Progress and Setbacks

Well, we got a good bit of stuff done today.

• Dropped off my engagement ring to have it dipped for the wedding
• Had blood drawn for blood tests (this was a small nightmare)
• Finished addressing the invitation envelopes
• Picked up tie tacks for the groomsmen
• Had Mike fitted for his tux

But we had two annoying setbacks.

First, the jewelers cannot resize our rings. They won't cut mine down and Mike's can only go up half a size. So now, we have beautiful rings, but we can't wear them. It's back to the drawing board for temporary rings. Then we'll see about having an independent jeweler resize the set we want. Ugh!

Second, the cute little ballet slippers we wanted for our flower girls are no longer available without ordering them online. Somebody (I won't mention any names) never called us back about his daughter's shoe size. Of course, this is the same person who also has not let us know if he has even been fitted for his tux. Ugh. I had planned to wait and get the shoes together so that I knew the girls would have comfortable, matching shoes. Now it's on to plan B--harrass said person until we find out the size. If plan B does not work, then plan C--buy cute shoes for one and ask the second to bring her own. (I think I'm sounding a bit bridezillaish--I apologize; it's an effect of the horrible bloodletting experience I had earlier. It will wear off and I'll be my sweet self again by morning.

Alright, off to print some invitations!

Flower Girl Dresses (A Decision)

After a very successful trip home, we've returned and rested. There were a lot of decisions made and plans finalized over the course of the week. But I left with one thing left to do on my list--flower girl dresses. However, now that we've been back and had time to get all of the ideas down on paper, we've also had the chance to search for flower girl dresses. Honestly, I found myself in a different world--the "Goldilocks bride" world. This dress was too poofy, this one was too grown up, this one too expensive. I even emailed Cathy for an opinion when I thought I had found "the dress." Unfortunately, I forgot to check sizes first. We couldn't get it in both the sizes that we wanted, so it was back to the drawing board.

Mike threw himself on the sword for this one. After half an hour, he had found the perfect dress (isn't he great)! So, without further ado...here is our flower girl dress. It's within our price range and in the sizes and colors we want. Yeah Mike! I'm ordering them next week.

A Few Ideas about Flowers

I had a scary moment the other day in which two very significant things happened. First, Mike agreed to let me have my cascading bouquet (yeah!), so now I have to rethink my flowers. But with that realization, I have also finally found myself able to make a few flower decisions. Now, some of you may think these are all minor, but think about this flower killing bride as having made some significant progress.

We've decided to have a Christmas tree on either side of the altar decorated with white lights and crimson and silver balls. I thought about adding tinsel, but the kind I want would take WAY too long to clean up.

Now, my tentative plans are to have the wedding in front of the fireplace at the hall, an if we stick to this, I'd like to have a garland of holly berries, gardenia (and whatever greenery I'm using) across the mantle.

I don't know how I want to decorate the rest of the ceremony hall (be patient, one step at a time), but I've made a few other decisions.

I want to stick to the over-arm bouquets for my bridesmaids and have them consist of gardenias and perhaps a few dark holly berries. I want to wrap the stems in crimson ribbon (my "other" color) and then wrap my bouquet in a silver and crimson ribbon (perhaps braided).

I also decided that in lieu of an aisle runner, I'm going to give my flower girls separate colored petals. I want one walking down the aisle with crimson petals and one with white petals. This way, I think there will be enough color variation that I can get away with not having an aisle runner.

Also, we've decided to keep the centerpieces for the reception tables very simple. I want to have a pillar candle in white and then alternate between crimson and silver (if I can find them) tea light candles on different tables. Then, I'm going to sprinkle a few crimson and white rose petals around them and call it done.

So there we have the current flower decisions. Now I'm excited about talking to the florist and finalizing the details for the flowers. I can't wait to see what ideas she has.

A Flower Girl's Head Shoud Not be Consumed!

When I first started looking at flowers, I was considering floral wreaths for the flower girls. I could just picture the darlings with dainty little wreaths in their hair. I've decided, however, to go with something more along the lines of tiaras (and I'm sure the girls will appreciate it). They are princesses, after all. But let me give you a chuckle or two as to the final decision that made me realize I did not want flowers in the head of my flower girls.


I want to say, sure, these were good ideas in concept (and these are not the worst that I've seen), but a flower girl's head is only so big. Tiaras. Definitely tiaras. Oh, and how terrible am I for looking at millions of flower girls and continuing to think how much more adorable mine are!

Flower Girls, Fishing and Formal Wear

One of my favorite pictures of one of my flower girls involves her standing on the patio of her grandparents' lake house in a princess dress with her hands extended as she smiles for the camera. The reason this is one of my favorite pictures is not that she looks like the perfect little princess all dressed up for the ball. In fact, this is my favorite picture because she has dirt and worm guts all over her hands. Her cousin and partner in flower girl land is much the same way. These two precious girls are my flower girls because they remind me much of myself at the same age. I didn't care what I was wearing; if there was a tree to climb or a worm bin to play with, I was all over it.

So, in the past few days, I've been procrastinating my paper research to look for the perfect dresses for these little angels. I've seen many adorable dresses that would work well with the wedding theme and look precious on the girls. But I refuse to buy any of these dresses. Why not? Well, I have reality staring me in the face. My bridesmaids gowns are costing about $180 each. I can fully justify spending this money on these great women because the attire is a two piece and both pieces can (and I hypothesize will be) worn at later dates. Flower girl dresses. Well, that's another story. These precious little girls will likely wear the dresses again--and I hope they will until they outgrow them. And I know that my girls will wear the dresses to climb trees in, to fish in, or to splash around in a mud puddle if there's one nearby. And there is nothing wrong with that. However, paying between $150 and $300 for a cute dress that will end up wit mud, tree branches, and worm guts on it is completely out of the question.

The sad thing is that I know exactly what I want in a flower girl dress. It's the one in this post. But with some sleeves. The dress is adorable without sleeves, but little frozen flower girls are not on the wedding agenda. What I like best about this dress is that it is, really, a simple A-line dress that isn't overly sophisticated for such young girls. But, I'm refusing to buy it. Why? It runs about $175 at the cheap sites online. That's ludicrous! So, next spring, I'm going shopping for my girls. I want something similar to this dress, but with sleeves. I figure something similar cannot be too hard to find. A simple white dress with sleeves. Then, what I can do is get a sash that matches the color of my bridesmaids' gowns, or one in the oft forgotten color of my wedding (crimson) and add that to the dress. If I'm feeling creative (and my friends who are not as sewingly challenged as I am offer help), it would not be a problem to attach the sashes either around the waist or, like in this dress, around the upper hem of the dress. I figure that buying the gowns just around Easter and then purchasing the sash and attaching it, I'm still coming out with a more reasonable price than they charge for any "official" flower girl dress.