Gown Shopping, Part Three: Now We're Stylin'

If you proposed to me, you had better not click the last link that appears in this post! I'm serious, "scram-ola"!!!!!*

This entry has been a long couple of days coming. If you're not a fan of suspense, you're in luck, because I won't make you wait any longer. Without further ado, I present my wedding gown:

OK, that's not my gown! That's my cousin/Maid of Honor modeling a quinceanera dress we found in one of the shops on the Peninsula. I know I'm probably really annoying all of my readers by now, but just a *little* more back story before I finally show off my dress . . .

I first stumbled upon Modern Trousseau during the first days of my online gown search, when I was determined to examine every last non-strapless dress on the market. I immediately fell in love with the soft, romantic fabrics, the vintage-looking alencon lace and the lovely candlelight color of the materials. I feared that these gowns would be out of my price range ($2,000), and I was right: most started at about my upper limit, and that didn't include alterations! I decided not to even tempt myself by trying on one of these gowns, and tried to find something similar within my budget.

Thanks to a very generous gift from my aunt and uncle, the Modern Trousseau gowns were brought well within my reach! I immediately contacted one of the two stores listed as carrying the gown I was interested in, only to learn that it no longer sold dresses by Modern Trousseau! Not to be discouraged, I contacted the second Northern California carrier, Epiphany Boutique in Carmel-by-the-Sea. The phone rang and rang with no answer. Discouraged, I emailed the shop via the Carmel Chamber of Commerce (I couldn't find an email address on the website), and resigned myself again to the fact that I would not be waltzing down the aisle in a creation by Modern Trousseau.

Imagine my surprise when, a few days later, the owner of Epiphany Boutique contacted me! She told me that while she didn't have the gown in stock at the time, she could order a sample from the designer. Even better, she quoted me a price well within my (new) budget that included alterations, bustling and a custom veil. Sold, sold and sold.

Except . . . I didn't hear from her for about three weeks after that! I left message after message and email after email, but didn't receive a response. When I finally did hear from the owner, I learned that the sample gown's arrival had been delayed because it was in the Caribbean at a photoshoot for InStyle Weddings!

source

While I was impressed to learn that I had selected such a high-profile gown, I was also anxious. What if the gown wasn't shipped back before my self-imposed November 30 deadline for purchasing a gown? What if the owner of the boutique I was working with went MIA again? What if the dress didn't look good when I tried it on? After a couple more weeks of no news, I took matters into my own hands and contacted Modern Trousseau directly.

I spoke with a very nice man with an Australian accent (loved it!) who told me that he was doing everything in his power to get the gown I was interested in to Carmel, including pulling it from a shop in San Diego that wanted to show it at a trunk show. Several days later, he contacted me to let me know that the gown was on its way. On Sunday, my mom and I made the two-hour plus trek down the coast so that I could try on the gown. While the sample was a size 6 (i.e., waaaayyy to small), I just knew when I put it on that this was my gown. My mom and I went to lunch to discuss, and my aunt put the deposit down within the hour.

While I won't horrify you with pictures of how I looked trying to squeeze my street-size 8/10 body into a bridal-size 6 gown, I will show you how this gown looks on the model. Not that I should have to say it again, but if you are engaged to me, you are forbidden from clicking here.

So, what do you all think? I am in love! This gown meets every. single. last. one. of my six requirements, and I'm so happy that I was finally able to try it on. I know it would have haunted me forever if I hadn't at least had the chance to try on this beauty. While my mom liked the Jasmine gown I blogged about in this post better, I just love how unique the Modern Trousseau "Jenni" gown is with its vintage style, full alencon lace back and silk charmeuse skirt. It is classy and vampy vintage cool all at once. I have never found anything else like it, and I'm so so so happy that I will be marrying the fiance in the gown of my dreams! And if the wedding blog world has taught me anything, it's that not everyone's mom is a gushing pool of positivity and verbal reinforcement. My mom said the bottom of my gown looked like "a nightgown," but I'm moving on from that comment for now . . .

Phew! This was a long-winded post, but mission accomplished: I am now reminded that the Jenni was in fact the right choice for me, despite my mom's reservations. Now if only March would roll around so that we could be reunited yet again . . .

*"Scram-ola" is like "scram," but way better, don't you think?

Gown Shopping, Part Two: The Bad and the Ugly

To the fiance: if you have no desire to see me in a big, white gown before the wedding, scram!*

When we left off, I had found at least one wedding gown that could potentially have been "the ONE." Apparently it was not meant to be, however, because I had the itch to keep searching for more. This time, the hunt took us to the Peninsula/South Bay, where my cousin/Maid of Honor and I hit up four different gown shops in one day. I really can't believe I am posting some of these pictures on the internet, because I truly cringe when I look at some of them. Please don't take this personally if one of these happens to be your gown - if there is one thing I quickly discovered, it was that the same dresses that looked horrible on me looked beautiful on other brides, and vice-versa.

Up first, I tried on this gown from Pronovias' La Sposa line because I liked its trumpet/mermaid shape. The circle thing in the middle of the gown looked weird, though, and I didn't like the way the material gathered at the chest, so I decided that this one was a "no-go":

After two more stops down the Peninsula, my Maid of Honor and I finally ended up at Bay Area Bridal in Cupertino. This shop had the largest selection of gowns out of any shop I visited. However, this was our last stop of the day (5:00 p.m.), and I was tired and irritable by then. Looking back, I probably had a bad attitude at this shop, and possibly could have found some promising options had I been in a better mood. In any event, I tried on about 10-15 gowns. While some of them were pretty, nothing really "wowed" me:

Notice that my smile is looking incredibly forced in this photo. I believe this was another Maggie Sottero gown. Again, the sales lady told me that I could add cap sleeves and change out the sash and underlay to ivory (versus gold), but I was having major problems visualizing myself in this gown. Also, I was worried that the corset-style back emphasized the broadness of my shoulders that I was trying so hard to minimize. And the square neckline on me? Ick.

The final dress of the trip was this one:

Again, my apologies - I do not know who makes this gown. This one was OK, but I felt that the chest was cut a little too small for what I have to deal with. The back was also *slightly* exposed for my tastes. This gown did reaffirm my love for the cap sleeve, however.

I returned to the city after this day of gown shopping with a heavy heart. I think this was partly because I had found a photo of what I thought was my dream gown online, but didn't think I would ever be able to try it on (the one Northern California store that carried the designer's line was having difficulty getting its hands on the gown I so desperately wanted to try).

Up next, the finale to this series, and the way I got to try on the wedding dress that had haunted me throughout the duration of my search for "the ONE."

*I've always wanted to say "scram." I will definitely use it in my next post, i.e., the big unveiling!

Gown Shopping, Part One: The Good (As In, the Acceptable)

Warning to the fiance: do not read this post if you don't want to see me in wedding attire!!! If you do, that's fine, since my dress is not in this post. I'm just giving you options! Moving on . . .

Happy Monday! And this week, it really is a happy Monday since: 1) it's a short week, and 2) I purchased my wedding gown yesterday! I am still in a little state of shock over the whole thing. Suffice it to say, it has been quite a process, and I'm glad the hunt is finally over.

Now, you didn't think I'd just bust out and show you my gown without a little suspense, did you? Nope, instead I'm going to recap the whole long and arduous process. I think doing so will help me appreciate my gown, and all the hard work I went through to find her, just that much more. So, without further ado, here is the story of my search for THE dress.

As with my shoes, I had a very specific list of requirements for what I wanted in a wedding gown. I am admittedly a shopoholic, and dresses are my favorite article of clothing (I'll wear a dress and heels over a pair of jeans any day), so I already had a pretty good idea of what types of gowns would be most flattering on me. I decided that my gown needed to be: 1) ivory or off-white to compliment my skin, 2) fitted at the waist, 3) trumpet/mermaid-style or A-line, 4) constructed from non-synthetic materials (i.e., no poly or satin-blends), and 5) not strapless. I am an ex-swimmer with a monster broad back on top of my larger-than-life bust, so this last requirement was really important to me. Unfortunately for me, I quickly learned that 95% of gown are strapless!

After weeks of scouring the internet, I stumbled upon this beauty from the Jasmine Collection, Style F202. I was in luck, too, since a salon literally steps from my office carried the gown:

source

I loved (almost) everything about this gown. To be honest, this gown was a top contender by the end of my search, and my mother's first choice as well. I loved the buttons and lace on the back, I loved the cap sleeves, and the fit and flare style was very flattering on my figure. The ONLY thing that stopped me from buying this gown was the fact that it was made of "Italian Satin," and could not be upgraded to real silk. I know how my skin reacts to synthetic fabrics, and they tend to be very heavy, so I sadly had to let this baby go, even though it may have looked better on me than the dress I ultimately selected.

Next up, I agreed to try on a few strapless gowns only after assurance from the sales ladies that they could be modified to add cap sleeves. I actually really liked this gown by Maggie Sottero, but the lightest color it came in was champagne:

The gown actually looked very pretty on, but I was going to be picky and search for something that met every last one of my requirements. I loved how tiny the Maggie made my waist look, though!

Next I tried on this silk charmeuse gown with a lace overlay. My apologies - I have no idea who makes this gown! This dress was very pretty and reaffirmed in my mind that I needed to find a light and airy silk gown that would allow me to dance all night long without weighing me down. The sweetheart neckline was also very flattering. Please excuse the clips in the back! I'm telling you, nothing I tried on ever zipped up all the way due to my man-ish back:

Finally, this Pronovias gown was very nice, though the square neckline wasn't really doing it for me:

Do you see my Maid of Honor's refelction in the mirror? She was diligent about snapping pictures when we were allowed to do so. Thanks, Cuz! It was after this gown that I decided to add "sweetheart neckline" as a sixth requirement for my dream gown. So, the search continued. At the end of the day, I knew that I had a fantastic "back-up" gown (the Jasmine) if I couldn't find one that met all of my requirements, and I was happy about that.

Stay tuned for Part Two, where I will discuss the "Bad and the Ugly" of my gown shopping experience.

Our Save-the-Dates, Part One: When DIY Goes Awry

Even though the fiance and I won't be sending out our Save-the-Dates until March, I really wanted to get a jump-start on them while we still had time to approach wedding planning at a leisurely pace. After a few discussions, we decided that we wanted our Save-the-Dates to take the form of a simple card with our wedding date, location and website printed on it. Of course, I would still have the creative freedom to snazz up the card a bit, but we ultimately decided that "fancier" Save-the-Dates (i.e., photos, magnets, mini-envelopes with cricut "10-23-10" cut out and strung on pretty ribbon with bows in between, etc.) just weren't for us:

Darn you, Martha, why must you tempt me so?

So . . . a simple card it was! After a few indecisive days, I decided that I wanted the cards to be printed on 4x6" ivory cardstock with chocolate brown A6 backing, and mailed in olive green A6 envelopes. Because I wasn't feeling pressed for time, I had plenty of opportunity to scour the internet for the best deals on envelopes and cardstock in my desired colors. I ultimately decided to order 200 A6 envelopes in Olive Matte from paperpresentation.com for $5.25 per pack of 25. I additionally ordered 200 4x6" flat cards in Classic Crest Baronial Ivory from the website at a cost of $6.50 per pack of 25.

While it probably would have been cheaper to order the flat cards from the PaperSource, I couldn't find any 4x6" cards on the PaperSource website. With regard to envelopes, however, Paper Presentation's were light years cheaper than anything I found at PaperSource, even after factoring in the cost of shipping from New York City.

Since the PaperSource in my neighborhood has a large selection of A6 cards in all colors, I decided to cut out shipping costs on these by trekking over to the shop in person. I was in luck, since they had exactly eight packages of A6 flat cards in shimmer chocolate for $4.75 per pack of 25. Score! I promptly bought all eight packs and went home to add it to my stash from Paper Presentation:

Top left: A6 Envelopes in Olive Matte; Top right: 4x6" flat cards in Classic Crest Baronial Ivory; Bottom: A6 Flat Cards in Chocolate Shimmer.

I couldn't wait to get at these babies with my Gocco PG-11. However, I decided it would be easiest to jazz up the envelopes first. I had purchased a "Save This Date" stamp from Michael's Crafts, along with brown pigment ink, clear embossing powder and an embossing tool. I decided that it would look cute if I embossed the back flap on the envelope with the stamp. After reading some tutorials online, I stamped the back flap of one of the envelopes with the pigment ink, piled on the embossing powder and tapped it off. I even removed stray flecks of embossing powder with a tiny make-up brush. I then went to town with the embossing tool, only to end up with this:

Hmmm, not so nice! There was no way I was going to let this mess be the first glimpse our guests would have into our wedding! I tried a few more times, but they all pretty much looked the same, i.e., downright terrible. After "wasting" about seven cards (good thing they actually came in packs of 27 as opposed to 25), I decided to cut my losses and just use the plain 'ol stamp and ink. Here was the result:

Much better, don't you think? So far, I have completed 150 of these cards, and I think I'll stop there just in case that ends up being enough (we still don't have everyone's addresses, and we're not sending these cards to the fiance's side of the family, so I'm not sure how many we will need). Here are the first 50 or so, all lined up to dry (again, please excuse the poor picture quality - one day I will replace my digital camera, I swear):

Ahhh, much better. I'll admit, this project makes me feel like sort of a DIY failure. However, I think the fiance and I managed to redeem ourselves with our Gocco-riffic Save-the-Dates, which I will share next (with a full tutorial on that crazy contraption).

So, what I did wrong? I consider myself to be somewhat crafty, so I was surprised I couldn't get the hang of this! Is embossing really that hard, or did I make some sort of rookie mistake?

Happy Friday

source

Ahhh, if only every bridal salon could be as elegant as this one! I have wedding gowns on the brain right now because I have a VERY important decision to make this weekend. More next week, I promise!

This will be a fun-filled weekend for me, despite the fact that the weather is close to not cooperating (very high chance of showers and wind here). Today my mom is coming to the city to have lunch with me, and tonight I am meeting up with some of the lovely ladies from the WeddingBee local boards for happy hour. Tomorrow night I will be attending my friend's rotary club crab feed with my law school crew, and Sunday I'm off to Carmel with my mom and Maid of Honor to try on a very elusive wedding gown! Happy Friday, everyone! And if you are here in the Bay Area, stay dry!

Dressing the Gents, Part Two: It's Starting to Come Together

In this post from last week, I talked about my initial inspiration for groom and groomsmen attire. After a few long and frustrating days that I will now collectively refer to as "The Great Tie Debacle," the look finally has finally started to come together:

Score, score and score! I was able to find four Michael by Michael Kors ties in yellow-gold with white threading (left), and one in yellow-gold with yellow-gold threading. The best part? I got them all on sale, down from $59.50 to $27.50 apiece!

While I wish this had all been as uncomplicated as simply waltzing into Macy's Men's Store and selecting five perfectly-matching ties, the experience was anything but! Last week, I took a short break from the office and went to "Boy Macy's" in Union Square. I instantly fell in love with the Michael Kors ties, but didn't like that the threading was different (I initially wanted all of them to be the same). Plus, the Union Square store only had four ties, and I needed five. After checking to make sure that the ties were available online (via my iphone - customer service refused to check for me), I decided to purchase the two yellow-gold on yellow-gold thread ties and order the rest from my office.

I placed my order as soon as I got back, only to realize that I would have qualified for free shipping if I had bought all five ties online! I decided to go this route, and returned the two ties I purchased from the Macy's Men's Store the next day.

Five days later, I was excited to receive my Macy's package in the mail. I ripped it open to find two yellow-gold on white thread ties, two yellow-gold on yellow-gold thread ties . . . and one blue tie. Huh? How did that happen?

source

OK, so maybe it didn't have pugs on it! And it was a Michael Kors tie. But it was still blue and completely wrong. With a heavy heart, I trudged back to Macy's Men's Store for the third time in one week. Luckily, they hadn't sold any of the four ties I was interested in since the last time I was there. I didn't end up with five of the same ties as I had hoped, but I did get four of the yellow-gold on white thread and one of the yellow-gold on yellow-gold thread ties. Of course, the one slightly different tie will go to the fiance's best man. (I actually like the look of this loner tie better, but you didn't hear it from me!)

I just looked online this morning and realized that the ties have now gone on super-sale from $27.99 to $19.99 apiece. Rarrrr!!!! I honestly don't have it in me to trek over to Macy's Men's Store for a fourth time, so I am just going to cut my losses on this one. If this experience has reminded me of anything, it's to always shop at Nordstrom! I'm glad the Great Tie Debacle worked out in the end, but the customer service at Nordstrom really can't be beat. And no . . . I promise I am not employed or endorsed by this store - I just love it so much, I feel the need to constantly share.

Anyone else have difficulties finding matching attire/accessories for their attendents? I had no idea it would be so frustrating!

There Was No Cake . . .

First of all, I wanted to thank all of my readers for their kind comments left after yesterday's post. I knew I wasn't the only one out there going through something painful like this, and your thoughts and comments really do mean so much to me!

To move on to happier topics, as I mentioned in this post, a fellow engaged friend and I attended The Great Bridal Expo at the Marriott Hotel in Burlingame this past Saturday. I really wasn't sure what to expect, but I took the sage advice of several of my followers and refused to give out my primary email address. There is nothing I hate more than spam email, so I'm so glad you ladies shared this tip with me!

We arrived at the hotel promptly at 11:00 when the bridal fair started. First up, the organizers asked us to fill out a "registration card" that asked various questions about ourselves and our wedding. While some of the questions were fairly innocuous, I felt very uncomfortable with some of the other ones, such as "what will the joint income of you and your spouse be?" and "how much are you planning to spend on the wedding?" Huh? Why do these people need to know that!?! I made the executive decision to either skip these questions or answer them in a ridiculous way. After we were given a "swag bag" full of bridal magazines and brochures, we made our way into the conference room where the expo was held:

As you can see, we were one of the first ones there! A little bit of advice: don't be the first one to arrive if you are uncomfortable with vulture-like salespeople swooping in on you. At least if there are more people around, you can hope to blend into the crowd. It's also helpful if you have your major vendors (venue, photographer, honeymoon, dress) booked BEFORE you attend the bridal show. That way, when the bridal shows vendor's surround you to move in for the kill, you can let them know that you have already checked their service(s) off your list.

After briefly visiting the David's Bridal and Men's Wearhouse booths, we made our way around the rest of the bridal fair. By far the most popular booth was this one from Photoworks Interactive:

I have to say, I was really surprised to see so many girls at this booth. I think we can all agree that photobooths are fun and awesome, but I have personally only attended one wedding where the couple hired a booth for their guests. I would LOVE to have a photobooth at our wedding, but in the interests of keeping costs down, I'll probably just ask our photographer about DIY options instead.

The photobooth was the last one in the lineup. At this point, we were feeling a *teensy* bit disappointed that no one was giving out cake, gelato or champagne. I have read reviews of other bridal fairs, and almost every single one of them mentioned cake. Since we will not be having cake at our wedding, it would have been fun to do a mini-cake tasting at the fair. Alas, there was no cake, so this just wasn't in the cards for me.

source

Did I mention that we had just come from a delightful brunch, or that I wasn't really hungry? I just wanted some cake! After the photobooth station, there was nowhere else for us to go except for the stage area, where there was going to be a fashion show at 1:15. Did I mention that it was only about 11:45 at the time? We used the opportunity to flip through some of our bridal magazines and chit-chat about wedding inspiration. I also vainly attempted to contact a gown shop that has been trying to get its hands on a sample of my dream wedding dress for over a month (more on this when (not if!) it all works out . . . I swear).

The fashion show actually started at about 2:00 p.m., since the DJs from the DJ booth at the bridal show had to do a dance to "Thriller" first:

This was actually pretty funny. I loved the way the women in the crowd were going crazy over these guys. Afterwards, the DJs had some of the audience members sing for coupons for DJ services. One girl was really good, so they threw a whole pile of "$10 off" tickets at her.

Finally, it was time for the fashion show. Some of the designers included David's Bridal, Alfred Angelo and a few more whose designs I was not familiar with:

David's Bridal first showed off its store label collection, and then moved onto its Oleg Cassini and Galina signature lines. I hate to say it, but you could totally tell that the signature lines were constructed from nicer fabrics than the store label gowns. I'm not sure if this is true across the board, and I know plenty of girls who have purchased dresses from David's that looked beautiful in person and in photographs. With regard to the gowns presented in this show, however, the difference was very noticeable.

Toward the end of the show, the models donned hats and gloves. This look is either uber-trendy or uber-dated. I can't tell! Either way, I certainly am nowhere near cool enough to pull off this look:

All in all, I had fun at the show and am glad that we attended. Since we received free admission to the show by virtue of our memberships on theknot.com, there was really nothing for us to lose. We opted not to enter any of the drawings, but some of the prizes included 50% off towards a photobooth rental, a $500 gift certificate to David's Bridal, a complete set of pots and pans from T-Fal and the grand prize, $5,000 toward a gorgeous garden venue somewhere on the Peninsula. Even though we had a good time, I'm not sure I'll attend another bridal show. Unless there is cake. Or gelato. Or champagne. I could definitely be convinced by champagne . . .