Friday, April 29, 2011

oh, the injustice.

Dear Kate Middleton,

Thanks for getting married AFTER I bought my wedding dress.  I was looking for your dress a year ago and was hard pressed to find anything but strapless + a lace jacket (not the same at all).  I hope all other brides who really wanted a dress with sleeves will benefit from your choice.

<3, Em

Dear Bridal Gown Industry,

I love my dress.  But you still suck.

<3, Em

If only I'd waited to get married just one more year....I could've caught the Will & Kate wedding wave and had the dress I was looking for all along.

Wednesday, April 20, 2011

negotiating skillz - i have 'em

Asking for $1000 cut to catering proposal?  No problem.
 
I have a tradition of wimpiness when it comes to asking people to do things for me or negotiating price.  Thankfully I have Lt. Col. Madre for a role model.  Also, I'd like to thank 5 years of roller derby for turning me into less of a wuss.  Madre took the reigns with the venue - she knew what she wanted and was much more intimidating than me.  Thankfully, things appear simpler with the catering situation and all I had to do was be straight forward about our budget.
 
Could we afford $48/head in catering?  Yeah, probably.  Considering how much traditional wedding fluff we are not going to have elsewhere and also considering the discount on liquor that my mother managed from the venue.  But Madre wants cheaper and if I can save her money then I will.  So when we met with the sales rep for our leading caterer contender today I told her straight up that my main concern was the budget and her proaposal was too high.  She didn't even flinch and was happy to make a new proposal for us that I believe will save us about $1000 from the original quote.  Woot!
 
Like I said, in the past I have been afraid to ask about things like that.  Just pay what people ask or don't and then move on.  But this was relatively painless and H was there to be moral support.  And I think Madre will be happier with the numbers.
 
Maybe now we can convince her to spend a little more on cake...

Wednesday, April 13, 2011

things in lists and a cake

Things I have been procrastinating on:
  • the catering
  • the hotel block
  • the guest addresses
Things that I have been preoccupied with:
  • vintage yellow necklaces
  • paper or fabric flowers
  • cake
  • making sure all the bridesmaids can get a dress in their size
And just when I was despairing that no wedding cake could possibly be awesome enough or really embrace what I want in my wedding and, therefore, my wedding cake.  But then I found that my google-fu is most excellent because I found this looker of a cake.  The colors are perfect and the base fondant and the flowers look like fabric and buttons (which my super badass bridesmaid and I were just discussing).  It's modern and it's pretty but it's not frilly and super girly.

I'm in cake love.

That said, H the Designer is still in creative design mode and I have no idea what's going on inside his brain which is driving me NUTS.  So I've spent most of my time trying really hard not to be a nag about save-the-dates.  I've been promised that they will be designed, printed, and sent by the end of the month.

In the meantime, I'm going to just drool over cake pron.

Sunday, April 10, 2011

liar, liar pants on fire

I'll confess:

Now that I'm in the market for a wedding ring I find myself leaning towards sparklier items.  Because I think it does actually bother me that I didn't get an engagement ring.  I thought I was more feminist or less materialistic than that, but it turns out that I like sparkly things.  And I don't actually know any people who didn't get and engagement ring.  And I keep thinking back to the one time we went ring shopping and I had that marquise cut on my finger and it made me giddy for no good reason.  It was still way too much cash to spend and I'm glad that I don't have that but I do find myself mourning the idea of the engagement ring.

So I'm trying to make up for it in a wedding ring.  Nothing crazy expensive, I promise.  But still sparkly.  I wouldn't mind vintage.  H had considerably more modern tastes.

What can I say?  The traditional Taurus-type in me wants to fit in and my Leo-rising wants to be a little eye-catching.

So, yeah - I'm a big, fat liar face.