o3; Here Come the Bridesmaids

When it comes to any sort of planning, I am determined to get everything I can done as early as possible. Not because I need everything to be perfect or run smoothly (always a plus), but because I hate waiting. I felt sort of weird, a couple days after having set the date (for a year and a half from now) and I was already at the bridal salon trying on dresses. I bought one already (though there won't be a post about the dress until the very end) and a couple days later, dragged three of my bridesmaids to the salon to stuff them in dresses too.

Luckily for me, everything went well.

There were certain things I absolutely wanted in a bridesmaid dress.

1. Cocktail length. It's going to be in the middle of August. Why one earth would I want to put my friends in long, clingy gowns, or worse, the dreaded frumpy bridesmaids dress! Not only was the heat a concern, but Something of a shorter length is much easier to move around in, dance in, and also I like the look of shorter dresses better
2. Not strapless. I don't know how my girls feel about this, but I refuse to be strapless in a church, out of respect. I didn't want to be responsible for someone else's bare shoulders. Not to mention how nice it will be to not have to be worrying about pulling the top of the dress up every 6 minutes
3. Not Chiffon. 
4. Electric Blue (or 'Malibu' according to the colour chart)
5. Under $150. Ideally, they'll be able to, and want to wear this dress again, but in the event that they don't, at least they didn't break the bank.
6. Comfortable/Flattering for all body types. My bridal party has it all: The curvy, the average, the stick, and the super skinny with huge knockers. I'm a bride who wants her girls to look radiant, but the old saying is true. If you look good, you feel good. Why wouldn't I want them to look amazing in what they're wearing? If you hate the dress you're wearing, chances are you don't feel like you look good in it. I mean, I feel crappy all day if I don't like the panties I decided to wear, and no one sees them! (Though I've asked around and apparently this is common) I never understood the brides who feel the need to put their bridesmaids in ugly dresses. As the bride, ALL the attention is on you anyway! No need to dull anyone out! Besides, that doesn't say much as a friend. "Oh you guys are my best friends and I love you so much, but sorry, you can't look hotter than me." It's your wedding day. You have no one to impress, except your husband, and if his eyes are somewhere else, then maybe you have bigger problems..

So there was my list. Luckily for me, on a poster in the salon were three girls wearing dresses (in malibu!) that were clearly from the same collection, but each different in it's own way. In less than an hour, they had tried on 4 dresses, decided, and paid for the winner. Easy peasy Japonesey.
 

Obviously not my colour

I love it, 3/5 (my MOH gets a special dress) girls love it, two of them still have to try it on (next week!) and order. The only thing that is totally stinky is that this dress in Malibu takes fifteen WEEKS to come in. Then there will most likely be alterations tha

Also, because I am the resident Crystal Queen (self proclaimed, naturally) I will be embellishing under the bust and the 'Y' neckline with Malibu Swarovskis. :) That won't be happening for some time though as, well, the dresses won't even be here until July.

Thanks for reading!

:: Celeste

o2: Diamonds are Forever

In America, when one is engaged, a diamond ring is typically involved. The same is true for my own engagement, but in true Celeste and Adam fashion, not in the typical way. For most traditional engagements, the ring is a surprise, given during the proposal as a token of a man's love. Though to me, from the proposals I've seen on TV, and the way girls I know talk about the size of these rocks, I feel like the ring is either a bribe: "Marry me and you get this giant diamond that maxed out my credit card for!" or a judge of a man's worth. I don't know what I feel about the diamond ring other than a tradition, but it's definitely not either of those.

We didn't have a proposal. We were planning on getting married as soon as we met, but if you've read the previous entry, it's like I said: try telling your parents that. Once Nikolai was born, it became pretty clear to everyone else that it was going to happen eventually. I would always go through spurts of looking at gowns (for myself and my bridesmaids) and diamonds because I am a girly girl and I've been dreaming of planning a wedding my whole life.

Then talk got more serious and Adam decided to go ahead and ask my dad's permission to marry me. (!!) Things must have gone well because we are getting married! Once that was done, we starting talking dates. After settling on August, I went ahead and started planning. I decided I didn't want an engagement ring (lies). Since there hadn't been a traditional proposal, I decided I would rather use the money we would spend on a diamond and put it towards the wedding. (more lies) After all, we already have a household to run and a baby so we can use all the savings we can make.

Aw, who was I kidding? OF COURSE I wanted a ring! I wanted to gawk at it in the sun, wave it around at my friends, flash it sneakily at every ringless cashier I came across. I'M A TYPICAL AMERICAN GIRL. I also have a total guilty pleasure for the 'finer things'. (except wine. I still haven't developed a taste for the stuff) Adam of course, could see right through my veil of practicality so we spent a couple nights looking online at styles I might like.

I thought I was really set in what I wanted. Before this, I hated the idea of couples looking at rings together. I was all "It should be a surprise" but since it would really be a surprise to me, and Adam's version of what he wants me to have, and what I saw and liked... well, there was a little bit of a difference. (as I keep tabs on the finances, I wasn't willing to be wearing something that we broke the bank over. I also have really small fingers, so giant stones looked really silly) Funny enough though, it was one of Adam's 'bling blingin' pieces that I ended up falling in love with.

Here it is!

There she is! 

Thanks For Reading!

::Celeste

o1: The Meeting

If I'm going to blog about my wedding, we should at least start at the beginning right? Not the proposal (there really wasn't one), but rather, how we met. I mean really, how did we end up together?

Once upon a time, I was in college. I was taking a class with a very nice girl. For privacy's sake, we'll call her Rachel. Well Rachel was turning 21 and having a big to-do at a restaurant to celebrate. As I was the resident makeup artist (or at least that's what I want to be thought of as), she commissioned me to do her birthday makeup. As a freelancer-in-training (though honestly, I haven't done any real work yet. Laziness on my part) I jumped at the opportunity and thought it would be a great time. Not only was I going to do something I loved, but I was getting a free meal out of it! It would also be my first time in Woonsocket, RI since I was eight. As a young person, I love getting to know new areas and knowing them well. That was also exciting.

So off I went to Rachel's house (I got lost and ended up in the projects. Oops.) Looking like this:

 

 

Clearly before I had children (I feel like I sound so old ;_;)

I was also in cute little leggings with some shiny black heels and my little sateen zebra clutch. To say I was overdressed is an understatement. Once I was done doing Rachel's makeup, I made my way downstairs to meet with all of her friends (we were carpooling to the restaurant) while she finished getting ready.

Except...

All the other girls were in polos, denim, and flip flops. Straight hair, ponytails, and mascara if any of them were so brave. Now, I have nothing against people who prefer to be natural about their look, but I was so intimidated by all of them. It totally didn't help that none of them seemed to know how to talk. So not only was I 'that diva' (because that's how I felt), but I was also that annoying chatty person. Boo.

After much deliberation, I decided to head home. I didn't fit in, and Rachel had all of her friends with her, so she wouldn't miss that girl from Theatre class much anyway. It was the end of the Summer, so there were plenty of things I could have found to do. Only.. just as I was about to bow out, a bunch of her friends called her and canceled at the last minute! :( I now didn't want to look like the jerk who shows up, then leaves for her own selfish reasons, so I decided to stick it out. Who knows, maybe prince charming will show.

Actually, I wasn't thinking that at all. I was thinking: I hope the food is good, I look so sexy, I love my cute little car, and I should probably break up with my boyfriend. It's not working out. Oh, and there was a tiny voice in my head saying I want coconut M&Ms.

Something that did pique my interest was (NOT the couple who couldn't keep their hands off each other) this 'Adam' fellow and his brother. Rachel and her sister were so thrilled that he was coming (And bringing his brother! Two potential candidates for eye candy/flirting back in my maneater days), heck, they were downright giddy. Which got me sort of pretty excited.

I got lost on my way to the restaurant. (I still get lost in that area.) We waited for what seemed like forever. People 21 and over were drinking beers, the gross couple were getting worse. Then we got our table! Or rather, our bunch of tables all put together to make one giant table! A little bit of waiting ensued, and then finally finally this mystery man showed up! And I think: Isn't he a little old for everyone to be pooping their pants over? 

I only had Adam and Joe backwards for about 15 seconds.

Musical chairs happened. I don't remember the details of it and they're hardly important anyway, but I ended up sitting next to Adam's brother Joe, diagonal from Adam, and sort of across the table from that couple that was extremely disrespectful to everyone else.

Joe is a conversationalist. I later learned that Adam is also, and then quickly discovered that it's a family trait, which is perfect, because there was FINALLY SOMEONE TO TALK TO. So we chatted most of the night away. Movies, my stories, work, people, family, friends... and of course, how gay Adam is.

Except Adam isn't gay. But I wasn't aware of that until much, much later on in the night. That's right. In a cruel sort of brotherly affection, Joe had me convinced that Adam was gay. I'm not that gullible, and I normally have pretty good gaydar, but he really wasn't putting up much of a fight (turns out, this is practically routine for the two of them) and he was dressed almost too well for a heterosexual American man. (which made me feel less overdressed!) He's also a vegetarian.

Even though I spent most of dinner laughing it up with his brother, Adam made quite a few statements that made me think, whyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy is he gay? so after the party, while everyone else was going out for beer and pool, I decided to take a step. I was having so much fun with the two of them, I really wasn't ready to go home (even though I said I was because I don't play pool and I wasn't old enough to drink at the time). So I asked if they wanted to hang out somewhere else. Adam said YES (he had some poetry to share with me, since I told him I was a writer) and Joe said NO (he was playing matchmaker :) ) Adam's car was broken at the time, but I said hey, no big deal, I love my car, I love driving, so let's make a night of it!

Remember how I had mentioned wanting coconut M&Ms? Well the first thing we did after he read me poetry from his laptop en route, was stop at WalMart to buy some. Not only did he buy me a pack of M&Ms, but he bought the cashier one too, and the three of us had an M&M tasting at the register. She told us we were a cute couple and I thought: whyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy is he gay?

Then we stopped at Dunkin Donuts. Why would we stop at Dunkin at 10pm? For no other reason than to go through the drive through and pay for the people behind us. His idea. He does it for fun sometimes. We had to wait about 20 minutes for someone to actually show up behind us, but it was worth it. again. Why?

Not ready to head home yet, we went to a park in my town to swing on some swings. Here we had really deep and meaningful conversations and got horrible bellyaches. :( It was about midnight and not wanting this to ruin our fun time, I took him to my house so we could have some tea and recover. My brother asked what was going on with my current boyfriend. I felt like a jerk. I also felt awkward though I didn't know why, since Adam was, well, not interested in ladies.

We talked about music and education and Jesus (he's Catholic! Wahoo!) and finally around 3am, the opposite sex. I don't recall exactly what we were talking about, but all of a sudden I heard him say:

"The most attractive thing a girl can do is make me think"

To which I replied with little grace, "A girl?"

So it turned out the world was on my side after all! Except, I felt like a total a-hole for a number of reasons. A. I thought he was gay. To most heterosexual men, that's a pretty crushing assumption. B. I was currently dating someone. Someone who was a really awesome dude, but I had little romantic interest in. C. I had a boyfriend. I have a strict no-nonsense policy when it comes to loyalty and fidelity. It just wasn't right trying to reel this guy in when there was already another. I mean come on, I liked him from the start, I just thought.. well, we all know what I thought.

The birds started chirping and we decided it was time I took him home. On the way to his apartment, we (almost) passed a 24hr diner. He asked if I was hungry. I asked if he was hungry.

At 3:30am, we stopped for breakfast. More meaningful conversation took place. I manned up and told him about my boyfriend and what should I do (??).  I decided to end it for obvious reasons. We also talked about our faith which is important in both of our lives (you have no idea how long I had been waiting for him!)

At 4:45ish I dropped him off, but not before we both sat in the car staring out the window with no energy to say anything or do anything because we hadn't slept in far too long. We exchanged numbers and a hug, knowing we would see each other very, very soon.

Around 5:15am I walked into my house. My dad was getting ready for work. I knew I was in trouble. Though, I had been home at midnight, I just went out again for an early breakfast. Somehow though, because I hadn't slept yet, the coming home part didn't seem to count. I also didn't seem to care because I was a rebellious (well not really. I was always a good kid) 19 year old who just met 'the one' (try telling that to you parents. They won't believe you.)

At 8:45, I left for work.

That was August 21st into August 22nd (though we just say 8/21). We didn't see each other for two days before we hung out next. We went up to Mass. to get his car that had broken down at his dad's house. I got to meet more of his family! It wasn't until January that we actually spent a full 24 hours apart and that was because I went to Disney and he went on tour with a band he was in. Since we returned from those trips, we haven't been apart for a full day.

When I got home on Aug. 22, I broke up with my boyfriend. (my dad also gave me an iPhone that day, complete with really expensive bill!) On Sept. 9, I moved in with him. Near the end of October, we decided we wanted to start a family. We both had been wanting to since we were teenagers, but we never found the right person. On Christmas eve, we found out that we would indeed be starting a family and on Aug 16th, 2010, Nikolai Jean-Pierre arrived! On Aug 25th, 2012, we will be united before God as husband and wife and the thought of living every life experience together makes me the happiest I've ever been.

Oct 5 2009 (my 20th)

If you read that entire story (even if you knew it already), I commend you. I commend me. I meant to go to bed two hours ago and now I'm super tired. I hope you continue to read, because things are about to get a little more bridal around here..

Holy Blog, I'm a Bride

That's right. We're getting married. It's no surprise to the general public or to us for that matter, but now that it's socially official (and by that I mean diamonds, not facebook), I, like many many other girls, have wedding fever. We set the date, we set the budget, I've got everything I need to start planning our perfect day.

We're getting married! [08.25.2012 so long as we can get the church that day]

To start off, let me say that we don't want a huge wedding. Correction: we decided not to have a big wedding. I would invite 450 people (with dates!) if we could, but it just isn't practical for us. We wanted to keep the guest list to about 100 people (doesn't sound too small, but with huge families, we could barely squeeze in a few friends) so if you know me personally and you're following up on my wedding blog, don't be offended if you don't get an invite. It's not that we don't want you there, it's just not in our budget. If anyone wants to begin attendance drama, I will personally see your way off a cliff. Our day, our choices.

I don't mean to get all bridezilla so soon, but I just had to nip that one in the bud.

That said, here is my vow to not be/become a bridezilla. You all read it. There it is. I have no intentions of yelling, screaming, crying (tears of joy do not count), swearing, or throwing any other such tantrums about anything having to do with this wedding. The wedding is going to be fun to plan and a great day and all, but my marriage is far more important. If I can't handle napkins being the wrong shade of blue, I've got bigger problems.

I hope that whomever stumbles upon this blog has as much fun reading about my upcoming wedding as I plan to have putting it together. I hope to provide inspiration for your perfect day, and hope that some of you can give me ideas and inspiration for mine.