Vans Vs. Converse

I knooow my next post was supposed to be the big dress reveal.  But this is a matter of utmost importance!

Our groomsmen need to be informed about their shoe situation.  This is a difficult task considering I haven't yet made that decision!

And boy is it a difficult decision to make.  Waaay back in the beginning of our engagement, back when we chose  our colors, I had mentioned that I'd like for our guys to wear red converse with their suits.  I mentioned this casually way back when.  Yesterday, we received an email from a concerned groomsman regarding their shoes and what they should purchase.

I told them I'd let them know by Sunday.  Before I do that, I'd like your input!  I can't decide between Vans or Converse.  I'm a Vans girl myself, but Converse has so many more customization options!

The Facts: Our groomsmen will be wearing casual, grey suits.  I've given them  general color guidelines and have told them to purchase a suit that they'd be able to wear again.  Our bridesmaids will be wearing a minty aqua colored dress with red flats.  And well, you've all seen my shoes.

The Choices:

Vans:

source

Personally, I've always found Vans to be more comfortable than Converse.  Maybe it's because I have wide Fred Flintstone feet.  *Shrug*  I'm not sure if the grey shoes will clash  with the suit if they're different shades.  The only custom aspect of the red Vans is the grey stripe.

Converse:

source

The "make-your-own" Converse have many more customization options.  From the shoelaces to the stitching, you can even add a short ID on the heel stripe.  These shoes are (Product)Red and 15% of the price goes to the fight against AIDS.  So that's pretty cool.

They also have these (which I might have to buy for myself):

Buuuut, I don't think our groomsmen want hearts on their shoes!

Maybe some white "bridal" converse for yours truly?  : )

So what do you think?  Should we go with:
A.  Grey Vans
B.  Red Vans
C.  Grey Converse
D.  Red Converse
E.  Skip the tennies all together and stick with dress shoes

Thanks guys!

Biting the Bullet

Alternatively: The David's Bridal Rejects

First of all, thank you all so, so much for your kind words in regards to my last post.  I cried reading a few of the comments you left; hearing your stories touched my heart.  It really makes it easier knowing that I'm not alone in my fears and insecurities.  And y'all telling me that I'm beautiful?  Shucks guys.  We all are!

So like I said, a few weeks ago I finally got the courage to suck it up and go dress shopping.  We figured David's bridal was as good a place as any to begin looking.  I made an appointment and went online to search for dresses that I liked to use a starting point.  I was pretty surprised with a few of their newer additions.  Call me Debbie Downer, but I wasn't really expecting to find anything I liked.

I printed out this collage to show my consultant.  All photos taken from David's Bridal website.

When we pulled into the parking lot I was really, really nervous to go into the store.  I had no idea what to expect as I had read bad reviews of the consultants at this particular David's Bridal.  It was a madhouse.  I don't remember my consultant's name, but I do remember that her sweater looked like she had just pulled it from the bottom of her laundry hamper.  Don't people know how to iron?

Anyway, Wrinkly Sweater Girl (hereby referred to as WSG) took me aside, asked me if I'd ever been in the store before and then took my measurements.  She measured my waist to be seven inches larger than my bust.*  WTF, WSG?  I knew that had to be wrong... Your waist is the smallest part of your body, right?  By her measurements, I'd fit into a size 28.  Wut?

She took me over to the "women's section" which housed the plus-sized dresses.  I believe they went up to size 26.  After seeing them, I told her I think a size 20 would probably fit better.  I have a pretty good eye at what will and won't fit me.  I've had this body for a while, after all!  

Fine.  WSG asked me what I was looking for in a gown.  I told her I wanted something simple and modern, with a bit of a vintage flair.  I didn't want:  beading, excessive lace, satin, a train, shiny material.  Good luck meeting those standards in the women's section of david's bridal!

After she had shown me about eight dresses, all of which I shot down, she tracked down the dresses from the picture that I brought in.  I was able to try on dress 1, 2, and 4 (in the picture above) in my size.  I didn't love any of them.  (I do have photos of me in the dresses, but they're stuck in my mom's camera!  As soon as I can get them I'll share)

WSG brought me dress 3, which I was looking forward to trying on.  However, they only had a size 14 in the store.  Against my protests, my mother came into the dressing room and attempted zipping me into a dress that was  four sizes too small.  "You know, this would have been easier had you been going to the gym for the past year," she casually remarked.

*blink*

No shit?

I know that my mom isn't intentionally mean to me.  I say nasty things to her, too, on occasion, about which I always feel terrible afterward.  Sometimes I feel like mothers and daughters are biologically in-tune with one another, allowing us to tactically press each others buttons in just the right way to allow for maximum pain.  That and she's going through menopause, so I ignore her verbal diarrhea most of the time.  (Aunt Lori, if you're reading, don't tell her I wrote that!)

That was the low of my day.

The highlight?  There was a bride two fitting rooms down who was a few sizes larger than me.  I was fortunate enough to see her come out of the dressing room and to see the look on her face when she saw herself in the dress.  She lit up; she was absolutely glowing!  The dress was lovely on her, and you could tell that she felt beautiful.  I wish that I would have told her how pretty she looked in it, but I was too shy.  Instead, I just smiled.  

She gave me hope.  I didn't find anything I liked that day, but I knew then that the perfect dress was out there for me.  I wasn't going to stop looking until my face lit up like hers!  

All in all, my experience was mostly positive.  WSG wasn't very attentive, but she was nice enough.  As for the rest of the dresses, dress 5 was the same as dress 1 (oops) and dress 6 wouldn't be ready for the wedding if I were to order it, so I didn't bother trying.  

So I didn't find anything I liked at David's Bridal.   A few dresses came close, but definitely not close enough.  We were back to square one, but at least we got our first dress excursion out of the way.  The first hurdle is always the most difficult!

How many stores did you visit before you found your dress?


*A few days later when the woman fitted me for the dress I purchased, she measured my waist to be a whopping 10 inches smaller than WSG's measurements.  L2measuring tape, WSG!

I am a plus-sized bride.

I've struggled with my weight from a very young age.  I was a size 13/14 by the time I was in eighth grade and I've fluctuated between an 18/20 since I graduated high school.  My body image has been poor for as long as I can remember; it's only been Mr. Dachshund's love that has allowed me begin to view myself in a different light.  When he tells me that I'm beautiful, I know in my heart that he is absolutely genuine.  He makes me feel beautiful.  My self-image has improved exponentially in the time that Mr. Dachshund and I have been together.

It may have been more logical for this post to have gone up around the beginning of my blogging for Weddingbee because being plus-sized is something that so many brides relate to and identify with.  I agree that I should have written this much sooner, but I was so nervous that my size would be the one thing that became my identity as a Weddingbee blogger.  I’m not sure what exactly I wanted to build my blogging identity around, but I certainly didn’t want to become “The plus-sized Bee” right out of the starting gate.

It’s come time for me to share my dress shopping experience, and I don’t think I can do that without this preface.  As a plus-sized bride, every insecurity that I’ve ever had about my body has come flooding back in full force.  I can’t remember the last decision I’ve made for this wedding where the thought of my weight wasn’t in the back of my mind. 

I have an amazing photographer, but I was scared that I’d end up hating our wedding pictures because I didn't think I could be a pretty bride.

Remember my beautiful shoes?  I hesitated buying them because I was worried that they’d look ridiculous on me.

The same goes for veils, makeup, hairstyles… Anything that I can twist in my mind to make myself believe that they’ll draw negative attention and judgment.

The number one, top-of-the-list wedding task that has caused me an endless amount of anxiety has been my dress.  Most brides tackle this task first out of sheer excitement for finding their wedding dress.  It’s something they’ve dreamt of their whole lives and when they find “the one,” it is the moment they feel like a bride.  Me?  I was certain I’d never have that moment.  I was  dreadIng  dress shopping to the point where I’d change the subject should anyone mention it. 

I was terrified of being undressed in a room full of strangers and gorgeous, perfect brides.  I was scared that I wouldn’t be able to fit into any of the samples, or that the consultants would laugh or ignore me when I entered the store.  I didn’t want to imagine the disappointment that I knew I would experience, so I put it off.

I had been engaged for ten months before I considered looking for a dress, and I only did so then because I was afraid I would never find anything if I didn’t.  So, with only three-and-a-half months left until the wedding, my mom, aunt and I went to David’s bridal.

While I didn’t find anything at DB (I knew I wouldn’t), a huge weight was lifted off my shoulders.  I had taken the first step, and it wasn’t bad at all.

I’m writing this because I know there are plus-sized brides out there who are postponing shopping for their dresses because they’re insecure, or just scared that they won’t find anything.  Please believe me when I tell you that I understand just how scary it is.  I’ve been in your position. I’ve shed tears because I never thought I would find a dress that could make me as pretty as the brides on SMP.  But honestly, it wasn’t nearly as bad as I imagined it to be.  Really and Truly.  There are so, so, so many options out there for you; by waiting, it’s you that’s limiting yourself.  You will find something that does make you feel as beautiful as you are in your fiancé’s eyes.

I found my perfect dress, and I’ll share it soon, but I wouldn’t have been able to purchase it had I waited any longer; I was lucky.  So no more waiting!  Grab someone you love and go find the dress of your dreams!

Has planning your wedding brought any of your old insecurities back to front-and-center?

Gocco'd Invites: Take Two

After my first attempt at gocco printing our invitation sleeves went awry, I was determined to master the screen-burning/printing technique during my second attempt this weekend.  I'm happy to report that round two was (mostly) a success!

I did have a few mishaps:  Two of the bulbs I used while trying to burn our names onto the screen were duds, causing an uneven master; only one side of the image burned correctly, and because I wasn't sure if you can expose an original multiple times, I decided to wait until this evening to try again with a fresh copy.

I was, however, able to create a crisp burn of our quote to print on the bottom of our sleeves.  Remember last time a few letters didn't turn out?  Well, I followed the advice I received (Thanks guys, the Hive is great!) and mounted my original on card stock and ironed it (to get rid of excess carbon?)  Worked like a charm!

I really, really love the white gocco ink on this paper.  It makes me smile  : )  Working with the white ink is a pain, though-- it's so freakin' thick.  I had to use a TON of it to get even prints.

I had to use so much ink that it bled over my ink blocking material.  I constantly scraped it up and tried to put it back in the center because I didn't want to waste ink.

Between cutting the sleeves out with the Cricut and SCAL, gocco'ing them and folding/assebling them, gocco'ing them was by far the fastest step... even though I'm only halfway done.  I got through all of them pretty quickly.  The hardest part is folding and assembling them.  That takes foreverrr.

I was gocco'ing like crazy for a good 45 minutes.  Furbaby Doxie was jealous that my attention wasn't on her!

It wasn't long before I had a few racks (plus a large amount of floorspace) filled with goccoed sleeves.

I can't waaaait until they're all done.  They're going to look something like this:

That's the fabric that will back our invitations.  Imagine our names on top of the heart.  I'm really happy with them so far  : )

On a side note, Mr. Dachshund is always wary when I begin a craft, because the whole house inevitably looks like this:

White paint on the floor from a ceiling painting accident D:

I'm glad that I finally settled on my invitation design, that the gocco is working as I'd imagined, and that I know I'll be able to finish them in time.  Believe me, I was worried.  I have a tendency to dream up DIY projects that are way too complicated!  I'm excited to show you the next few steps of our invitation suite process and hope that you enjoy them as much as I do.

Did you DIY your invitations?  What was the most complicated and tedious element?

Also!  I have a ton of  little heart cut-outs.  Do any of you have suggestions as to how I should use them?   They're way too cute to throw out.

Gocco Fail

I asked for a gocco for Christmas.  I know that it may not have been the wisest choice considering gocco supplies are becoming increasingly expensive and difficult to find, but it was just one of those have-to-have things.  Searching for Gocco'd invitations was, after all, how I found Weddingbee!

So, I ended up receiving a PG-10 Gocco for Christmas and I let it sit.  It sat in its box for about two months, half because I hadn't finalized an invitation design, and half because I was a little intimidated by the whole process.  Sure, I'd watched enough videos online to know how the gocco works, but I was pretty nervous I'd ruin my precious screens. 

A few nights ago I decided I wanted to try it out.  My invitation suite design is finished, and I knew I had to get on the ball making the invites because they have to go out soon!  Eek!  (And they're going to take forever) The sleeve I designed and used the Cricut to cut had the simplest gocco design, so I figured that'd be the best place to start.  

Blank, assembled sleeve.  Our invitations will be fabric-backed, and the fabric will show through the heart cutout.

The Sleeves are cut from Paper Source's cover-weight paper in pool, template designed in illustrator and cut on the Cricut via Sure Cuts A Lot.  The plan is to have our names above the heart, and a quote below, all in white gocco ink.

I printed out my design elements using the laser printer at work, and assembled them on the registration plate.

I used the sleeve to eyeball the spacing, but removed it before burning my screen.  I was hoping I'd be able to burn the screen so that I'd be able to print the whole sleeve with one press.  

Quote reads: "You know you're in love when you can't fall asleep because reality is finally better than your dreams.  -- Dr. Seuss"

When everything was in place, I inserted my screen and the blue UV filter (because I'm not sure when I should and shouldn't use it, I thought I'd be safe), and was almost ready to burn my screen.  Nervous!

The bulbs went into the lamp housing, and the housing went on top of the gocco.  I was so nervous, I forgot to take pictures of those steps!  

I closed my eyes, took a deep breath and pushed down.  Nervouuuus!  I've gotta say, this part was pretty anti-climactic.  I'm not sure what I expected, TBH... I think I saw a bit of the flash through closed eyes, and I could hear the bulbs crack faintly for about four seconds, then it was over.  I was excited to see if my first screen burned successfully!

The design sticks to the screen after burning, so I peeled it away and was left with my prepared screen.  You can definitely see where the film has been removed from the screen, so it's easy to inspect for any mistakes.  For the mooost part, my screen turned out okay.  But, I was disappointed to see a small flaw:

The Y on "finally" didn't turn out!  Ugh.  I know that I can always burn it again, but I hate using more bulbs than I need to.  Oh wells.  I was still excited about playing with the gocco, so I printed our names on a few of the sleeves.

The cool thing about the gocco model I have (I'm not sure if they all come with this?) is that it has a clear plastic registration plate.  You can print on that, place your paper on the sticky mat under it, and move the sticky mat until the gocco'd design is where you need it to be.

Our names printed on the registration plate

The registration plate lies flat over our sleeve, so that we can reposition the sticky mat as need be.  The sleeve needs to be moved to the left a little; our names are too high up.

Everything was in place, so I went ahead and pressed down to print.

I really like the white ink on the pool paper, but my prints weren't exactly even.  The middle printed really well, but the edges were much lighter.

The B in Mr. Doxie's name didn't come out very well, and the dot over my J didn't seem to be closed.  

So, my first round of gocco attempts didn't turn out very well.  But I'm optimistic!  Round two's going down this Sunday and I know that they'll come out better.  I can't wait to see all of the sleeves finished; I know I'll love them when they're done!

How many of you learned to use a new (to you) crafting gadget for your wedding crafts?  Were you successful on your first try?  Do any of you have any super gocco tips for me?

The Finale!

Okay, okay.  So it's been a week since I left you all wondering whether or not Mr. Doxie and I were able to book our perfect venue.

Well, I was on pins and needles waiting for the owner of Victorian Gardens of Two Sisters to return my call regarding available dates in May.  Our venue search hadn't exactly been smooth up to this point, so I readied myself for disappointment as I was waiting on her call.  Would I be sad if she didn't have a day for us?  Of course.  But I had to remind myself that it wouldn't be the end of the world; sometimes I forget that I'll always have options.

By the time the phone finally rang, I was positive she wouldn't be able to help us.  Murphy isn't a very nice acquaintance to have, after all, and I'm a pessimist.  I was completely taken aback by her response!  Not only was there one Saturday available in May, but since it's during a Canadian three-day weekend, it was our ideal date!

"HOLD IT FOR ME PLEASE!"  I made an appointment to see it the next day.

As Daddy Doxie, Step Mom Doxie and I made the drive up to Kingsburg, I could feel the butterflies in my stomach.  When we pulled in the driveway I could tell it was just as beautiful in person as it was in the photos; it was April and everything was in bloom.  Flowers everywhere you looked!  It was absolutely perfect.  My family agreed and Daddy Doxie pulled out his checkbook and wrote a check for our deposit.

As she opened her datebook to pencil us in, she frowned and looked at us nervously.  Tragically, as fate would have it, she had made a terrible mistake...



... Just kidding!

Everything worked out swimmingly!  There were no heartbreaking mistakes and misunderstandings this time.  We found our perfect venue, and we can't wait to be married there!  We were also pretty relieved that the tale of our venue search had finally come to an end.  I would have had a hard time dealing with another let down without Mr. Doxie there for support.

I guess everything does work out for a reason;  now if only I could remember that all the time!

How does your venue-search-story go?  Is it akin to a long, drawn-out novel, or an upbeat short story?

If you want t see more of our gorgeous venue, visit www.victoriangardens.biz/

The Saga Continues

When I last left off, I had just experienced my first wedding let-down.  The venue with which I fell in love, for which I was ready to hand over a check, was just stolen out from under my feet!  I went home upset, cried a little, and wished that Mr. Doxie was there to comfort me (this was all before he moved to the States).  I quickly decided that being sad wasn't going to help me find another venue and I continued my search.

I found a few venues in the area that were just as lovely, but they all had so many rules!  No outside food or drink; reception must be finished by 10pm; no alcohol other than wine; no candles; etc. etc.  I know that those rules are pretty standard, but jeez!  It's our wedding, and we wanted to have a little more control!

We did find one venue that looked great on paper, but when we got there it looked like a backyard.  I've seen some pretty awesome backyard weddings, but if we're going to pay a few thousand dollars for a venue I'd like a little more than a lawn and a patio covered with Astroturf.

A few weeks into our search, and still a little dejected, I received a phone call from my aunt who was directing me to the website of a venue located in an adjacent town.

Excited, my aunt asked what I thought.

"Hooold on, it's still loading."  We live out in the country, you see.  Our internet is sloow.  "Ohh, this looks promising!"

I was surprised to find images of a gorgeous home:

Surrounded by well manicured gardens:

Complete with separate areas for the ceremony and reception:

And ample parking!

Well, it looked pretty enough!  I decided that this could be a top contender, depending on the price and stipulations.  

I gave the owner a call and asked for some details.  Rental of the facilities would be $3000, which was a little higher than we expected to pay, but we'd be able to bring in our own caterers which would save a lot of money.  The reception would have to be finished by 11:30 pm due to the county's sound ordinance, but other than that there were no restrictions.  Then I asked the most important question:  Was there a Saturday available in May?*

She wasn't sure.  She knew that May was pretty full, but was away from her date-book and would give me a call as soon as she got home.

With my hopes up, I anxiously awaited her phone call.  A few hours passed before she finally called me back.  I crossed my fingers, picked up the phone, and let out a little sigh as she gave me her response.  I definitely wasn't prepared for what she had to say.

Stay tuned to find out if she had a date available for us!

How long did it take you to find the perfect venue?  

*Under any other circumstance, we wouldn't have been so adamant about our wedding being in May.  However, after June, California's Central Valley gets hotter than Hades... we didn't want our Canadian guests to melt!  FIL Doxie's involvement in the Winter Olympics will keep him occupied until the end of April.  May was the only viable month, lest we wait until Fall.