The "New" Me

Had a fantastic time in Raleigh this past weekend, topped off with brunch this morning with the fabulous Gabby! I will post more about our visit (with pics), (and the engagement photoshoot of course), in the next couple of days. However, I wanted to unveil my new mug, sans-glasses, for those of you who have been wondering. Have a great week!!!

ETA: Thank you for the 20(+) comments you left on my last post! You like me! You really like me! Feeling like a huge dork that I didn't correct this sooner. xo

Showers

An April literally filled with showers. Bridal showers, that is.

We already have three showers lined up for Saturdays in April. Yippee! So excited and honored.

April 8 - Bed and Bath shower (my mom's friends from my hometown church)
April 15- Tools/Home/Gadgets (couples from hometown church; couples shower)
April 29- Stock the Kitchen/Bar (J's parents' best friends, a cocktail party-type affair)

So I guess that means we need to register at some stores. And finding time to do that on weekends is out of the question these days. So hopefully in the next week or two J and I can have fun scanning things in and creating registries.

One more thing: I think we have opted not to register at Target. Or at least, not register for very much. Apparently they are notorious on The Knot for having sucky customer service, limited return amount and policy, etc. How can this be? How can my haven, my mecca, be so rigid in the gifting department? They're so fantastically superior in so many other ways.

For sure, we're registering at:
Belk (dapartment store--for the china, mostly)
Bed, Bath, and Beyond
William-Sonoma (my chef-caliber fiance is salivating)
Home Depot

Oh yes, and for the record can I say that I so wish West Elm had a registry. Or that there was some non-tacky way to tell my everyone to buy us stuff from there ;) It is my favorite home catalog ever. I want to live in that catalog. It's modern, but with just the right touch of texture to make it homey. And it's affordable. Hopefully we can use some money post-wedding to order some stuff. (Honey, I love you, but your nice red plaid (Ralph Lauren, given to you by your grandmother) comforter won't be of much use with our new bedroom colors, mmmkay?)

Oh yeah... Our engagement photoshoot is this weekend!!! Yippee!!! The forecast for Raleigh is partly cloudy and 62*!!!!!! perfect! Now we all know weather is unpredicatable, so PLEASE say a prayer that it will indeed be nice. Can't wait to (hopefully!) share proofs!

By the way, does anyone actually read this, besides the 4-7 (wonderful!) people who usually comment? I guess I just have blog envy with the 9 and 13 and 19 comments that some of my fellow bloggers receive. Would love to see who lurks; please comment!

ETA: I have turned off the "registered users only" comment option (thanks Mel), and now anyone can comment! Hopefully this means more of you can leave me a note! try it, try it!

Finally..........

Found my necklace! It's classic, yet still modern and interesting. It's white gold with eight bezel set blue topaz and a freshwater pearl pendant.

Finally, FINALLY booked the DJ. I want you to visit their site. It is the most professional DJ site I have ever seen. All sorts of neat things like DJ profiles (helps you understand what kind of music they like to play, what tone they like to set), video testimonials, and a "create your song list" menu from which you can select your playlist and the DJ can monitor it ahead of time. I spoke with our DJ for about half an hour last Wed, and he seems like a great guy. Young. I told him we weren't going to be playing a lot of what I can "old fart" music. All the best motown, 80's, old skool RAP, top 40, J's punk and ska faves, etc. He gets it, I think.

Finally, FINALLY ordered the bridesmaid dresses. That is a huge thing to have behind me. The absolute latest that they should be here (per the manufacturer) is May 17, a full month before the wedding. I ordered from Net Bride, a great online store that is an authorized retailer of bridal gowns, yet they are able to offer deep discounts. No bridal salon markup. Hundreds (thousands?) of ladies at The Knot have had fantastic experiences with them, and to this point, my communication with them has been excellent. Remember I'll be putting a blue sash around the middle.

Next big thing: ordering the invitations...making up my darn mind! J has designed our monogram, and it's wicked cool.

May have more to write later.... :)

I Can See Clearly...

You know, I should copy Grey's Anatomy and title every post with a song title. I haven't seen Sunday's Grey's Anatomy yet..shhh..no spoilers. But I will see it before the week is out, because I have my ways. (I needed sleep badly, my eyes were so tired).

But the good news is...I can see! It was a completely nerve-wracking experience, but not painful. My vision is very good, but I still have small fluctuations in clarity--which they say is totally normal. I will post some pictures of my new glasses-free self once I can actually wear eye makeup...right now I still look very tired :)

Thanks again for your support!

I have some wedding updates, and I'll try and post those tomorrow :)

Getting ready for my closeup....

Tomorrow is L-Day, LASIK day!

If all goes well, I will no longer require glasses--something I have worn religiously since age 9.

I am super freaking-out over here. I get so nervous about anything eye-related (hence I can't wear contacts). This is my eyes we're talking about. I get so worried about the unknown, the fluke. :) Plus they're going to do really gross things like, and I quote, "cleanse my eyelids". For that alone I need the valium :) Please say prayers for me if you will. The surgery is at 1pm EST Friday.

Something to keep you busy while I am gone. Please help me in my search for a pearl necklace. I want something (prefererably white gold, silver, silver-tone) that is tiered. Delicate. Less is more, but still there. Somewhat modern, nothing flowery. The neckline of my dress requires something that stretches horizontally rather than drops vertically. This picture is almost exactly what I want.

Updates....

Okay, so I took down my Santino post, since it's not wedding-related. I just was off on a Project Runway tangent. I just love that show :)

My sister came up for the weekend (or most of it, anyway!) and it was fun catching up and getting her more involved in the day-to-day wedding stuff. She is so stoked about everything, so she soaks it all up. She and I, a friend of hers from high school, and J all went to my favorite Chinese restaurant for dinner Friday and it was delish.

On Saturday morning, we took my wedding dress in to be fitted :) It was really cool seeing it pinned and tucked to reflect how it will actually look on me! As the seamstress was pinning the hem on the back side she said, "this is a Vera Wang, no?" I smiled and said yes! And my sister's mouth gaped open and she said "how can you tell that?" (Besides the fact that I knew the seamstress dealt with wedding dresses daily, and was even part owner of a bridal boutique)--She said "It's very well-made, good fabric, and the back (detail) is very Vera." Yay! My dress will be ready to try on Thursday, and if all fits well, she'll create the bustle!

From there, my sister and I headed to some local boutiques on a continued quest for my rehearsal dinner dress. The dress fairies (and not the shoe fairies, who hate me) continued to shine down on me--I found it! I wanted something very colorful and fun and festive to reflect the mood of the celebration. It's a beautiful aqua print silk dress by Plenty by Tracy Reese. Here is how one online retailer sums up the dress:

This dress is exceptionally feminine and elegant in every way. The flowing patterned silk dress has a soft floral print has v-neckline accented with mesh, copper colored metallic stitching, sequin and beading. The empire waisted dress has a 4” banding with pleating below banding. The sleeveless dress has back zip closure and gold ornament accents at bottom hem.

Please excuse the awful indoor lighting. My apartment is notorious.

I also found another dress by Helen Wang 50% off that I could not pass up. I couldn't not get it. It is the epitome of the sexy yet demure, elegant little black dress. It's this fluid taffeta cocktail number that commands attention--that fits just right. I absolutely love it.



Finally found shoes for the wedding ceremony. I am so not a Talbot's shopper (no offense, Mom!) but my mother found these great shoes online that sum up my preferences: small heel, metallic, summery, with straps of some sort of support. I got the gold slingbacks, third from the top. Unfortunately, they're back-ordered til March 21, so I'll have to wait a little longer. (I took some 2" heels into the seamstress to stand in for them).