Dress Shopping for Em...again!

My congratulations go out to Emily and Steve. They are going to be parents!

A few weeks ago, Emily and Steve announced to me that they were expecting. The announcement was followed by a lot of excitement and hugging. Emily has a wonderful, two year-old daughter already, so I know they will be great parents to their new arrival. 

A few minutes after the announcement, Emily started talking about what she should do about her bridesmaids dress. Most likely, at over three-months along, she will not be able to fit into the bridesmaids dress she's already purchased. So, we decided to go back to Sarah's Bridal Shoppe and see if maybe we could order her a new dress, in the same material. Possibly something with an empire waist...something with more room for the baby. I want her to be comfortable at the wedding...it will be an awfully long day if she has to be squeezed into a tight, satin dress the whole time.

Unfortunately, when we arrived at Sarah's, we didn't have a lot of options. Upon walking in, the proprietor, Sarah, made me feel very at ease. She said "Oh, we'll figure something out. This isn't the first time we've seen this."

We seemed lucky, the line of dresses we'd ordered from could get us a new dress in time for the wedding (all the other lines they carried would not arrive in time). However, they did not have any appropriate styles with an empire waist. The only maternity dress they had was a close enough red to get away with, but the material and style were completely different. I was okay with this one, if Emily liked it, but the price was almost twice the original dress we'd chosen! There had to be another option.

Mom suggested that we try a few more shops before making a final decision. The first on her list was J'Maries Off-the-Rack (our one-stop shop for all of our bridal party outfitting needs). Believe it or not we found a few different ensembles for her to try on, including one red satin maternity dress that almost completely matches the original bridesmaids dress-in her size! All for the low, low price of $29.99!!!!

It's style is different, obviously. It has thicker straps, and it's a two piece. I'm just so happy it matches the dress Liz will be wearing, and that we can still add the orange, satin sash to Emily's dress. Emily didn't seem thrilled that the dress was so big (I'm sure it's made for someone who could be 8 months along as well as someone like her, just a few months along.) Em's mother, Susan, has offered to do Emily's alterations to this dress, to make it fit closer to the day of the wedding (when we have a better idea of how it will fit).

Susan is also going to create the sashes for Emily, Liz and Rylee! I love her. We all hugged her when she agreed to do this (it is such a load off for mom and I-one less thing!) I'm so glad mom and Susan came with us to pick out the dress. Emily is so considerate, and she would probably buy and/or wear anything I asked her to. It's great to have a few more ideas/opinions for a decision like this. I don't think we could have gotten any luckier.

Emily admitted, afterward, that she didn't think we'd have any luck at the off-the-rack shop, but I'm so glad we did. It would have been awful if we'd settled for the maternity dress at Sarah's, considering that would have put Emily's total spending for her dress above what we've spent on my own!

Our First Wedding Gift!

Andrew and I got quite a surprise yesterday from mom and dad.

The extra fridge in my parent's garage finally bit the bullet. (I'm not surprised...I think it's practically as old as I am.) Mom and I were doing some shopping last weekend, so we decided to stop into Sears to look at new refrigerators, and hopefully find something cheap to replace the one that broke. I guess that's easier said than done. Nothing that was a comparable size was that cheap.

But, I had another idea. Andrew and I have been meaning to replace the stove and fridge in our house, we just haven't had the money to do so yet. There were some really nice fridges at Sears that weren't too expensive, so I thought maybe Andrew and I could buy a new fridge and use some of the wedding money we get later to pay it off. We could sell our old one to mom and dad for much less money than them buying a new one, and they'd have a new outdoor, extra fridge. Brilliant, right?

Mom and I were ready to take Andrew to the store to check out the floor model, and dad asked if he could come along. Dad, volunteering to take a trip with us to the mall...well, I thought that was a little odd, but I was happy he was going to join us, so I didn't complain.

While he got ready to go, I started asking mom a lot of questions (worried about how I was going to pay for this), like "Do you think it's okay to use the wedding money we get later to pay off the fridge? Is it a faux pas to thank our guests for an appliance that will be in our home before the wedding?"

I just didn't want to pass up the opportunity, since mom and dad need a new fridge soon, rather than waiting until after the wedding. Mom couldn't answer my questions, so I said "Opps, it must be a faux pas. I think of another way to pay for it..."

Mom called dad into the room and said "We can't wait any longer to tell her. She keeps asking me all these questions I can't answer!"

Then, they announced that the new fridge would be their wedding gift to Andrew and I! So, we went as one, big, happy family to Sears to pick it out. It will be delivered a week from Monday. It's black (our color of choice for new appliances!), it has a divider shelf in the freezer. It's bigger than the one we have now. It has pull-out bins in the door and clear crisper, meat and dairy drawers. I can't wait until it arrives!

Thanks, mom and dad.

Program Design

I've been working on the ceremony programs quite a bit lately. I'm really happy with all the suggestions and ideas mom, dad and Andrew have offered. We've gone through several drafts already, and each time it comes out better and better.

I have designed the 8-page programs in a complementary style to the invitations and other printed material for the wedding.

I'm starting to get really excited about the wedding. I can believe how close it's getting. I can't seem to watch enough wedding shows (thanks to mom for taping them for me from WE). I'm quite the happy bride-to-be at the moment.

Sarabande Meets Flat Stanley

Last week I received a Flat Stanley in the mail from my cousin Blaine. I'm taking Flat Stanley around Nebraska with me for the next month or so, and I decided to bring him along to see Sarabande Jazz play at the Blend last Friday night.

It's been way too long since we went to see them perform live. They played "What a Wonderful World", the song that we plan to use for the Father-Daughter, Mother-Son Dance. Later, they played "I'm Glad There is You" which is our first dance song. They've added quite a few tunes to their repertoire, including some great Disney ones, like "Under the Sea." They performed that one for us as their final song of the evening.

I've got a photo of them above. They were kind enough to pose with Flat Stanley. It was great to go see them again. We're planning to schedule a meeting with Tim, the band leader, mid-April to discuss the details of the wedding music selections. Meanwhile, we'll just have to keep practicing our dance moves.

Ceremony Details

The part of the wedding planning I'd been putting off the most (even more than dance practice) was the details of the ceremony. I just wasn't sure how to put together a ceremony that would have enough meaning. It's outdoors, so a unity candle didn't really make sense (even though Andrew and I love candles), and the idea of pouring the sand together isn't really our style.

I just wasn't sure what should come between walking down the isle and kissing the groom. Andrew and I are writing our own vows, which we plan to surprise one another with on the wedding day (that part has always been exciting to me)! Other than that, I was lost on any readings to have, music to play, etc.

Dad helped me get the ball rolling by looking up some prose that could be read at the wedding. Andrew and I started to search together, but it was a lengthy process. We just kept searching for that poem/reading that really described us.

For awhile we were considering using an Apache Marriage Blessing (which I really like), but we ended up finding a few things that suited us even better. Now I'm really excited about planning the ceremony.

We've invited our Officiant, Richard and his wife over on Saturday for dinner, so that we can start discussing the details. I'm really looking forward to it. 

Two Garters?

Lynnette, Jean, Kristine, Rylee, Ty and Emily met mom and I at J'Maries Off-The-Rack last Saturday. Our intention was to find Rylee one of those $19.00 Flower Girl dresses they sell. Instead, we found a bunch! Rylee had several styles to choose from, all in cream colors to match my dress. The one she liked best was a size too small (and I say that, meaning it fits her tightly now, and who knows if she'd fit into it in 4 months). So, we went with her second favorite option (which was the first dress she picked out). She looks adorable in it, and there's a little room for her to grow. Better safe than sorry, I suppose.

While Rylee tried on dresses, Lynnette picked out a few dresses to try on for the wedding. We found a few options that looked really nice, and then Emily brought me a silver one that I just wasn't sure about (until she mentioned that the metallic-looking bead-work on the top reminded her of something Andrew would make). Silver is certainly on of our accent colors, so Lynnette tried it on. When she came out it was obvious that this was the dress. It looks stunning on her. So, we walked out of the shop with two dresses by the time we were done looking!

Since we only had to try one dress shop to find everything we needed, I invited the others along to the fabric store to look for sash material for Rylee and the bridesmaids. Lynnette is going to make the Ring Bearer pillow and Flower Girl basket for me (which is so wonderful, thank you Lynnette), so we wanted to use the same material on the pillow that we bought for the sashes. Lynnette also suggested that her mother could make my garters.

"Garters?" Plural? I didn't realize until Saturday that it was traditional for brides to wear a "throwing" garter and and "keepsake" garter. I think I may have been the only one in the group that didn't realize this (perhaps with the exception of little Ty). So, we called Andrew's grandma Joyce, and she will be happy to make the garters for me. Lynnette helped me figure out how much ribbon, elastic and lace I would need. I really love the ribbon we picked out. The one I'm going to keep is orange ribbon with these white, graphic flowers. Emily found me some red lace to go with it that is perfect!

The other, throwing garter has the same flower pattern, but it's a teal-blue color. We found some white, sheer, beaded lace to go with it. So now I have my "something blue!"

We also found deep orange satin to make the sashes out of. Emily was kind enough to bring her dress with, so we could make sure the material for the sashes goes with the bridesmaids dresses. They look great together. So, that will be a project for mom and I to tackle. We thought we might fasten the sashes with broaches, but we've yet to find them. If anyone sees any good sales of has ones to borrow, I'm all ears. I'm thinking silver (not gold), if they're metallic.

Newspaper Engagement Announcement

Keep an eye out in the Lincoln Journal Star for our engagement announcement and photo. It will most likely be appearing in the February 8th Celebrate! (but we're not 100% sure). It will also be available online at:

http://www.journalstar.com/celebrate/index.php?fc=Engagements

We had quite a successful wedding planning weekend. It started early, too. Mom, dad, Andrew, Emily and myself all took off early on Friday afternoon to meet with the caterers and decorations people at East Campus. We met the catering manager, Kari, for the first time. She was so delightful and she really made us feel confident that we were in good hands. She will be coordinating deliveries, supervising the servers and helping out on the day of the wedding. So, now we have the menu finalized for the most part.

We were also able to talk to several people at East Campus about the decorations. Dad and I have been especially worried about how we are going to do the decorations, so it was a relief to find that we can do exactly what we want with them. I really think we'll be able to make it look beautiful in the reception hall.

On Saturday afternoon we met with Meier's Cork and Bottle, who we decided to hire for bartender service. They are so friendly, professional and knowledgeable. I'm really happy that we've hired them.