This is katuska's Red Wedding!

Finally my wedding sandals have arrived. They are Coloriffics Sierra shoes in white satin and they are gorgeous! The heels are a comfortable 2.5" and they are very easy to walk in. Very pleased.
Coloriffics

Ps: Xcuse the chicken legs... I took all the pics by myself that's why I look so constipated.

Yayyyyyyyyyy!!! After lobbying for it for so long, finally we got it!! So happy! We can now just search for whatever we want on the site.
V.I.C.T.O.R.Y.!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Oh. My. God.
My sister's dress arrived and it's beautiful! She's my only bridesmaid so that's sorted then.
Here I am parading in her dress, Alfred Angelo 6546 in white/claret. Again, purchased from Ebay seller 'elegantfashionoutlet' who was a star throughout the whole transaction.

I have to say I tried to like them but today I decided I wouldn't want one near me. I haven't found a pretty and classic pillow that was still 'me'. Also, we've got two ring bearers (one is 7 and the other is 3.5), and one of them is almost twice as tall as the other so in my mind it always looked kinda odd them trying to carry that one tiny pillow.
So I am on the hunt for the perfect substitute, the jewellery box.

I think I found The One, you can see it in the main picture, it is from Amazon and costs £5 ($10)
We would have two of them, one for each ring and for each boy to carry.

Any thoughts? Or better ideas?

Thanks!

Are you keeping your dress a secret until you walk down the aisle or has he seen your dress already?
To surprise or not to surprise that is the question...
(I will surprise but I'm dying to show him the dress already!!!)

I am loving these stickers and at $4.50 for 12 they'll be a great addition to our favours.
Check them out at VanessaCavacoDesigns.

I am always the last to figure things out, so thanks a lot hollyrayanne for helping me.
Here is how things gonna look on the big day!

Ps: Jason's best man is gonna luuuv the afro I designed for him. :o)

My FI is doing my head in!!
We booked his and the Best Man's suit in black with claret cravat and handkerchief.
He is 6'4" tall (with a nice round bum, which makes finding well-fitting trousers even harder!!) and we had to go to several shops to find stuff that looked ok on him.
He doesn't have a clue about my dress and now out of the blue he announced that he wants to wear all white or ivory. I'm ok with the ivory or white suit with the red cravat and handkerchief but he said he wants it all ivory or white. WTF!!!!????!!!
I tried to tell him that he NEEDS to wear a bit of red as that is my BM's colour (and is the exact match of the panel of my dress, which I couldn't mention) but he just retorted saying he doesn't need to match nobody and he's not gonna please people just because they decided to wear red....
I almost blurted out that YOU FOOL MY F****N DRESS IS RED!!!
I don't know how to explain it to him without him knowing which dress I went for. Bloody nightmare!!


* * * * * * *

Ok, I feel better now.

Sorry.

So, I purchased everything my girls will get on my Hen night.
* Chanel goodies (lipgloss, primer and No5)
* Diamond Keyring
* Bling flipflops
* Pashmina
* Baby champagne
* A pic of us framed in a damask frame

All from Ebay and Chanel from my friend who's man dir of Chanel Hungary (cheat, I know!!)

So last night Jay and I went out for dinner with about 30 friends of ours and after a few cocktails the discussion turned towards marriage (as it always does somehow...odd). 3 of us are getting married in the next few months and some more next year so there were a lot of excited brides at the table. And then somebody dropped the bomb: "What would be the deal breaker for you?" I was quick to answer: " If he cheated on me." I was surprised to see that I was pretty much alone with my proud announcement. So what's going on girls? Would we swallow anything just to have THE WEDDING? To save the embarrassment of a canceled ceremony?
And I wondered, if pre-nups are here to stay is this about the love anymore or just a business deal.

So how do we feel about pre-nups and what would you consider a deal breaker, if any?

After a baby and at the age of 32 things do go south a bit, so I decided to tone up for the wedding, and in general as well. So 4 times a week I try to work out at home which is so bloody difficult with a 3 yr old jumping on my back every 10 minutes. My favourites are Cindy Crawford The Next Challenge Workout and my ancient Claudia Schiffer Perfectly Fit dvd, which is only available on VHS, so I had to have it copied onto a DVD. I was wondering, is anyone else trying to get fit at home?

Which workout DVD's are you using and recommending?

I thought I'd leave you with this video from The Sweetest Thing. Sums my sorry ass up pretty well.

Surprise, surprise!! I can present a post that is not about me... Hmmm.
So we got my Mum's outfit which will look stunning on her. Very classy and not mumsy at all. She's going for traditional slingbacks in ivory and a pearl bracelet to keep things simple.

MOB suit from Barrie Pace.

We also chose the attire for FI, My Dad and the Best Man. They are all from Hugh Harris in the UK. Black patent shoes from Shipton & Heneage.

And last but not least, my parents got the flowergirls dresses for really cheap in Hungary. They look stunning and will match the red theme perfectly.

99!! Wow!! It's getting so close!!

Not really a twist, it's just my little spin on the thing. As I pretty much decided/ordered/received everything I decided to actually put together a Wedding Bits Board. So in these pics you can see the actual items/arrangements that I am having on my wedding day.
I love this, so thanks Constance (fabulousmrsklein), as I can just print the board out and take it with me to Hungary when I go to meet the vendors! Yayyy.

I love Emitations and they had a 20% discount day so I bought some accessories for myself and my BM.
LOVELY!!

Ballet shoes(pic 1):

I'll buy the average ballet shoes for my daughter and the other flower girl ($20/pair) and put these beaded flower decorations on ($9) in my red color. You can check out your local Michael's for the very same beaded flower decorations.

Confetti cones (see pic 2):

Roll photocopied sheet music into a cone. Glue the edges together. Fold up a 3cm flap and seal with glue. Loop ribbon and fix to the cone with a personalised sticker, then fill with confetti petals and display in a bowl.
Sheet music ($5/book in music shops), ribbon & stickers from Ebay

Beaded Napkin Rings (pic 3 &4):

Thread beads on to 30cm lengths of wire. wrap the wire around the napkins three times and twist the ends together. Tuck handwritten lables between the napkin and the ring.

All from Hobbycraft or Michael's or your local hobby store

So, Jason insists we turn the bedroom upside down after our wedding celebrations have finished..
I'm not so sure.
Knowing myself pretty well, I can honestly say:
1. I won't be able to sleep the night before the wedding
ergo
2. I am gonna be tired and emotional
ergo
3. All the drinks consumed will hit me big time
ergo
4. Once I'm in our hotel room, I'm gonna kick off everything, have a shower and fall into bed.

Now this is when Jason thinks the action will start...hmmm.

What are your plans laydeez? Rock the boat or beauty sleep?

Bloody annoying!!!

I've been using this site for a few months and I always missed a 'Search' facility where I could just type in random searches like 'pink tissues' or whatever and the site would show hits where I could look for them. I find that brides keep on asking the same questions because they can't just search for the answers (see 'wedding music' or 'bridal entrance song').
Am I all by myself here or do we want some new features on the website?

Ideas?
Ps: I already emailed the Editor regarding the Search feature, we'll see what happens....

As we're nearing the Big Day, here's my shopping list that I will update as we go along...

o Wedding Dress - DONE
o Dress Bridesmaid - DONE
o Mother of Bride dress - DONE
o Petticoat - DONE
o Veil - DONE(the one I bought online is stunning but I still may look for another one)
o Bridal Tiara - PENDING (I may just have a tiara comb and then I'll give this tiara to my BM)
o Bridesmaid Tiara - (may inherit mine)
o Bridal Jewellery - DONE(will be my borrowed from Mom)
o Bridesmaid Jewellery - DONE
o Groom Tux - IN PROGRESS
o Best Man Tux - IN PROGRESS
o FOB Tie and Handkerchief
o Bridal Personalised Handkerchief - DONE
o Table Swarovski Diamonds - DONE, red ones: DONE
o Second Wedding Dress - DONE
o Centerpiece Mirrors - DONE
o Bride's shoes - DONE
o Bridesmaid shoes - NORA WILL TAKE CARE OF IT
o Bride and BM's bling flip-flops - DONE
o Bridal party presents - IN PROGRESS
o Boo present - watch
o Favours for Gentlemen - DONE
o Favours for Ladies - fans
o Engagement shoot - BOOKED
o Rings - ORDERED
o Invitations - DONE AND SENT
o Programs and placecards

This is gonna be our signature drink: a hibiscus flower in every glass of champagne. Simple and cheap. 50 flowers cost around £20 ($40) and they are edible and look amazing! But I found some other great cocktails that look stunning. So we may make a different cocktail for later, say after the cake cutting.

I think I am going slightly mad as I had a dream the other day. A guy from my primary school (I haven't seen him for like 20 years!) was getting married and we were just arriving to his wedding. We were given the Program Sheets (Order of the Day basically) where I could see he had A LOT of acts lined up! Comedian, Magician and bands as well. The program looked like the goddamn Oscars!!!
Then I woke up, realised it was a dream and let out a huge sigh of relief. But then later at work I started to wonder: Is my wedding too plain? Should we have more entertainment?
We were lucky to know one of the best rock-jazz bands in the country and they are going to be playing throughout the wedding. Then we've got our surprise dance with us poppin n' lockin (don't ask!) and then we've got the fireworks...

What are ya'll planning for entertainment?
And another question just popped into my head... are you having strange dreams about the wedding? Or is it just me having a weird countdown-fever?

We've got our cake and I absolutely love it.
It is a tricolor three-tiered cake with a chocolate largest tier, a vanilla/white chocolate middle tier and a caramel/toffee top tier (or we may just put the vanilla on the top as in pic; haven't decided yet). The three tiers represent our multicolor little family: Chocolate for Daddy Jason, Vanilla for Mommy Kata and Toffee for little Nia. The cake is going to be tighter though like in 2nd pic..

My photographer (Csaba from http://naszriporter.hu/flash_en.html) has suggested not to have a videographer. Well, he said that with extensive photography we may not need one. According to him, the only difference between photos and video is the sound (true!). He does the photojournalist type of photography which captures moments of the day without having to pose. Then he makes up lovely 'collages' of the photos with music.
So I was thinking, as all our friends will have their camcorders there and will shoot throughout the day why bother with a videographer?
I saw a friend of mine's video from her wedding and I thought it was a waste of money. It looked lovely and all but it was boring after 3 minutes. The only thing I really want to see is the ceremony which will be captured by family and friends anyway.

Here's a clip of my friend shot by my photographer just last month (the girl doing the bride's makeup is my Sis!)

http://www.nepislogj.hu/klipek/barbi/


Thoughts?

So, I tried to take some pics of the dress but I failed miserably.
1. At the moment we only have mirrors that are not pocket-sized in the smallest extra room. The room is so small I couldn't even turn around so you only can see the top of my dress. Nevermind.
2. Also, as I'm Billy-no-Mates, I had to take pics of myself with a mobile phone so everything just looks stupid.
Nevermind, I've already put up newspaper ads for new friends and a bigger house.

I think I may just have some major sugar craving but THIS would be my favourite wedding cake. Ugly as hell but oh so tasty.
So, what do you think?
DO or DON'T?
LOL

Early on we decided that we would give fans to the Ladies and alcohol miniatures to the Gentlemen. And now I found the fans I'll be getting (unless something better comes along). See pics 2, 6 and 7.
But I fell in love with these fans with the programs printed on them (main pic and pic 2). They are $7.92 a piece but the problem is that the minimum order is 100. As we only need around 30 of these, it's really out of the question for us. But I love them still!


UPDATE:
Ordered our fans in red and white and the company will engrave them with our names and the date!!
Our fans

Yes, oh yes, both my wedding dresses have arrived and I couldn't be happier!! I took an enormous risk with both of them as I found and ordered them on Ebay. Both turned out to be PERFECT. The Alfred Angelo dress is an authentic dress, looks, weighs and feels the exact same as the dress I tried on in a wedding shop. The only thing I will have to do is sizing it down a little as even a US size 4 is huge on me!! In the shop they were selling the dress for £800 ($1600) and I got mine for $499 plus postage. So here's one to 'elegantfashionoutlet', who made my dream come true and saved me $$$$.
The other dress (my second for the Reception) is absolutely stunning too, looks EXACTLY like the original Marchesa and my H2B couldn't believe it was an Ebay buy once again. The dress fits me perfectly and can't wait to wear it!! So, thanks dress_it_plus_size!!
I'll try and take pics soon!

Our music songs are:

Enya: Dances with Wolves (Bridal party entrance)
Enya: Only Time (Bride's entrance)
Elvis Costello: She (Ceremony song)
Etta James: At Last (Kiss and Signature Song)
Moby: Porcelain (Bride & Groom's exit)
Frank Sinatra: My Way (Bridal Party's exit)

Also lovin':
Champaign: How 'bout Us
Dru Hill: Five Steps
Lionel Richie: Three Times A Lady

Voted as best Primer by top make up artists. When you put these two lovelies on, suddenly you look flawless and smooth. Airbrush in a bottle and I had to have them.
God bless make up!!

So I had my makeup trial but I'm not exactly happy. Maybe I shouldn't have gone when I was tired and drained and ill. The makeup artist is really good, and possibly I was the one misleading her but I don't like what I see in the photos.
I think it's too much. I love smokey eyes and dramatic makeup but my wedding is gonna be in July when it's extremely hot and the sun will be strong. In very harsh light this makeup will make me look too done up or will melt and I'll look like a clown. Needless to say Jason loved the bedroom eyes but I'm not convinced. So we agreed that I'll go back and we'll ditch the burgundy eyeshadow and try more natural looks and more earthy colours. It's funny though, cos the makeup looked awesome in her studio (horrid in the pics). But it's possible that it looked great because it was 7pm and dark and she just had the lights on around her big mirror. Grrr...

Ps: Note the lovely cold sore in the corner of my lips. I've been battling this flu for a while and so this little accessory popped up. In addition to the extremely dry skin. Great.

We (I) changed our minds re Invitations. We wanted to go with the white embossed thingy with the burgundy ribbon (see post towards the bottom of my blog) but it'd have been horrendously expensive. So we've done some browsing elsewhere and we found a really nice design that we both liked. We wanted to keep the red and white theme and we both like dramatic looks so this suits us really well. It's cheaper as well so we're very pleased with our choice.

Here's my question:
What are you SAVING and what are you SPLURGING on in your wedding?
I'll start.
SAVE: Deffo on my DRESS, BM dress, shoes, flip-flops, Flower girl dresses. All sourced on Ebay and saved a huge amount. My dress is actually from an authorised retailer who saved me a good £500 ($1000) on my dress alone, and then another $100 on the BM dress.
The VENUE was a great find and cost us nothing, also got great discounts as my best friend is the PR of the Hotel.
I'll save on DECORATION, again sourcing lights, ribbons, mirrors etc from Ebay and DIY-ing most of them.

SPLURGE: WEDDING RINGS. I am a sucker for diamonds and so is H2B so we're going for full-on bling. The rings will cost around £2000 ($4000) and a friend of mine is making them so they're much cheaper than they would be in a store (so I guess it's a SAVE after all, lol).
ALCOHOL. LOL. Gotta have the champagne flowing...
And last but not least, we are having an 8-minute FIREWORK display over the fountain in the park of the Hotel.

How about you?

This wedding planning is progressing at lightning speed as my spending has started. Apart from ordering my wedding dress (which should be here any day next week) I have also ordered the bridesmaid dress. See, I only have one bridesmaid, my sister, so it was easy. I decided to only have her as my bridesmaid for numerous reasons. Our wedding is a small affair, with only 60 people invited. I've got at least 6 or 7 REALLY good girlfriends who all would have wanted to be bridesmaids. To get another 6 or 7 groomsmen would have meant half of our wedding guests would have been parading up and down the aisle dressed as bridesmaid/groomsmen and probably another 35 would have just sat and watched. So to avoid looking like the circus is in town I decided to keep it low-key and just ask the one and only really special person, my sister, to be my bridesmaid.
We went with good old Alfred Angelo once again because I wanted her to wear a red dress but the red had to match my dress. So here's the winner...

I am going to have some bling flip-flops for the Reception, yayyyy!!
I absolutely love high heels but I've been to so many parties where after a while I just wanted to sit down and chat. As our wedding is gonna be an all-nighter, true to good old Hungarian tradition I am expected to dance like a maniac until the early hours. I can't do that in my 4" stilettos so here come my comfy lovely flip-flops. I may even make my own as they are so easy and cheap to make. I was also thinking about making a pair for my sis who's gonna be my only bridesmaid, but instead of clear crystals she'd have red ones. Like this...

So we were thinking of doing a breathtaking performance with lots of skill...then we realised we don't have the skills or the time to learn a dance like that.
Then we came across T&A's wedding dance and we couldn't stop laughing. The groom's dancing skills reminded me soooo much of Jason's and Jay thought the dance was hilarious so we're gonna do something similar. Can't wait to see my Mum's face...:o)

These are the dresses I tried on and decided they weren't The One. It didn't help either that all of them were at least 2 sizes too big so I had to use a LOT of imagination. But when you just stand there and keep biting your lips and you see your girlfriends' blank expressions then you know that you need to keep looking.
Then they saw 'The Red Dress' as we refer to The Dress and immediately there were ooooh's and ahhhh's. That's what I call Moment of Truth.

So, my name is Kata and H2B is Jason. We've been together for 5 years and 3 months and will marry this July. Actually, it's a bit cheeky as we're already married by British law. We've done the registry office ceremony on the 7th Jan, 2008. However, it was such a small event, only us and 2 witnesses present that we won't even celebrate that as our real wedding. The real thing is going to happen in July in front of friends and family, with a real dress, and flowers and the lot.
We live in London, England and we have a beautiful 3 year old little girl, Nia Eve. She is going to be my flowergirl and she can't wait to wear her 'princess-dress' :o)
And... if we're lucky we may be moving to Houston,TX in the next few months as hubby is relocating through his company. So fingers crossed!

H2B and I live in London, England right now but we are relocating to Houston,TX hopefully verrryyy soon. Any Houston brides out there? Holla back!

So, I was wondering if you girls take your ring off before bed. I do but I feel awkward about it. See, my ring is still pretty new (only 4 months old) and I'm trying to take real good care of it. The problem stems from the fact that it's a solitaire ring with a pretty big diamond in it and it gets smudged very quickly. Then it's not as sparkly anymore so to prevent that I just take it off when I come home from work. Plus having to look after a 3-yr old little devil, we paint and play with playdough in the evening, so the ring comes off.
Anyway, the question remains:
Do you wear your ring 24/7 or do you take it off once at home?

Hey Laydeez,

Anybody considering a second dress for the reception?
As my wedding is gonna be in the middle of summer in scorching heat, I was thinking I'd slip into a light chiffon piece after the first dance.
This is what I had in mind (see pic). I found a copy of the dress on Ebay for cheap as well. What ya'll think? Are you going to change into something else or will you stay in your wedding gown all night?

Ok, I have designed the decor for the reception. True to our white and red style here it goes...
We'll have white tablecloths. In the middle of the table there will be a middlesized round mirror (pic1). On the mirror we'll put the tall vase with red rose petals scattered in its entire length, and in the vase we'll put a bouquet of red roses just like in the picture (pic2). We'll put a single flowerlight in each tall vase to make the centerpiece even more magical (see last pic). Then we'll put small red tealights around the whole centrepiece (pic3).
The table will be finished off with a burgundy runner, matching napkins, scattered red rose petals and swarovski crystals(pic4).
Check out the pics to understand what I'm talking about...

I am deffo going for an updo and as my hair is jetblack like the model's it should look exactly like this...

We decided to go for pretty traditional invites. They are going to be printed on embossed ivory satin paper and will come with burgundy red ribbons...