Shower Power

We're rounding the final corner toward the wedding and up and coming is Big Event No. 3 - the Bridal Shower.  And of course, this installation of Inspired Bride wouldn't be complete without a not-so shocking reveal from yours truly...

...I don't like bridal showers.  Or baby showers.  In fact, I kind of avoid them at all costs unless absolutely necessary that I attend.

(And in other news, water is wet and the sky is blue.)

So when it came time that my MOB and MOH and bridesmaids started talking to me about a shower, the idea was a little scary.  My first thought was, "Who the hell would want to come to a bridal shower for me, those things suck."  And then the idea of ME being the one sitting up on the lily pad being worshipped with exorbitant amounts of presents and wearing a hat made of bows?  Forget it.

 

Never.

 

 

I guess the reason why I don't enjoy myself at bridal showers and the reason I struggle with my own, is that the typical bridal shower is SO not me.  I'm not a girly girl, I don't ooh and aah over things, I don't enjoy crustless sandwiches, small talk, being in a room full of people I don't know, tooty-fruity punch with .05% alcohol, laughing at the guest of honor's abject humiliation, or spending a Sunday afternoon in a hot church basement smelling diapers that have pretend shit in them and trying to guess what kind of pretend shit it is.  But like so many other things involved with weddings, you're expected to do what is typically done and not deviate from the norm, unless you want people staring at you like you've just suggested you want to go do naked cartwheels in the church parking lot. 

 

At first I just thought I was going to skip it.  There's no way I can pretend for an entire afternoon that I'm enjoying myself in a room that looks like it has been decorated by a monster that vomits pink streamers.  And the eye-rolling, long sighs, constant checking of the iPhone and too much wine consumption?  1000x worse for you to do when it's your OWN shower, methinks.  However, I was filled with a little bit of hesitation because I had an overwhelming feeling that I did want to do something - all my best lady friends in one room at once?  YES.  With cupcakes?  RIGHT ON.  So I started talking to my bridal team and we came up with a way for me to still have the full bride experience of a shower while cutting out all the lameness.

 

 

Hahaha!  I just can't.



 

So number one priority:  Booze.  This is a must.  Re. Quired.  Sorry if this makes me look like a raging alcoholic, but wine makes most things better.  I can't deal with a stuffy, hoity-toity afternoon event where we are served mesclun greens and puttanesca if there isn't at least a mimosa within reach.  And for myself, if someone wants to stick me in a room with 30 people I don't know, there better be some means to liquor me up.  So it's only fair I extend the same courtesy to others.

 

Second, no lame games.  No bridal shower bingo, no "take the clothespin when someone says wedding", no mad libs, nothing of that nature.  It's bad enough being invited to a bridal shower, without being forced to participate in some ridiculous exercise like "let's see how many of these incredibly common items are in your purse."  I'm intensely competitive, and any of my friends will admit I'm not any fun to play games with because of how seriously I take it.  I once schooled a group of 12 year olds at Harry Potter Scene-It.  At Christmas.  It was their game they just got for Christmas.  I take winning very seriously.  And even I can't get into these pointless games that are played at showers.

 

 

 

Let's not.

 

 

Next...music!  To me, silence can get extremely awkward.  It's usually during long drawn out silences that I will break the tension by saying something inappropriate because I just can't take it anymore.  And the hush that falls over the crowd at a shower when the bride is opening her painstakingly wrapped shoal grey bed linens?  Probably right before I spill my wine, break the glass, slurringly giggle "whoooops" and get the death stare from the trio of women in polka dotted dresses who finished their mad libs 15 minutes ago.  So I am all for having some sweet Top 40 tunes at the shower.  If I'm gonna eat a crustless sandwich, at least I can do it while shimmying to "Blurred Lines".  It's a party!  We need some music!

 

And last, you can't beat MOB's cupcakes and you KNOW they're going to make an appearance.  So now, this is sounding awesome to me.

 

 

Am I right?

 

 

I have to say in all seriousness though, that the outpouring of love and congratulations that has come in since we got engaged has been absolutely wonderful.  And it has been awe-inspiring to see my family and bridal party come together for me and put together these experiences for me that have made this process even more amazing.  Just look at these insanely beautiful shower invitiations:

 

 

GAHHHHH

 

 

This process has made me so incredibly grateful and happy - it's one thing to feel loved by the people closest to you.  It's on a completely different level to feel loved for exactly who you are and to have it celebrated and to feel totally supported.  Not once did any of my bridal team tell me that I needed to change my views and alter my plans.  I never once have felt pressure to conform to societal bridal norms.  You don't want to do a bouquet toss?  Cool.  You want to have beer at your bridal shower?  Done.  You want your bachelorette in Vegas?  Let's go.  You want a guy in your bridal party?  He's game.  You want to put shoes on your bridal registry?  Power to you!  How COOL is that?  I love everyone!  I'm so excited for what's to come in the next two months.  And I can't wait to knock back a few with all the wonderful awesome women in my life at my shower, which I know is going to be totally rad.  ;)

 

 

Happy Wedding Wednesday!

 

 

~M

Bedazzling The Belt

I’m back!  I hope all of my blog readership (which consists of my best friend and my mom and dad) didn’t think I’d given up on this project.  The last month has been absolute insanity.  So here’s a quick recap before we get into today’s post:

First of all, our social was a fantastic success!  After all the stress, planning, gathering of prizes, selling of tickets, and working to ensure the night went off without a hitch, I am happy to report that everything went relatively smoothly.  Or at least I think it did.  The night went by so fast that I’m not sure what happened.  One minute I’m writing numbers on the prize bags, the next minute I’m pulling out large trays of meat, and the third minute I’m throwing out half empty drink cups and telling Guy We Haven’t Seen In Eight Years to stop hitting on my bridesmaid and to go the hell home so we can clean up.  I learned quickly that it certainly goes by a lot faster when it’s your social compared to someone else’s. 

Another thing we learned:  never underestimate the ferocity of hungry drunk chicks.  My mother worked to create the most amazing cupcake display known to man, with 18 different specialty flavors in gorgeous wrappers.  However, the problem with that, is you cannot set up a table filled with sweets in the middle of a hoard of woo girls and expect them to stand back nicely while you place your handmade, exquisitely delicate signage in front of each type of cupcake and then stand back to admire and take a picture of your excellent craftsmanship.  As soon as the first cupcake hit the table it was like...

 

FOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOD!

And my MOH was having to throw elbows to try and keep my mother from being stampeded.  Thankfully, she made it out alive, and I received a million compliments on her delicious confections. 

We owe a huge thank you to our families and wedding party, who really stepped up and helped us immensely with this event, as well as to all the wonderful people in our lives to attended our social to support us.  We love you all! 

 

 

The one picture of us from before the night started...

Immediately after the social, I had 4 days to get ready to leave for Grey Cup with my cheer team.  Between tying up loose ends at work, laundry and packing, ensuring our routine was ready to go and not leaving the hair team behind (which almost happened) there was no time for blogging.  Grey Cup weekend was also a great success!  My feelings would best be described in a song:

 

 

 

And a photo:

 

No caption necessary.

Immediately after getting home from Grey Cup, I had 4 days to get ready for a two week trip to Germany for the World Tap Championships.  By this time, my life is in complete disarray.  I’ve been living out of a bag and in airports since September, and I haven’t even had time to think about my wedding much less blog about it.  But I returned home in one piece last weekend after many a delayed flight and missed connection and had a couple days at home with my love to relax, decompress and recover from jet lag.  And what’s the best way to do that?  Why, with wine and strassing!

I received my Swarovskis in the mail a while ago, as I mentioned last blog post, and they have just been sitting there, taunting me, ever since.  So when I sat down to work on Aislin’s belt, I thought it was a project that was going to be completed over a number of weeks, but I finished it in two days.  Turns out, strassing for small people?  Much faster.  Strassing on a flat surface?  Much easier.  Strassing with Clear Diamond Swarovskis?  Much SPARKLIER!  Is sparklier a word?  I don’t care.  It is now.

As I posted before, Aislin’s dress looks like this:

 

 

Look at that punnum.  Isn’t she adorable?  Squee.

But the front of it is much too plain for my taste.  So I started with a piece of plain white silk ribbon, and used an embroidery hoop to keep it taut and in place while I strassed.  I was also concerned the glue would seep through the ribbon and onto the table, so I wanted to keep it up off my work surface.  Turns out it held up well!  When I put the first row of crystals on, I felt that same overwhelming feeling when I started Meadow’s tap shoes, because it seems like such a big project with such little stones.  But I worked about one square inch at a time, and it went pretty fast!

 

 

You start with some ribbon....

 

 

 

 

...you pull it tight...

 

 

 

 

...and you get down to biz.

I measured Aislin a couple weeks back at dance class (dance!  Awe, she’s doing so good...) and she’s 10 inches from hip to hip, so I added a bit more for growth and worked on one half at a time, meeting in the middle.  I think I finished the whole thing in about 6-7 hours.  I’m getting pretty fast at strassing now, which is good because I have a giant pair of size 9 pumps to finish before the wedding. 

 

 

Progress...

 
 

 

Usually worked in square inches...

 

 

 

 

Almost halfway....

 

 

 

 

Just about done!

And voila, the finished product!  I feel sad that these photos don’t do the belt justice, because it is so sparkly and cute.  I tried it on her at dance last night and it looked so bloody adorable.  She’s going to be such a little doll.  :)  So now I’m excited to strass more things for her outfit!  Shoes!  Hairpiece!  Flower basket!  She will probably blind everyone walking down the aisle, hahaha...

 

 

Finished!

 

 

I hope everyone has a wonderful Christmas season and a Happy New Year!  I will be back after the holidays with lots of wedding planning fun!

 

Happy Wedding Wednesday!!!

 

~M

 

 

Bachelorette Bash!

I’m back from Vegas, alive and in one piece!  This past weekend with the girls was so much fun, I had a blast and I just want to go back every weekend and do it all over again.  Vegas is such a vibrant, wonderful, disgusting place.  YAY!

When you go through the process of planning a wedding, it opens your eyes like never before to the awesome greatness of your closest friends and family.  I honestly thought we were just heading down to Vegas for a girls weekend, naming it my “Bachelorette Party” and calling it a day, because as detailed before, I am not really about the splashy, penis paraphernalia adorned bachelorette party tradition. These girls had a very different idea – I was amazed at the careful planning, thoughtfulness and love that was so evident in putting together this perfect weekend for me.  I am a very lucky girl to have such amazing friends and family who are sharing this journey of getting married with me!  So read on to find out how it all shook out!

We started off our trip by driving to Fargo, listening to an awesome playlist made by Melissa which of course included many a boy band song, and we chatted excitedly the whole way there.  Once we arrived, we promptly dropped our stuff and went to have dinner with Mom and Grams before going out for a bit of shopping.  And of course, we had to kick off the weekend of drinking!  At dinner, I was presented with the weekend’s itinerary, and right off the hop I was blown away. 

 

 

Gorgeous!

 

My MOH Tara is a scrapbooker extraordinaire, and crafted these lovely itineraries herself.  Upon reading it, I was even MORE excited for the Vegas weekend, if that was humanly possible.  The ladies arranged a full schedule of non-stop awesomeness, including a limo tour of the strip and a trip to see the Chippendales!  So we shopped around for a bit, picked up a few last minute essentials for the weekend, had a drink in the hotel bar, and went to bed WAY too excited.  I was seriously like a kid on Christmas Eve. 

 

 

Shopping in Fargo for some serious essentials.

 

We woke up the next day and went for lunch, and then headed to the airport around 1:30 for our 2:45 flight.  The girls had made a reservation that evening at my favorite Las Vegas restaurant, Stack Steakhouse, and my mouth was watering already.  So nothing could have made my heart sink faster than seeing “DELAYED” on the departures board next to our flight.

 

 

Whomp wahhhhh....

 

So with our 2:45 flight now leaving at 4:45, we headed upstairs to the tiny airport bar, parked our butts there, and made a plan to just drink, have fun and make the most of the next three miserable hours that were putting an extreme dent in our Vegas time.  We were doing pretty good, we made friends in the bar as almost everyone was in the same boat (except for the man in a tie sitting next to Tara, who was more than out of place in a room full of Vegas vacationers, and we may or may not have asked him if he left his Filofax in Conference Room B), and we had a generously pouring bartender so all was good.  And just as we are approaching 4 pm and the light at the end of the tunnel is starting to show, our flight was further delayed to 6:20.  At this point, I’m starting to get angry.  WTF?!?!  Don’t these people know that I have a Vegas trip to begin?  Anyway, after lots of waiting, lots of drinks, and lots of pouting, we finnnnnally boarded the flight and got on our way.  And getting up to our gorgeous room and seeing the view of the Strip and the Bellagio Fountains made it all worth it. 

 

 

View from our room.  Bam.

 

The next day after a good night’s sleep (suffice it to say I was NOT feeling well after the flight) we got up fully rested and ready to head down to the pool.  Tara and Melissa told me to go into the bathroom for 10 minutes, and so I knew there was some kind of surprise coming.  I could hear them sniggering and giggling through the door, and when I came out, I definitely had to join in.  They decorated the room with balloons, Bachelorette Party signs, a sash and tiara, and the infamous Bradley Cooper.  They also put together special Survival Kits for the weekend, which included a customized cup, penis straws (natch), sunglasses, sunscreen, Tums and Aleve, bandaids....all the essentials!  Not only was it hilarious and awesome but I was very touched by how much thought had gone into everything.  These girls went all out!!!

 

 

Fun!

 

 

 

How perfect!  SO excited to wear this.

 

 

Such an awesome keepsake!

 

 

 

Bag full of essentials for everyone...

 

 

 

Meet Bradley Cooper.

 

So after all the snickering subsided, we headed down to the beautiful pool for some much needed relaxation and sun soaking.  The Boulevard Pool at the Cosmopolitan Hotel is awesome, and I highly recommend this hotel to anyone going to Vegas.  The view is awesome, the ($15) drinks flow freely, the pool has lots of different areas to sit and the music is a good time.  We spent about six hours there, drinking and chatting and laughing, and then tore ourselves away to head to our room and get ready for the evening.  By this time, we were slurry and giggly (natch), so we made a couple questionable decisions including purchasing three hot dogs, numerous random drinks from Walgreens, tacos that were so spicy I thought I was going to burn a hole in my stomach, and a bunch of snacks for the room.  Hey, it’s our vacation!  Don’t judge.

 

 

Love this pool.  Cheers!

 

So we went back to the room, blasted the music, and got prettied up for our limo tour and Chippendales evening!  I got to wear my sash and crown (LOVED it) and my new Kardashian Kollection dress I bought in Fargo.  Once we were all dolled up, we headed down for the limo tour with our drinks and began the night o’ fun.  First stop: the Las Vegas sign!  I have been to Vegas five times previously, and I’ve never been to the sign so I was so happy we got to go there.  There was a bit of a line and it was hotter than balls out there, but I managed to escape without a melted face and now I can check that off my bucket list!

 

 

Yay!

 

We returned to the limo, continued drinking and told the limo driver to take us to a cheesy wedding chapel next.  So we drove down the whole strip and got to look at the whole thing, and then ended up at A Little White Wedding Chapel.  As soon as I saw the sign a few bells went off (no pun intended) as I know I’ve seen that name somewhere before.  Sure enough, we had arrived at the wedding chapel where Britney Spears said I do, for her infamous 55 hour marriage.  Ahahaha, yay.  So we took some pictures there and took a look around.  It was very small, and super casual, as they even let us walk in on a wedding taking place!

 

 

Pink Cadillac!

 

 

Checking out some randoms getting married...

 

 

After that we zipped over to Fremont Street and drove through downtown, and then headed back down the Strip and towards the Rio, where the Chippendales were waiting.  I have to say, this show was insane.  The decibel level in there was easily on par with some of the craziest boy band concerts I have ever been to.  And what it is that reduces us self respecting, classy women to screaming pervy crazies, I have no idea.  But man was it a blast!  There were so many other bachelorettes and birthday girls there, and we even made friends with a fabulous gay man in sequined suspenders that was more excited than any of us.  I will say though, that it is very hard for me to enjoy these types of shows because the dancing is AWFUL.  I know they are not hired for their dance talent at all, but come on boys, step it up.  Their choreography could use some cleaning...I know a few dance teachers that would be more than willing to take that job!

 

 

Lots of this....

 

 

...and a lot of these.

 

That night we were walking zombies because we hadn’t had dinner and we were drinking all day and night, so we had a drink in the gorgeous Chandelier Bar in our hotel and then headed out for some late night bad food.  We walked the strip for a bit and caught a fountain show, and then came back and crashed in bed.  An awesome day!

 

 

 

So many sparkles!  My fave.

 

The next day it was back to the pool for more extreme lazing and drinking.  Even though it was overcast, it was still so glorious that we couldn’t even tear ourselves away to go shopping, so I didn’t even set foot in a shoe store.  Sacrilege, I know, but I was having too much fun to be locked away in the stores!  Aaaaand I was probably too tipsy to shop and make logical decisions about footwear, so that wouldn’t have ended well.  After a long day at the pool and many drinks (including a new invention of ours involving passion fruit vodka, water, and muddled fruit) we went for dinner at the Aria Hotel and then headed out for some drinking and gambling and more Bellagio fountains.  Goosebumps!  Love those fountains.  I did pretty well on Blackjack and then lost it all on craps, which is weird because it’s usually the other way around.  We stayed up late and had a ton of fun on the strip, and I didn’t want to go back to my hotel because I knew the next morning we were leaving.  Boooooo. 

 

 

GAHHH LOVE

 

So after a packed weekend we sadly gathered our stuff in the morning and said goodbye to Vegas.  What an incredible time I had, it was so fun!  And we promised to travel with each other every two years at a minimum because it was such an absolute blast that we need to repeat it.  So if you want to party with three old hotties in Vegas in 2033, you’ll find us drinking in the Cosmopolitan pool.  ;)

 

 

 

Happy Wedding Wednesday!!!

 

~M

Say Yes to the Dress!

Well, I’m very happy to report that I have found my wedding dress!!!  SQUEE.

I have to start off by saying that my experience at Bliss Bridal Boutique was unlike any of the other bridal gown shopping experiences I have had through this whole process.  Every single great thing I have heard about this place was right on.  When I first walked into their shop, I was immediately in love with their contemporary décor and relaxed atmosphere.  You get the feeling right away that it’s not just any old dress shop, which is perfect because you don’t want just any old dress!

 

 

Love the accents of shocking pink!

 

Frances met me for my appointment, and told me to go through the gowns and mark the ones I wanted, and she would gather them all up for me to try on.  Then I was left with MOB and MOH to go through the racks at our leisure.  I loved that, because there is nothing worse than a pushy salesperson who walks behind you and tries to tell you what gowns you will like and which ones you should pick.  I am really an independent shopper, so this was really nice.  I was so happy with the selection they had, and the fact that the gowns weren’t so jam packed into the racks that you can’t even see what the dress looks like.  They even have pictures attached to the sample so you can see the whole dress, which makes shopping even easier.  I found so many dresses that I wanted to try on, which was surprising compared to how many racks they had (as opposed to a place like David’s Bridal, where I went through their million racks and only liked 4 gowns, all from the Vera Wang line).  Especially since my list of requirements was so specific (strapless, sweetheart, sparkly, dramatic, edgy, no shiny white satin, no flowers, no lace, no ugly appliqués....) I was growing increasingly worried with each dress shopping trip that I wasn’t going to find my ideal dress.  But here it was a breeze!   I easily picked about 10 gowns and away we went!

 

 

Racks of gorgeous bridal gowns....

 

We were taken upstairs to a private area to try on the dresses.  MOB and MOH were sat in one room, and I was taken to another room to change.  I can’t even describe in words how awesome this was.  It was such a relaxed environment with NO pressure and there was tons of space.  Putting on a 50 pound dress isn’t easy, especially in a confined dressing room where the dress takes up so much of the space you can’t even see the floor.  My dressing room was huge and had a couch and full rack for the gowns, and also had a big mirror where I could see myself first.  Then I went into the next room to show the dress in front of another big mirror.  There were no other appointments booked at the same time as mine (a policy of theirs) so I got personalized attention, didn’t have to share mirrors, didn’t have to shout to communicate with my people, didn't have to wait around for the consultant to come back, and there were no strangers staring at me while I tried to pick a gown.  It was seriously pure bliss, so I can see why they are named as such!

 

 

Huge mirror.  Such a must.

 

Another thing I loved about Frances was she took the time to tie up the gown properly.  It’s impossible to see how a dress is going to look on you unless it is done up the way it is supposed to be worn.  A lot of places I have been to just cinch up the back with binder clips and close enough, because they want to get you in and out of there as fast as possible.  But she took the time to make sure that the sample dress fit me the way it was supposed to fit and even if it was a giant set of laces back there, cinched every single one and tied it up properly.  It definitely made a huge difference.

There was absolutely no pressure at all.  She didn't try to sway me one way or another, didn't make any comments about what she thought, just asked me my opinions and what I liked and didn't like about the dresses.  VERY unlike my first dress shopping experience, where the saleswoman said, "You're not going to find a dress that's better than this.  You should just buy it today."  So as I was trying on the dresses, I could just enjoy the experience and it was very clear when I had the a-ha moment.  I came across one gown that had a beautiful top that I wanted, and one gown that had a dramatic bottom I wanted.  We narrowed it down between the two and there was a clear winner!  I found the gown!  I am so unbelievably happy with this dress, it is absolutely gorgeous and I am so excited for Eric to see it, I know he will love it as much as I do. 

 

 

I said yes to the (mystery) dress!

 

My experience at Bliss was amazing and I would recommend it in a heartbeat to any bride out there!

 

Now, onto shoe shopping!

 

Happy Wedding Wednesday!!!

 

~M