Wedding Shoes

I got the call last week that my wedding dress came in. When I scheduled the fitting, the lady reminded me to bring my wedding shoes. Which meant that it was time to buy wedding shoes. I'd been trying to put this off in the hopes that there would be more selection when Winter turned to Spring, and this ultimately left me with a single afternoon to buy shoes.

I didn't think this would be a problem, since I had a good idea of what I wanted. But it turned out that what I wanted wasn't really for sale. There were plenty of styles I liked on the internet and I foolishly assumed that Bloomingdales and Macys would also carry them all in store so I could try them on. This wasn't the case.

I walked all the around Tysons Corner, which is a sizable mall, twice and found only four pairs of shoes in the color I wanted. Two of them pinched in weird places and were a bit too high to actually wear all day. The other two were fine, though not quite as special as I was hoping for. But they are the sort of shoe that I'll still be able to wear to the office after the wedding, which is probably important given what I paid for them.

I ended up with a pair that I like and that I should be able to wear all day long. Though I should probably try to spend a bit of time breaking them in around the house. After I bought them, Kevin and I met up to do other wedding related shopping. We have now purchased all of the bridesmaid gifts, groomsman gifts, paernt gifts, and wedding favors. We also looked for a guestbook, but ended up even more indecisive than we had been when we started. But we still have time on that.

It's nice to have so many of the purchases out of the way. At this point it's just a matter of paying off balances once we get a final head count and doing some of the things that we aren't spending money on. Like putting together a playlist. We should probably get on that. The wedding's getting close and it's nice to have so few things left to do.

The Case of the Missing Bridal Boutique

Last weekend my mom flew out from Colorado for the official Wedding Dress Shopping Trip. I'd made appointments at a small bridal boutique that had gotten great reviews and at the local Macy's. I'd also attempted to make an appointment at Nordstrom, but that basically fell apart. It all worked out in the end, though. Which is to say I found and bought a dress. After a bit of an adventure, that is.

The boutique I'd made an appointment at was a place called Vivian's. It had a bunch of great reviews online, most of which emphasized how cheap the dresses were. Cheap as in price, not quality. Everyone seemed impressed with the dresses they had been able to find. So I was excited to check it out and see what they had.

We left twice as early as we needed to, because I like to schedule time to get lost. I had the address of the place and figured it would be easy enough to find. I wasn't expecting to find myself in an office park on a Saturday morning.

We went inside the building, but we didn't see the name of the company on the directory. I called and left a voice mail asking if I had the right place. Then we went upstairs to see if we could find the suite.

We couldn't. As far as we could tell the place didn't exist. None of the doors had either the suite number or the boutique's name on the door. Kevin's mom eventually asked someone, who said there was, indeed, a bridal boutique on that floor.

I tried calling the number a few more times, but it always went straight to voice mail. After we'd waited for almost half an hour we decided to cut our losses and head to the mall. I emailed the person I'd been in touch with to find out what happened, but I have yet to hear back from her. I'm not sure we'll ever know, but I'm sticking with my theory that she had to flee the country in the middle of the night.

We wandered around looking at formal dresses in Bloomingdale's and Nordstrom and got lunch before heading to Macy's. Where I bought the second dress I tried on. So at least I can call the day a success, as strange as it was.

Dress Shopping, Take 1

My mom is coming out at the end of the month for the Official Wedding Dress Shopping Trip. Unfortunately, this coincides with one of Nordstrom's trunk shows. They don't allow customers to make first appointments during trunk shows, because they want the customers who do show up to have some familiarity with the designer on display. To get around this, I scheduled an appointment two weeks early and Sarah and I went out to look at dresses.

The whole thing was a bit strange. I tried on 3.5 dresses (one wouldn't come all the way up). Luckily, one of the one's I liked happened to be from the designer doing the trunk show. So we were able to schedule an appointment while my mom's in town. But I wasn't particularly thrilled with any of the dresses. And now I'm actually considering heading off in an entirely different direction.

I may end up canceling the second appointment that I went through so much trouble to land in the first place. But that's all part of the process, right? At least I have a better idea of what I want now. I actually have my eye on one dress in particular, though I have yet to try it on. Hopefully I'll get a chance to when my mom's here.

Saturday Goals

I've been in a funk lately.  It's part of the reason I started this blog.  I'm trying to break out of this routine I've managed to get stuck in.  Part of that routine has involved far too many weekend hours on the couch watching TV.  This may be fun, but it isn't helping my funk and may be contributing to it.  So tomorrow I am going to accomplish things.  And if I post about it on the internet, then I'm more accountable.  Or something.

So, things I am going to do tomorrow:

• Exercise.  Probably go for a bike ride, as it will theoretically be warm enough to do so.  If not, ride the bike at the apartment complex's gym
• Clean the kitchen
• Launder the sheets and towels
• Finish and file last year's taxes (I swear there's a halfway reasonable explanation for this)
• Gather everything I need to file this year's taxes
• Write!  Finish at least one entry for this blog and start on a project that I've been knocking around for a few years (more on this tomorrow, possibly)
• Watch one episode of Supernatural (it's Saturday, after all, and Jared Padalecki is pretty darn lickable.  As is Jensen Ackles.)
• Possibly watch an episode of Doctor Who (mmmm, David Tennant.  Ok, done fangirling now)
• Alterations for bridesmaid dress #1 (I have an appointment, so this will definitely get done)
• Buy a dress for my brother's graduation.  Something cute and springy, but also office appropriate (hopefully)
• Buy some shorts I can wear in San Diego next week
• Buy a pair of ballet flats.  I desperately need some flats that aren't sneakers and those are actually cute and can be worn to the office.
• Read and possibly finish House of Many Ways

It sounds like a lot.  But it's really a lot of little things.  I'll be crossing stuff off all day long!

Wish me luck.

Princess Dress

I wouldn't normally pick out a red, strapless gown for myself.  This is mostly because I don't have much cause to wear formal wear.  But I also shy away from anything strapless out of fear that it will simply fall off. And I've been long convinced that red is just not my color, despite some people attempting to convince me otherwise.  I currently have no choice in the matter, though.

My cousin is getting married in a few months and has asked me to be one of her bridesmaids.  It was she who picked out the red, strapless gown for me (and the other bridesmaids) to wear.  I'm incredibly grateful for it.

I picked the dress up yesterday and spent about fifteen minutes dancing around my apartment in it.  It's fun to wear.  I'm super excited to have an excuse to wear this gorgeous dress in public and spend a night dancing with the skirt whirling around me.  I'm even fairly confident that it won't fall off while I'm on the dance floor.

It certainly doesn't hurt that I had to go up a size to accommodate my bosom.  Finding out that my boobs are proportionally larger than the rest of my body definitely resulted in a good body image day (week, month).  It does mean that I have to get the dress taken in around the waist, but that will just result in it fitting even better and looking even prettier.

Naturally, I'm also very excited and happy for my cousin and am looking forward to seeing her and celebrating her marriage.

But this dress!