They said yes. The Bridesmaid situation.

So. You've said "yes". You're engaged. Every girl friend is calling and texting you to say congratulations but...is there something more hidden under those words? Do they want to know if they made the cut? The Bridal Party cut....

Maybe...Maybe not...but it was certainly one of those things that was at the top of my thoughts.

There are all sorts of articles on "how to be the perfect bridesmaid" and how much it can cost to be a bridesmaid and having been a bridesmaid twice, I always thought I would only have one or two bridesmaids max. I mean, I would be saving my girlfriends money in the long run too, right?

That was what I thought...until my wonderful groom decided he wanted to invite EVERYONE to be a groomsman. I'm pretty sure every guy he wanted to invite he wanted to be a groomsman. Luckily, I talked him down to 6. Still, way more than I imagined, but a number where I could invite only girls who I absolutely would want to be a bridesmaids...no "meh, I guess I'll have her too..." or "if I invite her, then I have to invite her...and her.. and..." you get the point.

So with that I easily settled on my six ladies, representing my early through high school life, my college life, and my current (adult?) life. (note: this does not mean that the high school and college friends did not transition into the adult stage....they had to or they wouldn't be bridesmaids!)

The next decision was...how do I ask them?? In a world of Pinterest, Facebook, and Reality TV....the options were endless...both in ideas and in price. I didn't really want to buy something that they would just throw away, or something that would just take up space...lets be honest here, every wedding has a budget, and I was not about to blow mine on a pre-wedding gift. I thought about wine - its easy to create your own label with a picture and a "Will you be my Bridesmaid" but that would have really increased the shipping price and I was a bit nervous about mailing 5 bottles of wine (only one of my bridesmaids is in Vegas with me). So I kept searching...looking through website after website of bridesmaid gift ideas....until I found it. "Bleached Tees." Remember in high school when you used to paint on your shirts for spirit days? When I was a Maid of Honor I did tanks for all of the girls where I painstakingly stamped and outlined "bridesmaid" etc in paint on every shirt.

Letting the bleach sit

It said to stencil out what you wanted to write...but I didn't. Just take a cutting board, cover it in a plastic bag, and write what you want with a Bleach Pen (I used Clorox Bleach Pen). I bought the t-shirts at Target and it just so happened that the color I wanted was the only one on sale!
I let the bleach sit on the shirts for an hour and then popped them into the washing machine with no soap and then into the dryer.



Completed!

I have to say, I was pretty darn happy about them. I wanted something else though...
I was wandering around the BX (kinda like a Walmart but on base) and found some awesome nail presses - you know, those nail wraps that are all over Facebook right now? And they just so happened to have three different designs in the colors I wanted! Score! Now, these would be perfect for the girls to wear to the wedding, but I can't expect them to hold on to those for 8 months! I'm sure I can make another BX run when it gets closer-- and in the mean time, they get to try some out! (I even bought some for myself!) I found some "Bridesmaid" pins on Amazon Prime (seriously, if you don't have Prime, you do not know what you are missing!) and finished the boxes off with the "request" card and a save the date print, and off they went!

Then...I had to wait. And I am pretty sure in the 3 days it took the boxes to reach the girls, every single one of them called me. Maybe it was just me but I could swear they were just waiting to see if I was going to ask!

Luckily, one by one today, via text, call, instagram, or facebook, my lovely ladies opened their boxes and said Yes!

So happy I have such wonderful friends. I cannot wait to plan things with them and let me know what is going on!

Oh, and that groom of mine? I don't think he has asked his groomsmen yet. I even printed funny little cards that said "I *insert picture of mustache* you ...Will you be my groomsman?
 (get it?? I mustache you..") I don't think he appreciated my humor though...they are still sitting in the office.

There is something to this recent trend of asking your bridal party to be there for you. I enjoyed making the shirts and putting the boxes together and it was fun for me to receive them and send me pictures one by one. I would definitely recommend doing a little something for your ladies but don't break the bank....the reality of a wedding is that there are always hidden costs that pop up that you didn't expect. You don't want to spend all your "extras" budget in the beginning!

Did you do something for your bridesmaids? Do you think that this trend is a waste of time and money? Let me know in the comments below!!

Kali

So...I said yes to my dress

There are lots of little girls who dream about their perfect wedding and their perfect dress for their whole lives and then when they get engaged they HAVE to try on THAT dress and will search high and low for it.

Let me be straight...I am not that girl.

Sure, I have watched every wedding show on TLC and WE since I was in middle school...but I just really loved all the pretty shiny things...I never thought of them in terms of me. (now, the ring on the other hand...well...I ALWAYS knew what I liked in rings...but I digress)

I have watched Say Yes to the Dress and heard Randy say how girls get stuck on one vision in their head...or how they bring too many opinionated people...or how they try on too many dresses (20-100) and get too confused...So I had learned from reality television what I was NOT supposed to do...but I had not really learned what I WAS supposed to do!

Now, don't get me wrong...I have watched enough dress shows to have an idea of what I wanted...and I assure you I had saved images of $6,000 dollar designer gowns on my iPad the second I was engaged, but I was very very open minded.

Shai had wonderful timing in planning to propose right before I had a week at home with my family in Florida. I decided that I really wanted my grandparents to be there when I picked my dress and while I could expect my mother to fly out to Vegas to go shopping with me, I couldn't really expect them to. So, the second I had service on the ship, I sent my mom a text and said "hey, I got engaged, please book bridal dress appointments so that we can go shopping with grandma." and then I lost service again. hehe.

I grew up in a relatively small town area and there is one store there, Patricias that sells wedding dresses and prom dresses. I didn't really expect to see anything super great there but I figured it was an easy drive so why not. I couldn't decide where to go next (again, I hadn't really been researching dresses) and so I settled on Jon's Bridal which is self proclaimed "Florida's Largest Bridal Shop". Two ends of the wedding dress store spectrum.

So we started at Patricia's first thing when their doors opened at 10. I showed Becky all the high end couture gowns that I loved, were way over my budget, and oh, were only sold in California and overseas....I told her some of the things I HAD to have (like a train...because Shai asked for one) and that I was open to trying whatever she thought.

It was kind of surreal putting that first dress on. Like real grown-up dress up! Unfortunately I loved it...and every other one I tried on. My mother, grandmother, and the wonderful ladies working there were no help either...they all loved them too! This was NOT how it was supposed to happen per Say Yes to the Dress. I should have disliked a couple, there was supposed to be one that made my sides look lumpy or not make my waist small or whatever. Honestly, if I had been doing normal mall shopping and that happened, it would have been the day where I bought everything I tried on.

So two hours later, we left with three favorites in mind and an appointment for the next morning in case Jon's was a bust.

And good thing too...because it was.

After my two store experience I am absolutely convinced of one thing. Your consultant and the atmosphere will determine which dress you buy.

Jon's Bridal was huge, and the first thing we saw was a big sign saying "no photography of the dress unless purchased." Stupid. When I told Shai about that later, he thought it was such a dumb rule that we should have just left immediately. But we didn't, so I went through the racks with the consultant...who was far less fun, happy, or interesting than Becky, and picked out the dresses that they had in my size. For being "Florida's largest"...I was very underwhelmed. I was not allowed to put the dresses on and off myself because unlike Patricia's where they order them, at Jon's you buy them there and take them home that day -- probably helpful if you are planning a quick wedding or waited last minute to buy a dress...but that was not me, so I was annoyed. The consultant seemed like she was always watching us to make sure we didn't break the "photography" rule (which, we did try a couple times) then actually trying to help us. I did really like some of the dresses there but I could never have loved one because I just didn't like even being in that place. I knew we were done.

That night, I rallied the troops. I informed my father that he would be at Patricia's first thing in the morning and I called my best friend to make sure she would drive the hour from Tampa to be there before she had to go back to work (I swear, it was less demanding than it sounds...she was going to come see me anyways).

With everyone there, I was able to try on the top 4 dresses (yes, earlier I said 3 but I really wanted everyone to see another one too...and hey, it was MY appointment). I still loved all of them so we had to try one against the other and narrow it down in a bridal dress bracket of sorts...it was a hard decision. However, I did put one dress back on and got a bit misty eyed (and dad did too...shhhhh) and decided that must mean "it is the one." After all, that's what they do on TV lol. But really, it beat out the others and I felt like myself wearing it, as opposed to just being in it. They were able to make a couple of the changes I wanted and the veils I wanted as well. More than anything though, it was my dress because I was surrounded by the people that mean the most to me, so that dress carries with it the experience and memories I want to have with me on my special day.

So my advice to anyone is to just relax about it and make sure you find a bridal store that is FUN and bring the people you really care about, not everyone you think you have to bring or should bring. Be open minded and listen to your consultant...and don't over think it. You don't have to try one 900 dresses to be sure.

Cheers!
Kali

Whoops its been a while. Wedding Brain.

So I just realized that I had not blogged since September.
Well....I guess I knew that I hadn't but I have been absurdly busy. I've been on lots of trips I meant to blog about, had PRK (like LASIK) that I meant to blog about, had a birthday and several wonderful holidays I wanted to blog about...ate at too many amazing restaurants and saw a ton of great concerts I wanted to blog about...got another pup I could do way too many blogs about....but now that I am engaged...I think I will finally sit down and write a blog post.

I took the ring out of the box and put it on myself!

There are so many people I know getting married right now it seems like, or at least engaged. I love hearing about all of the challenges and experiences that everyone is going through or has gone through! Hopefully you all wont mind that I share mine!

So consider this post your fair warning. The next few months will likely be a lot of ruffles, sparkle, and frosting.

Oh and I am deploying next month too....so maybe a little bit about that. I mean honestly, between preparing for the deployment and planning a wedding...it is a miracle I am not dreaming about camouflage bouquets!

Since Shai proposed on a cruise, we did not have any cell service to call anyone back home, so I had a couple days to keep it all to myself. But when we did arrive, and started to tell everyone....everyone wanted the whole story...and Shai is a man of many details. Luckily he wrote an email to all of his friends and family and sent it to them in order to save our voices. I took that email and put it onto our wedding site that you can see here!

I can't wait to share all of the things I am finding out with you. Oh and in case you missed it...you can read the proposal here. I think the next post will be about the dress!