Fussy Gerberas

A few weekends ago, mom and I took my dress into J’Marie’s for an alterations consultation. There are a few improvements to be made to make the dress exactly the way I’ve envisioned it to look. We’re going to put in a whole new neckline and material on the top of the dress. The person doing the alterations seems really excited about the "redesign project" (as she calls it).

We also went into HyVee floral to talk about possibly ordering some flowers to arrange ourselves for the bouquets. It sounds like the color scheme I have in mind will work well with the season and have good visual interest. A few of the flowers I was hoping for are either very expensive or not in season during our wedding, but for the most part I can see my vision for the bouquets coming together. The only problem is that the gerbera daisies don’t do well out of water for very long. I guess they begin to droop. Gerbera’s are the flower I’ve designed the whole bouquet around, they’re featured on the wedding invitation I designed and they are the flowers we’re going to use on the centerpieces at the reception. Any other flower, and I would just replace it with anohter (less fussy) option.

So, we have a few options. We can have a pro put the bouquet together with a floral foam-plastic core, and cover it to get the "hand-tied" look I want. We can try to do this ourselves (mom and I watched an instructional video about this online last night). That only leaves us with the dilemma of how to attach the ribbon to the plastic foam core to get the look I want...and I suppose also the dilemma of whether or not I’m skilled enough to even pull off the hand-tied look this way. We could put the bouquets together ourselves, just like we’d planned, and have a water source handy for the photos, at the ceremony (rather than having Liz hold my flowers) and again at the reception. We could also forgo the gerbera’s in the bridesmaids’ bouquets, so that there will only be one fussy arrangement to contend with.

The truth is, I don’t want to "contend with" things on my wedding day. I’d like for it to be as stress-free as possible, so that I don’t chance getting a migraine and so that I can have fun. It’s still been a lot of fun to think about. I like doing things myself, so I always seem to steer that way. With the decorations, the invitations, the flowers, etc. I’m just glad that mom and I spoke to a pro and found this out so that it wasn’t a surprise to have a droopy bouquet on my wedding day!

Engagement Photo Proofs

If you'd like to see our engagement photo proofs online, follow the link below:

http://www.millersalbums.com/?m=61350

Click on "Losh Engagement." There are some really beautiful shots. Some of my favorites are the farther away shots of us walking. I especially like the ones where our heads are together. Andrew had just said something that cracked me up, and if you zoom in on our faces, you can see our "real" smiles. I also love the ones leaning against the tree (standing and sitting) and the "meadow" shots. I'm going to have to order a few different ones for myself. Enjoy!

Okoboji Trip

Being a little nervous about how to go about planning my first week-long vacation with no "adults" present, I've been consulting mom and dad a lot on Honeymoon/trip planning.

They helped Andrew and I narrow down the destination, mapped out several route options, and (the ultimate stress reliever) planned a long-weekend trip with us to scope-out our destination of choice, Lake Okoboji, IA.

What better way for us to see whether this was a place that we wanted to spend our honeymoon?

Andrew has been looking for work for some time now. The week before we planned to leave for Boji, Andrew was offered a job. (Hurray!) But, went to work immediately, and couldn't take off extra days for a long weekend (Not so much of a hurray.) So, Andrew entrusted me to do the Okoboji-scopeing without him : (

It wasn't the greatest weather while we were up there, but it was just fine for getting the lay of the land. I was able to check out several hotels I was intersted in, see a few of the surrounding towns that we might stay in, try a few restaurants and look at menus/prices for others. My folks let me drive the whole way there and back, so I have a good grasp on exactly how to get there and get back home. All of these things really put me at ease for planning the trip with Andrew.

I've included a few photos from the trip, enjoy!

Wedding Shoes

Well, I've decided on and ordered the shoes to go with my wedding dress. I'm going to need very pretty toe nails, because I've decided on ivory flip-flops from Sarah's Bridal. They are flats, which is important because:

• the hem of my dress is a little high as it is
• I do not want to be taller than Andrew
• in heels, I will most certainly trip and fall at some point

They are so comfortable, with sequins on the top. They are just exactly what I was looking for.

I just about have the save-the-date cards finalized, all I need is to get the address list together. I'm also beginning to think about wedding cake options. Dad told me about an incident with red frosting on a cake at work recently that stained everyone's lips, teeth and tongues. That's certainly something I need to consider when deciding on the type of frosting to use. I have my heart set on red and orange...but I don't want everyone stained from the frosting (especially in dressy clothes!)

Dress #1!!!!

I've made my decision. Last night mom bought me my wedding dress!

After feeling so torn between the two dresses, I tried them both on last night for mom, Emily, Lynnette and Linny. It sounded like everyone was leaning toward dress #1, saying that it went more with the style of the wedding and I looked more comfortable in it.

I wasn't completely convinced, because I had practically decided on dress #2 (it was getting so many votes!) and I thought it looked like a more expensive dress for the same price as the other. That's when aunt Linny asked the question that became my ultimate deciding factor..."Which dress would Andrew like better?"

Automatically I pointed at dress #1, and the decision was made. Everyone agreed that he would appreciate the simple style. So, I guess it's onto dressing others for the wedding now! (Though I'm so excited to take my dress to be altered, so that's it's a one-of-a-kind dress, just for me!)

It's Down to Two!

Last Saturday, mom and I went to a few bridal shops in town and we found that the J’Maries Off the Rack shop was finally open!

What a wonderful place! All of their bridal gowns are either $99 or $199! Their bridesmaid dresses are $29 and their flower girl dresses are only $20! I’d love to invite Rylee to shop with us there to see if we can find a dress for her and maybe dresses for Liz and Emily too.

I found two dresses that I simply cannot decide between. They are holding the two dresses for me through tomorrow. I’ve been taking votes on which dress people tend to like better on me. So far, there are three votes for #1 and six votes for #2.

They are both $99 dresses, so that didn’t make the decision any easier. As I started taking votes, all I got were votes for #2, so I thought I had my decision made. However, both Emily and Liz have voted for #1, so now I’m back where I started. However, I will love either dress. So, really, it’s not such a dilemma. It’s kind of a fun problem to have.

More dress shopping soon?

I’m thinking about planning another wedding dress shopping outing, possibly the 1st or 2nd Saturday in May. I’ve found dresses I like at the Wedding Gown Outlet (these are less expensive then all my other favorites!) and also at Sarah’s Bridal.

I really liked the consultants at both of these dress shops. I’d like to use Sarah’s Bridal for the alterations on whatever dress I choose, if possible. I was really happy with the alterations on my dress for Linny’s wedding done at Sarah’s, and it sounds like the same person would be working on my wedding dress if I have the alterations done there.

There are several "before and after" photos at Sarah’s of alterations, and the difference is really remarkable in some of them. There was even a dress at the Wedding Gown Outlet that’s too large, but inexpensive enough that maybe we could pay to have it altered to fit exactly how I want it to.

I finally received the contract for reserving the Perin Porch for the ceremony. I was assured that it was all mine for the day, but I was worried when over a month had gone by with no word and no contract to sign. I suppose my next task will be getting all the addresses for the save the date cards.

Andrew and I are scheduled to have our engagement photos taken next Saturday. They’re going to be outdoors, so here’s hoping that we don’t get rained out. I’ve really been looking forward to having them taken.