Need a little help from my friends!

I know what you're all thinking....Where have you been!?





It's been a tad crazy busy this summer that I've been slacking with keeping you posted. My bad! I do need your expert opinions though on what to wear for the home reception. The attire is semi-casual so I was thinking of wearing this:

This little number is by J.Crew in Ivory. I figured this would be a cute end of summer dress that I could wear a cardigan with should it be cooler than expected. Maybe a cute little necklace as well.

My FMIL e-mailed me asking if I was going to wear my dress for the HR too. I replied and told her no since I think I'll stick out like a sore thumb and people would wonder, 'why is she wearing her wedding dress a week later?' So I believe word got out to his family and his Aunt inquired as well as to why I wasn't going to wear my dress to the HR. Ugh. So i've seeked a few other outside opinions and I'm just wondering about yours.

Also please note, I have a TTD session two days after my wedding which is 5 days before the HR. I'm a little concerned that the dress won't be in tip top shape after since we'll rolling around in the sand and water and I'll have to pay for express dry cleaning when I get back.

Should I suck it up and wear the dress for the first two hours so people can get pictures in and his family can be satisfied or shall I continue with my original plan? I could possibly play it ear and see how the TTD goes and make a decision after? I just didn't want to get all dolled up and get my hair done for the HR.

What's your thoughts?

Bedazzle Flops!

Remember my 'attempt' to bedazzle my own flips flops? If not, click here. I was pretty bummed that it didn't work out and I failed miserably at what I thought was an easy DIY project.

So I caved in and decided to purchase Swarovski flip flops from an AMAZING Etsy seller JS Creations.

She not only does flip flops but she blings out custom t-shirts and tanks, hair pins etc. The process was smooth and they arrived in about two weeks. I'm actually thinking of having her make me a "Mrs." tank!


I neatly opened the tissue paper to reveal these beauties below:

How AWESOME AND AMAZINGLY cute is it that she put her own logo on them!?? I was super excited to parade these around the office to show them off. These bad boys came all the way from Hawaii which I thought was cool since our wedding is in the tropics. I highly recommend using JS Creations for hassle free purchase at a decent price.

Bling Bling Baby!

Relief at last!

So much weight has been lifted off my shoulders after this past weekend. Why you ask? Because I got to FINALLY reunite with my dress after a 6 month separation period. Remember I had a moment of insecurity and doubt? Well all the fears have gone away and I can finally sit back and know that I picked the right dress! I fell in love with it all over again! My sister helped me get it on and once it was zipped up I had the biggest smile. Although I freaked out a bit when I couldn't zip it up myself and my sister had to help but it's all good now.



I absolutely love everything about the dress and I didn't have to use 'chicken cutlets' for the "ladies" like I did initially since it made me look flat chested. Not anymore, woohoo!

I love the back, it's my favorite part of the dress and exactly why I opted out of having a veil. I didn't want to take away from the dress by wearing one. I also used my hair pieces to see if it flowed with the outfit and I couldn't be happier with my choice. My sister absolutely loved the look and asked me, "say Yes to the dress?" LOL

I'm hoping my mother can help make a simple little bustle using the buttons that go down the back of my dress since it's a smaller train. I really don't want to spend money on alterations since I don't need anything else done.

I didn't want to take my dress off to be honest. I just fell in love all over again and it made me so excited for the big day. 95 days away!! How is your dress situation going? Have you tried it on since?

You're going to trash what?? Think again!

This might be one of the most revealing posts I've written thus far but that's OK because I want others to know that wedding planning is NOT always about sunshine and cupcakes! Remember about a month ago I was so excited on my impulse purchase on EBay? If not, read here. I received the dress in a tiny box about 2 weeks ago and I couldn't wait to get home to try it on! The dress was the same size as my wedding dress so it was perfect and meant to be......or so I thought.

The dress is absolutely gorgeous and flowy.

Except it doesn't fit (cue loser music "wah waaah")

Let me explain how I got this dress on to begin with. Since it was only myself I put it on backwards so the zipper was in the front. The dress has a corset back and then you zipper up. So I was able to get ONE hook which clearly almost broke by the time I was done. THEN I had to suck it in for a good minute to try and turn the dress around right. Picture a dog chasing it's tail and that's what you got. No joke.

About 5 minutes later I finally got the dress on right. Notice the hook stretching in this picture?? Le sigh. Then I attempted to zip it up and that only got me half way until I decided to breathe and zipper went right back down to the start. ::insert pointing and laughing::

Um. yeah. The top is too big and pointy and CLEARLY a huge gap! I'm just a mess at this point.

Such a horrible picture but since it wasn't zipped up this is what I got. I look like a line backer to be honest! Bummer.


So ladies unfortunately I've decided to not use this dress and possibly resell it. My heart keeps telling me to use my own dress for the TTD session anyways and after this bump in the road I think its a sign. Luckily I didn't break the bank with this purchase but its still a disappointment not to mention my butt has to get to the gym because I cannot have this happen to my other dress!

What was your disappointment thus far in wedding planning?

The unveiling!

I've finally come to a decision..well...more like a step forward. I spoke earlier about whether I was going to wear a veil or not on the day of the wedding.

Well I found 2 smaller flower organza beaded hairpins from Etsy seller PowderBlueBijoux for $30 and I fell in love. I received them in a cute little box with Tiffany blue tissue paper. Although at first I wasn't overly excited about the quality of the flower, I got over that fast once I put it in my hair. I chose two small flowers because I didn't one big flower to consume my entire head.

In the center is a tiny pearl and rhinestone which fits well with my jewelry and dress theme.

Back of the hairpin

So I have naturally wavy/curly hair and in the summer time due to humidity I have NO choice but to leave it this way. I plan on leaving my hair like this in the Dominican and most likely the day of the wedding. I found inspiration from a very common picture found on the web.

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So I decided to just pull my hair back lightly into a bun for now. Then strategically placed the two hairpins, one on top and the other on the side.

View from the front, not bad eh!

Another view trying to get the flower in more. At this point I'm wondering if I need to go bigger since you can't see the flower unless I turn my head. Hmm...

I was surprisingly happy with the way they looked. I was relieved to be honest. At this point I realized there was no way I was going to have a veil. This works very well with the back of my dress being open.

I suck at taking pictures on my own at an awkward angle but I wanted to get a close up of the flowers. You can't tell but my other hand is holding a hand mirror up to try and make sure the camera is position right. HA!

So what do you think? Should I go bigger?

*all photos are personal unless otherwise stated*

DIY: Bedazzler gone wrong!

Remember how I wanted to bedazzle my flip flops for the wedding instead of paying $60 for the real deal? Well I visited Michaels today and was totally stoked to use my 40% coupon too!! I couldn't wait to get home to start another project.

I have my crystals, tweezers, hot fix crystal tool, and flip flops!

I bought 5mm swarovski crystal flat backs, 4 packages of 22 pieces.




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I even went on YouTube to see how to use the hot fix tool properly. Sounds so easy but it isn't! You heat up the hot fix tool for 5 minutes, then place your crystal on the surface of the object you want and hold down for 30 seconds. Then VOILA!

Unfortunately my DIY project didn't work the way I wanted and started melting the flip flops!
As you can see I tried 3 times and still no luck.

No bueno! I was frustrated and bummed.

So here is the breakdown of my unsucessful DIY project:

Old Navy flip flops: $2.50

5mm flat back crystals: $3.49 each 30% off (22 pieces) x 4

Jolees Hot Fix Crystal Tool: $11.99 ( with 40% coupon)

Tweezers: $3.49

Total: $34.10

So I will be returning the crystals and the tweezers since I won't be using them now. And it's now on to Plan B. I discovered these bad boys in J.Crew the other day for $36.

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So in the long run I spent almost the amount I didn't want to spend. Oh well. You win some and you learn some.

Anyone have luck using the hot fix tool on flip flops? Ever have a DIY project gone wrong? If so, I'd love to hear!

Stop bugging me!

I'm getting a tad impatient and worried. I haven't seen my dress in 5 months and I keep thinking about the 'other' dress that I battled with in the beginning of my dress hunt.

I've been drugged and I'm now addicted to "Say 'Yes' to the Dress' on TLC every Friday night! The past two weeks I've become 'blah' after watching the show and questioning my dress choice. Could I possibly be in love with two dresses?

I realize that I tried to cover up my discovery by purchasing a second dress to be used for our TTD session. I received the dress I won on EBay two weeks ago and I'll admit I've been a bad blogger by not posting the pictures of it on me. I promise to follow up on that shortly with pictures but honestly it wasn't a pretty sight and it involved me suffocating myself almost.

The culprit is below and it's made by the same designer as my dress. Unlike my dress, this one is completely the opposite. Strapless and form fitting. This was the ONLY dress that fit over my hips and actually made my curves look damn good! I could never pull off a mermaid dress in a million years and this was the closest I would get to doing so. I was unable to take pictures of this dress since RK Bridal in NYC doesn't allow you to take pictures until you purchase the dress.


The back of the dress is similar to mine with the faux buttons going down the back.

I want this dress to stop bugging me! I know this is a very common feeling to have but it sucks. I can't wait for my dress to be delivered so I can try it on and stop worrying.

Have you had the same experience? What was the outcome?

You're going to trash what??? Part 2

As I previously mentioned, we will be have a TTD session a couple days after our wedding and I wasn't sure if I wanted to use my wedding dress or purchase a cheaper dress to use for the photo shoot. I've been going back and forth on the idea and to be honest I'm still on the fence about what to do.

I've scoured the internet for the perfect TTD: light material with some beading. I fell in love with a dress a previous bride wore for her TTD by our photographers uncle. I sent her a message on Facebook to see where she got it from and she finally got back to me but unfortunately she purchased the dress last year on sale from Nordstroms. I stalked their website but to no avail.

Photo by PhotoPhil

I just love the beading around the top and the dress looks light and flowing. This photographer rocks and I just can't wait for our TTD.

So I marched on and searched high and low through the Internet for discounted wedding gowns on both preownedweddingdresses.com, craigslist, and EBay. I mean I literally haunted those sites for weeks and I just couldn't find anything in my price range nor the style.

Until yesterday when I stumbled upon a seller on EBay who sold sample dresses for cheap. Extremely detailed about the dress and it was exactly what I was looking for and the price was just unbeatable. The starting bid: 99 cents. What? Yes. Unbelievable. The sale was ending in 3 hours so I decided to watch it for a bit. I got home and realized I never checked the dress to see if was sold or not and rushed to turn on my computer. I still had 40 minutes to go and it was up to $52. So I put in my bid and instantly got outbid.

I kept asking myself "What are you thinking?! You sure you want to do this? What if you win?"

It came down the last couple of minutes and bets started going up. I got nervous. Should I bet? Should I walk away? Finally it came down to 30 seconds and I put my maximum bid of $105 in and shut my eyes like the computer was about to blow up! Then I refreshed the page and in big bold green font it said "Winner!"

Oh. My. Gosh.

I didn't know if I should be excited or nervous. It all happened so fast. So I paid the seller and continued to stare at the dress.

I am now the owner of James Clifford gown. I've never even heard of the designer but the more I stared at the dress the more I started to get excited for the arrival. I won't keep you in suspense anymore so here are the pictures provided:

I absolutely fell in love with the beading and the rouching of the chiffon.



Here is a close up of the beading. I think it looks a tad dirty which is fine because I will get this dry cleaned of course.


Isn't the back stunning??

Since this was a sample dress the seller warned me that there are snags/runs all over the dress that can be easily fixed by my lovely mother. I'm not too concerned about that because I'm not wearing this on my wedding day anyways and it will be going through hell in the jungle regardless.

I bought this on impulse and it's still a shock that I won but I can't wait for this arrival hopefully next week. I told my FI and he was even excited about it which made me feel better.

Stay tuned for picture of me in the dress....hopefully it fits!

Have you bought something for your wedding on impulse? If so, what was it? Were you happy with your choice or regret it?

*all photos are from Ebay

You're going to trash what???

An extremely popular trend among destination weddings is the Trash The Dress (TTD) pictures taken a day or two after the wedding.


On the wedding day the bride is always so careful not to get her dress dirty. Once the wedding is over with then what do you do with the dress? You can preserve it, but I don't know many that do. Some put their dress on eBay or craigslist! But wait! Why not be photographed in the dress some more and have some fun with it? To me it means more "cool" photos that's thinking outside the box.

Our photographer also shot Mrs. Sea Breeze's wedding and TTD session and that's when I fell in love with the idea. Here are some more photos from our amazing photographer:

I just love the color of the sky in this picture.

A little salt water won't hurt ;-)

PhotoSouvenir

Beautiful (source)

Many destination brides have said that their wedding gowns have come out CLEANER after taking pictures in the ocean. Can you believe that? My one and only concern is the risk of possibly ruining my dress. I spent more money than I had imagined on my dress and I would hate to see it ruined.

Will you be preserving your dress after the big day? Possibly selling it on Ebay or Craigslist?

Let's Get BeDazzled!

As Seen On TV

Let's kick it old school for a bit and reminisce about the days of jean jackets bedazzled with colorful jewels. Not only jackets but hats, t-shirts, jeans, and skirts! OK so I wasn't so cool back then and my mother would never let me get one since she thought it was a waste of money and she could sew some jewels on a hat if I really wanted it.

So I've discussed my shoes for the ceremony but those puppies aren't going to stay on all day. I mean we'll be headed to the beach for pictures after and I know I won't be sporting the ballet flats in the sand. That just says "UNCOMFORTABLE" written all over it. So I've decided to find a sparkly pair of flip flops for the reception so I can be comfortable.

Crystal Flip Flops

These are so cool!! Swarovski crystals cover the straps to add that special touch! In my eyes that is perfect except they cost $65! Man is that expensive for flip flops! So the little light bulb went off in my head and I thought, 'what if I just buy the flip flops and glue them on myself?!'

Flip flop season is just around the corner and I'm sure stores like Old Navy will be stocking their shelves soon with every color imaginable. A trip to Michaels is in store for this weekend. Wish me luck!

If the shoe fits....

Ok so I previously spoke about my love for heels but how they can't be part of my wedding unfortunately. So the next best thing is ballet flats which I found by Dessy and I love how they have so many colors to choose from! Although I think i'm leaning towards ivory since I don't want people to focus their eyes on my shoes when I walk down the aisle. "Hello i'm up here!" ;-) PLUS I can wear them after wedding with jeans and cute top! Score!

What do you think? Should I add some color or keep it Ivory?

No heels allowed!

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Part of wedding dress shopping is figuring out what footwear to choose that will compliment your dress. Unfortunately I don't get to have fun with this category since i'm about half an inch taller than my FI. Boo! I didn't realize how excited I would be about a pair of heels until I went to shop for dresses for the first time and the wedding consultant mentioned to pick out a pair of shoes to try on with the dresses. So I went over to the shoe section and saw all these cute and pretty heels and that's when it hit me that I wasn't going to be able to enjoy a great pair of heels on my wedding day.

Normally I will wear heels at work since I don't need to worry about towering over people. I'm 5'8" to begin with so with heels I can look like a giant. LOL! Whenever my FI and I have to dress for a formal affair I have in the past worn heels but not a high ones.

I've read several blogs where brides talk about their shoes choices and I envy them!

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I just think the color would pop and add some flare! Oh how pretty you would look with a great pedicure!

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So now I am forced to wear a ballet flat most likely which is fine but let me just drool over these for a while. =)

Anyone else have to resort to flats for the wedding day? What did you choose to do?

Doesn't make the cut....sorry!

So I spoke about my first dress shopping experience at David's Bridal (DB) but I never revealed any pictures until now! It wasn't that I didn't like some of the dresses but they just didn't make the cut!







I really liked this dress on me, it was a contender and it's especially unique for the two-tones but like I said before it just didn't WOW me. Note: I wasn't ready for some of the pictures which explains my facial expressions. LOL





I liked this dress and the ruching but it was just too plain for me and also a bit heavy.



I just didn't like this dress at all, the way the ruching is in the front bottom. yuck! Plus I am not a sweatheart neck fan as well.





I feel like it drew attention to my tummy and the fact that I had a large breakfast (dang it waffles!).

Closer picture of the tummy

I realized I don't like taffeta because it looks all wrinkley and like a windbreaker jacket. I loved the top though!

This was actually the first wedding dress I tried on that day. And honestly it was nice but the material just wasn't right for me. I will say that this experience was fun but it brought out all the flaws that I need to work on (i.e. flabby arms, waffle filled tummy) and although at first it was a downer, I turned the frown upside down and told myself this should be motivation to get my butt back into gear! That story will follow later of course.

How many trips to a bridal salon did it take you to find THE dress? Was it fun? Did you have anxiety about the experience? Did you find it motivation to get into the dress you want?