Hair and makeup

After researching several companies, I finally decided to use a hair/makeup vendor that I saw at a bridal show (once again, the same show that Cory and I attended in January). I really love how they make brides look natural and clean. They also use good makeup products like Bare Minerals, Ben Nye, Benefit, MAC, Nars, and Stila; and good hair products like Aveda, Bumble and Bumble, Halo and Sebastian. They do onsite applications so they'll be coming to the hotel the morning of to "work" on us ~ lol!

Last night, I met up with Sarah at Cosi to discuss hairstyle and makeup options. I thought about doing an up-do but ultimately decided on the half up/half down style. I don't want to look too "done up" so I showed her lots of pictures of makeup looks that I liked and a picture of a simple hairstyle that I found. The flower will be replaced with another accessory though.

She told me to start shopping, and to buy several that we can experiment with during the hair/makeup trial (date tbd). The only problem is I have no clue what kind of accessories to buy. I found a mini tiara lined with Swarovski crystals and pearls when I stopped by the store Lady Hamilton but I doubt you can buy it and then return it if you decide not to use it. But, I'm not set on wearing a mini tiara. All I know is I don't want a huge thing sitting on top of my head. I thought about going smaller and using bridal hairpins, combs or clips instead. I don't know. Nadine had a great idea and suggested that I buy really cheap ones for the trial just to get an idea of what it will look like, but to wait until after the trial to buy the actual headpiece ~ which is probably what I'll end up doing.

Reception site booked!

The reception site is finally booked!!! WOO-HOO!!! We first met with Stephanie, the hotel's Wedding Specialist/Catering Sales Manager, on 02/20/08. She gave us a tour of the hotel's meeting space and sleeping rooms. One-third of the ballroom will be occupied by a physicians' meeting the day of the wedding but with an airwall up, the remaining two-thirds of the room (approx. 6,000 sq. ft.) was more than enough space for our reception. After our tour, we thanked Stephanie and told her we'd be back in touch with our decision.

After looking through their informational wedding folder, we realized that we didn't need everything that was offered in their proposed bridal package. I prepared an RFP (Request for Proposal) outlining all the details that we wanted in the contract and sent it off for her approval. Out of all the RFPs I've ever prepared in my career, this one was my favorite to work on (I know, I'm biased ~ heehee). I have to admit that my job experience with planning meetings really helped and made working with the hotel a lot easier. Stephanie even told me that she was so happy and thankful when she received it b/c she's never gotten a wedding RFP before and it made her job a lot easier ~ hahaha! So after going back and forth, both parties agreed on a contract and it was signed today! One more big thing to cross off the to-do list!! =)

Pictured: clock display in the lobby

Budget

We worked on the budget today... yipee!!! (sarcasm) If you ask me, this is THE most important part of the wedding planning. It's the first thing that you should do before you start researching vendors and signing any contracts. It pretty much determines what you can and cannot do for your wedding.

The first step is finding out how much money you have to work with... we know someone who had a budget of almost $100K but, I've also read in wedding magazines that people can pull off a fabulous wedding for $15K. The next step is to create a spreadsheet to help track the estimated and actual costs. I can send you the template that I use but magazines like The Knot, Martha Stewart Weddings, Brides, and Modern Bride also include one in every issue.

There is sooooooo much that goes into planning a wedding and you'll realize that 99.9% of the time, everything that you want will have a price tag attached to it ~ hahaha! Today, after plugging in some numbers into the spreadsheet, we realized that our budget had increased by 20%!!! I don't know how that happened, but like I said, you have to be prepared for any unexpected costs that pop up. Every bride wants to have the wedding of their dreams, but what's more important is what comes after the wedding so don't spend more than what you can afford.

Paper Source - invitations

We went to Paper Source in Georgetown a couple of weeks ago to look through their invitation books and didn't find anything. Later that day we went to The Papery in Clarendon and didn't have much luck there either. We had a certain look in mind... pocket envelope with a ribbon - that closely matched the blue of the bridesmaids' dresses - tied around it. We had the hardest time finding the right color and the selection of pocket envelope designs were limited. Sooooo... we decided that we'd make our own invitations!! Risky and challenging, I know, but it should be interesting.

We went back to Paper Source today to buy all our supplies and spent a veeeeeeerrrry looooooong time picking out stuff. Cory was about to pull his hair out. LOL! It wasn't my fault. We went in there thinking we already knew what design we wanted, but he changed his mind and we walked out of there 2 1/2 hours later with a different, but better, design. Yes, that's right... 2 1/2 hours! For Cory, and any other guy, that's equivalent to a lifetime. BUT... mission accomplished!!

























Cory overjoyed from spending hours at Paper Source

Cake

We set up two meetings for cake tastings today. The first one was with a vendor we saw at a wedding expo that Cory and I attended in January. Cory loved her cakes so we had to set up a meeting! I admit, it was the best at the entire show. The cakes were light and fluffy, and the icing and fillings were sooooo good!! The second meeting was with Linda with Cakes by Linda.

At our first meeting, the lady brought several cake samples. All of them were delicious but we absolutely loved these two the best: White Almond Cake with Raspberry Filling and Italian Cream Cake with Vanilla Custard Filling. We talked about the specifics (i.e. how many tiers, the design and piping, cost, etc.) and she said she'd email us a contract. We pretty much already knew that we were going to book her.

We went to our second meeting with Linda anyway just to have a comparison. Although her cakes were also good, we thought the consistency was too dense.

After we received the contract from the first vendor, we signed it and sent it off with the deposit. We decided on four tiers, each four inches tall (the bottom 15 inches wide, the second 12 inches, the third 9 inches and the top tier 6 inches). Each tier is going to have a blue ribbon around the base similar to this cake:












The side piping will follow a triple dot pattern (but unlike the pic, there won't be base piping):






Three white cymbidium orchids will be placed as a cake topper and the florets from one stem will be scattered down the ledges (the flowers pictured below are green orchids, not white):











Mmmmmmmmm.... it's gonna be yummy!!

Photographers ~ booked!

Post coming soon...

Wedding dress shopping ~ done!

It's been almost three weeks since we got engaged and before this weekend I still hadn't gone dress shopping. Lorinda reminded me that I should go as soon as possible since it can take up to six months to get the dress ordered and picked up. Hmmmm... if that's the case then I'm screwed. So Nadine and I hit up a couple of stores yesterday. My mom was supposed to join us but she's jet-lagged. I felt bad and told her that she didn't have to go.

(Note: Most, if not all, bridal stores require that you make an appointment if you want to try on the dresses. No appointments are necessary if you just want to browse ~ but trust me, you'll want to try on dresses when you see them so go ahead and make the appointment.)

We grabbed coffee and a bite to eat at Dunkin' Donuts. Yes, you read that correctly ~ I had donuts before trying on wedding dresses ~ hahaha. I knew I wasn't going to have another donut for months so I enjoyed every single bite. Our first stop was Katherine's Bridal Boutique in Alexandria. It was a very small store and the dresses that hung on the racks were so tightly packed in it was hard to browse through them. I managed to find three that I liked. The saleslady who was helping us out (and who shall remain unnamed) was a pain in the butt. While I was trying on the dresses, Nadine was also trying on bridesmaid dresses to get an idea of what style she'd like. I was giving Nadine my opinion but Ms. Saleslady suggested that I pick out my dress first before worrying about the bridesmaid dresses. Ugh, excuse me?? I wanted to drop kick her but that wouldn't have been very lady-like (especially from a girl wearing a bridal gown), so we just kept rolling our eyes. The first dress was too big and poofy. I got lost in all the fabric. The second and third dresses were alright. Ms. Saleslady asked me about my budget and went off to look for another dress. She came back with one that she wanted me to try on. It was niiiiiice but I still wasn't sure about it. Ms. S casually asked me if I had other appointments set up. Frankly, I wanted to answer, "It's none of your business," but decided against that and told her we were going to Hannelore's. She replied with, "Ohhhh, you won't find anything because everything's too expensive there. You should buy this dress. I'll give you a deal if you buy it today." We said 'no thanks' and walked out. It's unfortunate because I think I would've returned if she hadn't been so pushy.

We got to Hannelore's of Olde Town which was a much bigger store. It has two levels (the first for shoes and bridal party attire; the second for bridal gowns and accessories). We were introduced to our saleslady, Nancy, who showed us to our dressing room. I described the kind of dress I was looking for and we went around the floor picking out the ones that closely resembled it. It was easier to see the dresses on the racks and we ended up picking out twice as many dresses as we did at Katherine's. After trying on the umpteenth dress I finally found IT. I liked the details of the dress but ironically, the style is different from what I had originally thought I'd end up wearing on our wedding day. I wanted to put a deposit down but at the same time I didn't want to make a hasty decision. As they say, your wedding dress will probably be the most expensive dress you'll buy... and after all, this was only the second store we had visited!! I told Nancy that I'd think about it overnight. We headed downstairs where Nae picked out some bridesmaid dresses to try on. I took some pics but I don't think she'll be too happy with me posting them on here.

Our last appointment was at a store in Arlington called Bridal Visions. When we pulled up we weren't sure if we had arrived at the correct place. One of the storefront windows had dresses and tuxedos on display but the other window had... an Easter bunny costume!! Nae and I looked at each other and I knew we were both thinking, "What da heck..." LOL!! It turns out they also rent tuxedos and rent costumes. I wasn't crazy about their selection but picked three dresses to try on anyway b/c I didn't want to be rude and just walk out. To make a long story short, I ended up only trying on two of the three. The second had a corset-type bodice which took forever to get on and lace up. I was too exhausted to try on the third one. We left and I cooked Nae dinner as a thank you for spending her entire Saturday watching me get half naked and playing dress up.

I went back to Hannelore's today to put down the deposit. The dress is scheduled to arrive mid-July!!! It's actually less expensive than that dress the lady at Katherine's was trying to push on me... and here she was telling me that Hannelore's was no good. I thought finding a dress would take several weeks but I found it in one day!!

Oh yeah, Hannelore's didn't let me take a picture of the wedding dress until I bought it so forget about bringing a camera along to take pictures. The dress also wasn't on the designer's website. I guess they don't want people to duplicate the design.

Bridesmaid dresses

I started looking for bridesmaids dresses and couldn't find any that I liked. It was getting frustrating so I asked Cory if it would be alright if we got them made. It'll cost us a little bit more than buying them at the store b/c of the fabric, labor and alterations but I thought it'd be worth it. Not only will we get to choose our own fabric, the dresses can also be altered as many times as needed! After using my powers of persuasion (j/k) he was okay with the idea.

Someone recommended this seamstress named Jean. I met with her and it looks like she does a great job. She even did Keyshia Cole's outfits when she had a concert in DC. It's cool 'cuz she's super sweet and it'll be really easy to work with her.

She's been showing me different fabric swatches but we haven't been able to find the right shade of blue until today!! It's made of silk shantug and Cory and I love the color! It's the same shade (or maybe a little darker) as the dress on this model:


One of the best parts about this process is that each girl can choose how she wants her dress to look. I didn't want to be responsible for picking out a design and not having them like it. Besides, I'm not the one who's going to be wearing it. So to get things started, I asked them to email me pics of styles that they like. (I'll post their picks in another post.) Jean also needed all their measurements so I prepared these documents to help:

Wedding planning is FUN!!!