Sun Moon Stars Girl )-(

Welcome to my little place to vent…

I went for my first alteration appointment today. I was a little scared, driving to a new place that I knew was a private home (versus a tailor shop), and it took my a while to traverse the steep and winding hill to find the correct house number. (Side note - why does California have to have 5-digit house numbers? The streets are NOT long enough to justify all the houses to have such crazy numbering…) I didn’t know what to expect as far as the actual seamstress was concerned either. But I was happily surprised, and all in all, though, it was a good experience. She was very kind, and had a wonderfully clean place to work in. So I know there won’t be any animals clawing my dress, or jumping on it to get it dirty or full of pet hair (which is SO gross ).

When I made the appointment, the seamstress asked when my wedding was. I told her the date, and said something like, “Oh, I just want to get this all out of the way as soon as possible.” But the reason she had asked was if I was planning on losing weight, and the possability that I might gain some. I did not, and still do not, think this will be a problem, as my dress has a corset back. So as far as the mid-body adjustment, she doesn’t need to do anything. The biggest thing that needed fixing is the hem.

Of course I had to wait to get my shoes, but now I have them. I hadn’t had my dress on with my shoes before today, so that was actually rather surprising. With the shoes on, my dress hardly has to be hemmed at all! It’s such a huge pain to have it done in the first place, since the entire beaded bottom portion needs to be removed and replaced. At least not too much fabric will be lost, and thankfully the beaded edging that goes from the waist to the bottom will not need to be removed - which I was worried about because I didn’t want it to all come undone! And also with the shoes on, she only needs to hem the front portion - the entire train will be left alone. Of course the front portion is still also a pain, because the finer mesh area on the right side is actually seperated from the satin panel on the left, and consists of a larger area. This might sound confusing without a picture of the dress for reference: Daniella

I was definately freaked out when she started putting pins to mark the hem. Here’s this expensive dress that’s only getting worn one time - and your’re sticking pins into it! That hem better be right! We also discussed options for the bustle, which I’m not keen on having - as I’ve said before, I’d really like to have a loop thing held in my hand instead. However, both bustle ways neither of us were pleased with - they made the dress look really weird - and actually both agreed that the hand-loop idea was really the best one!

So Maggie, my seamstress, will be working on my hem and the hand-loop over the next couple weeks. I’m sad not to have my gown, but the sooner this all gets done, the better. I hope to be able to bring the dress to NJ when I go to my sister’s graduation, and I think it will be done in plenty of time for that. Maggie even offered to bead the hand-loop! I’m impressed about the price too, I think it’s actually better that she’s past “retirement age” so this is really a supplement to her income and not the only was she’s making any money. It’s also great that (at least it seemed) my dress is the only thing she’s working on.

I get to go back in about 2-3 weeks. Yay!

Well, it’s been a while, but things are in the works and I’ll probably have a couple more updates to post within a week or so - about our registries, my first fitting, and a couple other things, but this particular post is going to be dedicated to talking about saving the date.

First of all, I just want to say that Kris’s mom did an awesome job of painting the lovely Forget-me-not flowers that appear on our save-the-date cards. They came out even better ON the actual cards then they did when we got the preliminary pdf version from Kris’s parents. It almost looks like the flowers were painted on each individual card, rather than being printed. And for that I must compliment Kris’s father, who helped put the design together and made sure the quality was the highest possible, since he is involved in the printing industry. Bob and Donna - thank you so much for your help!

MOST of the cards have been sent out or emailed…I’m still trying to gather a few last addresses. Also, we decided that not everyone was going to be sent an actual card, or even an email. Invitations will be fine for most people, especially those who know they are invited. However, what I think is funny is that a lot of people who have gotten their cards out here in Cali have told me, “Hey, I got your invitation!” I kinda laughed, because they also wondered why it hardly had any information on it. I had to explain that it was for them to “reserve the date” on their calendars, and also to let them know we’d like them to come from out of town…so they can start making travel arrangements. I thought it was kinda weird too, in this day and age, even the younger friends we have had never heard of the save-the-date cards, and in my mind, it’s almost standard fare.

Also, I did want to again compliment Kris’s parents. These same friends who have gotten the cards and let us know have made similar comments. “They’re really beautiful!” “It looks like the flowers were painted on the card - how did they do that?” And I’ve also been asked, “How did you come up with the idea?” Well, I know Donna and I were talking about what kind of flowers to base her painting on, and we both thought forget-me-knots were the perfect flowers for the theme of a save-the-date card. Then the wording just came to me, as if in a vision. I’m very happy with the way they came out, and everyone’s response to them.

And again, Kris and Christine’s wedding is going to be: Saturday, August 11, 2007!!!

Shoes are here!!! They actually came in on Monday, but I completely forgot I had not posted about my shoe decision or that I had ordered them. But they’re here! So these are the ones I chose, the Mackenzie. It took two long weeks to get them, after a small problem with the gift card which I fixed immediately. Once they came in, I wore them for about five hours, until I went to make dinner and decided it would be a good idea to take them off before they got dirty. They’re really comfy, but I plan on getting the “Runaway Bride” shoe cushion set from Foot Petals. There’s all this wedding-only stuff I’m finding out about, but what’s weird is that these companies would probably make a lot more money if they advertised their products for other formal occasions, like proms and sweet sixteen parties. In any case, it’s one crazy industry!

I don’t have much left to shop for, which is good. And I have everything I need to start my fittings next week!

However, I still need my “something borrowed…” Anyone have suggestions?

GIRL SCOUT COOKIES!!!!

Yes, that’s right folks, I am nearly overwhelmed with excitement here. An actual scout came to my door (although with her mom), and asked if we’d like to purchase some cookies. I told them they’d come to the right place. I look forward to this time EVERY YEAR, and this is the first year I’ve actually had someone come to my door. Usually we have to stop by a grocery store and see what they’ve got from the extras they ordered. Which is a bummer. Because I know there’s awards for selling a ton of cookies.

I’ve actually wanted to get involved with my local GSA for the last year or two. I tried contacting several different people, I sent emails, I talked to the leaders helping with the sale at the local grocery store last year. I know I don’t have any girls, let alone obviously any kids, but I’d really like to volunteer my time. You know, help the girls with art projects. Go on field trips. Help them earn badges. Ok, would I be the creepy young woman with no kids in the troop? Maybe that’s why they didn’t call me back. But I want to be a girl scout again!

There’s still four boxes of cookies to look forward to though!

Kris’s ring is here!

About two weeks after we got engaged, Kris and I spent the weekend up at Lake Arrowhead. While up there in “sweetheart mode,” we went to a jewler and got our ring sizes confirmed. Early on we both agreed we’d like to get plain wedding bands, something that can easily match the other.

Since Kris got my engagement ring from Blue Nile, I was able to get a nice discount on his ring, the plain platinum band above. It’s here already - I couldn’t believe how quickly it got here after I ordered it.

I picked out a matching, albeit much smaller, platinum band. Thankfully, Kris was also able to take advantage of a discount from Blue Nile. I’m not sure where this ring is hiding, but it doesn’t matter. Here it is:

And we haven’t officially decided yet, but I don’t think we’re going to get them engraved.