The Bouquet

This is the wedding bouquet I will show to my florist (ummmm, no I don't have a florist yet). But when I do, this is what he/she will see. The colors are PERFECT!
I've read a lot about the throw away bouquet, and completely understand brides who want to keep their "actual" bouquet and buy a separate one to throw. To be honest with you, this is the first I had ever heard of this being done, and I've decided to just have one bouquet which I will throw. I am very sentimental, but at the same time I've been working on (for years) to get rid of my pack rat ways. So no keeping the bouquet for me. Besides, that would just be an added expense for us anyways....to preserve it. And for whatever reason, I feel like I'd be ripping off the fortunate (unfortunate?) girl that ends up catching the darned thing. You know what I mean? Well, maybe some of you do.....???

My Hair

I've decided that this is how I will want my hair on my wedding day. Long, flowing, soft curls with a little pulled back on the sides. The only difference will be that I will have side swept bangs with it. I'm trying to grow my hair a bit longer too.
Right now my hair is a little bit past my bra strap. I'd like it to reach a little past my waistline. I have more than a year to do it......so we'll see. I've noticed that as I age, my hair doesn't grow quite as fast as it used to. I CURSE aging!
But just recently my sister showed me her new "clip-on" hair extensions. But for the length, I couldn't tell at ALL that she had any type of hair prosthetic in her hair. Hmmmm...something to consider, just in case this old gal can't grow it herself!
I considered going a little lighter on my hair color, too. I have it brown/black right now, and I was thinking maybe a medium to dark auburn. But when I look at brides pictures with black hair, I think it looks pretty fantastic! So for now I'm on the fence about it. What do you think?

My Color Theme

This will be our color theme, seeing as we both have the same favorite color....PURPLE! We will have various shades of purples, white and silver.
I will soon be posting the various items I've already bought, as soon as I get them out and take pictures of them.
PURPLE!

Shooting For a $3,000 Wedding

Peter and I have been planning our wedding since the start of April of this year (2009), and we knew from the beginning that we did not want to spend a lot of money. Money that we don't have. I lost my job of 8 years just 5 days before Christmas (2008) due to the economy, and am still currently unemployed. Money is just so tight, and to be completely honest, if not for wanting so much for our family to share in the joy of our most special day, we would probably have just run off somewhere by ourselves to get married. But having the people we love there is very important to us. So now we're faced with how to keep from going into debt to accomplish this.
I jumped into researching all sorts of things related to weddings on the internet. I found out that the average wedding in the U.S. is from $15,000 to $25,000! I can't even begin to imagine spending that much! So I picked a doable number......$3,000. This will not include our wardrobe or rings. It will be for everything but those. Now whether or not we will meet that is something else. I'm researching everything myself and making a lot of the stuff myself. As you can see on my previous blog, I already bought my dress. I also got my shoes, crinoline, veil, tiara, garter, table covers, table centerpieces, favors, paper for invites, paper for programs, thank you cards, place cards, buffet plates, cake plates, plastic cups (wine, champagne, drink), plastic eating utensils, napkins, balloons, reception decorations, guest book & pen, printed pics for display and frames, wedding banner, pew bows & clips, petals, unity candle & holder, candles, and basically all other table decor. This "unemployed" status is definitely paying off in this way. I've been able to get lots accomplished that I would not have been able to if I were working a full time job.
I don't know exactly how much I've spent so far. I am keeping track, but just haven't added everything up yet. In a future blog I will give my itemized totals. Cross your fingers for me! I already know the most expensive thing will be the food for the reception. I have started investigating that, but will look further into it when the date is a bit closer.
Unfortunately, because of budget and size of hall, we will have to exclude many friends and family from the wedding. My immediate family alone (Mom, Dads, Brother, Sister and their families, Daughters and their families) is 19 people. And Peter's family is humongous! So yeah, cutting is inevitable. Our max is about 80 guests.
Well, that's all for now. My shopping time has recently come to a halt, seeing as the only things really left are food and drinks, reception hall, dress alterations, grooms clothes, brides bouquet, DJ, photographer, fresh flowers, cake, disposable cameras (which only have a shelf life of 6-12 months), and security (mandatory for the hall I'm renting). So all of this will come later....closer to the wedding. Time for me to find a job now, huh?

Wedding Dress From Ebay?

(This picture is not me, but it's the dress I ended up with from David's Bridal.)
OK......So we had finally decided to set the date and get hitched after 8 years of loving each other. I was so excited and immediately started looking around for a dress. Because of the economy and seeing that I had just gotten laid off in December, I knew it would have to be a great bargain dress. As I began to scour the internet, I saw that dresses were not very cheap. Then I had a light bulb go off in my head. Ebay! The place I had gotten so many bargains from in the past....why not a wedding dress?
I found a beautiful ballerina-style dress from a store in China. I breezed through the feedback of this seller, and everything seemed to be ok. So for $68, free shipping and a beautiful custom made dress (replica, of course), I thought, what the heck? After all, through Paypal I had full purchase price protection. Definitely worth the gamble at such a bargain price. Besides, I had heard that many bridal dresses come from China anyway, so it seemed plausible that this offer wasn't THAT good to be true. It made sense to me. So I did it!
3 weeks later, I wrote the seller asking if my dress would be shipping out by May 31st, which was the timeline he had given for making and shipping the dress. I never received a response. I went back to his feedback....which I had been doing in between time anyway, and saw a recent negative feedback for him. Hmmmmm...I thought. I watched daily as the negative feedbacks rolled in. One after another. I wrote him again, telling him my concerns because of his non-response and negative feedbacks. Still no email.
I finally filed a claim through Paypal and am currently waiting to see where that goes. Lesson learned. I actually learned a lot about the whole feedback thing. Did you know that with some sort of program, they can actually put up FAKE feedback? I always do a lot of researching on the internet, and learned SO much on this subject. There are ways to tell that's it's fake, but that's a whole other blog!
After all this chaos I decided to look for a dress the conventional way. I got in my car and drove my butt to David's Bridal where the staff was more than helpful. After trying on eight dresses, number nine was "the one". I absolutely LOVE it! I have a little over a year to lose a few pounds so that the dress can look like it should on me. lol
Thus far, for my wedding attire, I've purchased my dress(David's), my veil(ebay), my petticoat(ebay), my tiara(ebay) and my shoes. I still need jewelry and I'm still contemplating on gloves(but probably not) and putting some straps or sheer 3/4 sleeves on dress.
UPDATE: I did finally end up getting my money back through Paypal. Lesson learned.