Patience is a Virtue?

Um yeah, that's crap. I'm a pretty patient person but I'm getting really antsy waiting for our e-pics. I know it takes a lot of time to edit the pictures and make them perfect. I know they have weddings and other e-sessions and other pictures and blogs to write and oh, a life of their own to life. But...I want them noooowwww!! Yes, I'm whining. And being a brat. I know. But I can't help it! I emailed them a few days ago and they assured me that the pictures were coming along beautifully and that they should be ready in a few days. Tomorrow will mark 4 weeks since our e-shoot. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that I get an email from them tomorrow. And Ted and Rachel if you're reading this, I love you guys and can't wait to see our pictures!!

Guess whaaaaaatttttt!!!!

Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls...the search is OVA!! Done! Finished! The fat lady has SUNG! And boy was it a beautiful song. So without further ado, let me introduce you to my beautiful reception dress courtesy of BCBG.

Also say hello to Tyler :) This is kind of a crappy picture, but I was so excited that I had Josh (yes, he saw it) take one right away. Needless to say, I'm thrilled to have found this dress. And I am so thankful for the wonderful girl at the Beachwood Mall BCBG who called a ton of other BCBG stores to find this dress. Unfortunately the dress isn't on the BCBG website or any other website for some reason, so if you'd like your own feel free to ask me for the product number.

I feel like Kim Kardashian in this dress for some reason. It's very curve-hugging and makes me very bootylicious. LOVE IT!

Also, can we talk about my shoes? Because I'm in love and I think they look fab-u-lous with the dress.

I think I'm more excited about finding this dress than finding my big wedding dress. Let me explain: I knew exactly what I wanted in a wedding dress. Fitted. Strapless, sweetheart neckline. No lace. Minimal beading, if any. Interesting fabric detailing. And that's exactly what I got. On the other hand, I left my options completely open when it came to this dress. The only requirement was that I had to be able to dance in it. So after hours of searching online, ordering a few dresses to try on, and sending said dresses back, finding this one is a huge relief. I can't wait to boogie down in it on my wedding night!!

Is my search *finally* over?

God, I freaking hope so. BRM (Burning River Mom, haha) and I went shopping for a MOB dress today and in the process I bought what is hopefully my reception dress! I'm having quite a hard time tracking down a picture of it. Why can't I just take a pic of it myself, you ask? Well, the dress I tried on in the store had blood on it. It was just a tiny spot on the hem, but it was gross and noticeable. So the store is going to order me a new one! I should know Monday if they were able to track one down and when I'll get it. The fact that I can't find a picture of it anywhere online concerns me, though. I'll just be happy when it's in my hot little hands.

In other news, Mom found a dress!! It's gooooorgeous! It's Calvin Klein. It's black. It's perfect for her. She found another dress a few weeks ago at a local bridal shop, so she wants to go in and try that one on again before making a concrete decision. She's tried on sooo many dresses so I hope either the Calvin or the other dress is "the one."

And finally, it's 9pm on a Saturday night and I'm sitting on the couch eating whole grain Tostitos. Have you tried them? Because they're amazing. You will never go back to white corn tortilla chips ever again. So go out and buy a bag. Your mouth will thank you.

That is all :)

I buy too much stuff

But I need options!! That is what I keep telling myself, at least. Now that I know not to make the same mistake twice in regards to return policies, I feel like being able to see lots of options will help me make the best decisions. So without further ado...more wedding crap I bought!

The Tie Bar is a great website for finding fun and colorful ties. We're doing green ties for the GMs and finding the perfect tie proved to be a bit difficult. The Tie Bar lets you search by color and luckily they had a number of ties we were interested in. Another cool thing about the site is you can see what the tie looks like with different color suits/shirts. The men will wear black suits with white shirts, so that is what I used against the various ties. I purchased the following ties for $15 each.

(Polo Stripes - Greens)

(Herringbone - Clover Green)

(Spring Stripe - Apple)

(Herringbone - Apple)

I also ordered the following pocket squares, also from The Tie Bar, for $5 each.

(Pocket Square - Clover)

(Pocket Square - Apple)

Whew! Still with me? Good. The ties arrived and surprisingly the colors are pretty true to what you see in the pictures. After much consideration we decided to go with...drumroll please...

And...

Yay! If the green/white/black striped tie didn't have all that gray in it, we might have picked that one. I love our choices and I hope the GMs love them, too!

Did you go on a spending spree at any time during your planning?

Oh mah gaw

Girls, I've been busy. This whole work+wedding planning+relationship+social life+me time is, uh, sorta hard. I give so much credit to people who do this with kids thrown in the mix. Shoot me now, seriously. But I have soo many fun things to show you!! So let's get started, shall we?

First, I bought a few things from Etsy. Mmmm I love her (yes, I just gave a website a gender.) From TessaKim I bought a 14' tulle birdcage veil.

The veil arrived kinda wrinkled but that's nothing a little steam from a hot shower can't fix. I've played around with it a bit, but I really have no idea what I'm doing. Hopefully Bridesmaid Breezy and I can have a round of hair trials soon (she's doing my hair, have I mentioned that?)

I ordered this beautiful hair flower (minus the feathers) from Brenda's Bridal Veils.

It came yesterday and I loooove it. I cannot wait to wear it for the wedding. Again, I have no idea where on my head to place it, but with a little fussing I'm sure I'll figure it out.

Oh! Did I mention the bracelet I bought? No? Well, here it is, from Bel Canto.

To quote the always eloquent Rachel Zoe, "I. Die. It's bananas." I freaking love this bracelet so FREAKING much. I think I've mentioned before about my small wrists and narrow hands. Well, I bought this bracelet and prayed that it wouldn't be too big. At one point I was even resolved to the idea that it would probably be too big for me. But when I slipped it on and the clasp clicked close, I realized that it actually fit. It felt like it was made just for me, to my exact measurements. I don't know how I lucked out, but somehow the stars aligned and I found the perfect bracelet for my wedding day.

Next up...more stuff I bought!

Wise words

I know...sort of MIA lately. I have tons of half-finished posts saved in my drafts, now I just have to take a night and FINISH them. I'll work on that.

But first...we went to a family wedding this weekend and the bride said something to me that was so powerful I just had to share. It was the end of the night, we were saying our goodbyes and congratulation, giving our hugs and kisses. The next wedding in the family is ours so of course people were telling us "You're next! Can't wait to see you at yours!" But to me, the bride said the following:

"Everyone told me it was going to go fast. That it was going to fly by. Em, it went FASTER than fast. I can't believe it's over. Make sure you enjoy every minute."

I'm tearing up (at my desk no less) thinking about it.

But it's true. You always hear that it will go by so fast, but I don't think you ever realize it until it's actually *you* up there. So for the next 8 or so months, I'm going to enjoy every minute. I'm even going to enjoy the shitty minutes, the sad minutes, the bridezilla (who? me?) minutes, the stressed-out-because-my-mom-is-driving-me-crazy minutes, and every minute in between.

I can't believe we're next!

Damn. It.

Sooo ugh. My search for a reception dress continues, but I think I might have found it. However, this post is not about that. It's about my apparent inability to READ.

You see, I thought the return policy for David's Bridal was that you could return it whenever via mail. Ha, right. Apparently I suck at reading and after receiving it you only have 14 days to return it. Well friends, I believe I received this dress at the end of July and it is now almost mid-September. You do the math. So after cursing myself repeatedly last night and this morning, I may have thought of a solution.

Shorten it.

Yes, it is already short. But if it were taken up a few inches, it would make an exceptionally cute and sassy bachelorette party dress. Kind of like this one from Jessica McClintock.

Cute, right? The dress I have already has a bubble hem, so a decent seamstress shouldn't have much trouble taking it up 5 or 6 inches.

Have you had any brain farts during wedding planning?

I'm a Tweetin' fool!

So uhhh...remember that one time when I told you I was thinking about joining Twitter? Well uhhh...I did tonight. Follow me @Em219. Honestly, I have no idea what I'll be tweeting (twittering?). Maybe wedding planning updates? Maybe work gripes? Random thoughts and musings? If I had to guess, I'd say a healthy dose of all 3. By the way, if you do decide to follow me and read any angry tweets about my job, please know that I'm really not that angry in real life. My job just really frustrates me most days and I have no way to express those feelings. I feel bad always complaining to BRG, and apparently a certain friend of mine things I'm on Facebook too much at work, so Twitter is the next best outlet.

So I guess um...follow me?

Words for every bride

One of my daily reads is "A Practical Wedding." Meg, the author, got married a few weeks ago and is back sharing her best wedding advice. Go read it. Now. It's probably the best advice I've ever read. I'll be keeping this one starred in my Google Reader until W-Day and probably long after. Now go!

I'm so excited...

...and I just can't hide it!!!!! Today we are taking our e-pics with our amazing photographers, Linczak Photography. AAAHHHH!!!! I just have to get through my 9 hour work day and then I'll be off to glam it up in front of their cameras.

Along with being excited I'm also a little, dare I say, nervous? Me? Miss Attention -Whore, Never Met a Camera I Didn't Like? Yes, that's right. I'm nervous. Hopefully that nervous energy will translate into beautiful pictures. I can't WAIT to see how they turn out and share them with you!

This could be dangerous

Yesterday marked a beautiful day in this bride's life. Yesterday I made my first Etsy purchase. EEEEE!!!!!*

I've been on the hunt for a bracelet for a while now. My wrists are very small and my hands are long and narrow. Needless to say, bracelets are NOT my friend. It's definitely not the worst problem to have, but it's discouraging nonetheless. So without further ado I present to you, my dear readers, my beautiful, blindingly-blingy, bangin' bracelet.

It's from Bel Canto Designs. They are one of the first Etsy sellers I discovered. *Love* Well clearly I didn't discover them, but you know what I mean. Hopefully it fits, and if it doesn't hopefully I can find some one who could take a few links out. But damn it, if I have to keep it on with double stick tape all day then that's just what I'll have to do. Because I am WEARING it.

So now that I have my earrings and bracelet I'm on to veils and hair flowers. And where else to look for those two items than ETSY!! Here is the veil I'm thisclose to buying.

(From Here)

It's not the typical birdcage veil. It's tulle instead of the popular Russian netting (at least I think it's called Russian netting.) BRG is skeptical of anything covering my face, but I just absolutely LOVE this. I think it's shown here in ivory, but I would order it in white. I'm thinking of pairing it with this hair flower.

(From Here)

Minus those stringy feathers. Really not feeling those. Would those silvery leaves be too much? I worry about them competing with my earrings (which can be seen here.) I think the leaves are gorgeous and they make this different from the normal hair flower. I might search a bit more today, but if I can't find anything I'm going to really consider getting it.

Have you made any wedding purchases from Etsy?

*Bridal Squeal