July 31, 2012

Why I'm Dreading Wedding Dress Shopping

Guys, I thought I would have a fun time looking for my wedding dress.

I'm flipping out.

Why?  Because of my &$%-&$^@ expensive taste! XP

What do I like?
Texture
A textured, ruffled, and ruched a-line wedding gown from David's Bridal
 
Dimensional lace
A soft, flowing a-line wedding gown with lace and dimensional flower appliques from David's Bridal
 
Unique
A modern a-line or ballgown wedding gown with lots of unique texture from David's Bridal

What does every budget dress look like?!?

A simple and elegant empire waist sheath wedding dress from David's Bridal
A traditional satin a-line wedding dress with pickups from David's Bridal

Meh.  Simple and streamlined I am not.

Yes, I mentioned the eBay dresses before, but now that I'm doing more research, I have found that these are just "inspiration" photographs, and not what really comes shipped to your home.

There are some great sites here and here where you can see the difference...

A wedding dress a customer actually received from inweddingdress.com, pretty but not really like the Maggie Sottero original photo given for the item.

A Maggie Sottero wedding gown, which inweddingdress.com put as a photograph for one of their items.
Nice, but not the same...

I mean I could try out eBay and see what happens, I have enough time, I'm just worried that they can't do the complicated things I would want in a gown.

So my next step is researching these knock-off sellers and see if any have more positive reviews than most, try them out, and if it doesn't work out, go to plan B.

What's plan B?

A LOT of research.

Plan B is searching on Craigslist, eBay, WeddingBee Classifieds, BravoBride, RecycledBride, sample sales, etc. to find that one used or sample gown that is going for a reasonable enough price.

Like finding a needle in a haystack my friends.

So now I'm incredibly deflated...and getting a headache :p

I mean why does the WIC (Wedding Industrial Complex) have to be this way? Any white prom gown costs *more* than the same thing colored would be.  All wedding dresses are labeled as "affordable" if they're less than $1K.

A dress made of money, sometimes I wonder if this is cheaper than buying a wedding dress
Sometimes this seems like the cheaper option...

You what I think is affordable? $250
Highest price? $400, and it BETTER look like the dress from the Gods! ):<

I'm starting to feel that I can't escape this wedding budget blunder...yes, my mom IS going to pay for the dress, but it's just the damn principle of the thing!  I don't want anyone to pay more than $400 for a one-day deal for me.  And that's that.

And is it my fault that I like a little style???

Meh, maybe my new edition of Bridal Bargains can help me :P

Hopefully my dress ideas start becoming a bit clearer and the dress will come to me...but I think it will be playing hard to get.

Wish me luck <3

July 29, 2012

So, Whatever Happened To My Miss Boa?

Okay, so I dropped off the face of the earth for a number of reasons, perhaps leaving some of you wondering...what happened to Miss Boa?  Did everything turn out alright?  How was the wedding?!  What did her dress actually look like?!

Miss Boa's faux Weddingbee icon! (Copyright of Christos Georghiou, via purchased license) Well the Miss Boa series shall continue, with bits of posting here and there in between my own wedding planning posts! :D

(It feels so cool to talk about my actual, real-life wedding!!! *squee!*)

So...
Where did we leave off?

Oh yeah, she pretty much planned her entire wedding in two weeks time!  o.0

Miss Boa = planning wizard

Wedding Planning Wizard!

So what was next on her to-do list? --the bridesmaid dresses!

It all started out harmless enough, in order to find a dress we could wear later on, she asked her fellow 'maids what kind of dresses they like, told us what color she wanted, and to help with costs, we could pick dresses from department stores, given that the dress was in everyone's size :P

Well, this turned into a "EVERYONE WANTS TO BE INCLUDED!" message fest, and poor Miss Boa soon had posts pouring in on all sides, and the trouble was, everyone had their own style and ideas!

(Of course, my ideas where the best :D Just kidding!)

Not to mention that the wedding party had three...umm...height-challenged girls, (myself included XD) and two very tall women!  So body types were pretty much across the board here!

This went on for a few days until Miss Boa realized that she would just have to pick the damn dress herself!  Off to Victoria's Bridal Shoppe she went, (since a bridal shop can cater to all dress sizes,) found a lovely black and teal number, sent us a photo, and that was that!  The bridesmaids dress was chosen!

Miss Boa's Black and Teal Strapless Bridesmaid Dress!
A sneak peak at my bridesmaid attire! :D

Now...I'm going to tell you something that I didn't even tell Miss Boa...

I got the dress a size smaller than I should have.

XP

I know!  This is such a bridesmaid no-no!  If you take anything from this post, remember this:

"DON'T get the bridesmaids dress a size smaller and say you'll lose the weight!"

Did I manage to lose the weight?
        Well yes, obviously, or that thing would have never zipped up! XD
Was it a stressful time losing the weight?
        Yeah...it was...
Could this situation have cause a major problem for the wonderful Miss Boa?
        Absolutely.

Even though I knew I had the time to lose the weight, and it was a fairly reasonable amount to lose, nothing too drastic, there are just so many things that can go wrong that it's still a slippery slope to go down.

But let me tell you, nothing is more motivating than knowing that come hell or high water you're going to have to come to a wedding in that dress!

Trouble losing weight for a bridesmaids dress

Oh! Another thing to take with you:

"Think about the style of dress you are choosing, and if possible, try it on.  See for yourself how your bridesmaids will feel wearing the dress"

As much as I and the other bridesmaids love Miss Boa, this was a hard dress to wear!

As you can see it had an empire waist and a pencil skirt, and it was that combination that prevented us from sitting down properly!  At least we looked fabulous :D and we still were able to get through dinner! lol

The thing was no one realized this would be a problem until we were at the wedding, and it looks perfectly harmless in photos!

So take note brides-to-be!  And bring more comfort to bridesmaids everywhere!

July 25, 2012

Guess Whatttttt...


ZimChi | MySpace Layouts - MySpace Comments - MySpace Icons

:D :D :D

The proposal wasn't exactly like one of my favs below (woot woot, Ctrl-Alt-Del back in the old days), but it did have its geeky charms :)

Ctrl-Alt-Del - Ethan's Gamer Proposal!

So no more stalling!

Let the wedding blogging commence!

(Thank you lovely readers for putting up with my moody breaks in blogging, I <3 you all!)