sneak peek: the dress

It's not done yet, but nearly. Very curvy, very feminine, very retro. I hope I did good.

Friday Five: Polka nots?

A asked me the other day if there were "colors" for the GDBD. Well...not exactly.

For some brides, maybe that's the first thing they do. There are dozens of magazines and books that showcase these gorgeous color palettes and all the elements that coordinate under the umbrella of Tiffany blue or chocolate or coral. I added the wedding blogs to my general time-killing web rotation months ago, and some like indiebride have actually proved very helpful in some planning aspects. But in general I haven't made an "inspiration board" or picked a theme or colors or anything, though I wonder if I should, or if I still will.

I really do appreciate the value of an event that was put together thoughtfully, with personal touches and good degree of grace, I just haven't been the woman for that particular job somehow. Not sure why. Maybe it's because of the challenges of planning things from afar, and not seeing any of our venues yet. Maybe it's just me.

So I don't really have colors. But. I do have a pretty invitation style in mind, and it is modern and fun, and happens to have polka dots on it. I sort of grabbed onto that and now I don't know where I am. Do I go gung-ho for it? Or do I need to put. down. the polka.

I submit for your consideration the following facts:

1. The invitation. Maybe.



2. I liked the idea of wearing some dainty little vintage gloves with my vintage-minded GDBD dress. And bopping around the internets, I came upon these:

Afraid of my own instincts, I did a quick check with A, and she said "10,000 yeses," so I paypal-ed away.

3. The gloves were waiting for me when I returned from my biz trip to Albuquerque. They are way more adorable than they look in that picture, and also way more OFF-white than they look, too. The fabric for my dress (which I haven't seen) is supposedly pretty white. I don't think the gloves will work unless I find the perfect shoes to tie it all together somehow.

4. And then I found these:



Which put me in a polka panic. Is this all going too far?

5. I really need to stop googling.

Girls, I don't know what the dot I'm doing. Help!

GD shoe dreams vol. 1

Clockwise from top left: Dior Karma d'Orsay Pump - 790.00; Manolo Blahnik Open-Toe Mary Jane Pump - 585.00; Miu Miu Patent Double-Strap Mary Jane - 450.00; Manolo Blahnik Sedarby Zebra-Print d'Orsay - 675.00; Prada Crystal-Heeled Metallic Pump - 750.00; Giuseppe Zanotti Knotted Pump - 650.00

Plus extremely honorable mention:
Giuseppe Zanotti Mirror Argento:

look book *now with pic

I really would like to learn to sew. There is something mysterious and powerful and sooo attractive about the ability to make things oneself. My mother grew up sewing and tried to teach me a few things, but my interest level didn't go beyond buttons and rough hems.

I went to the fabric store last weekend and all these women were walking around the bins, inspecting things, pouring over patterns. "They all know what they're doing!" I thought. It was cool to be around. And of course the lovely women that worked there were helpful and cheerful and just what you'd want them to be.

So, I have an appointment with a little lady on Sunday. I'll drive out to her house, and she'll show me her book of work, and I'll show her mine. And we'll see what's what.

Here's a tease.

grouchy

Today I woke up on the wrong side of the bed. And that's because I woke up on the futon, not the bed. SOMEBODY was snoring and I had to evacuate the bedroom at some wee hour to try and salvage the remaining hours of potential sleep. So I'm not feeling 100 dollars. As a bonus, it's hump day. I've never understood Steph's appreciation for Wednesdays; they've always depressed me, the whole stranded between weekends thing.

Last Friday, I was looking forward to the weekend and a quiet return to taking out the recycling, doing laundry and eating eggs with the Rooster. I took down the holiday decor and washed the last of the guests' linens. That was all good, but somehow there was also this undercurrent of irritability. R has been incredibly stuffed up though his cold is improving, and it makes him so dejected and ornery. And I've had this low-grade anxiety about planning the GDBD that I fixated on the need to get organized, whatever that means. But it just wasn't happening. Then we saw his parents on Saturday evening and finally updated them on our plans, and his mom flipped out a little when we told them the guest list was less than 40 people. We worked through that, mostly, but by Sunday night I was alternating between angry, stubborn, tearful, panicked and resentful and knew I had to take a step back.

I've decided I have to get philosophical about this whole GDBD. See, I went for years with this lame nonchalance about how maybe I won't ever get married, and how I certainly won't be wearing a white dress, and how the whole wedding industry is a scam anyway, yadda yadda yadda. All that was coming from a sincere but also confused place, and a deep inability to envision my own future self, let alone myself walking down some aisle. That arm's length attitude has made it really really tough to be enthusiastic and positive about planning my own God Damn Big Day, despite the fact that I am madly in love and feel wildly lucky that I met R and we want to live our lives together.

So I took that step back. I'm thinking about how much fun I had planning our little new year's eve thing, and how not stressed I was, and how wonderful it was to have so many of our darling friends there to celebrate with. If I can capture a modicum of that spirit and let it bloom into the GDBD, we're all good.

GDBD

We had snow on Wednesday. Not enough to shut down the federal government, which kind of baffles me, because I was under the impression that our nation's esteemed agencies here in DC pretty much collapse when it so much as flurries. But alas, not this time. Despite the fact that I've been a resident of the mid-Atlantic for more than five years now, I still get excited about that first snow. It's the wide-eyed California wonder in me, I guess. I've been dreaming of a white Christmas my entire life. Not gonna happen.

We went to Rooster's dad's law firm's holiday party last night. It was really more a schmoozing opportunity for the firm's employees and all their clients, so I was fairly bored, but Mr. K really wanted to show me off, so to speak. It was cute. I talked to this one lady who has apparently been a client of R's dad for a long long time, and they adore him to pieces because -- wait for it -- he saved their farm. I'm not even kidding. They have this property that's been in the family for 106 years and was threatened by development nearby. This dear old lady was telling me how much she trusts, respects, admires and adores Mr. K. It made me a little proud, in a strange way. They are good people, people love them. And soon I will be part of their family too.

I didn't anticipate the inevitable questions that everyone asks, immediately. When's the big day? etc. But there they are. I know people are just making polite conversation. A few wives asked to see the ring, and were totally confounded when I held up my hand and showed them the $5 dollar clear plastic toy ring I've been wearing. My actual ring had to be sent away for resizing, and because it's such an old piece it is taking a little longer than we'd hoped. So these ladies see the fake ring, which I think is funny, and they absolutely don't know what to say. Even when I tell them the story and that it's just a "placeholder" they still looked at me strangely. Oh well.

Today we're heading up to PA to visit an old friend for the day/night. She and her husband still have never met R. I was in their wedding, which was one of those gorgeous and huge pageants, and I'm sure they will have tons of advice for us about planning "the big day." Maybe I'll start calling it the BD for shorthand. I'm sort of freaking out about planning the god damn thing. The GDBD. I just want to have it all figured out for me, and I'll show up in a nice dress, cry, drink champagne, eat fabulous food with my friends and family, laugh, dance, and have some sex. Done!