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

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.

No luck

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.

A Bridal Consultant's Worst Nightmare

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?

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????

I'm getting MARRIED!

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.