The Decision

"When making a decision of minor importance, I have always found it advantageous to consider all the pros and cons. In vital matters, however, such as the choice of a mate or a profession, the decision should come from the unconscious, from somewhere within ourselves. In the important decisions of personal life, we... should be governed, I think, by the deep inner needs of our nature."

-Sigmund Freud

The Inspiration

“I don't know the key to success, but the key to failure is trying to please everybody” - Bill Cosby

What an inspiring quote!
This is for all of you who put others before you put yourself and you spread yourself to thin!
Everyone does it, you are not alone!

The Engagement Session At Stinson [Teaser]

So, like I said, I won a free engagement photo session and so we decided to go to Stinson Beach. Stinson is one of my favorite places [in the world!] and since we will be having another engagement session with our [wedding] photographer in San Francisco, we figured that Stinson was the next best place!Last Saturday, we got all dolled up and we headed over to the cold and windy beach in the North Bay. We met with the photographers, there were two and one of them brought their wife to assist with lighting, and we got to posing!

At first it was a little awkward! Fortunately, as the shoot progressed, we got a little more comfortable with the camera and we ended up having a blast! 2 hours later, we were cold and our faces hurt from all of the smiling, we headed back to San Francisco for a cozy night in!

I am expecting all of the photos to be done in about 2 weeks, so you can imagine my surprise when I got 4 "teaser" photos! And there were definitely a tease! Now I am anxiously awaiting the rest of them!!

The Bridal Fairs

Good Morning and Happy Friday!

So I have only been engaged, now, for about 4 months and I have been to at least 8 bridal shows! I drag my mom along and we have traveled all over the Bay Area to meet vendors and get fun ideas! We paid to go to the first one, and since then, I have gotten free tickets to all of the rest! So Exciting!

We went to the first bridal show at the beautiful Claremont Hotel in Berkeley. It was so stimulating, with so many people, many different colors and so many different options for everything! We grabbed champagne and trekked around the 3 different show rooms filled with different types of vendors!

Among the cake tastings and the champagne flutes, I signed up at every table to win what they were giving away! The first thing I won was at a stationary vendor. I won a bottle of Champagne! It was really exciting! I never win anything! Apparently, my luck would change that day because I also signed up to win a free engagement photo session, and I DID! I also signed up with this healthy living table and I won a free 4day 3night stay in an all inclusive tropical resort, PLUS a shopping spree PLUS shopping at a local grocery store! It was ALL so exciting!!

There are no more bridal fairs this year, so I will have to wait until next year when they start up again! By that time, Rich will be around, so he will be able to join me! They are all so fun and I would recommend going to them!

picture

The Dress

I got engaged right around Christmas time which gave everyone the great gift idea of wedding books and magazines! I have read more wedding books than I can count and purchased way too many magazines (for any and all ideas)..they are all just so fun!

I began the wedding process by looking at dresses in magazines and on wedding websites. I absolutely fell in love with a dress that I saw in a bridal magazine layout. After seeing the dress, I immediately went to the website and saw that the designer line was having a trunk show! I looked up locations for the designer, and low and behold, there was a salon located in downtown San Francisco!

I gathered up my mom and my MOH and we headed over to the salon on a Friday night at the end of January [yes, I know - I started early!]. I spotted the dress I liked in the magazine right away, grabbed it, but wanted to give some other dresses and styles a chance. I fell in love with was the second dress I tried on, and OF COURSE, it was the one from the magazine layout! It is absolutely the dress of my dreams! It is totally my style and is flattering to my figure in every way!

The three of us left the store and headed over to Kulettos [one of my favorite restaurants] to have some dinner and drinks and think about the dress...the more time I (and we all) thought about the dress, the more we loved it! The next day, Saturday, we bought the gown!

The following week, the three of us went back to the salon and I was fitted for the muslin (the slip that will be the blueprints for when the gown is made)! The muslin should be arriving in the beginning of May and I will be fitted once again and then the dress will be made and everything will start moving along!

<Update>

When I was in the store, I tried on an off white version of the gown. My heart is set on a white dress for my big day so we are getting the dress in white. Last week, I got an envelope in the mail from the salon and was wondering what it was for. I assumed it was just a bill or something. I opened the envelope and I was surprised to find a swatch of the fabric of the gown and in the color that I am getting!

I AM SO EXCITED!

dress sketch