wedding

Aug232009

the last 24 hours: the amazing and the horrendous

the amazing
last night after checking times and temperatures, i reserved our wedding date. yep, it’s official, we are getting married on 10-10-10 at 2pm in Las Vegas. next, we need to pick locations. well, here, this is the wedding deets copied from SLVW‘s site…

Las Vegas Strip, package 2 – $399

  • Get married in any hotel suite, room, or condo. Ceremony and some photos will be done at one location.
  • Minister – traditional or civil ceremony
  • Professional Photographer – minimum of 30 high resolution pictures on a photo CD
  • DVD of the Ceremony (High definition widescreen 1080i video quality and Slideshow of all photos added to DVD with ceremony)
  • Witness, if needed
  • Option to get married at the world famous Las Vegas sign, hotel suite, room, condo, or select public locations on the strip
  • 1 additional public location on the Strip for 25 of your 50 photos (a minimum of 50 photos)
  • A small hand tied 6-rose bouquet for the bride
  • Groom’s boutonniere
  • Courtesy Limousine transportation to and from the ceremony for the bride and groom and up to 6 guests

We are also getting 20 extra pictures for not using their flowers, and 30 extra pictures for entering a contest they have. so, a total of 100 photos minimum.

this morning, we slept late and then, as usual, he raced to work. i putzed around the house, showered, walked Lola, and prepped the steak and potatoes for dinner tonight. then at like 2:40 i headed to the Y for belly dancing class.

…and the horrendous…
we were walking out of class and my friend Carrie said something along the lines of “what are you doing here?” and i looked, and my heart sank. i knew immediately something was wrong. it was Steve. Steve who raced to get to work by 1pm. Steve who doesn’t get any breaks at his crappy job, and certainly not enough time to come all the way back to Chapel Hill to sit outside my class and read the New Yorker. yeah, *sigh*

we went out to the parking lot and he told me what happened. after a few near misses with boxes flying out of his GM’s hands and getting up close and personal in his face yelled at, he just handed in his keys and walked out. that’s the very concise version of it. hopefully he’ll have something new soon!

so now instead of the steak and mashed potatoes with lemon cupcakes just as a meal, it’s a celebration of sorts. he’s not going to be beat down at work anymore and can actually come with me to Pittsburgh in 3 days. yes, even 3 days away, his GM was still dragging his feet even though Steve’s been constantly asking for the time off for the last few months.

and no, we can’t afford our life on my salary. we can’t even afford my half of our life on my salary.

i, for reals, hope that all y’all are doing better!

Both image sources

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Aug222009

Booked!

It is official…. 10-10-10 @ 2pm.

No other reason for the posting. <3

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Aug212009

I Will Be a Fat Bride

I recently found the blog Axis Of Fat via a link from OffBeatBride.com. I am in love. Seriously.
The initial post I read on the blog said what I’ve been thinking for a while now.

Here is an excerpt from her post, but you really gotta click over there to read it all and see her gorgeous pictures!
Fat Bride Survival Guide

When I got married I was a fat bride. In fact, I was fat when I got engaged – I was even *gasp* fat when Nick and I met! Despite having a well established, recognised and loved body shape before getting married I copped a huge amount of pressure to lose weight in the lead up to the wedding. For some reason, I had it in my head that my wedding day would be a celebration of love and happiness between Nick and I however it seemed that foolish me had little idea of the true wedding agenda – basically some kind of reality tv show where the ugly duckling turns gorgeous siren.

…read the rest…

And here is the comment I just made:
I will be a fat bride – getting married 10-10-10. And like most of the other posters, I’ve been fat my whole life. I made the mistake of buying my [wedding] gown at the lowest weight I’d been in ages, and then proceeded to gain 50lbs [in about a year]. Yeah, rather than alter the dress, or myself, drastically, I’m going to buy a new one that fits me and makes me feel gorgeous the way I look. I am so sick of friends and family telling me I need to lose weight for my wedding. My fiance adores me exactly the way I am! While I do wish I were smaller, I’m not going to hide who I am or pretend I’m someone that I’m not. I come from a fat family and will have fat babies. And I am OK with that.

You look absolutely gorgeous in your dress and the pictures posted here show a wonderful wedding day. And too true, the day is about celebrating love, not the way you look in a dress.

<3,
Becca

I will be the first to admit that I am not crazy about the way I look naked. But that’s what clothes are for; they disguise our flaws and make us feel better. If they didn’t, couture sure wouldn’t cost an arm and a leg! I hate looking at size tags and feel horrible knowing that I cannot shop in certain stores.

But what am I doing about it? I am lazy. There, I said it. I would rather knit or, *gasp*, study than work out. I would rather knit than go for a walk. But I will romp on the floor with Lola and run in circles with her. I am also taking belly dancing class. While it’s not a strenuous workout, but more like slightly faster paced yoga, I’m doing something. I have exercise DVDs that sit unwatched. Again, I am lazy.

I guess this is me finally admitting it, right? I have a screwed up body image – always have – and need to own up to it. I am getting married in *checks Facebook* 415 days. While I am going to try to lose weight, for my health, I’m not going to freak out if I can’t. No one should. Stupid fashion industry and their unrealistic model body shapes.

/end fat rant

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Aug202009

Thank you, ECU!

I feel like ECU sent me this gift basket today. Only filled with real cash. Yep, my excess loan funds were deposited and made available to me today!

Aside from all the credit cards I need to pay off and pay down, having these funds also means booking the wedding! Of course, we need to have a little chit chat and figure out a few more things before that can be done. As long as all decisions are made before the end of the month, we will still get locked into SLVW‘s lower rates.

Oh so happy me!

How are you today? Any fun and exciting news coming your way?

Image source

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Aug112009

Booking the Wedding and a Lola Picture


I was just checking out SLVW as I do… frequently.. and noticed a little disclaimer on their front page. All package prices will be increasing as of September 1, 2009. However, wedding booked prior to September 1 are not affected. Guess what I’ll be doing as soon as I get my student loan excess funds in 2 weeks? That’s right… booking the wedding and paying the deposit!

Yes, I have the “go ahead” to do so. Not for the above reason, but for other reasons, but I’m sure mentioning the rise in prices will only help push it along. =) We’re pressed for funds as is, hence Vegas in the first place, and with a total trip budget of $1500, we’re not taking chances on going over said budget.

In amusing.. news.. I am taking an Illustrator class this summer.

<---- This is my latest project. I had to use the pencil tool to write my name, or in this case, Lola's name. Then outline a subject from a photo and colorize it however we wanted. I picked our poochie, cuz she's the cutest little thing. No reason for posting this other than I wanted to show off my lack of Illustrator skills. Gotta get up to speed since I’m designing all the invites, favor labels, etc for us.

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Aug102009

Wedding Dress Woes

Image Courtesy of IStockPhotoI am giving my dress until April 1 to sell. If it doesn’t sell by then, I will start on alterations to be able to wear it in Vegas in October. I’m unhappy with this decision only because I really am regretting my decision to buy it so soon. I love the dress. LOVE IT. But… where it would have been wonderful to stick in a car and drive to Miami, and have time to hang and get the wrinkles out, it will not be wonderful to cram into a bag, fly across the country and wear the next day in Vegas.

I’m wondering just how short I can have the seamstress make it and still look good and just how much it’s going to cost. Steve really doesn’t want me to sell it. He knows how much I love the dress and that it pains me to sell it. I really wish we had made more plans before I rushed out and bought a $700 dress. Grrrr.

Oh well. I’m clearly not alone with dress regrets. I’ve seen brides all over my blogs buying 2 dresses, or even 3 because they can’t decide what they want. Well, I know the style I want for Vegas and it’s decidedly cheaper then I initially spent. And honestly, it’s not about money in this case. It’s about changed tastes and venues.

The dress is currently listed on BravoBride.com with over 1000 views. I tried CraigsList, but that was a bust. I kept renewing the ad but never even got a nibble. Ebay costs too much for the probable no bids that it’ll get. Even with a reserve price, I’m not guaranteed a purchase. A girlfriend of mine bought her dress and 2 months later listed it on Ebay when she bought another and got no bids the 3 or 4 times she kept relisting it. Annoying!

What other sites should I be listing it on? Help?

EDITed to add: Apparently PreOwnedWeddingDress.com finally got a clue and opened up their Sell a Dress form to include sizes over, like, 12. When I checked in May, I couldn’t list my dress due to it being larger than their listings. It will be listed as soon as the lovely manager from the Raleigh David’s Bridal store mails me a copy of my receipt. She is amazing and I love her, without ever having met her. She dug into their system from 16 months ago to find my receipt and is mailing it to me.

Image courtesy of iStockPhoto

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Aug062009

Booking the Wedding

I just spent a good chunk of my lunch break trying to convince Steve that we should book our date with SLVW already. He doesn’t see the point seeing as it is over a year away and things could still change. Plus, he wants to get Rosetta Stone so we can both become bilingual (Spanish) to improve chances of getting higher pay. The wedding/ photographer/ flowers/ limo/ minister/ everything else costs the same as the full Rosetta Stone package. Great! He can buy RS, and I’ll pay for the wedding. Win-win, right? 😉

I will continue to work on the booking after work. Especially because he tipped the waiter $10.10 “in honor of our wedding date.” Yeah buddy, I know that’s our date, but can’t we make it official? Not that I have the 35% down payment yet, but I will in a few weeks! After all, it’s less than $175 to guarantee the date and time we want to be forever tied to one another.

I love my crazy fiance.

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Aug022009

Birdcage Veil

I was perusing the net earlier looking for tutorials to make a birdcage veil and found this really great one! i think i’m going to make one with another comb – as in, not my specifically purchased “tiara” – and see how it works. for all I know, I won’t even like the way it look on my face.

Check out this tutorial to make this gorgeous birdcage veil…


image source

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