How I Got My Gown

Shopping for my gown wasn't the horror that others had made it out to be, but it wasn't the fairytale *gasp* *tear* *this is it* experience, either.

I actually ended up going to 5 different places, multiple times, before I finally worked up the courage to plunk down the Amex for a deposit: Wendy's Bridal (Cincinnati, OH), Bridal and Formal (Cincinnati, OH), RK Bridal (New York, NY), Adrienne's (New York, NY) and the ever-popular Kleinfeld Bridal (New York, NY).

I thought I knew exactly what I wanted - simple A-line, no lace, a little beading, no poufy skirts, and no mermaid/trumpet gowns - but found that some of my requests really didn't do a lot for my body. My first shopping experience (at Wendy's) was HORRIBLE, and I actually wrote off dress shopping for a bit because of it. RK Bridal was just as bad, if not worse - I say avoid that store like the plague! My experience at B&F was a lot better, if a bit tame in terms of pushing my creative options, and then I actually found my "bridal style" at Adrienne's in NYC. If you've never been there, go! The owner is actually a dress maker, and has a knack for knowing what you'll look great in - and actually uses real pins instead of plastic binder clips to fit samples to your body so you know what the dress will look like on you.

Here are some of the gowns (the good, the bad, and the just plain ugly) that consultants pushed my way:

I finally found "my" gown at Kleinfeld Bridal (a fellow knottie made me go) and went WAY over budget, but I LOVE LOVE LOVE my dress. I didn't exactly cry when I put it on, but I knew I wouldn't be happy in any other gown once I saw myself in it. I brought my knottie friend and FMIL back the next day w/ me, and worked up the gumption to put down the hefty 60% deposit.

Done, done, and done! Now I've just got to wait the 9 months for it to arrive...

[Images: Christina Wu, Jim Hjelm, Melissa Sweet, Paloma Blanca]

Buff Bride - well, sorta

So I finally did it....

I joined a gym. The increasing tightness of my jeans and the pics of my arms during my latest trip to Kleinfeld's finally convinced me that I needed to start working out. Well, that and the fact that walking up the six flights to our apartment was making me a little winded.

While I'm primarily concerned w/ feeling a bit healthier, I have to admit that looking better in my gown and for our upcoming epics and my *hopefully* upcoming b-pics is also high on my list of priorities.

So I walked into my local, friendly Equinox Gym (yeah, I'm one of those people) and promptly surrendered of a large chunk of cash in exchange for my first and second months membership, and 3 months worth of personal training. And today was my first training session.

After an hour of cardio, weight training, and some uber-painful stretching, Molly finally gave me the okay to leave, with the understanding that I'd be back three times a week for the next few months.

Sexy mermaid gown, here I come! :)

Oh, and if any of you are interested in joining the obsessive-compulsive bridal work-out club (i.e. interest in joining Equinox), I just rec'd another email from them letting me know that they'll waive the outrageously expensive initiation fee (it's the price of 4 months membership!) if you join by May 31st. If so, leave a comment w/ some contact info (this is where that fake email might come in handy) and I'll send you the code.

Flowers?

And now on to florists. Flowers are definitely not my "thing," though apparently I do have a taste for the expensive when it comes to floral design. I wanted to stay as far away as I could from roses, and use primarily mini callas, and cymbidium and dendrobium orchids.

We were only able to actually meet w/ one florist - Katie Elfers - while I was in Cincinnati, but we were so blown away by her that I don't feel too terrible about not meeting with more. I found Katie through some fabulous recommendations on the Knot, and once I saw her website (go there! - it's AMAZING!) I knew we had to meet her. Her designs seem very fresh, creative, and modern - things I was definitely looking for in a floral designer. Katie agreed to meet w/ me on her day off (because of my smushed schedule) and so we drove down to a small coffee shop (Reality Tuesday - I highly recommend them for their yummy sandwiches and fair trade-only coffee policies) in Kentucky.

SIDE NOTE: Anyone who thinks they don't need a professional-looking website to get business, take note - we knocked several florists off of our list because their websites were a bit shoddy looking, and we refused to talk at all to DJs who didn't have one. A fantastic website doesn't necessarily mean that you're a great florist/DJ/etc., but it does tell me that you care about your company, and about presentation - two things that I want our vendors to care about on our wedding day..

Back to our meeting. Katie was fantastic. I'd sent et her quite a bit of information before our meeting (she asks you to fill out a form describing your wedding and I had given her access to my planning bio) and she had definitely looked over all of it before we met. She had examples prepared for the look I was going for, and was very upfront about what would work (and what wouldn't), and was incredibly knowledgeable about floral design (at one point I pointed to some greenery in the photo of the bouquet I want - see below - and Katie was able to immediately spout off its name - pretty impressive).


And she was very quick to respond to my questions and concerns. Less than 48 hours after our original meeting, I had a VERY reasonable quote in my hand (a quote, I might add, that was THREE TIMES LESS expensive than our second choice - Benken's Florist). So reasonable, in fact, that I felt a little uncomfortable and ended up asking her for references - which she promptly provided. Her past brides have nothing but glowing reports about her, though, so it looks like we'll be definitely be booking w/ Katie.

If her future work is anything like her past and current work, we'll be worry-free when it comes to floral design on our wedding day.

The Search for the Perfect Buttercream Confection

I decided to extend my trip back to Ohio last week for graduation a few extra days so I could knock a few more wedding-related tasks off my list: cake, florist, and make-up trial. Now that I'm back in New York and taking a few days off before studying for the bar, I decided I'd post a little bit about my experiences with each vendor.

Going into our cake tastings, I had a few requirements: (1) I wanted a fresh cake, not a frozen cake. That immediately knocked several vendors off of our list (including a very well-known bakery in the Cincinnati area); (2) we needed someone who wouldn't charge for doing different flavors/fillings in each layer (I'm more of a fruit person, while Joe is more of a chocoholic); and (3) I had a pretty specific idea about the design for the cake, so I needed someone who wouldn't balk at potentially doing another baker's design.

We first met with Marilyn, of Cakes by Marilyn, in Ludlow, KY. Marilyn works out of her home (her basement has been transformed into an awesome kitchen) and had prepared three cakes for us: a chocolate cake w/ chocolate ganache, a white cake w/ strawberry filling, and a vanilla cake w/ raspberry filling. We spent about half an hour there flipping through her gigantic book of cake designs - I was very impressed that Marilyn offered to make us a color copy of one of the cake designs from her book that we were particularly interested in. Overall, Marilyn's cake was very good. The cake was incredibly moist and her fillings were incredibly tasty. My only complaints would be that her icing was a little too sweet for my tastes (I am NOT a sugar fan) and her cake seemed to be a little less dense than what we were looking for. Her prices, however, couldn't be beat: $265 for a three-tier square cake with different fillings in each tier, delivery included to downtown Cinti (she also had silver pedestal cake stands for rent for a very reasonable price).

We had originally scheduled our next appointment w/ Lisa of Lisa's Cakes in Lebanon (I'd heard her cakes were second only to Maribelle from people who had tasted both) but, unfortunately, I received a call from a very hoarse sounding Lisa the day before our tasting informing me that she was ill and needed to cancel/reschedule our appointment. Unfortunately, I was flying back to NYC before Lisa would be well again, so I wasn't able to schedule a new appointment. I was, however, very appreciative of the fact that Lisa was more concerned w/ keeping her potential clients healthy than with making a sale. If I had had more days to spend in Ohio, I would have definitely rebooked an appointment w/ her.

To replace our appointment w/ Lisa, I turned back to the Knot. A search of the Knot's vendor list and reading through previous posts on the Cinti board turned up Tres Belle. I contacted Tracy at Tres Belle early the morning before I was due to fly out, and she was nice enough to squeeze us in for a tasting that afternoon (immediately earning extra brownie points) - she even found the time to make three completely different mini cakes for us to try, and even packed them up so we could take them home for FFIL to try. At Tres Belle, we tasted a lemon cake w/ lemon filling, a dark chocolate cake w/ chocolate ganache (VERY chocolatey), and a white cake w/ raspberry filling. I liked her cake flavors slightly more than Marilyn's, but her icing seemed to have a "strange" texture. Tracy's prices were *slightly* higher than Marilyn's, but not enough to really make a difference.

Our final cake tasting appointment was w/ the famous Maribelle Cakery in Cincinnati. Walking up to their door, FMIL actually joked that we probably shouldn't go in (we're both bad about picking expensive things - usually w/o knowing the price...) but I just had to try it - their cake design from knottie KaraMGM's wedding was my inspiration for going there and they get such rave reviews on the Knot.

Their shop is an actual shop (not a home-based business), and it was the first place we were offered something to drink with our cake. Once we were settled and had been offered our sparkling water, we tasted 5 different cakes: an orange butter cake w/ strawberry and cream cheese icing, a tiramisu cake, a white chocolate cake w/ mocha and raspberry, a lemon almond pistachio torte, and a chocolate cake w/ Irish cream filling. All were unbelievable. Their cake is a LOT more moist than anything else we tried, and their icing was the first I tried that wasn't sickly sweet. The price, however? Wowza. A little over $1000 for a three-tier square cake for 150 people, delivery included. They have the same silver cake pedestals, for free, w/ a $200 refundable deposit.

Our decision? Maribelle. It's a splurge, we know. But once we'd had their cake, we just couldn't go back. We're having the orange butter cake w/ strawberry and cream cheese filling in the first and third layers, and the white chocolate cake w/ mocha and raspberry filling for the middle layer. YUM! We've both been to weddings where neither one of us wanted to eat the cake, let alone finish it. We'd like our cake to be something that our guests remember - and they'll definitely remember this cake.

And my overall thoughts on cakeries in Cincinnati? You can find a really good cake in Cincinnati for much less than what Maribelle charges - but you won't find anything that comes close to matching Maribelle in taste. Maribelle was originally in our budget (well, a smaller cake from Maribelle was), but we were hoping to find somewhere less expensive. However, once we tasted Maribelle, we had to find room somewhere - there just wasn't any other option. So a word of warning: if you're SURE that you can't find room in the budget, you might want to skip them. I think you might be disappointed otherwise...

First post ever

So I'm new to the whole wedding planning blogging world, but I've been helped tremendously by other brides sharing their planning experiences, so I thought I'd share mine as well.

So far, we have our officiant, ceremony location, reception location (caterer included), videographer, photographer, DJ, and DoC booked. I also purchased a dress about a month ago, so that's another big check off the list. In later posts, I'll probably share some of my experiences about booking and buying all of these.

Coming up, we need to: book a florist, baker, make-up artist, and hair stylist; find a printer for paper products (STDs and invites) - and then make the folders and assemble the invites; arrange for TTD and possible other pics with our photog (our one located in NYC if ours isn't available to travel again); purchase our bands; set up our pre-marriage counseling classes; set up dance lessons; buy our wedding bands; find bridesmaids dresses and groom and groomsmen attire; and so much more.

I know it seems like we've done a lot really early, but (a) we're scheduling an OOT wedding for us. We met in Cincinnati during our 1L year, and the both moved to NYC. Because nearly all of both of our families lives in the Midwest (primarily Ohio) though, we decided it would be best to plan the wedding in Cincinnati - easier for the two of us to fly to Ohio than to make all of our families fly out to NYC; (b) We're both EXTREMELY busy, and wanted to get as much out of the way as early as we could. Joe is a first year associate for a large midtown law firm, so he's actually only home about 10 hours a week that aren't devoted to sleep or work and I'm preparing to take the bar at the end of this summer; (c) okay, I'll admit that I'm a little neurotic when it comes to planning things. But at least then I won't be stressed out over details the day of. ;)

Stay tuned for lots of fun (?) wedding planning escapades.