 5th grade was a long time ago.
Look for them in early August, I should be right on target now to get them out by the 6th.
Tuesday, July 20, 2010
Alterations a plenty
Well I now know how the wedding gown industry is so profitable. Make a beautiful dress that fits some mannequin and sell it for a reasonable price. Then charge more than the dress is worth to actually fit it to the brides body.
Luckily, I'm not giving David's Bridal the chance to alter my gown but the woman who is is still expensive. Needless to say the dress needs to be fixed and in a big way.
Now I have to warn you that the dress will not be the same looking dress. For many reasons I have decided to remove the straps and converting the dress to strapless. In the beginning I was opposed to strapless dresses and am still a little hesitant to have this irreversible alteration done but it will make the dress fit so much better.
That being said I will explain a few of my reasons. First off the dress is not meant to fit anyone's body and the arm holes are probably too small for a child. So the straps make the dress really uncomfortable. There are some changes that could be done to have the straps fit however that means I lose mobility in my arms. I spent last Halloween as a cardboard Pacman ghost. I know what it is like to lose mobility in my arms and it is not fun. Not to mention that I don't really want to lose circulation in my hands as I'm trying to hug all of my guests. One big problem with the straps is that because they are off the shoulder they actually make me look more round and larger than I am. That is not what I want. They will always have a gap in the back due to the construction of the dress. Complicated alterations terms that I don't remember or know make the straps a hard challenge. It can be done and they could sorta fit but Danette is not confident that I would like the fix. After all I just want the dress to fit. Is that too much to ask.
So in addition to the straps being removed I am getting more boring stuff done to fit. If you can remember when I first purchased this dress in Jan I was told to get a bigger size. Probably a bad idea. The dress now needs to be pulled and re-sewn in nearly every seam in order to fit my size 6 measurements. My rib cage is getting in my way and so I had to buy a dress to fit the largest measurement which happened to be a size 12. So now seams taken to a size 6. ZOMG that's a lot of work.
The train and hem also need work and after all that the beading causes issues. In all the alterations will indeed be more than the dress cost in the first place. After Dan and I got over the sticker shock we decided that its better to spend the money to have the dress fit than to save a little here and me not feel the best in the dress.
Of course what have I learned from all this. That buying both my rehearsal and reception dress from a normal store require no alterations and that bridal gown makers are just out there to haggle you out of your money. All for the bride to feel like the most beautiful person in the world. I am definitely wishes I could just stroll down the aisle in sweatpants and a t-shirt. Those certainly feel the best when they don't fit.
Luckily, I'm not giving David's Bridal the chance to alter my gown but the woman who is is still expensive. Needless to say the dress needs to be fixed and in a big way.
Now I have to warn you that the dress will not be the same looking dress. For many reasons I have decided to remove the straps and converting the dress to strapless. In the beginning I was opposed to strapless dresses and am still a little hesitant to have this irreversible alteration done but it will make the dress fit so much better.
That being said I will explain a few of my reasons. First off the dress is not meant to fit anyone's body and the arm holes are probably too small for a child. So the straps make the dress really uncomfortable. There are some changes that could be done to have the straps fit however that means I lose mobility in my arms. I spent last Halloween as a cardboard Pacman ghost. I know what it is like to lose mobility in my arms and it is not fun. Not to mention that I don't really want to lose circulation in my hands as I'm trying to hug all of my guests. One big problem with the straps is that because they are off the shoulder they actually make me look more round and larger than I am. That is not what I want. They will always have a gap in the back due to the construction of the dress. Complicated alterations terms that I don't remember or know make the straps a hard challenge. It can be done and they could sorta fit but Danette is not confident that I would like the fix. After all I just want the dress to fit. Is that too much to ask.
So in addition to the straps being removed I am getting more boring stuff done to fit. If you can remember when I first purchased this dress in Jan I was told to get a bigger size. Probably a bad idea. The dress now needs to be pulled and re-sewn in nearly every seam in order to fit my size 6 measurements. My rib cage is getting in my way and so I had to buy a dress to fit the largest measurement which happened to be a size 12. So now seams taken to a size 6. ZOMG that's a lot of work.
The train and hem also need work and after all that the beading causes issues. In all the alterations will indeed be more than the dress cost in the first place. After Dan and I got over the sticker shock we decided that its better to spend the money to have the dress fit than to save a little here and me not feel the best in the dress.
Of course what have I learned from all this. That buying both my rehearsal and reception dress from a normal store require no alterations and that bridal gown makers are just out there to haggle you out of your money. All for the bride to feel like the most beautiful person in the world. I am definitely wishes I could just stroll down the aisle in sweatpants and a t-shirt. Those certainly feel the best when they don't fit.
Thursday, July 8, 2010
It just don't fit
Well who can guess what doesn't fit. Oh yeah the big dress. Did anyone guess that?
For anyone who has gone through the process of getting a wedding dress you will understand that this is just par for the course. No wedding dress is a perfect fit (unless you are a manikin) and so it must be altered in order to fit properly. I am about to start this long process and hopefully end up with a great fitting dress.
Think back to January when I made a couple posts about my dress. It caused me a lot of worry. Well I have decided to work with the woman (Danette) that I met at the bridal show. She made me feel really comfortable with the changes that may need to be made. She also had reasons that sounded accurate instead of the alterations person at David's Bridal who kept saying "Everything will be better if you just go up a size." Didn't anyone tell her that is the worst thing to say to a woman. Needless to say Danette will hopefully be a better fit for me. Even if she turns out to be more expensive than David's (something I doubt) I'm pretty sure the quality will be better.
So on Jul 17th at 10:45am I will trek to New Glarus, WI and have my first fitting. I also am glad to get this process started early. Since I have to add travel time between fittings I need to start a little earlier than the 2 months out. I am really excited to pass it off to an expert and not have to worry about it anymore. Plus double bonus I don't have to move it twice this month and will just leave it in Madison until the wedding. A big weight of my shoulders and closet rod :).
For anyone who has gone through the process of getting a wedding dress you will understand that this is just par for the course. No wedding dress is a perfect fit (unless you are a manikin) and so it must be altered in order to fit properly. I am about to start this long process and hopefully end up with a great fitting dress.
Think back to January when I made a couple posts about my dress. It caused me a lot of worry. Well I have decided to work with the woman (Danette) that I met at the bridal show. She made me feel really comfortable with the changes that may need to be made. She also had reasons that sounded accurate instead of the alterations person at David's Bridal who kept saying "Everything will be better if you just go up a size." Didn't anyone tell her that is the worst thing to say to a woman. Needless to say Danette will hopefully be a better fit for me. Even if she turns out to be more expensive than David's (something I doubt) I'm pretty sure the quality will be better.
So on Jul 17th at 10:45am I will trek to New Glarus, WI and have my first fitting. I also am glad to get this process started early. Since I have to add travel time between fittings I need to start a little earlier than the 2 months out. I am really excited to pass it off to an expert and not have to worry about it anymore. Plus double bonus I don't have to move it twice this month and will just leave it in Madison until the wedding. A big weight of my shoulders and closet rod :).
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