Friends

For brides who live in or near the Triangle area of NC: http://www.gorgeousgownsanddresses.com/

I just heard about this wedding/formal gown consignment shop today. It's located in Cary, NC. I haven't been there myself, but I thought I'd pass it along as another option if you're in this area looking for a more budget-friendly dress source.

From a local news story about the store:

The selection includes gowns by popular designers and range in size from zero to 24. All are three years old or newer. Some of the dresses are as low as $99; the average cost is between $300 and $650. Owner Liz Pogue says, "All the dresses are priced half of original retail cost, so it's a really good way to stay within your budget."

The consignment boutique also carries veils, accessories, flower girl dresses, plus a large selection of mother of the bride dresses. Most of them are all under $100. The store even has all different choices of brides maid dresses in all different styles with the average price tag of $65 to $85.

Even though my FSIL is making my dress, I think I'll check them out for jewelry and accessories!

This entry is a long time coming. Lol.

We got married June 20th, 2009, in Milwaukee, WI, and I've been lazy so I've waited until now to do a post-post. We'll start with the wordy part, which I will try to be brief about:

The Good
-We got married!
-It didn't rain! (it POURED the day before)
-People loved the glow bracelet favors.
-My husband's friend who had recently been diagnosed with several forms of cancer was able to come, despite having started radiation that day.
-We finished under budget.
-I got laid!

The Not-so-Good
-The boys' car locked them out so we missed out on one of my “must have” pictures
-My sister showed up in a slutty dress to my conservative church wedding
-My longline bra kept poking me in the side.
-It was so hot and humid! (which is why people may look sweaty)
-I got bitten up by mosquitos while we were taking pictures, and they swelled pretty tremendously.

Vendor Reviews
-David's Bridal: B. I had no problem whatsoever in customer service, but my bustle was different from the way they had it when it was pinned...so it dragged a little.
-Tuxedo Alley: A. They had lots of options and discounts, and were really easy to work with.
-Elizabeth's Cakes: A+. This cake was so deliciously awesome and affordable (3 tiers and a half sheet cake for under $400), and Elizabeth was super nice and easy to work with.
-Best Western: B+. Everything with the Best Western was perfect and the sales and catering rep Jean was easy to work with; she even cut me a deal when more people than expected RSVP'd no and we were coming in under the minimum amount required. Except that it took them forever to clear the buffet off the dance floor. So instead of having the wedding events start at 8, they started at 9.
-Bob and Kathy Kapsy(photographers): A. This married couple was so nice and professional and had a great sense of humor. I know my pictures aren't OMG-AMAZING but, in all honestly, I couldn't afford photographers that were. I am extremely pleased with what we received for what we paid, especially after I forgot to make sure discs of the pictures were included in the contract, and they gave them to me anyway.
-DJ: B-. Dan was great leading up to the wedding with keeping in touch and feeding into my neuroses, but he didn't play all the songs on my “must play” list. He kind of had really bad breath too, lol.

( and of course....PICTURES! )
And then we galloped away into the night.

Advice?
Don't take anyone's bullshit...Just do things the way you want them (within reason).
Give yourself plenty of time for everything.
Make your slutty sister show you her dress ahead of time.

( EDITED TO ADD SLUTTY DRESS!!! )

Found on Not Always Right:

Me: “Thank you for calling [bridal store], how can I help you?”

Customer: “Yes, I bought a bridesmaid’s dress from you a few days ago and I need to return it.”

Me: “Okay. Well, our dresses are non-returnable, but we could do an exchange or I could give you store credit. May I ask why you need to return the dress?”

Customer: “The wedding was canceled.”

Me: “Okay, I’ll see what I can do. Can I have the bride’s name, please?”

(She gives me the bride’s name and I find that the bride hasn’t called to tell us the wedding is canceled.)

Me: “I’m looking at the information now, but it looks like the bride hasn’t told us the wedding is canceled.”

Customer: “Yeah…that’s because she doesn’t know yet.”

REMEMBER Ladies and germs: It could always be worse: You could be on fire.

I'm signing contracts for my wedding, and I'm realizing: I have no clue what time I want everything to start and end!

My ceremony site will be used for less than 1 hour (ceremony and photos).

My reception site is open for decoration all day, but once the party begins (time I declare), I have 4 hours of time on site. Of those four hours, two hours have buffet style food served. Regardless of the time of day, the food will be the same.

The wedding is on Saturday, 12 June. There will be plenty of daylight (sunset is approximately 8pm in June). I have a lot of guests with an hour drive to the site and another hour back home. Some of the more elderly guests won't drive after dark. I also don't expect too many people to stay the full four hours. I'll have music and dancing, but no alcoholic beverages.

I originally had said the wedding would be around 3PM, but now I'm thinking of putting it later.

I'm starting to feel the wedding should begin at 4PM, reception starting at 4:30 (we'll arrive at 5:00 or later) and ending at 8:30PM. Dinner buffet would be open 5:30 to 7:30.

What time is your wedding starting? Is there a lag between your ceremony and reception? Are you serving breakfast, lunch, dinner, or hors d'ouvres?

I hope I'm not the only one worrying about timing!

**Edited to Add**
Thinking about too much wedding stuff right now!

When are you doing your big "send off" with rice, bubbles, birdseed?

I'm considering doing a receiving line with our parents at the ceremony site. While doing the line, I'd ask my bridesmaids and groomsmen to "wrangle" the guests as they leave the doors and pass out bubbles (I'm doing bubbles...). After everyone has passed through the line, Hubby and I can run out the ceremony site (there's a straight sidewalk), through the bubbles, around the back, and get back in the church for final pictures.

Or should I just wait for the bubbles for the end of the reception with not all the guests there?

Name and/or LJ userID: Jamie poooooot

Wedding Date: June 19, 2010

Bride/Groom/Other (please specify): Bride! :)

Age: 28

City/State/Country you live in: Niles, Ohio

City/State/Country you're getting married in (if different): Youngstown/Austintown, Ohio

Your song/First Dance song: Dunno yet. Nothing cliched though, so DEF no Beatles, Mariah, or anything like that. I'm a huge Journey fan so I'd like to go in that direction, but we'll see.

Wedding Colors: Green and white. (White? - Are you a virgin? Hale no! We have two kids! I'm wearing white and idgaf! lol)

Formality: Wedding party is formal attaire, but we're having the ceremony and reception outdoors in this really beautiful pavilion at Mill Creek Park, so it's not a "casual" affair, but definitely not formal. I guess you could say "laid-back."

Theme (if you have one): No theme. Just what we like and looks good with the surroundings.

Number of guests: Guest list is at 250 :O - I'm hoping only about 150 show up though. I get nervous sweats thinking about that many people looking at me.

How'd you meet your fiance?: We've known eachother since 3rd grade. We dated in high school, but reconnected in Spring 2006.

How long have you been together?: This time around, 3 1/2 years. Will be 4 years 2 weeks before the wedding. :D

Do you have a personal wedding website?: No, but I've been ljing about the stress of planning, if that counts.

Have you read the community rules before posting this survey? Yeppers

Anything else you'd like to tell us?: Not really. I'm sorta overwhelmed trying to plan and pay for this whole thing by myself (I'd say ourselves but when I ask my fiance for his input, he says "which one is cheaper? I like that one." So he's no help. lol), so I'm gonna need a lot of advise and I'll probably sound like a mad woman in the weeks before the wedding. :)

Okay, so slight change of plans so far as the whole marriage thing is concerned.... we're going to get married in Vegas on Valentine's day :)  We're still going to have the big October wedding for the family Hopefully we can reserve the ala cart chapel time at the TI, but if not we're just going to do the courthouse thing and party on accordingly.  Honestly, I'm relieved.  This is way more my kind of jig, just the two of us somewhere fantastic followed by food and fun.  I mean, I'm looking forward to the big wedding too (in a way), but this is pretty much what we wanted to begin with.  Hehe, Vegas elopement... so that being said, I am trying to decide what to wear.  I don't want to be so casual that it's jeans and t-shirts or whatever, Imean, it is our wedding and all, but I also don't want to be so dressy that the FH feels the need to show up in more than a nice shirt and slacks.
( So here's a few ideas I've had :) )

I don't actually have a bridal party, but I do have a friend who is essentially acting in that role without the fancy dress. She's gone with me to vendors, helped look for things online and generally been a great source of support.

I'd really like to give her a nice thank you gift, but I'm stumped! I'd like something that will be a nice memory of the day, but since she's not in the bridal party I'm leaning away from things like wraps/purses/jewelry to coordinate with her non-existent bridesmaid dress. She's an artsy, funky and crafty woman with three great kids, and a lot of the classic bridesmaids things really don't speak to me for her, but I know she's sentimental enough that she would appreciate something that's a memento of the wedding (rather than something that might just as well make a nice birthday gift for her).

So if you're doing something offbeat for your MOH, or just have a cool idea, lay it on me! The wedding is in less than a month, but I have a reasonable amount of time and am moderately crafty. Also, since I'm only buying one gift, my budget is pretty flexible.

Name and/or LJ userID: oh-cake
Wedding Date: August/September 2010 (TBD)
Bride/Groom/Other (please specify): Bride
Age: 32
City/State/Country you live in: Boston, MA, USA
City/State/Country you're getting married in (if different): beach, MA, USA
Your song/First Dance song: a tango
Wedding Colors: sand & water (beige/cream & aqua/pale turquoise)
Formality: Um... elegantly informal? (Suits not tuxes, what's the term for this?)
Theme (if you have one): Elegant New England Summer
Number of guests: a headache. Oops. I mean... right now we're trying to trim the list down to 100. I'd prefer 50-75. 
How'd you meet your fiance?: match.com.
How long have you been together?: 4 years as of March 2010.
Do you have a personal wedding website?: not yet.
Have you read the community rules before posting this survey?: yes.
Anything else you'd like to tell us?:Help!
( all the dirty details...  )

You guys have no idea...

Quick reminder: Wedding is (probably) July 3, in Calgary. We got engaged on Christmas Day 2009.

Over the last couple of years, I've drifted away from my once best friend. And when I asked her to be a bridesmaid (not maid of honour, I already knew that wouldn't happen), she declined (she had good reasons, since she's living in the US now and the wedding will be in Canada, but was a bit rude about it, so I was upset).

Meanwhile, the girl next in line for matron of honour is having a baby in May and can't say for sure if she'll be able to come to the wedding. She is, instead, going to make all the favours and help design the decorations, and then if she can actually come she'll supervise the decorating. (She may also make some of the decorations; we're thinking that we'll use silk flowers for a number of things.)

I have two sisters-in-law, and they are going to be bridesmaids. My niece will be flower girl. I don't need more than three attendants - I am not a "high maintenance" kind of person. (Thinking of our medieval theme and how many attendants a bride would have had to help her get ready - especially royalty.)

So I turned to my friend Janna. We have the same first name and have been friends for several years. We share ambitions and faith and all that good stuff. She had already agreed to be a bridesmaid, so I e-mailed her and explained all of the reasons why I decided to ask her to consider being my Maid of Honour.

And today, she said yes!

I squeed. For real. :D

Now I just have to make sure my Uncle is available for July 3, book the cathedral, book the hall for the reception, and figure out about food. Then dresses? I have no idea. I have lists. I will follow them. It will be fine, as long as I remember to breathe. ;)

So, I've made a couple of posts in the recent past regarding bridesmaids dresses, and after me being indescisive and flustered at finding some things that would work, but not many, my BMs not being very helpful/cooperative in general, and just not really being able to see anything in person I was considering buying online, I was FINALLY able to go to David's Bridal today and look at the 'front runner' dress I've been considering for a long time. Well, thankfully the dress looked great in person and so I actually bought bridesmaid dresses! There is no going back now! Here are pictures (stock photos) of what I am getting.

( DB dresses and comments on them for people who might also want them )

So between the FH and I saving every penny we can and taking what our families have offered, we have a wedding budget of about $25,000 (including EVERYTHING, aside from an engagement party, a wedding shower, bachelor/bachelorette parties, and a brunch, if we have it, because these are all being thrown outside of our budget by others, if they happen). $22,000 is what we're hoping to save, and the rest is from family. Our only provision is that we do NOT go into debt for the wedding - we will scale back expenses before doing that, or before making anyone feel as if they are obligated to contribute.

My question to you guys...is it stupid to spend this $25k on a wedding? My head says "Yes, idiot, buy a house or something more tangible, it's only one day out of your life", but my heart says, "Have the wedding and honeymoon you want. You only get the experience once, and you want to make it memorable." I have never had a lot of money and don't fuss over designer things, but I have always wanted just this one nice thing, so I'm really torn. :[

The FH and I have a plan to start saving for a house as soon as we get married, and not have children for about two years. For reference, he makes about $20,000 a year and I make $40,000. Neither of us come from wealthy families. We are comfortable, but have a little debt [he has a few (about 6-7) thousand dollars' worth of credit-card and student-loan debt, I have about $4,500 in student loans and a car payment, but no credit-card debt]. We plan on getting married in April 2011.

Thanks in advance for the advice, guys. I want a nice wedding, and I don't mind spending the money if I have it because it's a dream of mine, but at the same time it just feels irresponsible for some reason.

EDIT: Thank you all SO much for the advice. I think we will most likely scale it back a considerable amount (more likely somewhere between $15k and $20k), splurge on the things that are most important to us (i.e. honeymoon, photography, food), and still save but shop around and find deals as best we can before knowing exactly what we're going to spend. And if we have any left over (which I am planning on having), it will go toward our bills. Thanks again everyone. I really appreciate all the comments...they really helped a lot!