This is princessofdenial's Blue Wedding!

Yesterday while out and about enjoying some Black Friday shopping (hahaha) I found this dress and fell in love with it, I even teared up a bit at the thought of our little flower girl (FH's niece) walking down the isle in it which prompted me to buy it. The beading on it is VERY similar to the beading on my dress and it even has a little matching dress for a doll! The best part... It was only $30! Now I'm having second thoughts though and worried about how it will look with the black bridesmaid dresses. What do you ladies think?

I'm really loving this site!

Wedding Shower by princessofdenial

These are the shirts FH picked for the groomsmen. I like them as well and cost wise it's not to bad. I know my brother at least will get future wear out of his because he owns several similar shirts. Randy (the bestman) I'm not sure about because I have only ever seen him in Red Wings jerseys! Now we need to decide on pants. Not sure if we should just let them wear basic black dress pants or get pinstriped pants similar to FH's? Any suggestions?

We got FH's suit yesterday, just a simple black pinstriped suit from Sears. Now we need to decide on the Groomsman's attire. I'm thinking bowling shirts with black pinstriped pants. Both the guys are pretty BIG and I can't see having them purchase suits or worse yet rent tuxes! I have them in order from favorite to least favorite.

Thanks to Billiewinter's post of make-up tutorials I started searching around youtube for some hair tutorials and I found this:

I tried it out yesterday and EVERYONE loved it. I'm really thinking this is my wedding hair. I will be playing around with it some more but it really has that classic look.

The pictures aren't that great b/c they were taken on a cell phone but you get the idea. The beading along the top is also along the bottom edge of the skirt and train. I <3 it!

Found it, tried it, BOUGHT IT! All in a period of about 45 minutes. We didn't even plan on going to the store where we found it!
Looking at it on the hanger it was EXACTLY what I DIDN'T want but once I put it on it was EVERYTHING that I wanted.
I mean seriously ladies it's Ivory, I wanted white, not only is it strapless but it SWEETHEART, I wanted halter and stayed as far away from strapless as I could, it has gold accents I wanted silver! But OMG I love it. I bought it off the rack for $400. It's a bit on the small side but a little more focus, determination and exercise and a little less food and I'm sure I can get in to it. I have pictures of me in it but I'm having some technical difficulties at the moment but I will get them up eventually!
YAY I found my dress!

FH and I are toying with the idea of having our first dance right after we enter the reception room and the Emcee announces us as husband and wife. I can just visualize it in my mind... At Last by Etta James/Ella Fitzgerald is playing and we put those ballroom lessons to good use. What do you ladies think? Do able? Has anyone ever been to a wedding where it was done this way?

FH finally picked his ring! I <3 it, so does he!

Everything is SLOWLY coming together despite my insanely busy schedule.

Most of the big stuff is done (location, photographer, DJ, located a rental company) our photographer even found us a 1956 Ford Customized for pictures (similar to the one at the left)! Whooohooo! We're both getting so excited!

I decided to go with Calla Lillies for both the bouquets and centerpieces. I'm thinking about carrying 12 or so wrapped in a teal ribbon held together with a brooch my FMIL gave to me that was her great great grandmothers. The maids will carry the same except they will only have 3 flowers each.

The centerpieces with be 8in bubble vases filled about 1/3 of the way with a mixture of teal gems and pearl beads each with 3 10in Calla Lillies. I'm debating on using the submersible Floralytes but it may just be an added expense we don't really need. From the center of each will be a 12in wire holder with the table numbers. Each will be placed on a 15in mirror surrounded by 6 tealights.

The table linens will be white and each setting will consist of black plastic plates each with a menu in the middle and pre-wrapped plastic utensils to the right with a water glass and wine glass. Each table will have 2 bottles of wine each (a red and a white).

I'm still working on the dreaded dress. But I have one in mind that will work well with the bridesmaid dresses. We'll see next weekend though. We've also decided to go with a "gangster" stripe suit for FH, not sure about the groomsmen yet.

So things are really coming together. YAY!

I HATE THEM ALL! Well I guess hate is a strong word and it's not really them I hate, it's my body! So I'm a bigger girl, fine and dandy I'm ok with that I just greatly dislike my flab and all the spots that jiggle. I want to be tone again. I don't want to be skinny, I like my curves I just don't want so much jiggle to my wiggle! Also none of the dresses have that vintage flair I am looking for. I want simple, halter/v-neck (possibly sweetheart), satin/satin w/ a lace/chiffon overlay, sweep/chapel length train, a little bling/beading. I get so overwhelmed in the stores and I forget what I want because everything is so beautiful. For now tho I am focusing on my body and tightening and toning and in November we will start again.

Dress one is By Casablanca 1757. Dress 2 is by Alfred Angelo 1995. The sleeves would be removed if it becomes "the one." Dress 3 is by Mary's Bridal. It's discontinued and we haven't been able to find it online it's style 6379.

More shopping commenced today and we *think* we may have found the bridesmaid dresses. It's by Eden style number 7163. It will be in black! We <3 it!

Me and my Matron of Honor have been hitting up some dress shops this week before my schedule gets to insane. Yesterday we found a great shop about 45 minutes out of town where I found 3 dresses that I love! Well today we only had a couple hours so we stopped by a shop in the city called Gallippo's. She texted me as soon as she got there about how "upscale" the place was but I figured what the heck. Well OMG I got there and started looking and not only was there not one dress less then $2000 they were all size 6 and 8! WTF! Fat girls get married too! I politely told the consultant "I don't think this is the right place for me" and we left. Moving forward! Tomorrow we're heading to 3 more shops. I'm actually enjoying this process, primarily because my Matron of Honor is the SHIZNIT! <3

Yesterday my Matron of Honor and STB-MIL went to David's Bridal to have a look at some dresses. Despite my general dislike for David's I did find a dress that I liked. The problem: I don't like my body *ughhhh*! It's really just reinforced the fact that I REALLY need to get focused on losing some weight and toning things up. I was also EXHAUSTED as I had worked the night before so I really look frightening.

Lately I have been having these moments of "OMG we're really getting married... FINALLY!!!" It's all becoming so real now. The venue is booked, the photographer and DJ will be booked next week, the Save-the-Dates will be ordered and mailed by the end of the month and everything else is starting to come together. I can't believe it's really happening!

Have you been to or do you plan on going to any bridal shows?

I went to one last year around this time last year with my MOH and I plan on going to another this year with my FMIL. I think it's sort of a waste for me b/c we are having an out of town wedding but there's free stuff (yummy cake samples!!) and lots of good ideas. On top of that I think FMIL will enjoy it.

We have FINALLY decided on a venue *crowd roars*! And the winner is:

Twin Cedar Farms

The price is right, the location is beautiful and they are WONDERFUL. They were even willing to go out to the pavilion yesterday and take more pictures and email them to us because my mother is unable to get out there anytime soon and dates are filling up fast so we want to book ASAP. Actually every date is booked in June except ours (they are only available for parties on Wednesday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday). We're so excited! The only draw back is that we are only able to serve beer, wine and champagne and we wanted a signature cocktail but oh well. Now we can move on with the planning!

Originally we started with a 50 guest limit, then it was 100 currently our guest list has over 160 people and growing! Not that it's a big deal we're still pretty sure we won't have more then 100 guests because many cannot get time off for work or afford to make the trip but still it's so amazing how quickly it has grown!

So a friend of mine was recently in a wedding that was taped for Bridezillas.She wasn't a bride but a birdesmaid. I've hung out with the bride a few times and I can SOOOOO see her being a Bridezilla! It's set to air this Sunday, the bride is Megan my friend is Kelly! It should be a hoot!

...and they look great! I ordered them through Snapfish b/c Vista Print just wasn't working for me. It's a little more expensive but it's EXACTLY what I wanted! The back just says more information to come.

Was bored at work last night so I made this.

Just gathering ideas!

Working on our Save the Date. It's a VERY large image so WBC made it look more pixelated then it really is. Thinking about possibly using Vista Print but I'm not sure yet. We took the picture in 2006 in Cades Cove.

So Brother's Cove did NOT work out, not even close! First of all the coordinator they go through was a damn nightmare to get a hold of. She said she would email me things and she never did, said she would call and never did. The one time I did speak with her we found out they wanted $1000 to break the contract they have with their caterer! Outrageous! So I told her we would meet and... hehe... we never showed!

Enter my WONDERFUL Matron of Honor, I can't even begin to imagine the amount of hours this girl put into looking for locations for us. She's my hero! We have narrowed her findings down to 2 places. The first is Twin Cedar Farm in Maryville, Tennessee and the 2nd is Country Jewell in Heiskell, Tennessee. We're leaning more towards the 1st because the price is good and it includes 3 hours for a rehearsal and 12 hours the day of. I'm hoping to have my mom go and check it out after she returns from her honeymoon.

New theme new dresses! Going Retro!

I'm really loving these oriental lilies.

FH and I have spent the past several days stressing over this wedding. We were in desperate need of an affordable ceremony location and having no luck. Before giving up I sent emails to several ministers in the area that read:

Hello,
I am hoping you can help us. We have been trying to locate someone who can make our dream wedding a reality. What we are looking for is a no frills wedding ceremony for us and 60-80 of our closest friends and family June 24th, 2009. What we desire is an unobstructed glorious mountain view with no arches, columns or tacky floral arrangements that cost hundreds of dollars merely to rent. We can provide out own photographer, flowers and decorations. We'd like to be able to provide seating for several/all of our guests as many are disabled or elderly but it is possible for us to rent this VERY inexpensively and set it up ourselves. We have a very meager budget but are hoping to get the most out of it. I've been to literally HUNDREDS of websites trying to find someone who can help us make our dream wedding come true but all I have gotten is high pressure sales tactics, outrageous price quotes and headaches. I have been searching for a year now with nothing to show but disappointment. Please let us know if you can help us! Thank you for your time!

I got several responses but one was EXACTLY what we were looking for. So much so we are discussing renting the lodge next door to it. It's called Brothers Cove. It's beautiful and I am once again overjoyed! We are heading down to Tennessee this Thursday for my mothers wedding and will be stopping by to check it out on our way home. I just hope it's as beautiful in person.

The past few weeks have been filled with several un-pleasant surprises. We've had several unexpected expenses including having to put my sons 11 month old kitten to sleep. The poor little guy had FIP which is not treatable and he went into renal and hepatic failure this weekend. We opted for my son's sake to have him cremated and purchased a lovely urn to place his remains in. This cat was his very best friend and we are all so sad to see him go.

On top of this our drain on the bathroom tub is leaking and in order to replace it the entire floor will need to be torn up and both the plumbing to the tub and toilet will have to be replaced. In addition we need to also have our sink repaired and the ceiling in our kitchen completely torn down and replaced. Lovely!

Needless to say money is TIGHT! But the wedding MUST go on. Our wedding plans will be changing. I'm not exactly sure of the details yet but when we figure things out I will certainly post them here!