Wed Recap: It takes an army (tons of pics & video!)

I totally realized that I hadn't scheduled a post about my team of wonderful ladies who helped beautify and dress me on the day of the wedding.  I can't believe I forgot this normal recap because even though I was irritated by all the photos our photographer didn't get, the 'getting ready' shots are truly some of the most beautiful and my favorite shots of the day.  But before you check out the photos, here's a couple minutes of several pieced together videos of my friends and family getting me dressed :)

This is Natalie Buketov.  Natalie did my hair and makeup as well as hair and makeup for four of my bridemaids and my mom.  She showed up at 7:30 in the morning and left just after our first look when we were about to start pictures which was probably at about 2 pm.  My girls looked GORGEOUS!

Yes, I have false eyelashes on here for sure

Getting ready some more.  I was the second to last one to get styled. 

Mom was the last one while my girls were getting me into my gown, shoes, jewelry, etc.

I don't know why, but I love this shot:

And so it begins.  It took an army of mostly my sister and my cousin A who handled the dress part and then my cousin E, bestie L and friend D handled putting on my garter, shoes and jewelry.

Took a while to get that corset laced up but it sure was pretty.

Bridesmaids L & D help me get my bracelet and necklace on.  BM L gave me the earrings I wore that day as my gift when I served as the Maid of Honor in her wedding about 9 years earlier.

Ok, funny story.  I had my designer Jeanette make my bracelet out of a clip on earring I bought at a vintage swap meet.  So you know what a clip on earring looks like on the back?  She added a ring that slipped over the little 'clip' part.  But there was kind of this big space between the two sides of the pearls where the earring was attached.  So Mr Fix It had a great idea to use fishing line to tie together the two rings next to the pearls to pull them under the earring.  He's so resourceful, that man!

This is what my cousin A calls her 'happy clap.'  I'd be happy too if I was almost done trying to get me in this monstrous dress with it's ridculous corset.

Cousin E holds up my gown while friend D places my garter on. 

Photo by Yan Freedline

Once we were all dressed, they asked me to spin around a couple times in my gown.  But I was in the middle of a not so big room with all 6 of my BM's around me.  Wasn't easy but I still love this shot with my reflection in the mirror behind me. 

Photo by Yan Freedline

The girls are tending to my hair and placing my veil in just before our ceremony is about to begin.

And once we were all finished, these are the results we got of some bride shots while walking around the grounds at the venue.  I love this one because of the colors and the sun and shade coming through the trellis.

This one is kind of cool because it shows the cafe in the background.  That deck to the right is where the cocktail hour was held and I am standing down in the back of the ceremony area.

Um, hello bright green trees! 

Photo by Yan Freedline

This next pic was one of those ones I was telling you about that I was pissed about from our photog.  I remember telling him I wanted a shot like this on this blue bench and we posed for it but he didn't deliver it to me at all.  Then my videographer sent me the photos that his wife took and I got this one! 

Thank goodness because I absolutely love it. 

Photo by Yan Freedline

As a matter of fact, here's 2 more favorites I got only from our videographer's wife, Yan

Photo by Yan Freedline

Photo by Yan Freedline

TODAY'S WEDDING TIP:  I've said it before, but I'll say it again.  Be sure to have your bridesmaid or mom or whoever is going to be assisting you with getting into your dress and jewelry practice at least once before the wedding.  It's best for them to go with you to your fittings to practice there but at the very least to give you an idea of how long it's going to take you to get fully dressed so you can plan your wedding day schedule accordingly and not be running late!

Unless otherwise indicated, all photos by Robert Mullins

Raw video footage courtesy of Video Keepsakes of Beverly Hills

A wedding recap - spots on my dress!

Ok, so I told you there would be no order to my recaps.  I know I started off with a couple honeymoon recaps but if I did that for two weeks straight, I might lose you.  So I thought I would share a few pics and a story about something every girl dreads on her wedding day - spots and stains on your gown.

Plus, I've also decided that at the end of each of my wedding recaps I will leave you with a small tip, words of wisdom, experienced advice or suggestion from the lessons I learned that will hopefully help you in your future planning process and on your big day.

Now mind you, I got married at an outdoor venue with a zoo.  So if you plan to do ANY pictures or wedding related events outside in your dress, just simply plan on the fact that you will in fact get some type of dirt or stain on your gown.  No way around it.  In fact, even if you don't step outside at all in your dress, unless you are wearing something that is above your ankles, people will step on it, food will get near it, and just a dirty floor in general are bound to stain that beauty.

Looking back, I was a horrible blogger bride.  I did not get photos of lots of little things (like the spots on my gown) that I knew I would blog about.  So forgive me for my lack of images in a lot of these recaps.

Anyhow, here is a pic of me in the pretty little Maggie Sottero SaBelle gown that I donned on April 16th (remember I have no pro pics yet):

And here's one showing that lovely train in all it's beaded, embellished, laced glory:

Here's a pic of my mom and niece checking out the zoo at the venue the day before during the rehearsal:

And here's one of my mom and my nephew (one of the ring bearers) and his other grandma sitting on the bench at the venue during the rehearsal:

Why am I showing you these random pics of the zoo and the bench?  Well, notice the things on the ground in those pics?  Dirt...and grass.  And even on the concrete areas of the venue there were leaves and dirt.  Now mind you, this venue, they keep it in tip top shape.  The night before your wedding from 3 am to 7 am, they have a cleaning company come in and sweep and hose everything down.  So it's not like it was filthy.  This is just what happens when you are, well, outside, DUH!

Now try to walk around and maneuver something like this throughout these type of grounds:

Needless to say, I got some great stains on my gown.  As I mentioned, if you plan on walking anywhere outside (and especially if you have a train), you will most definitely get your dress dirty.  Underneath my train was covered in dirt.  The top was not that bad, but it was not spot clean either.  At one point, my photog had me sitting on one of the little ledges in front of some shrubs and trees to get photos with my girls.  Later, while we were standing around, I noticed that there was a huge yellow stain of pollen from the flowers on the back side of my gown right on my waist.  Totally noticeable. 

I called over my coordinator and some BM's and asked them to get the bar of white ivory soap and the washcloth I had brought in the bridal cottage to do some spot cleaning.  My seamstress suggested using a bar of pure soap and washcloth to dab at stains rather than a stain remover type pad.

Well, the wash cloth and soap did little to assist in the removal of the stain.  Of course, my lovely coordinator Amanda had SHOUT stain remover pads in her waist belt.  So after realizing my seamstress' idea was not working, I gave her the go ahead to use the SHOUT.  And thankfully, the little yellow spot came almost completely out. 

Everyone around me was freaking out about the stain and the girls were shocked at how relaxed I was about the whole thing.  I am a type-A total control freak, perfectionist, stress-case weirdo about a lot of planned things in my life.  But I had resolved myself to the fact that nothing was going to upset me on our wedding day.  And I stuck to just that.  (Now granted, a few things have upset me about the wedding day after the fact, but you'll have to wait for future posts to read about those.)  So if they hadn't gotten the yellow stain out, I wouldn't have cared...after all, it was on the back side and if it showed up any pics, they could have photoshopped it out.

However, after we were completely done with all of the photos, once the guests started arriving just before the ceremony, I had my sister and BM Cousin A go out on the back patio with me and they inspected my entire gown and dabbed away with the soap and cloth to try to get some of the dirt stains out.  It wasn't horrible and they did a good job.

But believe me, this was not the last of my unfortunate encounters with stains on my dress...the best was yet to come...and at the worst possible moment!!!  (Stay tuned in a future recap)

Today's tip:  Be sure to understand what will happen in getting your dress dirty on wedding day.  Don't think it won't happen no matter how careful you are.  Be prepared!  Bring with you in your emergency kit:  water, pure bar of soap, a *white* wash cloth, stain removing pads, club soda, paper towels, Tide Eraser pen, etc. 

And the BEST thing that my coordinator had on her:  WHITE CHALK!  That little yellow stain of pollen, Amanda said that white chalk can be gently rubbed over most wedding gown stains to help 'hide' them on your big day.  I don't know if she had to use it or not because I think we got most of it out, but it was there in her hand at our disposal.

My almost disastrous wedding gown purchase!

I found this site, Julius Bridal, online.  They're based in New York and make gowns in China (where almost all wedding gowns are made) and sell them online.  They are known for creating knockoffs of designer gowns or custom gowns for fractions of what you would normally pay.  I was so excited because I found a dress on their site I thought would be perfect for me for about $400!!!

This was what I originally planned on purchasing:

I loved the gown, but when I tried on a similar style in a bridal shop, I didn't like how it looked 'on me.'  It was more like a down comforter or quilt.  So that was out.  I then spent 2 months searching through 7 salons looking for a gown.  At the last place, I finally found the Maggie Sottero SaBelle gown and fell in love.  I posted about it last week here.

But at the $1400 price tag, I hadn't planned on spending that much for a gown.  I contacted Julius Bridal.and showed them the dress asking if they could make a knockoff of it for me.  They said they'd make it for $700 or $800.  More than what I originally planned on paying but way less than the Maggie cost from a salon.

My mom and sister flipped out on me telling me it was not worth it to chance having a gown copied like this.  Especially by an online store.  I started researching these type of sites.  You need to be really careful, because they advertise their gowns as though they are actually the designer's dress...but in reality, they are creating a copy of it...not selling you the designer's actual gown.  And they do it for anywhere from $250 to $800.  Sounds great, right?

I read lots of positive reviews about Julius Bridal and felt okay with asking them to make it.  Spoke with their representative and she told me that it turns out they had just recently made a copy of my exact gown for someone else.  So she e-mailed me pictures.

This was the SaBelle gown by Maggie Sottero:

And these were the pics they sent me of their 'copy' of this gown:

I mean, it's sort of obvious that they were copying the dress, but it was *NOT* the same dress as what the original was.  The back in particular is completely different!  I would have bawled had that gown shown up on my doorstep!!!  Thanks to Mom, she offered to compensate me the difference to buy the original SaBelle by Maggie Sottero so that I didn't have to spend more than I budgeted for a gown.  And I also negotiated a phenomenal price with the bridal salon so I bought it for even less than what the ticket price was!

My advice:  If you're thinking of buying online, don't!  At least not if you want an extravagant, detailed type of gown.  Interpretation is almost always lost in communication.  Have you ever checked out the site Cake Wrecks?  They should have one for gowns!

The DRESS(es)!!! And some help for those of us who are less endowed

Yes, I am a two dress bride and proud of it!  Why you ask?  Well, because once you see my wedding dress (hold on a second), you'll realize that it's just not fair to make a woman 'carry' around a dress that weighs just as much as she does for over ten hours!

That said, I am about to show you the first of my dresses - the photo/ceremony/cocktail hour/dinner dress.  And then tomorrow I'll show you the reception/first dance/dancing dress.  But first, I have not told any of my family or friends about the link to this blog.  Most of them don't even really care...but just for the sake of safety, if ANY of my family/friends or Mr Fix It happen to do some detective work and come across this blog...LEAVE NOW!  This post is not for you - you can fix your pretty little eyes on these beauties come April 16th! 

Are you gone now?  Good!

So, let me first put in a few disclaimers before I post these awful photos:

1)  The lighting suh-ucks!  The camera is actually my videocamera that doubles for photos and not well.
2)  I am not tan in the photos which does actually make a difference in how photogenic I am.
3)  I do not have hair or makeup done in these photos and they were all taken at the end of my work day.
4)  My sister is not into blogs like I am and therefore, she doesn't have the passion to shoot everything perfectly or at all angles to share with all you lovelies, so please excuse these if they do not give due justice to the items.
5)  The dresses are fresh out of their bags...no steaming or pressing yet.  So they do not look 'pretty' yet.

That said, up first - the main wedding gown - my gorgeous Maggie Sottero SaBelle!

Drums please...introducing - My wedding gown!

Well, quite simply:  It's a Maggie Sottero.  My cousin (and bridesmaid) mentioned her to me when I was shopping with my girls describing what I wanted and could not find the dress at all.  I found plenty of gorgeous dresses that I liked different things from each one, but not THE one that had it all.  Until I started to browse Maggie's site and found several that were so close.

But I have to tell you, I looked at several dresses online and on the rack/hanger that looked nothing like what I expected when I put them on.  It's truly hard to tell just from a picture.  You really need to put on a few different styles and see what 'feels' good and looks good on you and then you can begin to narrow it down.
And thanks to my southern belle, Marina at the 7th salon I visited, I was able to finally find the perfect Maggie gown.  And here it is:

And the back which is what I die for because it's a corset AND has just the right amount of uniqueness with the beading that comes around the back but doesn't cover it.

And finally, mine will actually have straps like this because I am not huge of strapless at all for myself.  So what do you think?

Photos:  http://www.maggiesottero.com/