2 steps forward ... 2 steps back

That's not a scientific rendering of the number of steps we've taken, in any direction, by the way. I'm just sitting here humming Paula Abdul songs (and now, so are you. You're welcome.) And yes, I know I keep fiddling with the heading of this here re-purposed blog. It's a work-in-progress. Also, I'm indecisive. But moving on:

We have a fridge! Check it out:
That's the Mr., a) looking cute, and b) showing off our excellent handiwork in getting all the shelves/drawers/etc. properly situated. I had no idea fridges were so complicated. Here it is from the outside:
Pretty! We got a sweet deal -- it's a brand-new last-year's model, courtesy of a giant warehouse out in the porn end of the valley. No website (?!?!), but they're at 8930 Mason Avenue, Chatsworth 91311.

We're also pretty much sorted on lighting, at least as far as fixtures go. We made a trip out to the Restoration Hardware Outlet in Camarillo, where we found this:
Ours has the brushed nickel finish, to go with the rest of our hardware. Also, that's totally the tile I've decided I no longer want! (But more on that later.) Again brand-new -- probably an internet return (so now you know where stuff goes when you buy online & return it: Camarillo) and they were giving an extra 20% off bath stuff "just because" that day, so outlet + sale = $51. Or as I prefer to call it, 25% of retail. Woo effing hoo!

After much more dithering about styles that one of us loved & the other hated-with-vehemence, we found these at Ikea:
Calypso, for the bedroom; and one that they don't have on the website yet but it's pendant-y & white & fun & cool, for the office. I'll post a pic once we've hung it. And by "we" I mean "our awesome handy-hombre".

So that's the cool stuff. And then, from the Dept. of Destruction: guess what was underneath all that tile in the bathroom?
MORE TILE!! We now officially have more tile than a Mexican restaurant in this house. And while I don't really dig the colors, the stuff they covered up was actually nicer than the stuff on top. Aaarggh!! Who the eff were these people? (Answer: the same people who cut through supportive studs to install windows & doors where-the-heck-ever they pleased, and did it without permits of course, which our guys now get to fix. Thank goodness for flat-fee contractors.) I'll get some more pictures of the mayhem tomorrow, but in the meantime:
Why yes, that is a demo'd bathtub on our front porch. And we're happy to see you!

ohmygoshthankyooouuu!!

We just booked our restaurant for the post-ceremony dinner! (No, it's not "the reception" -- that's in L.A. Because I like to make things complicated.) The ever-amazing His Dad came through, thanks to a friend at a restaurant & a little negotiating savvy. We've got a really yummy 3-course menu (apps, entrees & dessert) that includes 2 drinks per person, plus no corkage fee for one case of champagne. Woo freakin' hoo!!

Also, it's pretty.
I don't know if this will be our space, but it's one that the website let me grab, so there you are. It's gonna look kind of, if not exactly, like this.

I am SO excited that this is done. It was one of the last major pieces missing from our puzzle, and I'm hugely relieved to have it clicked into place. Best of all: it's really close to our hotel, an easy cab/public transport ride away. (S.F. caveat to any potentially ambitious walkers: remember those streets aren't flat. They're HILLS!) Oh, and it fits our budget: just under $2800 for 43 people. Unbelieveable.

Also, a major shout-out to My Dad, who gave me a list of about a dozen alternate places to look at, if this one didn't come through. My brain was waaay too frazzled to do that -- you are a rock star.

If you're in the city, please give these people some love! Belden Taverna

breaking my radio silence

Yes, it's been about a week since my last post. I've noticed an inverse corrolation between how busy I am and how frequently I blog. (The eternal conundrum: only having the time to write when you have nothing to say.) But some of that busy-ness has actually been quite productive. In the past few days we have:

1) made the official cake decision & put down a deposit

2) "paid" our lovely photographer

3) gotten almost all of the spelling/non-nickname/street address questions about our guest list answered, and begun printing the labels for our envelopes:
The red slash is marking one of the ones I had to re-do ... which is a surprisingly low number if I do say so myself. You can see the swirly design detail better here:
We always knew that hand-calligraphy wasn't right for us -- too formal and too expensive -- but we really like the wrap-around labels that so many people have designed. Problem: none of the free ones available were even close to working with our invite design. Solution: well, since I'd already taught myself how to use Photoshop in order to make said invite design, I just kept going & made these, too. I'm pretty pleased with how they turned out. They look really cool against the lined envelopes, too.

4) I've been working on a card box.
As you can see, it's still very much a work in progress. You can also see where I got the green paper on the wall to the left of it. I'm following a tutorial found on Once Wed here. (And how much do I love their new site design?!) The basic structure was pretty simple, once I got used to the smell of the mod podge (and opened a window). The "design" elements are proving to be a bit vexing. Oh well, there's no rush and so far I'm only out about $4 in materials, plus stuff I already had. Bonus: it's a pretty good echo of the real cake we're getting, minus one layer.

5) I've done all the reseach I can do to find the least expensive fillings for our candy buffet, so I've started to make purchases. I'm buying locally as much as possible, because anything that we have to get shipped will likely need pricey express shipping. So far:
Butterscotches are sleeping soundly in my fridge (it's not empty -- I cleared a shelf) ...

and gummi grapefruit & Hershey's kisses are nestled in the freezer. (Side note to my mom: if you come by my apartment before the wedding, I'm going to hide these. Just sayin'.) I'd intended to get almond kisses from a website, because they're gold. You know, fitting in with the uber-important candy palette. But those cost almost $60 + delivery, and these were less than $30. So our palette now includes silver, in addition to cream, white & gold.

All of these so far = $66, from Jack's Discount Warehouse in downtown L.A. (They don't have a website, so google 'em if you're local.)

6) I grabbed 6 gold frames from the clearance aisle of my favorite discount craft store, for $2.50 each.
We can use them to label the dishes on our buffet, and toss them into the stuff I intend to re-sell after the wedding.

7) We gave our deposit to the designer at our reception venue. She's already asking about stuff we intend to sell that she'll buy off of us/ take in trade against our balance. Woo hoo!

8) My friend Meg has agreed to make table runners out of the fabric I bought. That's 15 runners out of $5 worth of fabric + one round of drinks & girl talk at The 3rd Stop.

Oh, and this arrived ...
... and it was so beautifully wrapped that I didn't open it for two whole days. It's perfect. It's also my gift to myself for booking that commercial last week (aka outside the wedding budget.) Go and love its maker on Etsy here!

part great news, part back to the drawing board

We had two fabulous pieces of news yesterday. First, Mr. UB is getting a promotion in 3 weeks. Woo hoo!! He'll be working long hours, but at least he won't be on overnights, so there's a slight chance that I'll get to see him, at least occassionally. Second, His Parents are going to be able to give us more than they originally thought to help pay for this wedding thing, which is a huge relief. Even with all my wheeling, dealing & scheming, we were coming perilously close to bumping our heads against the budget ceiling. How close? Let's just say that my get-a-crapload-of-pizzas idea was back on the table. But more on that later.

We picked up our rings yesterday. They're lovely, and exactly what we wanted. My photography skills, on the other hand, well ...

That's Mr. UB's ring. It's a tungsten band with a diamond embedded in it. I was trying to take one of those pictures where the shadow of the rings looks like a heart. Apparently, I need a stronger light source. D'oh!

There's both of them, in the same place I photographed my engagement ring. Kind of soft-focus. Totally on purpose. Really.

That's both rings just sitting on the book from the earlier pic ... yes, Shakespeare. Much Ado, to be specific. No, not Romeo & Juliet -- that didn't end well, remember?

My sub-par picture-taking aside, we're thrilled with them. And the jeweler we used, J. Rothstein, couldn't have been nicer, or easier to work with. They took the materials we brought them in trade, and are still working on selling some of it.

Another wonderful discovery that happened this morning was Cake & Art. They were recommended by our not-really-our-wedding-planner, Ania (she can't do our new date, but she's continuing to share her resources. LOVE her). It's a tiny little shop in West Hollywood that's been there for 30+ years. Mark (one of the 2 cake gurus there) spent about an hour with us, looking at my magazine tear-outs, flipping through their catalogue, and sketching up a basic outline for us. He asked many more questions than we were prepared to answer, and was very sweet about our sleepy-eyed stammers & shrugs in place of actual responses. (I rehearsed until 1:30 a.m. last night, and the Mr. is still on his farked-up sleep schedule.) He came up with an idea that will incorporate several ideas from the rest of our decor, and suggested cake flavors that will compliment the tastes in our dinner menu. Hello! Are you kidding me?!? Oh, and the cake was super-yummy -- enough to snap me out of my Morning Grouchy Phase. (Note to self: cupcakes for breakfast cure that.)

The best part: they don't charge by the serving. I haven't found anyone else who makes wedding cakes who doesn't do that. They quoted us $380 for a 4-tiered cake. I was ready to slap down cash right on the spot, but Mr. UB wants to go eat more free cake. I suspect we'll do both. (Don't let their admittedly weird website put you off -- go and talk to them. I dare you not to love them.)

I'm very pleased to have the cake business sorted, because we got an estimate from the caterer we thought would be on the cheap side. They're quoting us almost $4500. Ouch. So: who wants pepperoni? Seriously, we could be the Pizza Wedding. That's cool, right? Sigh ... probably not. But it's time to start poring over the estimate one line-item at a time, and seeing what else we can figure out. I've never attempted to feed 110 people before ... will someone out there kindly remind me not to do it again? Thank you.

goodies in the mail, and other things that make me happy

I am officially a fan of Etsy. I love working with the vendors on there, because they are so accomodating and helpful. When I wasn't sure what color seam binding to get, I got this:
from here ... which I used like this:
to make these:

Also on Etsy, I've been eyeing one of these:
which I found in this shop. But I wasn't sure which color would best match my dress. I asked the seller to describe them, and she did better than that:
This stuff makes me so darned happy. It's rare to get anything in the mail that's not a bill or crap advertisements. And both times, I looked at the return address on the envelope and thought, "Who the heck sent me this?!?", only to be made all smiley by the prettiness inside.

Another thing I got in the mail, which was less mysterious as an envelope because it had the company's logo on it, was these:
I read about them on Budget Savvy Bride's blog, where she raved about them. And while they're not exactly fancy wedding china, our beach party is hardly going to be a formal affair. Plus, I like how eco-friendly they are. So far, I'm pretty impressed with the company's prompt & friendly customer service.

Other random happy-making things: I've started rehearsals for the play I booked. I'm going to be playing Faye Dunaway, Cher, Kim Basinger, and a couple of free-floating bimbos. We're all having way too much fun with this show. (Side note: to the guy who tried to chat me up yesterday by asking if I was an actress ... what gave me away? The fact that I was holding a script? Or that I was walking toward the door of a theater? Nothing gets past you, does it Sherlock?)

I found this material at a sidewalk sale:

$5 for the whole bolt. I think I'm going to make table runners from it. Or rather, I'm going to ask my friend Meg, who can sew, to help me make table runners from it.

My fiance makes me very freakin' happy. He just does.

I just found out that our rings are in. We're going to pick them up Thursday morning. The jeweler managed to sell $374 worth of the materials we gave them, to help offset the cost. Yay, offsetting any cost!

Oh, and this. This makes me very happy:
Booya.

when procrastination equals planning

I bought the latest issue of Martha Stewart Weddings three days ago, and I haven't read it yet. Not because I'm testing myself, in some sort of weird willpower-that-no one-will-ever-see exercise, but just because I haven't bothered yet. I view this as tremendous progress in re-claiming my sanity.

In other, "real" progress this week, Mr. UB's father, aka His Dad, has come through with a major favor: the Mark Hopkins Hotel, where he always stays when he's in the city for business, is giving our wedding party & guests rooms at $75/night.

credit

It's an incredibly nice hotel, with a bar on the top floor (in a building at the top of a hill) that has views to die for. And in a city that's not exactly famous for its hotel bargains ... as much as I try to keep her in check, my inner snob is very happy. On our budget, I was afraid we'd be at a Motel 6.

I'm amazed at how many things are coming together for this wedding. Maybe I should take another week off from planning, and see if a free-roaming caterer rings my doorbell.

Houston, we have a venue!

Not that I think the city of Houston would care. And while my Gay Ex-Boyfriend's last name is pronounced "Houston", I frankly don't think he's aware of our wedding plans, and it would be odd, to say the least, for me to call him out of the blue & inform him. (How I ended up dating a gay man for 11 months is a story for another day. Which I may or may not get to. Moving on.)

We found a venue for our L.A. fiesta!

(images from their website)

This is Malibu West Beach Club. It's exactly what we need -- a great big room, in a gorgeous location, for an affordable price. They even want you to BYO vendors, which means we can make full use of our friends' offers to help us with stuff like drinks & food.

It already has a dance floor, and the cost of the rental includes tables & chairs and the clean-up fee. It has a great food-prep kitchen, complete with wet bar. They also have big tables for things like a buffet, cake and favors.

The best part: weekday rentals are discounted at 50% of the regular rate. Everything from pricing to available dates are easily found on their website. (Side note: why the hell are most places so damn coy about those things?!?) They don't consider Friday to be a "weekday" -- grammatically amusing, even as it's fiscally understandable. My favorite quote from our meeting with their event coordinator: "Monday is the new Friday." Um, okay. And Tuesday is the new October. Whatever -- we love it and we can afford it. Done.

Now there's just the simple matter of squaring the whole "small S.F. ceremony followed by big, informal L.A. party" thing with the nay-sayers. Normally, I wouldn't consider their opinions worthy of a vote. Except that the loudest member of said camp is Mr. UB. (Yes, exactly -- oh dear.)

To be fair, the exactly 5 people who don't live an easy car drive from one city or the other are all his family & friends. (Well, I really hope that my friend Carla will be coming from Italy, but I'm waiting to sort all of this crap out before I talk logistics with her. Otherwise she might buy a plane ticket for the wrong date/city.) I came up with the extraordinarily novel idea that he should, rather than just fretting silently/arguing with me ... you know, call and ask them. (I know. I'm a rare sort of genius. It's my cross to bear.)

His buddy in Florida promptly responded, "Dude, it's your wedding -- of course I'll be there." Of course, a) he's in the wedding, which necessitates the S.F. part, and b) he's "an enthusiastic heterosexual" who knows that many of my S Girls will be at the L.A. party. But who am I to question the man's motives? I'm just thrilled to hear that it's not a problem. One down.

His friends from New York are also in the wedding -- both of them. Groomsman (him) and Officiant (her). We need them, to say the least. Fortunately, they can make our new date in S.F. (phew!), and are going to try to combine our L.A. party with an already-planned trip to see her parents in Santa Barbara. Perfect! (They'll actually be closer to the north end of Malibu, coming from S.B., than I will, living east of Hollywood.) So that's three.

Which must've been enough to tip the scales. On our way to a game show run-through today (we pretended to play the game as part of the pitch to the network) I mentioned that we need to put money down this week to keep our date for the Palace. He asked me if I really, really wanted to get married there. I said yes, and he said okay. I love him.

And in hindsight, it's probably good that I asked him before the run-through. Because as part of the game, I had to feed him a chocolate-covered onion. While he was blindfolded, and couldn't see it coming.

It's a good thing I travel with Altoids.

the "IT" in L.A.

Mr. UB & I made a jaunt out to Malibu on Saturday, to check out a lead on a possible venue for our big non-reception party in L.A. Unfortunately, it was the 1st sunny Saturday of the year (please don't hate us if you live in colder climes -- it's really the only thing we have going for us) and it took twice as long as planned to get there. Fortunately, the lovely Ms. M. who manages the venue was as laid-back as can be.

It's waaay out in the far end of Malibu, which is a city that's 27 miles long and 10 feet wide. So it really does feel like a "destination" setting, without leaving the city. I forget sometimes that L.A. is hiding gems like this. See, we (especially me) live on the east side of town, where we specialize in making grungy look "hip". East Side Bride does this far better than I could ever hope to ... but at any rate, I sometimes forget how much prettiness lies to our immediate west.

So this is what greeted us upon arrival. A great big room, complete with dance floor, paper lanterns & drapey fabric stuff. We (especially me) are happy. (It turns out you have to arrange the decor-y stuff with a decor vendor lady. But her site gives us hope that she's not out of our price range. We're calling her first thing in the a.m.)
This is the alcove off the main room. Table spill-over & buffet stuff could go back here.

Mr. UB wisely thought to test out the dance floor before we signed anything. Also, I need to officially admit that, even in light of the evidence above, I am the goofy one in this relationship. The man has the patience of Job, really.

(I'm going to marry him. /giggle)

Outside, there's a great big patio. They do ceremonies here at sunset, and/or set up an outside bar. Oh, and the view doesn't suck:
The best part is that this place includes tables, chairs, the dance floor and clean-up in its rental fee. It's also zoned for live music until midnight. Oh, and if you rent it on a weeknight (Mon. - Thurs.) you get it for 50%. Which could be quite easy to pull off in mid-August.

No, I'm not telling you where it is until we book it, so no one snakes our date. Then I promise to sing its praises to the moon.

Also, in the course of composing this entry, I think I've decided that our 1st dance together needs to be to something by Ray LaMontagne. Which doesn't narrow it down, really, since I love everything by him. Please go to iTunes immediately if you don't know his stuff.

paper pomander post-mortem

Mr. UB has weighed in, and in his (inimitable) words, "The second one looks like a box of Kleenex exploded."

So, as a general service to a) E. , who asked; b) anyone out there who's thinking of making these; and c) any of the parental units who're contributing to our budget who happen to see this ... the cost break-down per unit is:

styrofoam ball: $1.54 each (as pack of 12, from this eBay seller)
seam binding: $2.10 ($0.30/yd, bought here on Etsy)
craft paper: about $1.79 (at Michael's)
pearl head pins: about $1.25 (at Michael's & Moskatel's)
craft punch: $4 (at Michael's, with coupon)

Total = approx. $6.68 plus pro-rated cost of the craft punch (tbd at the end of all this nonsense; currently $0.66/ea.) = approx. $7.35 per pomander.

Which I maintain is still quite a bit more economical than the average "real" flower pomander. If you have evidence to the contrary, please comment & let me know!

dear Craig: luv ya, mean it!

I've been trolling Craigslist again ... and buried in there, among the amusing ("used wedding dress --- paid $5000, asking $4900") and the downright baffling (a screenplay listed by some guy in Wisconsin for $2,500,000 with the opening line "Actually I want more but I can't post any more digits", which then devolved into a rant about Jesus) ... I found some more goodies.

7" tall vases, 15 for $20. Thanks, Sara in Valley Village!


4" tall wide vases, 10 for $25. Thanks, Adrienne in Manhattan Beach!

I also got these care of Bravo Bride. Votive candles holders, 33 for $16 + shipping. Thanks, Terri in Oroville!

All together, I think the reception tables are just about kitted out. I'm planning to fill the tall vases with water, drop a single flower at the bottom, and float a candle on top. These images capture the essence of what I'd like to create:

(images from The Knot)

With the lower ones, I can either try the same thing, or do this:

All this for around $80 so far, with only flowers (one per vase) left to purchase. I'm not going to break my arm patting myself on the back, but I think I did good here.

My last CL find this week was at a garage sale. Somewhere between 10-12 yards of ivory fabric. Hello, aisle runner! All I have to do is hem the edge, and I can even use that iron-on tape if I have to. $20 -- thanks, nice lady in Studio City who's name I didn't get, but who's lovely Australian Shepard puppies slurped me!

And over at the Shameless Pandering Desk: I've read on a few sites about blogging brides who received free printers from major companies (Epson, HP, etc.) to do their d.i.y. projects, in exchange for blogging about the results. Maybe it's because I go out and audition (translation: try to convince people I'm swell) just about every day, but I decided to see if I could get some of that action, too. Everyone I've approached so far has been extremely polite in their rebuffing me ... and HP even sent me a lovely little gift in lieu of my own machine:

I'm now the proud holder of a gift certificate to their new collaboration, hp.com/create and TinyPrints.com. They do all sorts of pretty paper things that you can customize, and they're working with some really great companies like Wedding Paper Divas, moo.com and stamps.com. I can't wait to see what we get from them -- based on what's available & what we need, I'm thinking either Rehearsal Dinner invites (if we have one) or a Directions Card to go with our invites. Either way, free = my favorite price!

edit: Since I don't think we'll have use for so many vases in our home, after the wedding it's all going right back on Craigslist. So's the aisle runner, since I have no plans to monogram it.

shopping goodness continues

I have to give props to A $10,000 Wedding for this one: the sale going on right now at Pier One. She tipped me off about it in her blog, and although I had to do some digging, I really did find some great stuff. So much that I went back the next day, when they weren't about to close which made me feel like I had to rush. (By the way, why is it that all the cra-zazies come out to shop just before a store closes? Those poor clerks. Maybe it was because I picked the Hollywood location, but still...) I got a few more of these -- there were already two in the bundle of candle goodness that I got off of Craigslist. Yes, I have something specific in mind for them. Or at least Ania The Coordinator does. Besides, they were $0.08 a piece. I have 12 now.

I also got 5 of these. They didn't match my decor ... ... but now they do. $0.28 each, plus paint I already had = about $1. Lastly, take a look at this:
It's a flower blossom candle holder, in crystal. It's beautiful, and it costs about $88 in the store on La Brea where I spotted it. I did not buy it. I bought this instead: It's a really crappy angle, and my floor is filthy (sorry) so allow me to explain. It's a double-layered star-shaped candle holder. In glass. On sale for $0.18 each. I bought 12. That's $2.16 if you're keeping score. (Which I am, believe me. Ask me about my Excel files. On second thought -- don't. Spare yourselves.)

I also spotted what might be a lovely paper to line our invite envelopes with. I can't get the picture off of my cell phone's online "album", so you'll just have to take my word for it -- it's very pretty. Pale cream with teal blue swirly lines. But I'm leaning heavily against spending $3.50 per piece of 20" x 30" paper. I think I can only get about 10 envelopes per page out of that. Too expensive. Where's all the pretty wrapping paper you can buy by the roll, dammit?! (Seriously, if you know please tell me.)

a work in progress

We want to have a website, Mr. UB & I. You know ... for the wedding. Not because people need to know every stinkin' detail about our lives *cough i do that here cough*, but for practical purposes. And by practical, I mean to keep things within our budget.

1) Save-The-Dates: Yes, I'm still adamantly refusing to refer to these by their acronym. Also, to paraphrase the marvellous Ania, we are in a new millenium and there's nothing tacky about an electronic Save-The-Date. Especially if we use it to introduce our website, which will be chock-full of oh-so-much useful information (see below). I don't plan on doing anything as generic as an eVite, mind you. I'll be putting my photoshop skillz to use & making a lovely PDF image.

Also, no paper or postage costs for this round.

2) RSVPs: According to many recent wedding veterans, a disturbingly high percentage of the rsvp cards that are mailed out with return postage already on it simply do not come back. I don't know why. Nobody seems to. But I'm not keen on spending extra monies on a) little cards, b) little envelopes, and c) postage (again) just to have it thrown away. If I'm going to have to pester people with calls/emails to get their yay or nay -- and from what I hear, I will -- then please don't make me also have to stuff the gigantic "grrrrr!" back down my throat. I don't edit myself well. Seriously.

3) Stuff we don't want to include in the invitations: Things like maps, hotel info, and whatever else I haven't even been told about yet that we're "supposed to include" ... Really? People are actually this together in their planning process? There's nothing they've left out/forgotten/spaced on, by the day the invites get mailed? Interesting. Where does one find such people, as I've never met any?

4) Registry: I can't decide which is sillier -- the idea of registering for gifts ("buy us this!") or the hubbub surrounding how to, and especially how NOT to, let people know the damned registry exists. So it'll be on the website. Done.

At first glance, it seems like there are lots of resources out there to create a free wedding website. However, upon further inspection, "free" has a variety of definitions. The most common one seems to be We'reTooCheapToPayForTheUpgrade.com/OurNamesHere. No way am I putting that on the invitations I've poured blood, sweat and tears into. Hell to the No. In all of my searching, I couldn't find a single hosting site that lets you have OurNames@OurWedding.com without an annual fee. And none of those are cheap.

So: Plan B. Build us a website. Daunting, but I've done it twice before. Of course, my computer had its "memory incident" since then, and while I managed to save all my data (phew!) I lost many of my programs. Which just means I have to figure out how to use iWeb.

I registered our domain name (and got the exact one I wanted, thank you) for $2.19. And the hosting of our site for 1 year is $56.88. Still not free, but a lot less than the $100 average on other sites, and I have total creative control. Also, we can keep the domain name after the wedding & use it for general info about us. For anyone who cares, that is -- whatever, it's still a non-disposable item, even if it is electronic, and that pleases me.

I uploaded the first version today -- some of the links are a little wonky, and I haven't quite sussed out how to make my updated pages get from my laptop file to the interwebs, but it does exist. And that has to be worth something. Right?

Check us out if you're interested: JessAndJudd.com
Domain registry & site hosting via GoDaddy.com

it's not the having, it's the getting

I had my first "Oh gosh, I wish I'd seen that dress before I bought the one I did" moment today. Based on what I've read around the bridal blogosphere, I think this is kind of normal. And I still love my dress -- for how it looks, how I'm planning to style it, and the deal I got.

... but that being what it is: Color me drooling. Joli dress via Vintage Glam Weddings.