Wedding Dress Blues...

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So I got my dress back from the tailor on Monday and tried it on yesterday.  It is hemmed and bustled and ready to go, it just needs steaming!  I wish I liked the way I looked in it better, I just really don't think poufy white dresses are my most flattering look.  The dress is beautful, don't get me wrong.  Just me in it is kinda meh.  And then the fact that I will be photographed a billion times and looked at a bunch while looking meh is making me feel queasy.  Maybe if I just look really happy it will make the dress seem better?  Happy people always look good in what they are wearing.  Maybe this is some weird version of cold feet I am getting?



Hair Trial!

I had an appointment this morning for a badly needed hair cut and a practice run for my wedding hair do!  I went to the salon at Beauty Brands and met with Jaime.  I basically just gave her a few pictures of things I liked and left it in her capable hands.  I think she did a really good job, and I love it!  Here is how it turned out:

If I look tired, it is because I am.  lol

Pretty!

Just an update

Hi Everyone!  We are officially 17 days away from Aaron and I's big day!  After a few bridezilla episodes from last week, this week has gone pretty smoothly.  I am actually feeling quite zen, despite a still semi-lengthy to-do list.  I think I had a light bulb moment over the weekend or something.  I really want to look back at my engagement in a positive light.  The wedding is just a few hours of my life, but my engagement has been over a year of my life.  I don't want to think back and shudder over the amount of stress I went through, I want to remember being excited and happy.  I am of the opinion that all of these wedding TV shows feed into our minds that if we aren't over the top stressed, we aren't doing it right.  It is easy to get caught up in the hype.  I have basically surrendered to the idea that everything will be beautiful and fun, and I need to just trust the people I have hired or family and friends helping out and let it be.

Total Zen. 

Ok so I am in a happy mood for a change, so that is nice :)  I have a bunch of things coming up this week that I am looking forward to.

This afternoon (weather permitting) Aaron and I are taking professional engagement pics to display around the entry table at the reception.  (Better late that never, right!)  If these don't get done today, then Monday will be the back up day.  It rained a crazy amount in Houston two days ago and flooded much of the city.  It has since drained off, but it is still muddy in some nature places where our photographer usually shoots.

Tomorrow Aaron and I are going to go get our wedding license on my lunch break.  It is just getting me eager for the wedding, I want it to be here already!

On Friday, my Mom and I are going to meet with the wholesale florist to see what flowers we are going to need.  My cousin from Austin is the mastermind behind the floral elements of our centerpieces - a gift from my Aunt Gloria and Uncle Howard.  But since they are coming from Austin, and that is going to be tricky enough, my Mom and I are going to handle making the bouquets and corsages.  We also are going to make some really simple pew decorations for the church.  So our flower needs aren't huge, but we want to check out what we like, etc. 

Saturday morning I have an appointment for a badly needed haircut, and my hair-do trial for my wedding 'do!  I am excited to see how it turns out!

Over the weekend we will be assembling wedding programs and working on a seating chart because we have gotten all our RSVPs in.  I must say, I am really proud of my guests for responding.  I only had to call or email a handful of people out of the nearly 300 that were invited!  It looks like our guest count is going to be right at 200, and I am so glad that many of Aaron's family from all over the country are making the trip to Texas for the wedding.  I can't wait to meet them!!  I am also over the moon excited to see some old friends I haven't seen in a good while and having all my extended family together for a happy occasion.  Life is good :)

Everything is really falling into place just like everyone said it would :)

Wedding Jewelry

"Before you leave the house, take one thing off." - Coco Chanel

I am not a big jewelry person at all.  It is sad too because I have so many lovely pieces of jewelry that get neglected.  I usually don't remember to accessorize when I am leaving for the day.  Then other times I just feel too flashy.

So when I was deciding on my wedding jewelry, I knew I wanted to look a little glam, but definitely not over the top.

Since my dress is pretty sparkle-tastic I opted for a fancy bracelet instead of a necklace.  Plus I think necklaces draw attention to my stumpy neck.

I did get some really great earrings that look pretty good on me, if I do say so myself.  If you have a round face like I do, picking some longing earrings can really help your face look slimmer.  There is a good article here about complimentary earrings for your face. 

Want to know the awesome news?  I totally got my wedding jewelry for $30 bucks.  Sweeeeet!

$25 at Macy's

$5 at Target

Just enough sparkle! 

Fabulous!

Look what the mailman brought to my house today!

:D

Wedding Shoes?  Check!  

I took another internet risk (when will I learn...) and purchased these beauties from ebay last week.  I was in a bit of a shoe conundrum in regards to my budget.  The line item in the budget for my wedding look was all inclusive.  For $xxxx I need to get a dress, get it altered if needed, get the veil in shape (more on this later),  get whatever slips and girdles and fancy underpants I will need to go under the dress, and shoes.  Well my dress took a big chunk of those things, so my shoe budget was looking pretty slim.  Not so slim as I can only get $20 wedding shoes from the Ross dress for less, but I needed to keep it in the double digits.  

Here is where a big giant thank you is in order to all of you who visit bells and bows often and click an ad if you see something you want to check out...

Because of you wonderful people, Google Adsense is about to send me a check for approximately $107.80!

So those funds were utilized to bump up the shoe budget some.  :)

So anyway, if I were in fantasy land and had much more monies than I have, I would totally go all out and get some seriously fly designer shoes for the big day.  But those are unreasonably pricey seeing as I am not a millionaire yet.  Plus, I know me, and I dress up and wear heels pretty much never.  So unlike a designer bag that I could carry until my hair turns grey, these would most likely get worn once and gather dust in the back of the closet.  But I love to drool over them, they are works of art after all...

www.neimanmarcus.com

But back on planet earth, I figured I would just pick up some nice shoes at DSW or Macys.  Yawn, but who is going to see the shoes anyway?  

I smell a compromise....

So last week when I was cruising ebay I found these super fabulous Jimmy Choo's for an awesome and in budget price!!!

And they fit, and the heel isn't mega high, and they are just a wonderful gift from heaven!

I don't know what it is about fancy things, but they really make you feel like a million bucks!  And with this find, I still get to have some dollars in my wallet.

<3<3<3<3<3<3<3<3<3<3<3<3<3<3<3

Fabulous!!!

I found the dress!

What a sigh of relief, I can cross this item off the list!!!

When I went dress shopping last week I found two dresses that I really liked.  They were solid 8's.

So today I had an appointment with Alfred Angelo.  If Davis's Bridal is Wal-Mart, Alfred Angelo is Target.  Not a giant zoo/freak show, but still a good selection and reasonable prices.  I was not really looking forward to this appointment at first because I looked at the selection of dresses for the larger gals and nothing really stood out to me.  I really should not be so quick to judge because they actually had several really nice dresses that I liked a lot.  But I tried on 'The One' and fell in love all over again (sorry Aaron!).  And my Mom totally cried, lol.

So the dress is going to wait to be revealed at the wedding of course, but let me just tell you that it is perfect!  I never really pinpointed what I 'envisioned' myself looking like on the big day,  which is the very first question these bridal consultants will ask you when you go in for your appointment.  But it was made apparent when I saw myself in the mirror.  The dress was so elegant and felt like 'Natalie'.  I felt like I looked undeniably beautiful, which I think every bride should feel.  And then we put on my Mom's veil that she wore when she married my Dad nearly 33 years ago, and it matched the dress spot on!  I loved the way I looked, and secondly, I felt really excited.  Like ta-da you are getting married, for real, not just throwing a giant party.  So that was cool and fun :)  And if you don't think it is possible (like maybe white dresses just can't get you all that pumped), you just need to keep looking, because the perfect dress is out there!  I mean seriously, there are literally 400ish dresses between the two stores alone....  Ladies, don't ever settle for less than a 10, because even if for only one day, you deserve it!

A Tale of Two Dresses.

Pretend there are only two dresses here.

So today was my first appointment to try on dresses for the big day.  My Mom and I headed back into the city after the morning of cake try-out 1 and headed to David's Bridal.  I was super nervous about dress shopping, and David's in general.  The first time I was in there for wedding related things, I was with MOH Katrina and we were just looking for fun at some bridesmaid dresses.  The dresses were good, but everything else was pretty terrible.  First of all, I felt like I was in a Wal-Mart, due to the clientele this establishment garnered.  It was just super crowded with people not watching their kids running around, or looking like they haven't showered in a good while, or had neck tattoos, etc.  It was nothing like 'Say Yes to the Dress'.  Plus the consultant who was working with us was totally weird, and not making any sort of small talk.  So basically when Katrina was trying on the dresses we stared at each other in silence.  Awkward.

And then there is the whole issue of me not really being into clothes shopping in general.  Don't get me wrong, I am obviously super excited to get married but the dress thing...I just feel like I am not super happy with my appearance usually, so why would a white dress change any of that?  It's nothing upsetting to me or anything, it just is what it is.  I prefer to not have the attention on me generally.  Which  is why Aaron is a good husband choice, he loves that stuff, lol.

Anyway, I was trying to keep an open mind and not have expectations on the day.  Well we arrived and met with our consultant Kristin, who was so wonderful and nice.  We sat down and talked about what I envisioned myself wearing (which was nothing aside from not being a fan of strapless) ((not wearing nothing, just no concrete ideas on what I wanted)).  Well all in all I tried on about 7 different dresses and I really liked two of them. 

What's a girl to do???

Dress #1

This dress is one I found on the website and I thought it was really gorgeous.  It was just as pretty in person, and the first wedding gown I have ever tried on.  I apologize for no pictures, I have to keep some element of surprise about the big day. ;)  When I think about dress 1, I think wow factor.  When I wore it, I felt very glamorous.  And the style is very unique.  I don't know what my style is, but a big factor in the things I find appealing is a uniqueness factor.  I don't like things that are overly popular or that everyone has.  But am I a wow factor kind of girl?  Plus the dress is kind of on the heavy side, but I don't know if that matters.

Dress #2

This dress on the hanger looks like a giant snore.  I later found it in the catalogue and on the website and it is something I bypassed for being so ordinary looking on several occasions.  This was the last dress I tried on at the appointment.  So I try the dress on and I look really really good in it.  And the back part and train blew me away they were so pretty.  The front didn't have the wow factor that dress 1 did but was still very pretty and looked more 'me'.  I even had a stranger comment that she had seen me come out in a few dresses, and this was hands down the best.  (but she didn't see dress 1)  And this dress has around 60+ reviews on the website, and dress 1 had less than 15.  So plenty of people walked down the aisle in this look.  So while this one seems like a clear choice, dress 1 is still lingering in the back of my mind

So I am going to sleep on it a bit, and I have another appointment next weekend to see if I can add more to the maybe list.  I don't know if I am the type that will just have a lightning bolt moment of knowing that this is THE dress, I didn't really make any emotional connection that I was shopping for a wedding dress.  ::shrug::  The times Kristin put a veil on me, I thought I looked like a lion.  And let me give a shout out to those girdle things they give you to wear under the dresses, that thing works good!  I almost cancelled my diet I am going on starting Monday, lol.  But yes, I am glad that we had a successful time.  And I take comfort that I have, at very least, two dress options that are, in my humble opinion, stunning. Aaron is one lucky guy, lol ;)  

Eyelash extensions?

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Has anyone ever tried them?  I don't trust website testimonials, because they aren't going to post the ones that say, 'These made my real lashes fall out, and now I look crazy'.  They are kind of expensive too, but every now and again a groupon (or the like) comes along.  Back in the day I had super deluxe long beautiful lashes, but my old age has thinned them out.  But it is fine, because they are hiding behind glasses all the time anyway.  But if they were cheap enough, I'd say sure, why not, but I just don't know if they will be worth the cost.  And I also don't want to look like Tammy Faye Bakker/Messner, which is exactly what I looked like after getting a makeover ambush at the Dior counter at Macy's the weekend before last.  

Less is more.

So if anyone has any knowledge or experience in the realm of false eyelashes, please advise!


UPDATE:
There was a fabulous groupon for eyelash extensions in Houston today.  Sold!

Wedding Weight Loss

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Ok gang, we are getting near the six month mark and it is crunch time (literally!).  For those who do not know me in real life, I am not a small lady.  I had some glory days in the beginning of high school where I was really good at sticking to a diet and was more active, and even then I was just average sized.  As of now, I like to eat food that is bad for me, and I hate exercising.  So I can't say that I am surprised in any way that my body looks the way it does.  In any event, there is lots of room for improvement in the category of health and fitness.  A smart Natalie would have hit the gym like a Jersey shore girl back in November when I got engaged, because the thought of being my current level of fatness in a wedding dress makes me cringe.  But I put it off, and kept eating cake like it was going out of style, and here we are. 

I am happy to report that starting this week my mom/walking buddy have agreed to go walking around the neighborhood in the evenings after dinner.  We have gone twice already, yay us!  And my eating habits have just been okay.  I have stopped eating desserts at such a high level, and try to get the portion control in check, but I am still sometimes grabbing a fast food lunch that isn't a salad, and eating fried crap and pizza. 

Aaron and I are going to Dallas to visit some friends this weekend, so I think I will try to eat well when we go, but we are going to have a diet makeover extreme starting next week.  And I think I need to step up the workouts also, because I don't think 30 mins of walking is going to cut the mustard.  In an ideal world I would wake up 45 minutes earlier and do some working out in the AM and PM, but sleepy Natalie fights that idea 97% of the time.  Another thought I had was to just work out my arms and abs really well, because I can hide a big bum under a poufy dress.  I am pretty sure weightloss doesn't quite work like that, unfortunately.  And Aaron already said no to using our wedding monies to buy liposuction, lol.

So before I formulate my master fitness plan, does anyone have any good tips of how to drop some (or a lot of) pounds?  I am all ears!!

Wedding Hair

I suppose I could also title this post 'Putting the cart before the horse' but I was bored this evening and delving into pictures of wedding hair.  I have no part of my 'look' together at this point, but after my research, I am drawn to the pulled back or to the side styles that are sort of low and loose.  Let me tell you though, there are sooo many interesting styles to be had- Hairstylists sure have some cool skills!  Once I get my dress and everything, I will book a hair try-out with someone.  I don't have a regular hair person, so maybe I should work on finding one...  I should really focus on things that have more short term deadlines!