OH MAH GAH!

Dear sweet goodness, everybody, it's been a month and a half (thereabouts) since I wrote my last blog! And STUFF HAS HAPPENED.

Like, I got married.

And we moved into a new apartment the week of the wedding. Yeah, I said it. We moved on Wednesday...the wedding was on Saturday. Were we crazy? YES.

And I am still working steadily at Bridal Warehouse, the shop where I purchased my wedding gown.

And I have been writing up a STORM. Without rehearsals to go to, I spend my evenings in a state of vegetative boredom. Hence, I have been planning about twenty new novels and scads of short stories.

But...

I haven't been blogging.

I just don't know if I'm that interesting anymore. I mean...no reports on rehearsals or audition freakouts. No "here's-an-interesting-thing-I-heard-in-class." No obsessive wedding planning posts. And while P and I are QUITE happy being married, there are no babies in the works (and won't be for a while), so this shan't become a pregnancy/mommy blog for another two years or so.

(unless there is a surprise. But I doubt it.)

In short, I am now boring.

Oh, well.

I guess there are still other things to write about. Like being a newlywed...a very young newlywed. It's weird, but I still feel like a little kid even though I'm a twentysomething wife.

And my kitchen adventures. Like the time I substituted hard lemonade for lemon juice, and it ROCKED.

And our apartment. Although....don't expect any super amazing home decor ideas. Our design scheme is best described as "poor newlywed who takes all the free stuff they can get."

And my continuing adventures to update my wardrobe, which will become even more complicated since, you know...that whole "no money" thing.

And my writing. I have so many novels. SO, SO MANY. And so many heroines. Apple...Beatrice...Anna...Caroline...Ginevra...I love them. And I want you to love them. I might have to start posting excerpts so you can tell me what you think of them.

(Especially since I really want to get Beatrice and the Cat published.)

Also, in the realm of writing, I need to confess something. I've mentioned it before...but I'm going to declare it proudly. I am a fanfiction author. And I love it.

I know, I know, it's like the dorkiest thing ever. I've been doing it since middle school, though, and it's such a great stress reliever and a brilliant writing exercise. Besides, I'm famous in Singapore for it. I'll explain that later, but yeah. I love it...and despite all the times I've tried to retire, it's proven to be impossible.

And of course, when I get my pro pics, there's going to be a whole series of recaps about the wedding.

So maybe I won't be a stick deep in the mud.

And I like blogging. And that's always a good reason to do it.

In 29 hours, thereabouts...

All right, so first off, I'm not dead...I just haven't had any time to blog lately!

At this time tomorrow, I will be at the church with five of my favorite friends, curling irons and makeup boxes and a long ivory gown in tow. It's for real, everybody. I'm actually getting married!

It's absolutely, positively surreal. All the big things are taken care of- now there's just some details that I have to do. Well, a lot of details, actually. But still. It's down to a rather manageable list.

I just can't believe I'm really getting married!

The Procrastinator Proceeds!

So...the wedding is in EIGHT days. Am I ready? Hecka no! Time to get cracking.

The biggest project on my list is my going-away/reception dress. Because is it done? No. Is it in progress? No. Is it started? Hecka no!

So my goal is to finish the dress tonight. Petticoat tomorrow morning. Flower girl dress tomorrow afternoon after work. Rehearsal dress and robe tossed in there somewhere. My goal is to at least be done with all the sewn bits-and-bobs by Sunday morning, so I can move on to other projects.

Shall I succeed? Who knows! I'm just going to keep updating my progress.

Saturday, 5:24pm: Arrive home from work with every intention of getting started, but instead got distracted by packages and a newish episode of Big Time Rush. FAIL.

5:53pm: Get off my butt, change out of my work clothes, and pull out my supplies. Time to get cracking!

6:00pm: I read through the vintage, circa 1956 pattern instructions. It's a size fourteen, so it should fit...right? I mean, that's 2-4 sizes larger than what I usually where. WRONG! It fits a 32" bust. Um. No. That's my sister's size. I'm glad I already bought the fabric for a practice bodice...

7:33pm: Wow. Just wow. After nearly a year of planning for this dress, I realize that this is a NO. GO. Seriously, the test bodice is a hawt tranny mess, to quote Christian Siriano. So now I'm back to square one, searching for an inspiration bodice.

(I would post the test bodice, but it's just too sad.)

Nine Days. Cue Mass Chaos.

So I'm a terrible blogger.

I haven't blogged in what, a week? Yeah. No good. No good at all.

In my defense, I have been pretty busy, at least. Let's see, what have I been up to?

-Well, work, for one.

-Apartment hunting with P...it looks like we found one in our budget, and if all goes as planned, we can move in on the TENTH! Yeah, that's merit for a freak-out, right? Planning a wedding and moving in together? I've already started packing.

-P got a promotion! *cue joyous parade here*

-A simply KILLER bachelorette party that has been in the making since 2006. I need to have some pictures before I post about that one, though. Although I don't have pictures of the inebriated gay men. And when I say "gay," I mean that these guys were pooping rainbows. Seriously. They were at a level of fabulousness never before seen. And did I mention that we met them at Ihop at 3;30 in the morning? Yeah, it's going to be fun telling that story.

-My dress is done and hanging up in my closet AS WE SPEAK.

-We had our engagement shoot on Tuesday, and it was amazing. Like ten kinds of amazing. Jenna has already dropped our CD in the mail, and as soon as I get them I'll post them. Because they're seriously corgeous. What's that? You want to see a sneak peak? Well, all right...

(from Jenna at jHenderson Studios)

They're the bomb.com. Seriously.

So yeah. That's what's been keeping me occupied.

And now I'm about to get EVEN BUSIER! Because the wedding is in NINE DAYS!

Good news: I work best (crafting-wise) under pressure.

Bad news: My to-do list is about ten miles long.

So it's time to get cracking. I have the day off today, so I'm going shopping. Then I'm prioritizing my to-do list and off I go! I'll blog when I can. And you can guarantee that I'm going to do recaps!

Wish me luck!

Showered with Love (and mixing bowls.)

All right, so Facebook has stopped being a skunkbag. Time for the wedding shower recap!

When we last left our intrepid couple (re: me and P), I was completely stressed out and P was trying to help with damage control. You see, our shower was being hosted by a very sweet lady who grabbed the "let's-throw-the-poor-as-church-mice-couple-a-party!" idea and kind of...well, ran with it. And when I say "ran with it," I mean it in the "someone-just-hijacked-this-bus" sense of the phrase. I don't want to go into details, because she meant extremely well, but things went downhill to the point that she was talking about canceling the shower because her plans had gone so incredibly astray. Luckily, my mother stepped in and asked that she not cancel, since this was going to be our only shower, and some other lovely ladies from the small group helped dig the shower plans out of the ground. And so things progressed!

I made a dress to wear to the shower a few weeks ago, but then realized I hated it. Ah, such is life. So I dug through my projects bags and dug up a dress that I had started this past summer (Simplicity 2951 in a white floral knit), then stayed up till 1am on Sunday to finish it. It turned out decently, although I still want to alter it a bit.

That whole day was fun. After church I went out to Panera with P, his mom, and his sister. Also, if you have not tried Panera's white cheddar macaroni and cheese, YOU HAVE NOT LIVED, MY FRIEND. You have not lived. It was fun, but I was antsy with excitement. I had received notifications about presents that had been purchased off our registry, and I was totally excited about it.

(But I didn't know what had been purchased. I'm sneaky like that. With the Target registry, they tell you the numbers at the top of the page. For the Bed Bath and Beyond registry, I put a magazine over the left half of my screen and scrolled down.)

(Please don't judge.)

Anyways, we arrived at the annex of the church and were immediately welcomed. And this is where it dawned on me that I was about to spend the next two hours with EVERYONE STARING AT ME while I opened presents that came from well-wishers that I may or may not know personally. And you might not know this, but while I'm not shy, I am easily intimidated and get anxious pretty quickly. So my excitement quickly dwindled into panic! mode.

Luckily, I was greeted by friends. And that made it easier. I was so excited that Heather came all the way from Union! And I was excited because they were excited. They bustled around the annex, showing off the decorations they put up and the food they helped put together and in general just oozed pride over my bridal status. That was awesome.

Also, we had a lot of pictures taken. Let me demonstrate:

First, we have the couple looking sweet. I look rather demure, don't I?
And then we have me and my ENTOURAGE. Just kidding. These are some of my super awesome friends. And Mrs. Dallas is photobombing by the cake table in the back.

(Rose, Kat, Rebecca, Sioda-Heather, and Crissy-Heather. The short girl with the rosebush on her shoulder would be me.)

And now P gets stuck in the pool of estrogen, and is apparently being seduced, threatened, and ogled by turns. Except by Emma, who leaped into the picture without knowing that we were all making faces and instead flashed a lovely smile towards the camera.

(Also, I love his face. He is total awesome sauce to obligingly pose with a collection of girls in dresses who make odd faces at him.)

Anyways, after the initial photo session, we were propelled to the seats of honor, where we were instructed to open gifts. We were happy to acquiesce to this request.

We got into a pretty good system. Rose handed us a gift, we took turns opening (one would hold and the other would unwrap/lift cautiously out of the bag), and Kat wrote down who gave what. Also, we opened the cards and read them together prior to ripping off the paper. My mama raised me right.

I know I showed this picture yesterday, but I just love it to little bits and pieces. We were given a glass cake plate and dome (which actually wasn't on our registry!) and I exclaimed that it needed cake. on. that. plate. now. So Emma booked it over, tossed us a cupcake, and the darling little baked good lived cheerfully in its glass habitat for the rest of the party.


(It ended up at Death of a Salesman rehearsal, where it was happily devoured by Stephen Moss.)

Also, there shall be pizza. (P was checking the tag that came with the bag.)


And OH LOOK MOAR CAKE. P was amused by my rapacious joy.


This is a little ridiculous, but I love how my nose looks in this picture.

Also, I would like to point out that Rose's torso and legs are lurking in the backgrounds of all these pictures. Girlfriend is tall. Her hips are the same height as my waist, thereabouts. I am short.

Our shower turned out to be a lot of fun. The hostesses did an excellent job, and were very, very, VERY generous to us. We had lovely vanilla cake, and my one request- CUPCAKES! The decorations were yellow and blue, to match the wedding colors, and I appreciated the detail. I also deeply appreciated the fact that life didn't stop so that everyone could stare at us opening gifts. Usually people dropped off the gift, greeted us, enjoyed some cake while chatting with their friends, and stopped to say goodbye and congrats before they left. It was very calm, very chill, and very fun.

We had a lot more people show up than we expected. I've been told that Woodmont showers are usually pretty quiet, but we had about 40ish, maybe 50ish people stop by, including one of my favorite people, P's grandmother Baba.

It was so much fun. And we were incredibly blessed by all of our generous friends and well-wishers! We were pretty astounded by the overflowing gift table!

At the end of the party, P and I opened up our cars and we all teamed up to get the gifts. By the time we were done, both his Hyundai and my PT Cruiser were completely full! We drove back to my parents' house, and he unloaded the cars while I sorted everything onto the wedding table in the rec room. And I changed out of my dress, because even though I'm a freaking ridiculous girly-girl, I need my shorts and tank tops.

(Lora, you better be still holding your girl card. No need to turn it in. :P)

We finished our super fun day of reveling in our bride-and-groom-ness in a decidedly low key manner- eating a Big Mac (him) and fries (me) in front of the TV while tidying up our registry and discussing where the crap we're going to live. (Answer: we're apartment-hunting on Thursday.)

We're still just completely stunned by how generous people have been. We were a little worried for while, because neither of us have lived completely on our own (he lived in an on-campus apartment and I went back and forth between a dorm room and Disney housing) and we don't have much in the way of practical stuff. I'm not quite as worried anymore. The only necessities we need are the bedding stuff and our everyday dishes. But everything else is just icing on the cake!

(Although that yellow KitchenAid mixer will be the queen of icing. It's the vanilla bean buttercream of our registry...)

But yeah. I am one happy bride/almost newlywed!

cupcakes is srs buzness

Of course, now that I finished my blog entry, Facebook decides to work. And now I am too tired to do anything. So I shall just leave you with this.

yes, that is a cupcake on a full-sized cake plate.

no, I see nothing wrong with it.

for yea and verily, we all shall rejoice.

a bride...for real

Three weeks from today I will be married.

How WEIRD is that?

I never thought we would actually reach this point. I thought we were going to be stuck in engagement purgatory forever, planning the wedding and dreaming about married life and never actually getting there.

(Word of advice: unless it's absolutely necessary, do yourself a favor and don't plan on a long engagement. Because three years can feel like a decade. No lie.)

People used to tease me about planning the wedding so early. Well, now I have less than a month and people are teasing me about not having enough done! Oh, well.

This wedding is really happening, and do you know how I know that? TOMORROW IS MY SHOWER!

I'm so excited. I was really anxious about it earlier (seven messages in one day about an event you're not supposed to be involved with is a bit stressful), but things seemed to have been smoothed over. I am sad that the hostess chose the date without checking first- my mother is out of town and I would have liked to have her there. But my mom was very gracious about it, and I have a pretty dress for the occasion.

(On a side note, I have a compulsive addiction when it comes to dresses. If I'm going anywhere, I need a new dress for the occasion. A party, going out to dinner, going to see a show, vacation- heck, anything could merit a new dress!)

But to get back on topic...this is one of the big events where you get to be officially acknowledged as a bride. And that...that's pretty fun. I'm excited.

Let the spoiling begin! For yea and verily, I shall not stop it.

(Especially since there are hopefully going to be cupcakes at the shower. Oh mah gah. I hope to high heavens that there shall be cupcakes. I shall stuff my bride-y face with them. Mmmmm...)

A theater gal's wedding style

I've been in theater since I was three, and learned to apply stage makeup at the tender age of ten. So when I started thinking about wedding makeup, I figured I could just do it myself! After all, wedding makeup is probably at the same level as straight makeup in a small theater. Probably.

I usually don't wear much makeup- moisturizer, a little concealer, mascara, chapstick, bah-BAM! I'm out the door. Granted, now that I have a job, I wear a little bit more- mineral foundation, a tiny bit of blush, and a swipe with the greatest thing since sliced bread, the Covergirl smoky eye cream stick thingamabob.

(CoverGirl Smoky ShadowBlast in bronze fire. Seriously. Lifesaver!)

I used the wedding as an excuse to splurge a little bit on some new makeup and snatched up some snazzy new items to try. I also checked out Miss Rainbow's posts- she's a makeup artist and had some GREAT tips!

I figured I'd do my makeup trial at some point, but I was cleaning out the rec room this morning (which is currently Wedding Central) and found my pile o' makeup and thought "Huh...eh, why not."

So thus it begins!

I started out by washing my face with my trusty Noxzema Wave. My skin doesn't like cleansers- I get dried out in seconds. I usually use the St. Ives apricot scrub, but it seemed like a little much. So Noxzema Wave it was. I followed it up with Clean 'n' Clear toner, which is a standby from my high school days.

(No makeup whatsoever! Notice the quizzically skeptical eyebrow...what am I getting myself into?)

Now that I was squeaky clean, I checked out Miss Rainbow's "signature cocktail." I love it, but I ended up modifying it to suit my needs. I definitely used the Monistat chafing gel (who knew it was the same formula as primer?!), but I used my standard moisturizer instead of Cetaphil. The only Cetaphil moisturizer was in a big jug for ten bucks, so I stuck with my usual St. Ives moisturizer. And I couldn't find any MAC Studio Fix Fluid...mostly because the MAC store at the Green Hills Mall scares the pants off me. Go ahead, ask Keeton about the time we ninja'd around it. And it's on a corner, which makes it harder.

In any case, I grabbed a foundation I've been dying to try: Maybelline dream liquid mousse with an "airbrush finish." Then I stared at my three vials for a while, wondering exactly how to blend the three together. I started to put it all on my finger, since she recommends using your fingers. I chickened out at the last minute and put it all on a sponge.

I applied it the same way I apply theater foundation, and was pretty happy. It still looked a little sparse in spots, so I put on a tad more foundation and liked that. I'll probably try again with mixing just the Monistat and the moisturizer, and then putting the foundation on top.

Then I buffed it with a skunk brush. OH MAH GAH. Where has this been all my life?! The skunk brush buffed everything out all nice and smooth. I just love it. It's just one of the Target Studio Tools brushes, but it's simply love. If there was a fan page on Facebook for it, I would sign up.

Miss Rainbow says she doesn't use concealer, but since I didn't use the MAC stuff (although I might brave the MAC store for it) I used a little bit. My everyday concealer is actually a cream stick, but for this I got the CoverGirl 24-hour liquid stuff. It went on pretty smoothly, except on my forehead. But I have bangs, so this won't really be a problem.

Then I realized I didn't have any setting powder. So I resorted to a theater trick- baby powder. I grabbed the bottle, patted some into my hand, and then buffed it onto my face. It seems to work, but I think I'm going to go with Miss Rainbow and order the powder she recommended. I don't want my face to smell like a baby when I go in to kiss the hubster. But at least I can get a good feel now of what the makeup will be like.

(Yay, nice and smooth! But you can still see the cool little freckles around my eyes!)

So far I'm pretty happy. I feel I can master the blend of moisturizer, primer, and foundation better- if you stare at my right cheekbone, it's a bit streaky. And my face smells like baby. But all in all, the test is going well so far! Time for part 2.

I read over Miss Rainbow's instructions for contouring first, then got started. I ended up blending her tips with what I usually do.

For a midsized theater space (meaning the audience is a fair distance, but not a cavernous hall), I usually begin with a water-based pancake base or a CoverGirl clean liquid makeup and then layer it with normal blush. Unless I'm playing an old character (I typically play very young or very old) I don't need much age. This is from Beau Jest in fall 2009, when I played Miriam Goldman.

You can see the contouring on my cheekbones and some light lines on the corners of my eyes and my nasal-labial folds. Miriam isn't terribly old and it was a fairly intimate theater, so I didn't need a lot.

On the other hand...

Just one month later I played General Cartwright in Guys and Dolls in a large proscenium theater. Holy decrepit, Batman!

Now there's contour lines on my cheeks, chin, sides of my nose, nasal-labial folds, and my forehead. When I turn to the side, you can also see shading on my jawline. And keep in mind that this was taken with flash- it was much stronger in person!

All this to say, I guess, that it just goes to show you how much contouring can do. It can do a lot to streamline your face and shape it properly.

So I picked up CoverGirl's contouring blush in Refined Rose. It has three shades- dark, medium, and light. I started with the medium on the apples of my cheeks and buffing it back. One of my favorite theater tricks is that you should brush your blush from the apple of your cheek up towards the top of your ear. If you brush from the apple downwards, it makes your cheeks look longer and flatter- it's actually how you apply a man's makeup for the stage.

(On a side note, it's hilarious to see a boy who forgets and brushes up instead of down. The end result looks pretty silly.)

I brushed just a bit of the darker shade on my jawline, my cheekbone, and the sides of my nose. The reason for the latter is because it can make your nose look thinner if applied properly. I also put it on my jawline because I hate my chin- I feel like a Simpsons character.

I applied the highlight just like Miss Rainbow recommended, and I love the final result. My face looks so nice and polished!

(Contouring on the left, nuthin' on the right. See the difference? Sorta? Maybe?)

Now it's time to venture into unknown territory, since Miss Rainbow hasn't done any tutorials for eyes and lips. (Although if she ever does...I'll definitely read them and try them out!)

I started with eyeliner. I used CoverGirl's liquid liner in black-brown. WOW that stuff goes on sharp. I ended up grabbing a little brush and smudging it just a bit, which helped. I lined the top lash and the outer corner of the lower- it makes my eyes look larger and more open.

Then...I realized another crucial mistake. I forgot to get eyeshadow! I rummaged through my theater makeup box and dug out two old ones to test. I want a lightly smoky eye, so I found two different brown sets that might work.

(Two different shadows!)

The left eye was Almay's Blue Intensify set. I use it for auditions and dressy occasions. It's fairly reliable and does make my eyes look bluer, but I don't know if the coppery shade of the main tone works well.

The right eye is a Maybelline four-color set. I bought it for The Effects of Gamma Rays on Man-in-the-Moon Marigolds (I played Janice Vickery). I don't think I like it, though. It looked fine for the performance in the black-box theater, but for a wedding it just looks kind of dirty.

In any case, I used the same basic setup- the middle tone on my eyelid, the dark tone in the crease and lower lash, and the light tone on the inner corner, under the eyebrow, the middle of the lid edge (just above the pupil) and right underneath the lower lashline.

Eh, I'm not all that excited about either one. I'll have to try it again (unless someone really likes one of the ones I tested!)

Next: mascara. I'm sticking with my tried-and-true favorite: CoverGirl Lashblast. I bought a new (waterproof! waterproof! waterproof!) bottle in black for the wedding, so for this here trial I just used my old and almost empty one. But before I did, I curled my lashes for the first time.

I've never curled my lashes before- they're naturally very long and dark and curly. (I think it's karma's way of balancing out my Simpsons chin.) But I bit the bullet and got a cheapie one to try it out. It didn't really look different, but it did make the mascara go on easier.

Speaking of which, I followed my usual theater M.O. It goes a little something like this:

#1: Lightly coat the top lashes and give it a second or two to set.

#2: Go back over the top lashes. Look up and slide the brush through your lashes from base to tip, wiggling it slightly back and forth as you go.

#3: Lightly coat your bottom lashes while the top lashes dry.

#4: Go back over your top lashes with one last light coat.

I swear, it stays all day and looks like I have on fakes. As I type this I can see my lashes as I blink! Awesome sauce.

Now for the last step, the lips. My plan is to wear a light shade for the ceremony and the first part of the reception to match my princess gown, and then put on a bright red lip to match my retro lace-and-tulle reception dress. So I picked up CoverGirl Outlast lipstain in Teasing Blush, and CoverGirl Outlast All-Day Lip Color in coral. I usually only wear cherry chapstick for moisturizing and a slight bit of color, but I love lipcolors!

(The lipstain! Oh, and mascara. Mm, mascara!)

The lipstain was a little odd- I felt like I was drawing on my lips with a sharpie! It also looked really dark when I put it on, but I blotted it lightly by pinching a tissue between my lips, and it came out a lovely medium shade of pink. It's also incredibly precise! I feel like I have the perfect princess pout to go with my gown.

The only thing I don't like is that my lips feel a bit dry, and look very matte. I'm going to wear the lipstain to work on Saturday (10am-5pm) and top it with cherry chapstick to see how it works.

I also might have to grab P and give him a kiss to see how the lipstain/chapstick combo works with him. I don't think he'll mind my research.

(the lipcolor!)

The lipcolor is slightly different. And when I say "slightly different," I mean "hardcore." First you must apply the color and let it dry for 60 seconds without your lips touching. It was kind of like applying a gloppy lip gloss that smells like vanilla frosting. So in other words, it was like middle school.

Once it dried, I applied the balm-like topcoat. It went on smoothly, and not a bit of color rubbed off on the topcoat stick. It looks sassy and deliciously retro, and doesn't make my teeth look nasty!

I got so excited by all this makeup goodness that I did a bad thing and did my hair. (Always do your hair before your makeup!) I pulled the top and sides back and fastened it with a a little tortoiseshell comb. Then I pulled out the Conair instant heat hot rollers that have been my steadfast sidekick through cheerleading and performances. I have three sizes, so I used the smallest around my face, the medium on the top, and the largest on the bottom. Once I was properly rolled, I sprayed it lightly and let it sit.

Once the rollers were cool, I took them out, schmeared a little Garnier anti-humidity smoothing milk on my fingers, and finger-combed the curls out. It's not precise in the slightest (ew, the ends!!), but it gives me a decent idea of what I might could possibly do if I have to do my own hair.

(tadaaaaa!)

And then I took the ultimate test- I took a picture in a dark room with flash just to see what the makeup looks like. The answer: awesome.

(I also took out the comb and added the headband I might wear with my second dress.)

(vampin' it up!)

So what do you think?

Fittings...are Awkward

I have officially hit the one-week mark at my new job! It feels so odd to have a job that doesn't involve pixie dust and crowd control, but I'm just so happy to be working that I don't mind.

Today I spent more time on the floor observing fittings rather than in the back. I still sewed two and a half bustles, though. At the moment, I'd kind of like to sew than fit. I mean, I'm used to fittings. After all, I spent plenty of time wrangling college kids into ancient costumes and pinning them into submission. But a college kid in a costume is completely different from a bride in a gown! There's so many things to consider, plus they're bound to be eagle-eyed. One bride noticed the boning on the front of her dress. I wouldn't have noticed it, but she did!

I also learned how to ring people up after their alterations. And when I say "learned," I mean "was walked through it and remember about 30% of the process." Ouch.

But on the upside, one of the people I fitted today was Kat. Yay! And I don't mean to brag, but I think that, dress-wise, I'm on the list of awesome brides. That shade of blue is INCREDIBLY pretty.

(Just think...I could have made them all wear yellow...buttercup yellow...)

Once she was fitted, I put on my dress so she could see how to tie the bustle. I put the veil on and everything. She looked like she might possibly cry...which made me feel terribly validated. I felt like a bride for reals.

But do you know what made me feel giddy? I look EFFING TINY in my dress. Seriously. I have never felt so skinny in my life!

A Picture's Worth a Thousand Words

Ladies and gentlemen, we have a photographer!! It has been a long, long, lo-o-o-ong process!

Initially (re: two years ago) a photography major friend of ours was going to do the pictures. A few months ago she told me she had photographed a wedding and it didn't go as well as she planned, so in order to prevent us from getting not-so-great pictures, she backed out. She's still coming to the wedding (yay!) and she gave us plenty of time to find a replacement.

That being said, DO YOU KNOW HOW EXPENSIVE PHOTOGRAPHY IS?!

(The answer is very.)

I hunted everywhere. I placed a Weddingbee classified that yielded only long-distance photogs that were willing to travel, but I wanted to meet in advance with them, and so that was a no-go. I did internet searches that yielded low price points with crappy pictures, and gorgeous pictures that cost more than my entire budget.

A friend of mine is a professional wedding photographer, so I emailed her. And emailed her. And a mutual friend emailed her. No such luck.

But as I was tooling around Facebook, I noticed one of my friends (who has GORGEOUS bridal portraits) had a link to a photographer on her profile. I followed the link...and got really, really excited. The photographer's work was beautiful, she was recommended by someone who had worked with her, she was in the area, and best of all her prices were FANTASTIC!

I emailed her, P and I met with her, and all looked good. Yesterday my father (aka keeper of the finances) gave the formal okay, and now we are very excited that Jenna from JHenderson Studios will be our photographer for our wedding.

Just take a gander at her blog. Go on, I'll wait.

...

Isn't she AWESOME?

So yeah. We officially will have someone visually documenting the coolest day of our lives so far.

I'm excited!

I Heart Faces

About three and a half years ago, I was nineteen had just started dating my very first boyfriend. He was super cute and super nice and had a geeky laugh.

We were counselors at church camp that summer. On our last day, we were waiting to get on the bus with the rest of our friends. We were doing goofy things, and one of my friends was taking pictures. She had the two of us stand next to each, but at the last second I turned and kissed him on the cheek. His look of surprise still makes me giggle.


I'll be his wife in thirty-two days.

I feel famous!

My bio was featured on Weddingbee!

Huzzah! I feel super special!! :)

Let's Get Some Shoes

I am a shoe fiend.

P teases me often about my propensity for buying shoes. It's only exacerbated by the fact that I'm small enough to wear shoes from the children's department in Target, and they're cheaper, and so I justify my purchases by whining "But they were cheeeeaaaap."

But since that whole we-need-to-be-able-to-afford-rent thing is kind of sort of I don't know important, I haven't gotten any new shoes in a while.

However, unlike my cousin who got married barefoot, I want shoes for my wedding.

(Let me clarify a bit. Barefoot brides=awesome, but she got married indoors. In a church. In Pennsylvania. In winter. Wasn't she cold?)

So I made out a list of qualities that I wanted in my Dream Shoe.

-blue

-a decent heel

-an ankle strap

-a bow

Doesn't sound like too much, right?

But, oh yeah, I didn't want to spend too much.

Zappos, Piperlime, DSW, Baby Girl Boutique, Modcloth, and Ebay yielded nothing. NOTHING. I found some that I half-heartedly liked, but nothing that I really tremdously enjoyed.

But then I found it, like a beacon of light in a thick fog. The Dyeables' Christina!

Ankle strap. Three-inch (sturdy) heel. Bow. Even better: a retro look and a peep-toe!

I shopped around, since most people were selling my beauties for $80-$100, and found them on Ebay for $68 and free shipping. SOLD.

Only one problem: they're not blue. And I haven't found a place in Nashville that will dye shoes.

I hemmed and hawed about it. They need to be dyed, because my dress is ivory, and while I usually don't care about PERFECTLY MATCHING my shades, it's clear that these shoes are WHITE and the dress is NOT.

So I'm taking a page from one of my favorite heroines.

"Why, she wanted a pair of blue boots for Sallie's party, so she just painted her soiled white ones the loveliest shade of sky blue you ever saw, and they looked exactly like satin," added Jo, with an air of pride in her sister's accomplishments that exasperated Amy till she felt that it would be a relief to throw her cardcase at her.

If Amy March can paint her boots sky blue, surely I can paint my wedding shoes!

My painting is usually left to acrylics on paper, but last summer one of my coordinators on Sunset Boulevard asked me to paint tiger stripes on his neon orange Chuck Taylors. He gave me a bottle of Jaquard Textiles fabric dye, I spent a couple of days painting the stripes freehand, and bah-BAM. They turned out great, he loved them, and so far there's no sign of warping, streaking, or fading.

My Christinas came with a piece of test satin, so I pulled out the leftover bottle of dye and gave it a whirl.

The swatch on the top was the first part I did. See how sketchy it looks? It dried thick and cracked, and warped the edge of the sample. I realized I was painting against the grain. So I tried again.

The swatch on the right was painted with the grain. It didn't warp as much, but it still didn't cover as well as I liked.

The bottle says you can dilute the dye, so I added just a drop or two of water. The result? Perfection. That's the swatch in the middle. It dried smoothly, without streaking, and it didn't cake the surface or warp the fabric.

The swatch on the left was very diluted. That was more of an experiment than anything else. It made it very light, but the brush strokes and the edges are too distinct. It would be great if I was going for a tie-dyed effect...but alas, I am not.

So my plan is to buy a jar of Jacquard dye in a light blue and dilute it. I can't wait to see how my kick-awesome shoes turn out!

Your Attendance is Demanded...

P and I never did Save the Dates. I mean, we were engaged for so long that people had March 13, 2010 blocked off on their calendars back in 2007.

But a lot of people make STDs. Usually they're just a nice picture of the couple and the date. But I saw this on Awkward Family Photos, and cracked up.

Yeah, that's a set of faces that says "We're getting married! Come and join our joyous celebration!"

Oh HECK no. Those faces say "YOU ARE COMING TO OUR WEDDING. YOU WILL ARRIVE EARLY. YOU WILL LEAVE AFTER WE LEAVE. YOU WILL BRING A GIFT- PREFERABLY SOMETHING FROM WILIAMS-SONOMA OR POTTERY BARN. AND YOU WILL LIKE IT."

That's a party I'd be thrilled to attend.

And on another Awkward Family Photos note, I would like to point out that as a first grader, I owned that hot pink windsuit.

Awesome.

Let The Mail Onslaught Begin!

Are you ready for the most terrifying picture you've probably ever seen?

bah-BAM!
The first mailed RSVP arrived mere moments ago!

I got my first 'yes' from Kat, but she delivered it by hand. And I got my first 'no' from Ayla, but she told me via Facebook. Today, I opened the mailbox to discover that my favorite friend Keeton will be attending the wedding.

And there is much rejoicing.

(yaaaaaay.)

Forty days to go!

So here I am, with a brand-spanking-new blog layout! Isn't it marvelous?

I've been neglecting my blog, because I kind of went a little kamikaze with a wedding-only blog. But do you know what? I love this blog. I'm sad that I neglected it. And so now I have closed up shop on the wedding-only blog, and...um...you'll just have to see all my wedding junk here.

But just think of it this way- the wedding's in forty days, so it can't be that...

OH. MAH. GAH. FORTY DAYS.

It seems like it was just yesterday that I was whining to Patrick about how our engagement was going to last forever. "Engagement Purgatory," I called it. And it was most unpleasant. I don't recommend long engagements. Give yourself just enough time to plan, and then be DONE.

But in any case, there's forty days until the wedding. It's time for this sassy-pants'd girl to kick it into MAJOR HIGH GEAR!

A Yes and a No

After mailing the invitations mere days ago, we have our first two RSVPs!! We have one yes, and one no.

The yes came from MOH Kat. She was so giddy about getting the official invitation that she filled out the card the minute she got it, and flapped it in my face when I went to her apartment for movie night. I believe her exact words were "LOOK WHAT I HAVE I'M SO EXCITED THIS INVITATION IS SO PRETTY I'M OFFICIALLY COMING THIS WEDDING IS GOING TO BE THE CHIZ."

(you see why I love her?)

The no came from a dear friend from my high school days. Not only did she send the card, but she sent me a Facebook message the very day she received the invitation apologizing for not coming and explaining that she'll be in France during the wedding.

I was a bit sad that she can't come, but hey, that's a pretty awesome reason to not come. Besides, she promised to bring me back something from France. Huzzah!

The Name Game

I've seen a lot of debate about changing your last name to your husband's after the wedding. Everybody has their reasons for changing, or not changing, or hyphenating, or combining, and I think it's awesome. There's no good reason for following tradition blindly.

Personally, I will be changing my name. For me, it is a symbol that I am officially creating a new family with my new husband, and the name change goes hand in hand with the change in my life. I will be adding my maiden name as a third middle name (and seeing as how my maiden name is a fairly standard boy's name, it won't be too odd).

I also think that changing my last name to my husband's will make life easier for our children. We want at least three, and I don't really want to have to make them explain why their hyphenated last name is so terribly long, or why Mommy's last name is different from theirs.

That being said, P's very lovely Cornish last name has three drawbacks.

#1: It's impossible to pronounce.

#2: It's impossible to spell.

#3: It rhymes.

P's last name is Trevathan. Apparently in Cornwall it's as common as "Smith" or "Jones," but over here it just gets funny looks and hesitant "Trev...Trev...um..."

(For the record, it's pronounced tre-VAY-than.)

And while I am happy to take his last name, there's one thing holding me back. You know Julia Goolia in the Wedding Singer? Well, I'm going to be Caitlin Trevathan.

Yeah. Drink that in for a bit.

It's silly, but it's a little annoying at the same time. It sounds made-up.

On the other hand, it would look GREAT as a stage name!

And they're off!

It's official!

I took the invitations to the post office today. They're typed, glued, stickered, addressed, and stamped. Now they're zipping across Tennessee and Pennsylvania and Texas and even California. It's for reals, y'all. This isn't just some event we're hypothetically planning. People will actually be coming.

The invitations weighed in for a normal 44-cent stamp, but I still wanted to hand-cancel. After all, I had heard that hand-canceling was an important part of sending fancy-pantsy invitations. There was just one problem.

What exactly is hand-canceling? And why is it so important to do it?

Well, kiddos, this is how it rolls. An envelope is canceled when they stamp the round date and location logo over the postage. Usually this is done by feeding it through a machine, but that can crumple or tear an envelope. So when you have delicate wedding invitations, it's better to do it by hand rather than letting the machine do it.

I went into the post office in the early afternoon with a big plastic bag full of invitations. I got some funny looks, until I explained that I had wedding invitations and I wanted to hand-cancel them. The very nice postman handed me a red self-inking stamp and pointed me to a table where I could stamp away. Five minutes later, I popped back up to the counter, handed him the bag of invitations (and the stamper), and off they went!

Playing Dress-Up

Today I took my pretty, pretty princess dress in for alterations. It was so nice to put it on again, in all of it satiny, sparkly, pick-uppy glory.

I wasn't quite prepared, though, for how much will have to be changed. It's going to be gorgeous, but still. So much tweaking!

So what's going to happen to my princess dress?

-Altering the straight-across neckline to a sweetheart neckline

-Tweaking the straps so they'll lie more off-the-shoulder.

-Letting the sides out a little. :(

(I'm definitely going to up the ante on the whole working-out-and-eating-better thing. And definitely more work on my back squish!)

-hemmmmmmms. Because I'm shoooooooort.

-A delicious 13-point French bustle. It looks like somebody tossed a handful of whipped cream on me. In a good, yummy sort of way.

And here's what my pretty dress looks like:

I'm starting to debate my hairstyle, though. I know I definitely want it down, with loose curls, but I don't know if I want it in a half-back. Maybe I can just pin the sides back or something. I don't know.

In the meantime, my dress will be in surgery until the middle of February. I can't wait to see what it looks like then!