The Avocado Bun Video

After I posted about my bridesmaid birdcage veils, Dumpling and Sea Breeze asked how I did my hair for the veil modeling, and I decided to do a little video to show how insanely easy it is. I'm sorry that the fan in the background is so loud and distracting, and that the quality of the video isn't that great (I had to optimize it to a very low quality in order load it on You Tube) but I was rather impressed with how fabulously my little Pia II handled my first attempt at video making.

Certainly let me know if you have any questions, and good luck with your own hair trials if you decide to do something similar for yourself on your big day!

Alas, don't ask me why I started with "Today I am going to show you...." which makes it sound like I do this for a living or something :) I have been watching too many late night infomercials while I wedding plan :)

Evelyn: Broken :(

I just did something really sad. I stuffed my beautiful dress into a tiny little cardboard box and sent it back to the bridal shop in Utah. This turn of events happened when I revealed her to my mom in Washington and she pointed out two major problems.

I wouldn't want to have to be on my hands and knees searching for missing buttons on my wedding day! The button on the left is connected by only one string.

This was the biggest problem. The bridal shop informed me that this looping is custom made by the designer when the dress is made, and we had been unable to find any cord that would match in our hometown.

Yes, this might seem like an overreaction to those who don't have wedding dresses, or who aren't getting married, but I spent so much money, as many other brides can identify with. The most expensive garment I ever own should be flawless straight out of the shop.

When we discovered the problem, I began conversing back and forth with the owner of the shop. This was a really smart move on my part, because now I have everything in writing if their are any problems (I think you can imagine how nervous I am that I am not going to have it back in time for my wedding in 23 days!). I thought my grandma could fix it at first, but things weren't going well, and the shop owner finally agreed to pay for 2 day shipping both ways and fix the problems at no extra charge.

I really want to like this shop, and I think I still do, but right now everything is hinging on how speedy they return the dress, and how it looks when I pull it back out of the box again.

To keep this post from being a big bummer, I leave you with a little trivia. Who can name the character, TV show, episode, and missing prop from the reenactment below? Double points if you can quote her exactly. And tell me why she has the dress on. And a special high five from me if you can do it all without watching the quote below.

Scrub to about 1:10 if you need a little refresher (or just watch the whole 4 minutes, it's one of my favorite episodes!)

How did you handle your vendor snafus?

Drippy Candles On Parade

I'm working on a project that I am not completely ready to reveal yet, something with a little bit of crystal vintage glam. You may be able to figure out what it is from this photo.....

Please ignore the cheesy and overdone vignette around the candle, I just wanted to hide the background a little bit so that the big reveal of one of my favorite DIY wedding details would be a little bit of a surprise.

I need to know. Does this look like a cool, Phantom-esque effect? Or does it just look dingy and dirty? We want to do the melted candles no matter what, we just didn't know there would be so much blackness (so I might have to break all of this off and try again). The candles are ivory, but they are cheap ones from wal-mart which means they are only ivory coated. I also didn't know about this wick trimming thing that would keep them from getting black. So I burnt them, and now the leftover candle is ivory, and the melty/drippy wax is a nice dingy white and black color. I am getting married 3 weeks before Halloween, so maybe I should go for at least one spooky element at the wedding ;) I kind of like it, kind of don't.

What do you think?

Our Relaximoon

I think we booked what some might consider to be the least exciting honeymoon ever. I've dubbed it the Relaximoon because the focus isn't seeing and experiencing everything, it's on doing nothing. I want to take a book and read it. Read the whole thing from cover to cover. And I might even find a little bit of time to write a post or two, as I have already checked to find out if wireless internet will be available :)

The first 3 nights we will be staying here:

Then we will drive 3 hours to stay here for 4 nights:

Each of those adorable little buildings is a separate hotel room called a cliffhouse!

Why would some consider this so boring? The first room you see is located at Hotel 1000, our wedding venue.

The second location? Well that is where I work. Yes, I am honeymooning at my work. The very same place that forced me to work a 13.5 hour catering shift until 3:30 AM (when I live 40 minutes from work) this past weekend. My work is also a winery, and neither of us even drink wine.

Why would we do this? Because our total cost for lodging for one week at these two hotels (which are both placed on Washington CEO magazines Top 20 list of hotels in Washington state) will be less than $1,000. Yes, you read that right. This may be my most glorious example yet of utilizing your resources in planning your wedding. Just for fun I've done the research to see what it would normally cost to stay in these rooms, and the cost would be at about $2000 after tax. I almost salivate thinking of all of the things we can do with the $1000 we are saving (I salivate because most of that money is going towards splurging on room service and bath bomb filled bubble baths).

After I moved home for the Summer I started working at Cave B Inn, where I have worked for the past 2 summers. It's a long drive to get there, and I complain a lot right now because I don't want to be working their anymore, but I really love the place. I am sure I will have lots of pictures for you after the honeymoon that will help you understand just how breathtaking the views and the sunsets are. Plus, after working in the restaurant for 3 years I pretty much have the breakfast, lunch, and dinner menus memorized and will be able to order all of our meals from memory :)

As soon as I started working again I turned in employee discount applications for all of the properties that fall under the MTM Luxury Lodging umbrella. They have boutique hotels all across Washington state (and some in Boston and San Diego if you are interested) and if you are working at one property, you can stay at any other property for a discounted rate of $95-$120/night. Staying for a rate that low is like getting away with murder when you consider that the majority of these rooms start at $300/night and go up from there.

The biggest drawback? At Cave B my customer service will be provided by the very same people I work with on a daily basis. Guess it is time to go apologize to that jerk in guest services who freaked out on me after a little disagreement we had on Saturday night. I wouldn't want him deliberately denting our rental car when I handed him the keys and ask him, ever so sweetly, to trek outside in the freezing cold weather to bring down yet another bucket of ice for the newlyweds ;)

Anyone else utilizing their resources for their honeymoon?

Golfing Groomsmen

I have been working on him for weeks, and I was finally able to get Mr. Avocado to agree to the groomsmen gift I had discovered. We didn't have the budget to give them anything that they would want to keep for a long time (which is ideal if you are going to put money into buying an object) so we started looking around for "experience gifts" instead. We wanted something more personal than gift cards, and it just so happens that our reception venue had the perfect solution!

As I am awkwardly demonstrating we will be treating the groomsmen to an hour of golfing in the virtual golf club at Hotel 1000! I think that my form in the photo below shows you why they will not be inviting the bride down for a round.

The club offers a variety of course options, which means that they will be able to experience the excitement of Pebble Beach and still make it to the ring ceremony on time. I assume they will want to do a little competing, and the longest drive or closest to the pin competition options should be just what they are looking for.

Did you give your groomsmen an "experience gift"?

The Stargate Proposal

Think about your dream proposal. Do it right now. Does it involve candles or Paris or expensive romantic dinners? Mr. Avocado and I were eating a nice dinner together one evening when he leans over and asks me if I would like to know the dream proposal he came up with, but could never do. I was a little nervous that he might actually repeat one of the "dream proposals" I had been thinking of and dash all hopes of having it, but what he had come up with was so much better.

He would take me here, to Cheyenne Mountain, and propose at the top.

Source

Then we would proceed to get the highest level security clearance from the United States Government to go down to the underground facility where they store the Stargate. We would line up the seven chevrons and travel through to visit world after world together.

Source

Sounds wonderful doesn't it? I am sure it also sounds impossible since the entire proposal is based upon a fictional TV series. We love watching Stargate SG-1 together, and it is definitely one of the things I miss most about being apart. If we were to go into a crowded room and talk about the stargate, odds are that no one would know what we are talking about. So it feels like our little secret, the special thing that we share, one of the many little things that we will share throughout our marriage.

What are some of the little things that you share with your significant other?

Bye Bye Babies

I just put all 75 of my Seattle wedding invitations in the mail today. Wheeeeeee! I can't show you everything yet because I still have 200 announcements to finish assembling and mail off, and I want them to be a surprise for all of those receiving them in the mail. I can give you a little sneak peak of all of their pretty pretty parts though!

Yummy yummy linen texture!

I managed to work a map of Poland into the design. It should help those that didn't pay enough attention in geography in high school :)

So many lovely buttons! Buttons that cost me 20 cents to mail!

My two favorite parts. Our quote and a little stitching action.

I am so proud of them. They are my little DIY babies that I cried, stressed, and sometimes yelled about (so sorry for yelling at you mom). I can't wait to show you every single little detail!