Wedding vendors! Call the heck back!

I am chasing down two wedding vendors, 14 days before my wedding. I have to work too, by the way. I don’t get lunch breaks to go ram down people’s doors.

Collectively, these vendors are costing us $5,000.

Both of them said to call them 2 weeks before the wedding to finalize details. I’ve been calling them for a week. I don’t care if its wedding high season, you should’ve told me to call you before two weeks if you knew you’d be overwhelmed. We still have to organize other crap depending on what you say! We don’t have a wedding planner. We’re not made of money and you took a sizeable chunk of it.

Where’s the customer service?! If someone gave me $5Gs, I’d be making them dinner and shining their shoes to make sure they’d be happy.

You should be ashamed of yourselves for taking money and then disappearing. How are we supposed to know if you’re even showing up at our wedding if you don’t answer your phone?

I chase people down on the phone for a living and am used to people not calling me back, but I have never dealt with anything like the smug, entitled attitude of the wedding industry.  Have some common courtesy and customer service sense. Happy customers spread the word to all their friends.

You cost thousands. Have the courtesy to hit the reply button!

Adding to my long to-do list:

Chasing after our photographer team.

Dude said he’d call us two weeks before the wedding to figure out our photo permits and “must take” pictures. Well I had to call him. And now he’s not answering. It’s been three days. Give us the freaking courtesy of replying when we have to call city hall and beat other people to permit time slots.

How to weed out “friends” from your wedding

Your wedding helps you find out who your real friends are!

Me: “Hey, We have to give final numbers from the banquet hall soon, and you haven’t told us if you’re coming to the wedding or not.

Her: “Unfortunately, I did not receive your invite. Thank you for inviting me to be a part of your big day but I will not be able to attend.”

Thanks, friend of 10 years for copying and pasting an answer from some etiquette website, because I know how you talk, and you never talk like that. Glad to know you’re not coming to my wedding because your invite got lost during a postal strike. Do you feel snubbed or something?

Dear wedding magazine: $2,800 on invites is not worth it

Dear wedding magazine:

Sure Viewmaster invitations are pretty cool.

They’d be fun to have as wedding invitations. But life’s not fair.

Don’t think a whole lot of people would think that $2,800 would be worth spending on invitations, when you can buy two photographers on that.

So no, it’s not “worth the splurge.” And don’t forget to add the cost of mailing that thing.

Wedding magazines are so unrealistic.

Be smart and make the invitations yourself, or go through a local company. Or get $20 off a $100 purchase at Wedding Paper Divas.

One month to go until the wedding! A ton of stuff to do

Our wedding is officially one month away!

Here’s a list of things we still have to do:

• Put first and last month’s rent down for apartment
• Book videographer
• Figure out photo permits
• Go to Catholic marriage camp 
• Choose between violin/harp or organ for ceremony
• Call chair cover place
• Decoration times: find out from hall
• Decoration times: find out from church
• Order centrepieces
• Bbook salon test
• Choose music and readings
• Write speeches and ask others to do it too
• Find shoes/veil/bridesmaids shoes
• Make cards for wishing tree and get branches
• Make schedule for day of
• Print menus
• Make placecards
• Buy candles
• Buy more twinkle lights
• Book honeymoon
• Hold bachelorette

Got my wedding dress! It smells like fish. How to get the stank out?

My wedding dress smells like fish

I picked up my wedding dress today! I can’t show you a picture because Fiance reads this blog.

The dress is nicer than I remember it, and looks better because its the right size and the only alterations it needs is the length! My mom’s going to do it. And my mom paid for the whole dress. Her wedding gift to me is my beautiful dress, and  she will sew beading on herself!

I tried the dress on at the store and was happy with it. There’s only one problem: It smells like fish. The stink made me sneeze.

The wedding dress store said all the dresses come from China. It doesn’t matter that the designer is from Australia (like mine), or that other designers come from Europe. The dresses all come from China anyway.

The fishy smell has to do with some kind of pesticide that is put on Chinese wedding dresses when they’re shipped to avoid transporting bugs.

So anyway, what do I do to get the stink out? There’s some suggestions at those links above. I don’t want to febreze it because I’m scared it might stain. I’ve got it hanging outside the bag to air it out in the meantime.

Anyone else had a stinky dress?

EDIT::  I eventually got the smell out by just airing the dress out. I took it out of the garment bag and hung it up and it was smelling fresh after about a week. It did stink up the house but at least I wasn’t stinky on the wedding day! I wouldn’t suggest putting any Febreze-type fabric freshener on it, because it could ruin the material. I know you’re anxious but just let it air out, it really goes away on its own!

Guest Post! Kate Middleton stole my wedding dress!

I was miffed when I saw Kate Middleton’s wedding dress looked kind of like my own. Take away the lace on the top, and it’s my wedding dress, down to the pleats, which are pretty rare nowadays. The saving grace on mine is a flower belt.

Kate Middleton's wedding dress

But my whining’s got nothing on poor Bonfire Night Bride, who basically had every element of her dress totally stolen by the new Duchess of Cambridge.

Ever seen the E! News segment “bitch stole my look?”

Here is Bonfire Night Bride’s lovely guest post about what it was like learning that her gorgeous dress had been snatched, and how she came to terms with sharing the dress with Middleton. Visit her blog and show your support!

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I may be British but that doesn’t automatically mean I’m a royalist. I have never had a reason to love or loathe the Royal Family; I can take them or leave them. I’m sure I’d feel differently if I knew them personally but as I don’t I found it difficult to get overenthusiastic about the Royal Wedding. Some may call me miserable and lacking in national high spirits, I say it’s because my interest in and excitement about my own wedding that’s taking place in November this year has taken total precedent over anything else this past couple of years.

From the moment I started dress hunting not long after our engagement in August 2009 I knew exactly what I wanted – something beautiful, vintage inspired, demure and timeless. Something that is not easy to find in the stores these days. Strapless dresses have never appealed to me but other styles of wedding dress are few and far between. It is for this reason that I decided to design my own and take it to a dress maker.

In January this year I entered a competition on the UK wedding blog Love My Dress (http://www.lovemydress.net) to win my dream wedding dress designed by myself and made by bridal dressmaking company House of Mooshki (http://www.houseofmooshki.com). I submitted my design and unfortunately didn’t win but I was a runner up, the girls at House of Mooski stating they were extremely excited about my design – a beautiful ivory long sleeved appliqué lace and tulle full skirted dress with fitted bodice, a buttoned down back and long train.

Fast forward to Royal Wedding day. I had worked a night shift the previous night so had a valid excuse to not have to sit and watch the whole ceremony, choosing to catch snippets on the news later in the instead. If the truth be told the only thing that I had been remotely interested in is seeing what Middleton had chosen to wear. Imagine my horror when catching my first glimpse of the blushing bride.

 Ivory appliqué lace on tulle – check.

Long sleeves – check.

Fitted bodice – check.

Full skirt – check.

Long train – check.

Button down back – check.

 Hmm… great. My heart literally sank into my metaphorical boots. I’m in no way stating that this design is exclusive to me. It is a classic Grace Kelly style that I’d always dreamed of wearing on my wedding day, not only in fitting with my body shape and wedding theme but as a huge deviation from the strapless norm of recent times. The long sleeves are also to compliment the time of year – a November wedding calls for something that will keep me warm! But Middleton… sleeves in April, really? To our wedding guests that aren’t aware of my design submission to my dressmaker well in advance of the Royal Wedding, my dress is now going to look like a cheap copy; like I actually WANT to imitate the Royal Wedding dress. This is not at all the case!! Not only that, I did not want to look like the imminent thousands of future worldwide Middleton clones who copy off Sarah Burton’s design stitch for stitch as they have no ideas or originality of their own.

At first, I seriously considered changing my dress design to something that will be totally different but after lots of begging and pleading from my mother I am going to leave it as it is. “Just think Laura,” said my mum as I called her in despair after seeing Middleton’s dress for the first time, “you have designed a dress, on your own, without the help of a top fashion designer and it’s almost identical to the dress of the future Queen of England. What does that say about you? Does that not show how much taste and class you have?”

Of course you’re gonna say that mum.

“Your dress will be stunning and you will look stunning. Why on earth would you change it to something you don’t like and spend the day being miserable because of the Royal Wedding.” She was right. Why would I let someone I do not know or particularly care for ruin the most important dress I will ever wear on the most significant day of my life? I have decided to leave my dress as it is. I will never forget how I felt on April 29^th catching that first glimpse of THE dress and the brief feeling that my day had been ruined but I soon got over it. At the end of the day, the people who matter to me the most know that I designed my dress way before the Royal Wedding date was announced, never mind the wedding itself. And this, along with enjoying wearing my dress, are all that matter to me. 

However… my indifference towards the Royal Family has now turned into a full aversion and my blood actually boils whenever I see any bridal designer promoting their “Kate Middleton Dress.”

Fabulous flowers! Forget peonies. Roses + Freesias win

We ordered our wedding flowers and I am very happy. I had originally planned on a peony bouquet, but was doing some googling and came across the most beautiful bouquet I have ever seen. It’s this mass assembly of gorgeousness made of roses and freesias. Fiance’s got competition for my affections.

I took this picture to my florist and I am going to get cream and pink coloured roses with freesias for a little green. I’m really excited.

The bridesmaids are getting carnations and freesias but I can’t find a picture of that combo on the Internets. The dudes are getting cream coloured roses. The moms are getting these cream coloured orchids.

The moms are getting corsages that look like this

Anyway, if you live in Auckland, New Zealand check out this florist’s offerings because she is mega talented. Too bad I don’t live in New Zealand (for more reasons than one, its a great place to visit!) but hopefully my Canadian florist can give me the same glamorous bouquet!

What to do with wedding RSVP cards in case of a mail strike

Canada Post strike is imminent

Girls, I see through Google that you’ve been trying to find out what to do with your wedding invitations or RSVP reply cards if Canada Post goes on strike tonight.

My advice: Haul Ass.

Waiting for replies? Start calling people. Get email addresses. Skype numbers. Look them up on Facebook/Twitter/LinkedIn. Get their BBM pins. Use Evite. If they’re seniors or someone that doesn’t use a computer, hunt them down at their front door step if you have to.

If you have paper invites, you and your family/bridesmaids/groom’s dudes can deliver them. If you can afford it, hire a courier. If you can’t, and no one can help you deliver them all, hire a neighborhood kid with a bike or a subway/bus pass to deliver envelopes.

If that doesn’t work, hire the lady from “Murder, She Wrote” if you can find her. Seriously, people will do just fine without a “formal” invitation. It’s just gravy. Kick it old school, combined with new school technology and you should spread the word no problem.

If you already have the nice paper invites and can’t deliver them (to people who live far away for example), call to give them details, and then keep a basket of invitations at the wedding for people to take home. Or put the invitation with their favors.

If you haven’t mailed out invites yet, think of the bright side. You’ll save money on stamps.

Personally, I hope the mail doesn’t strike. We still haven’t received all the RSVP cards, and we’re trying to get people to return our calls. We’ve enlisted others to harass them. 

What annoys me the most is that I was so happy to be ordering a bunch of stuff on the Internet because I just click a button and the stuff shows up, with zero stress to me. *Insert strike stress now.* Bleh! Hopefully they use courier like The Shopping Channel will. I’m not going to order anything else online until it is all sorted out.

EDIT: Last time Canada Post went on strike in 1997, the government forced them back to work. Could it happen again this time?

Too many wedding decisions. Brain explodes. I’m decision paralyzed

Decisions are hard for me. They always have been.

I saw a card at Carleton Cards that says brides have to make 277 decisions for their wedding. Do you have any idea what this is like!? Ten decisions are hard. I’m going bonkers.

I am all decisioned out. I can’t make anymore.

Organ or violin and harp combo?

Invite coworkers or not?

Which makeup artist to choose?

I am drowning. With so many decisions to make and only a month to go, I feel paralyzed and I’m not making any decisions at all. I have a long to do list. And I stare at it and don’t know what to do or where to start.

And then I start second guessing things I was very happy about. Like our photographer and our DJ.

Fiance says I should just move forward with the remaining decisions and pick something that makes me happy. Well how do I know which would make me happy if I haven’t hired them yet? What if the makeup artist does a bad job? What if the organ sounds elegant and regal on Youtube but sounds like transylvania in the church? 

Fiance says that I won’t remember the music anyway. And he’s right. So why is it still so hard for me to decide?

I know all these details ultimately don’t matter in the end, but I don’t know how to get over this decision-making slump.

I just googled “too many wedding decisions” and this New York Times article about the difficulty of too many choices came up.

Look at our silly first world problems.

The one thing that I’m not second guessing though is the thing that matters most. I am so happy that at the end of this process that I get a happily ever after with my love.

And you know what makes me even more sure of it? He is looking for a place for us to live and will only let me visit three locations. He doesn’t want me to be even more overwhelmed with the 278th wedding-related decision I’ll have to make in just seven months.