.progress in the fashion area.

We made some progress in the fashion department over the past few weeks:

1. I bought my dad a tie. This compliments both the wedding and my mom's dress. I had originally found this on The Tie Bar and thought, "oh we have PLENTY of time"....well when I went to buy it.... it was gone. At J. Crew, I had seen one there and after finally making it to the local J. Crew Outlet, they had one left. One left in two colors: an olivey green and a brighter green. It looks like the tie below...except without the white. But now that I see the white...hmmmm.....

2. Flo bought some ties at the Tie Bar as well. We bought two green ties and matching pocket squares. Am loving the The Tie Bar, for serious. We haven't.... He hasn't decided on which tie her prefers. That will be his choice. He is fashion aware, as I like to call him and will give him that decision to make.

3. We are ordering the Zillaz dresses! Yay! M-Zilla and K-Zilla were able to try on the dress and both gave it three snaps up and a Z formation. So we moved forward with the order forms. I am hoping that the Zillaz all get them in and ordered by October 1. I had emailed all four of my Zillaz and heard back from one that she got it and has ordered her dress. But I have faith that all will be ordered on time. I know, it is me being crazy...but a "hey I got it." Or, "Hey I ordered it" would calm my neuroses.

4. We are ordering coordinating ties for our guys! We are going with the Dessy Group Satin ties and Pocket Squares in concord. They will coordinate with the Zillaz. So Groomsmaids and Zillaz are all set, for the most part.

5. MOB ordered her dress, had it shortened like I suggested (yay! It was optional, but it will look way cuter for the "theme"). She is going with a sassy navy dress. I haven't a clue what MIL will be wearing which is making me mildly nervous....but I can't control every detail. We haven't revisited her outfitting since showing me something white she'd like to wear. Again, my neuroses...

6. I ordered shoes. Yup. Finally. They are NOT the Louboutin's that I had dreamt about... but we DID change our venue and add quite a bit of $$$ to our budget for that. It's all good because I do love these.... and bought them for a great price. I actually love challenging myself to see what I can find for the lowest price. They are the "Giselle" by Liz Rene. Still debating on dyeing them to match Flo's tie tho....

.bridal beauty in the making, part dos.

This trip for the MOB and FOB has been quite productive. Since they booked their tix, I wanted MOB to have her hair turned fabu by my stylist, Andeen, and she obliged. MOB is a girlie girl like me, but she doesn't get to come out to play too often. So we took our before pic....and went to get our hairs did.

Andeen is the most talented hair guru I've ever met and what I enjoy the most is that she will take the time to ask what you normally do with your hair, how you normally style it and then create something new that will not conflict with your lifestyle or willingness to be high maintenance. She also takes the time to teach you how to curl, style, dry, whatever your hair. Everything that I've ever learned about cute hair was taught to me by Andeen. If you need a stylist here locally, she is who I recommend, hands down. Hair tools, will travel.

What she created for MOB was amazing.... And here is our "after" photo, before GNO (Girls Nite Out)

I also thought that it would be nice to start looking at shoes for MOB's dress. I should have known that the first pair she tries on would be the winner, just like her fabu dress. I will show pics of the shoes....but not the dress. Is it just me or are MOB dresses soooo matronly these days?? Anyway, I delivered several boxes of silvery shoes to MOB and she gracefully tried them on. Like with the dress, I will give my opinion but the decision truly comes down to what makes MOB feel the most glamorous and most comfortable. It will be a long day in a dress that constricts breathing and makes you squirm.

So I leave you with this..... some fabu shoes.... that quite possibly after the wedding will be a new, something old just for me!

.who presents this bride.

Last nite Flo and I took MOB and FOB to our ceremony venue and having our own little walk through. According to our sales coordinator at Caesars, the new garden chapel is underway. Ground has been broken. So the chances of us getting married here are slim, but it was still fun.

.practicing the "who presents this bride?".

.we do.

.we can't wait.

Nine months and one week to go, it is getting super exciting. Tuesday is our reception walk thru. We actually got that worked out, if you read my previous blog about the service we were getting at our venue, you can rest easy knowing that they "accommodated" us, (begrudgingly) and that we are going there on Tuesday (at the time I first requested). Imagine that- taking your client when it's convenient for them. We will see how this one goes.... if we walk out of there without bucking horns, no more words will be written.

PS: I won $22 on one spin! Sweet!

.checking things off of the list.

Whew! My, oh my…. Where have I been? Yikes! Well, I went on vacation, had my sister come out to visit me and just have not been able to catch up on blogging!

To update, my vacation was very productive, the following were accomplished:

1. My mother found an MOB dress, but just needs to order it. I wanted to go looking for dresses with her just to get an idea of what feels comfortable for her, what style looks good on her shape and what colors she likes. Well we more than accomplished that! Sweet… she lurves it, I lurve it and she is going to be one sassy MOB! No photos of this will post.

2. We found dresses for the Zillaz. Sort of. My sister, my niece and I trekked to several bridal stores in New Jersey. While Ster Zilla fed the lovely baby, I tried on the dresses! In all honesty… I think that I enjoy the dress shopping and trying experience so much that I offered to try them on! For S-Zilla and I to shop, we don’t mess around. In, put dress on, do you like –yes or no, circle one- ok, dress off and next. We fell in lurve with a matte jersey material from both Alfred Angelo and the Dessy Group. The matte jersey is light, flowy and comfy. So no fidgeting, no hugging or squeezing, these dresses should last comfortably all nite long! The Dessy dress is a wrap style that can be worn several ways. I like this idea the most because everyone can wear the dress in a style they like the most. For example, A-Zilla has awesome shoulders and upper body, so I pictured her wrapping to accentuate and I was right- she loves the one shoulder wrap. All we are doing is waiting for a sample to come into one store so that we can actually try that dress on and see how difficult (or easy, I hope) it is to wrap these dresses. I can only imagine us on the morning of trying to get this done and we end up Hollywood Taping everything together. Welcome to my world. The Zillaz lurved the dresses, too! That was most important. Wait, they said they lurved them…. Oh well. They truly can be re worn. The material can be dressed up for the wedding and worn with cute flats or strappy sandals and worn to brunch or church.

**NOTE: Another great wrap is is by twobirds bridesmaid...check it out. A little more expensive than the Dessy, but stunning.**

Dress by Alfred Angelo, Style 6588

Dress by The Dessy Group, Style Twist1

3. I bought a dress!!! YAYYYYYY! This is a HUGE relief. I haven’t quite yet posted all of dress debacle posts because I wasn’t sure how much attention I wanted to call to the negatives of dress shopping. Maybe I will forget all of that and just move forward. The dress is amazing, no, I won’t post photos. But it will knock your socks off! Now… I just have to get into a shape, something other than round. But don’t worry- I already started this process, I have a phone number to a trainer, who I will call while I gorge on Doritos. Ha-ha, take that healthy trainer lady! Just kidding…. My goal is to start a program around August or September. An actual training program, more than just my infrequent visits to the gym.

Here is a photo of a rejected dress... I have to be careful with what I post in case I change my mind! Ha!

4. We tasted our favors…. And sorry guests, there are none left for you! Just kidding. Spoiler Alert: I am going to talk about my wedding favors here. My dad makes wine as a hobby and it was only fitting to ask him to make wine for the wedding favors. He is making two flavors, which I will keep secret, and we were able to try one flavor and it was G-O-O-DDDDDDDD. YUM! I can’t wait for the guests to receive this favor and hopefully drink it. It is meaningful and made with love, for sure. We just need to commish Ellie Hey to do my labels. She has already agreed….so that part is checked off. We just need to come up with a design and a cute saying on the bottles so that everyone knows where they were made, etc. Any ideas? Please email them to me at TheNearlyweds@rocketmail.com

.ohhhh....what can it be hiding under than bag? the next step is to bottle and voila they are done.

.this is called a "wine thief" so that you can taste without contaminating the wine in progress.

.tasting the fruits of my dad's labor. yum is all i can say.

5. Save the Dates. Once again, the truly talented Ellie came through with a design that blew us away! I think that we went through only 3 revisions…but if you ask her, it was probably more like 33. Anyway, she sent us the approved design while we were in PA, sampling our favors. Blame it on the alcohol?? Anyway, they are two-sided, 5”x7” beauties. The personal information is blacked out, but this is what they look like:

They were printed on a glossy stock and we picked matching shadow grey envelopes. I am currently hand addressing them! UGH. My handwriting is mediocre, but I write faster than I think and have messed up three so far. Maybe the recipients of the STDs will become a shorter list and I continue writing. I can’t wait for them to be mailed, which means that I am finished with hand addressing envelopes.

**NOTE: We are only mailing to immediate family and far away friends (and bridal party!) so if you are a local friend…and don’t get one, you don’t necessarily have to be offended. We just speak to you on a regular basis and you know when the wedding will be and you should know if you will be invited or not!**

6. My insane checklist. I created a spreadsheet as my checklist. It is a crazillion tabs. Each tab is dedicated to a subject: Attire, Accessories, catering, Décor, DIY, Transportation, To Do, etc. It is helping to keep me organized, for now….

7. My binder. Is another out of control item. I am creating a secondary one for inspirational ideas since that is what is keeping my binder overflowing. And I guess that I can move the losing choices for a bridal gown and Zillaz dress to the older folder. I don’t want to get rid of anything because I think that in a few years I want to look back and see where my thoughts were and what I would have changed, etc.

So I leave you with this really long blog. We are just under 10 months now and the planning is going into full swing! We meet with our wedding planner today and I will be sure to blog again after that! Cheers!