Rob and Kiesha Get Married

Today I picked up my finished dress from Wendy’s Bridal. It looks great. In a bit, we’re going out to get a suit for Rob and tonight, we’re going to try to book our hotels for the honeymoon. (We already booked one of the four we need - The Bear’s Lair, a bed and breakfast on Gig Harbor, where we’ll be spending two nights between Portland and Seattle).

This week I hope to schedule time to talk with the YWCA about set up and stuff, and I’m going to order the gifs for my ladies as well.

Shoes and rings have been the two most difficult things for us to find. We’ve been to four different stores looking at rings.

The Diamond Cellar was waaaaay out of our price range and the woman we talked with acted like she knew it was out of our price range right away and almost talked down to us. It left an unpleasant taste in our mouths.

Andrews Jewelers and Kay Jewelers are being considered, however they’re still more expensive than we wanted.

We talked with some people at Zales last month and a woman there said she would call us back with prices, but that was about two weeks ago and we haven’t heard anything from her yet. We’re planning to try to visit a different Zales tonight. The preliminary prices Zales gave us were in our price range, so we’re hoping we’ll get somewhere with a different location.

As far as shoes go, good lord. It seems like everything I look at that I like has four inch heels. If I wore four inch heels, I don’t think I would even make it down the aisle. I’d either fall over or start crying in pain. But as soon as you narrow pumps and ’special occasion’ shoes down to 2 inches, all the pretty ones get eliminated.

Here’s a run down of the shoes I’m currently interested in:

These ones are from Target. The price is right ($20, which I think is an excellent price for a pair of shoes I’m going to wear once), and I like the little bow detail. The only problem is that these are 3.5″ heels. Eeeee.

I like the design on these ones and the heel size is only 2″, which is sooo much better for me. This pair is closer to $60, which, while not heart-attack inducing, is fairly pricey.

We got this magazine in work not long ago, and I’ve kind of been obsessed with it:

(Sorry it’s blurry)

Anyway, I’m entranced by her pink shoes, and how they match her bouquet.

Which got me thinking, “Hey, I have a green bouquet….”

Which led to me finding these:

The heel size is 2.25″, which is beautiful, and I really like that design on the toe. I was hoping for an open-toe shoe, but the good thing about this particular pair is that I could wear them again, and at an $88 price range, I would definitely have to wear them again.

What do you guys think?

On Friday I booked the hair and makeup appointments for myself, my two bridesladies and my mom for the wedding day.

Today I booked an appointment for this Saturday for the florist. I also stopped at Wendy’s Bridal and picked up my undergarments for use under the wedding dress. They look like they’re costume pieces for a revival of “Gone With the Wind.”

I feel like a lot of stuff is getting done and I love it.

Next step: Invitations.

In other news, I got my Flight of the Conchords vinyl record in the mail today, a day before it’s even technically released and a full week before I expected it to arrive. Kind of makes up for a semi-yucky day at work.

Yes. Yes I did.

I went to Wendy’s Bridal today here in Columbus. I pulled five dresses off the rack to try on. Fourth dress’s the charm.

I can’t reveal too many details because I’ve decided to keep it a surprise until the day of the wedding. Rob and I will be seeing each other before the ceremony for photos, but I’d like to surprise him with the dress because it is so radically different from anything I’ve looked at before.

That’s right, radically different. RADICALLY.

I will reveal a couple of things. It was a sample dress. I bought it off the rack. It needs minimal alterations (hemming, darts in the bust). It’s in beautiful shape. And it was less than $400.

If you want to see a photo, and your name isn’t Robert Duffy, please e-mail me at kiesha.jenkins@gmail.com and I will share.

Oh, goodness, will I share.

So today was the day.

Melissa and I jumped in my car and drove off toward Cincinnati this morning at 9:30 a.m. We got to the “Bridal District” of Reading around 11:30.

“District” is an understatement. Imagine shop after shop for blocks and blocks being completely devoted to weddings and proms. It’s craziness.

We found the shop, Carrie Karibo Bridesmaids.

Cute shop.

I set to work immediately, withdrawing the printed picture of my dress, the dress I have come to love over the past few years. And of course, they didn’t have that one in stock. So I tried on a similar style. It was the right length and cut, but it didn’t have the sleeves.

And you know what? I didn’t really look that good in it. True, it was a couple of sizes too small, so I was holding the back closed and trying to imagine it in a larger size, but it just wasn’t working for me…so I tried on other dresses (gasp!)

It was sort of amazing having two different women rushing up to me with dresses in hand, “How about this one? Do you like this one? Do you want me to put this one in the dressing room???” So I started trying stuff on. Some didn’t warrant pictures, because they wouldn’t zip up enough to stay on me, or because they were just not right.

Here’s one that got consideration:

This one was definitely more wedding-y than anything else I’ve ever considered, but I just don’t know about strapless. I feel like I’d be yanking at it all night and that’s not very becoming of a bride.

So we trudged on, trying on a multitude of dresses, until we came to this one:

Now, the thing I’ve come to learn about bridal shops is that the employees must have awesome imaginations, because they only stock one dress in one color in one size. So this one is obviously not white and not at all my size. In this picture, the back is gaping open and I’m holding it back with my arms.

But I really really like it. Which is amazing, because I didn’t think I would like a long dress. But the lady pointed out that the length and the scoop neck work to make me look taller and leaner, which I’m sure every bride is after.

Another view:

They found basically the same dress in a larger size for me to try on, although this one was tea length and now in vibrant purple! But this time I was able to zip it up (and subsequently swim in it), and they were able to clip up the back to give me a better idea of how the top part would look. So, in this photo, focus just on the top and not the length.

So, I think we have a winner. I’ve got until April to order it, so I’m going to go check out a couple of more places, but I like this one because a.) it’s still a fairly simple dress without too much fussiness going on and b.) the price is right.

I should really hammer home the point that I will not be wearing a blue or purple dress. It will be white. They just didn’t have any white ones available in this style for me to try on.

Mission (almost) Accomplished.

So, I finally called up the dress shop today.

Melissa and I finally found a Saturday when we’re both available to go make the trek through frothy whiteness to find my dress. You remember my dress, right?

So I call up Girls in White Dresses and leave a message letting them know that I want to make an appointment to check out a bridesmaid’s dress. A girl calls me back and we go through all my information when she asks, “What line were you looking at?”

“Simple Silhouettes,” I reply.

“Oh, we actually just discontinued that line. We’re waiting to have it taken off our website.”

Completely crestfallen, I end the conversation and start hyperventilating. I want this dress, nay, I need this dress. I called Rob to tell him the bad news.

“Where else do they have it?” He asked.

“I don’t know…” I said, starting to whine. “They’re based in New York.”

“Do we need to fly you out there? I’ll look at Skybus,” Rob said. I told him to check the designer’s website and see if they had another, closer location. He found a place in Cincinnati.

I called this place up and told the girl I wanted to make an appointment to look at a bridesmaid dress. She took my information and then asked me how many bridesmaids I had.

“Umm, it’s actually for me…”

This was the part I was really worried about. I’m convinced that places won’t let you buy a bridesmaid dress if you’re the bride.

“Oh, like an alternative wedding dress?” The girl asked.

“Yes, exactly,” I said. Whatever you say, lady.

“And what line were you looking at?”

I crossed my fingers. “Simple Silhouettes…?”

“Oh yeah,” she said. “Love them!”

So the appointment is booked. Saturday, February 16. I hope this dress is as wonderful as I think it is.

Holy lord.

This is pretty much exactly like the dress that I posted a picture of earlier. The dress that I absolutely love.

The main difference is that this one is a different material and “ivory” instead of white.

It’s $400 cheaper than that other one.

Why?

It’s technically a bridesmaid’s dress.

I don’t even care. It’s so gorgeous I love it. And the website says it’s available in every fabric and color, so I may even be able to get it in something less shiny and in white.

I gotta make an appointment for this joint.

So far I have managed to purchase only one bridal magazine.

I pretty much have carte blanche at work to grab a stack and take them to lunch with me. I love reading the etiquette questions.

“Is it wrong of me to ask my bridesmaids to not cut their hair for eight months before the wedding? I know it’s weird, but I want them all to have exactly the same length of hair!”

“My mother picked out a scandalous dress that she wants to wear at the ceremony, how do I get her to tone it down?”

“My parents insist on inviting everyone at both their respective workplaces, but our venue can only hold 80 people!”

These are hilarious to me, because A.) I’m going to have two brideswomen, and they have been instructed that I will NOT be picking out their wardrobe or hairstyles, B.) It’s going to be a struggle to get my mom out of jeans and into something ‘dressy’, and C.) I nervously told my mom that I was only planning to invite a handful of my aunts, uncles and cousins (I have enough to fill the Schottenstein Center), and she told me, “Half of them probably won’t come.”

The other issue I have with wedding magazines is the endless pages upon pages of dresses that look exactly the same. Like sleeveless, low cut, lace-and-bead covered poufy ball gown monstrosities. I realize that most of the dresses are things that designers dream up and by the time they trickle down to retail they’ve lost most of that craziness, but still. No one seems to have what I want to wear.

Like this one, that I love, but is about $800 more than I want to spend.

I like this one a lot too. It’s technically a bridesmaid’s dress, but the price is right.

So you can see how these wedding magazines aren’t really for me.