Dress Shopping- The Rejects Round 2

Before dress shopping I had never really heard of the brand Marissa because they do not advertise. Many of the salons I visited carried their dresses, and being simple and in my price range I found myself trying on a lot of them

I really wanted to like this dress with bias cut layers, but it didn’t do much for my body. Having a belt with it, though, made it a lot more appealing.

This is the dress that made me realize I wanted to wear something fitted. In the store I didn’t think much of it, but once home and looking at pictures I LOVED how this dress accentuated my waist. I tried this dress on in two other stores but in the end felt it wasn’t quite right.

Loved the shape of this dress (pretty similar to the one above) but didn’t really like the fabric (not that light airy feel I wasn’t going for) and it was a little too plain for me.

My mom and grandma LOVED this dress. They felt it was the perfect combination of light and airiness. They had me convinced for a split second, and I therefore convinced the nice lady at the bridal salon that I MUST have a picture if I were to ever make up my mind even though pictures were strictly forbidden. Once I looked at the pictures at home, I knew it wasn’t for me.

And so, another round of dressing shopping failed to impress me. Oh well, that just means more dress shopping for me and more rejects for you to enjoy!!

How many tries did it take for you to find your dress?

Our Jecular Wedding: because how will they know the ceremony is over?

One of the first things momma Elk requested when we announced we would be having a secular ceremony was that Mr Elk break a glass at the end, and I agreed. If you are not Jewish or have never been to/seen on television a Jewish wedding, the man traditionally breaks a glass (or in the past a light bulb; easier to break apparently) at the conclusion of the ceremony. I have always been taught that this is to symbolize the destruction of the temple in Jerusalem back in the day, but there are a lot of possible meanings. Still don't know what I am talking about? You can refer to the only good scene from SATC2 for a movie version of the tradition


Now, I know what you are thinking! Miss Elk- that is not secular at all! That is actually very religious. But, you have to understand- every wedding I have been to (for the most part) ends with the breaking of a glass. It is the grand finale (well, before the kiss!). It is how my relatives will know to say mozel tov and clap and get ready to party.

How did I convince Mr Elk, though? When I first brought up this topic with Mr Elk, he was surprisingly easy to convince. As a Curb Your Enthusiasm enthusiast, Mr Elk probably knows more about Judaism than I do (well...almost). Moreover, we have attended numerous weddings of my cousins, and he is pretty used to the routine by now, so it isn't all that foreign to him. There was almost a problem when he learned the actual meaning behind the tradition, and he started to get upset that we were breaking the 'no religion' rule. Luckily, quick witted me had a response: "Babes, we will just think of it as the last time you get to put your foot down in this relationship". Mr Elk laughed, told me never to repeat that to anyone, and agreed to partake in the tradition.

Now I just wonder what his Irish Catholic family will think.....

Did you incorporate traditions that your significant other or their family may find strange? How did they seem to take it?

THE Venue!!!

After a few months of intense internet searching, I was pretty sure I had found my wedding venue. I know, though, that internet photos can be pretty deceiving (think apartment/house searching!), so I figured i should probably check the place out in person. Unfortunately, being a medical student in upstate NY, I didn't seem to have any opportunity in the near future to go take a peak. Enter my parents! They so kindly offered take a drive over to the venue and check it out. And they LOVED it! My mom offered to book it right then and there, and I almost agreed! But we cooled our jets and me and Mr Elk made plans to go down to Long Island over the holidays and check it out. And it was PERFECT!!!!!!

So without further ado, our venue, the Old Field Club.

This is what you see when you drive up to the venue, very understated but beautiful.

Old Field Club: via OFC website

This is the ceremony area, with cocktail hour to take place on the adjoining deck and in a screened off porch not visible in this photo. I love the natural beauty and simplicity!

via:disc jockey nyc

via Ruby Star Blog/photo by: ruby star photography

The ballroom, with high wood ceilings, brass chandeliers, a working fireplace, and windows overlooking the yard. Again, I love the simple elegance!

via: disc jockey nyc

via OFC website

AHHH I LOVE IT SO MUCH!!! And did you notice, no carpets and chiavari chairs! And you can't tell this by the photos, but the deck and ceremony location overlook an inlet of the bay! Here you can see the water from the deck:

Personal Photo

Moreover, the Old Field Club is a beach club and therefore has its own private beach across the street with private cabanas of varying fabulous colors available for pictures, like these beauties:

via The Hamptons Weddings/Photo by: Christina Bohn Photography

Unfortunately, the Old Field Club was not immune to the recent hurricane. When Irene hit, the OFC was flooded with over a foot of water, ruining carpeting in the cocktail hour area and bowing some of the wood floors, and the deck was apparently torn apart. I happened upon this photo, and you can see the water all around the main entrance!

photo by: DGH Photo

I have been surprisingly calm about the newly acquired damages, and I can only hope they will restore my beautiful venue to her former glory, without changing what makes it so special.

Was your wedding affected by mother nature? And did you only visit one venue before booking?

A Different Kind of Proposal

I knew from the start that I wanted to ask my girls to be my bridesmaids in a special kind of way, and what better way than to propose to them!!So I ran out and bought cute rings from Kohls, and then found these inexpensive ring boxes from amazon.com

via Amazon.com

But I wanted to spice these babies up a little bit, so I bought ribbon and decided I would make a cute little bow for the front of the boxes. (Note: remaining pictures are personal photos)

Although this wasn't particularly difficult, I am not entirely thrilled with the visible glue and poorly cut edges. If I did it all over again I would probably just buy premade bows and glue them on.

Next, I realized that I wouldn't be able to give these to all my girls in person, and so i wanted the boxes to be able to speak for me, in a way. So I found a box of small alphabet stamps, ink, and cute little tags on sale for $1 each at Michaels. And I stamped the words "will you be my bridesmaid?"

The tags were a little larger than I anticipated, and I wasn't sure how i was going to attach them to the ring boxes. After messing around with it a little, though, I found that I could wrap the tag around the box and it would stand up, looking almost like a little speech bubble:
And this is what they saw when they opened their little gift:

And here I am proposing to bridesmaids D and J (well recreating a proposal that happened moments earlier):Personal Photo

I am very pleased to say i was not rejected by a single person, and all my girls seemed to love being proposed to!

Did you ask your bridal party in a unique way? How did they respond?

Dress Shopping- The Rejects Round 1

So it was finally time for me to go dress shopping after stalking browsing every designer website I could find. I had realized early on in my search that I have high society tastes on a pauper's budget. Therefore, I made it my mission to find every brand with dresses for a more reasonable budget that upheld the style I was looking for. One of the brands that I loved before I began dress shopping was enzoani. They provided a lot of the details that I loved and with a budget I could stomach! And they have a second line, Blue, with lower priced creations. I was delighted to find that a few of the salons nearby carried the lines!

So wanna see some dress porn? (All photos in this post are personal pictures)

Enzoani Fabi: I didn’t really think I wanted a true ballgown but I thought this dress was so pretty I couldn’t resist trying it on. It was the first one I ever tried on actually. My grandma seemed to love it, but I don’t think it did much for my body; my torso looks pretty square in it without any waist definition, but I love it from the side!

Enzoani Eva: I had seen a picture of a hive member in this dress and remembered thinking it was lovely. I loved the shape on me but didn’t like the brooch in the center and couldn’t help thinking it belonged more in a church and less at an outside ceremony.

Enzonai Diana: I LOVED this dress. This was the first dress I tried on and didn’t want to take off. I especially loved the belt, which gave it that 3D floral detailing I was itching for! Unfortunately, I didn’t love the straps on me and I felt that the train was WAY too long for what I was going for. It was a contender for quite some time though

Blue by Enzoani Cheyenne: I loved the way this dress made me look, but I didn’t really like the bling.

Blue by Enzoani Cincinnati: I didn’t really like this dress on me at first, but when I looked back at pictures I loved the softness of the tulle at the bottom. I tried it on multiple times trying to convince myself it was right for me, but in the end I never really loved it. I felt that the straight across seam hit my hips at a weird spot that wasn’t particularly flattering.

Overall, I felt Dianna was the best but the gigantic train and strangely sitting straps weren't perfect, and so my dress search continued....

Did you focus on specific designers based on budget and aesthetic? And which Enzoani creation would you have picked?

PS- I tried on A LOT of dresses, so there are lots more rejects to enjoy in the near future