Vegas Vows

Feb162010

Wedding Veil and … Pawn Stars?

You want to read more about our wedding? Not much is going on, but while nothing is happening, I’ve still been knitting. That’s right, yesterday at lunch I hit row 83 of 126. Not only that, but it marks the end of the main body of the veil. Up next are the peacock feathers then the color changes.

Oh, you want to see a picture too? Man are you demanding! 😉

Also, Steve and I watch Pawn Stars whenever we remember it’s on. It’s not one of those “OMG we have to watch it” shows, but we do love it. As we were watching it last night, he said we should go to the store when we’re out there in October. You know, for our wedding… and I said absolutely! But would love to bring something with me to try and sell. We looked around the house and finally I looked up.

Hanging over my head is this amazing plate brought back from the People’s Republic of China around the time when I was born. My grandmother gave it to my parents and said I was small enough to sleep on it. Yeah, I was. So it’s at least 33 years old, and stamped with Chinese characters and “Made in Taiwan People’s Republic of China” on the back.

The only thing is I haven’t the foggiest idea how to find out it’s value…

Source: my wall
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Feb092010

We Won! We Won! We Won!

So, a few weeks ago, I entered a giveaway, this giveaway, on the Green Orchid Events blog to win a photography session in Vegas. I was stalking the blog nearly every day as the winner would be chosen randomly from the comments. There were still only 5 commenters (I was the 5th) so I figured we had a 20% chance at it, which isn’t all that high.

The contest ended last night at midnight, Vegas time, so I went to sleep hoping I’d wake up to find out that I’d won. Y’all might know how addicted to my Blackberry I am. I check email and twitter constantly. Well, when back pain woke me at 5am, I checked it, scrolling quickly through the emails until I saw it…
“Congratulations – You’re the winner of the photo contest”

I started grinning and it took me a while to fall back to sleep. I started telling Steve we’d won, but, well, it was 5am and he was dead asleep. This morning, there was a tweet about it pointing to Juliet’s blog post. Yeah, I totally retweeted it.

Even before we won, I was in touch with the photographer, Jessie of Emeric Photography & Design, and really can’t wait to work with her and her husband. I told her we’d already booked our wedding photographer, but if we’d won, I’d love to do a day after session. It looks like we get to after all! I’m thinking day after, possibly trash the dress only because I desperately want to go to the Neon Boneyard or possibly Red Rocks Canyon.

Prize package:
* Lifestyle Portrait Session (which can be used for Engagement, Trash the Dress, Day After Session, Anniversary, etc…)
* 3 hours of photography time
* Online photo gallery to share with family & friends
* High resolution disk with choice of 45 print-ready images (printable up to 8×10) A print release will also be included.
* Photo session is valid only in Las Vegas

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Jan062010

My Own @TweetMyWedding Update

At the request of my practically-sister-in-law and all around amazing woman, I need to write more. The problem is that much of my wedding related topics are posted to my twitter feed and then I just forget to post about them here. But then, isn’t that the whole point of having a blog… to be able to expand on those 140 characters of text?

So here goes… in the format of the @TweetMyWedding blog postings that many of my friends write for.

ARGH!! why must people say one thing then change their mind after over a month?! this damn dress is never going to sell. #stuck

wow, a consignment shop only offers 40% to the consignor? there’s no way my dress’d sell for $1000 to get the $400 i want to make recoup.

i have about 1 month to decide on keeping, selling or burning the dress. Brides against Breast Cancer comes to Raleigh in early February

These were posted yesterday about my wedding dress sale. The latest with the sale is, well, rather disheartening to me. I have been emailing back and forth with a potential buyer for about 6 weeks. We discussed Vegas, honeymoons, family, and more during that time. On Monday when I was expecting the “ok, I just sent the money via Paypal” email, instead I received one that crushed me. Never in the 6 weeks of communicating was there a hint of fears of making such a large purchase online. I actually told her about the previous potential buyers that backed out at the last minute and she assured me that wasn’t going to happen. Yes, there was more to the email and I do believe she genuinely feels bad, but that doesn’t help me any.

I am about ready to just burn the dress. Don’t worry; I’m not stupid enough to burn a piece of clothing with an $850 price tag. (Not that I paid that much for it…) It is perfect in every way: unaltered, never worn outside the store, clean, corset back for a variety of sizes. Only I just don’t love it anymore like I did nearly 2 years ago when I purchased it. Unfortunately, no bridal salon offers refunds. My entire style and viewpoint on wedding dresses has changed. I no longer want big and poufy; I want streamlined and something that can be worn multiple times. If you’ve been following this blog, you’ve seen my new choices.

There isn’t much that I can do now. It is still posted on a variety of wedding classifieds sites and I re-posted it on eBay Monday evening after I got the email. So there’s that.

i think i might need these for #vegas! bit.ly/8QGBkr the personalization is “SF 42 RB” since 101010 is 42 in binary. #geek

Click on the above link. I really want these shoes, but not just for Vegas. I love Chuck’s. While I do think they’re exceptionally fun, they also have a $62 price tag. We can barely afford to pay our rent let alone buy $62 sneakers.

awww my baby bro & his girlfriend are coming to my MBA graduation! i love them so stinkin much

Yes, I will be an MBA graduate exactly 4 months from tomorrow. I need to book our hotel rooms since they’re rapidly filling up. What, you mean I’m not the only graduate from ECU in May?

i made some of the tastiest perfectly golden brown fried chicken for dinner. makes up for the burnt grilled cheese from lunch..

This was just funny. I’d made grilled cheese and tomato soup for Steve and I a few days ago. My grilled cheese is as basic as can be: butter on both sides of 2 pieces of bread, a slice of cheese in the middle and then cooked in a frying pan until golden brown. Only, this time there was no golden brown, only burnt. It was annoying! Later that night for the Gators bowl game, I made the most perfectly golden brown chicken wings. There wasn’t a speck of burned flour on them. And oh boy… were they delicious!?

So now, don’t you feel properly updated? Yeah, I didn’t think so. =)

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Dec292009

Blue Wedding Dresses

I did some digging and played with the color changer on both Dessy’s After Six and Alfred Angelo’s sites and came up with the following dresses for myself, in no particular order. I really dig the pop of color and the fact that all the dresses can be reworn over and over again!

Thoughts?

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Dec282009

Interesting Turn of Events

I had no idea until today at lunch that Steve had no idea that we were having a bridal party in Vegas. since his family isn’t attending, as in his brother who would be a best man in a traditional wedding, he thought we were just going out there with a few friends to get hitched. nothing formal, nothing traditional, nothing wedding-y. he just said that the more traditional my outfit is (closer to white), then more traditional things will turn out even though we’re heading to Vegas to do the most untraditional wedding possible.

huh. I had no idea. I wonder who in the bridal party would still want to attend. Ii mean, my brother and Cathy are totally still attending as our family representation. but I’ve heard rumblings about the date falling on a Sunday and us staying out there for 5 days and some other stuff. With zero obligations to attend, I actually wonder how many guests we’d have. Oh yeah, it’s a trip to Vegas with a 2-3 hour ceremony/ cupcake party.

In this light, I do think I’ll be buying a blue dress, pale blue likely, so I can wear it multiple times. I have a picture in my mind of what I want, but haven’t found it yet. Big poofy skirt that I can puff out with lots of crinoline to be super cute 50s chicky.

There was a family event in Miami on Saturday and I was informed afterwards that our wedding was a topic of conversation since a lot of them follow my updates on Facebook. my older brother was telling everyone to “be there or be square!” um, no. i told him that it’s going to be a small wedding with just a handful of friends. he said that I needed to stop telling everyone the date and the location if I didn’t want people there. I corrected him and said that the date and location, being the entire city of Las Vegas, is out there for anyone to know, but the specific location, like the actual ceremony location, will only be told to the guests we want in attendance. he got all huffy. sure, I’ll be inviting family and knowing that 95% of them won’t be in attendance due to a variety of reasons.

Also, big news, I’ve been emailed by the girl buying my dress that she’s going to be able to pay me by the end of the week. She confirmed the amount tonight. YAY!

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Nov242009

Our Hotel is Booked!

You read that right! This morning I received a DM from the @LuxorLV twitter account telling me to hang tight, that their Twitter Tuesday rates would be published shortly. I’ve been all over twitter the last few weeks asking which hotel we should stay in: the Luxor or Excalibur, the Luxor or Flamingo, the Flamingo or Tahiti… you get the drift.  Well, the Luxor has been on my short list for a while, and actually kept retweeting my questions out the their follower base.

Today, when the twitter-only rates were published, I was floored. I was able to book a Tower Luxury Suite for not much more than the normal price of the Tower Deluxe room.

Yes, we are staying in a huge suite that is larger than my first apartment in North Carolina for 4 nights. We will have plenty of room for the cupcakes and wine reception I’m envisioning. Also, with as big as the room is and as pretty as the pictures are, we can totally have the ceremony and take professional pictures in the room!

This after I emailed the link to this top secret special deals page to all our Vegas invitees and some have checked it out and booked their room already! I actually wonder if I should bother to get a room block. I should email again and see who hasn’t booked yet and if they want to book there and then decide. 

When I was chatting with my younger brother’s girlfriend earlier, she was telling me all these places they (she) want to visit during our Vegas trip. We’re totally doing the Hoover Dam, Grand Canyon, Red Rock Canyon and Zappos! Where else should we go?

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Nov232009

Another Dress Choice

Yes, yes, I know it’s been a while since I’ve posted. Things are really tight at home, financially, and I feel silly ogling pretty, not to mention expensive, things online for our wedding. Until last night, when right before the snores began, Steve muttered “you’re going to be my wife one day” … *melt*

Ok folks, this is my latest idea: the trumpet flare dress. What are your thoughts on how it’ll look on me? One of my bridesmaids is coming to town in December (YAY!!) and I’m thinking I might drag her back to DB with me. I adore it in this color, but wonder if it will work well with my ladies also wearing blue. Another alternative is Champagne or Orange. Crazy, I know. I’m going to check them out in all the colors next time I venture into DB.

Here is the latest picture of me… what do you think about this dress on this body? (Yes, I’m sideways, but it looks much better on my monitor this way.. haha)

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Nov112009

333 days left

Today is 11.11. Happy Veterans Day!! A very special happy happy to my future hubby. Thanks for serving our country, babe!

Today is also the 20th anniversary of my bat mitzvah (11.11.1989)

The knitted veil is getting no progress lately since my life is wrapped up with school work these days. Homework has been unbelievably insane and, if I drank, would have driven me to drink.

We’ve had very little progress on the wedding front. I started looking at hotels with our actual wedding date. Apparently 333 days out means hotels can open up reservations! I did a Twitter poll earlier of the Excalibur Tower Deluxe room or the Luxor Tower View room. The people that stuck to those 2 overwhelmingly voted for the Luxor. However, the Venetian, Caesar’s Palace, Paris, and MGM Grand all got votes.

I would love nothing more than to splurge on our wedding-moon week in Vegas, but who knows if it’s really feasible at this point.  Sure, telling people it’s our wedding week might help, but no guarantees. Grrrr. Even our Vegas trip is going to be effing expensive!

What are your thoughts? If you’re attending, where would you like to stay? If you’re a Vegas-ite, where do you normally stay?

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