coveting

I don't know if I will wear a necklace with my dress. It has a halter neckline, which is always a little tricky to accessorize. Plus, I've already got my hat/veil thingy, my hoop earrings, and my Bonzie shrug ... I certainly don't want to end up looking like Courtney Love after a long, hard night of cruising Etsy.

But I do know this:
Me likey. I spotted this in my newest issue of Lucky ... via Banana Republic.

fortunately i've found a whole new conundrum

I made it to the jewelry trade show on Friday, and had great success -- I got a super deal on enough gold chain to make b-maid bracelets ($3.85/foot!) and finally figured out what to put on top of those cufflink bases. Green-hued mother of pearl beads, $3 for a strand of twice as much as I needed. So now I'll have these to give as gifts to the groomsmen: (In retrospect, that's a terrible backdrop for the photo -- my apologies.) I really tried to go with something they could use again. Believe me, I spent waaay too much time dithering about going for something a bit "bling-ier", to match the b-maid earrings, plus a few other even sillier ideas. But in the end, I think I did good. Mr. UB agrees.

Are brides "supposed to" give gifts to the groomsmen? I don't care -- I adore all of the guys who'll be standing up with My Guy, and it seems unfair to only give thank-yous to the people standing behind me at the ceremony. Best of all, it came to a total of less than $14 for all 5 pairs.

So, with the attendant thank-you gifts under control, I decided it was time to move onto a whole new problem: Project Honeymoon.

Mind you, I only consider it a problem in the budgetary sense. I have a permanent case of wanderlust, and I still feel the pull of my ex-patriate past at regular intervals. Neither Mr. UB nor I are afraid to fly, and we both love adventure. So it's definitely not the travelling itself that's the "problem." Rather, it's trying to find something that feels appropriately special that we can afford.

Starting with our original ideas, Mr. UB first thought of Italy. Rome, specifically. Which is a place I absolutely want to go with him ... just not for our honeymoon. Why? Because I lived in Italy for 4 years, and Rome was my 2nd home while I was there. So perhaps it's weird (he kinda thinks it is), but I want our honeymoon to be a place that's brand new to both of us, so that we can discover it together. Or alternately, a place where I won't mind failing to show him everything that I love, just in case we never make it out of the hotel room.

My original idea looked like this: Right? Right?! There's just one problem: the part of the world where most of the places that look like this is located, specifically Bora Bora/Mo'orea, is "pricey," to put it mildly. As in most of them start at $900/night. Ouch. (Have I mentioned that I have exquisite taste?)

So: back to the drawing board (aka Google.) I actually got a manageable amount of hits for "Over Water Hotel" once I took out the duplicates. And a few were easily eliminated right away: a lake in Switzerland (not tropical), the coast of northern California (not exotic) and a place in Bermuda (just not "it") are out. There's a beautiful place in Western Samoa that's run by an American couple who dropped out of the game a few years back, and it looks amazing.

source

It's called Coconuts Beach Club, and it's not outrageously priced. The trouble spot is getting to Samoa. It's admittedly less trouble from L.A. than from just about anywhere else besides Australia, but that doesn't make it easy. Even if you don't have a layover in Fiji, the positioning of the Int'l Date Line means that getting there technically takes three days!! Even if you "get them back" on the return trip, it seems like the kind of travel that needs a longer time frame than we're likely to have. Oh, and those flights are about $1000/person. Again: ouch.

And then I stumbled onto this place. It's in Panama. Now, just to prove that I still have a shred of sanity, my first reaction was Panama?!? But upon closer inspection, I have to admit that I'm falling for the place. It's a very small resort, and it's actually affordable. During the time period when we'd be going, those bungalows are under $350/night. And non-stop flights from L.A. to Panama City can be had for under $500/person. You can even get there for less, if you're willing to take a flight with stops. Normally, I'd totally go for that, but I hope we can splurge $100 since it's our honeymoon. Also, we'd probably have to spend a night in Panama City before the island-hopper plane to the resort, and that could be really cool. I don't think I'd want to spend a lot of time there, but one night would definitely be fun.

So now it's time to see what we can actually afford, and try to make it happen. Maybe we can do one of those travel registry things? I much prefer a swell vacation to kitchen stuff. I'll buy my own damn blender.

progress (is the opposite of Congress)

One more thing done in my assembling a wedding dress without a wedding dress shop*: I bought my petticoat today. * I had absolutely NO idea that buying a wedding dress involved purchasing more than a dress. Sheesh. Somebody might've warned me. To date, I've bought: a dress, a petticoat, a bra, panties, shoes, earrings and a hat/veil thingy. Future Brides take heed. I suspect this dept. is a major source of budget-busting. But I digress ...

I originally saw it last week in a vintage store near my apartment. Just to be sure, I did a lot of looking around this weekend in other vintage/thrift shops. It turns out that a petticoat without the wedding dress attached is rather difficult to come by. The only other ones I found were much more expensive, and there were only two of those. So I went back to the first place today, and hooray! it was still there. The best part:

That's right. $17.00. Now all I have to do is get some colored tulle & attach it to the inside layer of this thing, so that it hangs down below the dress' hem a bit. Flash of color + extra inch of length = double win! Major shout-out to the store where I found it:

By the way, I've found SO many cool clothes in perfect condition during this search ... why the hell did I fall out of my vintage habit & go back to paying retail?!?

The other thing I got this week is these: I'm going to make cuff links for Mr. UB & his groomsmen. Now all I have to do is come up with an idea for what to put on top of these. Feel free to leave ideas in the "comments", because so far I've got nothing .... (Photo credit: me; eBay seller here.)

In other Mr. UB-related news, he now has wi-fi at his place. Which means I can bring my laptop over & cruise my wedding porn while a) we're watching football, or b) he's playing World of Warcraft. I think this is a fabulous development. He asked me what I'm going to do with my time after we're married.

My response: Home Decor porn.

when being forgetful is a good thing

Not being able to remember things (my brain is full) has worked in my favor for once. A little over a year ago, I did a modelling job for my friend, Carolynn, who works for a jewelry company. As payment, they offered me some of their jewelry in trade. Which was perfect, because I love expensive shiny things, but rarely have the spare cash to buy them. Of course, being me, I immediately lost the certificate they gave me, and shoved the memory of said jewelry allotment to the back of my mind. (I think I tried to redeem it in their online store, and when that didn't work, then I forgot about it.) At any rate, the need for sparkly things to fancy up my dress caused some sort of shift in my brain, and it shook the dust right off the relevant memory. I emailed Carolynn today, and discovered that phew! my "money" was still good (not that I thought it wouldn't be, but it has been a freakin' year.) So this is what I'm getting: I ordered 2 pairs, because I'm not sure which size will look better with my little hat/veil thingy. And because I can definitely live with two pretty pairs of earrings. The larger hoops are aquamarine, and the smaller ones are sapphires.

Go check out their store at EnergyMuse.com -- they have all sorts of lovely things.

finally!

I have not only finally managed to take a pic of my engagement ring that isn't blurry, out of focus, or invisible behind the reflection of the flash ... but I've taken one that actually made me go, "oooh -- pretty." So I'm going to post it bigger than usual.(If I could figure out how to make this the header for this blog, I would.) You can get a better look at the stones here: and at the setting here:Designed by Mr. UB himself, with the help of the jeweler just around the corner from his house. Three of the stones are from a ring that belonged to his grandfather, which sounds very romantic. And it is, until you see what that ring looked like. I promise to post a pic as soon as he remembers to send it to me. We called him Turban Man.

craft project #1

I finished the earrings for my b-maids tonight. (And yes, I really should be doing laundry & packing.) I'm pretty happy with how they came out:
And yes, I know that the bottom right pair needs hooks. I ran out of those. I'll get more after Christmas/ next time I'm in west LA.

I especially like the craft paper holders -- it's one of the invite paper samples (one that I'm not using.) My own little "instant re-purposing" project! I'm also really digging the graphic appeal of my leopard-print ottoman. Definitely not part of the wedding decor, but I like the effect in this pic.