U-G-L-Y You Ain't Got No Alibi!

I'm not having a bachlorette party. GASP! Right? Not really.

I don't do the crowded bar with over priced watered down drinks thing, or squeezing into my old clubbing clothes. It's not that I don't like them or think that they aren't fun. I'm just not doing it because it's not me, where I'm at in my life.

However; at one point, back before I was actually engaged or even considering marriage I did have a really great idea, I swore I would do when it was turn for my Bachlorette party.

I wanted to have a totally bad prom dress themed bachlorette party! Swing into Goodwill or hit up eBay, grab the most outdated or totally ugly dress, accessorize the part and hit the bars!

My reason was because in high school I never got to go to prom for one reason or another. So I was determined that my wedding would make up for the 4 missed proms and to kick it all off, dress up in other peoples discarded fashion disasters!

In honor of my, never used yet brilliant idea here is a collection of the ugliest dresses I could find.

The Hello Kitty Dress

The Red Disaster!
Not Everything Pink is Cute

And last but not least The Green Monster


To see these and other ugly dresses please vists www.uglydress.com
Please credit UglyDress.com for having the time, patience and stomach to gather all these dresses into one place!

Dress Fitting #2

My bridesmaid MJ and I had our appointments right after each other, simply by luck! It was a blast going with her, and made picking out my necklace and headpiece much easier because she's always very honest and I knew if something looked like crap, no matter how much I liked it she would tell me.

I did have to have another minor adjustment done to the dress, and buy a new crinoline to keep me from tripping over the front end of the dress. It's actually a two-fer because not only does it keep me from tripping over myself, it's also much more airy - and given how much material is in my dress, I need that! :-)

Here's some shots from the fitting - we had a blast!

Front and back with the veil

And with it bustled

I realized that I didn't try to sit ever in the dress, and as it turns out - I'm not all that good at it!
My Bridesmaid MJ and I

And here's my accessories! I went with pearls (mostly). I'm really excited because FMIL is letting me borrow her diamond and pearl earings she got as a gift on her 30th wedding anniversary. So I'm taking form thsoe and adding: (pictures from www.davidsbridal.com)

Necklace

Bracelet (with white pearls)

As for the headpiece I'll have to get that later, they don't have it on the site. It's a headband and I'm not getting good pictures with my camera...:-( It's all crystals though, so I think I have a good combo of the pearls and the crystals. I have 11 gals at the shop helping me, and I'm happy with it - which is all that matters.

Kissing Ball

I dropped into my florist yesterday to double check the color scheme of roses I chose and to change a few things. I'm glad that I did because I had a shade of pink that I really didn't want chosen. I also really wanted to change the Flower Girls flowers from a fairy wand made out of a rose - to a Pompadour or as my florist calls them a "Kissing Ball"

Initially I wanted this, but the florist said "Oh, all the kids do it whack each other with them and roll them like a bowling ball"so I went with option to - a tacky flower wand. Even though the Kissing Ball costs more, she's make more off it - still trying to talk me out of it. WTF!? Why do vendors do this. If you don't like what you sell - stop selling it! Simple as can be....

SO when she fainly finishes round two of the "It will be trashed" speech, she than said "Well you don't want it out of roses do you? That would be really expensive" which is fair enough, but why assume I can't afford it? Sweet lady, people skills lacking a bit.

The rose one is $75! So no, I'm not getting a rose one....I'm getting carnations. But...silly me I ordered it with out seeing one made out of carnations - and the florist didn't have a photo of one. Go figure. So I looked one up when I got home and I think it's going to look great. It's still going to be $45 for it, but at least this way if it does get trashed I wouldn't feel too badly about it.

Here it is - what do you think?? I think in the pink shades I picked, it's going to be great!

I don't know....

Ugh. I so torn right now.

I really want top blog about the great stuff I plan to put in the bags for my bridesmaids....but if I do then they will know what it is.....and I'm such a big "SURPRISE" kinda person.

But it's really quite cool, and personal and - Argh!

I'm going to go fight with myself about this now....

Dressing the Junior Bridesmaid

After several weeks of planning, I got my 6 year old sister into the bridal shop to try on some dresses.

I called ahead and discuess with them the fact my little sister, wasn't as little as most and that I didn't want this to be an issue or discussed in front of her. (This turned out to be no problem at all as the girl assigned to help us wasn't around at all, and we had to track her down just to check out, which was very much not like the other experiences I'd had here in the past)

I went in with a dress in mind: (see right)

It matched the bridesmaids perfectly and was really cute. Not to mention that my sister actually liked it, which is a plus!

Now my sister, who is 6 by the way is about a 10/12 in kids sizes. So I figured that a 14 would suffice for her in the dress. I grab it myself (as I mentioned before....the girl supposed to be helping M.I.A!) and brought it to her room. The sample was in a hideous BRIGHT orange that looked like something Rainbow Brigt might dress a bridesmaid in, and the look on my sisters face was "I am not wearing that thing!"

I quickly explained that it would be black and to just put ion for size.

It didn't fit.

I grabbed the 16 and the 18, in both that dress and another tea length with elastic on the back! They didn't fit either.

I had now exhausted all my Jr Bridesmaids options and was not forced to go into a Bridesmaids dress. Helper girl, who is still M.I.A is finally tracked down, doing nothing outside a dressing room for a bride who clearly didn't need her help. I explain the situation and she runs off, coming back what seemed like hours later with another dress choice in a size 2 adults.

Figuring this HAS to fit I ask my sister to put it on. Annnnnddddd - Won't zip.

We're off to the 4, the 6 and then to the 8. I'm frustrated for my sister at this point and trying not to show it. Though my step dad keeps commenting on how the zippers are junk, which they kinda are.

The 8 zipped, and fit but we had an issue: No straps and she was obviously not going to fit into this dress 3 months from now if she grew an inch. So I talk to the seamstress and we decide on a 10, and they will add straps in from the left over hem.

The neat thing is, though the dress (see left) is a tea length on an adult - it's a perfect floor length for my sister. And it doesn't look frumpy or anything because she had to go up to adult sizes. She felt good in the dress, and that's all I care about.

I let her choose weather she wanted a pink or black dress, and she wanted pink - so thats what she got. I think it will compliment my bridesmaids black dresses nicely and plan to incorporate that pink into my daughter flower girl dress as well.

Now I just have to find a fluffy huge beautiful dress for my daughter with a pink accent in it - which I haven't been able to track down as of yet... One down, one last one to go!

Shoes, shoes SHOES!

I just wanted to share some great sites to look for Bridal and Bridesmaids shoes. I've been searching for my perfect pair for months now, but it's not for lack of options! I'm just being majorly picky!

6pm

Haute Bride (sales!) Think Vera Wang, for $50 - $75! Oh yeah!

Zappos

and if that doesn't work for you - maybe you have a bridesmaid as cool as I do who will get you some of these to wear:

Oh yeah! Personalized Converse Chuck Taylor's that say "Bride 2008" on the side AND are customized in my wedding colors all thanks to Jacque!

From the second the ceremony is over - it's out with the heels and in with the totally awesomeness of Chucks!

I've Got The Shoe Blues

Planning a wedding is detailed and time consuming. However I did not think that the one thing I would spend the majority of my time looking for - would be shoes.

And not even shoes for me, no no no. Shoes for my tallest bridesmaid MJ.

I admit, the need to continue looking is my fault. I'm trying very hard to find something totally affordable but at the same time open toed, dressy-ish, black and FLAT! Totally 100% flat. Okay maybe a small 1/2 or even at most 1 inch lift. But none the less - F-L-A-T flat!

I've tried to get her to chop off her feet, she won't comply. I decided not to flex the bride-zilla arm on that one. I guess a line has to be drawn somewhere, hehehe.

So here's why were having such a tough time. I really don't care that she's tall. I mean come on, what can I do about it? But the dress shop doesn't do "extra length", instead they bring you up a dress size. Well MJ had to go up 2 dress sizes just to get enough length and we're worried that if we give her more then the 1/2 or 1 inch lift, the dress will appear too short and because it's a ball gown...look utterly dumb.

I've ordered the other girls shoes from www.6pm.com Highly suggested for anyone looking for designer shoes are non-designer prices! I was going shoe ga-ga on this site!

My other maids are wearing RSVP shoe in Kyra. Price = $14.70 with out shipping. It's a 2 1/2 heel which is still a bit high I think as we are walking down the isle on an incline and I don't need anyone falling on the way down. Though funny, not good for them at all!

MJ's shoes allude us still. We've gone to every site on line we could find. Plus we checked Payless, Target, Wal-Mart even!

I've tried convincing myself that non-open-toed ballet flats would be ok, but I can't do it. Then I thought that maybe the peep-toe kind would be alright but I really can't stand that one or two random toes peeking out - looks awkward...

We've given up a bit for now, taken a break and hope that something will come to us. Because if not, I'm buying black shoe polish and painting her feet!

What does it take to get a dress in this town!?

Finally we have a Bridesmaids dress!

Phew!

You have no idea what it took to get this. This is dress number 3, at store number 3 and I can say whole heartedly say I never want to look for a brdiesmaids dress, again. Ever.

Let's start at the beginning shall we. I take you way, way back in time - back when my wedding party was in it's original stage and no maids had been given the boot yet, or dropped out - back about 3 months ago...

I found the most perfect Jasmine B2 dress online, love at first sight. I called a store in the area and went in right away with my sister and then maid -of -honor (MOH) Stef to give it a look. We all agreed it was perfect, and I ordered some swatches from the shop Bella Bridal as I wanted the dress (see photo to right) Black with a pink sash and I needed to see the available pinks.

A month or so goes by and I've not heard from Bella Bridal on the arrival of my swatches, so I call. They have no idea who I am, or that I have ordered the swatches. I'm a bit put off as I've personally spoken to the sales gal there 3 times and 2 of those was in the shop itself.

I simply make the decision that I will get this same dress elsewhere as any store that can't keep a swatch order straight, probably won't get the dress order right either.

By this time a maid has backed out of the wedding, and one has been booted for good reason. I've not got to replace 2 maids and then find a new shop with this dress.

I come across Our Shop, in Stillwater MN. They have the same dress AND it's centrally located for all my girls. I start getting excited - they are all going to meet and we're going to have a blast!

Upon arriving at the store, I looked for my dress in the millions of others hanging from the racks. When I didn't find it I asked a sales guy for help, as they told me they had the dress when I called. He pulls out this teal and white number which he says has the same style number on it.

I'm not convinced. My sister, who has tried it on swears on her pregnant belly - it's not the dress. All my maids are making this face like someone farted and I decide we need a new dress.

We settle on this lovely little number by Bill Levkoff, a bit more expensive but it has 2 great qualities. 1 - it's flattering and 2 ALL the girls loved it.

We go through the horrendous task of measuring everyone in a packed, over booked shop. Out seamstress was losing her mind and my girls we're all getting hungry. After an hour, we start the task of checking out, another 20 minutes PER GIRL, and the worst part is the woman in the shop are not even measuring right and the dress sizes they want to order for each girl is completely backwards.

Example, they wanted my tallest and biggest girl in a dress smaller then one of my smaller girls and the small girl in the big dress!? I had to have faith they knew what they were doing, after all the shop had been there for years, they had to be doing something right.

A day later my girls tell me they aren't comfortable with the shop either. So I called them up, got the money back as nothing was ordered yet (waiting on my 5th our of state gal to call in) and proceeded to look for a new dress, at a new shop!

Stressed out, and really sick of Bridesmaids dresses, I go back to looking at Davids Bridal, which is where I got my wedding dress. After an hour on line looking and 2 hours on the phone with my Bridesmaid MJ, we settle on one dress. Knowing it's the ONLY one there I pray to the God of Dresses and Sanity that it will work, and I scoot off to the shop to peek at it.

So there it is, hanging on the rack. It looks great.

Looks can be deceiving. I reach up and carefully check the price tag, figuring as it looks nice it must cost a fortune, right?

Phew! Cheaper then both of the first 2 dresses.

Alright, things are going good - so it must look like crap on. My FMIL (Future Mother In Law) makes me go try it on, as the black on is a 6 and it should fit. I slip it on and run to a mirror -

OMG - It's perfect, it's flattering, it's cheap IT'S THE ONE!

After 6 months, 3 dresses and 2 disaster at dress shops I have the one I need! I thought that you have this kind of anxiety over wedding dresses...lol...not bridemaids dresses!

I've contacted all the maids about the dress, and told them if they get it on and hate it - tough....lol, they are wearing it ;-)

In the Bag!

On one of my many trips 'round the internet in search of the ever elusive Wedding bargain, I came across a lovely little shop on eBay called Tina's Embroidery Shoppe and bought up GREAT bags for all my maids!

I'm still in disbelief about how fast they arrived in the mail especially since I ordered right before Christmas. The shipping cost was great and she even made a specific auction for me because I needed 9 bags in total. Her customer service was FAB!!!

I can not wait to fill these bags with goodies and treats! It's going to be a blast! I hope that the girls find them useful even after the wedding! And if not - then I'll hurt them - hahah KIDDING!

This place is some place I will be going back to for sure! And I highly recommend them! If you use her, tell her I sent you....lol maybe she'll hook me up with a deal!