The Hips Don't Lie...

...and mine are saying,

"A mermaid fit? Really, sweetheart?"

Wedding dress shopping is not fun. I've gone to a few places this week and its exhausted me about three dresses in each time. I was so weakened by Wednesday night's trip that my friend and the saleswoman were speaking about me as if I weren't there:

• Saleswoman: "Oh, she's exhausted."
• Friend: "The poor thing's just deflated."
• Saleswoman: "She has to realize it's not her. Our samples are just so small. But, really, our samples are bigger than most."
  

"It's not her? It's us, but we're better than most?" What the hell? Am I getting dumped by the House of Brides? Aren't you not, by definition, supposed to talk about the Tulle-covered Elephant in the room?

In their defense, they may have honestly forgotten that I was there, as I spent 50% of the shopping trip with my head stuck inside dresses after their size 8 waistlines got stuck around my chest. I think that I may have demanded that they cut one off. I'm not sure, though, as post-traumatic syndrome has caused me to block the experience.

It frightens me that there is an entire industry built on people handing over thousand(s) of non-refundable dollars for something that they've only held against their bodies because the sample size is a size 8 that "runs small."

I will triumph, I know it. Just as millions of hippy sisters before before me have. There have been two dresses that I've tried on that I just adore, but both are out of my price range. I can't stop thinking about the one. Andy keeps telling me to stop worrying about the price, but they're way beyond my already-increased-$500 budget.

One of my two loves is very comparable to this dress, for which have been looking EVERYWHERE, to no avail:

Photo: Watters

Fingers crossed that Macy's calls me back with good news (i.e., that they have it). If not, I'll be trekking it out to the suburbs to look for it next weekend. This dress is my last affordable hope!

Grazi, Bella.

This thank you card inspired by the work of artist Anthony Yankovic is too cute for words. The line drawing is edgy and whimsical. So adorable. This would be a nice follow-up to our invitations, as it would revert back to the lightheartedness of the Save the Dates.

Photo from: In Style Weddings

My girlfriend at work has "voluassigned" her husband to try his hand at an illustration of us. Yeah!

Girl Power

My good friend (and lady in waiting) volunteers for Girls on the Run, an after-school program that prepares school-age girls to run a 5K while teaching them important lessons on self-esteem, respecting themselves and others, etc. They've posted a video on You Tube. It's currently the 71st most-watched non-profit video. They want to make it number 1.

Click here to see the video. (I can't figure out how to display the video.)

Take a few minutes to check it out, then help some sisters out and pass it along to everyone you know.

Click here to visit the Girls on the Run web site.

A donation to GOTR would make a great wedding favor for your guests if you're doing charitable donations in lieu of crappy crystal clocks.
(No offense to anyone who's giving out crystal clocks as favors.)

Anyone who watches the Chicago Marathon will recognize GOTR chicks as the "Team Tiara" women. They run in tiaras, bling, and sometimes feathers!

My Poor Valentime.

This was the scene on top of our toilet yesterday morning:

Makeup bag, BRIDES magazine, domino magazine, the knot magazine, and Modern Bride magazine

First, he invited me to come live in sin. Then, he invited me to marry him. Little did he know much baggage came with each! Funny thing is, I don't even read in there. I just store them there until I can go through them and pitch them on the weekend. And when I do that, someone undoubtedly gives me a new one! I'd like to store them elsewhere, but...

• My printer is under the end table.
• My knitting supplies and paper box are shoved behind the couch.
• My knitting books and wedding miscellany are stacked on the bedroom shelf.
• My wedding binders and projects are stacked under the coffee table.

Poor laid-back, Andy. Yes, Love, I guess that you have a room to house drums if we ever have a house with basement! :)

"Please Turn to Page 4 of Your Pumpkins"

It would kill me to have a wedding two weeks before Halloween and not acknowledge it. So, I'm trying to think of a way to turn our programs into masks. Once again, I need to:

• do it cheaply.
• avoid cutting.
• prevent glitter from covering every surface in the condomaximum.

I bought some foam Halloween masks from an online retailer thinking that I could jazz them up and glue them to the front of the programs. Unfortunately, all of the faces were messed up and the package filled our office with an odd rubber smell. Although the price is right, I fear that using them would not only poison our guests, but ordering more would possibly break some child labor laws somewhere. These things couldn't have been made by satisfied, skilled workers.

Anyway, I found these vintage Beistle decorations on ebay in the fall. They'd require some copying, but I think that they have potential.


The pumpkins would also match the decorations that my sister made for our engagement party.



I thought it would be fun to make programs out of Swedish Firecrackers, since Andy's Swedish, but, apparently you need gun powder to make those. Who knew?

The Pleasure of Your Attendance is Requested.

I wanted our invitations to be colorful, graphic, slightly untraditional, and very compact. I was hoping that I could use one 11"X17" sheet of paper for each invitation and use creative folding and printing to maximize the space and minimize the amount that people had to carry around.

Here's the most recent draft. It still feels clunky to me, but I needed to take a break from them before I threw my laptop out the window. Andy thinks that they look fine and that I should leave them alone. I'm sorry that they're so small. You can click the images to view them larger.

• Front:

• Back: The back is incomplete. I just threw a bunch of stuff on there so that I could take them for a print quote.
  

Here are some snapshots of a few drafts ago to give you a better idea of the layout. The RSVP card will be perforated for easy removal and return.


I stumbled upon this invitation when I was looking for examples for Monday's post. It's similar, but opens down instead of left-to-right. And they use beautiful, but expensive, letterpress printing!

Photo from Blue Ribbon Design, Garden Party

The invites will be printed on cardstock. The envelopes will be size A7 in the Paper Source color papaya. I had to use colored paper SOMEWHERE! (trix, I'm going to use Howard Stern.)

Paper Source Event

Is anyone going to the Paper Wedding event at Paper Source on Saturday? I am going to dress shopping with one of my bridesmaids on Saturday, so I can't make it. I really don't feel like hauling (_:_) up to E-town next weekend. I talked to someone when I was in Paper Source last night it sounds fun, but not like something that I really need to go. They seemed to think that I was good to go on my stuff.