And the Lady Wore Ivory

The dress! By far, this was the easiest party of wedding planning for me. I've actually been eyeing this dress, the Sophia long from J. Crew, for about four years. Then, just two days after we got engaged, the dress was on sale - for just $200 (normal price is $295). I ordered it to see how I liked it in real life, it came within a few days (go J. Crew!), I tried it on, it fit, I liked it, and that was that. ;)

Model, front view

Model, back view

And me. I like the non-boring elegance of the dress, which is exactly what I said last week about the shoes I'm eyeing. Non-boring elegance. Sounds like a good wedding mantra to me.

P.S. You might be thinking, "Now Justin will see her in the dress before the big day!" It's ok - he's already seen me in the dress a couple of times. I decided long ago that I was going to keep the wedding traditions that made sense to me & trash the ones that didn't. That whole "can't see the bride in her dress or you'll get bad luck" one - yeah, that ain't working for us.

Vacation - Yay! Without Justin - Boo!

I'll be away from tomorrow (the 25th) until August 2nd, spending time with my family at our summer house on Prince Edward Island, Canada. Unfortunately, Justin is on a two-week military training, so he has to miss this trip, which would have been his first time at my family's summer place. However, he & I are planning a trip up at the end of August, so that thought is sustaining me through 2+ weeks without him.

I should have limited internet access while at the cottage, so I may pop in here for a post or two. I have ones partially drafted on the venue and my dress, hair, veil & sash. If not, see you the first week of August!

The Ones?

Three months ago, if you had asked me the wedding detail that I would have blogged about most at this point, I would have gone for venue or centerpieces. I would not would have said shoes. ;) However, here's another shoe post and this time I think I've really found "the ones."

After I decided the Rock & Republic shoes were not right for me, the shoe search was back on. I really want blue shoes, which are not so easy to find in ordinary shoe stores - online or otherwise. So I found a couple of companies that sell dyeable shoes. I don't even remember how now, but I stumbled across Dyeable Shoe Company, located right in Portsmouth, NH (where we live!).

Their website is a little basic, but it's easily searchable and I quickly found a style that I loved. It's from the brand Touch Ups, who make - obviously! - dyeable shoes. Anyway, I fell in love with this style, the Sharmain.

Can you picture these lovelies in royal blue? Because I can and I'm loving the image. I like how simple, but fun this style is. It's elegant without being a boring old shoe.

After ogling the Sharmain for awhile and daydreaming about it in blue, I happened to be sorting through some of the many, many wedding-related JPG's I've been collecting on my computer since we got engaged. And lo and behold - I found the self-same shoes! Apparently, I loved these back on . . . February 25th according to the file properties. ;)

Gorgeous!

Love this Photo!

Just stopping by to post this photo from a Virginia wedding (posted on Little White Book). How can you not love this simple, sweet moment between the couple?

Indie Photo Booth

Who doesn't love a photo booth? A dear friend had one at her upstate New York wedding last summer & it was awesome. They stocked the booth with a basket of fun props (feather boas, funny hats, etc.) & it was the hit of the night (see exhibit A - my friends & I above. I'm the one in the Viking hat in the first pic).

So I decided I wanted one for my wedding. But wanting doesn't make it so, does it? When I started doing research on the cost, I failed to find a booth for rent in New England for under $850. This, unfortunately, is way above what I was hoping to pay, even if it would be awesome.

However, the saving grace? My newfound wedding DIY-ness! If we can't have an official, mechanical photo booth, why not DIY one up with the help of the interwebs? Sparked by this post at Becoming Mrs. McHugh, I started dreaming of pulling together a fun, homemade space for people to take goofy pics.

Our reception will be under a large 40' x 80' tent, but the venue also throws in the use of smaller 10' x 10' tents for whatever we need them for. I'm hoping that I can designate one of these as the "photo booth," enclose the sides with fun fabric, set up a table with some ebay-netted Polaroids & my old digital camera (with timer & mini tripod), and . . . voila! Indie photo booth extraordinaire!

(source - Becoming Mrs. McHugh)

Update on the Shoes

So. The shoes came, within a week, thanks to Zappo's fast (& free!) shipping. I tried them on without the dress and they were . . . possible, but not exactly right. The heels were a bit too high for me and I felt like I wouldn't be able to relax my leg muscles all day.

Then, I tried them on with my dress (more on that later) and my answer was clear. The shoes are awesome & edgy & cool. My dress is silky & vintage & classy. The two were not a match made in heaven.

Oh well! Nothing ventured, nothing gained. And Zappo's offers free shipping both ways, so returning the shoes will be easy-peasy.

Have any of you found shoes you love in general, but hate with your wedding dress?

Busy, Busy

My apologies for the radio silence over the last week or so. In my non-wedding-planning life, I recently interviewed for (and got!) a new job and am also tweaking my master's thesis project for a live web release, so things are a tad hectic. However, I'm still plugging away at planning on the side and have posts marinating on photobooths, shoes, centerpieces, programs, and more! Stay tuned!

Date Change

So I began this blog in March. At that point, we had the wedding date (in September 2010) nailed down and I had begun on much of the other planning. However, I was still in school in March and there was way too much going on for me to be posting on this, my third blog. My plan was to begin posting when we moved to our new apartment in June.

Then, we had a bit of a setback. My fiance is in the military and we found out that his 2010 deployment had become scheduled for August, the month before our scheduled wedding date. After some tears and anger, we moved on and spoke to both our minister and venue coordinator about changing the date.

And in the end, they both had a June 2010 date free. So, we got a shiny, brand-new date. I really liked the idea of a September wedding, but I'm getting used to a June date. The weather, for one, will be more reliably warm. Since we're having at least the reception outside, this is key.

And now that we have a date again, I felt comfortable enough to finally begin this blog. Not just comfortable, really, but excited again. :)

Is It Wrong that I Love These?

I hadn't intended to start with the shoes. I have nearly everything else planned out, which I was going to tell you in lovely detail. Later, apparently.

I was browsing Zappo's, looking for blue shoes in my size with a good-sized heel & these little babies jumped out at me. The style is the Charlotte, from Rock & Republic. They're not at all my normal style, but something about them appeals to me. They've got the right color scheme (blue & white) & the little gold buckles somehow seem nautical to me, which is the wedding theme. Hmmm . . . maybe it's not so crazy after all?