"I can do anything if I have the right shoes"

These days "reception dresses" are pretty trendy - reception dresses are like your little black dress only they are white.  I guess it is for the bride who wants to wear a wedding dress for her ceremony and then be a little more comfortable in a short dress for her reception.  To each their own but I love my wedding dress and want to wear it all-day-long!  Haha I might even wear it after the wedding....Jon will come home and I will just be hanging out in my wedding gown for fun.  I have however realized that I might in fact wear 3 different pairs of shoes on my wedding day.

My wedding shoe shopping all started one day when I was bored at work - I was browsing all the major sites for shoes - Nordstrom, Piperlime, Macy's, DSW and Saks.  I happened to stumble upon this pair of Jimmy Choos on the Saks website and lucky for me they were on sale for like 60% off!  Oh, an they were only available in 1 size.... which just so happened to be mine.  It was meant to be. I was meant to have these Jimmy Choos.  I didn't even wait to have my parents buy them for me, (because you know, having Jimmy Choos for my wedding is an obviously necessity and should come out of the wedding budget) I bought them right away - it was such a rush - having a pair of Jimmy Choos was like a life goal of mine and what better way to accomplish that?  On sale for 60% off, in my size and for my wedding?!  It was a done deal.  I couldn't wait for them to arrive....I even got a pedicure before I tried them on.  Thank goodness they fit, I think I would have been heart broken if they didn't. 

So Jimmy and I were meant to be...but the more I thought about it....I don't think that Jimmy and my outdoor reception are going to get along very well.  Those stilettos are going to be sinking into the grass and I will be tripping all over the place, that is not going to be very elegant which is the look I am going for on my wedding day.  So, it was off to the Internet to do more shoe shopping....this time I was looking for wedges that had feminine details - like ruffles.  I still wanted some height because Jon is about a foot taller than me.  Thanks to Allie, Kathryn and Catherine who helped me search for wedges online...I found these guys - pretty much exactly what I was looking for!

The only problem with these guys is that the ruffles are made of suede and the straps are really flimsy so I am going to need some help getting them on.  I sound a bit pathetic, but last night when I was trying them on it took me about 2 minutes per foot to get them on.  So, sorry in advance bridesmaids....I am going to need some help getting my "after the ceremony" shoes on. 

Then, just to be safe, I am going to have a pair of reception flip flops in my arsenal just in case my feet start to hurt in the wedges.  There is nothing worse than a pair of shoes ruining your dance moves. I haven't bought my reception flip flops yet...but I am thinking something like this pair of JCrew flops.  I can't resist the gems...I just love sparkles :) And I guess if I don't need to make a 3rd shoe change on the wedding day I can always wear these guys on the honeymoon! 

Practice makes perfect

Everyone knows that the day before the wedding is the rehearsal.  When the bride, groom, bridal party and parents meet at the church - briefly run through the ceremony a couple times so that everyone can get an idea of where they need to be at each point in the ceremony.  But there are a few other things that you get to practice before the big day that are also pretty fun! 

Eating

When I first contacted my caterer to ask for some more information on pricing, menus etc.  they asked me to come out for a complimentary tasting.  They felt like that was the best way to sell their products - and let me tell you it worked!  Jody's Pantry catering prepared a great sampling for my parents and I - along with showing us videos and pictures of previous events they had done. (Special cheese display by Jody's Pantry pictured above.)  Everything was so good - and that was just the first of 2 more.  One for the final menu we decide on and one for cake. 

I seriously cant WAIT for the cake tasting.   Jody's Pantry offers 25 cake flavors and 25 cake fillings. Champagne white, wedding white, orange mimosa, chocolate fudge, dulche de leche just to name a few. I have never really met anything with sugar in it that I didn't like so picking out my favorite is probably going to be tough.  Luckily since wedding cakes are multiple layers I can pick more than 1 flavor.  I don't think I can have a 25 layer wedding cake - so I guess in this situation, Jon's nut allergy is kinda a good thing because it will help to eliminate some of our choices.

Hair/Make-up

How many times in your life do you get to practice getting your hair and make-up done?  Usually, its a special enough occasion to have your hair and make-up professionally done.  For your wedding you get to practice getting pretty....I have to admit it is very fun....

some pics from my hair/make-up trial runs....

Unfortunately, I didn't get to show off my hair or my make-up....after my hair trial run I did yard work, and after my make-up trial run I took a nap. 

Dancing

Jon and I have been discussing what kind of song we want to dance to for our first dance.  A few weekends ago we turned a song on and practiced slow dancing to it.... haha it did not turn out well - Jon and I only have 1 dance move- the twirl and dip, and that one took us about 2 years and many sorority formals to perfect.  I still remember the first time that we tried...ok, I tried, Jon wasn't ready - and I landed on the floor.



I decided that since we don't have 2 years to practice our first wedding dance, that we are going to enlist the help of professionals and take dance lessons....so I guess our "first dance" wont really be the first time we dance to our wedding song....we will have practiced before.  But I am confident that that option is better than Jon dropping me on the dance floor in my wedding dress :) 

Potty Wars

If you talk to my family and friends they may say something different, but I think that I have been a pretty reasonable bride - at least if TLC was trying to make a TV show out of me it probably wouldn't be very entertaining.  I have only had a few minor bridezilla moments and they mostly had to do with things that I am convinced that no bride-to-be can avoid- which is dealing with two different families coming together and trying to keep everyone happy. It doesn't matter if its a wedding or not, that is stressful!  Last night was probably one of the first times that my Mom, Dad and I have really disagreed on something in the wedding planning process and would you believe it was about Porta Potties?!  Yep, we are talking, yelling at each other, ended in the silent treatment disagreement....and I think you might be surprised to know that it is my Mom that wants to have porta potties at my wedding reception and that my Dad had the strongest opinion about not having them. 

I had mixed feelings about them....at first, I was open to the idea because I found out that you can rent trailer units that just look like a really simple bathroom - almost like if a new house was built with the most basic necessities - thin dry wall, small mirror unit, white toilet and thin carpet. These are called "executive units". I thought that an "executive unit" might still be an eye sore but we could try to make it blend in behind the tent so that the only way you would be able to see it is if you were actually going to use the rest room.  I also thought that having an extra 2 rest rooms (in addition to the 5 that we have in our house) would be a nice convience for once people started to drink a bit heavier after dinner and needed to use the rest room a bit more frequently ;)  Well, then I found out that not only were the "executive" units booked for my wedding date at the vendor we had been referred to but that they also came with a $2,400 price tag.  That is quite a hefty price tag for a giant white trailer that would have been stealing eyes away from me in my big white dress....and I think we can all agree that on your wedding day you do not want to compete with a porta potty unit for attention. The next option down from the "executive" units are really just normal porta potties that aren't in an obnoxious color like green and blue that you see at construction sites and community events.  The porta potty companies call these units "elite".  Im sorry but there is nothing elite about them, they look like you put an airplane bathroom in a box and stuck in on the lawn. 

My Mom is convinced that we need to have this at my wedding reception because she doesn't think that the 5 bathrooms that we have in our house will be sufficient enough.  My Dad and I think that it sends the wrong message to people that they aren't welcome in our house and they need to stay out of it even to use the bathroom.  (Which isn't the case at all - the reason why I chose to have my wedding at my families home is because I want people to see it and how great of a job my parents have done decorating.) When my mom and I have disagreed on some minor details prior in the wedding planning process my Dad has acted as Switzerland but last night it was clear that even he knew that there was nothing elite about the "elite" line of porta potties.

So....all in all we were not able to come to a conclusion on whether or not we will have porta potties....My Dad and I still think its appalling and my Mom still thinks they are a necessity.  So the outcome is TBD....but just know that if they do end up at my wedding reception that it was against my will.....