I broke a rule on Saturday

We have a rule that Ben and I agreed on a while back, no wedding talk on Shabbat. We seriously broke that one last weekend when we went to a bridal show, all primed for free food, after a disappointing oneg after services last Saturday. Our synagogue has chosen to cut back on lunches to just snacks and juice if there's no one to sponsor lunch. Yeah, I ate grapes. There was also chocolate cake, but I'm allergic to chocolate, so that was a no-go for me.

Back to the bridal show.... We'd be warned by friends that while the location it was held in looks ideal in photographs, it is actually in an office park and the photographers conveniently and artistically crop their photos to hide it. My favorite caterer, whom we can't use because we're looking at inclusive venues, was there. Yum!  There were also lots and lots of cake samples and cupcakes to be had. Nothing earth shattering, but some had better frosting than others.

We also got a $200 off coupon from the DJ service we are most likely to use and looked at some photographers' collections. Sadly, we did not win the $500 cash prize, but Ben was OK with that because it was still Shabbat, even if we weren't really observing it at that time.

Nothing Earth shattering to report other than I'm 100% happy with my decision to not carry flowers. I spent about 30 seconds looking at different bouquets and they are heavy, make my eyes itch, and smell floral. Yeah, I know, duh. But really, I don't like floral stuff. Paper origami flowers, possibly with felt, yarn, and buttons here I come! I'd much rather carry a bunchy of crafty goodness in my hands than flowers that make me sneeze and itch. Who wants to sneeze and itch on their wedding day!?

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Oh, and I returned a bunch of shoes that didn't work out for me. I've still got 2 pairs, one from Zappos and one from DSW that I'm deciding between and am trying to tell myself I don't need to order more.

Dear Wedding Blogs, please include the location of the wedding

Dear Wedding Blogs,

Please include the location of the wedding that you are discussing. If you don't, and I'm swooning over a vendor, I waste lots of time digging up where they are located only to be shot down by finding out that they're somewhere like Flagstaff, Napa, Bar Harbor, or somewhere equally NOT in the Denver metro area.

Thanks,
-a grumpy bride-to-be

more shoes

So I'm now deciding between two pairs of shoes. In the perfect world, I'd combine the two. I like the toe of one, and the heel strap on another. Bah.

I love the toe area of the Calyx Satin Flower Sandal, by Caparros and the ankle strap part of the Danni, by Caparros. In my perfect world, I'd be able to combine the two.

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="240" caption="Danni, by Caparros"][/caption]

David's Bridal - Taffeta jewel neck ball gown featuring side pockets.

EW9848 via David's Bridal - Taffeta jewel neck ball gown featuring side pockets. .

I can't tell if I'm really digging this dress or not. I imagine it would be great short, but would I just look like a muffin with boobs from the front? OTOH, I totally dig the back, and for $399, with the opportunity to get it on sale through next week, I might find I think I might go try it on. But GEEZ to I hate David's Bridal BARN. Ugh. It's probably more of a polyester monstrosity than a thing of beauty in person, right?

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Say Yes to The Dress AKA sometimes I watch wedding porn on TV

re: Say Yes to the Dress, a reality based TV show on TLC about Kleinfeld's bridal salon in DC.

Just a short thought, but why would anyone want to wear a dress that doesn't allow them want to spin and twirl like a little girl in a fairy costume? Some of those dresses appear to weigh more than the waify  brides do!

Also, some of those women must have very rich daddies. Walking into a shop and saying that your dress budget is $5k and then walking out having spent $9k to me says that your entire wedding budget is something like 1/2 a million USD. That's WAY too rich for my blood. If I had that kind of money to spend, I'd hire a planner right now, and then just have more food and a real band instead of a DJ. I don't think we'd change much about what we have in mind right now. OK, and maybe I'd ask my parents if we'd be allowed to pocket the change too. Just saying....

ISO Wedding Shoes

So I somehow got it in my head that it will be easier to pick out the silks for my wedding dress once I have shoes, since it's more difficult to match fabric swatches to online photos. This meant that last night I spent almost $500 on 8 pairs of shoes. Yes, that's more than I try and live off of each month in my current state of employment.

I'm hoping that of the 9 pairs of potential wedding shoes I ordered, at least 1 will make me feel like prancing around in the kitchen all afternoon. Once I have my dress and shoes and veil, it's going to be difficult to stop myself from prancing around in my wedding outfit. I had a hard enough time staying out of Mrs. Lady Bear's fluffy pink veil, back in July.

Many things were learned in my EPIC HUNT FOR WEDDING SHOES yesterday. Here's my ranking of stores at the Flatirons Mall in Broomfield, CO.

1. Dillards had the most helpful staff (I was being assisted by their shoe manager, that may have had something to do with it). But, not a whole lot in the store in ivory and I hadn't pre-perused their website because I don't have a membership thing with them and just never thought about it.


2. DSW was the black sheep. I somehow forgot how awesome they are! OMG, they had half of shoes I ordered online last night (only $200). Most o them, they had in the store to try on, if only in black or some other pedestrian color. Sadly, my favorites are no longer available in ivory.* I also bought the most amazing, make me smile, happy Deena, ballet flats. How can you not love these?** ->


3. Payless had lots of trendy shoes that didn't fit poorly! I'm always amazed when I can find something there, and I usually do, but then talk myself out of it. I did buy these (but am returning them after wearing them around the house for 20 min, in exchange for these mary janes) and seriously considered ordering these Lila Rose shoes, but the heel just seemed a tad far back on the shoe/foot to really feel balanced in. The shoe part fit beautifully and the custom dyed-to-order satins (for x2 the white pleather in-store version) felt and looked really nice.


4. Nordstrom's shoe sales people seem a bit shy. But, they have WEDDING DRESSES! OMG, I knew they had them online, but I forgot that you can return them to the stores. My body double (with smaller boobs) ordered a whole bunch of dresses and returned them. In petite sizes! Do you people know how hard it is to find petite sizes?! The lady in the Specially Occasions dress department even went hunting for (and found) foundation garments for me to try on under the dresses.*** Sadly, none of the dresses fit me well enough to seriously consider, even for only $175 (or the woman who ordered them originally either).


5. Macy's has lots of shoes, but they don't carry all the colors of each line, check online before going. Their sales staff also seems less reliable, though maybe I just got the new girl and her indifferent and matronly compatriot. It IS however a good place to go and try things on because they have SO MANY SHOES. Even if they did manage to loose the right foot of the only size 6.5  pair of these shoes they had.

Zappos isn't in the mall, so I can't rank them. I've never ordered from them before, but I've heard people gush. I ordered 4 pairs for shoes for almost $300. Their prices were the same as everywhere else for the shoes that I saw elsewhere, but they didn't have as many of the lower price range evening shoes in ivory. Here's a smash-up of the shoes I ordered from zappos, plus some other fun stuff too:

ISO wedding shoes by violarulz on Polyvore.com

Items in this set:
Calvin Klein Kaden, $98
Coloriffics Nola by at Zappos.com, $78
Caparros Danni, $73
Caparros Zora, $69

Oh, you want more shoe porn? Me too! Too bad DSW doesn't let polyvore grab pictures. Here are links and short descriptions to the shoes I can't grab photos of:

• I tried these gorgeous ruffly ons in black and they're beautiful and fit perfectly. I hope the ivory rocks too!


• I ordered these rosette sandals too, although they're not available in stores to try on (in 6 and 6.5).


• These strappy/knotted front sandals look a lot like my prom shoes from BP in high school.

*I emailed zappos and DSW's customer service agents to try and hunt them down for me. Neither one could find them, but both gave the same reason why: those shoes haven't been made in ivory since 2008. Zappos did go on to tell me that the shoes came out in 2006 and are unlikely to be revived, though they'll let me know if they find a pair.

**Oddly, the sparkly shoes are NOT Jones New York, they definitely say Nine West in the shoes and on the box. I got them for 40% off and had to buy jelly arches for them because they have NO support and I had to buy them a bit on the smaller side to fit and have been prancing around the house in them for the last 24 hours.

**note to self- when trying on wedding dresses a good strapless bra and spanxs are a must. Kelly green lowrise briefs are VERY obvious under white chiffon.