May Stuff
10 years ago
Well I'm married, and I love it! So with my new life, comes a new blog. Because I just can't be Alice in Regularland anymore. So without any further ado, here is my new blog!
hello, there
hello, there
So my wedding blog has basically whittled down to nothing due to the extremely hectic schedule that I have been living the past few months. But I thought I'm long long long overdue for an update and I may as well write something so that the wedding blog isn't all for nothing. So here is what is going on right now:
The month of April has quite possible been the MOST stressful month of my entire life. The tipping point was having when I developed a nice dime sized cold sore at the beginning of the month. So for two weeks I had to walk around with what felt like a giant billboard that announced to the world exactly how much stress I was under plastered on my face. In fact the residual pinkness is still very visible on the corner of my mouth.
April has been the worst month of all for because there is just too much going on. With nursing school, and work I really only have off two weekends and even then I have things scheduled on both of the Saturdays, leaving me with two available days to myself in the whole month.
This is pretty much EXACTLY how I feel!
This is the last month of nursing school and for whatever reason my genius instructors whom I am sure are in cahoots with the devil, decided to schedule four out of the eight exams we have during the semester, all in the last month. Fantastic. That gives me an exam every single week, the last one being the Monday before I get married. And nursing school exams are no joke. I have been blessed with very good testing abilities and these kick my butt every time. There is nothing like walking out of an exam and feeling sure that you have failed every single time.
John and I also need to move by May 1st. His lease came up and we knew we weren't going to renew because his little place was just too small for the two of us. So we needed to find a bigger place that was still within our (his) budget and within a reasonable distance from where both of us need to be. That means that my only two free days off in April were now spent running around trying to find a place to live. And the area that he wants to live in is a unique historic area which means there aren't mass quantities of managed apartment complexes to choose from. We had to research every few days in classifieds and craigslist for postings from private renters. All this equals a lot of work and time and energy.
And then there is the wedding. I have come the point where I have started to relate weddings to tumors. They can suck the life out of you, make you get caught up in all the wrong things and will grow out of control if you let them. Its hasn't been all that bad I'm really just venting more or less but it hasn't been the enjoyable experience I was hoping for. There was a laundry list of problems that happened all along the way. I'm not sure if this happens to every bride or if its just me but I feel like I've been living Murphy's Law for the last few months. If something can go wrong, it will. And I can attest to the fact that it did.
So now I"m down to the last few weeks. Just two and a half little weeks until I become a wife and a partner to my best friend and begin a new chapter in my life. The chapter that I have been waiting and wanting to start for longer than I'd like to admit. And yes, I still have a to do list a mile long, I have homework assignments and tests to study for and we still haven't received confirmation that we have been approved for the apartment that we found but somehow this strange feeling of peace has come over me. Thats not to say that I am still not so stressed out that I'm only sleeping about 2-3 hours a night and hardly eating. But I can finally SEE the light at the end of the tunnel. The mantra that I have been repeating to myself for months now, "the end justifies the means" is really starting to happen. And it feels so good.
So for all of you who have so much on your plate that it feels like an impossible feat to accomplish it all, keep going. No matter how tired you are, how much you want to give up, how much you feel like you just don't care anymore or that its not worth it, I can promise that it is. Because in the end its not the details that matter and its not how you got there, what matters is that you did. <3
With that being said, I promise to blog lots and lots about all the details and the wedding journey once all this madness is over and I can finally think straight again.
This will be us. : )
Here are my updates, which I am sad to say are not very good.
Why? Well lets get straight to the point.
I HAVE NO WEDDING DRESS.
I got my dress in. The one I ordered from China. And in a word its awful. Its literally about 6 inches too small. The only thing I can think of is that they to the measurements that I sent in inches and made it in centimeters. The shape was wrong. Its an A line dress that they made into a mermaid. There's more but I'm literally sick with worry and stress now and I cant talk about it anymore. So now I am stuck with pretty much one option. Buy a dress that is already made via a used or never worn dress from another bride, ebay (in the US and already made) or off the rack. None of it is ideal but it is the fastest and least risky option. So I have once again begun the long and laborious work of trying to find another dress.
I did buy my shoes. I love them seriously the picture really does them no justice. And I got them at an amazing price.
Got both the girls bridesmaid dresses. Which I can't seem to put a pic of but here's the link to Christy's.
And here is Britt's.
I like it. Its summery and pretty and will still compliment the style of Christies. Its not your average bridesmaid dress but Brittney is VERY hard to shop for and she settled on this dress after what seemed like hours of yellow dress rejections.
I also decided to try a new make up product that I am going to write off as a wedding expense lol. I got some eyelash growth conditioner. I have short sparse thin lashes so if this stuff works I'm going to be very very happy. Ever since I' saw the ad for Latisse I've been wanting to try it or something like it. So I did a bunch of research and settled on enormous lash. Hopefully it works. Heck even a little bit would be better than what I have.
Keep ya posted!
I was thinking about my fancy heels and how I didn't have a clue how I was going to stay above ground walking around in the grass with stilettos on so I did some research and found this blog by Kara and Groomzilla. Its pretty much my thoughts exactly. She posted this great pic which is the very thing Im worried about happening.
Sad, tragic any of these words will suffice.
So I found a few options.
These are called Starlettos:
Personally I think they are a little too chunky. And they have glitter in them which I'm none to thrilled about. But they certainly look like they would do the trick. If all else failed.
There are these:
These are by heelstoppers. Which are more discreet and come in a few colors. They have a lot of bejeweled versions that I personally think are ridiculous looking but again. They are better than nothing.
Now these seem the best:
Mostly because they are the smallest and most discreet. They are pretty much one use only though whereas the others seemed to be reusable. I don't expect needing them after the wedding day but you never know.
These last ones are called heels above:
I thought this photo was a great example of exactly what will happen without the assistance of something like this. I also thought that it was ironic that my blog title was the same as their slogan without having seen it first. "A smart solution to a silly problem"
The only thing discouraging that I noticed though was that all of the products are available through the UK. Are British women the only ones wearing stilettos outside? Do American women somehow not have a problem with their shoes sinking into the ground?
Hm.
I knew I wanted my something blue to be my shoes. Call me a Carrie follower I don't really care. I love the idea of wearing a colored shoe to peek through under your dress.
That being said I already knew, without having searched before, what I pretty much wanted the shoes to look like. The blue needed to be between sapphire to navy shade range, I think anything brighter would clash with my ivory dress. And I wanted them to be preferably satin and preferably have some sort of embellishment. If the shoe came without an embellishment I could easily put a shoe clip on them which would be vintage looking anyway.
And so I googled "blue satin shoe". These are the ones I loved. 
Its the brooch that makes these so stunning really. And the simplicity of the rest of the shoe makes them a classic beauty, but honestly I feel like they are a little bright blue.
Then I saw these.
Love them. Perfect. Literally. They have all the elements I want. High heel, right color blue, satin, gorgeous embellishment.
There is only one problem. They are $400. Not exactly in my wedding budget.
So I looked again.
And found these.
And I thought oh my gosh they are gorgeous too. They are a beautiful mix of the first two and still have all the elements I want. Except, they're $400 too.
Crap.
Well I got a lot done this week.
Thanks to the help of my FI's sister I found a caterer and made a few planning changes that will make things run a lot more smoothly. I'm going with Fat Freddy's. And I'm hiring servers. I wasn't going to becuase I had originally thought, its a buffet what do I need people to do? Well it turns out I need them to do quite a bit. So I'm happy to have that out of the way. The only sad part is since I don't live there I miss out on doing a tasting. And thats the best part! Oh well.
I picked my invites. I know. I know. I already said that I picked my invites but after discussing it with my family the fabric idea was just more time consuming than I could commit to. But thats ok I'm happy with what I ended up with. I picked a preboxed invite kit by BRIDES.
Cute right? Well when I'm done with them they will be better. I made my own succulent graphic because originally I (as you well know by now) had plans to do my own. John is going to tinker with it to make it high quality and I'll put a large version of it in the corner with the wording over top. The inspiration for my wording style is not as ordinary as on this invite either. I'm going to use gray ink instead of black and the typeface will look more like this
Very retro. I likey!
So theres that.
I found my dress which I am very very much in love with but I can't post it because I recently found out John reads my blog on occasion. I told him that this was the dress I got.
Hahahaha!
But I will say that I took a major leap of faith. You see, I fell in love with a couture gown. And so then I was stuck with what I thought were only two choices, (well one really) blow my entire wedding budget on my dress (not really an option but it is an idea) or find something else. But then, a third and rather risky option presented itself to me.
Order a designer impostor. Online. From China.
I weighed the options many times and flip flopped about what to do. But in the end what really sold me, aside from the $4000 savings was that the turnaround time of the online dress was about three times as fast. Could be good, could be bad. Needless to say I took the plunge and order it. So I got out my tape measure, had my mom take about 20 different measurements and sent them an email that very clearly stated what I wanted. And now, I hold my breath and wait.
I found this idea online at project wedding and I think it couldn't be more perfect for the them and style of my wedding. Plus we aren't serving alcohol so it shakes up the regular options.
Really though. Its genius.
And lastly I think I have come up with a very very clever idea for my guestbook. While this has not been something that I've been too concerned about I have known that I didn't want a traditional book that I would inevitably put in a box and never look at again. So last night I had really terrible insomnia and then the idea just hit me. But, I'm not going to tell you just yet. First I need to do my homework and get all the details together.
BYE!!!
I realized there is no explanation for the small "pom pom count" at the bottom of my last few notes. I am a knitter, actually because of John but thats another story. I have been looking for a way to incorporate my love of fiber into my wedding without it looking campy or cheap. I will admit that I was looking for inspiration long before I was even engaged. Hey a girl knows what she wants sometimes right? Anyway I struck gold when I found this wedding...
Seriously can you stand it? I know!
Anyway, as I'm sure you can figure out this was the answer. And now that I am engaged and my colors are chosen the pom pom making has begun. And its tedious and slow but its going to be worth it I'm sure.
So as I said before I want to do my invitations like the ones I showed you below that I found on merriment designs. I think the are chic and pretty and have that unique vintage twist I was looking for. The fabric featured on these invites are litterally perfect for my theme. It is the right colors, yellow and grey and it has great retro look too it. Sadly what I thought was a stroke of luck turned out to be a disapointment because after doing a little research, aka stalking the designer, I found out that this is vintage fabric and the girl who had these made bought all of it. Smart girl. Bad news for me.
So I kept looking. It is really not that easy to find fabric in a yellow, grey and white color scheme with large flowers on it but.....
I think I found it.
I think.
I say this because the picture of the fabric on the website (which I cannot reveal because I don't want it getting all bought up!) is dark and its hard to tell if its cute but I think it would really work.
What do you think? Maybe yes? Grey, yellow and white?
And (go with me on this) doesn't it kind of look like the flowers could be succulents?
Could be perfect?
Well thats that.
Oh I booked my photgrapher! Yay go me!
pom pom count: 60 of 800
I would say the two things I really don't want to do are pick out invitations and pick a photographer. Honestly its only because these two have the most choices and required the most research. And for the invitations I want to do DIY but I have never done this nor do I know anyone who has so I find this task to be not only arduous but intimidating because I don't really know what I'm looking for. That was until last night.
I sat down to, once again, try to narrow down my invites when I came upon this website, merriment design, and it was like the heavens opened and sang! All I could think was this is it! This is them! And as if that was good enough Kathy (the designer of these beautiful invites) placed VERY detailed instructions on how to do them yourself and where she got her supplies from. The icing on the cake was that her sources were exactly my price point.
DUNNZO!
I am redesigning the merriment invite (with the help of my very talented web designer fiance!) and I am going to probably make some kind of fabric belly band that opens and has a large flower in the middle. So for your viewing pleasure I would like to present my inspiration for my invites.
Seriously can you stand it?
This epiphany has inspired me to face my next dread of getting a photographer narrowed down. So I'll be on the phone all day.
And on a depressing note, I was really excited to pick up my ring today and its a little bit to small for my chubbo fingers. So now, even though I spent forever trying to find a jeweler who could get it back to me in less than two weeks its gunna end up taking that long anyway cause now I have to take it back. : (
Good Grief
Pom Pom Count: 53 of 800 done.
Even though I have only been engaged for a 2 and half weeks because of the shorter than norm time frame I am bombarded with things from to do lists. Which can be very overwhelming when over half of them say "overdue!". But part of me feels happy that we are breaking out of the mold. Happy that we are going against what society says we should do when we get engaged, to plan for at least a year. It can be done. My wedding will be the most gorgeous wedding of my dreams and I will have done it all in a little more than four months. So to toot my own horn per-say I am proud to say that I have my ceremony venue, reception venue, baker, and officiant booked. I have my entire decor plan done for both the ceremony and the reception, lots of estimates from caterers, photographers and rental company's. My wedding party has been asked and they are looking for their dresses. I have a clear vision of what I want for my flowers, favors, invitations, my dress and Johns attire. I have the entire day outlined to a "T". All my DIY projects listed out and a few of them started. All in two and a half weeks.
So take that bridal magazines! And here is some eye candy for today!
How much do you love these? I know I do!
<3
I am temporarily turning this into my wedding inspiration blog!
Thats right. I'm getting married. John proposed and I said yes and now we cant wait to be husband and wife! So we've set the date, May 8 2010 in Phoenix AZ followed by a ring ceremony and open house in Wilmington DE. Yes its fast but when your in school full time and work full time there are few choices for a wedding date and I couldn't bear the thought of waiting over a year till my next break so 4 Months it is! And boy do I have a lot to do! But thats ok I have been VERY VERY blessed with a free wedding planner via John's sister-in-law Christian, an interior designer with impeccable taste.
The first site I went to was oncewed the site features tons of real weddings that all have a vintage theme. I love love love all of the weddings on this site so the theme was the first decision I made. Next I needed to choose a color scheme. I wanted it to evoke the joy and happiness that we are going to be experiencing that day so what better color than yellow! Flowers were an easy choice because I have known for a long time I wanted to feature succulents as my flowers because they are one of my favorite plants.
And so there you have it!
Here is some inspiration photos!
And so there you have it!
Here is some inspiration photos!
So there you have it!
It is without contest my most favorite time of the year.
There is something magical that happens around Christmas. The lights on everything makes the whole city beautiful. The decorations in the house are a constant reminder of the impending glorious day. The parties where you grow closer to the ones you love. The delicious food that seems to be in endless supply. The traditions that bring families closer together. The movies and music that are only on at this time. Even people become nicer, laugh more, are more giving and compassionate.
There truly is a spirit of Christmas that only happens during this season that brings joy to peoples hearts.
My family, (mom), started a new tradition this year. A holiday Murder Mystery Party! It was such a blast and everyone really got into the game, even wearing costumes from the era, 1950's, and playing their parts to a "T". We had so much fun stepping outside of the norm and pretending to be someone else for a night. I cant wait to do it again next year.
Here is Christy, "Reggie" reading up on her character.
Little do we know she is a conniving thief!
Christopher won for best character.
He kept up the act ALL night with his outrageous southern accent.
My dad. The innocent looking Dr. Bruiseyard was
the MURDERER of the night!
What a cute waitress and host.
My mom did an amazing job and the whole party went off without a hitch.
John was Patrick Evington-Browne and I was Christy Crompton.
We were both students from Harvard Law!
A great time was had by all. Love you all and have a very very happy holiday!
My girlfriend Jen and I and a few other girls all decided it would be a great idea to go down to the beach and go black friday shopping at the outlets. So we met up at 10:30 and drove the almost 2 hours down to the beach and prepared to save some serious cash.
Upon arrival it was very exciting to find out that the sales did not disappoint at all. With deals like 50% off everything in Banana Republic and JCrew, an extra 20% off of the 50% off of Coach and buy one get one deals everywhere else we shopped till we dropped. Literally. Because the deals were so great it seemed like the entire state was there which meant we spent 8 and a half hours shopping/waiting in line. The lines were out the door and sometimes took well over an hour.
I was delirious and close to throwing up from fatigue but in the end it was worth it. I finished almost all of my Christmas shopping and spent about half as much as I would have if I had not taken advantage of the sales so I'm happy.
Since I have no pics from this terribly tiresome experience here are some from Johns Birthday a few months ago. lol
I want to try to remember the point of Thanksgiving this which is simply to be thankful. So here are five things that I am thankful for on this Thanksgiving.
1) My boyfriend. He is strong and supportive when I need it and loving and funny when I need that too. I forever gratefull to have him in my life.
2) My parents. They have graciously taken me back into their home and we have had the wonderful opportunity to live together and get to know one another as adults and friends.
3) My job. It is very tiresome and frusterating most of the time but in these hard economic times I know what a rareity it is to have a job at all. To have one that continues to be an educational experience almost everyday is even better.
4) My Heavenly Father. Whom I know blesses me far above and beyond what I am ever capable of comprehending.
5) Myself. My stammina and perserverance. My willingness to keep my eye on the prize and always remember that the end justifies the means. This road has not and will not be easy but I am confident it will be worth it.
Thank you to all. I love you and have a happy Thanksgiving.
ps. and tofurky!
Its sunny and beautiful today. Something that would not be if not for global warming. So I am happy to have it, even if it does mean killing off the planet.
What have I been up to?
1) I received my OFFICIAL letter welcoming me to the nursing program starting in January. This would have been exciting to me if I had known I was waiting said letter. As such, it ended up making me feel annoyed and stressed because all I saw was; Dear Allison, This is your college. Pay us money. Thank you. Which reminded me I still owe them from the present semester I'm in. yay.
2) I received another even less exciting letter in the mail. It went something like this;
Dear Allison, This is the government. You are being audited. Pay us money. Thank you.
3) My car decided not shift therefore forcing me to fork out a truckload of money to fix it. Oh, and the check engine light is still not off.
4) It is almost Christmas. And therefore I am going into Christmas mode. But with all of the above events I am having a hard time feeling the spirit of the season. But I am presently establishing a plan of attack so that despite all of my wonderful newly acquired bills I am guaranteed to still feel like its Christmas.
At first I was going to go the cheater route and buy a box of red velvet mix but still home make the icing because I don't think the canned kinds are "cream cheesy" enough. But after a some research I learned there really is not a very good ready-to-go red velvet mix available so I did the next best thing and doctored up a cake mix.
I also knew that I wanted to stuff them. I LOVE stuffed cupcakes I cant remember the last time I didn't stuff a cupcake. I don't think an attribute of a cupcake should be low fat, healthy, light or otherwise. It is quite litterally a cake in a cup and therefore I want it to tast as such, a rich delicious single sized cake. So anyay, being that the nature of red velvet is chocolate albeit hard to tell most times, I put chocolate ganache in the middle.
Verdict:
The cupcakes themselves are bright red and really moist. I was disapointed that they fell after cooling. Im pretty sure that it was because the batter was pretty dense and I kept playing with the liquid ratio so it got a little over beaten. That and I think my oven could have been about 25 degrees hotter. But they are still good.
The Ganache was a splendid idea and I'm very happy I did it. It really brings out the cocoa flavor in the cake. Plus its a rich gooey surprise in the middle.
My only, and I do mean only, complaint about cream cheese icing is that it is softer than regular icing and therefore harder to get it to keep its form. Which is why the store bought kind is so much more sweet than homemade becuase the added sugar helps it stiffen up. That being said, the icing is in a word, fantastic.
Semi-Homemade Red Velvet Cake
1 Box Yellow Cake Mix. I used Betty Crocker Butter Recipe Yellow.
1 Box chocolate pudding - the cook and serve kind
1 stick butter
1 cup buttermilk. If you don't have this you can add 1 tbls lemon juice to regular milk.
3 eggs
1 tbls red food coloring
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Mix the wet ingredients first, then add the dry somewhat slowly. (to avoid a dust storm!) This will produce a thick cake batter. Line your cupcake tin with baking cups and fill to a little over 3/4 full. (I find it easiest to use a ladel to do this). Put them in the oven and bake for 17 minutes or until toothpick comes out clean. Cool completly before frosting.
yeilds appox 2 dozen
Chocolate Ganache
8 oz semi sweet chocolate chips.
Using a double broiler, (This can be achieved by placing a glass bowl atop a pot of boiling water) pour in chocolate chips. Contiuously stir as they begin to melt to avoid scalding. When chips are about halfway melted pour in cream. Continue to stir until the chips have full melted and blended with the cream to form a smooth shiny chocolate mixture. Place in the refrigerator until cool, about an hour. Using a baking injector (I use a hostpital food syringe which is great becuase it has measurement markings all the way down) push it into the center of the cupcakes and twirl around a bit to make the hole inside a little bigger (not the one at the top) and fill with desired amount. Repeat till done.
Cream Cheese Icing - I doubled this recipe because I like a lot of icing
10 tbls butter
4 cups confectioners sugar
4 tsps vanilla extract
I'm in the mood for a big bulky cowl and I happen to have a skien of some Lion Brand Thick and Quick in cream left from when I made my Wrenna. I was looking for something simple and bulky that was like the big beautiful cowls made by Fringe which I adore.. And I found the My Kind of Cowl pattern on Ravelry. I looked at it and said to myself "Yes. This is just what I was looking for. Super easy and simple. Why I could probably finish in a hour or so."
But, after reading the very simple and slight instructions I realized two things; 1) I don't know how to do a provisional cast on. And, 2) I don't know how to graft. Which I know is other wise known as the Kitchener Stitch. A stitch I have read about many times but never attempted due to its complexity. So after watching this video on provisional cast on. Followed by this video on the Kitchener stitch. I'm off to make my seeming very simple cowl. And hopefully it will turn out like this.....
(this is the designers version)
Also, I did finish my star crossed hat for Christy. Actually I did it twice. At first I thought that I didn't want it to be as slouchy as it was in the pictures so I altered the pattern a bit. But then when I finished the hole thing it was a cap and not a beret at all. So after thinking about it for about a week I decided to pull the thing apart and start again. This time following the instructions as given and it turned out great. I finished a hat that I came up with on my own for Michele. I called it the Walrus and the Carpenter Hat. After my favorite book. Its a very simple thing with a simply double cable pattern alternating up and down that turned out really good. Its very loose, aka big, which is good for her big head. Haha. Anyway, I'll post some pics of them both the next time I do my hair and actually look decent enough to take pictures with them on.
till then....
I am feeling (knitwise) like I'm in a slump. But for the first time its not so much because I am uninspired. Which is normally what happens. No, its because I have all these things that I need to knit that I kinda don't want to.
The heap of sheep scarf for my mom, that I have officially decided is going to have to be a Christmas present, is not only not very cute, mostly because of the heap of sheep, but its terribly repetitive. However I would expect this to be the case with any scarf given the length needed.
The sweet haze (new and final name) I'm bored with. Like most people get with a big project where again, you do the same repetitive stitch a lot. But part of me is still excited to wear it, even though I think it makes my arms look kinda fat but we'll see.
But seriously, its getting cold and I want to make cute hats and cardigans and mittens and I cant do any of them cause when I finish the scarf I need to do my Christmas knitting. So... thats that.
Here are the new pictures of my Wrenna. I wore it today and reminded me how much I like it.
Au Revoir
