How I asked the ladies...

One Friday evening, a few ladies from the 11:30 choir and I invaded Build-a-Bear at the King of Prussia mall. We picked out animals suited to each of the ladies I would be asking to be bridesmaids. I got to stuff them and put a heart in each one. Each of the "creatures" got a fancy dress which included a purse and necklace, silver heels, and a flower bouquet. We had fun evening... and Baby K even got a froggy. Unfortunately, the B-a-B lady told me that "moose is seasonal". So, I had to pick an alternate animal for one of the ladies. Later I found out that I could get a moose through the online store. So the pictures of all of the "creatures" are missing the girl moose :-(... but she's featured in her own picture.

Thanks to Beth, Amanda, Shannon, JB, and Baby K for a fun evening at the mall!

I also made cards to go with the "creatures". You can't really tell in the picture, but the layer with the embossed dress stands off of the rest of the card with some foam squares.

Here are some pictures of the prep process...

Coming soon... The Ladies!

Dress Shopping... take 3

This weekend we went to All Things Bridal in Quakertown. I had a bit of trouble finding it after discovering that the street was closed for Quakertown Day. Somehow I ended up in the 300 block of E. Broad instead of W. Broad. 318 E. Broad doesn't appear to exist.

Anyway, I found this place through pictures on Project Wedding. The lady was wonderfully helpful. This appointment went the way I imagined wedding dress shopping would be. I had a few ideas of dresses I wanted to look at based on the pics I had seen online. Based on some questions she asked me and my responses to dresses I tried on, she selected other dresses for me to try. I tried on quite a few dresses and again narrowed the choices to a top 3. She showed me some options for making strapless styles less strapless. She had some really neat solutions to the strapless concern.

The top 3 are all very different... I don't know quite where to start on the decision matrix... ok, perhaps I should abandon the decision matrix idea. So, now I really need to convince Dad to come with me to look at dresses.

While we were there, we also looked through the rack of bridesmaid dress styles. V, Julia, and I each found a few styles we liked. I don't think we took any notes on these though; it was more like window browsing. On the bridesmaid topic, watch for posts coming soon... I have spoken with all 5 ladies. I just need to find a few more minutes to write the posts!

Dress Shopping... take 2

Dress Shopping - part II was a much better experience than part I! This weekend we (Mom, V, JB's Mom, JB's younger sis, and I) went to Jon's Bridal in Allentown to look at some dresses. They had chairs for the peanut gallery, someone to help put on/take off the dresses, and they actually paid attention to us and didn't scoff at my commentary. After trying on about 20 dresses, Roxy (the lovely lady who helped me... and listened to my commentary) had me re-try the "maybe" ones to narrow the choices down to a top 3. Since then, I have actually narrowed it to a top 2 to look at when I go back to reconsider.

The peanut gallery enjoyed mimosas during the parade of dresses. While they obviously had opinions, they didn't really share many thoughts loud enough for me to hear them.

Overall, this was a successful trip. I tried on some dresses that previously would have fallen into the "won't consider" list and actually ended up liking them. Note to self, revise the "absolutely not" list before next weekend's appointment. Now I just have to convince Dad to come back to the store to see the dresses. He's always been my go-to person for what to wear for dressy occasions. (For prom, I bought two dresses to take home to show him and returned the one he didn't like. :-) The one I kept has been very useful over the last.... __ *cringe* number of years.)

Bridal Party...

Friday evening's festivities were Part I of my "project". Part II has been in progress. Still not ready to share pictures, but I finished my little "project"... i.e. my idea for asking a few girls to be with me as bridesmaids. All the gluing is finished. Now I just have to do a little bit of writing and then find time to talk to each of the girls.

more details coming soon!

Updates... or lack thereof

Dear Bloggy Friends,

I have not abandoned you! Easter preparation has been all-consuming these last few weeks. I'm sure I am not the only liturgical musician who feels this way! Anyway, little progress has been made on any sort of wedding planning in the past few weeks.

We had been discussing what to do about music for the reception. The Changing Times will play for a little bit, but we still need to decide how to approach the rest of the music for the evening.

JB and I have discussed a bridal party... but the list cannot yet be divulged as we have not yet had a chance to speak with the individuals. Hopefully this will be coming soon.

Coming soon: wedding colors... I hope :-D I have an idea of what I'd like, but I don't think JB is quite on-board with those colors.

Dress Shopping... take 1

First stop: David's Bridal - 2/28/2010
Accompanied by Mom, JB's Mom, and MoH
Outcome: innnnnnteresting...

The store was very crowded and they weren't particularly friendly to put it nicely. JB's mom's request for a chair certainly seemed reasonable to me! The lady didn't seem to appreciate my responses/commentary on the dresses. The first one was too low cut... I could see way too much when I looked down. The straight dress was kinda pretty but too straight... won't twirl nicely when I polka. What?... yes, I said polka, thank you very much.

Skip forward, I can't exactly remember the order... one of the dresses was SUPER itchy. Itchy is not my style! There were two more with standout commentary (again, not appreciated by the store lady). One dress had a very pretty top, even though it was strapless but the bottom looked like it had bulldog jowls. Apparently this is some French style. It was a lot of dress and I felt the need to smooth it out.
And I'll leave you with my last comment gem... my impression on this dress was "I feel like I'm wearing a lotus flower."

My Mom has been privy to my absurd clothes shopping expeditions for most of my life... JB's Mom probably thinks I'm a total nut case.

Conclusion: I didn't get to try on all of the dresses that I had marked in the magazine but I wasn't really impressed with what I did try on. The material of the "bulldog dress" felt nice... most of the other dresses didn't seem to have such nice material. So, I got some ideas as far as what I like/don't like.

Aside: We got to wittness a real live bridezilla who was apparently picking up the dress she had ordered and now thought it didn't fit. She had a meltdown complete with tears and a little scene about how she'd wake up on her wedding day and not want to put on that dress and then there would be no wedding. Sorry honey, I think you have your priorities mixed up! Don't get me wrong, I want to find a nice dress and not just settle on the first one I try on but I couldn't even imagine letting a dress be the stopping factor in a wedding!!!

Maid of Honor & Best Man

One day I'll learn to actually use my camera rather than just carry it around in its case. Anywho, my "maid of honor starter kit" finally came in. So it is now official, V (my sis) will be my MoH and J (JB's bro) will be his best man. I set up my sis with a stylish Vera Bradley tote bag in the "sittin in a tree" pattern complete with matching file folders, a mini notebook, a pen, and an address book so that she can keep all the wedding info neatly organized.