I am indecisive and have too much free time on my hands

I may have crossed the line to becoming unhealthily obsessed with our wedding. The STDs are all that I have been able to think about! Even though I liked the ones that I made (and I agree with you, the navy backing is best), I was still so in love with the fabric idea. I knew that the yellow pattern stood in the way of the fabric backing, so I reworked the design completely to compliment and not compete with the fabric. Here is what I came up with:


Now, as Rhi pointed out, the fabric design is not the most breathtaking (it looks bandanna-ish, no?). Please keep in mind that this is just a prototype. I would find a fabric with a nicer design. Also, I must be honest and say that the fabric std was a lot more work. The backing must be neatly covered with fabric, and I would have to cut out the shape of the paper by hand (oh, what I wouldn't do for a Cricut!). Do you think that it's worth it? Or is the idea better than the reality?



Edit: Please imagine that the border around our names on the fabric std is navy....I think that the yellow is a bit washed out.

I love trying on big, white dresses!

I started looking for my gown about a month after getting engaged; a whole year and a half before the wedding. I had no intentions of buying a dress......it was just too early!......what if I fell out of love with it?......what if something new became fashionable?.....what if I found something better?!?!?!?

Nevertheless, there was no harm in looking :P Here are some of the first dresses that I tried on, and than rejected:

Here is dress #1. As you can see, there is nothing wrong with this dress. This dress is perfectly fine. In fact, this dress makes my waist and shoulders look pretty tiny. But, alas, this dress is "meh". Far from perfection.

Number 2: Definitely another in the "meh" category. I really don't like taffeta....I know that it's one of "the" bridal fabrics, but I think it looks wrinkled and heavy.

Number 3: This dress was at least different. The ruffles were very fun, and very much "of the moment". However, the straps hit me in a very awkward spot on the shoulder, and the dress was just overall too much "senorita" for me. Next!

Number 4: This dress actually made my sister mad at me. The sales lady suggested that I try it on, because I had the "stature" for it. Being that I'm excited to put on anything poofy and white, I told her, "why not"! Renata gave me a lecture in the change room asking me why I agreed to try on things that I knew I would never buy. She was right...I would never buy this dress.

Number 5: This dress was a serious contender when I put it on in the store. In theory, it has everything that I love. The neckline is very unique, the dress was made from an intricate lace, and the back was stunning:

But looking at it in pictures, I think that it makes me look a bit "hippie", and not in the flower power and free love way, but in the giant love handles way.

Number 6: Now this was the dress that made me feel like a bride for the first time. It is really too bad that my camera phone sucks, and that the spotlight on me was so bright, as you can't really see the top of the dress in this picture. It was strapless, which is one of my no-nos, but made out of this absolutely delicious fabric, and the intricate detailing was breathtaking. Not to mention that it fit me like a glove. Here is the beautiful train:

This was also the first time a San Patrick dress caught my attention. That love affair would continue for quite some time. In fact, the fire is burning still! I tried on many more dresses, but some shops didn't allow cameras, and sometimes I forgot to take one. Non of these dresses were "it", but they did make me feel that the right dress (like the right guy) was out there!

The STDs Revisited

So, I have successfully made the prototype for our Save the Dates. I must say, all of my crazy wedding research and blog stalking has made me learn quite a few new design skills! I am by no means a pro, but I am learning a lot. There is no way I would have been able to design these 6 months ago.


Since our invitations are going to be a very formal navy and white (with maybe a hint of yellow), I wanted our STDs to be mostly yellow, and more playful. I like the overall design, and I enjoy the yellow envelope, but I am not sure what to do about the backing on the card. I did try the material backing that I mentioned previously, and here is what I came up with:



The back looks like this:


Even though I loved the extra texture that the material provides, I worried that the pattern on the front combined with the different pattern on the back was just too busy. So, I used different backings to see what they would look like. Here is the STD with yellow backing:


.....and navy blue:



What do you think? Which one do you like best?

P.S. For all of you who will be guests at the wedding, but are not traveling from out of town, you will not be getting one of these. I am only making them for people who need to plan ahead. If you are coming from out of town and receive one of these in the mail a couple of weeks from now, try to act surprised, please!

Blinging out the Girls

Doesn't the name of this post make it sound like I am going to talk about diamond encrusted underwear or something? Sorry to disappoint!

I've been watching the Rachel Zoe Project (I have a lot of time for Bravo lately), and loved the way she styled her celebrity clients for the Golden Globes. I was particularly happy to see that both Debra Messing and Anne Hathaway wore navy blue, further convincing me that the colour choices that I made for our wedding are indeed chic!

I loved Anne's overall look, and plan on using it as inspiration for my bridesmaids!


I am fairly certain that I want the girls to wear long dresses, and I know that I want them soft and flowy, as opposed to taffeta. This way, they will mirror my wedding gown (more on that later). I made these decisions long ago, and Anne is simply modeling my vision.

However, it was Debra's outfit that had my creative juices flowing. Actually, her dress was kind of a mess, but her accessories were amazing!


Don't you think that those emerald earrings against the navy of the dress are just to die for? They are so unexpected and striking! I think that they would look amazing on my girls.

What do you guys think? A dress like this one from Nordstrom:


Paired with earrings like this from overstock.com



Hmmm....maybe that doesn't tie into our navy, white, and yellow theme. Hmmm....maybe I don't care.

The Traditional Wife

For the last couple of weeks, I have been working very hard to organize Matthew's closet. It started out with me sorting and throwing out his old, out grown clothes, and advanced to folding and neatly stacking all of his garments (the man has over 90 t-shirts!). For the last couple of days, I have found myself endlessly ironing all of his dress shirts and pants, and meticulously placing them on hangers so that they are ready for future wear. When my future FIL saw me ironing again last week, he said: "You know, ironing was one of the first things that my wife taught me when we got married, so that I could iron my own shirts!" This got me thinking about why I was so concerned about ironing Matthew's clothes. Am I trying much toohard to fit into the stereotype of what a "wife" is supposed to do for her husband? Am I forming habits in our relationship that will forever box me into being Matthew's glorified house keeper?

Upon further thought, I came to the conclusion, that when I iron Matthew's shirts, I really do it for me. You see, Matthew doesn't care whether or not his shirts are ironed. He could go to work wrinkly every single day and not let that effect his productivity or self esteem. I, on the other hand, love to see him in a crisp, ironed, dress shirt. I think that he looks so handsome and clean, not to mention grown up! I must admit however, that there is an old school Polish part of me that believes that the way he looks reflects on me as his wife. I realize that this is an irrational way of thinking that has been forced on me by my traditional upbringing. Alas, being from an old school Polish family has rubbed off on me, and not always in positive ways.

Do you iron the shirts of your husband/fiance/boyfriend?

STDs

Since we have had a looooooooong engagement, I have been so frustrated at the fact that I couldn't actually plan anything for certain, in fear of changing my mind. Now that we are less than 10 months out and it's time to get started, I am finding that I have no idea what I want!

Matthew's mom has been asking me to think about sending Save the Dates, since her family is spread out all across the USA, and will be traveling to the Greater Toronto Area for the wedding. I hadn't really thought about sending these out, because they are not customary for Polish weddings. Actually, I had never received one myself!

Nevertheless, I realized the importance of getting the word out ahead of time so that people could plan their vacations appropriately, so I started searching for inspiration (any one else out there believe that searching the internet for ideas is the hardest and most complicated element of diy?).


I have fallen in love with these fabric backed invitations, and am thinking of incorporating this idea into our STDs. I am going to try this out tonight, and let you know how it goes soon!

Finding Common Ground

On Friday, Matthew and I went for dinner and a movie with his friends Luke and Kristin. Because the boyfriend and I are kind of senior citizens these days, we were worried that the 9:35pm movie would put us to sleep. To prevent this from happening, we ordered some coffees to help keep up our energy. As always, I was practically done mine before Matthew had even begun drinking his. As Matthew was finishing explaining that I have a very high heat tolerance in food and bevarage (mostly due to the Polish obsession with drinking teas and eating soups), and he could devour ice cream at record speeds, Luke inturrupted him and said: "Other than your height, do you two have anything in common?"

We both were speechless for about half a minute (which as you know, can seem like an eternity during an awkward moment), both because we were shocked that he would say something like this, and because we couldn't actually think of a single thing that would counteract his reaction (I'm emberased to admit this, but the only thing I could think of was that our feet are the same size). The truth is, Matthew and I are polar opposites. He likes indie music and movies, I'm happy with Brittany and Brad Pitt. He understands how machines work, I am better at understanding people. He studied sciences, I studied humanities. He plays video games while I read.

Matthew and I have been dating for over 6 years, and it's not like we hadn't noticed that we were different. We even broke up for 8 months during university to try to find partners with more similarities. But to tell you truth, we have discovered that the true similarities that we posses can be found in our morals and values. We are both first born children, which has taught us to be caregivers, and given us a desire to build a family of our own. We are also adventurous, and have a strong desire to explore and admire the beauty of the world around us. We both enjoy trying new and different foods. And most of all, we are both addicted to gathering knowledge, which has enabled us to learn from one another. I think that this is the most important part of our relationship. If we were exactly the same, we wouldn't have the opportunity to experience things that our outside our comfort level. Plus, being polar opposites ensures that we don't get jealous or compete with one another.

I think that we are truly a case of "opposites attract", and even though I know that we do not need to justify our attraction to anyone else, it sometimes makes me sad that people cannot always see how perfectly matched we really are.