AW Monday

lauraprevost

What do you have to AW about today?



My AW is that FI and I had our engagement session yesterday. We had a great time and absolutely love our photographer! I can't wait to see all of our pictures. I woke up to a sneak peek from out photographer this morning! If you already saw this on the facebook group well...sorry you get to look at us twice! haha

rmp4996

Your pictures came out great, I'm sure the other ones are wonderful too! 

My AW is I went shoppin gyesterday for some work clothes and found 4 great short sleeve/3 quarter length light sweaters for only $6 each!!!!! Got them at Target. I never shop there for clothes, but figured I'd give it a shot because I don't like to spend a ton of money on clothes for work. Express is my favorite store, but really only for going out/vacations and stuff like that. I also got a really cute orange sundress for only $20. It was a sucessful day in my opinion.

cnf2013

Your pictures came out beautifully!

I went dress shopping Saturday. I had a great time up until the very end. The first store we went to the owner was pulling dresses like crazy for me. My mom was in the dressing room with me helping me get into them. At one point she just stood back and looked at me and just started crying. Seeing me in a wedding dress made it really real for I think and she got pretty overwhelmed. The second store had the dress I've been agonizing over for seven months. I tried it on first and I loved it! So did everyone else. It's totally my dress. But when my mom was pulling me out of it, see checked the price tag... $700 over budget. Ouch. I tried on a few more then put that one back on. She then started nit picking and saying she didn't like it as much as the one from the first store that was under budget. I took it off and didn't buy anything. When my dad came home from work we were talking about it. He never said it was a no completely, but just kept saying we had a budget and we couldn't start going over now. I couldn't help it, I started crying. I had offered to pay the difference and they said no to that. When I got home my FI asked how it went and said "you look like you've been crying..?" I cried again and told him my dress was too expensive and I didn't think I could get it. When I told him hoe much over it was he was all like "...that's it? We're getting wedding money from my mom to use on anything we want. We'll just use that money to pay the difference." I forgot about that money, so hopefully my parents will agree to that since it won't be coming out of my savings. I don't know, I'm frustrated. My AW wasn't a very good one, sorry. 

emilyb213

Laura, your engagement pics are great!!
rmp, way to go on snagging some good deals.
cnf, sooo glad to hear dress shopping went well overall. Hopefully your parents will be okay with using some of the money from your fiance's parents for the dress.
My AW is house related...we successfully hooked up our new gas stove (since ours bit the dust last weekend) ourselves. When we bought it, the guy from Lowe's asked us if we wanted to pay $130 for them to have someone unhook the old stove and hook up the new one, and then he said that it was something we could do ourselves. He took the time to walk us through exactly what to do, and we had no problem figuring it out. It was more intimidating than anything else, but it went smoothly and we felt like we accomplished something somewhat impressive (mostly since nothing exploded).

ems27

Crossing my fingers for you, cnf!

AW:  I have two wedding related ones :-)

1. Photographer:  My mom and I went to meet with the photographer (same one that did my sister's wedding, she's great), and my mom mentioned that we would be having an engagement celebration/send-off in London next April for my FI.  The photographer freaked out (in a good way) and emailed the next day to say that, to make it fit in my budget for her to come, she would discount my photo package $500, throw in free bridal shower coverage (trading that in for some photo books/other product since my BIL takes great photos), a free family session, and coverage of the London event, PLUS our e-session will be in London, if we cover her and her husband's airfare.  All told (especially with the trade-in for some product), it was $700 more than we'd been planning on spending with her. 

FI and I decided to back-burner the photobooth we'd like to rent for the reception until we see if we have the budget for it, so it all evened out in the end :-) Yay!

2. SHOES: I knew I wanted fuchsia shoes, and had been eyeing a pair of Ninas for $80- they just didn't have any sparkle on them which was a little sad.  Mom and I were in DSW on Friday and I was casually checking out the pink shoes, when I came across these:
http://www.dsw.com/shoe/lulu+townsend+bridal+valissa+pump?prodId=240071&productRef=SEARCH

They are super comfy and were on sale for $35, and perfect!  So excited :-)

SapphireCounselor

My Fi and I were goofing around on the Sears website this weekend and actually started getting our registry together. My awww was just reality setting in, I guess, that pretty soon we'll actually have a place together and be able to start our lives. I'm looking forward to that...right now he and I live in two cities about 2 hours apart. Hopefully that will change soon.He applied for a job in my city, so I'm just praying he gets it. It would be a step-up for him professionally as well, so he'd be excited if it happened.  
 
Now we have our venues, DJ and photographer figured out and booked as well as our wedding website done and our Save the Dates ordered, so I'm excited. This week's task is calling to find out more about hotel blocks. And on Friday I get to go dress shopping with my mom, so that is exciting.

anastassiiat

Laura - love the pictures!
rmp - those are some pretty cool deals! I occasionally look at clothes in Target and sometimes they have some pretty neat stuff for cheap.
Cnf - hope everything works out with the dress! Do you have a picture for us to AW at?
Emily - yay for the new stove and for saving $130 on installation
Ems - love the shoes, and it is so cool that you are going to London for your engagement celebration.
Jshillings - have fun dress shopping!

My AWs are NWR:
1. I got to chat with my yougner brother on Skype yesterday, he is still in Russia, he just finished grad school there and is waiting on his papers to move here, and I haven't seen him for almost a year in person, so it was good to at least see him on-line.
2. I went throuh my closet yesterday looking for things to donate/throw out, there was so much stuff that I haven't worn in years, some of the things that I used to wear to parties in college and there is no chance I'd wear them anymore. haha It felt good to de-clutter, and now I have an excuse to go shopping for new stuff.

n3rdl3t

I found my shoes!



They are definitely not what I imagined falling in love with - but they are SO me.. Now just to stretch out the patent and we'll be golden Also found an equipment rental so we can skip a dj and the price tag associated with that ^_^

While shoe shopping my fiance was a rock star.. One of my dogs had gotten into and eaten a burr and he thought she was choking.. I'll save you the gross details but he handled the situation wonderfully (he isn't a dog person lol).. and my poor puppy is on the mend after being sick all weekend.. He's even gone so far as to cook her eggs and rice to help her tummy 

Sjmiller418

CNf - good luck with everything with your dress, I hope your able to get the one you love!

Laura_ Love your pictures!!!

I usually don't post in this thread cause never have much to aw about but this weekend was awesome!

I went shopping with my mom and FMIL at an event for mothers dresses at the store I bought my dress at this weekend. They had never met before and it was a good time, with them both finding beautiful dresses!

I also got to try the sample of my dress back on so I could try on veils and jewelry with the dress. Im soo happy with the veil and jewelry I got especially the price, only $170 for jeweled veil, necklace and earrings!

BUT heres the real AW the sample size dress was an 8 which was tight and didn't fit when I was there a month and half ago. I ended up measuring at a size 12 but being risky ordered a 10 planning on losing weight. This time the 8 sample dress fit perfectly!!! I was soo happy to see how big an effect my weight loss had been and now confident that the 10 will fit fine and even probably need to be taken in.

cnf2013

It's this dress (clicky). I didn't think it was very far over budget either. I'm not used to not getting my way. I'm such a daddy's girl, I really thought once he got home and I bat my eyelashes he'd just agree. That's how it's been my whole life. I was totally thrown when he didn't agree right away ( I'm very spoiled, I know, haha). My dad is going out to my house tomorrow for his day off to help FI with the deck, so I'm hoping FI will tell him that he'll pay the difference. I was suprised when I told my FI how much the dress was that he actually thought it wasn't very expensive at all.

blferguson1s

My AW is that I've talked FI into getting a cat and have found the one I'm going to sucker him into getting. Her name is Madison. She's about 3 months old now, up to date on all her shots, and housetrained. I went by the animal shelter to see her earlier, and she's even cuter in person than online. We'll have to take her back in about 3 months to get her spayed. She doesn't actually have blue eyes. That was a photoshop/paint thing. I held her, and she was purring the whole time. I have to have this cat! She's perfect!!!

 

Sjmiller418

CNF I love your dress!!!! Its similar style to the maggie dress I got with the fitted body and then fun ruffly skirt!

anastassiiat

Cnf, that dress is gorgeous! I would totally fork out the extra $700 for it! Let us know how it goes with your dad tonight.

katiereith

My FI and I are going to put an offer on a house and I schedled a time finally to get our engagement photos taken! I am a bit more excited about the house though.

sparkles776

cnf, I love that dress! It is very similar to the one I think I am going to end up with, except the ruffles start a little further down.


http://www.morilee.com/bridals/blu/4905

I actually am torn between like 3 different dresses, I am going to go the beginning of September to officially choose, but I think the one above is what I am going to end up with. Although I didnt cry in it, my mom did. lol.

I really have nothing to AW today. I just got off work and it was a horrible day, I think I am going to make FI take me out for Mexican tonight so I can have some margs. Happy to see so many of us are getting our shoes! It seems like a lot of people are working on their hotel blocks, so I probably should start working on it too. We really dont have that many nice hotels around our reception venue. Did you guys just book your block over internet/phone, or did you go in and look at the rooms?

cnf2013

That looks a lot like the one my mother wanted me to get from the other shop. It was trumpet cut like that instead of drop waist ball gown. 

The other dress (click). It was hard for me to sit in since the waist is set so low, but it is really pretty and would probably be my fall back if I can't swing the other dress. 

I LOVE the way the beading lines the corset on that one you posted. It's stunning. 

OH and to answer your hotel question, we looked at rooms. We're a bit biased though, as we're having a hotel reception and booked our blocked at the same hotel. The coordinator showed us the bridal suite we'd get for the night of and we asked to go see the other kinds of rooms. It isn't normally part of the tour, but she took us. It was nice too becasue our hotel either has a lake view or a city view depending on which side of the hallway you're on. The price is $10 more for a lake view and we liked being able to tell our guests that we've seen the view from either room choice should they ask for input. We steer them to lake view, it's worth it. 

rmp4996

CNF- I think both dresses are gorgeous.....I've always loved Maggie Sottero, and I hope you end up geting whichever one you love the most.

Sparkles- That dress is gorgeous too, I love the beading.

Everyone has such pretty dresses! I can't wait until we all have our dresses and we can all have a thread with everyones to see how different/similar everything is.

ashbeth06

ems- I'm wearing fuchsia shoes too but yours are much lovelier than mine. I have simple ones with a knot. I knew I would just wear them for pictures, ceremony, and a short part of the reception so I didn't want to spend too much.

Cnf- the Maggie dress is gorgeous! My cousin got married in a Maggie and she loved it! My dress is a Mori Lee. I was drawn more to that line than the Maggie (I liked the older style Maggie dresses than the newer ones).

 I sort of have an aww moment. My dad and I are super close. He's my go to guy for any sort of advice and his illness over the past 10 years has helped us be so close. When I was born a lot of people must have just gave cash to my parents because they got bonds for me and they put this money aside for me to use either for college or my wedding. My dad hadn't checked the amount in years and we were discussing my upcoming loan payment (not sure how that tied into my bonds lol) and the amount I have (which could be more with the interest once I cash them in) was the EXACT amount of my dress. My jaw just dropped and I jumped for joy. I thought I was going to have to pay a couple hundred more out of pocket, but now I just have to cover the veil, jewelry set, and alterations. It made my day!

I'm excited to cook for my hunny again after being away from each other all weekend. I knew I needed to go home and spend time with my mom before her biopsy for me to feel better about not being able to be there.

chickadee52287

My AW is that I paid the deposit and signed the contract for our DJ, Photographer and Photobooth today! I am sooo excited to get these major checks done. I also sent revisions to our Save the Dates company!

sopraffina

MrsK - I love that hotel! The lobby is gorgeous. We used to use our Marriott Rewards points for my son's birthday/Detroit fireworks every year.

We booked our room block at the Centerpoint Marriott in Pontiac. I also made 2 florist appointments. I mentioned before that my florist-cousin wasn't returning my calls. She finally emailed me and was basically a nervous wreck. She was afraid to tell me that she didn't think she could handle it by herself. So, we're all good now. She's going to go to the floral appointments with me and maybe do my bouquets if it will help with costs.

I also made two bridal shop appointments for Labor Day weekend. I'm going to a plus-sized shop on Saturday and David's Bridal on Sunday. I was hoping to have lost more weight by then, but I'm heading in the right direction. 

LouD042109

My AW is that I bought awesome shoes for 9 dollars!!!! I love them and they are the perfect fit. One issue... I am a little taller than my FI in them. Is this bad? I didn't even think about it until I got home. 

CNF, your dress is BEAUTIFUL! I hope everything works out for you.

A thread for everyone's dresses is a good idea! Can't wait to see all the dresses and even to see which one I get. Yes, I bought shoes before my dress