couture for your butt

I know that like every wedding blog in existence has covered something like this, but I wanted to post something and I think this is very interesting...but that might just be because I'm a sewing nerd.
You may have seen this on CNN or even Boing Boing last spring--I, of course, read about it on the wedding blogs because it occupies my life--but the dress above is made of toilet paper. It is surprisingly gorgeous, given the fact that paper makes a lousy fabric (I know from experience--my patterning final was a wedding dress made out of overnight envelopes and bubble wrap...I called it the "mail order bride" and it gave me a ulcer the size of a mango)

Anyhoo, everyone oohed and ahhhed over it but...I'm kinda bummed that this dress got so much coverage. Because as beautiful as it is, lots of toilet paper dresses exist out there and many of the lesser known ones aren't impressive for dresses made of toilet paper...they are impressive period, and I kinda wish they were really fabric and really on my body.

The winner of the cheap chic toilet paper dress contest this year, a surprisingly fitting mermaid:

Impressive, but not so much as the same site's 2006 second place
(she was totally robbed, obvs)

Yeah, these are pretty. The people who entered these contests are INCREDIBLY talented.

But Cashmere toilet paper doesn't have "contests" with people at home making tp dresses...they hire designers to make dresses out of toilet paper. Obviously some high quality tp--it's called cashmere, like the overpriced sweaters, only it's paper, and it's for your butt--oh, no wait, this is just Cottonelle but in Canada. Silly Canadians. But you got to admit THESE ARE SOME GODDAMN BEAUTIFUL DRESSES.





Toilet paper. That is TOILET PAPER.
The above are from designers, but apparently they also held a scholarship contest for design students in Montreal and Toronto, which blogger won't let me share, but they can be gawked at here.

I just wanted to share, to spread the flabbergasting around.

unforseen delay

YES, I tried on the shoes, and YES, one of the pairs was perfect. I have not posted about it yet because of a bit of circumstance--mainly, someone breaking into my car--has occupied my time with stinky non-wedding shoe related business.

Do not worry! Nothing was broken or stolen, in fact they actually left stuff in the car. Silly criminals.

But I'll post as soon as I can about shoes! And maybe I'll throw in some greeter penguin, since you've been so very patient.

Bridesmaid Dresses

or, alternately:
SHIT.
or, third title option:
Bride Lesson: Stop Assuming Things Will Make Sense
and last but not least:
Please Help Me.

Let's go back that beautiful moment in Loomis when I realized that I was actually wearing the dress in which I would be married. It was a lovely moment. Things were in place. We decided while we were there that we should maybe look into bridesmaid dresses and have my sister (the Mrs-0-H) try on a few of the styles and colors I had been considering so we could see those colors next to my dress because, you know, it all goes around the dress.
Getting married is a very selfish endeavor.
Well it turns out I was once again wrong about what I wanted for this wedding. Or I suppose "Ignorant to the Beautiful Possibilities" is a nicer way to say it. I said I wanted a short, simple dress, and I end up with a long, elegant, pleated to within an inch of its life confection of dress perfectitude. I also thought I wanted plain brown dresses for the bridesmaids, possibly bought from an online source like jcrew, overstock.com, or even Target. I figured brown was a nice neutral safe ground and would maximize re-wearability.
But then I realized, when I actually had Jessie trying on dresses next to my dress, that I had forgotten that I have really beautiful bridesmaids with lots of personality, and that neither of those things were being represented by "brown." So I decided to shake things up a bit and go back to a color scheme that I had briefly considered: purple and orange. Or, as we later discovered, "Grape" and "Sienna." These colors are really gorgeous together, are Halloween and Fall themed without making one gag, and lucky for me, I have two bridesmaids that will look brilliant in burnt orange and three that will glow in dark purple. Once we got down to the swatches, clearly the perfect colors were made by Alexia designs. They didn't have any dresses that really thrilled me in the store, but they gave me a website address where I could view all their styles. I went, I looked, and I was unimpressed...until I chanced a click on their separates collection, where I found this:


I really love this dress. The pleating on the top hollas back to my dress while also offering a little tummy camouflage (I figure if my dress lets me stick it out all the way, why not theirs?) I also loved the idea of separates because my maids are all different sizes and I didn't want them to spend an arm, a leg, and a sleepless night over alterations. It seemed perfect!
Until I emailed for a quote and it turns out they don't make tea-length skirts for their separates.
THIS MAKES NO SENSE TO ME WHATSOEVER, especially since most of their bridesmaid dress styles are available in tea-length and it's like the most popular style at the moment.
So I had to look somewhere else, where the colors are not "Grape" and "Sienna." (which, not to have a total bride moment, but other colors of burnt orange and dark purple are not the same. Boo hoo hoo. Poor me.)

I remembered Jessie trying on an Alfred Angelo at the store. I liked their purple color better, but the orange was just a little more orangey than I liked. But I would rather have "slightly orangey" than no orange at all, and I found out he has a separate line WITH TEA-LENGTH SKIRTS. As one OUGHT TO HAVE. Suck it, Alexia.Their separate line has several super cute options that add pleats and visual interest:





The only problem I have with their line is that in the virtual simulator the skirt seems to be a slightly lighter color than the tops. I'm not sure if this actually bothers me or not. Probably not. There's also a dress or two, although I'm not entirely willing to give up on the separates:
So I thought, let's go with Alfred Angelo then. These are pretty cute!


But then I was reminded today by one of my fabulous fellow costumer friends that if I really liked the Alexia ones, the skirts could probably just be chopped off by a skilled seamstress and it wouldn't look to funky. So now I'm totally torn.

Alexia pros: The orange is a prettier, more sophisticated color, and I think Alexia is slightly cheaper than Alfred Angelo. It also has the most structured pleating, and the skirt seems to match colors almost perfectly. And, here's a big one, Alexia is carried by net bride, so girls who couldn't find a salon or wanted a discount could order online through them.

Alfred Angelo pros: We wouldn't have to worry about someone butchering the bottom skirt because it would be the proper length. Alfred Angelo is also a lot easier to find in salon if not on net bride. Also I think the pleats on the first top pictured above look the most like the ones on my dress.

Please give input, ESPECIALLY if you're one of the bridesmaids in question...this has to be decided SOON!

But just so you can see I'm not crazy, check out how pretty the colors will look together:

wedding nightmares already? damn.

Last night I had a dream that it was September. I still didn't have a venue, a photographer, or a dress. None of the bridesmaids had dresses, no one had been invited. And of course I freaked out. I said, we have to put it off a year! And like most of the dreams I have this way, I spent the entire dream being incredibly frustrated and on the verge of crying as people said, no, you can not have the wedding NEXT Halloween, you must have it in three weeks, and I woke up still convinced that I was terribly behind on everything in the world.

If these dreams continue until October I will not be happy. Greg probably will, because my usual dreams are really weird, and at least this one wasn't disturbing. (Yesterday, before the wedding dream, I dreamt I argued with a boy I vaguely knew in high school about whether or not he gave a shit about webpage design as I was eating a rock. It was one of those fancy agate ones that they make into bookends and coasters, and it tasted like strawberries, but it was still very much a rock.)

I don't get to go to the bridal show today because of an impromtu rehearsal that was planned against my will. Damn. That might be why I feel so...apprehensive all of the sudden, about getting it all done.

You have ten months girl. Get over yourself.

wtf wedding edition

every once and a while I will browse a site full of wonderful ideas and great products and then I find something that just...isn't...right.


This little lady was part of a "good wedding hair" segment on aisledash.
I agree that the hair is very pretty and classic, probably something I should consider for myself, but is it just me or does this girl really REALLY look like a real doll?
Maybe it's the elbow or the blank stare but it is seriously creeping meright out.






AND THEN, excuse me, but is this not the most tasteless save the date magnet you've ever seen?