Bridesmaids Dresses

I went dress shopping this past weekend, but not for my wedding. My Best Friend and Maid (will be Matron) of Honor is getting married in May of 2010. I play the role of Maid of Honor in her wedding along with our other Best Friend, Melly. So this past Sunday we took a looooonnngggg drive up to one of the Alfred Angelo stores to try on dresses.

I was a little concerned that the prices of the dresses were going to be waaayyyy out of my price range for her wedding, but they ended up not being bad at all. And it didn't hurt that we got $20 off at the register. ;)

So without further ado, I present the dress I will be wearing:

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The full dress will be in the color it is shown in, however, the sash and detail at the bottom will be in champagne. I attempted and failed at trying to Photoshop it to resemble that, so I'll just leave that disaster in the trash bin. :)

I really dig the dress, and I actually really dig Alfred Angelo's Bridesmaid dresses all together. Because I am still undecided about everything as far as our wedding is concerned, I have no idea what I want my girls to wear. There is one dress at Alfred Angelo that I adore, but I'm not sure it would work for all of them. Let me show you:

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Talk about adorable, right? The problem is that all of my girls have boobs and curves, so I don't think this dress would end up looking all that fab on all of them. Boo. The other thing, I never really wanted my girls to all wear the same dress. I'm not sure why, I've just always felt that they should have a bit more say in what they end up wearing, ya know? I don't want them to walk away hating the dress that I put them in. Some serious thought is needed here.

An empty seat

On September 28, 2009 my Grandmother passed away. She is the only one of my Grandparents who I really knew.

I keep reminding myself that we were really fortunate to have her with us for as long as we did. She died at the age 93 and ll months, to the date.

Christmas will be hard this year, as will all the months leading up and following it. I've never lost such a close family member before this, at least not that I remember. Both of my Grandfathers passed before I was 3 years old, and my Dad's Mom died when I was 5 or 6, so I don't have much of a recollection her.

Besides just being sad over the loss of my Grandmother, I kind of feel selfish about the fact that one of the most upsetting things for me is that she won't be at our wedding. I'm sure it's natural to feel that way when somebody close to you passes and you are in the process of planning one of the most exciting events in your Life.

It's the little things that are getting to me. I won't have to buy her a corsage to wear, or put out an escort card with her name on it. She won't be included in the family portraits, and possibly the most disappointing is that I won't get that picture of the three generations with my Grandmom, my Mom and myself. Like I said, it's the silly stuff but those are things that are presently most upsetting.

Miss you Grandmom. I know you won't be there physically, but I'm sure your love and support will be surrounding us all on that day.

We found the place, we found the place!

Just when I was beginning to feel like we were never going to find a place that would meet all of our criteria, it popped up!

I was feeling pretty bummed last weekend after seeing yet another venue that ended up being not quite what we were looking for and decided to turn to the ladies on The Knot. I went to the boards and posted my feelings of frustration that this 'perfect place' didn't exist. Of course, the ladies immediately responded with suggestions of places in the area that they thought might work for us based on the the things I said I wanted. Some of the places we had visited, but there were a few new ones. One in particular stuck out, Columbia Station in Pheonixville, which is owned by Robert Ryan Catering. It sounded different, which I like.

I contacted the coordinator at Columbia Station that night and had an appointment set up for the following weekend within 24 hours. Things were looking good once I had received the sample menus and saw that this place is completely all inclusive. I have found that to be the most difficult thing as far as finding a reasonable venue is concerned. Everywhere we looked was beautiful but the prices were ridiculous and didn't even include the tables, linens and chairs.

The Saturday came and my Mom, Pat's Mom and I all headed up to Pheonixville to check this place out. It is perfect!



As you might assume from the name, it's an old railroad station. This is something that I knew Pat would be into from the beginning because with him, there is just something about trains. The ticket booth and waiting areas have been transformed into cocktail/bar area and ballroom respectively. I will be able to have my outdoor ceremony in the garden right next to the driveway and then we will go into the station itself for the cocktail hour and reception.

I'm not going to try to explain the set up of the venue because I know that I won't do it justice. I'll tell you about one of my favorite details though, the caboose. There is an old caboose on the right hand side as soon as you pull into the driveway and from the outside it just looks like a nice touch for the station, but the inside is a whole different story. They set it up as a little sitting/dressing area for the Bride and Bridesmaids. It's neat because when you look out one of the side windows, you can see the garden area but unless they know that you are in there, they won't be seeing you! So neat!

Now I just need to get Pat over there to check it out and then hopefully we will be signing a contract within the next two weeks! <3

Wedding Nightmare No. 2

I was really hoping that that dream from a couple weeks ago would be it for a while. I was happy to wake up each morning feeling relatively calm about this whole wedding process. I was also apparently pretty niave about how these dreams like to sneak up on a gal at any random time!

~cue the music~

I was at my parents house getting ready for the big day. Pretty normal, right? Not so much. It turns out that I'm actually getting married AT my parents house, in their driveway to precise! The reception was to be in their living room and backyard. We had all of three tables with these navy blue tablecloths. It was not at all attractive, and not at all how I imagine my wedding looking.

So I'm dressed and freaking about the fact that there are no centerpieces because I had left them at my house, and sent my Dad to go find the stuff that I need for the centerpieces. My Dad doesn't drive and when he is asked to accomplish an important task, it's usually too much pressure for him. Doh! I'm left freaking out even more and then... I wake up!

My Dad laughed when I told him about this dream and promised me that even if I ask him to help with the wedding decoration, he will politely say no. Hahaha!

Things just keep getting weirder and weirder in my head. I REALLY need to find a venue, like now.

Will you be my Maids?

I decided a long time ago that when it came time to ask my Ladies to be in the wedding party I wanted to make it special. I am a big cheese ball like that. :) So I decided that one day I would have them over for dinner and dessert and formally ask them all at once.

Right after Christmas (about two weeks after the proposal) I ordered ornamnets that 'Will you be my Maid of Honor?' for the two girls who would have that role, and three ornaments that said 'Bridesmaid'. I feel like it was fitting seeing as how we got engaged so close to Christmas. I also bought Bridesmaid/Maid of Honor etiquette books for them, which I thought was a nice touch.

I finally got my stuff together for this past Friday, July 10th, almost 7 months after we got engaged, and invited the ladies over. We ate dinner, drank sangrias and danced to The Proclaimers since they were playing on the TV. It was a wonderful night and it reaffirmed the reason why these Ladies are the ones I want standing by me on the day that I marry my Best Friend. <3



These would be the little baggies that held the ornaments, books and a card asking the girls to be my Maid or MOH.



They were pretty excited about the books and promptly started dancing in line formation.



This is me and one of my lovely MOHs, Kate. She is getting married just 4 months before I am, so she will have the role of Matron of Honor come time for my wedding. (I am also her MOH, so this should be fun!)



Another lovely MOH, Melly. She is my crafting buddy, so I'm sure she'll be the first to volunteer when it comes time to start my DIY projects.



Myself and my good friend, Kelly. This is the lady responsible for the wonderful pictures of our engagement!



My sister in-law to be. I met her when she was in 8th grade and now she's all adult like! It's irksome! <3



I guess instead of setting up the timer to take a picture of all five of us, we decided to take a picture of our feet. Haha! So much fun!

A good time was had by all. They actually had no idea that I was planning this, so it was kind of fun the look of surprise on their faces when they were opening their cards. :)

Wedding Nightmare No. 1

From what I understand this is a normal thing for all brides-to-be. I expected it to happen eventually, but I'm not going to lie and say that I was pleased when it finally happened.

~insert dramatic music~

There was a gorgeous beach a block away from the house that we were staying at. I could literally walk out the door and walk right to it, but I had more important things to take care of. For example, I was getting married in about 20mins and still hadn't put on my dress or had any of the decorations set up!

It seems that we had rented this large beach house in North Carolina, I'm thinking it was supposed to be somewhere in the Outer Banks. (My family has gone down there for Thanksgiving a couple times and rented a couple huge houses, so I feel like that's what was happening here.) My whole family was staying in this house with me, and by whole family, I mean mean my WHOLE FAMILY. Twenty or so Aunts and Uncles, about sixty cousins, and then Pat's family on top of my own. It was outrageous.

The backyard was littered with mismatched tables, table cloths and centerpieces. Nothing was the way I wanted it and my dress was terrifying! Just as I was stepping into the dress of my nightmares, I woke up and that was that.

Maybe it wasn't really as bad as it could have been, but it definitely made me feel like we are even more behind in our planning than I had thought. :/

Time to get a move on, self!

We're not so great at this...

So things have been really slow on the wedding front these days. It's not that we don't want to go look at venues and FINALLY start making some decisions, it's just that we have been so busy with our day to day lives that finding the perfect place for the wedding has been put on the back burner.

June is always a busy month for us because it's Pat's birthday is on the 23rd and his family's reunion weekend is around the same date. Yea, it's all close together but we have to prepare for that weekend! Hahaha! And then this year I added another weekend of being busy because I planned a surprise birthday party for him for the weekend after his birthday. It went smoothly and he was in fact surprised! Go me! :)

We need to stop putting it off and really buckle down and find the place that is going to work for us. A couple places on the agenda for this month; Tyler Arboretum, Independence Seaport Museum and The Willows, which doesn't have a website. I just want for us to find the venue for our wedding so that I can feel like we have actually accomplished something as far as the wedding is concerned. Here's hoping that one of these places proves to be that place!

Wish us luck!