Back in 2007 when Dan and I were planning our wedding, our reception was scheduled to end at 10 PM because of the ballroom we initially booked was close to some of the Hotel Del Coronado guest rooms. Because of the curfew we were planning to have a little get together afterwards to spend some more time with our guests. This after party never came to fruition because our reception was moved into the exquisite Grand Ballroom which was in a different building about a month beforehand. But prior to that change I was shopping for a white sundress to wear to the after party so I wouldn’t be tripping over my wedding gown, but I’d still be wearing the traditional color for a bride. I was unsuccessful. I tried on a bunch of dresses and even ordered one from J.Crew, but nothing was quite right. I’ll be the first to admit that I’m the pickiest shopper on the planet, but I just never found the white sundress I was looking for. Fast forward almost five years. When I finally returned that Tommy Bahama hoodie Dan bought me for Christmas I exchanged it for a white sundress. I first wrote about about this in a post last month, but I didn’t realize the significance of it at the time. The dress is just about perfect. If I had run across it back in 2007 I most definitely would have bought it – probably in a smaller size than the one I have now, but let’s not dwell on that. I wore my new white sundress to Arthur Murray last Tuesday night when Dan and I had a dance lesson. I really liked it. The only problem I had was that it settled a little low on my chest after I moved around for a while and the top of my strapless bra peeked out. Luckily it’s flesh colored so I might have been the only one that noticed, but I guess I need to get a bra that’s cut a little lower. I can shorten the straps on the dress too to see if that solves the problem. I’m really excited to have another dress I can wear to Arthur Murray so I’m not alternating between the same two outfits anymore. It’s not that I can’t afford new clothes – I just hate shopping for them!
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Tag Archives ⇒ wedding
(Almost) Wordless Wednesday 6/22/11
This year’s wedding cake reincarnation – spice, orange, and cranberry cake cookies. Tomorrow, on our actual anniversary, I will top them with some homemade orange cream cheese frosting to make them as similar to our wedding cake as possible. I can’t wait!
Awkward wedding photos
I looked through my wedding photos a lot while working on yesterday’s post. Finding a decent full length picture of my wedding dress was actually pretty hard! The one I ended up posting is probably my favorite one of my bridal portraits (even thought it’s heavily airbrushed which makes me look kinda fake), but I couldn’t find a single one that I liked where I wasn’t covering up the sash on my dress. Our photographer kept trying to get me to drop my bouquet to my side, but I kept bringing it back up because I wasn’t used to carrying it. Cut me some slack – it was my first time as a bride! (This reminds me of shopping for wedding makeup at the Clinique counter and the salesgirl asked if this was my first marriage. Did I really look old enough to be on my second?) I feel like I look goofy in just about all of my wedding photos. My smile isn’t quite right, I look a little bit uncomfortable, or I just don’t look like myself. I thought I looked pretty good on my wedding day – my hair was awesome, my makeup turned out well, and my dress was perfect (even though I ripped it a little right before the ceremony) – but I’ve never thought I was very photogenic. Most pictures of myself make me cringe. Reconciling my mental image of myself with what’s captured by a camera is difficult. The reason I love the above photo so much is because I think it looks like me. A little bit quirky – even on the biggest day of my life. One of the members of our wedding party took this picture after the ceremony and I love it. In hindsight I wish I hadn’t worn that silly veil because it got in the way all day (just ask Kathe who had to adjust it every five minutes), but at least it made for a couple of interesting photos. I think the reason for taking so many pictures at a wedding is because you know that most of them are going to be terrible. Hopefully somewhere among the large volume of shutter clicks you come up with a handful of perfect shots that will be the couple’s favorites for years to come. And I think that exactly what Dan and I got – a few photos that never fail to make me smile. And that’s how it should be.
The Royal Wedding
When I woke up yesterday at 5 AM PST the Royal Wedding was already over. I DVRed it, though, and I was planning to watch it in its entirety over the weekend. Despite my plans, as soon as I turned off the alarm on my iPhone yesterday morning I eagerly pulled up the MSNBC website to see if they had any photos. That was the first time I saw Kate Middleton’s wedding gown. She looked absolutely gorgeous. I was afraid that because she was marrying an heir to the British throne that she’d fall victim to an over-the-top dress design that would completely swallow her up (like Diana did, honestly). But the sleek, sophisticated, Grace Kelly-esque gown that she chose was spectacular. I loved everything about it. Her tiara borrowed from the Queen and beautifully simple veil were perfect too. (Does anyone know why she carried such a small bouquet, though? I looked at photos from the wedding of another one of the Queen’s grandsons, Peter Philips, and the bride’s bouquet was enormous! Personal preference, I guess?) I recorded something like 12 hours of royal wedding coverage on BBC America yesterday and Dan and I watched the highlights of the arrivals, ceremony, recessionals, and balcony appearance of the newlyweds (fast forwarding through most of it). There were still hours of coverage left when we turned off the TV late last night to go to bed, but I’d seen everything I wanted to. I couldn’t help but smile through most of it because it seemed like such a joyous occasion. The bride and groom looked radiantly happy, sneaking glances and smiling at each at each other throughout the ceremony. I just couldn’t stop admiring Kate’s wedding gown, though. But Kate didn’t look better than me on my wedding day, did she? Just kidding – of course she did!
