It Figures!

I'm a big fan of Paloma Blanca gowns. I tried on several, and liked the way they looked, but I didn't quite feel like me in the gowns. They all had elements that I absolutely loved, but not all of them in one dress.

I loved the shape of this first dress as well as the sash, but other wise it was a bit too simple for what I wanted.

This next dress I really loved on me. I loved the sweetheart neckline, sash and the lace on the entire bodice and the bottom of the hemline. And I was almost sold on the pick-up skirt, but the entire dress wasn't really how I envisioned looking on my wedding day. I think its a beautiful dress that I can't really pull off.

This dress I looked good in, damn good if I do say so myself. The draped, ruched sash at the waist made me look like a skinny-minny. And again, I loved the lace sweetheart neckline. But this (for me) was a dress that I just looked good in, I didn't get that "bride" feeling.

So, it would figure that right after I buy my gown, Paloma Blanca has added some new gowns to their line that basically embody what I wanted to merge from the top three! Ah, well... such is life. I'm still the most content with the one I picked, and that's what matters! However, I definitely recommend checking out their new gowns, they have a very soft, romantic look to them.

Celebrate MORE Generously

A little while back I blogged about one way to make your wedding day into a charitable celebration, and here's another that's been floating around the Wedding Blogosphere (did I really just use the word Blogosphere?!). The White Aisle, a lovely collection of relatively inexpensive wedding accessories started by Rebecca and Dade Sokoloff. The have absolutely beautiful jewelry that I just recently bought for my bridesmaids. I got each of them a brooch to pin their sashes around their waist. I got a different one for each of my 6 'maids and also got one for my adorable flower girl. I've pictured them below.

(This bottom brooch is for my flower girl!)

And while the site has some very beautiful things, some of them have an even more beautiful purpose behind them. As the Weddingbee and Style Me Pretty already blogged about, this new line of handmade silk accessories is created in Cambodia, by young women and girls trying to leave the sex trade. 100 % of the profits go back to helping to improve the living conditions of the girls. Unfortunately, I had already bought sashes for my girls' dresses before I saw this, but its definitely something I'm considering for my flower girl's sash and ring bearer's pillow. I also might get some of the silk flowers to accent some of the ceremony and reception decor. Its definitely worth checking out, they're beautiful accessories that help an amazing cause.

Can I Dress You Up In My Love?

I've been MIA for a bit, but I've gotten a ton of wedding stuff done during the past week! But I'm most excited because...

I bought my wedding dress.

How do I even begin to blog about this glorious event?!

I guess I could begin by saying I thought this would never happen. Between my indecisiveness and and my pickiness, I didn't think I would be able to settle on a dress, and had a hard time doing so. I was able to find my dress on our trip to The Bridal District in Reading, Ohio. A convenient collection of many, many wedding related stores. I'll blog later on the journey to the dress.... but right now I'm soooo excited to actually have it, I want to tell you all about it!

The Dress is a Marisa Bridal Couture Gown. It has an ever so slight sweetheart neckline, which I loved. The straight across strapless was just a bit to severe on me, and the truly sweetheart necklines were a little X-rated on my well-endowed frame. This sample dress even is a bit tighter up top than my actual dress will be.

It has the fit of the slight flare/trumpet/mermaid that I absolutely love, and complements my figure well (if I do say so myself!). It hugs my curves in a way that's flattering but not over the top. The dress is 100% silk, but looks like organza, and has lace appliqué from the knee up.

I've decided to add satin faced buttons all the way down the back of the dress as another special detail. I'm also going to add a sash to the gown. Actually, two! I'm going to wear a cream colored one for the Wedding Ceremony and a green one for the Reception... that's almost like having two dress, right?

Blue Tux Shoes

So I may not be any closer to having my wedding ensemble picked out, but I sure am making progress on my 'maids attire! Now that I have their dresses all taken care, I've moved onto a search for some fabulous footwear, and let me tell you this is no easy task!

The perfect solution would be to order these shoes from the Ann Taylor Celebrations Collection. They match perfectly, and are very cute.... with one big problem, they cost $108. Not very friendly to my bridesmaids' budgets.

With the Meadow Green Dresses and Honeydew Sashes from Ann Taylor, I was a bit baffled about what color shoes would look best. I figured I could go metallic either silver or gold. But neither of those was a real favorite. Out of the ones I did see, I really liked the popular Nine West Accolia shoe in gold, which is on sale right now for $39.99. Or the dyeable Tori thong, which runs between $35-$50 online.















But, for the first time I got some less than positive feedback from the girls, so I kept looking. And came across Blue Tux Shoes, a collection of dyeable and metallic special occasion shoes. What I liked about their shoes, is that they're simple and clean looking. I don't want all the attention to focus on the girls shoes when they have such pretty dresses and will look so beautiful, but I also don't want them in shoes that they think are a bit drab or a bit too much. So I think I've settled on a couple styles. The Kate (on the left) and the Melanie (on the right). They're very similar, and very much on sale for $39.99 each. This way the girls will all have shoes that essentially match, but have a bit of variation. I've decided that I'll have the girls try them on and buy them at the nearest retailer, and then I will collect them all to take them to get dyed together.

Guestbook Alternatives

For awhile now, I've been considering alternatives to a traditional guest book were the guests just sign their names. I know I want a special way to remember all of the people who were at our wedding, but at first I wasn't sure just how to do so.


I considered the Polaroid Guest book option and really liked the one on the American Bridal website, and getting the Polaroid Instant Camera to go with it. I think this popular alternative is a cute way for your guests to write down their Congrats, and could be extra helpful for identifying well wishes from guests that you may not know as well, i.e. parents' friends. Although, with the cost of the book, film, and camera this alternative can end up costing upwards of $200 retail. However, you can always find these same items cheaper on ebay, especially the instant cameras. The picture guest book would work well with our theme, we just ordered Save The Dates with our pictures in the film strip style, we plan on using pictures of us holding numbers for the table numbers, and having pictures of us with friends and family up at the reception. (Geez, all these pictures of us make us sound a bit narcissistic, huh?). But I love the picture theme throughout, because it something that you can use as keepsakes for yourself or give to your family to keep long after the reception. We'd probably have the guestbook out before the ceremony and during the cocktail hour for guests to write entries.

Although I really like the Photo Guestbook idea, there's another alternative that I absolutely love as well. My fiance and I are a quite honestly a couple of winos, so we were also considering another alternative that would take advantage of this indulgence. While fans of many kinds of wine, we've discovered Firelands Winery about an hour away from us in Sandusky, that has good wine at great prices. We've tried a couple different kinds and have liked the selection thus far, and wanted to somehow incorporate it into our Wedding. So I'm thinking of setting up a table at our Reception that has 5 bottles of their Vintage Collection Wine. On each bottle, will be a small tag marked with numbers 1-5 and a pouch. We'll have a little instruction sign for our guests explaining that each number represents one of our first 5 wedding anniversaries, and would like them to write us a little note that we will wait and read on each of these anniversaries. This way we can spread the well wishes of our Wedding out over the first part of our marriage! If we decide to go this route, I'll post pictures of the tags and pouches I make, but I must admit, this will probably be the route we go.



But how will we choose which wine to use you ask? Well, it just so happens that the Winery has both a giftshop AND a tasting room. My FI has been to the Tasting Room when he was up in Sandusky for work and had a great experience, so we were planning on going up there to do a tasting of the wines, and finding one that tastes good and ages well. I'm not sure which guestbook idea we'll end up doing. I'd ideally like to do both, but I don't know how realistic that is to expect guests to write in two different kinds of guestbooks, and if we have enough extra money for those kinds of expenses.

Planning Playlist

Hello, my name is Cynthia, and I'm addicted to wedding planning...

It's true, I am addicted. The Knot, Weddingbee, Style Me Pretty, Brides, Martha Stewart, The Bride's Cafe. And I'm not even ashamed, no actually, I feel irrationally justified in my addiction. However, the piled up laundry, the still packed winter clothes, and the full dishwasher beg to differ. It is a (delightfully) terrible addiction, and I need to stop...well... at least cut back. My FI is out of town this month, so the addiction has intensified.


So what to do? It's not a terribly inordinate amount of time I spend surfing (or so I tell myself), but I'm beginning to be neglectful of the outside world. So, I've decided to create a "Planning Playlist" for my iTunes and iPod, and I've vowed to only surf the internet and pour over (the same) wedding magazines, experiment with DIY ideas until I run out of songs. This gives me about an hour of pure planning bliss each day, and then I'm done. Ok, fine sometimes I've been listening to it on repeat for 2 hours, but that's it I swear!

Below I've listed the songs on the current Planning Playlist, these are definitely subject to change. Most are songs that I love, or we're planning on incorporating into our wedding, but the cheesier Journey music at the end is specifically for my FI, so that when I'm trying out new projects, he'll be crafting right along with me. I've also tried to link some of the songs to YouTube if a good version is available...


1. The Way I Am - Ingrid Michaelson
2. Feels Like Home - Chantel Kreviazeuk (this link has Gilmore Girls clips)
3. I Never - Rilo Kiley
4. Ice Cream - Sarah McLachlan
5. Better Together - Jack Johnson
6. God Moves Through You - Jason Mraz
7. Best of What's Around - Dave Matthews Band (this link has General Hospital clips)
8. This Will Be- Natalie Cole
9. Unforgettable- Nat King Cole & Natalie Cole
10. I Can't Help Falling In Love With You- Elvis Presley
11. Warm Love- Van Morrison
12. You're My Best Friend- Queen
13. Let My Love Open The Door- Pete Townshend
14. Open Arms- Journey
15. Don't Stop Believin'- Journey



In addition to using these songs as a Planning Playlist, its also a good way to compile a sample of songs to give to our DJ. And while I'm using this as a way to keep myself under control, its mostly for the times that I'm just looking for inspiration, or toying around. When it comes to the actual execution of the DIY projects I want to use and the guest list revisions, I'll take as much time as I need... and maybe next time I'll even create a longer playlist!

I *Heart* Fern Curls

I just blogged about my florist last time, but I want to write a little sumthin' about a trend in floral arrangements that I absolutely love. And seems to be an especially popular trend in bouts for the boys. I saw these fern curl bouts pop up in one of the recently featured Real Weddings on The Knot, and also in The Bride's Cafe (which I discovered via Style Me Pretty recently). I find the one on the right particularly fetching, although I may be biased because its close to my wedding colors, but I think the fern curl really pops against the bright leaves and berries, which are similar to some that I was considering using as an accent for the bouquets.














I also think the fern curls look quite nice in bouquets. Below is an example, again from The Bride's Cafe. I like that they're subtle, but also offer a great texture that few flowers or leaves can offer. They really pop out of the bouquet, without looking crazy. I also think they are really adorable for detail shots as well. I mean, how cute is the one on the left that makes a little heart?!