Details on the dress

So I know what you’re thinking…I totally left you hanging. And you’re right. I’m sorry friends, I had to wait until after the wedding to post the details on my dress – too many of our guests were reading the blog and I really wanted them to be surprised. Forgive me?

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Last we left off, I told you about my shopping trip to NYC and my brushes with fame! From there, Mama Frog and I headed to Designer Loft. The space is great and if you are looking for certain designers (I found a lot of Jenny Packham for example), this is a great spot to hit up. Unfortunately, I tried on quite a few dresses there and none really fit what I had been looking for.

We moved on to The Bridal Garden (a nonprofit that I had high hopes for) and once there, we realized that it would be extremely difficult to find a dress there. I really love the idea of buying from a nonprofit but unfortunately these dresses were pretty beat up…it would take a lot of alterations and a full cleaning to get them back to anywhere near ready for a wedding. Ultimately, not a good fit.

Next up, RK Bridal – a warehouse of sorts. They have rounds and racks throughout the store filled with gowns. You are to search through the dresses, find the ones you want and write your name on the list. They will call you when they are ready and off you go. It’s very different in that you get to walk around freely to look for dresses on your own. Personally I didn’t find anything there but I did see one bride have her “moment” while I was there and it was really fun to watch from the sidelines!

Lastly, and really on a whim, Mama Frog suggested we try to see if the Saks bridal salon had any openings. Saks…why hadn’t I thought of that during my crazy, type A, appointment scheduling madness? We called while on our way to lunch and found that they had an opening that afternoon – yippee! With a nice full belly (perfect for trying on dresses and getting half naked in front of a stranger), we headed to 5th Avenue!

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We arrived and were greeted by our salesperson, Melina. She is WONDERFUL and anyone interested in buying there should definitely ask for her – seriously the best salesperson we found in all of our shopping in the city. Melina lead us back to our fitting room and began asking about what I was envisioning, styles I liked, etc. She left the room and brought back the who’s who of bridal gowns. We’re talking Monique Lhuillier, Amsale, Carolina Herrera, Vera Wang, Reem Acra and Oscar de la Renta. I immediately felt very under dressed.

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One by one, the dresses missed the mark. I was starting to get very discouraged. Melina said she had a few more she wanted to bring in so I gave her free reign to pull what she thought would work. She brought back three dresses.

The first, an Amsale, was beautiful but too heavy for my occasion – I liked it but I knew it would be way too hot for an outdoor, summer wedding.

The second, a Monique, was Mama Frog’s favorite. As soon as it was clamped into place, she began to tear up. It was beautiful but I knew right away that this was not my dress. Our conversation was as follows:

Mom: Oh sweetie…. (tears welling up)

Me: Yeah it’s really pretty.

Mom: Oh…oh…(big sigh, hand on chest)

Me: Okay mom, I know you are loving this one but you need to put those tears away…this isn’t my dress.

Mom: Are you sure?? (shock and concern on her face)

Me: Yes, I’m sure. I know it’s what you have probably always envisioned but…it’s not my dress.

After explaining that it was just not what I had been searching for, however beautiful it was, she understood and we moved on to the final dress. Melina explained that she saved this one for last because it was her pick for me. I asked her how often she ends up picking dresses for her brides, all she did was smile. Hmm, I thought – this should be interesting. She showed me the dress on the hanger and I recognized it immediately. We had passed this dress on a mannequin as we walked into the bridal salon, it was a Vera. It was pretty but I really didn’t think much of it.

Then I tried it on.

Does anyone else look at this photo and look at my arms and think “I’ve got no strings to hold me down, to make me laugh or make me frown…” from Pinocchio? No? Just me?

It was the first time I was quiet the entire day. I didn’t know what the feeling of “the one” was supposed to feel like but I knew this one was unlike any others and I definitely felt something. After looking at it in the mirror in the room, then out in the big gallery area, then back in the fitting room. At this point, I knew this dress was a major contender…but the pressure to make a decision was just too much and I needed to sleep on it. Melina understood and let us know that her offer was good for the weekend.

That night Mama Frog was up with allergies and had a hard time sleeping. She began thinking about our day of shopping and her mind kept circling back to the Vera dress. Meanwhile, I was happily sleeping and dreaming of the very same dress. The next morning over breakfast I shared my dream with her and she told me of her thoughts in the middle of the night – it seemed as though this dress had chosen me just as much as I had chosen it. At that point, we called Saks, Melina was nice enough to squeeze us in during her lunch break (she’s amazing), she clamped me back into the dress and then, I just knew – this was my dress!

I can’t tell you how much I absolutely LOVED my dress. It’s classic and timeless yet chic and very fitting for our garden wedding. I felt more beautiful than I’ve ever felt on my wedding day and I can’t imagine having any other dress.

How did you choose your dress? Or did your dress choose you?

Surprise wedding video

While I patiently wait for the pro pics (Hi Stephanie!), I wanted to share with you one of the most special gifts we have received since the wedding.

I longed to have the budget to include a videographer for our big day but it just wasn’t in the cards. I knew that many family members would be videotaping various parts of the ceremony and reception and decided that would just have to be good enough.

Enter Cousin J.

Cousin J and I are just one year apart and are more siblings than cousins. He’s one of my best friends and as a groomsman in our wedding, I was thrilled he was able to make the trip up from Texas – add to that the fact that he was the best man in a friend’s wedding the following weekend in Michigan. He was a total jetsetter for a good two weeks. :)

When he arrived, he had the new iPhone 4. He worked for Apple for a while so he’s very up on all of the latest with their products. Little did I know, he had a program (similar to iMovie) on his phone and he began taping little segments throughout the weekend.

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At the family brunch on Sunday that my Mom lovingly set-up for us, Cousin J secretly filmed some final segments for the video and casually said to me, “Hey – check this out” then handed me his fancy phone. The awesomeness that he created is below, there are hardly words for how incredible it truly is (PS – spoiler alert as my dress makes its debut):

I can’t even tell you how much I absolutely love this. Not only is it incredibly impressive that he literally threw this together on his phone, but it’s inspired me to collect as much video from everyone as possible to see what kind of fun iMovie I can create with additional wedding footage. Thank you Cousin J for your love and support – the day would not have been the same without you.

What are you planning to do for videography?

Let's play the waiting game

Since I’m obsessively checking every 5 minutes waiting patiently for my pro pics, this is a great time to revisit some of the last minute projects I tackled just days before the wedding…and in some cases, literally at the eleventh hour.

Thanks to the genius that is Mrs. Lemon, I discovered iRave and knew I had to add it to my never-ending list of projects. In the early morning hours before our flight to Seattle, I quickly laid out the little photo cards in Photoshop. Because I’m extremely creative (read: brain dead from lack of sleep and too many last minute wedding projects), I blatantly copied Mrs. Lemon’s fab little directions for using the site. I tried my best to create a design the tied to our theme, it’s sad, but it was the best I could manage on 3 hours of sleep. :)

I also decided in my sleep deprived state that creating cute little Mr. and Mrs. signs for our chairs would be a nice touch…luckily those were very simple to do:

In my fit of Photoshop projects, I also realized that I had yet to create the sign for our “guestbook” – the fantastic wine bottle that we got from Frogger’s family antique shop (did I mention that we had access to as many cool antiques as we wanted? Yeah, it was awe.some). Below is the sign we created – you’ll have to wait to see the bottle in all its glory.

And of course, after seeing Mrs. Cola’s post about crafts, I realized I hadn’t created a sign for our guest shuttle bus…add that to the list! I’m sure I could have gone on and on (and well, I did create the welcome letter for our out-of-town bags and a sticker for the bags but they were scraped after I reached my zen state of “nobody will ever know the difference” – this became a mantra for me as the wedding grew closer and projects loomed, just being real here).

Did you fall victim to crazy-must-add-more-projects-to-the-list bridal insanity and tackle craft projects at the last minute? Did “nobody will ever know the difference” become a mantra for you at all during the wedding planning process? Tell me I’m not alone…

I'm a MRS!

So I got so carried away with the preparation of the day that my final Miss post got lost in the moments that went flashing by! I can't tell you how much the hive has meant to me and how incredible the experience of being a Bee has been.

I married my best friend yesterday. It was the best day of my life. Frogger, you make me happier than I ever thought I could be, thank you for making me complete. Forever has never sounded so good.

Thank you to the hive for your support throughout this journey to the altar - it wouldn't have been the same without all of the readers, comments, ideas and unconditional support.

I cannot wait to share the day with you...until then - the only photo I have, a teaser from my wonderful cousin who snapped this just after our first look!



Lots of love,

Officially MRS. Frog :)

Our talented guests continue to impress

A while back I shared some of the RSVPs we received back from our guests. After waiting for all of the stragglers, I have a second installment for your viewing pleasure. I have to say, this might be one of my favorite ideas – it’s been highly entertaining!

Oh and before I get to the RSVPs, did I mention we received a letter back from The White House? That was very fun!

Now, without further ado…

From our Matron of Honor Banannie and her hubby – a very talented artist!

From my very creative aunt, uncle and cousin

From my dear friend in NYC

From my fantastic step-sister

From one of Frogger’s good friends – he also happened to teach me how to wakeboard back in the day so this one is very fitting!

From Bridesmaid Berk and her soon-to-be hubby

From my aunt, uncle and two adorable cousins – a family of many talents!

I saved my favorite for last…

From my extremely talented and creative Mama Frog – isn’t she the best?

These have been so much fun to receive, we can’t wait to see all of our talented guests and thank them in person!

For the kiddies

We don’t have a lot of kids coming to the wedding but it was important to us to recognize our pint-sized family members in at least a small way.

A while back I came across a posting on Martha Stewart Weddings where they had created a version of I Spy as a conversation starter for a wedding. I just loved the idea so I decided to create my own version for the kids.

Martha’s version

Since I basically went into Photoshop, came up with fun photo opps and then used fun fonts, there’s not much of a DIY here. I used the same design as our invitation suite and some of the other paper elements for the wedding. Wanna see?

We came up with a very simple rhyme for the introduction and we will be supplying each child with their own disposable camera. We’re excited to see what shots they come up with and I’m particularly interested in the angle since they are a good 2-3 feet shorter than most of our guests. :)

Did you do anything fun for the little ones at your wedding?

Easy as pie

Way back when, I shared our dirty, little secret – we don’t like cake. After going through all of our options, the most logical choice was pies made fresh with all of the local berries and fruit that are available in Washington in the summer. We found this adorable little bakery called, get this, Sure To Rise – how cute is that?

We settled on 3 large pies and 80 mini pies in varying flavors (blueberry, strawberry rhubarb, apple, peach and triple berry). Because I wanted the pies to be displayed sporadically on the pie table, I knew I needed a way to identify the flavors for our guests. Enter pie flags.

Pie chart…ha, get it?! I’m funny.

Since we are using a large pie for our “cake cutting” I needed some sort of topper for people to recognize that this pie was significant. For the record, we’re going with blueberry – lord help me if I get it down the front of my dress. To match the mini flags, I made larger versions that I’m planning to group together to create a topper for our pie:

Front

Back

Although they were a tiny bit labor intensive, overall they were pretty easy to put together. I loved coming up with different ways to design them and in the end, I think they will be really helpful for our guests come dessert time.

What are you doing for your dessert?

Phoenix Bee Meetup

Thanks to the local Phoenix bees that decided to arrange a quaint bee meetup through the local boards. Clearly I’m slacking on my bee duties! :)

We had a great time at Kokopelli Wine Bistro in Chandler – enjoyed some tasty appetizers, delicious wine and great company.

lemondrop, az2wa, azwinelover and moi

And super huge shout-out to azwinelover for the too-adorable-for-words bee cake pops! Check out the cuteness:

Bee pops a bloomin’

Before the AZ sun got the best of them…

And the heat has set in.

Thanks girls for a fun afternoon – looking forward to our next one!

Gifts for my girls

Hello friends. I’m so sorry to have been absent for a bit. I found out just a couple of weeks ago (nearly a month before my wedding) that I was being laid off from my job. It was a very big surprise as the company had not informed us that they were in any sort of trouble. Sparing you of the many details, I will say that I needed that couple of weeks to sort out my job situation and find a solution. I promise to fill you in on some of the exciting developments that are happening but first, I need to get back on track – there’s so much to tell you all about!!

Now that we are getting so close to the wedding, I am pulling together the last few bits of the gifts I’ve created for my maids.

These five girls have celebrated Frogger and I as a couple, supported me, kept me sane and there’s no way I would have been able to survive all of the wedding planning ups and downs without them.

Girls – you know you shouldn’t be reading this…so get lost. Kisses.

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Are they gone? Okay, good.

So first off I knew I wanted to do something that would celebrate how individual they all are. I’m having them all wear different dresses in the same color family and so it only made sense to continue that idea through to their gifts.

First, I searched through etsy (of course) and found some great handmade clutches. After looking through multiple designers, I knew I wanted to be able to customize them completely so they could really speak to each girl.

I found ModDotTextiles and couldn’t have been more thrilled with what she was able to do for me. She helped me find the fabrics for the bags, offered suggestions for the inner lining colors so they would coordinate and was genuinely interested in my thoughts for each bag. So…you wanna see them?

Ta da!

I decided there were certain little things that I wanted to give them all in preparation for the wedding day. Behold the inner contents:

Please disregard the chipped nail polish and cat hair covered pillow…classy.

Roll call: Nivea lip gloss (my favorite), blotting papers and SoleMates, holla!

I’m planning to wrap them up in tissue and tie with baker’s twine or possibly rafia. They will also be getting the hangers I created for their dresses as part of their gift as well. And of course, each girl will get a hand written note from me, telling them how very much they mean to me and how special it is to have them there on this most important day.

How did you decide what to give your maids?

The boy and his bling

I’ve already talked about my bling…now it’s time for Frogger to have his moment. This past weekend, we went to our jeweler (our locally-owned shop that we absolutely love – for those in Phoenix, go see Marc at Burland Jewelry Center) and looked through wedding bands for the boy.

I knew we would have a challenge on our hands when we began driving over. Our conversation:

Me: Soooo, are you excited?

Him: Yeah…but I don’t really know what I’m going to like.

Me: I know but I think you’ll feel differently when you get there and can try some on.

Him: …I don’t know.

Me: What’s the matter?

Him: I don’t really wear any rings and it’s not like I go around looking at guys’ wedding bands. I just don’t know what I’m going to like.

Me: Well, I think you need to just take your time, try on a bunch and don’t settle until you find one that you love.

Him: What if I don’t know what I love…what if I like a few of them? Just make sure that you give me your honest opinion.

Me: Has that ever been an issue of mine? Don’t answer that. I will give you my honest opinion but not until you give yours. I don’t want to decide on the ring for you, I want you to love it and I’m happy to weigh in but ultimately, you need to love this – it’s your ring.

Him: But I want your opinion, I trust your judgment and I don’t really know what I want.

Ugh.

Please tell me someone else had this same discussion? Are those crickets I’m hearing?

Luckily this story ends happily.

We arrived at the jeweler and began looking through the bands. There are a LOT of men’s bands. Plain or ornate, bling or no bling, multiple metal types, millimeter width, etc. I thought chicks had a lot of options…good grief.

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After trying on quite a few, he began to find a style that he seemed to gravitate toward. He wanted simple and classic but not plain. Did we nail it?

Obligatory wedding band glamour shot

And here are our rings together – don’t they just look so happy?

Shout out to Frogger for the photo set-up, good job stud

Did you have a roller coaster ride when you picked out your love’s wedding band?