Almost There! (a post by Deb)

Everyone keeps asking us how the planning is going and there's always a long pause on my end before I say, ". . .good?".  Because so far this has been a pretty low stress process, honestly.

The Dress, etc.

David's Bridal gives me hives to be honest.  I went because they're in my price range and because they (obv) specialize in wedding dresses.  I wasn't really in love with anything there.  I then ordered some retro style gowns online that I knew could be returned but I wasn't impressed with the material or the tailoring (same with DB).  I'm super sick of the wedding upcharge for crap.  I managed to really luck out when Joe's friend April (not to be confused with my April!  We call my April - April1 and his April - April2 for sake of ease and they put up with it) had bought a white knee length satin Layfette148 gown on sale to wear to the opera or another formal event at Neiman Marcus and it didn't fit her quite right because she's a head taller than me.  Nothing ever fits me right because of my boobs but I majorly lucked out and it fit me perfectly!  The tailoring is gorg, the material is lush and April1, my mom and my sister all loved it which *never* happens.  April2 then kindly lent me a pair of crystal encrusted silver strappy Manolo Blahniks and some vintage jewelry pieces to wear with it.

This has freed me up to spend time doing fun things like figuring out what to wear under the dress (so far I'm thinking a blush colored full slip from Nearly Nude and a yummy bra set from Wacoal) and frilly things to wear on the honeymoon (I've been ordering things from Bloomies and having my own private lingerie parties in my house trying things on).  I have enough time that if my foundation situation doesn't work out, my mom found a woman who does custom underthings in Basking Ridge, so that's my plan B.

I just need to get a sash with some bling, a lace bolaro shrug and my fascinator/cage veil which I'll either do on Etsy or the Garment District in NYC depending on time.  And get my dress altered and pressed of course.

Faelyn has always done my hair and make up for big events for me so she generously offered to do it for me for the wedding which I'm looking forward to.  I def want fake eyelashes!  We'll get someone to put those on for me because we both have trouble with that.  I think I want Joan Holloway (from Mad Men) hair and make up.

Rings

Our orignal vendor wasn't getting back to us as quickly as we would have liked so we found another small business that was much more attentive.  We'll be getting a set from here.

Decorating/Invitations/Paper Goods

Joe's friend Athena is an artist and she graciously offered to set our decorations up for us.  We're going to take a trip to a local craft store soon and I will start making the things I can make that are on our Pinterest and buying the things I can't make.  We have our invitations and we have some of our paper goods as well.  We'll start working on getting our invitations sent out next month.

Reception Location

Nothing really new to report.  We got the hotel for overnight guests situated.  We're still having it at The Lambertville Station.  I want to take April1 there to see it soon and I want to go in August to get a good idea of the layout.

Church/Precana

We had a small heart attack because we were able to do the first part of Precana but our parish's second part filled up.  We were able to snag the second part right before the wedding at an adjacent parish.  We'll need another meeting with Father Damien before the wedding of course.  Even though we're having a v. simple Mass in the chapel, I still want a rehearsal the night before.

Stag and Hen

Joe’s not much of a party guy, we sort of met each other at the right phases in life. I was slowing down (I get hung over now and don’t really hit the clubs much anymore) and he wanted more of a social life so we sort of met in the middle. It was my second time around but not his. I told him he could do anything he wanted for his bachelor party – Vegas, Miami, AC, strippers, race car driving, whatever it was that he wanted to do. He informed me in his typical manner that he wasn’t terribly interested in any of that.

I wasn’t particularly interested in a bachelorette party redeux so I thought about what we could do and I thought doing a party at our house and inviting our closest friends and having a theme would be really fun. I started with Tarts and Vicars as our theme but somehow landed on The Jersey Shore ultimately because I thought it would be fun for our primarily Jersey friends to get out of their heads a bit and just really get into the theme. To my surprise, everything went really smoothly. The party prep went exactly to plan, we stayed in our budget and the party itself went really well.

The kitchen witch secret to seeing if the party went well is simple. How much booze, food and water was consumed? Did people leave at a reasonably hour or did you have to throw them out at 2a? For about 20 people, 4 magnums of champagne were consumed, half a bottle of Hendricks, a whole bottle of Mojitos, a shaker of kamikaze shots, a case of beer, several pounds of antipasto meat and cheese, three boxes of pasta, two pounds of Italian cookies and three gallons of water.
The party was really good. I had glitter temporary tats for everyone to paint onto each other, everyone socialized and nothing was spilled on the new carpet. I really enjoyed this bachelor/ette party. As a thirtysomething, I was really happy to have this party at my house. I’ve had lots of parties at my house. I didn’t expect this to be the wildest night of my life. I just wanted to have fun with my friends. And I did. And I got to do it together with Joe, making it even better.

There are pics on my facebook of everyone in their Jersey Shore best.

Bridal Shower

Generally in my family a bridal shower is a surprise but with this being my first year as a crafter, I didn't want to do that because my weekends get so booked with shows I didn't want to accidently double book myself.  My mom and sister are throwing me a tea at the Cosy Cupboard which is exactly what I wanted.  It's a tea room I haven't been to before so I'm looking forward to going.  I picked out a lovely tea party dress for the occasion and will likely wear my Prada heels to start getting practice for the big show with the Manolos.

Honeymoon

Again, nothing too new to report.  We plan on making a road trip out of it up to Tanglewood with stops at wineries and other fun places and plan on foodie-ing it up there and spending lots of time cuddling by the fireplace in our villa.

Wedding Activities

Since our wedding is reasonably low key, it gives us time to do all the fun things there never seems to be time for.  Like having a girls' spa day the day before to get our nails done and having a BBQ with our friends the night before so we can spend time with out of towners and in towners alike and Joe and I getting a couples' massage the day of the wedding at his clinic and having a fun afterparty at the wine cellar bar with the fireplaces and leather easy chairs at our reception location.

So that's what we've been doing!