Posted Friday, May 16, 2008 8:21 AM
Today I took my dress to the seamstress. I felt so relieved to drop it off because:
1) it is heavy
2) it takes up a lot of room in the closet
3) when I tried it on, it zipped up perfectly!
Why - you might ask - are you even worried about number 3? I'll tell you. A couple of months ago, I went home to Houston and took the dress there to stay for a while (see number 2). I also wanted to show my dad what it looked like, in an effort to stop him from tearing up, and then me from tearing up, on the big day.
I tried on the dress, which fit, with just a little sucking in, when I picked it up at Belle Saison. My mom totally freaked out when she was zipping it up. "It's not going to zip!" - so I sucked in and it zipped, barely. Honestly, it was a little tight.
But, it was no reason to freak out, because, as I told her, I had just finished midterms, and in typical girl fashion, had baked and half eaten a batch of monster cookie bars. Which means that I was not at my "most svelte." When I told her this, she was not convinced and said something about the fact that my weight shouldn't fluctuate that much (keep in mind that the dress DID zipper, just a teensy bit tight - and I'm not lying about "teensy").
After I successfully zippered the dress myself today, I decided to call my mom and tell her not to worry. "I'm not worried about your dress. My dress fits, so that's all I can worry about." I realize that this may seem innocuous on first read, but read it as if worrying about whether or not the bride's dress fits was "anti" on your mind at all hours of the day. Yargh.
Posted Sunday, April 27, 2008 10:16 PM
Part I: http://catholicweddinggirl.blogspot.com/2008/04/my-bridezilla-weekend.html
Part II: Shortly after the fuchsia email picture came in, the groom-to-be and I were due to go into Houston to visit the fam. Despite having a crapload of work to do for (grad) school, I allowed myself to be dragged down to the Galleria to look for other dresses. I just knew that this was going to be a fruitless journey, mostly because we were going to Neiman's, Nordstrom's, and Saks. My mother is cheap - most of the time when we were growing up, she bought her jeans at Academy (nothing "wrong" with that - just unlikely that she will be OK buying a special occasion dress at Galleria prices.
For most of the morning my mother entertains herself pulling dresses that are tangerine and pink and made for a nineteen-year-old. As I said before, I just don't understand why - she wore a light green suit to my sister's wedding and seemed to be perfectly happy. I suggest a couple of silver numbers, but "silver looks bad" on her.
As I knew we would, we wound up hading back to T. Carolyn (which is only 15 minutes from the house) where I managed to convince her to try on a few more MOB-ey dresses that I find. She also pull several other dresses - which all look like cocktail dresses - especially when hiked up around her waist - as shown in the picture on the previous post. Finally, I convinced her to try on this one dress-jacket combo (shock - in light blue), and she liked it! Note: in the picture, she is indeed wearing a full length dress, but while she was being rung up she made sure to get the number for a seamstress to take it up.
More at: http://catholicweddinggirl.blogspot.com
Posted Tuesday, April 22, 2008 9:15 AM
The article describes how couples can plan their wedding ceremony and reception to be “green.” I understand that we should conserve energy, reduce pollutants, and try to use sustainable resources, but I keep hearing this nagging voice in my head, “It’s your day - the one day you are excused from saving the earth...”
Some of the ideas I have heard before seem doable: having your reception during the day outdoors, catering with organic meals, and having your guests carpool. I feel like those measures are normal, feasible, as I said a second ago, doable. Other ideas, like hiring out a fleet of hybrid cars to transport the wedding party, seem a "off" to me. It sounds like a great idea, but wouldn't renting one limo still use only marginally more (if not less) gas than three or four hybrid cars?
Posted Thursday, April 17, 2008 10:32 AM
I have been reluctant to blog about my Bridezilla weekend, since that would mean I would have to admit that I had been a bridezilla. I admit it, I am a Bridezilla.
It all started when my mom went shopping for her MOB dress (at T. Carolyn - apparently "THE" Mother-of-the-Bride dress store) with my little sister. She emailed me the picture from her phone. The first thing I noticed was the color - which is best described as fuchsia. The second thing I noticed was that she had the dress bunched up around her waist.
I replied to the email and asked her if she was serious. She rarely is, but the fact that she went into the store and actually tried on the dress led me to believe she was. Emailing allowed me to protest in a passive-aggressive fashion. Later, I talk to her on the phone - she loves the dress. It is fabulous. Perfect. She loves it.
I bring up the fact that it is supposed to be 1) a more formal wedding at which a long dress would be appropriate and 2) the bridesmaid dresses are a light green - clash city. I do not bring up the fact that she is 50 years old and does not need to be wearing a hot pink dress.
She protests that it is August - it will be hot, she refuses to wear a long dress.
I, with great futility, remind her that we are not getting married outdoors, and the great city of Houston is fully air-conditioned.
Luckily, I was headed to Houston for the weekend, so she reminded me that we could go shopping together and see just how fabulous the pink dress is.
More later...
Posted Thursday, April 10, 2008 8:05 PM
While the title may be misleading, the wedding has not been cancelled. Rather, I finally had to dump one of the cake bakers. I got an email on Friday from the woman who works with my sister asking if I still wanted her to do the cake, since she hadn't heard from me since she emailed me the price.
Well, I waited until Monday morning, because really, how do you tell someone that you really don't like their cake that much, and that you found a better one. So I did what I think was the best option - I lied. I told her that my parents had really wanted us to use someone else. I didn't want to say it was me, so I blamed it on the general unreasonableness of parents, which I think is not unexpected when it comes to weddings.
Despite my attempts to avoid awkwardness, it occurred nonetheless. After I emailed the baker, she emailed right back asking if I could return her cake plate and cover. Crap. I mean, not really my fault, since I don't live in Houston, and we tasted the cake at my sister's house. I emailed sissy dearest and asked if she still had it.
"Oh, yeah. It's sitting in my office, I just haven't walked it over to her office yet."
"Maybe you could do that today, so she doesn't construct a voo-doo doll of me."
"Well, I can't do it today. Then she'll think I had it in my office and just didn't bring it to her. That would be awkward."
Posted Wednesday, April 02, 2008 6:19 AM
Actually, just the one thing. Apparently, what you really need to look for in a baker is the utmost discretion when it comes to his/her clients.
After much debate over the past weekend, my parents came to the conclusion that we didn't need to look for another amateur baker, but could go ahead and put the deposit down on the cake from the professional baker. Since the bakery is not open on Mondays, my mom called today to get them to fax her a copy of the contract and give them her credit card number for the deposit. The girl at the front desk said she would send it on over . . .
Then the owner's husband overheard the conversation.
"Ma'am, your name isn't on the contract (even though we have the same last name), so we're going to have to call your daughter so that she can authorize us to fax you the contract."
"I just want to put down the deposit, why can't you send the contract."
"Well, we have to be discreet. We wouldn't want anyone to sabotage someone else's wedding cake."
"OK - I don't want to change the cake, won't that be ok."
"Well, then you could copy her design."
And around and around, until finally he said he would have to give me a call. Except I was driving home and still had the ringer on my phone off, so he had to leave a voicemail. When I got home, I finally got the message and called back. The girl at the reception desk said she would get with my mom as soon as possible.
more posts at http://catholicweddinggirl.blogspot.com
Posted Friday, March 28, 2008 3:44 PM
There is a reason why people who are not professional cake bakers have significantly (so I thought) lower prices than professionals. When last my fiance and I were in Houston, we arranged to have two cake tastings, one with Who Made the Cake, and the other with a woman that works with my sister.
1. My sister called me the week before to tell me that "Susie" had given her a cake that day instead, because she had forgotten which weekend we were coming into town. I see this as a bad thing (though lateness has been a trend http://catholicweddinggirl.blogspot.com/2007/11/engagement-photo-session.html ); you wouldn't really want your wedding cake showing up a week early, or worse, a week late.
2. The first cake was covered in scrollwork. To the point where you couldn't see the actual cake (a little busy looking).
3. We were only able to taste one cake, which is a downer, but I understand that since she's not making multiple cakes every week, she doesn't have time to make a tasting cake of every flavor. --My bridezilla self thought she would want to make multiple flavors, but it was too much to do.
4. The cake was not as good as the professional cake. I am sure this is not the case with all "make-it-at-home" bakers, but it was with ours. We had asked to taste a raspberry filling in the cake, and when I saw the filling, I knew what she had done. The filling had the consistency of the jelly that comes in the squeeze bottle. I have had cakes where people use preserves as the filling, and they are quite tasty, but jelly just doesn't work.
More posts at http://catholicweddinggirl.blogspot.com
Posted Saturday, March 22, 2008 3:31 AM
Well, there was a bit of funniness that happened last weekend when we were in for the cake-tasting sessions (one left to tell, probably later this weekend). My fiance and I went to dinner with the whole family, and while we were there, we had a few glasses of our beverages of choice, and my dad decided he would ask my fiance what he thought about the cake.
So. Again, we are in a restaurant. They have seated us in a side room with 4 or 5 other tables. And we are drinking. He decided he wanted to imitate Franc from the Steve Martin version of the bride. So he said, "'Ow did you like the caaake?" Except it sounded like he was saying a word that started with "c" and ends in "ock."
more posts at http://catholicweddinggirl.blogspot.com