Muhahahaha!

Wedding Dress Browsing - Fall 2011 Collection

So I was browsing the new Fall 2011 collections of wedding dresses on Martha Stewart Weddings website and here are a few of my favorites! I'd add some type of straps or cap sleeves to the strapless dresses... which tangent, side-note: Why are 90% of wedding dresses strapless??

And then I love these cocktail-style dresses as a separate reception dress if I decide to go that route... especially the Lilly Pulitzer one!! It's so me!

And then I saw some... well...interesting styles that just made me wonder what kind of people would actually wear these concoctions for their wedding... I mean...everyone is entitled to express themselves... so I'm sure someone, somewhere out there could rock some of these looks - but really??

I guess if you really like your legs, you want to show them off - but this is like a conservative way of doing it I guess.

Nevermind the dress - who wants to wear a shower cap on their wedding day?

I'd be afraid I'd knock out my groom with this giant shoulder 'growth' - I guess he'd have to always be on my left side in pictures and at the altar too!

This could be pretty - but all I can think of is she looks like a piece of popcorn.

Do I even need to say anything about this one?

Little White Riding Hood - walking down the aisle. Where's her basket?

Either a Xanadu musical cast member, or a bride who's traveled back from the future.

Goddess of weddings? Cleopatra inspired? Why, why, why??

Nevermind the odd cleavage spilling out the top of this dress... I can't get past the bunny ears! Is she going to hop down the aisle?

I'm not against wearing different colors other than white and ivory on your wedding day, but this is just a little much... she looks like she accidentally washed her dress with a blue shirt. Cotton candy anyone?

Busy Blogger

I have officially gone a week without updating here. Things have been super busy and when I do have time to blog, I just want to lay my head down and sleep.

I spent most of last week living out of a hotel and working up in Columbia.

Then I headed from there to Clemson for an amazing football weekend. It amazes me how hot it still is during the day (I have tan lines to prove it) even though it's already late October. The game was at 3:30pm (Clemson won, hooray!!), which made for a marathon day and night of tailgating - which for some reason I had the bright idea to drink Firefly and Lemonade all day - which I painfully paid for all day yesterday and still feeling the effects of today...bleh. I rarely if ever drink liquor - I should have known better.

This week brings more traveling for work and a fun Halloween (well almost Halloween) Saturday night in Charleston with friends. Usually I dress cute (ok, attempting sexy, but probably looking skanky) for Halloween - this year will be completely different. A friend of ours has hijacked Halloween Saturday to be their 30th birthday and has set a theme for costumes - SNL, Mad TV, sketch comedy characters... which makes for an easy and affordable costume, but not so cute and sexy. I think I might actually look forward to being comfortable (and conservative) for a change on Halloween...not to mention warm. :) Pictures to come next week.... stay tuned to see what I dress up as!

Halloween costumes of the past... yes, a little skanky, but that's the only time of the entire year I get to try to be sexy, lol. And I love wearing wigs! I wish wigs were in style and I could be like Kim Z. from Real Housewives of Atlanta and wear a wig all the time. My all time fave is from two years ago when I dressed as Marie Antoinette - that costume was so fun and I'll probably repeat that one sometime.

What are you going to be for Halloween this year??

Jr. Bridesmaids, Flower Girls, & Ring Bearers... Oh my!

So this weekend my fiance (still feels weird saying that!) and I went to back to Landrum (outside of Greenville, SC) to visit with his family. His parents live in a beautiful house on acres of land up in the mountains. Every year in October, they have a hay ride -- his dad fills up a trailer with hay and pulls it behind his tractor around a trail he creates through their property. After the sun goes down, the whole family piles in the trailer for the ride, and the little kids love it.

And I'll admit, I get a little scared, lol - because the trail goes back into the woods way behind their house. My fiance spends most the time trying to scare me - which doesn't help.

Well, I thought that this weekend would be the perfect time to ask my fiance's nieces and nephews to be a part of our big day since we would all be together.

His older sister is married with three kids - two girls ages 11 and 9, and a little boy age 6. His older brother is married with two little ones - a little girl age 5 and a little boy who will be 2 in February.

My fiance and I decided that we wanted the two older girls (they will be 12 and 10 for the wedding) to be Jr. Bridesmaids, the other niece (will be 6) as our flower girl, and the oldest nephew (will be 6) as the ring bearer.

We talked about making the younger nephew (will be about 2 and half at wedding) a ring bearer as well - but with such a large wedding, we were afraid he might get overwhelmed by all of the people and potentially be fussy or too scared to walk down the aisle...but we still want him to be a part of the big day. So we have decided to make him an "honorary" ring bearer - he'll wear the same little suit, be in the program as the honorary ring bearer and still be in all of the pictures - he just won't have to deal with the stress of walking the aisle.

First things first, I called both of the moms (my fiance's sister and sister-in-law) Friday night to first ask their permission to have their kids in our wedding and mentioned we wanted to ask them Saturday night. Of course they were elated and said "Yes, yes, yes!" and I knew they wouldn't say otherwise - but I felt it was the proper thing to do to ask them first.

I wanted to do something special when we asked the kids on Saturday, so I found these great books on Amazon for each of them that tells a story about their role in the wedding. I wrote a special note to each of them in the front of their book telling them how special they are to us and asked them if they would be a part of our big day.

For each of the girls, I created these heart shaped pins with their role in the wedding and the date. They were super easy (and affordable) to create... I got all of the pieces at Walmart. I thought it would be fun for them to wear them up until the wedding - or put them on their dolls, book bags, etc.

I painted these wooden hearts a dark blue with a sponge brush and paint I already had.


After they dried, I just decorated them with these glitter, sticker felt flowers I also got for cheap at Walmart and some rhinestones I already had. I used a white paint pen to write the wedding date and the role on the front.


Then on the back, I attached a pin - I also got these in the craft section of Walmart and they already had a sticky back to them, so it was easy to put it on the heart. Then I just signed the back and dated it.

Finished product - glue dried clear, FYI. :)


We gave each of the kids their book and the pins Saturday night along with a cupcake from a store here in Charleston called Cupcake that makes delicious cupcakes in a variety of flavors - they are sooo good. The youngest nephew really enjoyed his cupcake...

The kids were so excited, and so was my fiance's sister and sister-in-law. :) I know that the little girls will always remember being a part of our wedding. My sister was the flower girl in our Aunt's wedding when she was little and she still talks about it (and she's in her thirties now). :) So I can't wait to see the little ones all dolled up and excited to be in the wedding.


We also asked my fiance's sister to be a reader in our wedding - we wrote her a sweet note on a pretty card that told her how much she meant to us and asked her to pick something meaningful to read at our wedding - and we asked her to surprise us. I love that we have no idea what it will be until she actually reads it on our wedding day -- I think that makes it that much more special.

So now I'm working on my bridesmaids...as soon as I get done asking each of them, I'll share with you what I did for them!

And...I need your input... wedding band versus DJ? We are almost certain we want a DJ - which is against the norm for a Southern wedding, but we've talked about it a lot and we are leaning that way. But... I know that's risky because some DJs are awful and I've been to weddings where they have been awful. But on the other hand.. I've also been to weddings where the band was awful. And you're more limited in your song choices...

So... wedding band or DJ? Talk amongst yourselves... :)

Gilt Bride

So I want to brag on a friend and former coworker of mine - she is Gilt's very first Gilt bride! Her wedding photos are all over the site.


Isn't her wedding dress amazing? It's so simple and unique...but so her. She got married a few months ago in Vegas!

She actually introduced me to Gilt and I remember when we worked together several years ago she was ALWAYS talking about the site and all of the good deals she got. Well, for her wedding she went Gilt crazy and got almost all of her essentials from Gilt!

I know it's silly, but I feel like I know someone famous now, lol...

Anyways - Gilt is having a huge wedding sale next week and a contest for the next 'Gilt Bride' who could be their style ambassador for their next wedding event and win a $5000 honeymoon! I'm thinking of entering.

And a small plug for me... if you haven't signed up for Gilt and you'd like to, please sign up under my name! :)

Medium Loser

I wish NBC would come up with a sister show to the Biggest Loser for people like me who need to lose like ten to twenty pounds.

I would be the first contestant to sign up! No matter how much I exercise or how many different ways I exercise, and even though my diet isn't THAT bad... I feel like I can't lose those pesky 10 pounds.

Surely Jillian would kick my butt and tell me what I'm doing wrong.

Look... I already created a logo for them - so no excuse not to create the show NBC!

Southern Weddings Magazine V3!

I just got my pre-ordered Southern Weddings Magazine Vol. 3! So excited...






And they are having a contest for the best photo of you with your SW mag - I've got some creative ideas... hmm. :)