The Aluminum Bride

PS

2010-05-21T19:13:00.000-07:00

Tomorrow's forecast 86 and sunny. A little hot but ZERO chance of precipitation!! PTL!

Almost Time!

2010-05-21T17:18:00.000-07:00

Well, it's Friday night. Tomorrow is WEDDING DAY! I can't believe it's here already! I've had such a blast blogging on the Aluminum Bride... thank you for joining me on my journey! I'll post some pics when I'm a Mrs! :-)

Its a Hairy Situation

2010-05-15T19:22:00.001-07:00

I am in STL... FOR MY WEDDING! OMG! 7 days until I say "I do". Less than 7 really, because it's 9:30pm right now!

I wrote a to-do list on the airplane. It's THREE pages long. I think some of these to-do's should have been to-done's, but alas I'm a serial procrastinator. Like for instance...

I SHOULD HAVE A HAIR-DO DECIDED ON.

Yes, girls, I am ONE WEEK away from my wedding and am flip flopping about my hair. The girl that did my hair for my trial was super sweet. The curl stayed in all night, BUT I wasn't impressed with the "style". I've been FREAKING out about it. I thought if I just put a little poof in the front and had her curl the rest, then maybe that would be easier and it would turn out better.

Here's me and my Jr BM on Easter, my DIY version of the "poof"

But I'm scared I'll look like a little girl and I'm worried that if my hair gets the least bit frizzy I will look like a cocker spaniel.

And I want to look like one hot biotch! NOT like a female DOG! Seriously, by this point I should AT LEAST know if I'm going to wear it up or down, but I am COMPLETELY torn. Up would be nice, very "bridal", and formal, won't fall out or get frizzy. Down is the way J likes my hair and its the way I feel the most comfortable in every day life.

So, despite the fact that I am LITERALLY broke (as in I owe my photog $200 more than I actually HAVE), I think I'm going to TRY to get another hair trial with someone who HAPPENS to be available ONE WEEK from today. I know this is a long shot. But I want to look beautiful on my wedding day and I'm terrified that I won't!

Here are some of my latest hair-spirations. Sorry, I don't rememeber where I got these, they were compiled in the midst of a paniced google session:

You Know its Close

2010-05-13T13:29:00.000-07:00

When your milk expires on your wedding day!! OMG! 9 days!

Don't Let Me Catch You Throwing These Away

2010-05-10T13:58:00.000-07:00

I remember a conversation my mom and I had about 6 months ago.

The Aluminum Bride: I don't know why brides get so stressed out right before the wedding. I mean everything is going so smoothly and we're so well prepared that surely we won't have any last minute projects. I mean, last minute projects are only for the lazy.

The Aluminum Mom: Yes, I think some girls are simply not as prepared as we are. Not to mention poised, classy, and gorgeous.

Okay, maybe that's a PARAPHRASED conversation, but the point was "we're prepared".

Or so we thought.

Programs. I hadn't FORGOTTEN about the programs, perse. I just was indecisive on the readings/music for the Mass. So finally I talked to our musician and our priest and hashed out a plan! I'm so excited! I think it will be beautiful and meaningful and I simply can't wait!!!!!

BUT, since I leave for StL in FIVE days, I knew I needed to bust out some programs like yesterday. Hello, not a good project for a girl with mild (self diagnosed) dyslexia! I mean some serious brain power went in to determining that pages 4 and 9 went on the back of 10 and 3. And yes. You read that right. We actually have a total of 12 pages in our program! The music is super duper important to me and I wanted to include all of the lyrics. Whew. What a pain!

I used Cambria and Edwardian Script as my fonts and some little scrolly graphics that turned out kind of low res, but I'm not too concerned! I also used the same design I used on my RSVP cards. I used Word, because I'm very 1995 when it comes to technology! If you're as clueless as I am, here are step by step instructions...

--I went to File>Page Setup>Margins>Orientation>Landscape

--Then in the same window I changed the margins, I just typed in 0, 0, 0, 0 and let the computer fix them for me.

-- Now for the page layout. This was TRICKY, but my BM Ana sent me her lovely template to go by. And I went by it. Until I realized that her program was 8 pages and mine was 12!!!! But it still helped. If YOU have a 12 page program, you can follow this....

Start with

12 and 1

on the back of 12 and 1 go 2 and 11

10 and 3

on the back of 10 and 3 go 4 and 9

8 and 5

on the back 8 and 5 go 6 and 7

and voila! You're done. Good luck! Here are pages 10 and 3 (10 on the left and 3 on the right)

So after I spent an entire week laying out the program I had to find somewhere to print it.

I called Office Depot

The Aluminum Bride: Hi, I need wedding programs printed, do you do that sort of thing?
Bratty Office Depot Girl: How many and what format?
The Aluminum Bride: Well, just did them in wo...

Bratty Office Depot Girl: ...I SAAAAAAAAAAAIIIIDDDD how MANY??

The Aluminum Bride: EXCUSE ME? I KNOW you did not just talk to me like that.

Bratty Office Depot Girl: (politely) I'm sorry, I was wondering how many you'd like printed.

The Aluminum Bride: THAT'S more like it.

True story. No exaggeration whatsoever in this one.

So (despite my better judgement) I brought my CD in to Office Depot the following Sunday. The Bratty Office Depot Girl was absolutely NO better in person. She was a tattooed teeny bopper who did NOT want to be working. She originally told us that they couldn't be done. But then called her supervisor over. He wasn't much more accommodating, but agreed to do them.

We found card stock that was prescored and had a pretty little black border. They also agreed to use their handy dandy folding machine to fold the inserts. YES! That just freed up about 40 hours of mind numbing work!

So 2 hours later and about 100 eye rolls from Bratty Office Depot Girl. We had the workings of some awesome (if I do say so myself) wedding programs. Now I just have to find a way to hold them together. Staples? Ribbon? I don't know!!!

THREE boxes of programs (with Bratty Office Depot Girl blurred in the background)

Music for the Masses

2010-04-30T10:05:00.000-07:00

Well, really, music for ONE Mass. :-) OUR Mass. This has been the part I've been looking the most forward to! I LOVE a Liturgy that tugs at your heart strings (I mean, I DID graduate from Franciscan University!) so, I have been on the search for the perfect music! We have an AMAZING praise and worship band. Here are some of the songs that have made our short list! I wish we could have 5 Masses so we could incorporate all of the amazing songs out there!!!

Matt Maher: Set Me as a Seal

Twila Paris: How Beautiful

Adam Bitter: Hold My Hand

Jeremy Camp: Beautiuful One

Wedding Wishes and Butter Dishes!

2010-04-30T09:51:00.000-07:00

After spending ¾ of our engagement obsessing over the perfect guest book, I finally came across this post on Wedding Bee. BINGO! I was in love. You write out various “starters” on 4x6 cardstock and let your guests fill in the rest of the sentence. Here are some that we’ll be using.

1. For a long and loving marriage…
2. My wedding wish for you…
3. May you have…
4. Always remember…
5. Always make sure to…
6. Marriage is like…
7. Always say…
8. Don’t forget to…
9. Never say….
10. Love means….
11. Marriage means….
12. Never underestimate….
13. One advantage of marriage is…
14. Marriage requires…
15. A good marriage is based on….
16. To prepare for marriage, one should….
17. The formula for a successful marriage is…
18. On your 1st anniversary don’t forget to…
19. After the reception remember to…
20. The most important thing to do on your wedding night is…

And after we’ll put them in a photo album, like THIS one that my mom bought me for all of my bridal shower photos.

I’m sure we’ll get some hilarious answers… and maybe some sweet ones. And I’ll include a few “We danced at your wedding! From____________” for people that don’t want to have to think of something clever and witty!

So my decision was made.

Now on to the next conundrum, how do I display these in a conspicuous enough place for guests to be willing to fill them out? Somewhere that wouldn’t cause congestion at the place where the guest book would normally be. I thought the tables would be nice, but I was hesitant to clutter up our beautiful tablescapes.

And then I was strolling through the Dollar Tree one day and came upon a huge display of butter dishes. I took one and flipped it upside down, used double sided tape to tape ribbon around it and voila! A Wedding Wishes container was born! I’ll use the part where the butter normally sits for the pens. And put the cards in the upsidedown lid! Perfect! And how fitting that J and J Butterton repurposed BUTTER DISHES for our wedding! Hehe!

Guest Book Blahs...

2010-04-28T10:28:00.000-07:00

I have a case of the guest book blahs. I've been searching all over the place for a unique guest book idea. I'm sure most people NEVER look at their guest books. It means so much to me that people are taking time out of their busy lives to celebrate our special day, so I knew I wanted something more than signatures in a dusty book to remind me of their presense at our wedding.

I thought about the Polaroid Guest Book, which I thought would be great... but too costly for us (Camera and film for 200ish people = expensive!) and I worried that people wouldn't want to take pictures of themselves.

SOURCE

Along the same lines I thought of a mock photobooth (a "fauxtobooth" if you will!) where guests dress up in silly costumes and print out pictures on old fashioned photobooth strips. Once again, would people do it? And I'd have to appoint someone to take and print the pictures and that sounded like A. an extra expense, or B. a pain in the rump for whomever I'd appoint, and C. a waste if people didn't want to do it. So I ixnayed the fauxtobooth idea.

SOURCE

I thought about having guests sign a photomat, but I can't imagine I'd want that hanging in my house for years to come.

SOURCE

I've seen people have coffee table books made with their engagement pictures and had guests sign the space in the margins. But I wasn't feeling that either.

SOURCE

I've seen Family Tree guest books, but not everyone at the wedding will be family.

SOURCE

I've seen Quaker Marriage Certificates, but with such a large guest list we'd need a HUGE one!

SOURCE

Then I came across an idea that I fell in love with...

To be continued...

ONLY 34,595 More Minutes

2010-04-28T10:24:00.000-07:00

24 days
576 hours
34595 minutes
2075717 seconds

YAY!!!!!!!!!

2010-04-22T13:55:00.001-07:00

We got to see and order our engagement pics today! I'm THRILLED. J and I are both EXTREMELY critical of the way we look in photos. We had rather low expectations of how they’d turn out since we're both hoping to lose some more weight before the wedding (ONE MONTH FROM TODAY!). But for a couple of Fatty McFattersons, I think these turned out pretty stinkin good!! We were so happy with Brandy, our photographer and Josh, her hubby from Something Beautiful Studio and Design. If you’re in the Birmingham (Gadsden) area, check them out! She’s so extremely talented, like a little jewel in the middle of Gadsden, Alabama!! And her sitting fee was completely reasonable too… much more so than the other engagement photographers I looked at. We have another appointment to go back to have some of these edgy shots done in our wedding duds after the big day. I'm sure we'll use her for baby (God willing) and family photos too.

Brandy will do some wicked amazing editing on the images we chose. The first one is my favorite and the second one is J's favorite. Unfortunately neither one of us was thrilled with the other's choice in favorites... but since J has already mastered the art of compromise. We got MY favorite in a wall portrait and HIS favorite in a 5x7! haha! We'll probably go back and order his favorite in a wall portrait too, when funds aren't so tight… because, hel-lo weddings are expensive!!

Without further ado, our engagement photos! (All from The Amazing Brandy at Something Beautiful)

I'd like to introduce you....

2010-04-16T10:48:00.001-07:00

To these lovely BM's that I keep talking about!!

Up first:

MOH - Kristen: Kristen and I met in the Baltimore airport. We both participated in the Crusade for Life during college, where we walked 1300 miles across the Northeast to spread the pro-life message. During our 3 months on the road we became BFFs! We laugh until we cry!

Sometimes during out 1300 mile trek
we'd get sick of walking and give each other piggy back rides

BM - Jennifer Rose: Jennifer and I met in the womb. I'm not joking. Our moms met and became best buds when they were pregnant with us. So we've literally been friends forever. She's as dear to me as a sister. She's got a great family including the cutest 16-month old son you'd ever want to meet!

This same photo of me and Jennifer Rose and her brother
is taken at every Christmas! We've had an annual
family Christmas party since we were 3 years old!

BM - Ana: Ana and I met in college. We started out at one school together and transferred at the same time to another school. At this other school we shared the weirdest apartment I'd ever seen. Complete with bullet holes, an oven that smelled like a dead person, a rickety old deck that easily could have collapsed at any moment, and an address of 1415 AND A HALF. She's beautiful. Intelligent. And holy. I mean, what more could you ask for in a BM. She recently got married and we spend way too much time emailing about weddings.

I can only pray that our wedding turns out as beautifully as hers did!! :-)

BM - Kinsey: Kinsey is J's amazing daughter. She's a college student trying to figure out what she wants to do with the rest of her life (and finds no comfort when her dad and I tell her that WE'RE still trying to figure out what we want to do with the rest of our lives too!! haha!). She's stunningly beautiful and will surely steal the show on the day of the wedding. :-) :-) :-)

See what I mean??? If J and I have ugly kids I will know it's all my fault!!! :-)

JR BM - Rachel: Rachel is my 16th cousin twice removed/goddaughter. She's 9 years old and is super sweet and just a little bit feisty! I love that! She's a fashionista and a jock!

Here we are a couple years ago!

So there you have it! My 5 lovely ladies. I feel so honored that I'll be surrounded by such amazing and diverse women on my wedding day! Love you girls! :-)

Drama Averted

2010-04-16T10:44:00.000-07:00

Thank you Jesus!

My lovely BM went to DB, found a dress she liked in the same color as the other girls' dress.

She ordered it.

I called my DB and ordered another dress for our other BM. AND even got some money back because the new dress was cheaper!! (Good work Ana!)

Whew!!!! :-)

So we'll have two girls in one dress and 2 girls in another. I think it will look great. In fact, my original plan was to let all the girls pick their own dresses... it kind of happened anyway...

So, a little bit of drama, but I got what I wanted all along! :-) Don't you love it when things work out like that!!

Go Away...

2010-04-16T09:06:00.000-07:00

DRAMA!!!!!!!!!!!!

One of my BM's called David's Bridal several weeks ago and said "what is the very last day that I can order this dress to have it in time for a wedding at the end of May". DB said "April 15th". So, she called on April 14th and said "I want to order this dress" and they said "sorry charlie, that dress no longer exists anywhere in the universe."

ANYWHERE. IN. THE. UNIVERSE.

So now what? I can't have ONE girl in a completely different dress. I can't have lopsided bridal party. (I mean, maybe one of the groomsman could walk down our junior bm, but doncha think that'd look plain silly??!!! I do.)

Well, after calling every DB in the country, telling them that this is clearly their fault. And that clearly THEY are responsible for fixing it. We decided that the only thing to do is for said BM to get a new dress in cornflower blue. DB said that we could swap out one of the other BM dresses, so we will exchange K's dress for whatever my other BM chooses. So we'll have 2 in one dress and 2 in another and pray it looks intentional.

Pre-Post-Wedding Depression

2010-04-14T13:13:00.000-07:00

So we're less than 6 weeks away from the "big moment". And there have been so many wonderful "little moments" so far leading up to it... Unfortunately I've been obsessing over some of those moments that J and I have missed out on. There will be no other time in my life that I'll be a bride to be, so I'm dissappointed at myself for omitting some of the "regular" pre-wedding "moments" from our planning. I feel like I'm having PRE-post wedding depression.

Like STDs (save the dates thankyouverymuch). I spent weeks looking at different STDs and by the time I got around to CHOOSING STDs, it was too late to send them out. Save the Date for J and Jill's wedding, invitation to follow in 3 weeks. Ya know? Silly. So no, STDs, I've been comforting myself with the knowledge that we saved some dough!

I also TOTALLY regret not having engagement portraits done. They came with our wedding package, but the only time we were planning on being in St. Louis together was when J's dad died. My dear BM (bridesmaid thankyouverymuch) told me that the pics we took of ourselves when we got engaged would suffice as e-pics.

But I wanted REAL e-pics. I thought it'd be good for us to have some practice having pictures taken OF us, rather than taking them of ourselves. My darling J has a tendency to smile like Zoolander. I think it's endearing, but I don't want a whole wedding album full of THIS. . . .

SOURCE

I couldn't shake my pre-post wedding regret when it came to these silly e-pics. So I cyber stalked MANY photographers in Bham. Called them all to find out what they'd charge for simple e-pics... and about threw up when they told me their price. Session fee $300. 8x10 $150. 4x6 $55. WHAT? Are you KIDDING me???? (Why do I not take photographs for a living!!???)

Finally I remembered a photographer that J and I met during one of our favorite "Aluminum Dates" to Gadsden, Alabama's First Friday. The studio is called Something Beautiful. And it had EVERYTHING I wanted! It is a little hip and urban and just a wee bit edgy (ironic because J and I are not so hip, very SUB-urban, and as traditional and un-edgy as they come!!). What drew me in was THIS picture found on her website. YES! SHE HAS A BLACK AND WHITE DAMASK BACKGROUND!! And she's reasonable! And she edits all glowy, like I like!! Perfect! We're scheduled for this Saturday at 4pm! Now, I just have to find something to WEAR!!! UGH!

SOURCE

DI... WHY?

2010-04-09T13:40:00.001-07:00

SIX weeks until I get married. SIX WEEKS. I’m hyperventilating into a paper bag right now. This completely snuck up on us! We probably should have had these invites out, say 2 weeks ago, but they didn’t get finished until about mid-night last night. As you remember, these invites were our first wedding related purchase, over a year ago. A year ago I had no idea we'd end up with such contempt for the little buggers. (How ironic that just days earlier I posted about these invites saying that they'd save me gray hairs! HA! Hindsight, dear friends.)

SOURCE

First. Printing. We decided to have the invites printed by a professional. We couldn’t afford engraving (seriously, who can? It’s a fortune!!!), but we were able to use thermography (raised letter printing). The invites turned out beautifully. BUT, I designed a fancy schmancy little monogram to go at the top of the RSVP cards. I LOVED it. But when I saw it in person I was horrified. I’d forgotten that there was a scrolly design already printed on the RSVP paper. It looks uber busy. Of course, Mom, Dad, J and a dear BM all told me it looked fine and I was overreacting (who moi??!), but I’m still disappointed in the way they turned out. My only consolation, they’re RSVP cards, so they’ll get sent back to my folks!

Secondly. Direction Cards. We needed direction cards. Our ceremony and reception are in two different locations, we needed TWO sets of directions, and I didn’t really know how I wanted to approach this. I went to wedding mapper and tried my hand at my own maps inspired by wedding bee (if I would have stuck with these, I'm sure my guests would have ended up in East Zimbabwe for the wedding, and Alaska for the reception), nothing looked right. I finally decided to ditch the map idea all together and just print out the directions. Happily, I went about double sided printing both sets of directions on the perforated direction cards that came with our invitation set. Uh. Oops. You CAN’T double side print on perforated cards. I had no idea. So, back to square one. I ditched the perforated cards and bought 4x6 card stock at Hobby Lobby. I double sided printed those, 2 per card, and then had them cut at Office Max for under a dollar and it took maybe one minute! Seriously, if you need a big set of anything cut, take them to Office Max pronto!

Thirdly. Typing. I don’t know how to merge one document into another, so I spent an entire evening typing my guest list’s addresses into Avery label templates. And that was just MY guest list. Dad spent an entire evening typing his list too. My eyes grew crossed and my head started to spin. My heartfelt apologies if your label has some poor misconfiguration of your name on it!

Fourthly. Stuffing. I spent a whole other evening stuffing direction cards and RSVP cards into 150 invites. Thankfully, my beloved Cardinals were on tv. Envelope stuffing, Card's baseball, and Imo's Pizza/toasted ravioli. If you're from St. Louis, I've just described your image of heaven (sans envelope stuffing, I hope!)

Fifthly. The bows. I told my mom that the bows that came with the set weren’t critical. We could just leave them off. It’d save us a lot of work and they wouldn’t be missed. Mom liked the bows. So, I started tying them on the invitations. Mom said something along the lines of “can’t you get them to look normal”, I couldn’t. But she could, hers looked like perfect little Martha Stewart bows, so she took over the bow tying task. 9 days, and a finger blister later, she has 150 perfectly tied bows. (actually, some people might not have gotten bows.... maybe it was more like 30 perfectly tied bows... but they are PERFECT.)

My Attempt:

Mom (Momtha Stewart)'s Perfection:

Sixthly (I’m making up words). The label putting on. Our invites are black. So we needed labels, as I mentioned thirdly, we printed them on Avery templates. Avery templates are wonderful. But they don’t actually put the labels on for you, where's Mr. Avery for that?? You have to do that yourself. ;-p hehe! Well, Mom had to do that herself. I was back in Birmingham by that time. Another. Day’s. Work. (PS. Thanks for all your hard work, Mom!)

Seventhly. Work invites. All the aforementioned hard work doesn’t count the invites we’re giving friends from work (J and I work together). We decided to do those separately, since we only had 150 fancy invites. We got 2 sets of black and white damask(ish) invites from Gartners. I took a bunch of the extra sillyly printed RSVP cards with me to stuff in the work invites. Oops, they are done in raised lettering. I can’t send out raised letter RSVP cards and flat invites. So, I sent off the work invites to a printer in Birmingham (didn’t get nearly the good deal we got in St. Louis!) for them to be done in thermography as well. Still waiting on those. And then the long, tedious task starts all over! Thank goodness there aren’t any bows on those!

SOURCE

The moral of this story. It might cost a teensy bit more. But don’t DIY your invites. Seriously, who needs the headache... or the blisters. You could order your invites, and they could arrive in a box, neatly, completely at your door.

Flow It, Show It, Long as God Can Grow It, My HAIR

2010-04-09T11:16:00.001-07:00

I fell in love with J practically instantly. And practically instantly I decided I’d grow my hair out for the wedding. Yes. I was thinking about the wedding after date, say, 3. So my hair has gone from this. ...

to this...

In the time we’ve been dating. (I also got the gap in my teeth closed a couple years ago in anticipation of our wedding day. I'm serious. This was a good year and a half pre-engagement!... I'm only admitting all of this because I will be getting married in SIX weeks! hehe!)

Now its practically time for the wedding. I had my hair trial this weekend. I worried that my hair was TOO long. That it would compete with the beautiful V at the back of my gown. J would adamantly disagree and my mom would give her left leg for me to cut my hair into a shoulder length bob as I wore it for 24 of my 28 years. I contemplated getting a PRE-wedding chop, but decided on a mere trim instead. I'm so glad I did. At my trial my hair held the curl better than it had EVER done before!

I spent hours scouring the internet for the perfect wedding do and for the perfect wedding stylist. Since I live in Birmingham (and am madly in love with my stylist here… and even thought about flying him to St. Louis for the wedding), I’ve had to take a leap of faith in the hair department. I noticed on Facebook that an old high school friend got married. I LOVED her hair, so I emailed her and asked her where she got her hair done. She told me, I scheduled an appointment and I spent TWO hours getting it recreated on my head!

(NOTE TO SELF: before taking a picture that you will willingly post on the internet for countless people to view... please freshen up your makeup and tuck in your bra straps)

Here's the verdict. I LOVE the curl. She curled it with a Chi Straightening Iron, like you would curl a ribbon with scizzors! It was amazing to watch! The curl stayed in all night. And it wasn't crispy crunchy curl, but rather soft lucious curl! :-) I wasn't in love with the front. I felt a little cone-headed, with the sides of my hair plastered to my head (before I pulled a few strands loose) and the top as tall as a Southern beauty queen. ;-)

The next day I did a little bump in front. I tried on my veil. I got tingly! I found my REAL bridal hair style! Unfortunately it would mean not wearing the tiara that my dear friend was letting me use as my "something borrowed". And I thought for sure my mom would refuse to have a daughter who was a tiara-less bride. So I sat at the table with my mom, with my tingle inducing hair, she looked at me and said "you should wear your hair like that for the wedding". So there you have it. The story of how my wedding hair developed. ;-) Here's what I'm going for...

I'm sorry, I have no clue where I got this picture, I've had it saved to my computer since my hair was short and my teeth were gapped! hehe! I guess I've wanted this style forever!!!

Brilliant Photographers!

2010-04-09T11:16:00.000-07:00

I love photography. I’m okay at it. But I always want to get better. When I first discovered Jessica Claire and Becker, I flipped. And spent WAYYYYYYY too long going through each of their blog posts. They are both brilliant photographers that shoot in a way that is exactly what I hope my images to look like (both the ones I photograph and the ones photographed of me!).

I’m sure what I like about both artists is their impeccable photo editing. I mean, photography is a whole different ballgame than it was 10 years ago. I believe that if you learn to edit really well, that is what sets you apart from other wedding photographers. I adore that new “glowy” feel. It’s almost magical!

SOURCE **WARNING YOU WILL SPEND
ALL DAY ON THIS MAN'S WEBSITE!!!!!!!

Check out Becker’s before and after shots (all pictures below from there). Genius!! He takes photos from good to AH-MAZING! See…

Jessica Claire shoots a lot of romantic Mid-Summer Nights Dreamish photos, of weddings with a lot more uniqueness and style than my “I know damask is overdone” wedding. I wouldn’t pick that level of vintagey goodness for my own nuptials, but there’s something about her images that I’m absolutely drawn to! It’s that vintage image done in a modern way that I love.

SOURCE **HOPE YOU HAVE ANOTHER WHOLE DAY!!!

When I first started planning my Aluminum Wedding, I knew I wanted “classic and timeless”, I know I am having elements of 2010 (such as the forementioned overdone damask), but my hope is that when my kids look at my wedding album, they find little to laugh at! :-)

Wardrobe Malfunction

2010-03-29T14:18:00.000-07:00

I was absolutely thrilled to be a recipient of the Susan B. Anthony List young leader award. I feel completely honored and thoroughly undeserving.

But it was QUITE the journey to get to DC for the Gala. As I mentioned previously, J's dad passed away last week. The day after his funeral I got sick as a dog. There's a nasty stomach bug going around and I got it big time. I was the type of sick where I moaned and called on Jesus. It was awful. I got it on Sunday and spent all day Sunday and all day Monday in bed. I SHOULD have spent all day Tuesday in bed too, but I had tons to do to get ready to leave for Washington DC on Wednesday.

Finally Wednesday rolls around. I'm still weak and tired but so excited. I got to the airport in plenty of time, got through security with no problems, and got to the gate in time to find out that my flight had been delayed 3 hours, which would mean I'd miss my connection and get to DC at 8pm, smack dab in the middle of the Gala. I went to the desk and asked for a different flight. I had to go BACK out to get a new ticket, and then go through security AGAIN. I was SO tired and frustrated, but ended up getting to DC just an hour later than I'd expected.

I spent WAY too much time getting dolled up, and met my good friend Emily. She drove to the Willard. We got out of the car and handed the keys to the valet.

Then I heard the valet yelling after me "Ma'am, Ma'am!! I don't mean to be dirty... but your DRESS!". I reached behind me and realized that my dress was completely undone, from the top ALL THE WAY to the bottom... my zipper had completely broken.

So I ran through this fancy pants hotel in the company of politicians and millionaires with my dress hanging completely open for all of our Nation's Capital to see my bizniss. Needless to say, I was mortified. Emily and I went to the front desk to get a sewing kit, but in the back of my mind I was thinking "yeah right, this is unfixable". I panicked. I was certain that I'd have to miss the Gala and turn around and go home.

Then I remembered that we'd passed a Filene's Basement on the way to the Willard. I asked the lady at the front desk how far it was, and thankfully it was just a couple blocks away. Emily and I ran to the store, (as I called J and my mom to tell them what happened... later I find out that J called my mom and said "she really got me this time" because he didn't believe me! He didn't believe me beacuse I wasn't crying! lol! Come on! No time to cry!!!!) grabbed a bunch of dresses, tried them on, found one that was fine, threw the dress and my debit card and Emily and had her buy it for me, threw my old dress in the trash can, and ran back to the Gala. OMG. I was sweating and my hair was frizzy, but praise the Lord, no one knew that they almost got a show with their dinner. And all I missed was the VIP cocktail reception. ;-) They say I'll laugh about this someday... we'll see.

I started the evening in THIS dress:

And ENDED the evening in THIS dress...

I’ve got a Fairy Godmother…

2010-03-29T10:27:00.000-07:00

Well, not really a Fairy Godmother… really an Aunt. A brilliantly talented Aunt who is serving as my pre-wedding skin care personal trainer. Here are a few of her tips for my normal skin, to get in prime wedding shape by May (and all around good shape after that!). Luckily you can find these tips here on the Aluminum Bride… because I think she should package, market and sell her skin care brilliance for a hefty profit. ;-)

Here ya go ladies...

1. Get thee to Walmart, K Mart, or the like and buy a pack of the cheapest, thinnest, nastiest wash cloths you can find.
2. While you are there, pick up a new sheer foundation. Most places will let you return the item if you do not get a good color match. Ask before you buy. I like Cover Girl Smoothers. Select a color that matches your own skin color just above the jaw line. If you have a break out – just dab a little concealer on the lovely little zit and tap it with your fingertip to blend. Wear your make-up a sheer as possible any place that you are not having a break out. People usually notice the nose, mid forehead, and cheeks. If those are blemish free, the eye assumes that the rest of the skin is clear. If one has heavier makeup in that area, it looks like you need to cover something – and you don’t. Trick the eye.
3. For over-the-counter products, Olay and Neutrogena are pretty good. Pick up a day moisturizer with SPF of at least 30 and wear it every single day. Don’t waste your money on department store brands. You are paying for packaging and ads.
4. For cleaning your skin. Remember that make-up remover and skin cleanser are two different things. Any day you wear make up, you will have to remove the make up before you clean your skin. In my opinion, oil based products work the best for make up removal. So…. Buy a jar of cheap old Ponds Cold Cream. At the end of the day, remove your make up by GENTLY massaging the product into your make up so that it “joins” then tissue it off. Do this as many times as needed – usually only twice is necessary- until not a trace of color shows up on the clean tissue.
5. When you are done removing the make up – take one of the cheap wash clothes and use warm water to remove any oily residue. Use a fresh cloth each day.
6. Do NOT use any kind of toner. Toners are a colossal rip-off. They say that they remove any left over make up. Hello! If the make up has been removed, there isn’t any left over. Also, only 5% of the cost of toner is for actual product. The rest is packaging and profit. Needless to say, most manufacturers train their people to sell toner.
7. Now, you can clean your skin. Yea. At last. Pick up any Skin Cleanser in the Olay or Neutrogena line for normal skin. Just follow direction. This will go very fast because you have already done most of the work.
8. Choose a night cream for normal skin and apply. The whole cleansing process should take less than 5-7 minutes.
9. Now for the big guns…….. After one week of the above routine, use the microderabrasion kit (Olay Regenerist) I sent you.
10. Let me know how your skin is responding as we go along.
11. In the morning – are you a morning shower person? – just rinse your face with water – do not let the shower beat on your face.
12. If you want to be really aggressive, while you are in the shower (or when you get out, I guess), use the exfoliator I sent you very, very, very gently. This will give your skin a beautiful surface for make up application. Most professionals will tell you to use the exfoliator once or twice a week but that is because people are too rough. I have been exfoliating almost daily for over 30 years and have never had any irritation. But you must be very light of hand! Note that the product I choose did not have any “natural “stuff like crushed apricot seeds etc. These “crushed” products have sharp edges and can cut the skin. Always choose a product that has “spheres” or “beads”.

J's Dad

2010-03-26T11:01:00.000-07:00

My beloved J lost his father last week. Please pray for the repose of the soul of his dad and for comfort and consolation to J's whole family. It was a sad week. His illness was a direct result of years of smoking. Please consider J's father the next time you pick up a cigarette... I'll get off my soapbox now. ;-)

Invites!

2010-03-15T10:08:00.000-07:00

We bought our DIY set of invites ages ago. Probably a year or more. I absolutely fell in love with them and had to have them!!

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I still love them, but the quick, easy, cheap part of the DIY has turned out to be a bit of a hassle. I spent HOURS (literally) mewing over different fonts. I loved the J in one font, but the C in in another and after days of combining fonts and changing sizes, kerning, and character spacing (with some help from the graphics guy with whom I share an office) I finally came up with something I was happy with.

Invites? Done.

Now on to the direction cards. Our kit came with an itty bitty card on which we were supposed to write the directions. BUT, we needed directions to the Church AND to the reception venue. 1 itty bitty card. 2 sets of directions. Now what? We decided to scratch the itty bitty card that came with the set all together and use matching card stock, we have to cut them out, which will be a bit of a hassle, but this way we can print double sided. (apparently you can’t print double sided on the perforated paper that came with the invite set)

Direction cards? Done.

Now those pesky RSVP cards. I wanted something with a little splash. I was about to buy one of those fancy monograms I’d blogged about, but then I thought “I wonder if I can do that myself” so I did.

RSVP cards? Done.

Now I’ve emailed all of our info to the printer who said she could do raised type for $56 for the invites and the RSVP cards! This sounds like an OUTSTANDING deal and will save me the gray hairs of trying to print out the invites ourselves! Without further ado, our invites:

An eensy weensy version with names/dates erased to protect the innocent! hahah!

FAM-ILY Forget About Me, I Love YOU

2010-03-15T09:45:00.001-07:00

I know, I know, blog posts are supposed to be light hearted and heavy on the DIY. But I have to say, the closer the wedding gets, the more philosophical I become! I've been thinking a lot about family and what it means to me. Of course, I've been utterly blessed with my nuclear family. We're close. And loving. And everything that I hope my new family to be. But my parents got "stuck" with me. J CHOSE to be my family. MY NEW FAMILY. J and I are creating a family. That feels so important. Its our responsibility to bring up little kids to be functioning and happy and productive members of society. I feel like our marriage will be adding something to the world. And I'm proud and excited.

Okay, now on to the invites...

Music to My Ears

2010-03-09T13:53:00.000-08:00

Taking advice on Mass songs. We're having a worship band led by Adam Bitter. Here's one song that's a no brainer, "Hold My Hand"! I've adored it from the minute I heard it! :-)

I want a fantastic Wedding Mass, in fact, that is the part I've been dreaming about the most. We're having a wonderful, dynamic priest and a great band! I want our guests to be led deeply into prayer and have an amazing experience. Any suggestions???

I ♥ My Ring

2010-03-04T14:23:00.000-08:00

I obsessed over my Dream Ring (DR) for months before J proposed. J and I went ring shopping and when I tried it on I felt like Cinderella! It was my glass slipper. I had an aha moment. I had my heart set on this bad boy and if it was anything different I would have been crushed. Of course J KNEW I had my heart set on it... so he did too! :-) The night he proposed I spent hours photographing my ring. (I know, how romantic! hehe!) And here's what I came up with:

I LOVE my ring and I love photography, so it’s no big surprise that I spent soooo much time shooting my ring. I have a decent camera that allowed me to get in close for some great detail. But I wished I’d come across THIS website before I started shooting. For anyone that wants a great shot of their bling, but doesn’t know how to get one, Ann Ruthman is your answer! Ann Ruthman offers tips on how to photograph your ring with a point and shoot camera to get some excellent shots of it! We've all seen pictures of rings that look like this:

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Her website will teach you to take your ring off, find good light, set your camera to macro mode, set up an interesting background, take a gazillion pictures and edit the heck out of them (if you have the knowledge and capabilities)... and pretty soon you'll be taking pictures that look like this:

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Happy photographing, girls!!

How I Knew J was the One

2010-03-04T13:36:00.001-08:00

Today J and I celebrated (well, gave each other cards, not much of a ‘celebration’) our four year dating anniversary. Being with J for four years is like one of those Twilight Zone episodes where it feels impossible that we’ve been together for FOUR WHOLE YEARS and at the exact same time feels impossible that it has ONLY BEEN FOUR YEARS!

Four years and one day ago a couple girlfriends and I were having a girls night after the television show that J directs and I produce (I assistant produced at the time). One of the girls mentioned J and I went on and on and on and on about what a wonderful guy I thought he was. Finally she interrupted my soliloquy to say “Do you like J??????” It was like a light bulb went on in my head “Um, yes. I think I do!” I was giddy and embarrassed at the same time. J is a lot older than me and we come from different religions. I didn’t think that a ‘real’ relationship was possible for us. But dang. But he was so cute and so sweet that I had a MAJOR crush. The next evening a mutual friend was having a party at a club. J walked in with his buddy and I got tingly. It felt like we were drawn to each other that night.

(wow, check out my short hair!!)

I was convinced immediately that I wanted to be with this man. But it took him a little bit longer to be so sure about me! We dated for a couple months. Then he got sent to St. Louis for a big event that the TV Network we work for was putting on. A girlfriend and I decided to go to St. Louis too even though we didn’t have to work. We drove. During the event this girl got really sick. She decided to fly back to Birmingham, leaving me to drive 10 hours alone. Ugh. Awful. Well, J thought it was pretty awful too, so he gave up his quick and easy 1 hour non-stop flight to drive back 10 hours and through 5 states so I wouldn’t have to be alone.

Before we left I had prayed for a sign that we should be together. I asked specifically for rainbows. During our 10 hour drive through 5 states we saw 10 rainbows! It was his sacrifice and all those dang rainbows that had me convinced that J was the one for me. Every day over the past four years has been filled with thoughts of him. Every day I’ve come to know and love him more. And in only 80 days I’ll be his wife. I can’t believe how lucky I am. I hope it doesn’t rain on our wedding day… but if it does, I pray for a rainbow!

A Wedding is a Day, A Marriage is a Lifetime

2010-03-04T13:06:00.000-08:00

J and I are getting married in the Catholic Church. The Catholic Church requires some form of marriage preparation before you can get married. We chose to go on an Engaged Encounter weekend.

Let’s be honest here. I was DREADING this. Absolutely dreading it. J is the sweetest man ever, but he’s more of a “doer” than a “sayer”. He’ll do sweet things for me all day long, but when it comes to whispering sweet nothing in my ear, he’d probably tell me that my ear smelled nice… or something goofy like that. Poor J was dreading this weekend even more than I was.

First things first. It was FIVE hours away. They offered weekends in Birmingham but none that worked with J’s crazy traveling schedule. But even WITH gas money, the EE in Mobile was $100 cheaper than the one in Bham. That helped convincing J that the long drive was worth it.

And it REALLY WAS worth it. It was such an amazing weekend. We listened to talks given by couples that had been married for 50 + years and one that had been married for almost 30 years discuss the trials and joys in their own marriages. The ups and downs and how they dealt with them. It was inspiring to hear stories of couples who have had a lifelong, successful and happy marriage. Who remained committed to each other despite human weaknesses.

After the talks we split up and wrote love letters to our fiancés, based on several different questions. J’s not much of a “sayer” but he’s a darn good writer!! After we wrote our letters we got back together to read and discuss them. I LOVED reading what J wrote to me. I KNOW J thinks I’m terrific, but to have a love letter that says so means so much to me! We were able to discuss some minor issues we have, our hopes for the future, how to resolve conflict and how to make decisions. The whole weekend was so edifying and fruitful. I feel like J and I really connected and grew as a couple. If you would have asked me prior to the weekend if I thought J and I would get a divorce I would have said “I hope not”, but after this weekend I’d say “DEFINITELY NOT!”

I highly recommend making an Engaged Encounter weekend or doing some other form of marriage preparation. The statistics they told us about on the weekend were that 1 out of every 2 marriages ends in divorce, but only 1 out of every 500 marriages of couples who attend an Engaged Encounter end in divorce! I like those odds!

WOW!

2010-03-02T09:44:00.001-08:00

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I just found out that I have received the Susan B. Anthony List Young Leader Award for 2010. They give out four awards every year to young women who exemplify leadership in the pro life movement. Have to say, I'm wondering how they couldn't have come up with someone better than moi! Maybe I should offer some recommendations of some really outstanding young women. Maybe they thought "heck, this girl has potential... and she won't be considered YOUNG for much longer... so let's hop on it!" Hehe!

But heck, for right now I'm going to bask in it. I'm thrilled to death!! THRILLED. They are sending me to DC for a Gala at the Willard Hotel, which is so fancy I'd never even heard of it and subsequently passed out when I googled it. BEAUTIFUL! Don't tell the organizers, but I'd be happy in a Holiday Inn!! :-)

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The ONLY problem (other than their lack of discernment in picking ME) is that the gala in DC falls in the middle of my busiest wedding planning stretch ever. At first I thought there is NO WAY I'm flying to DC in the midst of this hectic time. But then my Dearest reminded me that it is quite and honor, a once in a lifetime opportunity, and that I can sleep on our honeymoon!!

March 19: Drive to St. Louis
March 20th: Bridal Shower in St. Louis
March 21st: Engagement Pics in St. Louis
March 22nd: Drive back to Bham
March 23rd: Back at work
March 24th: Trip to DC for Gala
March 25th: Fly back to Bham, prepare and film TWO shows, Mom comes in town
March 26th: Fun with Mom in Bham
March 27th: Fun with Mom in Bham
March 28th: Bridal Shower in Bham
March 29-April 1: Fun with Mom in Bham
April 1: Fly to St. Louis with Mom
April 2nd: Good Friday in St. Louis
April 3rd: Bridal Shower in St. Louis
April 4th: Easter
April 5th: Fly back to Bham
April 6th: COLLAPSE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Men Are Like Trolleys

2010-02-23T15:57:00.000-08:00

I have a confession to make. I’m in love. WITH TROLLEYs. Whenever J sees a trolley he yells “JILL a TROLLEY!” and I swoon.

When I was in college my girl friends and I were yapping about a boy (actually a boy I USED to be engaged to) and this priest was in the room listening to our babbling and he said to us “I’ll tell you what girls, men are like trolley’s a new one comes along every 15 minutes”. We thought this was absolutely hysterical. Like roll on the floor quote it incessantly funny.

And then we recounted this story to a sweet and humble and very holy mother that we’d met, and SHE said “yeah girls, but one you’ll ride your whole life”. As if the fits of giggles were bad when the PRIEST said that, well when this sweet woman accidentally fell into the most unintentional double entendre we’d ever heard, we laughed until we cried… and some of us might have peed our pants… it was like laugh until milk comes out your nose funny. The comment was funny. The look on this poor woman’s face was PRICELESS. 6 years later when one of us quotes it we die laughing like it was the first time.

I’d dreamt of having a trolley at my wedding since that day. I knew there’d only be a handful of girls there that understood the hidden meaning. I knew that the “congratulations on finding the one you’ll ride your whole life” comments would sound completely inappropriate to unknowing ears. But I HAD to have a trolley.

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Then I discovered how much these sweet rides cost.

$500. 1.5 hours.

OMG. Are you kidding me? That’s like $5 a minute. I don’t think so.

So. On to plan B.

I have a beautiful car. I call her Saucy. And I love her. So that’s what J and I will be driving around in on the day of the wedding. Yes, it feels a little “every day”, since I drive her EVERY DAY. But the price (free) can’t be beat!

Anyone else just using their car on the day of the wedding?

Wha???? THREE MONTHS?!

2010-02-22T10:57:00.000-08:00

How did that happen?!?!?!

I'm not freaking about being married to my fella.
I'm not freaking about getting everything done on time.
I'm not freaking about having enough money for our honeymoon/rehearsal
dinner/photography/videography (the jerk that rear ended us on the interstate will be paying for those things... well his insurance company actually)

BUT I am TOTALLY freaking about losing weight and fitting into my dress. Like seriously. I'm talking nightmares and cold sweats. I know J loves me as I am, but I will love our pictures a whole lot more if I can lose like a ma-ga-zillion-trillion more lbs. I've already lost 20. That's only a mi-ga-zillion-trillion left to go. ;-) Dear God, please help me!!!!!!!!!!

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Fun With Guns

2010-02-22T10:47:00.000-08:00

So we’ve done it. We’ve completed the wedding task I’d been dreading the most. REGISTERING.

First stop, Target. We sat Dad in the snack bar and J had to get a few groceries so Mom and I got started on our own. We scanned the heck out of that store! I would ask my mom what she thought about a certain item and every time her reply was “Scan it”. hehe! We found some lovely things at great prices. BUT we were treated like we were an inconvenience to the Target staff. I even had to ask them how to use the scan gun. I felt like saying “I’m asking 200 people to shop in your store, BE NICE TO ME”. Eventually J joined me and Mom joined Dad. J was a little half hearted about the small appliances and baking sheets so I asked him if he wanted to use the gun. Good thing I was pretty much done, because once I gave it to him, it was the point of no return! I practically had to pry it out of his hands! Haha! What did he scan? A $250.00 surround sound thingy. Boys.

Next stop, Bed Bath and Beyond. Mom and I went to BBB by ourselves and left the boys at home. I’m sure they watched sports and did other manly things. As shoddy as the service was at Target, the staff at Bed, Bath, and Beyond made us feel like royalty. Seriously. They knew what they were doing. They told us that if we had any questions or needed any information on a product to just ask. When I did have questions, they were knowledgeable about the products and offered great advice as to why one product was better than another. Now I understand the “beyond” in their name, they really went out of their way and I will do WAY more shopping there from now on. Our consultant, Mike, even had our registry printed out and ready to go by the time we were done. He plopped it down on the table and mom and I lost it in a fit of giggles. It was EIGHTEEN pages long. We’d scanned pretty much everything in the whole stinkin store. EVERYTHING. I didn’t even think we NEEDED very much.

So the consensus. It wasn’t so bad. If you’re looking for places to register, forget the clichéness of it and get thee to Bed Bath and Beyond. (Especially the new on Manchester Road in Ballwin, MO… ask for Mike). I’m sure you’ll go to Target too, I don’t regret going there, but I do think they could use a lesson from Bed, Bath and Beyond when it comes to customer service… at least their return policy has improved. And by the way. If you’ve had a good experience at a Bed Bath and Beyond you can call 1-800-Go-Beyond and brag on your consultant… they’ll get some sort of bonus.

My Mother’s Fake Jewels

2010-02-16T16:31:00.000-08:00

You’ve all been gracious counterparts in my quest for the perfect earrings. We’ve looked, together, at every store/blog/etsy shop for these elusive, magical earrings. The earrings that would take me from being a bride to being a B-R-I-D-E.

Ah, come on. They’re just earrings, right?! Haha! For some reason, they seemed important. It seemed like they could make or break my whole ensemble. (Once again, what will I obsess with after the wedding is over? Maybe I’ll STILL be obsessing over the earrings, who knows!)

If you’re just joining in, you’ll need to be caught up to speed.

I wanted earrings that were blingy, had a pearl, and in some way resembled my awesome e-ring (which I realize would only be noticed by me and my mom). I found a gazillion “close but no cigars”. I figured I would just have to compromise on one of the must haves on my list.

But as I entered my Mom’s room the first night I was in St. Louis, my eyes were immediately drawn to a pair of earrings on her vanity. It was “them”. THE earrings. The mystical, magical, clandestine earrings I’d been obsessing over.

They had pearls. They had bling. AND they resembled my e-ring. And went perfectly with my BFF's tiara.

I picked them up and said to my mom “WHAT are THESE?”.
And she said “Oh yeah, I was just digging through some of my jewelry and thought you might like them”.
I said “LIKE them? They’re PERFECT”
And she said “I thought so too!”

Turns out she wore them at her 35th wedding anniversary party (look close, she’s wearing them in the picture of her and my dad on THIS post)

Another something borrowed, which makes me feel grateful and sentimental and connected to a silly tradition that's bigger than me and my wedding.

Sorry, ladies, I couldn't get a good pic of them.

Wedding Crashers Numero Dos

2010-02-16T10:57:00.000-08:00

I’m home from a glorious 10 day trip home to St. Louis for wedding planning…. Um I mean for work. Yes. My employer sent me to St. Louis for work. Hehe.

-First things first. We had an appointment at our reception venue for a menu tasting. It was during another wedding, which I thought was simultaneously really weird and really cool. The poor bride kept looking up to the balcony where we were eagerly leaning over the ledge (not so) subtly stalking her wedding.

Mom, Dad, Jody and I had an absolute blast. We ate dinner in the balcony and loved everything they served us. We expected plan ole` wedding food, but we were all pleasantly surprised. We had chicken marsala, which we’ll likely choose as one of our meat selections. And roast beef, which three of us thought was a little dry and one of us LOVED.

The room was BEAUTIFUL… even though it wasn’t decorated to our tastes. (Come on, fake roses in glass vases AND white feathers?... Didn’t seem to mesh).

We spent the whole night thinking about our wedding. Dreaming about what our night would be like. If we have half as much fun at our real wedding as we did crashing this one, I think it will be a success!! Its weird to think that the next time I'm in that room I'll be the Aluminum WIFE!!Can't wait! :-) Here I am with the Aluminum Dad, the Aluminum Groom, and the Aluminum Mom.

Let Them Eat Cake With Expensive Crystal Banding...

2010-02-16T10:36:00.001-08:00

As I've mentioned, the cake was not a top priority of mine. A basic cake came included in the price of the reception venue. I wanted to be committed to the basic cake, I knew it technically wasn’t “free”, but I didn’t want to have to fork out too much extra moolah for it either. … I mean, ya get a couple pictures of it and then it gets EATEN.

That being said, I met Sylvia Weinstock once at a bridal show and fell in love with her AMAZING non-budget friendly masterpieces and had to have one.

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I watched a Cake Boss marathon once. I fell in love with Buddy’s AMAZING non-budget friendly creations and had to have one.

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I did some google searches (how did brides plan a wedding pre-google?!?!?) and I fell in love with THIS and REALLY had to have one.

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As much as I loved the fantastic details of Buddy's and Sylvia's cakes, it was the glitzy-ness and the simplicity that I fell in love with on this one. I thought it was “the one”. Then I did a little MORE research and discovered that for the price of glitzy-ness and simplicity I could practically buy a whole other cake!!! Wow! That crystal cake banding is a fortune. Like $75 a yard! Wow! Talk about a budget buster! If you’re not concerned about breaking the bank, or if you’ve made the cake a priority in your budget, you can check out THIS crystal cake banding. It’s gorgeous and you’ll have a stunning cake.

BUT if you’re looking to plan a platinum wedding on an aluminum budget, like we are, get thee to the nearest fabric store. My mom and I found THIS ribbon for $19.99/yard.

Still awfully expensive considering we’d need 3 yards just to go around half of our four tiered cake. THEN we found out that JoAnn Fabrics offers a 50% off coupon in the Saturday morning newspaper (sorry ladies, I looked for one online but couldn't find one... check your newspaper's circulars). So for $10/yard we could have the look of the glitzy cake for 1/8 of the price! Woo hoo!!! But, just to make life complicated, we also found THIS sequins ribbon for $4.99/yard ($2.50 with the coupon). It sparkles WAY more, but I am a tad afraid it looks too much like a dance costume. What do you think?

Let the Games Begin!!!

2010-02-05T11:56:00.000-08:00

Here are our plans for cramming as much wedding planning as possible into our business trip home!

-We have an appointment at our reception venue for a tasting. I believe it’s during another wedding, which I think is simultaneously really weird and really cool. Jody was a tad disappointed that he missed out on our wedding crashing experience, so I’ve been referring to our tasting as the “wedding crashing”, he probably doesn’t even know we have a real appointment. Ah the deceit. Hehe! As you know, I like seeing our venue in action and he likes pretending he’s Vince Vaughn (minus the not so exemplar behavior!)

-We also have an appointment with our bakery. I keep telling my mom that the cake isn’t a huge priority. She bought us an AMAZING A-MAZING crystal cake topper for Christmas, I don’t mind having a simple cake and let the cake topper take center stage. I told my mom to remind me of that when they start parading a bunch of “Sylvia Weinstocks” in front of me. Simple. Elegant.

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-I’m currently trying to schedule an appointment with Scott the photographer and the fill-in-lady Denise. I think it’d be great for all of us to sit down and talk about expectations and so on. I’m trying really hard not to be prissy about that, but the pictures are SOOOOOOOO important to me. In fact the more I look up wedding photographers, the more I think I should devote more time to starting my own company. Here are a few images I shot of friends’ weddings. What do you think?

-Also, I need to look for those pesky earrings. Although a friend found me a pair that are beautiful! From Kohls. These might be frontrunners! :-) Thanks, Kathy!!

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-And finally. Mom and I are registering. Yes. Mom and I. J doesn’t mind shopping, but his opinion is “we already HAVE flatware”, whereas my opinion is “I’m a bride and I want NEW flatware… besides don’t you remember I had to throw several pieces out after you used them to stir a can of paint?!”. ;-) I thought my mom would be good to have with me, since she’s been a wife for almost 40 years. She has a better insight as to what I’ll REALLY use and what will end up in the basement. (PS. Thanks for being such a great inspiration Mom and Dad!)

T-Minus Four Months

2010-02-05T11:54:00.000-08:00

So we are t-minus four months until wedding day. Since I live 10 hours away from where our nuptials will take place, I try to cram as much as possible in to very short visits back to St. Louis. Thankfully, my wonderful employer is sending me to St. Louis to produce a show, I’m leaving tomorrow and I’ll be gone 10 days! Yay! And guess who my wonderful employer is sending along as the director of the show?! My beloved!!!! Double yay!! (Technically, he’s the real producer; I just take notes… triple yay?)

So we have two weekends in St. Louis. That’s 96 blissful hours of pure wedding planning! (Not to mention the 5 days in between those two weekends which will give me some added time with my wonderful folks!)

I am really getting such a kick out of being a bride. I kind of understand why girls cry after the wedding is over. What will I google!? What kind of blogs will I read? What kind of blogs will I WRITE? I’m already a little nostalgic about my wedding and its still FOUR months away. I really hope these feelings make me cherish each second of my wedding day. Not get all fussy about things not going perfectly. Who cares if it rains (eek!). Who cares if the flowers aren’t perfect or the cake is lopsided? What’s important is that I’m marrying the love of my life! Right? Now, please keep reminding me of that as the wedding gets closer! Hehe!

Sniff Sniff

2010-02-04T18:10:00.000-08:00

I just got a response for my application to be a Weddingbee blogger... one of the most illustrious wedding blogs out there. I'm on their website practically every day stealing inspiration from their cluster of brides to be.

They said they are not accepting bloggers who blog on other sites and since I blog for Dream Weddings on a Budget, I will not be accepted. I have to say, I'm kind of on the verge of tears. There's something notable about blogging for Weddingbee, like I'd REALLY know that my dad isn't the only one that reads my blog. :-(

SOURCE

Oooh La La

2010-02-04T15:39:00.000-08:00

Why is it that every day I come across some wedding related beauty that I can not live without? As I was perusing Weddingbee today I found Miss Button's blog and subsequently fell in love with THIS idea from Etsy seller Megan Hamilton...

SOURCE

Custom sketches of your wedding dress? Hel-lo, explain to me HOW I can live without one!! What a beautiful and significant heirloom. A custom piece of art to remember your special day. I'm SOLD.

Unfortunately my dress is having some custom nips and tucks done to it so I can't submit mine until mid April. And while I'm on it... MID APRIL!!! That feels so far away. Yes, I am a member of the microwave-give-it-to-me-now culture, patience schmatience and I want to see my dress NOW! haha!

As I wait I have reoccurring dreams that my dress somehow ends up as a train wreck. Like blue sequins COVERING IT. Yes. Blue. Sequins. "I'm sorry, Miss Aluminum Bride, there's nothing we can do about it, you should have specified what color beads you wanted... how were WE supposed to know that blue beads wouldn't work with your theme?". I woke up sweating.

Or how about this one. The dress comes in 7 inches too short. Yes, I saw that happen to a girl on Say Yes to the Dress, and as J always reminds me, I ALWAYS dream what I see on TV. Weird. I know. What would I do? As I said the dress is having custom nips and tucks. In my dream I squat down and walk like a sumo wrestler down the aisle.

Sigh. I know everything will work out. But until then I will worry.

O Earrings, Earrings! Wherefore Art Thou Earrings?

2010-02-03T16:13:00.000-08:00

I know this isn’t the end of the world. I mean, seriously, there’s some major bad stuff happening in the world right now. God bless those in Haiti that are still missing loved ones and will have to rebuild their lives from the ground up. God bless those everywhere that are experiencing hunger, abuse, oppression. Please don’t think my bridezilla-ism causes me to forget that the world is bigger than my wedding…

BUT, I am a bride to be, so I'm going to take a second to fuss....

I can not find bridal earrings ANYWHERE. I have a VERY particular pair of earrings floating around my cluttered little brain and I can’t seem to find them. Maybe they don’t exist. Maybe they are merely a fictitious figment of my wedding obsessed imagination.

Here’s what I’m looking for:

-A decent sized drop earring
-NOT a chandelier as I worry that chandeliers will be too 2010.
- Not too big.
-Not too small.
-Plenty of bling.
-With a pearl or two to set them off.
-I would LOVE LOVE LOVE it if the drop part of the earring had a big stone surrounded by little ones, like my beautiful e-ring.
-AND I don’t want to spend a fortune. Maybe like $50 or so.

My dear friend and BM extraordinaire Jennifer has graciously lent me her tiara to use as my something borrowed. I’m absolutely overwhelmed at the sentimentality of sharing something so beautiful with a friend I’ve had LITERALLY since birth (our moms met and became bff’s when they were pregnant with us!).

So the earrings I choose must compliment the beautiful tiara. Please, fellow brides to be, do you have ANY ideas??? They’d be some sort of amalgamation of these:

SOURCE
(ALMOST perfect, but no pearl)

SOURCE
(REALLY almost perfect, but just a wee bit too small and a little weak on the bling)

Crying in the Corner

2010-02-01T16:36:00.001-08:00

So in the midst of my fore mentioned ridiculously hectic week, I received a call from my wedding photographer, Scott.

Scott is a dear friend. I worked as his assistant for a summer during college. He taught me more about photography than I could have ever learned in a classroom.

When J and I first got engaged Scott was one of my “must haves” when thinking about our wedding. I was thrilled when he said he’d photograph it. I’m extremely picky. In fact, whenever someone asks my mom who will be photographing our wedding she says “don’t you feel sorry for that guy”.

Well, apparently Scott found out that I’m rather hard to please because the phone call in the midst of my hectic week was to inform me that he could no longer photograph our wedding. Our wedding which takes place in FOUR months. Our wedding which has a UBER tight budget. OUR wedding, where a picky photographer and a picky videographer get MARRIED. I was devastated. Thankfully I was too busy with work to focus too much on the grandeur of this announcement at the time. But now it’s sinking in.

See, Scott was planning on photographing our wedding with his own private company. He also shoots for a big name portrait studio in St. Louis. Despite Scott asking specifically for that day off, the big name studio tyrant is forcing him to work. Scott has found another girl to photograph the wedding and has said that he will be able to shoot the ceremony. Unfortunately, I have to say, I feel like I’m totally getting the shaft. I guess I should be grateful that he’s found me a backup, but I’m hesitant since I’ve only seen a couple of her images, and that I don’t have a personal relationship with her, like I do with Scott.

So, I’ve been tooling around online looking for a new photographer. And guess what? They’re EXPENSIVE. The cheapest decent photographer I found charges TWICE as much as Scott for HALF the service. The more I think about the whole ordeal, the more I want to sit in a corner and cry.

I have my mom’s voice echoing in my head “everything happens for the best”. I’ll keep repeating that to myself and go with the replacement.

Meanwhile, here’s some of Scott’s work for you to feast your eyes on…. and if you can't find me, I'll probably be in the corner crying...

SOURCE

Excuse Me Ma'am, I'd Like To Return My Honeymoon...

2010-02-01T15:56:00.000-08:00

All Photos Courtesy Traveler Photos on Trip Advisor

J and I were at Sam’s Club over the weekend. As we walked in we were cattle prodded to a section of the store where a woman was selling trips at a really really ridiculously cheap price. 5 days 4 nights in Cancun for $149 per couple. WHAT?! We would have to provide our own airfare, but we figured that would be about $300 per person… so for $750 (plus food… which we’d buy even if we were just in Birmingham) we could be swimming and sunning and enjoying our marital bliss while sipping mai tais in Cancun. Sounded good to me. We asked the girl a mazillion questions trying to figure out what the catch was. Surely we’d have to sit through a time share seminar. Nope. Or maybe there were bugs in the room. Nope. She assured us that the only “catch” was that we had to provide our own airfare and that she’d be gone by Sunday. Of course we were still skeptical, but when she told us that there was a 100% money back guarantee she had us sold. If we changed our minds we could bring our receipt back to Sam’s and get a full refund. No questions asked. Yes siree…

So, we bought ourselves a $149 honeymoon and high tailed it to the closest internet connection to find out if we got ourselves a good deal.

First place I checked was Trip Advisor. My “go-to” website whenever I take a trip. I love that the reviewers can post their own pictures, what a good way to get an idea about what the resort or hotel REALLY looks like. Sans Photoshop and airbrushed models. The reviews weren’t great. But I’ve found that most reviewers are hyper critical about things that wouldn’t bother me. The pictures were fine. Not the most gorgeous beach resort I’d ever seen but for the price we were willing to overlook that. Then we read that the beach resort wasn’t really on a beach, more of a rocky hill near the ocean, or a boat dock. That frustrated us. And then after a wee bit on Trip Advisor we discovered that flights out of Birmingham were really $400 rather than the $300 that we thought they might be. The reviews and expensive airfare meant two things.

#1. It wasn’t nice enough for the most spectacular and romantic trip of our lifetimes
#2. It was too expensive for a “hey, let’s go to Cancun” spur of the moment trip

Which meant the very next day we were back at Sam’s Club returning our honeymoon. Ya know what they say, if it sounds too good to be true, it probably is. Oh well. On to bigger and better.

I'm Baack

2010-02-01T14:47:00.000-08:00

Wow! Sorry for the hiatus. I was CRAZY busy at work this past week. I mean CRAZY. J and I flew to San Francisco for work and then had to take the hours and hours and hours worth of footage we took there and turn it into a television show in a VERY short amount of time. Which meant that we stayed at the television studio until ALL hours of the night. BUT as a result we ended up with an amazing show… if I do say so myself.

But blah, blah, blah enough excuses. The point is, I can stop thinking about work and start thinking about the WEDDING again! Haha!

I think I might have mentioned this before, but I believe that Wedding TV is an insomniac’s best friend. It’s not often that I can’t sleep, but sometimes I’ll hit a Starbucks a little too late in the day and I pay for it ALL NIGHT. Last night was one of those dreadful nights. So I snuggled up with my favorite blanket and a DVR full of Platinum Weddings and Say Yes to the Dresses. And I started thinking, “this is a GREAT time to be a bride”, I mean seriously girls, we’re really lucky. There is so much great wedding related media right now. Amazing websites. Great TV shows. This is a time when wedding photography and videography are at their best. Dresses are gorgeous. Trends are palatable (ie. No puffy sleeved monstrosities). Yay for us! Yay for 2010!

I Left My Heart in San Francisco.... not really, he flew back with me....

2010-01-25T17:28:00.000-08:00

J and I work together. I know some people might think that the last thing on earth they'd want to do is be coworkers with their intended. But it works really really well with J and I. We click in real life which allows us to click on the job too. In our work we have to be in sync... not like the band, silly.... like if I say "J I have this idea" he has to know how to interpret that and make beautiful, meaningful television out of it. Working with him this past weekend in San Francisco at the Walk for Life West Coast made me fall in love even deeper! He's so talented and when we work together I feel like God could be using us together as a couple to impact lives. And there's nothing more powerful than that. I love you baby. Four more months! :-)

An Open Letter to My Favorite Stores

2010-01-18T15:12:00.000-08:00

Dear T.J. Maxx, Roth, Marshalls, Garden Ridge and Michaels,

I regret to inform you that if you do not remove all of the amazing black and white damask goodies from your shelves immediately, I will be terminating my almost daily visits to your stores. It seems that every time I enter your doors some black and white damask loveley beckon me, calls my name, FORCES me to buy them. It is due to these lovlies that I must work a part-time job in addition to my full time one.

In your aisles I call my Mother breathless, like a drug addict looking for my next fix.

“MOM” I cry “I found black and white damask LAMPS. OMG MOM, I NEEEEEEEEEEEEED these lamps”.

To which, she replies “calm down, Jill, and tell me what you’ll DO with these aforementioned lamps”.

“Ok, you’re right Mom, I don't know what I'd do with them yet... I guess I don’t NEEEEEEEEEEED them, but I really really want them”.

“Jill, put down the lamps and walk away from the store”.

Thanks Mom, your Voice of Reason has saved me from some very unnecessary purchases. But The Voice of Reason could not stop me from purchasing the black and white damask napkins with a monogrammed C, even though they were “too expensive” and I couldn’t find “enough for everyone”. Because, seriously, they're amazing.

But I did refrain from knocking down the lady that grabbed a pack of “C’s” at the same time I did. Although I did audibly gasp and had to stifle the urge to say “Are YOU getting married in 4.5 months with a black and white damask theme??? AND are YOU marrying a man with a last name that starts with ‘C’?!? Are you? Are you? ARE YOU? I DOUBT IT!”.

I am proud of my restraint.

So, my dearest T.J. Maxx, Roth, Marshalls, Garden Ridge and Michaels, it is au revoir for now. We will meet again on May 23th.

Until then,
The Aluminum Bride

My Chance

2010-01-14T16:23:00.000-08:00

Been working my tail off today. Everything seems to be going wrong. No co-host, he's still somewhere in Mississippi, driving 80mph to get here by 7pm. We had a wild first segment with a phone interview and a skype interview. Usually when everything goes wrong BEFORE the show, it means we're going to impact lives WITH the show. Tune in. 2 songs by this amazing talented musician Jaime Thietten. And we'll end with her video My Chance. What a beautiful prolife testimony! And remember if you are in a crisis pregnancy call 1-800-395-HELP (4357)

Old Family Pictures?!?!?!

2010-01-12T09:13:00.000-08:00

According to theKnot.com one of the 15 ways to WOW your guests is by decking out your entry way… This is what theKnot.com has to say:

We're not saying you should spend a gazillion dollars on a 20-foot-tall floral arrangement, but first impressions are important, so take time to think out the entrance to your reception. Add a couple flower arrangements to the escort card table or have your stationer create a stylish seating chart display. A table topped with your engagement photos, your parents' wedding albums, and any other from-the-family artifacts would make meaningful additions.

I think it’s so neat and personal to have a table full of family pictures at your wedding reception. I love love love the idea. I think it gives guests a better idea of where you’ve come from and who you’ve become. It can also serve as a tribute to the people who have helped you get there. I would like to develop a collection of pictures of my family members’ wedding pictures. I have my parents wedding picture. We also have one of J’s parents (although they are just standing by a car, it’s not very wedding-ey). But I don’t think we could go any farther than that. And I’m afraid that TWO pictures on a table might seem a tad underwhelming. But who else would we include? Siblings? That’s 3 more pictures. But I have a brother that’s not married and he has a sister that ALMOST married. So that might feel awkward. Do we expand to include friends? If so where do you draw the line? And as a side note, why do I always make things more complicated than they need to be?!?!? Hahaha! What about pictures from our childhoods? Sigh. I just don’t know… Maybe I should scrap it all together. What do you think?????

SOURCE

It's your's too

2010-01-12T08:38:00.000-08:00

J and I were shopping this past weekend. I don't remember the exact convo, but it went something like this:

Aluminum Bride: I don't think I'm going to wear a necklace
Aluminum Groom: You're not going to wear a necklace to your wedding
Aluminum Bride: Um, it's your wedding too. Sorry, I might have forgotten to tell you that. :-)

Monograms!

2010-01-08T09:19:00.000-08:00

I don’t know what J and I could possibly need a custom monogram for, but that sure doesn’t keep me from wanting one. Have you ever typed “custom monogram” into Etsy. OMG. Hello, stealer of my time and obsession of my soul. Etsy found 10,032 results for Custom Monogram. 10,032. And I pined after each and ever one of them. (Actually, I only got to page 20 before I decided I’d opened enough new tabs to keep me busy for a while.)

Here are a few of my favorites

SOURCE

I love this sash. I think it’s beautiful, elegant, classy, timeless, all those things I aspire to be! ;-) I think there are probably a gazillion things you could do with it, but I think it’s wonderful tied around the bouquet as they show it. This is available through Etsy seller, Michaelangela, she’s got oodles of other wedding related items that warrant your perusal. Check out the “New MRS.” aprons too. I’m a sucka for aprons.

SOURCE

Here’s another fav. Personalized wedding monograms. Yes. PERSONALIZED. For… get this… FIVE DOLLARS!!!!!!! Etsy seller Double Trouble Designs also has a blog... on which I’ve spent wayyyyyyy too much time. I feel like I need about 20 different personalized monograms. How do you choose?!?!? And where exactly do they go?? Yes, programs would be nice. And maybe somewhere on our invitations? But where else? I’m not sure… but that’s not going to stop me from buying one… or 20….

SOURCE

Hey Miss Jill

2010-01-04T14:03:00.000-08:00

So, I’m still learning the intricacies of living in the south. For instance a co-worker just said “hey, Miss Jill”. I started thinking. Will I still be referred to as Miss Jill, after I’m married? Is that when you officially become Ma’am? As a result of musing what I’d be called when I was officially MRS. Jill, I started thinking about changing my name.

Changing my name has to be one of the most dreaded parts of the wedding process for me. I mean, girls get married and change their names every day. But this seemingly mundane task is leaving me with hives. Where do I start? WHEN do I start? How do we book a honeymoon, do I book it as MISS Jill or MRS Jill??? I need to renew my passport. Do I renew it with my maiden name AND THEN change it to my married name? This is complicated. I’ve been poking around the internet for tips on how to do this. The more lists I read the more hives I get. I mean, this is a serious deal! Should I get a “name change kit” or can I do it on my own? Is there anything I can do ahead of time?

According to about.com these are some of the steps I have to take to change my name.(In between planning the party of a lifetime. Setting up a home. Losing a gazillion pounds.) Maybe while I’m at it, I should change my first name too, to something with a little more flair… like OPRAH. That’d get me noticed, doncha think????

SOURCE

• Get a new social security card
Once you get your marriage license (which usually takes a couple of weeks to arrive in the mail), download a form from the Social Security website. Then take that completed form, the license and your identification to your local social security office to get a new card. (if you've gotten creative with your last name, you may also need to go through more formal name change procedures.)

• Get a new drivers license
You'll also want to change your name on the other main form of identification – your drivers license. Most DMVs will change it with a copy of a marriage certificate, although others require you to wait until your social security card has been changed. Check with your local DMV for their rules.

• Change that paperwork
Visit your office's HR department again with your new social security card to change your name on financial information, including your tax deductions. You'll want to be credited properly with those deductions come tax time, and with your social security contributions when you retire.
For everyone else, including bank, insurance policies, credit cards, utilities, creditors, and membership organizations, type up a letter with all of your information on it, including name, address, new name, account number, and possibly your social security number, and include a copy of your marriage license. No one should charge you money to change your name.

Don't forget to order new checks and credit cards

• Start using it
It will sound a little funny at first, but as you start using your new last name, everyone else will catch on. Don't be afraid to courteously correct people when they erroneously use your maiden name.

More marriage. Less Wedding.

2009-12-31T14:24:00.000-08:00

I'm sure we've all read this forward before. But its a good reminder to think more about the marriage and less about the wedding!

Touching words from the mouth of babes.

A group of professional people posed this question to a group of 4 to 8 year-olds, "What Does Love Mean?" The answers they got were broader and
deeper than anyone could have imagined

See what you think . . .

"When my grandmother got arthritis, she couldn't bend over and paint her toenails anymore. So my grandfather does it for her all the time, even when his hands got arthritis too. That's love."
Rebecca- age 8

"When someone loves you, the way they say your name is different.
You just know that your name is safe in their mouth."
Billy - age 4

"Love is when a girl puts on perfume and a boy puts on shaving cologne and they go out and smell each other."
Karl - age 5

"Love is when you go out to eat and give somebody most of your French fries without making them give you any of theirs."
Chrissy - age 6

"Love is what makes you smile when you're tired."
Terri - age 4

"Love is when my mommy makes coffee for my daddy and she takes a sip before giving it to him, to make sure the taste is OK."
Danny - age 7

"Love is when you kiss all the time.. Then when you get tired of kissing, you still want to be together and you talk more. My Mommy and Daddy are like that. They look gross when they kiss."
Emily - age 8

"Love is what's in the room with you at Christmas if you stop opening presents
and listen."
Bobby - age 7 (Wow!)

"If you want to learn to love better, you should start with a friend who you hate."
Nikka - age 6
(We need a few million more Nikka's on this planet.)

"Love is when you tell a guy you like his shirt, then he wears it everyday."
Noelle - age 7

"Love is like a
little old woman and a little old man who are still friends even after
they know each other so well."
Tommy - age 6

"During my piano recital, I was on a stage and I was scared. I looked at all the people watching me and saw my daddy waving and smiling . . . He was the only one doing that. I wasn't scared anymore."
Cindy - age 8

"My mommy loves me more than anybody
You don't see anyone else kissing me to sleep at night."
Clare - age 6

"Love is when Mommy gives Daddy the best piece of chicken."
Elaine-age 5

"Love is when Mommy sees Daddy smelly and sweaty and still says he is handsomer than Robert Redford."
Chris - age 7

"Love is when your puppy licks your face even after you left him alone all day."
Mary Ann - age 4

"I know my older sister
loves me because she gives me all her old clothes and has to go out and buy new ones.'
Lauren - age 4

"When you love somebody, your eyelashes go up and down and little stars come out of you." (What an image!)
Karen - age 7

"Love is when Mommy
sees Daddy on the toilet and she doesn't think it's gross."
Mark - age 6

"You really shouldn't say 'I love you' unless you mean it. But if you mean it, you should say it a lot. People forget."
Jessica - age 8

And the final one

The winner was a four year old child whose next door neighbor was an elderly gentleman who had recently lost his wife.

Upon seeing the man cry, the little boy went into the old gentleman's yard, climbed onto his lap, and just sat there.

When his Mother asked what he had said to the neighbor, the little boy said,

"Nothing, I just helped him
cry."

New Year. New Life.

2009-12-31T12:34:00.001-08:00

2009. I have to be honest. Not the greatest year I’ve ever had. Kind of bland with a side of mediocre and about 5 seconds of absolute terror.

Yes. I started a new job. Technically it is my dream job. But I have to admit, there have been a couple days when I sat at my desk and thought “I need to have better dreams”.

I guess I would have been more enthusiastic about my dream job, but the day before I was supposed to start (6 months ago today, in fact), J and I got in a horrible car accident. J landed in my lap covered in blood and I thought he was dead. Thankfully, I was wrong and the wreck didn’t accumulate to much more than a broken nose (his) and a totaled car (mine) and a lot of frustrating insurance claims.

Two good things came out of the wreck. A shiny red hard top convertible and a new and increasingly poignant attentiveness behind the wheel…

On to 2010. 2010 is THE YEAR! A wedding in a couple months. And who knows maybe after that I’ll get knocked up by my hot hubby!

Tangent: can one get “knocked up” by their hubby? Or is “knocked up” reserved for the un-wed?

Tangent of my Tangent: why “knocked UP”? It’s physically impossible to get knocked UP, you can get knocked DOWN, or knocked AROUND, but knocked UP? Can’t happen…. and I certainly hope it doesn’t have some sort of 19th century X-rated meaning, if it does I don ‘t want to know….. Knocked UP makes me think of one of my least favorite Southernisms“cut ON the light/stove/washing maching/etc.” you can’t cut something ON, only OFF. Sigh. Oh well.

I have a couple resolutions. Aside from fruitful loins and a successful fabulous budget friendly wedding and keeping tangents at bay… if those can be considered resolutions.

1. Lose all the dang weight I gained after the accident (and then some). After our brush with death J and I had a tendency to think “life’s too short, what’s one more cookie?” well to answer my emotionally disturbed and pudgy self, one more cookie = LOTS more pounds.
2. Have some sort of realistic savings plan. We’ll be combining incomes so I’d like for us to get started off on the right foot.
3. I’m habitually 15 minutes late for everything. I can wake up 30 minutes earlier than usual and still be 15 minutes late. NO MORE LATENESS. It’s pathetic. And immature.
4. Be nicer. To my family. To my J. To myself.
5. Keep a cleaner home. I hate cleaning. But I want to be a good wife. And isn’t that part of it?
6. Make a friend. I haven't made any awesome female friendships since college. My mom has been bff's with the same lady since I was in utero. When I was home for Christmas my mom said "I hope you meet a 'Rita'", which made me kind of sad that I didn't already have one in the South.

Hope you have a happy and safe New Years! Here's to a great 2010.

2 Dress or Not 2 Dress Continued...

2009-12-31T10:18:00.000-08:00

...So the next morning after debating with myself all night, I told my mom that I thought I'd made the wrong decision. At 8:20am the very next morning I called the dress shop and left a message saying that I thought I'd made the wrong decision, I knew she was going to order it that morning so I begged her to hold off. I called her 4 more times through out the day. My dad called her. But no answer. I remembered that she was taking that day off, but I thought she'd check her messages. She didn't.

In the meantime, mom and I had 1 more day to find my REAL dress. We had an appointment at a dress shop close to home to look at a Kristina Eaton Veil, which was OMG gorgeous online, but kind of not so pretty in person. But it was at that dress shop that I found "the ONE!" the REAL the one. I'd tried it on in Birmingham and it made me cry... even though at the time I didn't even think it was even in the running. So I got measured. And mom wrote a check for half the amount and we left. With another dress.

So I owned half of two dresses. From two different stores. In two different states. I called my dad to tell him the "good news". He wasn't as happy as I was. He recommended that we put a stop payment on the first check. So we did. And we called the first shop about 12 more times. When we got home we noticed on the first contract that it said 'NO REFUNDS. NO EXCHANGES'. I thought we were in big trouble. I thought for sure we'd end up in prison and I had terrifying visions that my "wedding night" would have to be a conjugal visit at the county jail. My parents were sure that they'd get sued. I was sure that I'd get disowned. It was a tad on the tense side.

Thankfully, early the next morning the first dress lady called us back. She was able to cancel the order. She wasn't happy that we'd put a stop payment on the check, but she didn't yell at me or call me names, or throw us in jail or sue us so I was grateful. She was really a wonderful woman. Her shop is Elegant Brides in Edwardsville, Illinois. PLEASE patronize her shop. She was insightful, professional, and flexible. She had beautiful gowns and a beautiful store and I'm a little dissappointed that we weren't able to get "the one" from her. "The one" came from Amore in Chesterfield.

Anyway, I'd obviously like to keep THE DRESS a bit of a secret... but it COULD BE one of these dresses.... Ps. Why can't we wear fuscia wedding dresses?? White looks awful on me. AWFUL. I mean, if a white shirt was all I had in my closet, I'd rather walk around nekked than wear it. It. Looks. Awful. :-(

Two dress or not two dress? That is the question...

2009-12-29T08:41:00.000-08:00

After a whirlwind trip home for Christmas/wedding planning (let's be honest here, it was really WEDDING PLANNING/Christmas... are scewed priorities a symptom of bridezilla-ism??) we have....

Centerpieces
Flowers
Bridesmaids dresses
A Wedding gown
and
A Wedding gown.

Yes. Two wedding gowns. As a result of a hastey decision that I'm afraid my father will be talking about until he's 92, we purchased a wedding gown. And then another wedding gown.

It was Monday night. I knew I had until Wednesday to find "the dress" or else it would be too late to order one. We found one that was beautiful. I didn't get "that" feeling, but I could tell that it was a beautiful and flattering dress. My mom loved it. So I told her that it must be "the one". So I got measured. My mom wrote a check for half of the amount and we left. With a dress. My mom was happy. I didn't really feel... anything.

I called J when we got home and told him that we got a dress and that it was very pretty but I felt like I had to settle. I cried. And then I didn't sleep at all that night. I just kept thinking about how it was a lovely dress, but I didn't feel like it was MY dress.

TO BE CONTINUED...

3-2-1 BLAST OFF!!!!!!!!!

2009-12-17T15:41:00.000-08:00

I'm debating on whether or not to remove the countdown clock from my sidebar. Everytime I look at it my heart sinks into my stomach! 155 days?!?! Can everything possibly get done by then?????

Pronovias or dinner???

2009-12-16T11:09:00.000-08:00

I love thrift stores. I really do. I don’t mind digging through a pile of ugly 1980’s sweaters with ginornous shoulder pads to find one cashmere v-neck from Ann Taylor… for $3! I know people get freaked out by wearing someone else’s clothes, but after you wash it or dry clean it, it’s like new! Plus, how many people have tried on those brand new jeans that you’re trying on at Banana Republic??? Anyway, it’s like a treasure hunt. Its almost cathartic for me to find the name brand clothes for less than I’d spend for lunch.

Last time I was home, my mom and I went to Good Will in search of clear glass vases/candle holders to make some mock up centerpieces from. They didn’t have anything, which was a giant surprise, but they did have THIS…

Photo Courtesy: Wedding Gowns Galore

A Pronovias, mermaid, lace gown covered in crystals. It was beautiful. 100% not what I want, but some very lucky girl is going to get a stunning gown for… get this… $50! Of course, it was in desperate need of cleaning, and likely some major alterations. But still. The fabric alone would cost WAYYYYYYYY more than $50! I was tempted to buy it and make a knee length dress out of it, maybe for the rehearsal? Maybe resell it?

But I didn’t get it. I left if for some girl that’s dying for a Pronovias, mermaid, lace gown covered in crystals but thinks it’s out of reach. And I sincerely hope she finds it!

I feel sorry for the girls that don’t think they can afford a beautiful gown. All they have to do is look in the right places, have a bit of luck… and have the patience to dig through the puffy sleeved monstrosities.

Julia and Julie.... Paula and Jill

2009-12-15T10:22:00.000-08:00

J and I have a favorite budget date location. It’s the dollar show, for ONE dollar you get to see a new film that is in that limbo period between real theatres and dvds. I love love love going to the dollar show. I even made up a little song about it:

I love the dollar show
It’s my favorite place to go
Four quarters gets you in
For ten more dimes you can bring a friend

Anyway, J was out of town this weekend, so I had to find something to do to distract myself from missing him (you’re either sighing or scoffing right now, depending on if YOU are a bride to be! Haha!) So I thought I’d take myself on a date to the dollar show (which is way more acceptable at a matinee). I saw Julie and Julia. Which is the story of a blogger, Julie, who decides to cook her way through Julia Child’s “Mastering the Art of French Cooking”, and blog about it. It’s basically my new favorite movie of all time. It’s a perfect blend of some of my favorite things; cooking, blogging, and Paris! I thought it was genius! I think my favorite part of the movie was when Julie (the blogger) got SO excited about finally having a comment on her blog, she clicked on it to read it and it was from her mom!! Ha! I think all of us bloggers have been there (although it’s my dad in my case!.. Thanks Dad.) I also loved the way Julia Child’s husband toasted her as the "butter to her bread and the breath to her life". I can think of no better description of J! haha! (We’ve been known to refer to ourselves as the Buttertons in private. )

So anyway, I got thinking about my favorite cook, Paula Deen. I’ve met her during her book tour for her children’s cookbook and I told her that when I started dating a southern boy I thought to myself “I better learn how to cook”, I also suggested that her next cookbook should be titled “How to Win a Man’s Heart”. Yes, to some degree I credit her with my engagement! Ha! I’m thinking about inviting her to the wedding! What do you think? Have you invited any celebrities to your wedding? I know its so completely cheesy, but heck, maybe if I tell her that I've been studying her as a way to acclimate to the South, AND in the process snagged a hot southern boy... she'd at least write me back?!?!?!

It's Official...

2009-12-11T09:22:00.000-08:00

I have the best fiance in the universe. Seriously. Yesterday was the day from H E double hockey sticks. But his sweetness smoothed it over.

I've been working like a horse part time at JCPenney Portrait Studio taking photos of slobbering bratty screaming kids to try to save enough money for the wedding. I was proud of myself for saving so much $$. WELLLLL I go out to my car the other day and lo and behold my tire was flat. I said to J, "there goes my Christmas bonus" and he said "Nah, it'll just be a $10 patch job". Of course it WASN'T just a patch job. In total my tires/wheels/alignment were so messed up that it cost me all of the money I saved while working like a horse at JCP AND my Christmas bonus from EWTN. I'm heart sick.

And it was also cold. Really cold. So I was complaining to J about not having a coat (how does he put up with my complaining? Saint? Maybe.) Anyway, he said "look under the tree" and there it was, my dream coat.

In fact I blogged about it over at Dream Weddings on a Budget. Burberry. Black. Quilted. Oh that lovely plaid. It made me cry!

No matter how unlucky my days may seem, J is always there reminding me that its the people in your life that love you and care about you that make a person lucky!!! And when I remember that, I remember that I'm very very very lucky.... A lot pooerer today. But warm and lucky.

I need a crowbar

2009-12-07T10:23:00.000-08:00

To cram everything I have to do during Christmas break into my schedule!! Mom and I are fairly certain we'll find "the dress" while I'm home for a week during Christmas. That means some major shopping. I leave in 32 minutes for the airport! I'll be home this afternoon! Yay!

Okay, I'll admit it, I'm not the most organized person in the world. If you've ever lived with me, you're probably a. chuckling, b. rolling your eyes, c. thanking God that you don't live with me anymore.

But I'm working on a timeline of sorts to schedule all of our "to do's" in a logical fashion. Sorry, Mom, I hope you don't plan on sleeping... I mean there are a lot of stores I'd still like to visit and lots of family and friends' opinions I'd still like to hear. Not to mention visiting the florist, the centerpiece lady, scouting a good engagement pic location/taking engagement pics (OMG, more on the panic this incites soon), meeting with a videographer, 4 dress appointments and maybe more, trying to get in a few good workouts. ON TOP of all of the Christmas festivities. Does anyone have any suggestions on how to cram AWHOLELOT into a VERY SHORT AMOUNT OF TIME?

One handy wedding planning splurge that I made was this black and white damask organizer from Brides found at Michaels, I think it was around $30, which was wayyyyyyyyyyy too much to spend on it. But it was one of those things I HAD to have!! haha! Hopefully it will help me with this crazy upcoming week!

Source

Registry Fegistry

2009-11-30T14:29:00.000-08:00

For whatever reason, registering for gifts has been something I've been dreading. I love to shop, so one would THINK that registering would be right up my alley. But my shopping habits can be placed in two distinct categories. . .

A. Impulse buys as a result of finding a great deal on something I simply can't live without or

B. Making a purchase that I've put lots of time and effort into by researching consumer reviews and trying to find the product for the lowest price possible.

It seems like registering fits in neither category. And that's my first dilemma.

My second is, where should I register?

I hear Target is a pain in the booty, that they don't accept returns without a gift receipt and even then, require you to exchange your item for the something new in the same department as the item your exchanging. Hello pita (pain in the a$$). (On a side note, they do have some pretty amazing black and white damask items in the store right now... just don't register for them and you should be fine! ha!)

What about Walmart? Their return policy is stellar, but after a handful installments of "People You See in Walmart" emails, I'm afraid my wedding guests might get the wrong impression.

Macy's is a definite. Good website. Located in both Alabama and Missouri. Has the china pattern that we want.

Another definite is Crate and Barrel. I was on Style Me Pretty today and noticed that today was the last day to register for their $4000 gift card give away.

Style Me Pretty

And I thought to myself, "I'm gonna win this". All I had to do was open my registry at Crate and Barrel and keep my fingers crossed. Seemed like destiny's way of getting someone with an irrational fear of registering to bite the bullet and get started! haha!

One problem solved. . . now on to world hunger.

Drum roll please.....

2009-11-13T07:39:00.000-08:00

Two weeks ago I was driving to a dress shop talking about the wedding on the phone with my mom. (What will we talk about when the wedding is over?) We'd been talking about having the wedding in May of 2011, Memorial Day weekend. TWO THOUSAND ELEVEN!!!!!!!! 20 months away. It felt like a REALLY long way away. But, I thought that would be the only way to get everything I wanted.

So, my very tip top priority was asking Fr. Dave Pivonka to marry us. He was my spiritual director at Franciscan University and is a dear friend. I thought for sure 20 months away he'd be free. He wasn't. So what now?!

We tossed around a few other dates but none "felt right". Then mom suggested that we just have the wedding THIS May. My response was "sure Mom, whatever", thinking that getting ANYTHING I wanted would be impossible. Mom called my top reception venue choice and my top Church choice. They were both free ON THE SAME DATE in May 2010! We took that as a sign, and booked um dano.

Then I called Adam Bitter, a remarkable musician who we wanted to do the music for the Mass.

I called my good friend, photographer Scott Stanley, he trained me to photograph weddings. I love his work and I love the connection he tries to foster with his clients. He understands photography is about relationship and I couldn't imagine anyone else photographing our wedding.

Mom called Bob Kuban. You know...Look out for the cheater / Make way for the fool hearted clown / Look out for the cheater / He's gonna build you up / Just to let you dooooooooown. We always wanted him to play at the reception.

And of course, I called back Fr. Dave Pivonka.

And guess what?! EVERYONE WAS AVAILABLE ON THE SAME DATE!!!!!!!

Can you believe that?! It was like our date just fell into our lap! It was just meant to be! And, ironically, a very significant date in my history (graduation from high school, first day of the Crusade for Life). As hokey as it sounds I feel like we didn't choose our date, our date chose us!

How did you decide on the date for your wedding?

(Photos Courtesy here, here, here, here, me and me)

Come to Our Wedding... OR ELSE

2009-11-10T09:51:00.000-08:00

I recognize that not everyone has the quirky off beat sense of humor I have (or THINK I have, I do have to explain a disproportionate number of my jokes to my beloved)…. BUT I was playing around on Zazzle the other day and created this….

Yes. It says “come to our wedding or we’ll kick your butt”. I thought it was hysterical. In fact it made me laugh out loud. Literally. I showed J. He laughed out loud. I showed my mom. She laughed out loud. See, it’s funny because neither J nor I would ever hurt a fly.

This pic was taken right after we got in a horrible car accident and J’s face made friends with the windshield.

Anyway, back to Zazzle. I’m pretty much obsessed with it. As I mentioned in a previous post, we already have our invites, but since so many of our guests are coming from out of town, there’s no way to get around sending Save the Dates. I think the most cost effective way to send STD’s is to send the post card version. And since I double as a photographer and J and I have enough pictures of ourselves to fill a municipal library… I thought it would only be fitting to have a photo on our STD’s. Here are some options… What do you think?

Exhaustion

2009-11-03T15:52:00.000-08:00

I'm exhausted. As I've mentioned, I work full time as a television producer. Well, I also work part time as a portrait photographer. Since it's nearing the holidays my photography job has really picked up. That means I'm at my day job from 8:30am - 6pm and then my photography job from 6pm -9pm. Sigh.

Good pay checks, but those are some dang long days.

All this for the perfect wedding??? Is it worth working yourself to the bone if you're too exhausted once the wedding comes around to really enjoy the day?

Are there any other two job brides out there? How do you cope? Where do you get your energy?!?

Will you be my bridesmaid card

2009-10-27T12:46:00.000-07:00

I asked my girls to be bridesmaids eons ago. Here's the card I made for them with a poem I'd written special for each girl. I got the paper at Michaels (where else) and I just came across the dress picture online one day, I loved it! The monogram is made out of sparkly stickers from Michaels.

Wedding Crashers

2009-10-26T15:15:00.000-07:00

I drove to Indiana for Mrs. E's beautiful wedding. I figured "heck, I'm only SIX hours away from home, maybe I should stop by and say hi". It was, um, a HAIR out of the way, but SOOOOOOOOO much fun it was totally worth it. I called my Mom when I was halfway there to ask if they wanted some company that weekend. She was happy to have me and reminded me that I would never be considered "company". ;-) Thanks Mom.

As we were plotting what we'd do with our brief visit we hashed out QUITE a plan. We had been tossing around a few potential reception venues. One was Andre's West, not too far from my parent's home. SOOOO, since it was a Saturday night in the middle of prime wedding season, and we were dying to see Andre's West in ACTION and we didn't have anything else to do. . . Mom and I decided to CRASH a WEDDING. It was the most hilarious thing I've done in ages. Mom and I got all dolled up and waltzed right in to the venue like we were Vince Vaughn and Owen Wilson. We totally held it together until some random woman waved at Mom and I lost it in a fit of giggles! :-) I'm sure other guests thought we were very rude, walking around critiquing everything... but in the end we decided that our venue will be ANDRE'S WEST! And a special thanks to cousin Sandy who figured out a route which bypasses the TWO sex shops you have to pass to get there... which was my only hestitation in going with it!! ;-)

Cards and Candles

2009-10-26T14:39:00.000-07:00

Today I spent my lunch hour at Garden Ridge. There's a new one less than a mile from work. Yay! I forgot my debit card so I could only "look" (maybe I should forget my debit card more often!). This is NOT an original Aluminum Bride idea, I saw this on a blog or bridal magazine or television show somewhere, so if it's your's let me know so I can bestow credit upon your genuisness. SUCH a simple and elegant centerpiece idea. Take a flower (I used a fake one), a wine goblet and a pillar candle. Flip the goblet over, put the flower underneath, a candle on top and voila! Lovely! I don't think we'll be using this because my mom found a lady to do our centerpieces. More on her soon. But other Aluminum Brides, take note! Using finds from the Dollar Tree, you could end up with AWESOME $3 centerpieces!!! Maybe a little more if you surrounded it with votives or flower petals.

I think my latest hobby is Hobby Lobby. OMG, I was in a damask paradise. It took the utmost restraint to keep from purchasing EVERYTHING they had in black and white damask. I did, however, succumb to the most perfect black and white damask hat boxes that I've ever come across. I bought the large, medium and small and intend to use two out of the three as a card box and the extra one to put ladies room "supplies" in. Here are a few of my card box mock ups with the large and medium boxes, although I realized this morning as I was driving in to work, that the medium and small boxes might be better as there is more delineation between the sizes, no pics of that yet. And the sparkly ribbon from Michaels. I also bought a "C" Christmas ornament. J's favorite variations include the "C", what can he say, he's proud of his name! ;-) Which is your favorite???

Damask and whatchacallit blue

2009-10-23T10:17:00.000-07:00

These are the curtains I bought from Craigslist, folded three times will make 12 runners. Not too shabby. The vase/candle holder is the result of a fun Sunday afternoon with my mom. More on this soon. All materials are from Michael's. The beautiful sparkly ribbon is in the Christmas section and the damask paper, is just damask paper. ;-)

According to Elegant Presentations, this swatch is considered Wedgewood Blue. According to Alfred Angelo, this dress is considered Robin's Egg blue. They look like the same color to me. How bout we combine them and make it WedgeEgg blue? Or Robin'sWood blue? Anyway, I ♥ this color and I think it looks lovely with damask.

Some pics!

2009-10-14T16:27:00.000-07:00

Mrs. E’s platinum wedding on an aluminum budget:

2009-10-14T10:41:00.000-07:00

Ana got married. I seriously cannot believe it!!! We always talk about how weird our 20's are! We’re not kids, but we don’t feel like adults, yet we’re doing these VERY adulty things (i.e. marriage), which seem so unreal!

Anyway, it was a breath taking wedding.

The Church was majestic, and I think that set the tone for the entire evening. When the doors opened, and Ana and her dad started walking down the aisle, everyone was blown away! I mean, we KNOW Ana's beautiful, but as a BRIDE... wow!!! :-)

She was STUNNING! She looked so elegant in her LaSposa Fanal gown. It fit her like a glove. It was extremely flattering and very hot mama sexy. And her hubby had a look on his face that read “Yeah baby, I know how blessed I am”.

The bridesmaid’s dresses were uber classy. Black full length satin. Each of the girls (2 bff’s and 2 sisters) looked gorgeous in them! Does that ever happen?!

The Mass was moving. The homily given by Ana’s friend Fr. Mark was right on key talking about the Theology of the Body and two becoming one flesh. It was so much better than those fluffy “you're required to love her even when Maybelline and Max Factor can’t help her anymore” homilies that I’ve heard in the past. VERY fitting for a VERY theological crowd.

The reception was held at a Country Club and we were greeted at the door with silver-tray-holding-waiters, passing out champagne. That made a big, very memorable hit! I’m trying to think of ways to incorporate that into our wedding. But we might need to get my brother’s to dress up like waiters to be able to afford it! Haha!

The room was awesome. It glowed! It was decorated with gold table clothes and white/ivory chair covers and sashes. So elegant! The centerpieces were a candlescape of several candles of varying heights, the candle light and the gold table cloths made the room seem so incredibly warm!

They had a dessert spread with any kind of dessert you could think of! Everything was so tasty! The cake was beautiful, the DJ was good. The couple was IN LOVE.

And EVERYONE had a BLAST. (The true marking of a stellar wedding, IMHO!)

Good work Ana, congratulations, and thanks for all the tips! :-)

Some of the ways Ana saved moolah on her classy and elegant wedding:

1. It was held on a Friday night. Fridays/Sundays are always more reasonable than a Saturday.

2. They had a dessert, drinks and dancing reception instead of a full meal. It was a perfect way to save money without losing any of the class and elegance.

3. The bridesmaids got their dresses from the Target website for $50!! YES TARGET! Who would have thought?!?! Wow! Definitely check out Target for bridesmaids dresses.

4. She used candles instead of flowers for her centerpieces and made a way bigger impact. Candles can be re-sold or used again... flowers just die!

5. Instead of renting an over priced limo, they borrowed a way cool car from some friends of the family.

Always and Forever

2009-09-30T14:09:00.001-07:00

My senior year of college I lived with 4 amazing girls in a not so amazing apartment. It was just a long hallway with a few rooms on the left side. It had an oven that smelled like a dead person (although I’m sure none of us had ever actually SMELLED a dead person) and also served as the heater, a deck that probably should have been condemned, a couch covered in $1/yard fabric from Walmart, an address of 1415 and a HALF, and a bunch of girls that quoted Napoleon Dynamite incessantly. It was one of the greatest years of my life!

I’m leaving tomorrow to drive up to Fort Wayne, Indiana for one of their weddings. Ana and her beau and J and I got engaged around the same time. Ana and I have spent HOURS emailing each other about centerpieces/dresses/signature cocktails/bouquets/etc... Our email correspondence about our wedding ideas, fears and expectations about marriage, and rants about life have been have been one of the greatest supports and strengths... and sources of entertainment of the past few months.

I’m thrilled that she’s becoming a Mrs. and can't wait to see how all of the ideas we've talked about come together in real life.... but I am sure going to miss our email exchanges!!

She understands that wedding talk can never get old… in a way that only a bride-to-be can! ;-)

Ana, may the Lord richly bless and reward your marriage. Doug is a lucky man!

Although I hear he’s planning on singing this to you at the wedding…

Why do you love me? Why do you need me? Always and forever... We met in a chatroom, now our love can fully bloom... Sure the world wide web is great, but you, you make my salivate... I love technology, but not as much as you, you see... But I STILL love technology... Always and forever. Our love is like a flock of doves, flying up to heaven above... always and forever, always and forever... Why do you need me? Why do you love me? Always and forever...

When one finds a worthy wife, her value is far beyond pearls. Her husband, entrusting his heart to her, has an unfailing prize. She brings him good, and not evil, all the days of her life.
Proverbs 31:10-13

I've Fallen for Fall (ahaha!)

2009-09-29T07:55:00.001-07:00

I stepped outside today and about passed out from excitement. After 10 days of constant rain and stiffling humidity, the air was crisp and cool and I could practically smell an apple pie baking in the oven. I LOVE FALL. I love it!

But I love Spring too. So how the heck do you choose what season to get married in??????

No luck

2009-09-25T14:47:00.000-07:00

Since J and I live in Birmingham, but are getting married in St. Louis, we have to squeeze a lot of venue searching into very short trips home. My first and only qualification for a space was that it was different. After some unsucessful visits, I'm wondering if it's neccesary to have a unique space or if I can tranform a "cookie cutter" space into something magificent.

Here are some unique places that ended up being losers.

1. The Landings at Spirit Golf Club: Dad's #1 choice, since they offered him a free round of golf if we booked with them. This was the first place we visited. It was lovely, had nice views of the golf course, was in our price range... but it was just TOO small. Sorry dad.

2. The Kemp Auto Museum: Very sleek, modern and sexy featuring some awesome old cars. Also a tad too big. I'm afraid it would feel cold and impersonal to our guests.

3. The Old Post Office: I fell in love with this venue from the outside, but once inside it seemed kind of oddly configured and cramped.

4. The Crystal Ballroom in the Renaissance Grand Hotel: Where as the Old Post Office and the Landings were too small and the Kemp Auto Museum was too large the Crystal Ballroom was JUST RIGHT. I loved it. In fact I'm wiping the drool off my keyboard as I type, I love it so much. It has floor to ceiling windows that feature stunning views of my beloved St. Louis. It's truly grand. It makes a statement. But, alas, if we went with the Crystal Ballroom we could only invite 5 people. And they'd have to byob. It's way out of our price range.... so unless we win the lottery this one's out.

Still Waiting

2009-09-25T09:33:00.001-07:00

There is a couple that work at the same tv station as J and I. They got engaged the same weekend we did.

They're getting married today.

I wish them all the best and happiness.

BUT (sigh) we're still waiting an annulment to come through before we can set a date.

How can I not feel jealous of our coworkers who will exchange vows tonight?

I get so frustrated. I know that there is a wedding (and more importantly, a marriage) out there for us... somewhere in the future... somewhere over the rainbow... but not having anything tangible (ie. date/venue) to give me something to look forward to is draining. Every time someone finds out that we're engaged, the first thing they ask is "when's the date". I know that's an understandable and reasonable question. But I'm sick of not having an answer. I'm sure it makes us look less sincere or excited to be married. And illustrating the intricacies of the annulment process is too complicated to explain to casual acquaintances.

I guess I should just start lying! ;-) So, ahem... According to anyone that asks, we'll be married on September 25, 2010. ;-) Aren't you excited for us?

(Liar liar pants on fire)

Wedding Vows

2009-09-23T16:31:00.000-07:00

J and I are thinking about writing our own vows. They'd go something like this...

Groom: I J take you, the Aluminum Bride, to my my wife. I promise to love you and never ever act like John Gosselin

Bride: I the Aluminum Bride take you, J, to be my husband. I promise to love you and never ever act like Kate Gosselin.

BM???

2009-09-23T16:09:00.001-07:00

For the most part I get a kick out of the secret lingo wafting around the blogosphere. But seriously, who decided that we bridal bloggers should abbreviate bridesmaid to BM?!?!?! I mean, doesn't BM conjure up another image??? Not that I would ever have reason to... but what if I had to tell the world that my BM was a real pain in the ass. I'm sure the world would snicker.

Now really, don't you think we can come up with something better?!?!?!

I'm just saying.

Bride Can't Stop Laughing

2009-09-22T15:16:00.000-07:00

I love videos that make me laugh! I thought this one was TOO CUTE! Enjoy!

A Bridal Consultant's Worst Nightmare

2009-09-14T08:32:00.001-07:00

My mom has been in town for the past week and a half. She leaves tomorrow and I miss her already. :-( We've had a wonderful time.

And what else would we do when we're together, but go dress shopping!!

I went to an Anne Barge trunk show several months ago. Ms. Barge was there. I was the only bride in the shop at the time so she spent my entire appointment bringing me dresses she thought would look good and telling me what she liked about one dress and disliked about another and what she thought would be best for me.

I was in bridal heaven. I mean, this amazingly talented, kind hearted, glorious human being spent an hour of her life helping ME become a beautiful bride. I'd love to walk down the aisle in one of her masterpieces. Unfortunately the ole` "ya get what ya pay for" mantra holds true in this case. Her dresses are magnificent, and lord help me, so are the price tags. As I've mentioned before, I have this problem with those pesky platinum tastes and aluminum budgets.

So mom and I decided to go on a covert couture undercover operation in the Anne Barge Atelier in Atlanta. We went in poised and confident and lied through our teeth about our budget. I tried on one that I LOVED. It was $4,170 + $600 to "open the bust" (whatever that means) and not including taxes or other alterations. We left agreeing that we had to "think about it". The consultant rolled her eyes.

This morning the first thing I did was google the style number. And lo and behold I FOUND it on http://www.preownedweddingdresses.com/ for $1000 obo!! Can you believe it?!?! I think it's too soon for it to be "the one" but I'm absolutely STOKED that my idea of finding a dress we love in a shop and ordering it online could REALLY work!

Is it all relative?

2009-09-01T09:53:00.000-07:00

2 nights in a row and no sleep. *Sigh* I wish I could wear a sign that said "don't mess with me, I didn't sleep last night". Instead of tossing and turning all night I decided to catch up on my long list of tivo'd Platinum Weddings. .... I know I know, watching TV is the worst thing you can do when you can't sleep, but at 2am it sounded like a good idea.

WHY oh WHY do I watch this show? I mean, not only do these million dollar Platinum Weddings make my Aluminum one seem so desperately sub par... but I also get frustrated from a sociological point of view.

One bride spent TWO THOUSAND DOLLARS on her DOG's wedding dress. Are you flippin' kidding me? 2 grand? That's twice the budget for MY dress. Despite this type of over the top doggie pampering, the bride still had a look on her face that read "So help me God, if you lift a leg on my THIRTY THOUSAND DOLLAR custom designer gown I WILL take you to the pound... doggie dress and all".

Other brides think nothing of spending $20,000 on custom linens. $20,000???!!! I wonder if they know that they could plan a WHOLE WEDDING for what they spend on TABLE CLOTHS!

I'm frustrated. And cranky. And suffering from a lack of sleep, but this seems ABSOLUTELY ludicrous to me. Do they know that there are people in the world that are suffering? Do they know that according to Sally Struthers, at 60 cents a day they could use their TABLE CLOTH budget to feed a hungry person for EIGHTY THREE YEARS?!?!?!?!

But, maybe people think the same thing of me? I'm certain there are people out there that think $1000 is too much to spend on a dress that you'll only wear once. If it's all relative, where do we draw the line? Would you spend a ludicrous amount of money on your wedding if you could????

Bonding Moments

2009-08-26T08:41:00.000-07:00

I'm sure by now, you've all seen the video about texting and driving. If not, it can be found here.. but a warning, it's EXTREMELY graphic

J and I were involved in a very serious accident 2 1/2 months ago. We were hit from behind on the interstate, catapulted across three lanes of traffic, slammed into the concrete median, and spun around. After the impact I turned to see J covered in blood. It was the most horrific moment of my life. We both ended up being relatively okay. But we know that we could have EASILY been killed. We deem it a miracle that there were no other cars or 18-wheelers in those three lanes when we crossed them (it was one of the busiest sections of interstate in Birmingham), that there was a median to stop us from crossing into the other side of the interstate (there was no median 100 feet behind us and 100 feet ahead of us), and that no one slammed into us as we were waiting for the ambulance to arrive (we were half way on the shoulder and half way in the fast lane, facing traffic... cars didn't even SLOW down as they zoomed past us.). After the accident I told J that our Guardian Angels deserved a raise, he said "Yeah, a raise... but not a day off!" haha!

According to the speed at which the other driver hit us, we have reason to suspect that he was texting and driving.

J and I were lucky. As we watched this video together we could both FEEL the impact. We relived the horror of looking over and seeing someone you love covered in blood. Those moments when we remember how lucky we were, bring us even closer together. Amidst our near tragedy we realize how grateful we are for each other. In that totaled car that Sunday afternoon we had never been closer.

It was truly a bonding moment.

But, Lord, if you're listening.... for future reference I prefer bonding moments to come in the form of candle lit dinners and long walks on the beach. ;-)

New to Me!

2009-08-24T13:10:00.001-07:00

I think the most fun aspect of wedding planning is the dress shopping! I mean, when else in your life can you justifiably try on beautiful gowns that cost more than rent?

As I mentioned in my last post, I'm a total daddy's girl. Well guess what? I'm 100% mama's girl too! I don't want to try on dresses without her there. I'd kick myself if I found "the one" and she wasn't there to share in that quintessential that mother/daughter bonding experience. When I put on my prom dress for the first time, she cried. Come on, crying at a PROM dress??! I'm counting on big ole` alligator tears when I find my wedding gown! haha! ;-)

Unfortunately Mom lives 500 miles away.

This is why, I spend WAY too much time looking at dresses online. It quenches my wedding gown obsession, at least temporarily.

In line with my affinity for bargain shopping, I think I've decided to purchase a used gown. You can get so much more gown for your money by buying a sample or one that a bride has only worn one time.

So the plan is... find dresses I like online. Then find them in the store. Try them on with mom. Blubber and cry. Leave the store. Order the dress online. Save lots of money.

At first I thought this was waaaaayyyyy too risky, but times are a changing. Especially with so many reputable companies out there. As I was poking around the internet a few weeks ago, I found an A-MAZING site http://www.yourdreamdress.com/.

Check out this STUNNER! It's Anne Barge La Fleur Collection. It's simple and elegant and perfect.

AND it's listed for $650!!!!!!!! Are you kidding me?!? $650!?!? It was originally $3070! If we were a little farther in our wedding planning I'd snatch this bad boy up so fast, they wouldn't know what hit them! Check out http://www.yourdreamdress.com/ for oodles of stunning designer gowns at dirt cheap prices!

Dream a little dream....

2009-08-21T10:15:00.001-07:00

My Dad and I are very close. In fact, to date, he's the only one that's posted a comment on my brand spanking new blog.

Thanks, Dad.

One of the things I most look forward to about our wedding day, is being escorted down the aisle on the arm of one of the most amazing men I know, to be presented to another one of the most amazing men I know.

That’s what makes the dream I had last night so hysterical.

It was our wedding day. I was at the end of the aisle. Ready to take the most important steps of my life. And MY BELOVED FATHER WAS NO WHERE TO BE FOUND.

I was frantic. I couldn’t find him anywhere! Then I decided to crack open the door to the Church, everyone turned to look at me. INCLUDING my Dad, who was all comfy cozy in a pew up front. I started waving my arms like a mad woman trying to get his attention.

And in a stage whisper I yelled, “Dad, dad, get back here, you’re supposed to walk me down the aisle”.

To which he replied “Oh, I don’t really want to”.

I start balling. I mean ugly cry. And the entire congregation still watching, gasped in horror. In between sniffles I wailed

“You don’t WAAAANT to waaaaaaalk me dowwwwwwwnnnnnnn the aiiiiisle?!

Sniff Sniff.

“Whyyyy don’t you WAAAANT to waaaaaaalk me dowwwwwwwnnnnnnn the aiiiisle?!”

Sniff Sniff.

Dad responded, “Oh fine. Hmpf. I’ll do it. I just don’t really know how”

Next thing I remembered my dad was handing me off to the priest, rather than J and I thought

“Okay, it wasn’t personal, he really didn’t know how”

And then I woke up… but not before I noticed that I was wearing a veil that was VERY 1986. ;-)

Have you had any weird wedding dreams?

You see curtains.... I see TABLE RUNNERS!

2009-08-17T15:13:00.000-07:00

I've searched high and low to find black and white damask linens. (Yes, I recognize that my priorities might be slightly scewed, as we have no date nor venue... but I digress.) Other damask brides have gone to great measures and great expense to get thier ideal table linens. They fret over the exact right pattern of damask. Whether it is white on black or black on white. They have thier pattern SILK SCREENED onto fabric. They enlist MIL's to sew countless runners. And have them re-sew them if they are slightly off center. They spend $20 per runner. Or buy $15 yard fabric from some fabric wholesaler in China.

I have to say, after reading their stories, I was ready to throw in the towel and go with some other color scheme.

That's where my beloved Craigslist comes in. I have no idea why I was searching under the "Household" tab, probably searching for SOMETHING wedding related! And I came across a post for a black and white damask bedding set. This woman was selling her King sized comforter, pillows and curtains. Thankfully she sold me her curtains seperately... as much as I love damask I'm not so sure I want to sleep on it... For $30 I got four LOVELY panels of curtains. They are BEAUTIFUL! I am going to cut each panel into three runners (or have my wonderful, beautiful, talented mother do it!). 12 runners for $30! Not too shabby! :-) Maybe I should rent them out to those ladies that are on their way to the silk screeners...

"Sure you did, Sweetie"

2009-08-17T14:31:00.000-07:00

I went to a Bridal Show a couple months ago. I entered to win several drawings. One was for a $1000 gift certificate to Diamonds Direct, the store where J got my stunning e-ring. Well, lo and behold, as they were drawing names for prizes, they called MY NAME for the $1000!!! I texted J right away and told him the good news. I was shaking! Barely able to push the buttons on my phone. Minutes later I got a text back from J that said "Sure you did, Sweetie". J, ever the jokester, thought I was playing a joke on him. *Sigh* It wasn't until he held the gift certificate in his hands that he believed me!! haha! Then we celebrated with and ice cold Bud Light! What's funny, is that before they called my name I thought to myself "I'm gonna win this!" Ah, the power of positive thinking! :-)

I think the wedding band that matches my ring is around 2k. This gift certificate is like getting my ring half off! For two people that love bargains as much as J and I do, we're practically giddy!

Invites from Michael's?

2009-08-17T14:07:00.000-07:00

I am among the many brides that have fallen in love with black and white damask. I think it's so elegant, modern and chic... I hope I still think so in the future... because I've already gotten my invites!! They are this sweet diy set from Brides Magazine at Michael's. The set includes printable invites, response cards, directions cards; ribbon, jacket, seals & mailing labels. I fell in love with them. As I've been doing wedding research I've found that a gazillion other brides have fallen in love with them too. Oh well. I'm trying to get over that desire for our wedding to be completely 100% utterly unique. Does it really matter if someone that has been invited to our wedding has ALSO been invited to someone else's wedding using this beautiful set from Michael's? J and my love is unique and special... and our wedding day will be too, regardless of what invites we use!! Plus they come 30 in a box, and were only $20!

Speaking of invites. . . I just got the invite for my dear friend Ana's wedding. They are STUNNING. Letterpressed on thick paper. I fell in love with them. *Sigh* Ana is so elegant, it's no surprise that her invites were too! :-)

The beginning of my wedding treasure hunt!

2009-08-17T13:31:00.000-07:00

J is a yard sale snob. I was never much into buying other people's "junk", until I met him and discovered the practically unused treasures that people were almost GIVING away. On Saturday I found 150 slightly used wedding bubbles for $1! Yay! I haven't really decided if we'll be one of those "bubbly" couples... but for a dollar it was worth having the option!

I also found a pair of wedding shoes at the same yard sale. They were worn once by a MoB. Theiy're Kenneth Cole, with rhinestone straps. $60 originally. And, delightfully, they only have a slight kitten heel. I LOVE high high high heels. But I hate being taller than my man. And can't imagine towering over him on our wedding day. They are a just a tad tight across my toes. But I figured they'd either stretch out, or I'd give them to MY MoB, who has more dainty feet than I! Due to J's expert haggling I got them for $7! Much more logical than the $900 Christian Louboutin bridal shoes that I've been lusting over! I mean, who even sees your feet!?!?

I'm getting MARRIED!

2009-08-17T12:36:00.000-07:00

I’m in love with a man that is the complete opposite of what I expected.

Years ago I wrote “the list”, and oh sure, he has all of the important things (ie. loving, close to his family, great sense of humor) but none of the qualities in my subcategories (ie. No Doctorate from Yale. Dark and handsome… but definitely not tall. And much to my chagrin, he’s not a millionaire). In fact, after our first date I turned to him, as if I were the hiring manager at a job interview, and said matter-of-factly “you have none of the qualities on my ‘list’”. Thankfully this didn’t dissuade him.

Fast-forward two years… In the exact same spot where he asked me to be his girlfriend, he asked me to be his bride.

I burned my “list”.

Now I’m planning to marry the most unexpectedly magnificent man I’ve ever encountered.

My parents are equally magnificent. They have generously agreed to pay for our wedding. Then my dad got a pay cut at work. In a shaky economy he’s grateful to have a job, but this throws a major loophole in the extravagant “platinum wedding” I’ve been dreaming about since I was a little girl (and admittedly, planning since well before I was engaged.) Mom and I are working hard to reign in our expensive tastes. After weeks of touring Crystal Ballrooms in fancy hotels, we’ve agreed to only view places that actually fit into our tight budget. We believe that with some creativity, ingenuity, and great sales we can create a platinum wedding on an aluminum budget.

Thankfully, for me, finding deals is like a game. I love wearing designer clothes that I got from thrift stores, jewelry from yard sales, and shoes from clearance bins. And I LOVE telling people that my dress only cost $2.00, after they compliment me on my style! With so many great deals available, I pride myself on being high maintenance… on a budget.