The Faulty Florist

My florist just fired me.

Source

Let's go back to the beginning shall we?

I sent out an email that sounded like this:

I am working with a color palette of dark green, gold, bronze/rust, ivory and black. I am not set on only using those colors, just that general color palette.As far as what I want, I am looking for funky, creative, eclectic and creative. I want to use fruits and vegetables, leaves, branches, dead things, alive things, turtle shells (really I saw a picture of this the other day), and whatever else you can think of. Lambs ear, succulent, monkey tails, button mums, I love them all. I only want items that are in season, I think it's a waste to be flying in items from all over the place when their are so many beautiful things located all around me.
Overall, I am looking for someone who is willing to think outside the box. Do you think this could be you?

I received a bunch of replies, but hers was my favorite (she mentioned using onions in a bouquet once, and my dad is an organic onion farmer). We emailed back and forth a few times, she seemed willing to work within my budget and think creatively, and she even looked at a google notebook I created and made comments about the ideas I was considering. I put her check in the mail on the 12th, emailing her immediately to let her know I had sent it out with a SASE and that I would appreciate being notified as soon as she recieved it and to send me a copy of the contract with her signature on the bottom as well. She still hadn't emailed me back to tell me she had it 2 weeks later and so I sent her the following email:

I am beginning to feel concerned because it has been almost 2 weeks and I still have not heard back from you about the check. I'm a very organized bride and so it is important to me that I have vendors who will keep the flow of communication open and current. You have not yet cashed my check and I would like to know whether you have received it. Please let me know if you will be willing to maintain the kind of relationship I am interested in keeping up.
I will be canceling the check on Wendesday if I do not hear from you by then.

She replied within 1 HOUR telling me:

I have received the check and I have deposited it. I will be returning the amount to you however as you are not the kind of bride that I enjoy working with. I will mail you a cashier’s check on Friday.

I have to say that I am a little relieved, I mean, she couldn't email me back for two weeks to tell me where my $250 check was, but she could email me back within the hour to tell me she was done with me? Although I am frustrated that I am going to have to start the process all over again, I am glad we were able to realize our incompatability 75 days before the wedding instead of 5. It's back to the drawing board once again.

Please tell me I am not the only bride "fired" by one of her vendors?!?

Bridal Shoot: Behind The Scenes

My last post on the bridals was already ridiculously long, so I thought I would split this off and do a little "behind the scenes" coverage for you on what doing a bridal shoot in Rome is really like. If you thought it was all glitz and glam those dreams are about to be dashed my friend.

We spent all of our money getting ourselves from Washington state to Rome, and so I ended up walking from place to place in my dress instead of riding in a taxi. I got a lot of strange looks and a lot of whistles.

Don't I look so relaxed and happy, like I'm in my own little bridal induced world? Scroll down to discover the shocking truth....

As you can see, there were HUNDREDS of people at the fountain when we were there. And they all thought it was a good idea to start clapping when we finished shooting at this location. I gave a little bow and a wave because I wasn't sure what else to do. Before we started taking pictures, my Mom and I just turned to each other and said "We can do this, we didn't drag this dress all the way out here to turn around and go home right now."

The later it got, the more angry my face started to look in all of the photos. Definitely not blushing bride material. I took as many chances as possible to rest my mouth and my eyes.

Drunk Italian men LOVE brides. This character asked if he could kiss me while his friend took my picture. I communicated (in Italian) that it was acceptable as long as he didn't slobber all over my cheek.

In Italy, the peddlers roam the streets near the landmarks trying to sell flowers late into the night. That dress acted as a homing beacon for them, and they would NOT leave me alone. This was definitely a time where speaking Italian really came in handy.

I was happy to accept a rose from these nice gentleman, and even told them they could get in one of the photos in exchange for the new prop.

Sometimes when it's 3 am, you make faces like this and think it is sexy.

Best of all, sometimes when it is late at night, you wrap yourself up in your veil like a mummy and think it is a good idea. My mom lowered the camera and shook her head when I struck this pose.

This was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity made possible by both MILLIE and my mom!

Thanks mom!

What did you learn about the tough life of a model when you were posing for your bridals, engagements, wedding, or TTD sessions?

All photos by Denise Andersen, dress by MILLIE.

My Roman Bridals

Again, I am going to point out that this is just one more example of how I am "using my resources". I am lucky enough to have a mother who is a professional wedding photographer. So if that is your resource, I highly recommend using it.

After spending a few days scouting out locations, we decided that we would do the shoot on Saturday night at the Trevi fountain and the Coliseum. We knew that we would have to do the shoot in the middle of the night in order to avoid the crowds, and so we didn't even leave the hotel until somewhere around 10 pm. Walking around Rome in a wedding dress (without a groom!) is an incredibly surreal experience. People are constantly yelling "Tanti Auguri!", which translates roughly to mean "many wishes".

All photos by Denise Andersen.

Appearances can definitely be deceiving. The Trevi Fountain was ANYTHING but devoid of crowds that night. We started the shoot at around 11 pm and were lucky enough to find a little corner empty of people.

Once I established myself in this corner for shooting, people tended to stay away from me. Wearing a wedding dress gives you a strange feeling of power.

To achieve a floaty veil shot like this one, you must have a volunteer willing to throw the veil up in the air and run away as quickly as possible. My volunteer was a girl from the U.S. who had a friend with her that warned me the photos she was taking would be all over Facebook the next day.

I think we made it to the coliseum somewhere around 2 or 3 am. You will notice that in most of these photos I am not smiling, as I was focusing all of my energy towards trying to figure out what to do with that dang veil.

A gentle wind picked up towards the end of the evening and it was just perfect. It made the veil float, and it kept me from doing really weird things like wrapping it around myself like a mummy (you'll see a shot of that later).

These last few were taken somewhere around 3:30 am. I could hardly stand up straight, but the exhaustion was definitely worth it because they ended up being my favorite shots of the night.

If you see a look of extreme pain on my face it's because these shots were taken while my Mom held the camera in one hand and took the pictures, and used her other hand to yank my veil up and down. My poor sister will forever be a little bitter that she wasn't allowed to come along on this trip and act as the assistant photographer. We definitely could have used her for this part of the night.

Hands down, this black and white shot is my favorite. I love the movement in it, and that the coliseum is a little bit muted in the background.

Once again, thanks to MILLIE for loaning us this gorgeous dress, I hope it was worth it for them as it was for us! They have been working on taking new photos of their entire collection, and they look really good, effectively proving that you do not need to haul one of these dresses to Europe to look great in it.

Have you for some reason not had your fill? There are even more pictures to be seen here!

Hey MILLIE You're So Fine!

You know how sometimes someone mentions something, sort of in passing, and it's a thing that you would love to have happen, but you are not sure how serious they were, and you don't want to make the relationship awkward? The beauty of blogging is, you never have to deal with that awkwardness. You can suggest anything on your mind, and hope that it might, possibly, work out.

When I wrote about the vintage bow-on-the-butt dress on my personal blog, I found a comment in my inbox from a commenter called "bridal fashion by MILLIE" saying:

I SO would have let you borrow a MILLIE gown...

I was of course, intrigued, and so I wrote back to her. Our banter continued back and forth, with my hopes slowly building each time that this might actually pan out. It took a couple of emails, and a few phone calls, and then it happened. We reached an agreement. In return for a dress and two boleros, we are going to be providing the images from the shoot for Bridal Designs by MILLIE to use however they would like.

I will let the blogger Millie herself introduce you to what the bridal designs by MILLIE line is all about.

You could say my mom has always been a dreamer, a woman with a million ideas. Then one day, there was this powerful dream keeping her up at night. My mother, Judy Panozzo, had been in the bridal industry almost 15 years when this dream just wouldn’t let her rest. In a shop brimming with the same old wedding dress, she had become extremely bored and wanted to be able to offer her brides a unique, fashionable, well-constructed gown without breaking the bank.

These gown are not your average Run-Of-The-Mill-Use-Sequins-To-Distract-From-
The-Fact-That-The-Dresses-All-Look-The-Same type of dress. Affordable doesn't have to equal ugly people.

I was told that I could pick ANY DRESS and have it shipped right to my door. Going through the dresses to pick the right one was so fun, I kept going back and forth, over and over until I came to a decision. Before you see which one I chose, scroll down through the options to see why the decision was so hard.


The Emily was the first dress we eliminated. Although it would be very forgiving (figure-wise), and would pack so compactly, it doesn't have the drama we were looking for.































This is the Shayne. I of course, love the pleated tulle at the bottom with all my heart, but I am thinking that the twins would be saying hello quite frequently in something this low (if you did not know, I am very blessed in the chestal area). Plus it has straps! I didn't want to be modeling anything that I would be uncomfortable in, since I don't ever wear strapless things.



















The Isabella was actually a contender for awhile, and at one point I told Millie it is what we were going to go with, but something a little bit more me won out in end.




























Sadly, the Tyla had to go because she doesn't have a train. My Mom needs a train to throw around and pose. I think she would give me such a nice long line though.

































The Miranda is actually my favorite dress. I love love love the crossover bodice! She had to be eliminated because of the low back. I would be wearing a bolero for most of the photos, and we can't have a space between the bolero and the dress. That would just look plain silly. Plus, I think a back that dramatic needs to be shown off, not covered up by a little jacket.
























Which left me with.......



The Aurora!

The fit should be somewhat similar to this dress. My Mom loved her because she would be uber-dramatic in front of places like the trevi fountain, and I love the sweetheart neckline! The asymmetrical dropped waist looked flattering, and the back is high enough that a bolero can meet it. I am just over 5'2" so a dress like this, with its floaty bottom will look fine un-hemmed.














So once again I would like to preach about using your resources. This time the resource was my blog, and the kindness of someone I have never even met. I would also like to add the phrase "it never hurts to ask" to my sermon as well. Pursue those leads ladies, because I can hardly believe the photos I have just from replying to a comment left on my blog!

Anyone else have a dress from a less well-known designer or know of some other affordable gowns? Let's get a list started and add it to the Wiki!

Benvenuto and Witajcie

It took my parents quite a long time to get used to the idea that their little farm girl would be moving away to Poland one day. At one time Mr. Avocado was positive that his future wife would have to see Poland before making the decision to live their permanently, but after several months of dating we felt right about making the decision to marry without such a trip.

Once the seriousness of our relationship become clear to my parents they really wanted me to go, and Mr. Avocado and I were completely on board (especially since this trip would be on Daddy's dime and not mine or Mr. Av's). The decision to go was made only a few weeks prior to our departure date and so all of the planning had to happen rather quickly. It was decided that my mom and I would visit Italy for a few days (giving me a chance to utilize the three semester of Italian I have taken), and then tour around with the future in-laws in Mr. Avocado's hometown.

As plans progressed, the idea of a "bridal shoot" in Rome developed. My mom is a wedding photographer, and so it was only a matter of finding a dress. My mom has a fun collection of cheap ebay wedding dresses she has been building up over time, and she sent one of her purchases over to me to see if it might fit.

To put it lightly, it fit more like a sausage case than a dress, as it took two people 5 minutes to get me zipped up inside of the thing. You know how on Victorian movies the girl breathes a huge sigh of release when she is released from her corset? That is how I felt when I took it off. I would like to point out that I am sporting what I have affectionately nicknamed my little finals "Carb Induced Food Baby." I was also running low on conditioner and apparently I feel that the best solution to this is washing my hair less, not in fact, buying more of the $3 Aussie I use.

It was decided that the "butt bow" dress seen above would NOT work, and without any other viable options, we were beginning to think that the dress shoot in Rome was not going to happen....

Ring My Bell

It's been so hard to hold off showing you all my gorgeous ring. I've actually had it in my posession since April. Yes, I, the bride, have had it since April. I found it on the website Sylvia's Antique Jewelry. When we decided that this was the ring to order I wanted to do it as soon as possible because I was worried that someone else might snap it up before I could.

We were dating long distance and Mr. Avocado was coming up very soon and so it only made sense to ship it up to Utah where I was living. After we decided to keep it I somehow ended up storing it in my apartment at school until I moved down to Dallas. I cannot remember why this was the best plan, but it's a good thing that the ring was 3 sizes too small because the temptation to wear it around was huge. I was sworn to secrecy concerning its presence by the Mr. and only allowed to show it to my immediate family.

The diamond is described as an "N" color on the website, which made me very nervous when we put in the order. The diamond does not look perfect by any means, but I'm okay with that.

The ring was listed as made of white gold, but the jeweler we took it to for the resizing told us it is actually made of platinum. WHAT THE? Yes, this makes me a little nervous because it seems like a pretty huge detail to overlook....but I love my ring so who cares? We have never had a full appraisal done on it, so for all I know the diamond isn't even real. The two of us made a decision when we took it out of the package, that the ring was worth what we paid for it because we both loved it. This may be a young and foolish mistake on our part, but a diamond like this is never really going to increase in monetary value, likely only emotional.

If you have found a ring on Sylvia's website that you are interested in, you can read a full review of my experience with them here.

Anyone else order their ring online and have that "love at first sight" moment?

He Did It!

Miss Avocado is back and ringless no more! Let's dive right into the magical proposal, shall we? As you all know, I had an engagement shoot scheduled for the weekend that we were in Mexico on a vacation sponsored by Mr. Avocado's company. I did not know that my little Suavocado had slyly converted a portion of our engagement shoot to a proposal shoot as well.

Before we dive into the pictures let me give you a little bit of back story (or if you are like me, you will just scroll down immediately to see them and then come back up and read the story afterwards).

When we left on Wednesday, I was positive I would have a ring on my finger by Saturday night. Mr. Av did not appreciate my bragging about it, and he spent the entire weekend attempting to confuse me. First he tells me that we can't shoot engagement photos Saturday night because he wants to have some time for just the two of us. The next day he tells me it doesn't matter if Saturday night is free or not and acts like I am crazy for suggesting we might want to avoid making plans. Saturday nights engagement shoot didn't quite go as planned with fog and rain and stormy clouds forcing us to hike all over the coast of Mexico in an attempt to find a beach that wasn't either (a) private or (b) flooded out by a river of muddy water.

We ended the night on a busy beach right next to the city trying to catch some pretty shots at sunset. There was one moment where I was positive that it was going to happen. He had this look in his eyes and I was so ready, but then we were leaving and the moment was over.

That night, he kept telling me how sorry he was, how all of his plans had fallen through one by one and he had realized that he was just going to have to think of something to do in Dallas Monday or Tuesday before I move home to Washington on Wednesday. I was really bummed, and completely convinced that I would be getting on the plane without my pretty ring. I was worried it would be forced and rushed and awkward between him working so many hours to catch up from vacation and me trying to get all packed and ready to move home for 2 1/2 months.

We woke up the last morning of our stay in Mexico at 6 am to try another round of shooting. We shot for about 15 minutes when Kelli, the photographer, whispered in my ear that she would like to capture a few shots of me alone next to this hot pink wall we had seen. We slipped away for a second and told Mr. Avocado we would be right back. I spent the next few minutes trying to think up an alibi, as I was hoping these photos might be something I could give to him on the day of the wedding (I even slipped my little sweater off and paid some attention to my decolletage to give the shots a little va-va voom). He came looking for us a few minutes later telling us that we needed to hurry back to the beach because it was starting to get crowded with people.

As we were walking back, Kelli told us that she wanted to get some shots of us walking and holding hands. She stayed back to catch a few of us from behind, and then all of the sudden she was shooting out in front of us (literally dashing through the water). I thought she was just being really dedicated to the photos until I looked down to see rose petals and candles sprinkled in the rocks and sand. He had things set up perfectly so that I didn't even realize what was happening until we were literally standing right on top of them.

Apparently he had a whole bunch of people in on the setup, as my roomate on the trip was the one who brought down the candles, and a coworker helped him get everything set up on the beach. The concierge hooked him up with some of the biggest, reddest, rose petals I have ever seen.

I told myself so many times that I would not be overwhelmed by the situation and that I would write down everything he said in his proposal right afterwards. Even though I knew it was coming, it was still so fast and wonderful that I can only remember a few things he said. I remember he proposed using the special pet name he has for me, and it still makes me smile every time. The things I do recall, were beautiful and personal, all of the things I wanted most (I believe those few sentences are the most important part of the entire process!)

Despite everyones predictions, I did not cry. Mr. Avocado even revealed that he liked the idea of proposing at the hotel beach because he was worried I would cry so hard that I would smear my makeup and have to run up to the room to fix it. I love that he knows how much these pictures mean to me!

We kissed for a long time. I think Kelli probably got bored.

I rotated between being unable to take my eyes off of the ring and not being able to take my eyes off of my new fiance. I love the word fiance. Fiance, fiance.

I was so happy I kept clapping and yelling out into the ocean "I'm engaged!". I should have learned how to say it in Spanish as well because I don't think the people around me knew what I was saying.

Kelli emailed me these photos at 3 AM this morning, after taking them that morning and flying all day. The pictures are so amazing, and I love looking at them over and over. I think we shot for about 6 hours total during our stay in Mexico, so I should have a whole lot more in a few weeks.

Next up: The pretty pretty ring!

All photos in this post should be credited to my fantabulous photographer (and friend!), Kelli Nicole.