Adventures in Dress Shopping: Day One, Part Two October 2, 2008

After the fire alarm dress shop my mom and I treated ourselves to a hearty lunch and then headed onto the second dress shop on our list.

The store was packed with gowns and the customer service was very sweet. They actually had me sit down while they styled my hair into an up-do. I felt very special and rather bridal.

Their selection of dressed was mostly Pronovias so I grabbed bunches of those until I learned they carried Monique Lhuillier. I literally squealed with delight and asked to try on her gowns. Monique! She makes my dream dress. I was giddy to step into her gorgeous dress.

The first Monique I tried was her fabulous Miranda. Hello, heaven! I felt gorgeous, rich and amazingly comfortable. The only thing I didn’t love completely was that the cut along my bust seemed a tad revealing and made me look flat.

As I was admiring myself in the mirror in the gorgeous Miranda, a very beautiful woman and her equally stunning friend walked into the salon. They were there to find a dress that she could model on the front of a local wedding magazine. She’s also getting married herself so she wanted to try on dresses for her wedding. The second dress she tried on was MY Miranda. She rocked it. She looked fantastic in it. And I could help but think in my head, “hey, that’s MY dress! You can’t wear it. And you certainly can’t look so good in it!”

Come to find out, she’s a former Miss Hawaii who recently had her boobs done. Lessons learned in this?

- Don’t try on dresses next to a model.

- Boobs make a dress look good.

And for me? Since I’m not a model and I have my natural boob? Perhaps I need to remember not to compare myself to others and to remember that this is MY wedding and I will rock my own dress.

I’m all about Cake October 1, 2008

I’ve been tagged by Wedding Poop (love the icon, by the way). I’ve never been tagged before, I am honored! I feel myself sitting a little taller and blushing just a little. So let’s get on with it!

4 Things I Did Today

1. Ate cake (birthday cake for a co-worker).

2. Encouraged my mom to buy a dress she thinks could maybe be her Mother of the Bride dress.

3. Shared pictures of me in potential wedding dresses to a co-worker friend.

4. Pondered whether I could get someone to custom make a Monique Lhuillier gown for me within my budget (unlikely).

4 Things on My To Do List

1. Address the damn Save the Dates already! (my deadline was to have them in the mail by the end of the month. That clearly didn’t happen since they aren’t printed, cut or addressed.)

2. Create a webpage to host my wedding dress trial pictures so I can share them with my friends on the mainland.

3. Catch up on my wedding blog reading. I’m about a week behind and now it seems overwhelming to catch up!

4. Eat more cake. For real. This time it will be sample wedding cake.

4 of My Guiltiest Pleasures

1. The Internet. I truly may have an addiction.

2. Trashy TV, particularly bad wedding shows and snotty teenage shows on MTV. Fiance is appalled by the TV I watch.

3. Cake! No, I’m kidding. Rather, it would be ice cream. But is that really so guilty? Ahh, I have one… these insanely good rice crispy treats they have at Safeway that have 5 days worth of saturated fat in each one.

4. Relaxing on the couch when I should be cleaning the house.

4 Random Facts About Me

1. I was born here in Honolulu but moved away before I was two for more than 27 years.

2. If an easy listening song comes on the radio, I can sing every single word. But I cannot, for the life of me, tell you who sings it.

3. I cannot stand the way this WordPress template formats my entries. Seriously drive me crazy. Does anyone have any advice?

4. By the end of today I suspect I will have eaten six servings of cake.

Adventures in Dress Shopping: Day One, Part One September 30, 2008

I had a hard time identifying my expectations when I prepared to go wedding dress shopping. My mom had flown into town and I was thrilled about that. But she didn’t really seem all that excited, she spent the days before telling me about her coworkers, our extended family, and other trivial things that seemed more important to her than my wedding. Fiance was completely obsessed about work and didn’t clue in on any of the hints I was sending his way that I needed attention.

The morning of our first shopping day I turned on shower, sat on the bathroom floor and cried. I know I had built up the day in my mind. I envisioned feeling special, beautiful, and ready for a monumental moment. No one else seemed to feel that for me. Perhaps I had just built it up too much.

A few tears, a hot shower, and a cute dress later, I had promised myself that I would make myself feel special, that I would relish the moment.

We arrived at the first store five minutes before our appointment. Only to find it closed. Irritated, I sat down on a nearby bench and waited. A very cute girl approached, apologized for being late, and explained that she was filling in for the normal employee who couldn’t make it. We walked into the store, she turned on the lights and the alarm went off. It continued to go off for over five minutes. Fan-tastic. What a way to start my day of specialness and beauty.

Looking back, it sort of puts it all in perspective. Dresses, bride, prettiness, being special, and all that. But life goes on around you and you will be rocked by the alarm.

Anyhow, I tried on about 10 dresses at that store. They were very cool about letting me try on absolutely everything and taking as much time as I needed. I explored the world of Kristie Kelly, Nicole Miller, WToo, and a South African designer I can’t remember right now. I left not finding “the one” but liking bits and pieces of a few.

Step Away from the Liner September 24, 2008

You know how you read all these wedding blogs, magazines and sites and you start to think, “Oooh, nice! I need to do that for my wedding too!” Those were the exact words that went through my head when I stumbled across DIY envelope liners. So cute! So relatively simple! Such a big impact!

Fiance is designing our Save the Date cards. He’s got design talent. I have organizational talent. But I dream of being crafty. Lining our Save the Date envelopes is something I thought I could really embrace, show my skills, and put my personal touch our wedding. I had briefed Fiance, told him I would be lining the envelopes, showed him how nice it could be, swore to him that I would take all of the responsibility, and promised it wouldn’t be too expensive.

And then I changed my mind. I am wont to do that occasionally.

I changed my mind not because I am lazy, or because we ran out of time. Not because I became overwhelmed by the project. And even not because I couldn’t find the perfect lining paper. Just because we don’t need it.

Fiance created such great Save the Dates and together we selected such awesome envelopes that we truly don’t need to line the envelopes. Lining the envelopes would ruin the cards. And so, with a bit of a heavy heart, I shelve my envelope-lining desires for another day, and another project.

The Moment She’s Been Waiting For September 23, 2008

My mom comes into town tonight. We’ll be spending Thursday and Friday dress shopping!

I can’t quite put my head around the process. I don’t have a dream dress mapped out. I have certainly never shopped for such an occasion before. I’ve basically bought all my dresses at Macy’s. I don’t know what it will feel like to have professionals helping me find my dress. I can’t imagine the emotions as I shop for my wedding dress. And I certainly can’t imagine what it will feel like to find “the one.”

Even more so, I can’t imagine how my mom will feel. It’s been more than 30 years since she’s had a daughter and while she’s never pressured me and we’re not super girly, I think this moment is one she’s dreamt of for a very long time.

We Make a Good Team September 22, 2008

This past weekend Fiance was in Napa for a great friend’s wedding. As much as I wished I could go with him, we just couldn’t swing two trans-Pacific flights.

Starting mid-afternoon I started to get text messages…

Fiance: You would really like this wedding.

Me: I bet!

…

Fiance: We’re at that place with the blue balls in the tree!

(I totally knew what he was talking about, I smiled to myself)

…

Fiance: We’re dancing in a barn

Me: Fun! Wish I was there to dance with you!

…

Fiance: They’re pinning money on them.

Me: Yikes! (I’m not a big fan of the money dance)

I loved that he was enjoying himself so much, loved that he was thinking of me and wanted to share the experience with me. But what really got me going? That he was interested in wedding details! Guess what we talked about over lunch today? How the escort cards were displayed, what their buffet consisted of, their wedding planner’s personality, the bride’s dress, the processional and the first dance. Heaven! I love that my guy has one eye and ear tuned into the wedding world. And I think this wedding really inspired him to start thinking about the details of ours.

Free is my best friend in wedding planning September 20, 2008

Just like all of you out there, Fiance and I are on a budget. A wedding budget! I have about three spreadsheets with different budget breakdowns and my ultimate goal (aside from a perfect day, getting married, and all that) is to come in right on budget!

Honestly, it’s not looking so good right now. I’m about 7% over my intended budget according to all my planning. Argh!

However, I hold out hope that some adjustments can be made so I’ll make my goal. Still over 8 months out from the actual wedding day, there are many decisions to be made and I know the budget will slide up and down as I proceed. I hope to give myself the time and patience to research and work diligently to find deals.

We discovered one such deal last week… I work in a communications business. My company works with local printers to produce brochures and posters and other pretty things. I approached my co-workers about asking for a discount on paper for our Save the Dates and invitations. To my utter delight, my co-worker was able to get us a big stack of pretty cardstock paper for FREE! FREE! I truly don’t know how much a stack of paper costs but given that we would have ordered it online and had it shipped, I’m estimating we saved at least $50.

Here’s wishing FREE decides to join me in wedding planning periodically.

Pleased to Meet You September 19, 2008

As I work to discover my voice on my blog, and my audience, I think an important step I intially skipped were the introductions. How rude of me!
A few weeks ago I sat down for a few hours and wrote all of our wedding website. Fiance has been oh-so-kind to make our website from scratch. It is just about to be shared with the world via our Save the Date cards. In exchange for your generosity in reading this site, I give you a sneak-peak into the “Our Story” page of our site.

We met at a rooftop party in San Francisco on February 22nd, 2003. Fiance said “hey,” Kini replied with “hi” and, amazingly, that started it all.

Our relationship bloomed in San Francisco. Surrounded by the Bay and our fantastic friends, we got to know each other and fell in love. Countless dinners over sushi, Za pizza, Mexican food, and the unbeatable Naan N Curry… Frisbee at Fort Mason park and walks to Crissy Field… Ski trips to Tahoe and music shows up and down Polk Street.

Exactly three years to the day that we met, we made a crazy leap of faith and moved to Honolulu. Why? Kini had always wanted to do it and Fiance was generous enough to give it a shot. As we’ve settled in we’ve been each other’s best friend and support system. Weekend days at Kaimana Beach… Weekend trips to the other islands… Daring new foods and an appreciation for the best sushi…. Sunsets and rainbows…Shared friends and even a shared employer….Hawaii is where our relationship really took root.

Fiance proposed in mid-April 2008 on the beach in Waikiki following a fantastic evening of drinks and dinner at the swankiest of all places in Hawaii. We had laughed through dinner and gushed over the service and the quality of food. Then we sat on the beach, arms around each other after Kini said “yes” and it dawned on us, “We’re going to get MARRIED!”

I hope these brief words give you a little insight into me, my beloved, and our relationship. I’m going to try to get a bit more personal as I dive into this site and let you know more about us and this dreamy wedding we’re planning.

Worst Wedding Guest EVER September 15, 2008

I have a *friend* (I’ll call him Bernard) who is invited to a wedding this Saturday. The wedding is for a pretty good friend of Bernard’s. The wedding will be in Napa. Bernard lives in Hawaii.

Bernard received a Save the Date card for the wedding months and months ago and then received the actual invitation a little over a month ago. To my absolute shame, I recently learned my friend Bernard never sent the RSVP card in! I lectured him and stressed how important these cards are. To make up for his error, he called the groom and expressed his apologies, then said he would attend the wedding.

Bernard is now in a bit of a pickle. He has a lovely girlfriend here in Hawaii and she was invited to the wedding as well but she can’t attend due to prior commitments. However, just about all of his buddies that will be attending the wedding are bringing dates and therefore have couple-y arragements for hotels and travel. Bernard is not really interested in renting a car or getting his own hotel room for the wedding. I mean, way to feel left out, right? For some reason that I cannot understand, Bernard has put off getting in touch with other single guys invited to the wedding and even worse…. HE HAS NOT BOUGHT HIS PLANE TICKET. The wedding is this Saturday, on the other side of the ocean.

Wouldn’t you just be pissed if you had invited Bernard to your wedding? Argh!

And how would you feel if you were currently planning your wedding to marry Bernard? Double argh, let me tell you! Because *Bernard* is my betrothed.

My dear fiance does not have enough responsibility to send in the RSVP and doesn’t have the commitment to buy a damn plane ticket! I am in shock. I have pestered, nagged, yelled and even pouted. Finally today I resolved to make it none of my business. If he pays $1,000 for a ticket to his friend’s wedding, so be it. If he doesn’t it make it to the wedding, that’s his problem.

And while I no longer accept any responsibility for his actions with regard to this wedding, I am beyond terrified by what his behavior represents. When we own a home together will he wait to fix the leaking roof until the day before the storm rolls in? When we have kids together will he take the energy to feed them healthy food? Will his friends buy their plane tickets two days before our wedding? Will they not return their RSVP cards and leave us hanging? Oh dear, what sort of life am I signing up for?!

On a happy note, I am pleased to report that my fiance’s name is not Bernard. No offense to the Bernard-loving ladies out there.

Has anyone else ever had to deal with a very bad fiance or similarly bad wedding guests?

Done and Done! September 12, 2008

In the last week and a half we booked our Day-of Coordinator and our Photographer. The wheels are in motion, man I can feel them!

Here’s a little eye candy from our extremely talented photographers, the team from Dulce Photo.

Eeee, I’m so excited!