dress for success

apparently what you wear while searching for THE DRESS is very important... luckily - a quick online search moments before our bridal shop departure, google saved me from some extreme embarrassment.

tip 1. like your mother always says, wear clean underwear.

first of all, i did not know you needed "help" into these dresses. i felt like a rich princess just holding my arms up and allowing dresses to be slipped on and off of me. sounds easy right - except when you're standing more than half naked in a change room with strangers... unless you want you want your hoo-haw hanging out for the sales ladies, you will want full coverage underwear. i was very close to wearing thongs, to avoid the dreaded lines while trying on dresses. shows how much i know about wedding gowns, most i tried on had enough material over the bum area i would get lost inside while they were being slipped over my head! more than once i heard "just look for my hands" while wading through piles of white. thank you google for sparing Kaitlin at David's Bridal a full moon on a Monday morning.

on top of that, they do not have all dress sizes, and will "clip" you in so you can get an idea... this means when you come out of the change room, you may not be fully covered... giving a nice display to the entire store!

tip 2. wear a bra, ideally strapless

similar to tip 1, unless you want your boobies on display, wear a bra. this may sound like a normal task, but - I am typically found in yoga tops, which means built in bras. i almost had a girls gone wild monday morning, but at the last second snagged a strapless bra while running out the door. unlike underwear - i do believe the shops will lend you a bra at least. probably so the helpers don't have to molest you with each dress they pull on and off your body.

tip 3 - wear deodorant

i had no idea trying on wedding dresses was such a workout. most of the dresses are heavy and full of crinoline, silk and tons of other sweat making materials. i was caught more than once sniffing my armpits to ensure i was clear of nasty scents. and next time i'll be sure to have a stick of deodorant in my purse, just in case! again... these helpers are all up in your business in those changes rooms...

there are a few other tips, such as not wearing make up, bringing a camera and of course bringing a close friend (thanks carol!!). but i do feel these top 3 saved me from stinkily parading around in my birthday suit.

and so the search continues, but now i know to be armed with granny panties, bras, and shaven deodorized arm pits. they never show these tips on the go to dress shopping show...

signed, sealed, delivered...

wedding invitations - we've got them signed and sealed - and our fingers are crossed they will be delivered soon. 

our e-invites and website went out a few weeks ago, and our plan was to have our paper invites out within a few days of this... 

http://www.daveknight.com/121212/

unfortunately, due to issues at the printing company, this did not happen. after waiting  7-10 days for delivery, and still not hearing or seeing anything - i realized the copies were likely not happening. a heated conversation on the phone with their customer service made me realize it was not worth our time or effort - and we should have just stuck with the "do it" ourselves attitude in the first place. luckily my office has a colour printer, that actually does a decent job. we were surprised by the quality! so we settled in for an evening of folding, cutting, stuffing and stamping... 

into the post box they went this morning... and hopefully arriving in the mailboxes of our families and friends soon!

the queen also wants you at our wedding... 

it's all just a little bit of history repeating

while digging through all of our old photos for the website, we came across a baby book dave's mom had made him. it was amazing- full of written memories and old photos. we actually stopped what we were doing, grabbed some wine and enjoyed the book from cover to cover.

it revealed many interesting fun facts, to both dave and i. we were surprised to find out his love of ice cream began at the early age of 3, he enjoyed giving "big hugs" and saved up his allowance at age 7 for a cat...

but the best, most surprising find! apparently his first girlfriend, invited to his fifth birthday party was erinn. with two NNs. as soon as i spotted this i squealed, questioning dave who this erinn was with the amazing spelling! i know the double n is out there, and somewhat common, but i still haven't actually had another cross my personal life before. when dave said it was his girlfriend, i laughed. i pointed out that his first and last girlfriend had the exact same name...  it could have been a typo made my soon to be mother in law, but it was in there twice. with the double n.

some could say chance, i like to think fate...

may your wontons be succulent and burst with abundance

no, this was not written inside a fortune cookie. instead my "year of the dragon" mother inspired me to celebrate the chinese new year in style by making my own homemade wonton soup.

yesterday began with an early morning phone call from my water dragon mama informing me it was going to be a great year - not only is it the year of the dragon, but it's actually the lunar new year of the water dragon, a once in every 60 year occurrence. the dragon is perceived as a mystical and auspicious creature in Chinese cultures and this year is expected to bring prosperity and transformational change.

i was also informed it was auspicious that we got our e-invites out before the new year (phew)... then came  a list of dos and don'ts in order to welcome more luck into our lives. i was happy to discover this meant no cleaning on new years, to avoid sweeping away the good energy. unfortunately we missed the new years eve cleaning session (where you sweep away the negative energy), so hopefully we'll be somewhat balanced out this year... perhaps not cleaning for the whole week will mean more luck? or more dust i'm not sure... i had to stop after hearing only a few dos and don'ts, i figured it was better to not know the unlucky things we may or may not be doing than to be aware of what we "should" be doing and just not doing it...

trying to make up for our lack of negative energy sweeping, and trying to ensure 2012 will be lucky, i decided to embrace our non-asian background and try my hand at wonton folding:

it was actually easier than i thought, though i did feel a little bit like i was playing cooking mama...

turns out wonton soup really is just as easy in the game... make a broth, make filling, put filling in wrapper, fold, fold, fold, boil, enjoy.

and so, with the success of our wontons - we're confident 2012 will be a great year. and to all our loved ones we wish:

吉星高照 (jí xīng gāo zhào) smiles of fortune

we need a list?

we are so close to inviting people... the wedding website is done and we're just doing some final gathering of contact info before we send everything out.... the paper invites should be ready in a few weeks or so.

a sneak preview:

and so comes the next big wedding to do item... the guest list. we started a basic list back in august when we first began planning. just listing out our family members, we quickly realized we have many people in our life we wish to celebrate this event with us. heck, just our immediate family alone (parents, siblings and their spouses) our grand total was already at 16! never mind aunts, uncles, cousins, and friends!!!

we are very lucky in that both of our families have very much let us plan our wedding the way we want too. we haven't once heard - well you should be inviting this or that person or - doing this or that, and for this we are oh so grateful. thank you thank you!

though we of course welcome suggestions...

but, guest list making does start to feel like you are playing a game, trying to organize and fit the right people in with the right plan.

heading south for a destination wedding makes these hard decisions MUCH easier. we've pretty much made it an open invite - wanna come south? awesome. we'd love to have you join us... we both agreed we refused to stress over this list - well. as little stressing as possible.

that said, we of course do not want to exlude anyone. we would hate to hurt anyones feelings. and we do need an invite of some type to send out to the guests we really do want to come. and so the list was pulled out again.

i think our biggest concern is - have we forgotten anyone?

we do expect to accidentally miss someone. not intentionally of course - we hope no one takes offence to an empty inbox/mailbox. is it breaking wedding etiquette to say "we didn't invite you yet? whoops. sorry - we should have!" or... "didn't realize you'd want to join us, but i'm happy you are - here is the info... "
i think i'll have to work on these...

after all this -  it's almost like we have a reverse wedding guest list. as we hear back from people that want to come with us to jamaica, the real wedding guest list gets composed. march 10th (the deadline for deposits) will be like christmas morning when we get to the see the group that will be joining us - and we can't wait!!!

winter wonderland

 today we got snow. serious snow. just the kind dave and i love - the stuff that slows down the city, makes everything quiet and for some reason you just want to watch it fall. we decided to embrace the snowfall warning and head out for fun. 

 

 

 out there, in all the snowy wintery beauty, i started to wonder if we really were beach babies? maybe we are actually snow bunnies and should be doing a winter wedding!

then we got home and shoveled. not so romantic anymore... 

so, snuggled up by the fire, we worked on the wedding website and returned to the sunny beach... wintery wonderland bliss

 

 

hairy decisions

for the majority of my adult life, i've had long hair. only this past summer did i return to the shoulder length bob i had when i was younger. in fact - days after i cut my hair, dave pointed out i had copied my little sister's do...

my longer locks

can you see the similarity?

i quickly fell in love with my shorter hair. it's much easier, feels lighter and much more free.

which means - the hairy decision begins... keep it short or let it grow? as i just recently chopped my hair, i'm inclined to keep it short.  however, this week while discussing my shorter hair, i was reminded by a co-worker "i have to think about my wedding hair". what a silly thing to worry about at this point, but... i realized she was right. though i love my fun bob cut perhaps i do want my long locks back to take down the aisle with me. dave being the oh so wonderful fiance of course says "you look great in both", but this does not help with the decision making.

talking about this, i can't help but picture this dude jumping up while singing - Gimme head with hair, long beautiful hair, shining, gleaming, streaming, flaxen, waxen, give me down to the there hair, shoulder length or longer.....

rest assured, we are not having a nude wedding...

and so, i think for the time being, i'll do as instructed in the musical and let it grow a while... i can always cut it closer to december if i want the short do back... one important aspect that's already been tested - both styles are definitely danceable....