Eye Candy

I looooove detail shots.  They are a great way to remember all the little decisions you made throughout the planning process.  All of those months of choosing the theme colors, going to cake tastings, looking through tons of magazines, staying up all night searching the web for inspiration, and cursing myself for deciding to do my own invitations...this is what it is all about!  These are the things that your guests may overlook, but that you and other knotties drool over.  I admit that I was a bit worried that the results would not live up to those pictures in the magazines that I dreamt of, but they exceeded my expectations.  Mr. Pug and I were both stoked at the way everything turned out!

Invitation & Rings

 

Rings on Our Wedding Day Newspaper

  

My Bouquet

  

My Bouquet & Shoes #1

  

MOH Bouquet & Shoes #2

  

Obligatory Dress-in-Window Shot

  

Groom's Gift - Custom Jordans with Wedding Date

  

I Went With the Purple Shoes!

 

My Bouquet

Detail Shot of my Dress's Neckline & Bouquet  

 

Gazebo Florals

  

Orchid Aisle

  

Table Number, Centerpiece, and Table Tent

  

Table Setting, Favor Box, and Program/Menu Card

  

Chair Covers & Uplighting

 

Card Box & Guest Sign-In

 

 Wedding Cake

 

1001 Folded Origami Cranes

 

 Best Wishes from Micky & Minnie

 

Congratulatory Letter from President & Mrs. Obama

"i do" Letters and Mini-Pug

Bustle Blues

I started writing this post, but it turned into a long rambling complaining about my experience with the David's Bridal alterations department.  I'm trying to keep it short and sweet (or not so sweet), so I'll get to the point:

- Alterations manager (AM) had my dress to do a hem and bustle for over a month, then tried to push back my appointment twice because it was not ready.

- AM left me a message to call her back the next day at 12:00 noon.  I was in the area and decided to stop in the store -- she was not even working that day.

- When AM was showing me how to bustle the dress, it took her over half an hour and multiple tries to figure out how to do it.

- The bustle was not done as we had discussed and left a lot of the dress dragging on the floor.  It did not look like a small train...it looked like pieces were falling out.

- When I asked her to make it shorter so it was not dragging on the ground, she made the back of the dress so high you could see my heels, but left the sides and the front long and sweeping the ground.

-When I asked her to make it so that it was even all around, she was unable to do it claiming that the style of my dress was too difficult.

- After over an hour, we finally got it to a point where it looked decent.  She told me to come back in two days to pick it up.  As I was getting undressed, she came to me with another bill!  I had to pay for more points that needed to be added to fix what she did wrong in the first place!

- Two days later, I came to pick up the dress and she was not even working that day.  Her assistant tried to show me how to bustle the dress but could not figure it out.  I stood there holding the back of my dress up for half an hour while the alterations lady, my maid of honor, and the sales girl all sat on the floor behind me trying to figure out this puzzle.  Apparently no one in the store had ever dealt with an under-bustle before.


- My maid of honor (who has never seen a bustle in her life) finally figured it out and did some workarounds to make it work.  The points were placed without taking the 1/2" loop into consideration, so the dress was still dragging on the ground.  We decided to just have my maid of honor tie the bustle above the loop so that we wouldn't have to leave the dress to be altered one more time.

Okay, so I still managed to ramble and complain a lot.  In short, I was really disappointed with my alterations experience at David's Bridal.  I thought it was expensive (about $200 for a hem and bustle), but I thought I would go with them for convenience and because they specialize in wedding dresses.  Perhaps the fact that it is a new store means that the alterations department doesn't necessarily have a lot of experience with wedding dresses yet.  I wish I had taken the time to shop around a little more.

A Second Chance

Remember my dress dilemma?  Mr. Pug gave me permission to go dress shopping and try on other dresses.  David's Bridal recently opened it's first store in Hawaii, so we ventured over on a whim to see if they could fit us in.  When we got there, we registered at the front desk and our sales consultant, Daisy, came to get an idea of what we were looking for.  I told her strapless mermaid, no preference on color.  We gathered 3 dresses to try on, picked out some shoes, and she brought me some undergarments to use.

The first dress was a white trumpet style gown that I had liked on the website:

 I didn't care for the way the bottom flared out, and it just looked a little "messy".

Dress 2 was a satin ivory gown:

 

It felt a little plain, but I did like the ivory color better than the harsh white from the first dress.  Daisy agreed and thought that I would really like dress number 3 because it combined the elements I liked from the two dresses.

Dress number three is an ivory satin mermaid gown with a little beading at the neckline:

Daisy was right!  I loved it.  The dress somehow gave me a waist and the material was so soft.  It was comfy, and most importantly, I felt beautiful!  Mr. Pug liked it too!  I walked around in the store with it on for a bit deciding if I should take the plunge.  At this point Mr. Pug was all for it...there was just one problem...the week was less than 13 weeks away.  Ordering a dress in my size would take 12-15 weeks.  Daisy thought there might be a possibility it would come in earlier, but we didn't really want to take that chance.  She made a few phone calls to see when they could get it in.  February 7th...one day after the wedding.  I was bummed.  Daisy checked the computers to see if other stores had the dress in my size on the racks.  All petite dresses are special ordered, so I would have to get the regular size and have it hemmed.  The other downside is that it would cost $105 to get it shipped to the Hawaii store.  I was already over my dress budget (since I bought the first dress), so this new dress plus shipping plus alterations would be too much.  Then I got an idea...I asked which stores had the dress in my size, and one happened to be in Oregon near my brother's house.  I made the phone call to my brother to see if he could run down to the store, Daisy called the store to relay the information to them, and I called my mom to see if she could pick up my dress on her next flight to Oregon.  Half an hour later, I had purchased the dress (no tax -- bonus!) and just had to be patient while I waited for it to come home.  How exciting!  I never teared up or got "that feeling," but I love the dress and can't wait to wear it for the wedding.

Not "The One"

You may remember that I bought my dress on a whim back when we first got engaged.  I never did the whole dress shopping experience for "the one" and I hadn't even really tried it on before I bought it.  The dress sat in a box at my parents' house before I finally tried it on.  I was worried that I wouldn't like it since I had second thoughts on what kind of dress I wanted.

I finally brought the dress out of the box and tried it on...it fit perfectly and I loved it!  The corset back meant I could adjust the fit to my body, and the length was just right.  All I'd need to do is have it pressed before the big day.  I was so excited and pranced around the house for a bit before taking it off.  I had my mom take a few pictures of me in the dress so I would remember what it looked like as I shopped for accessories.

The next night, my mom emailed me the pictures she had taken.  Eeew!  I didn't like the way I looked in the dress.  I thought maybe it was because I didn't have any make-up on, so I cropped my face out of the picture.  I still didn't like it.  The flared skirt made me look short and stumpy, and I just didn't feel beautiful in it.  I pushed the photos aside and tried to remember how much I liked the dress when I saw it in person, but all I could picture in my mind were those horrible pictures.  I've been debating whether or not to post a picture, and I figured "why not?" -- the whole purpose of doing this blog is to document the wedding planning process -- the good and the bad, the pretty and the ugly...

The dress is a little wrinkled, but you get the point.  After mulling over this for a couple weeks, I finally brought up how I was feeling to Mr. Pug.  He didn't understand and didn't think I should spend more money on a second dress.  I talked to my mom about it and we decided to see if we could get the dress altered to be more fitted.  Since I was planning on spending $100 to have the dress pressed before the wedding, I thought this was a good option as they would probably press the dress as part of the alteration process.

I took the dress in to see what a tailor could do.  She pinned the sides to show what it would look like if she took the skirt in a bit, but I didn't see that big of a difference, and the price was more than I was expecting.

I'm still not sure what I should do.  Suck it up and make do with what I have (it doesn't look that bad, right?!) or spend the extra cash to get a dress I really like?  Anyone else end up buying a dress then changing your mind?

Second Thoughts

I am having second thoughts on what kind of dress I would like. I never thought I would be
considering it, but I am really liking the look of lace dresses. My 3 favorite designers right now are Jim Hjelm, Maggie Sottero, and Watters. I'm also thinking an ivory dress may look better with my skin tone than a white dress. Here are a bunch of my favorites.

Anyone else experiencing dress regret?