Disco Polo Friday!

This one is a little bit different. It's not exactly disco polo but it's definitely played at many Polish weddings and with good reason, it's awesome! :)

The Over-Budget Dress

The all-powerful wedding dress God — Randy of Say Yes to The Dress

So when you're getting married, the dress is a pretty big deal. So they say anyway. They also say not to try on dresses that are out of your price range. And now I know exactly why.  Damn you Randy (of Say Yes to The Dress fame) you are so freakin right!!
It all started out innocently enough. During an impromptu Los Angeles roadtrip I suggested to my friends that maybe we should check out wedding dresses, for fun of course. Since this was the only time I could shop with my friends I figured why the hell not? So off we went to a land of white, flowy creations. I instructed everyone to grab a dress they wanted me to try on, since this was just for fun, price point was not really discussed except "don't pick out some crazy dress for $10,000."

And so it began. Just like on the famed TV show, my friends sat outside my dressing room while I modeled our choices. Each dress received feedback from my judging panel, some bad, some good, and all around entertaining.

Disco Polo Friday!

It's Friday! Disco Polo Time

Here's another great selection, provided to me by a fellow disco polo connoisseur. This is a little different from the typical beats but still fantastically cheesy. Enjoy!

Wedding Dress Sizes Are Crazy

As if wedding dress shopping isn't stressful enough, the evil wedding world people decided that making dresses absolutely tiny is a good idea. Say you're a size 6 in regular clothes, guess what? In the wedding dress world, you are more like a 10 maybe a 12. Now, I'm usually not one of those girls that fixates on a number but c'mon people! Couldn't they do the opposite and make me pretend I'm a smaller size??

And if you happen to be a curvier gal, choosing a dress is nearly impossible. It's pretty hard to imagine what a dress would look like on you if you can't even try on the sample for a sneak peek. Needless to say, it's frustrating. Wedding planning takes you on many emotional journeys. Some days you have it all together. And some days you want to curl up into a ball and cry. So, wedding world take note, let's try to make our lives easier why don't ya and make wedding dresses true to size! :)


Image via http://weddingdress-factoryoutlet.co.uk/

To Hire a Wedding Planner or Not?

So when I first began this planning process I thought I could handle it all on my own. It seems easy enough right? Find venue, choose date, etc, etc. But then all of a sudden you realize all the details that are involved. There's the colors, the cake, the dress, the decorations, the flowers, accommodations, transportation...well you get my drift. There's simply an incredible amount of decisions you have to make, things you have to take care of and suddenly your head is spinning. Enter a wedding planner.

I'd never thought of myself as the type of bride that would ever hire one but damnit after several months of doing this wedding crap I started to consider the possibility. After all, even the most DIY, hippie-ish weddings I'd seen on wedding blogs all suggested that hiring someone is a smart move. So why not me, I thought?

Every situation is different. Some couples may have tons of friends and family willing to help with wedding stuff. But honestly, I'm sure even the most well-intentioned friends and family will get sick of talking about and doing things for your wedding. That's the beauty of a wedding planner/coordinator, they're paid to do it so you can blab to them about your wedding in painstaking detail and boss them around to your heart's content.

We're still not 100% decided, though I'm still dreaming of one. Either way, if you're thinking of hiring someone and you can afford it, I say go for it! They're truly there to help you and make sure the day goes by great. In my opinion, paying for that peace of mind is totally worth it.

Disco Polo Friday! A true gem

While searching for a pick for disco polo Friday, I came across this true gem. Words cannot describe.

Photographer Finalized!

By far the toughest thing in this whole process has been choosing a photographer. Instead of poring over bridal magazines looking at dresses and colors, I have been obsessed with finding the right photographer. After all, this is the person that captures the most important day of your life! I couldn't stop searching. Every pretty photo I saw, I frantically emailed the photographer asking them for their pricing. *Sidenote: Really wish they would just list their prices on their websites!

Early on, my heart was crushed. I found out that the photographer that I had dreamed about was way out of our price range. As in about $8,000 over it. Bar none, photography has been THE most important to me when it came to wedding planning. But realistically, I couldn't blow that much on the pictures or else there wouldn't be much left over in the budget for the rest of the wedding. That's when reality hit me and I realized that I would need to narrow down my search and focus on great, talented photogs that were still within our budget. That's the great thing about photos, they're completely subjective. Everyone chooses a photographer that features a style that they like with a budget they're comfortable with. For us, (and by us I mean me because I was the one obsessing over this not the patient fiancé but hey) it was about finding someone with a unique vision that connected with us and would be able to capture the memories of our day.

I'm happy to report that we finally found them! The extremely talented Delbarr Moradi will be taking our photos and we couldn't be more excited! (Again, my excitement is probably just a touch bigger than fiancé haha but he's still happy that I'm happy.) In an interesting turn of events, Delbarr's own wedding was photographed by my first choice, the very talented but very expensive Jose Villa. Her wedding was a few years ago and his prices have gone up since his popularity has skyrocketed but I kind of took it as a sign that it was all meant to be :)

Photo courtesy of my new iPhone :)

Love sweet Love

So we're a few months into our wedding planning now and things have been moving along (fairly) smoothly. However, it was another couple that had some big news to share this past weekend. Labor Day festivities brought a pleasant surprise when I found out another one of my friends had gotten engaged!!
I'm so excited for her and her fiancé and wish them all the best on their journey together! This upcoming year will be a really exciting time for all of us and it's great that we can go through this craziness together. Love certainly is a powerful thing and I think happy married couples will be the greatest end result you can ask for :)




Image via layoutsparks.com

Disco Polo Friday

The latest, enjoy!