Wed Recap: I feel like I am suffocating!

If you don't remember, I shared in this post about my fear pre-wedding that I would pass out on my wedding day or even worse, at the altar!  Then in this post I did a recap of what the morning of the wedding was like for me and how whenever there was 'down time' during the day of the wedding where I was just sitting with nothing to do, I would truly feel nauseous and like I was going to pass out.

Please understand, this was not a feeling of being anxious or nervous.  No, I think what was really causing me to feel this way was that I was lacking oxygen! 

I truly did love this gorgeous little number:

(The one above is my FAVORITE photo of me in my dress that day because it is just fanned out so perfectly.  If only my bouquet wasn't so high and huge blocking this beautiful bustline below.)

The more I look at the pictures and video from our wedding, the more I fall in love with it. 

Yes, Maggie Sottero made a great gown when she came up with the SaBelle.  And one of the main reasons I chose this dress was because it had a corset back:

I have always been pretty thin my whole life but once in a great while my weight fluctuates up or down.  I didn't want to take the chance of a strapless gown falling off of me if I lost weight right before the wedding so I wanted a corset that could be adjusted to allow some freedom for my body.  And I really loved the style and embellishments around it, too.

Unfortunately, the problem with a corset is that they are extremely constricting.  Remember that scene in Titanic where Kate Winslet's character is having her corset dress tied up by her mother and she pulls the thing so tight she can barely breathe?  Well, that's what a corset does, DUH!  I don't know why women ever used to put themselves through the torture back in the day! 

Being that I don't boast much of a chest, I needed the gown to be pretty tight because there was nothing else to hold it up.  Add that in with a gown that my seamstress referred to as 'the heaviest wedding dress I've ever worked on' and you have a pretty bad combination for a bride who is prone to passing out.

Thus, I give you one of my favorite video clips of the raw footage from my wedding.  Since my friend, Charlie is singing at the time me and Mr Fix It are having this little conversation, I added in some captions to assist with what we are saying to one another, but you may want to turn the volume up pretty loud to hear our conversations.  (I also love this because we are having full on random conversations during this moment of the ceremony and in addition Mr Fix It felt the need to point out that my false eyelash was coming off.) 

Basically, what it comes down to is that I was so freaking glad that I had planned on changing into a second dress to dance in. Originally, I wanted to wear my ball gown through the cocktail hour, grand entrance, toasts, and dinner.  Then I was going to change into my second dress when they reintroduced us for our first dance.  But after the cocktail hour I was done!  So I went in and changed into my second dress just before our Grand Entrance.  As we were standing behind the fireplace hiding from our guests until it was our turn to be introduced, I asked Mr Fix It what he thought of my new dress I had just put on.  He looked me up and down and said one word:  "Hot."

These are some of the best shots I found of me in the reception dress.  It would have looked a hell of a lot sexier had I worn the gold heels I bought to go with it, but by this point of the day (like 7 hours after having been in my gown and other heels) I was too tired and had sore feet that were thanking me for grabbing a pair of the flip flop favors out of the basket you see right behind our cake table.

Look at the leg that this dress shows off!

And here's that stupid frown/smile again - UGH!

I absolutely loved the one sided strap and the bust of the dress.

Courtesy of Yan Freedline

Share time:  Did/Will you change into a second dress during your wedding events?  If not, were you comfortable in your one dress for the whole day?

Unless otherwise indicated, all photos by Robert Mullins
Raw video footage courtesy of Video Keepsakes of Beverly Hills

Wed recap: Photographer follow up & bustling nightmares...

First, let me say thank you so much to all of you who were so understanding and supportive of my frustrations yesterday in my post about our wedding photos.  I agree, that eventually, they won't matter in the long run other than a few key shots that we did actually get.  It's not like I did not get *any* great shots...it's more just the let down of the ones that are truly missing (family shots of me and my mom, my daughter with me and Mr Fix It, etc). And of course, it's so disappointing to not have great shots of all the time and work that went into all the details.  However, that said, I have a feeling our video will showcase all of our big day and even better with real life motion!  So I will definitely be including the video in the recaps as soon as I receive it (which I have been told will be tomorrow morning!).  I will keep you updated on whether or not we end up doing another shoot at our venue.

But let's get on with some hard core recaps now, shall we?

So I told you that my recaps will jump around.  :)  To hold true to that, I am going to start with some helpful info on your wedding day timeline regarding something most girls don't consider when thinking about where they want/need to be when:  the bustling of your dress!

Now, for those of you ladies who have pretty, simple gowns that either have no train or a minimal train that you simply want bustled up with one or two or even three hooks, this post is not for you :)  This is for those of us ladies who went big!  We wanted the ball gown or the ridiculously long 10 foot train and we got it!  It looks so gorgeous in pics, doesn't it?

But that thing is monstrous!  You typically don't want to be carrying it around all night, so you want to have a good old fashioned beautiful bustle.  Here you can see that Mr Fix It played 'train keeper' during our photo session. 

Well, I opted for two bustles...because of the fact that my dress kind of had two different fronts/sides, we had two different bustles....a french bustle on the side where all those gathers are in the pic above (on the right) and a standard 'pulled up' bustle on the left where the dress had all the lace and beading.  And in my fittings, it looked like this:

My amazing, seamstress, Janet Brunton (that's her in the pic above), did a phenomenal job of hemming my gown and adding the bustles for my sister (MOH J) to handle it mostly alone on the wedding day.  She even used colored bows and tacks to help MOH J to know which little ribbon/tie went with which little hook (blue ribbon to blue hook, red ribbon to red hook).  MOH J got real good at it in about 3 different fittings.  She could handle it on her own even though we had cousin A (a fellow Bridesmaid) help her out on the last time just to have a helping hand.  But see, on the day of the wedding, when it came time to do the bustling...yeah, it didn't work out that way. 

Here's a pic of me and all my bridesmaids in our bridal cottage - the place where all the prep work (makeup, hair, dressing, etc) took place on the property.  See that gown?  It may not look it, but it's huge!

As soon as the ceremony was over, me, Mr Fix It, my sister J, and I piled into this room.  Our officiant and Best Man were also there to sign the marriage license but then they headed off for cocktails.  We had purposefully taken *ALL* of our photos pre-ceremony (yes, we had a first look that will come in a future recap if you didn't already see it in our video trailer).  We didn't want to keep guests waiting for longer than an hour for cocktails and *we* wanted to enjoy the cocktail hour and that extra time with our guests. 

Well, MOH J and BM A began bustling away with the little ribbons and the hooks.  Now I don't know why, but it seemed like it was taking them longer than it did in the fittings.  Like 20 minutes maybe!  Did it take that long in the fittings and I just didn't realize it?  Were they having problems stressed out about the actual wedding day?  Who knows?  I didn't really care...but Mr Fix It sure did.  He let us know that he was getting antsy and wanted to head into cocktails.  I asked him to wait for me because I had this image in my head of us heading up to the cocktail area together and making a pre-grand entrance with all the guests clapping and greeting us on the patio.  But he just wanted to get out there without me!  Little twerp!  He began to get stressed and began to say that he was tired of waiting and we needed to hurry up.  I knew that this was just stressing out my poor sister who had already had a long day (more to come).  So I just told him to be patient..."It takes time to do this, baby...just a second and we'll be ready."  He wasn't having it.  So my options were to let him head up to cocktails without me or to just leave the bustle and forget it.  I opted for choice B.  I told my sister not to worry about the bustle...I was going to be changing out of the dress as soon as cocktails were over anyway so it didn't matter if it wasn't perfect for 45 minutes.  I think that really disappointed my sister and probably made her feel like she was failing in her bustling duties.  But I seriously did not care.

So we headed out to cocktails with my bustle half done and part of my train dragging on the ground...I didn't notice and I didn't care.  And no one (especially not the photographer) got any pictures of me with the bustle anyway so who cares?!?

TODAY'S WEDDING TIP:  Plan on giving yourself a good 20 to 30 minutes to handle the bustling of your dress.  Don't be stressed...kick everyone out of the room that doesn't need to be there.  Mr Fix It was really rushing us and stressing out my sis who had made such great effort to learn how to do it right.  Let your maids do their job and don't let anyone rush them in doing something they have probably practiced several times already.  And by the way, be sure that you take a maid or whoever will be handling the bustling with you to at least a few of your fittings to practice there with the seamstress!

100 Followers - And a giveaway!

It's official...I've been watching that little image on the right side of my blog wondering if I'd reach 100 followers.  Well, on Friday evening it happened:

YEA!

So of course, with a special landmark like this should come a giveaway of some sort, right?  I am excited to say that I have been contacted by a company to host a giveaway on March 1st.  I am in the process of finalizing the details so stay tuned next month for that one.  But for now, I'd love to give something away to a fellow blogger as a thank you for all of your support and wonderful feedback, comments and overall encouragement.

Problem is, I'm not sure what to give away!  I actually have two things leftover from the wedding (that hasn't even happened yet) that I am not going to be able to use.  I was thinking of selling them originally but figured maybe I'd just give one of them away instead.  So how about some feedback?

If you would be interested in one of the two following items, let me know.  By Wednesday morning I will announce which item I have decided to give away and will have a contest started that will end Friday evening with a winner announced on Saturday. 

Item # 1:  100 Red Chinese Take out Boxes

These are half pint size and measure 3" x 2 1/4" x 2 1/2"  I originally purchased them as favor boxes for the wedding but the red didn't match the deeper shade of cranberry that is my wedding colors.  So now I'm left with these brand new beauties.  You could use them to hold mini cupcakes as a favor at a bridal shower, birthday party or wedding.  Or for candy bar containers.  We decorated ours with colored ribbon and favor tags/stickers.  Since Valentine's Day is just around the corner, they'd make a great way to package gifts for friends, a classroom, church group, etc.

Item # 2:  Flower Girl or Junior Bridesmaid Dress

                    

You may remember that I didn't feel like this dress matched the style of my wedding after we received it.  It was originally purchased for my 6 year old cousin shown above and can be worn shorter or longer depending on the height of the girl.  The turquoise sash is detachable and so it can be coordinated with any color.  You can even add some embellishments (rhinestones, brooches, flowers, etc) if you are crafty enough.  It is a size 8 and cost $85 at a bridal salon...brand new, never altered...could be an amazing prize and dress for the right bride/person.

So majority will win.  Whichever item gets the most feedback as being desired will be the one I'll giveaway.

The DRESS(es)!!! Part Deux - The Reception Dress

So in yesterday's post, I showed you my wedding gown.  I also talked about how I had fallen out of love with her a bit....until, I put her on at my first fitting and told Janet (my seamstress) about how unhappy I was with her for some reason.  I shared some pictures of Miss SaBelle with Janet and told her that something wasn't laying right throughout the gown and I didn't like it. 

I also told her that I wanted the detail of the beading and the lace to show well through the front of the dress but I didn't want to have to wear a skirt (crinoline) underneath the gown in order to 'push' everything out and make it fuller and more visible.  The dress already weighs a ton so added fabric is not an option!

Thankfully, Janet got down there on the ground and started messing with my gown and was pleasantly surprised to see that with the gathers, pickups and the way the gown was stitched together, she could easily make some alterations to please me.

We first snipped a few threads from the very front of the dress...and suddenly, she laid perfectly!  The front flowed down across and didn't look like steps up my legs!  We then cut off two of the little rosettes that were on the front of the gown - it was too busy with all those flowers.  While they looked pretty up near the gathers, they looked lame just sitting on the front of the fabric.  Anyway, with a few snips and readjusting the fabric, my dream dress came back into view.  Janet saved the day!

So once that was out of the way, I slipped into what I like to call the Greek Goddess gown!  We didn't take any photos of it in Janet's home, but I do have some images from when I first bought her in my own home:

This will be the dress I perform our first dance in as well as keep on throughout the dancing portion of the reception:

She's a light ivory with a pretty chiffon flowy part and a very high sexy slit!  She has some gold throughout the applique and so I opted for some fun little gold heels to wear with her - sorry no pics yet, but I have them!  They are super comfy and will be great to dance in and have just a little bit of bling on them.  :)

So, there you have it...she needs to be steamed obviously and I need to find a super slim body hugging type garment to wear under her since she hugs my bod along my panty line :(  But other than that, seamstress Janet said it was a super cute dress and baby sis said it was pretty. 

I had originally thought I would do a short dress number for the reception change and was looking at these two dresses:

Source:  Windsor dress shop

But I'm glad I opted for the longer dress...as I think it is still sort of bridal but fun and different.  Are any of you ladies opting for a second dress to change into?

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!

Seriously Saturdays: Do I need to put blinders on?

Ok, is anyone with me on this or am I just a nut job?  I bought my dress about 10 months before my big day.  It arrived within 2 1/2 months and I absolutely love it.  Afterall, it took me 2 months, 7 salons between Orange County and LA and at least 30-40 different gown try-ons before finding the *ONE*.  But now, whenever I see a gown posted on a blog, in a bridal magazine or on a tv show, I start to have buyer's remorse.  Seriously!  How is that possible? 

Don't get me wrong...I love my gown for all the right reasons and family and friends all tell me it's gorgeous.  But with SO many bridal options, styles and new lines coming out constantly and a LOOONG engagement period, it is easy to see something else that has similar traits and yet a different look to it and for a brief moment wish that I could have a do-over.  :( 

I don't seriously want to buy another gown - do I?  (sigh)

I still love my gown, no doubt...but I also love that gown, and this one and then there's that one.  What's a girl to do?  Does anyone else feel this way?  It's like I have to quickly turn the channel or turn my head if I open a blog post that has pictures of gowns in it for fear that I will want to sell mine and buy another!  I need to put blinders on - seriously!

Source

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/