New Year, New Marriage

Holy New Year Wedding Madness, Batman!  It's the day before my wedding.  The only things I need to do today are get my nails done and attend the rehearsal/dinner.  Last week, I was dreading the whole ordeal.  I was convinced that I had created the Frankenstein of weddings and that it had turned against me.  I was sick and tired of anything wedding related.  On Monday morning, the stressful haze began to clear. I woke up and smiled because I knew that I would be seeing the future Mr. Palindrome (after a 21 day hiatus filled with finals and holiday travel).  On Tuesday, we completed our 4th move of the year together (2 for him and 2 for me).  On Wednesday, we transferred all the wedding items to my planner, Ms. P.  Yesterday, we rang in the new year with members of our wedding party at the Bier Garden.  Good beer + good German food = good times had by all.

Today, I woke up and smiled again.  The joy that everyone had predicted would ensue after last week's shenanigans has filled my soul.  My wedding week mantra has been, "At the end of the aisle, our marriage begins." I'm ready to enter into the mysterious relationship of joining two into one.  Today, I'm excited.  And happy.  And at peace.

I'm going to try to refrain from yearbook-esque exclamations (Can you believe it? What a ride! You're the best!) and instead leave you with a little wedding day treat.  My ridiculously talented videographer (technically, my marriage documentarian!) shot a save the date shortie.  I don't think that I've ever told you the story of how we met.  Let us tell you now, in our own words.  (Special shout out to Mrs. Apple Cider for the music suggestion!)


Jason + Melinda // Save the Date from Mark Mroz on Vimeo.

Filmed and edited by Mark Mroz of Goodrich Creative.

Happy New Year dear friends!

Ahead of my time

So apparently the NYT just figured out that a palindrome date is happening soon (thank to my friend, D, for the link!).  Oh, Dr. Inan, you are about one year too late in the palindrome date discussion - blushing brides all over America (where the MMDDYYYY format is most dominant) figured it out about 3 nanoseconds after the rings were slipped onto their fingers.  Can you figure out the NYT's puzzle (linked above)?

01-02-2010, yeah baby!

Finishing Touches

Along with the pomanders and bouquet, I cranked out a clutch.  With my accessory budget dwindling from my schizophrenic shoe purchases, I was left with next to zilch for a clutch.  Do I need a clutch? No.  Do I want a clutch? Yes.  I plan on carrying a small point and shoot, my lipstick, my ID, some cash, and my Blackberry.  How else will I be able to twitter at the reception, while looking good and sipping champagne??? (JK, I may or may not actually sign on to twitter to update from my reception).

Anyways, I knew the look I wanted (slender and clean) and already had the material as leftover from the pomanders, so I started searching for a purse frame.  There were surprisingly few sources, but I found a frame that I thought would work from an Etsy seller.  I was at first concerned that it was shipping from overseas (sometimes I've had things that take a month to ship, etc), but the shop had an excellent track record.  Thai Supplies sent the frame right away and more quickly than some domestic sellers with whom I've worked.  Perfecto!

 Sourced from Thai Supplies Website

After playing with some of the extra fabric I had, I decided that I wanted to buy some blue fabric to line the inside.  The total cost for the blue taffeta was about $4.00.  I followed this tutorial from U Handbag's blog.  She has a ton of really great tips and tutorials for many different styles.  I made a pattern with some tissue paper and then cut out two satin pieces, two taffeta pieces, four interfacing pieces and two lace overlay pieces.

The sewing was extremely easy.  Even if you're not super talented and have a lead foot (insert photo of me sewing like a bat outta you know where), this project will turn out ok.

The part that was not so easy was gluing the material into the frame.  It's a bit messy and I thought I could have used two more hands.

If you're super OCD, the inside may bother you a little.  I'm pointing to the visible stitching that I had to do in order to close the bag.  If you're a super sneaky sewer, you probably could have done a better job than me at hiding the stitches.  For me, this worked just fine.

Another DIY accessory I will be wearing is my birdcage veil at the reception.  You've seen it in my hair trial pics (here, here, and here) and fitting pics and I promised a little more detail.  Others have done fantastic tutorials that you can follow (Mrs. Powder Puff), but if you're more organic and just play with craft items, I'll tell you my secrets for crafting a birdcage veil with fascinator.

I started by playing with some excess tulle from my cathedral veil while I was on the phone.  I was bunching it and re-bunching until I realized what I was doing with my hands and knew that I need to get out some needle and thread because inspiration had struck!

I tacked in a few quick stitches and then grabbed a silk flower from the pomander grab bag of extra materials.  It was quite large, so I took it apart and set aside the two largest layers from the bottom.  I tacked the remaining petals and the veil base together with another few stitches.  I fished out some feathers and picked through until I found ones that curled in interesting ways.  I hot glued those bad boys in between the layers.  Then I cut a circle of felt and made a few slices so that I could work a clip into it.  The finishing touch was a small rhinestone pin which I pinned on, rather than hot gluing so that I could reuse it in the future if I wished.

All told, I made way more accessories than I thought I would.  Luckily, I enjoyed the crafting.  With several of my friends in the throes of wedding planning, I'm secretly hoping that I'll get to unleash my inner artist some more over the next few months!

With those two projects out of the way, I'm completely finished with my accessories.  Are you still looking for your finishing touches? 

Stitches, Feathers and Glue; A Flower for Me and You

Enough ho-hum!  Enough with the Murphster!  I just got a big W on my scoreboard in the series of Wedding vs. Palindrome Bride!  Amidst curling and flooding, I finished making my bouquet, bridesmaids' pomanders, and grandmothers' corsages.  If you remember the bouts that I made, you'll know that I'm a trigger happy DIY feather fiend.  The ladies of the wedding party will not be left out of the feathery, wintery goodness!

For my bouquet, I used white silk lillies for some va-va-voom, along with hand sewn flowers and vintage brooches.  I wrapped the dowel rod handle with some quilt lining to add extra width and comfort, then I secured silk ribbon with pearl headed corsage pins and hot glue.

I incorporated a marabou feather boa, weaving it around the larger feathers and using it as a filler.  You can see it a little bit better in this close up.  I love how it softens the overall look - I almost want to snuggle my bouquet!  The brooch below is a little something blue, the locket on the handle is the one with Pap Pap's photo, and you may recognize the feathered friend in the last detail shot.

Back when I thought that 6" was the perfect styrofoam ball size, I bought all the styrofoam for 5 Palindromaids pomanders and my bouquet.  Since I used one for mock up purposes, I could not exchange it when I returned to Michael's for 4" balls.  I don't know why, but the $4.99 that I already paid for the one 6" ball was really eating at me, so I decided to use it for my bouquet.  Looking at it now, I probably could have gone smaller, but I rationalized it back then by saying that my bouquet should be bigger than the Palindromaids' flowers.  For reference, I took a shot of me holding it.  In pajamas.  In the middle of the afternoon. 

Shall we play a little game of "I Spy?"  I spy a menu chalkboard wannabee.  I spy a card box in training.  I spy the 3rd Season of Gilmore Girls from Netflix.  I spy Christmas gifts for the Palindromaids that I never got in the mail.  I spy a hot glue gun.  I spy the Palindromaid pomanders.

I've had the pomanders hanging from my fold out kitchen table cabinets for over 3 months now.  They're permanent fixtures at this point, and I hope that I can pry the hangers off of the hook.

Each of the pomanders ended up having a little personality.  I wish I could take the credit for handcrafting the personality to each Palindromaid, but what happened was much more random.  I started out thinking that I would make all of the fabric flowers first and then affix them to the styrofoam.  In reality, I finished what I thought would be enough flowers, to find out that it was only half the amount of needed flowers.  So I would make batches here and there out of one kind of fabric at a time.  Then I would adhere them all to the same pomander because I felt like if I finished one whole one, that I would feel better.  Each pomander ended up with more of one kind of fabric flower.  After scrutinizing each pomander, and basing part of the decision on the ratio of the length of the ribbon handle to the height of the Palindromaid, I made assignments.

Palindromaid of Honor E has airy tulle flowers from the scraps of my veil project.

The only reason I ever finished the corsages was because I was stuck at home amidst flood waters with nothing much to do besides watch Gilmore Girls and hot glue feathers to more fabric flowers.

When I had decided on fabric flowers, I thought I was inventive and cool.  After seeing so many fresh flower alternatives around, now I know I'm just cool.  :)  For me, making my own flowers has been relaxing and rewarding.  That sounds trite, but when I focused on this project, other wedding stresses faded.  Do you have a wedding project that helped to melt away the stress?

Hair and Makeup Trial, Take Four, Five and Six

Or, How I Used Hot Rollers.  Or How Hair and Makeup Overtook My Shoe Nightmare.

Well color me pink and call me a hot roller.  After hair trials 1, 2, and 3,  I rolled and teased my way through 3 more trials at home.

As seen on the far left, I think I was the most successful at my first try. The waves on the right side of the picture are as close to my inspiration as I've gotten, but a large portion on the left side just didn't end up curling.  I also didn't have a drop of hairspray in my house (I don't remember the last time I used hairspray).  My second try in the middle was quasi-successful, but again, I didn't have hairspray and one roller rebelled.  My third try yesterday involved a bottle of Pantene Extra Hold and turned out the most dubious of all.  My besmirched face says it all.  I think the hairspray just ended up weighing down my hair. 

Ms. P continued to search for hair stylists while I experimented at home.  I think we've found a winner, but with only single digit days until the wedding and my dream stylist across the state, I'm going to have to brave it without a trial.  It's a gamble, but after seeing her online portfolio, I'm willing to throw the dice! 

Did you leave anything to chance on your Big Day?  Or do you think I'm off my rocker for committing without a trial?

PS: I did gain something from my trials at home - a perfect lip color! Maybelline's Superstay Lipcolor in Flame.  I put it on at 8:30 am on Christmas Eve, ate a Wawa Hoagie, moisturized twice with chapstick because I had left the stick in the trunk, remoisturized correctly before Church, and it stayed put for 12 hours.  Palindrome Bride got her red lipstick AND it won't kiss off!

Meet my friend, Murphy

Murphy is one devilish guy.  He has this personal law that he lives by, and it goes something like this: If it can go wrong, it will.  Murphy is like the kid you don't really want to play with because he breaks all your toys, but you just can't seem to hide from him.  It's like he finds you in the tree house, at the pool, on the playground.  He's got a knack for being in all the same places as you.

Murphy came in for unexpected visit.  He's like the 12th cousin twice removed from Cousin Eddie.  He's been staying with me for a while and doesn't have plans to leave.  This is a small piece of havoc he wrought in my life over the weekend:

I was driving to my 4th hair trial (story coming soon!) when I got trapped by a flash flood, blew a tire driving over a curb to avoid said flood, and then spent 4 hours in a 7-11 waiting for the flood waters to recede, all the while some large, intimidating men (whom the 7-11 employees guessed were strung out) tried to bust through the locked door.  And that is the short story.

(That's my poor little Corolla with the blown front tire and the missing hub cap!)

All of this to say, that with the wedding just days away now, I've come to terms with the fact that Murphy isn't leaving before then.  Things will continue to go wrong not the way I had planned.  My entire Saturday, and the major portions of each day since then, have been spent dealing with car issues instead of tying up last minute wedding loose ends.  As I learned on a couple of trips to the Pacific for conferences, the key trait to have when dealing with Murphy is flexibility - rolling with the punches.  Sometimes, life has a way of double crossing Murphy.  Something will go wrong, but in the end it turns out better than you could have planned it.  Sometimes though, it just gets so absurd, you have to laugh.  In that way, Murphy is double crossed again because you have a hilarious story to tell at dinner parties for the rest of your life.  So I say, "Bring it on, Murph!  Bring it!"

Do you have a Murphy or real cousin Eddie that will be attending your wedding?  How have you been dealing with unexpected snafus during the planning?

Hair and Makeup Trial, Take Three

Yes, I was one of those those mean girls who would mock other multiple trial brides in my head.  They must be too picky or they must be bridezillas.  Now that I have a walked a mile in the shoes of a multiple trial bride, I apologize!  This has been an absurd experience at best and a frustrating one at worse.  If you missed my first two trials, catch up here and here, and then join me back here for the continuation.

I went into a salon to try a new stylist.  I decided to only show pictures of old hollywood actresses for hair inspiration.  The siren who keeps calling me is Lauren Bacall, so I repeatedly told the stylist that I loved her.

 Source

We talked about old movies.  We talked about being old souls.  We talked so much, that I really thought she got me.  She worked my hair in pin curls and I thought this was such a positive sign.  Then I showed her my makeup inspiration:

Source

Ruby lips! Flawless skin! Nice brows! Brown eye makeup!  As I watched the makeup come together, I thought things were going fairly well.  We tried a few shades of red lipstick on my hand and I chose a more brown than pink shade.  However, when the pin curls came out and the stylist swept bangs over my forehead, I knew that we just missed the mark.  I explained that I didn't like that and all of the pictures I brought showed hair swept up and away from the face.  I pinched my hair showed her how I did it for my engagement pictures and how I want volume on top.  I really tried.  I went outside of my comfort zone.  Then I went home and I held back tears as I took these pictures:

It's all very pretty.  I've tried to see how they relate to my inspiration pictures.  To me, I look a little on the goth side because of the lining on the bottom of the eye.  I also look completely washed out with the flash (which is how most of my photographs will need to be taken).  I have a head full of hair that holds curl and will go as high as you want it to go, but for whatever reason, I have the distinct inability to properly communicate that I want exactly what the picture shows.  I sent the pictures around to Motherdrome, Ms. P, and the Palindromaids.  I received similar feedback from them.  So the search continues and the timeline gets shorter!

If you were me, would you settle for one of my previous looks or keep searching?