Well, how about that?!

With my mini invitation crisis yesterday, I thought I would check up on some other key wedding items that I picked out early in my engagement to see if they were still there. For a while it looked like I was all right; there weren't too many things that I was terribly specific about. But then I made a horrifying discovery...

...the Juliana Coloriffics were discontinued!

I mean, just two days I ago I blogged about my debate with all these different shoe styles that I loved. I narrowed it down ("narrowed" being a relative term) to a handful of shoes that I really liked, but in the end I realized what I was truly looking for in my dream wedding shoe.

#1: a fairly substantial heel (I am under five feet tall, after all!), but not so tall that I would be tottering down the aisle, or worse yet, on the dance floor.

#2: an ankle strap

and

#3: a cute bow

And if it came in blue, I would not say no.

But the Julianas! The Juliana was gone! I searched high and low, but to no avail. The only pair I found was on Ebay, and it was a size 8 1/2...and I typically can wear only up to a seven.

So with a heavy and panicking heart, I turned to the internet, hoping to find my dream shoe. My search continued for several hours, as I searched frantically for some kind of wedding shoes. I don't know why I felt the need to find the PERFECT shoe RIGHT now...but I did. Maybe because I'm afraid the elusive Dream Shoe will be discontinued before I order them!

And I know what you might be thinking. "You had a whole list of shoes! Why not just pick one of them?"

Well, I thought about it. But I realized that while I love love love the idea of a retro-inspired shoe, I just haven't found a good one. They're all super pretty and I love them, but for each one there's something that holds me back from being completely sold.

(It's mostly height or the presence of anchors. Why so many anchors? I want to know.)

After a great deal of searching, I finally turned up a FANTASTIC shoe. It's a 3" heel, it has an ankle strap, and it has a bow! Plus, it's dyeable...so I can make it blue!

I now present the Christina by Dyeables!

As much as I love the Juliana, I adore this shoe just as much, if not more. The heel is a little chunkier than I originally wanted, but it fits all the other requirements I have. Plus it's super cute. I have a big love for the cute stuff.

I'm going to have them dyed light blue and add something to the center of the bow: a blue and white cameo button, maybe. I know JoAnn's has them...

But I just purchased them in a size 6 1/2. They should be here in 2-3 weeks. And now I'm so excited! I never get mail, and this is my first WEDDING MAIL. Let the anticipation begin!

In the meantime, I've started looking for a good place in Nashville to get these babies dyed. And that's when I found it. It being the article about Franklin Bridal Gallery. It closed.

I was flabbergasted. Bridal Gallery was fairly high on my list of places to look for my dress. After all, they were the only store in Tennessee to carry the Disney wedding dresses. And I love me some Disney wedding dresses. Alas, they were way, way, way out of my price range, so I didn't even bother trying them on. (I was deathly afraid of trying on the Snow White ballgown, falling madly in love with it, and then hating the cheaper dress I would inevitably have to settle with).

Now I'm incredibly grateful that I didn't go there. Now brides have paid for expensive dresses that they had their hearts set on, and they can't get them. That's terrible! I'm sad for those girls...yet relieved I'm not one of them.

I don't know what I would do if my dress shop went of business. What would you do? Or did you have to deal with that?

What happens when you're engaged too long?

I'll tell you what happens when you're engaged too long. Your wedding invitations get discontinued, that's what happens.

*sigh*

I thought they were so cute and easy to customize. And inexpensive! I'm a big fan of inexpensive. I thought I would put a bow of embroidered yellow and blue ribbon at the top, maybe back it in light blue or yellow paper. Maybe even gingham paper! But alas, unless someone can procure four boxes of these darling printable kits, I must find a different option.

And so I offer:

They're going to be a bit more expensive, but they're SO pretty I don't mind. It's eyelet, which was the most important part for me. I love the rounded edges. And I think that instead of buying ribbon, I'll use a pretty graphic or stamp or something. A font. A gorgeous font. Because I'm in love with pretty fonts.

So there. Crisis averted.

(or at least not as dire as I thought it was.)

A shoe situation

Now that I have the dress and veil taken care of, it's on to the next crucial part of my wedding-day ensemble: the shoes. I'm not quite five feet tall, so I can wear heels no problem. And if I have a fairly substantial heel, I probably don't need to get my dress hemmed at all (it's a miracle!).

The trouble is, I don't know how precisely to proceed. My dream shoe is blue, with a bit of retro flair. I'd prefer it to have an ankle strap and a bow. But finding that elusive bit of footwear is proving harder than I thought. So, for your consideration, I offer this conundrum (and a handy-dandy poll at the top of the page.)

#1: Coloriffics Juliana ($55)
I can always get it dyed and add a pretty brooch or button to the bow. It meets all my basic requirements...I just don't know if I want to go through the hassle of getting it dyed.

#2: Sexy Blue Anchor Ellie Shoes ($46.95)
I love love love these. The bow, the peep toe, the blue stripe...so precious! But the anchor throws me for a bit of a loop. There's not a single bit of nautical in the wedding at all, and I don't know if that's a little too much. The heels are also 5". FIVE INCHES! I don't know if I'll be able to walk in them...

#3: Navy Mary Jane Pump with Chrome Heel ($44)

This one is only a 4.5" tall heel. But it's got an ankle strap, which makes me feel like it balances out the height. However, I'm not sold on the chrome heel. Not sold at all.

#4: Blue Patent Leather Peep-Toes ($44)
Again, what's with the anchors? I feel like I could take these off, though, and add a pretty button or brooch or something. These are 4.5" tall as well...and I'm not sure if that will work.

#5: White Patent Leather Mary Janes ($42)
They're very basic, but they have a nice retro flair. And again, a 4.5" heel.

#6: Gold Pleated Pumps ($42)
So they're not the blue shoes that I love, but they're pretty. I also feel like the gold would look nice with my ivory gown. And they're only a 4" heel! How about that?

Ugh. So hard to decide!

So that's why I have a poll. I need a second opinion. Or third. Or fourth. Or ninth....

Bother bother bother...

Guess who has been a bad blogger?

*sighs*

That would be me.

I was getting so good at it too!

Oh, well. I'm not going to kick myself too much about it. After all, I've been working full time at a crazily hectic job that involves running around in the blazing Florida sun all day. By the time I get home, blogging is the last thing on my mind.

("Dinner" comes first, followed by "vegging out" at a close second, with "collapsing into bed" completing the trifecta.)

(Also, spellcheck is trying to tell me that "trifecta" is not a word. It so is...)

I love working at Disney, but sometimes I just need a break to sit around and do absolutely nothing. Which is precisely what I did the past two days. Literally. I sat on the couch and watched Golden Girls, Bridezilla, and Total Drama Action while playing Sims 2 for most of my weekend. It was pretty funny because every time Carissa and her boyfriend walked in or out of the apartment I would be sitting in the same spot, but usually wearing different clothes.

But yeah. Things are settling. I'm applying for seasonal status soon, so I can go back to the Great Movie Ride. (I was going to do it this week, but I didn't. See above paragraph). Patrick has a full-time job, FINALLY! He's working in the electronics department at Target. And he's probably going to get enough time off to go to Drew's wedding and come visit me, which makes me so happy I could probably explode. Wedding plans are coming along swimmingly, now that we have permission to flip the Great Hall for the reception. And I'm losing weight, which is fantastic. I've now hit the 20-lbs-lost mark (from my heaviest documented weight), plus I had to buy a new belt, which is a size SMALL.

So yeah. Things are going well. I'll try to update more often now, especially since I have some great guest stories: bad ones, good ones, and high-larious ones.

Life is looking up...

So the one part of the wedding planning where P and I hit a roadblock was our location. We have our church for free, but the guy in charge of renting it out is vehemently adamant that the layout of the great hall CANNOT be changed on a Saturday night. Even though I can bring in my own team of guys to set stuff up and take it down, apparently they won't let us. And despite my FMIL's heavy hinting, I refuse to have the reception in the lobby. It's ugly and dreary and gray and has the weirdest layout of anything I've ever seen. It is a wedding fail.

So during the budget meeting we had yesterday, my dad brought up the Vanderbilt student life center. He works for Vanderbilt, and might be able to pull out a discount. I checked it out...and to rent just one part of the ballroom it would fit 550 people (!!!) and cost, without discount, only $625! That doesn't include room setup or sound equipment (that and the technician costs extra) but that coupled with my dad wrangling a discount is downright affordable for a wedding reception! Besides, we can still bring in the caterer we pick, and I can use my wholesale and silk flowers. And we can set it up the day before! It'll be epically perfect.

See? It's set up for a convention in here, but it'll work wonderfully. Plus it includes theatrical lighting, so we can get all kinds of pretty stuff. And if we really wanted to, we could reserve a second room to make it bigger for $1,250 (without the discount.)


I got a little nervous when I saw the caveat about how non-Vanderbilt people can rent the space only during school holidays. So I checked, and March 13, 2010, falls during Vandy's spring break! How much more perfect can you get?

(But I haven't shown P the pictures...I hope he likes it!)

Musical Monday #8!

Today's song is rather random, but it's a good time.

I've always been a...well, let's just say quirky girl. When I was in high school, I discovered the joys of Japanese pop music. I quickly became a fangirl of Puffy AmiYumi, Morning Musume, and Megumi Hayashibara, much to the confusion of my Britney Spears and Backstreet Boys-loving friends. (Wait, were they still in back then? I can't even remember.) In any case, I listened to my beloved J-pop all the time, until I was in college and P started introducing me to more rockish kind of stuff.

But P played this song for me, and it brought back all kinds of fun memories. Plus, you've got to give kudos to any three-person band where everyone sings, including the drummer. How does she do that?

So this is Stereo Pony (Japanese band names are fantastic!) with a song title I can't pronounce.



And in other news...

P and I have discovered a small snag in our wedding planning. We're set on getting married in the great hall of our church, then flipping the space to make it our reception. The thing is, since we're getting married on a Saturday night, there's a fee to change the space from the usual church layout. How much of a fee? About $1,000 worth!

That's $1,000 we'd rather not spend. P is going to talk to the guy in charge about it and see if we can work something out. If not, we'll just suck it up and find the money. It would be cheaper to go ahead and pay that than try to find somewhere else that can accommodate us.

(Also, spell check just informed me I can't spell "accommodate" on my own. I feel dumb...)

We also drove past the apartments we're looking at. They're literally two minutes from his campus, so he can still ride his bike to classes. And they look like they're decent, which makes me happy.

Speaking of the living situation...since I can't have my old room on campus, my sister's going to take it. (She'll be eighteen in May. Scary!!) And my parents and I are talking about taking the money we would have used for a meal plan and my private room and using it to get a car, so I can be a day student for my last semester. Honestly, I'm okay with living at home. I've done my dorm time. Besides, I think my parents will like seeing more of me before I get married and leave home for good.

And I really want a PT Cruiser!!