The Smart Girl's Guide to Buying a Wedding Dress

First off, I'd like to start this post with mentioning that Priscilla of Boston Bridal is going out of business and so they are having a 70% everything sale- dresses (gowns), brides maid dresses, jewelry, flower girl dresses, etc. Courtesy of my friend Erin bringing it to my attention! And of course, I asked the question- how are THEY going out of business? One of the biggest names in the wedding industry is going out of business? Is it maybe because of their extremely overpriced gowns? $6000 for a gown, sure! No problem!

Me, I've had my dress for quite a while now. Here's a tip to you ladies preparing to walk down the aisle- try on dresses and LOTS of them! Better yet- try on loads of dresses. Try on dress designs you don't think you would normally like. Go to different bridal shops. Mark down your favorites (or in my case, take a photo of the tag with your phone) so you can reference it later.



Say, you found the dress of your dreams? That's great news. Sleep on it. Your dress will never be the "last chance to buy this dress so you better act now." In fact- call 3-6 months later and see if they still have it. Most likely they will and it will be discounted. Also, you may be engulfed in all the wedding dress shopping and excitement that you may be persuaded by others about a particular dress, you may put down the deposit day of finding it, and then have nightmares about how wrong of a dress it is for you. Just sayin'. It happens. Then you are screwed.

Or you can take the thrifty, smart- think with your head- route when purchasing your wedding dress. Just like I did... Take that photo of the tag you snapped in the dressing room, and GOOGLE it. You may find that dress listed on some second hand wedding classifieds websites, eBay, etc. But trust me, stay away from the website with the low resolution photos that say you will get a dress "like" the one in the photo. Those come from China and are knock offs. I've read reviews where people were happy with their dress they ordered from one of these websites but also read where people were not happy- got a totally different style, bad fabric, etc. Be smart and don't take chances. But you may just so happen find your very dress at a big discount on one of these other legitimate websites. Make sure that if it is second hand that you ask if it has been altered at all and get the details of the measurements of the dress to make sure it will fit you. If it's too large- that is better than being too small because you can alter it.



Or, let's say you know what style of dress you want or the designer of the dress (thanks to all those visits to the bridal shops with family and friends) and try setting up a saved eBay search (which emails you daily with new items listed that day). At the moment, I have multiple searches set-up for email reminders and I get them daily which make my inbox look like this:



Guess what- I actually check them daily to see all the new dresses listed! These listings include second hand dresses, brand new with tags dresses, brides listing their 2nd option dress (a dress which was bought first and the bride changed her mind for a different dress and decided to wear the other dress), bridal shop closeouts, etc. You MAY be lucky and find the dress that you want or one close to the style you want at a much better price!

And with these eBay searches, I snagged my wedding dress- brand new with tags from a bridal shop going out of business for a WHOPPING $75 bucks! (plus $25 for shipping). I am a LUCKY girl! And you can be too if you just play it smart. I have faith in you! No more spending unnecessary money on overpriced wedding dresses!!!

Update 8/4/12: Here is my beautiful dress!

Santa Speedo Run 2011

Every year since I have moved to Boston I have been participating in a charity run that typically falls on my birthday weekend in December. It's a 1.5k run down the ritzy shopping streets of Boston. Starting at the Lir and ending in front of the Lir. Every year, I always have so much fun doing the run and really enjoy having my friends get together to participate with me. I also even appreciate the ones who simply stop by to cheer me on (*ahem, wimps*) But also the continuous support of my fiance, Courtney, I am grateful for all he does every year for the run for me.

This year, I am running again on Saturday, December 10, 2011 with Dana, Meghan, Andrew, Possibly Erin and possibly Bobby. I am super stoked! Even if it is below freezing like it has been some years. It's fun, and it's for a good cause. What's not to love?!

However, in order to run this charity event, I need to raise at least $400. That is the bottom limit you have to hit in order to run. And this year, I really need the help of family and friends to help me achieve the goal.

This years donations go to the Play Ball Foundation:

*In the Fall of 2009 and Spring of 2010 PlayBall! has funded the first new sports for Boston Public middle school students since 2003.
*81% of the students from the four PlayBall! Football league schools are eligible for free or reduced price lunch. The state average is 29%.
*The disparity in after school sports offered in middle schools in the Boston Public Schools versus those offered at a neighboring suburb’s public school.

If you would be so kind in donating to charity (which by the way is a tax right off) and sponsoring my run this year, please check out my fundraising page here.

A special thanks to all those who have donated in the previous years. And thank you all in advance for your donations this year. I will be sure to update you how the run went!





And lastly, a newsclip from 2008:

Wedding Venue

As you all may have known- we've gone through numerous wedding venues. We've searched high and low for something we liked and that was in our budget. What we came up with was zip, zilch, zero wedding venues in our budget. We looked at wedding venues that cost $2000+ (in the off season) and being that that is half our budget and we'd have to get married with snow on the ground, we didn't move forward with any. There was one we were particularly sold on, but because of a few events in our life, we decided to cut the budget in half which pretty much took this venue out of the running. We were sold on Grand Targhee Resort in Wyoming. A gorgeous destination wedding with the Grand Tetons in the background. But time went by and we had to give up on the search. At this point, Courtney and I decided we'd rather elope than spend a ton of money on one day when it's really truly about us getting married. Not throwing a party.

Of course, that idea would not fly with our family. So a few weeks after we were sitting on the idea, my brother and sister in law came over for dinner. That night, after they listened to us ramble on about our search for a wedding venue on a low budget and all the stress and problems we encountered, they so graciously offered for us to use their barn.

I'd honestly always secretly hoped it would come down to their barn if we didn't decide on a destination wedding. So of course I couldn't help but smile and thank them and tell them we will discuss it. And of course, Courtney was all aboard with the idea to- so we FINALLY have decided on a wedding venue. And besides renting tables, chairs, etc- this wedding venue will cost us zip, zilch! Of course, we'll pitch in to help tidy up the place and help with plants, etc. but all I can say is, yay!!! It only took us 7 months, that's right, 7 MONTHS to find and decide on a venue. Typical, right?

So here are some sneak preview photos of the barn (turned yoga studio) and some photos from my brother and sister-in-law's wedding two years ago!






A big thanks go out to my wonderful family for offering their property to help us out! Love you both!

Foyer Makeover

We've put up with our foyer being an empty hole for the past one and a half years. It's been used as a daily dump off, the dirt collector, and bike storage. After looking at the disgusting peach walls all this time, I've decided it's time to keep my eye balls from burning every time I looked or walked through the foyer- which happens at least 4 times daily.

A few things to note about our foyer:

1. It has a radiator just hanging out right next to the front door, taking up space. It's kind of pointless- because it doesn't even work. Maybe that could be the next project- getting permission from our landlord to remove it. Or figuring out how to actually make it work. But with the draft from the door, it's pretty pointless to try and get it to work. How to fix drafts from doors? Hmmm..

2. The "beautiful" dark wood trim. I HATE dark wood trim. I've tried to persuade my landlord to let me paint it white, and she refuses. It would really open up the foyer space and make it light and cheerful if we could paint it white- but instead we have to work with what we are given. Gloomy "beautiful" dark wood trim.

Being that this is an apartment and I can't totally have my way- here is the makeover of our lovely little foyer.

First, we started off with a great craigslist find. I am a huge fan of craigslist and most of our furniture are second hand steals found on craigslist. We responded to an ad for a dresser being sold for $40. The photo was blurry on craigslist but I decided to give it a shot. When we showed up to an empty house being remodeled and walked into a room with just this dresser- I knew immediately it would be perfect. My whole idea was to get a piece of furniture for the foyer to house ALL our heaps of piles of ski and winter gear. This piece was large- but also had interesting carvings and shapes to it. Sold! We packed it into every little inch of the car and drove 30 minutes home with the two front seats pressed up against the dashboard. It was the longest and most uncomfortable car ride ever. But we made it home. Knowing we were going to paint it, Courtney immediately took the sander to the furniture to prepare it for painting. We later purchased knobs and handles at the Home Depot to update the antique metal pulls that were on it.



No longer will I have a 4:00 a.m. wakeup call on the days I am not going skiing with Courtney. No longer will I wake up to him fumbling through drawers looking for ski gear. Now he gets to make all the noise he wants in the foyer looking for whatever he needs!

While Courtney sanded, I painted the entire foyer a sand color. Courtney was also so kind to primer the dresser the day I left for Orlando- so I came home to a dry piece of white furniture. A blank canvas to paint! We took a trip to home depot and after several arguments about what color to paint it (I wanted to go with more of a gold green and Courtney didn't want gold or green), we settled on a forest green. And so, I took a couple hours each night after work painting the dresser.



To be honest, all the inspiration for the foyer makeover came from this post from Young House Love. I wanted an excuse to try the unique stencil design which cost me less than $15 in supplies. All you need is a piece of cardboard, a small stencil brush, small can of paint, music and patience. This blog has given me great inspiration and I am happy I found it after a recommendation from my sister-in-law, Jamie, who told me to check out their wedding on a budget. It gave us some great ideas on how to save and we will be re-creating a similar reception as theirs!



We also managed to snag a $40 brand new in box $300 chandelier. Another great craigslist find that we picked up on the way home from camping and attending Ullr fest in Vermont. The car was so packed with camping gear we were nervous it wouldn't fit- but we were lucky and it did.



I purchased the rug a few weeks ago on ideeli.com- a rue-la-la and groupon type of site with flash sale deals. While the rug is originally $800, I got it for in the $200 range. It was a bit more than I would have liked to spend but let's just say it was an impulse buy with no returns on the label.

And drumroll please for the almost final product....


I say "almost final product" because I would still like to get a large mirror to hang on the wall above the dresser and an antique looking clock to put above one of the doorways so we also know what time it is as we try to rush out the door...

Oh and a special thanks to our little helper!



To be continued.