Monday, July 31, 2006

Hmmm, I think I might like lace

I really do like these lacey overlay gowns:
http://cgi.ebay.com/2006-Noblest-Beach-Wedding-Dress-Cheap-Bridal-Gowns_W0QQitemZ280011371843QQihZ018QQcategoryZ63851QQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem#ebayphotohosting















A silly sounding request...when you make a reply to one of these posts, could you sign your name at the bottom? Even if it is posted anonymously - that way I have some idea of who wrote. It is a little weird getting all these anonymous comments!

Friday, July 28, 2006

More dresses

Oooooh, these are pretty!
http://a6.dessy.com/index.cfm?go=bridal

And I love this one, plus it's on ebay in a size 4. Size 4 might be a squeeze for me though... I don't think I could fit that, but maybe a size 6 will pop up on ebay soon!!
http://cgi.ebay.com/Melissa-Sweet-Wedding-Dress-Sz-4_W0QQitemZ160011037174QQihZ006QQcategoryZ63851QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem


I really like both of these dresss. I could have the top dress shortened by a few inches and then it would work on the beach. I discovered that the length of dress that would be best is called a "tea length" dress.

Woman from lighthouse point still hasn't called back. We might go check out beach locations this weekend, though unfortunately I've got to work all day tomorrow and it's supposed to rain on sunday. I hope the weather cooperates. Did I spell cooperate right?

Anyway...

Thursday, July 27, 2006

Found the diamond?

Maybe!

It was so awful and muggy out today. When it got cooler, Greg and I decided to take the dogs for a walk down to the green. Last week we had decided to use the jeweler Derek Simpson in New Haven, who is going to design and build the ring that we'd like. We hadn't heard back from him about diamonds (he was going to get some quotes for us from his supplier), so on our walk with the dogs we stopped by. It turns out he had two stones for us to see - meanwhile, we have two dogs tugging at their leashes and jumping on everyone walking by. So we did something you're never supposed to do in New Haven: we tied them to a tree. (There's supposedly lots of illegal dog fighting out here, so you should be careful about leaving your dog where it could be stolen). But we watched them the whole time out the window. When we were not staring at the sparkly diamond. Or examining it under a scope. Yeah, totally focused on the dogs.

The diamonds were beautiful (of course!!). So sparkly!! He showed us two stones:

Stone A: 0.71K, F color, higher quality cut
Stone B: 0.80K, G color, lower quality cut

And what was interesting was that even before he described the stones to us, he took them out and held them up to the light. For stone B, I was like "Wow, pretty". For stone A, I was like, "WOW! Amazing!". I could really tell the difference in color, even though it was subtle. And it was literally impossible to tell the difference in size. Stone A was much prettier, more sparkly, and a better cut and far preferable to both Greg and I, even though stone B was about $600 more.

Good-to-know...

So I got to put the diamonds on my hand (excuse me while I drool) and see if the 0.71 was big enough. Plenty big. Looked huge on my hand. I have a 3.5 ring size, so frankly anything would look huge (finally an advantage to my irritatingly small hands that require special order XS size latex lab gloves that we never seem to have enough of)

Anyway, it was really interesting. He quoted us a price which sounded about reasonable for what I had seen online, and he made a photocopy of the GIA report for us to keep. I I just talked to my cousin Tracey, who is a GIA certified gemologist. She grades diamonds for a living and thought that this diamond sounded reasonable - she's going to call me tomorrow at lunch to give me a more professional opinion

There are some options if we want to be patient. We could look for a better color and sacrifice clarity. Or a better cut and sacrifice color. Whatever it is - there are so many options.


Greg just got home and we talked it over. I think the 0.71k is going to be it. We both agreed we could keep shopping, but why? We're the sort to stress out over decisions and micromanage everything to death. Seriously bad micromanaging (we call each other M&Ms - micromanagers). So we don't want to do this with the ring. We found a setting we love. We found a diamond we love. Why torture ourselves over decisions? It's beautiful, it's not a ripoff, and I know going with this jeweler, with his preferences, will mean that for the life of this ring, we have someone who will polish it, resize it, and take care of it just down the block from us. I think this is a good decision.



And I'm uber excited!!

So assuming my cousin still has good things to say tomorrow, we'll call Derek Simpson tomorrow night and tell him to go ahead with the ring. He will make a wax model based on our photograph so we can easily make changes and shape the ring. Then he'll make a silver cast model with a fake stone and I can try it on. Then he'll make the real thing.

Cool.

I can see why diamonds are so popular. In theory I'd like to do the socially responsible thing and not get a diamond...but jeez, they're just so pretty. Doesn't matter if the price isn't related to any utilitarian value. It's sparkly!

Wednesday, July 26, 2006

Greg is now thinking maybe we should try something larger, particularly since we're going to do the food ourselves at a free venue (so adding guests is not as expensive) and potentially having music as the main attraction. We'd really like to hire Rohn Lawrence, a local jazz musician who plays at the martini lounge Sidebar. He's a really, really good guitarist. The music is one of the things that is undecided so far. Anyway, I dunno about making it larger. I really like the idea of a small and simple thing.

My grandfather likes the idea of being the officient, and I am very excited about that. I think it would be an amazing family tradition to start.

The woman from Lighthouse Point (the New Haven beach we'd like to have the wedding at) hasn't called me back STILL - a week and many messages later. There's an antique carousel in a building that can be rented out. We'd love to rent the building but the carousel is actually really expensive to rent. They staff it with people, so your guests can take a ride. It seems kind of hokey, but also really cool because heck, who has a carousel at their wedding? Anyway, we don't even know if the beach is an option yet - since the woman is not calling me back.

To clarify: the pic of the ring (below) is one I found online. Shopping for a ring turned out to be really difficult for a number of reasons. (1) Stylistically, I'm not a fan of the traditional settings (2) Realistically, I wear latex gloves that I take on and off all day and the traditional settings all put the diamond like 5mm off the ring - no good (3) Looking in person is complicated. All the shops are different styles, price ranges, and hours of operation. It takes a lot of effort for very little reward to go ring shopping. Sooooooooo I spent I a lot of time looking on line and printing up photos of what I like. Greg and I found that ring and loved it, definitely better than anythign else I've seen. I have no idea where the photo originally came from!! So we brought it to a local New Haven jeweler, Derek Simpson, who is going to custom create the ring in a 18k White Gold alloy (diff than the normal one, not nickel alloy... I think he said Palladium - I spelled that wrong, no risk of allergies). Anyway. The setting is actually totally reasonable to have done custom. It won't be any more than a nice out of the box setting.

That's it for tonight. More useless thoughts :D

Keeping the dress a secret

Someone wrote: isn't the dress supposed to be a secret from the guy? Yup, but I wanted his input on a few general ideas before picking something. I guess it could be a total secret, and he better be happy to see me regardless - but I thought I'd run a few general ideas by him to get his reaction: e.g., poofy skirts, sheath dresses, fancy vs simple. Now I've got a better idea of the type of thing he'd like, and it's in line with what I like anyway. Although, I do like the top one. But it is true that it would not work in the sand!!

Anyway, the middle one is really beautiful. I love the arms that hang down.

One more thing: when you post a comment, you can post anonymously. But can you put your name in? That way I know who thinks what! :)

Okay, during my not working while I ought to be, I finally looked up where these two beachy/lacey dresses that everyone seems to like best came from. They are from:

http://www.kleinfeldbridal.com/index.cfm

Which is, most fortunately, located in the city - an hour and a half train ride from new haven, and a good distance for a mother-daughter excursion when my mom flies out. They have a ton of designers and some really beautiful gowns, including more modern styles. Unfortunately I missed their sample sale!! 3 days ago - July 23rd. At a sample sale you can get the floor samples for like 80% off, darn.

Tuesday, July 25, 2006

Here's a princess dress if I've ever seen one


I've been looking for this one for a while. I found it a while back and then I couldn't find it again. This is way out of the zone of the types of dresses that I have been looking at, but it's soooo pretty :D We'll see if I end up with a tradditional wedding dress after all. But how on earth could I ever wear that on a beach?

From: http://www.morilee.com/















Here's another one from the same designer as the dress in my other posting:



















Then again, something like this in ivory is probably more my style:

Ring and Dress Ideas

Here is a photo of the ring that greg and I found


















And a photo of a dress that is too expensive in its original form, but could potentially be found in knock-off version. Right now I'm just trying to come up with some ideas about what would work on a windy beach

My friend Jessica suggested I start a "wedding blog". I feel kind of silly sharing everything with everybody else out there, but at the same time I really want to record things in a journal-like manner...and I know I'll never actually keep a written journal (because I have tried and failed at that so many times!). So this blog is where I'll put the public-kosher wedding updates (any of the more interesting gossip will have to be told individually :D)

My parents have decided that they are buying the dress. I really appreciate it. My mom and I had a talk about how to make decisions about the wedding without anybody stepping on anybody else's toes, and I think it went really well. My mom is going to fly out to CT in late September to do some wedding planning and dress shopping. That should be fun!! I'm not sure exactly what we'll be planning, since Greg and I are determined to keep this whole thing really simple. But it'll be fun regardless.

Here's the plan so far.

Location: Public Beach

Food: Not catered. We'll do it all ourselves, probably mostly things prepped the day before and possibly some seafood on the grill

Decor: Minimal. I'm thinking Tikki torches, a big bonfire, and candles everywhere. Vegetarian smores might have to happen if there's a bonfire. We might be able to use a pavillion on the beach rather than rent tables, in which case maybe do some nice linens on the tables.

Flowers: My mom's going to kill me when she reads this, but I'm thinking none except for a bouquet. Maybe wildflowers

Officient: My grandfather doesn't know it yet, but I'm going to ask him if he'll perform the Jewish ceremony. My cousin did that at her wedding and I thought it was really nice.

Music: If at all possible, Greg and I's favorite Jazz musician in New Haven, Rohn Lawrence. He does do weddings, but it might be too expensive. We'll see.

We've limited the guest list to around 60 total. There are so many people that we could invite. Especially for Greg - he's lived in the same location most of his life, so there are a lot of friends that he's known forever and would love to have there, even if they don't keep in daily touch now. In my case, I don't have many friends, and I definitely don't have any childhood friends, so it is easy for me to cross people off. It'd be nice to be able to invite whoever we want - but at the same time, I think we also both feel that we want this to be simple and small. So in some ways this is a way for us to have a reason to keep it small. There's something more significant about it if the people there are people who truly mean a lot to us. I just hope that nobody in our extended family gets hurt.

Enough typing for now. We'll see if I keep this up :)