oh dear...

i have been so busy these past couple of weeks that i haven't even had time to think about the wedding. yes, i know... shocking!


anyway, happy holidays everyone! for those of you who have your significant others with you, i'm jealous. mine is halfway around the world :[

Anyone else think the term Bridesmaid is kinda mean?

I really like this dress for my MOH aka my sister.

The rest of the bridesmaids could wear anything else in all Aubergine.

I'm really kind of dreading the bridesmaid dress search. I've done a few searches online but I'd really like to take a day where we all get together, have lunch, and go shopping for their dresses... mostly so they can all get to know one another. I definitely don't want them to look like clones, especially since they all have different body types. I want them to be able to express their individuality and find something that is complementing to their own body. I dont care if their shoes don't match, their hairstyles aren't the same, or their jewelry is different. I do however want them to have the same color dress- Aubergine/Eggplant. Styles don't matter either as long as they're tea length.

I showed that dress to my sister, and she loved it too! Plus, I kind of like the idea of the Maid of Honor standing out from the rest of the bridesmaids.

a girl can only dream...

Ever since I started wedding planning, two things I knew for sure were that purple would be my main color and I'd wear purple shoes under my gown. I have a pair I love that would have been PERFECT. They are just the right shade and everything. Problem is... I stained them one drunken night in Vegas :( So lately I've been scouring the web for the perfect pair and today I stumbled upon these beauties from Forzieri! Too bad they're $229. I do love admiring them though and if I had a bigger budget, I'd get them in a heartbeat!

sigh... back to searching!

Ok, I found some more...

I'm not sure if these are too dark, but I love the bow in the back!

I love the knot on these Caparro's.

These are from Nine West. Love the embellishment.

& is it weird that I love these sequin pumps?? I think they're fun!

Finally...

I am pleased to announce that the hubby and I have decided on a photographer. All I have to do is sign the contract and send it back along with the deposit. & the winner is...


Nick Corona.

I met with him a couple weeks ago. Very professional guy & his rates are great :]

Flushmount Albums

I mentioned in a previous post about how I fell in love with flushmount albums. I still am. If we weren't on a budget, there would be no question about it, I would HAVE to have one. I ran across a talented photographer who offers 5 hours, pictage gallery, flushmount album, proof book, and a cd of images for $1500. Thats pretty damn good if you ask me considering some photographers want $900 for a flusmount alone. However, the hubby and I were discussing our options and asking ourselves exactly how important this flushmount album is for us. Yes, I love them but we came to the conclusion that I can live without them if it means we can save a good $500 dollars. You can always get one made later and there are plenty of other album options. So while this certain photographer is still open for consideration, so are other photographers who don't offer albums but may offer more hours. With $500 in savings we can afford to spend a little more on other stuff.

Planning on a budget can be very difficult if you don't have the patience. Luckily we have plenty of time to plan. Plus, I dont really see the point in spending so much money on ONE day. This way we can also concentrate on whats really important, and thats celebrating our marriage with our families.

Y-M-C... no thank you!

I'm a bad blogger. It's been over a week.

Anyway, I started doing research on DJ's the other day. I had no idea DJ's were that expensive. Most guys want at least $1,000 for only 4 hours. Our budget for entertainment is only like $600 and we need 5 hours!! I'm probably looking in all the wrong places. I need to hire someone who works for themselves and not a big company. Sunset DJ offers a pretty good price but I wasn't feelin' too hot about the music list they sent me. I definitely don't want to hear Y-M-C-A or Mambo No. 5 & whatever DJ I hire must be bilingual! Now would probably be a good time to start asking friends and family :]

Thats my decision, & I'm stickin to it!

Coming from a Mexican family, you can say my parents are pretty traditional. I, on the other hand, am not. So you can imagine what my response was when my parents mentioned they wanted to hire a mariachi for the reception. My dad mentioned that he wanted to hire a mariachi for our wedding so that they could play during dinner. Now not only do I not personally enjoy mariachi's, but I've been to weddings before where they have done this and I did not enjoy it at all. Dinner is a time to have soft, mellow music so that the guests can talk to each other and not have to speak over the music. Most of the time, mariachi's are so loud, you have to raise your voice or wait until the song is over to get a word in. I did not like this idea AT ALL.

When I mentioned to my dad that I did not like this idea, he said to me, "This wedding isn't only for you, its for your guests too." Yes, I do agree with him a little, but ultimately its our big day. I don't want to sound selfish, but OUR wedding day, is about and for the BOTH of us. WE are paying for OUR wedding, not my parents, so I believe that WE get to make the decisions for it. Yes, I want our guests to have a great time at our wedding and I do want to share this very special day with them but when it comes to decisions like these, I think it comes down to what we the bride and groom want. This all might have been a little different if my parents were hosting the wedding, then sure I would be more accomodating to their wants, but they're not. I think my dad may have been a little hurt about it, but even though he says its something he wanted to do for us, it was mostly for him. I told him it just wouldnt make sense to hire a mariachi for "a couple hours" like he wanted because that would take up HALF of our reception time. Our wedding is only 5 hours long. I think its nice that he wanted to contribute something, but with our small budget a contribution towards something thats necessary would be very much appreciated as opposed to something extra.

When my mom told me they were thinking about hiring one without telling us, I thought about how that would go down on our wedding day. I figure it would probably end up with me being REALLY mad, or crying.

Maybe I'm being selfish but thats my decision, & I'm stickin' to it! :)

consumed

i have been SO consumed with wedding stuff lately i think i need to take a break. but first, a few inspiration boards i found online. if i have posted something of yours without credit, please tell me. anyway here you go:

wedding day beauty inspirations

My mind keeps hopping back and forth between different aspects of the wedding: favors, flowers, centerpieces, photography, entertainment, and lately hair & makeup.

I absolutely LOVE Rachel Bilson. I think she has great style and I really like her makeup in this picture--clean with a hint of purple around the eyes.

As far as hair goes I'm still not sure if I want to wear it up or down, I'm leaning towards down right now and I really like these styles. I also really like Carrie Underwood's makeup:

i promised details...

...so here we go!

I bought my dress before I got anything else-- before I knew what venue we were having our wedding at. What can I say? My priorities are always out of order and I knew it was the dress. So heres the story of how easy my dress hunt was:

A couple of friends and I were going to the mall and drove by and Alfred Angelo store. I figured it wouldn't hurt to just go in and check things out, so in we went. Next thing I knew, I was trying dresses on. I fell in love with the first dress I tried on... even if I had to try on a sample size which was more than twice my size. But the girl put clips on the back so I could see what it would look like when it fit. I tried on about 5 or 6 more dresses and ended up liking the first, and another dress which had a beautiful back but was much more simple. It was only my first time trying dresses on and I still wanting to do a lot more looking and trying. So we left the store.

A couple weeks later I visited a David's Bridal with my mom and sister and tried on some more dresses. All the while I couldn't stop thinking of those other to dresses at AA (not to mention the material on the David's Bridal dresses sucks!). I walked out of DB very disappointed.

During September, Alfred Angelo's was announcing a big bridal sale, up to $300 off wedding gowns! I figured I could go back with my mom and sister this time and see how much my gowns were on sale for, or if they were even on sale. Also to see if I still liked them as much as the first time. So we went and my mom and sister LOVED the dresses too and they were both on sale! I didn't know whether or not buying a dress that day would be a big mistake considering I had only gone to two bridal shops, but it was the last day of the sale. It was now or never. So I went with my gut feeling and decided to buy it. The problem now: which dress? The first dress I had tried on was more expensive than the other simple one. I really liked both but my mom and sister agreed that the first had more of a "wow" factor and ultimately thats what I wanted. So without further ado, I present to you my wedding dress:

I took the pictures down. I dont want the hubby to see!

The hunt for a photographer

I have spent a good amount of time these past few days looking for a photographer. This is definitely no easy task. Photography is undeniably one of the more important aspects of our wedding. The wedding only lasts one day, but the pictures will last us forever. I want beautiful photojournalistic photography within a reasonable price. Impossible? No. Time consuming? Yes! I've come across a few photographers worth meeting with who are just a little over our budget. The hubby and I want at least 5 hours of coverage, photos on a disc and website, and a good amount of prints. As I was looking at a certain photographers' rates and I came across flush mount albums and am now IN LOVE with them. I absolutely must have one now! This certain photographer offers a lot for a little, and great quality. Only bad part is that the package I want is for only 4 hours and the 6 hour package is above our budget. I'm thinking of setting up an appointment and perhaps negotiating a deal with him--a give and take. He gives me an extra hour and takes something off the package, except that I want everything included in the package.

We'll see how this hashes out. For now, I'll keep looking.

MY FIRST POST

First post! I suppose I should introduce myself.

I'm just another bride living in an expensive city (LA) with a tight budget ($10,000). Actually, I'm not just another bride. I got married March of this year to a wonderful man who I have now known for 6 years. We didn't have the opportunity to have a big wedding, so we headed over to the courthouse and said our "I do's". Now we are taking this time while he is deployed to Iraq to save for the big day. So yes, I'm doing a lot of the planning without him but luckily he's able to sign online everyday and I get to talk to him and ask for input.

I've been planning for a few months now, or at least trying to. I started looking online for ideas and inspiration beginning in June but didn't seriously start planning until about August/September. I JUST decided on a location this past saturday: Skylinks Golf Course in Long Beach on September 6, 2009. They've got a really good package price for Fridays & Sundays. Plus our wedding lands on Labor Day weekend meaning some people wont have to work or go to school on Monday, sweet! Besides the location, the only other thing I have checked off my list is my dress which I bought in September & I am in LOVE with it.

I'll go into more details later. I'm done for tonight.