A Dress for Every Girl

This weekend I headed up to Pittsburgh to hang out with my best friend and MOH, Kerry Kriss. She is getting married August 20 and Brad and I are getting married September 16. Kerry and I have been friends since second grade and love that we're getting married within a month of each other.

Anyway, I went up this weekend to get sized for and purchase my dress for her wedding. We also tried on some dresses to see if I could make a decision on bridesmaids dresses. I've looked at so many, and I was no closer to a decision. I wanted to just pick the color and length and have each girl pick her own, but it became clear that too many options would be the death of all of us. So Kerry and I headed over to David's Bridal.

We walked in and told an associate that we just needed to check out bridesmaids dresses and she handed us a catalog and promised to check in with us in a bit. We pulled four dresses and headed into two rooms (apparently the rooms of two different associates). We were checking out the dresses next to each other when one associate asked us who we were working with because I was in her room. We offered to move, but she said we were fine. A dress change later, another associate told Kerry she was in her room. Again, we offered to move and was told we were fine. When I was getting dressed in my clothes again, the first associate walked in on me! She apologized, but Kerry and I were so sick of dealing with the associates. We offered to move and were told that we were OK there, when clearly they didn't really think that. Ugh!

Anyway, we narrowed it down to three options and I'll be taking the other girls soon to try on the choices and get their picks. The dresses will be navy blue and the sash would be gray. Oh, you want pictures? OK.

Testing mobile blogging and wanting a cupcake.
Photo credit: Me

Post Overload

Sorry about the blogging overload today. I started the blog on tumblr and could find no good way to import it here, so I just replicated the posts. The posts were originally posted in December 2010 and January 2011.

Yesterday marked seven months until Brad and I are married. So far we have booked the officiant, bought a dress, bought the rings, reserved the venue, and gotten Aaron May to agree to designing our stationery. We also booked our photographer--Nathan Peel of Fyrefly Photography (will be of Nathan Peel Photography.

Image Credit: Me, with my Nikon.

I still need to find: flowers, bridesmaids dresses, cake, and DJ.

I'm headed to Pennsylvania this weekend to buy my dress for Kerry's wedding (my MOH is getting married three weeks before Brad and me!) and scope out some bridesmaids dresses with her. My sister and I went shopping last week and got some ideas, but they're pricey ideas.

Soon after I return, Brad and I will get to head over to the BonBonerie to taste some cakes and you know I'll be sure to post about that. :)

--Melanie

P.S. I want to give a shout-out to my cousin, Nathan, and his wife, Meagan, who welcomed their son Alister into the world last night at 9:55 PM. I'm so happy for your family!!

Shopping with Brad

Brad and I went shopping today at the Kenwood Mall. I may have picked up a little ipod shuffle at the Apple store for myself (thanks, John, for the gift card), but then it was on to serious shopping. Brad made the mistake of mentioning that he had been thinking about going to search for a wedding band for himself again and I ran with it. :)

We had been shopping for his band before with not great results. First of all, Brad has rarely worn any jewelry. He wore his class ring in high school, but has since lost that ring. So when we went to try on rings previously, he was a little wary of it all. He wanted a ring that was more matte than shiny and not very wide. The jewelers would hand Brad a ring to try and he would let it sit in his hand before hesitantly trying it one for no more than 15 seconds. He would then hand the ring back to the jeweler before accepting another to try. I thought it was hysterical and Brad thought it was exhausting. So we never found a ring for him.

Now I know we have plenty of time before the wedding, but I was more than happy to go shopping with him so he could: a) get used to the idea of wearing a ring for the rest of his life and b) find one he can stand to wear. So, we wandered around Kenwood and he tried on the Triton rings because that’s apparently the only manufacturer of the tungsten rings that appealed to him. Anyway, we found a great deal on a band at Hannoush Jewelers and left the store to go talk about it. Well, five minutes later we walked back in and ordered his ring. I’m pretty happy to have crossed that off the list of “to-dos”, but not pleased about all of this spending money business that goes along with getting married. And, even though his ring cost about 6.3% of what my ring cost, he was pretty excited that I purchased it for him. It may have been his favorite part of the day. :)

Martha Stewart is my Friend

I have found a reason (no matter how small) to visit the grocery store at least once a day for the past week. I have been scanning the magazine racks to see if the Winter 2011 issue of Martha Stewart Weddings has been delivered. Finally, on Christmas Eve, I spotted it!

Isn’t it beautiful? This magazine is printed four times a year, so I don’t feel bad at all for the $5.95 I plunk down for it. It is full of ads of flowers and dresses and invitations (as any bridal magazine is), but it also contains how-tos for many various do-it-yourself items that are stinkin’ adorable. The website features the tips from the magazine (and usually the past year of issues is available for selected article perusing), downloadable files and pdfs, and MORE GREAT IDEAS! I’m in heaven any time I open one of these magazines. Give me a super stressful day, where I’ve been crazy at work or some aspect of wedding planning has ceased to be fun and all I have to do is open up an issue and all is right with the world again. Very lovely. Hence why Martha and I are friends.

In the current issue, I gravitated towards the article on cute save-the-dates. I have been trying to think of what I want the save-the-dates to look like since I think they are supposed to be mailed by March and I love getting ideas. Please click on the link below to view 29 creative save-the-date ideas.

http://www.marthastewartweddings.com/photogallery/creative-save-the-date-cards#slide_1

I’m still figuring out this whole “blog” thing, let alone “pictures in blog” thing, so please bear with me. :)

Also, don’t forget to visit http://www.marthastewartweddings.com.

-Melanie

Wedding Checks

So far, Brad and I have booked our venue, reserved the officiant, and I’ve purchased a dress. Well, I’ve purchased two dresses, but we’ll get to that.

Brad and I will be married Friday, September 16, 2011 at the Krippendorf Lodge in Milford, Ohio. You can view the property at the following website, but it’s pretty short on photos and information. http://www.cincynature.org/krippendorf.html I’m very excited that Brad and I will be married outdoors underneath a big tree. Mark Caldwell-Reis from First Christian Church in Fort Thomas, Kentucky will be our officiant.

My best friend, and maid-of-honor, Kerry came to visit this weekend to go dress shopping with my mom, my sister (a bridesmaid), and myself. Our first stop was Bridal & Formal in the Reading Bridal District. Tracie was amazing and let us be silly while trying on the dresses. She ensured that I was staying within my budget (under $800) and wasn’t rationalizing bad dresses. There was one that I loved, and we left it downstairs while we explored their 40th anniversary sale upstairs. They had $40 and $70 dresses! Everyone pulled dresses for me and we had even more fun! I found another dress that I loved (completely different than the one I had downstairs) and I couldn’t make up my mind. I was wearing a $1250 dress that was on sale for that day only at a price of $40. We decided that for $40, I could afford to buy it and continue shopping around. I could always sell that dress and recoup my costs.

On Sunday, we continued our shopping expedition at David’s Bridal in Kenwood. Katie was our consultant and she was just adorable. The plan was for me to pick one dress so we could make sure we had the correct size and then pull other dresses I was interested in. I picked one that I loved in the catalog and we put it on. It was gorgeous—instant love. We went on to try on many more beautiful dresses and it came down to dress number 1 and another dress that I could have a colored sash with. When it came down to it, I couldn’t imagine myself in any other dress than dress number 1. I felt like myself and I felt like a beautiful bride. Katie found a veil (my sister then found a better one), a sparkly headband, and a bouquet and I walked around while all kinds of people fawned over me. I’m not gonna lie—that was pretty nice. I was given the OK to hang out in the dress while my girls tried on bridesmaids dresses and Mom tried on a few MOB dresses. At the end of the day, the only dress we purchased was mine and I couldn’t be happier. However, I now have two wedding dresses in my home and Brad might get curious. I need to find somewhere else to keep them until September. Anyone have a closet they’re not using?

—Melanie

Welcome!

Welcome to our blog! This is meant to be a joint venture for Brad and me (Melanie), but I have a feeling that I will be the primary author and Brad will sometimes read this and shake his head at me. :)

My goal with this blog is to share my thoughts and experiences as Brad and I plan our wedding and begin our lives together. I also hope that this blog will continue on long after the wedding, but we’ll see how it goes.

So, welcome. Have a look around. Enjoy. Please know that you are encouraged to leave your comments, as well.

—Melanie