100 Happy Days, Week 1

I have a couple of friends from college who are doing the #100HappyDays challenge, and posting their results to Facebook. It seemed like a good idea, and with so much stress happening in the buildup to the wedding, I thought focusing on the positive and happy couldn't hurt.

So, I've signed up for the #100HappyDays challenge. I'm now one week in, and though I'd post a compilation of this week's images here. 

Day 1, 5/24, T-99

Ah, The Moose. I could totally make this a 100DaysofMoose challenge if I wanted to. I don't, really, so I figured I'd get this one out of the way now. But gosh, isn't he so darn cute?

Day 2, 5/25, T-98
I try to avoid impulse clothing buys (hahahahha) so a couple of weeks ago when I tried this dress on at Kohl's, I was very proud of myself for walking away. But days passed, and I kept thinking about it. Wouldn't it be perfect for my July bridal shower? So, I went back and bought it, then brought it home, put it on, and twirled around. I can't WAIT until July when I get to wear it. 

Day 3, 5/27, T-98

This one was a pleasant surprise. We've got good friends Mr. C met through work. They are seriously the nicest people. They've got an adorable little house a little north of us, and they invited a bunch of us over for a bbq on Memorial Day. At one point in the evening, the husband was hanging out with Mr. C and another of our friends, and the wife and I were sitting on the porch. She ran upstairs and came down with a guitar, which I didn't realize she played, and we spent the rest of the evening sitting around and singing. Eventually the boys joined in, and by the end we were all belting songs from The Little Mermaid at the tops of our lungs. It was pretty awesome. 

Day 4, 5/27, T-97

Oooo, sparkle. It isn't really the sparkle itself that made me happy, although hard to ignore that. What really made me happy were two things connected with this photo. First is that I was there trying on the ring with Lady A. Mr. C and I had gone the week before (see previous posts), and I knew that, for myself, I'd need to go back and try some things on. Lady A came with, and was the perfect person to have with me. She knew our budget, made sure I didn't get talked into anything, and was able to articulate exactly what I was thinking. She's seriously awesome, you guys. The other part that made me happy is what my wedding band will stand for. It is the physical symbol that Mr. C and I are going to be a team. We're going to be right next to each other, supporting each other, encouraging each other, for the rest of our lives. And if that doesn't make you happy, I don't know what does. 

Day 5, 5/28, T-96

On Day 4, I didn't take a photo. I know, I know, awful right? I guess I'll have to take two somewhere along the line. I realized the problem of primarily using Instagram to document this challenge. What made me happy on May 28th was reading some of the inspirational words of Doctor Maya Angelou, who passed away that morning. She was someone who I have always admired, and her words have offered me guidance. When I was first thinking of going into the museum field, a good friend of mine sent me this quote. "History, despite its wrenching pain, cannot be unlived, but if faced with courage, need to be lived again." I've tried to carry this with me throughout my career, to face those sometimes difficult topics that are so vital for us to preserve and keep in the public consciousness. 

Day 6, 5/29, T-95

Last week, Mr. C went down to NYC to pick out his suit and spend some time with some friends. While he was there, they got tickets to go to the barely week old 9/11 Memorial Museum. Being a museum curator, I told him he had to take a lot of pictures and copious notes for discussion after he got home. Well, he didn't take the pictures, but he did pay attention to a lot of little details that he shared with me. Then, on the evening of Day 6, I was sitting in my car after coming back from the gym while the digital creators for the exhibit were giving an interview. It was a great feeling being able to listen to their discussion, knowing that as soon as I got into the apartment, Mr. C and I could talk about it at length. 

Day 7, 5/30, T-94 

Watching the rain clouds come in. Today, the weather was very off and on. In fact, I sent my poor interns out to plant part of the garden after looking at the weather online, and we though we'd have a couple of clear hours. Within three minutes, a front passed through, and they both got soaked! I was running errands later, and as I was heading back to work I saw this great cloud. I miss really being able to watch weather move here in NY, but this was a gorgeous rain cloud coming down the valley. 

Mind the Gap

I love my engagement ring. We searched long and hard to find the perfect setting, and Mr. C found a gorgeous center stone and it is absolutely perfect.

The problem, then, is that I never really considered what our wedding band would look like. It certainly did not even enter my mind when I was choosing an e-ring setting. I guess this is why I am terrible at chess.

Last night was Mr. C and I's one year "engageversarry". We've been meaning to go look at wedding bands for awhile, and felt like this was a good excuse. So, we went down to our jeweler's new shop (no more mall!) and took a look at what they had.

Within 15 minutes, Mr. C had picked out the ring he wanted. He walked in saying "white gold, dad ring." Aka, very simple. He ended up picking out one that was a little fancier than I'd expected him to, but it looks great. White gold, brushed in the middle, shiny on the rim on each edge. This isn't the exact ring, but it is pretty close in looks:

via Zales

For me, it was a little harder. In fact, we didn't make a decision, and I feel kind of awful. What I didn't realize when I picked my band was that, because I wanted a low profile and Mr. C gave me this beautiful, not minuscule diamond, the only way to have a flush wedding band is to custom order. Which, as you can imagine, is not cheap.

Without doing a custom order, my only options are to have a gap between my engagement ring and my wedding band. For illustration purposes, here's an image found on a Weddingbee post all about the dreaded (or not so dreaded, for some) gap.

via Mrs. Major on Weddingbee

 Her engagement ring is very, very similar to my own, except my baguettes don't taper out. There are some women who love the gap, and intentionally pick rings where it is highlighted. For me, I really am not thrilled with the idea. But, I think budget wise, it is something I'm going to have to get used to. I'm going to head back to the jewelry shop tonight or tomorrow to look some more, as I know it isn't something I'm going to be able to stop thinking about until I do some more trying on.

What do you think, gap, or no gap?

November: A Month of Challenges

So I've been planning awhile (and talked in this post) about participating in NaNoWriMo this month. I'm three days in and only at 2,160 words, but my parents and Mr. C's parents have been here, so there hasn't been much time for writing. The good news is, when I do sit down, I'm able to churn out quite a bit of content pretty quickly. So far, we're flowing pretty well.

Mom & Dad P seeing the sites

This November I've also decided to try "No Spend November." I have a bad habit of letting little purchases sneak up on me; Target and CVS are the worst. I'm in no way in trouble financially, but I think taking the month to see what I really need will help. Basically, I'm cutting out all of my impulse buys and reexamining what it is that I really need. Hopefully this will help the holidays hurt a little less. Yesterday morning I went out and got the things I know I'll have to restock anyway; shampoo, conditioner, and toothpaste. Toiletry and makeup wise, which is an area I tend to splurge a bit, I should be all set. Here's a list of what I'm going to avoid and how I'm going to try to mitigate the purchase:

• Clothing - I refreshed a couple of months ago, and right now my wardrobe is in a good place. I could use another pair of khaki's, but those can wait until December. 
• Household goodies - Ugh, this is a tough one. I love buying new candles and little things to set around. If there's something I really can't live without, I'll see if it is something I can DIY. 
• Gifts - This is another hard one. I love buying little things for Mr. C, plus the holidays are fast approaching. I already have a couple of gifts for certain individuals, and hopefully can look at things to make for those who are left. Plus, no more little bottles of Coke Zero for Mr. C magically appearing in the apartment. 
• Toiletries/makeup - Like I said, I should be set here, and actually have a return to make to CVS. 
• Dinner - This is probably the easiest trap to fall in. Luckily, with our folks being here, we've got TONS of leftovers from the dinners out we've had, and they've been buying. So we'll live on those for a few more days, then I'll get back into cooking again. I also need to be better about getting supplies for lunches, instead of depending on leftovers that don't always happen. 

So, that's the plan. I know I have some expenses that I can't avoid; student loan payments, co-pays for PT and my dermatologist visit next week, gas, things like that, but I'm going to try to manage everything else as best as I can. I'll try to remember to touch base and fill you in on how it goes!

Wishing, Hoping, Thinkin, and Prayin for A Lottery Win

When people say wedding, I almost always think of this song from My Best Friend's Wedding:

To me, wedding planning so far has been lots of wishing, praying, hoping, and planning. Luckily I've got an incredible team in my corner. They're incredibly supportive, and I can bounce ideas off of them all the time. Eventually, I'll do posts on each of them, so you can see how lucky I've been to have this network that is there to help me out, listen to my ideas, and call me out when I'm being an idiot.

That said, Mr. Burg, MaidoH A, and MatronoH K often get sent pictures or blogs of things that I've found that are awesome. I try to limit myself to things I'll actually be able to use, but every now and then fancy things that are nowhere near our budget catch my eye. We're exceptionally lucky and are receiving financial support from my parents and from Mr. C's, but I don't want to blow their money.

But, as is bound to happen, every so often something sparkly or fun or just downright amazing catches my eye and makes me wish I didn't have student loan bills or you know, basic living expenses so I could spend all of my money on these things. In addition to the finances, some things just seem logistically difficult. Especially when you consider we're in NY and the wedding is in Iowa. Makes things tough sometimes, but that doesn't mean a girl can't dream. Here's a few prime examples:

Rose Trove Necklace via BHLDN

Take for instance this lovely, elegant statement necklace from BHLDN. It is pearl and blush, which are my two accent colors and would look AWESOME with my dress. The only problem. $480. I can't really justify spending $20 less than my wedding gown on the necklace to wear with it. It sure is pretty though.

Flower Arch by Cherries, via Wildflower Linens

Ah, the flower arch. With big, beautiful, puffy, soft, gorgeous flowers that are probably peonies and we're getting married in August. Now, I haven't totally given up on the idea of a floral arch, and Mr. C actually suggested the idea, but I have a hunch this would take a big chunk out of our budget.

Custom Designed Lace Overlay via Wildflower Linens

This is from the same wedding as the arch from above. Can you tell that I love this wedding? Visually it just has a lot of the softness and elegance that I love, plus that blue color is exactly what I'm aiming for. And I adore the look of this lace overlay on the tablecloth, but yeah, custom designed table linens are WAY out of the budget.

Bakery Beauty Dress via Modcloth (no longer available)

Oh boy. There are some really freaking adorable little white dresses out there. And how adorable are they for things like bridal showers, bachelorette parties, and rehearsal dinners? I wish I could afford one dress for each wedding related event. After all, how many times in your life are you a bride? But I really don't think I can justify spending the money on a new dress for each event. Perhaps this will be a little splurge where I find one dress that will work for multiple events? Or maybe I'll just keep scoping out Kohls, Target, and Marshalls and see if anything jumps out at me. MaidoH A is awesome at scoring deals, so maybe I can ask her to keep her eyes peeled for a good deal.

Book Backdrop via kachergina

Oh boy. I want this. Like, I'd forgotten about it until just now and going back into my Pinterest boards and I found it again. This one isn't so much the financial difficulty (although that many books isn't cheap) as the logistics. In the original iteration, this is actually one of two of these little displays, set into a larger wall. I'm not sure how you could do it to make it free-standing. And if we could do it, I'd want to try to find a way to move it down from the ceremony down to the reception.

Unity Ceremony Glass via UnityinGlass

This is the one I may actually see if I can find a way to make it happen. I haven't yet met a unity ceremony idea that I'm completely enamored with, other than copying my parents idea of giving each other trees. But then tonight, I stumbled across this. I adore glass. One of the neatest museums I've been to (and I've been to a LOT of museums) is the Corning Museum of Glass. What made the trip really phenomenal was getting to do a couple of the workshops while we were there. I also dropped quite a bit of cash in their gift shop, getting ornaments for my whole family. So, when I saw this, I was intrigued. Rather than a simple sand blending ceremony, you purchase various sand colors from the artist. After you've blended them during your ceremony, they form them into these beautiful sculptures or bowls that you can keep forever. You can also purchase ornaments or glass hearts with "your" glass after you've bought the sculpture or bowl. They start at $379 for the sculpture, but man how amazing would it be to have that in your home forever? This may be one of my big wedding splurges.

Long time no blog

Apologies for the delay in blogging. Although I won't get into it too much here, my work situation has been exceptionally difficult lately, and has made it hard to focus on things like planning the wedding, coming up with creative recipes, or sprucing up the apartment.

Luckily, we're at a point at least with the wedding where we don't have any immediate to-do's on our list. I'm trying to take the week before Christmas to go back to Iowa, both to see my family and also to do things like meet with florists, go dress shopping with my girls, and actually sit down with my Matron o' H and Bridesmaid S to talk about things. Mr. C will join me at the end of the week to visit the venue, try some macaroons (instead of cake?), and also hopefully do our engagement photos.

The big exciting news right now is that my parents will be visiting for almost a week at the very beginning of November. I haven't seen them since April, which is way, way, way too long. I'm really excited. And, actually, while we'll spend most of the time just enjoying each others company, there are some wedding tasks as well.

First, I get to (finally) show my mom my dress. I actually thought I would call the salon where I bought it to see if they'd mind us coming in to try it on there. Since she wasn't with me when I bought it, maybe that's a way we can still get that experience.

Secondly, we're also looking for my mom's dress! I was browsing around on Pinterest awhile back and saw this beauty:

via Nordstrom

It is out of the box for my mom, but I think its still very pretty and looks comfortable. Plus the navy I think will go well with the dusty blue for the girls. I sent it to her, and she's ordering it. She'll have it sent to my apartment out here, so she can try it on while she's visiting.

And finally, this will be the first time my parents meet Mr. C's parents. We're really looking forward to that. I love his parents, and am so grateful for the support they've provided me already, and am so happy to be acquiring them as my own family. I'm really excited for them to meet each other, especially because we see a lot of similarities between my mom and Mr. C's dad. Should be fun to see them together in person!

Finding the Dress: Part 2

Miss part one? Find it here!

I walked out of the bridal store, drove home, tried calling my mom to no avail, frantically googled the a-line dress, and sent MaidoH A a message on gchat:

Me: hey, do you have a night free this week? (See how calm and collected I am?)
A: we could do something after crossfit. i am normally done around 8
Me: mmm k (less calm and collected)
A: or we could hang out before (what an awesome friend)
Me: because I either messed up big time or did something awesome
A: ohhh?
Me: I went to the dress shop on Union
A: ok
Me: two reasons, one because I wanted to see the swatches they had for bridesmaids dresses
Me: but also because last week was absolute (bad word) and I wanted to look at pretty things.

Then I sent her a link to the a-line silk dress.

A: whoa. that's cool.
Me: yeah. it is this almost goldish blush ivory color. gorgeous
A: ohhh fancy
Me: Normally $3,000+, and on sale for the next week for $500
A: ok
Me: so I was hoping we could find a time when you could come with me so I could try it on for you
A: yeah def
Me: It is the first dress I felt comfortable in.
A: I can leave work
A: and go now

And this, ladies and gentlemen, is why MaidoH A is AWESOME. She left work, and met me over at the bridal shop. We walked in, walked down to the fitting room, and tried on the dress. And guys, seeing her reaction, I knew beyond a doubt it was the dress. We tried it on with two different veils, but she loved the one that matched perfectly. It is the sort of creamy silk with little seed pearls on it. Gorgeous.

Back of the dress and the veil. Don't say I never gave you anything!

I am not sure yet about the hair flower, but if we do we'll make one ourselves because that one was RIDICULOUSLY expensive. But, now you can see the veil, and somewhat the color. After taking some photos and videos to send to my mom (who is currently in Alaska on vacation) we left.

I, probably obnoxiously, called my mom several times that evening in between the event I had to be at for work, and finally she had the chance to look at the photos. I was really worried she would be disappointed to not have found the dress with me, but when I told her the price, she said "don't be stupid, buy the dress." So, the next day, right after work, I went back and bought the dress and the veil.

The good and the bad is that, because it is off the rack, they let me take it home. This will be great as I find shoes and jewelry, and can actually put the dress on to compare them. It is really terrible, because I now have to go the next 13 months without blurting the whole thing out to my best friend (aka Mr. C). MaidoH A bit the bullet for me and it is now hanging in her apartment instead of ours, so at least the temptation is less, but I still want to go over and try it on every single day. I guess that's a good sign!

Finding the Dress:Part 1

A week ago today, I was in rough shape. Things at my job have been difficult, I was feeling a lot of wedding and non-wedding related stress, and it just wasn't pretty. I was trying to narrow down the bridesmaids options, as the sooner we can get those figured out the earlier we can watch for sales so the girls don't have to sell any organs. I drove over to one of the bridal shops in our town to look at swatches for the bridesmaids dresses, to see if the designers they carried actually had anything in the colors I liked.

As often happens at bridal shops, I walked in the door and was blinded by a sea of white and sparkles. Except this time, I sighed in a, oh aren't those pretty sort of way. And since our last trip had left me with a pretty solid idea of what I was looking for, I decided to ask if they had time for me to try on some gowns. My goal was to find maybe not the exact dress but definitely one or two stores that had what I was looking for, so when my mom comes out to visit in the fall we could actually buy something.

The owner of the store helped me, and after describing my last dress experience and what I was looking for, let me walk through the racks on my own. They were starting a large sale to clear stock for the fall, and so I went through those dresses first. I took one pass down the line, and actually pulled the same dress twice, once in ivory and once in blush. It was exactly what I'd had in mind. Fit and flare, soft skirt, sweetheart neckline, and an un-obnoxious train. I put the blush back, added the ivory to the rack and kept walking.

There wasn't anything else  that really jumped out and said "pick me" so I walked back along the line one more time to make sure I didn't miss anything. I grabbed a few more gowns in a similar style, plus one that was a silk a-line, but had a fun feature that MaidoH A and I had been laughing about in our first store.

I headed down to the dressing room where the owner helped me into the gowns. I think she was impressed by how quickly I could decide, but I figured there was no reason to doddle once I'd figured out it wasn't "my" dress. Slowly we made it through the stack, discarding left and right, even the twice pulled dress from the sale rack. The next dress was a gorgeous soft netting, almost a mermaid with a sweetheart neckline and beading along the bottom of the bodice, rather than in the middle or the top.

Imagine this, but with bling along the top of the skirt. via Dress for the Wedding

I put it on, goose-stepped out to the mirror, and paused. It was gorgeous. It actually gave me a shape. There was little obnoxious train to speak of. When she added a sparkly belt and a veil, I thought, alright I need my mom to come see this. I stayed and admired the fact that I actually had shape for awhile, before shuffling back to the dressing room. I say shuffling because the bodice/skirt junction was mid-thigh, and made it a little tricky to take a full step. Not ideal, but it looked good.

I decided, for the sake of the argument, to try on the last two dresses that I'd pulled; the a-line silk with the fun detail, and a gorgeous beaded gown in silver. Neither of them was a serious contender after the last dress, but I figured if I was still thinking about it after trying on others, that was a good sign.

I put on the a-line, walked out, and froze. All of the sudden I had a picture in my head, one of the photos I've seen of our venue, from the back of the aisle looking up towards the groom. I stepped up onto the little box, and just stared for awhile. It was completely different than what I'd expected. The color is different, the silhouette, the skirt, all of it. Not what I thought I was looking for at all. I thought I'd wanted the princess on bottom slightly sexy on top fit and flare, and yet, in this dress, I felt like me. Then she added a veil that matched, and I felt something click. And oh yeah. Didn't hurt that it is a normally $3,000+ dress on sale this week only for $500. No pressure, right?

I stared for a long time before walking back to the dressing room. I tried on the silver gown. Gorgeous, but more Hollywood than wedding. I put back on the fit and flare. I still liked it. I looked awesome in it. I knew I had a few phone calls to make. We wrote down all of the numbers for the gowns and veils, and I walked out the door.

A Lovely Sunday Dress Shopping Excursion: David's

Our final stop for the day was the nearby David's Bridal. After two small, local owned places, it was a bit of a shock to the system to walk into the near warehouse sized space filled to the brim with white fluffiness. It was exceptionally overwhelming, even after having narrowed down what we were looking for on both the bridal and bridesmaids sides of things.

I'd made an appointment, but when we checked in she told us that their preference was to wait until I'd selected my bridal gown before looking at bridesmaids dresses, so they could match. Huh? I told her that although we hadn't purchased my gown, we had a good idea what we were looking for, and still wanted to try both as I'd indicated when making the appointment.

We wandered around for awhile, and realized that although they have a new blue color called Bluebird that looks like it should be a dusty blue, it is actually periwinkle, and very very purple looking. Not what we were going for. But, never fear, having so many different styles would give us the chance to see how things looked, even if we weren't going to find the perfect color.

First up, we walked through every single bridal row with our very helpful and nice consultant. We pulled a number of dresses that looked hopeful, almost all of which were of the same vein as earlier. The only real exception was one very pretty Melissa Sweet ballgown that caught our eyes. I haven't been a big fan of lots of embellishment, but having it under the tulle was really pretty.

Alas, after trying on a good dozen dresses, there was really nothing that worked. I was noticing a definite difference in the quality of the dresses, especially in the thickness of the fabric. There were several dresses where the boning showed through the bodices of the gowns, which isn't for me.

After disregarding the bridal gowns, we turned to bridesmaids. Here, we were much more successful. The great thing about David's is that my two differently built maids could try on the same style gown at the same time, which gave us a great comparison.

Here's what we liked:

Quite simply, this one didn't wow us. Plus, the ruching in the center looked a bit odd. 

Standard, pretty bridesmaid dresses. The pleating on the skirt was distracting, and didn't really flatter.

We were getting closer, but weren't in love with the pencil skirts

Ding ding ding! Both girls looked gorgeous in these!!

Although we may not end up going with David's Bridal because of the color component, we definitely figured out the type of dress we were going for. And, after sending the photos to my other maids, they all agreed and liked this one! The black Alfred Angelo one shoulder from the first shop was very similar to this, so we might see if we can track that down anywhere in their dusty blue color!!

A Lovely Sunday Dress Shopping Excursion: Jocelynn's

After our first shop and a stop at Olive Garden for pasta, far too many breadsticks, and a flirty waiter boy (go MaidoH A!), we went to the second shop in our epic Sunday Dresss Shopping Excursion. We decided, since they carried most of the same bridesmaids dresses, to stick purely with bridal here. Plus, it was my first time trying on bridal gowns, and I was a little anxious to see if what I thought I liked would actually be what I liked on.

Turns out, it wasn't, at all. I had identified three different styles of dresses that I kept coming back to. The first, MaidoH A calls Structured Grecian. Basically, flowing chiffon skirt but with a fitted bodice and top, strapless or one shoulder. The second is the Poofy Princess. Big, full skirt in any variety of fabric with a sweetheart neckline. Then the last, and the one that surprised me as the favorite of the day, is the Fit-n-Flare. I really didn't expect that, but over and over again I kept coming back to those as my favorite.

1. Dress number one, the dress that got an emotional reaction out of MaidoH A and FSIL C, was an asymmetrical draped net fit and flare from Blu by Mori Lee.

via Mori Lee, shown here with separate caplet

It was nice because it had the softness that I tend to like, but the shape that I think really flattered me. We tried it on with a belt, and eventually a veil, and it looked pretty darn good. In the store, this one was number one. The problem for me now is that we didn't get any photos of me in it without the veil, and I don't love the veil I had on. So, I'm wondering if that's skewing my perspective. Here's a shot of my in the gown from the back:

2. Dress number two was actually one that I had previously pinned on my Pinterest boards, but had wondered if it would be too "much" once it was actually on. This was the Divina from Maggie Sottero, and although their picture is in a blush color, I tried it on in white and with a white and crystal belt. 

via Maggie Sottero

Honestly, this one ranked 4th in the store. I liked it, I liked the mix of fabrics in the skirt, but it didn't strike me quite as much as the other ones did. Here's an angle shot of me in the Divina:

Excuse the awkward arms

3. The third dress was another Maggie Sottero, this one called Jenna. Laugh if you get the joke. 

via Elegant Lace Bridal

Anyway, this was one I would have completely passed over looking at it online, and in fact did so again when I was trying to find it by browsing. But, on, it was a different story. 

We liked this dress, but it was hard to tell because it was a HUGE size, so we were having a hard time visualizing what it would look like. Even after our wonderful consultant lady helped lace me up, it still was hard to get a picture. But, it was very pretty. Probably walked out with this one at the #2 spot, but that could be contested because it was very, very difficult to walk in the dress. It was massively heavy, and the lovely skirt was very thick, making it impossible to do anything other than little baby steps. 

4. Last but not least was the Alfred Angelo Sleeping Beauty gown. Now, my four girls from home and I love Disney, and each have a princess of our own. Mine is, you guessed it, Sleeping Beauty. 

via Alfred Angelo

I wanted to try this gown on for sentimentality's sake, but ended up really liking it. It was one of the later ones I tried on, and after dresses that felt like they weighed tons, it was a relief to be in something so light and soft. 

See how light that skirt looks?

This dress probably came in at number 3 for me while we were at the shop. But now, looking at pictures (and I do have pictures of the fronts, but I don't want to give too much away!) this one is my favorite. It just has an element of softness that I don't see in the other three. The one thing I wish was different is the back. I loved the shape that I got when we had the lace up backs, and you can't quite get the same thing with the zipper. 

So, for now, this gave us a definite direction as far as styles of dresses to look for. Gone are the Structured Grecians, gone are the Poofy Princesses, and we're pretty solidly in the land of Fit-n-Flares. I didn't buy anything, as I'll need my mom with me when I do that, but it gave us a good foundation to build off of!

Next up, part three!

A Lovely Sunday Dress Shopping Excursion: Danielle's

On Sunday, I had an amazing but exhausting day with my MaidoH, aka and my FSIL. We went to three different bridal shops in the area (the only ones open on Sundays) and tried on both bridesmaids and bridal gowns.

At our first shop, we looked at bridesmaids dresses. When I called earlier in the week, they told me they didn't take appointments, and when we got there they let us look through samples to see which designers have the color I'm looking for, and then just pull whatever we wanted to try on. It was pretty chaotic, but actually I think worked pretty well. We're aiming for something a little more formal to keep up with the venue, and hopefully in a dusty blue color, ala this inspiration board:

via Chic Vintage Brides

Looking through swatches, we decided to focus on gowns from the designers Alfred Angelo and Jasmine. The other consideration is that I, like many, have a wide variety of heights and busts for my girls, and want to find something that everyone is going to feel comfortable and beautiful in. This meant we were looking for things that had at least one strap, and a thick enough strap to hide a bra. Sorry, spaghetti!

Here's what we came up with"

Liked the Alfred Angelo in red on FSIL C, although in retrospect the flower seems a bit big. MaidoH A looked adorable in this light blue Alfred Angelo, but we decided that anything chiffon seemed a bit informal compared to the venue. 

We all universally hated the yellow color on this one, but thought this style from Jasmine's B2 line was cute 

MaidoH A rocked this gown, although turns out that it is actually by Jordan and doesn't come in our color

Now I had MaidoH A try this one on not for the style but for the color, which is Alfred Angelo's Once Upon a Time and the closest we'll get from them to my blue. The dress FSIL C is wearing doesn't show very well here as it is way too big on her, but was another Alfred Angelo and probably the dress we liked the best from the first shop! 

It's What's for Dinner, or Groceries and Recipes

I feel like we've divided the chores in our place pretty well. Mr. C has absolutely no interest in cooking whatsoever, so I do almost all of the food prep in our house. As payback, Mr. C takes point on laundry and also does most of the post-dinner dishes.

Overall, I probably spend around 2-3 hours over the course of a week gathering recipes, figuring out the best schedule for meals, and prepping our food. We go grocery shopping together, from the list that I put together. Here's what this week's list looked like:

Vegetables/Fruit

Zucchini

Broccoli

Spinach

Apples

Fish/Meat

93/7 Ground turkey

Chicken breasts

Frozen salmon

Carbohydrates

Whole Wheat Rotini

Whole Wheat Spaghetti

Canned black beans

Canned cannelini beans

Dairy

Shredded cheese

Reduced Fat Feta

Fat Free Greek Yogurt

Condiments

Rice wine vinegar

Light sodium soy sauce

Snacks

Vegetable tortilla chips

Pretzel rods

Honey mustard dip

This is pretty typical of what we buy when we go grocery shopping, which happens about every week and a half. Our pantry is pretty well stocked, so we only need to occasionally buy things like the vinegars and soy sauce. We go through quite a bit of pasta and beans, and I work hard to incorporate lots of fresh vegetables. 

So, you've seen the groceries. But, what do we actually do with them? To make planning a little simpler, I've loosely assigned cutesy names to each day of the week, to give me at least a little bit of guidance. Here's the list of what we're cooking chez us this week. 

Meatless Monday: Grown up mac & cheese with beans and squash

Turkey (or other poultry) Tuesday: Greek turkey burgers

Wok Wednesday: Crockpot cashew chicken

Thursday night I've got a meeting at work, so Mr. C and I are on our own (which likely means Subway for supper)

Fiesta Friday: Black bean quesadilla

Scrimping Saturday: Leftovers!

Seafood Sunday: Grilled salmon

Then into next week, it looks like this: 

Meatless Monday: Broccoli peanut pasta

Turkey Tuesday: Chicken with a homemade creamy pesto crust

Wok Wednesday: Spicy salmon stir fry

Lunches are made up of a combination of leftovers, soups we've got in the freezer, crockpot bbq chicken, and Mr. C often goes out for lunch with coworkers.

So, that's our meals. I'll try to share some of the recipes as we make them, and hopefully I'll remember to take pictures before we eat all of it!