Blue Wedding Dresses

I did some digging and played with the color changer on both Dessy's After Six and Alfred Angelo's sites and came up with the following dresses for myself, in no particular order. I really dig the pop of color and the fact that all the dresses can be reworn over and over again!

Thoughts?

Alfred Angelo 6569

After Six 6561

After Six 6506

Interesting Turn of Events

I had no idea until today at lunch that Steve had no idea that we were having a bridal party in Vegas. since his family isn't attending, as in his brother who would be a best man in a traditional wedding, he thought we were just going out there with a few friends to get hitched. nothing formal, nothing traditional, nothing wedding-y. he just said that the more traditional my outfit is (closer to white), then more traditional things will turn out even though we're heading to Vegas to do the most untraditional wedding possible.

huh. I had no idea. I wonder who in the bridal party would still want to attend. Ii mean, my brother and Cathy are totally still attending as our family representation. but I've heard rumblings about the date falling on a Sunday and us staying out there for 5 days and some other stuff. With zero obligations to attend, I actually wonder how many guests we'd have. Oh yeah, it's a trip to Vegas with a 2-3 hour ceremony/ cupcake party.

In this light, I do think I'll be buying a blue dress, pale blue likely, so I can wear it multiple times. I have a picture in my mind of what I want, but haven't found it yet. Big poofy skirt that I can puff out with lots of crinoline to be super cute 50s chicky.

There was a family event in Miami on Saturday and I was informed afterwards that our wedding was a topic of conversation since a lot of them follow my updates on Facebook. my older brother was telling everyone to "be there or be square!" um, no. i told him that it's going to be a small wedding with just a handful of friends. he said that I needed to stop telling everyone the date and the location if I didn't want people there. I corrected him and said that the date and location, being the entire city of Las Vegas, is out there for anyone to know, but the specific location, like the actual ceremony location, will only be told to the guests we want in attendance. he got all huffy. sure, I'll be inviting family and knowing that 95% of them won't be in attendance due to a variety of reasons.

Also, big news, I've been emailed by the girl buying my dress that she's going to be able to pay me by the end of the week. She confirmed the amount tonight. YAY!

outfit conundrum

dresses are David's Bridal

My MOH and I went last night to try on a bunch of dresses at David's Bridal. I fell in love with the one above in brown, but in either the silver or champagne colors.  the problem is the varying shades of blue in my outfit. maybe I really do need to pic a shade and stick with it.

my veil yarn is a creamy ivory color and will be edged in a few rows each of orange and blue. pattern progress above. seriously, most amazing thing I've knit since I started knitting and 2nd major lace project. Abby's garter was the first.

I just saw a pair of absolute beauties on Zappos and I'm kinda in love with them... they're royal blue with bling bling on both straps. Yeah, I think I'm just going to buy them... lol

so which color dress do you think I should choose?

overdue post

the paper for the ketubah has been ordered and is in my hot little hands! it's white, 12x12, and non-textured. i need to send 10-12 sheets to our calligrapher, Amanda, in Gainesville. unfortunately, she'll be out of town when i'm there next week visiting.

from the same company, Paper & More, i ordered 3 different colors of envelopes for our wedding invites: dark metallic blue, and metallic copper.

blue vista metallic

dark blue metallic

copper metallic

i'm leaning towards the dark blue ones, but the copper ones are in the running as well. whatcha think? keep in mind that our invitations are black with white lettering and the nighttime Vegas skyline, and our colors are orange, blue and ivory.  i also order a sample for my graduation announcements in a deep purple. they're so pretty!

my shoes have been ordered and are about as damn cute as can be! they're turquoise with a small little kitten heel, about 1.5" and they're mary jane's. so effing cute!

Gabriella Rocha Ginger

my veil is coming along really nicely! i'm at row 61 of about 126 rows. the 61st row is 388 stitches. the last row is about 800 stitches. i'm no where near halfway done with it. but damn, it's gorgeous! i really need to take an updated picture of it to show y'all. but not tonight seeing as it's already after 1am! :)

Our Hotel is Booked!

Image Source: Planet99

You read that right! This morning I received a DM from the @LuxorLV twitter account telling me to hang tight, that their Twitter Tuesday rates would be published shortly. I've been all over twitter the last few weeks asking which hotel we should stay in: the Luxor or Excalibur, the Luxor or Flamingo, the Flamingo or Tahiti... you get the drift.  Well, the Luxor has been on my short list for a while, and actually kept retweeting my questions out the their follower base.

Today, when the twitter-only rates were published, I was floored. I was able to book a Tower Luxury Suite for not much more than the normal price of the Tower Deluxe room.

source: Luxor

Yes, we are staying in a huge suite that is larger than my first apartment in North Carolina for 4 nights. We will have plenty of room for the cupcakes and wine reception I'm envisioning. Also, with as big as the room is and as pretty as the pictures are, we can totally have the ceremony and take professional pictures in the room!

This after I emailed the link to this top secret special deals page to all our Vegas invitees and some have checked it out and booked their room already! I actually wonder if I should bother to get a room block. I should email again and see who hasn't booked yet and if they want to book there and then decide. 

When I was chatting with my younger brother's girlfriend earlier, she was telling me all these places they (she) want to visit during our Vegas trip. We're totally doing the Hoover Dam, Grand Canyon, Red Rock Canyon and Zappos! Where else should we go?

Bon Jovi Obsession

image source: tvtropes

Whether you are aware of it or not, I am the biggest Bon Jovi fan. Ok, not THE biggest, but still pretty big considering I am still in love with an 80s hair band. However, they’re older, have more marriages (and divorces) under their belts, have a new image, and, best of all, have a slew of albums! Their latest, The Circle, is simply amazing. Yes, I am the girl that buys their CDs on the day they come out. And I don’t buy CDs! The only ones I ever buy are for Bon Jovi.

Y’all should all know by now – if you’ve been following me from the start at least – that I am graduating from East Carolina with my MBA in May. May 7th to be exact. It’s been a very long 5 year online only process through East Carolina. What does this possibly have to do with Bon Jovi? Well, due to the proximity of their North America tour in cities Jen and I can attend or graduation... I basically have to pick between attending graduation and meeting all the friends and faculty that have helped and guided me throughout the years or attending my and Jen’s 6th(?) Bon Jovi concert together since high school.

And that’s about as tough a decision as a girl’s got to make. Do I fly to Miami and attend that show with Jen and Diana, or make them come up here to attend the Charlotte show since it's the closest one to me? Jen already said she’s got the same dilemma between Bon Jovi in Charlotte or attending my graduation. *sigh* annoying.

Enter the glory of Twitter and finding out this morning that one of the funniest tweeter/ blogger’s, @Momspective, is giving away a pair of tickets to the Charlotte show. I am doing everything I possibly can do to win this pair of tickets. Seriously. I’ve followed her blog, friended her on Facebook, tweeted about it, and now am blogging about it myself.

Yes, I am desperate for these tickets. Because weighing Bon Jovi against graduation is seriously one of the hardest things I’ve ever had to do. It breaks my heart thinking I might have to miss them in concert. But... 5 long years and $75K later, I am finally graduating.

Another Dress Choice

Yes, yes, I know it's been a while since I've posted. Things are really tight at home, financially, and I feel silly ogling pretty, not to mention expensive, things online for our wedding. Until last night, when right before the snores began, Steve muttered "you're going to be my wife one day" ... *melt*

Ok folks, this is my latest idea: the trumpet flare dress. What are your thoughts on how it'll look on me? One of my bridesmaids is coming to town in December (YAY!!) and I'm thinking I might drag her back to DB with me. I adore it in this color, but wonder if it will work well with my ladies also wearing blue. Another alternative is Champagne or Orange. Crazy, I know. I'm going to check them out in all the colors next time I venture into DB.

source: David's Bridal

Here is the latest picture of me... what do you think about this dress on this body? (Yes, I'm sideways, but it looks much better on my monitor this way.. haha)

#wedding veil progress

I took a study break tonight and got up to row 36 (of 126) in my veil. I love it!

333 days left

Today is 11.11. Happy Veterans Day!! A very special happy happy to my future hubby. Thanks for serving our country, babe!

Today is also the 20th anniversary of my bat mitzvah (11.11.1989)

The knitted veil is getting no progress lately since my life is wrapped up with school work these days. Homework has been unbelievably insane and, if I drank, would have driven me to drink.

We've had very little progress on the wedding front. I started looking at hotels with our actual wedding date. Apparently 333 days out means hotels can open up reservations! I did a Twitter poll earlier of the Excalibur Tower Deluxe room or the Luxor Tower View room. The people that stuck to those 2 overwhelmingly voted for the Luxor. However, the Venetian, Caesar's Palace, Paris, and MGM Grand all got votes.

I would love nothing more than to splurge on our wedding-moon week in Vegas, but who knows if it's really feasible at this point.  Sure, telling people it's our wedding week might help, but no guarantees. Grrrr. Even our Vegas trip is going to be effing expensive!

What are your thoughts? If you're attending, where would you like to stay? If you're a Vegas-ite, where do you normally stay?

Wedding Update

Hi! *waves*

Here's the latest happs in our wedding world...

Ketubah: I've been conversing with the very talented Amanda of SwoonOverIt over writing the text for our ketubah. Steve will be drawing the artwork. We've been talking about different ideas for the artwork. These days I'm thinking a mosaic/ collage of us things.. still working on it. Right now I've decided on 12x12 paper and found a great deal at PaperAndMore.com for a 50 pack for $12.99. I'll post examples eventually. I sent a bunch to Amanda for text placement, but I'm not really in love with the designs.  But, promise, examples soon!

Hotels: I've been checking out a bunch of hotels on the Strip.  It seems like the prices change so much from week to week depending on when I check. It would also appear that we're hitting October 2010 within the next few weeks! 

Cupcakes: definitely doing the cupcake tower from Retro Bakery. My only thought now is making the tower myself instead of buying the one from them for $15. It's just a few cake plates, cardboard or Styrofoam, that I could decorate and assemble in Vegas. Who knows?  Like I need another DIY project, right?

I totally started knitting my veil last week. I'm up to about row 27 out of like 130

Ok, I think that's enough for know. Yes?

Buy me! Take me home! I'm a gorgeous wedding dress!

My dress is currently for sale in 4 locations. Yes, 4. I'm not that original with the titles either. Some offer the veil and slip, some only the slip. Some offer free shipping, some don't. I just want to sell it already. *sigh*  This is getting depressing already.

BravoBride.com: Nwt Taffeta Pick-up Skirt Sweetheart Neck Ballgown

PreOwnedWeddingDresses.com: New With Tags David's Bridal Wedding Dress T9017, Size 16

eBay: NWT Taffeta Pick-up Skirt Sweetheart Neck Ballgown

WeddingBee.com Classifieds: Nwt Taffeta Pick-up Skirt Sweetheart Neck Ballgown

Tonight's #wedding #veil progress

Thank you StyleUnveiled & Mojuba!

Holy wow, Batman... I just won something from Twitter! Well, another something. Seriously, I freakin’ love Twitter! This time, it was a giveaway featured on StyleUnveiled’s twitter page and featuring bags from My_Mojuba.

This time, I won a MyMojuba Bride bag. What the hell is a MyMojuba Bride bag you ask? It’s a wedding day emergency kit chock full of all kinds of goodies! I’m hoping I get the black one cuz black suits me more than white... plus, white gets dirty.=)

click for larger image, source: MyMojuba

List of the contents:
Priceless
Kiss My Boo Boo band-aids
Madame Paulette™ couture stain removal kit
L’Occitane® luxurious hand cream
Confident
BugCatcherz® fashion tape to keep your clothes in place
Ms. Manicure® nail files
Nail polish remover
Picture Perfect
Soft rice paper to powder your beautiful face
Charles Worthington® hairspray
Bobby pins
Dramatic
Sniff® tissues to dry your joyful tears
Gentle eye drops
Makeup remover
Sparkle
Little i® breath fresheners for close encounters
Colgate® toothpaste and a toothbrush
Scope® mouthwash
Memories
Mojuba™ Kodak® camera to capture spontaneous moments
Mojuba™ pen and notepad for your thoughts
Pucker up
Clear straws to sip champagne without smudging your lipstick
Clear lip gloss
Essential
Advil® for splitting headache relief
Gilchrist and Soames® sewing kit with pre-threaded needles
La Fresh® hand sanitizer
Soothing
Dancin’ Feet® cushions for your dancing feet
Pepcid Complete® to quiet your butterflies
Details
Keep-your-cool with Dove® deodorant
Nail polish for touch-ups and to stop stocking runs
Static Guard®
Anticipate
Scissors to snip unruly threads
Krazy Glue®
Lint sheets
Stuff just for chicks
.... And a little something to make you smile

And I *won* it! For free! Just by retweeting the entry "form" a few times over the course of the contest. YIPPEEEE!!!

Etsy Shop

i really need to get my #etsy shop going again.

just out of curiosity, how much would you pay for this garter? (which, by the way, is the one I made for Abby and it was a HUGE hit with everyone that saw it!)

Or this blanket?

Or this baby blanket?

Yarn-y Goodness

The yarn! The yarn! It has arrived! And by "the yarn," I mean the yarn for my beautiful wedding veil trimmed in orange and blue.

Eventually, one day, I will be able to start working on it. I love it! It's a wrap, set to become a veil, so I can wrap it around myself after the wedding.

Hotels, Cupcakes & My Veil!

I realized pretty late last night that I should stop price checking hotels and flights from RDU. Why, you ask? Because we have no flippin’ idea where we’ll be living in 6-7 months! For all I know, we’ll be living in Vegas or Virginia or Orlando or any number of other places. And of course, the prices I’m checking are all non-refundable!

Last week, the lovely Jennifer of @TheNearlyWed sent us 4 cupcakes from Retro Bakery. While they priced quoted us a lot more than I expected for a simple cake, their cupcakes are reasonably priced and I’m pretty sure (like 95%) that we’re getting a cupcake tower from them for the wedding! Also, they are aMAZing! Jenn sent us 1 each of their Red Carpet, Peanut Butter Cup, Cinnamon Toast, and Mint Chocolate Chip. We loved them all, in different levels of *love* but any way you look at it, we LOVED them all.

Yes, I broke SoBe to eat wedding cupcakes. It was worth it too!

Also also, the yarn for my veil is back in stock! So guess what I’m doing today? That’s right, ordering 7 skeins of yarn from Knitpicks, 5 in Cream, 1 in Sweet Potato (orange), and one in Blue Note Heather.  The orange and blue are for the trim to have a few rows of each color. Granted, I don’t know when I’ll be able to start on it since I have about 800 projects for events that occur before our wedding, like 4 pregnant co-workers! Seriously, my friends need to stop having babies so I can catch up on my own knitting! 

OK, I think that’s about it. Happy Wednesday!

Vote for Lola!

OK, so it's not wedding related, but it's my fur-baby!

She's #51 in the poll, so please go vote for her! The poll is in the left sidebar at the bottom. You can vote for more than one, but make sure you vote for Lola! #51!

Thanks :)

Big ol' Post about shoes & other important things

OK, so here’s the latest…

I found a ketubah that we both agree on.. until Steve said he thought he was drawing it. So, yay! It’ll be totally personalized and totally us. Now to find a calligrapher since, while my handwriting is nice, it’s not that nice. I’ve got a few calligrapher friends on Twitter, so I’m putting the word out over there.

image source

I started calling/ emailing around to hotels on the Strip about food. Aside from the debacle with the cake bakeries, I think Albertson’s is the way we’re going to go. After getting prices for receptions and even restaurants, I’m thinking cake and champagne reception in our room after the ceremony and pictures are done. The cheapest meal so far is the buffet at the Flamingo, but it’s still $22++ per person and we just don’t have $400 extra floating around.

As far as our hotel room goes, I’d love to stay in a really snazzy hotel with gorgeous furniture in it, but those are way pricey. We’re talking like $200 a night pricey. Our whole trip/ wedding budget is $1500, most of which is being eating by hotel and airfare expenses. Just out of curiosity, I asked 2 of my friends with husband’s working at hotels about discounts. As it turns out, they get friends and family discounts for the MGM family of hotels! Oh so amazing. I think bookings should be open in about a month. Trust me, I check religiously!

Y’all saw the invite design I recently posted. I’ve made the suggested changes and sent it to a printer for a quote. I also quoted the announcement cards, RSVP cards and, sure why not, graduation announcements. I love our printer. It’s going to be under $100 for 20 invites, 10 RSVP, 100 announcements, and 200 grad announcements.

Shoes? Who doesn't love shoes?? Oh, especially for wedding shoes. I love these shoes Gabriella Rocha: Ginger in turquoise leather:

image source

and these Annie: Lola in blue satin. And no, not *just* for the name either!

image source

And not wedding related, graduation is so on! My adviser emailed me last night - after midnight! Talk about dedication - about my missing MIS elective. It turns out there is a whole Master’s program for Information and Computer Technology. Dammit, if I’d only known before applying for the MBA. Oh well, it’s been a good 5 years and I’ve made some great friends.

I officially have a replacement class! I’ll be taking Networking Technology for Industry, which may sound horrible to you, but it sounds amazing to me. I am so excited about it!


See? I'm totally stoked!

Favors

woohoo! 50th post!

now onto the actual post..

I bought these today as sample favors. Also to taste the flavors. Really? Tasting lip balm? LOL

The lip balm flavor on the left is honey and the one on the right is tangerine. They are $.75 and $.80 respectively in quantities of 25 for Vegas favors. Plus they come in little pots so I can put my own labels on each one.

I'll letcha know how they are!

left image source: Brandi1181
right image source: MrsHerk

Invitations

..Clicky clicky for a larger version..

Check it out! Yeah, I was loving InDesign a bit this week =) Hopefully we'll have a hotel location within the month. This is the Vegas invite. The announcements will be slightly tweaked. The Miami reception invite will be tweaked with that info on it.

Thoughts on the wording? I'm not crazy crazy about it, but it could grow on me. Ha!

Cakery and my Family

I think I found a cake bakery. Well, potentially 2. Oddly enough, one of them is Albertson's which is directly on the strip right in the middle of everything. As in, we could walk there and not pay delivery fees. The other one quoted me $75. I have to actually contact Albertson's and see if they can remake the cake I like.

Ok, so a totally different subject: My family.

Some of you know the story about my family and our wedding. If we don't have it in Miami, none of them can attend. If we have it in Miami, we can't afford it. If we have it in Miami, we will not have less than 50 guests. I'm not even talking about friends; that's my family only. They all live in south Florida.

It's purely a financial reason that they can't attend. But no way am I going into details here. For similar reasons, we cannot afford thousands of dollars for getting married there. Between the rabbi, the food, the tent, table, chairs, places settings, etc etc etc. I don't care how cheap everything will be for an intimate family wedding; it's still times a minimum of 50 people!

After much deliberation, a few date changes, and my suggestion, we chose Vegas. Jodie suggested SLVW as she and her husband used them for their wedding last year and said they did a great job. I contacted SLVW multiple times and finally worked things out. And my baby brother and his girlfriend (both of whom I adore!) will be in attendance. If I decided to walk down the proverbial aisle, he will be the one to escort me.

Our wedding will cost $399 plus $60 for the marriage license. (It's package 2, but the price was recently increased.) When I say wedding, I mean photography, ceremony, video, flowers, limo transportation, and music. We have to pick the location for the 2 picture locations, one of which will be the ceremony location. At the moment I'm thinking our hotel room and the Welcome to Las Vegas sign. But that could easily change.

Other expenses for any location are the cake, the ketubah (which we can hopefully afford), and plane/ hotel expenses. Our total budget is $1500 for Vegas. $399 (everything) + $60 (license) + tips for photographer, limo driver and reverend are gone already. They're fixed costs. The variable costs right now are our hotel and airfare. I'm estimating/ hoping to get us there and home, for 4 nights, for about $800. But we'll see. Orbitz, Expedia, etc don't even opening bookings for October 2010 until around November. Grrr.

By the way, we are exactly 1 year and 1 week away from being husband and wife!

Just thought I'd throw that out there. <3

vegas sign image source

Celestial Weddings

I just designed my first logo for a wedding company! Go take a look at Miss Sarah's new wedding website, Celestial Weddings. It's fledgling, but she's got great ideas for it. Plus, she's getting married the day before us.

Too Dorky?

Am I too dorky for sending this note in the dress box to the girl that bought my wedding dress? I feel like I got to know her over the last few weeks of emailing back and forth.

"Dear Emily,

Congrats on your big day!

I am so pleased that I was able to get you your dream dress for your wedding and for cheap. I hope you love this dress as much as I did. When I showed my fiance the pictures of me in it (he was superstitious and didn't want to see them), he was sad that I sold the dress I loved so much. So please, wear it and love it and have the best time in it on your wedding!

Best wishes to you and your future husband,
Becca"

Wedding Cake Blues

image source

I love this cake. I love the look and feel of it. It's simple and elegant and just perfect. (Well, without the sprig on top of it, that is.) If i were to have this cake for our wedding, it would be a lighter blue color. and with our own cake topper on it.

I've been in contact with a few bakeries in Las Vegas for cake quotes. Namely Retro Bakery, Amatos Bakery, Freed's Bakery, and a few others.

My biggest problem is the word "wedding" - as soon as i mention it, prices double or even triple. Yes, the wedding industry is lucrative, but i am on a ridiculously tiny budget! With my MBA graduation in May, Steve's beginning grad school in August (hopefully) and a move somewhere in there, we just don't have extra money to spare. It's getting frustrating.

I asked for grocery stores and yummy cake bakeries on Twitter and got a few names. The question will be... do I really trust ordering a cake from across the country without tasting it? And do we really need a cake? Can't we just have dessert at a restaurant after the ceremony?

She's Really Buying It!

talk about making my day!

Hi Becca!
My check finally came in to get my wedding stuff :) It will have cleared through my checking account by Friday... So I wanted to make sure you still had the dress and if you did get all of the info on how you wanted me to pay you for it!
I am super excited!
Thanks, Emily

I am so stoked! Words can barely describe how happy this makes me. Now to pack it up and wait for the funds to arrive. When I told Steve last week that she was waiting for funds, he was really sad knowing how much I love this dress. But hey, this way I can get something I love even more that I'll maybe be able to wear again. That's a bonus, right?

More Favor Ideas

Well shoot, another super cute idea! maybe we need to make "Vegas survival kits" complete with water bottles, band-aid's and lip balm! What else should go in the kits?

image source

or maybe this lip balm...
image source

Water Bottle Favors

Contender #1 for Vegas wedding favors:

In this blue with the logo in the post below imprinted in matte silver. They're from Discount Mugs, which has gotten lots of good reviews.

They're 20 ounces and I can wrap the graphic around the whole bottle for the same set-up cost as just one side. The logo as is, is about 4" wide and 3" tall. And, the best part, it would be about $140 for 25 of them. Oddly, for 20 it was more... darn price breaks!

If you were a wedding guest, would you like one of these? Now imagine you were a wedding guest in the desert, you'd totally want one, right? I know I would. :-)

(if you get this tice in your RSS feeds, it's cuz i was testing out posting to my LJ automatically... sorry!)

image source

Wedding Monogram/ Logo

Look what I made tonight!! I was following a tutorial for something else and figured out that I had this diamond shape in Photoshop all along! I am so pleased with myself. Now I don't have to buy a logo off Etsy. ;-)


I am made of WIN tonight!

Ketubah's Anyone?

So, I was strolling around blog-land earlier and saw an ad for Ketubah's. I pretty desperately want one. My parents have one, my brother had one, aunts and uncles... you name it, they all have them. I think it's pretty natural that I want one. Oh yeah, and the whole I was raised Jewish thing. I am not a practicing Jew-girl in any way shape or form. I have 5 tattoo's and plan on getting more. I have had body piercings, but will be happy with the ear piercings for the rest of my life. I don't go to synagogue. I am marrying a non-Jewish boy as well. In short, I am a really non-traditional Jewish girl.

I love the Jewish culture and traditions, I just don't believe in organized religion. Neither does Steve. We will be raising our children with all religions for them to choose their own paths. But yet, I still want one of the most traditional things in the Jewish religion.

Of course, the issue of having an Interfaith Marriage sure does add a new twist to this dilemma. It does appear that there are quite a few websites out there that do have Interfaith Ketubah's, so that's good.

A few of the site's that have gorgeous Ketubot:
http://www.ketubah.com
http://www.mpartworks.com/
http://www.modernketubah.com/
http://www.ketubahinterfaith.com/
http://www.galleryjudaica.com/
http://www.treeoflifejudaica.com

Image source

Hand-knit Wedding Veil

Image source: jaeeleutheria/ Ravelry

No idea why, but I was playing on Ravelry* like I tend to do a few times a week. I am already going to be knitting a garter for Miss Abby's wedding at the end of October, so I was looking up other wedding projects. And stumbled across veils. Holy smokes, how awesome would that be?

The above pattern (LJ link) is my favorite one as it can later be used as a wrap, or a home decoration, and definitely an heirloom for future Benaim-Fletcher generations. It can even be sewn together and used as a small lap blanket/ baby blanket.

Whatcha think? I do have a concern with the weight, but already asked the pattern designer.

Yes, I am a huge DIY fan and figure with over a year until the wedding and school ending for good in May, I should be able to actually complete it! What have you made for your wedding/ friends weddings?

*Ravelry is the greatest website known to knitters and crocheters.. it's got a plethora of patterns and well, it's the candy shop to fiber artists.

ahhh she's buying it!

I know it's still tentative until I have the cash in hand, but I just got an email follow-up to the one I sent this morning stating she's waiting for the money from her folks and definitely wants to buy it.

I'm so freaking excited that I can barely control myself.

More Dress Options

I am currently, but not overly actively, working on a 4 page paper due Tuesday for my management science class, a chapter analysis due Wednesday for data management, and worrying about the outcome for my doctor's appointment on Thursday. OK, not so much the latter at the moment as I will be Thursday morning. (It's just for tests to make sure I'm OK, nothing really to worry about but I am not a fan of getting bloodwork or needles. And yes, I do have 5 tattoos, but that's totally different!)

Thanks to the lovely Sarah, I have become obsessed with Lily Wedding. Want to see why? Well here are my top 3 reasons, in order of my love for them... whichever I decide upon (if I go this route) would be ordered in either an Ivory or Pale Gold color. The best part about this site is everything is 100% custom made to your exact specifications.

Style LWD0294

Style LED0058

Style LWD0121

In potentially awesome news, I have received, and sent, multiple emails to a woman interested in my dress. I'm currently waiting to hear back from her, as I gave her a few days to discuss with her fiance and parents. The good thing is that she tried on the dress in the store and fell in love with it, but didn't buy it.

Also, my birthday is on Wednesday and we're trying to plan a dinner for our local friends. It doesn't seem to be working all that well. So, boo for that. It appears at the moment that it'll be me, Steve, our neighbors (whom I totally adore) and possibly a few others.

Vegas Hotels

I feel like, even though it’s over a year away, I am at an impasse with our wedding plans. I’ve been price checking hotels with random hypothetical dates since booking for October 2010 hasn’t been opened yet on any website. I asked Steve yesterday if he cared where we stayed. Of course not; I expected nothing less from him. =)

I had looked into the Sahara, the Stratosphere, and a handful of others. Lately, I have been scouring the Treasure Island website and Googling pictures, etc. For not much more than the cheaper hotels, we can stay in a really nice room at Treasure Island.

Granted, I can’t price check airfare yet, but figure it’ll be roughly the same next year. The current plan is to fly out/ check-in on Saturday, October 9th – and head to the court house depending on the time we arrived – and to fly out/ check-out on either Tuesday or Wednesday (12th or 13th), hopefully late in the day to give us more touristy time.

My requirements, in no real order:

• On the strip
• Within a few blocks of transportation (bus, monorail, tram)
• Won’t break the bank (preferably around $600)
• Pretty room!

The pretty room thing is weird, I know, but I’m thinking we might have the wedding ceremony IN the room then travel somewhere for the rest of the pictures in our wedding package.

Where would/do you stay when heading to Vegas?

Bridesmaid Hair

This past weekend I tried a new hairstyle. Well, of course it's new, I never style my hair! But anyhow, I always pull my hair back at work and rarely wear it down. When I was searching for hairstyles, I kept coming back to similar looks.

I was mostly pleased with it. She did an amazing job keeping it loose enough that it moved, even with tons of bobby pins and about 2 gallons of hair spray. My only compliant were the sheer number of bobby pins underneath. They kept getting stuck in my dress zipper and hook&eye closure. Before the wedding even began, I was pushing them back in constantly.. and throughout the entire day.