Dress Shopping: The Rejects

I bought a dress! Well, I ordered it and bought 60% of it. I'm SO excited. It's exactly what I wanted, it wasn't too crazy expensive, and I know Jeff is going to cry when he sees me in it. I can't describe it or post a picture on the off-chance that he might look at this blog, but what I can do is post pictures of the ones we didn't pick.

I had so many people tell me that dress shopping was the most fun when it comes to wedding planning. That and cake-tasting. But I found it very stressful. I wasn't 100% sure what style I wanted, and what I thought I wanted didn't look great on me. Then I fell in love with a dress that costs $5600 and lives in New York, so I found the overall process very disheartening. NOW, however, after having found the dress, I can see how it would be fun. I think it will be more fun when it's someone else's turn, and I just get to watch.

So here are my rejects.

Only in Texas . . .

This is the bathroom at Bodacious Barbeque in Mount Pleasant, Texas.

Dress Shopping

My heart is broken.

Saturday, two of my very best friends and bridesmaids took me shopping for a wedding dress. We went to a specific boutique because it had THE bridesmaid's dress that I've been in love with since December 26. It's Jim Hjelm, plum satin-faced black taffeta, v-neck, just perfect. Absolutely perfect. Until we tried it on, that is. It was awful! It literally stood straight out from Ann's body, it was so stiff. So scratch that. The quest for a bridesmaid's dress is still on.

After much failure downstairs, we headed up to where the white dresses are. And some ivory, and some cream, and a few really odd pink ones . . . Anyway, a very nice lady ushered us into a dimly lit room with a spotlight on a dais for me to stand and twirl and have them ooh and ahh over how pretty the dresses are. We happened to be there on the day of a trunk show by the designer Robert Bullock of Birnbaum & Bullock (which I'd never heard of until that moment). So we were introduced to this diminutive man who makes the most beautiful creations a bride could ever dream of. The second dress I tried on almost made me cry. It is absolutely stunning. Robert pinned it on me, and I couldn't even talk. Why is my heart broken, you wonder? Because this fantasy of a dress is the only one in existence, it lives in New York, and it costs over $5000. He hasn't even photographed it for his website yet, so I can't even visit it. [Long wistful sigh]

So I've lost faith in the idea of finding that one perfect dress. Because I found it, and it's way out of my price range. I will say that in light of the fact that I have my one perfect man, I can settle a little on a dress. Positive thinking can help heal any broken heart. :)

I want to start a new trend

You know how people throw diaper showers for new moms because "that's what they really need"?

And you know how you spend a ton of money on postage when you're getting married?

My idea: A STAMP SHOWER!

Wouldn't it be awesome if you had an engagement party/shower where your friends only brought you postage stamps? Just think, that's a really inexpensive, but really useful, gift. By my calculations, you need at least 4 stamps per invitation (for save-the-date cards, the actual invitation, the RSVP, and then a thank-you note). That's a lot of freakin' stamps! I think we can totally make this the "in" thing to do. It will be so cheap and easy. The next time someone close to you gets engaged, throw them a stamp shower. Invite your close friends over, ask them to bring a book of 20 stamps, throw some lil' smokies in the crockpot, open a bottle of wine, and VOILA! Your friend, the bride, is fully equipped to take on the task of informing the world about her wedding.

The Best Fiance in the World!

I seriously am the luckiest girl in the world. Mr. Wonderful is still absolutely wonderful, and he's proven himself to be the best fiance in the world. Wedding planning is a piece of cake with this guy. All I have to do is show him something that I like, and BAM! He's got a price for it, or he's got a meeting set up with someone, or he has a logical and valid reason we should continue looking for something else. He doesn't automatically like everything I suggest, but he patiently listens to my reasoning and usually agrees with me in the end.

I'm making my save the date cards. He looks at my drafts and gives me his unbiased (yet nerdy engineer's) opinion on them. "Maybe you should rotate the design 90 degrees so that the shape of the card is more proportionate to the shape of the magnet." OR "Maybe we should try for something like green on the ampersand because the black ink looks a little purply when you double-stamp it." OR "The edge of that pattern looks like it's about to fall off the edge of the paper, and it looks like it's not supposed to." Until I finally said, "JEFF! I'm making over 100 of these, and none of them will look exactly alike. Now, if you got this in the mail, would you think of all that, or would you just think it's a pretty card?" He sheepishly says, "Uh, no, I guess not. I wouldn't even realize it's homemade." Thank you very much. Even though his nit-pickyness got a little old after a while, I'd much prefer that to a groom who just glances, nods, and says "Yes, dear!" while he's glued to the Supercross highlights.

I have my heart set on this one bridesmaid's dress, and I'm just certain it's going to be far too expensive to even consider. Yet Jeff has continually listened to me moan and groan about the fact that there will not be another color on the face of this earth that I like better than plum satin-faced black taffeta. There just won't.

Today he sent me a big, long, mathematical email about the virtues of doing "consumption" billing instead of a per person rate for alcohol. I can already tell he is going to save my mother thousands. He scrounged up 3 brothers-in-law to even out our bridal party, he convinced me that beer, wine & champagne will get everyone tipsy enough to shake it on the dance floor, and he knows enough about flowers and what I like to suggest some non-ridiculously expensive ways to go with the florist.

So because of him, we have a date, a church, a save-the-date card design, a wedding party, and a meeting with a photographer on Thursday! Things are moving right along. And we will be Mr. & Mrs. Coseo exactly 8 months from today. Yippee!

Decisions, decisions

I need help. I think most of the people who look at my blog are married, so I'm enlisting help from ALL of you. Planning a wedding is ridiculously difficult. I had no idea there were so many decisions to make. And so many decisions that cost loads of money. Yikes! What I need from all of you is advice. Please leave me a comment with any tip you have for wedding planning. Think back to your wedding, and try to remember if there was anything you did that made everything wonderful or anything that you would change, etc . . .

Right now, we're debating open bar vs. just beer & wine, sit-down dinner vs. buffet, spending tons of money on flowers or cutting back on that to spend more on the reception. Do we really need a videographer? How long should the reception be? Three hours? Four? I have no idea, people. I need to have 6 bridesmaids, but Mr. Wonderful claims to only have 1 friend. THIS IS STRESSFUL! Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaagh!

Holy Farkles!

A few years ago, my niece Madge (aka HRH from Three Minutes and a Rainbow) had an adorable little speech habit, where she would not say any words that started with "sp-" or "sm-". For instance, "spit up" was "fit up", and "smart" was "fart". It was hilarious to hear her call herself smart. "Mano fart!" Juli would always follow with, "Yes, Madgalene, that's right. You are SMART!" My favorite was sparkly. She's very complimentary, so she would always say, "Hey, Yaya, I like your farkly shoes!" Well, Madge, have I got something farkly to show you!

On Friday night, my sweet Mr. Wonderful decided that despite my big teeth, ridiculously loud sneezing, slight tendency toward argumentativeness, and crazy 17-member family, he wants to spend the rest of his life with me. And even though I would have said yes to a Lifesaver, he gave me the most beautiful, most sparkling diamond ring I've ever seen. It makes me want to dress up and put on some makeup and fix my hair so I can be worthy of its beauty. It's a good thing that I wear gloves at work. Otherwise, I'd never get anything done because all I want to do is stare at it. Holy moly, this thing is farkly!