Skirt dilemma

So, the MOH and I went to my semi-final dress fitting on Saturday. The dress looks amazing! All they need to do now is line the skirt, and finish all the edges, and a few other finishing touches. I am in love with it.

Mr. T and I have been practicing our first dance, and it's become obvious that there is no way I can dance in my skirt. As soon as I step backward, I'm going to step on the train and it will all be over. Or Mr. T is going to step on my train and it will all be over. Oops. That's what I get for going for drama!

Now I'm pondering either buying a cute skirt to change into right before the first dance, or having my dressmaker whip up a shorter skirt in the same material, if such a thing is even possible or remotely attainable on my budget/within our timeframe. Hm.

Invitations to Printer: Check! Plus, other random tasks

I'm so happy to report that we sent the invite files to the printer yesterday and dropped off the black paper this morning before work. Hooray! That is such a weight lifted. We were ecstatic after uploading the files yesterday.

Also, the printer has already sent us a PDF proof of our invite. That was fast! The owner told Mr. T that they were in a lull at the moment, so the printing might only take about 2 weeks. Hooray! That means, if we have some time to spare, that we can consider doing custom postage through Zazzle or a site like that, to coordinate with our invitations. If we use the post office's postage, we're stuck with some not-so-thrilling options, but we'll suck it up if we have to. I just wish they'd updated the Edgar Allen Poe stamps with the new rate...sigh.

This weekend we also accomplished a few other wedding tasks:

• We made our registries live on our wedsite. We haven't added flatware yet, but we can do that later.
• We tried two more rehearsal dinner options. This is turning out to be much more challenging than finding the wedding venue! To summarize, the Vietnamese place closest to our venue sucks, so we're looking at opening our search to restaurants without private rooms.
• We purchased a custom return address stamp from Etsy.
• We booked our hotel room for our wedding night, plus our photographer's hotel room for two nights.
• We ordered our cupcake stand (cardboard, to be painted and adorned by us).
• We purchased gifts for my bridesmaid and MOH as well as our officiant.
• I purchased a wedding band for Mr. T from an online jeweler...luckily we can return it to the company if he hates it.
• We purchased envelopes for our invitations, with extras for thank you notes. We also decided that lining the envelopes wasn't worth the hassle, so that's another thing off my list.
• We put some thought into our first dance and decided what we're going to do (but I'm not telling!)
• I scheduled my first dress fitting for this Friday! This is when I try on the muslin version. After that they order the fabric and get to work!
  

Phew! Only another 120 things to go!

Rock the Reception

TLC is not quite as good at making addictive reality shows as Bravo, but they are pretty close. I furtively watched the last season of Say Yes to The Dress, and now they're back with another wedding related show: Rock the Reception.

This time, they're capitalizing on two of my interests: weddings and dancing! Couples who want to choreograph an unusual first dance apply to be on the show, and professional choreographers Tabitha and Napoleon work with them on their chosen song. It culminates in video footage of the piece at the wedding, where they surprise all their guests with a choreographed "first dance"! On the episode I saw, some of the bridesmaids/groomsmen also joined in.

Tabitha and Napoleon were featured on this season of So You Think You Can Dance (another fave), and so it's nice to see them again, although the level of dance is somewhat...diminished. They do a good job of working with the folks they've got, but jeez, some people can't even clap on beat. I'm serious. I don't know why I'm shocked about that, but I am.

Anyway, Mr. T is of the opinion that this show won't last ("No one wants to see regular people dance," he opined), so I don't know if we can apply to be on the show; instead, I'm trying to sweet-talk one of our friends into applying so we can meet Tabitha and Napoleon. That would be awesome.

Monday Random Links

I'm still recuperating from the weekend. I need another day off!!

In the meantime, I'm going to pull a Neil Gaiman and leave you with a list of links that I thought were interesting:

Here's yet another post on the Thriller wedding dance subject. After watching this video and cringing at the lack of synchronicity, I decided there's no way in hell I'm choreographing (or participating in someone else's choreography, a la Thriller) a dance for the wedding party. I would indeed turn into a bridezilla: "No, your arm's too high. You should kick higher right there and then spin. Remember, the zombie move is on the 7,8, and then head slides are on the 1." I would drive everyone crazy. I'm not sure what Mr. T and I are going to do for our first dance, since we never do partner dancing (just your average bootie shaking at the club, which I suspect neither of us wants to do for an audience of 100 of our family and friends). However, whatever we do, it won't be highly choreographed, or Mr. T would kill me. Really.

Planet Gordon was started by a groom-to-be. I've been slowly working my way through the archives from 2003, when he got engaged. He's a really funny writer and actually wrote a book called The Engaged Groom, which is reputed to be funny and accurate--weddings from the male perspective. I've been pondering getting it for Mr. T.

Zazzle does both custom wedding stamps and custom ties. Well, they do custom anything, but those two things caught my eye.

Carbon Footprint offers a wedding registry where guests can register to have trees planted in the UK or Kenya. Those country choices seem a bit random to me, but I like the eco-friendliness of the idea. They also have a carbon footprint calculator on their site, which I need to try out one of these days.


And finally, who doesn't love Peeps? Here are some in wedding garb. Enjoy.

More on the First Dance

I found an article about the first dance...okay, so no Thriller. Sigh.

The article is hilarious. These are my people! Don't worry everyone, Mr. T won't let this happen to you.

Some of my fave quotes from the article:

"At their February nuptials, Tommy and Heidi Weclew of Orlando, Fla., walked to opposite sides of the dance floor and stood back to back as a DJ switched on disco lights and triggered a fog machine. The couple began a theatrical routine they'd been honing for weeks -- performing lifts and turns and pantomiming the sometimes vulgar lyrics of a ballad from the movie "Old School." For a finale, the groom did the funky robot."

"For $1,000, the specialty wedding-choreography company MatriMony Mony of New York will create a customized first dance routine for couples and teach them to perform it. One production in the works is a James Bond spoof where the couple will skulk around waving pantomime handguns."

"Later, the five groomsmen participated in a surprise number designed by the groom where they serenaded the bride with the song "Kiss the Girl" from the film "The Little Mermaid" while wearing frog, lobster and flamingo costumes. The wedding, says best-man Alex Huang, "was a lot of work.""

I found the article through this post on WeddingBee, which features a YouTube video of a couple breakdancing at their wedding. Oh, I wish I knew how to breakdance!!!

They're Playing Our Song

In another ridiculous it's-way-too-early-to-decide-this decision-making moment, Mr. T and I may have picked our first dance song. Nope, it's not "Thriller" after all (but maybe I'll make the bridesmaids learn that one and dance it with me--you ready, ladies?). It's from When Harry Met Sally, our favorite movie (especially since it features a couple who starts out as just friends, like us!). There are a lot of jazz/big band classics in that movie, but I'll leave which one up to your imagination. And who's to say this is the final one? But, it feels right.

From IMDB, one of my favorite parts:

Harry Burns: I've been doing a lot of thinking, and the thing is, I love you.
Sally Albright: What?
Harry Burns: I love you.
Sally Albright: How do you expect me to respond to this?
Harry Burns: How about, you love me too.
Sally Albright: How about, I'm leaving.
Harry Burns: I love that you get cold when it's 71 degrees out. I love that it takes you an hour and a half to order a sandwich. I love that you get a little crinkle above your nose when you're looking at me like I'm nuts. I love that after I spend the day with you, I can still smell your perfume on my clothes. And I love that you are the last person I want to talk to before I go to sleep at night. And it's not because I'm lonely, and it's not because it's New Year's Eve. I came here tonight because when you realize you want to spend the rest of your life with somebody, you want the rest of your life to start as soon as possible.