I must be a trend maker

So you've seen my dress, but have you seen this Reem Acra design? It's from the 2011 collection.





I don't know....looks kind of familiar. Of course, I think mine is better!

We got married!

I finally married the guy who makes me feel like Christmas. It was great. My feet hurt and SanFrancisco was frrrreeezzzing, but it was wonderful to marry this man.

I don't have any pictures yet. Since it was just the two of us and our photographers, we have to wait but I do have a picture to show--- its the only picture I have for the time being. It's me and my dream dress. I love it so much. I shortened the dress to a mini skirt and got some leopard pumps. It was so 80's and so me.




Isn't it grand? I felt so beautiful that day- even if I really wasn't, I felt it. And everyone we passed said congrats and told me how beautiful I looked, how great my dress looked. People were even taking pictures of us!! We took pictures in the market and crowds gathered and started taking pictures of us- which was kind of cool. Every now and then I search to see if maybe I can find any of those pictures out there somewhere. All in all it was a great experience. We got married, and then went to IHOP. Great day I say.

Wedding dress panic

My last wedding dress post was about how I wanted to get a dress made that was inspired by a Stephen Yearick design. Well, I found this picture of Jackie Collin's wedding and my gears just started turning. Jackie Collins got married in England's version of a city hall so it totally fits with my whole city hall elopment. I love the long in the back, short in the front mullet look. I've seen it done wrong before but this is so right. I love how modest it is.



So I decided to find a dressmaker and get started. I wanted a long sleeved crew neck dress, off white-ish in color, with the same general shape as Jackie's dress. I wanted a drop waist instead because I know my body and while I love my shape, I would look wide if the waistline was at my actual waist. A drop waist would make me look thinner. Instead of the flowers that Jackie has all over her dress, I would want the embroidery similar to the Stephen Yearick design I talked about before, and to incorporate the Stephen Yearick even more, I wanted the triangular edging to be the edging on my dress too. That dress sounds amazing doesn't it? If I had a second wedding I would have that dress made. In fact, If I had anything- big gala, ball, whatever, I would have a dress like that made. I may even do it anyway- in black or a gold or something just because it sounds that amazing to me.

Well, as you can tell from that little tangent- I didn't get that dream dress made. I found a dressmaker. In fact, I found 3. 2 of whom were online and 1 was local. Because this is Miami, the local dressmaker's English wasn't that great and I just didn't want to go through the hassle of having to explain and re-explain something as important as my wedding dress. I've been here long enough to know that the important details often get lost in translation. So I decided against her.
Then I found a couple dressmakers through etsy, but because of my timeline, I decided on one in particular whose work looked amazing. Just in case, I found someone else as well who had been in the dressmaking business for years- she wasn't through etsy though. Anywho, both of these people fell through. The problem is that I had finally decided on the etsy dressmaker. I had made arrangements as to price, timeline, fabric, everything and about 6 weeks prior to my wedding she informed me that she couldn't do the dress because she was swamped.

Of course I freaked out! Like I was in a super super panic. At this point I couldn't go find another dressmaker to make this dream dress for me. I almost cried thinking about how I was going to have to go into a David's Bridal or something like that and just choose a dress off the rack. I looked online at Nordstrom for white dresses. I even tried looking into my original suit idea. I started googling "mullet wedding dress" for something maybe somewhat close to my dream dress- maybe I could find a long sleeved white dress and have it cut into that shape, without the edging and embroidery. This idea seemed somewhat plausible but it is hard to find long sleeved wedding dresses nowadays. Luckily there are mormon wedding dress shops that have dresses like these, but none were what I wanted.

Then I decided that maybe vintage was the way to go. By the way, all these thoughts and searches were within a 1 hour time span- I was in super panic mode. I was even snapping at my husband because I was so worried.

Anywho, so I decided to look at vintage dresses and that's where I found my beauty of a dress. I found a site called antiquedress.com. They have lots of vintage pieces and a small gallery of wedding dresses. Here is my dress as shown on the site:





Amazing right? It has all the elements of a dream dress for me. It's not the exact one I had in mind, but to me it was like fate. I always say everything happens for a reason, and this was proof. This dress is cute, long sleeved, vintage, 80's, unique, has a tulip thingie going on, and....fit me perfectly with no alterations needed. Actually that part isn't true, the bust was a little off, but for the most part, I didn't have to do anything. I wanted to though and Oh, I did. I shortened that dress to a mini skirt! It was the perfect wedding dress. So my wedding dress nightmare which occured over the course of an hour turned into perfection.
Anything like that ever happen to you?

Girl, Where you been?

I like how the last time I posted I talked about how I was going to be a good little blogger and post more often. But did that happen? No, of course not. Since my last post,
- I finally finished my monster of a paper, got an A on it, and there are even talks about it being published which I am all like "yay!" about, but it really isn't that great of a paper in my opinion so I won't be too broken up about it if it doesn't happen.
- I graduated law school. 3 years sure does go by fast.

- I studied for the bar. Took the bar. Oh, and did I say pass the bar? Cuz, yeah I passed the bar. (A post about that will be posted today today)

- I got married. Yep, finally. We eloped. We haven't gotten any pictures back yet though, (2 weeks!!) - so all we have is the one picture my then-fiance took of me before we left to city hall. I'll post that later today too.
- I started work and I've been doing that about 70 hours a week since I started.

So...yes, I guess you can say I have been super busy. Today, I plan on posting all the posts I wrote over the summer but never actually ever posted. Hope you like these because I may not be back for a while.

The Man Band

Buying a band for the Mr was simple and a waste of time all rolled into one. He knew what he wanted and what he wanted the band to feel like on his finger. Well they didn’t have it, and because he wanted thin tungsten, it was impossible to think that he would ever get it. But instead of obsessing like me, he moved on to the band that fit the best and got it in white gold. Amazing. It took about 10 minutes.



So why was this 10 minutes a waste of time? Well, it wasn’t a total waste because I got one of my rings cleaned while we waited but a waste because the Mr. will never wear the ring! He’s a mechanic- he can’t wear it to work and I understand that, so M-F no ring will be worn. That leaves the weekend for him to get used to wearing jewelry!- I bought him a watch once, he wore it once and lost it within 2 weeks. Realistically, I know that he will never wear it and I’m okay with that but why even get it?

He was so/so about getting it and I didn’t want to waste the money- I mean, that’s $374 that could go towards something for me! But maybe one day, like in 30 years when we retire, he will finally wear the ring. His fingers will probably be fatter by then so we could just give it to one of the grandkids, I mean old rings have a purpose right?

Bride wears a suit, say wha?

Yeah, that is exactly what 97% of my friends said when I said I was going to wear a suit for my wedding.
“What, you mean like a pants suit?”
-No, not at all. I’ve seen it done and I’ve seen it done well but it’s not me.

“Like Carrie in the Sex & the City movie?”
- A. I’ve never seen sex and the city anything, but I went home and googled it for a picture (see below)…so,
- B. kind of


“I just don’t understand”
- See, the thing is, I don’t need you to understand. I’m not marrying you!

Funny thing is, I never told my mom about this whole suit thing because she would freak. But I knew that after she saw how marvelous I looked in the pictures she would get over it.

The thing is, a bride wearing a suit really isn’t so unorthodox. I mean, sure it is now but that’s because the bridal industry doesn’t necessarily want you to think outside the box. Many brides in the 40’s were married in suits. Hell, Katherine Hepburn and Marilyn Monroe were and I feel like at least one of Liz Taylor’s weddings had to feature her in a suit too. These weddings though were simple ceremony’s- not grand affairs worthy of Platinum Wedding status. A suit for a city hall wedding just sounds perfectly right.

Well kiddos, you should know that I am in love with peplum’s. They emphasis your hips and make you look all lady like. I love my body shape even though I gained 20 pounds during law school so I like that the peplum helps me love what I love about myself. Plus, they have been everywhere lately.



My initial idea was to take a suit like this Juicy Couture one, have it custom made in a cream or even light pink, with a much bigger peplum and a little mini-er skirt. This would look perfect with my bubble veil, louibiton platform heels, ruffle collared shirt, and 3 layered j. crew necklaces (symphony, opera length pearl necklace, and ???). I loved this and was all about it even though my friends didn’t get it. 2 of them though said “Yeah, that is SO you”.

And it is so me. But am I going to do it? No.
It’s not because the Mr. had a problem with it, because he didn’t. It’s because I fell in love with a dress. Bah humbug. I was really sad to fall in love with a dress. I wondered if I could have it custom made by Milly Bridal into a peplum style. “That would be amazing!” I thought. But the more I sat and wondered, the more I realized that the dress wouldn’t look good as a Peplum. So what’s the dress? This gorgeous Stephen Yearick design. Da Da DAAA.


I still don’t like the dress completely as it is which is why I plan on getting it custom made. I want a scoopneck, not a V-neck and I want to be scandoulous with a low back.. Plus I have really cute thin calves and so maybe my dress should be shorter. I really still haven’t made up my mind but in the end, I hope the Stephen Yearick just serves as inspiration.

Still though, I wish I could have 2 weddings so I could wear my suit. Any photographers out there want to just do a test shoot for fun with a bride in a mini skirt peplum suit? Eh, probably not.
I am still going to incorporate menswear into my wedding day wardrobe though. I bet you can’t guess what it is.

The Guide to Eloping

I'm a girl. I like to make lists. My day is one big list. Sure, I do things that aren't on the list but then I gain 5 pounds- like the tub of cookies and cream ice cream that magically appeared in my cart, but wasn't on any list I wrote. Of course I had to go ahead and get the ice cream though- it magically appeared! Therefore, it's magic ice cream and that is Ah-mazing. Can't pass up magical ice cream, nuh uh. Nope.

Anywho, through my process of planning my elopement, I've written many many lists and because I've done that I can now pass on my craziness to you- in list form! Yay!

Before you, or below this, is a guide to eloping. It doesn't have to be done in order- it's not that type of list. You can skip over some things- yeah, it's a pretty awesome list. Now, after you read my list, go out, be a girl, a make lists of your own. Really awesome lists.



The Guide to Eloping

1. Pick a photographer
2. Pick a location
3. Pick a time frame/ date.

-- Now, the first three are pretty interchangeable as to what order you should do them in and it really just depends on what is more important to you. We already knew that the wedding would take place in San Francisco at City Hall, and the time frame would have to be before the bar exam but before I started work which gave me a good week and a half for a wedding. Since Photography is my #1 concern, want, and desire I emailed a bunch of great San Franciscan area photographers about their availability on my date and their quotes. Essentially, I let the photographer pick the day.

You'll have to do a lot of research since the wedding isn't local and you can't just drive by to find out about a venue and their policies, plus you need to find out how to get a marriage license too. Don't be afraid of all the various opinion sites and message boards out there. They are there to help you, so use them!
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4. Book the trip!
-- The earlier you do this the better, although it may be worth the wait depending on where you are going. For example, it's cheaper to come to Florida in the summer time because duh!- no one wants to be here in the summer. It's humid and hot and sticky and did I mention hot? It's more expensive to go to Omaha in the summer because of the College World Series. There are also websites like airfare watchdog that will tell you if fares are going to increase or decrease within the next couple of weeks.
Also, shop around. Try different days and combinations and vacation packages are always the best way to save. You may find that flying out of a different airport or staying in a hotel just outside of town might save you some serious dough. We did this exactly through Priceline and got hotel, airfare, and car rental for 4 days for less than $920! And yes, that is for both of us and including tax. The down side is that when you get a package that sweet it comes with things like layovers. For about $300 more I could have gotten no layovers but it really wasn't worth it for us when I considered how much money I was spending in other areas.
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5. Get the clothes and accessories.
---This includes hair and makeup. Your best bet when it comes to eloping, unless you know someone where you are going is to do your own hair and makeup. Chances are, you wont have a day or two before the ceremony to get a consultation so it may be that you are taking a big risk to get everything professionally done the day of. This wont apply though if want you want isn't super complicated. I decided to get makeup lessons in advance so I can try different things and actually know what I'm doing the day of. As for my hair, I usually do my hair myself for everything anyway so I will do mini-consultations with myself to try it out. Of course, the day of, my hair probably won't come out as perfect as it did during try #16 but still, I don't care and I'm realistic.
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6. Tell the family and friends
--Depending on your circumstances, you may or may not want to do this. It may just be easier to elope and then deal with family and friends later. We decided to tell out family because after a foreverly long engagement it was about time. My friends were more upset than my family- they tried to talk me into having a small ceremony here, but it wouldn't have been what I wanted so I politely ignored them.
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7. Details
-- Like flowers and such.

8. Figure out what to do while you are there, how you are going to get around, and anything else your heart desires.
--- I got a lot of great ideas off my credit card's travel rewards like a helicopter tour, sunset dinner cruise, and a vineyard day trip.
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9. Have fun, relax, and enjoy each other.
---That's the reason you are eloping anyway right?