David's Bridal and alterations

So I haven't posted in awhile..

Here what has been going on..

I took my dress yesterday to get an estimate on alterations. I took it to a place in Stockton and found out that it will be really hard to hem since it doesn't have a waist seam that they can just take it up from... but because the chiffon is one piece, they actually have the remove the lace, then hem it and then reattach the lace. Great. Plus adding a bustle... plus attaching some sleeves.

The place in stockton thinks it will be about $175... plus I'd have to buy the sleeves at David's Bridal for $40 and he didn't seem too sure about what a bustle was, which makes me a little uneasy. So it would be $215.

Davids Bridal wants $120 for the hem, $50 for the bustle and $40 for the sleeves plus $40 to attach the sleeves... that is $250.. great.

My cousin found out because of all the layers to her dress, to hem it, it would be $60.

Before we went to the alterations appointment, we went to lunch at Chili's. yummy. We also went to Target where I got a baby gift for a girl at work. I got her a bath set with two hooded towels and two wash cloths.

Priscilla met us at the Tailor shop and we dropped my cousin off. Went and met up with Jennifer at her house, who followed us to Modesto. We all went to David's Bridal... where Priscilla easily found her dress size. She tried the right size on the first time... This is her modeling the dress.. kindof. I forgot to take a picture of her in it.


Yay. I tried on my dress and picked out some cap sleeves to add to my dress. I also looked at a pretty headband.. or two...
or

I kind of like them both. I don't know which one I like more.

DIY Placecards

I made these out of metallic cardstock..

They are all layered on a dark blue metallic cardstock.
The first has a white metallic layer on top of the blue metallic cardstock -


The second is a cream metallic layer on top of the blue metallic cardstock, with a little blue and green flower to try to jazz it up (this was cut out of a post it note, so whatever I end up wouldn't be the same)


For the next try out - I tried a green metallic layer:


then a light blue metallic layer:


I think I like the last two best, but of course that would mean more cardstock and more time.. but i think it might be worth it...

Checks

So tuesday was our 4 month to go mark until the wedding.

I went to David's Bridal yesterday and tried on some dresses for our rehearsal dinner.. I thought I was going to get a short black dress.. but I ended up finding more long dresses..

Here are the dresses I tried on:
Dress #1

Dress #2

Dress #3

Dress #4

Dress #5

Dress #6


All of the dresses come in black... but I kind of like the light blue and light green color... but I think I'd wear a black dress more.

but I'm still deciding. I dont know if these would be too formal for a steak dinner? but aren't I supposed to be all dressed up?

I also bought a chiffon shrug.. it has half sleeves and I'll probably wear it with my wedding dress:


I also bought my tiara:


I found these tote bags at Target for $2.50 each! and I bought them for my bridesmaids.. I plan on adding to them.. maybe a photo album and some other stuff.


I also bought three of these to put on the stone tables in the garden at the winery:


I think they will look pretty with candles in them all lit up at night..

Yay! more Progress.

Now if I could just figure out invitations

First Dance song chosen

I think I found our first dance song!

My Wife, My Bitch, My Girl by Tech N9ne

okay I'm kidding. :-P

Stress

I'm trying to decide on wedding invitations because we should have ordered them WEEKS ago.

Does anyone even care what the invite looks like?

I keep all the ones I get, but I rarely look at them.

So yeah. Why am I stressing so much?

Nasty Tatto

one of my bridesmaids has this lovely tattoo on her back:



Why? I don't know..

That being said. I told her from the beginning that the tattoo has to be covered at the wedding.. I did not mean just for the ceremony. If I meant the ceremony I would have said, covered for the ceremony. So today she buys her dress. She's been pretty flaky and there was a point she wasn't even in the wedding. Aaron said I was being mean to not let her be a bridesmaid if she wanted to be a bridesmaid. So now she's a bridesmaid.

Anyways.. So on the way home, I ask her how she plans on covering the tattoo.

She said why should she have to cover it.

Um let me see...

BECAUSE ITS A NAKED PERSON.

If someone had a big dick tattooed on their back, i would ask them to cover it.

So she said that its my fault since the dress I picked didn't cover her tattoo... That she's not wearing a jacket for the entire reception. I said she could get a shrug or something... I'm about 10 seconds away from gluing a bandaid to her back.. which honestly quite possibly could be an option. She can leave it all except the boobs and the pubic hair. Seriously. Who wants to stare at that.

1. She wasn't a bridesmaid then.
2. Whatever.

I'm considering giving her a list of things I am expecting from her - including being on time (she was an hour late today and covering the tattoo). I honestly dont care if she bought a dress or not. If she stresses me out, she can just not be in the wedding.

Ugh...

can you call David's Bridal and cancel an order?

A fifth bridesmaid

Tasha showed up yesterday at 10am. We drove down to Modesto to David's Bridal. She tried on three dresses until she found the right size - 18. She ordered her dress. Then we left. It was rather painless.

No complaints about anything. She did have money, so she offered to buy me lunch. So we went to Olive Garden. it was a nice lunch.

I hope to god I made the right decision.

A sixth bridesmaid

My friend Priscilla came up tonight. We went to see a movie and dinner. She had originally asked when Maya had quit if she could fill in. I told her that it was okay because I would just have four. Since Tasha was going to be an extra and Aaron thinks I'm mean for not letting people who want to be in the wedding, be in the wedding. I added a sixth.

Priscilla was excited and happy. We're going to go and get her dress another day.

So now I have my two maids of honor, my cousin, my sister and my two friends.

We have an officiant

Yesterday, I decided to call our officiant and schedule a meeting to go over our ceremony etc. He had originally said to call after the first of the year... Well its over 5 months past the first of the year.

I know. I'm a procrastinator.

We're getting married in September so we still have about 4 months or so to go.. anyway.

So the lady that answered the phone yesterday made it kind of seem like we werent on the calender. She kept asking if we were for sure on the calender etc... the pastor was out of town, so he would be back Tuesday and call me then.

I was stressing that we weren't on the calender for some reason.

I was so glad when they called back today and I actually talked to his assistant who assured me we were on the calender. Yay.

It about gave me a heart attack. Especially since his services are a lot cheaper than some of the other people I called - $150 vs $400!

In fact I was so relieved that I found someone that was so much cheaper that I booked him before we had a place or a date. I said sometime in September in Lodi. :) haha. Luckily my date was still available a month later when when we actually booked a place for September 20th.

Plus we found out AFTER we booked him that Aaron''s uncle and aunt were married by him too and that they used to go to his church for a long time until they moved.

So yay. I have an officiant. :)

The flakiest bridesmaid ever

So Tasha, of course, doesn't go on Wednesday to get her dress.

Aaron's dad waited with me for half an hour while we tried to figure out where she was and why she wasn't answering her phone. We gave her the benefit of the doubt that she was on her way (or rather dave did because he doesn't know how flaky she can be..) Dave was driving me - partly because he has a bigger car and partly because then I wouldnt have to pay for gas for the trip - starbucks has been paying very minimally lately due to cut hours.

Anyways. So no return calls, no text messages..etc.

So we finally leave at 10:30.

When I'm walking through my door 2 hours later, she finally text messages me back with some excuse about how her boyfriend is sick and blah blah blah.

So I was just going to leave it.

Then she keeps text messaging me about how sorry she is..etc. That if we can go sometime this week again, she'll drive etc.

So i say fine, lets go friday because I have the day off.

So we decide on 10:30. She'll be driving because she offered and thats the only way I'm going. I'm not wasting my gas driving down there when she keep flaking.

****
Its 10:02 right now.

Guess who text messaged me asking for money? Tasha. She had came over and cleaned a couple of weeks ago in return for money... but I also did an essay for her class for her. I know bad.. So i thought that was payment. So I tell her that. I also told her that she borrowed money from me a week ago but never showed up to help clean like she was supposed to.

So then she's like well I don't have enough gas to go.

I said I didn't either thats why Dave drove on Wednesday. Sorry.

1. Don't offer to drive and then ask me to pay for gas, when its your fault you didn't go when we had a ride.

I'm kind of pissed that I even have to go back to that place.

So now, she says if we wait until noon hopefully the mail will come and she's expecting a check.

Yeah whatever.

Cuteness

Since its been awhile since I posted cat pictures...







My cats are so adorable!!

Hole Free Dress

Yay, I have my dress! They sent me a brand new dress. Everything was packaged and I had to take it all apart to even get it on. Everything was all nice. There were no HOLES!

I tried it on, just because. Aaron's dad went with me to pick it up. His truck is wider than my car so we wouldnt have to fold it...etc.

AND

they had my cousin's bridesmaid dress ready to go too. They replaced the zipper.

here is a picture of me and my dress today. Ignore my face.. lol. I am a little apprehensive that I'll find something wrong with the dress.



I told them I wanted to purchase a dress bag.. and the manager said she was giving it to me for free because of all the troubles. Yay. I know its not much, but its $10 I saved.

and no. Tasha did not show up.. at all. no call. Nothing.

Flaky Bridesmaid

So everyone remembers my flaky bridesmaid that kept not showing up. Not Maya, but my friend Tasha. Anyways. So I told her that if she comes today when I go pick up my dress,(*hopefully hopefully its not damaged or unacceptable.. God I hope its okay and I can bring it home.. please please please), that she can buy a bridesmaid dress and be in the wedding.

She knows when she has to be here. We (Dave- Aaron's Father is driving) are leaving at 10. Since Dave is driving, we aren't waiting. I know he wouldnt mind waiting, but I dont want him to walk around my super messy house. Eeeek.

I love my cats that destroy everything. This morning it was the toilet paper in the bathroom, yesterday they knocked a plant down and it broke in a thousand pieces.

Anyways... so I hope that she shows up.

I asked Dave to drive because he has a bigger car and we won't have to fold the dress.

Anyways... so I told her to be here at 9:30 (well I text messaged that to her last night around midnight).. but I told her when I talked to her on Monday that she had to be here by 10 at the latest. So we'll go by that one. She has 15 minutes to get here.

I just tried calling and it keeps going straight to voicemail. So either her phone is off or its dead. Either way I'm leaving her if she doesnt get here. I've been waiting to order an extra bouquet or tell anyone until she buys a dress... but I dont think I'm going to let her be in the wedding again after today if she doesnt go today.

Wedding invitations

Do people actually pay attention to what the wedding invitations look like?

I'm waivering back and forth between getting fancy pretty invites like I want..

like this:


I even got the girl who made these to say she would make these for me if I wanted... but the price is really high.

Or i can get a simple plain invite - like this:


and dress it up myself with a pocket I could purchase myself:


This is an example of what someone did in one of the wedding forums:


Something like this:


this is what I did with one of my sample pocketfold I have:

Plain metallic pocketfold:

Friends invitation pieces inside to give an idea of what it would look like:


Random ribbon I had laying around, not the color I would use:


So for 60 invites for the custom ones, it would be $430 plus shipping

We would be pushing it with 60 invites...especially if later I decide to invite my mom.

We would ideally need 75 invites... but that would be $520.. almost $100 more.

So we could put them in the folders, for less than $100.

So it would be about $300 for 100 invites, instead of $450 for 60.

This would be kind of like what the invites looks like.. I really like that this invite is really shimmery... I'm sure we could dress it up more too.


What do you think?