#682: worth it.

found this dazzler via craft my bride.

#677: not for me.

but maybe for you?


$348.75 stella mccartney (o.g. $1,395) via the outnet.

#627: my dress doesn't fit.

so. like i had my second fitting yesterday.

and my dress was tight. not the 'that's TIGHT' as in 'that's AWESOME'. more like 'that's tight [on you]' as in 'it barely zips up'.

great.

but not all is lost. it has motivated me to get my act together and put the extra poundage in check. i was going to start a 30-day running stint a few weeks ago but after 2 days, i had gotten way sick and ended up being out of commission for almost 2 weeks. i'm 98% now so i will start running again tomorrow morning.

but running alone won't help me. so i plan to change my diet. as in...no more fried foods, no more junk food, no more eating a full meal at 10pm and falling asleep at 10:10pm. all things i enjoy but can no longer afford to do at this point.

hopefully all things combined, in a few weeks, i will be a happy, healthy bride who can still breathe with her wedding dress on.

and yes, when i bought the dress, it fit perfectly.

#614: dress envy.

i went to a wedding this weekend. and among other bits of fabulosity, the dress the bride wore was just stunning.

it was literally perfect.

i've never really lusted after a wedding gown before. well, not like this, anyways. a wedding dress is a wedding dress. is a wedding dress. a strapless is a strapless. is a strapless. i don't hate it. but i don't love it. and that's how i've always felt. like on a scale of ambivalence for wedding dresses, i tipped heavy to the "very ambivalent" side.

ergo my own spontaneous dress purchase months and months ago, a month or so into our engagement. i bought it (marked down 50%! wow! must buy now!), felt a few but not TOO many pangs of regret (mostly due to the price tag even after the 'marked down 50%!' thing), and haven't really looked back since.

because...i'm ambivalent.

but after seeing my friend's wedding dress this weekend, i'm having second thoughts. thing is. her wedding gown was made by one of her (extreeeeeemely) talented bridesmaids. it fit her perfectly, both in size and personality. i know it's not good to envy...but then again, oftentimes, that's how we're challenged to action, right?

not sure what i'm planning to do, really. but i might do something.

p.s. and we're less than 2 months out. good times.

#584: the alterations.

so now that we're down to like the last 2 months before the wedding (holy mother of the earth), i knew it was about that time to get my dress alterations done.

i had initially called a wedding dress alterations shop. i figured i'd get the alterations done and at the same time try to hustle i mean borrow a veil from their collection (this shop also rents dresses and wedding accessories). two birds, that kind of thing.

but alas, the owner warned me that their prices for the basic alterations i needed wouldn't be worth it. and it's true. my dress doesn't need all that much work...just a little shortening here, a little hook added there, and that's about it. he told me any alterations shop could do the job.

i was bummed for a sec. because there went my plan to get a veil on the sly. so i accepted that there would be no veil (i'm not buying one separately and i don't want to construct one on my own) and i was all set to call up regular tailoring shops for prices...when i remembered my relative.

you see, i have a relative who is a fabulous seamstress. in fact, she built my prom dress from scratch, back when i was 18. you know, back when i had the body of an 18-year old. *sigh* anyways, i had given her a roll of white satin fabric and sketched what i thought i'd wanted to wear. mind you...i don't draw. nor am i a designer. but she constructed it. and after 1 fitting, it was perfect. srsly. in fact, i should dig up my prom picture to show you.

wouldn't that be fun.

anyways. so this past weekend, i took my wedding dress (the dress that sadly cost $$$$ instead of $$$ or $$ or $) and she pinned and pinned. and i twirled and i walked and i giggled. heh.

anyways. so unexpectedly, i won't be paying for alterations. i mean, i plan to thank her in some way of course. but still. it's not like she's charging me.

and my dress will have the touch of family on it. kind of cool.

p.s. am i a hustler? kind of.

#547: like this.

via a tale of two brides (yes, which is also v-bird from the previous post).

so. this is what my dress looks like pretty much exactly. minus the fur.

thought i'd share. because now i'm daydreaming.

#522: in action.

i just saw this picture on fiance meeting you here and i'm rather encouraged about how my bms are going to look with their jewel-toned, multi-hued solid calypso dresses. it's not the same dress but the idea is similar. yay.

not that i ever worried about it. like ever.

#518: happy monday.

if i had to pick ONE dream dress, and was getting married in a church, and not getting married in LA in the month of may...

...i'd say this would be it.

#486: win a wedding dress.

via preowned wedding dresses.

see details here.

#448: glamour closet sale.

*thanks for your comments. my mom is "ok".

the perps certainly knew what they were looking for...and everything they took belonged to mom. because anything of value in that house is hers (remember, dad likes camping and fishing? he's not into expensive gadgets or video games...nor does he collect anything. hm. fiance's kind of like that. interesting! anyways.) they took her jewelry, watches, bags, loads of unused makeup (WTF!!! but that stuff is expensive so it makes sense.), gift cards she had stockpiled to give as christmas presents, cash.

and now that the shock has worn off and i know it's a blessing she wasn't around when they hit up the house...i'm soo pissed. i feel all sorts of violated, bitter and angry even though i'm not there to see the broken glass and it wasn't my stuff.

so i can only imagine how my mom is 'really' feeling. sigh. good thing she's a strong woman.

the only thing i can hope at this point...is that the bad deed was done with good intent. to feed a family or to help peeps in need, not for drugs or as a stupid gang assignment. seriously.*

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san franciscans, go!

December 13-14, 2008
Saturday 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m.
Sunday 10:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m.

TWO DAY SALE only! All gowns in the store will be priced $499, $999, or $1499! We have hundreds of gowns from premier designers including: Vera Wang, Monique Lhuillier, Reem Acra, Amsale, and more! Save up to 85% on all gowns. Sale includes all gowns in our store, including recent new arrivals!

First come, first served. Shoppers will be admitted in order of their arrival.

Glamour Closet
114 Columbus Avenue
San Francisco, CA 94113
(415) 391-1515
glamourcloset@glamourcloset.com

#439: personal shopper.

fendi dress via eluxury.

Runway Seamed Dress
$1,950.00 SALE PRICE: $780.00

#435: butter.

$349 butter by nadia dress via diy bride.

diy bride is having an "under $500 bridal ensemble contest". see all entries here.

p.s. speaking of butter, we took the challenge and we're making the butter version right now. can't wait to taste it.

#428: sassy.

$210 tibi.


$379.80 mayle.


$240.10 anna sui.


$336 vera wang.


$273.75 thread social.


$265 3.1 phillip lim.


$547.50 lela rose.


$333.75 alice + olivia.


$468 miu miu.


$255 tory burch.


$297.50 diane von furstenberg.


$385 chloe.

more dresses here.

#426: g-l-a-m.

got this announcement today:

Glamour Closet, a bridal sample sale boutique headquarted in San Francisco, has opened its second location in West Hollywood in Los Angeles, CA.

NEW designer wedding gown samples such as Monique Lhuillier, Vera Wang, Reem Acra, Amsale, Kenneth Pool and MANY MANY MORE are priced 25-75% OFF its original retail prices EVERYDAY!

Learn more about us at www.glamourcloset.com

Hours of Operation:
Wednesdays to Thursdays, 11 a.m. to 7 p.m.
Fridays to Sundays, 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.

CLOSED Mondays & Tuesdays

NO appointments necessary, we are on a walk-in basis ONLY.

Location:
324 S. La Brea Avenue (cross street: West 3rd)
Los Angeles, CA 90036
Tel. (323) 938-2000

it's about time. the SF boutique is where i tried on the first, last, and only wedding dresses before i purchased my amy kuschel. there were tons of options, for every body shape and size and the staff was patient and helpful. and just recently, the SF boutique had a major sale on top of the 25-75% discount. so. could be worth your time to check it out and get yourself on their mailing list.

#420: cecelia.

$395 at jcrew.com.

seriously.

#411: badassness.

my first 'featured guest'? um, more like 'SUPERSTAR'.

post #407 had a lot of you drooling. i rule! nah, i'm joking, it was all kimi. and like you, i was dying to know how she did what she did. so i reached out to her and she graciously agreed to give us the deets. i'm sure her words will inspire you as much as they did me. enjoy.

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I am not a wedding person. Before I met my now-husband I had never even entertained the thought of getting married, let alone having a big wedding. If I'd had my way we would have run off to the woods and gotten married by ourselves, and then had a big party afterwards. But other people had other (strong) opinions. So a slightly more traditional shindig it was. But I decided to make as many things as possible, so it would feel more 'me', from invitations to favors to The Dress.

Not being a wedding person, I am also definitively not a wedding-dress person. I went into a couple of bridal stores but promptly ran out hyperventilating before even looking at anything. After a couple of J.Crew dresses that had to be returned due to total cleavage obscenity, I ordered a cheapo sheath dress from Target. It was so cheapo ($68 on sale) that I really held out no hopes for it. But when it arrived, it fit perfectly and was made of quite decent material. I thought to myself, If you don't want to be typical, here's your chance to get creative. I quickly ordered a 2nd one as a backup, just in case my attempts backfired. I mean, they were $68 for pete's sake.

After many experiments with cutting into the dress, fabric flowers, paint, beads etc., I decided on cutout silhouettes. I went to fabric stores and in the dusty basement of one found a kind of flocked velvet backed with acrylic. If it was regular velvet, or any other normal fabric, the edges would have shredded with the thin delicate shapes I was planning. There aren't really any d.i.y. instructions because they would have to say "Be an Artist and Graphic Designer Like Me", which isn't very helpful. I just took a pair of scissors and went at it—but there are tons of patterns on the web that people could trace. I cut out hundreds of leaves and vines and animals until I had shapes that looked good. Then I took the clean dress and laid it out on the floor and began arranging all the pieces until I got a pattern I liked. Then the hot glue gun came out (superglue also works I discovered later, and I was too lazy to even try fabric glue). I attached a piece of netting to extend the train and glued more trailing leaves down that. Several weeks-worth of evenings later, I had my dress. It has birds, deer, mice, our initials, a big fox, and the words we have inscribed in our rings—"It's all true". Meaning every dream, every fairytale, every story about dragons or empires or even true love, it's simply all true.

And then came the wedding. And even though it poured and we couldn't get married outside, it was lovely. A friend gave us the gift of an original composition for harp and string quartet, his father did an audience-participation jug band, and all these new yorkers got drunk and played washtub bass. The location was an Audubon center in beautiful prospect park in Brooklyn, so bird mobiles were everywhere and we got married next to a giant fiberglass chipmunk. The dress was a smashing success. Everyone wrote and drew such lovely things in the little books. Everyone took the paper flowers and adorned themselves with them, and everything and everyone looked gorgeous.

And that's the story of my wedding and my dress. I'm thinking re-commitment ceremony with yet another dress, in the woods, with a decorated umbrella. Just in case of rain.

The End.

(And there's a brief story of another dress. We had always planned on doing a mountaintop ceremony, just the two of us, sharing personal vows. So I made a 2nd dress for it, using an old silk nightgown of mine with leaves of matching silk that I hot-glued onto it, with a train of leaves in back. It's a pretty risqué dress when worn, not appropriate for the web, so I'm only attaching a picture of it hanging up. The dress brought tears to the boy's eyes, and it was all beautiful, even though it was raining again and we once again had to stay indoors.)

For anyone who wants to see more pics, click here to view our flickr set. I feel incredibly honored that people love my dress and want to know more about it.









*********************************************

{thank you kimi.}

#407: that don't impress me much.

hey shania, where are you?

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that don't impress me much. that used to be my anthem. and it still kind of is. i think my ex-bf in college struggled with my 'meh'ness the most; i was probably the most unimpressed girlfriend he'd ever had in his life. it was (really) fun at the time to see him try so hard (i was 19 and didn't know much about respecting relationships yet. obviously.) but there was also something more than slightly unattractive about a guy who measured himself only by how "impressive" he could be.

i digress.

not much fazes me (um, except myself). i think it has something to do with the fact that i'm really lazy and yet totally opinionated. do lazy people even have the right to be opinionated? meh. fact is, i'm too lazy to get excited over something my opinionated self doesn't think is worth getting excited about.

getting to the point, though not much impresses me, i was struck by the awe-stick yesterday when i received an email from one of my 3 readers.

she took a $68 PLAIN WHITE target wedding dress and did a handy dandy number on it to make it hers. and by handy dandy, i mean something pretty amazing.

and then on top of that, she created her own paper flowers as part of the tablescape.

and then on top of THAT, she covered all of her matchbox favors (theme = animal love).






stunning, right? made me go daaaaaayyyyyyuuuuuummmmmm.

happy friday, ya'll.

{thanks kimi!}

#406: "newbie mistakes" series, post #4: i robbed...myself.

hello.

so. i've sort of been avoiding talking about this because...i'm...kind of...embarrassed. (well, that and i had to get the fiance to swear up and down that he would not EVER, ever, ever be lurking around this here blog...at least not until after the wedding...)

if you've been following TTO for the past few months, you'll know that 56 posts ago i shared that i bought my wedding dress. i also 'fessed that i bought it at a designer sample sale.

and then i haven't said much about it since.

i feel justified in sharing this experience as a 'newbie mistake' because i honestly went to the sample sale thinking i'd just try on a few dresses and call it a day. i mean, that's what i did at glamour closet (the ONE other bridal store i've ever been to). tried on dresses. called it a day. so never in my wildest dreams did i think i'd walk out of amy kuschel's sample sale after having entered just 1 hour earlier, with dress-in-hand, having bore a 10% hole in my budget. i shocked my friends, i shocked my mom, i shocked the fiance, and i shocked myself. in fact, it's been a few months and i'm still shocked.

so listen up, newbies, mmmkay. there's this THING called the 'sample sale trap'. and uh, while i obviously wasn't prepared to deal with it and had to learn a $1000 lesson, i'm thinking maybe my experience could help you save a few bucks (and potential heartache).

first, go to the sample sale knowing how much the dresses retail for. the blunder i made in my research was two-fold. 1) i didn't do enough. 2) i assumed most of the sample sale dresses would be of the lower priced assortment. not so, my friends. and why did i make that assumption in the first place? i don't know. maybe it had something to do with this other THING called 'wishful thinking'.

on a related note and second, throw away all scale-awareness, newbies. 30% off $3000 brings the price down to $2100. which i knew was way out of my budget. but after a few of those in a row, i somehow ended up at the point where i was like...wow, i'm getting the deal of the century with 50% off $2000! what i failed to remember was 50% off $2000 still meant the dress cost $1000. which was much more than i was planning to spend.

third, understand that a wedding dress sample sale is DIFFERENT from normal sample sales. no really, it is. i thought a wedding dress sample sale would be like any other sample sale i'd been to.

and it's so not. (what can i say. i was a newbie. i made a mistake.)

a normal sample sale doesn't do 'appointments only'. a normal sample sale doesn't have a dedicated sales associate fawning over you, offering affirmation after affirmation that that ONE dress you thought looked awesome does indeed look (more than) awesome. a normal sample sale doesn't have said sales associate helping you in and out of silky smooth luxurious-feeling gowns (dear sales associate: sorry for exposing myself to you no less than 20 times. only my future husband should have to endure such evils). can you see where i'm going here?

the attention, the lovely lights, feeling so pretty and feminine (neither of which i feel on a daily basis), and the staring that goes on when a dress looks 'soo right'...can get the best of your sensible judgement. so unless you're prepared to have these emotions and talk yourself out of it within 15 minutes (which is about how long i had before i had to say yes or no), just don't even go.

at the end of the day though, i acknowledge that it's my fault for listening to my inner shopaholic self instead of taking a second to imagine how i'd feel being out 10% of our wedding budget on a part of the wedding that wasn't really a priority for either of us.

which is why i'm saying i robbed myself. oh, i guess you could also say that i robbed the fiance as well since he wasn't part of this decision (oops! but i only had fifteen minutes!!).

anyways, lesson learned. and just so you know, my intention is to either sell the dress or donate it after use.

**********************************************

moment of zen:
i was totally tacky and didn't bother to hold in my astonishment uponst learning how much the dresses cost (see first point in lesson learned). and i kept saying out loud..."wow. these dresses are way out of my price range! i re-e-e-e-ally don't want to spend more than $500!" the sales associate eventually and understandably got tired of hearing it and asked "...then what are you doing at a sample sale?"

good question.

to show you my boobs?

moment of zen II:
couldn't end this post without showing you my dress. ready?

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hm. thanks amy.

#378: glamour closet.

after he poppeth'd the question, i figured i'd try on dresses. for fun. alone.

so i did.

i used to walk by glamour closet everyday on my way to work and knew it was a sample sale store (read: not a high end couture boutique). so i dropped in unannounced (which is the way they like it. walk-ins only!) and tried on 6 or 7 dresses. was it fun? yes. did i think i'd buy a dress there? no. they carry name brand designer dresses and though they're a fraction of the retail cost, i considered the price too high-brow for me.

but that was before i went ahead and bought my dress at an amy kuschel sample sale. for what i paid for my dress, i could have seriously considered purchasing a dress from GC.

and with their 'extra 20% off all dresses' sale about to start, that little thing called 'buyer's remorse' is creeping up on me.

if you're in SF, check them out. nothing to lose and the staff is uberly kind and helpful (they even allow you to take pictures of the dresses! gasp!).

i'll consider this my PSA for the day. cools?



WEDDING GOWN SAMPLE SALE - Up to 80% OFF RETAIL

Take an additional 20% OFF ALL Gowns In Store! Includes labels such as Vera Wang, Monique Lhuillier, Amsale, Reem Acra & MORE!

Designer Labels Include:
Vera Wang
Monique Lhuillier
Reem Acra
Anne Barge
Amsale
Elizabeth Fillmore
Ulla Maija
Angel Sanchez
Badgley Mischka
Kenneth Pool
Justina McCaffrey
and MANY MORE!

Sale Details: Take an additional 20% OFF lowest marked price on ALL GOWNS in store. Includes recent new arrivals. Represents total savings of up to 80% OFF original retail prices!

DATE: Sale Begins Friday, Sept 26 and continues through Saturday, Oct 4
LOCATION: 114 Columbus Avenue, San Francisco, CA 94133
HOURS OF OPERATION: Saturdays, 11 a.m. to 6 p.m.
Tuesday-Friday, 11 a.m. to 7 p.m.

HURRY IN! Great deals on these one-of-a-kind designer dresses! Wedding gown sale ends Saturday, October 4.

We look forward to seeing you at our store!

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enjoy. and if you end up buying your dress there, please share with us as i like happy endings. of this nature, that is.

#355: a.a.

i got burned when i first showcased the american apparel bandeau dress. but guess what. now they have a (less slutty...) non-pencil version.

am i crazy to think it could totally work as a bm dress? you can wear it 15 ways. yes. 1 dress, convertible 15 ways. here are the 3 ways i think could especially be appropriate.




$43 makes me holler. available in 19 colors and...yes, she'd absolutely be able to wear it again. *wink*

who's with me.