Life Happens

Disclaimer: ChooChoo!  Here comes the depressing post train!  I didn't mean for it to be such a downer, but after rereading it, it's a little sad.

Right now I'm knee deep in addressing and finishing our STDs which I can't wait to reveal!  First, though, I want to talk a bit about something I think many of us detail oriented brides forget: life.  It happens regardless of how engorged we all get during wedding planning.

A few days ago, my great uncle passed away.  He was a wonderful man who accomplished some great things in his life as a doctor, husband, and father.  The death was fairly sudden, and it broke me out of my "must finish STDs" wedding planning sunshine and rainbows trance.

Let them eat...styrofoam?

In September, I decided to brave the swarms of North Central West Virginia brides and attend my venue's semi-annual bridal show.  I went with the intention of finding a vendor for my cake.  It took me awhile to get to the cakes though.  Why?  Those sneaky bridal show folks gave us brides a little booklet we had to get signed by EVERY vendor.  If we had it all filled out, we turned it in and were eligible for drawings.  Since I'm always up for free things, I engaged in many an awkward conversation with competitors of vendors I had already booked.  Yes, I have no shame.

How to Lose Friends and Alienate People

It's easy!  Just make your wedding guest list!

I should preface this post by saying that I think in numbers.  It's creepy.  I'm like the female Rainman.  Even as a child, I loved my name because it's length was a palindrome...7 letters for my first name, 3 for my middle, 7 for my last...best name ever?  Oh yeah.

Cocktail Time?

One of the first decisions I made when wedding planning was the desire to have a venue either in or within walking distance of a hotel.  Why?  Because I wanted an abundance of alcohol, and not just any alcohol, I wanted some fresh, microbrewed drafts.  You see, Mr. Biscuit and I are beer people (some would call us beer snobs), and the day just wouldn't be complete without some of our favorite pretentious beers.  How snobby are we?  Well, Mr. Biscuit actually does beer tastings and has a beer blog...and I like cold hoppy stuff.

Flower Power

This morning, while perusing the blog that inevitably makes my wedding feel inadequate, I started thinking about flowers.  I'll be honest, after my not so great meeting with my florist after which I considered having NO flowers, I hadn't given this aspect of my wedding much thought.  Flowers are pretty and everything, they're just not my thing.  To be honest, Mr. Biscuit is more the flower child/gardener of the relationship.

Notice that I drew our thumbs in proportion to our bodies.  

Style Me Redundant

Back when I first started wedding planning, I didn't really look at any blogs.  Martha Stewart Weddings was my main wedding porn, and I hadn't found the other goodies the interwebz had to offer.  Now, of course, there is a plethora of wedding inspiration on my blogreel, but about 7 months ago it was a much simpler time.  It was just me and Martha, Martha and me.

That is, until I saw a friend at a wedding this past May.  She was getting married in August, and nonchalantly told me to check out a certain site if I ever wanted to procrastinate for hours.  She knows me too well.  I feel like I could star in a movie called The Procrastinator.  Envision Arnold Schwarzennager's body with my face, and instead of saving the world, I'd just be putting things off.

She was supposed to be studying...

An Issue With STDs...

No, I don't have a venereal disease.  This is an issue with Save The Dates, which I suppose is a better issue to have.  This post could also be titled, how I came up with my crazy wedding theme.

Before I delve into this story, I'd like to say, great minds think alike...my little (in my sorority) and I came up with the same theme independently.  In the beginning when I had first solidified my theme, it was Mad Hatter and hers is Alice in Wonderland.  Sigh.  Her wedding is 2 months before mine, so I have been a bit apprehensive that we'll have the exact same elements.

The good news is that she is getting married in her backyard, so her wedding will have a much different feel than mine.  I decided to forge on with my theme, and hope that our different tastes would prevail, and that our weddings would still be different.

But yesterday, her STD came in the mail.  First, I'll show you the file that I had originally designed for my STD:

Yes, I am marrying someone and yes, there's a reason for the awkward spaces.   Mr. Biscuit's name and our website have been blocked out :).

Biscuit's Got Her Wedding Goggles On...

I have a confession to make. My name is Miss Biscuit and I am a wedding-holic. No, I don't feel the need to crash unsuspecting victims' weddings and my addiction hasn't ruined my home or professional life (yet), but I've definitely got an obsession.

The wedding has tapped into one of the major flaws in my personality.  You see, as a youngster, my parents rarely told me no (except to getting a race car bed...sigh).   Sometimes, they probably should have said no, like when I tipped my hair red and ended up looking like Ronald McDonald with brown roots and subsequently had to bleach out my hair.  In a way, I suppose they were smart, because I never felt the need to alter my hair unnaturally again. Also, they never had to worry about guys asking me out after that day. Sneaky, sneaky parents.

However, they missed the boat when teaching me about temperance.  Not temperance with food or drink, I learned about that the hard way all by myself.  I'm talking about temperance when shopping.  If I find a pair of jeans I like, I buy 4 of the same pair.  Oh, that's a nice coat...perhaps I will buy every color!  Anthropologie just got a cardigan shipment?  Why, I shall buy MANY designs.  And then I'm stuck with a billion cardigans, jeans I can't even wear during the school week, and 3 coats that I realize don't fit properly when I get home.  I know, I sound like a toddler, but I think that my emotional age is around 2 or 3 when it comes to things like this.

I Fail at Shoe...

It took me quite a bit of time to find the perfect wedding shoe, and I admit, I was very clueless when I began to look.  As much as I like color, I was afraid that a colored shoe would clash with my dress.  Don't remember what my dress looks like?  Here's a refresher.

 Now, I'll let you in on a little secret: I'm really not a shoe person.  Especially heels.  I have worn the same style of pointy toed black Nine West 3" pumps for every classy occasion since I was 18 years old.  When one pair wore out, I just bought a new pair that was exactly the same.  Yup, I'm that girl.  Here's another secret: I have super ugly feet.  I mean, my toes are weird.  There's one that's not totally straight and they're kind of chubby.  OK, now that I've fully disclosed my issues: on to the shoes.

As much as I would love a pair of Louboutins to cherish forever, I can't justify the cost.  I recently bought a pair of gold Nina Culver's for a wedding and at 1/10 of the cost of a designer shoe, the price was right.

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I realize that the gold would look weird with my dress, however they have them in ivory!

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I need a Hankie

So I've been thinking a lot about my invitation suites/Save The Dates, and I purchased a Cricut and a Yudu screenprinter in order to construct them.  Originally, I thought I had it all covered...my STD would have the date coming out of the side a la this:

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Cute, huh?  And for my invitations, I bought chipboard and was going to bind it together as a book, with the cover covered in fabric.  Lofty idea, I know...but I think it's cute.  Here's a sneak peak at the idea for the first page:

Wiggin' Out

No, not really.  I'm not wearing a wig nor freaking out.  However, when I first saw my new hair which I just blogged about, the first thing I said to Mr. B was, "I feel like I'm wearing a wig."

Yesterday was a big day.  I sat around until 12:30 and watched Netflix instant queue with Mr. B.  Then it was time to go to my hair appointment.  My stylist just opened her own shop, so I was super excited to check it out!  It did not disappoint, and she even had coffee and hot chocolate waiting for all of her patrons.

2 hours later, my hair was about 25 shades darker (though close to my natural hair color!) and banged.  I love the color, I think it makes my green eyes pop.  I also like the bangs, but will have to learn to style them.

Then, Mr. B and I moseyed up to Pittsburgh to check out the new Anthropologie in Bakery Square.  I'll be honest, I think I prefer the vibe of the Anthro at the galleria in South Hills, but if I were going to Carnegie Mellon or Pitt, I would have loved an Anthro a few blocks from campus!  I had my once a year 15% off coupon burning a hole in my Longchamp so I shopped till I dropped while Mr. B decided to get some coffee.  I only ended up buying one dress--I just bought two plane tickets to Boston and was feeling super poor--but I'm pretty excited about it.  I think it will be nice to wear to my white coat ceremony.

Bridal Beauty

In light of E!'s new reality show, Bridalplasty,  I want to talk a little bit about bridal beauty.  You always hear about brides wanting to lose weight for their wedding or have their makeup professionally done as they are embarking on the day of 1000 photographs.  I can understand wanting to look your best, but if you don't look like yourself, what's the point?  I'm not immune to this pressure to look perfect, and have made a few tweaks to myself, non-surgically of course, to look a little better for the big day.

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Can I Just Get Three?

Well, I was officially confused with dress prospects, so it was time to actually try a few on. Some were good, some were bad, and some were just, well ugly.  Look and laugh with me.  We quickly realized that since I'm super short waisted, I needed to shy away from anything without a dropped waist.  I won't even show you those pictures because I'm not putting pics that bad of me on the interwebz.

I'll start with the ones that definitely didn't make the cut...please don't laugh at me too much!

Maggie Sottero's Rhianna Royale: I thought it would be a front runner but those beautiful little flowers look like weird cotton balls in pictures.  Plus, I'm so flat chested that I need a bit of a sweetheart neckline.  Sorry Maggie, you'll have to try again.

creepy doll hands!

Maggie Sottero Rowena: I don't know what's going on with that neckline, but it's not flattering on me!  It kind of reminds me of when I tucked down my bra straps because I couldn't find a clean strapless bra to wear with a dress...BAD IDEA let me tell you.  It ends up looking like this haha.

Eh...nice...but just not for me.  I'm also partial to corsets.

I love this style and the shape it gives me.  But it just wasn't it...

I want to suck your blood!!  And...marry you...yeah, all lace dresses do not flatter me.  The bridal consultant nicely said, "It seems to overpower you."  I said, "It looks like I gained 20 pounds in 1.5 minutes."  The vampiress collar doesn't help either...but it would be PERFECT for a Twilight themed wedding!  Come on...I know someone out there's doing it...

OK, away from the bad and the ugly...let's move on to the good.  And we know what this means:

Will You Be My Bridesmaid?

Sometime in August I got the BEST news ever!  One of my BMs is getting married next summer as well.  Almost exactly 1 month before I am.  Well, we went out to lunch together at my favorite hippie burrito joint where I shared my first date with Mr. B and I received a pretty cool envelope...

photo taken by me

Yeah, there's an envelope buried in my poor, overworked and underpaid Longchamp.  What was inside the envelope?!

photo taken by me

 YAY!  Excuse the couch upholstered in yellow lab...we have given up trying to get dog hair out of corduroy...it's impossible.  Reallyreallyreally impossible.

Wedding Roadblocks

A few months ago, I hit a major wedding block.  Basically, my wedding inspiration had been looking like this:

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Why?  Well, I think it all stemmed (pardon the pun!) from a meeting with my florist.  Why is she my florist?  My grandmother has known her for years.  What is adjacent to her flower shop?  A cemetery.

A Huge Dress Mess

I was dress-less and restless for a long time during my process.  It's really not a good way to be as all the opinions, pros, and cons begin swimming through your mind and cause one to become VERY, VERY, VERY confused.

I can has Indecision (source)

Who doesn't like a place card?

I have a confession to make.  I'm not really a fan of those big, giant generic centerpiece table numbers that many venues allow you to use.  I knew from the beginning of planning that I wanted something a little cooler.  At first, I thought I could use the idea of the Mad Hatter's hat and put the table numbers IN the hat...

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OK, yeah.  Maybe not such a good idea.  But don't worry, a few weeks later I came up with a GREAT idea.

Venue Vents

Today, I wanted to talk a little bit about finding a venue.  This was pretty difficult for me.  Before I was officially engaged, I had my heart set on getting married at Fallingwater, a home designed by the awesome architect, Frank Lloyd Wright.

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                                                                             *swoon*

Hark! A Theme Awaits!

So what's the first thing you did when wedding planning?  Instead of doing all of those practical things, like picking a date or a church, I decided to pick a theme.  And then another.  And then another.  Since we're just starting to get to know each other, I'll quickly show you the themes that could have been...

1.) Originally, I fell in love with a Breakfast at Tiffany's theme.  The colors: Tiffany black, blue, and silver.  I wanted the emphasis to be black, with the blue and silver VERY sporadically sprinkled in so it didn't look like too much.  At this point, I also wanted a very sleek sheath instead of a gown, which probably would have looked HORRID on me.  Here is a perfect inspiration board I found to illustrate the theme:

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I know you're thinking, "So beautiful and tasteful!  How did this plan go awry? " Well, I was browsing on modcloth.com, one of my favorites store for gorgeous affordable dresses, and I discovered...

The Attendants

I figured in these next string of posts I'd start writing about what I already have nailed down for the wedding, in the order I arranged them. I've read some places that you should wait until 6-8 months before the wedding to choose your attendants, but Mr. B and I wanted to choose ours ASAP.

The Bridesmaids...since we have 7, I have given them appropriate pseudonyms:

About Me

So who is this person who is going to be rambling on this site three to four times a week? Well, my name is Natalie and I am a 24 year old third year dental student at WVU. I was raised in Morgantown, WV, then went to Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, OH for undergrad to get my degree in Biomedical Engineering. At Case, I joined the sorority Delta Gamma, which is one of the best decisions I've ever made. I'm currently back in Morgantown, learning how to drill and fill teeth. I enjoy running in my spare time, and have a disturbing obsession with almost anything that is sold by Anthropologie.

My fiance, let's call him Mr. Bicycle (I don't think he wants me divulging our names via the interwebz) is a 25 year old chemist at a large pharmaceutical company in Morgantown, WV. He grew up in Fairmont, the town next to Morgantown, and he went to WVU for undergrad. He's hoping to get into dental school and is applying this year. In his spare time he bikes. A lot.

Though Mr. B and I grew up 20 minutes away from each other and had mutual friends, we never met growing up. In early 2009, I was having trouble meeting new people/dating prospects. This wasn't an issue in undergrad, because my school was smallish and had a lot of greek events/activities, so I met new people all the time. But in dental school, I was in school for 10 hours a day, then studying my brains out. No fun extracurricular activities=no way to meet an awesome guy. Anyways, I joined a dating site in hopes that maybe I'd meet someone interesting. Luckily, Mr. B was having the same issue and also joined the same site. He sent me a message, we went out, and have been almost inseparable since. We also own a yellow lab mix named Tsali, who occupies much of our time.

Mr. B decided to seal the deal last March. He asked me what rings I liked, and then tried to act like he didn't buy one after we went and tried some on. I was able to get it out of him, so the proposal was no surprise. I'm not really big into romance/surprises so that was fine with me.

We're getting married July 30, 2011 so I have plenty of time to get everything together. Right now it looks like we'll have between 300-350 people, so it's going to be pretty large. This means that I can't incorporate some of the elements I'd like to, but it should be fun to have such a large affair.

First Post

So, I never thought I'd be starting a blog, but here I am! I'm getting married next July and wanted to start this blog to:
1.) Help organize my thoughts
2.) Give family and friends some insight to what I'm up to for the wedding
3.) Swap ideas with other bloggers...I've been lurking on many blogs for months and I think it's time I finally come out of the woodwork.
4.) Hold myself accountable for the DIY projects I'd like to do for my wedding. I'd like to make my wedding as unique and DIY as possible, but since I'm a full time student I know that I need to put things together well in advance and take some shortcuts where possible.

I'm excited to update this blog and get feedback for the next year. Later, I'll write a post about the two of us and how we met.
-Natalie